Chapter 35: The Blind Date (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 35: The Blind Date (3)
After getting a sudden call from my blind date to change our plans, I arrived at a restaurant in Cheongdam-dong.
It was a high-end restaurant where everything, from the interior design to the seating, was in private rooms.
Omakase? Fine dining? I'd seen them plenty of times on NewTube, but this was my first time actually visiting one.
A glance at the menu was enough to tell me why.
The cheapest course was a whopping 500,000 won, and the most expensive was over 1,000,000 won.
Given the neighborhood, it seemed their main clientele were people whose wallets were overflowing with cash.
“Course D has shrimp as the main. I'll go with this.”
In the past, my hands would have been trembling as I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu, but there was no need for that anymore.
Before coming here, I'd already received a truckload of inquiries on the job posting I'd put up on the Hunter app.
A freelance mage is on the market?
And not a 1st Circle, but a 2nd Circle mage?
“Oh, the party leader is C+ rank, and the other members are all C-rank.”
I could earn millions a day just by going to a C-rank Gate, casually tossing a few fireballs from the back, and then landing one big hit on the boss. There was no reason to tremble over a meal that cost a few hundred thousand or a million won.
Gates were dangerous, sure, but as a rear-guard in a party tackling an appropriately ranked Gate, the risk of getting seriously hurt was low.
For the time being, I figured I'd focus on making money running Gates and building up my body by learning swordsmanship at the dojo.
Knock, knock—
Someone knocked on the door while I was mapping out my future plans.
I hadn't pressed the call bell, so it couldn't be a waiter. That meant there was only one person it could be.
“I'm not too late, am I?”
The person who opened the door and walked in was my blind date, Choi Hyena.
With her striking red hair, violet eyes, and a traditional-style witch's outfit, she was far more beautiful than in her photos.
I realized the photos hadn't been edited; if anything, they didn't capture even half of her real beauty.
“No, I just got here myself.”
Choi Hyena smiled lightly and sat down.
As she took off her coat, her figure gave me another shock.
...Seriously, is someone filming a hidden camera show on me? Every woman I meet has an insane body.
The wolf beast-kin I met this afternoon was short, but her overall figure was so good that most models couldn't even compare. A perfectly toned body was attractive.
And while Choi Hyena's chest was smaller than Iris's or Cheon Yeo-hwa's, her overall proportions were unbelievable.
Is that... a mage? Not a Pilates instructor?
It suddenly struck me how amazing Grandma Choi Young-ok was for introducing me to someone like her.
“Hmph...”
Just as Kang Hyun-woo was secretly checking out Choi Hyena's body, driven by his male instincts, Choi Hyena was observing him with the instincts of a mage.
To be precise, she was looking at the immense amount of mana swirling around him.
It was obvious that a person couldn't take in oxygen without breathing. The same was true for mana.
Unless a mage raised their concentration through meditation to accept mana, the mana wouldn't be drawn to them.
But he was different.
The mana was restlessly circling him, as if desperate to become one with him at any moment.
Perhaps because he hadn't allowed it, it was merely lingering, but if he gave permission, it would become his magic power at any time. This meant that even the assimilation process could be drastically shortened.
Of course, having a lot of magic power alone wasn't enough to forcibly expand one's mana circles.
Still, there was no doubt he could display a performance far superior to other mages at the same level.
“This is our first time meeting in person. It's nice to meet you. I'm Choi Hyena.”
“I'm Kang Hyun-woo.”
We exchanged a light handshake as our first greeting.
“Shall we order first? I come here often, so I can guarantee the food is good.”
I ordered Course D, which featured pumpkin flower shrimp from a Gate, while Choi Hyena ordered Course B, a recreation of classic French cuisine.
After the waiter took our orders and closed the door, a heavy silence fell between us.
What should I talk about?
Other than Iris and Cheon Yeo-hwa, I'd never really had a proper conversation with a woman. Moreover, this was my first time in a blind date setting.
On top of that, she was an upper-class person, the kind I would never have met in my entire life.
In the end, the silence continued until our food arrived.
Of course, the awkward and uncomfortable silence was only felt by Kang Hyun-woo.
Until the food came, Choi Hyena observed Kang Hyun-woo relentlessly.
Not only had he reached the 2nd Circle at the same age as her, but the entire process had supposedly taken less than a week.
It was absurd.
Even she, who had been praised endlessly by those around her for her dazzling talent, had taken six years to form her first mana circle.
And that was only possible because, with her family's help, she had started the training that others only began at age eleven from a much younger age.
It had taken another six years to reach the 2nd Circle, and her attainment of the 3rd Circle had been half a fluke.
Because of that, it was hard to consider her a complete 3rd Circle mage. It would get better with time, but not yet.
While it had allowed her to become a nationally certified mage, she had an inferiority complex about not being a true 3rd Circle mage.
And now, before her, appeared a mage of the same age who was breaking through levels at what might be the fastest pace in human history.
He doesn't look like that kind of genius, no matter how I look at him.
At first, her suspicion was immense. A monster like that existed in the world?
The thought that he was a con artist, not a mage, had been dominant, but now that she was face-to-face with him, she couldn't simply deny it.
Kang Hyun-woo didn't notice, but a faint hostility flickered in Choi Hyena's eyes. It was a murky emotion mixed with jealousy and self-loathing.
“This is delicious.”
Unaware of any of this, Kang Hyun-woo enjoyed the food that had arrived at some point.
“...I'm glad.”
Choi Hyena also continued her meal in silence.
*
After we were mostly finished with the meal, we cleansed our palates with the dessert that came out last.
It was the first time in my life I'd spent so much money on a single meal, but it was so satisfying I could understand why people did it.
“Now that we've eaten, may I get to the point?”
Choi Hyena spoke first, dabbing her mouth with a napkin.
“I'm sorry, but I have no intention of getting married. No, it would be more accurate to say I have no intention of dating a man at all.”
“...?”
Her calm statement negated the entire reason for this meeting.
“Then why did you come here?”
If that was the case, she could have just rejected me over the phone. I was curious why she'd gone to the trouble of changing the time to the same day just to call me out here.
“I was curious. I wanted to know who exactly was the person who not only reached the 2nd Circle at my age but accomplished it all in less than a week.”
So, in the end, she'd set up this meeting just to satisfy her own curiosity.
“So, now that you've met me, what do you think?”
In the small room, Choi Hyena's magic power began to stir and undulate.
“Honestly, I don't like it. Why did such a brilliant talent choose a human like you?”
It seemed she'd given up pretending to be polite, not hesitating to reveal her magic power to someone she'd just met or to give a reply filled with hostility.
“I'll make you an offer.”
Her rude demeanor, which looked like she was about to cast a spell at any second, vanished. On some whim, the atmosphere did a complete 180.
“What offer?”
“It's simple. Let me study you. Being loved by mana? That's in a realm that's difficult to dismiss as mere talent.”
Choi Hyena was a mage.
She resolved to prioritize rational calculation of gains and losses over emotional jealousy.
“I'll compensate you handsomely. From what I can see, you're quite the pauper. How about 30 million won each time you cooperate with my research?”
It seemed a blueprint for obtaining what she wanted was already complete in her mind.
If she could just figure out the reason why this man was loved by mana, she could not only reach the complete 3rd Circle but also get a glimpse of the 4th Circle in the near future.
She didn't even entertain the possibility that he would refuse.
She thought that a war orphan who had lived in poverty would have no choice but to accept her offer.
Becoming a mage and immediately accepting sponsorship from just any corporation was a bad move. If he knew his own talent, the right play was to raise his value and then get a better deal. So what he needed right now was funding for smooth magic research.
If 30 million was too little, she was willing to offer 50. Of course, even more was fine.
She had all the money in the world, after all.
However, the answer that came from Kang Hyun-woo's mouth far exceeded her expectations.
“What the hell is this crazy bitch talking about?”
His consistently bored expression instantly twisted into a hostile, murderous glare.
“...What?”
“Hey, open your ears and listen up. The Choi family of Seongbuk, a genius mage, you know what's more important than all that crap? Manners. Fucking manners. You're not even a decent human being, and you want to talk about being a mage? Research? Fucking bullshit.”
I downed the glass of cold water in one go.
“Changing the appointment on the same day was ridiculous, telling someone who came for a blind date that you have no intention of getting married is annoying, and now you're revealing your magic power to someone you just met? Did your precious family teach you that's proper etiquette?”
To be honest, changing the appointment and saying she wasn't interested were things I could have let slide.
But calling me a pauper and flaunting her magic power—that I couldn't just let go.
“From where I'm standing, the 3rd Circle is your limit. Why? Because you're not even a decent person. How could you possibly become a high-ranking mage?”
With that, I shot up from my seat.
Leaving a stunned Choi Hyena behind, I walked out of the restaurant.
“Hoo...”
So this is what it feels like to crave a cigarette.
My first blind date had ended in disaster, leaving a bitter aftertaste. Despite the excellent meal, my mood had soured.
I figured it would be best to just go home, wash up, and sleep. Just as I was about to hail a taxi...
“Hey!!”
Choi Hyena, who seemed to have rushed out of the restaurant, was glaring at me.
“What.”
“You... you...!! How dare a pauper like you say such things to me!!”
Her face flushed red and her eyes murderous, Choi Hyena approached me, unable to hide her indignation.
“You'd better be prepared. From now on, you won't have a place to stand as a mage in this country. You should think...”
As she was spewing her venomous rage, Choi Hyena suddenly sensed something unusual.
And Kang Hyun-woo felt it too.
What the two talented mages felt at the same time was an abnormal sign from the mana, its source unknown.
The mana was trembling as if terrified of something, and both of them hastily tried to leave the area.
But in an instant, a massive, unidentified gate appeared, tearing through the empty air and swallowing them both.