Chapter 52 : The Enraka Deception

When I went back to the bench, other people had already taken the seats, so there was no space left.

I had no choice but to stand beside a tree and watch the performance.

Johannes stood behind her like a guard, with a snack bag hanging from his wrist.

Thanks to him, even though the crowd was dense, Iris didn’t accidentally touch anyone else.

Whenever she turned to take snacks out of the bag, she naturally bumped into Johannes’s firm arm and his body that felt like a chunk of metal.

Each time that happened, Johannes stiffened as if he had turned into a stone statue.

Iris wasn’t unaffected either and unconsciously swallowed hard.

Surprisingly, Johannes’s solid body kept catching her attention.

“Wow, Johannes’s body is really big and solid… Why didn’t I notice? Has he been working out? I always thought he’d have a body far from exercise because of how downcast he looked… But he’s got it all. He’s got everything. His family’s well-off, his face is… well, this is good enough, and his body’s great too. And his personality doesn’t seem bad either…?”

Iris’s evaluation of Johannes improved.

She had looked down on him during school days, but after spending time with him, he was unexpectedly a decent kid.

Quiet but kind and gentle.

Yeah, she couldn’t deny it.

After seeing the driver who came to pick him up and the flashy foreign car, her liking for Johannes shot up sharply.

But even putting that aside, he was a good kid in many ways.

He even casually bought snacks worth tens of thousands of won.

And he paid with a black card that only VVIPs use.

“Thinking back, I’m even more of a snob. Tch. Is there anyone who isn’t? Who hates rich people?”

Kind, but richer means better.

It wasn’t that he was good just because he was from a wealthy family.

Iris denied her snobbishness again and sharply scanned the area around the stage.

She had forgotten for a moment that she was on duty because she was so aware of Johannes.

Luckily, it didn’t seem like anything bad had happened during that time.

“This is such an easy job. I hope gigs like this come up often. I’d definitely join in between monster hunts.”

After the singers finished their performances and the stage was rearranged, a man dressed in black priest robes—the VIP to be protected—came up on stage.

At that moment, Johannes flinched greatly and pulled his hood deeply over his head, but Iris, standing in front of him, didn’t notice his suspicious reaction.

“Hello. I wonder if you enjoyed the performance hosted by the Enraka Church. Enraka Church is…”

The priest in black began his speech.

Iris, who had assumed it was one of the ordinary four major religions, widened her eyes at the strange and bizarre religious name.

Enraka?

That name sounds familiar…

While she was trying to recall, the man continued his speech.

“…The Enraka deity is a local god of Gyodam City. For Enraka-sama, everything is under Enraka-sama’s arrangement. Praise Enraka-sama!”

The more the content became bizarre, the more Iris’s expression grew sour.

The VIP she had to protect was, no way, a key figure in a cult?

Well, just because it’s an unfamiliar religion doesn’t mean it’s a cult, but the speech content was suspicious.

“It’s on the Hero app as a security mission target, so maybe it’s not a bad religion? But still, it looks really suspicious…”

Then something surprising happened.

Iris saw a suspicious black aura ripple from the man’s body.

What shocked her more was what came next.

The black aura spread out toward the audience.

“Skill activated.”

“Oh my, is he just randomly using a skill? That looks like a mental-type skill… So that priest isn’t just an ordinary person, he’s a skilled user…!”

It was an enormous skill.

A skill that could cover the entire bustling crowd.

While she was stunned, the black aura was slowly expanding and engulfing several people.

Fortunately, it didn’t affect everyone, only some were consumed by the black aura.

Soon, the black aura stretched backward and disappeared.

Since the skill showed its activation before vanishing, it didn’t show the continued expansion visually.

But it was clear that the skill’s range was still growing.

People who had been consumed by the black aura began stepping forward as if hypnotized, and even some people a few steps ahead of Iris were uneasy.

“Wait… that means I’m in danger too…!”

As Iris hesitated and stepped back, a huge hand suddenly covered her eyes from behind.

As soon as she looked at the long, delicate fingers wearing multiple colorful rings, her vision went dark.

Although the fingers were elegant like a pianist’s, the whole hand was large enough to cover Iris’s face.

Frozen, unsure what to do, Johannes whispered softly.

“…You look tired. You don’t have to watch this boring speech for a while.”

“Uh… wait, Johannes! You…!”

“Huh? What’s wrong… I-Iris!”

Iris barely had time to feel relieved by his sweet voice before she was startled and pushed his hand away, turning around.

Then she hugged Johannes without thinking.

She was worried he might be affected by the skill.

He might shake off a mental skill quickly, but the wealthy and timid Johannes would be in big trouble if caught by that skill.

“Johannes is the top target cults want to recruit. A weak, rich kid — what better prey is there?”

Without questioning why he covered her eyes, she hugged his neck and buried his face in her chest.

It was so sudden that she didn’t even have time to calmly cover his eyes with her hands.

“Ugh… Iris, this is…”

“Shh…”

Johannes ended up with his head buried deeply in Iris’s chest.

Feeling the soft chest against his face, Johannes’s red eyes widened in shock.

He didn’t know where to put his hands and waved them awkwardly before calming down.

Feeling a woman’s body for the first time, and deeply buried in the cleavage of the girl he’d had a crush on for 14 years, he felt like his soul was about to ascend to heaven.

“Is it over now? How long do I have to stay like this…”

Iris realized belatedly that she had overdone it.

She’d covered Johannes’s eyes with her chest instead of her hands.

How embarrassing.

She felt Johannes’s hot breath through the thin hoodie fabric and it made her feel weird.

He seemed to be suffocating and rubbed his face against her chest.

“Oh no, he must be surprised. But it’s all for you… Ugh, my chest is getting wetter. What excuse can I give Johannes? Should I let him go now?”

But since the priest’s speech was still going on, she couldn’t easily let go of Johannes.

Listening carefully, she noticed the priest pause and stammer a bit.

After a long while, the speech ended and Iris cautiously removed the hand covering Johannes’s black hair.

“Jo-Johannes. This is… Johannes?”

Even after removing her hand, Johannes’s head didn’t leave her chest.

Instead, he buried his face even deeper and kept rubbing his face against her chest.

Her breath caught for a moment at the strange behavior.

Realizing people were watching, she pushed Johannes’s head away.

Even then, his face didn’t leave her chest, so she pushed harder again.

“Johannes!”

“…Ah. Sorry.”

Only then did Johannes’s face leave her chest.

He quickly blinked his downcast eyes and grabbed his hood with both hands to cover his face.

His face, pale almost to white, turned red, visible through the narrow hood opening.

Seeing Johannes so embarrassed made Iris’s face flush red as well.

She tried shamelessly to pretend she didn’t notice, but it was impossible.

“He must have been embarrassed… Should I be glad I didn’t ask why he did that? We’re not even close, yet he suddenly buried his head in my chest…?”

Iris scratched her cheek with an awkward expression.

Johannes bent his body and twisted, looking like he wanted to hide somewhere.

She too felt embarrassed and heat rushed to her face.

Meanwhile, Johannes felt like he was dying.

Whenever he thought of her at home, the center of his body would swell up, and now he could feel it pressing strongly inside his pants.

No wonder.

Even when they linked arms or when their bodies touched during the performance, it was a crisis.

But just now, he buried his face in Iris’s large chest for more than ten seconds.

It was utterly dazzling but a dizzying moment.

If it had gone on any longer…

“I almost came.”