# 45
“…What’s this? Don’t tell me it’s a gift for me? You know I’m married, right? Didn’t you say you don’t do frivolous things like casual encounters? Or are you suggesting we have a serious affair?”
“……”
Jin-ha looked at Seo Ji-seop with unconcealed contempt.
“Yoo Chae-yeon asked me to give this to you.”
Yoo Chae-yeon was the woman who had married Seo Ji-seop and started a family with him. As it happened, Chae-yeon, who had come to meet an artifact technician, saw Jin-ha and asked him to deliver that ring to her husband.
Ji-seop’s face, which had been full of mischief, slackened before he quickly snatched the ring case and opened it.
“This must be for our 22nd wedding anniversary!”
Ji-seop was extremely pleased as he slipped the ring onto his finger and held it up to the light. In truth, the design was somewhat too pretty for a middle-aged man, but these days, people tended not to care about appearance as long as an accessory had good functionality.
That was inevitable. If a flower-shaped pendant emerged from a dungeon but functioned as an extra life, wouldn’t you wear it around your neck even if it hurt your pride?
“It allows you to manipulate shadows for 10 seconds. You can use it a maximum of three times, and it recharges after nightfall.”
“Thanks. Coming from you directly, Jin-ha, after checking it yourself, I trust it even more.”
Ji-seop smiled brightly as he spoke, having learned that Jin-ha’s Information Eye had returned.
“But aren’t you giving a gift to the Guild Master?”
“I already prepared mine. It’ll be delivered to my Chae-yeon today. You have no idea how much trouble I went through preparing something to her taste…”
If an S-ranked Guild Master said he had trouble, it must be quite something. Come to think of it, wasn’t Yoo Chae-yeon the CEO and lead researcher of a famous alchemy product company?
While Jin-ha was recalling information he had heard from someone at the Agency before, Ji-seop asked him:
“I heard you’re giving a ring to the Master too?”
“Where on earth do you hear these things?”
“I have my ways!”
Ji-seop smiled slyly and nudged Jin-ha with his elbow.
“What did you buy? Can you show me? I can tell you if you made a good choice.”
“That’s alright.”
“Why not? I have quite an eye for these things. I could help.”
“The kids are waiting. Go attend your class.”
Indeed, the children waiting by the door were beginning to look annoyed. The fact that they had shown this much patience was only because Ji-seop had been announcing to everyone that he was receiving a 22nd wedding anniversary gift from his wife.
Sensing that the children might leave by themselves if made to wait any longer, Ji-seop reluctantly started walking.
“……”
Left alone, Jin-ha took out the box he had kept inside his clothing to check it. The box contained a gift he hadn’t been able to give the day before.
He had prepared it separately on Earth, but being hastily dragged away and experiencing all sorts of events, he hadn’t thought to give it. Then again, giving a gift after what happened would have been strange.
‘Please, caress me.’
Jin-ha unconsciously covered his ears with his hands. Recalling yesterday’s voice sent a chill through him as if breath were gently tickling inside his ears.
He tightly closed his eyes and tried to calm his wildly beating heart. His breathing became increasingly rapid though he wasn’t doing anything.
‘Go ahead, you can run away.’
After intense deliberation with firmly closed lips, he carefully put the box back inside his clothing. He knew that as long as he was in this other world, and as long as the children were studying at the tower, he couldn’t run away forever. Moreover, Jin-ha still had things to receive from Riyekan. Even in that situation, he had caressed him as requested, so determination welled up to get the information about Abon out of defiance if nothing else.
But he wanted to take a day to think things through.
Fortunately, he had things to do. Jin-ha began gathering necessary items from the box.
* * *
“Did I make such a difficult request?”
Riyekan twisted his lips, saying exactly the same thing he had said not long ago. He was lying on an antique wooden couch covered with dark green fabric, in an extremely careless posture. One leg was on the backrest, the other dangling over the couch’s armrest.
Spreading one hand wide, Riyekan grumbled.
“I just asked for something that would match this hand. I didn’t ask for a dozen items, so why isn’t he coming?”
His displeased gaze turned toward the image on the table. Jin-ha’s figure was visible on the tabletop. It was magic that reflected what was seen through the eyes of a bird under Riyekan’s control.
Having woken up in the morning, Riyekan had been waiting for Jin-ha all day.
Yesterday, he had personally activated the gate to help Jin-ha escape, giving him time to calm down after he ran away in panic. So naturally, he expected him to come right away today. But Jin-ha hadn’t shown his face at all.
When his expectations were disappointed, Riyekan felt no pangs of conscience about using his magical birds to stalk Jin-ha.
And what did he see but Lee Jin-ha running around giving gifts to the tower’s servants. Riyekan had been watching this scene with displeasure all morning.
“I’m sure Mr. Lee Jin-ha has prepared a gift for the Master as well.”
“Of course.”
“So if you wait calmly for a little longer…”
“I am waiting. How much longer?”
“……”
Legas could only bow his head without saying anything. He generally took his Master’s side, but this time he couldn’t disagree that Riyekan was being somewhat excessive.
Yesterday, Jin-ha had run out of the gate covered in Riyekan’s pheromones. The pheromones were so strong and persistent that wizards collapsed one after another along the path where he moved.
It was rare for pheromone traces to have such a strong influence. Unless an Alpha had deliberately pushed them out…
Riyekan continued to grumble, paying no attention to the fact that Legas was unusually not responding.
“Look at that. If he has time to give something to a servant doing laundry, he should come to me and hand over a ring or whatever.”
“…Yes. You’re right.”
“Isn’t it common sense to give gifts to the closest person first? Hm?”
“If you’re so concerned, shall I go and bring him here?”
“…No. That’s fine.”
Riyekan, who had gruffly refused, sat up abruptly. He picked an apple from the fruit basket on the table and watched Jin-ha intently as he finished greeting the laundry servant and ran off to the gardener, chomping loudly on the apple.
“If he needs time, I’ll give it to him. After all, Jin-ha will come to me on his own eventually.”
Riyekan spoke arrogantly.
Actually, he wasn’t wrong. After Jin-ha had distributed all the gifts he’d brought from Earth to the servants who had kindly answered his questions about Riyekan before, he would have no choice but to seek out the master of the tower.
* * *
Moving busily since morning, Jin-ha’s excuses for having other things to do quickly disappeared. If he had been as outgoing and eloquent as Seo Ji-seop, he might have been able to stall for more time, but unfortunately, he was not.
Jin-ha distributed the desserts he had brought quickly, bowing repeatedly like a sales representative visiting a client. Thanks to those who remembered his face and kindly engaged him in conversation a few more times, he was able to delay until the afternoon.
Since he couldn’t go around giving gifts to wizards he barely knew, there was no one left to visit.
“Haah…”
So Jin-ha was climbing a hill. A red-roofed barn on top of the lush green hill was his destination.
It was where the sheep lived.
The sheep, being an animal he had met since coming here, also deserved a gift. Jin-ha’s face reddened at the thought of how pathetic his excuse was, but he didn’t stop walking.
This was because he felt that if he met Riyekan now, something would come to a conclusion. He felt like he might become certain about some emotion he had been denying as nonsensical.
Me? That incredibly arrogant man?
That unserious person who always does things half-heartedly and enjoys teasing people?
“That’s ridiculous.”
No, it had to be ridiculous.
With a complicated heart, Jin-ha flung open the white-painted barn door. But contrary to expectations, the sheep wasn’t there. He had deliberately gone through the garden on his way. The sheep wasn’t there, so he thought it would be in the barn…
Just then, something rammed into Jin-ha’s thigh as he bent slightly to look inside. Jin-ha gasped and tilted backward, but something soft supported him.
It was the sheep.
“Where were you? No… you did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
The sheep bleated nonchalantly, “Meh,” and began eating the premium hay from the basket Jin-ha was holding. He had bought it because it was supposedly for pet sheep, and seeing how the sheep buried its face in it and ate hurriedly, it seemed truly delicious.
Jin-ha crouched beside it and stroked the fluffy wool.
“You’re a naughty sheep. Quite the bully.”
Watching it chomp on even the basket he had carried gifts in all day, he could understand why Legas had struggled with it.
Still, perhaps because it belonged to someone else, it was entirely adorable.
After petting it for a while, the sheep, having devoured all the hay, shook off Jin-ha’s hand. Its attitude was arrogant, as if it had seen all it needed to. It resembled its owner perfectly.
Jin-ha shook his head in disbelief and turned to leave, but the sheep caught his clothing in its mouth and pulled.
“What? You want me to follow you?”
“Meh,” the sheep bleated.
Normally, he would have left after this much, but today he wanted to stall for as much time as possible, so Jin-ha obediently followed the sheep. The short four legs beneath the fluffy white wool moved busily.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
