Johannes returned home and washed his body with cold water.
The steady stream poured over his lean muscles, honed through regular exercise, calming the chaos swirling in his mind.
And naturally, Iris’s radiant smile came to mind.
Of course, she wasn’t smiling directly at Johannes, but rather from a moment back in school when she had excitedly grinned after finding a rare character sticker in a bread she’d bought at the school store.
It must have been a few days before the first semester midterms in the second year of high school.
That night, lying on his bed, Johannes had imagined Iris smiling at him and had masturbated to the memory.
Recalling that, a firm stiffness began to rise within him.
It was time for the ritual he performed at least three times a week, like a habit.
After roughly drying his wet body, Johannes sat by his bed.
He glared at the wall, covered densely with pictures of Iris indistinguishable from the wallpaper, and fixed his gaze on the photo of her sitting on the schoolyard stairs in her uniform.
That would be today’s side dish.
Spreading his legs, he gripped his violently erect member and began to stroke it slowly.
“Hoo… Ugh, Iris… ah.”
Imagining Iris from their school days in vivid detail and layering a fictional story on top, the speed of his hand squeezing his shaft gradually increased.
Pressing the tip firmly to stimulate it, then squeezing downward repeatedly as if wringing juice from a fruit, a low moan escaped from between his lips.
He narrowed his grip tighter and slid his hand down the shaft, picturing his hot, constricted hand as Iris’s inner warmth.
Caressing the tip with his thumb, he applied pressure and pulled his hand down to the base in one go.
A sharp sensation spread through his lower abdomen, blood pumping faster.
Suppressed groans escaped from his lips in succession.
“Ah, haah…”
He imagined Iris smiling seductively at him, spreading her legs to receive him as she moaned, and his face flushed deeply.
His masturbation grew rougher, and his fantasy turned violent.
The image of Iris seducing him with gentle eyes vanished, replaced by scenes of her tear-streaked face begging desperately.
Ignoring her pleas, he pictured himself grabbing her hair and pounding into her violently.
The end was near.
Johannes sprang up and walked over to the wall, placing his hand against it.
Since every direction was covered with photos of Iris, a few steps in any direction would do.
He shook his member frantically and rubbed the head against Iris’s photo stuck on the wall.
For a moment, his vision whitened as intense pleasure ignited his peripheral nerves.
“Ugh!”
Semen erupted from the tip, splattering generously across the photo of Iris smiling.
The thick fluid trickled down with the force of gravity.
He stared down at the semen-smeared photo and kept stroking quickly until every drop was expelled.
After finishing, he tilted his head toward the ceiling, panting heavily.
His whole body tingled from the climax, and his head spun.
“Yeah, that was too fast. The perfect timing has to come… if not then…”
Johannes hated failure with a passion.
His deceased mother meeting his father and having him was a failure.
In his faint memories, his mother drank daily and hurled verbal abuse at young Johannes.
At the time, he was too young to understand the words but was terrified whenever she got angry, trembling uncontrollably.
“If only you hadn’t been born, my life would have been perfect! I should never have met that man from the start. Even if I had handed you off to him, I’m still a failed life. Once something breaks, even if you fix it, the scar remains. How could I have made such a mistake! One mistake ruined everything.”
Those words, repeated countless times, were etched deeply into Johannes’s mind.
Failure was a sin.
Eventually, he was passed to his father, and his trauma worsened because of him.
His father, Reyners, cared deeply about his reputation.
Throughout his growth, whenever Johannes received poor grades or teachers called for home counseling, Reyners punished him harshly for offhand remarks.
The scars on his back and legs remained to this day as proof of the cruelty.
Over time, Johannes learned how to avoid punishment.
Though he had no choice but to fulfill his given duties, he stopped trying new things.
That way, he wouldn’t fail and suffer.
If he didn’t challenge himself, he wouldn’t fail.
And if there was something he absolutely had to do, he would perform it flawlessly without a single mistake.
Reyners’s marriage was the same.
From Johannes’s perspective, his father’s married life was a total failure.
If he hadn’t made the mistake of meeting Johannes’s mother, he would be living harmoniously with his current wife.
Their relationship, already broken after accepting the illegitimate Johannes, fell apart completely after their children all died in an accident, leading to a de facto separation.
One of the most important relationships in life ruined by a single mistake.
“Hoo.”
Snapping back from his thoughts, he got up.
He tore the photo of Iris, now stained with semen, off the wall.
After removing the plastic cover, he placed the photo into a fresh one.
Then carefully stuck it back onto the wall.
His one and only love in life, his relationship with Iris, had to be handled with utmost care.
“…Did you enjoy yourself?”
Today, a subordinate who had been watching Iris reported that she had gone on a date with actor Laika at Rugang Park.
Johannes didn’t feel despair.
It was actually better this way.
It was preferable for her to experience other men and then part ways, rather than be disappointed after meeting him.
After meeting shallow and fickle men, she would realize that his love was deeper and more sacred than any other man in the world.
Her final destination would be him.
Absolutely.
‘Still, it makes me a bit uneasy…’
He firmly believed he would be Iris’s last man, but the uncertainty lingered.
If she ended up in a serious relationship with someone else, he would interfere by any means to make them break up.
But doing nothing now felt wrong.
After posting his worries on an internet community recently, he received various advice to create more contact points to win her favor.
One suggestion especially appealed to him.
Since she attended church, why not evangelize and become church friends?
Johannes debated and then called the Evangelism Division of the sect.
He wanted to create a natural connection with Iris.
“Yes, this is Johannes. I have a proposal regarding evangelism…”
***
“Ugh, what now? Another suspicious flyer in the mailbox…”
At the entrance mailbox of her one-room apartment building, Iris gathered the flyers and threw them into the paper recycling bin.
There were all kinds of advertisements—supermarket flyers, home appliance rental promos, and more.
Just as she was about to leave, her eyes caught an unfamiliar flyer in the recycling bin.
Picking it up and unfolding it, her brown eyes narrowed.
‘What is this? An Enrakakyo evangelism flyer? Damn it, they’ve extended their reach here too?’
Frowning as she read the flyer, she stuffed it into her pocket.
She wanted to meet one of the villains she had to deal with—the Enraka Sect Leader’s Son.
Ordinary people wouldn’t willingly walk into such a suspicious cult, but Iris was a Hero.
She had the duty to keep Gyodam City peaceful.
Having barely escaped Abellus’s Laboratory, a den of demons, she was now brimming with confidence.
‘Well, it’s not exactly a duty, but I guess I’ve become pretty serious about it. And if I don’t step up, this city will fall apart.’
Back at home, she placed the flyer on the dining table.
At first, her goal was just survival.
After becoming an adult, she had wished to move away from this place.
But now, as a Chastity Belt Hanger, she wanted to peacefully protect the city she’d grown attached to.
It was her own will.
Not just blindly carrying out missions because the Hero’s Status Window popped up.
There had to be a reason the Chastity Belt chose her.
Though it was a terribly ugly artifact, it was also, as Teresa said, an Infinite Cornucopia filled with limitless potential.
‘Those who wear the King’s Crown must bear its weight. Having gained such power, I can’t use it only for myself, can I?’
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