WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 232

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Gaon’s office was surprisingly located on the city’s upper floors. I smiled faintly at the magical power warmly wrapping around my body.

So this was what the upper floors were like. Pure magical power flowed through the surroundings, incomparable to that of the lower or middle floors. In terms of purity alone, it was enough to rival the magical power of a tower.

The upper floors were not somewhere one could reach simply by having many points or a high realm. Just like Stalactite City, only those exceptional in every respect were qualified to rise there.

Then a steady sound tickled my ears.

Tap. Tap.

Gaon was tapping the table with his fingers. He stared at us and opened his mouth.

“Why did you bring Ugo into this? It seems you deliberately waited outside until Ugo heard news of you.”

“Bring Ugo into this? We only asked that news be passed on to you, Gaon, as a matter of courtesy.”

I blinked with a confused expression. Gaon then extended a hand toward me.

The surrounding magical power suddenly pressed down on me with crushing force. It soon crawled up my body and began constricting my throat.

My weak magical power could not stop it. My breath gradually grew shorter, and I felt my face turning pale.

But I truly had nothing else to say.

I looked at Gaon with that sense of injustice in my eyes. He clicked his tongue and dispersed his magical power.

I slowly caught my breath and rubbed my throat. As expected, the magical power of someone like an association head was difficult to withstand.

Considering Gaon’s realm, it was only natural. He had passed the stage of extending branches and entered the realm of expanding the leaves of his tree.

He had reached the stage of producing Lush Leaves.

In that sense, Gaon already fully met the university’s graduation requirements. Reaching the realm of Lush Leaves was important for completing the university’s completion course.

Mauro had told me directly, so there was no doubt that Gaon had reached the realm of Lush Leaves. I coughed lightly and looked at Gaon.

He flicked his hand.

“I’ll let this pass with a warning this time.”

“Thank you for believing me.”

I smiled and bowed toward Gaon, who still looked somewhat dissatisfied.

Lush Leaves. For someone like me, who had not even reached the end of the Young Tree realm, it was a distant prospect.

From Gaon’s perspective, I was probably no more than an ant beneath his feet. But even a powerful mage like him could not break the university’s rules.

It was only because this was the special space known as the university that I could face Gaon like this.

After watching me for a while, he leaned back in his chair.

“So, how did the negotiations between the two sides proceed?”

Gaon asked with his arms folded.

I glanced at Isabella. She needed to explain this, not me. I had left the entire negotiation process to her.

[These are the documents concerning the negotiations between the Trading Company and Mookgeumgo. Please take a look.]

Isabella handed the folder she had brought to the small girl. The girl accepted it and placed it before Gaon.

But Gaon did not look at the documents. Instead, he began staring intently at Isabella.

Isabella did not avoid his gaze either. She looked directly into his eyes.

After some time passed, Gaon slowly opened his mouth.

“I suppose I should say it’s good to see you again.”

[I am glad to see you as well. I did not expect to see all of you again like this.]

Isabella responded calmly.

Gaon lightly tapped the table as he looked her over from head to toe. Then he gave a quiet snort.

“Even after your soul fell into ruin, you couldn’t sever your desire to survive. I never thought you wanted to live that badly. That proud look you once had, when you told us to kill you instead, is nowhere to be found now.”

[I did not expect myself to change this much either. In contrast, you remain the same, Gaon.]

Isabella glared at Gaon with a sharp look in her eyes.

But Gaon only looked at her with an indifferent expression.

They fell silent for a moment.

They somehow seemed familiar with one another, so I nodded slightly. Well, of course they knew each other. Both had been Ugo’s teachers.

Until now, I had not investigated Isabella’s past in depth.

Isabella had already become my puppet. Her past was no longer particularly important.

If I wanted to know about my puppets, the first one I should have investigated was Mira. Her power was the strongest and most dangerous.

But I had not wanted to learn more about Mira.

It was an expression of respect and trust toward her, now that she had become my puppet.

Investigating Mira’s past would mean I did not trust her.

That was why I had not looked deeply into Isabella either.

The past was severed the moment someone became my puppet. What mattered more to me than that past was how I could use her from now on.

Still, as time passed, I had learned a little about Isabella’s life.

I had learned it naturally while investigating Ugo, rather than Isabella herself.

Born into a mage family, Ugo naturally gained a teacher. Magic needed to be cultivated from childhood for one’s potential to grow.

Ugo’s family had examined Ugo’s aptitude and assigned the mage they judged most suitable to be Ugo’s teacher.

That mage had been Isabella.

I rubbed my chin as I thought of Ugo.

There was a rumor among mages that one should be wary of mages who looked like children. It meant either that they possessed exceptional talent or that they were not human.

And Ugo had the form of a small child.

Of course, Ugo’s appearance was not entirely natural. From what I had roughly learned, Ugo had only been born around fifty years ago.

That was enough time to become an adult.

The fact that Ugo still looked like a child meant that Ugo had been placed under growth-suppression magic.

That was also a common sight among mage families.

It was easiest to expand the foundation of one’s tree while in the form of a child, so they delayed growth as much as possible to increase the size of the vessel itself.

Hongryeong and Ailey had probably gone through a similar process. That was likely why the warning to beware of children had spread among wanderers.

Even so, there was no denying that Ugo possessed great talent.

Applying growth-suppression magic to a mage required an expense so enormous that a wanderer like me could not even dream of it.

But from what I had learned, Ugo had been born as the fourteenth successor.

Ugo had been far down in the line of succession. There was no reason to spend such a huge sum on someone like Ugo.

Yet Ugo had come to look as he did now.

That meant Ugo had rapidly defeated the other candidates and claimed the first successor position.

Isabella had likely been a great help in Ugo’s rise. That was the role of a teacher.

With her help, Ugo entered the university and reached the fourth floor.

A mere fifty-year-old youngster had already far surpassed me.

But Isabella received no reward for it. Instead, she became Ugo’s puppet, and her soul was torn to pieces.

Then she awakened again in my hands.

I did not know why Ugo had turned Isabella into a puppet, nor why Gaon had taken Isabella’s place.

The information I could learn about Ugo was ultimately limited to the surface.

That meant there was only so much I could know about Isabella as well.

But I did not intend to dig any deeper. That was Isabella’s wish too.

I glanced at her.

[There is nothing for you to worry about, Gaon. My resentment disappeared along with my past self. Now, I live with gratitude toward my master.]

Magical power had seeped into Isabella’s writing.

Her sincere feelings were contained within it.

Perhaps Gaon sensed that as well. He narrowed his eyes and tapped the table.

I opened my mouth as I watched him.

“I will guarantee Isabella’s words. If she ever moves to seek revenge, I’ll give this to you, Gaon.”

I took out the coin bearing Professor On’s face from my pocket and lightly flipped it.

Gaon fell silent as he watched the coin float in the air.

I could see desire flickering across his face.

There was deep greed in his eyes, as though he wanted to seize the coin from me immediately. It was only natural. This was something he had wanted for a long time.

But without caring about his yearning, I continued playing with the coin before his eyes.

The more I did, the more distorted his expression became.

This coin belonged to me now. As long as the university’s rules protected me, he could never touch me.

How terrible would it feel to be unable to touch the goal right in front of one’s eyes?

I could not know.

Still, seeing Gaon’s murderous expression, I felt as though I understood a little.

I looked at him with a satisfied smile.

Showing this to him was also the conclusion of my revenge against Gaon. It was repayment for how he had tried to target me through Jegang before.

In the end, that event had helped me, and we had even come to form a cooperative relationship like this.

Still, there were things that needed to be done.

Of course, revenge was not my only reason for showing him this.

Gaon seemed to realize I was teasing him, and a sharp look appeared on his face.

“I intend to hand this token over to someone else before Professor On arrives. It is too much for me to handle.”

Gaon paused slightly.

My words seemed to have caught his interest.

I smiled faintly and continued.

“I know very well that you want this, Gaon. That is likely why you approached me through Jegang before.”

I looked quietly at the coin.

After receiving word that Professor On would leave the university, the other association heads had begun contacting me as well. They wanted me to hand the token over to them.

Fortunately, no one besides Gaon had acted so directly yet.

But I could not guarantee that would remain the case.

This was something far too large for me to keep.

I needed to get rid of it quickly. Keeping it would only give me more headaches.

Of course, I was interested in inheriting a tower as well.

But through the information Professor Irian had given me, I learned that I was far too lacking to succeed Professor On.

Even a mage who had reached Lush Leaves had to borrow another family’s power. How could someone like me, who was merely at the Young Tree realm, manage a tower?

So I intended to hand it over for an appropriate price.

“…How do you intend to hand it over?”

Gaon finally spoke after a long silence.

I smiled brightly and put the coin away.

Then I pointed to the folder on his desk.

“First, I would appreciate it if you signed that. We came here to obtain your consent.”

Gaon looked down at the folder before him.

He flicked a finger, and the stack of papers inside unfolded in the air.

Gaon calmly began reading the writing on the papers. He was clearly checking for any unfair clauses.

As I watched him, I glanced at the girl standing beside him.

The expressionless girl stood there blankly. I could sense strong magical power and a thick smell of blood from her.

I remembered seeing her once before. She had remained at Gaon’s side at the competition.

Like Isabella, she was surely a corpse puppet whose soul had been harvested.

I narrowed my eyes as I sensed the bloody smell flowing from the puppet.

What had been turned into a puppet for it to possess such vivid magical power? I was somewhat curious.

As a puppet controlled by the association head of a city, there was surely something special about her.

She likely contained magic and materials beyond anything I could imagine.

That was also why I respected Gaon.

Gaon seemed slightly puzzled as he looked over the agreement. The negotiations had clearly been structured in his side’s favor.

Normally, Gaon’s side received only around one tenth of the profits from corpse puppets sold in Stalactite City.

The Trading Company took its share, and there were royalties that had to be paid to me as well, so it could not be helped.

But this agreement erased those previous terms and yielded around four tenths of the profits to Gaon’s side.

It was the result of giving up all my own profits. I had decided not to take royalties.

“From now on, we plan to sell puppets in Stalactite City in a similar manner.”

I spoke as Gaon gathered the papers and fell into thought.

He glanced at me.

I smiled slightly at him.

The reason I had considered Gaon’s side like this was because I understood their feelings well.

Had I not had the mirror bugs taken from me in the same way?

Puppets could ultimately be called the children of puppeteers.

Selling their puppets for a cheap price was no different from disregarding them.

If I continued suppressing them, resistance was sure to arise. That was something I needed to prevent in advance.

Returning profits to them was part of that prevention.

It was also a form of respect.

If Gaon had continued trying to target me to the end, I would have built up deep grudges against him too.

But from the moment Jegang was dealt with, he had half withdrawn from this puppet business.

He had likely judged that moving any further would only be a loss.

That was why I had no intention of treating him as an enemy either.

Those who moved according to profit and loss were not easily swayed by emotion.

Gaon had not targeted me because he bore a grudge against me. He had targeted me because I possessed Professor On’s token.

So if I signaled that I would hand over the token, Gaon would have no reason to target me.

We could form a new partnership.

Of course, I had kept taking fees from him until now as a small act of revenge.

I did not need to repay everything tenfold, but I still needed to return some of what I had suffered.

After roughly doing the calculations, this seemed like an appropriate point.

That was why I had decided to return profits to them like this.

Hongryeong, Ailey, and Hwaryeong were ultimately only dividing profits according to their interests.

They were cooperating with me now because I was useful to them.

But I never knew when they might change their minds and pressure us.

I quietly rubbed my wrist.

I did have a contract with Hongryeong, but I could not rely on that alone.

How much had I seen and suffered until now?

Perhaps Hongryeong had already found a way around even this contract.

So I intended to build up some strength of my own.

Cooperating with Gaon would become the foundation for that.

After all, we belonged to the same association.

If we became enemies, we would only give giant predators like the Trading Company and Mookgeumgo more to devour.

There was no reason for us to waste our strength fighting each other.

It would be more beneficial to cooperate instead.

That was the way to protect our interests.

Perhaps Gaon understood my intentions as well. He soon imbued the paper with magical power and signed it.

Then he handed it to Isabella.

I quietly nodded.

As expected, I had thought Gaon would accept.

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