I used the 700 points I’d earned from helping Kairos to raise my Disguise skill from level 1 all the way up to level 3. Then I launched into a whole speech to Theo about how worried I was that he was so handsome he’d attract unnecessary amounts of attention and adoration working at a tavern — and used Disguise on him while I was at it.
The perfectly chiseled face, heroic and sculpture-like, softened into something a little rounder and more approachable. The brilliant golden hair I dimmed down by a shade, muting it to a hazier gold. I tried adding freckles for good measure, but his base features were so good-looking that it barely made a dent.
“From now on, whenever you go outside, you wear this face. You show me your real face only when it’s just the two of us. Promise.”
I added, with great seriousness.
“Am I really that handsome? Enough for Lihen to worry?”
Theo tilted his head.
“Yeah. I’m way too worried someone’s going to ask you out because of your looks.”
Half sincere, half teasing. I knew Theo wasn’t the type to engage in the romantic, erotic kind of love with anyone. The Theo from the original game had very little interest in romantic matters. In all the five hundred plus times I’d played through that game, regardless of which route I chose, Theo never ended up with a lover.
For some reason, Theo heard my nagging and broke into a bright, beaming smile. Apparently being told he was handsome was just that good to hear. Hmm. I should compliment him more often.
Either way, that was how Theo headed off for his first day of work at the tavern. A minor’s first job being at a tavern. From the moral standpoint of a twenty-first century Korean, it was genuinely baffling. Well — when in Rome, I suppose. He’d made a promise to me that he absolutely would not drink while working, so for now, I decided to trust him.
Theo was working hard at Madam Cecil’s Tavern. He cleared tables, collected glasses, and washed dishes. He had nimble hands and picked up the work quickly, but his mind refused to quiet down.
Lihen.
His thoughts were consumed entirely by Lihen.
He was a man who always smiled so easily. A handsome man whose eyes nearly disappeared when he smiled, crinkling at the corners in that soft, melting way. A man who sometimes came home bearing suspicious marks on his body…
Theo had rushed to find work because he wanted to ease Lihen’s financial burden, even just a little — but now that he was actually apart from him like this, unease began to creep in. It was the worry that, while he wasn’t around, Lihen might once again be pressing his body against someone else’s.
Theo worked even harder in an effort to push the thoughts away. He was vigorously wiping down a table when a voice from the very next table reached him — a middle-aged man, well into his cups.
“With men, see, if you hit the prostate — they fall apart completely. Get that back door opened up just once, and no matter how much of a man he thinks he is, he won’t know up from down.”
A snicker of laughter followed. The moment Theo heard those words, his hand paused. Lihen came to mind. The image of him coming home with bite marks all over his body, then pulling out gold coins with a perfectly casual expression.
An image took shape in his mind — Lihen, smiling, spreading his legs. The Lihen in his head was covered in scars and bite marks, batting his lashes coyly as he wrapped his legs around a man’s waist with practiced ease. That tall, handsome man with the oddly crafty face and a well-built body had that prostate thing hit, and he was crying messy tears, grinning dazedly in a filthy, loose way.
A tightness pressed into his chest. So heavy it was hard to breathe.
No. Lihen wouldn’t do that.
Theo gave a small shake of his head. It was a ridiculous thing to imagine. There was no way Lihen would do something like that. That was just some drunk old man’s low-brow joke. Telling himself that, Theo scrubbed the table harder, more thoroughly. As if he could scour the thoughts right along with the surface.
Don’t pay attention to that kind of talk.
He kept his head down and went on working in silence.
The man rambled on to another topic — the kinds of plants that could be used as aphrodisiacs.
“There’s this thing called silverleaf grass — you can find it just about anywhere. Even on the hill out back of this neighborhood. I ground some up and tried it once, and let me tell you, it does wonders for stamina.”
The words came out in the loose, uninhibited way of someone drunk. They drifted out like nothing more than idle chatter — but the man’s description of what silverleaf grass looked like lodged itself clearly in Theo’s memory.
When Theo came home, Lihen was waiting for him with a prettily wrapped box in hand. He smiled his usual easy smile and said,
“A gift. Go on, open it.”
Theo’s heart fluttered as he untied the ribbon and opened the box. Inside was a sword — unassuming in appearance. The design was plain, nothing ornate, the kind you might find anywhere.
But the moment he gripped the handle, everything changed. Theo took a swing at the air. The balance was perfect, and it sat in his hand like it had always belonged there. This was clearly no ordinary sword. It was something that could easily carry the label of a masterwork blade without anyone raising an eyebrow.
Before joy could settle in, a stifled feeling welled up first. This had to be expensive. How did someone without a proper job even get their hands on something like this?
Even so, the fact that Lihen had gone out of his way to get him something this precious was undeniable. He ought to express his gratitude.
“Thank you, Lihen.”
Theo pulled him into a firm embrace. He held on for a moment, then asked carefully,
“Want to bathe together? It’s been a while.”
Lihen didn’t say no.
The bathtub was a bit cramped for two people. Their legs overlapped naturally, and the water sloshed and trembled like it might spill over. Theo didn’t let the opportunity go to waste — he examined Lihen’s bare body with quiet intensity.
Now that he looked closely, there were other kinds of marks on his skin besides bite marks. On his shoulders, his sides, and his thighs, there were traces that looked like they’d been left by lips sucking at the skin. The truth — that Shane had taken arrows while burning down the Holy Knights’ armory, and that those wounds had healed strangely into these kinds of marks after the recovery potion — was something Theo had no way of knowing.
He reached out slowly and ran his fingers over the scar on Theo’s thigh. The muscled thigh was firm and solid, but the skin on the inner side was, unexpectedly, quite soft. Lihen’s body gave a sudden, sharp shiver.
“Ngh…”
A short, low moan escaped. That sound, threaded between the sounds of the water, lingered distinctly in Theo’s ears. Something inside his chest pulled tight.
“D-don’t touch…”
Lihen pushed Theo away gently, his face flushed. It was less a refusal than a flustered reaction. Theo obediently pulled his hand back without pressing further.
Strangely, his mouth had gone completely dry. He breathed in, but the thirst wouldn’t go away. His heart was beating faster than it had any reason to. Theo lowered his gaze. He stared at the warm steam spreading across the surface of the water and thought,
He wanted to turn twenty soon.
Because he felt like, once he became an adult, he’d finally be able to put a name to this feeling.
We lay side by side in bed, both carrying the same scent of bath oil on our skin.
“Lihen, good night.”
“Yeah. You too.”
I pulled up the status window to check my level-up progress.
500p + 1 quest cleared
: Statue Destruction (cleared)
→ Level up to age 15 (complete)
1000p + 2 quests cleared
: Temple Arson (cleared)
: Soul Offering (cleared)
→ Level up to age 18 (complete)
1500p + 3 quests cleared
: Holy Knights’ Armory Destruction (cleared)
: Kairos Necromancy Research Assistance (cleared)
: ??
→ Age 20 level-up conditions not yet met
Just one more quest to clear and Theo becomes an adult. I was a little short on points, but that wasn’t a big issue. It could be covered through soul offerings.
I spent the days waiting for the next quest in relative normalcy. While Theo was out at work, I gathered points through soul offerings as well, and when he came home I greeted him with a smile as though nothing had happened at all.
And then, about two weeks later, in early March when the first hints of spring had begun to creep in, the communication orb finally chimed. I assumed it was Kairos and picked it up quickly. But the face that appeared above the orb was someone I hadn’t expected at all.
A female demon with green hair was looking at me. Long hair like serpent scales cascaded all the way down to the floor. The Demon King army’s alchemist — Belsina.
If the Light faction had Shasha, then the dark side had Belsina. In many ways, she occupied the exact opposite position from Shasha. Where Shasha made medicines that saved humans and harmed demons, Belsina made medicines that killed humans and healed demons.
I remembered that when I played as Shane in the game, Belsina hadn’t even acknowledged me as a Legion Commander. Because of that, we’d had almost no reason to cross paths. So for her to be reaching out to me first was something else.
Belsina spoke in her signature husky voice.
“Hey, Shane. I heard you swept up a ton of drugs in the human realm? Give me what you’ve got. I want to use it for research.”
Word had already spread that far. I deliberated for a moment, then agreed.
“All right. In exchange, please share the research results with me as well.”
Once the results were in, I was planning to quietly pass the information along to Shasha. Knowing how the drugs worked would help with developing an antidote, after all.
Belsina continued.
“And there’s one more thing I need you to do. I’m working on a new recovery agent, but all the ingredients are in the human realm. Go gather them for me.”
“What kind of recovery agent requires ingredients found only in the human realm?”
“It’s a substance humans use as an aphrodisiac. But as it turns out, there’s a possibility it acts as a superior recovery agent for demons.”
She scratched at the air with her fingers. A list of ingredients began to appear above the communication orb, one by one.
“Write these down. They’re more common than you’d think.”
The first was a plant called silverleaf grass. Brewed into a tea, it was said to sharpen the senses while impairing judgment. For demons, however, it was a catalyst that stabilized magic power that had been excessively depleted. Easily found on the hill out back nearby.
The second also grew on the mountain — black-breath moss. Humans burned it and smoked it like tobacco. Inhaling it loosened the body and left the mind hazy. According to Belsina, when consumed by demons, it could accelerate the regeneration of damaged tissue. Found in the shade of rocks or near the roots of old trees.
The final ingredient was the antennae of the crimson moon butterfly. For humans, it acted as a sexual stimulant; for demons, a stimulant for awakening.
“Will mixing all of these really produce a recovery agent?”
“By demon standards, yes. As for what it would do to a human… who knows. Probably turn them into something not unlike an animal in heat.”
Belsina cackled.
“Anyway, gather everything carefully. Don’t mix them up with anything else. And once it’s finished, you’ll be the first one I test it on.”
The idea of becoming Belsina’s guinea pig wasn’t exactly a pleasant development. I chose my words rationally.
“As you know, I’m a half-breed. Isn’t it unknown whether this would act as a recovery agent or an aphrodisiac on me? I don’t think I make a very good test subject.”
“That’s exactly why I want to give it to you more. Isn’t it interesting?”
The mad scientist’s violet eyes gleamed with a bright, unsettling light.
<Sudden Quest>
Gather ingredients required for potion crafting
Silverleaf Grass ×25
Black-Breath Moss ×20
Crimson Moon Butterfly Antennae ×6
Success: 300 points, Belsina’s Special Recovery Potion
Failure: Belsina may secretly inject you with poison?
It wasn’t a difficult quest. For a quest like this, sneaking off without Theo would only look more suspicious. It was better to go up the mountain together. I’d have Theo gather edible berries and mushrooms while I collected the ingredients Belsina had asked for.
I wasn’t worried about Theo seeing the ingredient list and associating it with aphrodisiacs. Did Theo even know what an aphrodisiac was? Probably not. He was such a pure soul — a kid who only ever thought about physical training and sword practice.
Thanks to my experience from past playthroughs, I knew Theo in some ways even better than he knew himself. From the very beginning of the game, Theo was set up as a character with absolutely no sexual experience, and he stayed that way all the way through to the ending.
A hero whose only desire was to stop the Demon King. Someone who, rather than spending time on a sweet rendezvous, would choose to take one more swing with his sword. That was the kind of hero Theo was. Among players, there was even a running joke that “it wouldn’t be strange if Theo believed storks delivered babies.” A Theo like that — there was no way he’d know anything about the kinds of ingredients that went into an aphrodisiac.
The next morning, I woke Theo up, framing it as a combination of exercise and berry picking.
“If it’s with Lihen, anything sounds good.”
Theo got up cheerfully.
Outside was cold with a lingering late-winter chill. It would be even colder up on the mountain. So I made sure to bundle him up carefully — fastening his outer coat, pulling gloves onto his hands, and winding a scarf firmly around his neck.
“Tell me if it feels too stuffy.”
Theo nodded and fidgeted with the scarf. He must have been that excited about going up the mountain, because the corners of his mouth were lifted all the way up.
The hill out back had a fairly high peak, and there was still snow left on it. The path was slippery, but neither Theo nor I had any trouble with it — we both had solid reflexes.
…Or so I thought, but Theo’s foot slipped.
“Ah!”
I reflexively wrapped my arm around Theo’s waist. Theo fell right into my arms. Even though he’d grown a lot since he was twelve, he was still just a little shorter than me — probably because he hadn’t become an adult yet.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you, Lihen.”
His face had gone red, probably embarrassed about nearly falling.
We set off again side by side up the snow-covered mountain path — me checking for herbs, Theo looking for edible berries.
