A fairly spacious solitary confinement cell.
Though it’s called a prison, the accommodations for a foreigner of this status are quite good.
Honestly, it wasn’t much different from a hotel suite.
There are several rooms, and it seems that the special requests I made were certainly fulfilled.
The bed looked quite soft.
I heard this was to increase the possibility of rehabilitating the foreigner and to allow them to experience the world’s culture in a more positive light.
I completely agree with that humanitarian approach.
As I opened the door to the consultation room, the vastness of the room came into view.
And before me was a transparent, thick piece of reinforced glass.
I expected Seol Yu-wol to rush at me as soon as I opened the door, but there was no reaction at all.
I approached the glass and slowly surveyed the inside of the room.
I didn’t relax; she could just as easily rush at me and start banging on the glass to startle me, just like before.
Then I found her.
Crouched in one corner of the room, her face buried in her knees.
“……?”
The atmosphere was so different from earlier….
She must have sensed someone was here if she was aware of her surroundings.
In this place, sounds are transmitted as they are to facilitate communication.
I used my ability.
[Seol Yu-wol]
[Main Stance]
[She fainted from the impact of the Celestial Demon’s strike and realized she was dragged here by a demon. She feels very pathetic. She is suffering from extreme lethargy and self-hatred.]
[Applicable Response] [Satisfaction Compatibility Rate 60%]
[Calm down, Soja. This is not the Central World you know.]
The basic compatibility rate itself was very low.
This is a clear indication of her unstable mental state.
But it still had to be done.
“Calm down, Soja. This is not the Central World you know.”
At the sound of my low voice, Seol Yu-wol slowly lifted her head.
Amid her disheveled black-and-white hair, her cold blue eyes emerged.
Her blue eyes scanned me from head to toe.
“…….”
After staring at me for a while, she parted her dry lips.
“Is this the Western Region?”
“…….”
“Or is it the Southern Man?”
Right.
This reaction is a natural progression.
She believes that since I said this wasn’t the Central World, she must have been defeated by a demon and dragged to a different region’s prison.
There existed protocols for explaining this world’s basics to foreign beings as soon as they met them.
I needed to get to that quickly.
“Soja, could you please look at this for a moment?”
I turned on the wall-mounted monitor inside her room.
“……!”
As dazzling light and sound suddenly poured out from the large black glass panel, Seol Yu-wol flinched and pulled back.
She displayed hostility towards the strange object she was seeing for the first time.
Ignoring her wariness, I spoke in a lowered voice.
“I will begin the training.”
I had to start with this first.
[Alright!]
Only then would a conversation finally be possible.
***
“Eheung~”
Singing to herself, she headed to the teacher’s consultation room.
Ellis’s short tail waved happily.
The worries she had about the teacher’s security detail turned out to be unfounded.
Today was just a normal day.
Moreover, she received a truly unexpected gift, which made her mood extremely good.
‘That vanilla cake next to it is for Lady Ellis.’
Not only was the strawberry cake for Luna made, but the teacher also made a cake for her.
It seemed that the sense of closeness she felt in the past at the orphanage was not merely her own delusion.
Outwardly, she pretended to have a very open mind because of her appearance as a beastkin.
However, in reality, she had never had any romantic experience with men.
Every provocative act of Ellis’s was just a clumsy defense mechanism from a young beast who didn’t want to be ignored.
– Click.
“Oh.”
What the teacher had given her was a bundle of keys, but fortunately, she found the right key for the consultation room in one go.
A good day felt like anything was possible.
With a cheerful smile, Ellis entered.
The consultation room was quiet. No one was there.
A faint sweet aroma of the bread baked early that morning and the bitter scent of the coffee he had consumed filled the space.
If she weren’t a beastkin, she might not have noticed it at all.
Remembering the teacher’s gesture… the kitchen should be over there.
She headed to the small room inside the consultation room.
There was a modest kitchen, and in it, a white refrigerator.
Ellis grasped the door handle of the refrigerator.
“Wow….”
She marveled at the sight of two beautifully wrapped cake boxes inside the refrigerator.
Handling them as if they were treasures, she carefully brought them out.
As she cautiously approached the door, it happened then.
“Gasp….”
Ellis had no choice but to stop in her tracks.
She hadn’t noticed it outside in the lobby that much.
Once inside, she became so focused on the cakes that she hadn’t properly registered it.
However, the scent of the teacher was remarkably strong to her sensitive nose.
“Why… is this happening?”
She had never felt anything like this before.
She was sick of the familiar scent of men; she knew that scent well.
But this was a bit different….
More… sweet, soft, like vanilla….
Ellis stood still, and began to search for the source of that smell, no, that fragrance.
And she figured it out.
[Consultant Yoo Seon-woo]
It was the white doctor’s gown he had left draped over the back of a chair.
Recognizing the source, the scent seemed to deepen.
At that moment, without any warning, a strange impulse began to take over Ellis’s mind.
As if entranced, she started to move towards it… and then suddenly came to her senses.
“?!”
‘What am I doing….’
With her face flushed, Ellis turned and dashed out, holding the cakes.
She felt relieved that there was no one in the consultation room.
***
Luna was boredly watching the situation involving the foreign beings being broadcasted on TV.
When the teacher suddenly disappeared due to the dimensional invasion, she stood up subconsciously.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, Luna.”
If Lily hadn’t calmed her down, she might have run off to Seoul Forest in a panic.
After what felt like an agonizing wait, the teacher finally came out.
Fortunately, it seemed everything was resolved well.
The broadcast concluded.
She felt that it was realistically difficult for the teacher to visit here today.
So, she returned to the hunter’s personal resting area and took out a book covered in dust.
It was a rare moment of free time.
Recently, she had felt like she was constantly being chased, so reading was an unimaginable activity.
But now, she felt very at peace.
“…….”
She turned the pages one by one.
Her noisy head felt calm.
Luna couldn’t help but be grateful to the teacher for allowing her to have this ordinary experience again.
How long had she been reading?
– Wow, that looks delicious!
– Just a moment!
Suddenly, the lounge outside became noisy.
“Ellis is back.”
It seemed her beloved little sister had returned from her mission.
It was about time she had finished her book too.
To praise Ellis for protecting the teacher and to express her gratitude, Luna stepped outside.
“Stop! That’s mine!”
However, upon seeing the scene in the lounge, Luna froze in her tracks.
Ellis was surrounded by other hunters, clutching a white cake box tightly to her chest.
– Sniff sniff.
The scent of vanilla brushed against her nose.
The shape and details of the cake visible outside the box were flawless.
Luna immediately recognized who the cake’s creator was.
Such attention to detail could only be seen in the teacher’s cookies and sandwiches.
‘Teacher….’
Cake?
Why?
Because Ellis did a good job protecting him?
No, that doesn’t make sense….
There hadn’t been time to bake a cake!
Just as Luna’s mind was racing with questions,
“Sis!”
From afar, Ellis spotted her and waved cheerfully.
Luna didn’t have the strength to respond but weakly raised her hand to acknowledge Ellis.
Ellis approached her, smiling.
How envious.
I can smile brightly too.
Oblivious to Luna’s feelings, Ellis thrust the cake box with a strawberry design in front of her.
“… huh?”
When Luna gathered her senses, she noticed that she was holding another box identical to the vanilla cake box.
“Ta-da! The teacher made this for you from the morning!”
Ellis added excitedly.
“And while making yours, he also made one for me, hee-hee.”
So… that was it.
Luna realized.
The teacher was considerate enough to prepare one for Ellis as well, not just for herself.
Originally… it was a cake meant for Luna.
Cautiously, Luna opened the box.
Inside was the most beautiful cake she had ever seen in her life.
Fluffy white whipped cream piled up like winter snow, and on top, sparkling red strawberries bloomed like flowers.
Without realizing it, she reached out her index finger to poke the fluffy white cream.
And then.
– Lick.
She licked the cream that had gotten onto her finger.
Her red tongue slowly and gently swept across the white cream.
As she brushed her tongue over her lips, she began to savor the flavor.
‘Sweet….’
The sweet taste of the cream melting in her mouth made her whole body tremble with pleasure.
Unbeknownst to herself, she broke into a deep, languorous smile.
It was the sweetest and also the most dangerous taste in the world.
“…….”
Suddenly, Luna felt the surroundings grow quiet.
All the noise that had just filled the lounge came to an abrupt stop as if it were a lie.
When she turned her head, she saw most of the guild members in the lounge staring at her, their expressions vacant as if they had made a pact.
“What’s wrong?”
When Luna asked innocently, Lily, who was close to her, finally opened her mouth.
“Uh… it’s just that, a moment ago….”
But Lily couldn’t continue her sentence.
What she had just witnessed of Luna.
Her half-lidded eyes, the dazed sigh, and the movement of her tongue licking the cream.
It was far more sensual than the seductive energy of her own fox beastkin form.
Lily couldn’t bring herself to say it.
