Chapter 141 – #31_City Life
#139
1.
Two weeks had already passed since I returned to the present world.
To summarize Siwoo’s life during that time, it was roughly as follows.
He ordered food until the table was about to break, like a Chinese emperor.
And he did this five times a day.
Since he didn’t need to sleep and could eat as much as he wanted without worrying about digestion or health, he ordered food as soon as he felt even slightly less full.
If he were a human, instead of a spirit body, the toilet would have been clogged multiple times.
“Today’s meal was also sufficient.”
After eating until he could barely move, he would slowly get up and go to his bedroom-cum-study.
He had hired an interior designer to install a cork board on one wall, a whiteboard on another, and built-in shelves for filing documents on the last wall.
It was just like the lab he used to use.
Siwoo picked up a water-based marker and stood in front of the whiteboard.
“Shall we play today?”
What he did after all that preparation was magic research.
Actually, he hadn’t intended to start researching magic with such a serious attitude from the beginning.
Siwoo had been trying to reorganize his work on complex analysis, especially the essential singularities that had earned him a master’s degree at a young age.
Since the thesis he had worked so hard on had disappeared, he thought it would be a good way to pass the time.
And Siwoo was taken aback.
He couldn’t touch it at all.
He could grasp the general outline of what the symbols meant, the direction of the series of equations, and the important formulas, but he couldn’t see the most important ‘flow’.
It wasn’t a slump or a decline in talent that came from taking a five-year break.
It was a bizarre phenomenon where his brain seemed to completely reject thinking in that direction, as if it was cutting off.
And then Siwoo thought of a possibility.
He had suffered severe brain damage in the past.
He felt he had recovered almost perfectly, but it wouldn’t be strange if he had lost something in the process.
But Siwoo didn’t give up and found another path.
The fact that Siwoo, who had been in a panic, picked up his pen again in just half a day might have been due to the mental training he had undergone.
While pondering how much his abilities had been limited, Siwoo realized that there was nothing wrong when he applied mathematics to use magic.
It was a strange thing.
It was as if his brain had been reorganized to study magic.
“Hmm… does it go like this here? No, this is too old-fashioned.”
Siwoo muttered with his hand on his chin, filling the whiteboard.
A huge magic formula was already drawn there, and Siwoo was writing down rune characters and equations between the circuits, organizing new formulas like a fill-in-the-blank quiz.
He was taking the magic that had been redefined while he was unconscious and organizing it in an easy-to-see way.
“How many of these are mixed together?”
Siwoo squinted his left eye, which was no longer covered by an eye patch, and looked at the magic formula that had been roughly designed over a week.
Just by looking at the magic formula with his newly acquired left eye, he could perceive it as a three-dimensional structure, as if he were connected to the Aein.
It even captured the unwanted, minute flows of magic power, which made his daily life too tiring, so he usually covered it, but it was convenient at times like this.
Anyway, as far as Siwoo could guess, a total of five magics were mixed together in his brand, intertwined as one.
The magnetic magic dimension transfer formula that Siwoo had been researching before.
The law of shadows obtained from killing the homunculus and the gnosis egg.
“I understand up to here…”
But there were three more magic formulas that he couldn’t even guess the identity of.
They came to mind as if he had known them for a long time, without even trying to remember them.
It was troubling because he didn’t know when he had obtained them.
“…I guess I have to try it myself.”
There was a limit to what he could design without actually doing it.
Even genius composers originally composed by pressing keys one by one or playing instruments, right?
The only problem was that it wouldn’t be good if it became known that Siwoo could use magic.
“Hmm…”
Siwoo took out an music box from his pocket that was quietly turning without making any sound.
The three gimmicks attached to the side of the winding key.
He had heard the usage from Odile in quite detail, so he knew roughly what each gear did.
“Is this how it goes?”
He had heard that if he pulled the second lever-like thing slightly and released it with the winding key fully wound, it would perfectly disguise the magic power waves that occurred inside.
However, it consumed a lot of magic power, so he had to rewind the key every hour, which was annoying, but there was no other way, was there?
“Bloom.”
Siwoo, having visually confirmed that the concealment field was definitely formed, stretched out his hand and amplified his magic power.
He didn’t need too much.
Just enough to activate the magic formula whose identity he didn’t know.
The magic power that had been accumulating in his brand flowed into Siwoo’s hand, emitting a brilliant golden light.
He closed his eyes slowly, thinking of the magic formula that had roughly taken shape but whose form of manifestation was unknown.
The flow of magic power that circulated through the magic circuits that extended throughout his body.
He distributed it slowly to where it wanted to flow, without resisting it.
One creation, three changes, and three deployments.
The magic power that had gathered sluggishly during the creation process took on a physical form, like a thin thread.
Next, through the change process, the magic threads were arranged vertically.
Finally, other threads tangled together on the arranged threads, taking the form of a long ribbon.
“What the hell.”
Siwoo intuitively realized its identity.
It was the magnetic magic of Eia Sadalmelik, whom he had once clashed with.
That vicious ribbon that had mercilessly torn Siwoo apart when he had given it his all.
“Why is this with me?”
When he opened his eyes again, a single ribbon that triggered his trauma switch just by looking at it was swaying in front of Siwoo’s nose.
Moreover, its shape was somehow different from the ribbon that Eia had handled.
It was made of the shadow particles he originally possessed, rather than ordinary magic threads, so its color was black and dark.
The more chilling fact was that even though it was such an unfamiliar magic, the ribbon was already moving freely like Siwoo’s limbs.
It was like a new arm had grown out of his body.
It moved so delicately that he felt like he could use it to masturbate.
Of course, he wouldn’t.
He had no idea what had happened while he was unconscious.
Even with all the magical knowledge Siwoo possessed, he couldn’t find an answer.
“…Let’s think about this later.”
For now, it was a priority to check what he had one by one.
First, Siwoo put away the ribbon and slowly checked the other magic.
The identity of the other one was relatively easy to find.
The space that appeared the moment he focused his magic power on the corresponding magic formula was a space that Siwoo already knew.
Siwoo had entered the Aein when he regained his memories before.
There, Siwoo had faced countless stairs and doors in a black space.
This seemed to be a magic that controlled ‘memories’.
Unfortunately, even after spending enough time, he couldn’t figure out the identity of the last one.
It wasn’t that he lacked magic power or that his concentration was low, but he couldn’t specify the form of the formula.
It seemed that he would only be able to know for sure after he had more carefully subdivided and organized the magic that was tangled together as one.
-Beep beep beep beep
Siwoo, who had been scribbling in front of the whiteboard for a long time, heard his phone notification and put down the marker.
“It’s time to eat.”
Once every four hours.
Siwoo had made a promise to himself.
No matter what, he would eat five meals a day.
Including the time it took to prepare the food, he had to start preparing now to keep that promise.
His head was hot from thinking so much.
It would be good to get some cool air.
Siwoo threw on a windbreaker and ordered a bunch of takeout through the delivery app before heading out.
It was true that there were many restaurants in the area, probably because there were many universities and studio apartments nearby.
There were also many landmines disguised as restaurants.
“Let’s go to the famous street today.”
The famous street across from the studio apartment complex where Siwoo lived was a treasure trove of things to do and restaurants.
He rummaged through his clothes to smoke a cigarette while he was out, but only found an empty cigarette pack.
“I’ll have to buy one on the way.”
This was the convenient thing about a mixed-use apartment building.
There were various amenities, including a cafe on the second floor, and a convenience store on the first floor, so there was no need to go far.
“One Africa Rola, please. Oh, and a lighter too.”
Siwoo, who went straight to the cashier, glanced at the part-time worker.
Siwoo wasn’t particularly fond of women like Takasho, but honestly, anyone would be drawn to this part-time worker, regardless of gender.
Perhaps because it was Sinchon, the part-time worker was dressed to impress.
Long, straight hair without bangs.
A two-tone dye job with a dark khaki color mixed with a slightly darker mint color in a gradient.
The androgynous ready-made clothes also looked natural and stylish, as if they were custom-made.
In fact, if it had just been this, he would have passed it off as a college student who liked to dress up.
But this part-time worker was too pretty.
It wasn’t that he had any ulterior motives or other intentions, but objectively, both her appearance and figure were outstanding.
Deep green eyes shining under thick double eyelids, a sharp nose, and a full chest that lifted the convenience store vest.
She had an exotic appearance, but her strangely familiar impression made her seem like a mixed-race person, and she was comparable to the witches wandering around Gehenna.
If she went to be a model, there would be lines of people waiting for her, but he didn’t know why she was working here.
“That’ll be 5,000 won.”
But pretty women were said to be aloof.
This part-time worker wasn’t very enthusiastic about her work.
She always had her phone in her hand, and even when a customer came, she didn’t look at their face, but just tapped her phone with one hand and did the calculations in a curt manner.
“She doesn’t get fired because she’s pretty even though she works like that.”
Siwoo, who always had the same impression, put a cigarette in his mouth.
After drawing a mind map in his head of which restaurant to go to today, Siwoo walked down the street.
After climbing the steep studio apartment complex, which was almost built on a mountain ridge, he could see his original destination.
“Huh?”
Siwoo rubbed his eyes.
At first, he thought he was seeing things because he was only using one eye.
That was because something dark was crawling like it was hanging on the electronic billboard of the department store in the distance.
The exact shape was completely indiscernible because it was too far away, but if it could be seen from here, it was definitely not small.
Siwoo quickened his pace.
He wanted to see what it was with his own eyes.
When Siwoo, who had run almost as fast as he could to the front of the department store, looked at the electronic billboard again.
Only a normal cell phone advertisement was playing.
The people on the sidewalk were either going their own way, chatting, or doing other things as if nothing had happened.
Siwoo’s eyes narrowed.
“…I’m sure I saw it.”
Clearly, he had seen it.
A strange chill ran down his spine.
He took out the music box from his pocket, maximized the cloaking value, and put it back in.
In the end, he didn’t want to wander around because he had a bad feeling, so he just packed about thirty crabs and went home.
