As I walked down the corridor leading to the annex, a translucent window surfaced in my mind. Regardless of my will.
Mental Interference Lv.1. Available: Single Suggestion, Target Resistance Estimation, Emotion Reading. Next growth condition: Insufficient data.
I pushed the window out of my consciousness. It vanished immediately. The moment I thought to close it, it retreated from view. An interface that manifested automatically but could be manually dismissed. Even this single fact was worth recording.
I arrived in front of the annex.
The royal palace annex was as shabby as expected.
I’d heard that the Heroes’ Hall, where the other summoners were assigned, was a luxurious place with red carpets, gold-leaf decorations, and exclusive maids. On the other hand, what was given to me was a dust-filled attic room. A two-story stone building at the western end of the palace, pressed right against the outer wall. The first floor housed the servants’ communal dining hall and laundry room; the second floor, small rooms.
My room was at the very end of the second-floor corridor, right under the eaves.
Creak. The moment I opened the door, a musty smell hit me hard. Dust floated thickly in the air, and cobwebs clumped in the corner.
“Am I supposed to sleep here?”
The bed screamed in protest the moment I lay down. The window was crooked, the walls stained. The wooden floor planks squeaked and groaned with every step I took.
Still, I had no complaints. Rather, I was satisfied. Being outside the spotlight meant the surveillance was lax. If I had been in the Heroes’ Hall, every action would have been reported—the gazes of maids, the monitoring of knights, the attention of nobles. In this corner annex, no one cared.
I roughly dusted myself off and opened the window. Screech—the rusty hinges cried out. The rooftops of the capital were visible below. Unexpectedly, the view was decent. I could see the market stalls, and far beyond the walls, a green forest stretched out.
As I set down my luggage, footsteps sounded from the corridor. Thud, thud, thud. Even intervals. A trained gait. The footsteps of a warrior.
Then the door to the room banged open roughly. Without so much as a knock.
“So you’re the one? The fifth summoner.”
A woman.
Brown skin. Leopard ears poking up through black hair. A long black tail draped behind her, swaying leisurely from side to side.
A beastkin.
So there were beastkin in this world too. Leopard ears, tail, brown skin. This was a combination that made my dick react.
She was about my height, but the exposed muscles of her arms were sharply honed. A warrior’s body. Yet her physique was distinctly feminine. Mature curves were clear beneath her armor. Judging by how the chest plate bulged outward, she was quite large. Sweat beaded on her brown skin, and her breathing was slightly rough. She seemed to have come during training.
Golden irises swept me up and down. Contempt was laid bare without filter. Her pupils narrowed vertically, like those of a feline predator.
I observed those eyes. What lay beneath the contempt. Not anger, but annoyance. Displeasure at the duty imposed upon her. It was the face of an office worker assigned an unwanted task.
“I’m Kaira. Black Panther beastkin. Affiliated with the Royal Knights.”
A brief self-introduction. Her voice was low yet sharp.
“From today, I’m your watcher.”
“Watcher?”
“It’s Her Majesty the Queen’s order. If you do anything suspicious, I’ll slit your throat.”
“That certainly sounds like a threat.”
“It’s not a threat. It’s a fact.”
Kaira raised the corner of her lips, revealing her fangs. Sharp teeth. Teeth that could really slit a throat.
I smiled. A harmless smile. A smile like a gentle lamb.
“I look forward to working with you, Lady Kaira.”
“What’s with the ‘lady’?”
Kaira snorted, “Hmph.” Her leopard ears tilted back slightly. A signal of displeasure. Her tail also stiffened before quivering faintly. This woman had emotion organs all over her body.
“For a rising prodigy in the knights to be stuck with such menial work. If your skill had been a bit more useful, I wouldn’t have to suffer this humiliation.”
Humiliation. I could imagine what the other knights would whisper. ‘Kaira’s become a trash guard dog.’ ‘She’s a babysitter for the loser summoner.’
Humiliation accompanies anger and loneliness. Lonely women are easy to fuck. That is a truth. If I am the only man a woman isolated by shame comes into contact with, her loneliness will naturally turn toward me.
“Sorry about that.”
“If you’re sorry, then quietly hole yourself up here. Don’t wander around. Don’t cause problems. That’s all you can do for me.”
“May I go down to the dining hall?”
“You have to eat.”
“What about the study?”
“Study?” Kaira snorted. “There’s a study in the annex? You mean that dust-filled storage room stuffed in a corner of the first floor?”
“If there are books there, it’s a study to me.”
“Do as you please. I don’t care what you read.”
When she crossed her arms, I could see her tits being pushed up above her armor. This woman was bigger than I thought. The armor had been hiding them. Those brown-skinned tits.
Golden eyes swept the room, and her nose wrinkled at the shabby environment.
“Hmph. This is exactly the level you deserve.”
It was a harsh remark, but I remained unperturbed. I was observing Kaira’s behavioral patterns. Checking the room’s condition despite her sharp tongue. If she were truly indifferent, she wouldn’t have bothered to look inside. A person with a sense of duty. And a woman with a strong sense of duty, once she crumbles, crumbles completely.
Kaira turned to leave but paused. She sniffed, flaring her nostrils. Her leopard ears perked straight up.
“The smell is strange.”
“Excuse me?”
“The smell that comes from a mental-type mage. Sweet yet sinister.”
“Does my smell seem strange?”
“A beastkin’s sense of smell cannot lie. I don’t like you, summoner.”
Mental-type magic is detected as a physical scent. Do a beastkin’s sensory organs convert magical waves into smell? Very important information.
“Can’t you call me by my name? I’m Gang Dohyeon.”
“Not necessary.”
Kaira left the room. Her tail smacked against the doorframe, but she didn’t seem to care. Her heavy footsteps faded down the corridor.
I stared at the closed door.
Beastkin. Acute sense of smell. Leopard ears and tail. Brown skin and golden eyes.
It was said that beastkin have strong wild instincts, making them resistant to mental interference. ‘Resistant’ is different from ‘absolutely immune.’ That difference is the key.
And beastkin have mating seasons. It’s said that their rational judgment deteriorates greatly then.
Kaira’s voice rang out from beyond the window.
“Again! Straighten your posture!”
She was training junior knights. A strong woman. She had skill, position, and pride. Such a woman was in a situation where she suffered the humiliation of being called a trash guard.
Where will that humiliation flow? No matter where it flows, it can be touched psychologically. Reading the flow is the first step of hypnosis.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
Afternoon. I found the annex’s attached study.
The eastern corner of the first floor. An old sign on the door reading ‘Records Room.’ Squeak—the door cried on its rusty hinges. Three bookshelves were covered in dust and cobwebs, but there were quite a few books. History books, magic theory books, continental geography books. Old editions from the royal library were stored here.
The rustle of parchment turning echoed in the quiet study.
A book on the magic system. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Holy. The six great affinities were the recognized magic. Each had tens of thousands of mages, systematically educated in academies. Ranks went from 1 to 9.
And the forbidden affinity. Mental.
The explanation regarding the mental affinity was remarkably short. Every sentence repeated ‘forbidden,’ ‘dangerous,’ ‘execution.’
The Mental Emperor, Valtor. A man from 300 years ago. A genius of mental magic.
At first, he wasn’t acknowledged. He was ignored on the grounds that he couldn’t use it in battle. The academies and guilds both rejected him.
But he found another path.
He approached a frontier lord. He gained trust by exploiting the lord’s worries. Then to higher nobles, and higher still. He manipulated the king’s heart. He changed generals’ loyalties. He twisted the Saintess’s faith. He seized half the continent without a single war.
My heart pounded.
“In the end, it is said that hundreds of thousands of humans moved at his single word.”
The Mental Emperor was finally taken down only when six peak mages of the six affinities attacked simultaneously. After that, mental magic was banned across the entire continent. Related books were burned. The lineage was severed. For 300 years, not a single mental mage appeared in the records.
Mental magic became forbidden not because it was too weak. Because it was too strong.
I closed the book. Thud—dust scattered.
Everyone in this world is completely defenseless against mental interference. A man with a virus in a world where the vaccine has vanished.
I turned to the beastkin chapter.
‘Beastkin have wild instincts that serve as a mental barrier. They possess natural resistance to mental-type magic, but their resistance deteriorates markedly when emotions are extremely heightened.’
Information I could use on Kaira. When a beastkin woman enters mating season, her mental defenses collapse.
I skimmed the elf chapter too. ‘Their long lifespans result in high mental maturity and large emotional amplitude. Most individuals maintain the outward appearance of a human in their twenties or thirties despite living for hundreds of years.’
They look like they’re in their twenties or thirties but are actually hundreds of years old? Perfect MILF conditions.
I left the study and walked down the corridor. Creak, creak. Two servants passed by, and upon seeing me, they quickened their pace. They didn’t even make eye contact.
Returning to my room, I lit a candle. Sizzle—the wick burned.
I decided to experiment with Whisper.
The target was myself. I focused inwardly.
‘Relaxed. The tension in my muscles melts away.’
A soft sensation. Weak but definite. The stiffness in my shoulders eased slightly. My breathing slowed by a beat.
“Self-hypnosis is possible.”
One more thing. A dangerous thought, but experiments require boldness.
‘I’m aroused. My cock is getting hard.’
A soft sensation. My lower half reacted. My dick twitched and pushed up against my pants. Erection control through self-suggestion. Was this why the magic flowed to my dick during the skill bestowal ceremony?
In other words, this is proof that I can induce sexual arousal in a woman if used on her. What if I repeat it, however weak the effect? Bit by bit, bit by bit, the floodgates open.
The candle flickered. Had the wind picked up outside? Screech—the window cried out.
I began writing on parchment. A single sheet of parchment brought from the study. Ink was scarce too. But recording is the foundation of research.
Scratch, scratch.
“Day 1. Self-hypnosis successful. Erection induction via self-suggestion successful. Skill range applies even to oneself.”
“Hypothesis: Can induce sexual arousal in others. However, effect expected to amplify if pre-existing affection is present.”
I rolled up the recorded parchment and hid it under the bed. A floorboard lifted slightly. Space beneath it. A place no one would suspect.
This dick is the weapon that will conquer the MILFs of this world.
Whisper is the trigger. This dick is the bullet. When the two combine, no woman in this world can escape my hands.
Queen Elena. The black panther beastkin Kaira. Ripe MILFs of this world are waiting for me. It’s still a pathetic Lv.1 loser skill, but someday the day will come when I walk from this dusty pit of an annex to the center of the palace.
Until that day, I will sharpen my knife in this corner room. Fucking precisely.