Three Hours of Comfort
"Ugh… that little old lady just showed up out of nowhere…."
Cho Seohyun muttered under her breath as she headed back toward the dormitory.
She had woken that morning already waiting for Sung Suho to appear. When he wouldn't answer her messages, she had even gone looking for him at his own dorm. Only in the evening had she finally managed to see him, and only after hearing his explanation had she scraped together the chance to share a meal.
Sitting across from him, she had realized something simple and almost startling: just eating with someone she liked was enough to fill her with energy.
And for a finishing touch, she had meant to slip a promise into that warmth — something sweet to hold onto. Then Ye-riel had appeared, and Seohyun never got the words about her birthday past her lips.
Haah… come to think of it. The field trip ends on Sunday, and my birthday is Saturday….
She hadn't been hoping to spend the entire day together. But she had wanted to go out, to talk somewhere that wasn't here — using their previous promise as an excuse. Missing the timing only made the urgency worse.
Damn it… if I'd just said it sooner, it wouldn't have looked so weird.
She had agonized over whether to tell him long before the field trip even began. The more she hesitated, the closer the day drew, and the heavier the pressure became. The result was the worst possible outcome: she hadn't managed a single word about meeting up — or even about her birthday at all.
By the time she reached her dorm, every scrap of vitality she had gained from being with Suho was gone. She collapsed onto her bed, drained — and that was when another face drifted into her mind.
Kang-hyun hasn't answered at all….
She already knew he barely read his messages and almost never replied. Staring at her smartwatch, she let out a long sigh.
"What is this… Does everyone just not want to be around me?"
Self-reproach settled over her before she could stop it. Even someone who had spent her life chasing the ideal of standing alone against a thousand felt the cold when no one was near — a loneliness that ached down to the bone.
She pushed up the long sleeve of her shirt and looked at the countless scars running along her arm.
"…Yeah. Anyone who saw these would freak out and run."
Guilt, gloom, and a quiet sorrow closed in around her. The reason she had kept men at a distance all this time was fear — fear that she might actually come to like someone. The thought of showing scars like these to a person she loved was something she could not even bear to imagine.
Staring at the marks on her forearm, she whispered through trembling lips:
"You should've just killed me…."
Tears welled and began to spill — and then her watch chimed.
Beep-beep-beep….
"…Huh?"
Through blurred vision she could just make out the screen lighting up on her wrist. Someone was calling. She wiped her eyes with her other sleeve before she could read the name.
Carefully, she answered.
"…Hello?"
("Instructor Cho Seohyun?")
"Kh— yes. It's me."
The moment she heard his voice, a smile broke across her face without permission, soft and foolish. But her mood and her throat were two different things; the tears from moments ago still roughened her voice. He caught it immediately.
("Is something wrong? Were you… crying?")
"Ah— no! Who's crying?! I, I stubbed my toe on a shelf, that's all!"
("…Isn't that still crying?")
"Hmph! What do you want? Just say it…."
She grumbled with a sulky face, but she pressed the watch closer to her ear and waited for whatever came next. Silence stretched just long enough to make her restless — then his calm voice came through.
("I called because I was bored. Like you said before.")
"H-heh…."
("…?")
"Ahem! Well… if you're bored, I guess there's nothing for it!"
After a brief, awkward start, the dam broke. Once Seohyun got going, there was no stopping her. She recounted every single thing that had happened over the past week, neat and complete, and laughter bloomed between them. The main highlight: how thoroughly she had worked the lazy cadets into the ground.
By the time every story had been told, three hours had already slipped away.
"Ah… look at the time. Sorry. I kept you too long, didn't I?"
("Hmm? Not at all. I enjoyed it.")
"…."
Seohyun closed her eyes and smiled without end. There was something she wanted to say — something sitting right in the middle of her chest — but she could not turn it into words.
I never understood kids who liked this kind of thing….
She set her face with something like resolve, pushed her trembling lips forward as far as they would go, and opened them.
"Th… th…."
"…?"
"Th-then… good night."
"Yes. You sleep well too, Instructor Cho. Then…."
Click.
Seohyun looked from the call record glowing on her smartwatch to the scars on her arm, and murmured:
"This is enough…. If we get any closer, he'll just leave."
Clutching the watch tight in her hand, she fell asleep.
"That over there is the Ivory Tower — the headquarters of the Mage Tower."
"Whoa!!"
For the record, that "Whoa!!" included me.
The Ivory Tower. The name alone made you expect something antique and gothic, a fortress of old stone. It was nothing of the kind. Modern glass walls blended with white façades. The peak of the tower looked ready to pierce the sky, and the first floor anchoring that height sprawled as wide as a major public park. This was not the kind of building you could walk past and pretend not to notice.
I was still leaning out of the car, staring up in open admiration, when Seong Sua beside me gave a little laugh and tapped my arm.
"First time seeing it?"
"Yes. First time seeing it like this."
The cadets were making their own sounds of wonder, but none of them quite matched mine. They had already seen plenty of it on television and online. For me, it was genuinely new.
The Church has a huge campus and plenty of places I still haven't seen, but facility-wise, the Tower looks more impressive at a glance.
If I ever toured the entire Church grounds, I might revise that opinion. For now, my eyes gave the win to the Tower.
Following Sua's lead, we were assigned our rooms, then trailed after her with the cadets as she began the facility tour.
"Once you're formally inducted into the Tower, each of you will receive your own room and a private laboratory."
Private quarters and a lab — and as your results improved, you climbed higher in the Tower and received better facilities still. The Church was similar, of course, but a mage's treatment was almost certainly better here.
The cadets followed Sua with picnic-day grins, chattering and bright. I was part of that picnic atmosphere myself. A field trip with Instructor Seong Sua.
And yet, among all of us, only one person walked with a calm face and composed steps.
At that age, you'd expect a little more bounce….
[With parents that famous, she's probably been to places like this often enough.]
Fair point… Seo Juho? He really was a legend.
After finishing the call with Cho Seohyun, I had looked up everything I could on Seo Juho. Even among heroes, he was the kind of man other heroes held up as an ideal — wealthy, gifted at management, and overwhelmingly strong in his own right. His wife, too, had been renowned both for her skill as a hero and for her devotion as a partner.
But….
Father dead, mother a vegetable in a hospital bed…. Pitiful.
Seo Juho had gone missing while saving lives. His wife had collapsed years ago without warning and never woken. A child who seemed to have everything — and had lost everything. On top of that, she couldn't even control her own power. Rumors said her unstable psyche was letting the ability run wild.
The Tower had offered aggressive treatment. The Seo family had refused, flat and final. And according to what I could find, the man currently running the household on an interim basis was none other than Lee Sehyeong — Gi Cheolho.
In other words, the refusal hadn't come from Seo Jieun. It had come from him.
…That butler has something going on.
Seo Juho dies. His wife keeps the group afloat — then suddenly becomes a vegetable. People assumed she had driven herself into the ground under the psychological weight of her husband's death. I thought otherwise.
If I hadn't seen his disposition, I would've bought it too.
Gi Cheolho. Suspecting him didn't solve anything, but having a strange man circling one of the cadets under my care was enough to set my nerves on edge. Searching under the name Lee Sehyeong turned up a highly capable figure, described as a pillar of the Seo family. Whether Seo Jieun herself knew that the man at her side was wearing a mask was another question entirely.
I had been staring at her a little too hard when she slowly turned her head and looked back at me.
"…."
"…."
I awkwardly looked away and forced a smile.
"Wow…. The Ivory Tower is incredible."
"…."
What? It is incredible, isn't it?
Thinking that, I fell back into step behind Seong Sua.
After sending every cadet to their rooms, I went to the one assigned to me and dropped straight onto the bed.
"First day really is the easy one."
The magic-division field trip was no different from the Church's on day one: walk the grounds, show the cadets every facility you can, and explain what the place actually is. In overall public amenities, the Church won handily. But the Ivory Tower, with its absurd height, was built around laboratories and private rooms. If your priority was your own skill and growth, coming here might be the smarter choice.
Still, a thick wall stood between the Church and the Tower, and plenty of magic-division cadets still wanted the Church. Treatment mattered — but so did the influence of the organization you belonged to.
One thing working in the Tower's favor this time: every single magic-division cadet had come on this tour. Word that the Wise Stars themselves would be present had the students clamoring to visit. On top of that, after the incident at the Church, the Hero Academy had quietly left the Church off this particular itinerary. There had probably been some negotiation behind the scenes — but I had no way of knowing the details, and more importantly, I was in no position to care about Church or Academy politics.
Annoying. Of all people, that woman ends up in the same group as me….
[You should be careful. Given her knack for seeing through people, she may already have her suspicions.]
Each Wise Star had been assigned one magic class to supervise. Ye-riel had drawn Magic Class Seven — the one Sua and I were handling. I had already wanted to keep my distance; once those suspicious eyes locked onto me, slipping free became nearly impossible.
As long as she doesn't find out I'm with the Aberrants….
[You're still human, Suho. Watch your tongue and there's little risk of exposure.]
That raised a question I hadn't considered until now.
But if I do get found out — is the mission just over?
The original objective was to shatter Cho Kang-hyun's mental state so thoroughly he could no longer play the protagonist. I hadn't so much as glimpsed his face — not even a single hair. If my affiliation with an Aberrant organization came out here, that would effectively be the end, wouldn't it?
[If reaching the final objective is judged impossible, abandoning the mission is also an option.]
In other words: if I got exposed, or if breaking Cho Kang-hyun became impossible, better to cut losses early. There were plenty of missions, and one mistake of mine wasn't going to flip this world upside down.
…Still. I want to see this through.
I had already grown far too attached to two women, and walking away mid-game wasn't my style.
I was thinking of Seong Sua and Cho Seohyun when the doorbell rang.
Ding-dong!
"Hm? Who is it?"
Half-expecting Ye-riel, I opened the door on edge.
Standing there was—
"Do you have a moment?"
Seong Sua, smiling at me.
"It felt so lively earlier, but it's quiet at night."
"At this hour most people are buried in their research. They don't tend to wander around."
Sua led me through parts of the Ivory Tower she hadn't shown the cadets, talking as we walked. It felt as if the two of us were alone inside a vast castle. But the longer we walked, the more a question pressed at me.
Did she really just call me out for a conversation?
She guided me onward, and it became clear that wherever we were headed was no ordinary place.
…How many doors is this now?
[Judging by the security procedures we're clearing, this is not a casual destination.]
Identity check with a guard. Card key past the next door. Passcode beyond that. Iris scan after that…. At the final door, Sua turned to me.
"Sorry for dragging you out in the middle of the night."
"Not at all. But where is this?"
"Heh… I'll show you."
She opened the last door and let me see inside.
Within—
"Capsules?"
VR capsules.