Chapter 50
#50. The Proposal
“Is there anywhere you’re feeling uncomfortable?”
“My head and solar plexus hurt so much.”
“That’s because your guardian hit you for about thirty minutes earlier.”
“...”
The doctor and nurse looked at me with pity, but I felt incredibly wronged.
Who could have expected Choi Hye-na to say she was my wife right then and there...?
“Let’s start with another thorough examination.”
“...Yes.”
I headed to the testing room with the nurse supporting me, and for a while, I had to go in and out of enormous machines while undergoing tests I had never even heard of before.
After undergoing tests for roughly an hour, I ran into Choi Hye-na again on the way to the consultation room, looking thoroughly sulky.
“...I’m sorry.”
“Hmph.”
Fortunately, no fists came flying this time.
Without another word, Choi Hye-na led the way into the consultation room, and from behind, she looked much the same as usual.
Only then could I relax and enter the consultation room.
“Thank you for your patience during the examination.”
A familiar doctor welcomed us as we entered the consultation room together in an awkward atmosphere.
Despite a friendly appearance, the doctor was actually the hospital director.
The foolish question of why someone like that was personally treating me disappeared the moment I thought about Choi Hye-na sitting beside me and the connections behind her.
“First, the reason you remained unconscious for four days after being rescued from the Gate seems to be that you used far too much mana in a short period.”
That was something I had expected too.
No matter how quickly I could replenish mana compared to other mages thanks to the app’s buff, my body’s durability was ultimately not much different from that of other mages.
Continuously recovering more than the proper amount of mana could actually be toxic.
“Would you take a look at this first?”
The doctor took something out of a drawer.
It was a blue model that looked like a nervous system.
“This is Kang Hyeon-woo’s mana circuit.”
“What the fuck? Give it back.”
Whack!
“I’m sorry. Could you continue?”
“A-ahem... The test results show that Kang Hyeon-woo’s mana circuit is considerably weakened overall. As I explained earlier, this is partly because you used such an enormous amount of mana in a short period, but since you also only recently became a mage, the fact that your mana circuit has not yet settled into place seems to have played a role as well.”
An X-ray image that looked like a scan of my body appeared on the monitor atop the desk.
“As you can see, your mana circuit is quite weakened, so it would be best if you refrained from using magic for the time being.”
“...”
“Answer him.”
“...Yes.”
I had no choice but to give in to Choi Hye-na’s threat.
If someone took magic away from a mage, what would I even have left?
I felt as though I had lost my identity.
“You don’t need to worry too much. You have excellent recuperative abilities, so your mana circuit will be even stronger than before after just one week. You can think of it as being similar to a newborn’s soft bones.”
After listening to the doctor’s not-particularly-helpful consolation, I left the consultation room.
Perhaps because it was the VIP ward, the hospital corridor was completely empty.
In an instant, it was just Choi Hye-na and me.
It felt as though the awkwardness had shot straight through the ceiling.
“...Don’t you have anything to say?”
Choi Hye-na was the first to break the silence.
“...Sorry?”
I quickly apologized first because if I got hit again, I felt like I would have to stay hospitalized for another week, but Choi Hye-na’s response was lukewarm.
As though that was not the reaction she wanted.
“Um... thank you?”
I had stayed luxuriously in a private room in the VIP ward and received treatment from the finest medical staff.
With my current bank balance, it was a luxury I could only afford by taking out a loan.
“...I’m leaving.”
“Huh?”
Choi Hye-na spoke in an extremely sulky voice, as though that was the wrong answer yet again, and simply left.
Even though my experience count was already three people and one spirit, I still couldn’t make heads or tails of women’s hearts.
***
Even after regaining consciousness, I couldn’t be discharged immediately.
The doctor had advised me to remain hospitalized for at least another week and monitor my condition, but I did not particularly mind.
For one thing, perhaps because it was a VIP ward, every nurse was exceptionally good-looking.
I had never flown on a major airline, but maybe its flight attendants looked this good? Thanks to them, getting injections and undergoing examinations was easy on the eyes.
Besides, the hospital’s facilities were practically on the level of a hotel, so I sometimes even thought that living here for a while might not be so bad.
While I was enjoying a rest that was no less luxurious than a staycation, someone came to visit me.
“I heard everything from Hye-na.”
It was Grandmother Choi Yeong-ok.
“Thank you sincerely for saving my granddaughter.”
I could feel that the unusually formal speech contained genuine respect for me rather than mere polite formalities.
“Yeah, well...”
I did not put on a show of humility by saying it had not been difficult or that I had merely done what anyone would have done.
It was an undeniable fact that I had gone through hell to save her, and I did not particularly want to diminish my own contribution in such a situation.
“After you’re discharged, would you come formally visit our family? We have many things prepared for our benefactor.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
After briefly saying what she had come to say, Grandmother Choi Yeong-ok left.
Was it out of consideration for the patient?
In any case, it seemed everyone who was going to visit had already come, so I decided to enjoy the rest of my staycation and lay down on the soft hospital bed.
The meals were also surprisingly satisfying for hospital food, and I felt good thinking that this lifestyle would continue for a while.
But my good mood was shattered the next day by an unexpected visitor who came to my hospital room.
“Good to see you?”
“...”
Han Ra-el, the Tower Master of the Gray Mage Tower, had come to see me.
“What brings the Tower Master here...?”
I was, after all, a mage affiliated with the Gray Mage Tower too.
It was like the head of a broadcasting station visiting a low-level staffer who had joined only a few days earlier because he had been hospitalized.
I couldn’t help swallowing hard and breaking into a cold sweat.
It was a conditioned reflex—instinct.
Besides, her dark eyes, which made it impossible to tell what she was thinking, only confused me further.
“What do you mean? Of course I came to visit you.”
Even though she knew that wasn’t what I was asking, she responded like that. I couldn’t decide whether to call her shameless or admire her as an excellent member of society who knew how to conceal her true objective.
“First, let me thank you.”
Even if I was flustered, I still had to do what needed to be done.
I bowed politely.
“If the Tower Master hadn’t helped me, I would probably have died there. Thank you so much.”
Of course, I could have escaped through the matching app.
If Han Ra-el had not saved me, I would probably have been in the underground dungeon by now, or beside Iris.
Of course, meeting Iris again after so long would certainly have been a good thing, but there was no telling how much time it would take to grow strong enough to clear a B-rank Gate under my own power.
With plenty to do on Earth already, there was no way I would welcome such a situation.
“You don’t need to worry about it. I was only doing a job, and I was paid for it.”
“Even so...”
“Now, now, don’t worry about it anymore! I even bought you some stamina-recovery potions on the way here.”
I accepted the box Han Ra-el handed me. I was just thinking that even a Tower Master bought Bacchus when visiting someone in the hospital, when—
...?”
The moment I checked the box and its contents, I could not help but doubt my own eyes.
“Um, Tower Master...? What is this...?”
“Hehe, it’s holy water I received from an acquaintance. A bishop made it personally, so I’m sure it will be effective.”
That wasn’t what I was asking about.
Why was there holy water inside the box she had handed me as if she were giving me Bacchus?
Holy water meant water imbued with divine power.
It was specialized in purifying evil things associated with demonic forces. If I had had even one bottle of holy water when Wendigo possessed Choi Hye-na, I could have driven Wendigo out of her body without having to endure a difficult night of sex.
‘She gave me something like this as a stamina-recovery potion?’
Yeah, it would recover my stamina!
It was water infused with the same divine power used to heal wounds, so it would have been stranger if it had no effect.
Besides, the stronger the divine power of the person who made holy water, the more its price skyrocketed. If a priest of bishop rank had made it, the price per bottle would surely be so high that it would be difficult even to mention it aloud.
“...”
Yet there were eight bottles of it.
Even if she was the Tower Master, a gift this extravagant for a mere hospital visit was bound to be burdensome, wasn’t it?
Yet the person who had given me the gift looked completely unconcerned.
“I’ll return this.”
I politely bowed and handed Han Ra-el the box containing the holy water.
The sweeter a fruit looks, the more danger follows.
To me, this looked less like a simple gift and more like a poisoned apple.
“You can accept it.”
“No, it’s far too generous a gift for me.”
“Hmm...”
Han Ra-el, who had received the returned gift, merely stared at me with an unreadable look and smile.
What was this? Was she giving me attitude because I had rejected her gift?
In a way, this was a gift from the company president. Even if it looked like a poisoned apple, was I supposed to accept it anyway?
‘...Should I take it back now?’
Aside from part-time jobs, I had never experienced much of a working life, so I had no idea.
“Then how about this?”
Just as I thought my tangled thoughts were about to explode, Han Ra-el handed me a sheet of paper.
I skimmed it, but no matter how I looked at it, it was a contract form.
“Actually, I’m interested in you, Hyeon-woo.”
“...I already have two girlfriends.”
“Really? But do you know this? The man many women covet is precisely the kind of man who is truly attractive.”
“...”
This woman was no ordinary person.
She never let herself be dragged along by the other person’s pace.
“Being in a romantic relationship with you wouldn’t be bad either, but what I’m proposing now is something else. Would you take a look at the contract?”
I looked over the contract again with a slightly uneasy feeling. It read as follows.
Han Ra-el (hereinafter referred to as ‘Party A’) and Kang Hyeon-woo (hereinafter referred to as ‘Party B’) enter into the following research cooperation agreement.
1. Contract period: From xxxx/xx/xx to xxxx/xx/xx.
2. Place of work: Han Ra-el’s private workshop (negotiable)
3. Duties: Physical examinations and research cooperation to determine the source of Party B’s special talent
4. Working hours: Subject to mutual agreement
5. Wages: Party A must accommodate Party B’s desired terms to the greatest extent possible.
·
·
·
“A research cooperation contract?”
“Why do you think I spent my precious time rescuing you?”
“...Wasn’t it because of Lady Choi Yeong-ok’s request?”
“Well, that did play a part, but I’ll say the decisive factor was that your actions so far piqued my interest.”
Han Ra-el handed me a document she had pulled out from somewhere.
It was my elementary school record.
“A child who was judged to have no talent whatsoever in the mana aptitude test taken in fifth grade has now, nine years later, formed a circle in just one week and reached the second circle another week later. Even a novel would be criticized for lacking plausibility if it were written like this, don’t you think?”
I had to admit that myself.
I thought so too, so imagine how it must look from the Tower Master’s perspective.
“What is it that you want?”
“Exactly what’s written in the contract.”
Han Ra-el handed me back the box of holy water I had given her.
“I want to study you, Hyeon-woo.”
So much so that I don’t care how.
Very rarely, a blush appeared on Han Ra-el’s face.