ICG 88

“Ugh…”

The moment I stood on my two feet, my body swayed violently. My legs lacked strength, and I nearly collapsed, but fortunately, I managed to slump back onto the bed, avoiding a pathetic sight.

I barely managed to stand, bracing myself against the wall. As I staggered toward the medicine I kept in my room, something hot trickled down my thighs.

Looking down, I saw the mess between my legs.

“Damn it…”

The semen I had ejaculated was dried all over my lower abdomen. I could also see deep purple bruises on my waist and thighs, shaped exactly like Vasily’s grip.

I felt as though my hole was still stretched open from how much he had hammered into me. I gave up on wiping away the leaking semen, fearing that if I bent my waist, everything pooled inside would come rushing out.

Memories of spending the night pinned beneath Vasily, letting out moans, surfaced one after another, leaving me overwhelmed with self-loathing. It would have been more accurate to say two rutting beasts had sex like crazy all night rather than saying I had performed guiding.

‘Now isn’t the time for this.’

I wiped my face with my palm and shook my head. I had to take the medicine quickly. The suppression chip was so hot that it wouldn’t have been strange if it exploded at any moment.

Returning to my room, I immediately chewed and swallowed the medicine.

“Haa…”

The fishy taste spreading in my mouth now felt welcome.

Recently, I had habitually sought out the medicine as soon as guiding ended. Having grown accustomed to the fact that I could easily escape the throbbing pain after taking it, I had reached a point where I took the medicine even when the pain was bearable.

I knew this medicine was dangerous, but I couldn’t endure it without it. Was this the process of becoming addicted? I had vowed that such a thing would never happen to me, but it seemed I had been wrong.

Feeling the effects of the medicine spread quickly through my body, I flopped down on the edge of the bed. Then, feeling another surge of semen leak from my backside, I frowned and headed to the bathroom.

“Just how much did he dump in there?”

No matter how much I wiped, the semen kept coming. I frowned as I watched the viscous white fluid mix with the stream of water and flow down the drain.

It was a familiar situation. Yesterday’s act was completely different from the guiding I knew, but this sight right now was exactly the same as before the regression. As my head cleared slightly, the reality that I had actually slept with him sank in.

My mind grew complicated while I cleaned myself up.

I had spent the night with him, ignoring the contract clause stating that guiding through sexual intercourse would not be conducted.

I had clearly noticed the atmosphere shifting long before. Yet, even after realizing it, I didn’t reject Vasily. I had even been the one to get hard first.

If we were to determine responsibility for breaking the contract, both parties were at fault. Since it would be difficult to clearly pinpoint who broke it, it couldn’t be made an issue.

I stepped out of the bathroom, drying myself off. Even though quite some time had passed since I took the medicine, the throbbing in my body didn’t disappear.

It seemed I really had come down with a cold. It wasn’t surprising, considering I had overexerted myself all night and had been pressed against that cold skin continuously. Moreover, perhaps because it was my first time having relations with someone in this body, the aftereffects were severe.

There was no way Vasily would have cold medicine in his house… My body was in bad shape, but I had no choice but to go out and buy some myself.

I threw on some clothes, pulled a hat low over my eyes, and stepped outside.

The weather was muggy and humid, but to me, it felt warm. To think this heat felt warm. It seemed a cold was truly setting in. I walked on, thinking I should take medicine and get plenty of rest for a day or two.

I put my hand in my pocket to look for a decent hospital nearby, but my pocket was empty. Only then did I realize I had left my smartphone at home.

Tsk, I clicked my tongue. I had intended to visit a hospital, but I changed my mind to just buy medicine and return quickly.

Changing my destination, I headed to a nearby pharmacy.

“Any cold medicine, please.”

“That will be 3,500 won.”

I didn’t have the energy to pick a specific one, so I left the choice to the pharmacist. He probably gave me the best-selling one. Just as I pulled out my card to pay, an ointment on the counter caught my eye.

‘…Burn ointment.’

The image of Vasily walking out of the thick fog yesterday, with burns all over his body, flashed through my mind. He had been buried under the blankets, so I couldn’t see well, but when I caught a glimpse of him leaving the room, burn marks remained.

S-class Espers had recovery abilities far superior to ordinary people. Unless a limb was severed, most wounds healed quickly. I wasn’t in a position to be worrying about him, considering I had caught a cold just from sleeping for one night, but applying ointment would still help him heal faster.

I picked up the ointment, placed it next to the cold medicine, and said,

“I’ll take this as well.”

After paying for the cold medicine and the burn ointment, I stuffed both into my pocket and left the pharmacy.

As time passed, I felt my body becoming heavier. My mind was filled with nothing but thoughts of lying in bed and resting, but my trembling legs moved frustratingly slowly.

‘…I don’t want to go back.’

If I arrived home like this, I would run into Vasily, and I didn’t have the confidence to treat him as I usually did. It would be better to just pretend it never happened and act normally, but the probability of Vasily thinking the same was extremely low.

Walking in a daze, I found myself at the entrance of the apartment before I knew it.

As I inevitably entered the house, cold air—unlike the outside—greeted me. Thinking it was a bit chilly, I stepped into the entryway and saw Vasily emerging from my room, radiating a rather menacing aura.

“…”

Our eyes met, and we stopped moving simultaneously. Vasily held his smartphone in one hand and a block of ice that looked like a brick in the other; looking closer, it was my smartphone.

Why is my phone in that state?

In the silence, my mind raced to grasp the situation. Then, a voice came through Vasily’s smartphone.

Esper Vasily?

“…Hang up. He’s back.”

Vasily said that and ended the call. The voice from the phone disappeared, and an awkward silence followed.

I finally realized roughly what was happening. Did he think I had run away and was about to go look for me?

“Did something happen?”

“I thought Guide Kwon Gi-dam-ssi had run away without a word.”

Just as I thought.

I had only been gone for a short while, but it seemed a misunderstanding had arisen in the meantime. How did it end up like this? Because I left my phone? Or because I didn’t push him away last night?

Come to think of it, my life had been thoroughly tangled since the moment I met Vasily. It was meaningless to look for the cause now.

Since I couldn’t keep standing like this with my body in such poor condition, I let out a short sigh and explained.

“I had a cold coming on, so I stepped out for a moment to buy medicine.”

When I pulled the medicine from my pocket and held it out in front of Vasily, his cold gaze softened as if his suspicion had eased.

“Don’t go out without saying anything next time.”

“I understand.”

I usually went out all the time to exercise, so I wondered why he was reacting like this all of a sudden. However, his eyes looked as if he would lock me up if I disappeared without a word again, and since I didn’t have the strength to deal with him, I just nodded.

Vasily returned my smartphone.

The moment I took the phone, a chilly sensation transferred to my fingertips, and something clattered to the floor. Looking down, I saw small shards of ice scattered at my feet.

I looked down at the smartphone, its surface frosted with ice. I tried to turn it on, but the screen remained black.

My smartphone, once an essential item for a modern person, had been reduced to a cold lump of scrap metal.

“Haa…”

As a deep sigh escaped me, Vasily spoke.

“I’ll buy you a new one.”

“That’s fine. Please move.”

Passing him as he blocked my path, I scanned the interior of the house.

The air was freezing. If I had returned a little later, I might have faced a house covered in ice. I almost had to move again.

Of course, the worst area was my room. As soon as I entered, my body shivered at a temperature that felt like it was below zero. I quickly opened the window and turned on the heating, but the cold didn’t subside easily.

Thinking my cold would get worse at this rate, I took out the medicine first.

The cold medicine the pharmacist chose was a liquid type in a bottle. Realizing I could drink it without water, I immediately opened the cap and downed it.

However, I felt a piercing gaze from beside me. As soon as I emptied the bottle and turned my head, I locked eyes with Vasily, who had been watching me take the medicine.

Only then did I see the faint burn marks on his face.

Perhaps because his skin was so pale, the burn marks stood out even more. It wasn’t just his face; red, scorched marks remained on his hands and shoulders as well.

The ointment in my pocket seemed to assert its presence, poking my thigh.