Chapter 88: LTNS
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 88: LTNS
Mages of the Magic Tower are graded based on their skill and accomplishments.
The grades range from 5th to 1st, and the financial support and treatment a mage receives from the Tower differ accordingly. Because of this, mages try their hardest to prove their worth.
Of course, it’s a well-known fact that effort doesn’t solve everything.
The world is full of geniuses, and one's own talent always feels lacking.
Even mages born as prodigies, blessed with more talent than the average person, come to realize this harsh reality upon graduating from the Magic Tower's training institute.
“I am Marna Hircus, a 1st Grade Alchemist of the Gray Magic Tower.”
The Magic Tower is an arena for geniuses. Those absurdly monstrous individuals who trample everyone with their overwhelming talent are called ‘1st Grade Mages’—a title filled with respect, reverence, and fear.
Within the Gray Magic Tower, there are only seven. Even expanding the scope to the entire world, their number doesn't reach one hundred.
That is what it means to be a 1st Grade Mage.
“M-Marna of Gold...?”
For once, Choi Hyena seemed flustered, her voice trembling.
Marna of Gold. It was a name anyone with even a passing interest in magic would know.
Alchemy was originally a field of study created to turn common metals into gold. And Marna of Gold was regarded as the one closest to the true essence of alchemy among all modern alchemists.
In just a few decades of activity, her alchemy had saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and she had made monumental contributions to Gate exploration that would go down in history.
“To be called that by you young ones... it's a little embarrassing.”
She was, without a doubt, the greatest and most widely recognized alchemist of the current era.
After hearing the confirmation from the woman herself, Choi Hyena whipped her head around to look at me. It was as if she were scolding me, saying, You should have told me we were coming to meet someone like her!
I felt it was unfair.
I hadn't known this shop was run by the Marna, either. I had simply asked Grandma Choi Young-ok to introduce me to a competent alchemist.
She could have given me a heads-up...
It was obvious she hadn't told me, expecting to see me surprised.
Sighing inwardly, I bowed politely.
“I am Kang Hyun-woo, a mage of the Magic Tower. I don't have a grade yet.”
“It’s an honor to meet you. I am Choi Hyena, a 4th Grade Elementalist of the Magic Tower.”
“Choi Hyena? By any chance, what is your relationship to Young-ok?”
“...She is my grandmother.”
At Choi Hyena’s answer, a glint of interest appeared in the woman’s half-lidded eyes.
“No wonder! I thought you resembled Young-ok in her youth. I never expected to meet her granddaughter here.”
Marna looked Choi Hyena up and down, a kind, friendly smile on her face. Isn't that the exact expression grandmothers have when their grandchildren visit during the holidays?
Of course, I had no memory of ever visiting my own grandmother for the holidays, but I could guess that much.
“Um... may I ask what your relationship is with my grandmother?”
“Are you curious?”
“...Yes.”
At Choi Hyena’s question, Marna closed her eyes as if reminiscing for a moment, a strange smile playing on her lips.
“To put it nicely, we were friends. To be frank, it was an ill-fated relationship.”
“An ill-fated one...?”
“You have no idea how cantankerous Young-ok was back then... She was my classmate, and she would pick a fight with me over every little thing just because my grade was higher than hers. I don't think I need to say more.”
“Ah...”
Suddenly learning of her grandmother’s colorful past, Choi Hyena’s face turned so pale it was noticeable even from where I stood.
“She once shot a barrage of Fireballs at a boy just for confessing to her, and another time she burned my workshop to the ground and ran away. Just thinking about it now makes me laugh dryly.”
What on earth did that old woman get up to in her youth?
These days, aside from being a bit playful, she was just a normal, good-natured grandmother.
“Don’t look so shocked, dear. We’ve been through thick and thin for decades, and I’ve had my moments too, like spiking Young-ok’s meals with laxatives every now and then.”
As the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. One thing was for sure: this grandmother wasn't normal either.
“Did you know? All the elixirs you took as a child were made by me.”
“R-Really?”
“Of course. I made elixirs for her granddaughter, but she wouldn't even let me see your face. I was dumbfounded at the time... but now I see you were worth hiding away.”
After that, Marna, delighted to have met her friend’s granddaughter, chatted away with Choi Hyena about this and that.
Choi Hyena, for her part, was palpably nervous in the presence of such a major figure from the Magic Tower, but there was nothing I could do to help.
“Twenty-one... the same age as my granddaughter. But to think you already have a man you’re going to marry. I’ve never been envious of Young-ok before, but I must admit, I’m a bit jealous now.”
“Th-That’s not it!”
“Oh? Is he your boyfriend, then?”
“N-Not that either...”
“What? So I was just a fling?”
I had been eavesdropping, and when the topic became rather interesting, I decided to chime in.
“I was serious, you know. Were you just planning to use me and throw me away?”
“No, th-that’s not it...”
Normally, she would have told me to stop talking nonsense and landed a straight punch to my gut, but there was an elder present she had to be mindful of.
Seeing her so flustered and at a loss for what to do, it was incredibly hard to hold back my laughter.
“Besides, in your belly right now is—”
“Eek!”
Choi Hyena scrambled to cover my mouth with both hands, glaring at me with trembling eyes.
I could feel the unspoken message: Please, just shut up.
Since I knew her pregnancy was a lie, her extreme reaction was understandable.
Someone of Marna’s caliber would surely know about the ‘Blessing of Infertility,’ and she would find it suspicious that a twenty-one-year-old like Choi Hyena was pregnant.
For Choi Hyena, me learning about the ‘Blessing of Infertility’ in the process of clearing up that suspicion would be an unwelcome situation. Furthermore, she wouldn't want the news of her fake pregnancy reaching her grandmother's ears.
It was the moment the power dynamic between us, which had been ambiguous until now, became crystal clear.
“Y-You, don’t you dare tell anyone else about that...”
With movements faster than when she was fleeing a magical beast, Choi Hyena pressed close to me and whispered, her voice too low for Marna to hear.
“Why not?”
“That’s...”
“Are you ashamed of me?”
I asked in a dejected tone, my voice lower than usual. Her eyes trembled even more violently than before.
I was just acting pitiful, but it seemed to be working.
“I just thought, since she’s your grandmother’s friend...”
Suddenly, Choi Hyena had become the bad guy, a woman too ashamed of her boyfriend to introduce him to others.
“That’s not what I meant...”
“So, is it okay if I tell her?”
Choi Hyena couldn't answer rashly.
A cold sweat was beading on her forehead; she seemed to be racking her brain for a way out of this situation.
It was the first time I'd seen her like this, and I couldn't help but find it a little funny. But honestly, I was also a little curious about what she would say.
Seeing as she even played the pregnancy card to keep me by her side, it was clear she had feelings for me, but that was just my speculation.
It might have been greedy of me, but I wanted a more definitive answer from her.
Like with Iris and Cheon Yeo-hwa.
“...kay.”
“Huh?”
“...It’s okay to tell her.”
Life, as they say, is not a novel where things unfold just as you wish.
“A fling...? What is that, dear?”
And yet, the answer that came from Choi Hyena's lips was exactly the development I had hoped for.
“I'm sorry, Hyena is just a bit shy, so I was teasing her a little. We're not officially dating yet, just in the process of getting to know each other.”
I wrapped an arm around Choi Hyena’s shoulders. She came into my embrace without any resistance. I smiled at her as I usually did and whispered in her ear again.
“I’ll let it slide this time.”
Only Marna, who couldn't hear my whisper, was able to wear a pleased smile, like a grandmother seeing her grandson with his girlfriend.
For a while, I held a sour-faced Choi Hyena and listened to stories about Marna and Grandma Choi Young-ok’s past. It wasn't that I wanted to listen, but it felt rude to cut off an elder mid-story, so I had no choice.
The trove of tales she shared included Grandma Choi Young-ok’s wild days.
Challenging a professor she disliked to a magic duel, getting bored and hunting down a wanted group of villains just to kill them all, and so on.
I had wondered who Choi Hyena took after, and now I had my answer.
“Could you keep it a secret from Young-ok that I told you all this? I’ve grown quite fond of this shop, and I’d be a little sad if it were to, say, catch fire in the middle of the night.”
“...Yes.”
“Anyway, you said you had a request for me?”
Finally, the conversation shifted to the topic I’d been waiting for.
“Do you happen to know about a poison called the ‘Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Flower Poison Lotus’?”
*
Bang. Leaving the rusty front door with its broken door closer behind me, I entered my familiar studio apartment and carelessly tossed my coat aside.
I’d taken out a loan for the jeonse deposit [a Korean housing lease system with a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent] and had a new place more or less picked out, but I wasn't spending much time on Earth, so I had no idea when I'd actually move.
“I can’t believe there’s a poison that even Marna doesn’t know about...”
I collapsed onto the old mattress.
The reason I had gone so far as to ask Grandma Choi Young-ok for an introduction to a competent alchemist was simple.
To create an antidote for the Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Flower Poison Lotus that was eating away at Cheon Yeo-hwa’s body.
Last time, thanks to the ‘Sweet Apple,’ I was able to suppress the poison in her body to some extent, but it wasn't a fundamental cure.
Even if divine power could neutralize the poison, I couldn't bring a priest back with me. For now, creating an antidote was the only solution.
However.
‘...I’m sorry, my boy. I’ve dealt with thousands of poisons and created hundreds of antidotes, but I’ve never heard of one called the Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Flower Poison Lotus.’
The result was that she didn't even know what kind of poison it was.
Of course, I had anticipated this. The world Cheon Yeo-hwa was from and Earth were completely different. It was entirely possible for poisons to exist there that hadn't been discovered here.
No, even if the same poison existed, there was no guarantee it would have the same name.
I couldn't rule out the possibility that it was a poison for which an antidote already existed on Earth, but was simply called by a different name.
“Still... it’s not a completely hopeless situation, is it?”
Fortunately, Marna had said she was willing to research and develop an antidote if I brought her a sample of Cheon Yeo-hwa’s blood.
For now, that promise was enough.
Moreover, based solely on the symptoms I described, Marna had given me enough neutralizer to last a few days. With this, there shouldn't be any problem for a while, even if Cheon Yeo-hwa has another attack.
“...Guess it’s about time to go.”
[Name: Cheon Yeo-hwa]
[Age: 20]
[Race: Human]
[Affiliation: AXZ-174]
[Occupation: Second Young Lady of the Heavenly Demonic Cult]
[Disposition: Cold, Cruel, Calculating, Devoted in Love]
[Rematch with Cheon Yeo-hwa?]
[Y/N]
I had planned to rest for a bit, but lying alone in the dark house, the desire to rest gradually faded.
My mind filled with the thought of wanting to see Cheon Yeo-hwa again, as soon as possible.
[Y]
Sunlight streamed through the slightly open flap of the tent.
Sensing a presence right beside me, I slowly sat up.
“Good morning, my dear.”
Her red eyes, which I hadn't seen in a long time, gazed at me, full of affection.