Editor: anuvrat
“Oh, I’m sorry to keep you waiting.”
The middle-aged man in a navy robe smiled and received a bundle from Ajin. Sake, the wizard who asked him to collect Hanemos flower. He said he was collecting it because of new magic he recently studied, as a member of the Rock School, which specializes in earth magic.
“No, it was a favor, so I will have to complete it till the end”
Ajin bowed his head with a human smile. Except logging out and sleeping for about three hours, he was investing all his time in First. For the last two days he pulled an all-nighter, he went to Sake several times and handed over the collected Hanemos flowers.
“I’ve been having a hard time lately as no one is bringing me Hanemos. I owe you a lot. Thank you very much.”
He continued to visit Sake, always bowing his head to show his respect. Thanks to that, Sake had become quite close to Ajin. Ajin cautiously opened his mouth as he watched Sake while holding his hands together.
Ajin cautiously asked, “By the way, if you don’t mind, may I ask you a question?”
Sake put on a puzzled look and smiled after a short while.
“I don’t know what you’re trying to ask, but don’t feel pressured. You’ve helped me a lot, so it doesn’t hurt if you ask me one question, right?”
That’s what Sake said, but Ajin hesitated. Looking at sulking Ajin, Sake tilted his head. He let go of Ajin’s hand and patted her shoulder.
“Okay young man, you’re timider of a man. Sounds like a pretty long story, would you like to go in and have a cup of tea?”
“Oh, yes, yes. Thank you.”
Ajin blurted those words while he cleared his voice. In response, Sake took Ajin to his home, tapping his shoulder a few times. Unlike Raconda’s house, which was likely to collapse immediately, Sake’s house was a neat two-story building.
“Are you living alone?”
“No, I have a daughter.”
Answering Ajin’s question, Sake opened the door and went in. The house was filled with the smell of medicine that he couldn’t distinguish. When Ajin coughed for a moment, Sake glanced back at Ajin, scratching his cheek.
“Well, I’m doing research here. The air is very different from the outside, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s all right. You don’t neglect to study magic after all.”
While holding the tip of his nose, Ajin uttered Sake smiled gleefully; No one hates praises.
“Huh, thanks for saying that. My daughter never wants to come out of her room because she doesn’t like this scent. She’s a heartless fellow who doesn’t appreciate his father’s heart.”
“I’m sure your daughter secretly respects you in her heart.”
Sake brought up the gossip about his daughter, but he doesn’t feel sympathetic about it for a bit. Rather, it is his desire to let his companion save face by letting it slip away words like that. Sake’s smile deepened at Ajin’s words.
“You’ve been like that since the first time I saw you, but the more you know something, the better you seem like it.”
Sake said so, guiding Ajin to the kitchen. He took out the prepared teacup and asked as he put it on the table.
“Do you prefer black tea?”
“It doesn’t really matter.”
At Ajin’s reply, Sake took off his robe, nodded his head, and put it on the vacant chair, and prepared for black tea. Ajin sat in his assigned seat, squinting his eyes and looking at his back.
“So, what kind of story are you going to talk about?”
Sake asked as he poured the prepared black tea into the glass. And with that question, Ajin shut up for a moment and organized his thoughts. While waiting in silence, Sake took a sip of tea.
“…in fact, I’m sorry to say this, but…”
Ajin hesitated and opened her mouth. In the beginning, Sake put down his teacup and looked at Ajin with a soft look. As Sake stroked his short beard with his hand, Ajin continued.
“…I want to know more about magic.”
“Huh, magic?”
When asked by Ajin, Sake was unexpectedly calm. With that remark, Ajin hesitated and nodded his head. He put his fist on the table and shivered slightly. He made his head drop and made his voice go hoarse.
“…I don’t know anything about magic. I’ve learned a lot of things. But… I’m curious and very much interested in magic, and I’ve always admired it.”
“Hmm…”
Seeing Ajin speaking in a trembling voice, Sake’s eyes narrowed down. Looking at Sake’s expression, Ajin recited his lines just as he thought.
“I know it’s hard to learn magic, and I also know that it requires talent. But it’s hard to learn magic at my age. I know.”
With Ajin’s murmur, Sake said nothing. Ajin continued to say.
“But I had a dream. I felt that I wanted to be a magician when I was collecting the Hanemos you asked me for. It’s like… it’s like I want to be a wizard. I feel like I’ve become a wizard when I was collecting materials for magic. Maybe I’m just drunk in stupid delusion…”
“…I-is that so?”
Sake murmured with a low sigh. Sake looked at Ajin with a sad look. As Ajin said, learning magic requires talent. But talent is not everything. To be a truly proper wizard, you need a teacher to lead the way.
“…and in the end, I couldn’t stand it and I ended up blabbering about it. I’m sorry.”
“No, you don’t have to say sorry. So… what do you really want?”
Sake asked while patting the teacup. Such a grumbling expression pertains to him having a request to give something to him. It was that kind of question that Ajin was waiting for.
“…Can you teach me some magic?”
“…Hmm…”
He sighed as if he did something embarrassing. Frankly speaking, he didn’t even want to say yes to him. However, he still attempted to do it. There’s a saying that there’s no tree that can’t be axed in the end. What Ajin is trying now is the first ax.
“I’m not begging you to take me as a disciple. I just want a small part of your knowledge. Could you please teach me…?”
Ajin looked up at Sake, lifting his bowed head. With an earnest look on his face, he rummaged through his arms and pulled out his purse and put it on the table.
“I’ve collected all the money that is from the hard work you’ve done for me so far. If this is going to cost me an educational fee… No, I’ll continue to collect Hanemos if you want.”
Sake didn’t answer and continued his perplexed face. He was in conflict, and Ajin noticed it.
“Or you could rather have me do chores. I’ll do all sorts of chores, clean this house over and over again.
Ajin shivered her shoulders lightly. He said and acted like that accordingly. He made it obvious for Sake and empathizes in a form of desperation. At first, Sake found him obviously pitiful. And so he aimed for it.
“Um… it’s such a sudden thing to say.”
Sake blurted out his words. Looking at it, Ajin decided it was time to step down. Appealing him with emotion was not a bad attempt. He was thinking about the timing of his action is not bad, and he thinks the favor with him is also good. However, if he insists on his desires unconditionally, it will be counterproductive.
“…Thank you very much. I think I gave it to you. I’m sorry to put you under pressure.”
Ajin bowed his head with a sad sigh. Shivering his shoulders, he shed a drop of tears. Seeing the tears dripping down the table, Ajin thought it was enough.
“…no, no. You must have been in a lot of trouble. Yeah, how about this one?”
Sake, who had been pondering for a while, uttered something.
“It’s true that I’ve been short-handed in my recent research. Not as a student, but would you like to work as my assistant to help me with my experiments for a while? I’ll give you the proper remuneration.”
All right, then.
Ajin thought.
“Well, are you sure about that?”
Ajin asked, lifting his head up sharply. At the question, Sake smiled and nodded his head. Then he reached out and tapped Ajin on his shoulder.
“I’m asking you because I thought of you as a trustworthy person. And Hans, the vigilante, told me that you’re a capable and hard-working man.”
Hans is a vigilante who commissioned Ajin to kill blue wolves. Ajin hid her smile. Doing what you ordered properly and always treating you politely makes this kind of rumor. Well, the results are satisfactory.
“So, be available around 2:00 pm tomorrow. Would you be able to do that?”
“Yes! Of course!”
Ajin smiled, bending around her eyes wet with tears. Sake grinned at Ajin’s face.
“Is it so good enough? Well, magic is a fascinating discipline. The passion for learning is beautiful, whoever has it.”
Sake nodded as he stroked his beard.
“I can’t make you my student right now, so you will be an assistant, but… If you do your job right, you never know. Even if you can’t be a student, I’ll write a recommendation letter to my school.”
“Thank you!”
Ajin bowed his head even more and there he goes. He grinned while his head was facing the floor. For this, he did not use energy drain when he have Hanemos on hand. Wandering through the forest for hours, he gathered Hanemos, and went back and forth in town many times, making Sake feel good about himself.
It took quite a while, but he is satisfied that he got the results he wanted. It takes too much preparation and it’s time to catch a big fish. Ajin then judged that the big fish took the bait.
‘A little more.’
Soon, he will be caught.
*
After finishing his conversation with Sake, Ajin went to Raconda’s house instead of returning to the forest. It’s already been two days since he first met her and was passed down the Heavenly Demon Arts. While gathering Hanemos and hunting blue wolves, Ajin raised his level and skills. His level was now 15. The Energy Drain has reached level 16, and he mana has reached level 7. The slow growth was inevitable because of the lack of resources.
‘Even the Heavenly Demon Arts isn’t climbing very well.’
Even if he is a good fighter, Ajin’s Heavenly Demon Arts still remained at the lowest level. He’d been using it for two days, but it only reached 40% proficiency. The strength is satisfactory, but slow growth is a bit painful.
“You’re late.”
Just in time, Heuk Seol Hyang was standing at the door smoking. She untied her tied hair and leaned her back against the closed door. As soon as Ajin saw Heuk Seol Hyang, he bowed his head deeply.
“Sorry, master.”
“You smell like reagents. Have you met Sake?”
She smells good. Ajin bowed his head more deeply toward the sour-faced Heuk Seol Hyang.
“Yes.”
“Hmp, I’m not so curious about what you talked about. But the smell you emit is offensive.”
As she said so, she opened the closed door and went inside.
“Take off your clothes and come back.”
As he closed the door and came inside, Ajin obeyed her order immediately. He took off all his clothes and was stark naked. Then he walked behind Heuk Seol Hyang, who walked ahead.
Her order to take off the clothes was degrading, but it was something that he had already gone through yesterday. Heuk Seol Hyang went into her room, and Ajin followed him without a word.
“Sit down.”
Sitting on the bed, he ordered Heuk Seol Hyang. In an instant, Ajin put down his undressed body and sat on the floor with his legs crossed.
Heuk Seol Hyang’s room was too common to think of as a woman’s room. The only furniture it has is a bed, a small table, a chair, and a wardrobe. There are no vases or frames. However, the walls were hung with a sword and a shaman’s robe that is colored in blue.
“It would be the same as yesterday. Are you used to the pain?”
“…not yet.”
Ajin answered in a low voice to the question of Heuk Seol Hyang. In a few moments, Heuk Seol Hyang rose and approached Ajin with a burst of laughter. She had a wry smile as she looked at Ajin’s body that has solid muscles.
“Well, it’s only been a day.”
After saying that, Heuk Seol Hyang went to Ajin’s back. As she stroked Ajin’s upright back, Heuk Seol Hyang whispered in his ear.
“Don’t scream just because you wanted to.”
In the end, Ajin’s body trembled as if he had been struck by lightning. Heuk Seol Hyang’s fingers are stuck in Ajin’s back.
Heuk Seol Hyang told him to come to visit her every day. When he first visited Heuk Seol Hyang yesterday, she forced Ajin to take off his clothes and sit down. And as she stroked his body with her fingers, she began to infuse air into the blocked blood and thin veins.
It does not help direct his internal growth, but it makes his movement faster and smoother, which was explained by Heuk Seol Hyang. As for Ajin, he had no reason to refuse. However, this shit hurt like hell.
“Are you sick?”
Heuk Seol Hyang whispered in Ajin’s ear. Hot breaths that made him feel strange wrapped into his ears, but Ajin couldn’t even get excited.
Because it really hurt like hell.