Chapter 18

“Ms. Agnes, can you explain this part for me?”

“Of course. Let’s see… This part means—”

It’s been two weeks since Master Elara told me to read all of these books. The progress was slow because my reading skills in English weren’t quite good yet, and there were a lot of words whose meanings I didn’t understand, but thanks to Ms. Agnes’s help, things have been going smoothly.

Ms. Agnes looked a few years younger than Master Elara and was one of the Veynes Magic Tower’s Advanced Rank Mages. Despite her rank, she chose to be a librarian rather than mentor the apprentices of the Tower, simply because she liked being surrounded by books.

One thing I realized after a week of talking with her was that Ms. Agnes was very popular among the men here. I may be young, but even in my eyes, Ms. Agnes was a very attractive woman. She had a very beautiful face, blue eyes that shined like jewels, long golden hair that looked soft to the touch, a voice that sounded like the chime of a bell, and a smile that could brighten even the darkest night. All of it captivated many male members of the Tower.

Thanks to that, I received many gazes filled with envy from the male apprentices. Not only was I a direct disciple of the Tower Master, but I was also spending a lot of time with Ms. Agnes, the flower of the Veynes Magic Tower.

“—well, it’s like that. Did you understand?”

“I understand. Thank you, Ms. Agnes.”

“Huhu, you’re welcome.”

I felt my heart thump loudly when I heard her giggle and saw her smile.

Haah… This is bad. Lately, it’s becoming hard for me to concentrate whenever I’m with her.

I remembered what my mother and uncle said before.

‘Hwi, you trained too much. How about taking a rest for a few days and playing with the other kids?’

‘It’s okay, Mother. I’m not really interested in doing that. In the first place, I don’t have any friends.’

‘Geez, that’s why you should go out more. When I was your age, I was already hanging out with several young ladies from other families.’

‘Please don’t put any bad ideas into my son’s head, brother-in-law.’

‘Sister-in-law, it’s not like that. This is something completely normal for a man. When the time comes, he will naturally develop an interest in women, so don’t you think it’s better to have someone to guide him through that?’

‘Hwi is still nine years old. It’s too soon for him to have that kind of interest.’

‘For now, but you should still be prepared for when he hits puberty.’

‘What’s puberty, Uncle?’

‘It’s the time when you start to transition from a boy to a man.’

‘How do you know?’

‘You’ll start having wet dreams.’

‘What’s a wet dream?’

‘That’s enough, brother-in-law!’

Mother looked mad at my uncle, so he didn’t tell me anything else after that. But later, I found out what a wet dream was.

Then a week ago, it happened to me.

Since then, I started to feel to self-conscious and awkward around girls and grown-up women. Is this what Uncle meant that time?

Haah… This is bad. I can’t concentrate being in such close proximity to Ms. Agnes like this. I need to clear my head.

Deciding to do that, I thanked Ms. Agnes once more and excused myself, saying that I was a little hungry as an excuse to go out and clear my head. I walked out of the library with a notebook in my hand and headed toward my room first to leave my notebook there before heading out of the Tower.

…

“…Where the hell am I?”

Standing on the road surrounded by dilapidated buildings, I questioned where I was standing right now. The place was damp and unlike the rest of the town, it was dirty and smelled terrible. The smell was like a mix of rotting dead animals, pee, and poo. It was so bad it made me gag. Covering my nose and mouth to somewhat keep myself from smelling it, I also looked around the place.

The people here just stayed inside their homes, looking suspiciously at me. Some that I saw outside were either drunk or passed out. Their clothes were tattered and shabby, unlike what I had normally seen the townspeople wear.

This must be the slums.

Master Elara told me that there was a slum in this town where the poor and criminals in this city gathered. Apparently, effort had been made several times to clean up this place, but every time, they always came back. It’s not like the Mayor can just kill them all, either. So, it seems that the stance of the Mayor is just to leave them be, as long as they don’t do anything too damaging to the townspeople. The slum inhabitants also keep some kind of rules to not do anything excessive that would make themselves a target for a purge, so some kind of tacit agreement was put in place.

Master told me not to step inside this place, but since I’m already here anyway, I might as well take a look around.

With a paper bag full of chicken skewers that I bought in my arms, I started walking around the slums, going even deeper inside.

This place is even worse than what I heard.

As I walked deeper inside, the buildings looked even worse. Some of the roofs of the buildings had already collapsed, and trash was strewn about on the road. Some kids were grilling something that looked like a rat, and some of them were already eating it.

The moment they looked at me, I could see the wariness in their eyes. Understandable, because I didn’t look like someone from the slums. I wore high-quality robes and leather boots with a brown cape over them. Something that no one in the slums would wear. My hair was well trimmed and my body was clean, unlike most of them.

Life here seems hard. To think that behind this town that I was so excited about when I first arrived here, there’s a place like this hiding. I guess no matter the place, a place like this will eventually be formed.

I knew there was a similar place like this in Anhui, a place where the poor and criminals, people who got unlucky in life, gathered. Some of them formed their own groups in China, and two groups that rose up from the slums were the Beggar Sect, which is one of the Nine Great Sects of Orthodox Murim, and the Hao Sect, which is one of the biggest sects in the Unorthodox Murim. Both of them deal in information.

Maybe I can find an information broker here too.

While I was observing the place, a kid bumped into me, and without even saying sorry, he ran away.

“Snare.”

“Ah, what the fuck is this!?”

Now that the boy couldn’t go anywhere with both of his feet bound to the ground, I approached him.

“Damn it! Did you do this!? Release me, you bastard! Do you even know who I am!?”

I got annoyed by how he kept screaming and insulting me, so I smacked his head quite hard.

Smack!

“Ouch! Fuck!”

Before he could hurl another insult, I reached my hand toward him, palm up.

“Return my money pouch.”

“Ha? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He grinned, his expression clearly challenging me, so I pulled the mana threads binding his feet up to hang him upside down from a building near us.

“How about now? Still don’t know what I'm talking about?”

“Gah, damn you! Release me, you bastard!”

Smack!

I smacked his head for a second time while he was still hanging upside down.

“Return my money and I’ll let you go.”

The pickpocket boy hesitated but eventually reached into his pocket and handed me my money pouch back.

“Now that wasn’t too hard, was it?”

I released the binding from him, so he fell to the ground head first. I didn’t hang him that high, so he should be fine. More importantly, I immediately checked the amount of money inside my pouch, and after counting it, nothing was missing.

Looking down at the boy who was still sitting on the ground rubbing his head, I asked him.

“Next time, before you pickpocket someone, make sure that your target isn’t someone who can fight back.”

I tapped the silver clasp on my cape bearing the emblem of the Veynes Magic Tower. Seeing that emblem, his eyes went wide, and then he clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, Damn it. So you’re one of the Tower’s mages.”

“That I am. Anyway, what’s your name?”

“Why the fuck should I tell you?”

Groooowlll…

The sound of his stomach followed after he said that. He looked at the paper bag full of chicken skewers I held in my arm, so I pulled out one of them.

“Want one?”

“Ha? I don’t need your pity!”

Groooooooowwwlll…

The rumble his stomach made was even louder now. I snorted back a laugh hearing that and offered him the skewer again.

“Just take it already.”

He hesitated for a bit before grabbing the skewer I offered him and started eating. I looked at the boy in front of me again. He looked to be at least the same age as me. He was skinny, and his long black hair looked dirty and covered his face. His skin was tanned and dirty, and he smelled bad. Actually, I wasn’t sure if he was tanned or if it was just because he was dirty.

In no time at all, he quickly finished the chicken skewer I gave him and looked at me with a clearly annoyed gaze in his eyes.

“Want another one?”

Without saying anything, he grabbed another one from the bag. I sat on the ground beside him and started eating too.

Once he was done stuffing himself with the skewer, he stood up and looked at me while hesitating.

“What?”

“…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“…I’m Aaron.”

“I see. I’m Hwi, Cheon Hwi.”

“Chewn Huwi?”

“Cheon Hwi.”

“That’s a weird name.”

This bastard really said whatever he wanted.

“Sigh, I’m not from this country after all, so my name will sound different.”

“Come to think of it, you don’t look like you’re from around here. You look weird.”

Should I blast him with Fireball?

“I came from a very faraway country to the east, so of course I looked different.”

“Anyway, thanks for the food.”

“You’re not going to apologize for taking my money?”

“Hell no. That’s my job.”

After talking to Aaron for a while, we went our own ways. I made my way back to the Tower after visiting another food stall in the town so I could have something to snack on while continuing to read the books.

At the time, I really didn’t think much about my meeting with Aaron until three days later, when I was out in town and he ran up to me so desperately.

“Huwi!”

“Hm? Aaron? What’s wrong?”

“Haah… Haah… Please help me.”

“Help?”

“I will give you everything I have, even my life, so please help me!”

He fell onto his arms as he was crying. I got down on my knees and tried to calm him down.

“What’s wrong? What can I help with?”

“My sister… my sister got kidnapped!”