Chapter 124:
“Here we are.”
The dungeon gate was located halfway up a mountain, so they parked at a nearby lot and hiked up.
Before, she had to hide and sneak around, but now, Seo Jae-yi strode confidently towards the gate.
As usual, Association employees were waiting.
“Oh, E-Esper Seo Jae-yi?”
“Hello!”
Having revealed her face a few days ago, the employees recognized her immediately and bowed their heads. Coincidentally, they were both familiar faces.
‘Gate monitoring is supposed to be on rotation, so why are these two always here?’
They were the same employees she had repeatedly knocked out with tranquilizer darts during her previous clandestine visits.
“Hello. I’d like to enter the dungeon.”
But instead of acknowledging their familiarity, Seo Jae-yi simply stated her purpose with a smile.
“Of course! Please, go ahead.”
S-rank Espers had free access to any dungeon, so the employees immediately stepped aside.
“Could you please not report my visit?”
The employees, looking at her with admiration, unaware that she was the one who had repeatedly incapacitated them, hesitated at her request.
“W-well…”
“Even if it’s Esper Seo Jae-yi…”
“Oh, I’m not asking you to keep it a complete secret. I’ll call the basement hermit… I mean, the Vice President, and let him know as soon as I come out.”
“T-the Vice President?”
To low-ranking employees guarding the gate, the Vice President was an almost mythical figure.
At the mention of his name, the employees couldn’t refuse.
“Don’t worry. If you’re still concerned, I’ll call him right in front of you.”
Reassured, the employees finally relented.
It wasn’t a lie. Once she decided to cultivate and sell dungeon plants in Baek Joo-won’s dungeon, she would have to negotiate with the Esper Association, so she would have to contact them anyway.
“Then, please excuse us!”
“Yes! It was an honor to meet you!”
“We wish you a safe return!”
Leaving behind the employees, who bowed deeply, Seo Jae-yi and Baek Joo-won stepped into the brightly glowing gate.
The air inside was far more refreshing than outside.
“Wow, what’s this? It feels even better than before.”
Having absorbed Baek Joo-won’s power, she was already attuned to this dungeon, but today it felt even better.
The clean air, the rustling of leaves in the wind, the unique energy signature of the dungeon… everything was perfect. It felt like paradise.
“That’s only natural. Your body is filled with my energy from head to toe.”
“Huh?”
Baek Joo-won, who had followed her in, was emitting a faint glow. Seo Jae-yi turned to look at him and gasped.
Baek Joo-won’s usual appearance was transforming.
Clothes resembling traditional Korean attire, long flowing hair, snow-white skin, gracefully curved eyes, clear green eyes that seemed to reflect the pure air of the dungeon, elongated pupils unlike a human’s, and an even more striking beauty.
It was Hae-won, not Baek Joo-won.
“You look…different.”
This was only the second time she had seen ‘Hae-won,’ so his appearance felt unfamiliar, and Seo Jae-yi instinctively took a couple of steps back.
He even seemed a couple of inches taller, making him seem like a completely different person.
“Do you dislike this appearance?”
Baek Joo-won frowned at her reaction. He didn’t like the distance between them.
“That shouldn’t be the case.”
Closing the distance in a single stride, Baek Joo-won leaned down slightly. His silky hair cascaded around him.
“You like pretty things, don’t you?”
“Are you calling yourself pretty right now?”
“Why, am I not?”
“……Well, no.”
How could she say otherwise with that face? A beauty that transcended even her own preferences.
“I like your honesty.”
Baek Joo-won smiled. His even more dazzling appearance made her head spin.
How had she managed to stay sane when she first met him?
‘No, wait. I wasn’t sane back then. I was dying, so I wouldn’t have noticed his beauty.’
Her racing heart must be because she was perfectly sane now, unlike then.
“You can’t take your eyes off me. Do you like it that much?”
Baek Joo-won’s voice was deliberately sweet, sending a shiver down her spine.
A look of deep satisfaction spread across his face.
“Oh!”
With a snap of his fingers, Airok, whom Seo Jae-yi had been holding wrapped in a cloth, vanished.
“What? Where did you throw him?”
“He’s safely tucked away in my cave, so don’t worry. Even I wouldn’t be heartless enough to throw him around while he’s having growing pains.”
There were no more interruptions.
Baek Joo-won swept Seo Jae-yi into his arms. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist.
Having been carried like this several times, she now settled comfortably in his embrace. He found that incredibly endearing.
“More Guiding?”
“Why, do you not like it? You’re getting better at enduring it.”
Baek Joo-won carried her towards a certain direction. The rustling of his long clothes against the leaves accompanied his every step.
“If you really don’t want it, I won’t.”
He stopped in a wide meadow bathed in sunlight. He gently placed Seo Jae-yi on a rock.
Instead of stepping away, he gazed at her, her arm still draped around his shoulders.
“No Guiding, just a kiss.”
As he whispered those teasing words, Seo Jae-yi suddenly became very aware of her arm around his shoulders.
His close proximity, his breath against her skin as he spoke, his fingers against her waist… she was hyper-aware of everything.
It felt like all her senses were focused on him.
“Do you not like it?”
Baek Joo-won asked, his voice and smile the ones she loved.
His blatant seduction made her heart race and her body flush. She became acutely aware of the firmness of his shoulder beneath her hand.
Even though she wasn’t usually perceptive, she couldn’t deny it any longer.
She wanted the kiss itself, not the Guiding.
“Seo Jae-yi, can I kiss you?”
Seeing her silence, Baek Joo-won leaned closer, their lips brushing lightly. It tickled.
“……Why do you suddenly want to?”
He chuckled, enjoying the sensation, before answering, “Because I like you being here, in my dungeon.”
“What if I burn it down again?”
“Let it burn. Even if you turn this place to ashes, I can make the flowers bloom again.”
As Seo Jae-yi tightened her grip on his shoulders, he turned his head and captured her lips. Their mouths met in a soft, eager kiss.
Their breaths mingled, their tongues intertwined. They nipped and clung to each other.
Her arm had moved from his shoulder to around his neck.
The feel of his long hair against her fingers, the rustling of his clothes… everything was different, yet the kiss erased the unfamiliarity.
It was the same kiss Baek Joo-won always gave her.
Even though everything else had changed, his scent and his kiss remained the same.
Unaware that she had been molded to his preferences, Seo Jae-yi let herself be swept away, taking what he offered, giving what he took.
When receiving Guiding, she had been too lost in the overwhelming rush of energy to notice, but now, with just the kiss, all her senses seemed heightened.
It was sweet and thrilling. Even the sound of her own heartbeat was pleasant.
Seo Jae-yi’s right hand unconsciously rested on his chest.
“Ah…”
A soft moan escaped her lips.
His heart was beating as fast as hers, perhaps even faster. The steady thrum beneath her fingertips was incredibly satisfying.
“Ha, Seo Jae-yi…”
Baek Joo-won’s voice was husky with desire as her hand lingered over his heart.
Seo Jae-yi didn’t notice her body tilting back, unable to withstand the force of his presence. She only felt her own temperature rising in response to his voice.
This was the first time she had experienced such an unbearable heat.
“Hmm, he’s doing fine.”
Only after they were both sated from kissing, nipping, and licking did they finally head towards Baek Joo-won’s cave.
Seo Jae-yi, covered in Baek Joo-won’s marks, felt relieved seeing Airok sleeping soundly in a corner of the cave.
“You didn’t believe me at all, did you?”
Baek Joo-won, displaying the bite marks on his neck, clicked his tongue.
“Well, when I first encountered the egg here, it was just lying around, so I was worried.”
“It was, back then.”
“You just left it there after sealing him in the egg? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
“He’s not going to get hurt or die from that. Seo Jae-yi, you seem to keep forgetting because he’s small, but he’s a dragon who’s lived for hundreds of years. He can even defeat an S-rank Esper like Park Hyung-woo.”
Not all S-ranks were created equal.
Park Hyung-woo, as an Earth Esper, could inflict large-scale attacks and deal more damage than his actual power level suggested, but he was still relatively weak compared to other S-ranks.
“But he can’t defeat you.”
Unlike him, Seo Jae-yi was a top-tier S-rank Esper, the strongest in Korea.
Even Airok’s water ability, which was Seo Jae-yi’s natural enemy, was useless against her. Now that she could use her full power thanks to Baek Joo-won, she was even more formidable.
“You can probably crush Baldy with your little toe, right? I’m suddenly curious. Of all the S-rank Espers you’ve met, how many can you defeat?”
“That’s a very provocative question.”
“I’m not teasing you, I just want to accurately assess your strength.”
Seo Jae-yi insisted she wasn’t trying to rank them.
Baek Joo-won scoffed but answered anyway.
“I can defeat Kim Yoo-sung and Seo Won-yeong.”
Seo Jae-yi was surprised. They were both powerful S-ranks.
“Mac Grayson… it would be a 50/50 chance.”
She was impressed.
Grayson was indeed stronger than Kim Yoo-sung and Seo Won-yeong. To think he was comparable to him.
“Then you’re about the same level as me? Why did you give up without fighting when we first met?”
Baek Joo-won’s face contorted at Seo Jae-yi’s innocent question.
He might be obsessed with her now, but her first impression had been terrible.
“Do you not remember that you were on the verge of a breakdown?”
“Ah.”
She was already powerful, but how much stronger would she be during a breakdown, when she unleashed all her power without restraint?
And this wasn’t human territory; it was Hae-won’s domain.
If Seo Jae-yi went berserk, this place would be incinerated before she died.
That’s why he had offered her a deal: he would let her live if she left his dungeon.
“Um… sorry. I won’t barge into someone else’s dungeon and cause trouble even if I’m about to lose it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Now that I’m with you, you won’t ever go berserk.”
Baek Joo-won stepped closer and kissed her. Unlike before, this kiss was laced with Guiding.
“……If I release all that deadly heat within you, the risk of a breakdown will decrease significantly.”
He whispered, his energy flowing through her body.
The intense heat concentrated in her solar plexus, hotter than a volcano, above where his power resided.
Seo Jae-yi, a deadly cancer.
It was more irritating to him than the government.
“When that happens, I won’t listen to anything you say, no matter how much you beg me to stop, so remember that.”
Seo Jae-yi nodded at his declaration that he would erase it all with his life force.
Intimate physical contact between Espers and Guides was practically a necessity.
She had anticipated this day, so she didn’t feel any resistance. On the contrary, she was slightly excited, knowing how good Baek Joo-won’s touch felt.
Once Airok recovered, she would be the one initiating contact.