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chapter 466
Yeon Mirae and the female Awakeners, led by Director Shin Han-ji, returned the next morning with dragon scales they had plucked.
“… Do you really like that stuff that much?”
I asked as I watched Yeon Mirae carefully wrap up a jar of powdered dragon scales like it was some kind of sacred relic.
“Of course! Just one jar of this is supposed to keep your skin firm for at least ten years!”
“… You’ll be lucky if it only keeps your skin firm.”
Before my regression, I had never handled powdered dragon scales myself.
But I knew very well what effects they had.
“Your skin is going to end up harder than steel.”
Dragon scale powder was strong enough that simply sprinkling it on an iron sword would naturally coat the blade, increasing both its durability and sharpness.
So of course, if you rubbed it into your skin, it would harden.
“Well, that sounds nice. That means I’ll be harder to injure, right?”
“… Not technically wrong, but it’ll feel really weird. Like, imagine clapping your hands together and hearing a metallic clang.”
“Oh… yeah, that would feel pretty strange.”
Strange would be the least of it.
“Anyway, what do you want to do today?”
“Today? Another meeting… Oh, wait. Yesterday Richard said anyone who stayed till the end didn’t need to come today.”
Yeon Mirae recalled what the Association President had said yesterday.
“Exactly. But we can’t just sit in the hotel all day.”
“Well, true…”
“So let’s go out, just the two of us.”
She blinked at me.
“Um… Master?”
“Yeah?”
“Unless I’m mistaken…”
Is this… a date?
“Well, I had a date with Chloe yesterday, so to be fair, today should be with you, right?”
“Ahhh! You did go on a date with her yesterday?! But… that’s fine! I’ll take it!”
Yeon Mirae half-shouted in outrage but still smiled with delight.
She really was happy about this.
“Sophia, Alex. You heard us, right? Mirae and I are going out on a date. You two figure out what to do with your time.”
“Yes.”
“Ah… understood.”
… I hadn’t exactly planned it, but somehow that left Sophia and Alex alone together.
Wishing them luck, I left with Yeon Mirae for our date.
At the same time Han Geon-woo was out with Yeon Mirae—
Woo Ji-min, who was sharing a room with Director Shin Han-ji as her aide, was stunned to see the Director humming cheerfully while rubbing powdered dragon scales onto her skin.
At the start of her resurrection, Shin Han-ji had kept information tightly controlled, so Ji-min hadn’t understood much back then.
But now she knew better.
“… Isn’t that a massive waste?”
Because applying dragon scale powder to one’s skin was a massive waste.
“Hm? What are you talking about?”
“Dragon scales… once you grind them into powder, they lose some of their effect. And instead of using it on a weapon or armor, you’re smearing it on your skin?”
Normally, dragon scales were most effective when used almost as they were—just slightly processed into armor.
Even in powdered form, the most efficient use was reinforcing weapons.
So to Woo Ji-min, rubbing it on skin was wasteful.
“Wouldn’t it be smarter to just sell it and buy some proven cosmetics?”
Or maybe that was just capitalism talking.
“Oh, right. You don’t age, since you’re a doll. So you wouldn’t understand, huh?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Hehe… I’m joking. Of course cosmetics made by experts at a proper company are more effective than dragon powder. And cheaper too.”
“… Then why did you get all the other Awakened women to help collect it?”
When Ji-min asked, Shin Han-ji smiled.
“Ji-min, what magic do I currently have cast on me?”
“Uh… an anti-aging spell?”
“Correct. But it doesn’t completely stop aging.”
It only slowed it down drastically. But aging still happened.
“So I thought: how can I keep my baby-smooth skin forever?”
“……”
Ji-min nearly gagged at the sight of her two-hundred-year-old grandmother-friend acting like this, but she kept quiet.
“And then I found the answer: reverse my skin’s age itself.”
“…?”
“If I roll back my skin faster than time can age it, I’ll always have youthful, springy skin.”
“……”
Ji-min stared, speechless. Reverse time?
“Time-space magic?”
“Oh, not literally. I only perfected space-time magic recently.”
And even that couldn’t truly reverse time.
“… Yet? You mean someday it might be possible?”
“There’s no such thing as impossible in magic. I can’t do it now, but one day I will.”
Anyway.
“Even without reversing time, I can rejuvenate skin cells by tweaking healing magic. It just costs a lot of mana. That’s why I sprinkle dragon powder on myself.”
Because dragon powder served as an excellent medium to boost healing magic.
“… Ah.”
Hearing that, Ji-min finally understood why her friend would smear it on her body.
“You really want youthful skin that badly…”
“Of course.”
Ji-min fell silent again.
Then Shin Han-ji looked at her.
“That’s why I envy you. After resurrection, your body never ages.”
“… Yeah, but unless Geon-woo feeds me energy, I’ve got a time limit.”
“Well, that’s unavoidable. Still, as long as you keep getting recharged, theoretically your lifespan is infinite.”
“Sure… as long as Geon-woo doesn’t die.”
She wouldn’t die of old age.
Ji-min was about to say that, but stopped.
Because she suddenly thought of something.
“… Han-ji.”
“Yeah?”
“Instead of just stopping skin aging, isn’t there a way to stop the body from aging at all?”
“… Why are you asking?”
“Because…”
If Geon-woo died of old age, then her immortality wasn’t real.
“… Oh. You’re right.”
“So if I want to live long, I have to stop Geon-woo from aging too, right?”
Since her lifespan was tied to his.
“… True.”
Shin Han-ji nodded.
For Ji-min to live long, Geon-woo had to live long too.
And she herself didn’t like the thought of her newly-revived friend dying early, so she began to think seriously.
“Maybe he could inscribe an anti-aging magic circle on his body like I did. He’s not as skilled as me, but he understands magic well enough to keep a circle active.”
“That only slows aging. What about regenerating cells, like you do?”
“Even if he knows magic, he’s not at the level to handle my modified healing spells.”
The two of them were still discussing when—
Knock knock.
“Excuse me.”
Chloe Greenwood entered their room.
The famous “Elf.”
“……”
“……”
“… What? Why are you both looking at me like that?”
Both women stared at Chloe as she stepped inside.
Though nearing thirty, she still had the appearance of a twenty-year-old.
Before becoming an instructor at the Academy, she had even been targeted for kidnapping, suspected of holding the key to immortality.
“Instructor Chloe? Could I ask you for a favor?”
“… Yes?”
“I’d like to run some tests on your body.”
Don’t worry.
It won’t hurt.
“W-wait! What are you saying?!”
“Hey, Chloe! Hand over the secret to immortality!”
“Director! Ji-min! What on earth are you doing?!”
As Shin Han-ji and Ji-min lunged at her, Chloe fought back with spirit magic and spells.
Han-ji was much stronger, of course, but since she didn’t truly intend to harm Chloe, Chloe could defend herself.
“I only need a little. Some hair, some skin tissue, a little blood…”
“How is that ‘a little’?!”
Naturally, the other Awakened in the hotel sensed the clash and rushed in.
“(What’s going on?)”
“(Isn’t that the Elf? Wait—what?!)”
“(Why is she being attacked?!)”
“(Let’s break it up!)”
Most people staying at this hotel were high-level Awakened who had crossed the Wall.
So subduing Shin Han-ji wasn’t too difficult—especially since she wasn’t resisting seriously.
“… Sigh. Of all people, I can’t believe you’d do something like this.”
Sir Sergei, the most influential among them, dismissed the others with a sigh and asked her directly.
“Why would you do that?”
“Simple. I wanted to analyze Instructor Chloe’s cells to create an elixir of youth.”
“… My boss is insane.”
Sergei’s head hurt.
Meanwhile, Shin Han-ji turned cheerfully to Chloe.
“So, won’t you cooperate now?”
“… No, I won’t.”
The victim herself, Chloe, firmly refused.
Perhaps she had trauma from similar incidents before.
But—
“The one I want to give the elixir of youth to is Cadet Han Geon-woo.”
“… What do you mean by that?”
At the mention of Geon-woo’s name, Chloe’s firm refusal wavered.
“Instructor Chloe, your aging is slower than most people’s. But Cadet Han Geon-woo’s isn’t. So even if you outcompete everyone else and marry him…”
She would remain young, while he aged quickly.
“Would you really want that?”
“……”
Chloe recalled when she had once entered Geon-woo’s dream.
In that dream—his self before regression—he had looked older than her.
Proof that unlike her, Geon-woo aged at a normal pace.
“… What do I need to do?”
At last, Chloe Greenwood was persuaded by Shin Han-ji.
