Chapter 17: Reunion
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 17: Reunion
A brilliant mind, handsome looks, a father who was a prosecutor-turned-assemblyman, and a mother from a family that had amassed an immense fortune through real estate.
I grew up wanting for nothing.
When I started elementary school, word about me must have spread among the parents, because every kid in my class was desperate to be my friend.
It was the same in middle school and high school. In fact, from middle school on, even the teachers groveled before me. Whenever I got into a fight, they would unconditionally take my side.
Even if I was the one unilaterally bullying or assaulting someone, the teachers would collectively hush up the incident and only cautiously ask after my parents’ well-being.
I don’t remember it clearly, but I think I smiled back then.
Could life really be this easy?
As long as I put in the minimal effort to maintain decent grades, I didn’t have to do anything else.
Friends? Relationships?
I was always surrounded by fucking idiots desperate to win my favor.
The girls were just empty-headed bimbos who, enticed by my looks and money, would easily spread their legs.
The school thugs who acted all high and mighty? I’d set them up, gather evidence, and either send them to juvenile detention or blackmail them into becoming my lackeys.
When I was bored, I’d pick some loser from class to play with.
First, I started a rumor that he liked the girlfriend of one of the school’s top bullies. Then, I stole some girls’ gym clothes and planted them in his locker.
My enjoyment peaked when, in the process of searching for the culprit, they opened the boys’ lockers and a pile of gym clothes tumbled out of his.
The sight of him crying and screaming that it wasn’t him was so pathetic, I almost felt bad that I couldn’t laugh out loud.
However, my disappointment when I heard he had dropped out was indescribable. It’s annoying when a toy you’re playing with breaks, but for it to run away on its own was just absurd.
Still, finding a new toy wasn’t that difficult.
And it was the same in university.
I’d joined the department planning to just screw around with some empty-headed bitches, but there were a few guys who’d enrolled without knowing their place.
I heard there were no male freshmen last year, so why the hell did they show up when I did?
So this time, I decided to go beyond simply playing with them. I set the stage to make them break on their own and get the hell out.
Just like in high school, I looked for a guy who seemed like a loser, someone who wouldn’t even squirm when I stepped on him.
Then I started gradually excluding him from the group while talking about him behind his back with the others. He smells. The way he looks at girls is so disgusting. I saw his phone the other day, and he was smiling at some weird girl’s picture. All lies, of course, but what did I care?
The truth is never what’s important to people.
What seems plausible is what matters most.
And it wasn’t just the girls who were empty-headed; the guys were too.
Just because I paid for a few cheap meals and drinks, they’d debase themselves and act like dogs.
Around the time most of the first-year guys were wagging their tails at me, desperately praying they wouldn't be the next target of my bullying, someone started getting on my nerves.
Kang Hyun-woo. A classmate who was just a lanky beanpole with an average face. No, when he scowled, his face was actually quite menacing.
To be honest, I hadn’t planned on messing with Kang Hyun-woo from the start.
My first impression of him wasn’t bad, and I thought he’d be useful for intimidating others if I kept him around, so I was just going to use him.
But he kept doing things that pissed me off, like constantly glaring at me with disapproval or skipping out on drinking parties I was paying for. So, I decided to make an example of him.
I couldn’t care less who that bastard liked, but some loser who’d gone to a drinking party I wasn’t at told me which girl Kang Hyun-woo had a crush on.
A plan formed in my mind at that moment, and the result was a success.
The look on his distorted face during the MT was so hilarious I still burst out laughing just thinking about it.
But I got hit by a guy like that.
Who?
Me?
CRASH!
A flowerpot hit the wall, shattering and scattering pieces in every direction.
“Fuck!!”
Overcome with unbearable rage, Jeon Hyeseong began venting his anger, smashing and throwing household items one by one with a golf club.
“That orphan bastard...!!! How dare he... how dare he...!!!”
Grind—
A voice filled with fury, escaping from a throat with veins bulging, echoed throughout the house.
No matter how much he destroyed, his anger wouldn’t subside.
“...Kang Hyun-woo.”
A strange madness flickered in Jeon Hyeseong’s eyes as he stared into the distance with a chilling gaze.
For Jeon Hyeseong, who had always stood above others, today’s event was a fatal humiliation he could neither forget nor tolerate.
“Look forward to it. Starting next semester, I’ll torment you until you drop out.”
First, he’d recruit a suitable first-year girl and create a situation where she and Kang Hyun-woo were alone.
Then, by any means necessary, he’d succeed in getting Kang Hyun-woo’s fingerprints on the girl’s body and then have her report him for sexual assault.
What kind of country was this?
It was a country where a victim’s tears were considered evidence. Fingerprints left on a woman’s clothes and the victim’s tears were more than enough to secure a guilty verdict.
With that, dropping out would be the least of his worries; expulsion was also possible.
Of course, it didn’t matter if the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence. False accusation? That was the girl’s problem to deal with, it had nothing to do with him.
Even if that bastard Kang Hyun-woo managed to return to school, it would be long after rumors of him being a sex offender had spread throughout the entire campus.
He wouldn’t be able to continue attending school in that situation.
Thinking about it made his fucking shitty mood lift a little.
“Who should I call today?”
He scrolled through his DMs, which were flooded with messages, and sent one to a junior he hadn’t slept with yet.
Around this time of year, girls were so easy to win over with just a few pictures of an expensive hotel that it was almost unbelievable.
To him, women were nothing more than perfect toys to play with.
Jeon Hyeseong had no doubt it would always be that way.
Foolishly.
BANG! BANG!
“What the fuck?”
At the sound of someone pounding on his front door as if to break it down, Jeon Hyeseong’s face instinctively contorted into a scowl.
Did someone come to complain about the noise from me smashing things earlier?
‘Ha, there are so many people who don’t know their place.’
It would be one of two things: either he’d talk them down and send them away, or he’d just beat them with the golf club and send them away.
If the person could understand words, he could choose the former, but if not...
‘Looks like the department head is going to have a long night.’
He’d just pay some settlement money and hush it up, like always.
But contrary to his optimistic thoughts, what happened next was far beyond Jeon Hyeseong’s expectations.
Creeak—
“Which bastard is banging on someone else’s door...”
POW!
“Gahck!!”
The moment he opened the door, a fist slammed into his face, sending Jeon Hyeseong tumbling disgracefully across the entryway.
“You, you, who the hell are you... F-Father...?!”
The one who had punched him wasn’t the crazy neighbor he’d assumed was itching for a jail sentence, but the person he feared most: his father.
“Jeon Hyeseong!!”
Assemblyman Jeon Jinmuk, his face red and contorted with rage, stormed through the door, looking more furious than ever before.
At the sight, all Jeon Hyeseong could do was gently stroke his own cheek, now as red as a blushing teenager’s. There was nothing else he could do.
“What the hell have you been doing out there?!!”
“Ye-Yes...? What do you mean...”
Thankful that his father wasn’t holding a golf club, he could only grit his teeth.
SLAP! SLAP!
“Because of you! This whole fucking thing! It’s all ruined!!”
“Gack, ugh, ack...!!”
Relentlessly and with practiced ease, Jeon Jinmuk slapped his son across the face.
“Did you think I give you a monthly allowance, pay your apartment deposit, and even your rent for you to do this?!!”
As he beat his son, Jeon Jinmuk recalled the call he had received from the Magic Tower earlier that day.
—M-Mage-nim, what are you talking about?! How can you back out of our cooperation now?!
—My apologies. It seems there was an unfortunate incident between one of our mages and your son, Assemblyman. As you know, it is not our style to proceed with matters without considering the feelings of a fellow mage from our Tower. I have already received permission from the Tower Lord.
—Wh-What?! My son?!! Th-That can’t be!
—I have nothing more to say.
—I’ll resolve it! So please, I beg you to reconsider... Mage-nim?! Mage-nim!!
It was a cooperation agreement he had secured only after years of kissing the Magic Tower’s ass until it was raw.
Thanks to it, his re-election was all but guaranteed. But the Magic Tower’s sudden notice had changed everything.
At this rate, his re-election was down the drain.
‘This can’t happen... I have to find a way...’
—This is breaking news.
The sound of the TV, which had been left on, drew Jeon Jinmuk’s attention.
—Evidence has emerged that has sent shockwaves through the nation, revealing bribery, election fraud, and massive real estate speculation by former assemblyman and current candidate, Jeon Jinmuk.
Ringgg—
Ringgg—
The phone began to ring.
—It appears to have originated from the family of his spouse, Lee Hyunsook, and further controversy is brewing as additional evidence has been uncovered showing profits of over several hundred billion won.
—The evidence is so conclusive that even fellow party members are calling for a strict investigation.
Thud—
Jeon Jinmuk collapsed to the floor and couldn’t get up for a long time.
*
The day I submitted my withdrawal form to the university, I bought a ton of food and bottled water from a convenience store and returned home.
There was what I’d told Mage Choi Young-ok, but more importantly, in one week, I would be reunited with Iris.
I wanted to see the look of surprise on her face.
I sat cross-legged on the floor and closed my eyes.
What I needed now was a level of concentration that seemed to have no end.
I had to reach the deepest part of my mind, the source of the mana circle, a place with no physical form.
[Knowledge Acquisition Rate for all Basic Magicology +1000%]
[Mana Sensitivity Increase +1000%]
[Mana Self-Assimilation Speed Increase +10000%]
These were the buffs I was currently receiving from the app.
I didn’t need the knowledge acquisition rate right now.
What I needed were the mana sensitivity and self-assimilation speed buffs. Thanks to them, it was no exaggeration to say that I was constantly being showered with mana’s affection.
Of course, I usually blocked the mana from being absorbed into my body.
A blood transfusion is a treatment in moderation, but too much can lead to complications.
It was the same with mana. Trying to absorb an excessive amount could cause one’s circle to collapse, leading to death.
Nevertheless, I opened my entire body and absorbed the vast mana of nature.
‘Ghh...’
The moment the gates opened, the mana rushed in as if shouting, “Oh, goody!” and it felt like my blood was flowing in reverse.
If I lost consciousness here, I was guaranteed to be at least half-crippled for life.
Amidst the immense pain, I desperately held onto my consciousness and guided the flow of mana.
Hands, feet, neck, legs. It didn’t matter where the mana entered. I made it all flow towards my heart.
Of course, accepting all of this mana would be suicide.
Just before it reached my heart, I filtered a certain amount.
If I were a mage who had reached a higher realm, I wouldn’t need to go through such a troublesome process. I could have just filtered the mana at the point of absorption.
But unfortunately, I was inexperienced.
So, I could only use my survival instincts to filter it right near my heart, one of the most vital points in my body.
‘Hey, if you don’t want to die, you better filter this mana.’
‘...? What kind of crazy bastard are you? This is your body!’
‘Like I give a damn?’
I compressed the mana that I had gathered through this repeated filtering.
Like using a hydraulic press to crush a car into a 1cm-thick sheet of metal.
I know. It sounds insane.
That’s how difficult it is to expand one’s mana circle.
An ordinary mage wouldn’t even be attempting this.
From what Iris told me, the process for an ordinary mage to advance their realm was to use a moment of enlightenment, gained after years of accumulating mana in their body, to serve the role of that hydraulic press.
But me?
There was no enlightenment. I was just forcibly compressing the mana with sheer skill in handling it.
This was obviously a shortcut, and it was a method that would probably stop working as my realm advanced.
Needless to say, the risk of losing my life was immense.
Yet, there was only one reason I was pushing forward.
‘...This is doable.’
The mana, compressed to its absolute limit, began to take the form of an infinitely rotating ring.
And it settled in my heart, where a mage’s mana circles gather.
“Hoo...”
When I opened my eyes again, a week had passed.
Tsk, I said I’d do it in three days. I guess that makes me a liar.
As expected, my phone was filled with countless missed calls from Choi Young-ok.
I felt sorry, but she wasn’t my priority right now.
[Name: Iris Remeria Baiart Peledeia
Age: 524
Race: High Elf
Affiliation: EB-17
Occupation: Archmage
Disposition: Benevolent, Pacifist, Devoted, Vegetarian······]
[Would you like to rematch?]
[Y/N]
“Don’t ask the obvious.”
The week had passed in the blink of an eye, but I missed Iris.
“...Ah, wait a minute.”
Before going to see Iris, I remembered something I needed to take care of, so I quickly ran around town.
Perhaps because my whole body was overflowing with mana from reaching the 2nd Circle, my running speed seemed to be about 30 km/h. And that wasn’t even at full sprint.
Who the hell called mages a rear-line class?
Anyway, after finishing my errands, I returned home, shoved the items into my inventory, and turned on the app again.
[Would you like to rematch with Iris Remeria Baiart Peledeia?]
[Y/N]
[Y]
The moment I accepted, a pure white beam of light enveloped me, just like last time.
I closed my eyes. When I felt the flow of air change and opened them again...
“I-Instead, next time, I’ll... I’ll... go all the...!”
There stood Iris, her face so red it looked like it was about to explode.
“Iris-ssi.”
“I’ll do it for...!! Huh? H-Hyun-woo-ssi?”
Iris, who had been speaking with her eyes squeezed shut as if in a monologue, looked up with a start at the sound of my voice right in front of her.
You thought I wouldn’t hear that, didn’t you?
As Iris stood there, flustered and stammering, I opened my inventory.
And I took out the Magic Red Box I had purchased at the convenience store before coming here.
“I’m back, so we’re going all the way this time, right?”
It was a 0.001mm condom made with magic engineering.