Chapter 16: Withdrawal (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16: Withdrawal (2)
“Bear my child!”
That line was no longer the exclusive domain of men.
I had come to learn just how terrifying women were when they sincerely shouted, "I'll bear your child!" even more so than the men who pleaded the reverse.
Just when I thought I was about to have my seed stolen, trapped in the inescapable net of women genuinely trying to court me, a saving hand reached out.
“Green tea? Coffee? What would you like?”
“I’ll have juice.”
“Here you go.”
It was plain water.
“...”
“Just drink it, will you?”
“Yes.”
So mean.
Shin Yehwa. For a professor, she was young—in her mid-thirties—and famous among the male students for her always form-fitting fashion.
She had the kind of face and body that made any man meeting her for the first time think, "With looks like that, why is she a professor? She should be a model." It was an unwritten rule.
In short, she was an upgraded version of the top-tier teaching assistants in Korea.
Of course, she wasn't on Iris's level.
Honestly, Iris was so far beyond the norm that even daring to compare another woman to her was an insult.
That said, there was no denying that Professor Shin Yehwa was on another level, beyond typical East Asian standards.
“Hmm, Hyun-woo. Are you planning to withdraw?”
“Yes.”
“The reason is admission to the Magic Tower? Have you become a mage?”
“That’s right.”
Shin Yehwa's reaction was quite different from the others in the office earlier.
She didn't seem particularly surprised.
Well, it's not her problem, so it'd be weird for her to be shocked by every little thing. And it's a bit much for a professor to be trying to seduce a student just to get married.
Still, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
Despite the trouble in the office, a part of me had enjoyed it.
“Could you perhaps tell me who taught you magic?”
“Is that question part of the withdrawal process?”
“Can't we just say it's a question born of personal curiosity?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Professor Shin Yehwa uncrossed her legs and re-crossed them the other way.
Very slowly.
Thanks to that, I got a leisurely view of her fancy underwear between her tight pencil skirt and the black stockings covering her legs.
“Hm? Is it difficult to tell me?”
“...A little?”
The moment I finished, she uncrossed and re-crossed her legs again. Her intentions were so obvious it was almost absurd.
“Hmm? What is it? Is there something on my leg?”
“...No.”
There's a limit to how shameless you can be. She was blatantly showing her panties to her own student—even if I was about to withdraw—and then acting like that.
However.
Times like this, the black stockings just get in the way.
I personally like black stockings, but it's a different story when they're subtly hiding the underwear like this.
It was clearly black lingerie, but the stockings made it hard to see.
Professor Shin Yehwa seemed to know it too, as a faint smile played on her face. I felt like I was being toyed with.
“I didn't realize you were the tight-lipped type.”
“I get that from time to time.”
I'd told the Magic Tower without much hesitation, but that was because I wanted something from them.
But with Professor Shin Yehwa, I had nothing to gain and no reason to impress her.
Besides, she kept acting like she was going to show me everything but never actually did. Why would I give her a straight answer for being such a tease?
“As you know, Professor, I've been accepted into the Magic Tower, so I can't keep attending university. Honestly, isn't this interview just a formality?”
“That depends on the person, doesn't it?”
Professor Shin Yehwa shrugged.
“There are students like you, for whom it would be strange not to withdraw. But there are also students for whom withdrawing is just the end result of aimless wandering. Even if the title of 'academic advisor' in Korea is little more than a hollow formality, shouldn't we stop immature students from willingly making their lives harder?”
It was a sound argument.
Spoken like a true professor.
“I'm self-taught.”
“Hm?”
“You asked who my magic teacher was. I learned on my own.”
Judging by her attitude, it was clear she wasn't going to just spread her legs for me no matter how long I dragged this out. It was better to go home and focus on my magic training than to waste any more time here.
“...Self-taught?”
“I'll be going now. I'm a busy man.”
I placed the withdrawal form on her desk and stood up.
“I'll have to ask you to submit the form for me. You owe me that much for satisfying your curiosity, right?”
Click. With that, I left the professor's office.
*
Like the Magic Tower, Hankuk University was on break.
Of course, unlike the Magic Tower, not every student left campus for the break.
Many students came to school for summer classes or club activities.
It was a relative number, of course. Compared to the regular semester, the campus was inevitably sparse.
“It's quiet.”
The plaza and streets, usually bustling with students, were deserted.
Walking down the unusually quiet streets on this peaceful afternoon, my mind grew cluttered with various thoughts.
Mostly about magic.
My magic.
Iris's lesson suddenly came to mind.
-Elemental, Conceptual, Alchemy, Spirit, and Summoning. Mages don't study magic based on their interests. Their path is determined solely by their talent.
A simple experiment had revealed my aptitudes: Elemental and Summoning.
Iris had congratulated me, saying I was blessed with talent, as most people only have an aptitude for one type of magic.
For reference, Iris was a Triple Mage with aptitudes for Elemental, Alchemy, and Spirit magic.
“Right now, I can only use fire and lightning... The others don't work well.”
A fairly hot flame flickered in my left hand, and sparks crackled in my right.
Among Elementalists, mages who could handle two or more elements were rare.
In that respect, the fact that a mere 1st Circle mage like me could use both fire and lightning from the start was proof that my talent was absurdly overpowered.
“I'm not sure about Summoning. Can I summon something like a familiar?”
Iris was a layman when it came to Summoning, so it seemed I'd have to learn about that at the Magic Tower.
While I was busy designing magic in my mind's eye...
“Oh, look who it is.”
“?”
A voice from nearby brought me back to my senses.
It was a familiar face.
The punchable face, the way he walked around with a girl on each arm.
It was Jeon Hyeseong, a guy from my department.
...Fucking hell.
My mind had been cluttered with thoughts of magic, but I hadn't been in a bad mood.
But the moment I saw that bastard's face, my mood soured.
“Kang Hyun-woo, you taking summer classes too?”
Jeon Hyeseong. He was what you'd call a "golden spoon" [born rich].
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he came to college to meet women, not to get a degree.
He looked like a host from a bar and was popular with the girls in our department.
But I hated him. Not just disliked him—I fucking hated him.
When I first enrolled, there were only ten men in the Gate Support Department, including Jeon Hyeseong and me.
We naturally got close and even resolved to have a good college experience together.
But that bastard Jeon Hyeseong was the worst of the worst.
Maybe he took after his father, a corrupt assemblyman who loved taking bribes more than his three meals a day, because he was always playing politics among the few guys we had.
Especially not long after the semester started, he would constantly bad-mouth one of our classmates who was particularly short and small.
A few of us, myself included, didn't like it, but he was a big spender who always paid for drinks and meals, and he was on good terms with the girls. So he was always the one playing politics, never the one being played.
After that, he continued to make a mockery of any guy he didn't like by publicly shaming them in front of the girls.
The guys with common sense had long since started to dislike and avoid him, but there weren't many women in their early twenties who would hate a guy who drove an imported car and paid for all their drinks.
Of course, there were a few guys who kissed his ass, too. I don't remember exactly who.
Just as the department's atmosphere was splitting into those who hung out with Jeon Hyeseong, those who hated him, and those who didn't care, we went on an MT [Membership Training, a college retreat].
And that night, the incident happened.
-Alright, everyone! Listen up!
In the middle of our classmates, who were all excited to drink, Jeon Hyeseong glanced at me with what looked like a sneer.
-Kang Hyun-woo has a girl he likes here! He wants to work up the courage to confess, so let's all give him a round of applause to cheer him on!
It was obviously a malicious prank.
It was a situation where most of our classmates should have been glaring at him with frowns instead of cheering.
But perhaps I had underestimated the level of his political maneuvering.
-Ooooh!!
-Kang Hyun-woo! Kang Hyun-woo!
A few of the people who were particularly close to Jeon Hyeseong started cheering.
And the girl he pointed out was someone I knew well.
It was Yoo Subin, a girl from my department who I actually had a crush on.
My expression obviously turned to shit, but the others, who had already had a few drinks, started to enjoy the situation.
Subin, of course, was not.
She was suddenly about to receive a public confession from a classmate she barely knew. If I had been an alpha male, it might have ended with "We're official as of today," but unfortunately, I was just a plain, average guy.
And so, my first love was forcibly ended before I could even confess, and I was even immortalized on online forums as "MT Confession Guy.”
For the record, I had never told Jeon Hyeseong that I liked Subin.
I had mentioned it casually while drinking with some other guys. How the hell did that bastard find out? That thought occupied my mind for a long time.
Most people would have taken a leave of absence for military service or just withdrawn from school, but I gritted my teeth and endured.
I went to school ignoring the whispers and stares from those around me.
By the time I became a sophomore, the rumors about me had mostly died down, and I was able to have a relatively comfortable school life.
However, I could never forget the fact that the one who had ratted on me to Jeon Hyeseong and played along was one of the classmates I had been drinking with that night.
-Who was it? Who told him? Jitae? Hyunyi? Hyun-woo? Or was it Sunho?
Not knowing who the culprit was, it became impossible to hang out with my friends like before. And so, I became a loner who attended lectures, ate, and studied for exams all by myself.
“Hey.”
Just thinking about it makes my stomach churn.
“Stop acting friendly and get lost. Unless you want to be eating your meals drooling all over yourself.”
I still don't know why I became his target that day.
But knowing that bastard's personality, he probably just didn't like me, or he wanted to screw someone over and I was just the unlucky one he picked.
“...That's a bit harsh.”
“Yeah, Kang Hyun-woo! Why are you talking like that?”
“Hyeseong was just talking to you because he was worried you don't have any friends!”
A host-bar wannabe who plays with people's lives and his empty-headed bitches.
A combo meal you'd only find in the gutter.
“Ah, are you maybe still upset about what happened at the MT...”
Smack!
My fist reacted instantly to the word "MT." Don't hold back, my dear fist.
“Keok!”
A punch filled with sincerity sent him sprawling to the ground.
“Kyaa!”
“Hye-Hyeseong!”
I am a rational and non-violent person.
But sometimes, the beast within me runs wild, and it seems today is one of those days.
“Ha, haha... Guys, I'm fine, so don't worry.”
For someone with a bloody nose, Jeon Hyeseong put on a kind smile.
No, he forced it.
His lips were trembling. If the girls weren't here, he would have definitely started cursing up a storm and thrown a punch at me.
Of course, I would've been thankful for that. I would've had fun choosing between a fire fist and a lightning fist to smash into that bastard's jaw.
“So, are we good now? We've made up?”
Look at him, trying to manage his image just because girls are watching.
“Observe a moment of silence with your mouth. Your breath is fucking terrible.”
Grit. I thought I heard the sound of teeth grinding somewhere.
He's going to have a hard time later if he needs implants from doing that.
I hope he makes a habit of grinding his teeth from now on.
“Have fun with your empty-headed bitches.”
I gave him the finger and left.
*
Rrrring-
In a quiet alley on my way home, I called a new number I had saved a short while ago.
Click. The other person picked up.
“Hello, Grandma?”
-Oh my, my dear Son-seo. What's the matter?
I tried my best not to tremble as I carefully brought up the subject.
This wasn't something I could bring up casually, like asking if she'd eaten.
“Do you happen to know an Assemblyman Jeon Jinmuk?”
-Ah. Yes, I know him well. His latest campaign pledge requires cooperation with the Magic Tower, and I'm the one in charge of that.
“...Then, if you don't mind my rudeness, could I ask you for a favor?”
-A favor?
I knew this was rude. Our connection was brief and shallow; we had only met for a moment this morning.
But this was a favor only she could grant.
Of course, my future self could probably do it, but it would be meaningless if it wasn't done right now.
“I want to get revenge on Assemblyman Jeon Jinmuk. No, to be precise, on his son.”
-Hmm... Hyun-woo, I didn't take you for such an emotional person.
“This is more important to me than anything.”
-Mmm...
I could sense Choi Young-ok's hesitation in her hum over the phone.
So, to ease her hesitation at least a little, I added one more thing.
“I have an aptitude for both Elemental and Summoning magic.”
-...?
“In the Elemental school, my limit is currently fire and lightning, but I'm confident I'll be able to handle more elements in the future.”
I decided to make this a deal, not a one-sided request.
“And...”
The payment was myself.
“I think I'll reach the 2nd Circle soon.”
It wasn't a lie.
For a mage to advance to the next stage, they needed to form a Circle—a ring of magic power—in their heart.
Just three days.
If I was given that much time, I was certain I could reach the 2nd Circle.
“It's a request from your prospective grandson-in-law... Can you really not do it?”
There was no denying this was a gamble.
Choi Young-ok could end up seeing me in a negative light because of this.
But I was serious enough about my revenge to take that risk.
-Hyun-woo.
“...Yes.”
Her voice came back, somewhat serious.
-You said your goal is revenge, correct?
Gulp... I forced a dry swallow.
-I will show you something beyond your wildest imagination, so look forward to it. Hehe.
In her final words, I could sense a heavy favor toward me, as well as a chilling resolve.
This is just my guess, but won't Jeon Jinmuk soon find himself out on the streets for the crime of having a terrible son?