Meanwhile, in Namhyeon's bedroom inside the subspace mansion.
Cherina, who was in charge of tidying the guest quarters, was rolling around on the bed with cleaning put on the back burner.
"Master...♥"
The steamy, heated memory from the bathroom, shrouded in thick steam a few days ago, surfaced in her mind, and a lewd smile spread across Cherina's lips. She buried her face deep into the blanket that still carried Namhyeon's scent and took a deep breath.
She had been scolded quite harshly by the head maid, Hatsune, over what happened that day, but Cherina couldn't bring herself to care. She was a lewd dragon who had embraced the warmth of her master that she had so desperately craved; as long as she could be loved, she could easily let such nagging go in one ear and out the other.
As she rolled around on the bed with a blissful smile, her gaze settled on Namhyeon's outer coat hanging on one side. Even that coat, which held a strange mixture of the outside world's smells and Namhyeon's scent, seemed desirable to Cherina, and she was just stealthily reaching out to press her nose against it when—
"Cherina?"
Cherina's shoulders flinched at the calm voice coming from behind her. When she turned around, Flora stood there with her arms crossed, dressed like an angel in white.
"Flora?"
"Get a grip. No matter how much you like Master's scent, how can you barge in to clean and act like a beast in heat?"
Flora clicked her tongue as if exasperated, warning her. Though Flora herself wanted to lick Namhyeon's wounds, feed him medicine, and make him wholly dependent on her, she was at least not the type to openly sniff his scent and vent her desires like Cherina.
But Cherina showed no sign of repentance whatsoever, wagging her tail as she smiled temptingly.
"Want to smell it with me?"
"I'm good."
To Flora, who refused flatly, Cherina slithered up like a snake and shoved Namhyeon's outer coat right under her nose.
"Come on, don't be like that. Hmm? It really smells good, I mean it. Master's body heat is still lingering in it."
"Ugh, put that away... hmm...?"
Namhyeon's distinct, thick bodily scent hit Flora right on the nose as she tried to turn her head away. In that instant, Flora's pupils shook violently. Her mind told her to push it away, but a dragon's instinct after inhaling her master's scent was brutally honest.
In the end, unable to overcome the temptation, Flora grabbed Namhyeon's outer coat with both hands as if bewitched and buried her face deep into it.
"Haah... Master..."
Rendering her alias of the white-clad angel utterly meaningless, Flora too fell into an enraptured daze with flushed cheeks. A bizarre yet secretive spectacle unfolded: one clinging to the bedsheets, the other clutching the outer coat, both panting drunkenly in their master's scent.
"What exactly are you two doing here right now?"
At that moment, an icy voice spine-chilling enough to freeze the air in the room rang out.
The head maid, Hatsune, who had somehow come to stand in front of the doorway, looked down at the two of them with frigid, deadened eyes, catching them red-handed at their scene of deviance(?). The bodies of Cherina and Flora, steeped in pleasure, went stiff as stone.
Hatsune pushed up her glasses and curved her lips in a cold smile.
"It seems you need some 'education' carved into your bones for a moment."
That afternoon, relentless Spartan mental education from Hatsune continued endlessly in Namhyeon's bedroom, forcing the mindset and etiquette of the perfect maid into their heads, accompanied by Cherina and Flora's suppressed screams.
.
On the long-awaited day of the Academy graduation ceremony. While countless aspiring Hunters were excitedly taking their first steps as official Hunters, Namhyeon had gone there literally just to "show his face."
Four years of not fitting in with anyone. Namhyeon simply intended to pack up his diploma and necessary documents in a businesslike manner and turn away without any lingering attachment.
"Hyun-ah."
A tearful voice came from behind. He had expected they would inevitably run into each other at least once, but when Namhyeon actually turned around, he couldn't help but furrow his brows.
"You...?"
Jia was a dreadful sight. She had applied her makeup more heavily than usual to look pretty for Namhyeon, but the hollowed cheeks and sunken eyes beneath it were impossible to hide. Having been unable to sleep or eat properly during the few weeks Namhyeon had disappeared, she had withered away to skin and bones.
"I missed you... Hyun-ah, where on earth have you been?"
Jia staggered closer and reached out to grab Namhyeon's collar. Namhyeon coldly turned his body to avoid her touch. Jia's hand, slicing through empty air, trembled finely.
She was in such a precarious and serious state that she looked ready to collapse at any moment. Namhyeon let out a small sigh.
"Let's talk."
If he sent her away like this, there was no telling what she might do in the middle of the Academy. Namhyeon led Jia to a secluded bench in a quiet area and handed her a warm can of coffee from a vending machine.
"Thank you..."
Jia clutched the can of coffee preciously with both hands as if she had grabbed a lifeline. Looking down at her wretched appearance without emotion, Namhyeon brought up the main point.
"So, what is it?"
"Huh...? Um, Hyun-ah. Did I... did I do something wrong?"
Jia, who had felt like she was going crazy being unable to find the reason Namhyeon had suddenly left her, asked desperately with a voice teetering on the edge of a cliff.
"I can't say there isn't."
"Then tell me! I'll, I'll fix everything... I won't do anything you hate. Okay?"
At the sight of her clinging to him with tears streaming down, Namhyeon quietly asked back.
"Before that, what is it you truly want? Is it true that you like me?"
"Yes! I like you. You're more precious than anyone—my everything!"
Thick possessiveness and madness flashed in Jia's eyes. Namhyeon faced that heavy emotion head-on and dryly drew a line.
"Jia, I'm sorry, but I want to live a little more comfortably from now on."
"Comfortably...?"
"Yeah. Without watching others' moods, doing what I want to do without any shackles. Freely."
At those words, Jia's breath hitched. Her very reason for existence had been "to control and protect Namhyeon from danger," yet Namhyeon was pushing her away by defining that protection as "shackles."
"Th-then what about me? You're my entire world... what do you expect me to do..."
"Find someone other than me who can fully match that heavy emotion of yours."
"I can't do that! You're the only one I have, Hyun!"
Looking at Jia screaming as if in agony, Namhyeon swallowed bitterly inside.
Back then, when he had pulled her out from her trashy parents' violence, he had simply wanted to help a pitiful childhood friend. But he had never known that the butterfly effect born from that meager goodwill would spawn such a terrible and blind monster.
Namhyeon rose from his seat.
"One month."
"...Huh?"
"Think about it for one month. What it is you truly want. And 'what you need to do' to achieve it."
To her, who was in a state where reason simply couldn't get through, Namhyeon threw out a kind of grace period and homework.
"I'll contact you."
As Namhyeon turned his back and began to walk, Jia dropped the coffee in a panic and chased after him.
"Wait! Let's talk a little more, just a little more, Hyun-ah! Okay?"
But Namhyeon lightly ignored her pleas and quickened his pace. The moment he turned into a blind spot of the Academy building, Namhyeon swiftly deployed an illusion technique, opened the door to the subspace, and concealed his tracks.
"Hyun-ah!"
When Jia hurriedly turned the corner chasing Namhyeon, only an empty hallway and chilly air remained before her eyes. Namhyeon's last words hovered between her lips as she stopped vainly.
'What is it you truly want. And what you need to do to achieve it.'
"What I... want?"
The corners of Jia's lips, which had been staring blankly into space with unfocused eyes, soon twisted bizarrely, beginning to trace a strange curve. It was the smile of a predatory beast trying to find a distorted answer as the suffocating fog lifted.
.
Leaving the Academy graduation ceremony behind him, Namhyeon headed to his family home located in Gangseo-gu, Seoul.
When he entered the passcode on the familiar door lock and opened the front door, his mother, coming out of the kitchen with the warm smell of stew, welcomed him brightly.
"Son, you're here?"
"Yes, I'm home."
Having taken off his shoes and entered, Namhyeon smiled faintly at the peaceful home atmosphere that hit him. It was the most ordinary and safest space, free from the weight of being an S-rank Hunter, the excessive devotion of the dragon maids, and Jia's suffocating obsession. He set his bag down in his familiar room, came out to the living room, and reclined on the soft sofa.
"So, our son. Now that you've graduated, will you start work right away?"
His mother asked as she peeled fruit, and Namhyeon answered in a comfortable posture.
"Yes. I joined a place called the Windy Guild, and I'm already raiding dungeons."
"Really? It's not dangerous?"
Worrying for one's child was only natural for a parent. Because she only knew her son to be a D-rank with almost no mana, deep concern laced her voice.
"It's not that dangerous. I'm doing well on my own as long as I don't overdo it."
"Thank goodness, then... *sigh*. Hunter work always has so many variables."
His mother sighed, relieved yet still unable to shake her worry, and asked again.
"Have you decided where you'll live?"
"Yes. The guild prepared an exclusive dormitory for me, so I'm staying there."
In truth, he was living like an emperor in a massive subspace mansion where six dragons resided, but he couldn't reveal such an enormous truth to his ordinary parents. Namhyeon smoothly passed it off with a suitable white lie.
"For now, since our son is home after so long, Mom will make you the most delicious thing."
"I look forward to it."
As night deepened and his father returned from work, a harmonious family dinner began with the three of them gathered together for the first time in a while.
While eating in a warm atmosphere, his mother, who had been carefully gauging the mood, suddenly threw out a question.
"So, are you and Jia doing well?"
His parents had been thinking that Namhyeon and Jia, who had stuck to each other all four years, were dating. Namhyeon took a spoonful of stew broth and drew a calm, clear line.
"Jia and I aren't in that kind of relationship. I think there might have been a bit of that atmosphere before because she looked after me a lot, but absolutely not now."
At Namhyeon's firm answer, silence fell over the table for a moment. His mother set down her chopsticks with a complicated expression and let out a small sigh.
"Jia... I know she's a child with a hurting heart because of the past. *Sigh*."
It seemed his mother had also noticed to some extent Jia's dark family history and her unusual obsession with Namhyeon. But what was most precious to Namhyeon's mother was, of course, her own son.
His mother placed a thick piece of meat side dish over Namhyeon's rice bowl and spoke kindly yet firmly.
"Son. No matter what anyone says, you come first for Mom. If it's burdensome and hard for you, you don't have to force yourself to carry it."
"...Yes."
A warm consolation that made a corner of his heart ache. Namhyeon silently nodded and sweetly finished the rest of his rice. Within the sturdy fence of family, more reliable than any barrier in the world, Namhyeon finally relaxed and finished a proper meal for the first time in a while.