City ​​of Witches 547

Chapter 547 – #114_R’Lyeh Nukelavi (5)

#547

1.
While the crew rested, Siwoo continued his magic research even in his cabin, a time when R’lyeh would normally be asleep.
Alone in the theater, R’lyeh watched a movie playing.

The expression “playing” was appropriate because she wasn’t paying any attention to the movie.
It wasn’t because it wasn’t interesting.

Having spent over a decade alone in the submarine, R’lyeh, suffering from chronic boredom, had developed the ability to find even the most critically panned movies fascinating.

Now, however, a much bigger concern was closing her eyes and ears.

“He loves me… he loves me not… he loves me… he loves me not…”

With a serious look, R’lyeh snapped off the side branches of the coral she held, one by one.
If the last branch said “he loves me,” then he loved her; conversely, if it said “he loves me not,” then he didn’t.
It was a truly primitive form of divination, but R’lyeh meticulously and carefully broke off each branch.

“That can’t be…!”

R’lyeh’s eyes trembled as she held the last piece of coral.
She had done the coral divination three times.
Yet, all the results unequivocally pointed to “he loves me.”

“Am I, the Queen, in love!”

The bare coral was flung far away.
R’lyeh thrashed about on the sofa.

Until now, R’lyeh had been alone.
No matter how loyal the crew was, they were still just familiars.
It was difficult to have emotional exchanges or connections with them.

Therefore, she was excited when she first met Shin Siwoo.
She had thought she would be alone until she completed her trials, but now she had a new friend.

He listened well, gave good advice, and was handsome.
His personality was also well-rounded, and he went along with her somewhat unreasonable requests.
Where could she find a better friend?

“……”

However, after Shin Siwoo’s passionate confession, the feelings that had been slowly emerging, which she now faced today, were clearly too deep to be directed at a ‘friend.’

This emotion, which had suddenly appeared for the first time in her life, stirred R’lyeh.

The name of that feeling was probably love.
An emotion too complex to be contained and expressed in just two syllables.
If another syllable were added, making it ‘first love,’ it would become an even more difficult problem to handle.

“What should I do…”

Of course, like most first loves, the love R’lyeh felt for Siwoo was closer to being fresh and innocent than mature and profound.
Especially since Siwoo was the first man R’lyeh had ever met.
R’lyeh’s confusion also stemmed from that freshness.

The subtlety and depth of emotions are closely related to cognitive abilities.

For example, many men fantasize about entering a women’s bathhouse.
Some may have already fulfilled that fantasy, perhaps by following their mothers into one as children.

However, children rarely feel embarrassment or interest in a women’s bathhouse.
This is because their cognitive abilities regarding ‘sex’ have not yet fully developed.

R’lyeh’s situation was similar.

Without any awareness of male-female relationships, kissing, similar acts, and intercourse were not particularly shameful for R’lyeh.
But now, in the throes of emotional puberty, she felt like she would die of embarrassment just imagining kissing him.

She even wondered how she had shown him her naked body.
Deeply troubled, R’lyeh eventually left the theater with only her bottle of alcohol.

It wasn’t that R’lyeh didn’t know the concept of love itself.
Recently, she had even watched movies to learn how loving couples behaved.
The only problem was that watching others was completely different from experiencing it herself.

In the end, there was only one answer.

“I will not run away!”

She had to face it head-on.

2.
R’lyeh’s bewilderment wasn’t just because it was her first time experiencing love.
It was also because she had fallen in love first.

Who was R’lyeh Nukelavi?
She was the Queen of the Deep Sea, who had inherited the 23rd level of power from her teacher, Shalit Nukelavi, and ruled the vast ocean.

It was one thing if Shin Siwoo was blinded by love and begged for her affection, but R’lyeh’s high pride would not allow her to be the one in need.

-Tap tap-

Was it because it was late at night?
Or was it because it was the first time she had stepped into his cabin since that night?
Her heart was pounding.

R’lyeh opened the door to the cabin, where a faint light was seeping out.

She didn’t bother knocking.
She was the Queen, after all.

Faint wisps of cigarette smoke rose into the air.
Cigarettes were a great luxury in a typical submarine, but the Akula was different.
Thanks to the state-of-the-art ventilation system installed in the corridors and cabins, smoking was possible even in the rooms.

Shin Siwoo was engrossed in his magic research, a cigarette in his mouth, amidst the hazy smoke.
Not only did he spend all day in the trial room, but he also brought his studies to his bedroom.
What incredible passion.

He was so focused that he didn’t even realize R’lyeh had entered.
R’lyeh didn’t like that.

“Boo!”
“Aah!”

She smacked him on the back, and he turned around with a startled expression.
Feeling like everything was going according to plan, R’lyeh proudly exclaimed.

“I have come to visit your quarters in person, yet you show me no proper respect! You are a disloyal subject!”
“I apologize. I was concentrating and didn’t notice.”

But her confidence crumbled at his wry smile.
Her heart, which had been pounding earlier, was now racing, and she began to feel breathless.

Siwoo turned his chair to face R’lyeh, and R’lyeh sat on the desk that was built into the bed.

“What brings you here?”
“Am I not allowed to visit without a reason?”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“How much more do you have left after working all day?”
“I was just about to finish.”
“As you should.”

And then came the brain freeze.
She had come, but she didn’t know what to do or how to continue the conversation.
Actions that had once come naturally now seemed to stop and start like a broken machine.

“Isn’t it time for you to go to bed?”

Siwoo, oblivious to her inner turmoil, calmly asked as he tidied up the papers.
R’lyeh tried her best to reply as usual.

“I decide when I sleep and when I wake.”
“Ah…”
“What are you planning to do?”
“I was going to get some sleep for a couple of hours.”
“Hmm, so you are free. I happen to be free as well.”
“Would you like to watch a movie together?”

The moment she accepted his offer, something strange happened.
Her heels felt lighter than helium balloons, and she felt like she was floating.
A joy that made her want to smile brightly and nod her head was exploding like fireworks in the corner of her heart.

All from just! an offer to watch a movie!

“A movie is fine. But I want to do something else.”

Suppressing the urge to hum a tune, R’lyeh firmly set her mouth.

She hadn’t come to see him just to act like a lovesick fool, giggling at his every word.
Nor did she want to remain a weak girl swayed by love.

What was needed for that?
When a problem arose, it was right to trace it back to its origin.

The moment a problem arose in Siwoo and R’lyeh’s relationship was after sex.
The moment R’lyeh began to feel a strange flutter was also after she couldn’t say, ‘Let’s have sex!’ to him.

Therefore, the solution was to return to intercourse.

However, she didn’t want to be the one to say it first.
She firmly believed that if she could captivate him with her fatal charm and make him lose his reason like before, she could regain control and restore her dignity as queen.

With this resolve, R’lyeh felt a surge of confidence.

Shin Siwoo hadn’t changed.
There was no way he, who had been so infatuated with R’lyeh that he had lost his reason, could have broken free from that curse-like charm overnight.

So, the reason he was being so cautious was probably because R’lyeh had warned him about their forceful first experience, right?
That meant he was actually desperate too.

If she just coaxed him a little, he would surely fall for it.

“If you don’t like the movie… how about we finish the game of pool we couldn’t finish before?”
“I don’t like that either.”
“Hmm… then how about some alcohol?”
“I already drank some.”

Thus, R’lyeh narrowed down the options by rejecting everything.
Siwoo, who had been making suggestions, seemed to have finally guessed R’lyeh’s intentions and fell silent.

Not missing the opportunity, R’lyeh arrogantly raised her chin and elegantly crossed her white thighs.

“I want to do something else fun. With you.”

Siwoo couldn’t take his eyes off her smooth, exposed thighs, and R’lyeh’s confidence doubled at the sight.

She had laid out an obvious bait.
Of course, that didn’t mean the Queen would easily fall for a clumsy flirtation.

Now, beg! Succumb to your desires, swear your obedience, and kiss my feet!
Grovel and beg, ‘Please, R’lyeh, Your Majesty, let me hold you just once!’
Then, I will grant you a special, sweet night of dreams!

“Your Majesty.”

But R’lyeh, who had been so determined, felt her heart shrink again at just his one word.
Now, her heart was pounding as if it would jump out of her throat.

Surely he wouldn’t suddenly kiss her, would he?
Or would he attack her roughly like before?

But either way, if he tried anything like that, she would kick him away.
No, maybe she could allow a kiss?
No. If she did that, he might develop bad habits.
Didn’t she end up being swayed all day during their first experience?

She would thoroughly tame him this time.
R’lyeh’s heart, which had been burning like a furnace, turned as cold as a pool of liquid hydrogen at his next words.

“Then, shall we study magic together?”

Because she hadn’t imagined such a foolish answer in the slightest!
She hadn’t even imagined him covering her thighs with his coat!

But paradoxically, his overly absurd attitude gave R’lyeh a great realization.

That’s right.
She had a perfect hypothesis as to why Shin Siwoo was acting like that.

Shin Siwoo, who had been aggressively pursuing R’lyeh’s naked body like a beast in heat, had shown the tendencies of a conqueror.
And since that night, Shin Siwoo had been strangely distant with R’lyeh.

Wasn’t this a fierce battle for dominance between lovers, a so-called ‘push and pull’?
Wasn’t it possible that Shin Siwoo was thinking the same thing as R’lyeh and had started this battle to take control?

In other words, he was saying this:

Now, beg! Throw away your dignity as queen and beg for love in a pitiful voice like a mere woman!
Grovel and beg, ‘Please, Shin Siwoo, let me hold you just once!’
Then, I will grant you a night of dreams writhing in lust!

“Ha…”

A hollow laugh escaped her lips as she realized the truth.
Although the approach was different, he, a mere subject, had dared to challenge the Queen.
There was no doubt!

“I do not turn my back on a challenge. Shin Siwoo.”
“Yes?”
“I accept your challenge!”

Of course, she was almost completely wrong.