"Gretel, Ryse, what do you think of this house?" Late at night before bedtime, Rina asked for the opinions of this girl and boy.
"It's good. I like it," Gretel replied to his mother.
"I like it too. The food is delicious. The bathroom is spacious. There's lots of places to run and play." Ryse shared her impressions. She had wanted to live in a big house for a long time. Coming to stay here made her feel like a noble young lady in a large ancient estate. The only thing missing was that there were no servants here.
"Mother likes it too. Back then, there was great-grandfather, grandmother, father, uncles and aunts, and mother living with the older siblings. Back then, it wasn't quiet and lonely. There were hundreds of people sleeping in the east building, waking up early to go to the training hall. It was so lively."
"If mother likes it, then I like it even more. Can we stay in this house forever?" Gretel nestled his face, sleeping with his head on mother's lap. He loved inhaling the floral scent on his mother most of all. The soft lap and cool palms were like magnets keeping him from getting up. Rina used her hand to caress her son's face—except for personality, there was no part of him that resembled her.
"In one more month, mother has to go back to work. And you have to stay with father."
"He's not my father. He's not cool at all. His aura is weak."
"No matter what you say, Jinyo is your father. If mother isn't here, you must obey him."
"Yes," Gretel replied halfheartedly.
"And also, even though he may seem weak, he's actually very strong. Stop judging people's worth by smell. It'll only narrow your perspective." Rina spoke, teaching her son. She wasn't speaking casually. After briefly sparring with Jinyo, she knew this man was still a blade sheathed as always. His movements weren't like someone who had stopped holding a sword for ten years. He had never stopped training and had potential to surpass her someday.
"When we were young, I could barely beat him. Even now he's still strong. Give him time to prove himself, okay?"
"I don't see him as strong at all." Gretel pouted when having to talk about that man.
Gretel was born with a special nose that could smell excellently. Sensitive to planar, allowing him to distinguish the strength of living things by smell. The more violent the planar, the more intense the smell. He grew up in a military camp village full of strong men. Everyone was manly, brave, crazy, and had masculinity.
He had never met his father before, but he expected his own father would be tough. A man more formidable than other children's fathers. But the first impression he saw was an aura worse than a dog's. Street dogs had more aura than that man. His physique had no muscles. Slender like academics. Lacking confidence. Living in the middle of mountain forests. No money and unemployed too.
To accept such a terrible man as father—Gretel truly couldn't do it.
"But Ryse likes Brother Yo. Gentle, kind, and very handsome too." Ryse laughed, face red. Embarrassed at saying she liked someone. Her green eyes sparkled. Her impression was completely different from Gretel's. Jinyo appeared as a divine savior who rescued her. Took her to search for her mother. Back then, Jinyo didn't even know she was his daughter.
"Brother Yo is very handsome. No wonder my mama likes Brother Yo."
"Norn?" Rina asked curiously.
"Mama said she liked Ryse's father, that's how she was born. Brother Yo must like Ryse's mama too, and must like Mama Rina too." Ryse spoke innocent words.
"I see." Rina smiled faintly.
"Two-timing jerks, I hate them most. Don't see what's good about him at all." Gretel grumbled sulkily.
"Why doesn't Gretel like Brother Yo? The food is delicious. His face is nice. Don't see anything bad."
"I like manly masculine guys. Not interested in those with soft faces. You mothers' taste is terrible."
"Don't see what's terrible. The masculine guys Gretel likes are all mustachioed, scraggly bearded, and smell like sweat too. Brother Yo smells fragrant. Smells like Mama Rina. If Gretel doesn't believe it, go smell him."
"No way! I remember his smell better than Ryse already." Gretel turned his face away, refusing to make eye contact with his half-sister. Ryse puffed her cheeks, not understanding why her half-brother wouldn't understand the goodness of super handsome Brother Yo at all. It must be because Gretel hadn't seen Brother Yo's coolest side yet.
"What about Mama Rina? What do you like about Brother Yo?"
"Well... he's a good person, I guess."
"!!??" The children glanced at each other.
Really didn't understand mothers' taste at all.
The next day, after breakfast time, Rina was called by Jinyo to the training hall. The Southerncross estate had once been converted into a sword training hall. There were two large buildings chosen as training locations. Spacious enough for fifty people to practice swordsmanship. Combined, this estate had space for disciples to train under sunlight simultaneously—one hundred people. Not counting the mountain area behind the estate that was once used as a training location. Now only one building was being used.
Rina changed into long pants and a black sports bra. The moment she stepped in, she saw Jinyo busy with a notebook. There were things that shouldn't be in a training hall, like a projector. A blackboard with hundreds of sheets of paper attached. The tapping sound from finger typing.
"What are you doing?"
"Of course, preparing to teach." Jinyo adjusted his glasses, increasing nerd power by another 3000%. Rina stood with arms crossed silently, looking at the perfect body proportions. An inexplicable irritation arose in her heart. Waiting until he looked away from the open screen, Jinyo turned to see Rina with arms crossed confidently. He didn't know where to put his eyes. It seemed to be the first time Jinyo had seen with his own eyes that his childhood friend had grown completely different from seven years ago. Full breasts. Long, slender legs. Flat stomach looking beautiful unlike someone who had already had children. Those ruby-red eyes almost burning like fire seemed to be scorching him with their gaze. In Jinyo's eyes, it was an accusatory stare.
"How is it?"
"I-it's good. Preparation is done." Jinyo glanced away elsewhere. Rina would definitely kill him if he accidentally looked at her workout clothes too long.
"Sigh... you blockhead."
[Rina Erindel, your concubine. Disappointed in you - 10 affection points]
"!?" What now?
Forget it. I shouldn't expect anything from him. Rina thought to herself.
"Come on, tell me the plan to treat me."
"Yes. First, we need to know the basics." Jinyo opened the screen projecting onto the projector. Acting like he was tutoring a classroom of students. Until one month ago, he was still a tutor at a cram school. Preparing curriculum before teaching in advance was his work habit. There were textbooks everywhere and content that Jinyo had copied from the Nature Synthesis Technique manual.
"As you know, the more planar you have, to draw power to the maximum, the body must have more meridians to transmit power. The bare minimum is 64 lines and it will increase exponentially every time you cross a new boundary. Rina's current boundary is General. You have 256 meridians."
"So what?"
"In the manual I obtained, it says that in meridians there are power transmission points that are difficult to see. Take the number of meridians multiplied by 4, it equals the number of power transmission points. If you change the method of transmitting planar through power transmission points in undamaged meridians, it will make meridian recovery better. Efficiency and speed in using planar will also increase."
"Do you... know what you're saying? When using planar, you have to open all meridians. Who can control one line to work while another line stops? Besides, if you stop some lines and use others heavily, in the end the lines being used will be damaged from overuse anyway."
"I know. But if the knowledge in the manual is correct, transmitting planar through appropriate power transmission points won't make the power lines bear excessive burden. But will make the body stronger as well. I can now see every power transmission point and every one of Rina's meridians. I can teach you how to control power transmission perfectly." Jinyo adjusted his glasses slightly. He changed the image to anatomical structure downloaded from the internet for female humans with planar in the same boundary as Rina.
It showed small dots with numbers at more than 1024 positions.
"This is the number of power transmission points Rina needs to memorize."
"Interesting. By the time I memorize all of them, I'll probably already be healed."
"You don't need to memorize everything. Just memorize the parts Rina needs to use. For our Song of a Hundred Flowers technique, probably just 164 points is enough."
"That's still a lot."
"It's okay because I can help. I'll help massage the meridians to relax. Transmit planar directly into Rina's body. Rina just needs to memorize the positions of my planar flow. If this method works, it will help expel planar poison in the meridians. Will treat two other diseases simultaneously. One shot, three birds."
"Massage? Not bad." Rina was sore and tense in her muscles almost all the time. Working hard at least fourteen hours a day with no days off. If not for extraordinary circumstances giving her a month off, by now she'd probably be conquering battles somewhere. Being massaged to relax wasn't a bad thing.
No wonder Rina saw something unrelated to training and teaching, like a futon.
Rina lay sprawled face-down on the soft futon Jinyo placed in the middle of the training hall. Eyes that changed to blue saw every meridian. Every power transmission point. Damaged lines and planar poison clogging some meridians that couldn't be expelled by normal methods.
Jinyo had already downloaded and read medical journals related to meridians. Introducing another person's planar to intervene in another person's meridians was very dangerous. Because without experience and knowledge, there was a possibility of causing permanent damage to the other person's meridians. Even the latest new technology, they still didn't dare touch meridians. It was scarier than brain blood vessels being damaged because it could kill people easily.
Ancient language called it Fire Element Interference. Mistakes in energy circulation leading to self-destruction cycle.
If Jinyo made a mistake, he would be the one to cripple Rina. But with power from the system and accurate, detailed knowledge from the Nature Synthesis Technique manual, the chance that Rina would be injured... was almost zero.
Eye of the Sage. Jinyo drew out the power hidden in the Eye of the Sage skill to use at maximum level. A three-dimensional model appeared of meridians throughout Rina's body—256 lines, 1024 power points. He designated points he wanted Rina to transmit through. From the core to the organs that needed movement.
"I'm starting now." Jinyo's gaze changed. Concentration was gathered as one with the body. His hand slid, feeling the muscles that were nerve centers with meridians flowing through. Rina relaxed, waiting for him to begin. Until intense pink planar was injected directly into the meridians. Ruby eyes widened. Her brain went completely blank. Something foreign was trying to penetrate deeply into her body.
"Does it hurt?"
"It hurts... hurts a lot."
"Don't resist. Even if it hurts, you have to endure. The first time is like this."
"Ah... mm." Rina suppressed the pain. It hurt like Jinyo was trying to kill her. She couldn't remember anything except the feeling of tens of thousands of blades stabbing and biting everything in her blood vessels. The damaged meridians were scraped by small swords removing impurities and weak tissue.
Pink planar comparable to tens of thousands of microscopic-level small swords. Destroying some meridians but not causing severed damage. Required delicate planar control. Rina didn't know why Jinyo could control planar so well when he hadn't used planar for at least 13 years.
Jinyo began massaging and pressing points. Driving poisonous planar out of the power meridians. The pain gradually transformed. Rina's face flushed hot. The sharp planar Jinyo sent transformed into warm liquid. Cleansing, restoring inside the meridians. The pain was relieved, leaving only a strange feeling.
Another person's intense planar flowed in continuously. His warm fingers climbed, pressing nerves to relax muscles.
"Remember, Rina. Transmitting planar must start from this line." Jinyo maintained concentration on teaching without looking at the expression of the young woman whose body he was touching. Rina's body trembled. She didn't hear his voice at all. And Jinyo didn't hear her words either.
"Enough... enough already... enough." Rina breathed heavily. His planar reacted to her body. Whether it was because the planar had the same element or what, when both their powers merged, it was a strange feeling. Her body was so sensitive that she completely forgot the pain. Every nerve cell was singing and dancing as if a joyful festival had returned to visit.
Weak or old cells became lively again. Like being reversed back to being a child. Rina's brain went completely blank. She tried to suppress the strange feeling crying out every time his fingers caressed through various parts, even though there was thick fabric separating fingers and skin. But the feeling as if being stripped naked made her embarrassed enough to want to die hundreds of times.
Jinyo opened Rina's character window. He began seeing that changes were improving. He didn't even listen to her voice and began moving forward. Using the meridians and power transmission points of the young woman lying sprawled on the futon. She made strange sounds but received no attention. For him, the fact that Rina didn't get up and kick meant she allowed him to continue. Little did he know—not because she didn't resist, but Rina at this moment couldn't resist him at all.
She was like a human doll for Jinyo to play with enjoyably. All strength was drained out along with poisonous planar expelled through massage and pressure point therapy. Hot sweat poured, bathing her body. Temperature under clothing rose like an oven.
Couldn't understand at all. Both power transmission positions or muttering sounds when Jinyo discovered something new. He didn't even need to ask her because the system interface told him everything.
This man's worst habit was being so absorbed in something that he neglected his surroundings. Rina hated this habit of his. But she had to admit that when someone could focus this much, it was also respectable. But when he used that obsession on experimenting with her body, the heartbreak and pleasure mixed together made Rina almost lose her mind.
An old motorcycle drove in and parked at the Southerncross estate. A black-haired young woman with a face and eyes resembling Jinyo got off the vehicle. Her name was Naho Southerncross. She was his twin sister and the only family member remaining in his life.
She had gone out on business to another city and hurried home immediately when her brother informed her that the nephew and niece she had never met had been brought to the estate.
Good Lord help us! She had never met them before. This might be the last chance to meet her cute nieces and nephews. The next generation of Southerncross blood she had never dreamed of was at her home. Naho bought snacks and toys filling the vehicle. Just as she was walking to search for her brother, she heard strange sounds coming from inside the training hall.
"Enough already... you idiot... I'll kill you... mmm."
Naho's face turned beet red. She broke into a run from the estate entrance gate straight toward the source of the sound. Jumped and kicked through the entrance door that was tightly closed, breaking through into the training hall that had its light entrance sealed completely for privacy. The image Naho saw was her brother using his hands to massage a beautiful woman's body whose eyes were drifting dreamily. Jinyo's expression was very serious, without any lustful gleam.
His mind was pure. Without wicked thoughts. Only thoughts of helping and treating the patient.
But the patient was about to die from other causes.
"You crazy brother!!"
Hurry up, a flying kick to restore consciousness!
Naho jumped and kicked the legs of the person who was her real brother. Jinyo took his younger sister's foot full in the chest. The system window closed automatically. He rolled and tumbled against the wall.
"Cough... cough cough."
"Whatever you focus on, have some limits. This is why you can't find a wife in this lifetime."
"I need to... go to the bathroom first." Rina spoke in a voice as faint as a fly's. She tried to push herself up. But after just three steps, her knees buckled. Her legs had no strength left to walk further. The young woman's face was so flushed it was almost burning. This was the greatest humiliation in 27 years.
Must kill...
I must kill you!!
[Rina Erindel, your concubine. Fondness toward you + 50 relationship points]