## Chapter 681 – #137_Turning Point (6)
#681
1.
There is an absolute law in games.
As long as there is a winner, there must also be a loser.
It doesn’t matter how fierce and magnificent the process was.
Rosie was the winner, and Siwoo was the loser.
There were no more chances left to turn the game around.
There was no choice but to accept the result, even though he had done his best.
“…What do you want?”
He wasn’t too worried.
From the start, it was a game that began as a light wager.
There was a limit to what Rosie could demand from Siwoo, and she couldn’t force him to do anything unreasonable.
Even if Rosie pushed for an excessive demand, he could just break the game and refuse.
In that case, Rosie would get angry, and he would have to take a detour to rescue Manya and Malisha…
Well, what could he do?
Nominally, Siwoo was Linne’s disciple.
Rosie grinned and reset the position board.
“It was so much fun, but it’s a shame. If you had gone first, you would have won.”
Unexpectedly, Rosie gave Siwoo a sincere compliment.
He knew it wasn’t just the余裕 of a winner.
Indeed, Rosie was right.
Like chess and Go, all turn-based games are inherently advantageous to the first player unless there are separate balance adjustments.
The position board was no exception.
Due to the characteristics of the three-dimensional board structure and the variable of ‘runes,’ it wasn’t as overwhelmingly different as other board games, but statistically, the first player had a 0.2% advantage in win rate.
If Siwoo had gone first and entered the loop, Rosie would have run out of magic power first.
Then, he would have followed the same path as Siwoo’s defeat after the final blow.
In the end, the reason she was able to win by a very, very slight margin was thanks to the advantage of going first.
“My request is, well, increase my request to two.”
“That’s not allowed.”
“Why? You said you’d grant a request.”
“I’m not a grade schooler, do it properly.”
“Don’t get worked up.”
Rosie chuckled as if she hadn’t been serious, but he was still a little uneasy.
No matter what, just imagining what kind of request the unpredictable Rosie would make was a subtle stress.
Especially if it was a request to join in on tormenting the witch trapped inside, then taking a day off would be a waste of time.
“Okay, I’ve made a serious decision.”
Siwoo swallowed hard.
“Let’s play another round tomorrow. Okay?”
Rosie’s request was much less problematic than he had worried.
No, it was so lenient that it was a strange condition.
Wouldn’t something like this usually be suggested without making it a wager?
“…Is that really it?”
“It’s the first time I’ve had so much fun playing a game. Besides, my pride won’t allow me to win so uncomfortably and take the prize money.”
Was this a strategy to lure in a sucker?
In fact, Rosie had even guided Siwoo to pull out the ‘wager’ card while watching the game.
It was possible that she was giving him a small win and aiming for the next opportunity because she thought there was nothing more to squeeze out if he just ran away like this.
He had even thought this far, but he came to the conclusion that it was an overreach.
The previous game was also one where the outcome was not guaranteed.
There was no guarantee that Rosie would win next time either.
It seemed that she was genuinely not interested in anything other than playing another round.
She was a bizarre witch who was unpredictable in a different way from Linne.
“Well, I’m fine with that.”
It wasn’t bad for Siwoo.
It was also a gain that he wasn’t charged a price in a game he lost, regardless of whether he went first or second.
It was also a gain that he could try to target Manya and Malisha as prizes again.
“Do you want to review the game before you go?”
“I think it’ll be too late since it’s so late.”
“That’s true.”
Because they had spent almost 8 hours on one game, they didn’t have the time or energy to play two.
It was the first time he had realized that his head could get so hot from just playing a game.
Rosie saw him off to the front of the mansion after they left the playroom.
It seemed that Siwoo had pleased her quite a bit, as her grinning mouth showed how much she liked him.
Siwoo didn’t like her at all, though.
The skirmish on the position board was not enough to dilute her impression, which had been the worst.
If a psycho who enjoys torturing mothers and daughters felt friendly just because they were good at a game, that would be an abnormal standard.
“I had a good time today.”
“Ah. I forgot.”
As soon as Siwoo turned around, he heard Rosie’s sigh.
Was she perhaps going to change her request now, as befitting her eccentric personality?
“Come to think of it, I have prior engagements tomorrow and the day after. I guess we’ll have to see each other in three days?”
Her brain, which had been spinning so fast when she was playing on the position board, seemed to have a screw loose when she returned to reality.
It wasn’t really a problem.
“I don’t mind.”
“Okay, I’ll send you a letter, so come accordingly.”
That was really the end of the matter.
Siwoo turned his back on Rosie, who was waving her arms in greeting, and headed for Hyangwolru.
2.
Rosie’s mansion and Hyangwolru were really close.
He had only started walking leisurely for less than 5 minutes before he could enter the bamboo grove that led to Hyangwolru.
“Haa…”
Somehow, the closer he got, the heavier his steps became.
That was because he had used a mix of tantrums and coercion to get out in order to get permission to visit Rosie’s mansion.
He had made the plausible excuse that he wanted to expand his network, but at the same time, he had also made the absurd excuse that he wanted to taste Malisha and Manya.
Looking back, it was amazing that Linne had allowed it.
It wasn’t that he had no idea why.
When he had been captured just a few days ago, he had been beaten all day long, but after spending time with Linne, he had realized something.
“She’s surprisingly lenient.”
Linne valued the master-disciple relationship more than he thought, and because of that, she was very generous to Siwoo.
It felt like she was giving him a lot of favors just because he had become her disciple, even if temporarily.
Let’s think about it.
Even if she wanted to attach a monitor, she had given him an Alice worth a huge amount of money.
She looked at Shin Siwoo, who was acting like a complete hooligan, with a sour gaze, but she accepted most of his unreasonable demands.
At first, he thought it was because she recognized Siwoo’s existence as a ‘tool to become stronger.’
However, even considering that, Linne’s attitude towards Siwoo was unusual.
It was even easier to see when compared to Yebin, who had been captured several months ago.
The fact that she was trying to induce Siwoo’s magic amplification even at the cost of her own body, or that she beat him to the point of breaking his bones whenever they sparred, was unusual, but in the end, even Linne, who was rumored to be so unique, might not be completely free from the master-disciple relationship of the witch society.
It was just a hypothesis, though.
“You’re already here.”
As he was pondering this and that, he had already reached the entrance of Hyangwolru.
He hurried to Linne’s room to say that he had returned.
He even felt a sense of anticipation when he thought about how coldly Linne would glare at him this time.
Somehow, it felt like he was setting a new record.
“I’m back, Master.”
He could see from the shadow cast on the white paper door that she was sitting upright in the room.
Linne sat still without moving, even though he had greeted her.
“……”
Had she become completely disillusioned with him after he had acted so shamelessly?
Even the voice that usually answered his greetings didn’t return.
“I’ll take my leave.”
Just as Siwoo, who had been waiting for an answer for a while, was about to turn around.
Linne’s reply finally came back.
“Go to the tea room.”
“Huh?”
“Wait in the tea room.”
He hadn’t misheard.
The reason he was surprised and asked back was because the purpose of the tea room was fixed for the two of them.
After the daily sparring schedule was over, they would briefly wash in the hot spring and enter the tea room.
They would drink a cup of matcha that Linne had prepared and then have sex.
There were only two times when they had only drunk tea here.
In other words, if Linne sent Siwoo to the tea room at this time, it was natural to infer what would happen next.
“…Yes.”
He calmed his confused mind and headed to the tea room.
The surprise that had made him feel a little dazed changed to tension the moment he stepped on the secluded stepping stones that led to the tea room.
“What is it?”
Linne had clearly seen Siwoo’s relationship with Dorothy yesterday.
She had heard Dorothy’s cries like a cow and Siwoo’s violent behavior as he rode Dorothy.
It had already been confirmed that Linne, who seemed emotionless like a doll, actually felt a subtle shyness.
He thought that the show he had put on yesterday would be enough to make her hesitate for a while or even completely break her will.
When he had greeted her this morning, hadn’t she sent him a look that said she didn’t even want to associate with him?
It was hard to believe that she had overcome that displeasure in just a few hours.
“…Something’s up.”
As he entered the tea room, closed the door, and sat down, a mold-like anxiety began to sprout.
Then what was it?
What had happened?
The most reasonable guess was that Linne had seen through the secret that Siwoo had been trying so hard to keep.
That is, she had realized that magic amplification occurred as long as he ejaculated in front, not behind, without having to satisfy his tastes.
Perhaps he had been looking at Linne too carelessly.
Even Rosie Alujo, who seemed to have the words ‘unprepared’ and ‘careless’ written on her cheeks, had a level of brainpower that was beyond words, so would Linne be any different?
He wanted to sigh, but he held it in and sat up straight.
That was because he could feel Linne’s presence following right behind him.
-Click
“Drink.”
Three small bottles were placed next to Siwoo, who was sitting with his back to the door.
The potion with a strange pinkish hue was probably the stamina tonic that Yebin had made.
Linne’s hand reached for her waist.
She didn’t serve tea, and she didn’t say anything else.
That purposeful action seemed to Siwoo to be proof of his conviction.
The waist belt that came undone like a ribbon and the clothes that were quickly stripped off.
What was revealed under the soft moonlight and lighting was Linne’s naked body.
But now with pantyhose.
“……”
Pantyhose.
And 20 denier black stockings that subtly showed her skin.
And pantyhose on Linne, who he had never seen wearing anything other than traditional Japanese clothing.
Siwoo muttered without saying it out loud.
She didn’t notice.
“Prepare yourself.”
That’s right.
Linne hadn’t noticed at all.
