#139
Yoon Pa-ran quietly followed him into the house. The cozy air inside caressed his nose.
“…”
At some point, this space had become quite familiar. Yoon Pa-ran suddenly realized that he didn’t find Dan Joo-hyuk’s house uncomfortable anymore.
It felt somewhat ticklish.
“This way,” Dan Joo-hyuk said as he climbed the stairs first. Yoon Pa-ran thought there might be a safe upstairs, but Dan Joo-hyuk passed by the bedroom and headed towards the end of the hallway. It was in the opposite direction of the bathroom that Yoon Pa-ran occasionally used.
Dan Joo-hyuk continued walking past a study room inside. Yoon Pa-ran looked around curiously, as this was a part of the corridor he hadn’t entered before.
Eventually, Dan Joo-hyuk approached a bookshelf attached to the end of the corridor. It was a bookshelf with expensive-looking ceramic decorations and a few books. At this dead end, Dan Joo-hyuk stopped and gazed intently at Yoon Pa-ran.
Wondering what he was doing at a dead end, Yoon Pa-ran looked at him quizzically. Dan Joo-hyuk then put on a playful expression.
While Yoon Pa-ran was staring blankly at his face, Dan Joo-hyuk turned a decoration placed at the bottom right of the bookshelf sideways.
“Oh…”
The bookshelf opened like a door.
Until the bookshelf opened with a thud, it had looked completely like the end of the corridor. Beyond the wide-open bookshelf was a space even larger than the study room they had just passed.
I didn’t know there was something like this in the house.
“Come in,” Dan Joo-hyuk said.
“…”
With a dazed expression, Yoon Pa-ran stepped inside. Then, seeing the scene before him, he couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.
“Wow…”
The inside was like a kind of item warehouse.
Of course, it was too neat to be called a warehouse without feeling a bit disrespectful. Items were neatly lined up on shelves fitted to the walls.
In the center of the room was a large table covered with red velvet. Yoon Pa-ran instinctively realized that it was used for taking out and examining items.
Being an inevitable hunter, Yoon Pa-ran was mesmerized as he examined the array of items laid out.
Most seemed to be high-grade items with extraordinary appearances. He had seen a few on the news. Though he couldn’t remember exactly, weren’t some of these items owned by some country’s royal family?
You could probably live comfortably for a lifetime just by selling what’s here.
This sudden thought naturally led to a kind of uneasiness. In particular, he was concerned that Dan Joo-hyuk had openly shown him how to enter this secret space earlier.
… Is it okay for me to see this?
“I’ve already prepared everything. Feel free to touch,” Dan Joo-hyuk casually suggested, seemingly unconcerned about security.
Yoon Pa-ran swallowed dryly due to nervousness but then decided not to worry about it. He figured Dan Joo-hyuk, of all people, wouldn’t be worried about theft.
Anyway, Yoon Pa-ran knew well that this kind of behavior from Dan Joo-hyuk towards him was quite special treatment.
It seemed that Dan Joo-hyuk was also placing a lot of expectations on Yoon Pa-ran’s [Sacred Zone] skill, which declared a safe zone.
“Which ones did I purify with my skill?”
“From here to there,” Dan Joo-hyuk pointed.
Trying not to look at other items, Yoon Pa-ran went to where Dan Joo-hyuk was pointing. Indeed, looking down at the items, he saw some familiar ones.
Yoon Pa-ran reached out for one of them. But then he stopped and withdrew his hand, asking Dan Joo-hyuk:
“Wouldn’t it be better to move to the bunker and experiment? If we experiment here and the house gets destroyed…”
It was an unknown skill in many ways. They couldn’t know exactly how it would activate. Yoon Pa-ran, having researched this skill in various ways, was a bit more cautious.
It would be fortunate if it changed the area like the safe zone inside the gate. However, thinking about how shield items or other shield skills activated, it was a different story.
Those tended to create a zone by first repelling surrounding things. Wasn’t Dan Joo-hyuk’s defensive skill that was recently revealed like that too?
So it would be troublesome if his new skill had the property of blindly pushing away surrounding things. While it wouldn’t matter if things broke inside a gate, this was a house. That’s why he had chosen the sturdy bunker as the experiment location.
“It’s fine. Try this first,” Dan Joo-hyuk said nonchalantly as he brought over a bracelet item.
It was a bracelet with blue jewels densely surrounding a thin silver metal. While watching Dan Joo-hyuk put the item on his wrist, Yoon Pa-ran hesitated.
By the way, did items like this come out when we fought together? Accessory-type items are so rare that I don’t think I would have forgotten if one came out…
“How about this?”
His thoughts were interrupted. Dan Joo-hyuk, who had already brought something else in his hand, this time put something on one of Yoon Pa-ran’s ears.
“Uh…”
It was an earring item with a design that came down long along the neckline. The dangling feeling was unfamiliar and ticklish. It must have had a large jewel embedded in it too, as Yoon Pa-ran felt its weight every time he moved.
Due to equipping the items, status windows cluttered his vision. Dismissing them one after another, Yoon Pa-ran raised his head. He was about to ask Dan Joo-hyuk why he was doing these strange things.
“…”
However, when he saw Dan Joo-hyuk’s face after clearing the status windows, he strangely found himself at a loss for words.
Because Dan Joo-hyuk was smiling so openly.
“It suits you well.”
“Don’t say weird things.”
Grumbling softly, Yoon Pa-ran quickly lowered his head. Then he forcibly infused [Sacred Skill] into his hand, trying to remember the purpose of coming here.
The white light in his hand shone as it moved between the bracelet and earring. But that was all, there was no other change.
“I guess this isn’t it.”
There weren’t any new status windows appearing either. Yoon Pa-ran, who had been silently observing for changes, spoke matter-of-factly as he tried to remove the earring.
“Ah, wait a moment.”
Dan Joo-hyuk stopped Yoon Pa-ran’s action. Then he brought a necklace from a shelf a bit further away.
“Come here. I’ll put it on for you.”
Then he naturally stood in front of Yoon Pa-ran and reached out his arms. Yoon Pa-ran’s view was suddenly blocked by Dan Joo-hyuk’s firm chest.
Before he knew it, Dan Joo-hyuk was in a position of half-embracing him. Dan Joo-hyuk’s fingers brushed against his nape, fidgeting at the back.
That ticklish sensation strangely made his hair stand on end and made him tense.
“Hey, why so many…”
“It could be that they need to be worn together like a set item.”
“Huh…?”
Dan Joo-hyuk’s following words made sense. Especially since the [Forgotten Saint’s Robe], which was closely related to the skill, was exactly that kind of set item.
However, contrary to the speculation, there was no change even when he deployed the skill while wearing the necklace as well.
“Hmm… Would you come over here?”
“These aren’t the ones I purified.”
“They don’t have curses anyway.”
Dan Joo-hyuk eventually led Yoon Pa-ran to another wall. There was a section where only precious accessory items were gathered.
“Why all jewelry…”
“You said the medium for your skill might be minerals. Didn’t you get that feeling as soon as you saw the skill?”
“Well…”
Reasons that were difficult to refute kept coming up. In the end, Yoon Pa-ran had to surrender his body to Dan Joo-hyuk’s touch, unable to find an appropriate response.
Before he knew it, Yoon Pa-ran was adorned with bracelets, necklaces, and earrings, and he slightly furrowed his brow. Some necklaces were so long they reached down to his lower abdomen, making him wonder what their purpose was.
They all had a lavish appearance with jewels dangling from them. These were burdensome equipment for close combat.
Yoon Pa-ran stared blankly at the jewels whose names he could hardly know. Looking at the otherworldly jewels that seemed to contain entire universes, he slightly furrowed his brow.
“Isn’t this too much, no matter how you look at it?”
He must look ridiculous now, like a crow. Dan Joo-hyuk, who had been tirelessly putting another decoration on Yoon Pa-ran’s earlobe, chuckled behind him.
Then he suddenly clung to Yoon Pa-ran’s back. Only then did Yoon Pa-ran realize that Dan Joo-hyuk had brought all these jewels to play a prank.
“It’s heavy.”
As he tried to push him away with his elbow, he suddenly stopped. The jewels wrapped around his entire body were pressing down on him uncomfortably, making it difficult to move freely.
“You look pretty.”
Dan Joo-hyuk, who had lowered his head close to Yoon Pa-ran, whispered softly.
At this unexpected remark, Yoon Pa-ran looked down at the items he was wearing. Well, the jewels did look pretty as they sparkled in the light.
But why was he speaking so close to someone else’s ear? It was terribly inconvenient as it made his nape tickle.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
