Choi Jin spoke with a stern expression.
"...You're suddenly saying strange things. Anyway, I understand what you said about Kang Changho, so you can leave now, Hunter Kim. We need to start getting ready to head home soon."
What a strange reaction.
So Giryeo kept pressing the subject. However, in doing so, he ended up ruining all the goodwill he had painstakingly built up.
"Just go already! How many times do I have to tell you before you understand? I'm already exhausted as hell, and it's late!"
The Dragon Hunter abruptly shut down the conversation and even raised her voice.
"Oh my. I was only trying to be considerate because she's related to Yoonseung..."
Everyone has secrets they don't want to reveal. Besides, the curse lodged inside her body isn't something I can solve anyway.
"Hmm. Well, I guess there's nothing I can do."
Giryeo hesitated for a moment, then quickly gave up and moved on. After receiving reimbursement for the chicken galbi from Choi Jin, he left Chuncheon.
***
Whoosh.
...Heat incomparable to anything Choi Jin had emitted washed over my skin.
About three hours after returning to Seoul, I was teaching Jung Haseong the basics of magic, just as usual. Once we were finished, I'd probably head home and eat the leftover dakgalbi.
It was just another ordinary day.
"How was it, Hunter-nim?"
"Hmm?"
"The skill I used over there. I tried concentrating as much mana into it as you told me to."
"Aha."
"...But I'm still a little nervous. Back when you were pretending to be F-rank, you had me fire the skill from far away. Now I have to practice with you standing nearby."
For the time being, Jung Haseong didn't seem particularly suspicious of the fact that my defensive power had risen dramatically thanks to the [Sacred Tree Seedling].
Besides, next month was just around the corner, which meant I'd soon receive another 3 billion won in tuition.
As you can see, the balance in my bank account is steadily increasing. On top of that, the item box I recently obtained has made my life considerably more convenient.
Could things possibly be going any better?
"Hmm..."
And yet, even amid this almost presumptuous peace, there was something that continued to bother me.
The source of that unease was the gaze of someone I knew was still watching me from somewhere.
Kang Changho.
Ever since that warning, we'd been having strangely peaceful days.
Almost too peaceful...
"Damn it, this is so uncomfortable! It's driving me crazy!"
Nothing had happened yet, but frankly, that man was a ticking time bomb. No matter how obediently I behaved, he could suddenly change his mind and activate 'Improvement' at any moment.
"I regret signing that contract now."
When I entered into the pact, I never imagined cleaning up the aftermath would drag on for this long.
My lungs were still in terrible condition, and the amount of magical energy in my body was so pathetic that it was embarrassing to even call myself a magician.
"There's nothing I like about this."
Somehow, I had to escape from this miserable body.
That much had never changed.
Increasing my strength and altering my physique.
Both were essential objectives that had to be achieved, even if the pace of progress differed between them.
After finishing everything on my schedule, I returned home and immediately checked the listings for the items I wanted.
It was a routine I hadn't skipped even once.
...
...Or rather, it had been a routine.
[Search term: Dragon's Lung]
How many minutes had passed?
I sat alone in Kim Giryeo's studio apartment, staring blankly at my phone.
[Search results: 1]
Just to make sure there's no misunderstanding, I'm not saying the item itself had been listed for sale.
Someone had posted on the purchase board expressing their intention to buy a [Dragon's Lung].
So, how much do you think this person was offering?
[76,800,000 (USD)]
When I copied the figure and entered it into the currency converter on a portal site, this was the result.
[102,924,288,000 South Korean Won]
Ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million...
I counted the digits again.
No matter how many times I checked, the result remained the same.
"102 billion."
...I forgot to mention this earlier, but that morning, while I was still in Chuncheon, a certain piece of news had broken on television.
[[Breaking News] 'Dragon's Lung' Hidden Function Revealed... A Potion That Allows You to Use Dragon's Breath!]
As a result, the market value of the previously despised item had skyrocketed.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Why...!
Why did something this terrible have to happen?!
I collapsed, screaming as though my guts were being torn apart.
I couldn't believe it.
When I first saw the listing, I thought, "There has to be some mistake. Someone must have typed in a ridiculous number as a joke," and refused to accept reality.
Apparently, yesterday's news had already spread widely overseas.
A foreign Hunter had been drinking a potion to increase elemental resistance when they accidentally sneezed and discovered the Dragon's Lung's hidden function.
And that function was none other than the ability to unleash Dragon Breath.
Once it became known that, with the use of specific substances, the owner of a Dragon's Lung could reproduce the attack attributes of dead monsters, the entire world was thrown into an uproar.
"Damn it! And the power of the breath doesn't depend on the caster—it depends on the grade of the dead dragon!"
And amid all that chaos, the people who had driven the price up the most were former oil tycoons from the Middle East.
Apparently, they'd heard that the owner of the lung could use supernatural powers even without being Awakened, and curiosity alone had been enough to drag them into the bidding war.
Anyway, thanks to the attention of those Middle Eastern tycoons, the Dragon's Lung had unexpectedly become an extremely valuable item.
The asking price kept climbing until it finally reached an absurd 102 billion won.
Experts claimed the surge might only be temporary because there was a limit to how many times Dragon Breath could be used per day, but no one knew when the price would actually fall.
I calmly read through the opinions displayed on my phone.
Then I buried my face in the blanket and screamed again.
"Oh my God!"
Seriously, who wouldn't lose their mind in a situation like this?!
If I think about it calmly, no dragons have appeared on Earth since the Kagoshima Gate incident.
Even those Middle Eastern tycoons haven't managed to obtain the Lungs yet, which means there probably isn't a spare organ floating around anywhere in the world.
Therefore, even if someone had offered an unreasonable sum of around 10 billion won before the new effect was revealed, there still wouldn't have been anything I could do.
In other words, this was a disaster I couldn't have prevented even if I'd turned back time.
It seems the will of this world is telling me to give up on [Dragon's Lung].
So what am I supposed to do now?
Rip the lungs out of a living person and transplant them into my body?
But even attempting that kind of procedure would mean going through hell again, just like when I had to scrape together 3 billion won from nothing.
"Why is this happening to me!"
It's practically a natural disaster.
After thinking about it for a long time, I eventually reached the conclusion that I would have to discard most of the plans I'd made so far.
"Somehow... somehow, I have to find a way to transfer my soul..."
But what else can I do?
I have no choice.
I clenched my jaw and racked my brain.
My chest still burned with frustration, but there was no greater waste than pouring emotion into a problem that couldn't be solved.
Before long, even that despair began to subside.
***
100 billion.
At first, I considered borrowing the money, but apparently loan screening for Hunters is much stricter than I expected.
"Since no one knows when I might die, my credit rating is actually low."
Then should I diligently save until I reach the target amount?
If I calculate it purely based on the tuition I receive from Haseong, I'd have 100 billion won in roughly thirty-three months.
The problem was that the curriculum I'd designed for Haseong lasted six months at most.
"Stretching this out to thirty-three months would be a bit much."
On top of that, my plan to raise the tuition after the initial three-month trial period was now practically impossible.
"– Hunter Kim, by the way, about the taxes on the tuition fees I'm paying you..."
"Huh?"
"– Since you asked for these transactions to remain confidential, I assume you don't intend to register a business. Given the size of the payments, they'll probably be treated as gifts."
"–..."
"– Since I'm covering all the expenses anyway, would it be all right if I handled the taxes on my end?"
In truth, the 3 billion won I was receiving wasn't really just 3 billion.
In a world this developed, it was only natural that the ruling class would have devised all sorts of taxes, but I hadn't properly taken that into account.
So, to get straight to the point, once taxes were included, Jung Haseong was actually spending an astonishing 6 billion won every month.
To be frank, even for an S-rank Hunter, that was an excessive amount, and I was already taking quite a lot from him each month.
If I got greedy and raised the tuition even further, the outcome was obvious, wasn't it?
"It'd be the perfect story of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."
But selling my epic-grade Hydra right now...
I really don't want to do that.
Even to me, the current price of the lungs seems ridiculously inflated. Selling something that valuable just to buy them would feel wasteful in too many ways.
It seemed that purchasing a dragon's organs would be difficult for the foreseeable future.
So, reluctantly, I began reconsidering the backup plan I'd been avoiding.
This was the alternative.
####################
Extract the lungs from a living human and transplant them while they are still fresh.
Preparation 1. Lung donor
Preparation 2. A body to transfer into.
Preparation 3: A total of five different spells required for activation...
####################
My head is already starting to hurt.
In a world with such a strict legal system, how am I supposed to capture a living person in the first place?
And with this pitiful amount of magical energy, where exactly am I supposed to find the audacity to perform advanced magic?
"Moreover, I don't even fully understand Earth's environment or the structure of its inhabitants. Hmm?"
I tapped my temple as a hollow laugh escaped me.
"Haha..."
But then again, as I've said before, complaining isn't going to change anything.
And if I think about it, the world isn't ending today.
So I decided to relax and take things one step at a time.
"Well, life is more fun when there are variables like this."
I stopped letting my thoughts wander and pressed the square button in front of me.
A pleasant melody, like a distant song floating through the air, began to play.
Judging by that, what I'd just pressed really was the doorbell.
"Hmm."
I glanced around.
Before me stood a detached house with a monochrome exterior.
The reason I'd come all the way to this secluded building was simple.
[Calling...Kang Changho ☎]
Before moving forward with my plans, there was something I wanted to ask an S-rank Hunter.
That was why I'd come all the way to this man's house.
The subject I wanted to discuss was a little too ambiguous to bring up over the phone.
Drrr. Drrr.
After a few rings, the call finally connected.
"Ah, Hunter Kang Changho! I just arrived, and I was wondering if..."
"– Just open the door and come in."
The phone screen immediately went dark again.
The other person had hung up after saying only what he needed to say.
Seeing that, I quietly added "Eliminate the Primitive Shaman" to my list of future plans.
But that was a matter for another day.
For now, I had to go along with today's flow.
"Oh."
Kieeek.
When I opened the large iron gate, a garden spread out before me.
I headed in the direction from which I could sense Kang Changho's mana, and the moment I passed through the front door, an interior unlike anything I'd imagined revealed itself.
A vast, open space furnished in an antique style, almost like an artist's studio.
"This is a house people actually live in?"
My eyes widened.
Until now, I'd thought Kim Giryeo's home was fairly decent, but compared to this, it was little more than a doghouse.
Kang Changho's residence was on an entirely different scale, far beyond comparison with someone's tiny studio apartment.
"Wow, it's decorated like a resort."
I walked down the silent hallway.
After a while, through a window, I finally spotted the Awakened I'd come looking for.
A man was stretched out on a long white chair outside.
It was Kang Changho.
"Hmm?"
But unless my eyes were deceiving me, he looked somewhat... wet.
"Huh. With a house this big, is the bathroom inconveniently located outside?"
I tilted my head and approached him.
As I drew closer to what appeared to be a terrace, the reason Kang Changho looked like that gradually became clear.
"A swimming pool?"
A structure filled with blue water.
I know it's called a swimming pool.
But I never imagined someone would have one built right into a private residence.
"Why did you suddenly want to see me?"
Still lying on the sunbed, Kang Changho showed no intention of getting up as he began the conversation.
His muted-colored robe and the dragon eyes glowing vividly beneath it made for an oddly striking contrast.
Glance.
I couldn't stop myself from stealing looks at the private swimming pool, a luxury reserved for the wealthy.
My mouth watered slightly.
To be honest, a part of me wanted to ask whether I could stay here for two days and enjoy the place.
"First of all... why don't we go inside and talk for a bit?"
For the sake of preserving the Archmage's dignity, I concealed my true thoughts and raised the box I was carrying.
[Fresh Orange Juice]
It was a fruit juice gift set sold by the parent company of Neo Sisters.
I had recently learned that, in this country, visitors were expected to bring a gift when visiting someone's home.
I suppose that, as an alien, I'm still somewhat lacking in common sense.