“Alright. Then go on now. If you need any help, just let me know anytime.”
“Yes, sunbae-nim.”
Iris bowed her head in greeting and dragged her weary feet away.
Just then, as she was about to enter the house, Teresa stopped and turned around.
“Wait, Iris.”
“Yes?”
“That necklace… I haven’t seen it before.”
Teresa’s gaze lingered on the necklace around Iris’s neck.
Iris stroked the necklace and looked at Teresa as she replied.
“Yes. I got it recently.”
“Hmm, does it perhaps have some sort of power, like the Chastity Belt? It doesn’t seem like an ordinary item.”
Iris’s eyes widened at Teresa’s words.
Teresa knew that Iris was an Awakener and possessed the mysterious Chastity Belt and Bracelet. But still, Iris hadn’t expected her to immediately notice that the necklace wasn’t an ordinary object. Before wearing this necklace, Iris used to wear various other accessories, yet Teresa had never mentioned anything like this before.
Iris let out a deep sigh.
“Whew… I’m not sure. I thought so too, but it hasn’t awakened yet.”
“Is that so? It might be an item that requires certain conditions to awaken, like the Chastity Belt. Hmm, I know nothing about that kind of thing, so I can’t give you any advice.”
Teresa shrugged her shoulders with her hands behind her back.
Could that really be it? Was it just taking time to awaken?
Iris bit her lip.
Just as Teresa said, she was only an Exorcist and a former Hero, not an Awakening-Type Hero, so she couldn’t fully grasp the nature of the necklace.
Still, according to Teresa, there was power in this necklace, which meant it wasn’t ordinary. If only it were just a matter of delayed awakening. With a gloomy expression, Iris continued.
“Maybe. I guess I might need… a little more time.”
“If it still doesn’t awaken, come find me like last time. I’ll do a Split-Body Summoning for you.”
Split-Body Summoning—she was grateful to hear that. Although she doubted the necklace would respond like the Chastity Belt did.
Still, did Abellus really give her a true relic as a gift? Even after hearing Teresa’s words, she couldn’t feel completely at ease.
‘There isn’t a Skill hidden in Abellus’s State Window that curses objects, is there?’
It wasn’t impossible. With psychic abilities and a Chastity Belt that could save lives, there could very well be a Skill that imbues power into objects.
If that was the case, what sort of curse had he placed? Could it be a curse where the object doesn’t react for a certain time, even if used?
Just because she hadn’t seen such an ability, she couldn’t be sure it didn’t exist.
It was a situation hard for someone with little experience like her to judge.
She wanted to hear more about how the necklace looked through the eyes of Teresa, an ex-Hero and current Exorcist. Iris hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Um, actually…”
“Go ahead.”
“You mean… this necklace doesn’t seem like an ordinary item, right?”
“Yes. Like I said, I can’t say for sure since I’m not an Awakening-Type Hero, but from an Exorcist’s intuition, it doesn’t seem ordinary. Mm, all I can say is it feels like there’s something there, though I can only express it vaguely.”
“Ah… yes, that makes sense. I suppose so.”
“Sorry for being so vague. I feel like I made you more confused.”
Iris quickly shook her head.
Even so, Teresa’s advice helped her be sure of one thing: this necklace definitely held some kind of power.
Anything beyond that, even someone as experienced as Teresa couldn’t discern. With a gentle smile, Iris went on.
“No, it helped a lot. Um, sunbae-nim, if the necklace still hasn’t awakened after some time, may I ask for your help with Split-Body Summoning?”
“Of course. Come anytime. You can come straight after you meet your friend if you want.”
“Yes. I’ll be going now!”
Bowing deeply, Iris ran toward the garage.
She got in the beat-up car and punched Johannes’s address into the navigation.
With one hand on the wheel, she fidgeted with the necklace with the other.
She tried to remind herself to be patient until it awakened, but a sense of unease kept creeping up on her.
‘No matter how I think about it, it’s suspicious.’
If Abellus had done something to the necklace, it meant he’d either used a Skill on it or installed some kind of scientific device, but there was no way for her to check, and that was frustrating.
The chain of thoughts kept going round and round, making her head throb. Still, massaging her temples, she managed to drive.
Only after escaping from the biker gang’s pursuit and giving two petty thieves a thorough lesson did she arrive in front of Johannes’s house.
She parked in the outdoor lot and sat in the driver’s seat, letting out a long sigh.
Then, she reached behind her neck and fiddled with the clasp of the necklace.
Now that she was suspicious, the necklace was driving her mad.
She tried again and again to take it off, struggling until red marks appeared on her neck.
As she expected, no matter how hard she tried, it just wouldn’t come off.
‘Haa, this is driving me crazy. I’m an idiot for accepting it so easily. There’s no way a psychopath would just give me a gift. He’s a Villain, even.’
He had offered the necklace she tried to steal without a second thought, and she’d accepted it blindly.
As a true citizen of Gyodam City, Iris was usually quite suspicious, but the moment he offered her something she couldn’t normally get, her reason short-circuited.
If all this was just worry and the necklace was simply slow to awaken, that would be great, but the chances of that seemed slim.
Remembering the beaming smile on Abellus’s face as he saw her off only made her anxiety worse.
What if Teresa-sunbae really had sensed Abellus’s filthy intentions in the necklace? With how sharp Teresa-sunbae’s intuition was, that was entirely possible.
‘Could he have even installed a camera in this thing? That would be the absolute worst.’
A necklace she couldn’t remove, and no way to know what tricks might have been played on it.
The more possibilities she considered, the faster her heart raced with anxiety.
Iris glared at the necklace in the rearview mirror, then rummaged through her bag.
She pulled out a scarf and carefully wrapped it around her neck to completely hide the necklace. If there really was a camera, at least this would prevent a disaster.
‘He can make a teleporter—what can’t that guy do? Ugh, this is really driving me mad.’
The one silver lining was that she still had the Chastity Belt, which had always protected her in moments of crisis.
If Abellus had installed anything in the necklace that threatened her life, the Chastity Belt would surely save her as it always had.
With renewed resolve, Iris got out of the car, sighed, and looked up at the Apartment building.
‘I was planning to seduce Johannes today and steal his Skill no matter what, but with this necklace, I just can’t get in the mood. If it happens, it happens. If not, oh well.’
Just like how stress killed her appetite, she already felt hesitant, but now her resolve to go after Johannes seemed to evaporate completely.
She sighed, entered the Apartment, and took the elevator up to the 24th floor.
Ding—the elevator doors opened, and she forced herself to step out, even though she didn’t feel like it.
She double-checked the address on her phone, then pressed the bell for unit 2404.
After a moment, there was a clattering noise from inside, and the door opened.
Johannes, dressed in a hoodie and jeans, greeted her with a trembling voice.
“I-Iris, welcome.”
“Hi, Johanne… why are you… at home…?”
Iris’s gaze stopped on Johannes’s face as she looked up at him. He was wearing sunglasses. She narrowed her eyes at Johannes, and suddenly realized why.
‘Because of <Mind Reading>. Of course, Johannes doesn’t want to see my inner thoughts.’
She had always been uncertain about it, but now it was clear. He always avoided her gaze, so at first she thought he was just shy.
Later, as she got to know him, she figured he just found it hard to talk to girls. But for him to wear sunglasses at home, too—when Iris was the only one he’d invited over.
‘But why does he avoid reading my mind?’
Whenever he talked to drivers or others, he always met their eyes directly. As she thought back, the only time he avoided eye contact was when talking to Iris.
‘Or maybe… does he just have trouble looking women in the eye? I’ve never seen him talk to any women.’
There are guys who talk fine with other men but get flustered and can’t look women in the eye.
Johannes might just be that kind of guy. If so, it made sense why someone as outstanding as Johannes had nursed an unrequited love for so long.
It’s already hard for him to talk to women, so approaching the girl he liked must be even more difficult.
Just then, Johannes swung the door open wide and stepped aside.
“C-come in, Iris.”
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