Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 145 : Odin's Eye (3)

Odin's Eye (3)

For a moment, Patrick thought he had misheard.

'What do you think you're doing?'

No matter how brazen Shin Ah-yeon might be, he couldn't imagine her speaking to him in such a manner.

Patrick Jefferson, vice-guildmaster of Odin's Eye. Second in rank among the seven great mages, and a venerable elder who had held the title longer than anyone.

And yet, not only had she spoken to him so informally...

"I asked what you just did?"

Patrick's thoughts were cut off by Ah-yeon's next words.

Sensing this change in her, Patrick felt something was going strangely wrong.

'Shin Ah-yeon caring about someone else?'

Three years ago, Shin Ah-yeon, at least on the surface, had seemed the ideal mage.

Sociable and altruistic.

Fair, treating everyone without discrimination.

But Patrick knew all of that was just a mask for Shin Ah-yeon.

Of course, she was indeed altruistic and fair.

But to be truly without discrimination was to have no one she cared for or favored in any way.

She helped others out of obligation, but didn't place much significance on it.

For Shin Ah-yeon, helping others was just a given.

'Something's different.'

Curiosity arose in him.

It wasn't just that magic didn't work on her; he wanted to know who that man really was.

"I just used a bit of magic. Not that it worked anyway."

"What are you saying? Are you crazy?"

He felt Shin Ah-yeon's magic power, which had been calm until now, suddenly surge.

Her magic power spread out like a spider's web, wrapping around the domain of wind Patrick had created.

"I get that you're angry, but that alone isn't enough to do anything to my domain. With your current strength, you're lacking."

At Patrick's provocation, Ah-yeon's eyes narrowed.

Indeed, as he said, with the amount of magic power Ah-yeon possessed now, she could not distort Patrick's domain.

"Not anymore."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Ah-yeon's dispersed magic power was sucked into her chest, vanishing without a trace. It was an incredible feat of magic power control.

'What is that?'

As Patrick followed the magic power being drawn into Ah-yeon's chest, he could sense the 'rings' formed around her heart.

There were seven.

'Could that be the true identity of circle magic?'

Shin Ah-yeon called the magic she used 'circle magic'.

At first, he hadn't understood what that meant, but seeing the seven rings encircling her heart, he understood.

'As one's level grows, the number of rings increases.'

Proving this, the magic power that had been sucked into Ah-yeon's heart began to orbit around it, tracing a circular path like the other rings.

What had started as a thin line gradually thickened, forming the distinct shape of a ring.

"......!!"

Kwang—!!

The eighth ring.

As it neared completion, a golden light flickered in Ah-yeon's eyes, shining like candlelight.

'What is...'

Seeing those eyes, Patrick felt a sense of alienation.

'Is that really Shin Ah-yeon?'

Something was different.

He couldn't say why, but something felt unmistakably off.

"Speak."

Golden pupils turned toward Patrick.

"What do you desire?"

It was a line that didn't connect to their conversation so far.

Up until now, Patrick had just watched Ah-yeon's transformation with interest, but at those words, he felt a strange yearning.

Do you want to know about circle magic? Or do you want to learn something more?

It seemed as if Ah-yeon was asking him that very thing.

Perhaps it was just contextless nonsense.

However, Patrick felt that if he said something to Ah-yeon at this moment, it would surely come to pass.

So, as he opened his mouth to say it—

"Shin Ah-yeon."

Jung-woo, who had been silently watching the situation, grabbed Ah-yeon by the shoulder and pulled her back.

In an instant, the strange mood vanished.

"...... Huh?"

Ah-yeon turned around with a dissatisfied look at Jung-woo's action of abruptly calling her name.

When Ah-yeon looked at him as if to ask why, Jung-woo shook his head as if it was nothing.

"It just seemed like something was off about you just now."

"Me?"

Was that so?

Perhaps in her anger, she had tried to push to the 8th-circle at once and something had gone wrong for a moment.

'Even then, I didn't form it fully.'

The framework remained, but it lacked substance because she forced it.

It seemed she would need to reinforce it properly later.

And the problem wasn't only the hastily constructed 8th-circle.

"Did I lose consciousness? It feels like my memory isn't connecting..."

As Ah-yeon retraced the events just now, she definitely noticed something strange.

It was as if a film had been cut and pasted back together—there was an odd awkwardness.

"Here we go again."

"Again?"

At Ah-yeon's muttering, Jung-woo's expression changed.

"Ah, no, it's not like it happens often... Didn't I tell you it only happened once before, in Jeju? This felt similar..."

Jung-woo already knew what Ah-yeon had experienced in Jeju.

She said that even in her fight with Ivan Hunt, she'd briefly lost consciousness.

'But this time, I didn't completely black out.'

Was it the influence of her past life?

With this happening a second time, Ah-yeon herself seemed to sense something was wrong.

'That artifact definitely affected her body.'

The problem was, she had no way of knowing what exactly that effect was.

"Amazing."

Listening to Ah-yeon and Jung-woo's conversation, Patrick now concealed his earlier sharp demeanor and spoke up.

"Circle magic is impressive enough, but that change just now—very intriguing. Is that also some kind of magic?"

He was not directing his question at Ah-yeon.

He was speaking to Jung-woo, who stood right behind her.

"Even if you ask me, I can't answer that."

"Is that so?"

Patrick slowly sat down in his chair.

He seemed to have lost interest in arguing with Ah-yeon.

"Do you happen to know how old I am?"

"I'm not sure, but..."

"A hundred and twenty-two."

That meant he had been alive since before magic had appeared in this world.

"In that time, I've seen and experienced much. Of course, not everything has changed, but... my sense for things has become sharp."

He looked back and forth between Ah-yeon and Jung-woo, nodding his head.

"You are not an ordinary person. If you were, my magic wouldn't have failed on you in the first place. Nor would you have reacted so sensitively to Shin Ah-yeon's change."

"Did I change or something? I thought I just raised the circle..."

"Even that alone is an utterly astonishing feat, great mage Shin Ah-yeon."

Rarely, Patrick addressed Ah-yeon with the title 'great mage'.

A sign of his own kind of respect.

"In any case, I didn't come today intending to ask everything from the start. I just came to test the waters, and to convey some news."

"... News?"

It wasn't a pleasant-sounding word.

Ah-yeon, and Jung-woo as well, couldn't help but frown.

"Two months from now, you'll be receiving an invitation from Odin's Eye. Please, I hope you won't refuse it."

"... Is that the one where you cut off all support if I decline?"

"As I said, it's not something I can decide by myself. The decision's already been made—that's why I'm here."

Odin's Eye coveted circle magic.

If she continued refusing, odin's Eye might really cut all support.

"That's why, Shin Ah-yeon, if you truly must decline sharing knowledge of circle magic, please do so after coming to the Round Table. And if possible, pluck out all those fools' beards while you're at it."

"Great mage Patrick, are you not interested in circle magic?"

"I was."

But now, he had changed his mind.

"It's structurally impossible for anyone who learned magic based on the mana-hole to use it."

Having seen the circles around Ah-yeon's heart, Patrick was certain.

He was already in a state where he could no longer learn this so-called circle magic.

"If that's announced at the Round Table, they probably won't bother you anymore."

With that, he handed Jung-woo an invitation from Odin's Eye.

As Patrick said, the invitation had a date, summoning them to Odin's Eye.

Seeing the date, Jung-woo frowned.

"... October 20th?"

"Is that when we're supposed to show up? Not much time left..."

Ah-yeon muttered in annoyance.

With October 20th only a few months away, not much time remained.

But Jung-woo frowned for a different reason.

'It overlaps with the Odyssey.'

A great festival where all S-rank hunters from around the world gathered.

If things went wrong, Ah-yeon might not be able to participate.

***

"Manager Park!!"

Since Ah-yeon's movie had been released, more and more people came looking for me.

Because the influence of hunters had grown beyond just niche variety shows; now it was making waves in cinema as well.

"If Soo-ah has an opening in her schedule, is there any way we could arrange something? HSN's preparing an amazing show right now..."

"Sorry, that'll be difficult."

"T-then how about Alencia at least!"

"Alencia is busy with her personal channel."

Of all my clients, Ah-yeon and Soo-ah were, unsurprisingly, the most requested.

Ah-yeon was making headlines due to her movie, and with the incident at the Ice Tower spreading online, Soo-ah was once again a hot topic.

'It's called Life Lantern Ignition.'

Within the domain of flame Soo-ah created, all beings were cloaked in blue fire, and any attack executed in that domain could even snatch away lives.

'I think it probably manifests weak points or vulnerabilities as fire.'

Since the magic power responded to Soo-ah's image, it might really grant 'death', so it was not something I could recklessly test.

For now, if flames appeared on a body, even that alone would continuously drain magic power, so it worked fairly well as a debuff.

"Hello, PD Do."

"......."

I had come to HSN for no other reason than to meet PD Do and PD Jung.

There were still some variety shows I needed to claim from our bet, and we had to discuss when we'd air the shows we'd filmed in America.

"Why the face? By now, don't you think you should be offering me broadcast slots even without the bet?"

"That's... That's true, but..."

PD Do fell silent, swallowing back the rest, but I could roughly guess what he wanted to say.

'No matter how well we're doing, a mere manager shouldn't be strutting around like this.'

Of course, it wasn't that I was acting high and mighty, but the very fact that I was directly meeting with producers was quite unusual.

It must be an issue unique to being the manager of 'hunters', not just ordinary celebrities.

"Still, I really enjoyed watching you get one over on those KDC guys. Especially PD Heo Seong-man, that jerk..."

"Ah, PD Heo? I should probably meet him at some point too."

Having schemed a bit during the America shoot, I wanted to have a real conversation with him.

Especially since some weird things had gone down at this Relic Fiesta as well.

'According to Ronbil, there still seem to be people connected to the demons in Korea.'

Apparently, it was PD Heo Seong-man who had helped the demons gain access to this Relic Fiesta.

I'd only heard this from Ronbil, so I hadn't said anything publicly yet, but it was about time to handle it.

Of course, I'd have to approach it very carefully...

"You're meeting PD Heo? Haven't you heard the rumors, manager Park?"

"Pardon?"

When I asked as if I had no idea, PD Do looked around before whispering quietly.

"PD Heo Seong-man died three days ago."

That was something I never could have predicted.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Where's Odyssey going get held?

【「(°ヘ°)?】