Rustle. Rustle.

The sound of thin paper brushing against each other. The soft ticking of the clock on the wall. And in the background, the subtle scent of wood.

"-_-"

This was a public library in Seoul. Many people had spread out their books and notebooks on their desks, immersing themselves in reading. And in a secluded corner between the bookshelves, a hooded figure had taken over a desk. Normally, this high school student, who would stare at a workbook for hours, had come to the library for a change of pace. While selecting a book, they unknowingly glanced toward the desk in question.

<Biology> <Cell Biology> <Structure and Function of the Human Body> <Best Travel Destination: Thailand> <Science Knowledge in Comics> How to Avoid Dying in the Sea>

For some reason, it felt like there were a few odd things mixed in... The unnamed high school student, who had been briefly looking at the desk, quickly moved away, not wanting to disturb the person's reading.

And at the same time, from the hood of the library user, who had their head lowered, unusual-colored hair peeked out.

"-_-"

That's right. The one sitting here was none other than Korea's fourth 5-rank hunter—Kim Giryeo.

Flip.

He turned the pages quickly, continuing to read at a brisk pace, but his stiff expression showed no sign of changing, no matter how much time passed. Only four top-tier hunters existed in the entire country—and yet here was one of them, in a public library, in the middle of the day.

In fact, he had recently encountered a completely unexpected problem. He thought that if he understood the human body a little better, he might find a breakthrough, so he started studying with a sense of urgency.

~ What the heck, how come the information marked Ⓢ here is suddenly Ⓢ over there? They're completely contradictory!

The internet had far too much inaccurate information. After trying out various approaches, he finally ended up at a place called a library. Printed materials that exist offline had at least gone through a minimum level of fact-checking, making them comparatively more reliable. If he was going to study properly, a place like this had more advantages than the internet.

But even though he had started studying, the more information he gathered, the clearer his pessimistic conclusions became. No matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be no way to artificially awaken the body's potential. To be exact, it was clear that Kim Giryeo's limit lay well above F-rank—and yet, but there was no way to improve this slow speed of increasing awakening value by 2 per year, so.

"No, seriously."

The more he researched, the faster the conclusion accelerated. There's no answer.

"This is driving me crazy."

Which creature wouldn't be like that? Alphaurt was a planet where the desire for life extension was great, and in terms of Earth, biotechnology was extremely advanced. So, with proper care, even someone like Kim Giryeo could preserve their body for 300 years or even 1000 years. However, 1000 years... To live for a whole millennium with such a body.

'Damn it, after that much time, the human species on Earth would have adapted to magic at the 3rd level, and there would probably be SSS-rank individuals, so what the hell.'

Kliek.

He leaned his hands behind his head, lost in thought. For now, living itself wasn't particularly difficult.

'Earth... it's a good planet.'

Even without the aesthetic beauty, the internet. A well-maintained water and sewage system. Affordable light. Fashion. Food. Music. Culture. Culture. Culture. Earth was a world full of things to enjoy and love.

In fact, compared to someone's home planet, Earth was even emotionally calm and warm. So, even without the status of an archmage, he had no complaints about becoming a citizen of this land.

However, the problem is.

'The karma I've accumulated...'

He rubbed his nose with his hand, following a habit left by his corpse.

The forged rank. At least the lie about the registered number at the association can be easily undone by deliberately injuring myself tomorrow and quitting as a Hunter, claiming I can't handle it anymore, so it doesn't matter.

Ambition and the matter of sacrifice. How should I really solve this?

'How can I stop Kang Changho with an F-rank magic power...?'

Is there any way?

"There's really no way. Unlike Brooklyn, he's particularly talented in control, so I can't even block his spell with [Mana Burn]."

But lamenting like this won't change the world by itself. He silently promised himself that he would slowly begin to clean up the mess he had made.

Flap.

As Giryeo finished reading the third book, he picked up the comic book he had brought out of curiosity. He slowly began to gather his thoughts. However, when a character in the book found themselves stranded in the middle of a vast ocean, floating in a rubber dinghy, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Ah."

Come to think of it...

'Is it already that time this week?'

Outside, it was already the summer season, with humid rain pouring down in heavy streams.

That's right. It has been about three months since he visited the building of the guild called Garion, and the first tutoring period he contracted with Jung Haseong is coming to an end.

***

Whoosh

The scent of fire, now quite familiar.

I followed the heat carried by the wind, hands behind my back.

"Uhm."

As you can see, the people's hero is receiving one-on-one lessons from the archmage of the Twin Stars, and is growing like bamboo shoots during the rainy season...

"Jung Haseong. Take another look here."

"Ah, yes."

Swish.

A small spark appeared in front of the disciple's eyes with a tiny sound, like a flickering candle flame. It was the storage magic of the Pyromancer's Necklace.

"Don't let it just float around, make it rise from within. Think of this hand as a cross-section. Like this, the point where the x-axis and the y-axis intersect is the ignition center."

"But if I do it that way, it feels like something's being pushed back..."

"There's repulsive force. When your internal magic power overlaps with the starting point of a skill, it interferes. That's why it's hard for awakened people to cast skills directly inside their own bodies."

"Ah."

"But if you think of it as pushing through while finding the gaps, it can actually break through more easily than you'd expect. Practicing this helps a lot with improving your skill control."

"A gap?"

"If you aim for the moment when the flow slows down and stab right then..."

I had been using my right hand as a textbook, explaining something at length, but soon trailed off mid-sentence.

"If you stab at that moment, it should work, but..."

Haseong looked puzzled at the response but soon went back to practicing.

About two hours later. By the time the lesson had ended and they were getting ready to leave the gym.

"Thank you again for today. I'll make sure to practice what you taught me on my own and master it before the next lesson."

The moment those certain words came out of Haseong's mouth, I finally voiced the opinion that I had been contemplating.

"Ah, Haseong, about the 'next'..."

"Yes."

"Umm... just to ask, you're not planning to finish the lessons here without renewing the contract, right? Even though I told you that there won't be much progress like before, you'll still continue to learn until the very end, right?"

Thud.

And right after that, Jung Haseong dropped his brand-new phone on the floor. How could he put such an expensive phone down without even using a protective case? I stared down at the phone stuck to the ground, pondering.

Private tutoring with the number one ranked person. It started with the purpose of money, but now the meaning of this act has faded a lot. Do you know how much money is in my bank account right now?

After deducting what needs to be subtracted— the reward for handling the thorny forest dungeon break and the final lecture fee, along with everything added— the total amount comes to 5.82 billion.

A staggering 5.82 billion was my current balance. Even after purchasing two Infinite Power Cores, which were so expensive that I used to tremble while buying just one, I still had money left over.

In Korea, the average first prize in the lottery was about 2 billion won. Yet, the fact that a person with 5 billion won in capital is still not free from manual labor—whether that is right or not—remains questionable.

"Ugh, I don't want to work..."

I muttered a sentence that any worker would likely have thought of at least once.

Switching bodies in the future is also impossible. The knight's oath curse itself is meaningless, but due to the physical effects on the contractor, my remaining life expectancy is only about 9 years.

'I just want to quit everything.'

Therefore, an impulse struck him. All the scheming and petty tricks to make money were becoming too bothersome. If possible, he just wanted to quit this nonsense and rest right away. Moreover, this was something he could say with some confidence, as he had done the math as a teacher himself.

'I think he is strong enough.'

Indeed, Jung Haseong had already significantly reduced the secondary damage he was most concerned about. As long as he didn't directly strike someone... Now, the hero's flame no longer left indiscriminate scars just because it was nearby.

"Hmm."

But thinking it over again, the real problem lies with Esther. Jung Haseong's tendency to leak magic everywhere was something that could be fixed somehow, but the real issue was that the curse magic was in the realm of mental interference.

'I've improved the physical barriers to some extent, but still, if he gets caught in the curse storm, it will all be pierced.'

Before starting Esther's training, there are still many things I need to verify. So, I decided to use Jung Haseong as an experiment subject, refining the training methods to apply to the next disciple, while barely suppressing my inner urge to retire.

Anyway, these thoughts are just a temporary result of the shock from failure. Originally, I had even planned to send the remaining know-how and some case study documents to Jung Haseong's home address once the vessel had been safely changed, so at least I had some semblance of conscience.

"Th, then, does that mean... Hunter Kim, you don't want to extend the contract...?"

"No. What I just said was just something I casually brought up, so don't worry about it."

Click.

The next sound that followed was the door of the awakening person's gym locker closing.

"Really, I said that because I can genuinely feel how much you've grown. It's not just empty words. Even if you quit this right now, you won't have to worry about your work at all, and it'll be nothing like before."

"-_-" 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Oh, right, since it's annoying when renewing the contract, let's not write a separate oath and just pay the deposit at the beginning of the month like we always have. Then I'll continue the class right away."

I took out Kim Giryeo's phone that I had stored in the locker and casually changed the subject. However, Jung Haseong, who had been staring at the side of my face, soon raised a question.

"It doesn't seem like you were joking... Could it be because of the tuition fees? If you needed, I can increase the payment whenever we renew the contract."

If it had been before, I would have been easily hooked by that one sentence and drooled over it.

"Yeah. What good would it do to collect gold and treasures as a low-tier wizard? It'd be a blessing if I didn't get robbed. Now, having too much money could actually be dangerous."

From now on, I really have to live as a weakling, so I need to be even more cautious and careful. If I recklessly try to regain my standing using tools, I might end up as an unfortunate victim, just like that frog incident from before. No, even more than that, with this F-rank body of mine, it's common that I won't be able to fully harness the true power of high-grade artifacts.

'Ha...'

Maybe when I feel better later, I might start collecting epic-level items with a renewed sense of hope. But still, that activity shouldn't be something I rely on Jung Haseong's body to carry out.

Let me say it again, I am a soul that can no longer leave Kim Giryeo's body. I feel like it's too late for me, but if I want to live just a little longer, shouldn't I start appearing as S-rank Pyromancer from now on?

'If I build up intimacy, maybe he'll forgive me for my mistakes when the truth comes out later. It would seem too strange if I suddenly use honorifics. For now, it's best to just treat him in small ways...'

Hunters typically have most of their assets tied up in equipment. This is no different for Jung Haseong, who wears epic-level gear. However, given the dangerous nature of their work, they often end up severely injured during missions, and treating those injuries in battle requires expensive, one-time use medical supplies. To keep asking someone like him for such cash every time...

'Hunters need to sell all their loot before they can earn money, so the flow of capital is slow... Including taxes, 6 billion a month would have been a significant burden even for an S-rank Hunter.'

Let's not be greedy. I barely suppressed the sigh rising from within me and continued speaking.

"You don't need to raise the money. Just send it like you have been until now."

"That's true, but..."

"Really, it's fine. If anything, if you want, I could even lower it. Should I lower it?"

"...No."

"Alright. Let's leave the talk here and go grab some food."

Fortunately, it seemed that the student had been persuaded by this consistent effort.

As expected...

Mumbling.

For some reason, Jung Haseong muttered something strange as he left the gym, but well, anyway.

***

Afterward, Kim Giryeo, having finished the lesson with Jung Haseong, headed toward the reserved shiitake mushroom rice pot restaurant, deep in thought. After experimenting with a few teaching methods during the last 3-month lesson with his first disciple, he planned to start teaching Esther immediately without any breaks.

But there was one thing the Archmage had forgotten.

[ -If you get strong enough for even me to acknowledge you, I'll team up with you as much you want.]

Come to think of it, this lesson—wasn't there a bit more riding on it than just improving the skills of the 1st rank Hunter?