Archmage's Restaurant - Chapter 82: A Week in Korea (1)

“Honk honk honk!”

Cars roared past aggressively, the streets packed with vehicles.

I looked around, confused by the situation.

The sky was overcast, heavy with dark clouds that threatened rain at any moment.

The streets were lined with tall buildings.

Crowds of people walked past them. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

It wasn’t the language of the other world. No, it was clearly Hangul. The signs written in Hangul caught my eye. This place was undoubtedly my home, South Korea.

“What… What is this?”

Shocked by the incomprehensible situation, I instinctively drew on my mana. I could still feel it, which meant my body was functioning normally.

But where was Rurin, and why was I suddenly in the modern world?

Unable to grasp the situation, I simply started walking. I bumped into people, and I could hear them cursing and shouting.

It all felt so real.

But I couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling of not having Rurin by my side. I couldn’t make sense of the situation unfolding before me.

I looked around again.

No matter how I looked at it, these were the streets I used to walk. I was definitely in my own neighborhood.

“Help me!”

“Shut up, old man.”

That’s when I heard an unsettling voice coming from an alley. The voice was strangely familiar, so I followed it into the alleyway.

There stood a high school girl in a school uniform.

“Of course you deserve the death penalty for messing with me, old man.”

The girl was stomping on the face of a man in his 40s, who looked like a typical office worker, and she pulled his wallet from his pocket. Her expression was full of confidence and arrogance.

“How dare you touch me when you don’t even have much money? Pathetic.”

She threw the wallet back at the man, hitting him square in the face.

Thud.

“You… you… Rurin!”

But it wasn’t the act of throwing the wallet that shocked me—it was the girl’s face.

The high school girl standing before me had the face of Rurin. The black hair suited her perfectly, just like my Rurin.

I was so startled that I approached the girl. The high school version of Rurin grabbed me by the collar and frowned.

“What’s with you, old man?”

“Rurin!”

“Rurin? Is that your new pick-up line?”

Hearing her own name, she responded with an odd phrase. The real Rurin would never speak like that, especially not about her own name, which she took great pride in.

For a moment, I was thrown into confusion.

Was she not Rurin?

The high school Rurin looked up at me briefly before bursting into laughter and shoving me away.

“Why do you look like the world’s about to end? What a weirdo. Well, I’ve made enough for today, so I’ll let you go. Your face isn’t worth the effort.”

Her tone was completely different, but her smiling face was unmistakably Rurin’s. Even in my dreams, I couldn’t mistake Rurin’s face. Yet, her personality and way of speaking were totally different.

I had woken up in the modern world, and now Rurin was a high school girl?

I couldn’t make sense of any of it.

But unlike me, who was paralyzed by confusion, high school Rurin dusted off her hands, grabbed her bag from the ground, and started walking away from me.

“There she is! I finally found her!”

“What?”

At that moment, a group of burly men rushed into the alley. They looked like gangsters, without a doubt.

“How dare you steal my wallet and run?”

“Ha, that’s because I don’t want to be involved with perverts like you who drool over high school girls. You passed out after getting hit once, and now you’re chasing after me like a fool?”

“You little…! You’re dead now. Boys, get her as we talked about.”

“With a face like that? We’ll be happy to help. Heh heh.”

The men charged at Rurin without hesitation, throwing punches. It was a chaotic brawl. They didn’t hold back, even against a high school girl.

But high school Rurin easily dodged their punches. She kicked one of the men down with swift, fluid movements.

She was obviously skilled in fighting. It looked like she had been in many such situations.

But then, one of the men threw sand in her eyes, blinding her, and another landed a punch straight to her stomach.

“Stop! That’s enough!”

I couldn’t just watch anymore, so I raised my voice. At the same moment, blood spurted from high school Rurin’s nose after she took a kick to the face. She stumbled, clutching her nose, and fell to the ground.

The men ignored me, grabbing her by the hair.

No matter how skilled in combat she was, no girl could handle five gangsters on her own.

Not unless she was a dragon.

But high school Rurin hadn’t used any mana. All she relied on was martial arts.

I couldn’t let this continue.

I was furious.

“Sigh…”

Reluctantly, I drew on my mana, knocking all the men unconscious instantly. They dropped like stones, unaware of what had hit them. It was a stunning spell, similar to the effect of being shocked by a stun gun.

“Rurin!”

I quickly approached high school Rurin, who was still on the ground, and helped her up. But she swatted my hand away.

“Don’t touch me! I don’t know what you did, but I don’t need your help. You’re after my body too, aren’t you?”

Rurin rummaged through her bag, pulled out some tissues, and started stuffing them up her bleeding nose. Her words were ridiculous. After her body? What nonsense was she talking about?

“No, that’s not it. Don’t make baseless accusations. If anything, you were the one after my body before.”

“What?! Are you crazy? What kind of nonsense is that? Me, after you? That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard all day.”

High school Rurin laughed, then tried to stand up and walk away, but her legs gave out, and she collapsed again. The punch to her stomach must have really hurt.

“You live a dangerous life.”

“Now you’re giving me advice? What are you, a cop? A teacher? I let you go earlier because your face looked familiar, but… Wait, what are you doing?!”

As I approached, Rurin, whose legs had given out, looked at me with intense suspicion and backed away, still sitting on the ground.

“I’m not trying to give advice. I’m just saying, if you’re going to live so dangerously, you should be stronger. Do you really think you can survive with your current skills? You were in real danger just now.”

With that, I picked up high school Rurin. She was too weak to resist.

“I usually don’t lose to scum like them… But today, well… I….”

“What?”

“More importantly, put me down! I’ll scream! Do you want to be arrested for a daytime assault?”

“I’ll put you down once you answer me.”

“…You’re the worst. Trying to get me to say something like that. I…!”

“What?”

High school Rurin, clearly frustrated, started yanking at my hair. Her legs might have been weak, but her hands were working just fine.

“Hey! That hurts!”

“Then put me down!”

“No, I told you, I’ll let you go once you answer me.”

“Ugh! It’s… It’s that time of the month, you pervert…”

Her voice had been loud at first, but the last part of her sentence trailed off so quietly that it was hard to hear. When I finally processed what she had said, I immediately regretted asking.

“Oh… uh… okay?”

“You got your answer, now put me down!”

“Look, in your current state, you could be attacked again. Let me carry you home, okay?”

“Home? Seriously? That’s your plan? Why don’t you just say you want to have your way with me already? Talking about going home is absurd.”

“No, I’ll just take you home. Are you scared? You were talking big earlier about how all men are beneath you.”

“…What a weird guy. Of course I’m not scared. If you really wanted to do something to me, you should’ve done it while I was weak. As soon as I recover, you’ll be a dead man.”

“That’s fine by me. So where’s your house? If you recover on the way, you can kill me then.”

High school Rurin suddenly went silent.

“Hey?”

I called out, but the only sound I heard was her steady breathing. She must have fallen asleep, and judging by the damp spot on my back, she might have even drooled on me.

Unbelievable.

It was definitely Rurin. This high school girl was undoubtedly Rurin.

The way she felt on my back. Everything was the same.

Even her age as a high school student.

She was identical to Rurin from a month before she reached full maturity.

And just like Rurin, she fell asleep easily on my back.

There was no way I could let her go. Even though I couldn’t understand the situation, letting go of this high school Rurin felt like giving up on everything.

How could she be so cautious one moment, then fall asleep the next? It was typical Rurin.

I wandered around for a while before finally laying her down on a bench in a quiet park.

Shhhhh!

After a while, as if on cue, rain started to pour. The sky had been filled with dark clouds all day, so it wasn’t surprising, but still, why now?

Even as the rain fell, high school Rurin slept soundly, her face peaceful. It was the face I knew so well. The face of someone who didn’t want to get up, rolling around in bed.

I just stood there, looking at her. Just like I often did at the restaurant.

Watching her lounge at the table while I cooked brought me a strange kind of happiness. I didn’t want to admit it, but she was a big part of my happiness.

The rain kept falling.

And soon, that moment ended.

High school Rurin suddenly opened her eyes and looked up at me. She jumped up and backed away from the bench.

“What is this…?”

“Hm?”

“I fell asleep on some guy’s back? That’s impossible! No way. You! You must have drugged me or something!”

“If I drugged you, do you think I’d be standing here watching you sleep? I would’ve taken you somewhere.”

“Uh…?”

I quickly opened an umbrella over her head, and high school Rurin looked at me, confused.

What I said was clearly logical.

“This… this is weird. What are you trying to do?”

“I told you. You remind me too much of someone precious to me. Someone named Rurin…”

“Someone precious? Rurin? What kind of name is that? Haha…”

It’s your name, you idiot.

I had the urge to record this moment. Rurin laughing at her own name.

“It’s weird that you didn’t do anything while I was asleep. You’re strange.”

“What’s so strange about it? Isn’t that just normal? What kind of things have you been through?”

“Hmph. Normally, I’d beat a guy senseless and be on my way. But for some reason, I don’t feel like hitting you. Even though you carried me around, I don’t hate it, and I even fell asleep on your back…”

That was good news. It meant that somewhere inside this high school Rurin, memories of me were still there.

I definitely couldn’t let this high school version of Rurin slip away.

“So, can we go to your house now?”

High school Rurin stared at me silently, then stepped out from under the umbrella and started running. When I chased after her, she suddenly started walking again.

It was like I had become a stalker. But knowing that this was Rurin in front of me, I couldn’t give up.

Even if it meant being a stalker or worse.