WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: WeTried

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◈ I Made a Tier List the Transcendents Are Obsessed With ◈

Chapter 8: You Said You'd Tell Me

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"Do you have another call you need to take...?"

"No, it's fine."

This matter wasn't urgent anyway.

Of course, this man would probably faint if he knew who I had been talking to, but that wasn't going to happen.

"I heard you wish to join our mage tower."

"Yes, that's correct."

"I've heard already, but your current realm is...?"

"I've already moved beyond the system, and I'm at full maturity in 2-Star. I should be able to enter 3-Star soon."

"Ah, I see!"

The brown-robed man's face brightened.

Then again, Haedong was such a remote backwater that only two people in the entire country had entered the advanced stage of the Magical Way.

Even if Hyeondeok City was relatively advanced, the Tower Master of the Winter Tree Mage Tower I was about to join was only at 7-Star.

So, a mage at full maturity in 2-Star.

It was entirely my own claim, but a mage capable of entering 3-Star was a valuable asset.

Not quite someone who would become part of the Inner Tower's core, perhaps, but as a mage naturally recruited from outside, I was practically a lucky windfall that had rolled into their lap.

"Indeed, indeed... I didn't ask merely for the sake of asking. Your mana structure is extraordinary. You said you're twenty-four this year, correct?"

"That's right."

"Full maturity in 2-Star at twenty-four. Heh heh, I can find no words but remarkable. Might I ask about your teacher...?"

"They're in a rather distant place. They're an extraordinary person, after all."

"Ah, of course they are."

They really were in a very, very distant place.

The one I could call my teacher was the Transcendent known as the Mage of the Glass Star.

The originator of that school, and someone who now governed a law.

...Of course, they had no awareness that they had taught me.

I had merely stolen a look at a book they had uploaded without much thought, so it was an extremely one-sided master-disciple relationship.

Still, the brown-robed mage seemed to take it as perfectly natural.

He had probably understood distant to mean somewhere beyond Haedong.

"Anyway, you've truly come to the right place. At the very least, our mage tower can be called the best in Hyeondeok City."

With that, he led me into the building.

For the record, by inside, I didn't mean the Inner Tower.

We were inside the Outer Tower.

"...Hm."

That didn't mean its facilities or grandeur were lacking.

The purity of the mana I felt from the first-floor lobby brought an incredible sense of refreshment.

The texture of mana brushing against my skin and the coolness reaching deep into my lungs were delightful.

With a single breath, several times the mana that had accumulated outside filled me.

Nothing entered my body but a sense of fullness.

"Hoo... This is nice."

"Haha, it's one of our mage tower's proudest features."

A huge tree stood at the center of the lobby.

Pure mana poured from the strange trunk, entirely wrapped in vines.

The Winter Tree. I knew this tree's true nature, but the mage tower founded and sustained by its existence did not.

"Uh, wait a moment. Mage Jin, over there!"

I slowly approached the tree.

The brown-robed mage stared at me blankly for a moment at my natural movement, then called out as if to stop me.

But then...

Grrrrrrrr...

A wave of mana ordinary people couldn't hear.

The low growl of the "tree."

"Good."

As its branches swayed as though yielding to my touch, I smiled faintly and stroked its base.

Everyone in the lobby watched me as if I were strange.

Naturally, that was exactly what I intended.

* * *

"Miss..."

"It's fine. We already knew this would happen."

Yu Seolyeong smiled and shrugged at the maid watching her with a worried expression.

As she said, it had certainly been expected.

The problem was only that things had reached this point. This rejection brought her not even a shred of disappointment.

Still, she was anxious as well.

Cheongheo Sect's circumstances only grew worse by the day.

Hyeondeok City's internal power structure was little more than several groups locked in a tense tug-of-war.

Cheongheo Sect had already exposed its pale throat, while its rivals merely waited for it to become defenseless.

Once it could no longer endure, they would tear it apart.

The sects, martial schools, mage towers, and companies that had been friendly until yesterday would try to trample Cheongheo Sect.

Naturally, Yu Seolyeong would not emerge unscathed from that situation either.

If she was lucky, she would merely fall from grace. If she was unlucky, she might suffer humiliation beyond a simple fall.

"Miss, things won't keep going like this, right?"

This girl would be in an even worse position than Yu Seolyeong, no matter what.

Humiliation was the least of it. Her life was at stake.

"Of course not. After all we've done until now."

"...I'm sorry. I was too..."

Yu Seolyeong shook her head and stroked the maid's hair.

She had no intention of blaming this pitiful girl for her slip of the tongue.

'It can't end like this.'

If she had to assign blame, it was the sect's internal failings and, ultimately, the Yu Clan's responsibility.

The position of sect leader existed solely to bear responsibility.

Thus, Yu Seolyeong was merely sharing that responsibility as the sect leader's eldest daughter.

...Of course, it was a little overwhelming.

Feeling the maid's crying and trembling gradually subside in her arms, she could only let out a soft sigh.

"Let's head back for today. We still have plenty to do."

"Yes, Miss."

The desire to lean on someone existed within her as well.

But she couldn't cling to the fantasy that a prince on a white horse would come for her now.

She knew it would be nothing but an escape from the reality before her.

Still, deep down, she desperately wished for it.

For a savior who would pull her from this hardship.

* * *

After the disturbance in the lobby.

The brown-robed mage, Ju Geonyeong, showed a slightly more respectful attitude than before.

"The processing will likely be completed within three days. Of course, you may use the tower's facilities even before then."

"I see. Thank you for your swift help."

"Ahahaha."

Ju Geonyeong feared the gentle young man before him.

Although Jin was clearly another 2-Star mage, Ju couldn't see through him in the slightest.

'...This person will rise far above me anyway.'

Ju Geonyeong had entered 2-Star at roughly forty.

His achievements weren't particularly bad, but compared to true talents, they were simply shabby.

Though they were peers, that was why he had no choice but to defer.

To begin with, even Jin's realm didn't register clearly.

Full maturity in 2-Star. Both because Jin said so and because it seemed true, that was probably his actual level.

Other mages at that realm gave off an unmistakable sense of the scale of their power.

The mana rings woven within them could be felt clearly.

But Ju couldn't see through Jin at all.

It was the vastness one only felt from a mage at least two stages higher.

So this was true talent...

"Once your official registration is complete, you'll also be assigned a research room and may select one assistant. You may bring someone from outside, but we'd prefer someone from within the tower if possible."

"Thank you for the explanation, Mage."

"It's my job. Then, I'll see you later."

This respectful attitude wouldn't last long.

Before long, as Jin's realm rose, his position would naturally rise as well.

Perhaps he would enter the Inner Tower before too much time passed.

Ju Geonyeong finished all his guidance with every bit of kindness he could muster, then left the room.

It was a temporary private room prepared by the mage tower.

Click.

Only one person remained in the room.

At the same time, a long sigh escaped into the empty air.

"...Haa."

With that sound of air escaping, his body went slack.

Contrary to Ju Geonyeong's impression that he alone had endured an ordeal, Jin had been tense as well.

"Seriously, I can't keep doing this."

That whole act and manner of speech, pretending to be an arrogant, refined genius, didn't suit him.

The performance where he had loftily stroked the Winter Tree gave him goosebumps.

He kept thinking, What the hell am I even doing?

Fortunately, he was more shameless than he had thought.

He hadn't faltered through all that acting and lying.

"How does that crazy bastard of a protagonist do this?"

He could only admire the protagonist of the original work.

Of course, that guy hadn't even been born yet, and naturally, a protagonist was supposed to be like that.

The mental fortitude to pull off behavior this cringeworthy as if it were nothing could truly be called talent.

Jin shook his head and looked around the room.

It was fairly neat and well-stocked, but...

"...I can't use this place."

He would probably have to stay at an inn for the time being.

There were effectively eyes everywhere within the tower.

He had no desire to share any secrets with the mage tower's senior members.

As he organized his plans and looked around the room, a thought suddenly came to him.

"Ah, right."

Jin entered the Transcendent Gallery and found thirty-two messages piled up, along with their previews.

[You said you'd tell meYou said you'd tell meYou said you'd tell meYou said you'd tell meYou said you'd tell meYou said you'd tell meYou said you'd tell meYou said you'd tell me] - No Existence

"..."

He had no rebuttal.

He certainly had been a little late.

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