Before I could even take a deep breath to cool my fury, Lucian approached me, having changed into comfortable loungewear somewhere along the way.
“My apologies, Master.”
He smiled, his eyes crinkling.
“It was simply too narrow for us to sleep together.”
I was so dumbfounded and furious no words came out.
I glared at him with a deadpan, blank stare.
Then, Lucian slowly stepped closer to my side.
“Let the anger go, Master.”
And gently, he pressed down on my shoulders.
Ngh.
The moment his fingertips touched me, my body felt like it was melting away.
The shoulders that had been locked tight with tension softened into putty, dragging an involuntary sigh right out of my mouth.
“Feeling stiff?”
He whispered in a low, rumbling voice.
And he was right. It was a massage so divine it literally blew my irritation away.
As much as I wanted to hurl curses and overturn the bed, that fluid, gliding touch sinking deep into my shoulders melted away every ounce of my anger.
With a single breath out, I could feel my body unwinding.
My head cleared up, my stiff shoulders turned to jelly, and my tension completely dissipated.
Blinking my heavy eyes slowly, I caught myself wishing this moment could just last a little longer.
……Ah, maybe.
Maybe things like this weren’t so bad after all.
Right at that exact second—
“Don’t get used to it.”
My half-closed eyes snapped wide open.
“Keep feeling awkward around me.”
Lucian’s hands remained right where they were.
His touch was still soft, but an uncanny, heavy pressure hung thick in the air.
A razor-sharp warning masked beneath gentleness.
I stared at him in silence. Lucian’s eyes were still smiling warmly, but an unreadable, bizarre atmosphere wrapped around him.
……Got it.
I simply kept my lips firmly sealed shut.
A week had passed.
Game characters crossing over into reality, a final boss squatting in my house, and my childhood friend becoming the emperor—none of that surprised me anymore.
There was something far more important: endless assignments.
Endless reports.
There was no end in sight.
And the one handing out all those mountains of work was Ludger.
Assignments that kept coming long after you thought they were done.
Those tasks stretched out like an infinite desert, torturing me.
What pissed me off even more was that Ludger’s lectures were shockingly, insanely good.
Every time class ended, I’d find myself thinking, ‘Well, of course, he used to be a chancellor,’ completely hooked by how captivating his explanations were—so how on earth did he manage to assign so much damn homework?
This crazy bastard clearly judged students by his own inhuman standards.
And to make matters goddamn worse, I had another lecture coming up shortly.
I clenched my plastic beverage cup so hard it crumpled in my grip.
How the hell was I supposed to escape this swamp?
As I clutched my head and slowly racked my brain, a sudden flash of inspiration struck me.
……Kill him.
Killing Ludger was the only way this would ever end.
Otherwise, this endless storm of assignments would never stop.
To make matters worse, every single time Ludger handed out an assignment, he wore that irritatingly fascinating smile.
While plotting Ludger’s assassination and chewing on the straw of my finished iced americano, I let out a heavy sigh.
At that exact moment, a similarly deep sigh echoed from right beside me.
“……”
“……”
Turning my head, I saw Kang Gongi holding a canned coffee, staring at me with hollow, dead eyes.
……We shared a profound sense of camaraderie.
After a brief silence, I casually asked,
“How’s your major treating you?”
“……I don’t even…… know if I’m…… busy anymore.”
Gongi muttered with an exhausted face, her gaze wandering off into the distance.
Then, that familiar hearing lapse hit her again, breaking her words apart.
Frowning slightly, I forced myself to reply casually.
“Must be even worse since you’re double-majoring.”
“……I’m starting to regret it. There’s zero progress.”
Seeing Gongi’s bitter expression, I quietly patted her on the shoulder.
Right then, ping-ping—a message notification rang out.
……Don’t tell me it’s Lucian? Did he swipe my card again?!
I hurriedly pulled out my phone to check.
But the names lighting up the screen were completely unexpected.
[U•ﻌ•U Puppy, what are you doing this weekend? ( ˘ ³˘) -Adrian]
[Seohyun, are you free this weekend? -Raphael]
Staring down at the screen, I muttered under my breath.
“……What the hell?”
Especially that fucking emoticon.
“What is it, Yoon Seohyun?”
Gongi peeked over, her curiosity piqued.
The moment she caught a glimpse of my texts, however, her haggard face flushed bright red as if by magic.
“……What, what?! Is that who I think it is—”
“Shut up, Gongi.”
I swiftly clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Mm-mm-mmmph!”
Gongi muffled a shriek against my palm.
Her eyes were shining with excitement, clearly thrilled out of her mind.
Feeling the palm of my hand getting increasingly damp, I eventually pulled it away.
Gasping in air with an even redder face, Gongi squealed in delight.
“I’ll be quiet! Just tell me…… that is who I think it is, right?!”
“Yeah, it is.”
“How do you even know them?!”
I hesitated for a moment, trying to dodge the question, but eventually gave in.
“We ran into each other the other day.”
“Don’t tell me, back then?”
Gongi asked, trying to retrace her memories.
She was probably referring to the first day she saw Adrian and Raphael.
I shook my head and replied,
“Well, that was technically the first time we met, but we coincidentally bumped into each other again recently.”
Hearing that, Gongi looked even more hyped.
Glancing back down at her own phone, she said,
“Wait, your schedules overlap, though?”
At those words, I looked back down at the screen.
……Should I go, or should I skip?
No, why on earth were these guys trying to coordinate my schedule anyway?
A chilling sensation began to crawl down my spine.
“Ha…… should I go, or should I not?”
“Of course you have to go!!”
An excited voice burst out right next to me.
Startled by the intensity, I looked at Gongi.
“Obviously! Sweet, mysterious, silver-haired…… I mean, it’s the hottest actor Raphael, isn’t it?!”
Before I knew it, Gongi had snatched my phone and was squealing in excitement.
“Without a doubt, you gotta go see Raphael!”
“……I mean, I agree with you, but.”
Raphael.
Even in the game, he was the character who elevated the main shouzu to the throne, and we had promised to meet up about three times.
Though the forum boards called him a “divine entity who never enters the romance route,” wasn’t that actually a good thing for me?
……Though the real problem was—
I stared at my phone and muttered.
“What about…… Adrian? What if this psycho decides to cut off my wrists because I didn’t show up?”
True, the Crown Empire had a medieval backdrop, but this was the 21st century.
Furthermore, wasn’t this a democratic nation without a class system?
