HSTAV 33

Chapter 33

Damn it. Calm down, Kang Hyun-soo.

Get a grip and focus on the situation at hand!

Soon, with a more determined look on my face than ever before, I asked her:

“First of all, I’d like to hear the method.”

“Hm?”

“How do I resolve the mana that’s building up inside me?”

At this rate, the endings waiting for me were all close to death: either getting expelled from the academy and dying on the streets, exploding from the mana overflowing in my body, or being dragged away by this crazy witch to be dissected alive.

Escaping this ticking time bomb of a life had to come first.

“Tell me the method first. Then I’ll think about your proposal, Lady Jamie.”

Hearing my firm tone, Jamie tilted her head slightly, her eyes sparkling with amusement as they swept up and down my entire body.

“I could’ve sworn I made the first proposal, but somehow things seem to have flipped around. Is it just me?”

She nodded to herself, still looking at me, and then continued.

“Well, fine. In the end, it’s always the desperate side that gets the worse end of the deal.”

Muttering so, she scratched her forehead and began explaining what she knew.

“Mana, by nature, flows from where there’s less to where there’s more.”

“…Its nature?”

“Yes. One of the most fundamental properties.”

Nodding as she mentioned this basic principle, Jamie began pacing slowly.

“So what you need to do is make use of that property. If there’s something outside of you that contains mana far stronger than your own mana heart, your mana will naturally try to flow toward it.”

“But my mana routes are blocked…”

“Mana exists everywhere. It doesn’t necessarily need a route to move. Of course, the mana fixed in your mana heart won’t move easily, but still…”

Scrape!

She walked over to a desk and sat down on it, continuing her explanation.

“That’s why special things are needed. For example… a Dragon Heart, or a Lich Orb.”

“…Excuse me?”

Dragon Heart? Lich Orb?

What kind of insane crap was that?

In games or novels, those items were practically the final, endgame treasures. Even in the original work, they barely showed up near the very end—so why the hell was she bringing them up now?

“Heh, I knew you’d react like that.”

She chuckled, then snapped her fingers lightly.

Snap!

At once, motes of light began gathering in the empty darkness of the ceiling.

“Let’s say this is your mana heart, and that’s a Dragon Heart. If you tried to draw mana out using an item like that, inside your body…”

Snap!

With another flick, the two clusters of light began to shift. From the dimmer cluster, toward the brighter one…

“See that? That movement is mana itself. It would take time, but slowly, steadily, it would flow toward the stronger source.”

Rising from the desk, Jamie looked at me with a smile tugging at her lips.

“So even mana locked into your heart will eventually be drawn toward greater mana. Like a beast drooling when there’s meat right in front of it.”

Snap!

At her final flick, the lights filling the ceiling vanished completely.

“Of course, this is only a stopgap. It doesn’t heal your body.”

She then looked at me with a sly tone.

“So, now that you’ve heard the method, how about my offer? No complaints about becoming a research subject now, right?”

“…”

What the hell? Is she kidding me?

She’s supposed to be a great mage, and the so-called solution she’s giving me is… a Dragon Heart? A Lich Orb? I could’ve come up with that myself!

That’s like telling someone dying on the spot, “Just find an Elixir and pour it on him—he’ll be fine.” How is that any different?

“Haa…”

“…?”

Jamie tilted her head as I let out a long sigh.

Well… it pissed me off, but it wasn’t useless information.

Dragon Heart. Lich Orb.

Sure, they were nearly impossible to get—but I knew about substitutes for them.

Knowledge only I had.

The ultimate cheat: securing items from the original work before they ever appear.

Thinking that far, a mischievous competitiveness stirred in me as I looked at Jamie.

Trying to hook me with just that?

If I didn’t have knowledge of the original, I’d be completely screwed right now.

“…Honestly, the method’s pretty lame.”

“Oh? But that’s the only method I know. I’m not hiding anything. So—”

“Then there’s no deal.”

“What?”

Shrugging with a smirk, I said it plainly. Jamie’s brow arched at my cheek.

“…Carmon, I think you’re misunderstanding something.”

“No misunderstanding. I just don’t want to let you experiment on me under these conditions.”

“…”

For a moment, Jamie was speechless at my bluntness. Then, her lips curled upward as she stared at me.

“You’re under some illusion, Carmon Veid. The only reason you can even talk to me like this is because I’m allowing it. This isn’t a proposal.”

“Really?”

“That’s right. So stop with this—”

“What if I went to the Seven Table?”

“…What?”

“If my body is so valuable to the Yellow Mage, wouldn’t the Seven Table want it too?”

The Seven Table.

That was the highest council of the seven magic towers on the continent.

And right now, its chairperson was…

“The Blue Mage is one of the Primaries. I’m sure he’d be quite interested.”

“Enough!”

The instant I mentioned the Blue Mage, Jamie’s face twisted in anger.

“Don’t even say that old man’s name.”

Her cold, sharp tone made me shut my mouth.

“…”

She stared at me for a long moment, her expression twitching. Finally—

“You really are a bold one.”

“Yeah, I’ve been told that before.”

“Good. I don’t exactly hate kids with that kind of defiance. So…”

Her lips smiled, but her eyes didn’t move an inch. She was clearly irritated.

“Are you saying you really want to strike a deal with me?”

“A deal? No. I just want to… revise the terms.”

In other words, yeah, a deal.

“…”

“…”

Silence hung between us.

Then Jamie spoke again.

“Selling yourself to those Seven Table fossils would be idiotic. They’ll never see you as human.”

“And you’re different?”

“Me?”

She pointed at herself, incredulous.

“Of course I am!”

“In what way?”

“Ha… really…”

She chuckled in disbelief, then lowered her voice.

“Fine, Carmon Veid. I’ll give in to that big ego of yours. I’ll take you as my disciple.”

“…Huh?”

“I’m nothing like those rotten old men of the Seven Table. I don’t treat humans as mere tools. So…”

So she wanted to make me her disciple?

Wasn’t this… amazing?

Jamie Hasselion, in the original, only had two disciples: Chelsea Artin and Ariel Adeline.

Both were heroines who aided the protagonist, Kyle.

Of course, I won’t be at their level…

But still, if I became the disciple of one of the continent’s strongest mages, I wouldn’t end up dying in a ditch.

“Of course, I’ll still run experiments and research on you whenever I have time. It might hurt, maybe be exhausting… but it’ll all be in the name of opening your mana routes. So really, it’s a win-win, don’t you think?”

She smiled warmly as she said it.

Win-win my ass. It’s just a massive win for me.

Having a Primary Mage as my master? That was a bigger backing than even House Veid.

And while her method was only temporary, the Yellow Mage might someday discover a true way to fix my blocked routes.

“Well… not bad terms.”

“So, do we have a deal?”

Jamie leaned in, clearly impatient.

I bowed politely and declared:

“I greet my master.”

“Hahaha! Good, my disciple! Very good!”

She laughed loudly, her eyes glinting with excitement.

“You’re my disciple now.”

Her smile twisted, and in a low, muttering tone, she added:

“Since you’re my disciple, if something happens to you during research or experiments, it’s no big deal. Mages dying in accidents is nothing unusual.”

…Wait. What?

Death? Accidents?

“With my disciple, I can do whatever I want. Not even those old men can interfere. No one else either!”

Hold on, Jamie.

Even if we’re master and disciple, you can’t just—

“Haa…”

Then, with the kindest, most benevolent smile I’d ever seen on her, she whispered:

“Now then, my disciple Carmon Veid… when shall we begin the first experiment? Today? Tomorrow? You choose.”

…Shit.

I think I made a huge mistake.