Aftermath (2)
People were standing in line, waiting to enter through the city gate, while guards inspected them at the entrance.
Countless people passed through after discreetly slipping coins to the soldiers who were being annoyingly difficult···.
‘···That’s what I expected to see, so why is it like this?’
It was a city, without a doubt. The scale was somewhat small, but it had walls surrounding it, and many buildings had been erected within.
‘But why does it feel so deserted?’
The soldiers guarding the city gate merely gave me a sidelong glance. They did not say a single word to me as I passed through, too busy whispering among themselves.
‘At least it’s fortunate that there’s no inspection.’
I knew absolutely nothing about this world.
There was no way I could get away with vaguely brushing things off with the city guards, as I had done with the old man from the slash-and-burn village.
If they questioned me about this and that, I would inevitably find myself in trouble.
‘I even prepared a few silver coins to slip them in such a situation.’
Despite the fact that it was still light out, there were few residents walking around, and they did not seem interested in me as an outsider.
The entire city simply felt lifeless.
‘What’s with the atmosphere here? Did something happen?’
It felt unsettling, but I decided to look for lodging first.
Even if I went somewhere else later, I needed to gather at least some information here.
‘Let’s see···. Where would the lodgings be? Should I ask that person?’
Just as I was about to approach someone who appeared to be a local and ask for directions, something caught my eye in an alley beside the road.
A muscular giant with a tattoo on the back of his neck, and a grimy girl who looked to be around ten years old.
“···I’m sorry! If you could just give us a little more time···.”
The girl repeatedly bowed her head to the giant, begging with a tearful expression.
“I understand your situation, but you know I can’t wait forever either, right? I’ll give you three days. If you don’t bring it within three days, there’s nothing I can do.”
He uncrossed his arms and scratched his head roughly, answering gruffly with an displeased expression.
Then, without even waiting for the girl’s reply, he turned toward the depths of the alley.
“I’m telling you, you two. Two silver coins within three days.”
As he vanished into the darkness of the alley, the girl collapsed on the spot.
She sat there blankly for a while before taking a deep breath, as if swallowing back her tears, and slapping her own cheeks.
Then she staggeringly rose to her feet.
‘Hmm··· A city thug and an exploited young girl. What a hackneyed cliché.’
Considering this was a medieval fantasy world, such things probably happened all the time here.
Even if I ran around shouting about human rights, nothing would change—and, to begin with, I had no reason to do so.
Thump—
As I stood quietly watching them, the girl, who had been stumbling along while staring only at the ground, collided with me as she emerged from the alley.
“Ah··· I’m sorry···.”
I looked down at the girl, who bowed her head in front of me.
Her skin was rougher than it should have been for her age, and her hands were scarred and covered in calluses.
The hollow look in her eyes and the gloomy air that clung faintly to her were terribly familiar to me.
After apologizing, the girl passed me and continued trudging along.
Her shoulders drooped, and there was not even the slightest hint of vitality in her footsteps.
For some reason, I could not take my eyes off her retreating figure.
‘Hmm, two silver coins, huh.’
I pulled a pouch from inside my clothes.
It was a money pouch I had prepared separately for bribes, containing a large number of coins and five or six silver pieces.
‘I didn’t know the prices here, so I stuffed it pretty full. Silver coins must be worth more than I thought.’
I had expected to have no use for them after passing through the city gate without an inspection, but a suitable opportunity had appeared at just the right time.
‘I needed information about this world anyway.’
A local who could provide information and diligently carry out what I asked of her.
Someone with little risk of plotting something else against me.
Hadn’t a perfect candidate appeared right before my eyes?
‘I don’t know whether she can be trusted yet, but if I can obtain information for this little money···.’
I took two silver coins from the pouch and put it back inside my clothes.
‘Well, I suppose this is fate. I was going to use them as bribes anyway, and this should be more efficient.’
I strode toward the girl, who was still staggering away.
Perhaps she was lost in her thoughts, because she did not react at all even when I approached close enough for my presence to be felt.
“Ahem··· Hey, kid?”
“······.”
“Hey~? Big brother has something to say to you for a moment···.”
When she did not answer even after I spoke to her, I raised my voice a little and lightly tapped her shoulder···.
“Eek—! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
The girl leaped into the air in fright, startling me as well. I blinked at her.
“······.”
“Uh, um··· Who are you?”
The person who will become your employer.
I had no intention of thoughtlessly giving things away simply because I felt sorry for her situation.
A relationship that benefited both sides was precisely what grew strong and lasted.
I did not know how long I would remain in this city, but there were still principles to uphold.
So, let’s negotiate your working conditions.
***
After Heinz met the girl in the city, he easily secured lodging with her help and began gathering information.
With a local guide at his side, everything proceeded smoothly.
“Well then··· shall I start my own work?”
Gold bars! It was time to harvest the gold bars.
Traveling to another world was all well and good, but should not his first priority be ensuring that his original self could eat well and live comfortably?
‘But summoning Hans outright is a little frightening.’
Hadn’t he realized Hans’s imposing presence firsthand when he had faced him as Heinz?
‘Still, I have Mirror-like Calm. It should be fine for a little while.’
Even so, one never knew what might happen, so he closed his eyes to avoid meeting Hans’s gaze and summoned him.
Saaaah···
The moment the summon was completed, he felt a frigid chill.
Though he had not looked directly at him, he instinctively realized that something ominous existed before his eyes.
[Wow··· This is no joke, is it? I don’t think I’ll ever be able to show myself in front of people again.]
Hans muttered as he looked at Heinz’s body, standing frozen in place through his own field of vision.
That voice, resonating through the harmonization of mana, stimulated fear like a demon whispering from the depths of the earth.
‘Still, perhaps thanks to Mirror-like Calm, I seem to be getting used to it.’
When he had first summoned Hans, the skill had shaken violently without restraint. Now, perhaps because he had grown somewhat accustomed to it, his heart gradually settled into calm.
“Whew, I’m fine now···.”
The moment he opened his eyes with his mind at peace and faced Hans, he immediately turned his head away.
No, he turned his entire body and headed for the bathroom.
“Let’s keep our distance for a while. I need to use the bathroom. I really have to pee.”
He widened the distance between himself and Hans, muttering for no reason despite there being no one to hear him.
‘Hans can take out the items himself.’
While I was inside the bathroom, Hans neatly set down the objects he had been holding to one side.
Gold bars, along with jewelry and magical tools.
He had brought several magical tools with protective abilities. The safety of his original body was the top priority.
Just in case, he picked up the skeletal staff and lightly tapped it against the floor, but···
[Hmm, as I thought, summoning doesn’t work in this world.]
It seemed crossing dimensions to summon undead from that world was too difficult.
It might have been possible if he could create a subspace completely bound to Hans himself and store them there, but he did not know such magic yet.
‘Well, I’ll learn it gradually as I grow stronger.’
For now, this was more than enough. There was no need to rush for no reason.
Beep-beep-beep— Click.
After using the bathroom, he was growing accustomed to Hans from a safe distance when the front door opened and the avatar returned from its exercise.
He had yet to give it a name, since he was still pondering a suitably impressive one, but it was a useful fellow with the Acceleration skill, which increased its momentary speed.
‘I prepared a wooden mask to match the era, and I think this will suit him quite well.’
In the avatar’s hand was a wooden mask he had prepared to put on Hans.
It would hardly do to wear a plastic mask in a fantasy world.
Well, it was technically possible, but he liked this one better.
He moved the avatar to place the mask against Hans’s face, then tightly tied the strings at the back.
In case it fell off, he secured it several times with tough leather cords.
“Oh··· It has atmosphere. It looks vicious in a different way from before.”
I clapped as I gazed at Hans’s face.
While the avatar had been running throughout the neighborhood, something had caught its eye: the nobleman’s Hahoe mask that Hans was now wearing.
Blue ghost fire bloomed from the eyeholes beneath the hood of his robe, which seemed to smile serenely. Teeth were faintly visible through the open mouth, with cold air leaking between them like mist.
It was exactly like a scene from a horror film.
‘Oh, wait. Does this even serve any purpose as a mask?’
The thought occurred to him, but he soon gave up on it.
Even if Hans wore a cute pink bunny mask, he would still look like a psychopathic serial killer.
Simply hiding the fact that he was not human was sufficient for the mask to serve its purpose.
‘Hmm··· As long as the skull itself isn’t visible, I can probably bluff my way through it.’
Forcibly ignoring Hans’s intimidating appearance, he brought over a briefcase and packed the gold bars inside.
‘The gold bars I brought weigh three kilograms, I think. This should be enough for now.’
In the long term, he had considered buying a house on the outskirts of Seoul and surrounding it with all kinds of barriers, but he could not leave the country at present, so he could prepare gradually.
‘All I can do is believe things will improve. I can’t live like this forever.’
For now, he decided to sell the gold bars through normal channels.
He could say that he had found them while sorting through the belongings left behind by his parents.
His family was not particularly poor, and given how unsettled things were these days, selling this amount of gold would not pose any problems.
The avatar, ready to leave, was about to step outside when it suddenly stopped.
Having something so valuable on him made him inexplicably uneasy.
“I don’t feel comfortable just going out like this.”
Even though he had brought protective magical tools, something still felt off.
As he looked around and pondered, he noticed Hans standing there blankly.
***
“Thank you. Have a pleasant day.”
The employee of the gold-buying shop saw me off with a ninety-degree bow.
As expected, there had been no problems with the sale, and the incident I had worried about had not occurred.
I was glad I had gone out of my way to find a place that supposedly bought gold at a high price, and I smiled contentedly at my now-prosperous bank balance.
The streets had grown dim in the meantime, and streetlights were flickering on one after another.
I walked along with a lightened heart, then glanced at the shadow on the ground.
A shadow that looked markedly darker than those around it.
‘It’s fortunate I can at least use him like this, even if I can’t bring him out in front of other people.’
Hans, who had used dark magic, was hiding in my shadow.
I had kept him concealed in case something happened, but it seemed my worries had been excessive.
Wee-oo— Wee-oo!
KABOOM—!
No sooner had I finished thinking that than the security door of the gold-buying shop behind me came down, and a moment later, the wall exploded outward.
‘Why do bad premonitions never miss?’
I squeezed my eyes shut, then cautiously glanced behind me.
A muscular werewolf over two meters tall and a man wearing a black mask, clinging to him, emerged through the hole in the ruined building and fled into an alley.
I took a quick look inside the wrecked building. The precious metals were gone, and people lay collapsed on the floor.
Fortunately, I had left just before the incident and had not been directly caught up in it.
But···
‘Villains, huh···.’
People who committed crimes using their awakened abilities.
Of course, there were also Guardians who protected citizens from such villains, but as always, it was impossible to protect everyone from every danger.
Just like my family.
I stared for a while in the direction they had disappeared, then resumed walking.
The area had become an utter madhouse, filled with people reporting the incident and recording videos.
The Guardians would track them down themselves, and if they were caught, they would receive enhanced punishment as ability-related criminals.
If they were not caught···
‘They’ll live well. But there’s nothing I can do.’
Han Seonghyeon left the scene and headed home.
***
“Good, Wolf. Everything went according to plan. Now we just have to go to where the portal is and get out of here!”
“Grrr. The Guardians will take about three minutes to arrive. That’s plenty of time.”
The plan was simple.
Wolf, the team’s combatant, would subdue the guards, destroy the safe and security devices, and secure an escape route. Porter, the carrier, would then vacuum up all the precious metals and cash before climbing onto Wolf’s back.
After that, they would quickly move to where Portal, the escape specialist, was waiting and use his ability to get far away. That was all there was to it.
“Hahaha— I wish I could see the Guardians’ stunned faces when they arrive too late!”
“Grrh! Enough. We’re here, so get down.”
They soon entered the construction site.
Portal’s ability, Gate, took a long time to create, so it could not be used directly at the scene. They had to secure a location in advance and prepare their escape route beforehand.
Tap-tap— Clack!
When they hurried inside, they saw construction workers lying unconscious and pushed into a corner.
Portal, who should have been waiting there after creating the Gate, was unconscious as well.
“Huh···? What the hell?”
Something stood in the darkness before the fallen Portal.
“Grrrr···.”
The fur all over Wolf’s body bristled. He lowered his body, raised his tail, and bared his teeth and claws.
But his eyes were unmistakably filled with terror.
“Ugh··· Wh-what is that···?”
Porter was in an even worse state. His thoughts came in broken fragments. He could not connect one thought to the next.
Then ‘it’ raised one hand and pointed at them.
The last thing reflected in Porter’s eyes was··· a smiling face with blue, glowing eyes, emerging from between the shadows as they descended upon him.
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