Chapter 6 - True Wealth(1/2)
“Levitation!”
Shwaa! With my incantation, I felt the mana in my circle drain away with frightening speed.
“Ohh, OHHHHHHHH! I’m up! I’m floating!”
At the same time, I rose into the air as if someone was lightly lifting my body. Magic was truly something that was constantly giving me surprises. I posed with my arms stretched forward in flight, as if I had become a baby Superman.
“Huhuhu. If I were to become an archmage like Master, even world domination would be no problem.”
The uses for magic were limitless. Though this was the cutting-edge 21st century, there was no end to the things that could be done with magic. You could rob a bank using Invisibility magic to hide yourself from people, and you’d even be able to peep on the women’s baths, a land that would forever capture your curiosity.
If you installed a safe Warp magic circle, you would be able to travel the world as much as you wanted, whenever you wanted. Not only that, the various attack and defense spells could make you invincible.
Furthermore, if you were to use extensive magic knowledge to develop new medicines, substances, or magic items, raking in a fortune would be as easy as pie.
“If I keep going straight like this, I should be able to reach the 4th Circle, or even the 5th Circle, in four years.”
The new mana channeling method that Master had been unable to learn despite creating it, the internal chi channeling that combined magic with the related paths matched my hasty personality. What good would it be to become an old 8th Circle Archmage at a hundred years of age? My youth would be gone, and the beautiful girlfriends I would have been with would be reduced to bones and skin, and on the verge of returning to the ground.
‘Let’s learn it in one go! I’ll grow at a high speed that no one has achieved in the history of magic!’
There were three distinct mana circles that I could feel in my chest. I could feel that the mana in my upper and lower danjeons were forming circles while communicating with each other.
‘3rd Circle magic isn’t enough. At best, the greatest attack magic is merely Lightning. Since I can’t use strong magic, there’s no magic I can use when I’m really in danger.’
Magic theories were whizzing through my mind. In order to cast magic instantly without a formula and an incantation, you had to be one circle higher than the spell. So simply learning 3rd Circle magic didn’t mean much. Instead of slowly casting magic without any protection, it was faster and more effective to just use my fist.
‘The 4th Circle! My next goal is the 4th Circle!’
Master had said, ‘once a mage, always a mage.’
I had also somehow become a Mage greedy for circles and magic knowledge.
‘I’ll learn flight magic. Then I’ll go to the window where Ye-rin is sleeping, and.. huhuhu..’ There was one lewd thought that fired up my fighting spirit. It was the reason I needed magic.
And later, I planned on passing it down to my kids, too. After making 108 spells that were very useful in real life, of course.
* * *
“Is this information accurate?”
“Yes, Master. The Magician company’s private plane that we have been watching has been in Incheon International Airport for an extended time. And the person who used the plane is a 17 year old high schooler named Kang Hyuk.”
“A high schooler, you say.. he’s definitely that old man’s disciple. That old man who treats money like his own blood wouldn’t give away his plane, otherwise.”
A middle-aged man in his forties was sitting on a chair made with the finest crocodile skin. The white tiger hide and the ten odd rifles hung on the walls as decorative pieces were a testament to the man’s remarkable social standing.
“Send some useful kids to observe the kid named Kang Hyuk.”
“Yes, Master!”
A man with a deep scar stretching from his right eye to his mouth bowed.
The man in front, the one called master, had horrible scars over his forehead and was one of the three heads of the Triad. In Hong Kong, China, and the East, the sound of his name alone made people tremble.
His name was Chang Li.
He was one of the legendary killing machines in the Triad who had risen to his current position by his fists alone.
‘You old man.. I’ve waited for this day. I can’t do anything to you, but I’ll trample all the sprouting Mages you’ve planted before they grow up. Arggh!’
Twenty or so years ago, he had gone into the Czech Republic for a contracted assassination and happened to become a Mage. At first, he had thought of the old man as a lunatic who was building castles in the air, but after seeing the terrifying magic with his own eyes, Chang Li became a Mage’s disciple. However, unable to overcome the wall of the 3rd Circle, even after several years of training. So Chang Li decided to kill the Mage and take his fortune.
There was an enormous fortune in the place called the magic tower. As well as an astronomical amount of money hidden away in every nation in the world. Even if he just robbed the magic tower, it held huge wealth that could start an organization with laughable ease. That’s why he planned on murdering the old man, but he failed.
An 8th Circle Archmage.
The upper circle magic he had only imagined was far greater than he’d ever thought. Expecting that Chang Li would betray him, the crazy Mage had already laid magic traps all over the place. And Chang Li had been forced to bash his head into the ground in order to survive.
‘Kang Hyuk.. I sincerely hope you have the skills to survive me. Kukuku.’
Through the tenacious constitution he had been born with, and bloody training, Chang Li had trained 3rd Circle magic to its very limits.
Magic had gotten him to where he was now and was the true source of his strength.
* * *
“Hyuk, what should I do, I think my grades will fall this time.”
“A man shouldn’t cry just because his test scores fell a little!”
‘Kukuku! Our midterms have finally ended.’ Even for an archmage, midterms were an unavoidable part of Korea’s education curriculum.
Joong Hyun was shaking as he held his last test paper, as if he had bombed his test.
‘There’s really no way for me to not love Master. Kukuku.’
I had grown smarter after learning magic. Truly, I had become so sharp that I could memorize everything in a book I read once, while concentrating. And then, I took the tests.
There wasn’t a single problem I couldn’t answer.
‘Now that I think about it, didn’t Master say he also raised Einstein? Since he was said to have used about 20% of his brain.. oohh! Then have I also come to possess such an outstanding brain?’
Like peeling an onion, I was discovering the immense benefits of magic one by one. If this kept going, I felt like I could even win a Nobel Prize.
“Hoho, good work, everyone. But since the end of midterms doesn’t mean that your life’s exams are over, please don’t lose steam and keep going strong. There’s nothing to lose by studying, after all. Hohohoho!”
Ms. Wang, the Dreaded Snow White who deflated everyone’s spirits every time she opened her mouth. She was blathering on without even knowing the feelings of the kids who had been liberated from exams.
“Teacher, my grandfather told me to bring over all my friends who finished their exams.”
“Oh, really? You’re saying Chairman Hwang said that, right?”
“Yes. He said he would invite everyone to our Ohsung Hotel.”
‘Just look at him.’ I had warned him not to flaunt his money, but Hwang Sung-taek yapped through his snout with a proud look.
“The Ohsung Hotel is good. I was there not long ago too, and the food is really flawless and tasty.”
The Ohsung Group was second to none in the Republic of Korea. As the direct grandson of that Ohsung Group’s chairman, Hwang Sung-taek was proudly treating the group like it was his.
“A bus has been prepared outside. We can go now.”
“Hoho, sounds good. Everyone, your friend’s grandfather invited us, so we all have to go, right? Let’s play as much as we want, today.”
Though she had been pressuring us to study because ‘the end of midterms doesn’t mean your life’s exams are over’ just a moment ago, Ms. Wang’s lips stretched ear to ear at the mere mention of an invitation to the hotel, as she roused the kids.
“Wow! I heard the Ohsung Hotel buffet is tasty; we get to stuff ourselves today!”
“Hoho! It’s good to have a well-off friend after all.”
Along with the Daehan Group, the Ohsung Group was one of the big conglomerates in Korea. The kids in the class were clamoring and looking forward to it.
“Well, if you’re busy and don’t want to go, then you don’t need to force yourself to go. I’m especially saying this to those who could get lost from the hotel.” Laughing coldly as he spoke, Hwang Sung-taek looked at me.
‘That, that brat! Arrrggh!’ I had planned on giving him a scolding even if he hadn’t said that, but now this Hwang Sung-taek was really testing the limits of my patience. ‘Fine, I’ll go once. To see how well-off you really are.’
I had never been to the Ohsung Hotel before in my life. I smiled as I ground my teeth.
Mask the dagger in thy heart.
A blade was hidden well within in my smile.
* * *
historical
“Isn’t this nice~?”
“As expected of the Ohsung Hotel!”
Wearing our school uniforms, we all arrived at the Ohsung Hotel’s buffet. The mellow sound of a 10-person chamber ensemble filled the air, around what seemed to be over a hundred different kinds of top-class dishes. The dishes were clamoring to be put into our impoverished stomachs.
‘This is pretty good, isn’t it? My house is nearby and I won’t have to worry about my meals, too.’
A ridiculous thought occurred to me as soon as I saw the Ohsung Hotel’s buffet.
“Miss Manager.”
“Yes, is there something wrong?”
I called the female staff member who seemed to be a manager. She was looking around while stiff with tension because the chairman’s heir and his friends had come.
“How much is this?”
The manager, whose nametag read ‘Lee Yun-shil,’ followed my finger to the buffet. “At dinner time, it is about $120, including additional tax. But Daehan High School students, and even their immediate family members, get a 50% discount by the chairman’s special orders.”
As befitting an employee at a top-class hotel, the manager put on a business smile and kindly explained.
“No, not that— how much is this hotel?”
“What? The, the hotel?” My nonchalant query about the hotel’s price briefly confused the manager Lee Yun-shil. “Our hotel is an unlisted company, so I do not know the exact price. But since it’s $50 per unlisted share.. I can say that about $1.2 million would be sufficient.”
Perhaps thinking that it was just a student’s thoughtless remark, Manager Lee Yun-shil emphasized the $1.2 million part.
“What is your dream, miss?”
“What? My dream?” The manager lady thought for a brief moment while looking at me, a person asking weird questions instead of eating. She was probably thinking that I was asking all sorts of questions even though I wasn’t a matchmaker or life counselor. “Of course, it’s to be a Hotel Administrator, the biggest dream a hotelier can have. To that end, I have lived while doing my best.”
‘Oh! This lady is pretty cool.’
It was said that those who dream are beautiful. The pretty lady in her late twenties said that she wanted to become a Hotel Administrator with sparkling eyes.
“Then you’ll get some good news soon.”
“What? Good news?” asked Manager Lee Yun-shil, failing to understand what I meant.
“I need a better place to eat, you see. So I was thinking about buying this hotel,” I whispered quietly in her ear, as if telling a secret.
“..”
But she was completely silent for a moment.
“If you really do take over the hotel, please leave the administration to me. I will make it the top hotel in all of Korea, no, the entire world.”
Manager Lee Yun-shil must have taken it as a joke, because she regained her composure after a moment and whispered into my ear with a grin. She was such a charming woman that I would want to introduce her to an older bro, if I had one.
* * *
Munch munch. I dipped meaty king crab pieces in kiwi sauce and digged in.
‘The taste is phenomenal.’
Even though our school meals were considered the best in the nation, they couldn’t match up to a first-class hotel buffet. Moreover, having been unable to eat a proper meal for the past few days because my mom was gone, I was busy stuffing my face as I went around the buffet booths, thematically arranged by country— Korea, Japan, China, as well as cuisine from every continent.
‘The seasoning is just right, and the ingredients are fresh, too. Kyaa! Since the food was also made skillfully by the chefs, it’s seriously the embodiment of perfection.’
Cooked to match the special characteristics of each dish, the full-course meal of delicacies melted gently on the tongue.
“You were hungry, weren’t you, Hyuk?”
“Hm? Not really. It’s just that I’m offended by our ‘friend’s’ consideration, so I’m eating up for him. But Ye-rin.”
“Yeah?”
I called Ye-rin, who was only nibbling on a few kinds of salad even in the face of global delicacies. “My mom says this, but you’ve got to eat heartily to be able to pump out babies later when you get married, y’know?”
“Pump out? Pfft, this isn’t the primeval times or anything.”
I was worrying about our future, and at my suggestive words, Seo Ye-rin made a unique ‘pfft’ sound and blushed.
‘Gosh, just looking at her makes me full.’
“You, you two are acting weird?”
Whether it was coincidence or inevitable, Joong Hyun and I sat together— we were as inseparable as elastic bands in panties, after all. But Ye-rin sat next to us without reserve, making me happy. That made Joong Hyun, who had been stuffing his face with food, look at Ye-rin and me with suspicious eyes.
‘The rascal, he’s more perceptive than he looks.’ I was gratified by Joong Hyun’s unexpected senses.
“You sure are eating as well as pigs.”
While Joong Hyun, Ye-rin, and I were happily eating our meal, we heard a voice in which all respect had seriously been thrown into a ditch.
“Since you were begging like a loser in Europe, I suppose you’re hungry.”
“Kuku! Pig out, you retard.”
‘Would you look at these kids?’
The three young brats were ignoring the saying that you shouldn’t mess with a dog when it’s eating. They had appeared out of nowhere and were ignorantly pissing me off. Especially Hwang Sung-taek, who was wearing a big smirk on his face, even though he was just a lump of three hundred thousand years of bad luck.
‘Should I give him a taste of hell today?’ I briefly fell into contemplation.
“Kang Hyuk, eat lots. When else will brats from poor families get to come to a place like this, after all. Kuku. Though I can feed you every day if you please me, the Crown Prince. Isn’t that right, Seo Ye-rin?”
[T/N: I just realized it, but Hwang Sung-taek’s nickname, Crown Prince, is a play off of his last name. Crown Prince in Korean is ‘HWANG tae ja.’]
The barbs went from me to Ye-rin.
“Hmph.”
But the proud lily wasn’t meant to answer a weed. Ye-rin made a ‘hmph’ sound as she turned her head to look out the window.
‘This little brat seriously doesn’t know what’s really going on.’
The me of the past would have suffered a wounded pride, but after becoming a rich man who had nothing to be jealous of, Hwang Sung-taek’s bitching was laughable.
“The Chairman is coming.”
“What, for the Chairman to suddenly..”
As I was contemplating how to mess with Hwang Sung-taek so that the rumors would fly, the buffet entrance became noisy.
“Grandpa!”
‘Grandpa? Chairman Hwang Man-hyuk of the Ohsung Group?’
Dragging a retinue of 10 or so attendants behind him, the chairman of the Ohsung Group, Hwang Man-hyuk, a person I had seen often on TV, came inside. Seeing that, Hwang Sung-taek ran towards him like a puppy, calling his grandpa.
‘Lol, short legs run in the family.’
With his grizzled hair, the 70 year old Chairman Hwang Man-hyuk crouched like he was taking a poo, a posture that matched his low height, to embrace his grandson.
“Ahh, you rascal. You’ve grown so much you could get married the day after tomorrow, you rascal.”
Hwang Man-hyuk made a smile that made him look good-natured as he tousled his puppy’s hair. Contrary to my fund manager father cursing the chairman, calling him a vicious conglomerate that razed small businesses, he looked decent on the outside. He looked as mild as the generous KFC grandpa.
“Hello? Hoho! I am Wang Sun-nyeo, Sung-taek’s homeroom teacher. It is an honor to meet you like this. Hohoho!” said the Snow White Ms. Wang Sun-nyeo, with a sophisticated air just dripping with pretense.
“Ah, so you are Sung-taek’s homeroom teacher. I should have sought you out and said my greetings, but we finally meet.”
“Hoho, please. How could the person leading Ohsung Group, which drives South Korea, come to the school? I will look after Sung-taek both materially and emotionally, so please do not worry.”
Caked in makeup, Ms. Wang Sun-nyeo defined the epitome of social life and flattery.
“If you do, I won’t have anything to worry about. Then, I will send you a small token of my sincerity sometime, please accept it. I leave Sung-taek, who will lead our Ohsung Group in the future, in your care.”
When else would you get to see the chairman of the great Ohsung Group paying his respects to a teacher? Moreover, at the words ‘small token of my sincerity,’ Ms. Wang Sun-nyeo beamed with joy, even under all that makeup. It was seriously embarrassing that she was our homeroom teacher.
“General Manager.”
“Yes, Chairman.” At the Chairman’s beckoning, the hotel’s General Manager answered immediately.
“Tell the kitchen to make their special menu. The friends of my grandson are here..” Maybe he usually talked like this, but the end of Chairman Hwang’s sentence trailed off lightly.
“Before you arrived, sir, I already informed each kitchen to make their special menu.” As if he were frozen in front of a lance-corporal division commander in the army, the General Manager was stock-still before Chairman Hwang.
‘Tch, the brat is that old man’s grandson after all.’
I thought I could surmise why Hwang Sung-taek was so fucking rude. The person he had watched and learned from, his grandpa, just treated everyone under him like shit. That’s why the young bastard had lost his sense of manners.
“Alright, everyone! Shouldn’t we thank the chairman of the great Ohsung Group, Hwang Man-hyuk, who invited us today?”
Ms. Wang Sun-nyeo emphasized the ‘great Ohsung Group’ part even though she wasn’t even a public relations manager of the Ohsung Group.
“Thank you very much.”
“Chairman, you’re the best!”
Clap clap clap!
For some reason, because there were only a few guests outside of our group and it was mostly the kids from our class, the raucous greetings and applause vigorously filled the hall. Only Ye-rin and I were silent with apathetic expressions. Only Ye-rin and I were silent with apathetic expressions.
“Thank you. Now, please return to your meals. It seems that the senseless appearance of an old man like me simply got in the way of your meal.”
As was appropriate for a tycoon who held politics and the economy in his hands, he presented himself as benevolent even in front of the kids.
‘I know. Your heart is no better than a coal-black crow.’
Unlike the other kids, I had heard of the Ohsung Group’s extremely terrible deeds through my father. It was said that Hwang Man-hyuk’s specialty was controlling skillful small businesses and either slowly cutting their unit prices, or threatening them, by picking on them to make them do as he wanted.
“Then everyone, please enjoy your time here, before you go. Sung-taek, go take your friends who can make it to Ohsung Land tomorrow, too. I’ll let them know.”
[T/N: Ohsung Land is a theme park, like Disney Land.]
“Thanks grandpa. Hehe.”
‘He’s seriously gonna roll over.’ Though he was all sorts of arrogant at school, in front of his grandpa, the bastard was wagging his tail and panting like a mutt.
I pushed out my chair and stood.
“Hyuk, where are you going?”
At that, Ye-rin asked me where I was going.
“There’s someone I have to admonish with some advice about life.”
I answered her and ran outside to where Chairman Hwang had gone. Something I absolutely wanted to tell him had suddenly occurred to me.
* * *
“Chairman Hwang!” I called loudly to Chairman Hwang, who had left the buffet and was standing in front of the elevator.
“You are? A friend of Sung-taek?”
He must have thought that I had followed him out in order to express my thanks, because Chairman Hwang Man-hyuk greeted me warmly.
“My name is Kang Hyuk. There’s something I want to ask.”
“A question? Haha! You are brave for a youngster.” Though he said that, the guards and attendants around Chairman Hwang had somehow increased to 20 or so people. “Alright, what is your question?”
Chairman Hwang still hadn’t dropped his facade.
“What is your dream, Chairman?”
“Dream?”
Hwang Man-hyuk was slightly confused by the sudden talk about dreams.
“You! Are you holding up the busy Chairman with a joke!” A man who looked to be the Chief Secretary came forward with a slight scowl on his face.
“I don’t have anything so unnecessary as a dream. I’m simply fiercely living the life I was given.”
‘To not have a dream.. I see.’
When I was young, my grandpa held me and told me something, as if telling me a story. There is no one as happy as someone who dreams, and nothing as wretched and fearful as someone who doesn’t have a dream.
“Thank you for your time. I will continue to think deeply on it.” I sharply bowed and returned to the inside of the buffet hall.
“You, what is your name?”
I heard the Chairman’s stout voice behind me.
“Kang Hyuk, my name is Kang Hyuk.”
‘It is a name you will come to hear often in the future.’
The leader of conglomerate at the forefront of South Korea was someone without a dream. It was understandable if the people below him were that way, but a leader couldn’t be like that.
In an organization, the leader’s dream was the dream of those beneath him.
* * *
“Hwang Sung-taek, I ate well thanks to you.”
“Yeah? Looks like you’ve finally figured out your place?”
I came back in and relayed my thanks to Hwang Sung-taek, who was holding a glass with a cocky posture.
“You brat, I thought you might be rich or something from the way you went around with your head raised high and all despite being utterly penniless, but heh..”
“Keke, keep your head down in the future.” At Hwang Sung-taek’s words, the two domesticated hunting dogs by his side barked noisily.
“So that’s why, I’m giving you guys an invitation for tomorrow.”
“Invitation?”
“All you little kids!” I simply ignored Sung-taek’s question and called all the kids who were immersed in stuffing their faces with food.
‘The rascals! I’ll show them a proper paradise on earth.’ I couldn’t lose to the likes of the insulting Ohsung Group.
“Tomorrow, by 10 am, come with your passports to departure gate A in the Incheon International Airport.”
“Passport? Puhaha! Why? Are we gonna take our passports and go abroad or something?”
Still failing to understand the situation, Hwang Sung-taek laughed his head off.
“Teacher, you are free from tomorrow throughout the weekend, right?”
“Huh? Well, I don’t really have any plans, but..”
It wasn’t that she didn’t have any plans; the spinster Ms. Wang actually didn’t have anything to do. She didn’t know that there was sauce splattered on her lips.
“Then please come. Each and every one of you kiddos should come too. If you don’t, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.”
I would teach them what true wealth was.
“Hwang Sung-taek, and you two. Be sure to come. Don’t be cowards that reject my invitation. Kuku.”
“What did you say? Hmph! Alright. I’ll definitely come, you shithead!”
This was the baiting skill I had learned from Master. Without fail, the thoughtless carp head fell for the bait.
“Also, you don’t have to bring much. Just bring some underwear to change into and the swimsuit that matches your figure the most.”
My exceedingly confident voice rang within the buffet hall.
‘You rascals, this is just the beginning!’
And then, I steadily made plans. I would show the youngsters the paradise I dreamt of.
“What’s going on today?”
“You didn’t know? You remember the kid who got off on the A380 last time, right?”
“Yeah. Of course I remember. Even now, it seems like a dream when I think of it, seriously. Jeez, I heard that prime ministers from Europe and the leaders of several nations called the airport president, saying to give the kid maximum priority and protocol.”
“The kid in question is departing on a flight today. And with thirty-five kids from his class, at that.”
“W-what did you say?!”
The protocol team of the Incheon Airport received immeasurable jealousy from every other department each month. Yet they were thrown into chaos again by a single call that came in late on Saturday night. They had gotten word that the plane would be formally departing through Tollgate 9. And though they would be serving not a high-ranking bureaucrat, but a mere kid, they were busy early in the morning. There was much to do in order to screen not just one or two, but thirty-five kids for departure.-->>