Chapter 33
#33. Blind Date
Worldwide, all children who reach the age of ten are required to undergo a mana test.
A mana test measures a person’s innate mana. If it exceeds a certain threshold, the child gains the option to enroll in the Magic Tower’s educational program.
Naturally, it was extremely rare for anyone to give up that opportunity. If their child became a mage, they might receive corporate sponsorship and completely turn their life around, so for commoner families, it was a more desperate hope than a lottery ticket whose winning date was unknown.
Of course, even wealthy families were not much different.
Even if their child failed to become a mage, getting acquainted at the educational program with someone who might become a mage in the future could lead to all sorts of business benefits later on, so it was only natural for parents to strive to send their children there.
Of all the children who entered the educational program with lofty dreams, only about 30 percent were able to enter the Magic Tower.
Moreover, even that 30 percent who managed to enter the Magic Tower could be expelled at any time if their supervising professor deemed them unsuitable.
It normally took the children who entered the Magic Tower around eight or nine years to build a mana circle, and roughly 40 percent managed to do so within that period.
About 30 percent built their mana circles later than that, while 29 percent were deemed unsuitable and expelled from the Magic Tower.
Even among the gifted children who had been screened and screened again, there was a particularly brilliant 1 percent.
They built their mana circles at a speed far surpassing that of their peers and would eventually become mages who represented their nations. They were the so-called geniuses.
And the Ashen Magic Tower had an unprecedented genius who had reached the Third Circle at the young age of twenty-one.
“Hello?”
She was Choi Hye-na of the Seongbuk Choi family, one of the three great mage clans in South Korea.
-Hello? My granddaughter?
“...What is it?”
Choi Hye-na began to feel irritated when her paternal grandmother called.
-Oh, my. I called because I wanted to hear my granddaughter’s voice, and you’re telling me to get to the point first? Isn’t that a little harsh??
“Then you’ve heard my voice, so are you satisfied? I’m hanging up.”
-Ah, ah!! W-wait a moment!!
As expected.
She wasn’t so free that she would call without having any reason.
The problem was that she always brought some troublesome and irritating matter with her.
Last time, she had brought up a marriage proposal from another mage clan.
‘I’m so busy with magical research that I could die. What do I need marriage for?’
Choi Hye-na, who had reached the Third Circle at the young age of twenty-one, had a lofty goal.
Someday, she would surpass the Master of the Ashen Magic Tower, who was called the next-generation Archmage, and reach the supreme realm of the Eighth Circle.
To do that, she could not stop researching magic for even a moment, and marriage was nothing but a waste of time.
-Would you perhaps go on a blind date?
“Haa...”
As expected.
Why was she always so predictable?
“Grandmother, I told you last time that I have no intention of doing anything like getting married...”
-Don’t be surprised when you hear this. He’s your age, but he’s already reached the Second Circle.
Thud. Choi Hye-na dropped her phone.
“...I’ll just look at his face.”
With an inscrutable expression that mixed suspicion and interest in equal measure, Choi Hye-na picked up her phone.
***
Beep-beep-beep-beep!! Beep-beep-beep-beep!!
A loud, irritating alarm rang out inside the cramped studio apartment.
“Ah... It’s fucking loud...”
This was the moment when Kang Hyeon-woo began to resent himself for setting the alarm before going to sleep.
Why had he set an alarm when he had no plans?
Kang Hyeon-woo rubbed his puffy eyes and struggled to get up.
A familiar screen floated before his eyes.
[Matching has ended]
[Affection Change]
[Cheon Yeo-hwa 0♡ → 87♡]
[Bond Level Change]
[Cheon Yeo-hwa Lv.0 → Lv.2]
[Settling the account…]
[500 Love Coins have been awarded]
[Remaining Coins: 1,700 Coins]
[Name: Cheon Yeo-hwa
Age: 20
Species: Human
Affiliation: AXZ-174
Occupation: Second Princess of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult
Disposition: cold, ruthless, calculating, devoted to true love (New!)
[Time Remaining Until Rematching: 122:49:45]
“...Has this been floating here all day since yesterday?”
Yesterday, after spending a wild night until dawn with Cheon Yeo-hwa, I returned home the moment the matching period ended.
As soon as I got home, I collapsed into sleep, as if knocked out by the exhaustion of two days of hiking and ejaculating five times in a row through the night.
“About... twenty hours?”
I really had slept a lot.
Still, I felt just as refreshed.
“They gave me 500 Coins this time.”
That was more than I had expected.
However, since the shop had not reset, I had nowhere in particular to spend them.
“Should I just save them for now? I might need them later.”
I put the screen away and headed for the bathroom.
I had no appointment, but there was somewhere I needed to go.
After washing up, I hailed a taxi.
“Please take me to the Ashen Magic Tower.”
Meeting Iris and Cheon Yeo-hwa had taught me something.
I was far too weak.
I had become the mage I had always dreamed of becoming and even reached the Second Circle, yet I could not defeat even the gatekeeper on the first floor of the underground dungeon.
Moreover, even Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had not been completely detoxified, was several times stronger than I was.
‘To help Iris escape from there, I’ll have to become much stronger than I am now.’
I also had to become stronger to protect Cheon Yeo-hwa from the assassins targeting her.
My immediate goal was the Third Circle.
To achieve it, I needed to meet Choi Yeong-ok again.
During my reunion with Iris last time, I had not even received a proper lesson. Besides, five days remained until rematching.
Entrance to the Magic Tower was still a full month away.
To reach the Third Circle, I needed to accumulate more knowledge. For that, I needed the help of a mage stronger than me.
‘I thought she was an unusual grandmother, but who would have guessed she was Choi Yeong-ok of the Seongbuk Choi family?’
The Seongbuk Choi family.
It was one of the three great mage clans in South Korea, a family that had produced numerous exceptional elemental mages and was known for its red hair.
That was also why people in Korea tried to avoid anyone with red hair.
As far as I knew, only one person could be the grandmother of a granddaughter from the Seongbuk Choi family.
‘The Crimson Flame Elementalist.’
I had once seen an article in an online community calling her a genius who had reached the Sixth Circle at the relatively young age of sixty.
What? Wasn’t sixty old? someone might ask, but even if one was being extremely generous, Choi Yeong-ok looked to be in her mid-forties.
Moreover, the denser one’s mana, the longer one’s lifespan, so as a Sixth-Circle mage, her lifespan should be at least twice that of an ordinary person.
‘Considering that some mages never even reach the Third Circle before they die, that’s quite an accomplishment.’
It was strange that someone like that wanted to match me with her granddaughter, but for someone aiming for the Third Circle, I could not ask for a better person.
“We’ve arrived.”
The Ashen Magic Tower was still crowded with people when I arrived after such a long time.
While I was waiting in the first-floor lobby, I spotted a familiar face in the distance.
“Grandson-in-law!”
“...”
The sudden appearance of a Sixth-Circle mage drew everyone’s attention in the first-floor lobby.
‘...Has that old hag gone insane?’
Many of the people who came to the Magic Tower on business were businesspeople, but there were occasionally reporters and people from the hunter industry as well.
And in front of all those people, the Crimson Flame Elementalist of the Seongbuk Choi family was looking for her granddaughter’s future husband?
It was only natural for everyone’s gaze to shift from Choi Yeong-ok to me.
As dozens of pairs of eyes turned toward me in an instant, a faint smile bloomed at the corner of Choi Yeong-ok’s mouth.
‘...I should have at least worn a mask and a hat.’
That old hag clearly wanted to announce to everyone that I was her granddaughter’s future husband.
Given the circumstances, that was probably the right conclusion, but even so, was there really any reason for the Seongbuk Choi family to go that far over someone like me?
There had to be so many better-qualified men. Why me, of all people?
I felt a little uneasy, but for now, I smiled and approached Choi Yeong-ok.
“I’m sorry I didn’t contact you.”
“It’s all right. It’s common for mages to go a month without contacting anyone when they’re focused on their work. Needless to say, the same applies when they’re advancing to a higher realm.”
Although she said that, Choi Yeong-ok looked at Kang Hyeon-woo with astonishment.
She had wondered if it might be true, but he had really reached the Second Circle. Moreover, his mana was considerably more stable than when she had met him last time.
‘That would be difficult unless he had undergone actual combat.’
Choi Yeong-ok smiled.
She felt that she had found an excellent grandson-in-law candidate.
“By the way, I didn’t expect our grandson-in-law to contact me first. Shall we go up to my workshop?”
***
Following Choi Yeong-ok, I arrived at her workshop on the fifty-fourth floor.
The enormous facility occupied an entire floor, and its sheer size drove home just how high Choi Yeong-ok’s standing was within the Magic Tower.
‘...It’s much cleaner than I expected.’
I had thought a mage’s workshop would be a mess of magical materials and research papers, but apart from machines whose purposes I could not identify scattered throughout the place, it looked like an ordinary office.
“That’s because this room also serves as a reception room. My main workshop is upstairs, you know?”
“...Yes?”
“I use both the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth floors.”
I could not help being astonished that Choi Yeong-ok casually used two entire floors of the Magic Tower, located on prime real estate in Seoul, as her private workshop.
‘I’m fucking jealous... I’m looking into loans because I don’t have enough for a jeonse deposit.’
As a mage, I could probably receive an enormous loan, but I could not compare that to the price of the Ashen Magic Tower or the wealth of the Seongbuk Choi family.
“Ah, of course, our grandson-in-law doesn’t need to worry about anything. I can support you with a private workshop as much as you like.”
“Oh.”
Being the grandson-in-law of a prestigious family might be much better than I had thought.
If the photo of her granddaughter I had seen last time had not been photoshopped so heavily that even her parents could not recognize her, I would welcome it wholeheartedly.
The only thing that made me hesitate was marriage.
“By the way, what brings our grandson-in-law here today?”
I bowed my head toward Choi Yeong-ok, who was sipping black tea.
“First of all, I would like to thank you properly for what you did last time.”
“Hmm? Ah.”
The news articles I had seen on the way in the taxi showed Councilman Jeon Jin-muk being pelted with rotten eggs by citizens, along with the backs of people from Jeon Hye-seong’s maternal family as they appeared at the prosecutors’ office.
“It was nothing worth worrying about.”
Choi Yeong-ok waved her hand as though it really had been nothing, but honestly, simultaneously bringing down a lawmaker and a family that wielded immense power in the same region could hardly be called nothing.
“And family shouldn’t bow their heads over such a trivial matter.”
“...But does your granddaughter know that she’s going on a blind date with me?”
Honestly, that was what I found most suspicious.
Was the eldest daughter of a family with wealth rivaling a chaebol and the prestigious bloodline of a mage clan really happy about going on a blind date with a war orphan like me?
Could anything be less plausible than this...?
“...She knows.”
She only knew about the arrangement. Somehow, I doubted she had agreed to go on a blind date.
Why could I already picture her throwing water in my face at the blind date?
I could only hope it was nothing more than my own overactive imagination.
“Ahem, ahem. So did you come today to thank me for what happened last time?”
“Ah, that’s part of it, but I have one more favor to ask.”
“A favor?”
Other than basic common magic, the magic I could currently use was elemental magic that dealt with fire and lightning.
Lightning was powerful, but it had the disadvantage of being difficult to control.
Fire, on the other hand, was not as powerful as lightning, but it boasted superior firepower compared to other elements while also being useful in a wide variety of situations.
“Could you teach me some magic?”
If I could handle the fire element more skillfully and use more spells, it felt as though I could see a path toward the Third Circle.