-The Price of Fame
We had taken our time with dinner, eating slowly, for a long while, and in great quantity.
Maybe it was the atmosphere of the restaurant, but we sat there forever as if we were French, eating and chatting at a leisurely pace.
Not only Gil, who was still a teenager, but all of us ate as if our stomachs had an endless capacity for food.
Anyway, had we been doing that for about three hours?
When we finished dinner and stepped back out into the world, I had no idea it would have turned into a completely different place in the meantime.
After dropping Cheon Danbi and Ren off at the herb shop, Gil and I finally headed for our home.
To digest our food, we walked slowly through the back alleys toward Bogwang-dong. Then, when we came out in front of Itaewon Station to cross the main road, it happened.
As we stood among the crowd at the crosswalk, waiting for the light to change, someone shouted loudly.
“Whoa! The hero’s appeared in Itaewon!”
A man standing some distance away had his arm raised straight, pointing at me.
Then everyone nearby turned their heads and looked at me.
Once they confirmed my face, shouts began breaking out here and there.
“It’s really him! It’s Mage Oudin!”
“It’s the hero!”
“Mage, please look over here! This way!”
“No, look this way! Can I take a picture?”
“Just take it.”
“Please take a selfie with me!”
In an instant, people swarmed around us like a cloud.
They called my name, called me a hero, took pictures, and even tried to grab my hand. It was complete chaos.
Among them were even people who recognized Gil.
“The person beside him must be a team member! He’s really young!”
“Ooh! It’s Team Oudin!”
“It’s an honor. I’m going to take a photo.”
“If you took one, hurry up and move aside! We want to take one too!”
The atmosphere was so different from the restaurant earlier that I could only stand there in confusion.
Had something happened while we were eating?
Sure enough, there were even people worrying that our appearance meant a terrorist attack.
“Wait! Did a terror attack happen here in Itaewon? No, right? I’m nervous because the hero mage suddenly showed up.”
“What are you talking about? Can’t you tell by looking? He looks totally relaxed.”
“He must just be passing by.”
“I like it even more. A hero in battle is great, but a hero in everyday life is great too!”
“No, but why is a hero walking around without a car?”
“Shut that mouth of yours!”
They raised questions, argued back, worried, reassured themselves, and handled everything entirely among themselves.
In the middle of it all, there were even women who said they liked an everyday hero even more and displayed boundless fangirl devotion while taking pictures of me looking completely relaxed.
It was as if I had become an idol.
Why were they suddenly acting like this? I went in, ate a meal, came out, and my popularity had risen this much?
Something occurred to me, so I lowered my head amid the crowd and quickly took out my phone to check the internet.
As expected, news articles had gone up.
News articles praising me to the skies as a hero. On top of that, the government had officially announced the results of the Incheon攻略 and directly referred to me as a hero. Along with all sorts of extravagant modifiers.
Park Hongguk and Yu Jaeseon had already made their move.
‘That was fast. And the effect is seriously incredible.’
The power carried by the title “hero” was far greater than I had imagined.
Of course, it wasn’t as if there had been no people before who recognized me, welcomed me, and admired me.
But in most cases, that had happened on-site, right after I had finished clearing an incident.
This was the first time people had rushed at me while I was simply walking down the street, taking photos and praising me as if an idol had appeared.
It seemed that from now on, I would be paying the price of fame in earnest.
I had to endure it. This was part of what I had promised to shoulder. It was the picture the Administration Bureau and I had drawn together.
Because the popularity the public showed me would become the foundation of my power within the mage community going forward.
“You’re welcome to take pictures. Shall I take selfies with you?”
Only then did I force myself to put on a friendly expression and respond to the people.
“Wow! Me first!”
“Please take one with me too!”
The people went wild and pressed in even more.
It felt very awkward. In two lifetimes, this was the first time I had ever experienced such popularity, so I was not used to it at all, and it was even a little painful.
But it was bearable. I realized anew that there was no one who truly disliked praise and popularity.
However, when I looked at Gil beside me, it was obvious he was far more troubled than I was.
It probably wasn’t that he disliked praise, but being in front of people must have been a great burden for him, let alone being popular.
I could understand that feeling.
Living as a person of the streets, as a homeless person, must have been the same as living as an invisible man.
Except when people openly looked down on them or cursed at them, they did not even perceive people of the streets, or simply ignored them.
Gil had lived like that for a long time, so there was no way he could adjust when people suddenly surrounded him.
“Are you all right?”
“Ah, yes. I’m fine. This is something we have to do, right?”
Gil answered with a faint smile. Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, leaving it shiny.
“Yeah. But let’s do a reasonable amount and get going. This area is so busy that people ended up gathering. From now on, we can’t walk around like this.”
After whispering that to Gil, I raised my head and looked around, searching for a suitable way out.
It wasn’t an empty thought. I really felt that I had to buy a car immediately.
“Everyone, I’m sorry. I have to get going now. That will be all for today. I’ll see you again next time!”
Saying that, I even waved my hand like a real idol, completely unlike myself, and pushed my way through the people.
If I had followed my heart, I would have used propulsion magic to fly away in one leap, but if I did that, it was obvious I would draw even more attention, so that was out of the question.
Of course, I also couldn’t use magic in front of ordinary people without a proper reason.
As soon as we crossed the main road, we quickly ducked into a back alley.
There were people who followed us even that far, but once we left the bustling main road and entered the quiet residential area, the number of people trailing us gradually dwindled, until at some point they disappeared completely.
“Phew… Now I finally feel like I can breathe. There were so many people earlier that I couldn’t even breathe properly. I almost threw up everything I ate for dinner.”
“What? Whew, that would’ve been a real disaster. You ate so much for dinner. If all of that had come back up, the street would’ve been just…”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m joking, joking!”
Only then did Gil’s expression relax, and he laughed a little.
A serious kid who wouldn’t even realize it was a joke unless I told him it was.
“I told you to stop saying you’re sorry, didn’t I? There’s nothing between us that you need to apologize for.”
“All right. I won’t do it anymore, Mage.”
“But why are you still calling me Mage? It makes me feel distant. You call Cheon Danbi noona. Call me hyung too.”
“What? No, it’s not because I feel distant, it’s just a little awkward…”
“Try calling me Udin hyung right now.”
“What?”
“If you say it a few times, it won’t feel awkward anymore. Go on.”
“Sh-should I? …Hyung?”
“Well done. See? You can do it. From now on, keep calling me that.”
“All right, Mage.”
“What? You’re back to Mage again?”
“…Ah!”
We looked at each other and burst out laughing.
It seemed Gil still had a long way to go before he could call me hyung.
In any case, after laughing, Gil seemed to have relaxed.
“You’re a mage now too. From now on, you’ll have to get used to standing in front of people little by little. I’m actually quite an introverted person myself. Standing in front of people still feels awkward to me. But the work we mages do is something that draws attention, so it can’t be helped. We have to adapt.”
“Yes. I know.”
“And now even the Director of the Administration Bureau knows you’re a mage, so you can no longer remain an unregistered mage. You’re also a mage under the Administration Bureau’s management now. Of course your life will be different from before. You’ll be living life as a mage.”
“I understand.”
“Try calling me hyung again.”
“What?”
“Never mind, never mind.”
Seeing that he didn’t fall for even a surprise attack, the wall must have been quite high.
It wasn’t as if I was an authoritarian person, so why on earth was he like that? I grumbled only in my heart.
Once again, we exchanged awkward smiles.
The evening breeze was blowing coolly.
No matter what Gil called me, we were heading toward the same house.
Although we lived separately because the rooms were one-room units, in any case, we lived in the same house. Then weren’t we something like brothers?
Neither Gil nor I had ever had siblings. We were people accustomed to living alone.
That was why I could understand Gil. Even the walls he had built.
When we arrived in front of the house, there was an unfamiliar SUV parked tightly against the wall.
It was a luxury car that did not suit the alley, and it was brand new.
I was curious, but I just walked past it and was about to climb the stairs to the rooftop when the landlady hurried outside and spoke to me.
“Oh my, Mage! You’re back now?”
“Yes. Hello.”
“My goodness! To think a hero was living in our house. It’s truly an honor. I always knew our mage was an extraordinary person, but you really are remarkable. You were a hero the likes of whom won’t appear again in three lifetimes.”
The praise continued for quite some time.
She rattled off modifiers I had never heard or seen before, to the point that I couldn’t tell whether she was talking to me or chanting some kind of prayer.
Suddenly, I recalled the landlady from the previous world, whose memory had now grown faint.
She had been the same landlady.
But back then, she had always treated me with disdain, calling me an unemployed bum living in the rooftop room.
Seeing her now praising me until her mouth went dry truly stirred up fresh emotions.
“I’ll head up now. I’m a little tired.”
“Oh my, look at me. I was going on and on about other things without telling you what I needed to. That car over there. They left it here saying it was for you, Mage. Government people came and asked me if they could park it here, then left the key with me.”
Then she took a car key out of her pocket and handed it to me.
I quickly accepted it.
It seemed the Administration Bureau had decided to provide me with a car.
How thoughtful of them. How had they known I desperately needed a car right now?
They knew very well that it was not easy for a hero to walk around on the streets.
“Is that so? Thank you.”
“No need. It’s not something you should thank me for. Since you’re a hero, Mage, you’re simply receiving the reward you deserve. But Mage, will you continue staying at our house? I was wondering if it might be too humble a place for a hero to live…”
“Yes. I intend to keep living here. Both my younger brother and I.”
“Oh, thank you! Thanks to you, our house will shine. My goodness, heroes are living in our house.”
The landlady bowed repeatedly with a broad grin on her face.
In truth, the reason I planned to keep living in this house was not because I liked the house, but because of the magical space. Still, the landlady looked delighted, as if I had praised the house or its owner.
Well, if she was happy, that was enough.
After the landlady went back inside, Gil and I approached the parked car.
Seeing the gleaming new car made me happy too.