After entering the gate, **Alice** suddenly transformed into a swimsuit.  
It was a sight even the seasoned A-rank awakeners, who had experienced all sorts of battles, had never seen before.

‘What is this? If it’s a gate that leads to the deep sea, it might make sense, but why is she wearing that in a land dungeon…?’  
‘Wow, the size. There are days in my life where I see something like this in person.’

The act of wearing a swimsuit in the gate itself was one thing,  
but that overwhelming physique was another.  
It was definitely something you wouldn’t see in Korea.

Even the veteran awakeners were left speechless.

“Are you really going to explore the gate in that outfit? **Alice**, the gate isn’t a playground…”  
“It’s because of my unique talent. I feel bad about borrowing **Yu-jin**’s outerwear after it got burned.”  
“…It’ll burn if you just wear it. You want to wear a swimsuit?”  
“Yeah! This one is heat-resistant!”

But the main character was nonchalant.

**Alice Littonwood**, an awakener specializing in fire magic.  
She had burned her clothes in front of **Yu-jin** twice so far.  

…This kind of embarrassing mistake will never happen again.  
If her clothes keep burning, she’ll just have to wear non-flammable ones!  
And so, ta-da! She came wearing a swimsuit!

**Alice** twirled around in her swimsuit, the body underneath swaying with her.  
The awakeners let out a mix of admiration and shock.

“Wow. Crazy. Look at that?”  
“It seems like she’s really struggling.”  
“……Cough! Wait! Even if it’s heat-resistant, a swimsuit will melt if exposed to high temperatures, right?”  
“True. There’s no way a swimsuit would be particularly fire-resistant.”

Of course, the people here were veterans.  
They quickly attacked the logical flaws.  
A swimsuit after your clothes burned? Isn’t that all the same?

But the battle-hardened **Alice** remained unbothered.

“I tried it out, and it didn’t burn.”

She countered with a blink, unfazed.

“Well, if that’s the case… but is it really necessary to wear a swimsuit? It looks quite unsuitable for battle.”  
“Captain is right. We have fire-resistant suits in **Cheonhwa**. If you’d like, I can lend one to you.”  
“Thick clothes won’t burn, but they’ll be hot. I’ll faint in no time.”

Why wouldn’t she wear thicker clothes?  
Her magic generates heat so intense it burns clothes.  
If she wore something thicker and shot it, she’d quickly get heatstroke.  
She couldn’t help it if she wanted to show her abilities.

The other awakeners understood.  
It was outlandish in many ways, but it’s because she’s a Westerner.  
Ah. Compared to us Easterners, her approach is completely different.  
It must be standard in the West to be like that.

“Above all, even though **Yu-jin** is my friend, he’s still a guy. I can’t be all sweaty in front of him, can I?”  
“Well, if that’s the case…”

…It feels a bit odd to think that being sweaty in front of a guy is embarrassing, but whatever.  
In the end, they failed to stop **Alice**’s rampage.

**Yu-jin**, who had been quietly cheering, grimaced.

‘Really? I’m supposed to explore the gate with **Alice** in a swimsuit? I can hardly contain my urges!?’ 

After kissing **Sia** yesterday,  
**Yu-jin** was currently under the effects of the side effects of '???', and he was just a vigorous young man.  

But now, his wife was in a swimsuit in front of him?  
Ah. I can’t handle this. Imagining the Chairman’s underwear is already too much.  

And it’s **Alice**. Unlike **Sia**, who gracefully let it slide, **Alice** had no clue about this kind of thing.  

What if I lost control in front of her?  
It would be inevitable to lower her affection for me. She’d definitely say, ‘Did you really see me with that kind of gaze? You pervert!’ and slap me.  
The bond I had built up as a companion would shatter completely.

I was already struggling with this, but now I had to endure.  
If I can’t hold it back, it’s game over…!!!

**Yu-jin** paled.  
He realized he had essentially been checkmated.

And the last player in this chaos,  
**Alice**, who had turned the A-rank awakeners upside down with just a swimsuit… 

‘I don’t know what happened between **Yu-jin** and **Sia** yesterday, but… I won’t lose to you, **Sia**!’  

She burned with determination.

She had the nerve to wear a swimsuit over her face.  
Regardless of what had happened between **Yu-jin** and **Sia**, she would make him forget it all.  
If it came to a physical fight, she was confident she’d win.

If **Sia** found out, she’d probably just laugh it off.

---

This exploration was also smooth.

Even though my trademark, hypnosis, was currently unusable…  
This was just a C-rank gate.  
With my stats increased by 1, I was now firmly in the upper-middle tier of C-rank.  
With just a katana, it was more than enough to break through.

“**Alice**! Over there, four **Muri**! Set them on fire before they shoot poison stingers, and I’ll deal the finishing blow.”  
“Yes! Haah!”

—Flame! Boom!!!

“Wow! We did it!”  
“…That was one hit.”

With **Alice**, whose firepower was already at the A-rank, standing firmly behind me,  
it was only natural for the monsters to fall like autumn leaves.

Thanks to that, we charged through the gate with unstoppable momentum.

“**Alice**, you’re amazing. At this rate, you’ll really become an S-rank….”

—Thump. Thud.

“**Yu-jin**, it’s all thanks to you protecting me! If I were alone, I would’ve been scared and couldn’t fight well, but with you in front of me, I’m not scared at all! As expected, **Solyipdan** comrade!”  
“……”

‘**Seol Ha-yeon**, **Seol Ha-yeon**, **Seol Ha-yeon**….’

While we were making rapid progress through the gate,  
on the other side, I was engaged in a life-and-death struggle.

If I lose control, it would be serious.  
But **Alice** kept clinging to me, and each time, I desperately dropped a strategic core into my mind.  
Thanks to that, I felt like I was about to go insane.  
At this rate, I might lose control in front of the Chairman. For real.

—Crack.

“Then let’s finish quickly, **Alice**!”  
“Hmm? **Yu-jin**, you seem to be in too much of a hurry.”  
“I want to finish quickly and go drink some **Solyip** with you!”  
“……!! Okay!”

I decided to push through, even if it was a bit reckless.  
Unlike my usual method of carefully strategizing against patterns,  
I decided to just charge in recklessly and engage in direct combat.

—Thud!!

“……!!!? Junior, are you okay?”  
“I’m solid, so I’m fine!!”  
“Oh. Unexpectedly tough.”

The effectiveness was clear.  
My clothes had become a bit tattered, but because of that, our speed of clearing the gate skyrocketed.  
We moved two to three times faster than before.

We reached the end of the gate in less than 20 minutes.

“Phew. Thank you for your hard work today.”  
“Good work!”  
“Thank you for your hard work, Junior and **Alice**.”

Finally, I high-fived **Alice** as I thought we were done.

The previously skeptical gazes of the seniors softened as well.  
They had realized that **Alice** hadn’t worn that outfit just to mess around.

—Murmurs.

“What were we talking about? Seeing her in person is even prettier!”  
“Look at her snow-white skin. Foreigners are different.”  
“Our lady isn’t small either…”

Wait. Instead of laughing, they were whispering among themselves.  
Is this discrimination against foreigners?

—Whispers.

“**Alice**. Sorry. They’re just acting this way because they’re not used to seeing a foreigner, but it’s definitely not any sort of racial discrimination.”  
“It’s fine~. It’s not about racism anyway… heh. If they’re already acting like this, it’d be troublesome.”  
“Hmm?”  
“There’s that~.”

I tried to comfort her, but she didn’t seem to care at all.  
Instead, she just smiled mysteriously.

The meaning of that smile wouldn’t be realized until we were transported to the gate.

“Now, let’s prepare for battle….”  
“Okay~.”

—Swoosh, swoosh.

“……**Alice**!!?”

After we arrived at the gate,  
she suddenly began stripping off her clothes.

And then,

“**Alice**! What are you doing

… huh, a swimsuit?”  
“**Yu-jin**, what do you think? Isn’t it cute?”  
“It’s pretty, but why suddenly a swimsuit…?”  
“I wore it to explore the gate!”  
“You’re going to explore the gate in that outfit?”  
“Yeah! Please take care of me!”

**Alice** declared that she would explore the gate in her bikini.