# 44
As Riyekan casually tucked his still-hard dick back into his pants despite having already climaxed once, Jin-ha stood before him trying to say something.
Jin-ha was terrified at the sight. He couldn’t bear it anymore. This heat, Riyekan’s actions, all of it stripped away Jin-ha’s reason.
Shame, anger, and fear rushed in all at once. Confusion about what had just happened, self-loathing for having contributed to this act despite not being forced, and above all, an inexplicable fear stemming from the fact that he had become aroused himself—these feelings consumed him.
So Jin-ha fled.
“Haa… haa…”
He ran mindlessly. Bookshelves quickly receded behind him as he turned corner after corner. Perhaps he was just circling around the maze. But he had no mental capacity to rationally gauge his path.
After running for a long time, Jin-ha finally found the birdcage and ran toward it with joy as if he’d discovered a lifeline.
“H-how do I do this?”
Whether coming or going, Legas or Riyekan had always been with him. The door had always opened automatically at those times, but now there was no response.
Jin-ha grabbed the densely arranged bars, shook them, and then struck them irritably with a bang.
This was a magic tower. Just as the corridor had reacted to Legas’s magic to reveal the path, the birdcage would be the same. Jin-ha recalled what form of magical pattern he had seen under Legas’s feet. The vague form of the pattern came to mind.
But even when he tried to release his magic outside his body, it merely scattered in the air without maintaining a proper form. This was natural. After all, in this world, a mage was defined as someone who could manipulate the form of magic outside their body.
Jin-ha couldn’t suddenly accomplish what talented children hadn’t managed despite training every day.
“No. Maybe if I had an artifact…”
That’s when it happened.
A strange wind blew from behind him. No, it was something formless rather than wind. Jin-ha instinctively recognized it as Riyekan’s magic.
The bookshelves that had formed a winding path moved aside with a rumble. Riyekan was walking down the straight path that had been revealed.
He was the normal Riyekan, properly dressed with rings, necklaces, and other accessories. He was composed as if what had happened earlier didn’t exist.
Jin-ha leaned against the iron bars and warily watched as the man gradually approached.
“Jin-ha.”
Coming right up to him and calling his name, Riyekan reached out with slow movements like someone handling a wild animal. His hand gripped the iron bars right next to Jin-ha’s head and infused them with magic.
With a soft sound, the area behind Jin-ha opened. Despite this, Jin-ha remained frozen in place, and Riyekan leaned down to whisper in his ear.
“Go ahead, you can run away.”
At those words, Jin-ha hesitantly took a step back. The birdcage door closed through the gap that had opened between them.
Through the bars of the birdcage as it gradually descended, Riyekan slightly raised his hand and waved in greeting. His eyes were smiling.
When the birdcage had descended further and Riyekan’s figure had completely disappeared, Jin-ha slumped down.
* * *
The moment the birdcage door opened upon reaching the second floor, the gazes of all the mages around poured onto him. But Jin-ha had no time to care about such things.
He ran and ran again.
Even after descending to the first floor through the central staircase, he continued running without stopping. In doing so, he completely failed to notice that behind him, mages were losing consciousness or staggering and sitting down.
He no longer knew what he was running from.
Anyway, what mattered most was being alone right now.
“Jin-ha, why are you so late… Jin-ha?”
Bang!
As the door closed roughly, Seo Ji-seop, who had been following, stood hesitantly in front of the door. Jin-ha leaned his back against the door, slumped down, and panted before taking off his stuffy suit jacket and throwing it away. Next was the lower part. He gripped his pants buckle, gritted his teeth, and waited until he heard Seo Ji-seop’s footsteps retreating before hurriedly undoing it. As soon as the zipper went down with a hiss, his already hardened dick sprang out.
The tip was already wet and moist.
“…”
Jin-ha grasped it with trembling hands. It felt so good his head spun. His hands moved on their own. Each time he rubbed his dick, hot breath escaped, and the inside of his thighs trembled. Jin-ha masturbated with his knees drawn up and his forehead resting on them.
At the end of the continued friction, as he rubbed the dick with his thumb and ejaculated, Jin-ha recalled Riyekan’s gaze that had been fixed on his eyes earlier. That hot gaze filled with desire and possessiveness.
The ejaculated semen wet the floor.
“Ha…”
Staring blankly at the whitish liquid, Jin-ha lowered his head, enduring the strange emptiness that washed over him.
Perhaps the fence was nothing more than a meaningless decoration.
* * *
A new rumor swept through the tower. The well-connected Seo Ji-seop had already heard all about it, but this time he couldn’t casually bring up the rumors to tease Jin-ha.
This was because Jin-ha’s complexion, which had noticeably paled overnight, was terrible. Jin-ha’s appearance, lost in thought as if in a daze, was completely different from usual.
It was when Seo Ji-seop and the young mages, who had finished their meal while awkwardly watching Jin-ha’s mood, were about to quietly leave. Jin-ha stopped him.
“Wait a moment, please.”
“Uh, yeah? Why?”
“There’s something I must give you from the items I brought yesterday.”
Jin-ha, pulling one of the carriers piled in one corner of the living room, said gravely:
“I picked up some things that the artifact technician from the agency was throwing away.”
The children, not understanding the meaning, tilted their heads. Picked up things that were being thrown away? But Jin-ha didn’t explain further and distributed boxes he took out from the carrier one by one.
Seo Ji-seop, who received the last box, rolled his eyes and asked:
“You picked up recycled items? Weren’t you the type who doesn’t even pick up trash?”
“I don’t pick up trash for my share, but this time is different.”
“Ah. I suppose…”
Seo Ji-seop nodded and looked over the still-puzzled children.
If they were willing to volunteer for such dangerous missions as agency affiliates, their family circumstances probably weren’t very good. Either they had family members to support, or they were orphans. Such children wouldn’t have the means to possess artifacts to protect themselves.
Jin-ha, wanting to guarantee their safety, had conspired in a small corruption with the artifact technician. First, Jin-ha purchased artifacts as gifts for the Master at an absurdly expensive price, then the technician used the price difference to buy materials and make these artifacts, and then Jin-ha “picked up” what the technician had “thrown away” by casually placing them on the table.
Of course, it was clear corruption. It was something the usual Jin-ha would never do.
For that principled person to commit such an act.
“You’ve made a big decision, given your personality, Jin-ha.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Kids, even though these are discarded items, they’re all perfectly functional artifacts, so use them well. Now, what kind of artifacts are these…”
As Seo Ji-seop struggled to read the handwritten instructions, Jin-ha explained instead:
“These are items that transport you to a destination when you register your fingerprint on the gem of the earring beforehand and then have it recognized when something happens. The destination is right next to the portal. They can’t cross worlds, though.”
At Jin-ha’s explanation, one of the children exclaimed as if understanding the meaning of the cryptic conversation. The child wearing the earring bowed deeply.
“Thank you for picking these up for us!”
Even the child who had been wearing a clueless expression followed suit when the others started putting them on. Now everyone had an earring in one ear.
Seeing this, Jin-ha felt much relieved.
“But why are you giving one to me?”
“You might get caught at the portal entrance. Please protect the children well.”
“Of course, I’ll do well.”
Jin-ha ignored Seo Ji-seop, who was being overly slick.
Just as he was about to leave, perhaps because the frozen atmosphere had thawed, the children showed interest in the stacked boxes.
“The blue box there contains snacks I brought. You’ll be late for class if you go through everything, so just unpack that one for now.”
“Then can we unpack everything later?”
“After today’s classes end.”
“Wow! Then we’ll unpack everything and organize it!”
“You all? But you’ll be busy with classes…”
“Still, if we all do it together, it won’t take long. Officer, you’ve gone through a lot of trouble taking care of us!”
The other children nodded at those words. They’re really kind. Jin-ha felt warmth in his heart over something so trivial.
The teenagers, eager for their upcoming classes, excitedly rummaged through the snack box, grabbing handfuls of candy and chocolate before leaving. Childishly, Seo Ji-seop squeezed in among them licking a large lollipop.
Jin-ha clicked his tongue and shook his head, but suddenly remembered something he had forgotten and called him back.
“What?”
“Take this.”
It was a small ring case.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
