Chapter 49
#49. The Wrap-Up
We had expected our response to this isolated Gate to involve countless hunters and Mage Towers working together to establish a defensive line at the Gate’s entrance and deal with the magical beasts pouring out.
The reason we had expected that was simple.
It was the most conventional and efficient method, while also resulting in the fewest casualties.
The casualties in question did not mean ordinary civilians. To put it bluntly, this was an age in which the life of a single C-rank hunter was more valuable than the lives of dozens of ordinary people.
We had judged that no one would voluntarily enter a B-rank Gate, especially during a Break, under the pretext of being part of a rescue team.
That was what we had thought.
“You’re quite the romantic, aren’t you?”
A B-rank Gate was a high-level Gate known as the worst kind of disaster.
That was why I had never even imagined that someone would dare enter to rescue us.
‘...But if that someone is a Tower Master, that changes things.’
Her ash-gray hair, which seemed to flutter like volcanic ash, and her eyes, which looked as though they had been set with polished obsidian, called to mind someone no Korean could possibly fail to recognize.
She was Han Ra-el, Tower Master of the Gray Mage Tower, possibly one of the twelve strongest mages in the world and, at the same time, the strongest mage in South Korea.
The C-rank and C-minus-rank magical beasts gathered before the Gate, along with the occasional B-rank magical beast on Wendigo’s level, vanished in an instant.
There were no magical beast corpses left where Han Ra-el’s magic had passed. The snowfield, once pure white, had merely been stained gray as though everything had turned to ash.
That was the power of a seventh-circle mage. I had only glimpsed it for a moment, yet I could feel the overwhelming difference in level.
I realized that the difference between the second and seventh circles was not merely a matter of five numerical stages.
It was impossible even to estimate how powerful Iris, who was said to have reached the eighth circle, truly was.
‘...Once we get out of this prison, everything’s going to be swept away.’
I offered a silent prayer for Pelledia, which might soon become a sea of fire.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m sure I don’t need to introduce myself, do I?”
Han Ra-el, who had casually slaughtered dozens of magical beasts in an instant, extended her hand to me.
“Of course not. As a mage, there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize South Korea’s undisputed strongest mage.”
I had never imagined I would meet a Tower Master in person.
It was far beyond merely feeling amazed.
Was this how a graduate student felt when meeting someone who had won a Nobel Prize in their field?
I was dazed and delighted, but only for a moment.
‘I’m really going to die...’
Perhaps because I had used too much mana getting Choi Hye-na out, my physical condition was terrible.
I was in such bad shape that it would have been perfectly natural for me to collapse right then and there.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
The moment Han Ra-el’s finger touched the space between my brows, unbearable drowsiness descended upon me.
My consciousness began to fade.
“Leave the rest to me, and get some good sleep for now.”
Along with her gentle smile, my memory cut off there.
***
Han Ra-el looked down at the fallen Kang Hyeon-woo with cold eyes.
Her attitude was so frigid that she seemed like an entirely different person from moments ago, but it was certainly not because she found Kang Hyeon-woo displeasing.
If anything, this was Han Ra-el’s true nature.
A mask she had created solely to preserve the dignity of a Tower Master.
Now that she had no reason to keep wearing that troublesome mask, Han Ra-el cast aside her pretense and looked at Kang Hyeon-woo.
“So it’s true... The claim that he’s loved by mana wasn’t merely a figure of speech.”
He truly was loved by mana.
Affection, interest, and obsession were phenomena that should not have been observable in mana, which clearly possessed no self-awareness.
“Coming all the way here was worth it.”
Outside, countless citizens had been forced to evacuate because of the B-rank Gate that had appeared in the middle of the capital, while the Hunter Association had to cooperate with the Mage Towers to prepare for the disaster.
Even in such a serious situation, not a single one of the monsters that had made their nests in South Korea stepped forward.
They had never been the sort to move easily in the first place.
Whether it was for the public good or their own personal gain.
Han Ra-el was one of them. Between the work she had to handle as a Tower Master and the magic research she conducted personally, she would have needed ten bodies just to keep up. And yet she had gone beyond the Gate to rescue someone?
She had considered it more worthwhile to conduct magic research with that time.
She had neither the time nor the reason to take an interest in something as trivial as ‘volunteer work.’
What had brought her here despite that was the report Choi Yeong-ok had handed her.
A few days earlier, Choi Yeong-ok had visited her workshop and asked her to rescue her granddaughter and grandson-in-law. Of course, it had not been an appeal based solely on emotion.
In the meticulously prepared proposal, everything Han Ra-el could gain in return for helping with this matter had been neatly listed.
Aside from the various financial benefits, helping Choi Hye-na, the sole heir of the Seongbuk Choi family, would have been enough to put the family considerably in her debt, but that alone was insufficient.
It did not interest her.
A mage had to set emotion aside completely and always act after weighing the costs and benefits.
From that perspective, Choi Yeong-ok’s proposal was not particularly attractive to Han Ra-el.
As a mage who was supposed to review every proposal without emotion, Han Ra-el ironically rejected this one simply because it was not something capable of stirring her own emotions or interest.
However, Choi Yeong-ok was also a veteran mage who had experienced every kind of hardship. Perhaps anticipating that Han Ra-el would not be moved by the rewards listed in the proposal alone, she handed her another report.
Han Ra-el’s eyes changed from moment to moment as she skimmed through it.
-...Is this really true?
Even now, she could not easily forget the shock she had felt upon receiving that report.
He had formed a circle in a mere week and reached the second circle another week later? If this was true, it was an overwhelming achievement that would not be surpassed either in the past or the future.
Even the man called the first Tower Master could not have accomplished this. It was the moment her previously insufficient interest was finally satisfied.
“I was just running short on the mana stones of B-rank boss creatures. Perhaps sourcing them locally once in a while isn’t so bad.”
Stroking her treasured staff, Han Ra-el moved forward.
Faced with the indescribably overwhelming force of her mana, the Ice Golem rose to its full height, but what happened next was a foregone conclusion.
***
Ding—
“Huh?!”
I opened my eyes at the familiar notification sound ringing in my ear.
A pure-white ceiling greeted me.
“Where am I...”
The soft bed, the strange pads attached to my chest, and even the familiar hospital gown.
There was no doubt about it: I was in a hospital.
[Affinity Change]
[Choi Hye-na 70♡ → 85♡]
[Bond Level Change]
[Choi Hye-na Lv.2 → Lv.3]
“This isn’t even a dating sim. Why does it keep popping things like this up...”
I pushed the screen floating before my eyes to the side and lay back down on the bed.
For some reason, I couldn’t feel any strength in my body.
“My phone... isn’t here?”
I wanted to know why I was in the hospital, how much time had passed, and what had happened afterward, but my phone was nowhere to be seen.
Beep—
With no other choice, I pressed the call button to summon a nurse.
“Come to think of it, isn’t this too luxurious for a hospital room?”
I knew private rooms were expensive, but overall, this place was far too luxurious to call a hospital room.
The bed alone was so incredibly soft that I wanted to take it home with me.
Just as my body lacked strength, my head felt foggy and wouldn’t work properly either.
As I idly entertained one thought after another, I heard someone hurriedly running down the hallway in the distance.
The footsteps and presence gradually drew closer, and soon what appeared to be a doctor and several nurses opened the hospital-room door and entered.
“P-patient, are you awake??”
“Uh...”
I was bewildered.
I had expected only one nurse at most to come, but I had not expected a doctor and a whole group of nurses to rush in together.
I was still wondering what was going on when the doctor shone a flashlight into my eyes and checked the monitor connected to the pads on my body, moving around busily without even giving me a chance to ask anything.
I had no idea what the nurses were doing either, but they were running around and doing one thing or another.
“...Um, could someone explain what’s going on right now?”
I had no shortage of questions I wanted to ask right away: why had I woken up in a hospital, what had happened outside, and was Choi Hye-na safe?
“Ah, we’ve called your guardian, so please wait a moment.”
“My guardian...?”
The only person who could be considered my guardian was the Mother Superior. Was she really coming?
I had certainly planned to visit her as soon as I escaped the Gate, but I had not wanted to reunite with her like this.
At the very least, I had wanted to return in triumph wearing a neat suit and carrying gifts in both hands.
‘If she sees me in a hospital gown, she’ll be terribly worried...’
I was worrying that reuniting with the pathetic son who had barely contacted her in the years since moving out would drive a nail into the Mother Superior’s heart when—
Bang!
The hospital-room door was thrown open roughly, and a familiar face appeared.
“K-Kang Hyeon-woo!”
The flowing red hair, deep violet eyes, and even the full breasts I had touched so many times.
It was Choi Hye-na.
‘Why are you here?’
Well, I had more or less expected it, since the Mother Superior was not wealthy enough to pay for a room this luxurious.
Even so, I could not help feeling disappointed.
“Thank goodness...”
Choi Hye-na approached my side with tears glistening in her eyes.
Even from her disheveled hair alone, I could tell how hurriedly she had run here.
The sight of her gasping for breath was enough to make anyone mistake her for the heroine of a romance drama.
As Kang Hyeon-woo had expected, Choi Hye-na had barely slept or eaten over the past few days.
She had witnessed the moment Kang Hyeon-woo, who had stayed behind alone in the Gate to get her out, was carried away in an ambulance. How could she have rested peacefully by herself?
Every day had felt like swallowing a sharp needle.
When she heard that he had woken up, she was already running before she had time to think.
And there, in the hospital room, Kang Hyeon-woo was looking at her with his characteristically foolish expression.
“Are you all right? Does anything hurt?”
Choi Hye-na had completely forgotten that the doctor and nurses were there as she grabbed Kang Hyeon-woo’s wrist and checked his condition.
The doctor and nurses could only look fondly at the touching relationship between the two of them.
However, the atmosphere in the hospital room turned cold at Kang Hyeon-woo’s next words.
“Um, excuse me, who are you...?”
“...What?”
Choi Hye-na’s eyes trembled violently.
“Hey... don’t joke around...!”
“I-I’m serious. I don’t remember anything...”
It was not the rude, perverted voice and manner of speech Kang Hyeon-woo usually used.
At that moment, cases of people who had been exposed to highly concentrated mana and reduced to invalids came to Choi Hye-na’s mind.
She had heard that the symptoms usually afflicted ordinary people, but that lower-rank hunters who occasionally came into contact with high-ranking magical beasts could suffer such aftereffects as well.
Choi Hye-na took Kang Hyeon-woo’s hand with trembling fingers.
“Y-you really don’t remember anything...?”
“...No.”
Thump. It sounded as though something had fallen inside Choi Hye-na’s chest.
Her heart hurt terribly.
He had saved her life again and again, and in the end, he had even sacrificed himself for her.
When he came out of the Gate alive, she had been incredibly relieved. Although he had been taken away in an ambulance and had not opened his eyes for four days, she had been grateful simply that he was alive.
But what was this supposed to mean?
Amnesia...?!
For ordinary people, amnesia was already a tragic illness, but for a mage, it was effectively a declaration that they could no longer work as one.
“Could it be... are you my girlfriend... no, my wife?”
“Ah...”
Seeing the anxiety in Kang Hyeon-woo’s eyes, Choi Hye-na made a firm decision.
Yes, he had saved her life again and again.
A life-saving debt had to be repaid with one’s life.
Of course, she had no intention of giving up her life as a mage. There was something she had to accomplish even if she had to stake her life on it.
But that did not mean she couldn’t marry someone. As the sole heir of the Seongbuk Choi family, carrying on the family line was also her destiny.
With that in mind, she looked at Kang Hyeon-woo once more.
His appearance was ordinary, but he was tall. His talent as a mage was overwhelming enough to usher in a new heyday for the Seongbuk Choi family.
‘...Now that I look at him again, he’s not so bad-looking, either...?’
Of course, there was the issue that he was a little lewd, but any vigorous man in his twenties could be like that.
Her grandmother, an elder of the family, had recognized him as well, so there should be no problem with the marriage.
“That’s right! I’m Hyeon-woo’s wife...!”
“Um... are you the guardian?”
Clutching her heart, which felt as though it might burst at any moment, Choi Hye-na was about to proudly declare her resolve when an unexpected person stopped her.
He was the doctor in charge of Kang Hyeon-woo, as well as the hospital’s director.
“I’m sorry, but the patient is not suffering from amnesia.”
“...What?”
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Choi Hye-na stared blankly back and forth between the doctor and nurses before finally turning her gaze to Kang Hyeon-woo.
Kang Hyeon-woo was staring fixedly at something beyond the window, doing his best not to meet her eyes.
“...Sorry.”
At that single word, spoken without even looking at her, Choi Hye-na’s face turned as red as her hair.
Bang!
That day, the entire glass window of the VIP hospital room was blown out.
The witnesses’ statements that someone had fallen out of the hospital room along with the glass quietly faded away without any proper evidence to support them.