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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Magic Genius with Korean Patch
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Tadak!
Jeon kicked off the ground and dashed forward.
"Chwiik?"
The orc, who had been scratching its head at the sight of Jeon charging with both hands awkwardly gripping his sword, tilted its head in confusion.
From the orc's perspective, Jeon rushing in like that made no sense.
To start with, their sizes were worlds apart.
The sword he held looked fairly sharp, but judging by his grip and charging stance, he was clearly a complete novice who had never properly learned how to wield a weapon.
So, the orc was confident it could slice the puny kid in half if it felt like it.
"Chwek!"
With a light snort, the orc tightened its grip on its axe.
Then, matching Jeon's wild swing, it swung its own axe.
Based on all the orc's past experiences, the moment the axe and sword clashed, Jeon's hands should have torn open, sending his sword flying, while the axe continued unimpeded to cleave the charging Jeon in two.
It absolutely should have happened that way.
"Compression."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Compression (Rune Magic)
Target axe vanished instantly.
But every single experience the orc had ever witnessed or undergone in its life was rendered utterly powerless by Jeon's single word.
"Chwiik?"
The axe it had been firmly clutching in its hand vanished into thin air with just that one word from Jeon.
No matter how experienced the orc was, it had never once encountered a situation where the weapon in its hand evaporated like mist.
"Chwiik!? ...Grrrk?!"
And so, the orc failed to comprehend what it had just seen right up until the moment the blade sank into its throat.
"Hah, hah, hah."
Gazing down at the orc dying with the blade embedded in its throat, Jeon panted heavily.
Was it from the intense tension, or from using rune magic?
His energy drained away in an instant, leaving his body feeling leaden.
'Success...'
The sword, swung as crudely as if it were a baseball bat, hadn't cleaved the orc's neck in two.
But it had achieved the core goal of cutting off its breath.
The well-honed blade had successfully pierced the orc's neck despite the clumsy slash.
"Grk, grk, grrrk..."
Only after confirming the orc had shuddered for a while and then gone limp did Jeon pull the sword from its neck.
'Still, it worked out as planned.'
In any case, the plan he'd envisioned in his head had played out perfectly.
Over the past week, he'd felt that strange energy in his arm, and he'd finally put it to use casting rune magic.
In truth, the only issue had been that this was his first real combat experience; Jeon hadn't doubted rune magic for a second.
The understanding of the runes he'd seen back then still lingered vividly in his mind.
'...But an axe is the limit, huh.'
Compared to when he'd reduced dozens of stone statues to dust, all he'd managed now was compressing a single axe.
Moreover, Jeon could feel that a huge chunk of the energy in his arm—what he now recognized as mana—had vanished after just this one use.
'It should recharge eventually, though.'
After leaving the ruins, he'd sensed the mana in his arm gradually strengthening bit by bit.
He didn't know the exact mechanism, but it seemed time would refill it on its own.
"Hoo."
Whatever the case, he'd escaped the crisis for now.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Jeon turned to look at the child behind him.
"Uh..."
The child seemed frozen, either terrified or stunned by the sight of Jeon felling the orc in a single attack—too shocked to speak.
As Jeon pondered what to say to the kid,
"Rondo! Rondo! Where are you? Rondo!"
A man's anxious voice calling for someone echoed from afar.
"Dad!? Dad! Dad, I'm here! Over here!"
The child behind Jeon reacted instantly to the voice.
Rondo, who had been rigid moments before, broke into a beaming smile as if released from a spell and called back desperately.
"Rondo! Rondo! Ahh! Thank the gods! Thank you!"
The voice wasn't far off, so the man searching for Rondo quickly arrived at his location.
He appeared to be a herbalist, judging by his sturdy build and the sack on his back. Spotting Rondo, he swept the boy into a tight embrace and burst into tears.
"Rondo, where on earth were you!? I told you to stick right by me when we're in the mountains!"
"Waaah, Dad, I'm sorry! I just saw a pretty butterfly and followed it..."
Rondo clung to his father's chest, tears flowing once more.
"...Hmm."
As the tearful father-son reunion unfolded, Jeon stood awkwardly, unsure how to interject. Once it concluded, the man glanced over at Jeon.
"And who might you be...?"
"Ah, I'm Jeon. I was passing through the area and happened to spot your son."
"Goodness, where are my manners? I'm Hans, this boy's father."
After Jeon gave his name, Hans hurriedly introduced himself in turn.
But even as he did, his eyes darted busily between Jeon and the orc lying behind him.
"That orc... did you take it down, Jeon... sir?"
After staring for a long while, he finally settled on a respectful form of address and asked cautiously.
'Is this cognitive dissonance?'
Hans's gaze at Jeon brimmed with confusion.
Jeon's build was that of a boy not yet done growing.
Yet the fallen orc behind him was a hulking brute that even a grown man would flee from in terror.
No matter how decent Jeon's gear looked, it was generally impossible for him to have defeated an orc.
"Yes, that's right—I took it down. It was a bit of a struggle."
But rather than explaining in detail, Jeon opted for a vague response.
'If he just thinks this isn't a normal case, that's fine by me.'
There was no need to spill his life story to a stranger he'd just met.
And sure enough, with that casual answer, Hans's attitude toward Jeon grew even more deferential.
"What brings you all the way out here, Jeon sir? This is the kind of place where even herbalists like me can get lost easily."
"Well... I was heading to our destination with my companions when we were ambushed, and I lost my way."
"And your companions?"
"Hm, it was all I could do to save my own skin..."
"Ah, that must have been rough..."
Jeon stuck to his vague responses even to the follow-ups.
Hans rolled his eyes thoughtfully, then seemed to make up his mind and made a proposal.
"Then why don't you come by our village for now?"
"There's a village nearby?"
"Yes, yes. It's small, but the people are good folk."
Jeon pondered Hans's offer briefly.
Well, pretended to, anyway.
Finding a village had been his goal for the past week, after all.
He just dragged it out a bit so as not to contradict the capable image he'd projected earlier.
After a moment's feigned hesitation, Jeon nodded and accepted.
"Sounds good. Let's go."
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Brea was a small village nestled at the foot of the mountains, located at the edge of Roberton territory.
Being on the fringe of the domain and quite tiny, Brea was usually peaceful and quiet—but today, it buzzed with unusual commotion.
"Hans brought in an outsider?"
"Yes. Said he met him in the mountains."
"Hmm... Did you check who he is?"
"From what they say, he looks like a young boy in terms of height and build, but he's geared up like a mercenary—armor, sword, the works."
"Hmmm."
The sudden arrival of an outsider in a small village like this wasn't exactly cause for celebration.
So the village chief of Brea furrowed his brow as he listened to the report from the locals.
"He was alone? No other companions around?"
"Yes, that's what they said."
"Well, that's a relief, at least..."
Taking in a band of lost or failed mercenaries by mistake could spell disaster for the whole village—and such tragedies weren't rare in this world.
At least he appeared to be a child and alone, but anyone properly armed demanded caution.
"Let's go check it out."
With that, the chief headed to see the outsider for himself.
"Chief, you've arrived."
The spot where the outsider waited was abuzz with excitement.
The villagers had all gathered to gawk at the rare visitor.
"He's just a kid, and he's a mercenary?"
"Look at that armor and sword—proper mercenary gear, right?"
"They say he took down an orc that was about to attack Hans's kid with one clean strike?"
"What? An orc? Damn, impressive."
"He's kinda cool..."
"What are you on about, you married woman?"
"Ahem, just passing through."
The chief cleared his throat and pushed through the chattering crowd to approach the outsider.
There sat a blond boy decked out in fairly impressive armor, a sword at his side, and a large backpack—Jeon.
"You're the one Hans brought in?"
"Ah, yes."
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Roberton, the village chief of Brea."
"I'm Jeon."
After exchanging brief greetings with the newcomer Jeon, Roberton felt his mind grow even more muddled upon seeing him up close.
'A mercenary? This little squirt?'
Roberton had left Brea in his youth and traveled the outside world briefly.
Unlike the villagers who'd never left, he'd seen real mercenaries—and Jeon didn't match them at all.
'He looks kinda off...'
There was an inexplicable awkwardness about his armor and sword.
His body showed no signs of training, either.
Of course, Roberton wasn't an expert on mercenaries, so he couldn't say for sure—but his instincts from experience and age whispered that Jeon wasn't one.
'...That look in his eyes is weird.'
Jeon noticed the village chief's scrutinizing gaze felt off.
But he saw no need to react to it.
Or rather, there was no need—
"Chief! If not for Jeon sir, my son Rondo would've been killed!"
Hans stepped up beside Jeon to vouch for him.
"Is that so?"
"Yes! Look at this orc Jeon sir took down!"
Not only that, Hans had even hauled the orc carcass here himself. Seeing it, the chief's suspicious eyes wavered.
Grateful beyond words for his son's rescue, Hans had eagerly touted Jeon's feat without being asked.
"A full-grown adult orc! He pierced its neck clean—no other wounds anywhere! And Jeon sir said the whole carcass is ours as a gift for visiting the village."
"The carcass? In full?"
"Yes! A present for coming to the village."
Monster corpses fetched good money.
Of course, a tiny place like Brea couldn't process an orc carcass themselves.
But unlike beast remains, monster bodies held mana and didn't rot easily, so with proper storage, they could sell it to the next visiting merchant.
And a pristine specimen without neck scars would command an even higher price.
'It worked like a charm.'
Jeon knew full well that orc corpses were valuable.
But alone, he had no way to transport or sell it.
It was a hot potato.
So he'd handed it over to the villagers—and Hans specifically—to build goodwill, prove his feat, and in exchange, asked Hans to help carry it. And as expected, the orc carcass was yielding handsome returns.
"Ahem, I see. No need for such a grand gift... Ahem."
The suspicion that had filled the chief's eyes moments ago was gone without a trace.
Replaced by naked greed.
'Well, he'll get the lion's share, after all.'
In a medieval backwater village like this, the chief held significant sway and power.
Odds were, about seventy percent of the profits from this orc would end up in his pockets.
'Greedy one.'
Jeon inwardly clicked his tongue at the chief.
His appearance was that of an early teen boy, but in his past life, he'd been a 30-something office worker well-versed in society.
He could practically see the gears turning in the chief's head.
"I've been wandering the forest for quite a while now, so... any place I could rest?"
Seizing the moment, Jeon smoothly requested lodging from the chief.
Better to proactively extract what he wanted while the man was blinded by greed than wait passively.
"Hm? Ah, right. We've kept you standing out here too long."
The chief snapped to attention at Jeon's words.
But with greed still clouding his eyes, he didn't hesitate long.
"Hans, show him around the village. If he needs a place to stay, give him one of the empty houses on the outskirts."
"Yes, sir."
"I'll tell the villagers to prepare some food and clothes for him."
"Understood. Jeon sir, follow me."
"Ah, yes."
With one orc carcass, Jeon's food, shelter, and clothing were secured in a flash.