The night breeze is cool to the touch, and the stars above are blooming bright. They visibly twinkle from beyond the windows. Every star is a spectacle in its own right, forming some curious shapes in the blank black canvas of the universe.
“Devils, I wonder… Do they come from outer space?”
Chae Nayun leaves the Detention Center and sets for her dormitory with random thoughts in her head. For some reason, Hyon Hyung is spending a lot of his time in the Detention Center without being in detention. Apparently, he is having make-up study sessions there.
That is why she has to wait there if she wants to meet up with Hyon Hyung. Not even five minutes yet, and she is already asleep. A short few minutes later, something very embarrassing happens.
“That bastard… How dare he shouts in my ear?” She doesn’t know what he is shouting, but it is clear that the shouting is enough for her to render her in a blind bout of rage.
Thankfully, Hyon Hyung did not die. That will weigh heavy on her conscience.
Inside the female dormitory, Nayun sees an unlikely duo. Yoo Yoenha has Rachel tagging around with her. The two of them enter Yoenha’s room… maybe to hang out.
Nayun feels that this is another change, but not unexpected as in her pre-regression, Yoenha and Rachel have been very good friends. However, that friendship is something that will take years before they finally form. This time, it seems that the two’s friendship has been accelerated.
Contrary to what Chae Nayun thinks, the two being together is for entirely different reasons.
***
Rachel enters her classmate’s room. It is her first time here. No. It is her first time visiting a classmate’s room as she is not really the friendliest sort. She is aware that establishing post-relationships is too important a task she cannot ignore them
But the barriers of race are too high a wall to climb. The others seem to put her on a pedestal as a princess, and that stays the same in Cube.
The only difference is… the pedestal her fellow cadets put her on is one that causes alienation. That is why, she barely has anyone to call friends within Cube. Not to mention that she is too busy with studying that she cannot even mingle with others around.
Her mind returns to Hajin once more as she feels depressed about getting second.
“What do you want? How about tea?” Yoo Yoenha senses her guest’s distress so she offers her something to drink.
Rachel nods affirmatively. “Thanks… I will go with tea…”
After preparing tea for both of them, Rachel utters a word of gratitude. “Thanks… I appreciate it…”
“Are you sure you want to drink it?” Yoenha sharply inquires. "Doesn’t royalty a target often of assassination like for example, poison…”
“Y-you must be jesting.” Rachel fumble on her words, but quickly gathers her wits. “I am nothing to you here in Korea. I am just another ordinary cadet here…” She admits the truth without fault.
As the rank 2 guild in the whole world, the Essence of the Strait is worth more than England will ever be. It is a cruel reality considering the financial power that the guild wields. Yoenha is as much a princess as Rachel if not more.
“So, why is it that you asked me to talk in private with you? Just to give you a heads-up… The Essence of the Strait will not show preferential treatment to England just because you are classmates with me.”
“No, that is not it.” Rachel quickly rebuttals Yoenha’s assumption. To Rachel’s consternation though, it will be her joy if Essence of the Strait does look more kindly for England. “I overhead something… and I believe it concerns you…”
The princess of England disappoints Yoenha greatly. She stands up in her seat, not even moving her tea a bit as she wants to finish the charade already as she has better things to do. “I never took you to be the gossiping kind… Miss Rachel…”
Yoo Yoenha is a very busy person. It is already 9:45 pm, and it is about this time that she does her homework and more personal work as a crucial member of her guild. Time is gold, and she abides by these teachings with sincerity.
“You have to hear me!” Rachel implores, pulling Yoenha’s arm and not letting it go.
Yoenha hates it when she is being violated. As a certified clean freak, Rachel’s actions are very offensive to her. “You! If this will be a waste of my time, then be prepared for the consequences!”
Rachel flinches at Yoenha’s reaction, realizing the few taboos that run around the rumor mill about the brunette beauty. “I… I am sorry! But you have to hear me! It is for your safety!”
“Is that a threat?” Yoenha’s reaction to her words is unkind and she is so close to just resorting to a more aggressive response. “Sigh… I will hear you, but I am warning you.”
Yoenha returns to her seat and takes a sip of her tea to calm her nerves. She finds a surprise on the fragrance from her wrist. It… smells good. Initially, she thinks that it might be the tea. When she removes the tea from her fingers, she smells her wrist again.
“It really does smell good.” She looks at Rachel recalling that brief physical contact.
Taking this as a signal to explain herself, Rachel starts with a single phrase. “Djinns might be targeting you!
Yoenha however seems to have different priorities. “What lotion do you use?”
“…”
The two of them exchange a look of confusion.
“Djinns are targeting me? Why?” Yoenha answers with another question.
“Huh? I don’t use any lotion though?” Rachel naively answers back.
For some reason, Rachel’s response annoys Yoenha. More confusion ensues as the two exchange a back-and-forth on the topic of Djinns and skincare. A certain idiot’s randomness is rubbing off on Yoenha and it seems to be infecting Rachel at an alarmingly fast rate.
““Eh?”” The two of them express a similar level of shock as their conversation derails on very random topics. “What skincare routine does Djinns use?” And… “Does Heroes uses lotion too?”
After a few more exchanges, calm finally returns to the both of them.
***
Yoo Yoenha cannot sleep. It is in the middle of the night, and she is wasting precious time. She is not even able to do her precious work on researching her classmates she wishes to invite to her guild in the future.
“Ugh… Damn, I am losing my mind…”
It is not because she is sharing a bed with a blonde beauty that she cannot sleep.
Because of their too-long conversation and discussion, Rachel has no choice but to sleep over lest she faces the consequences of not following the curfew. The longer the time outside curfew is, the harsher the demerits. Considering that there is a couple of high-level heroes patrolling the dorm’s halls, Rachel and Yoenha will rather not take their chances. Disobeying curfew only amounts to a minuscule of demerit points for them, but both Yoenha and Rachel are straight-A students who will not settle for less.
Yoenha removes herself from the bed. It is very uncharacteristic of her to share a bed with someone, but the little tidbits she learns are sending her down a rabbit hole to the point of being distracted by the uncomfortable feeling of having a bedmate. The most fearsome of all is that after she researches some topics in a more in-depth manner, she learns of the implication that… Djinns do exits within Cube.
Hajin and Hyon are able to learn that Yun Hyuk, the Academic Club’s president is a Djinn. Yoenha is able to confirm this through her own deductions by investigating Yun Hyuk’s rise to his rank as a cadet.
Apparently, Yun Hyuk suddenly starts getting stronger in an unnatural manner in his second year. It is not enough to confirm whether he is a Djinn or not, but it is abnormal enough that Yoenha starts harboring suspicion about the senior cadet’s rise.
Is Yun Hyuk really just a genius late bloomer of the sort or is he a Djinn in disguise? That is why Yoenha has to confront him. In the next club meeting, she has to address this with caution, and she has to be prepared.
Yoenha is still not sure of what Hajin and Hyon have to do about this. According to Rachel, the two seem to be discussing if Yoenha is a Djinn. “That’s ridiculous… Me? A Djinn?”
With a bit of dark eye bags under her eyes, Yoenha watches the peacefully sleeping Rachel. “She is really beautiful…” She enviously whispers to herself. Of course, she is confident in her own beauty, but Rachel’s beauty is unique to its own.
If Yoenha is a guy, she might not be able to resist Rachel’s charms and devour her right at this moment.
“For now, I should eat something…” She distracts her disturbing thoughts with food.
Yoenha stands up from the bed with careful steps as she doesn’t want Rachel to wake up. With lithe steps, she heads to the kitchen to microwave some easy food while avoiding the scattered pages of their research on the character ‘Yun Hyuk’. It annoys her a great deal that her room is this messy.
Aside from being a germaphobe, she is also one who hates disorganization a great deal. She has this OCD to maintain unity, cleanliness, and properness.
Yoenha puts a mac-and-cheese in the microwave while she gets a shower. She scrubs her wrist real good and cleanses herself both in her mind and body. After showering, she heads to get herself the microwaved food.
And then… she realizes, she cannot eat them… she cannot serve them either.
“I have an image to maintain…” She realizes it is too late.
Ding!
The microwaved mac-and-cheese presents itself for all of its glory. “Uuhmm…” She glances at the sleeping Rachel. As the only daughter of the Guild Leader of Essence of the Strait, she has been very strict on maintaining an image.
“This… I cannot help it…” She is about to toss the microwaved mac-and-cheese in the trash bin when inspiration strikes her. “If I throw it like this, I will be leaving evidence for Rachel to see!” Yoenha is severely drooling at the thought of being justified in eating the microwaved food.
Using her superhuman speed, and masterful display of acrobatics, she silently rushes to the spoon a few steps away from her. Like a… pig, she spoons the mac-and-cheese on her face.
Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom.
“Uhhh…” Rachel stretches her arms from the bed as she lets out a cute sound.
Yoenha panics! She turns her face away from Rachel with her back facing the princess. This way, she can hide her eating from Rachel.
Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Yoenha finishes eating the mac-and-cheese and throws the plastic container into the trash bin. It is the mac-and-cheese that any commoner can buy in convenience stores at a cheap price. If Rachel sees her eating something like that, it will be her end!
“Is that Mac-nd-chiz? It~ smells good…” Rachel comments with a slurry voice as she stands up from the bed while still wearing her uniform from last night.
“N-no…” Yoenha nervously explains. “You must still be dreaming… Are you craving some cheese? Let’s go, I will treat you to good classy food… How about let’s go for something light? Oh~! I know this cheesecake, it tastes great!” She says in one breath, desperate to steer the conversation to another food topic.
“Huh?” Rachel lets out a curious sound as she wipes out her eye boogers. “What is this?” She approaches Yoenha and swipes something from her lips. Once more, Yoenha is feeling violated.
It is a rather affectionate action, and Yoenha might even blush at the fact it is Rachel who is doing the lip swiping. “What is this? It smells of cheese?” Rachel focuses her still droopy eyes on the particle.
Yoenha is feeling incredible terror. In her panic, she grabs Rachel’s wrist and eats the smudge of cheese from Rachel’s index finger. Rachel feels the cold sensation of Yoenha sucking out her finger. It feels icky and weirdly perverted.
“It tastes of cream… It’s from the coffee I drank…” Yoenha lies through her teeth, grimacing at the fact that it is she herself who is now violating the sanctity of her body. “But it kind of tastes salty.” She adds an honest assessment. The art of lying is to mix the truth with the lie to make the perfect deception.
Rachel shows a look of confusion as if asking. “Why did you do that?”
Yoenha feels strangely proud of her covertness, but that doesn’t last for long. On top of voluntarily dirtying herself, especially her mouth, she just has to learn that…
“M-miss Yoenha… Y-you… ate my eye boogers…” Rachel explains while trembling, her eyes already wide open at this point.
Yoenha shudders at the revelation. “So that is where the salty taste comes from?” She realizes.
The thought sends Yoenha into despair, and Rachel is not helping at all as she curiously tries smelling her index finger. Yoenha suffers a second bout of panic.
“Hey! What are you going to do!?”
“Huh? Uhhh… I am sorry!”
Alfir This chapter has been rewritten on 03/07/2023
The night breeze is cool to the touch, and the stars above are blooming bright. They visibly twinkle from beyond the windows. Every star is a spectacle in its own right, forming some curious shapes in the blank black canvas of the universe.
“Devils, I wonder… Do they come from outer space?”
Chae Nayun leaves the Detention Center and sets for her dormitory with random thoughts in her head. For some reason, Hyon Hyung is spending a lot of his time in the Detention Center without being in detention. Apparently, he is having make-up study sessions there.
That is why she has to wait there if she wants to meet up with Hyon Hyung. Not even five minutes yet, and she is already asleep. A short few minutes later, something very embarrassing happens.
“That bastard… How dare he shouts in my ear?” She doesn’t know what he is shouting, but it is clear that the shouting is enough for her to render her in a blind bout of rage.
Thankfully, Hyon Hyung did not die. That will weigh heavy on her conscience.
Inside the female dormitory, Nayun sees an unlikely duo. Yoo Yoenha has Rachel tagging around with her. The two of them enter Yoenha’s room… maybe to hang out.
Nayun feels that this is another change, but not unexpected as in her pre-regression, Yoenha and Rachel have been very good friends. However, that friendship is something that will take years before they finally form. This time, it seems that the two’s friendship has been accelerated.
Contrary to what Chae Nayun thinks, the two being together is for entirely different reasons.
***
Rachel enters her classmate’s room. It is her first time here. No. It is her first time visiting a classmate’s room as she is not really the friendliest sort. She is aware that establishing post-relationships is too important a task she cannot ignore them
But the barriers of race are too high a wall to climb. The others seem to put her on a pedestal as a princess, and that stays the same in Cube.
The only difference is… the pedestal her fellow cadets put her on is one that causes alienation. That is why, she barely has anyone to call friends within Cube. Not to mention that she is too busy with studying that she cannot even mingle with others around.
Her mind returns to Hajin once more as she feels depressed about getting second.
“What do you want? How about tea?” Yoo Yoenha senses her guest’s distress so she offers her something to drink.
Rachel nods affirmatively. “Thanks… I will go with tea…”
After preparing tea for both of them, Rachel utters a word of gratitude. “Thanks… I appreciate it…”
“Are you sure you want to drink it?” Yoenha sharply inquires. "Doesn’t royalty a target often of assassination like for example, poison…”
“Y-you must be jesting.” Rachel fumble on her words, but quickly gathers her wits. “I am nothing to you here in Korea. I am just another ordinary cadet here…” She admits the truth without fault.
As the rank 2 guild in the whole world, the Essence of the Strait is worth more than England will ever be. It is a cruel reality considering the financial power that the guild wields. Yoenha is as much a princess as Rachel if not more.
“So, why is it that you asked me to talk in private with you? Just to give you a heads-up… The Essence of the Strait will not show preferential treatment to England just because you are classmates with me.”
“No, that is not it.” Rachel quickly rebuttals Yoenha’s assumption. To Rachel’s consternation though, it will be her joy if Essence of the Strait does look more kindly for England. “I overhead something… and I believe it concerns you…”
The princess of England disappoints Yoenha greatly. She stands up in her seat, not even moving her tea a bit as she wants to finish the charade already as she has better things to do. “I never took you to be the gossiping kind… Miss Rachel…”
Yoo Yoenha is a very busy person. It is already 9:45 pm, and it is about this time that she does her homework and more personal work as a crucial member of her guild. Time is gold, and she abides by these teachings with sincerity.
“You have to hear me!” Rachel implores, pulling Yoenha’s arm and not letting it go.
Yoenha hates it when she is being violated. As a certified clean freak, Rachel’s actions are very offensive to her. “You! If this will be a waste of my time, then be prepared for the consequences!”
Rachel flinches at Yoenha’s reaction, realizing the few taboos that run around the rumor mill about the brunette beauty. “I… I am sorry! But you have to hear me! It is for your safety!”
“Is that a threat?” Yoenha’s reaction to her words is unkind and she is so close to just resorting to a more aggressive response. “Sigh… I will hear you, but I am warning you.”
Yoenha returns to her seat and takes a sip of her tea to calm her nerves. She finds a surprise on the fragrance from her wrist. It… smells good. Initially, she thinks that it might be the tea. When she removes the tea from her fingers, she smells her wrist again.
“It really does smell good.” She looks at Rachel recalling that brief physical contact.
Taking this as a signal to explain herself, Rachel starts with a single phrase. “Djinns might be targeting you!
Yoenha however seems to have different priorities. “What lotion do you use?”
“…”
The two of them exchange a look of confusion.
“Djinns are targeting me? Why?” Yoenha answers with another question.
“Huh? I don’t use any lotion though?” Rachel naively answers back.
For some reason, Rachel’s response annoys Yoenha. More confusion ensues as the two exchange a back-and-forth on the topic of Djinns and skincare. A certain idiot’s randomness is rubbing off on Yoenha and it seems to be infecting Rachel at an alarmingly fast rate.
““Eh?”” The two of them express a similar level of shock as their conversation derails on very random topics. “What skincare routine does Djinns use?” And… “Does Heroes uses lotion too?”
After a few more exchanges, calm finally returns to the both of them.
***
Yoo Yoenha cannot sleep. It is in the middle of the night, and she is wasting precious time. She is not even able to do her precious work on researching her classmates she wishes to invite to her guild in the future.
“Ugh… Damn, I am losing my mind…”
It is not because she is sharing a bed with a blonde beauty that she cannot sleep.
Because of their too-long conversation and discussion, Rachel has no choice but to sleep over lest she faces the consequences of not following the curfew. The longer the time outside curfew is, the harsher the demerits. Considering that there is a couple of high-level heroes patrolling the dorm’s halls, Rachel and Yoenha will rather not take their chances. Disobeying curfew only amounts to a minuscule of demerit points for them, but both Yoenha and Rachel are straight-A students who will not settle for less.
Yoenha removes herself from the bed. It is very uncharacteristic of her to share a bed with someone, but the little tidbits she learns are sending her down a rabbit hole to the point of being distracted by the uncomfortable feeling of having a bedmate. The most fearsome of all is that after she researches some topics in a more in-depth manner, she learns of the implication that… Djinns do exits within Cube.
Hajin and Hyon are able to learn that Yun Hyuk, the Academic Club’s president is a Djinn. Yoenha is able to confirm this through her own deductions by investigating Yun Hyuk’s rise to his rank as a cadet.
Apparently, Yun Hyuk suddenly starts getting stronger in an unnatural manner in his second year. It is not enough to confirm whether he is a Djinn or not, but it is abnormal enough that Yoenha starts harboring suspicion about the senior cadet’s rise.
Is Yun Hyuk really just a genius late bloomer of the sort or is he a Djinn in disguise? That is why Yoenha has to confront him. In the next club meeting, she has to address this with caution, and she has to be prepared.
Yoenha is still not sure of what Hajin and Hyon have to do about this. According to Rachel, the two seem to be discussing if Yoenha is a Djinn. “That’s ridiculous… Me? A Djinn?”
With a bit of dark eye bags under her eyes, Yoenha watches the peacefully sleeping Rachel. “She is really beautiful…” She enviously whispers to herself. Of course, she is confident in her own beauty, but Rachel’s beauty is unique to its own.
If Yoenha is a guy, she might not be able to resist Rachel’s charms and devour her right at this moment.
“For now, I should eat something…” She distracts her disturbing thoughts with food.
Yoenha stands up from the bed with careful steps as she doesn’t want Rachel to wake up. With lithe steps, she heads to the kitchen to microwave some easy food while avoiding the scattered pages of their research on the character ‘Yun Hyuk’. It annoys her a great deal that her room is this messy.
Aside from being a germaphobe, she is also one who hates disorganization a great deal. She has this OCD to maintain unity, cleanliness, and properness.
Yoenha puts a mac-and-cheese in the microwave while she gets a shower. She scrubs her wrist real good and cleanses herself both in her mind and body. After showering, she heads to get herself the microwaved food.
And then… she realizes, she cannot eat them… she cannot serve them either.
“I have an image to maintain…” She realizes it is too late.
Ding!
The microwaved mac-and-cheese presents itself for all of its glory. “Uuhmm…” She glances at the sleeping Rachel. As the only daughter of the Guild Leader of Essence of the Strait, she has been very strict on maintaining an image.
“This… I cannot help it…” She is about to toss the microwaved mac-and-cheese in the trash bin when inspiration strikes her. “If I throw it like this, I will be leaving evidence for Rachel to see!” Yoenha is severely drooling at the thought of being justified in eating the microwaved food.
Using her superhuman speed, and masterful display of acrobatics, she silently rushes to the spoon a few steps away from her. Like a… pig, she spoons the mac-and-cheese on her face.
Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom.
“Uhhh…” Rachel stretches her arms from the bed as she lets out a cute sound.
Yoenha panics! She turns her face away from Rachel with her back facing the princess. This way, she can hide her eating from Rachel.
Nom. Nom. Nom. Nom.
Yoenha finishes eating the mac-and-cheese and throws the plastic container into the trash bin. It is the mac-and-cheese that any commoner can buy in convenience stores at a cheap price. If Rachel sees her eating something like that, it will be her end!
“Is that Mac-nd-chiz? It~ smells good…” Rachel comments with a slurry voice as she stands up from the bed while still wearing her uniform from last night.
“N-no…” Yoenha nervously explains. “You must still be dreaming… Are you craving some cheese? Let’s go, I will treat you to good classy food… How about let’s go for something light? Oh~! I know this cheesecake, it tastes great!” She says in one breath, desperate to steer the conversation to another food topic.
“Huh?” Rachel lets out a curious sound as she wipes out her eye boogers. “What is this?” She approaches Yoenha and swipes something from her lips. Once more, Yoenha is feeling violated.
It is a rather affectionate action, and Yoenha might even blush at the fact it is Rachel who is doing the lip swiping. “What is this? It smells of cheese?” Rachel focuses her still droopy eyes on the particle.
Yoenha is feeling incredible terror. In her panic, she grabs Rachel’s wrist and eats the smudge of cheese from Rachel’s index finger. Rachel feels the cold sensation of Yoenha sucking out her finger. It feels icky and weirdly perverted.
“It tastes of cream… It’s from the coffee I drank…” Yoenha lies through her teeth, grimacing at the fact that it is she herself who is now violating the sanctity of her body. “But it kind of tastes salty.” She adds an honest assessment. The art of lying is to mix the truth with the lie to make the perfect deception.
Rachel shows a look of confusion as if asking. “Why did you do that?”
Yoenha feels strangely proud of her covertness, but that doesn’t last for long. On top of voluntarily dirtying herself, especially her mouth, she just has to learn that…
“M-miss Yoenha… Y-you… ate my eye boogers…” Rachel explains while trembling, her eyes already wide open at this point.
Yoenha shudders at the revelation. “So that is where the salty taste comes from?” She realizes.
The thought sends Yoenha into despair, and Rachel is not helping at all as she curiously tries smelling her index finger. Yoenha suffers a second bout of panic.
“Hey! What are you going to do!?”
“Huh? Uhhh… I am sorry!”
Alfir This chapter has been rewritten on 03/07/2023
