Magician of Insa-Dong Chapter 16

Parting with Yu CheIn, he headed back to the open area from before. She appeared very disappointed but Han JinHo tried his best to ignore her expression and her gaze.

It was not that he hated Yu CheIn, but he had a bunch of things more interesting and more important piled up.

[PR: This guy will die a virgin]

Even today was the same.

Perhaps if it wasn't for the lecture, he would've been fully immersed in practising the martial arts, holing up in the opening. He had been half placed in a trance while training in footwork and punching, and with his mana adding up to that, he had slightly gazed upon a new realm.

That was why he was going to the open area again.

Through the breathing method, he revised his mana pool increasing process, and by practising the punching, kicking and footwork, he improved his mana controlling skill.

Thanks to this time's occurrence, Han JinHo had discovered that martial arts were more effective than what he had been expecting.

Thus, he felt it was a bit of a waste that he had ignored the martial art books from the previous auction.

'Well… most of them might've been fake, though.'

Each book on martial art had some difference in price, but most of them were around dozens of millions of won. In truth, the contents of the book were more important than the book itself, so it was indeed quite pricey.

Some people would, after all, copy the things within before selling the books.

To martial artists, these ancient books seemed to have some value, but to Han JinHo, the information was more important than the book.

Maybe if the book had a historical value…

While he was walking, pondering on those things, he had arrived at the open area. There were traces of his training from before, left behind here and there.

'Can sharp-eyed martial artists find out clues about the martial art from just seeing these traces?'

Han JinHo had that thought pop up so he took a video of the leftover traces in the area, and saved it. Right now, he wasn't that interested, but later if he was to delve deeper into martial arts, he thought that this might serve some purpose.

"Now, shall I once again enter the world of martial arts?"

He stood in the middle of the opening, calmly closed his eyes and slowly started to move his feet. The martial art training that started in that manner had only come to an end after night arrived.

It ended after he had acquired his desired result.

"Is it here?"

The starting time of the meeting today was 7 pm. However, he had again been engrossed in training that he only came to himself around that time.

He looked at the time. It was now 7:30.

"This much is reasonably good right?"

While murmuring, he entered the bar which had the signboard, 'Eat and Die' hanging on it. Next to the entrance was a post that said the business today would be closed and a different paper which read, 'Business Department Meeting' attached. It seemed that they had borrowed the entire bar.

Inside the bar was rowdy. There wasn't anyone screaming with a loud voice, but everyone was indulged in their conversations, so it was quite noisy.

Talking in a clamorous environment, their voices would also naturally get louder. The bar was echoing with such noises.

Scanning through the people, he did see a few familiar faces, but most of them were people he had never seen before.

'I really haven't been attending department meetings, I guess.'

Some professors had come as well. He of course didn't look at them a single time, as nothing good would come out from being seen by them.

He first tried to look for Yu CheIn. It was to keep his promise with her in the first place, so he had to at least see her face.

Yu CheIn was a person who stood out wherever she was. She was sitting in a table in a corner, but she gave off presence as if she was emitting light.

Han JinHo headed towards her table. There weren't any vacant seats there, so he wouldn't be able to sit there even if he wanted to. He was only going there to say hi.

When he approached her, Yu CheIn smiled happily like never before and waved her hand.

"You kept your promise, sunbae-nim."

Her words and actions directed the eyes of everyone sitting there onto Han JinHo.

"Yeah. I was a bit late, right?"

After saying that, he looked around looking for a random place to sit. Luckily, there was a table nearby with a lot of unattended seats. It was a table for around ten people but only two were sitting there towards the corner.

Han JinHo sat down at the place furthest away from where the two were sitting. The employee approached and placed down a pint of beer before turning around and leaving.

He had been violently working his body at the open area, so he was very thirsty. Without hesitation, he emptied the cup of beer in one go.

"Fuu. I finally feel alive."

When he took a few dried snacks to his mouth, someone came to the side and sat down. He glanced sideways and saw Yu CheIn.

"You are very good at drinking! Waiter!"

Yu CheIn raised her hand and called for the waiter. When the employee hastily approached, she asked for two more cups of beer including her own.

"You are staying till the end right?"

"Huh? D… do I have to?"

"Of course! Or were you planning on going already? Were you thinking of going after just drinking one cup of beer?"

He was caught red-handed! but Han JinHo made a face as if saying 'there's no way right' and shook his head.

"Of course not."

At that time, the two cups of beer came out. Yu CheIn took a cup in her hand and looked at Han JinHo.

"Let us drink a cup. Cheers!"

He lightly tapped the cup then drank a few sips, but Yu CheIn gulped about half the cup in one go as if she was deliberately showing it to him.

"If I get drunk later, you'll take me home, right?"

Before Han JinHo got to say anything in response to her question, a voice called out from behind.

"If CheIn gets drunk of course I have to take you home. So, don't worry and drink up."

Yu CheIn snorted without even turning around. She could recognise who it was from just the voice.

Han JinHo turned his gaze to look at who exactly the other person was.

'This guy…'

A man with a finely-chiseled face was standing there. He looked to be around the same age as himself. He didn't know if he was from the same starting year, but it was his first time seeing him.

[TLN: In Korean universities, due to the mandatory serving in the military, the senior and junior relations.h.i.+p is defined by which year you started the university in, instead of the current grade. To elaborate, Yu CheIn calls Han JinHo sunbae, because she entered uni after he did.]

In the first place, he wasn't interested in anything other than graduating, so even from within the same starting year students, he knew no more than five people.

The important thing here, however, was the mana which this person had.

He had refined mana, in other words, inner qi inside him.

'I've never seen a student martial artist before.'

It wasn't easy to see martial artists in the first place, but this student martial artist had a different aura to the ones from the organisations in the auction.

The inner qi stored inside the dantian was much more well-refined. Compared to this, the martial artists from the organisations weren't refined enough and gave off a rougher feeling.

"It's my first time seeing this person here, are you from our department?"

The man boldly sat next to Yu CheIn. From the looks of things, it seemed that he had been sitting next to Yu CheIn before as well. The seat next to her original place was also empty.

Not waiting for Han JinHo's reply, he went on with his own speech.

"I'm under Professor Choi IlDong whom you can see over there. I'm undertaking a master's degree, named Park SeoJun. You've heard of my name at least once, right?"

In fact, it was a very famous name in the business department, but that was only the case between people who regularly came to school and maintained good relations.h.i.+ps with others.

"I've never heard of it… I'm Han JinHo."

Park SeoJun's eyes distorted a bit.

"What, are you trying pick a war of nerves with me?"

That was how it appeared to him. Since the time Yu CheIn first came as a freshman, he was interested in her, and he let everyone know of it.

The reason he revealed his name just then was to tell Han JinHo to leave the place himself. And yet the other party was pretending ignorance so he couldn't stop being angry.

Naturally, Han JinHo didn't know his reasoning.

"Why would I try to?"

Park SeoJun smiled disdainfully. He glanced at Yu CheIn and said.

"Ha, you do have high eyes."

[TLN: Hard to translate. The literal translation would be, 'You have looking eyes' but contextually it means that a person has a high standard for choosing their lover or anyone for that matter, but sometimes it could purely mean appearance.]

"Sunbae! Why are you being so rude?"

"What?"

When Yu CheIn intervened while slightly showing her anger, Park SeoJun stared at her with dumbstruck eyes.

"Were you being angry at me just then? Don't you remember what Chairman-nim had said? He told you to be friendly with me, right?"

In response to his words, Yu CheIn snorted and turned her head away.

"I take care of my things myself. So I would appreciate it if you didn't stick your nose in it."

Park SeoJun turned expressionless and stood up from the seat.

"There won't be anything good from inciting me. Do you really think your friend sitting next to you can handle me? Why don't you avoid inflicting harm on ordinary people and just accept it?"

Yu CheIn bit her lips and glared at Park SeoJun. Park SeoJun just shrugged his shoulders once and turned around to start walking away.

Seeing that, Han JinHo asked Yu CheIn.

"What's the standard for that 'ordinary person'? From what I see… it doesn't seem to be based on appearance. No matter how you saw it, that person's face looks more like an 'ordinary person'."

He whispered in a small voice so that only Yu CheIn could hear it, but there was no way Park SeoJun, a martial artist, couldn't hear it.

Park SeoJun who was about to leave stopped his feet. Yu CheIn's face turned pale white.

He slowly turned around and glared at Han JinHo with a rigid face.

"What did you just say?"

Han JinHo shrugged his shoulders with a clueless expression. After seeing that, Park SeoJun glared at him with killing intent in his eyes, but seeing that the surrounding people had gathered their eyes on him, he heaved a sigh.

"There are a lot of eyes, huh? Clever b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

When he finished saying that, he turned around at a speed, fast enough to cause a breeze, and walked outside with large steps.

Even after he had left, the atmosphere inside the bar was still down. The aura he had momentarily emitted was too great that everyone was suppressed by that aura.

Within that mood, Han JinHo raised his cup in a flash and looked towards the employee.

"Give me one more pint!"

The moment his voice fell, the suppressed mood magically came back alive. The waiter hurriedly ran and received the cup from his hand.

Next, voices were heard around the bar here and there, and soon, the atmosphere in the bar returned to what it had been.

"I'm sorry."

"Un? Why would you be sorry?"

"It happened because of what I did."

Han JinHo gave a smile.

"Aren't you being too self-conscious? No matter how you saw it, it was that guy's fault. It's that guy's fault and not yours."

Yu CheIn's expression stayed dark. She knew about Park SeoJun's personality more than anyone so she was extremely worried.

"Sunbae-nim, be careful."

"Why? Because of that guy?"

"He'll definitely try to do something to you. I'll try my best to protect you but…"

Yu CheIn stared at him with worry-filled eyes.

"Park SeoJun-ssi who just left, is not an ordinary person. Even if I tried my hardest, there would be limits to what I could do."

Han JinHo smiled again.

"I'm also not ordinary, so don't worry."

Naturally, if she wanted to help him, he wouldn't stop her. If someone lent him a hand it would become much easier to deal with, and there would be no need to reveal his ident.i.ty either.

"Sunbae-nim, I…"

"Why? Speak up if you have something you want to say."

"Don't feel offended by it, okay?"

"I won't."

"I'll arrange three bodyguards for you."

"Bodyguards?"

"Yes. Is that fine?"

Han JinHo nodded his head, as if saying it wasn't a big deal.

"Well, I appreciate it."

She continued speaking with an extremely careful tone.

"But… I can't talk to my grandfather about it, so I can only send you a few from my bodyguards. Is it still fine?"

Han JinHo gave a big smile and nodded.

"Just do that. I already said it's fine, right?"

He once again thought that Yu CheIn was indeed from a rich family. She had numerous personal bodyguards, after all.

"Haa. It's seriously worrisome."

Even after sending three bodyguards, she couldn't hide her anxiety. Her bodyguards did possess incredible abilities but they still could not be compared to Park SeoJun.

"If something happens, you must contact me, okay?"

She confirmed it over and over again, countless times. And every time she did so, Han JinHo nodded his head in a good mood.

Thus, three of Yu CheIn's bodyguards had been sent to Han JinHo.

Translator: Rain27
Proofreader : Uptime