Azantu (1)
“This way! Move, quickly!”
I Changsu, a Guardian affiliated with the Korean Returnee Association, was tracking the culprits’ escape route, leading his team members.
“Senior, even if we chase them like this now, can we really catch them?”
They had arrived at the scene in less than five minutes since the incident occurred, but that was more than enough time for Returnees with all sorts of supernatural abilities to escape.
“Then what do you want to do? We have to catch at least their traces! It’s already the third time!”
The duo of a werewolf and a man in a black mask wasn’t committing this crime for the first time.
They had tracked them before, too, but the culprits had disappeared without a trace from some point onward, leaving them empty-handed.
‘Damn, their range of activity is too wide for us to respond to all of it. There seems to be an accomplice helping them escape, too. We’ll be left empty-handed again this time.’
As always, the defenders needed far greater numbers than the attackers.
And the Guardians were always short on manpower.
Still, hoping to find even a small trace this time, while chasing after them—
Thud—!
An impact sound burst from inside the construction site that had been their destination.
“Se… Senior, this energy is…”
“Gkh, follow me! We’re going in!”
The sound itself was a trivial matter.
From the chilling energy spreading out from within, a terrifying malice could be felt.
I Changsu immediately entered the construction site.
“What is this situation?”
In the corners, people who appeared to be construction workers had collapsed, and in the center, a masked man and an ordinary-looking woman lay unconscious.
And a werewolf, mangled and embedded in a wall, was slowly reverting to its human form.
Surveying the scene, I Changsu immediately shouted to his team members.
“Check the surroundings! The fight ended not long ago, so they should still be nearby!”
The situation was clear.
Someone had fought the villains and disappeared.
Judging by how the villains had been subdued, they didn’t seem to have ill intent, but that didn’t mean they could be ignored.
The residual energy left at the scene was enough to make one’s hair stand on end; if possible, they had to identify the individual.
But whoever it was, not even a trace of where they had disappeared to could be found.
“Captain, the villains have been subdued.”
One team member approached, levitating the three people fitted with special restraints for supernatural criminals using psychokinesis.
The woman was someone they had never seen before, but given the circumstances, she was likely the accomplice in charge of escape.
‘If we investigate, everything will come out.’
Lies didn’t work in interrogations using supernatural abilities.
As a precaution, he requested backup and had the workers at the scene moved to a hospital under Guardian jurisdiction.
Even if an accomplice tried to blend in as a victim, they wouldn’t be able to escape.
‘We’ve caught the culprits, and the problem I was worried about is solved, but…’
A new worry had arisen.
The evil energy that still remained thick and cloying in the space.
‘I’ll have to hope to get information through those guys.’
Since they had encountered them directly, they should know something.
***
I summoned Hans again, whom I had previously dismissed.
I was getting somewhat used to it; enough that I could more or less endure facing him directly.
‘There was nothing Han Seonghyeon could do, but Hans is different. I wouldn’t have to expose myself either.’
It was far from home, and there was no risk to bear. He also had the power to beat those villains up.
There was no reason not to step in.
‘That aside, they were stronger than I thought.’
The woman who had been careless with a gate that seemed to be an escape route and the masked man who appeared to be a non-combatant were easily subdued, but the werewolf’s resistance was more stubborn than expected.
Fortunately, I took him down before the Guardians arrived and hid his form through dismissal, but it had been quite close.
‘To think he’d resist like that even while under a fear effect. Well, I suppose it’s natural since he was a Returnee who had overcome his own hell and come back.’
Of course, not all Returnees would be like that.
Compared to those who had been sent to another world with nothing in the early days, recent Returnees prepared with a certain amount of information, and there were also many who stably acquired Karma and returned.
Because of that, compared to the early days when it took about ten years to return, these days there were Returnees who came back in as little as five years.
Of course, there were also those who used Karma to grow stronger and stayed longer.
‘Even so, an average return rate of twenty percent is horrifying. And to think this was a figure that had risen significantly compared to the early days.’
Anyway, it was none of my business now.
The Guardians would recover the precious metals those guys had stolen and punish them accordingly.
I had even considered killing them to eliminate witnesses, but…
‘They didn’t seem to have killed anyone either. If I went around killing people indiscriminately, Hans would be treated as a villain, too. As long as he isn’t found out to be non-human, it’s fine.’
Occasionally going around beating up villains like this didn’t seem too bad.
It would probably help overcome trauma, and it relieved stress, too.
***
For several days, Heinz had gathered information in the city with Diana’s help.
Diana was a twelve-year-old girl he had met when he first entered the city, a native born and raised here her whole life.
‘She’s the ideal talent for a guide. Having lived a hard life, she knows a lot.’
In exchange for two silver coins, she would guide him through the city daily during his stay.
That was the content of the contract with Diana.
Knowing the situation was urgent, he paid the two silver coins in advance.
It had been a gesture of good faith while taking the risk of being swindled, but fortunately, Diana had faithfully fulfilled the contract until now.
He had been so surprised on the first day when he saw her crouching and waiting in front of his lodging since the crack of dawn.
After that, it became routine to meet at lunchtime, eat together, and tour the city.
‘That was how it had been until now, but…’
Yes, until yesterday.
He sat at a table on the first floor of the lodging, waiting for Diana, then stood up.
‘She didn’t seem like a child who would break a promise. She had kept it well until now. Did something happen?’
Well, the help he had received so far had been more than enough to justify hiring her.
Just in case, he left a message with the innkeeper and headed alone toward the city’s commercial district.
The name of this city was ‘Azantu,’ a small city located in the Talia Kingdom on the western continent.
It was said to be an ordinary city where people farmed, hunted, and gathered in the forests outside.
‘But public order doesn’t seem very good.’
There weren’t many people walking around, and they seemed thoroughly intimidated by something.
Diana hadn’t said much in detail, but she had earnestly warned him to only take main roads and never show his face in back alleys.
She had also urged him to leave the city as soon as possible.
‘I should probably leave this city soon. They say there’s another city further east, so from there…’
While roughly organizing his thoughts like that and replenishing supplies needed for travel—
“Hey there, mister. Wanna talk for a sec?”
Several burly men with tattoos on the backs of their necks were looking this way from inside the alley, beckoning.
Wondering if they meant someone else, he looked back, but there was no one else.
‘Why is it that bad premonitions always…’
For now, he obediently approached as they said.
Since he was planning to leave soon anyway, he intended to resolve it quietly if possible, and if not, he would find another way then.
“…So you see. We’re protecting this commercial district, and well, there are many mouths to feed…”
Listening to them, it was nothing much.
They were simply demanding he offer a bribe on his own.
“Aha, I see. Here, it’s modest, but I hope it helps you maintain the peace. It’s my sincerity, so please don’t refuse and accept it.”
“Hmm hmm… This gentleman is quite the reasonable fellow. We’ll put this to very good use.”
So he just moderately humored them, gave them a suitable amount, and wrapped it up.
He had actually prepared a separate money pouch for just such occasions.
‘Anyway, it seems certain that public order isn’t very good.’
“Boss, then why were we told to prepare that little…”
“Why do you think? Because they told us to prepare her. We’re just doing as ordered…”
The conversation of the departing burly men could be heard, but his attention had already gone elsewhere.
‘One week on foot eastward to the next city. That would be by normal people’s standards, so it would be shorter for me… but should I acquire a horse or carriage?’
Since he had come to another world, shouldn’t he ride a carriage at least?
While thinking about travel like that and heading to a grocery store to acquire preserved food—
He saw a very familiar back of a head.
“…Thank you anyway. If you see him, please be sure to tell me!”
“Sure, I’ll keep it in mind,”
Finishing her conversation with the shop owner and bowing her head, Diana hurried in this direction.
Wondering what the rush was, she failed to recognize him and tried to brush past, so he grabbed her by the scruff of the neck.
“Kyah—! Wh-what! Let me go!”
Anyone watching would think he was the bad guy.
He quickly let go and frowned.
“It’s me, Heinz! You didn’t show up even though the appointment time passed long ago, what are you doing here? Do you know how long I waited?”
“Ah, Mister?”
Only then did she seem to confirm who he was, and Diana’s eyes went wide.
Her pupils were trembling here and there, as if something had happened.
“Ah…! I-I’m sorry for breaking the promise! I should have come to find you first… I wasn’t in my right mind…!”
“Yeah, you look it. Anyway, what happened?”
“Ah…! My-my younger brother Aaron… that is…”
Diana, who had been fumbling with her words, suddenly began to sniffle.
“I, I gave him food in the morning… and told him to wash up… W-we don’t have water. So I went outside, but…”
And then she babbled in a choked voice, tears streaming down.
‘Uh, isn’t this quite a dangerous scene?’
A robust young man was intimidating a young girl, and the girl was crying pathetically with tears.
And he was that young man.
He hurriedly widened the distance and stepped back.
Diana was still trembling, tears dropping one by one.
“W-wait! I got it! Since I got it, can you calm down first? Yeah, take a deep breath. I’ll listen to your story.”
And truthfully, he was weak to children.
***
He was finally able to talk again with Diana, who had barely calmed down.
“I have a younger brother named Aaron. He had been sick until recently…”
There was still a sense of her rambling, but he could roughly understand.
Diana had an eight-year-old younger brother.
The siblings had lost their parents and made a living by running errands and doing odd jobs for residents, but Aaron had suddenly fallen ill and taken to bed.
“I was in a hurry, so I used the money for the tribute to take Aaron to the pharmacy. So I was at a loss about what to do going forward, but then I met you, Mister.”
Thanks to meeting him, she had been able to pay the overdue tribute on time.
“And I fed him the food you bought until he was full, so recently he got healthy again, but…”
‘No wonder every time I bought her food, she wouldn’t finish it all and would wrap some in a cloth.’
He had seen her neatly wrapping bread and meat in a clean cloth and putting it away, thinking she was saving it for later.
If she had told him earlier, he would have prepared separate food for her.
But that wasn’t important right now.
Today, Aaron had suddenly disappeared.
“Uh, is there any chance he went out to play with friends?”
“There’s no way! Even when Aaron was sick, he always felt sorry for his older sister and overexerted himself helping with housework! He’s not a child who would go out without a word and make me worry!”
Diana, who had passionately refuted the idea, soon continued in a deflated voice.
“…And he doesn’t have any friends his age to play with either…”
From those words, he could roughly understand the situation.
A poor orphaned sibling pair—the eyes of the world were probably the same in any world.
“Then let’s go home first. We might have missed each other on the way, so let’s go check, and if he’s not there, I’ll look for him with you.”
“You too, Mister…?”
He had told her many times he wasn’t a mister, but that wasn’t important to this child right now.
“Yes. If I didn’t know from the start, that would be one thing, but I can’t pretend not to know now that I do.”
They weren’t strangers, and a child who had been with him for several days was crying saying her brother was missing—how could he turn away as an adult?
At his words, Diana, who had opened her eyes wide and parted her lips, soon hung her head deep and let teardrops fall.
“Come on, we don’t have time for this! Let’s go to your house first.”
“…Yes!”
Unable to delay any longer, they hurried toward the siblings’ house.
As expected, the environment where the siblings lived was extremely poor.
It was one of the patchwork-like shanties sparsely located deep in the back alleys.
“Hey, isn’t it dangerous living in a place like this?”
He knew they had no choice, but he asked because on the way here, he had encountered many groups that looked dangerous.
How had the powerless siblings remained safe until now?
“It’s still okay. We paid the tribute.”
Diana said so and pointed with her finger at a mark drawn on the alley wall.
Something like a shark’s mouth with sharp fangs was drawn on it.
It was probably the symbol of the organization ruling this place.
‘Huh? I’ve seen this picture somewhere…’
“Aaron! Aaron, are you there?!”
While he was pondering briefly, Diana went inside the house to look for Aaron, but no answer came.
“What should we do? Aaron still hasn’t come in. If something really happened…”
Just as Diana, who had briefly calmed down, began to well up with tears again, he was able to recall a scene he had briefly passed by.
‘The tattoos on the backs of the necks of the burly men I encountered earlier!’
And immediately, an associated memory came to mind.
‘Someone told them to prepare a little kid, and they said they were just following orders.’
Those men were the culprits who had taken Aaron.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────