## Chapter 116 – 116. Daily Life (2)
#116. Daily Life (2)
A strange giggle echoed from Choi Hyena’s private workshop in the Choi family’s mansion in Seongbuk.
“Hehe, just as I thought.”
Choi Hyena composed herself, suppressing the corners of her lips that were threatening to reach her ears, and placed the document on the desk. Unlike the formal smile she usually displayed to the outside world, this was a genuine smile that revealed her true feelings.
Some time ago, she had hired a somewhat famous information agency to investigate Kang Hyunwoo’s love life.
For the record, it wasn’t illegal. The investigation was conducted without infringing on his privacy. She only wanted to obtain simple personal information like his name, age, and race, and then she planned to meet him in person.
But what do you know?
The results of the investigation were completely unexpected. Kang Hyunwoo didn’t have a single person who could be called a lover.
Of course, if you went back to his middle and high school days, he had some female friends, but she was the only woman he had been in contact with recently.
“How cute.”
In the end, Kang Hyunwoo’s claim that he had another woman was just a common way for men to save face.
Of course, she didn’t completely fail to understand.
He was suddenly engaged to her, the heir to the Seongbuk Choi family, so he must have thought that if he didn’t put on a show of bravado, he would become the overwhelmingly weaker party in their future marriage.
She was slightly annoyed, but it was something she could overlook. It was kind of cute, in its own way.
“But a Crescent Moon Swordsmanship dojo? Why is he going to such a rundown place?”
According to the investigation, Kang Hyunwoo seemed to frequent a swordsmanship dojo in a run-down area.
The investigation of the dojo revealed that, apart from Kang Hyunwoo, there seemed to be no other members. The only people entering and leaving the building were the occasional delivery driver and Kang Hyunwoo.
Of course, the lights inside turned on at night, so it seemed like there was a master or instructor, but they had never come outside.
They had tried to check the inside, but the windows were always covered with curtains, and the door was locked, so they had decided that further investigation would be difficult and had withdrawn. The report ended with that information.
She understood that they had withdrawn because further investigation would have infringed on his privacy. But what she really couldn’t understand was something else.
“Seriously, why is a mage going to a swordsmanship dojo? If he needs to take care of his body, he should go to a gym, right?”
“Tsk, tsk.”
As Choi Hyena muttered to herself, a bluish woman appeared in the air before her.
“You still can’t think straight about anything other than magic research, can you?”
It was Wendigo, a mid-level spirit of snow and ice.
“You always ignore me when I ask you to help with my magic research, and now you’re popping up just to pick a fight?”
Choi Hyena’s voice rose slightly. Although her affinity for spirits was abysmal, she had been able to form a formal contract with Wendigo due to a combination of special circumstances.
“Of course not. I simply came to give my contractor some advice.”
“Advice?”
“Think about it, could Hyunwoo’s breathtaking technique really come from a virgin?”
“…”
Whenever Choi Hyena met Wendigo, she always forgot who the contractor was.
Wendigo had never used honorifics with her, but always respectfully addressed Kang Hyunwoo.
“So?”
“If you can’t find any contact with women even when you investigate his past, then he must be deliberately hiding the existence of a lover.”
“He could have had a one-night stand.”
“A one-night stand? Ah, you mean a fleeting fling. Of course, that’s possible, but I’m more suspicious of that swordsmanship dojo I mentioned earlier.”
“Hmm…”
As Wendigo said, it was something she had also been suspecting. In the first place, it was extremely rare for a mage to learn martial arts like swordsmanship.
For a mage, magic was their hard-earned honor. For a mage to abandon magic and learn martial arts was tantamount to denying their own honor.
There was the unusual case of sword mages, but their numbers were dwindling, and they had become so rare that it was hard to find them anymore.
For a mage to use martial arts was like openly advertising that their magic was terrible. Mages, who would rather die than lose face, would never do such a thing.
“Could it be…”
“You said it was difficult to investigate the master or instructor of the swordsmanship dojo, right? Why would it be difficult?”
Choi Hyena’s mind flashed at Wendigo’s words. She quickly picked up her phone and contacted the information agency.
“It’s me. I have someone else I want you to investigate.”
***
“Haa, haa, haa…!”
The stamina I had painstakingly recovered at the church was completely depleted.
The floor was soaked with sweat, and my hand trembled from how much I had swung the wooden sword. All I could do was lie sprawled on the floor and breathe.
“The sun’s already setting. If I didn’t have so much useless magic power and internal energy, I would have finished quickly.”
“…”
I tried my best to suppress the curse that was about to erupt from my dantian.
Today’s training was different from usual. It was training to release magic power with all my might while swinging the sword. When my magic power ran out, I used internal energy.
Thanks to that, my mana circle and dantian were now completely empty. As a result, my vision seemed to spin as if I had anemia.
“You seem to have a lot of unnecessary thoughts.”
“…Is this really training?”
“It is.”
“Is it training to exhaust my body by pointlessly wasting magic power and internal energy?”
Of course, I had heard that this kind of training method was quite popular in the old days. It was about purely training the body by intentionally depleting magic power or internal energy.
However, it was a training method that had almost disappeared in modern times. These days, you don’t have to bother depleting magic power and internal energy, you can just wear special restraints.
“You still don’t understand?”
“Understand what?”
“Hmm, I thought your perception was quite good… But I guess it’s greedy of me to expect you to notice it right away.”
The master suddenly squatted down next to me and raised a finger. I wondered what it was, and when I looked at it, pure white qi rose above it.
The swaying qi gradually took shape and soon became sword energy.
The sword energy created by the master quickly dissipated and then reappeared soon after. She repeated this strange act several times. It was like a flashlight flickering.
“Did you see it?”
“…What was that?”
“You still don’t understand?”
“No, I mean, what did you just do? Didn’t you just gather qi on your finger and create sword energy?”
It was certainly an amazing skill.
Gathering qi only on a finger instead of the entire hand to create sword energy required considerable concentration and control.
But that was it. I could do it too if I wanted to.
“…I had a feeling, but it was too early for you.”
“Huh?”
“That’s it for today’s training. Swing your sword a few more times before you leave.”
She just kept saying meaningless things and went straight into the office.
“What is it, really…?”
I wanted to follow her and ask her about it, but I knew from past experience that she wouldn’t answer me even if I asked her something more in this situation.
I had no choice but to do as she said and swing my sword a few more times before going back.
My magic power and internal energy were still almost at rock bottom. It was because I hadn’t intentionally recovered them.
“I’m sure it was like this when I used Mugung and Cheongwang.”
Spreading Geumganggi in all directions to move the mana of nature as I wished was Mugung (無窮), and Cheongwang (天光) was a technique that accelerated the internal energy of the whole body to the limit.
However, just because I released internal energy didn’t mean I could move the surrounding mana as I wished like back then. This was the same with Cheongwang, simply operating and accelerating internal energy quickly had a thin but clear difference.
Back then, my magic power and internal energy were at rock bottom like now, and my whole body was tattered, making it difficult to even swing a sword.
But now I can’t use Mugung and Cheongwang like back then.
It’s true that I forcibly used techniques that I couldn’t use with my current level, but I definitely still have the feeling from back then. I could use them if the conditions were right.
I dragged my body, which felt like it was about to collapse at any moment, and swung the wooden sword. I tried to create sword energy by using a tiny amount of internal energy like back then, and I scattered magic power to try to move the mana of nature as I wished.
But the result was failure.
I had to go home without gaining anything special.
I thought that maybe the answer would come out if I set my sub-job to martial artist from time to time, but I wanted to leave that as a last resort.
***
The next day, the house was noisy from early in the morning with employees from the furniture store.
They filled the house with essential furniture such as sofas, beds, and desks. Originally, I would have had to wait a few more days, but in modern society, there was nothing that couldn’t be done with money and connections.
The empty house was decorated with a bit of a human touch, and time passed, and it became afternoon.
Ding-dong, I opened the front door at the sound of the doorbell from the intercom.
“You’re here?”
Beyond the front door, Choi Hyena, looking good in a pure white dress, was standing with shopping bags in both hands.
“I told you that you could come empty-handed.”
“This is empty-handed enough for me. Besides, if my grandmother knew, she would have mobilized two or three trucks?”
Choi Hyena’s face looked more serious than ever, making it hard to dismiss it as a joke.
“Your house is a bit small. I told you to tell me if you’re short on money.”
“You think this is small?”
For the record, my house is 30 pyeong, with a separate living room and kitchen, and one bathroom but two rooms.
It was big enough for a man living alone.
But having been to Choi Hyena’s mansion a while ago, I found it difficult to argue with her. For someone living in a real mansion, 30 pyeong would be small.
“Well, it’s enough for me to live alone.”
“Live alone?”
“Huh?”
As soon as I finished speaking, Choi Hyena’s expression turned slightly sour. A sudden chill ran down my spine.
‘…Did I say something wrong?’
