Chapter 326: Verification
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 326: Verification
Early morning.
With everyone watching, I placed my hand on the crystal orb used for verification.
The result was just as I expected.
Wooooong—
The crystal orb, suffused with magic power, emitted a brilliant, multicolored light.
“Fire, water, earth… Huh? Why… why does it keep increasing? Wind, light, and darkness… and even lightning…?”
The verifier dispatched from the Blue Magic Tower looked utterly bewildered.
He soon began staring at me as if I were some kind of monster.
The other observers had the same reaction.
“…Temporary 2nd-Grade Elementalist, Kang Hyun-woo. Affinity for all elements has been confirmed. Fire and lightning are 1st-Grade, the remaining elements are… quasi-3rd-Grade.”
As the verifier’s trembling voice echoed through the hall, the room instantly erupted in a clamor.
In attendance were not only professors from the Gray Magic Tower but also several officials from government agencies.
“What were his magic power levels?”
Naturally, the Tower Lord, Han Lael, was also present.
The moment she, one of only two 7th-Circle Mages in South Korea, made her appearance, the crowd fell silent.
“…His magic power level is 76,201. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he’s practically a quasi-6th-Circle mage.”
After a brief pause, the verifier’s words made everyone gasp.
It goes without saying, but the higher the circle, the more astronomical the gap between them becomes.
And yet, here was a young mage who had just reached the 5th Circle but possessed magic power levels approaching the 6th.
‘Their eyes are going to light up.’
A blatant desire flickered in the eyes of the observers watching me.
It was obvious they wanted to pull me over to their side, no matter what it took.
But no one dared to approach me recklessly.
That was because Choi Hyena was standing right next to me, glaring at our surroundings with her arms crossed.
“Why don’t you relax your eyes? You’ll get wrinkles.”
“…Shut up. This is all your fault.”
“Why? You don’t like having a capable man?”
When I spoke playfully, Choi Hyena shot me a sharp glare.
I shrugged and nonchalantly turned my head away.
Just then, my eyes met Han Lael’s. The corners of her eyes curved beautifully as she waved and walked toward me.
“Hello, Tower Lord.”
“Good morning, Hyun-woo.”
I almost called her Sister Lael by mistake.
Of course, showing off my connection to the Tower Lord in a place like this could be beneficial, but with so many eyes on us, I had to be as careful as possible.
An unnecessarily close relationship was bound to stir up scandals.
‘…If a rumor spreads that I’m hooking up with the head of the Jinryu Han family, who’s of marriageable age, forget the media—Hyena would beat me up all night.’
Noel and Jeon Seoha were fine.
Choi Hyena’s social status was overwhelmingly higher, so even if I built a harem, it was within a range she could accept.
But Han Lael was a different story.
“What can I do for you, Tower Lord?”
As if to prove my point, Choi Hyena suddenly cut in, stepping between me and Han Lael and glaring fiercely.
Her gaze was far too insolent for someone addressing the Tower Lord, but the person who should have pointed it out seemed to have no intention of doing so.
“What can I do for you, you ask…”
Han Lael, on the contrary, gave a meaningful smile as if she found the situation amusing.
“A promising young talent has emerged from our tower. As the Tower Lord, isn’t it natural for me to at least say hello?”
“Well, you’ve shown your face and said hello, so could you please leave now? We have something to discuss, just the two of us.”
Choi Hyena pointedly wrapped her arms around mine.
It was a childish provocation, but surprisingly, Han Lael’s expression was stiffer than usual.
A strange tension flowed between the two of them.
Stuck in the middle and forced to endure the stares of the observers, I just wanted to go home.
After a short silence, it was Han Lael who spoke first.
“…It seems I’ve interrupted an intimate moment between lovers.”
Han Lael gave a faint smile, nodded to me, and quietly turned away.
I nudged Choi Hyena’s side and whispered.
“How could you talk to the Tower Lord like that?”
That was Choi Hyena’s fault.
It might have been different in a private setting, but her words and actions were inappropriate for an official gathering of the tower’s key figures.
But Choi Hyena simply crossed her arms and glared at me fiercely.
“Are you taking her side in front of me?”
“…”
What’s with her today?
‘Could it be that time of the month?’
After a moment of thought, I remembered it wasn’t time for her cycle yet.
For the record, I remember the menstrual cycles of all my women.
‘If I let this go, Grandma Choi Young-ok will scold me later.’
As much as Grandma Choi Young-ok doted on Hyena, she would fly into a rage if she acted out of line.
I whispered quietly into Choi Hyena’s ear.
“If you don’t want to be walking with trembling legs for a while, apologize.”
“…?!”
My voice was heavy, and Choi Hyena’s body trembled slightly.
The all-night pounding that even Cheon Yeo-hwa couldn’t endure—I had done it to Choi Hyena once before.
Naturally, as a mage, she stood no chance of holding out, and in the end, she couldn’t even walk properly for two days.
“Hurry.”
I urged her on, roughly grabbing her ass at an angle no one else could see.
Her face turned as red as her hair. Choi Hyena’s lips parted, and she carefully began to speak.
“T-Tower Lord…! I apologize for my rudeness just now…”
“Oh, by the way, Hyun-woo?”
Before Choi Hyena could finish, Han Lael abruptly turned her head and gave me a bright smile.
“Could you stop by my workshop when you have time? There’s something I’d like to discuss with you privately.”
“Pardon?”
Something to discuss privately…?
“See you next time, then? It would be nice if it were just the two of us, like last time.”
Before I could even answer, Han Lael left me with a meaningful smile and returned to the other professors.
I tilted my head at the one-sided notice.
‘What on earth does she want to talk about that she’s calling me to her workshop?’
No matter how much I thought about it, I hadn’t received any prior notice.
I started to feel a little anxious.
There’s a reason they say no news is good news.
But that wasn’t the most important thing right now.
“Just the two of us, like last time…”
Saaaa—
A much greater crisis was approaching from right beside me.
“You seem to be on good terms with the Tower Lord?”
“…”
“I’d like to hear what happened. Shall we move somewhere else for a moment?”
A cold chill pierced my skin, and I couldn’t say a word.
I could only pray desperately for anyone, anyone, to save me.
*
That afternoon.
Despite many twists and turns, I managed to return home safely.
Sure, corporate officials and reporters swarmed me, which was a pain, but I just ignored them and got away.
I had no intention of signing sponsorship deals with any corporations, and since articles about mages were heavily censored under press guidelines, they couldn’t openly curse me out. So I could afford to be reckless.
Besides, as a mage, if I wanted to win public favor, I’d have to show myself actively clearing gates, and I had not a single shred of interest in doing that.
Click.
“I’m home.”
As I opened the door and stepped inside, I felt familiar presences.
“You’re back?”
“Hyun-woo…!”
Noel and Jeon Seoha, who had been gathered in the living room, came running.
It was only after pulling them both into an embrace that I truly felt like I was home.
“What were you two up to?”
“N-not my ears…”
I habitually fiddled with Jeon Seoha’s ear as I asked Noel.
The texture was as addictive as ever; I couldn’t stop.
“Seoha and I were watching you, Master.”
“…Me?”
What did she mean by that?
“You were on TV just a moment ago. I was surprised at how photogenic you are. Oh! You’re on again!”
At Noel’s words, I looked at the TV.
Just as she said, I was on the screen. The problem was that it was broadcasting a raw, unfiltered clip of me completely ignoring the reporters as I walked past.
‘…Was that a live broadcast?’
I took out my phone and went to a news portal.
Sure enough, the comments on the related articles were flooded with crude criticism directed at me.
Things like bastard with no manners, arrogant prick who thinks he’s all that, and motherless bastard.
‘Tsk… how did they know I don’t have a mom?’
The netizens were sharper than I thought.
Come to think of it, there were few people around me whose parents were both alive and well.
Noel, for instance, had lost her parents to magical beasts when she was young, just like me. I’d heard that Choi Hyena’s father was missing, and her mother had passed away from an illness long ago.
Jeon Seoha was the only one whose parents were both alive, but one was the head of a criminal organization who engaged in domestic violence, and the other had abandoned a young Seoha and fled in the middle of the night.
‘…How is it that not a single one of them has a normal family?’
A dry laugh escaped me before I knew it.
They say people in similar situations are drawn to each other, and it seemed that saying was spot on.
“Master.”
“Hm?”
As I was lost in thought watching TV, Noel poked me in the side.
I glanced over to see her glaring at me with her cheeks puffed out in a pout.
“What’s wrong?”
“…How long are you going to dote on just Seoha?”
As expected of a rabbit, her jealousy was practically overflowing. I chuckled softly.
Knowing full well that Noel holds a grudge for a long time when she sulks, I had no choice but to ask Jeon Seoha for a concession.
The moment I helped Jeon Seoha off my lap, Noel climbed onto it.
“…You’re heavy.”
“D-don’t slander me! I’m only □□kg!”
“…Isn’t that a lot?”
She weighed more than I expected.
“Do you think the breasts and ass you’re constantly touching weigh 0kg?”
Her words immediately convinced me.
My hands are quite large, but Noel’s breasts and ass were too big to be cupped in one hand.
Considering Noel’s incredible muscle density, it was only natural that she weighed more than she looked.
I stroked Noel’s head while pulling Jeon Seoha closer with my other arm.
“Sorry.”
“Mm, it’s okay.”
Jeon Seoha forced a smile as if she were fine.
But it was clear she was being considerate of Noel. This wasn’t the first or second time this had happened.
As a sign of my gratitude, I gently stroked her head.
Perhaps because she was a wolf beast-girl, she liked having her head or chin petted. Or her belly.
And so, for a while, I spent a peaceful and personally fulfilling time with them.
Honestly, the mood was such that it wouldn’t have been strange at all to transition to sex, but there was something I had to do first.
I took out the handwritten copy of the Great Mind-Spirit Art and a wooden box containing an elixir from my inventory and handed them to the two of them.
“Master, what is this…?”
“A martial arts manual.”
“A martial arts manual?”
“Think of it as something like a mana cultivation manual.”
“Aha.”
I gave them a brief explanation of the Great Mind-Spirit Art.
As expected of a martial art that only elder-level members of the Emei Sect could learn, it had quite a few difficult parts. However, both of them grasped the essence of the art without much trouble.
It made sense for Jeon Seoha to learn quickly, as she was a martial artist who had just reached the Transcendent Realm, but Noel was honestly a surprise.
Martial arts and mana cultivation methods differed greatly in their fundamental principles, so I thought she would have a hard time accepting it.
But with her innate understanding, she quickly grasped the true meaning behind the oral formulas of the Great Mind-Spirit Art.
It was a good start, but the problem was that both of them had already mastered their family’s martial arts and their tribe’s traditional mana cultivation method. They didn’t feel the need to learn a new art now.
However, knowing about Jeon Seoha’s Silver Moon Celestial Heart Technique and Noel’s Celestial, I strongly insisted on the necessity of the Great Mind-Spirit Art.
The Silver Moon Celestial Heart Technique was an extremely aggressive martial art, making it easy for its practitioners to be consumed by their wild nature as they reached higher realms. As for Celestial, it was a cultivation method that took in the power of the celestial bodies, which tended to overwork the upper Dantian.
That was likely why the priestesses of Noel’s tribe had short lifespans.
In short, Jeon Seoha needed the Great Mind-Spirit Art to build a foundation to withstand her wild nature, and Noel needed it to form a lower Dantian filled with pure internal energy to balance her body.
“Well… if you say so, Master, I guess we have no choice.”
“I’ll work hard…!”
Having successfully persuaded them, I used Jin Gi-doin to help them learn the Great Mind-Spirit Art quickly.
I didn’t get greedy.
I only needed to help them reach the 2nd star; after that, they could manage on their own.
For the record, since it was better to have clean meridians to absorb the elixir, I also helped them burn away the impurities accumulated in their bodies.