Lee Gitae (2)
“Be quiet.”
Valter stopped them.
“He’s being treated right now. Don’t interfere.”
Lia, Alberte, Sophia, and Carlos entered the treatment room. Roimdel followed in behind them.
The moment Sophia saw Grace lying on the treatment bed, she burst into tears.
His face was colorless, his breathing shallow, his body wrapped in silvery mana.
“How bad is it? How bad is he?”
Alberte asked in a trembling voice.
“Two major mana circuits are severed, and six more are half-shattered. There are thousands of tiny cracks…”
Valter answered in a heavy voice.
“Then… then…”
Lia’s face grew even paler.
“It’s too early to give up.”
Roimdel said, looking toward Arkanus.
“Lord Arkanus himself is treating him, after all. He’s the empire’s greatest healing mage…”
“But I can’t promise anything.”
Arkanus said with his eyes open.
His hands were still resting on Grace’s body, and silver mana continued to flow from them.
“Now we move on to the second phase.”
He closed his eyes again and focused.
The second phase. Sealing the half-shattered circuits.
That was no easy task either.
If mana was forced through a circuit that was already half-cut, the remaining half could break apart entirely.
Carefully…
Arkanus began with the least damaged circuit.
He drew out the silver mana as thin as thread and slowly stitched the shattered section back together.
Crackle—
It happened as he was sealing the third circuit.
Crack—!
Suddenly, a crack began to spread through another adjacent circuit.
“Ghk…!”
Sweat poured more heavily down Arkanus’s brow.
A chain reaction…!
As one circuit was repaired, the strain was being transferred to the others.
Like fixing one pillar in a collapsing building only to see cracks spread through the next.
“Damn it…”
Arkanus cursed under his breath. If a 7th-circle grand mage was cursing, then the situation was truly dire.
“Lord Arkanus…”
Roimdel murmured, his expression uneasy.
Five hours passed.
Arkanus barely managed to seal the six shattered circuits. But his face had gone pale.
“Now… the last part.”
The two major circuits that had been completely severed.
Those were the biggest problem.
Major circuits were like the heart of a mage. If they were severed, mana circulation itself became impossible.
Arkanus drew in a deep breath and pulled up the remaining mana.
I’ll pour everything into this…!
The silver mana shone even more intensely.
He found the two ends of the severed circuit and began to reconnect them with painstaking care.
Crackle, crackle—
About an hour passed.
The first major circuit was about 70 percent rejoined.
That was when it happened.
Kwaaa—!
A violent surge of mana suddenly burst from Grace’s body.
“Ugh!”
Arkanus was shoved backward.
“Lord Arkanus!”
Valter rushed over and caught him.
“I’m fine…”
Arkanus rose with a rough exhale. But his hand was trembling.
“What… is happening?”
Roimdel asked urgently.
“His body… is rejecting it.”
Arkanus said grimly.
“Rejecting it?”
“The circuits have taken shape, but more precisely… any further outside mana interference is being recognized as an invasion, and his body is triggering a rejection response. From here on, unless it’s his own mana, the circuits won’t bind together.”
He looked down at Grace and let out a long breath.
“Then… what happens now?”
Lia asked in a shaking voice.
“…”
Arkanus fell silent for a moment.
“What? What happens now? Tower Master… please save him. Please.”
“He’s already passed the limit. With only the 70 percent restored circuits, it’s possible to keep him alive. But… to wake his consciousness, we need to restore the remaining 30 percent and the second major circuit. That… can’t be done by outside force.”
“By outside force?”
Alberte repeated.
“It means Grace has to recover on his own.”
Arkanus continued slowly.
“Mana circuits can only be fully regenerated by the mage’s own mana. Or with healing magic…”
He trailed off.
“Healing magic?”
“No, never mind. In any case, this is as far as I can go. The rest… depends on Grace himself.”
“Then… how long will it take?”
Carlos asked carefully.
“I don’t know.”
Arkanus answered honestly.
“It could take a month. It could take a year. Or…”
He let the sentence hang.
“Are you saying he might never wake up?”
Roimdel asked in a low voice.
“…I can’t rule that out.”
At Arkanus’s answer, Sophia burst into tears again.
“No… Tower Master…”
Lia held Sophia close and began to cry as well.
Alberte and Carlos only stood there, fists clenched, staring wordlessly at Grace.
“But.”
Arkanus spoke again.
“Grace is a strong young man. He’s the one who pulled off that insane Complex Fusion, wasn’t he? I believe he’ll wake up on his own.”
His voice carried certainty.
“All we can do now is wait. And…”
Arkanus looked around at the disciples.
“Protect the Fusion Magic Tower. We can’t let the tower master return to find it collapsing around him, can we?”
A month passed.
Grace still hadn’t awakened.
Every day, they checked his condition in the special treatment room at the imperial palace, but nothing changed. He remained in a stable state—nothing more.
Lia and the disciples took turns standing guard in the treatment room. Not a single day passed without someone keeping watch beside Grace.
“Tower Master…”
Lia said quietly, holding Grace’s hand.
“Please wake up. The tower… the tower is running well. Chief Alberte has taken over as acting tower master, and we’re all doing our best.”
There was no answer.
“Chief Roimdel comes often too. He says he’s checking on your condition… and Chief Valter came by once as well. Everyone is worried about you.”
Lia’s voice trembled.
“So… please come back. You said you couldn’t do without us. But if you’re not here… what are we supposed to do?”
Tears slipped down Lia’s cheeks.
Then the treatment room door opened, and Alberte walked in.
“Lia, it’s time for your shift to end.”
“...Yes.”
Lia slowly stood up. But she couldn’t let go of Grace’s hand, and she hesitated.
“It’s all right. I’ll stay here.”
Alberte said, patting her shoulder.
“The tower master will wake up. I’m sure of it.”
“...Yes. He will.”
Lia nodded and left the room.
Alberte sat down in the chair beside Grace and took out a small book.
“Tower Master, today I’ll read you a new paper on mana circulation. I thought you might like it.”
He opened the book quietly and began to read.
In the silence of the treatment room, only Alberte’s low voice echoed.
Two months passed.
There was still no change.
Even Arkanus had begun to shake his head.
“For unconsciousness to last this long… it isn’t a good sign.”
By the third month, exhaustion was plain on the disciples’ faces.
But they didn’t give up. They kept the treatment room under watch in rotating shifts, every day, waiting for Grace to wake.
“Tower Master… winter will be here soon.”
Sophia said, looking out the window.
“When the first snow falls… I believe you’ll wake up.”
By the fourth month, the first snow had fallen.
But Grace still hadn’t awakened.
I dreamed a long dream.
Memories of living as Lee Gitae, a young man in Korea.
Days spent staring only at the screen in a cramped goshiwon room. Time wasted burying myself in games, turning my back on reality.
The self who kept failing interviews, getting fired from part-time jobs, and drifting farther and farther away from society.
The scene in the dream changed.
“Would you like a receipt?”
The convenience store clerk spoke to me.
“No.”
The dream version of me, Lee Gitae, answered briefly while averting his eyes. Even meeting the clerk’s gaze felt uncomfortable.
On the way back to the goshiwon with cup ramen and a triangle kimbap in hand, it felt as if everyone on the street was laughing at me.
He’s still unemployed at that age.
A loser wasting his parents’ money.
Nobody had said those things, and yet I kept hearing them in my head.
When I opened the goshiwon door and stepped inside, the cramped two-pyeong space welcomed me.
A bed, a desk, and a computer. That was all.
“Haa…”
I sighed and turned on the computer. Reality was suffocating, but inside a game, I could still be strong.
My phone rang.
Mom
I didn’t answer. It would only be more nagging. Asking how long I was going to live like this, telling me to find even a part-time job, please.
But I couldn’t go out. Facing people terrified me.
Going to interviews, even interviewing for part-time jobs—everything about it was frightening.
I’d just fail anyway.
What could I even do?
Excuses. Running away. I knew it.
So I spent each day filling myself with games.
Why did I live like that?
I asked myself in the dream.
Why did I do nothing? Why did I run away?
I already knew the answer.
Because I was scared.
I feared failure. I hated rejection. I didn’t want to face my own incompetence.
So I ran into games.
In a virtual world, failure could always be restarted. Rejection didn’t hurt there.
“I never mixed.”
My voice rang out in the darkness.
“With society, with other people, with reality…”
I had always been alone. I had isolated myself.
I resented the world, saying no one understood me and the world was unfair.
But the truth was different.
I had never tried to be understood. I had never even tried to enter the world. I had stayed separate, like oil and water.
“But here…”
Memories of the life I’d lived as Grace flashed past.
The moment I debated magic fusion with Roimdel. The time I built a magic circle together with my disciples. The instant I risked my life to protect the Vilheim Magic Tower.
For the first time, I mixed with others. I became one with them.
I built magic circles together with my disciples, and I protected the Vilheim Magic Tower with Roimdel in a single shared purpose.
I saved the Crown Magic Tower and its mages.
I wasn’t alone anymore.
Fusion…
The word echoed in my mind.
It wasn’t only the fusion of magic. It was the fusion of people with people. Of will with will. Of purpose with action.
Something I could never do in Korea. Something that had never mixed there, like oil and water.
Here, I could do it.
Was being granted the trait of the Mage of Fusion a sign that I was meant to fuse myself with the people of this world into one will?
That realization became clearer and clearer in the dream.
Fusion wasn’t just about mixing spells.
It was like different attributes becoming one—different people moving toward a single goal.
That was true fusion.
Lee Gitae had lived his whole life alone. He had never mixed with the world.
But Grace was different.
He had been with his disciples, had joined hands with Roimdel, had aligned his will with Valter.
I have to go back now…
There were people waiting for me. The people I had fused with, my disciples, my comrades.
I have to wake up.