Fork-Flinging Fury and Magic Debates
Lee Hyun headed to the restaurant.
“Eek. So annoying…!”
“I-I’m fine now…!”
Seiren, still not over her anger, was aggressively stabbing at her food with her fork. She was just swinging it around without actually eating a thing, so the fork traced wild arcs in every direction. And oddly enough, it was Researcher Kim Sebin who was comforting her.
From my view, Seiren's irritation had a lot to do with hunger too. With other people in the restaurant, she couldn't take off her mask, so no eating for her. I should grab something for her to snack on later.
Anyway.
“This is just ridiculous.”
She'd been so against making friends back then... The money I shelled out for that...
I let out a small sigh and walked over. Our eyes met right then. She waved her hand frantically.
“Oppa! Where've you been? You just got here!”
She was fully committed to the big brother act. But honestly, it was a little absurd. Where have I been? Right here in the same damn space as you...
“What happened was...!”
As I sat down, she launched into a retelling of the earlier events. All stuff I already knew inside out, so zero thrill. What surprised me more was that Seiren really hadn't noticed I was there. Magic use was strictly banned inside the Magic Tower except in approved areas, so she probably skipped detection spells. But at her level—an archmage—couldn't she have snuck around the rules somehow?
I hit her with the question out of nowhere, and...
“Well, I could if I tried, but... why bother? Oppa said we have to follow the rules. That's how the weak get at least some basic human rights, right?”
Did I say that? Kinda rings a bell. I usually drop these half-assed life lessons on Seiren when society's kicked me in the nuts and I'm extra grumpy. Talk of the weak and rights? Yeah, she must've been getting rolled hard in her party back then too.
While Seiren chattered on, one person looked especially uneasy: her inaugural friend, Researcher Kim Sebin. I glanced her way, and our eyes met. I said casually,
“Don't sweat it.”
“Pardon? Oh, yes?”
“You're way better than those clowns, aren't you?”
Winning Seiren's interest alone proved her superiority. It hit close to home—my old self, screwed over with zero backup—so yeah, out of character, but I said it.
“Ah... Y-yes. Th-thank you.”
“Right! Sebin's the superior one!”
“What's a Magic Tower researcher matter if your soul's rotten inside.”
“How do they spew that vile crap without a shred of guilt... I just don't get it.”
Seiren and I spent a good while ripping into those researchers. Meant to pump up Kim Sebin's confidence, but her mood didn't lift much. If anything, she hung her head lower...
Well, words from strangers don't hit deep.
We wrapped up our meal and parted ways with Researcher Kim Sebin. Time to clock in as evaluators.
“Take care—we'll visit sometime,” we said our goodbyes, about to split,
“Um, excuse me!”
“Hm?”
“Th-thank you. Seiren. And b-bro... big bro too...”
“No biggie. We meant it... Aigoo.”
“For real! Thank you so much!”
Sebin bowed deeply, on the verge of tears. Seiren patted her back for ages.
“Then, let's begin.”
A pride-staked showdown between theoretical mages and battle mages. Absurd to think the judges for this clash of famed magic factions would be anything less than elite.
Association Chair Park Hyeong-seop.
Korea's sole archmage, Lee Sun.
Academy Magic Department head professor, Baek Ye-rim.
And streamer, Magical Girl Seiren.
Something odd tacked on at the end there, but as an official evaluator, equal footing!
With these heavyweights boasting stellar credentials—and one stunningly gorgeous addition—as the panel, the theoretical mages kicked off their presentation.
“The crux of the problem is this: When a magic combat puppet, trained on a large-scale language model, suffers mana rampage from hallucinations under these conditions, identify the cause and propose ways to boost stability.”
The explanation flowed without a hitch, and lo and behold, just like Seiren said that morning, there were three answers.
“...That's it. Questions?”
“Me first.”
Park Hyeong-seop raised his hand. Lee Sun followed, then the professor chimed in one by one.
Eyes naturally turned to Seiren. She pondered a moment, then shook her head.
“None from me. Brilliant breakdown!”
“Thank you.”
The battle mages conceded it was spot-on, so things wrapped quicker than expected.
Heading out of the presentation room toward the Magic Tower lodging, the donations blew up.
“That's plenty of correct answers, right? No need to crush the researchers' morale with extra questions!”
Well, fair enough... but I had my suspicions it was just a topic she didn't care about.
“Hmm, not hard to share, but... I'm wiped today...”
Seiren said, swaying dramatically.
“Aigoo! That's plenty! Even small donations let me feel all your love for me~”
“Alright, here's the explanation~”
Seiren plopped down in the first-floor lobby and explained the rest. Well, not all—just one of the three.
“Tired~”
“One more explanation~”
Second answer wrapped.
“Sleeeepy.”
Seiren's eyes went glassy in seconds as she tapped her lips. But no quick donations this time.
Long yapfest plus late hour—viewers bailing hard. No sign of big whale Mi-sik-ga. And magic breakdowns? Normies can't parse that shit.
Seiren shot me a should I just spill? look when...
“I'll toss in if I feel like it. Mind a quick chat?”
“Huh.”
Archmage Lee Sun spoke up.
Lee Sun spotting Seiren mid-collection in the lobby? No accident.
She'd researched Seiren before arriving at the Magic Tower. The one who'd driven the theoretical mages and battle mages' cold war to rock bottom, right? Curiosity piqued, she dug in. No ulterior motives.
Not one to buy into gossip like “Magic Tower bred = this side” or “field-tested = that side”—Seiren was charging into greatness territory. Pure intrigue. Then she caught the villain smackdown stream and was floored. Knowledge, flow, logic, creativity, adaptation, application—beyond expectations.
Who is she?
Seiren obsession unlocked. Archmage instincts screamed: she'd vaulted past mortal limits, maybe even sharing Lee Sun's vantage.
But mage discipline—no rushing to judgment. See for herself, joined the eval panel, faked coffee-sipping in the lobby to eavesdrop on the stream, conviction sealed.
Thus, chat requested.
Viewers lost their shit, naturally.
“Live long enough, and I get this close to Lee Sun.”
Zero chance back in my porter days. Seiren's the real deal, hit me anew.
But I bounced. Lee Sun wanted one-on-one with Seiren.
Viewers raged at me for killing the two-shot, but I was beat too.
Ignored 'em and killed the stream.
Waiting in the lobby, a crew lumbered up from across the way.
“What're those cripples cooking up?”
“Just more theory only they get. But fine—we've leveled up...!”
Mage physiques? More like knights. Buff pigs hefting hundreds of kilos of magic combat puppets like travel mugs.
Battle mages. Tomorrow: theoretical mages' problem. Nail a 1:1? Seiren's puzzle decides the tiebreaker.
Pre-battle knight vibes, menacing as hell. But spotting archmage Lee Sun? Instant politeness.
“Senior. Good evening?”
“Yeah, tough work. Beat? Head up and crash.”
Lee Sun waved 'em off mid-chat with Seiren, so they slunk away awkwardly.
Battle mages swapped glances, starting to move when...
“So Seiren-ssi, you're saying no bottleneck from LLM calc speed versus puppet firing delay?”
“Nah, in my book, bottleneck's guaranteed. But hey... just a problem, right? Get too real, you'd rip the design apart from scratch... No need tho?”
“Mind if we join?”
Their puppet talk pulled the battle mages in—they ringed Seiren and Lee Sun.
Bombarded with questions. Seiren looked drained but fielded 'em one by one.
Shot me SOS glances now and then, but I just shrugged.
Sorry, Seiren... You're my world, but wedging into that? I'm chum.
Seiren pouted hard, but eh, what're ya gonna do.
I nursed vending machine coffee, biding time till the debate wrapped.
“Juniors, head up first.”
Smelling a marathon, some battle mages ordered the underlings.
Younger ones hauled the bosses' gear too.
Thud-thud-!
Every step shook the floor... but not scary.
Classic hazing-victim grump faces.
All the luggage? Bodily strain city.
“Ugh!”
Then—a bracelet slipped off the wrist of a battle mage lugging five puppets, rolled right to me.
Snagged somewhere, clasp popped.
No one else free to help. Peers swamped with their own loads.
“...”
And eyes locked. Ignoring now? Kinda dick move.
Scooped it up, headed over.
“Here.”
“S-sorry, but...!”
“Yeah, got it.”
Arms and back piled with puppets? Obvious ask. Clasped the bracelet on her wrist.
“Ow, stings.”
“...”
Post-clasp, sweat had her eyes glued shut—wiped it off.
“Thank you!”
“Y-yeah.”
Sweat wipe overkill? Dawned on me mid-motion... Habits are terrifying—hands just went.
Porter grind backing hunters for years, lately doting on Seiren—etched bone-deep.
Oh well. Done is done.
“Seriously, thank you!”
“Yeah. Hang in there.”
Minor good deed, but huge win for her—endless thanks before she bounced.
Did a solid, weirdly proud glow. Turned to go when...
“What the hell was that?”
And there was pissed-off Seiren.