Chapter 9

“Good. You have coated your heart properly.”

Three days after I started my first heart coating, my heart stopped absorbing the amount of mana I was using to coat it. When I started my coating three days ago, Master Elara said that this was the sign that my first heart coating was finished, so I asked for confirmation.

“Now you can start coating your blood vessels, kid. This will be much more complicated than coating your heart because there are a lot of blood vessels in the human body. For now, start with your major blood vessels.”

“I understand.”

“No, you don’t.”

Smack!

Master Elara hit me on the head.

“Aw! Why are you hitting me!?”

“Because you’re about to do something stupid, that’s why.”

Master Elara sat in front of me and held my hands.

“From here on, you will need guidance. Blood vessels are not as thick as your heart, so if you pull too much mana from your heart to coat them, they will burst. Burst again in your case.”

Heh.

There it is. I wonder why she always likes to annoy me every chance she gets? I mean, I did burst them once during the duel with Seolhwa, but I didn’t know anything about mana at the time.

“So I can’t use the same amount as when I coated my heart?”

“Nope. Unless you want another repeat of what happened before.”

“Then what do you mean by guidance?”

“I will put my mana into your major blood vessels now, starting from your hands, so I need you not to fight it and let my mana flow through your body. I will use an amount of mana that is safe for your uncoated blood vessels, so make sure you remember how much mana I used.”

“You understand?”

“I understand.”

“Let’s start slow.”

I closed my eyes and started feeling her mana flowing from my hands, circulating throughout my body, and then returning to her through my other hand. She repeated this circulation several times.

“You got it?”

I nodded.

“Then try to do it yourself.”

Mana flowed from my heart slowly and carefully because I didn’t want that painful experience to repeat. More importantly, I didn’t want to give Master more things she could use to annoy me. If I burst my blood vessels again, she would definitely laugh at me for a long time.

…

Elara’s POV

Hee… He already got it.

After I circulated my mana through his body several times, he immediately remembered the amount of mana needed and which blood vessels he needed to coat.

This kid has a good head.

Our hands are not connected anymore, so from here on, this is all him. I still need to stay here and keep watch, though, just in case his mana control slips up and he pulls more mana than needed.

But still, to be able to control more mana than his body can handle is really not normal.

Normally, the amount of mana an apprentice mage can pull and control from their heart is the same amount needed to do their coating. But this disciple of mine can pull several times more mana than normal.

Hehe, just imagining the faces those old fogeys will have when they find out I found such a great disciple. They will be so jealous!

Now that all of us are Archmages, one of the fun things we have is either flaunting our new original magic and research or flaunting our disciples’ achievements.

Those bastards are always looking down on me just because I’m the youngest among us.

The faces they will make when I bring the kid to my magic tower will be legendary.

I can finally say, ‘Ha! Who’s better now, fuckers!?’

“He… hehe… hehehe.”

A creepy laugh involuntarily came out of my mouth, but who cares?

You don’t like it?

Be an Archmage then!

…

Cheon Hwi’s POV

“That’s enough, kid. Time to rest.”

I was greeted with a red sky the moment I opened my eyes. The sun had gotten really low even though when I began coating my blood vessels, the sun was high above our heads.

“Look, even your cousin has already gone back to her room. Clean up quickly. I don’t want to have to wait for you for dinner.”

“Don’t you need to clean up too, Master?”

She had been with me the entire day, so she was also sweaty.

She just grinned smugly and, with just a snap of her fingers, light surrounded her body. I could see all the sweat on her body and clothes disappear, and she even smelled like flowers.

“Heh.”

“Jealous? Then you better finish your coating first.”

Hahaha.

She laughed as she walked back to the main hall.

This fucking Master of mine is such a—!

As I was about to curse her, I calmed myself down.

No, Hwi. Even if she’s like that, she’s still someone I’m indebted to.

Patience is a virtue. Patience is a virtue.

Virtue…

Fuck virtue, I’m definitely going to shut her up someday.

…

“How’s Hwi’s progress, Lady Elara?”

“It’s going well. As expected, he can progress much faster than a normal apprentice mage.”

During dinner, my father asked Master about my progress. Master Elara, me, both of my parents, and Seolhwa with her parents sat down at the same table.

“I see. That’s good.”

“He also has a good head on his shoulders, so that makes teaching him much easier.”

She was always like this. In front of my parents, she acted polite and kept praising me, but when she was teaching me, she would always make fun of me.

“So all this time, Hwi’s talent is not in martial arts but rather in… magic, was it?”

Uncle Seong-Ho chimed in.

“I’m glad that everything worked out. Right, sister-in-law?”

“…”

Aunt Hwa-Yeon still tried to talk with my mother, but my mother was still stubbornly refusing to talk to her.

Thank the heavens that Aunt Hwa-Yeon was such an understanding person. Uncle Seong-Ho really used up all the luck in his life to be able to have her as his wife.

Not that I think Aunt Hwa-Yeon is better than my mother. It’s just that my mother has this stubborn side of her that is honestly a pain for both my father and me.

“How is your training, Seolhwa?”

In an attempt to change the topic and divert the attention from my mother, and also to shift the mood, my father diverted the attention to Seolhwa.

What a tactician.

I gave him a quiet thumbs up.

“Hm. It’s fine.”

Seolhwa answered shortly. She didn’t seem to be interested in the conversation about her own training, but I could feel that she was really staring at me.

Since three days ago, when I began my coating process with Master Elara, I could feel that she had slowly started to pay more attention to me.

Did I do something wrong to her?

No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn’t find anything I had possibly done wrong to her.

She’s not going to just stab me suddenly, would she?

She’s my cousin and our families are close, but since we were little, I had never been able to guess what she was thinking.

Cheon Seolhwa was such an enigma.

“By the way, kid. Don’t even try to continue your coating on your blood vessels by yourself.”

Geh!

How did she know I was going to do exactly that after dinner?

“I’m not going to, Master.”

“Yeah, right. I can read you like a book, kid. I know full well that you will definitely do that if I don’t give you a warning.”

Oh, she’s not even going to keep up appearances about how she treats me in front of my parents now, huh?

“As I told you, blood vessels are thinner than your heart. Because of that, the risk of rupture during coating is higher, so I must be nearby when you do that, just in case. That way, you can be healed immediately.”

“I understand, Master.”

“You better be.”

She really needs to always have the last say.

…

“Uuhh… I ate too much.”

After dinner, I walked around the training hall to help with my digestion.

I stopped right in front of the wooden training post and slowly ran my hand over it, remembering the time when I was still giving my all to martial arts training.

It hasn’t even been a week since I stopped my martial arts training, and I already felt nostalgic.

As I was reminiscing, I heard someone’s footsteps approaching me.

It was Seolhwa.

“Seolhwa? What’s wrong?”

Is she about to train again after dinner?

I thought that in my head, but she wasn’t wearing a training uniform and didn’t even bring her wooden sword.

Seolhwa shook her head and just stared at me.

“W-what? You’re scaring me.”

Is this the part where I get stabbed?

She’s not going to say, ‘Now that I’m the heir, the clan doesn’t need you anymore, so die!’ will she?

“Hwi…”

“W-what?”

Seolhwa kept quiet for a bit before continuing.

“You’re not going to train in martial arts anymore?”

Ah, is this why she has been staring at me all this time? She wanted to ask me this?

Geez, she’s giving me a heart attack.

“Yeah. I quit as a martial artist.”

Looking at my palm, I said to her.

“I trained a lot in martial arts, giving it my all in my training, but I didn’t get any meaningful improvement.”

“You know why, right?”

Seolhwa nodded.

“Because for some reason, your inner energy flow always has a delay.”

“Exactly. With my condition like this, the most logical thing to do is just to give up.”

“But I’m stubborn, you see. So I kept training for years… And the result is me losing my position as the heir.”

“Ah, I don’t mean to make you the bad guy, okay? It’s just what happened.”

“Then, you will pursue magic from now on?”

“Yeah, I will. Not only do I actually have talent in it, but it’s also because magic is something I’m very interested in.”

That’s the truth. Ever since I heard from Master Elara about what magic could do and what dangers it could bring during the banquet, my interest in magic has grown a lot.

Seolhwa kept quiet for a bit after hearing my answer.

“I still think you need to train your martial arts, Hwi.”

“Why?”

“Because if you keep eating that much without exercising, you will get fat.”

This little shit.