okay since brainrot is real here's some howl's moving castle au things
jinwoo comes from a completely normal family of middle class, his mother owns a bakery in busiest street. his father isn't absent but he with other men works in steppe. jinchul is an orphan that was smart enough to pass an entrance test so he got his education that allowed him to have a decent paying job as an accountant for gunhee's mechanical factory. jinchul is grateful to gunhee for hiring him back when he was still a student which ensured he won't end up on streets and with a tuion debt on his back. because of that jinchul is dead set to work hard to be able to repay gunhee's kindness even if man himself says that there's no need to overwork himself like that.
it's rare for people to develop magic affinity, and while jinwoo was confirmed to have it, his own mana resources were ridiculously small which closed any way to apply under tutelage of country's leading Wizard. jinchul never had any magic affinity but he's the rare case of being magic sensitive - while unable to control and cast it, he has extremely high sensitivity to it, hence why he's one of few to know that gunhee is a powerful wizard.
country's power is decided by how much ranked wizards it has, jinchul has suspicion that gunhee is one of them even if man supresses his insane mana reserves. aside from country-bound wizards and witches there's also 'rouge' ones that roam around lands and are usually a sign of bad omen - people call them Rulers and Monarchs. they can be hired but they're generally hard to track down and when they cross country's borders they're objects of really strong observation. they're wild force and card and no one is happy when one of them roams in their country and not in wastelands. people theorize that both fractions search for something - or rather someone - for completely different reasons.
jinchul is usually a busy man running errands so he doesnt notice at first when shadows around him started to twirl in unnatural way. he does finally notice something is off when his senses go wild with magic signature around him and he finds himself surrounded by shadows in a twisted alley. surprisingly, fearsome 'necromancer' guides him out and helps him to get on meeting spot in time by hopping on rooftops. contrary to belief, necromancer isn't cold and ruthless but a reasonable and calm man. jinwoo later returned to that alley to erase one of monarch's mana signature that took root here and wondere how a human was able to wander into patrial shadow realm.
later that night when doing accountant work jinchul ended up face to face with unknown man who somehow got into his office unnoticed. man demands to know what connections jinchul has with shadow monarch to bear fresh traces of his mana. jinchul tries to get this man out only to learn that it's one of monarchs - Antares - that tries to hunt down shadow monarch. antares leaves but before that curses jinchul - eating away 2/3 of his destined time and leaving jinchul with maximum of a year to live in old man's body unless he somehow manages to break this curse.
jinchul, realizing that he's been in contact with a monarch, decides to silently leave to wastelands so townsfolk and gunhee won't suffer from it. he leaves only a note saying he has urgent business and will try to return. despite initial panic, jinchul isn't too afraid or stressed about his new existence. after all there's not many people to miss him when he's gone.
when wandering wastelands jinchul encounters a really energetic turnip scarecrow that keeps following him. he isn't annouyed but after encounter with both nercomancer and antares he's vary of magical things. he does however catch that scarecrow is also cursed and when it helps him to find an old looking mansion on a rock hill, he asks if scarecrow is willing to follow. screacrow (cursed jinho) agrees.
turns out it's famous wizard of necromancy's mansion and they're on fact not on hill but on dragon's back. inside jinchul feels similar presence as in that alley back then and notices shadows staring at him. then he meets annoyed ashborn, who was a great help and both strike a deal to break each other's curse.
despite jinwoo having a family he rarely visits them - not when he's hunted by both Monarchs and Rulers. he lives a loner and is quite surprised to see jinchul in his mansion only to realize that man suffered for contacting with him so he allows him to stay. later on jinwoo takes jinchul to see S rank wizards and a witch to see if any of them can lift curse. here jinwoo orders special lantern from jongin to contain ashborn when he needs to be moved around because last time jinchul did it with log to clean place, ashborn slightly burned him. jinwoo was alao surprised to see new addition - a screacrow that prefers to hop around on mansion's rooftops and balconies.
while jinwoo keeps house clean, jinchul still cooks and cleans occasionally just not to feel like a burden. he catches shadows being curious on what he's doing so eventually he bonds with them teaching them things while they show him mansion's secrets. jinchul is surprised to learn that some of jinwoo's servants are able to talk and eventually jinchul finds himself arguing with ashborn and kamish the most.
when returning from one of raids jinwoo finds jinchul asleep while man was clearly doing some paperwork. when he wanted to move him to his sleeping place under stairs, jinwoo noticed that jinchul is youthful again - even more so when he isn't frowning. ashborn watched with great interest while snacking on one of logs jinchul left for him.
upon jinwoo's summon to royal palace to meet with royal wizard - the one under whom all S rank gain titlage - jinchul ends up visiting. to his absolute shock royal wizard - strongest one in country and technically is a king of their country despite there being an actual king - is gunhee himself. jinchul is confused and so is gunhee who never expected to see him missing apprentice like that. gunhee mistakenly assumes it's jinwoo who cursed jinchul (because of his mana signature lingesring) but jinchul, unable to tell about his curse, feels frustrated at this misunderstanding. just when gunhee wanted to attempt to lift the curse (which potentially could harm and even kill other wizard because it's antares) jinwoo appears to snatch jinchul into his shadows.
when later things go to hell - jinwoo becomes acrively pursued by all other monarchs - jinchul learns that jinwoo almost died years ago in wastelands only to be found by ashborn and strike a deal with him. essentially, jinwoo lives only because he's bound to ashborn (who fears his mana will eventually consume poor boy), all mana and shadow summons belong to ashborn as well (and kamish is alive also thanks to him) - at this point jinwoo is a vessel that unleashes ashborn's mana and hence why antares approached jinchul - because it wasn't jinwoo's mana that got attached to him.
jinchul feeds ashborn his white streaked hair that he kept in low ponytail because he didn't bother to cut it after turning into an old man. ashborn eats it because it has good chunk of various mana signatures attached (hair is a good magnet for mana signatures and after meeting so many wizards it all got attached to him same way it was when jinwoo helped him out of alley. strong wizards can cleanse themselves but normal humans don't)
upon ashborn's request jinchul gives jinwoo ashborn's heart - which makes jinwoo a monarch that inherited everything ashborn had. ashborn isn't dead but he also isnt bound and decides to simply stay. jinchul's curse got lifted by ashborn and jinwoo as his succsessor was able to lift a curse from jinho (only a monarch can counter monarch's curse) who turned out to be country's missing prince.
jinwoo still high from ashborn's inheritance touhes jinchul's messy slightly burn white streaked hair and says he's beautiful, to be beloved and protected by so much colorful mana. jinwoo later clears misunderstanding with gunhee who officially grants him a title of a national wizard every other S ranks has.
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