Episode 570. Third Encounter

Chirp-chirp- Hrrr-

The warm sunlight shining in from outside the window and the bird sounds, familiar yet unfamiliar.

Are there different birds living in France compared to Korea?

The sounds are so refreshing.

“… Mmmph.”

My consciousness slowly returned.

Lee Hoyeon groggily got up from the soft bed and yawned.

“As expected, the birds in France have different cries.”

“Even after coming to France, your libido hasn’t decreased, has it?”

“Sorry.”

Lee Hoyeon glanced at Scarlet, who was lying naked beside him.

Her snow-white skin and curved lines were visible even under the blanket.

“You said you’d just hold hands and sleep, but it ended up like this.”

“You expected this to some extent, didn’t you?”

“I won’t deny that.”

Scarlet wasn’t an idiot.

She had naturally expected something like this would happen and came to this room.

This conversation was practically their morning greeting.

“Haaah… Still, the morning feels refreshing. Is it because of the foreign air?”

It had been a while since I had such a pleasant morning.

There were no more tiresome nightmares or cold sweats.

Was it because the accommodation provided by the Iris Guild was nice? Or maybe it was because Scarlet, whom I held all night, was nice.

“I’m glad it’s France. If it were Korea, I would have been worked to death.”

“… It wasn’t that bad.”

Actually, France or Korea wasn’t the issue.

It was just that my heart still felt a little uneasy.

Well, maybe I was the only one feeling this way.

“Come here, Scarlet.”

To shake off my distracting thoughts, I pulled Scarlet closer.

Our eyes met, and we naturally shared a kiss.

A light morning kiss.

The exchange of soft lips and sticky saliva seemed to ease my mind.

“Mmm, you’re starting in the morning already. Fuu….”

“What? Did you not like it?”

“It’s not that… but it’s bad manners to do this when I haven’t even brushed my teeth.”

“I’m fine with it. You don’t smell particularly bad.”

“I’m not fine with it. Besides, there’s a sweetness lingering in my mouth, which feels strange.”

Why was my saliva sweet, on top of the semen already being sweet?

Is this man circulating magic power even normally?

Scarlet swallowed the lingering sweetness in her mouth and stretched.

The blanket slipped down, revealing Scarlet’s snow-white breasts, but since we’d already seen everything, she wasn’t embarrassed.

“But this isn’t bad either. It feels like the first time we’ve spent time together like this.”

“… You didn’t deliberately suggest going straight to France, did you?”

“How could that be? We were just lucky.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Lee Hoyeon chuckled, yawned, and sat up.

What if she had ulterior motives, and what if she didn’t? Scarlet deserved days like these sometimes.

While chatting with Scarlet, I checked my smartwatch and saw a reply to the message I sent yesterday.

After carefully sending a reply, I got out of bed.

Seeing the morning sun outside the window, I figured the Iris Guild must have started normal operations.

“Alice still hasn’t arrived, huh?”

“If the young lady had arrived, wouldn’t she have notified us first?”

“Right.”

I was curious about how far they had gone to take so long to return.

Seeing they couldn’t return immediately, it seemed they had no communication network at all.

“For now… I guess I’ll do some magic research until Alice returns.”

“That’s a good idea. Then I should go perform a secret mission for the Iris Guild.”

“They have those?”

“Just kidding. I plan to borrow the Iris Guild’s training grounds.”

“Not a bad idea. I heard Chiron teaches quite well.”

There must be a reason why a centaur like him is still employed by the Iris Guild without getting fired.

Since he apparently gets along well with the guild members, he’ll probably get along well with Scarlet too.

“I’ll go wash up first, so you can come out at your own pace.”

“Okay. You can do your magic research here anyway.”

After Scarlet left to wash up.

Fully awake now, Lee Hoyeon sat down at the desk.

“Alright… Magic. Magic.”

It would be difficult to create an incredible magic right now, but I had things I’d been conceptualizing for a long time.

They were topics that required considerable time due to their immense scale.

“Since my understanding of ‘Domain’ increased while creating the Celestial Palace… I think I can try it.”

The Celestial Palace and the Rune Barrier.

Twisting those two even slightly could lead to completely different magic.

“Time. Or space. I want to tamper with one of them.”

The instantaneous phenomenon during my sparring match with Im Sol was worth researching, but right now, I wanted to study more difficult magic.

Besides, such phenomena need to be practiced in real combat; right now, I need to be in researcher mode.

Lee Hoyeon’s magic had always pushed past limits.

For example, the Celestial Palace, which exerted control over all magic power.

Magic like Emotion Amplification, which amplified negative emotions.

It was thanks to this insane talent that Lee Hoyeon could overcome the formidable opponents he had faced so far.

However, time and space were a slightly different story.

It required embodying actions that only a ‘god’ could perform, not just affecting individuals or their surroundings.

“If I were going to stop at the level of the Celestial Palace or what Daeun does, I wouldn’t have even started.”

Magic that could control this world, not just centered around oneself.

I’d have to achieve that level to defeat gods.

“I don’t know where to start tinkering… but let’s give it a shot.”

I wasn’t truly hoping to control the entire world itself. Just achieving a similar effect would be enough.

And if I just charge headfirst towards good ideas, something is bound to come out.

Vwoom-

A large force field centered around Lee Hoyeon emitted intangible waves.

He felt the magic power within the Celestial Palace throughout his entire body.

Under the dominion of magic power, tens, even hundreds, of calculations occurred simultaneously.

I hoped to see at least some results before Alice arrived.

Lee Hoyeon continued his concentration with his eyes closed.

*

Iris Guild’s Team 1 Leader’s Office.

Irene, sipping coffee while basking in the morning sun, looked at her smartwatch and let out a deep sigh.

“Mmm. …I really didn’t expect this.”

It had already been four days since Lee Hoyeon started staying at the Iris Guild.

And yet, Alice and the Guild Master still hadn’t arrived.

“I hope nothing happened to them. Haaah….”

The Night Emperor’s information gathering was always discreet.

To avoid leaving any traces for pursuit, they didn’t establish regular communication methods; if contact was needed, a letter was left at one of the designated points every few days.

Normally, even if the Guild Master didn’t contact her for a while, she never worried.

He was such a strong person that he could survive being thrown anywhere.

But this time, Alice was with him, and there was also news that needed to be delivered from this side.

It was frustrating for Irene that they weren’t making contact precisely at a time like this.

“I hope this old man didn’t go off to meet some strange woman again? Mother would be furious… No, Alice is with him, so that’s unlikely.”

Irene looked at the pile of documents on the table and let out another frustrated sigh.

Although her heart felt heavy, she couldn’t postpone her work.

… Surely nothing has happened to the Night Emperor.

Irene stepped out of the Team Leader’s office.

She had to attend today’s meeting as the acting Guild Master.

Her mother held the position of Vice Guild Master, but Irene was the one with the actual power.

“Should I try contacting them from this side…? But how can I find my father if he’s determined to hide….”

Just as she was walking down the hallway, clutching her head in frustration.

She saw Scarlet approaching from the front.

Although Scarlet had been staying here for days, this was the first time they’d met so early in the morning.

“Scarlet?”

“Good morning, Young Lady Irene.”

“Ah, yes. You too.”

She gave a slight bow with a relaxed expression.

The fact that Alice and the Guild Master hadn’t arrived yet couldn’t be comfortable for Scarlet and Lee Hoyeon either, could it?

Irene felt a pang of doubt but continued the conversation naturally.

“You seem comfortable. Are you using the accommodation well?”

“Thanks to you, I’m staying comfortably. Chiron, or rather, the Wild Gladiator in the training room, is quite skilled.”

“Yeah. He’s a bit strange, but his skills are top-notch. Right. Is Lee Hoyeon still holed up in the lab?”

“Yes. He’s barely eating and is completely focused on his magic.”

“Is that so…? Please take good care of him.”

It was the second day since Lee Hoyeon and Scarlet started staying at the Iris Guild.

Even when Irene visited his room personally, Lee Hoyeon was engrossed in magic research.

‘Still, the saying ‘genius mage’ seems accurate.’

His habit of neglecting meals when focused on research was just like the rumors about Mage Im Sol.

She wanted to check on Lee Hoyeon herself, but she lacked a valid reason, so she had no choice but to ask Scarlet.

“It seems there’s still no news from the young lady and the Guild Master today.”

“… Yeah. If I don’t hear from them by today, I plan to go look for them myself.”

“Finding the Guild Master might be difficult. I’ll be waiting for good news.”

Nod.

Scarlet gave a slight bow and headed towards the training room.

Honestly.

From her perspective, her current life wasn’t bad.

Focusing on training after a long time was quite enjoyable, and although it was hard to see Lee Hoyeon’s face, she could catch glimpses of him.

The situation where she alone saw his face, which he only showed a few times a day, was also somewhat enjoyable.

The problem was that he didn’t sleep much, but sometimes, every other day, they could sleep together.

“I don’t know why she looks so relaxed.”

I’m envious.

Watching Scarlet’s retreating back, Irene smacked her lips and headed to the conference room.

*

Inside the dark room.

I couldn’t tell if it was day or night.

I felt a slight discomfort, unsure if it was hunger or thirst.

Still, I had to finish the problem I was currently contemplating.

“… Stopping time. No, reversing it?”

After days of relentless contemplation and testing.

The thread of magic had settled towards manipulating time.

The memory of healing Scarlet to the extreme with the Rune Barrier was particularly helpful.

The principle behind slowing down time within the barrier was granting ‘deceleration’ to all magic power.

By layering it upon itself, again and again, time was made to flow at a slow pace.

“But the problem is how to reproduce that.”

Slowing time within the Rune Barrier was okay.

But what if there was no Rune Barrier? Or what if the range couldn’t be covered by the Rune Barrier?

There were still too many parts that needed fixing.

“I need to think a bit more….”

I’d slept twice since starting my magic research, so maybe three or four days had passed.

The continued lack of news from Alice was a bit strange.

And I wondered if maybe we weren’t going back to Korea anytime soon, but… I couldn’t stop this magic research right now.

“It feels like I can almost grasp it. Sluurp….”

My blood as a mage was boiling after so long.

I had cursed Im Sol for fasting for a week straight, but I guess all mages become like this.

If Scarlet hadn’t looked after me, I might have starved to death or died from overwork.

“Maybe I’m overthinking the concept of reversing time. Perhaps a different approach. If I deceive this entire space….”

Lee Hoyeon, having forgotten his hunger, stirred his magic power once more.