...
It was almost nine o'clock at night, and the delicious aroma of steak with onions and fresh rice filled Theo's dorm kitchen. Four figures were gathered around the dining table.
Theo sat at the head of the table, watching the scene with a satisfied smile. Next to him, Yeonha looked refreshed, but with a mischievous gleam in her eyes whenever she looked at him.
On the other side, Nayun was fighting sleep, exhausted from the battle and excessive use of mana, barely able to keep her eyes open, eating almost instinctively.
Cappie, after her marathon with the weasel and the punishment, rested her face in her hand, her cheeks still slightly flushed, not daring to look Theo in the eye.
The comfortable silence was broken by Theo, who decided it was the perfect moment for the announcement.
"Girls."
He began, capturing everyone's attention, even the sleepy Nayun.
"I have something to tell you. From today on, Cappie is one of your sisters, and now she is also my girlfriend."
The news fell on the table. Nayun, in her sleepy state, just blinked slowly and gave a tired smile.
Yeonha, on the other hand, dropped her cutlery with a soft thud and looked from a smiling Theo to a Cappie who instantly blushed and tried to hide behind her plate.
A sarcastic and amused smile appeared on Yeonha's lips.
"Wow."
She said, her voice dripping with irony.
"So, right after you fucked me until I passed out, you ran off to another girl? Your thirst is truly insatiable, my pudding... Tsk!"
Theo just shrugged, unperturbed by her playful words.
"Opportunities must be seized."
Nayun, finally processing the information, turned to Cappie with a genuine, albeit tired, smile.
"Congratulations, Cappie..."
She said, yawning.
"Welcome to the club. Now you'll see what it's like to stay up late..."
The double entendre made Cappie blush even more, while Yeonha let out a laugh.
"Okay, okay."
Theo said, interrupting the joke before Cappie melted with embarrassment in the chain.
"Since we're all family, I have a gift for you two, something I got earlier while you were sleeping."
After this relaxed moment, Theo held out his hand. With a slight glow, six perfect fruits, which seemed to emit a soft light, materialized in front of him. He then moved two, one in front of Nayun and one in front of Yeonha, while the rest continued to float.
"These are Peaches of Immortality. Whoever consumes them will enjoy an extremely long life..."
He announced calmly as he explained to them, detailing the effects of the peaches, without omitting anything.
The two girls, even Nayun, were completely awakened. They stared at the fruits, which looked like normal peaches.
"Immortality!? Can this really make us immortal?"
Yeonha murmured, her eyes wide in disbelief that this apple-sized fruit could do such a thing.
"Mm! Theo, you're not playing with us, right? To me, they just look like two normal boksunga's."
Nayun held the peach in her hand and asked with doubt in her green eyes.
It wasn't just her, Yeonha felt the same way. The fruits before their eyes looked nothing like the fruits of Eastern myths. Of course, that's disregarding the slight glow still on the fruits.
...
Note: 복숭아 (boksunga): This is the Korean term for peaches in general, used to describe any variety of peach....
...
"Sigh!"
Realizing that they still had doubts, he continued.
"Yes. You'll only know if it's true or not when you eat them. Not even I can say for sure."
It wasn't that he doubted the veracity of the peaches. It was just that he had already eaten one while preparing dinner, and the result, well, was nothing. There was no change in him after eating it. His existence was already at such an absurdly powerful level that the divine effects of the peach were like a drop of water in the ocean. To him, the fruit was nothing more than an ordinary peach, albeit a delicious one. He correctly assumed that for mortal humans like them, the effect would be cataclysmic.
His apparent uncertainty, however, had the opposite effect on the girls. If even Theo, who had introduced them to the item, admitted to a slight doubt, it made the situation more real and less like a fairy tale.
Yeonha and Nayun looked at each other. Their trust in Theo outweighed any skepticism. If he was offering it to them, there was a reason.
"Okay."
Yeonha said, being the first to make up her mind.
"If it means spending eternity with you, I'll even eat poison."
She took a big bite out of the peach.
Nayun, seeing Yeonha's reaction, no longer had any doubts.
"Hey! Don't start without me!"
She also bit into the peach in her hand, tearing off a large piece before starting to chew.
The two ate in silence, the only sound being their chewing. The taste was divine, far beyond any fruit they had ever tasted, but other than that, nothing seemed to happen.
In about a minute, they both finished eating the fruit. They looked at each other, then stared at Theo, their expressions clearly saying:
"See... nothing happened..."
Yeonha even raised an eyebrow, a smile beginning to form on her lips.
"So, my love, when do we start floating and glowing?"
Theo just smiled and took a sip of his water.
"Patience. This is not a moment of ascension to the higher world."
It was Nayun who noticed it first. She ran her hand through her hair, a common habit, but felt something strange.
"Huh?"
She muttered, pulling a strand. Her hair, which had previously reached her chin, now brushed her shoulders. And it continued to grow. Slowly but visibly, like a video in slow motion.
"My... my hair..."
Yeonha, seeing the scene, laughed.
"What? Are you turning into Rapunzel?"
She leaned forward to get a better look, resting her hand on the table for balance.
"Bzzzzt! Crack!!"
A loud sound of wood breaking echoed through the room. The section of the table where Yeonha leaned simply gave way, breaking the instant her hand touched the wood, arcs of purple electricity leaping from her fingers, shattering the table.
"What-?!"
"Whoosh!"
Before the plates, cutlery, and food could fall to the floor, Theo acted. With a subtle gesture, his telekinesis kicked in, stopping everything in midair. The items floated gently, as if in zero gravity.
"I... I didn't do that..."
"Ah! Ah! My hair won't stop growing!"
Nayun exclaimed, now panicking, as her hair was already past her shoulders. A huge emerald green aura exploded around her, so dense that it seemed liquid, making the air in the room heavy.
The two auras, Yeonha's electric purple and Nayun's overwhelming green, began to collide in the center of the room. The magical power released uncontrollably caused the furniture to shake and the lights to flicker.
At the same time, Yeonha's hair began to fly upward, and a crackling aura of purple magical power enveloped her. The two auras began to collide, causing the furniture to shake.
Their bodies were being remade from the inside out. The power being poured into them was so immense that it leaked out, manifesting in chaotic and uncontrollable ways.
"Theo! What's going on?!"
Yeonha asked, her voice a mixture of panic and amazement as she saw her own skin crackling in a way completely different from someone wearing an aura.
"I warned you."
He said, an amused smile on his face.
"Snap!"
With a snap of his fingers, the remains of the old table disappeared and a new, identical one materialized in its place. He put the food and dishes on it.
...