Chapter 43: Alcohol and Tobacco Are Nothing But Harmful (5)

The white magic tower stood with an elegant bearing.

At its highest floor, the old man let out another sigh today.

'So you're telling me my dream can never be realized.'

He was born with talent.

He'd heard the word "genius" until he was sick of it.

Whatever he set his mind to, he could accomplish with ease.

When he became Magic Tower Master at nineteen, he believed nothing was impossible for him.

That was when he shone most brilliantly.

The time when he believed he could accomplish anything.

But after 20 years devoted to systematizing magic.

In his middle-aged eyes approaching forty, all that could be found was deep resignation and powerlessness.

His face showed no vitality.

Dark circles and scraggly unshaven beard.

The Magic Tower Master had no choice but to admit it.

That he had wasted his life pursuing an impossible dream.

'Perhaps it was arrogance.'

For a human to try understanding the language of gods.

This was punishment for such presumptuous thoughts.

Despite decades spent researching the Rune Script, there had been no progress. After pouring his life into it, all he gained was the conclusion that such writing was not permitted to mere humans.

He could no longer persist stubbornly.

As White Magic Tower Master, he had a position of responsibility over everyone.

He should admit that what he'd been doing was like charging at windmills mistaken for giants. Just as he resolved to finally wake from this dream, that's when it happened.

Hurried footsteps approached.

A mage burst in without permission and shouted.

"S-someone has appeared who claims to have deciphered Rune Language!"

Someone saying they could fulfill his deepest wish had emerged.

But the White Magic Tower Master's face remained utterly calm.

It was obvious if you thought about it for a moment.

Each character had thousands of meanings. Moreover, when one character combined with others, those meanings changed again. The countless possibilities that derived from this.

What human could possibly fully comprehend writing that didn't even have consistent rules for reading order?

It was nonsense from someone trying to get funding.

The fact they chose Rune Language interpretation as bait made their intelligence level suspect.

'They should have made up something more plausible to be convincing.'

It was the kind of nonsense only a child would seriously claim.

Literally - only one little kid had ever spouted such far-fetched claims to his face.

'...That was over 10 years ago now, wasn't it.'

The golden-eyed child who knocked on the White Magic Tower's door.

He remembered a boy spouting strange things.

-Let's make a deal. I'll tell you the essence of magic. In exchange, help me increase my magical power somehow.

Shabby clothes.

A slum kid addressing the Tower Master.

But unlike other nobles, he didn't strike the child. He rather liked children after all.

A face that would surely break many women's hearts when he grew up.

While patting the sharp-eyed boy's head, he gave advice meant to help.

Sorry, but give up on your dreams.

Your constitution is hopelessly terrible.

You'd be better off finding a path other than becoming a mage.

Unless you reincarnated as a dragon, there was no solution.

Hearing this, the kid frowned in frustration.

-Then at least pass these spells on to future generations.

Meteor - endlessly firing a meteor shower.

A sealing technique that cuts and freezes the target's time.

A heaven-defying formula that reads and changes one's fate.

What the kid described were childish delusions.

-The last one's still incomplete, but I'm starting to get the hang of Rune Script, so it should all be finished in 2-3 months.

He even declared mastery of the Rune Script.

Don't joke around too much in front of adults. The kid got angry at that and insisted it wasn't a lie.

Rune Script was just another language after all.

He said he quickly got the hang of it after encountering it a few times.

There was no greater nonsense than this nonsense.

He wasn't someone with time to waste either.

If those were real spells, prove it by actually using one. After shutting the kid up with those words, he gave him some candy money and sent him away.

'I'd forgotten about that for a long time.'

To think another person spouting such nonsense would appear.

While the scammer with the same intellectual level as an eight-year-old was certainly pathetic. More worrying was his junior who urgently brought this rumor believing it to be true.

"Your problem is being too naive. How can you just blindly believe rumors like this?"

The subordinate mage was still making a fuss.

He said this while patting the young man's shoulder.

"But it's real this time! You wouldn't know since you've been holed up with research, but that new professor is so famous..."

A warrior who reached the realm of Heart-Sword.

An educator who trained two Sword Masters.

A prodigy who could even unleash the great magic Meteor.

His worry only grew with each explanation.

To truly believe such boasting, it seemed he would be thoroughly deceived by this scammer.

He needed to quickly bring him to his senses.

Making that judgment, the Tower Master immediately accepted a notebook titled 'Interpretation and Usage of 9 Basic Rune Characters'.

They said it was a student's memo that leaked by chance.

Half-listening to that, he tried actually using the Rune Script arranged as written in the notes.

Sure enough, the formula he drew was executed flawlessly, beyond perfect to the point of being beautiful.

"...?"

His face filled with confusion for a moment.

But no matter how many times he tried, the result remained the same.

While the theory written in the notes was profound beyond even his comprehension. Every example given was being perfectly implemented without the slightest error.

And there was only one thing this fact proved.

The person who wrote this document had understood it.

The divine language not permitted to mere humans.

His hands began trembling involuntarily. His legs shook.

The Tower Master urgently asked who this professor was.

Soon he heard the name of a man called "Ryan".

But why was this happening?

That name gave him a sense of déjà vu.

He snatched the newspaper about Ryan from his junior.

What soon entered his view was a handsome young man with striking white hair and golden eyes. It was unmistakably that little kid grown up into an adult.

He was struck speechless for a moment.

This couldn't possibly be mere coincidence.

How could it be coincidence that the kid who claimed to intuitively understand Rune Script was now achieving such results?

The child had truly touched the language of gods.

At that age, he had single-handedly surpassed humanity's accumulated history.

And that genius had clearly stated.

That he would reveal the essence of magic. That he would pass on the unique formulas he had devised.

The one who rejected that was none other than the Tower Master himself.

He frantically searched through his drawers. But of course he wouldn't have recorded a child's nonsense. It was impossible to recall words he had only half-listened to.

The Tower Master's face filled with despair.

Of course, he had some conscience. He knew he was the cause of this terrible situation for kicking away the fortune that came to him and not accepting the boy into the White Magic Tower.

But in the end, he too was only human.

The person who used to desperately approach him was now completely won over by the Primordial Dragon's massive backing, grinning without even glancing his way.

There was no way he could maintain composure in that situation.

The most unsightly emotions boiled up.

Regret, devastation, and obsession. What someone dominated by those emotions would do was all too obvious.

The middle-aged man moved with a grave expression.

To beg "I was wrong so please come back to our tower" while clinging to Ryan's pant leg.

*****

When I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar ceiling.

But the sensation I felt was not familiar at all.

For some reason I was lying down with only my top off.

The fact that I, a Korean, was lying in bed with shoes on proved I had gotten completely wasted last night.

'The film's completely cut off.'

I couldn't remember what had happened at all.

My head was throbbing and I felt like I could throw up any moment.

Where on earth did I put my dress shirt?

No matter how much I searched the floor, I couldn't find the clothes, so I just pulled out some casual wear from the closet to put on.

Already half-asleep and hungover on top of that - I was dying here. Just as I was contemplating how to cure this hangover.

...I heard sounds.

A noisy commotion filtered in from beyond the door.

What in the world was happening outside?

When I opened the door, I saw countless people.

People who looked like reporters came running toward me.

The flashing lights hurt my eyes.

While I was momentarily taken aback, a smile soon spread across my face as I grasped the situation.

The scene unfolding before me now.

There was only one thing it could mean.

'...I finally did it!'

For people to be making such a fuss.

Though I didn't know what exactly, I must have caused quite an incident.