Ch.5552 – Phone Call

“Thanks to you, my mother’s condition has improved a lot.”

[Ah~]

“She woke up early this morning. Can you believe someone who could barely move a finger can now hold objects?”

[Ah~ Ah~]

“I only heard about it from No-eul, so I don’t really understand how this is possible… but thank you sincerely. I’ll consider you my lifelong benefactor.”

[Aaaah~ Aaaaaaaah~ Ap]

I quickly covered the Otamaton’s mouth.

“I’m sorry… I just got too excited about this.”

I felt embarrassed for interrupting what seemed to be a serious moment.

“Haha, no worries. I’m glad you like it.”

“I didn’t have time to explain earlier, but there will be a semi-permanent formation mark on her left arm. You saw it, right?”

“Yeah, I heard about it. Couldn’t see it because of the hospital gown.”

“Since it’s designed to work on a charging system, you need to inject at least 250kE to 300kE of mana daily. You can add more, but overcharging is less efficient, so consistency is more important than quantity.”

“But how exactly do I inject it?”

“It’s exactly like infusing mana into a magic formation. However, I’m the only one with the encryption key, so I’ll engrave it on your palm now. I have two more copies, so you can pass them to No-eul or Yu-na. Could you hold out your palm?”

“Like this?”

“Yes. It’s not noticeable enough to interfere with daily life, so don’t worry.”

[Symmetric Key Transfer: Protocol ARIA]

Though unlikely to be an issue, encrypting semi-permanent formations is essential to prevent third-party destruction or runaway reactions, even if it’s a bit cumbersome.

“The formation’s effective period is set for one year. Even with late-stage multiple sclerosis, she’ll be completely cured in 9 months, 10 at most. If you don’t inject mana for two weeks, it will disappear naturally, so around that time, visit the hospital for a checkup and then just leave it be.”

With that, all my tasks were complete.

“Thank you… thank you… So next year she really will…”

“Yes, walking might be difficult, but at least she’ll be able to stand on her own two feet.”

“Hic… I can’t believe it. The hospital said it was incurable… that we should give up, let her go, prepare ourselves mentally… I can’t thank you enough…”

It’s certainly not an easy condition to cure.

The “Akashic Record,” which can’t be commercialized and can only be used personally, cost over ten million won just for initial setup.

Plus, with daily maintenance costs of 100,000 won, it’s not easy.

Of course, even this is relatively cheap for curing what’s essentially an incurable disease.

But compared to a situation filled with despair, having even a thread of hope is a hundred, a thousand times better.

Soon, Yu-na’s family will have something to smile about.

“I’d recommend investing in a medical capsule for your home without worrying about the cost. I heard someone named No-eul is caring for her all day. These days there are affordable products that would make managing bedsores and eczema easier, even if your mother stays home alone.”

“You’re right, we’ll have extra funds now that we can cut down on medication costs.”

“Yes, and it would be better for your mother to practice moving in virtual reality first.”

“I understand. No-eul and I will just have to hang in there a bit longer. Oh right, Yu-na should be awake by now—would you like to call her? She was making such a fuss yesterday morning when we sent her home, saying she wanted to stay by your side.”

“Haha, sure. If you give me the number, I’ll call her from my phone.”

“Yu-na really found a good academy friend. And… I heard what you said to No-eul. It won’t be easy, but we’ll take better care of Yu-na from now on. But at the academy—”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she makes plenty of good friends.”

“No, having one friend like NoName is a greater blessing than ten others. Please stay friends with our Yu-na.”

Seo Ma-ru left his home phone number on a Post-it note before leaving.

A friend like me…

I reflect on the last words he said before leaving.

No, a child still needs friends their own age.

Having limited relationships during the crucial period of social development can be devastating.

There’s nothing beneficial about talking frequently with someone like me.

‘I wonder if Professor Cheon is coming yet.’

He said he was bringing abalone porridge, but there’s been no word from him.

Maybe he’s gone all the way to the sea to catch abalone himself.

I turned on my phone and entered the phone number.

[Dialing: 02-8XX-XXXX]

There are still places using landlines.

A long, tedious dial tone continued.

Just as the song completed one cycle and began its second introduction, I heard urgent breathing.

[Hello?]

“Did you get home safely?”

[Who is… NoName?]

“Yes, it’s me.”

[Name! @#% @%#$&@@$!!!]

With a crashing sound, Yu-na burst into some kind of indescribable alien language.

I briefly covered the speaker to protect my eardrums, then uncovered it again.

“Sounds like you made it home fine.”

[Name, are you okay now? Your wrist! And yesterday you collapsed from using too much magic…!]

“I wouldn’t be calling if I wasn’t okay, would I?”

[Uweeeeeeng! I’m sorryyyyy *sob*… Are you really really okay?]

“I told you I’m fine. I heard you got home late yesterday.”

[*sniff* Y-yeah… around 3 or 4 in the morning?]

“You must be tired. Get plenty of rest this weekend.”

[No, I’m totally fine! I usually stay up past midnight anyway…!]

“Isn’t it lonely being home alone on your birthday?”

[No! I got your birthday present. I feel happy just lying down doing nothing. Though I should catch up on my studies…!]

“By the way, your older brother gave me this number. He also gave me a gift—have you heard of an Otamaton?”

[Yeah, that’s the instrument trending on TikTok. The kids in class talk about it sometimes, so I know what it is.]

“I thought I’d practice it while I’m bored in the hospital. When we meet at school, I’ll play you what I’ve practiced.”

[So you can come on Monday?]

“Actually, I could be discharged right now, but I’m thinking of staying one more day for Professor Cheon’s sake.”

[Professor?]

“My adoptive father.”

[Ah…! Yes, I hope I can see you soon!]

“I’ll hang up now.”

[W-wait a moment!]

“Yes?”

Yu-na called out to me in an urgent voice. I brought the phone back up that I was about to put down.

[We’re friends… right?]

Her uncertain question was filled with tears.

[We are friends, right? Yesterday you definitely said we were…]

Even until the very end, Yu-na couldn’t shake the worry of being abandoned.

[I won’t bother you at school. I won’t pester you to teach me. I just want to—]

“What are you talking about?”

[…?]

“By the way, next week’s ‘Magic Infusion’ performance assessment is in pairs, right? Let’s do it together.”

[…! Hehe, yes! Let’s do it together!]

* * *

“I wanted steak, not abalone porridge.”

“Eating meat on an empty stomach will make you sick. Besides, you like abalone porridge, don’t you?”

Professor Cheon took out the packaged abalone porridge and arranged it on the table.

He checked the temperature after opening the plastic wrap and, finding it a bit cold, heated it in the microwave for another 30 seconds.

“I don’t eat cubed radish kimchi.”

“Why? Won’t the porridge be bland by itself?”

“I used to like it, but now…”

Actually, I wonder how I ever ate that stuff before.

Rice with kimchi used to be enough for a meal… add some ramen broth and it was perfect.

But my palate had changed after years abroad, and I couldn’t go back.

I still preferred bread to rice, and green beans (haricots verts) to kimchi.

The reason I like abalone porridge is because abalone is such an incredibly precious ingredient.

“Thank you for the meal.”

I add a pinch of sesame salt and a couple drops of sesame oil to the steaming abalone porridge and mix it well.

With my left hand, I stir the too-hot porridge with a spoon to cool it to the right temperature, while with my right hand, I pick up some beef jangjorim with chopsticks.

“Ugh, it’s salty!”

But delicious!

“Why were you so late, by the way?”

“Actually, I wanted to buy something for you, so I stopped by a place on the way.”

“Something you wanted to buy? Ah… I think I know what it is.”

“Huh, I thought I hid it well, but you could smell it?”

“It’s crepes, right? I can smell strawberries too.”

“You’ve got a nose like a dog. So, does this make up for being late?”

What a truly thoughtful person.

If we were just counting years lived, I would have lived longer, but there was no denying the wisdom that comes with age.

Or maybe he was always this kind of person even when he was young.

If so, he must have broken many hearts.

The two of us sitting in the hospital room, chatting comfortably, looked just like a close father and daughter.

It would have been nice to have a father like this in my previous life.

“I’ll forgive you this time, Professor.”

“Haha, thank you for that.”

“Next time you do something wrong, it’ll be 2.”

“2?”

“2 crepes.”

“You’re just greedy. Hurry up and eat before the porridge gets cold.”

“Yes~”

The warm rice grains intertwined with finely chopped abalone deliver a satisfying texture to my tongue.

The saltiness from the first bite of jangjorim is neutralized by the somewhat bland porridge.

Plus the jangjorim eggs—though I personally dislike the yolks, so I left those out.

It would be unfair to call this being picky about side dishes. I am a patient, after all.

There’s no better restorative food than abalone porridge after experiencing mana exhaustion.

In fact, mana exhaustion might be a symptom that ordinary people never experience.

This is because magic formations requiring more mana than the caster’s capacity would normally dissolve naturally—that’s common sense.

However, there are countless ways to bypass this.

Methods include simultaneously performing the injection and activation phases, or setting the formation’s entropy lower than the caster’s internal concentration to forcibly extract all available mana from the body.

It’s bad for the aura heart, especially putting great strain on the actual heart, so it should be avoided.

It wasn’t quite dimensional descent, but I arranged the runes to consume relatively little mana, yet still ran out.

The root cause was probably using magic on Yu-na earlier at school.

Still, I couldn’t discard the incredibly complex Akashic Record I’d created just because of insufficient mana.

I had to complete it at once, even if it meant sacrificing not only the mana in my aura heart but also the mana dissolved in my blood.

The longer I delayed, the more micro-mana would be consumed during casting.

Fortunately, everything ended successfully.

Yes.

*Ding*

[Amount Due: 10,813,019 won]

No regrets.

‘Sylvia, Remilia, Klaus. If only I could have saved you like this back then…’

Why am I reciting names that will never return?

A bitterness clings to my mouth and won’t go away.

I should finish this porridge quickly so I can enjoy the sweet crepes.