# 30
“Guild Leader.”
“I’m really sorry. Well, when I heard there was talent for magic, I couldn’t help but be curious about what real magic was like. I only meant to look at the second floor, but before I knew it, I was on the third floor… I really didn’t go up there on purpose.”
Jin-ha looked at Seo Ji-seop with suspicion.
“It’s true, I swear. Don’t you know what kind of person I am?”
“What kind of person are you?”
“Someone who would never do anything that would get him in trouble with his wife.”
“…That’s… true.”
Seo Ji-seop was a man who prided himself on being an obedient husband after a whirlwind romance. He was also famous for being a devoted husband who unabashedly discussed this on broadcasts. It was said that his wife was actually embarrassed by this side of him.
“If my wife knew I did something dangerous, she’d half kill me. It’s only half because she knows it was a mistake. If I’d done it on purpose, I’d be completely dead.”
Seeing him solemnly discuss the degree of his own death, Jin-ha’s anger subsided. Yes, Ji-seop certainly wasn’t the type to carelessly break rules.
“From now on, please report promptly if anything happens.”
“Yes. I will, Officer.”
Jin-ha glared at Ji-seop, who was acting slick now that he knew he wouldn’t be scolded further, and said:
“So even the second floor isn’t completely safe. I’ll have to strictly warn the kids not to wander around.”
“I knew you’d say that, so I’ve already talked to them thoroughly. Don’t worry.”
“That’s very reassuring.”
Ji-seop’s expression showed confusion over whether Jin-ha’s words were sarcastic or sincere. Of course, they were sincere, but Jin-ha deliberately said nothing and changed the subject.
“But I wonder if the librarian will be any different. I’ve interviewed so many people and haven’t found any useful information.”
“Who knows. But I heard the librarian has worked here for a long time. They say he was here even when the Master entered as an apprentice magician, so it might be different.”
“…Alright. Let’s go then.”
Just as Jin-ha reluctantly agreed, Ji-seop suddenly spun around and hid Jin-ha behind his back. There was a flurry of movement in the air, and Legas appeared from behind the laundry hanging on a line.
He bowed politely to Jin-ha and smiled sweetly.
“I’m sorry, but student Seo Ji-seop needs to return to the classroom now. Since you’ve agreed to learn magic, shouldn’t you attend classes diligently? That is, if you don’t plan to skip entirely.”
Jin-ha stared at Legas for a moment, as if trying to read his intentions, then said to Ji-seop:
“…Go to class.”
“Hmm.”
Ji-seop groaned with a peculiar expression as he looked back and forth between the smiling Legas and the stern-faced Jin-ha.
“Hmm. I’d rather cooperate with Jin-ha than learn magic. Magic is just good to have, but this is work.”
“You’ll only be in the way if you stay.”
“I’m in the way?”
Ji-seop, who had opened his mouth in apparent shock, nodded with an “ah” as he saw Jin-ha’s irritated expression.
“I get it. That’s how it is. I’ll go, if that’s what you want.”
Pretending to be oblivious. Ji-seop wasn’t the type to not realize that Legas had come to chase him away. In fact, he clearly understood and had been trying to establish himself as Jin-ha’s protector.
As Ji-seop disappeared toward the tower, making exaggerated gestures as if keeping an eye on them, Jin-ha asked Legas:
“Do you really have to interfere like this?”
“I had no intention of making you uncomfortable, Mr. Lee Jin-ha.”
That might be true for Legas, but what about the man? Jin-ha irritably looked up toward the tower. The man was sitting on the railing at the top floor of the tall tower, looking down at them. Though he was too far away to see his expression clearly, somehow Jin-ha could read it. Whether it was a sneer or a satisfied smile, he couldn’t tell, but he was definitely smiling.
He had clearly sent Legas because he didn’t like the idea of Jin-ha getting help from others for the homework he had assigned. Go to class, he said. Legas’s excuse was too half-hearted. The man obviously wasn’t the type to care about such things.
Jin-ha quickly caught Legas as he was about to turn and leave, apparently considering his job done.
“My quick elimination from this game isn’t what you want either.”
“So?”
“Give me a hint, at least.”
Legas seemed to ponder for a moment before smiling sweetly and saying:
“Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
* * *
That wasn’t helpful at all.
Standing at the crossroads of being expelled from this world or not, and he says to just keep doing what I’m doing? What does that even mean? Could it be that as long as I struggle and make an effort, whatever I do is fine?
As his thoughts reached this point, Jin-ha let out a long sigh.
Maybe that was right. The man seemed to enjoy watching Jin-ha struggle. But the next moment, he could change his mind and dismiss everyone with a single gesture, the capricious man that he was.
“He’s a man who’ll do anything as long as it’s entertaining.”
Jin-ha muttered the same words over and over. If that was the case, he needed to make it entertaining as the man wanted. He had to show that he was trying his best. Only then, even if he failed to satisfy the man, would the man want to keep him around to watch.
His father’s documents depended on satisfying this man. It wasn’t forever. He just needed to endure and not get thrown out for three months. Jin-ha was prepared to do whatever it took until then.
Taking a deep breath, Jin-ha lifted his head.
“Let’s go to the library.”
This wasn’t a decision made simply because Ji-seop had suggested it earlier. The man enjoyed tormenting him. It was clear from seeing how he smiled gleefully at the sight of Jin-ha sighing and reluctantly doing things. So if he took risks to accomplish the assigned task, the man would surely find it entertaining.
Also, perhaps Legas’s words, “Just keep doing what you’re doing,” meant that he should proceed with his original plan to meet the librarian.
Jin-ha immediately entered the tower and asked for directions to the library. When one magician with an unfriendly attitude tried to ignore him, another magician from behind pushed the first one aside and stepped forward. Jin-ha wondered what was happening, then realized it was a familiar face—specifically, someone who had been dining at the restaurant when he had been covered in the Master’s pheromones.
Jin-ha pretended not to notice and quietly waited for directions.
“Would you prefer the safe route or the unsafe route?”
Jin-ha was about to ask why such a question was necessary when he saw something familiar in the magician’s demeanor—the look of a civil servant. He closed his mouth. The magician was desperately trying to avoid responsibility, afraid of being reprimanded from above later.
“The safe route.”
“The safe route requires a bit of a detour. Climb the stairs to the third floor, then follow the stone path to the right, and you’ll see the library. However, don’t go directly to the library; instead, take the ‘Corridor of History’ which is to its right.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t go to the library?”
“That’s the safe route. And from the third floor onward, we cannot guarantee your safety if you stray from the path. Please be careful.”
“Hmm. Yes, thank you.”
After politely thanking him, Jin-ha climbed to the third floor and followed the stone path as instructed. Only when he saw the library with his own eyes did he understand the meaning of those peculiar directions.
The library was sitting on a cloud. A massive library building was constructed on a cloud shaped like a sailing ship, and the stairs leading up to it were also made of clouds. Out of curiosity, Jin-ha gently kicked the stairs with his shoe, and the cloud scattered. Below was a bottomless cliff. Had he stepped on the stairs without thinking, he would surely have fallen.
The magicians used magic to walk up the stairs or flew directly to the library. Jin-ha, not being a magician, entered the safer Corridor of History.
The Corridor of History. As the name suggested, it was indeed a path documenting the history of the magic tower. The columns of the corridor, which stretched as far as the eye could see, were inscribed with the birth of the magic tower and the achievements of successive Masters, and even featured several portraits of each Master.
“What a nasty personality.”
Jin-ha muttered unconsciously, then startled himself and looked around. Fortunately, there was no one nearby.
But it was true, wasn’t it? The structure forced anyone seeking knowledge from the tower’s library to first walk through the entire history of the magic tower. In this world, those visiting the tower, especially the library, would never be commoners but surely nobles. To force nobles to walk such a path—whoever designed this had quite the personality.
While most would grimace and walk straight ahead, Jin-ha proceeded slowly, reading each inscription. The achievements of the person who built the Noon Moon Tower, what they accomplished after building it, and the footsteps of the successive Masters who followed.
Jin-ha, who had been walking slowly but steadily, stopped in front of a portrait of a woman.
“Senistre… Abon?”
Abon?
Finding an unexpected word in an unforeseen place, Jin-ha froze before it.
The name appearing after the first name meant it was a surname. And in the otherworld, surnames were usually the names of territories ruled by nobles.
So there existed a land called Abon in this world. Perhaps the land where his father was born and raised.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
