Side Stories Chapter 100 – What If Story (15)

[Breaking News. The tower’s effects have been successfully neutralized. The heroes used the map drawn by the professional mercenary Black Wolf and…]

It only took 52 hours, 30 minutes, and 15 seconds to neutralize the tower’s effects and subjugate it. Unfortunately, they failed to catch Destruction, but there were other massive benefits to this event. One example would be that the tower fragments we collected held the potential to be an extremely valuable source of energy.

“You want me to use it?” I asked.

Yoo Yeonha took out a vial containing a tower fragment and gave it to me. The fragment was giving off a luster like moonlight.

“Yes, we obtained four and decided to give you one. I’m sure you’ll use it well. Besides, you’re quite good at making furniture, right?”

“What does that have to do with this…?”

“I’m sure you can make some weapon out of it, right?”

I was in the limousine with Yoo Yeonha, who was completely leaning on my shoulder. I reached around with my free hand and played with her earlobe while we chatted.

“Hang~ Hey, why do you keep playing with my ears? Do you have an ear fetish or something? Are you a pervert?”

I responded by putting my finger in her ear. She trembled before slamming her head into my chin.

“Hey, that hurts…”

“Please… don’t touch my ears…” she said with moist eyes.

I rubbed my chin and switched on my smartwatch.

[The specialist Black Wolf is Yoo Yeonha’s ex-bodyguard?]

[Black Wolf and Yoo Yeonha reunite with a strange vibe between them…]

“But what do we do? There seems to already be a scandal about us,” I said and projected a hologram of the article.

Yoo Yeonha read the article and replied, “It’s fine. We don’t have to concern ourselves with gossip like this.”

Bzzt!

Yoo Yeonha was confidently smiling when she suddenly received a message. She switched her smartwatch on and checked it.

Then, she froze after reading the contents of the message.

I peeked over her shoulder and read it too.

[Vice guild master, the paparazzi took a picture of you and Black Wolf getting into the limousine. They are asking what your relationship with him is.]

It seemed like a major news outlet this time judging from how they contacted Essence of the Strait before publishing the news.

“Huh? What’s with your face? Are you going to brush it off again?”

“…”

Yoo Yeonha didn’t say anything in response to my sneering. She looked like she wanted to say something, but both of her cheeks puffed up.

I tapped her puffed cheeks with my finger.

“Pwuuuuu!” she spat out the air in her mouth.

“I’m alright, so you can do whatever you want. I don’t mind even if you keep it a secret forever.”

“…”

Yoo Yeonha let out a sigh and buried her face in my chest. She wrapped her arms around my waist and said, “… I’ll tell them.”

I patted her back in response.

Then, she added, “… Not now, but someday. Now’s not the time.”

I knew she would say that and flicked her forehead.

“Ack!”

***

Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…

It was four-thirty in the morning. My alarm was ringing earlier than usual to start the day.

However, I was already long awake even before my alarm rang. I just couldn’t move because Yoo Yeonha was clinging to me. Both of her arms wrapped around my body and her leg was on top of my stomach.

I felt like a body pillow for some reason…

Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…

The alarm kept ringing.

I pressed Yoo Yeonha’s nose, cheeks, and lips. However, there was no response. I pinched her nose and she grimaced while making sounds that showed she was annoyed.

Still, she didn’t wake up.

“What beautiful lips you have…” I said as I traced my finger on her lips.

Tap… Tap… Tap… Tap…

I tapped my finger on her lips when they suddenly spread open and devoured my finger.

I flinched and pulled my finger out. Then, I instinctively smelled my finger. It surprisingly smelled good like the scent of roses… How was that possible…?

I placed my finger on her lips again, and she devoured it just like before.

She sucked my finger for a while and opened her eyes when I slowly pulled my finger out.

“…”

She stared at me for five seconds without saying anything.

Then she said in a sleepy voice, “… Food.”

I smiled and got out of bed.

“What do you want to eat? Ramyun?” I asked her.

“I don’t like ramyun,” she brazenly lied through her teeth.

I massaged her shoulders before heading to the kitchen. Kimchi stew was probably the best for breakfast. I quickly whipped up breakfast for my hard-working vice guild master.

She was already on the table with her spoon and chopsticks in hand.

“Here,” I placed the food in front of her.

Yoo Yeonha suddenly grabbed my shoulder and kissed me.

I patted her on the head and said, “You didn’t brush your teeth.”

“I can forgo washing every day and it won’t matter. It’s one of my gifts.”

“Really…? That’s interesting…”

Did she possess such a gift…? Anyways, I just nodded and sat opposite of her.

“Please send me the schedule for today,” she said while scooping the stew into her bowl.

Ziiing…

Her smartwatch projected a hologram image.

“How does it look today?”

“Who knows?”

Yoo Yeonha smirked and stretched her legs towards me. She placed her feet on my chair.

“What do you think it will look like~?” she asked before flashing a sensual and playful smile.

No, she was trying to look sensual, but to me, she looked more like a king and I was her servant…

I stared at her for a while before grabbing her ankle and running my fingers between her toes.

“What are you doing?! Hiik! W-Wait… Ah… No… Stop… S-Stop… I’m sorry… Haaang…~”

This was not my intended use when I created [Dexterity], but it sure did come in handy in situations like this.

***

I wore a coat and left the mansion. It was currently six in the morning, but the sky was still dark since it was winter.

“What happened to the shard I gave you last time?”

“Oh, that one?”

Yoo Yeonha asked me as soon as we got into the limousine. I opened my hand and showed her aether.

“I stuck it in here.”

“Oh~ Good job~” Yoo Yeonha nodded in satisfaction.

She was looking at me with a smile, but I couldn’t help but feel that she was scanning my face right now.

“You know…” she said in a serious voice.

“Hmm?”

“I’ve been thinking about this since last time, but… you’ve gotten more handsome, you know that?”

“Pfft!” I failed to suppress my laughter.

Just on a side note, I did enchant aether with [Killer Smile] using my [Jar of Greed].

The effect of that was…

— The user’s charm stat will increase by 0.002 every twenty-four hours and will increase by a maximum of one. (However, it will not be able to exceed nine under any circumstances.)

I added this three years ago, so I already increased my charm by one and the Fragment of Memory further enhanced aether’s effect.

— Aether’s effect +40%

I gained an extra 0.4 charm, which brought my total to 5.8.

The limit for a human being was nine and most people averaged four. Now I could say that I was within the top ten to twenty percent of the population based on looks alone.

“I think you’re just blinded by love,” I replied.

After all, I saw no reason to come clean.

Yoo Yeonha retorted with a frown, “Blinded by what? Don’t you know that I’m a very objective person?”

“But I’m really good, right? Maybe it’s because of that?”

I wasn’t really bragging, but I performed very well thanks to [Dexterity]. Also, I could use my SP and add a suitable gift if my performance started to slow down later on.

Yoo Yeonha flinched and pushed me away, “W-What are you talking about? I… I have no idea what you mean…!”

We arrived at the portal station. I got out of the limousine before she did. Yoo Yeonha muttered something along the lines of, ‘It’s nothing like that, so don’t misunderstand me…’ while getting out.

Our destination today was London. We were passing through the VIP lane at the portal station.

“Wow…”

My eyes widened as soon as we arrived in London. There was a huge crowd waiting for us. Everyone was there to greet the vice guild master of Essence of the Strait and the CEO of Essential Dynamics.

The crowd screamed and followed the limousine that Yoo Yeonha’s double was in.

“Is it our turn to go now?” she asked.

We were hiding at the corner of the portal station in disguises. Her hair was golden because of the wig.

“Sure,” I replied.

This was my first time going on a date like this, but it wasn’t bad at all.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder as we walked. We stopped by here and there without being conscious of the people around us.

“Hey, do you want to eat ice cream?” Yoo Yeonha asked while pointing at an ice cream stand on the street.

“Sounds good.”

We went to buy two ice creams. I ordered chocolate vanilla while she ordered mint chocolate.

“Is that even good…? Doesn’t it taste like toothpaste…?”

“It’s alright, but why did you order chocolate vanilla? Are you a kid or what?”

I looked at her while she busily slurped her ice cream. Then I stole her cone away and shoved it in her face.

“Ack!”

The ice cream cone was clinging to her forehead and made her look like a messy unicorn.

“Look, it’s a mint chocolate unicorn.”

“You… really…” she muttered while glaring at me.

I shrugged and retorted, “Who told you to order mint chocolate? Why are you eating toothpaste?”

“…”

Yoo Yeonha wiped the ice cream off her face with mana. Then, her hand shot out towards my ice cream.

I immediately reacted by showing immaculate weaving.

“Ha, amateur.”

“Dammit… Hand it over. I’ll turn you into a chocolate vanilla unicorn…”

A scuffle for the ice cream broke out between us, but it soon came to an end when my hand touched her armpit.

Yoo Yeonha went, “Hihihi… hehehe…” before falling to the ground. “Hang~ Don’t… Don’t do that… that’s cheating…”

In the end, she pouted and ran into my embrace after losing. I wrapped my arms around her waist and embraced her.

London's cool, gentle breeze blew and the sun was shining down on us. Quite a lot of people were glaring at us because of our public display of affection, but we didn’t care. We didn’t even stop to think, ‘What if we get caught?’

Whatever happened would happen. What was important to me was that I was with the person I loved.

***

We finished our three hour date and reached the meeting place, Clancy Islet.

“We were waiting for you, vice guild master,” Rachel greeted us.

She was waiting for us at the Royal Tower located on the island of extravagance.

Yoo Yeonha smiled and replied, “Yes, it is nice to meet you, Guild Master Rachel.”

“Have you enjoyed your tour around the city?”

“Yes, the scenery was quite nice. It is indeed London.”

Both of them chatted on the way to the meeting room.

“This is the place,” Rachel guided us to a room with a round table.

Various guild executives and government officials were waiting for us at the table.

“Please, have a seat,” an old butler guided Yoo Yeonha to her seat.

I stood right behind her.

“Now, we shall commence discussion on the alliance between Essence of the Strait and the English Royal Court guild…”

An English official started the presentation followed by a speech from Yoo Yeonha and Rachel. The meeting itself was quite casual. The participants even threw around light banter here and there.

“…”

Everyone was laughing except for me. There was a place I had to visit on this island and it wasn’t this meeting room.

I suppressed a yawn that nearly escaped my lips. Thankfully, I was saved by an announcement that they would take a break.

Yoo Yeonha glanced at me before saying, “You can go out and have fun if you’re bored.”

“Really? Alright then.”

“… Huh?”

I immediately went out and started walking to the casino like a diligent employee. I ran into Rain, who was interestingly my successor and predecessor.

‘Hmm… I guess I can trust her.’

I approached her and said, “Hello, Knight Rain. I have to go somewhere for a bit. May I request that you keep watch of Vice Guild Master Yoo Yeonha?”

“Ah, certainly. I will go to her at once.”

The knight easily agreed and I merrily ran to the casino.

***

I returned to our Clancy Islet penthouse with a huge bag of cash, but I flinched the moment I stepped through the doors.

Yoo Yeonha was sitting on the sofa and glaring at me. I could feel a drop of sweat travel down the back of my neck after sensing my impending doom.

She motioned with her chin for me to sit down.

“Where have you been?”

“Oh… I was making money. Look at this.”

I showed her the bag full of cash and gold bars. She peeked into the bag and scoffed in disbelief.

“I made one billion won with one hundred million won. I was hoping to contribute to our expenses…”

“Boring.”

“… I was trying to be funny.”

“Hmph!” Yoo Yeonha scoffed and turned her head.

I wobbled and sat beside her. Then I stared at her face.

“You told me to go. I just did what you told me to.”

“… It’s not because of that, you know?”

“Then what? Was there a problem in the meeting?”

Yoo Yeonha frowned and glared at me. However, she couldn’t say anything since she really did tell me to go. She knew very well that I wasn’t the type who would bother trying to understand what she really meant.

In the end, she let out a sigh of resignation and said, “You know…”

“Yes?”

Yoo Yeonha changed the subject.

“I was thinking about it for a while now… Is it true? I mean, is it really true?” she muttered while looking at my collarbone.

“Hmm? What’s true?” I tilted my head in confusion.

I found it challenging to understand what she was talking about. I wondered what she was considering to be fake this time…?

I kneaded her cheeks and asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Only then did she look up at me before immediately looking down at the floor. She replied, “… What you told me last time. The thing I said about your brain making things up… you know… that thing where you’re from another world…”

“Oh, that’s all true,” I replied without an ounce of hesitation.

I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “There’s no lie in it. It’s all true. I can’t return to my world anymore. I’ve lost everything already.”

“…”

“So you’re my everything now.”

Yoo Yeonha was dumbfounded for a moment before her face turned bright red like a tomato.

I noticed that her eyes suddenly became lively again as if she had something to look forward to in life now.

Her eyes shot open when I pushed her down and gently bit her neck.

“Eup… W-Wait…” she moaned while trying to push me back.

However, I didn’t stop. I ran my fingers up her waist before pulling her into my embrace.

I licked her lips and she let out a sensual moan while digging her fingers into my back.

We could feel our hearts beating against each other. Our skin, lips, bodies, and hearts became one for the remainder of the day.

… We spent the entire night together until we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Morning came, and shockingly…