TDG Ch 21

3.

– “You will arrive at your destination shortly.”

The navigation’s announcement broke me out of my deep thoughts.

Actually, I think I might have been half-asleep. As I wiped the corner of my mouth and looked out the window, mountain ridges were winding beneath a clear sky without a single cloud.

It had been two days since I was discharged from the hospital.

This was my first solo outing in quite a while. I had considered coming with Jihyuk, but as luck would have it, he got called in for work. He insisted on tagging along anyway, saying he didn’t care, and it had taken quite a bit of effort to talk him out of it.

The schedule had been arranged from higher up, specifically by someone above Director Kim Yuhwan, so even if you’re a gutsy Esper, you can’t just bail out of it. More than anything, what about the people waiting around who’d end up stood up? What did they do to deserve that?

The car slowed down as it approached a curve. The steering wheel rotated on its own, turning right. Since I wasn’t in a condition to drive, the autonomous driving mode was enabled.

Past the curve, a secluded mountain road came into view. Through the thick poplar trees with branches drooping under lush leaves, scattered beams of sunlight trickled down like tails of falling stars. Every time I passed this road, I always felt like the protagonist in an old tale, entering a secret garden.

And at the end of that adventure, what awaited the hero was always the grand Demon King’s castle atop a rocky cliff.

The only difference was that, in this case, it didn’t look anything like the eerie ancient castles we are familiar with. Instead, it was a sleek, modern two-story building equipped with a fully digitized security system and designed in line with postmodernist philosophy.

– “You have arrived at your destination. Navigation will now end.”

Grabbing the box of red ginseng I had left on the passenger seat, I stepped out of the car and stretched my stiff shoulders, inhaling the crisp mountain air. After sitting in the car for two whole hours, my body was sore all over.

Walking along the quaint stone wall path, I arrived at the entrance, where a camera hanging from the ceiling swiveled its head and recognized me.

“Seonsaeng-nim^[1]! I’m here!”

I waved, and the door lock released with a click.

As I stepped inside, I found myself in a hall that looked like a gallery, decorated in shades of teal, blue, and gold. There weren’t any actual artworks, but stylish photos and memorabilia of renowned Espers from both Korea and abroad were displayed throughout, naturally drawing the eye.

I stopped in front of one particular photograph.

A man with thick, golden-blond hair and piercing blue eyes flashed a wide smile, showing off perfectly aligned white teeth, so typical of Americans, and exuded wild charisma while his arm slung around a woman’s shoulder.

He was none other than Luke Jenners, an S-rank Esper from the U.S., one of the world’s richest and most famous celebrities.

So even this guy was close to Seonsaeng-nim, huh.

“Kid, you’re here.”

I looked up at the deep, resonant voice.

Striding out from the inner rooms wearing a work apron was a large-framed middle-aged woman.

She was the same woman with her arm around Luke Jenners in the photo, and the reason why I had brushed off even Jihyuk to come visit this place today.

With her exotic-looking bronzed skin and thick eyebrows that arched upward, she was hard to forget. Her roughly tied-up hair curled and spread out in all directions like vines, leaving a lasting impression at a single glance.

I respectfully brought my hands together and gave a deep bow.

“It’s been a while, Seonsaeng-nim. Have you been well?”

She took off her gloves and gestured casually with her hand.

“Ah, don’t give me that. Come here and hug me.”

Here we go again.

Refusing wouldn’t do any good, so if I had to do it anyway, I might as well get it over with quickly.

I scampered over and wrapped my arms around her neck.

Her strong arms scooped me up from the waist and, with one swift motion, lifted me high into the air.

“You’re still tiny as a mouse. When are you ever going to grow?”

“What are you talking about? Have you ever seen a mouse this big?”

And for the record, I’m fully grown now. When I stuck out my lips in protest, she gave a sharp snort.

“Look at this little bean trying to talk back.”

You should say it right, Seonsaeng-nim. You’re the one who’s too big!

Her name is Jang Junhwa, an S-rank Esper whom the world’s wealthiest lined up to meet, a person whose face was harder to see than the stars in the sky.

And she had generously given me an entire day of her time.

So, of course, I had to come. As for the whining puppy, I can make it up to him after I get back.

She was a mixed-race woman born to a Polynesian father and a Korean mother, and had completely inherited her father’s build and appearance.

Even at a glance, her physique was far from ordinary.

She was a little shorter than Han Jihyuk, but had nearly twice the muscle mass, if that gives you an idea.

She was so dedicated to fitness that one of her arms was as thick as my waist. She was nearly sixty but looked barely in her forties—a terrifying level of youthfulness.

Because of her build, most people mistook her for a physical combat-type Esper like Song Hyunho, but in fact, she belonged to a completely unrelated special skill category.

On a side note, the photos and memorabilia displayed in that hall earlier were all sent directly by those Espers themselves. That’s how extensive her network was, spanning across the globe.

“How’s Hyungsik doing?”

“My father? He’s the same as always.”

Seonsaeng-nim didn’t just do this to me. She would lift my father up just as casually whenever they met. You could say her pride in her physical strength was expressed in a rather peculiar way.

“That guy’s always working. I bet he’s neglecting his workouts again, isn’t he?”

“Ha ha… Well, Father is still an Esper, after all.”

She didn’t look convinced. Suddenly, she started kneading my body without warning.

“Ah—Ow! Seonsaeng-nim, that hurts!”

Hey, I’m a man too, don’t touch my butt! And I can’t even run away because she has me tightly held!

“Look at this. Your waist is barely a handful. You’re not even an Esper, and you’re skipping workouts? What do you think’s going to happen? One hit and you’re done.”

I braced myself, thinking she might launch into her usual lecture about the beauty of a body sculpted with blood and sweat, or how physical health improves overall life quality. But thankfully, she hadn’t forgotten the reason I came.

After tearing open a packet of red ginseng and downing it in one go, she held out her hand.

“Give it here.”

I pulled out the glasses case from inside my pocket and gently placed it in her hand.

When she opened it and checked the contents, her brow furrowed deeply.

“What’s this? Did a nuclear bomb go off or something?”

I couldn’t help but let out a helpless laugh at her brutally honest comparison.

“Well… something close to that did happen.”

Her eyes widened like they were about to split open.

“‘Something close’? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“No, I’m fine. But… the details are a bit sensitive.”

It was a delicate matter involving the Center’s reputation, after all.

Looking like she understood, she shook her head with a sigh.

“This frame is made entirely out of Magestone. You could stomp on it or run it over with a car, and it still wouldn’t get scratched. What on earth happened to mess it up this badly?”

She held up the glasses and shook them for emphasis.

The frame was so warped it couldn’t be worn, and the right lens was shattered, with only half of it still attached.

During the explosion, Song Hyunho’s protective aura had only shielded my body. The glasses hadn’t been included, hence the destruction.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Forget it. Follow me.”

She gestured and walked ahead, and I followed.

We entered a workshop so spacious it made the outer hall look like a closet by comparison.

New pieces of equipment that hadn’t been there last year caught my eye. Each one was worth at least tens to hundreds of billions of won apiece. From what I know, the total value of this lavish workshop rivals the annual budget of a small city.

“How did you get here? Did you drive?”

“I used the autonomous driving mode…”

At the sound of her clicking her tongue in disapproval, my voice trailed off.

“Sit there. I’ll fix it now.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t smile. I’ll get attached.”

“You already adore me too much to handle, though.”

When I grinned and played up my charm, Seonsaeng-nim narrowed her eyes and gave me a sideways glance.

“For something the size of a chestnut, you sure never lose an argument.”

Heh. You say that, but I saw your cheeks puff up as you turned away. And I definitely saw your ears twitch from trying to hold back a smile.

I sat down on a nearby guest sofa and watched her as she began working with the machinery to process the magestone.

The first time ‘Seo Juwon’ came to this workshop was when he was seventeen, after a terrible accident.

The examination revealed that the optic nerve in his right eye was severely damaged, with no hope of recovery. When my father heard that his young son would have to live the rest of his life partially blind, he searched desperately until he finally found Seonsaeng-nim.

[Blessing of Remiclubis]

A skill that either enhances physical function or nullifies bodily damage.

It can only be applied to equipment crafted by the user and activates when worn.

Weapon Crafting: Lv. Master (Passive)

This is the miraculous skill that catapulted Jang Junhwa to the top as the world’s leading magical equipment technician—a Meister.

[Weapon Crafting] is a technical skill that involves refining magestones dropped from monster corpses into weapons or tools. While it’s a rare skill, it normally wouldn’t be enough to qualify someone as S-rank.

But Seonsaeng-nim awakened with the Blessing skill as her primary skill and then brought [Weapon Crafting] out as a mastered passive.

There’s a limit to how many times it can be used per year, but considering the effects it offers, such a restriction could hardly be considered a drawback.

With that skill, even damaged vision could be conditionally restored.

But at that time, the odds were stacked against us.

The price of the skill alone exceeded ten billion won, and even then, there was already a twelve-year-long waiting list.

Since she was one of the top taxpayers in Korea, even money couldn’t move the queue.

And for someone like me, who wasn’t even an Esper, there was virtually no chance of getting a turn, at least until they realized the two of them had been classmates in middle school.

Saying she owed my father a favor, Seonsaeng-nim dropped everything and started working on my glasses immediately.

When my father asked if she was sure, Seonsaeng-nim’s reply had been boisterous.

“It’s my skill, I’ll use it how I damn well please! If they don’t like it, tell them to cancel the order!”

Apparently, my father found her reaction so unforgettable that he would retell the story every time he drank, savoring it with a smile like it were an epic tale.

That’s why, even after I transmigrated the following year, I could recall that event vividly, as if I’d seen it myself.

The glasses, made from magestone and imbued with a rare, limited-use Blessing skill, would have fetched any price she named. But Seonsaeng-nim stubbornly refused to take any money.

She even threatened that if we tried to pay, she’d take the glasses back, and only then did my father give up.

“Time really flies, doesn’t it? How many years has it been since you first came here with your father? Seven? Eight?”

“Six years ago.”

“Really? Only six?”

At this, Seonsaeng-nim took her hands off the workbench, pushed her safety goggles up, and looked at me.

“When I first saw you, with one eye covered in bandages and the rest of your face all bruised up, I thought your father was abusing you.”

She burst into hearty laughter, and I awkwardly laughed along.

It couldn’t be helped if she misunderstood back then. After all, that was the darkest period in the original Seo Juwon’s life.