It was the moment I realized what had happened.
Screams from three people—two women and a man—tore through the quiet night sky, glittering with stars.
“Waaaah!”
“Kyaaah!”
“Kh.”
I quickly covered my eyes.
It was a reflex—an instinct for survival.
In my previous life, I would’ve instinctively covered my lower half, but here, I’d heard that if you saw a woman’s naked body, you had to take responsibility.
See a woman naked?
That was equivalent to violating her chastity, so you absolutely must not see her nude body.
Even if you did nothing else, it would make you the bad guy.
Just because you saw someone naked.
What’s the big deal about a mammal’s naked body, anyway.
'I’ve already seen it, but it was just a glance. If I want to claim I didn’t, I have to keep my eyes shut no matter what!'
But then a breeze swept past—and I felt a draft on my lower half.
And my senses, heightened through [Floral Realm] perception, informed me that Gun Hye-rin and the princess were staring right at my lower body.
When I flinched and covered myself in shock, the moonlight exposed the princess and Gun Hye-rin’s bare bodies in full view.
For a moment, our eyes met.
Their pupils widened in disbelief.
'Shit!'
I squeezed my eyes shut—but it was too late. Their sharp voices pierced the air, aimed directly at me.
“You—You saw, didn’t you!?”
“Did you see us!?”
Those were my lines to ask—yet they interrogated me.
“I—I didn’t see anything. I didn’t see anything.”
I shouted that I hadn’t seen—but in that instant, a smooth image flashed vividly in my mind.
Skin gleaming under the moonlight, smooth and radiant.
'Why are both of them bare!? No—wait, that’s not the point... Goddammit!'
As I shook my head, trying to erase the scene burned into my brain—
My enhanced hearing picked up the murmurs of warriors from far away.
“That sound came from So-ryong-nim’s direction!”
“Something’s definitely happened to So-ryong-nim!”
“Let’s go!”
“So-ryong-nim!”
No doubt about it—they were rushing over, startled by our screams.
Gun Hye-rin quickly grabbed the princess and ducked behind me.
She must’ve heard the warriors too—being in the [Floral Realm] herself. As the two of them pressed close behind me, I could distinctly feel something on my back.
Soft, supple, and—very clearly—four somethings in the center.
They were leaving trails across my back as they shifted.
GYAAAAH! AMITABHA! AMITABHA!
I tried to wriggle free from their grip in a panic, but both clung tighter and shouted:
“D-Don’t move!”
“Do not move! Are you planning to show our naked bodies to other men!?”
'Wait, what about me then!? I’m begging you—stop rubbing against me!'
Their body heat and those four distinct sensations overwhelmed me. I didn’t know what to do.
Just then, I heard cries from above—Cho and Sister Jeokwol’s startled voices.
—Tsrururu! 『Daddy! Are you okay!?』
—Chiiiii!?
I looked up to see Jeokwol noona and Cho flying through the air.
They must’ve been hiding on the roof like I told them, then flown off in shock when the venom was released.
I quickly asked Cho for a favor.
Come down and cover Daddy.
“I’m fine. It’s just venom that melted my clothes. Cho, can you come down and cover Daddy and your aunties for a bit?”
—Tsrururu. 『Okay!』
Cho promptly descended and wrapped herself around us, just in time for the warriors to appear in the distance.
They were rapidly closing the distance with [Lightfoot Technique], so I shouted at them.
I couldn’t let them come any closer.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer! This area has been sprayed with poison—approaching will put your lives at risk!”
They were sprinting over like madmen, but froze in shock at the word “poison.” From a distance, they called out in worried voices, unable to come any nearer.
“P-Poison!?”
“Stop! So-ryong-nim, are you all right!?”
I answered in the calmest voice I could muster—
Still completely naked.
“A spirit beast appeared and there was a brief scuffle. Venom was released, so this area is off-limits for the time being.
We’re fine, but approaching may be fatal. Please inform Yang Wu as well.”
“Y-Yes, So-ryong-nim.”
After I explained the situation, the warriors hesitated, then backed off.
Once everyone had retreated, I heard Gun Hye-rin’s voice behind me on the left.
It must’ve been her on the left.
“So-ryong, let’s go to the water like this.”
“Like this?”
'So the clearer one is Gun Hye-rin. Wait—why am I thinking things like that!? Amitabha. Amitabha. Hold on—did she just say we should go to the water like this!?'
Naked. In the middle of the night. And she wanted to stroll to the riverside?
I flinched in surprise.
I thought maybe Gun Hye-rin had a weird fetish or something.
But she had a valid reason.
“There’s poison powder stuck to our bodies. If we put clothes on now, they’ll just disintegrate again.”
“Huh!”
She was ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) right.
I looked at my arm—my skin was glimmering with a silvery powder.
If I put on clothes, they’d definitely corrode again.
I glanced around and saw the building’s surface had also been eaten away by the silver powder.
Even the nearby rocks looked slightly corroded. If Cho’s venom only dissolved living tissue, then this venom had to be the opposite—affecting only inanimate matter.
A venom that reacted only to lifeless materials.
There was no question—we had to wash it off.
Otherwise, anything we wore would be destroyed.
“Then let’s move for now. Just a little farther.”
“All right.”
“Okay.”
The two of them gently stepped away at my suggestion.
I thought they’d demand I take responsibility or something, but for now, they said nothing about it.
Honestly, that was a bit of a relief.
It was a bit surprising, actually.
Given their current misunderstanding—thinking they liked me because of the [Beast-Heart Technique]—I had fully expected them to jump on the chance and demand I take responsibility.
But unexpectedly, both of them were keeping their rationality.
'They’re letting it slide because it was unavoidable... and maybe because there were two of them involved?'
If it had been just one—either the princess or Gun Hye-rin—it could’ve been even more dangerous.
When it’s just one person, it’s easier to say, “Take responsibility.”
But since I’d seen both of them naked at the same time, maybe they figured it would be a stretch to demand I take responsibility for both.
So neither of them said anything.
“Jeokwol noona, would you mind covering us while we move?”
—Chiiii.
I called for Jeokwol noona and asked her to shield us while we relocated—and as Gun Hye-rin had suggested, we headed for the river.
The river was a fair distance away, but once I kicked off [Lightfoot Technique], we got there in no time. The moment I saw the water, I leapt in—and two splashes followed right behind me.
—SPLASH!
—Plunk! Splash!
They must’ve jumped in right after me.
As soon as I stuck my head above water, I saw the princess and Gun Hye-rin pop their heads out too.
Droplets flared off their drenched hair as they swept it back.
I quickly turned my head—and they both did the same, in perfect sync.
It felt like we had silently agreed to pretend nothing had happened. Just play dumb and get through it.
I immediately sent a request to Cho in my mind.
“Cho-ya, could you go get the bundle Auntie Gun always carries?”
We needed fresh clothes. I asked Cho to grab Gun Hye-rin’s bundle from the storage room—it would definitely have spares.
—Tsrururu. 『Got it, Daddy. You mean the cloth that’s hanging up to dry too, right?』
“Yes, my daughter is so clever.”
—Tsrr. 『Hehe.』
I’d only asked for the clothes, but Cho was even bringing towels.
Once we’d finished bathing and were hiding behind a rock by the riverside, Cho arrived and set the bundle down on the boulder nearby.
—Tsrrrut. 『Daddy. Here you go.』
I called out to the princess and Gun Hye-rin, who were rinsing off some distance away.
“Why don’t you two get dressed first. I’ll be the last to put on clothes.”
Gun Hye-rin probably didn’t know, but the princess wasn’t immune to cold like I was, so I offered for them to go first.
They didn’t hesitate.
“Understood.”
“Got it, So-ryong.”
While they were getting dressed, I sat on the rock and looked up at the moonlit sky.
And a lot of thoughts came to mind.
'That chest—no, the moon... Amitabha! Amitabha!'
Lust kept creeping in.
'And this rock is so smooth. Just like Gun Hye-rin and Her Highness’s—GYAAAAH! AMITABHA! AMITABHA!'
I kept trying to wash those shocking images out of my mind with fire and water when—
I heard the princess’s voice.
“So-ryong, we’re dressed.”
“Master, come on out.”
“Understood.”
When I looked toward the voices, I saw that the two of them were facing the other way.
I leapt out of the water and up onto the boulder with the clothes. There, I found my outfit neatly folded—and a towel placed on top.
They must’ve prepared it for me.
I quickly wiped down and wrapped the towel roughly around my head.
Then I practically flew into my clothes.
Once we were all dressed, we silently headed back to our lodging—the straw-filled storage shed.
The entire walk back, the three of us said nothing.
It felt like a mutual, unspoken promise had been made—not to speak of what happened.
As if we’d all agreed to erase the memory of each other’s naked bodies.
Yeah, come to think of it, it was tit for tat.
It wasn’t like I’d seen them alone—they’d seen me too.
And honestly, I got the short end of the stick.
Structurally speaking, they didn’t show everything—but I, as a man, pretty much flashed it all.
'Whew. I think that went over smoother than expected.'
As I lay down on the straw in the shed, thinking just how close a call that was—
I noticed something odd.
None of the kids were there.
No Hyang, no Hongdan, no Moji, no Soji—come to think of it, even Hwanji and Hwana were missing.
'Where did they all go?'
Even Cho and Jeokwol noona, who had followed us, were gone.
Did they all go out for a night stroll or something?
I found it odd—and was just about to get up when the moonlight filtering into the shed suddenly dimmed.
Something was blocking the light.
The shed darkened instantly.
When I looked up, I saw Gun Hye-rin and the princess walking toward me—blocking the moonlight pouring through the open door.
A chill ran down my spine.
You know that eerie sensation you get when you just know something’s wrong?
A sixth sense. Yeah—this was the sense of danger.
“W-What is it...?”
I stammered instinctively.
The princess and Gun Hye-rin came right up to me and suddenly dropped to their knees.
Startled, I dropped to my knees too—and then—
They both bowed deeply before me.
“Whoa-whoa-whoa! P-Please calm down! You two? Let’s just calm down for a second.”
I thought I’d better stop them before they said what I knew was coming.
But instead of words... they acted.
They each pulled something out from their robes.
'Wait, is that—?'
With solemn expressions, both of them pulled out daggers.
Daggers I had given them.
They reverently unsheathed them and laid them before themselves.
No... surely not.
No way.
Come on, no way.
I kept telling myself that—but what I feared most came true.
“I spoke with Lady Gun.”
“I spoke with Her Highness.”
“You saw us naked. Please take responsibility, So-ryong.”
“You saw our bare bodies. Please, take responsibility, So-ryong.”
—Shhhk.
—Shhhhk.
Came the sound of drawn blades.
Both of them pressed the daggers to their necks and spoke in a chilling tone.
“If you say anything other than yes, for the sake of our ruined chastity, we will die here and now. With the dagger you gave us, So-ryong.”
“If you will not accept, then I would rather die right here. At least it will be a happy end, with your gift in my hand.”
“GYAAAAAH!”
I screamed. What else could I do?
But just as I shrieked—
Gun Hye-rin’s dagger actually brushed my neck.
Were they serious!? I couldn’t even scream!?
If they actually died here, I’d be hunted by both the Heavenly Demon Cult and the Imperial Court until I died.
I had to say something to save them.
“...Yes. Hnggh...”
I gave them the answer they wanted—and at the same time, thought:
'How the hell am I going to explain this to Hwa-eun?'
She did give me permission last time, but... after saying no before, if I now said yes to both of them at once...
I had no excuse.
