Chapter 973

It was the long-awaited vacation, but Mok Woo-ram was having an even busier time than during the semester.

With the upcoming China-Korea-Japan exchange event, the 2nd-year, Class 0 students were busy preparing for the cheering event, and Mok Woo-ram participated in every class event without fail.

Not only that, but whenever he was caught by people trying to introduce products or recruit for suspicious organizations while walking around, he would listen to them for hours until someone came to rescue him, and in his spare time, he would hide in his workshop and immerse himself in his work.

Today, once again, Mok Woo-ram was repeatedly making and breaking an enchanted violin.

‘Compared to the first completed violin, this is hard to look at with my eyes wide open.’

Mok Woo-ram slumped his shoulders and looked at the broken enchanted violins.

The violins he considered "not good enough" were all enchanted violins with low rarity, all of which could be converted into cards. If anyone interested in enchanted musical instruments knew that those items were destroyed, they would have cried out loud.

Mok Woo-ram’s muse and source of inspiration, Kwon Lena, had been taking violin lessons with a bright demeanor, sometimes playing practice pieces for Mok Woo-ram, which kept his creative drive going, but somehow the results weren't turning out well.

Mok Woo-ram vaguely suspected the cause, but he still couldn’t bring himself to do anything to solve it.

‘I think I need to see Lena play on this violin.’

However, Mok Woo-ram still couldn’t bring himself to give Lena the enchanted violin.

Class 0 students liked to make excuses to gather together, exchange gifts, and have fun, so there were plenty of opportunities.

Even on occasions like Christmas or Lena's birthday, he could have used them as an excuse to give the gift.

Still, Mok Woo-ram couldn’t bring himself to give it.

Mok Woo-ram foolishly stared at the enchanted violin item card that he hadn't destroyed.

“Lena…”

“Woo-ram, are you inside? It’s Lena.”

Just as he was calling out her name, a knock sounded at the workshop door, followed by Lena's voice.

Mok Woo-ram froze for a few seconds, unsure if he was hearing things, and then hurriedly tried to get up from the floor, only to stumble and fall heavily.

The loud noise from inside caused Lena to ask in concern.

“What happened? I heard a loud noise, are you hurt?”

“I-I’m fine! Come in, Lena. I didn’t lock the workshop door.”

“Again? So many people accidentally come in thinking this is a storage room, so you should lock it.”

Thanks to Hwang Ho’s consideration, Mok Woo-ram’s workshop was located in a good spot, which meant that many people from Eungwang High passed by.

And since Mok Woo-ram was so focused on making violins, he managed the workshop somewhat sloppily, and to the untrained eye, it often looked like an abandoned warehouse, causing many misunderstandings.

Class 0 students even speculated that if it weren’t for the boundary of Eungwang High, this workshop would have quickly turned into a marketplace for random vendors.

“Did you arrive? There are chairs here.”

“Yeah, thanks. Woo-ram, don’t just stand there, sit across from me! Oh, but first, turn around for a second.”

Before Lena entered the workshop, Mok Woo-ram quickly dusted off his clothes and tidied up the chair he had knocked over on the floor.

His movements were swift, so he thought he had hidden the fact that he had fallen, but the dust on his head and back gave it away.

Lena, without hesitation, turned around and lightly brushed the dust off his head and back before sitting down.

“Woo-ram, you didn’t eat breakfast, right? I didn’t see you in the cafeteria.”

“Ah… I guess so. I’ve been working since early this morning…”

Mok Woo-ram tried to estimate the time quickly, but there was no clock in sight, and with Lena sitting right in front of him, he couldn’t afford to check his device.

Lena saw him and smiled wryly.

It was obvious that he had been working without knowing the time.

“Let’s have lunch together. I made sandwiches because I was planning to treat the people from the Eternal Lake when we go for your lesson this afternoon.”

“Y-You’re taking care of me like this… Lena…”

“The weather’s been so hot lately that if you leave them out at room temperature for too long, they go bad quickly. Let’s eat quickly.”

“Okay!”

Lena took out a sandwich from a basket with an ice pack inside.

The sandwich she handed to Mok Woo-ram was thicker, filled with a lot of chicken breast and bacon.

Considering he had skipped breakfast, it seemed like Lena had put extra effort into taking care of him.

Mok Woo-ram, holding the sandwich, stared blankly.

‘To think I can live a life where my muse comes all the way to the workshop and eats lunch with me… Is this really my luck?’

Objectively speaking, Mok Woo-ram’s luck had been quite rough.

His teacher, Master Craftsman, who had treated him like family, passed away when Mok Woo-ram was younger. The wealth left behind was all lost during his travels searching for his muse, and after returning home, he was repeatedly scammed or made questionable purchases, even facing assassination threats. His misfortune seemed endless.

Even so, he didn’t see himself as unlucky.

When Seo Dol assessed Mok Woo-ram to Cho I-shin, he said, “He’s like a person with a garden of flowers in his mind,” and “Someone who wouldn’t even notice if he were thrown into a sewer,” which was exactly how Mok Woo-ram was.

But now, Mok Woo-ram thought of himself as the luckiest person in the world.

“There’s one left. Were you expecting someone else?”

“Yeah, I was supposed to come with Sa-Wol. But yesterday, the fugitive Sa-Wol was tracking got caught. That’s why she got busy with the fugitive hunt party.”

Inside the basket, there was one sandwich and one drink can left.

Originally, today’s turn for attending to Mok Woo-ram was supposed to be Sa-Wol Se-eum and Lena.

Since Mok Woo-ram didn’t take good care of his daily needs, the dormitory students were concerned that he might collapse in his workshop during the vacation, so they decided to rotate shifts to check on him.

Thus, the dormitory students had naturally set up shifts to visit Mok Woo-ram’s workshop.

“That’s amazing. You’re cooperating with the association and even planning an interview! I’ll need to prepare a congratulatory gift.”

“Hmm… Sa-Wol would be more pleased if Woo-ram just eats properly than if you give a congratulatory gift. Let’s have breakfast together tomorrow.”

“Is that so? Understood.”

The two of them spent time chatting about the fugitive hunting party Sa-Wol Se-eum belonged to and the preparations for the China-Korea-Japan exchange event.

The enjoyable time quickly passed, and Lena’s violin lesson time was approaching.

“Well, I’ll be going now. After the lesson, I have an appointment with Summer, so I need to leave a bit earlier. Sometimes the lessons run late…”

Mok Woo-ram, smiling with a blank expression, snapped out of it when Lena mentioned “Summer.”

At first, he had been so lost in the inspiration his muse gave him that he had missed many things, but over time, he started noticing things around Lena.

Mok Woo-ram had somewhat guessed about Lena’s background and her relationship with Kwon Je-in.

The enchanted violin that Lena received from Kwon Je-in had been made by Mok Woo-ram’s teacher, and he knew it had been made for ‘Kwon Je-in’s family.’

Also, Mok Woo-ram had witnessed Lena’s second attempt on the rooftop and Cho I-shin stopping her.

‘That ‘Summer’ must be a good person. She won’t hurt Lena.’

Mok Woo-ram had figured out quite a bit about Lena’s family.

Even without the level of intelligence of the Hwangmyeong Foundation or the Eternal Lake, a little investigation would have led to the names of Lena’s parents, who were on the Hwanmong list, and Mok Woo-ram could see how kindly Kwon Je-in treated her.

Mok Woo-ram stared with sad eyes at the violin case in Lena’s hand.

‘To think that the gift from her family got broken like that…’

Lena was holding the violin case.

On the handle of the violin case, there was a platinum-colored miniature violin decoration.

It was a decoration made from the broken remains of the enchanted violin that had been destroyed on Christmas Eve, made by Mok Woo-ram, and despite having no function, Lena always carried it and treated it with great care.

Mok Woo-ram had thought several times about whether he could replace the enchanted violin that Lena had received from her real family and master, but he hadn’t found an answer.

“Huh? You don’t need to…”

“I’ll escort you. Now that we’ve had lunch, let’s digest it…”

“It’s really okay… But it’s better than me staying in the workshop.”

Lena tried to refuse the escort but accepted it to get Mok Woo-ram out of the workshop.

The moment they stepped out of the workshop, Mok Woo-ram realized that a powerful player was lying in wait nearby.

As soon as he realized it, Mok Woo-ram grabbed an item card from his pocket and moved swiftly.

The reason Mok Woo-ram had survived so far without dying was his ability to quickly sense the presence of other players or enemies and take action immediately when detected.

Fwip!

Lena, unaware of what was happening, widened her eyes in surprise.

Instead of explaining, Mok Woo-ram blocked the path between Lena and the hidden player.

Just before Mok Woo-ram could materialize his weapon, he stopped upon seeing the face of the hidden opponent.

“Aren’t you one of the officers from the Eternal Lake?”

Having had several encounters with the Eternal Lake, Mok Woo-ram recognized the person immediately.

The opponent was the youngest officer from the Eternal Lake, a player with exceptional skills for his age.

Lena also recognized the person and greeted him.

“Hello, did you come to meet us?”

“Sorry for startling you. I was trying to stay out of sight to avoid causing any disturbance.”

“I see... I didn’t know anyone was here!”

The young officer and Lena laughed as they chatted, and Mok Woo-ram finally relaxed and lowered his item card.

Thinking about Lena’s family had made him more alert than usual.

Looking back, this was inside Eungwang High, so the chances of being ambushed were low.

If there had been an emergency like on Christmas Eve, the student council or disciplinary committee would have reacted immediately.

Even knowing that, Mok Woo-ram still felt something unsettling in the back of his mind.

The young officer smiled and greeted Mok Woo-ram too, but Mok Woo-ram still couldn’t smile.

“Why are you here? This area is mostly used by students…”

“I happened to have something to do near Eungwang High, and since today’s Lena’s lesson, I thought I’d come by to escort her and say hello to Woo-ram.”

The young officer’s words flowed smoothly, and there was no contradiction in them.

On the contrary, it was very appropriate for the Eternal Lake to actively ensure Lena’s safety.

But recently, Mok Woo-ram had been encountering members of the Eternal Lake, especially key officers, even when Lena wasn’t around.

‘The Eternal Lake had once asked me to make a violin for them. I turned them down, but… are they watching me because of that? Probably not…’

Mok Woo-ram didn’t feel like he was being watched.

Instead, it felt like he was being protected.