After succeeding in infiltrating once, Hong Yeonhwa came by every night and slept with Kim Ho pillow.

But no tail stays hidden forever.

We were lying side by side, trying to fall asleep, when someone knocked on the guest room door.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK,

“!?”

Hong Yeonhwa jolted upright in shock.

With wide rabbit eyes, they stared at the door.

And of course, bad premonitions never missed.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK,

Hong Yeonhwa.

Hong Yehwa’s voice came from beyond the door.

The fact that it was pitched one note lower than usual probably meant it was loaded with extreme fury.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK,

Hong Yeonhwa, come out.

I asked Hong Yeonhwa, who had started trembling all over, 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

“Want me to go out?”

Strictly speaking, I was an accomplice too.

And when dealing with me, Hong Yehwa usually had at least some control over her anger.

She probably wouldn’t open with a lava back-smash out of nowhere.

But Hong Yeonhwa seemed to think for a moment, then shook their head.

“...No. I’ll go.”

It looked like they had decided that since this was something they would have to face someday anyway, it was better to confront it head-on now.

After taking several deep breaths to steel themself, they pulled the guest room door open.

“How did you know I was here?”

“Because you weren’t in your room. Is there anywhere else you’d go?”

At that, Hong Yeonhwa frowned as if suddenly realizing something.

“You broke my door again, didn’t you!”

“Is that really the important part right now?”

“Then what is?”

“Hey, Hong Yeonhwa. Don’t change the subject.”

FWOOOSH,

Hong Yehwa’s hand was covered in lava, and heat swept across the room.

Hong Yeonhwa flinched for a second, then gathered their courage and faced her again.

It looked like a scruffy little dog baring its teeth at a much bigger one.

“You keep treating me like I did something wrong, but I didn’t.”

“You didn’t? After ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) this? After doing this?”

“All we did was sleep next to each other. What exactly happened?”

“You seriously don’t find that weird?”

“You’re the one making it weird. It’s not like we did anything else.”

“......”

For a moment, Hong Yehwa looked like she had been struck speechless.

Apparently, even she thought her younger sibling had a point.

If they hadn’t done any “anything else,” then there was technically nothing wrong with sleeping side by side.

Just like there was nothing wrong with six- or seven-year-old kids sleeping in the same bed.

After thinking a little longer, Hong Yehwa threw the question at me.

“Did you really only sleep next to each other? Without doing anything?”

“Yes. That’s all.”

“......”

“As long as I’m staying here, I’ll make sure nothing improper happens. I hope you can trust me.”

Hong Yeonhwa nodded rapidly in agreement.

Hong Yehwa looked back and forth between the two of us over and over, then let out a long sigh.

“......Fine. You’re not children, so it wouldn’t be right for me to interfere in every little thing. I’ll trust you.”

“Thank you.”

Then Hong Yehwa turned to face her younger sibling.

“Hong Yeonhwa.”

“What.”

“I’m only like this because I’m worried. Because I’m afraid you’ll get pulled somewhere strange.”

“......I know. I do.”

“Sorry for waking you. Get some rest.”

Soon, Hong Yehwa left.

I gave Hong Yeonhwa some praise.

“You did well. That couldn’t have been easy.”

“No....... I should’ve done it sooner.......”

“From now on, let’s keep being confident.”

“I’ll try......!”

Hong Yeonhwa steeled themself once again.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help feeling a little playful, so I asked casually,

“So, are you really not thinking about doing any ‘anything else’ at all?”

“......!?”

“We said we weren’t doing anything, but you never know what might happen between a man and a woman. If the mood takes over, people can cross the line all of a sudden.”

“Cross...... the line?”

“I’m just saying it’s possible. Of course, if you don’t want to, then we won’t.”

At that, Hong Yeonhwa’s face slowly turned redder and redder, clearly imagining who knew what.

Keeping their eyes fixed on the floor, they answered in a tiny, shrinking voice.

“I...... would...... like it...... though......?”

“What exactly would you like? Please be specific.”

“Don’t tease me.......”

“Your reaction is fun.”

I grinned, then let my expression turn serious.

“At least this time, we should hold back. We barely convinced her.”

“Yeah.......”

Hong Yeonhwa nodded seriously too.

If we broke their sister’s trust here, it would be extremely hard to restore it.

Still, they also looked faintly disappointed, so I decided to leave just a little room for later.

I leaned close to Hong Yeonhwa’s ear and whispered,

“Even so, I’ll remember what you just said.”

“Yes.......”

Hong Yeonhwa’s face turned bright red all over again.

*****

Daily life at the Ruby Mage Tower wasn’t all that different from life at the Dang family.

Training, rank grinding, and helping with the Austerity quest.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

All kinds of flame spells covered the training grounds.

As Hong Yeonhwa chanted, the fire that had spread wide gathered together and fused, then shot toward me.

FWOOOOOOSH!

I immediately stepped with [Featherstep] and dodged, while the flames kept repeating cycles of explosion and fusion as they chased after me.

Looks like they’re starting to get the hang of it.

The inspiration they had gained in the inner world was gradually taking concrete form.

Once the magic was completed, the Austerity quest would clear too.

Still a long way to go.

The difficulty had risen drastically with the Challenge added on.

Of course, that also meant the rewards had probably improved by just as much, so for Hong Yeonhwa it was hardly a bad thing.

And for me too.

I can take it easy with Austerity’s cooldown.

There wasn’t anyone else to use it on right now anyway.

For me, that effectively meant I could devote [Time Allocation] somewhere else.

Invitation.

Not because I was planning to use it on Hong Yeonhwa again.

Digesting the insight from the first Invitation came first.

What I had in mind was—

Father-in-law and mother-in-law candidate number three.

If I used it on Hong Yeombaek, the odds of him breaking through the wall and reaching S-rank would rise.

And Hong Yeonhwa’s mother, likewise, would have a much easier time reaching EX-rank in the long run.

Either way, I figured it would help world peace.

I got way too much from them, too.

An S-rank magic scroll, one copied S-rank skill, one copied S-rank trait, and even Rank Up on top of that.

Officially, it was an investment, but in practice, they had practically just handed it all over.

In that case, shouldn’t I at least show a minimum level of sincerity in return?

So I asked Hong Yeonhwa to arrange a meeting with father-in-law and mother-in-law candidate number three.

Then I began explaining.

“I’m only telling you this now, but I possess a sovereign Unique Skill.”

The two of them showed interest at once.

With a broad grin, Hong Yeombaek asked,

“With you, it wouldn’t be strange even if you had one or two of those! What does it do?”

“It can arrange a fight with the strong.”

“By the strong, do you mean what I think you mean?”

“Yes. S-rank.”

Then Hong Yeonhwa’s mother asked,

“And who exactly are these strong people?”

“It’s difficult for me to explain in detail.”

“A fight against unidentified S-ranks... Even for you, that leaves room for suspicion.”

“There’s one thing I can promise. It won’t bring you harm.”

Up to now, everyone who had received an Invitation had come back out perfectly fine despite being overwhelmingly defeated.

Mo Yongjun’s grandfather had coughed up a bowlful of blood, sure, but that wasn’t because something bad had happened to him in the inner world. He’d just been too shocked.

Hong Yeonhwa cut into the conversation and added a word.

“I also...... learned a lot there.”

Not only were they witness number three to come back out perfectly fine, they had also seen the flame magic of a far-removed former Ruby Mage Tower master with their own eyes.

And Hong Yeonhwa’s parents had already been watching them from time to time as they organized that insight.

They looked at one another and discussed it.

“It doesn’t seem like he has some ulterior motive.”

“I think so too. If he did, he wouldn’t have waited this long.”

“And since Yeonhwa received it too, let’s trust him once.”

“Agreed.”

Hong Yeombaek asked one last question.

“How long does it take? As you know, we’re in no position to leave our posts for very long.”

“It varies from person to person, but so far it’s all been nearly instantaneous. The flow of time is different there.”

“Excellent! Then go ahead and cast it!”

Now that I had their permission, I gripped Crow Tree in my hand.

[‘Octopus Arms’ will be used.]

[‘Invitation’ will be used.]

[‘Invitation’ will be used.]

[Cooldown 39 days 24:59:58]

[Invitation] had a 7-day cooldown when used on someone bonded to me.

For everyone else, it was 10 days.

And if you used [Octopus Arms] twice in a row, the penalty was quadruple cooldown.

So naturally, that made it 40 days.

Of course, I’d expected that from the beginning.

Time to shave it down.

[‘Time Allocation’ will be used.]

[Allocation Ratio: 20%]

[Cooldown Reduction 15%]

[Cooldown 25 days 23:59:58]

Now that it was under a month, I’d probably be able to use it again not long after the new semester started.

Might even be worth using [Time Allocation] one more time.

—That was what I thought, just as several new lines appeared under the notification message.

[‘Déjà Vu’ is activated.]

[‘Time Allocation’ is activated.]

[Cooldown 16 days 21:35:58]

A less-than-5% chance triggers here?

This was exactly why traits were always worth grabbing first.

I ended up repeating something Lucky Charm said like a habit.

...Lucky me.

Meanwhile, Hong Yeonhwa’s parents were staring at the air with interest.

They had probably each received an Invitation.

“So we just accept?”

“That’s right.”

“Then we’ll be off.”

The two of them closed their eyes almost at the same time.

Then, before enough time had even passed to drink a cup of water, they opened them again.

Not quite to the level of Mo Yongjun’s grandfather, but both their faces were full of amazement.

They looked at me and spoke one after the other.

“...So he truly was strong. You were right.”

“To think even among the same S-rank, such a gap could exist.”

“But that also means it’s possible to go farther,” Hong Yeonhwa’s mother added.

As expected, it seemed they had lost to one of the subordinates in my inner world.

I asked them,

“What happened in there?”

“When we accepted the invitation, we found ourselves in an unfamiliar place. After taking a careful look around, we entered some enormous hall together. And then—”

As Hong Yeombaek continued, an unexpected word caught my ear.

Together?

For a moment, I thought I’d misheard, but the more I listened, the less that seemed to be the case.

“The Ruby Mage Tower master...... It seems the opponent Yeonhwa met appeared again.”

Hong Hyeona.

“Just facing her was enough to understand it. Even if we attacked together, victory was far from certain. So, shameless as it was, we took her on two against one... and still lost.”

She is strong, after all.

I’d raised her well enough to rank near the very top even out of a thousand.

Defeating one S-rank and one A+ rank at the same time was well within reason for her.

I felt a quiet sense of pride.

And I got some unexpected gains out of this too.

By sending the two of them in together, I’d learned more about the inner world.

Up to now, I’d been relying on guesswork for a lot of it. One of my theories had been that it generated some kind of instance-dungeon-like space each time.

So when I cast Invitation in succession, I had expected Hong Yeombaek to enter Inner World 1 and Hong Yeonhwa’s mother to enter Inner World 2.

But if the two of them woke up in the same place, then—

—that means it definitely exists inside me.

And there was another fact just as important.

If two people could enter, then three, four, or even more could enter too.

Which meant that if I stacked Octopus Arms high enough—

I might be able to set up group battles later.