The Dragon and That Disease
Mages.
Strangely enough, the only humans in all of South Korea who could use magic—aside from Cha Siu the dragon—were Ha-yan and her mother. Looking at the entire planet, though, the numbers weren’t exactly small. They weren’t large either. Just enough, maybe, to barely scrape together a single society of their own.
When I first learned about that society, I was pretty stunned. With numbers that thin, I couldn’t figure out why they insisted on living so tightly hidden away. The fact that they had managed to build a functioning society with so few people was impressive enough. The fact that the entire society was pure, undiluted boomer energy shocked me even more.
So how could a dragon like me walk around right under their noses without getting found out?
Well… the magic they used looked, to my eyes, about as advanced as humans inventing the steam engine just to kick off the Industrial Revolution. If kids at that level watched me take a crystal-clear high-resolution photo on a smartphone and then insisted, “This isn’t a photo, it’s a painting,” would they have any way of proving it wasn’t? That was roughly the gap. Or maybe even wider.
Which meant that, in the mage society, my current position was something like this: the sole teacher of Korea’s only mage, the most senior recluse living among ordinary people, and a Great Mage of legendary stature. That about covered it.
Of course, people like them were never going to leave someone like me alone. And I had zero intention of just sitting still and taking whatever they threw at me.
Fwoosh!
I stepped onto the fixed teleportation circle installed in a quiet corner of the company basement. When I arrived, I found myself at the place that served as the central government—the absolute headquarters—of the mage world.
The location?
“Ugh, freezing. We’re right under the South Pole and the heaters are this pathetic?”
One kilometer beneath the South Pole itself.
I grumbled my way off the teleport pad and out of the building. A group of heavily bearded men who had clearly been waiting for me hurried over.
“You have arrived, O Noble One.”
“Ah, yeah, yeah. You called, so I came.”
“Haha. We are truly grateful that you answered such a sudden summons.”
“Right, right.”
In the world of mages, I was the kind of existence that had dropped out of the sky like a meteor—completely out of nowhere. On top of that, I had appeared in the absolute hinterlands of South Korea, taken the only mage girl in the country, and raised her so far beyond her peers that no one her age could even dream of catching up. Of course they were dying to figure out what I was.
Did I play along with that curiosity? Not a chance.
The first time those guys came into Korea trying to dig up my identity, they had basically threatened Ha-yan’s family while they investigated. My self-control had come within a hair’s breadth of snapping. Back then I hadn’t fully matured mentally yet; if Ha-yan hadn’t been there, I might really have wiped them all out.
With her family’s help I managed to cool my head and start thinking carefully. Unless I erased every single mage on the planet, this kind of thing would keep happening. And Ha-yan couldn’t completely cut herself off from the magical world either. I needed another “identity” I could hide behind—one that would carry absolute weight among them.
The identity I chose was simple.
“O Noble One, the reason we suddenly requested your presence is regarding a new magic circle we have been preparing—”
“Yeah, yeah, shut up for a second. Let’s just look at it. I’m going to end up rewriting the whole thing anyway, right? Last time you guys dragged me out here claiming you’d discovered some brand-new magic, and it turned out you couldn’t even decipher a basic household spell.”
“Ah—yes, sir! Right this way.”
An impossibly ancient Noble One who had been alive since the very moment magic first appeared in the world. That was the role. As far as they could tell, the sheer scale of my mana was beyond measurement, and there was no way for them to realize that the source of that mana was a dragon.
One more bonus: thanks to me, Ha-yan and her mother—who had suddenly gone from living in a magical backwater to receiving one-on-one private tutoring from the greatest living mage—now enjoyed a status in the magical world that practically scraped the heavens. Sure, some people probably found it annoying. But what exactly were they going to do about it?
I followed the old men into what looked like an ordinary office space. A magic circle had been drawn on the floor. Even at a glance it looked painfully crude.
I asked one of them,
“So what is this circle supposed to be?”
“Ah, we haven’t explained it yet, have we?”
One of the old men handed me a sheaf of documents.
The same people who insisted “A real mage must grow a beard and wear a coat!!” while perfectly using every modern convenience. That kind of irony was exactly why I couldn’t stand these guys.
I kept my poker face and accepted the papers.
And inside them was that content.
“You still can’t let this go, huh…”
I looked with pity at the row of old men standing in front of me like a string of sausages, their shiny scalps gleaming under the lights.
“Ahem…”
They coughed and carefully avoided my eyes.
“Uuuugh… why does it have to be just us?”
“Isn’t it better that there’s nobody else around? Should I take that as you wanting to show this look of yours to the whole world, Ha-yan? Want me to call my other girl friends over so they can take pictures—mmph!!”
“H-hey!! Th-that’s not what I meant! It’s embarrassing!!”
“Pfft! Embarrassing my foot. You’ve already shown Cha Siu everything. And if we’re going by that logic, what’s Choi Hoon over there?”
“H-Hoon is, like… just the NPC standing next to us…”
“Hey, come on. At least treat me like a player!!”
Choi Hoon, lounging on a sunbed in his swim trunks and sipping a tropical drink, protested with genuine injustice, but Do Ji-yeon and Lee Ha-yan completely ignored him.
They had been killing time at a café, but when there was still no sign of Cha Siu returning after a long while, they decided to head back to the hotel first. To achieve today’s “objective,” they needed to get back early anyway.
On the way, Ha-yan texted Siu that he should just come straight to the hotel.
Once they arrived, the real preparations began.
“Euuugh… I felt this last time too, but this swimsuit has way too little fabric. This is basically just…”
“Underwear? Seriously? By that logic, are most of the girls at every pool and beach just walking around in their underwear? Just put it on! Wear a hoodie over it if you have to.”
“F-fine…”
Ha-yan still felt uneasy about how little fabric there was, but she had come this far and had no intention of backing down now. She wanted to see Siu’s reaction—properly this time, with her own eyes—the same reaction he had shown before.
When she finished changing and stepped out, she shuffled over with tiny steps and plastered herself against Do Ji-yeon’s side.
Ji-yeon stared at her with pure disbelief.
“There’s nobody else here. Why do you keep doing that? The staff even cleared out and told us to use the place however we want.”
“I know, but… my body feels so empty…”
“Well, yeah, you’re wearing a bikini. It’s not supposed to cling like a rash guard. Honestly I’m more jealous of your body. I stuffed myself for two days straight and already feel bloated, but you look exactly the same.”
“Eh? Ehehe…”
Ha-yan couldn’t exactly say “because of magic,” so she just laughed awkwardly.
Some time later—
Ha-yan felt it instantly. The familiar mana of Cha Siu grumbling his way in through the hotel’s front entrance.
“Those damn old men. I wondered what kind of magic it was—turned out to be a hair-loss treatment circle. Just use illusion magic and walk around with a full head of hair already.”
Honestly, the best way to keep them from calling me again would have been to perfect the spell for them. But even I—a dragon who had supposedly mastered every magic in existence—did not know a single spell that could prevent or reverse the absolute curse that was male-pattern baldness.
I could reverse the scalp to a younger state with time magic, but that was something only I could pull off. Teaching high-level temporal magic to those old men? If they used it wrong, their entire bodies could explode from mana backlash.
The looks on their faces when I casually announced, “Yeah, this circle is unusable,” had been almost worth the trip.
After wrapping things up, I checked the text Ha-yan had sent. She was already at the hotel; I should just come there.
I teleported to an empty spot near the hotel, and Rhea’s mana-voice immediately reached me.
“Please steel your heart and head for the pool.”
“The pool? Out of nowhere?”
“Do not pretend you don’t know when you clearly do. And the moment you see Lady Ha-yan, please do not freeze like a statue and actually say something. Your girlfriend mustered up her courage to create a certain kind of atmosphere for you. If the man—no, the dragon—gives her nothing but lukewarm reactions, what is she supposed to think? It’s not as if you’ve been chewing on stone statues every day, yet your reactions are always the same—”
“Ah, enough. Shut up.”
I cut the mana connection with Rhea and headed straight for the pool.
My heart was already hammering like crazy.
I pushed open the door to the fairly large indoor pool, and—
“Ah, you’re here? Ehehe…”
“Oooh, he’s here, he’s here.”
“Ugh, seriously, Do Ji-yeon, can you just stay quiet for once?”
I completely ignored Choi Hoon and Do Ji-yeon hiding in the corner.
Right in front of me stood Ha-yan.
Snow-white, flawless skin that matched her name perfectly. Long jet-black hair pulled back into a tight high ponytail. A classic black bikini that showed off her slender waist, gently rounded chest, and long, elegant legs.
She looked half-embarrassed by the situation and half-flushed with the knowledge that she was finally showing me this side of herself. In that moment she looked exactly like an angel who had stepped down from heaven.
Remembering Rhea’s not-quite-advice, I opened my mouth without hesitation.
“You’re beautiful. So beautiful. And thank you.”
“Mmh? Ehehehe. M-me too!”
She buried her face against my chest out of sheer shyness, and I wrapped my arms tightly around her in return.
And with that, our private little pool party began.