Three people and a cat descended the stairs. Inside the moisture-laden stairwell, water droplets fell with heavy plinks. Ian wiped a drop off the bridge of his nose and grumbled.
“Can’t you change the design here? It’s damp and unpleasant.”
“It’s Owl tradition, nya. Didn’t Erik tell you, nya? The Owl was first created because persecuted mages converted an abandoned underground prison into a hideout they could use among themselves.”
“……Sss, I might have heard that, or maybe not.”
“Nyahaang. You’re an idiot, nya. Your memory’s like a goldfish, nya.”
Pleas snickered. Ian smacked her on the rump.
“Eeok!”
Pleas shot into the air. Then she turned to Ian, trembling all over.
“Haaaaaak!!! Don’t you know a cat’s rump is sensitive, nya?! Don’t touch it carelessly, nya!”
“I know it’s sensitive. That’s why I did it.”
“……Y-you crazy pervert, nya. You’re irredeemable trash, nya. It gives me goosebumps, nya.”
“What nonsense. For a person, that spot’s just like getting a nice scratch on the back.”
“E-every cat is different, nya! For this cat right now, it’s like an incredibly, incredibly sensitive erogenous zone, nya!”
“……Ooh.”
Ian let out a sigh. Pleas’s whiskers quivered as she scurried down the steps. Moments later, she vanished from sight.
“Ah, Nyaong! Wait for me, let’s go together!”
Amelia quickly followed her down the stairs. Ian called out at her retreating figure.
“You’ll trip going that fast. Take it slow!”
“Okaaay!”
Splish, splat.
With the sound of stepping through puddles, Amelia too disappeared into the misty spray. Ian exhaled a deep breath.
“Feels like I’m raising a daughter……”
“But she’s cute, isn’t she? Don’t be too hard on her.”
Eunha said with a small laugh. She had her hands clasped behind her back, sticking close to Ian’s side and matching his stride.
“Speaking of daughters…… if you ever have a child, Ian, would you prefer a daughter or a son?”
“……That’s out of the blue, isn’t it?”
“Just because. It suddenly crossed my mind. Was it a difficult question?”
She tilted her head slightly. Her black hair swayed down with the motion. Ian gave a wry smile and shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
“Not particularly. Hmm…… personally, I think I’d prefer a daughter.”
“Huh, a daughter.”
“Yes. I already leaned toward daughters a little, but after taking Amelia as my disciple, my conviction grew stronger.”
“What a coincidence. I also thought that if I ever have a child, I’d prefer a daughter.”
With a faint smile, Eunha stepped down two stairs ahead of Ian.
“It seems we’d be able to set up family plans without any trouble.”
It was a tiny murmur. Because the distance had widened a bit, Ian didn’t even realize she had spoken. He pointed toward a massive door visible in the distance through the mist and looked at Eunha.
“That’s the entrance. You need to use magic to get in, but thanks to your eyes, you’ll probably be able to enter right away, Eunha.”
“Hmm…… I see. Shall we test it out?”
A moment later, the two stopped before the firmly shut door. Ian gestured with his eyes, and without hesitation Eunha stood before the door and stared intently at its upper section.
……Creeeak.
Then the door parted on its own. Through the crack that scraped the floor, odors of all kinds of medicinal herbs, mildew, oil, scented candles, and more wafted out. Eunha quietly sniffed the scent, then turned to Ian with a gentle smile.
“Just as you said, Ian. Should we go in now?”
“Yes, let’s go in together.”
“Don’t you need to take a separate test or something, Ian?”
“Once you’re registered, there’s no need. Later, when all the records are reset, we can do it then.”
“Oh. That kind of system.”
The two crossed the mist-filled passage and stepped inside the Owl.
It looked exactly like a converted underground prison. Eunha studied the marketplace—unlike any she’d ever seen—with eyes narrowed in interest. Ian tapped her on the shoulder and turned his toes toward Pleas’s general store.
“The general store is over there. Would you like to head straight in? Or browse a bit first?”
“Hmm…… let’s go straight in. There’s plenty of time to browse later.”
“Understood. Let’s go right away, then.”
Jingle.
The two opened the door of the general store and entered. At the same moment, Pleas, seated at the counter and cradling the cat she had possessed in her arms, welcomed them.
“Welcome, nya. Welcome to Pleas’s Emporium of All Things, nya!”
“Mweoong.”
Pleas’s green hair swayed left and right, and the cat in her arms yawned lazily and let out a mewl. Amelia clutched a piece of candy as big as her face and was laughing with a weird “hik-hik-hik” sound.
“……You’re Pleas’s real body?”
Eunha stared at Pleas’s true form and asked. Pleas smiled slyly.
“That’s right, nya.”
“Hmm……”
Eunha’s eyes narrowed. She regarded Pleas with a chilly gaze, then clicked her tongue and lightly tugged on Ian’s sleeve. The distance between the two shrank a little more.
“Let’s just get what we need and leave quickly. We have to be back within three hours, so we don’t have much time. If we go over, the demon will escape.”
It was a lie. Even if it went over three hours, there was no issue with summoning a low-ranking demon. But Ian wasn’t all that knowledgeable about demons, so he obediently nodded.
“Understood. Then I’ll wrap up my business as quickly as possible.”
“Let’s look together. Thanks to the Eye of Baal, I’m quite good at checking quality. I’ll be helpful.”
Clap.
Eunha casually drew Ian’s arm closer.
The distance was so close they might as well be touching. It was a proximity that even the most oblivious person couldn’t help but find slightly strange. Ian looked down at Eunha with a somewhat flushed face and fidgeted his fingers.
“Um……”
“Sorry. I walked down a lot of stairs, so my legs are shaky. Is it all right if I stay like this for a moment?”
“Ah, yes. Well……”
“Thank you, Ian.”
Eunha smiled faintly and feigned a limp.
It was obviously an act. Lemegeton burst out in admiration.
[Wow…… you nasty little piece of work…… what on earth turned you into this? Please come back, the loser Yu Eunha from a few months ago……]
“That one looks good. Its quality is quite high.”
Eunha ignored Solomon’s words cleanly and pulled Ian along.
“……Heh.”
Pleas watched the scene with an interested gleam in her eyes.
*
It was just past 3 p.m. In a dimly lit bedroom, Kim Yul slowly opened her eyes atop her bed.
“Mmm……”
Her half-closed eyelids blinked several times. Dark circles, now practically part of her body since they never faded, stretched deep beneath her eyes. She stared blankly at the ceiling, then yawned widely and sat up.
“Hyaam……”
Click.
When she turned on the mood lamp beside her bed, her completely bare, naked body was fully exposed. She looked down at her chest where veins showed through and let out a sigh.
Her skin was so white it was ghostly, nearly like a corpse.
In the past, it had been a healthy color, but ever since learning magic, it had always been like this.
It couldn’t be helped. The process of learning magic had involved experiences close to drowning, multiple times over.
Of course, there were definite upsides after learning magic. The most notable was that waste no longer accumulated in her body.
As a side effect, it did make her bodily fluids significantly more copious, but since they were all clean and having more water caused no particular inconvenience, she didn’t mind much. Only her pale skin was a problem.
“A woman with veins showing like this isn’t attractive……”
She grumbled like that while roughly kneading her own chest as if touching dough. There was no particular novelty. It just felt like squeezing a water balloon.
It might feel a little different if someone else touched it, but since she had no experience yet, she couldn’t be sure. She just guessed it would probably be similar.
“I just hope Newbie doesn’t dislike it……”
Haaah.
Kim Yul heaved a deep sigh and tottered out of bed. Then she pressed the remote to pull back the blackout curtains covering the window. With a rustling swoosh, bright sunlight mercilessly flooded her bedroom.
“Kyaaaaaaahk!”
Kim Yul squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered from head to toe.
Her daily waking routine.
She knew it wasn’t good for her body, but whenever this much light hit her, it made the drowsiness practically evaporate, so the feeling wasn’t half bad. No, actually, it was quite nice.
Kim Yul’s average body temperature ran lower than other people’s, so she quite liked things like warm blankets, comforters, heating pads, or sunlight.
It had been a long time since she’d escaped the cold or heat, but as a human, she still needed warmth. Kim Yul was no exception.
“Nnng…… puha!”
She stretched her arms wide, then bounced lightly in place and broke into a bright smile.
“Condition’s good. Mood’s not bad. Period’s still far off. Body hair’s naturally sparse. Nice.”
With a refreshed face, Kim Yul turned around.
“Should I work hard again today……!”
Thwock.
She opened the bedroom door and stepped into the living room, where a blue glow greeted her.
Blue light reflected from fish tanks installed throughout the living room. Inside them, black fish swam leisurely.
There were no other colors. Inside the countless tanks, only black fish existed.
“Heheheung……”
She hummed a tune and tossed feed into the tanks with practiced ease. The fish below the surface scrambled up and sucked in the food. Kim Yul left them be and dipped a hand into each tank to purify the water.
After that, she walked toward one especially large tank.
A square tank a full meter on each side and in height. Pebbles were neatly spread across the bottom, and water plants, little houses, stones, and plastic starfish decorated it prettily. But inside the tank, all that swam were a mere two black tropical fish.
One male and one female. They were recent arrivals. She sprinkled a little feed into the tank, then sat down beside it with a soft smile.
“You need to eat well and grow well, Yul and An. And mate diligently. Got it?”
Yul and An. The names of the female and male tropical fish, respectively. She had taken them from her own name and Ian’s.
“They should have about 11 children…… no, about 11 fry. Any fewer would feel heartless. Love gets better the more you share it.”
Bubble, bubble.
The tropical fish opened and closed their mouths, gobbling up the feed. Kim Yul, still completely naked, watched them while swinging her legs. She hummed an unknown tune.
That’s when it happened.
Splash!
Suddenly, a sound came from behind Kim Yul, like something falling into water. She stopped her humming and whipped her head around. Her sharp eyes, laced with killing intent, fixed on the source.
“……Huh?”
But there was no intruder. Instead, inside a small tank, a single book was floating.
A sophisticated blue-green design. A bizarre-looking fish gaped its mouth wide open, and from within, letters crawled out to form the title.
[Dagon and the Sea’s Embrace]
Crrrunch!
The fish on the cover chewed lightly on the title, making a grotesque sound. The letters bled, and soon the pages were dyed red.
“Eck.”
Kim Yul’s lips curled downward at the sight.