Dragon and a Different Society
The third day of the Jeju Island school trip.
Having already checked off the biggest tourist spots—Hallasan, Udo, and Seongsan Ilchulbong—we decided to spend the entire day just eating and having fun.
Wasteful? What was there for me to waste? If I ever felt like it, I could bring Ha-yan back here anytime. Without spending a single won, no less.
Besides, after two days of running ourselves ragged, no one could complain if we took it easy today.
And this was a school trip we could run however we wanted.
I was the one footing the bill, after all.
Agreed?
"But this is something I absolutely had to eat!"
"There's a place right in front of our house that sells this…?"
"That's totally different! Siu, back when we went camping, didn't you say the ramen we ate outside tasted way better than usual?"
"I did?"
"It's that kind of thing~ That's what I'm saying!"
"Is it?"
Even if we'd agreed to take it easy, we couldn't exactly stay cooped up in the hotel all day.
We weren't allowed back inside during certain hours anyway, so we decided to stick close to the hotel and try out whatever activities we could find nearby.
Luckily, the five-star hotel I'd rented out entirely for this trip sat right in the middle of downtown Jeju, so that wasn't a problem either.
For the hours we had to be outside, we simply decided to walk around the city on foot.
Rhea, who had been acting as our driver, had already been briefed in advance, so there was nothing for the others to get suspicious about.
The first stop on our food tour was none other than a Jeju pork noodle soup binge.
Catching a whiff of the steaming pork noodles, Do Ji-yeon tilted her head slightly.
"People who hate the smell of meat might have a hard time with this."
"Like you'd care about that even one bit when you're eating."
"Why are you picking a fight now? Not that you're wrong."
Choi Hoon, looking thoroughly unimpressed, slurped up a mouthful of the broth steaming in front of him.
Do Ji-yeon and Ha-yan followed suit, each taking a bite of the pork noodles.
And their reactions were…
"It's pork noodle soup."
"Mm. Yeah."
"Noodles in pork broth."
"If you're going to react like that, why did you even want to eat it?"
Apparently the pork noodles were just that ordinary.
I'd only suggested coming here without much thought, so when the very people who'd been shouting "Pork noodles~~!!!" the loudest gave me those reactions, I was left more than a little speechless.
"Then hurry up and finish so we can go to a café with a nice view already."
"Yeah, yeah. That actually sounds better. Nothing particularly special about the flavor."
"It's not like this is some foreign country. We're still in Korea—food's going to be more or less the same wherever you go. Though I guess you can eat a lot of really fresh seafood here."
Ha-yan eventually conceded to my point and polished off the rest of her pork noodles without leaving a scrap.
They might not have been anything special, but pure taste-wise, they were still a perfectly solid bowl of noodles.
After quickly finishing lunch, we headed off to our next stop.
Having eaten our fill, what came next? Dessert, of course.
"This way! I scouted out a café before we even got here!"
"…If it's tanghulu, I'm killing you."
"I have zero intention of eating tanghulu after coming all the way to Jeju! And there aren't even any famous places for it here."
"Which means if there had been a famous one, you absolutely would have forced more tanghulu on us."
"…Probably?"
"You little—!"
We kept up that kind of pointless banter as we walked, but with the pleasant weather and even better company, our spirits were soaring.
A fun trip. Perfect weather. A gorgeous girlfriend. And, well… friends who were pretty great if you thought about it.
Could there be a better moment than this?
Of course, that was exactly when those clueless bastards had to show up. More precisely, some extremely annoying people reached me through Rhea with a mana voice transmission.
"Master. A message has arrived."
"…Right now?"
"Yes. Right now. They are requesting a prompt reply."
"These assholes seriously have no sense of timing."
Rhea's real-time mana voice made me scowl on the spot.
The one silver lining was that we'd already arrived at the café, so even if I stepped away for a bit, no one was likely to find it strange or suspicious.
Doing my best to hide my irritation, I walked up behind Ha-yan—who was sitting in a quiet corner of the café, happily fiddling with the necklace from yesterday—and pulled her straight into my arms.
She knew I was behind her, but she clearly hadn't expected sudden skinship like this. She jumped a little and asked,
"W-why all of a sudden? Did something weird happen?"
"Not weird, exactly. Well… maybe it is weird, depending on how you look at it. Either way, I need to recharge before I go."
"R-recharge? Hiek?"
I tightened my arms around her just a little more and topped up on pure Ha-yan essence.
When I didn't answer and simply kept holding her, she figured something was up and hugged me back just as tightly. Whenever I started clinging like this, it always meant that side of my life was calling. Ha-yan seemed to have already pieced it together.
"Mmm… yeah. This should be enough."
I took a few deep breaths against her, then stood up with a bright smile.
Ha-yan still looked a little confused about the whole situation, but she also seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the fact that I was clinging to her like this.
"But seriously, why the sudden hug? Don't tell me it's them again?"
"Yeah. It's them. I'm heading off to work for a bit. Rhea's calling."
"Rhea? About what? Didn't we agree she wouldn't call you for company stuff if she could help it?"
"It's not company stuff. Since I wasn't answering, they contacted her instead."
"Ah… so it's that side."
At my words, Ha-yan's expression instantly hardened.
Even though she was a mage herself, she knew all too well just how completely unhinged the people from that world could be.
I stroked her hair gently as I spoke.
"I'll be back before we even leave the café. Cover for me with the others, okay? If it's too much of a hassle, just use magic."
"Mm. No, I don't think I need to go that far. I'll handle it, so just go and come back soon."
"Okay. See you in a bit."
"Mm-hmm."
Giving Ha-yan one last wave, I cast teleport.
"Do these bastards have zero conscience? I already told them everything last time, didn't I? I gave them every scrap of data they asked for. I even hacked the school servers and handed over the entire school trip schedule. So why the hell are they pulling this now?"
The moment I arrived at the company, I poured out every last scrap of irritation that had been festering inside me.
Rhea, who had clearly been waiting for me, had gathered every single employee related to this matter—something she almost never did.
Which meant this was both important and a massive pain in the ass.
Even in that heavy atmosphere, Rhea spoke to me in her usual dry, blunt tone.
"What exactly did you expect from them, Master? Those people have only ever gotten in the way of you and Miss Ha-yan. Not once have they ever been helpful."
"That's exactly why I'm saying they have no conscience. Spreading rumors that I was some reclusive master hiding my true identity just so I could stay under the radar… and then every weirdo under the sun showed up in Korea looking for me, and I had to clean up that mess… Ugh, just thinking about it pisses me off…"
I changed my clothes with magic as I stepped into the elevator heading underground.
What I was wearing now was not a company suit.
Underneath I had on ordinary pants and a T-shirt, but over that I wore a long coat that looked like it had stepped straight out of a fantasy novel, and I even held a magic staff in one hand.
As the elevator descended, I stared blankly at my reflection in the wall and asked Rhea,
"No matter how many times I think about it, it's weird. How is it that these people's official outfits look exactly like the illustrations from novels?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Obvious?"
"The non-mages created that image first, so the mages simply went along with it. They form an entire society of mages, yet they still rely on ordinary people for almost everything. That about sums up their entire existence, doesn't it?"
"Right? No matter how I look at it, you're right."
Rhea and I continued that pointless conversation as we rode down to the company basement.
Once we arrived underground, the two of us entered a certain room tucked away in a corner of the vast facility.
Inside was a platform that looked almost like an altar, and I stepped onto it without hesitation.
"I'll wrap this up quick and come back, but if Ha-yan contacts you, let me know immediately. Got it?"
"Of course. Just try not to cause too much of a scene while you're there."
"Well… that depends entirely on how they behave."
And in the next instant, I transferred to another space entirely.
"Huh? Where's Cha Siu?"
"Ah. The group leaders said they needed to talk for a bit, so he stepped out."
"Seriously. If we're just going to free-roam like this, what's even the point of having group leaders? There are kids on the complete opposite side of Jeju."
"That's why he said they're just doing a group call."
"Tch. What a pain. Oh right, Ha-yan, you wanted decaf, yeah?"
"Mm-hmm. Thanks."
After Choi Hoon had disappeared for a moment, Do Ji-yeon and Choi Hoon returned with the drinks.
Lee Ha-yan casually fed them a version of the story that was just detailed enough for them to accept without question.
"But the more I think about it, Cha Siu is kind of weird, isn't he?"
"H-huh? W-weird? How?"
At Do Ji-yeon's words, Lee Ha-yan flinched like someone whose secret had just been poked and shot back a question.
Fortunately, Do Ji-yeon didn't seem to notice her reaction.
"I mean, think about it. The guy's ridiculously good-looking, studies well on top of that… and back in middle school, wasn't he always hanging around talking seriously with these tall, elegant older girls? There were a lot of weird little things. And isn't his family pretty loaded? Looking at the clothes he always wears, it sure seems that way."
"Ahahaha…"
Lee Ha-yan could only laugh awkwardly at that.
It was true that he had started creating Homunculi in earnest during middle school and built the investment firm with them around the same time.
The one saving grace was—
"Aigoo. And somehow our Ha-yan managed to snag a catch like that as a childhood friend! You lucky little treasure! The best! My little doll!!"
"Mmph!! W-wait a second!!"
"Ugh… so loud."
Do Ji-yeon couldn't have cared less about the strange things surrounding Cha Siu. She was a classic high school girl whose only real interest was the romantic front between the two of them.
As for Choi Hoon… well. He wasn't thinking about anything at all.