[Title: Someone from the Bureau came to my house today]
[ㅇㅇ]
They said they were from the Negotiation Division? Something like that. Asked me what happened when I caught Eight-Foot.
I just bullshitted my way through it lol. They thought I exorcised it with a talisman.
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-How did you fool them? You can tell they’re from the Bureau just by looking at their business card.
└ㅇㅇ: The card said detective, though? I saw that and added some MSG to write a whole novel.
└?? Detective? Last time I saw one, it just said Bureau.
└ㅇㅇ: ? I could check both?
└TamingMaster: The business cards the Bureau uses are a type of anomaly. If you’re below a certain level, it’s hard to tell, but once you reach a certain level, you can distinguish the disguise from the real thing.
└Are you calling me below level right now?
└TamingMaster: (mage dumbfounded emote)
└TamingMaster: More importantly, didn’t Newbie only become a mage recently? How did you tell? Even I can’t do that.
└ㅇㅇ: I just could.
└TamingMaster: (mage punch emote)
-DeepSeaAnglerfish: You didn’t kill them?
└ㅇㅇ: Why would I?
└DeepSeaAnglerfish: They found out who you are. You should kill them.
└ㅇㅇ: Read the post. They didn’t.
└DeepSeaAnglerfish: Oh, right. But if they had, would you have killed them?
└ㅇㅇ: Depends on the situation. I probably would have.
└DeepSeaAnglerfish: I like you.
└DeepSeaAnglerfish: (sinking newbie emote)
Ian slipped the phone in his hand into his pocket and went outside with his earphones in. He was thinking of taking a light walk.
In the past few days, he had encountered anomalies twice.
Both of them had possessed considerable physical ability. Eight-Foot went without saying, and the monkey’s raw physicality was monstrous as well; if he had charged at it barehanded without magic, he would have been killed without being able to do a thing.
Not every anomaly would be as strong as them, but that didn’t mean they would be weak either. There were surely plenty of them who fought with stronger, tougher bodies.
With his current stamina, it would be difficult to respond if he ran into them.
So, partly to build up his endurance, he planned to start doing some light exercise today. The only exercise he had ever properly done in his life was breathing, so it felt a little awkward, but he couldn’t just sit still.
He checked the time.
It was still 11 a.m. Perhaps because it was Monday, there weren’t that many people by the riverside. Only some elderly and middle-aged people were exercising lightly. Ian watched them, loosened up a little, and began jogging slowly along the track.
About twenty minutes later, he collapsed onto a bench, panting.
“This is… hard… hoo…!”
He couldn’t even remember the last time he had moved his body like this. Ian drank the cold water he had packed in his bag and slowly caught his breath.
He took out his phone and checked how far he had run.
It was a little over two kilometers. Not bad for a first attempt. He nodded in satisfaction and walked back toward home.
“…You’re being noisy. Dating or whatever, I’ll handle it myself. The reason I even came out for a walk is because you kept pushing me to.”
As he walked, a woman with her hood pulled low came toward him from the opposite direction. Her long black hair and the mint-colored eyes that showed faintly beneath it made her a very unusual person.
As though she were on a call with someone, she muttered to herself and tightened her grip on the coffee in her hand.
“I compromised a lot too. I was originally only going to buy coffee, but here I am, walking all the way to the riverside. Once I go home, I’m not leaving the house for the next week. Do you understand?”
As she said that, her eyes suddenly shifted toward Ian. Their gazes met in midair.
Only for a moment. As soon as their eyes met, she immediately bowed her head slightly in greeting, then walked quickly along the track. Ian also looked away from her and continued home.
“…You’re saying even meeting eyes is fate? Be quiet. If you keep muttering like that, I’ll secretly leave you at the library.”
Ian did not hear her muttering. With his earphones in, that was only natural.
After returning home, he casually tossed aside the cap he had been wearing low, washed up, and came out to the living room. The grimoire lying alone on the bed turned its cover toward him, then flopped back down on the bed.
“…?”
Ian puzzled over that strange behavior for a moment, then quickly dried his hair with a towel, took a screenshot of his running record, and posted it on the community. Naturally, he erased any parts that might reveal personal information.
[Workout done for today.]
[ㅇㅇ]
(Photo of a 2 km run)
I’m exercising so I can deal with anomalies. Thinking of signing up for a gym too.
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[Comments]
-StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: 2 km is child’s play, it is. Even I can run that much, I can.
└ㅇㅇ: Prove it.
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: I don’t take orders from people weaker than me, I don’t.
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: (mage knuckle-rap emote)
-Where is that? Riverside?
└ㅇㅇ: hehe
└lol damn
-★Godmother: Ah.
└ㅇㅇ: ? Why. Is there something?
└★Godmother: ……No, nothing. Did you just come back from running this?
└ㅇㅇ: Yeah. Why?
└★Godmother: Nothing. I was just curious.
Godmother’s question carried a certain weight. The moment Ian furrowed his brow, trying to figure out the intent behind it, a message arrived from Lee Seo-a.
[Lee Seo-a: A request came up from the Cartel. Want to check it?]
It was exactly what he had been waiting for. Ian sat on the bed and sent an affirmative reply.
A moment later, she sent him a photo.
It was a photo of a bulletin board plastered with papers. Ian let out a low hum as he examined the contents of the notices on the board one by one.
[Ghoul hunt.]
[Reward: 6 million.]
[Retaking the vampires’ domain.]
[Reward: 8.5 million.]
[Contract killing of a politician.]
[5.6 million.]
[Hunt the anomalous mage Eddie.]
[9.5 million.]
[Human trafficking.]
[4 million.]
The contents of the requests were extremely varied. From simple anomaly hunts to contract killings, massacres, kidnappings, and more. A fair number were related to crime. The rewards varied just as widely.
‘…What the hell are these bastards that they can do this kind of shit?’
This was a world where the Bureau was openly watching with both eyes wide. No matter how covertly someone acted, if their tail got too long, it was bound to get stepped on. All the more so if they were people arranging requests involving Mysteries and even dipping their hands into all kinds of crimes.
“……”
Lee Seo-a had said he could trust the Cartel, but he wasn’t sure if that was really all right. The rewards were reliable, but the requests they put up were beyond imagination. He couldn’t see how this was any different from all the illegal things done on the dark web.
There were normal requests too. In fact, there were several times more of those than ones related to crime. But a few requests about human trafficking and kidnapping kept bothering him.
[Me: Is this really trustworthy?]
In the end, unable to suppress his curiosity, Ian asked. Lee Seo-a must have been holding on to her phone, because she replied immediately.
[Lee Seo-a: Of course it’s trustworthy. Ah, are some of the requests bothering you?]
[Me: Obviously. I’m not desperate enough to capture and kill innocent people or kidnap them.]
[Lee Seo-a: Most of those are criminal organizations borrowing the Cartel’s name to put in requests on their behalf. The Cartel will do basically anything as long as they’re paid.]
[Lee Seo-a: You don’t need to worry about those. Just check the ones with the verification mark.]
He did so.
Among the countless requests, Ian separated out and checked only those bearing the Cartel’s emblem.
Fortunately, this side was not very deeply connected to crime. Instead, many of them involved Mysteries.
[Lee Seo-a: The Cartel is a place that handles matters related to Mysteries with money. They buy and sell materials obtained by hunting anomalies, and they mostly deal with mages or Bureau personnel.]
[Me: With the Bureau too?]
[Lee Seo-a: Yeah. The items they use—other than the ones they produce themselves—are sometimes brought in from outside, you know? At those times, the Cartel sells them for money. That’s why the Bureau doesn’t care much about whatever the Cartel does. If they caused a major incident, the Bureau wouldn’t just sit still either, though.]
Simply put, it meant they had a cooperative relationship. The Bureau turned a blind eye to the Cartel’s requests and distribution involving Mysteries, and the Cartel handed over useful items to them in return.
It wasn’t exactly a losing deal from the Bureau’s perspective either. In places where they couldn’t get involved, Mysteries could be dealt with through the Cartel’s requests, and they could take the byproducts afterward.
There was just one thing that bothered him.
[Me: What are the chances the Cartel hands information on mages over to the Bureau?]
He had only just fooled the Bureau employees today. If the Cartel couldn’t guarantee even the bare minimum of trust, there was no need to use them. It would be better to find another method.
[Lee Seo-a: You don’t need to worry about that. The Cartel has been living off nothing but trust since the seventeenth century. The number of mages who’ve used them must be in the hundreds, maybe thousands. Not once has anything happened because of them.]
Fortunately, it seemed nothing worth worrying about would happen. Ian lay down on the bed, placed the grimoire on his stomach, and typed.
[Me: Got it. So how do I accept a request?]
[Lee Seo-a: Call the number I give you and tell them what job you’ll take. It’s only like this the first time you contact the Cartel, so put up with it even if it’s annoying.]
[Me: The person answering the phone is trustworthy, right?]
[Lee Seo-a: You’re way more suspicious than I thought. They’re trustworthy, so don’t worry. If I’d been stabbed in the back, I’d already have been caught by the Bureau.]
She was right. Ian let out a long breath and examined the requests Seo-a had sent him one by one.
‘There’s no need to take on something difficult from the start. It’ll be better to handle relatively easy ones first and get used to Mysteries.’
Ian had only encountered two Mysteries so far. He still lacked the experience to handle things like [Disposal of Flesh Mass Trapped in the Mountains] or [Retrieval of Organs Inside Rose General Hospital] written on the request sheets. He had to keep in mind the possibility of getting killed instead if he stuck his head in recklessly.
A mage was not invincible. The power of Re-creation was fairly powerful, but even that could get him killed easily if he slipped up. At the very least, it would be better to obtain a workshop, adequately prepare items that could only be made there, and then take on difficult requests.
‘It’s tempting that I can get close to ten million won from a single request, but if I die, it’s over. Let’s move carefully.’
Thinking that, Ian chose one request. Then he entered the number Lee Seo-a had given him and made the call.
The dial tone rang three times, and the other party answered.
[Hello, Mage. Thank you for using the Cartel. May I ask what business you are contacting us about?]
“Vampire hunt. I’ll accept it. I’d like the location, time, and information on the collaborators.”
[Confirmed. There is one request in cooperation with the Bureau, and one request alongside vampire hunters. Which would you prefer?]
“The hunters.”
[Total number of participants joining the request: three. Confirmed. Please wait a moment.]
As soon as the broker said that, they immediately gave him an answer.
[The location is a club. The address and time have been sent by text. Then, we wish you a good hunt.]
Click.
The call ended the moment the words were finished. Ian checked the club address that had arrived by text and burst into a small laugh.
“Vampires in a club, huh.”
For some reason, he felt like he ought to put on sunglasses.