Shadows of Seoul (3)
Hans, having achieved satisfactory results, gathered up the undead.
The undead, increased by the number of fiends, seeped into the abyss cast across the floor.
‘Come to think of it, I need to research subspace magic that can be shared across dimensions.’
The subspace he was using now relied on the negative dimension on the reverse side of that particular dimension, so it was impossible to share its contents.
To cross dimensions, he had no choice but to carry things himself or use rare subspace magic tools with limited capacity.
‘Brainwashing magic would be convenient too, so I should look into that. 「Forbidden Knowledge」 does contain methods for brainwashing, but… that isn’t something I can use.’
Black magic that destroyed the subject’s self-awareness and turned them into a puppet was not especially difficult.
He simply did not use it because turning them into undead was more efficient.
However, the process of adjusting only a person’s perception while leaving their ego intact and making them into a subordinate was extremely complicated.
Because it required delicately handling a fragile mind, it consumed a great deal of time and effort, and on top of that, it required a considerable amount of various materials.
‘Things that exist only in Auterica, I can somehow obtain. The problem is the rest.’
There was a reason 「Forbidden Knowledge」 had the word “Forbidden” attached to it.
Every single material needed for the process was horrifying.
It wasn’t as if I could use things like a child’s blood or parts of a fetus just to make things a little easier for myself.
‘I’d rather conduct new research based on that knowledge. There’s so much to do and no time. To save time, it would be efficient to go to Auterica, but to do that, I first need to find a way to avoid the Order’s pursuit. What a headache.’
I then headed toward the warehouse where the survivors were imprisoned.
Beyond the thick iron door guarded by the undead, I sensed the vitality of about a dozen people.
Perhaps they had heard the commotion outside, because they seemed to be huddled together in a corner, trembling.
Before breaking down the door and opening it, I briefly looked around.
‘Still, I’d be better than these guys, right? There’s something I need to check, too.’
Rather than moving corpses with uniformly vicious appearances, wouldn’t Hans, who covered his entire body, be better, even if he was a little frightening?
I pulled my hood low to hide the glow in my eyes and suppressed the fear effect as much as possible.
Crack—
When I smashed the door and stepped inside, I saw people huddled in the corner, terrified.
There was no need to drag things out in front of frightened people.
I immediately took out a smartphone I had seized from the fiends, called the police, and tossed it to the survivors.
“Uh… huh?”
The smartphone, controlled by mana, slid smoothly through the air and slipped neatly into the hand of one bewildered survivor.
—Yes, this is… Police Station. What is…
Soon, the faint voice of a police officer came from his hand.
Flustered, he stammered for a moment, glanced at me, then cautiously began speaking with the police.
After watching that far, I left them behind and quietly slipped away.
‘Doesn’t seem like there are any spies mixed in either. They should be fine now.’
Wasn’t it an age-old tradition for criminals to mix their own people among the hostages?
Hans was sensitive to negative emotions such as fear and despair.
After meeting them directly and checking the changes in their emotions, he found no one particularly suspicious.
This place itself was secretive, and since all those guarding it were fiends, they probably had not paid that much attention to ordinary people.
‘With this, the achievements of the fiend hunter Hahoe Mask have increased by one more, haven’t they?’
At first, I had intended to operate as covertly as possible, but at some point my thoughts changed.
Since there was no way to track me anyway, controlling each and every witness was a hassle.
I also thought that if stories about him spread, it might help suppress the crime rate even a little.
Honestly, it was also amusing to see stories about Hahoe Mask become a hot topic on the internet.
So I only hid my identity and allowed rumors to spread through witnesses.
As a result, information about Hans wearing a Hahoe mask was now quietly spreading through internet communities.
‘By the way, what are these Beoncheon Society bastards? There isn’t anywhere they don’t seem to have a foot in. And yet, there’s no actual substance to them.’
Information obtained by reading the memories of the fiends.
The ones he had subjugated this time had been in a cooperative relationship with the Beoncheon Society, but they were connected through indirect support, making them difficult to trace.
The information he had obtained from the organization he had previously raided was similar to this as well…
‘Still, if I keep wiping out criminal organizations like this, I’ll catch their tail someday.’
If they were the reason public order had recently grown unstable, then he would run into them one way or another soon enough.
Hans confirmed that the sound of police sirens was approaching and left the area.
At the site of the fierce battle, as always, only a Hahoe mask drawn in blood remained.
***
A private room in a high-end restaurant that thoroughly guaranteed its patrons’ privacy.
Two people sat facing each other, sharing drinks.
“I hear some lunatic wearing a Hahoe mask has been going around playing hero lately.”
A man with a blurry, unremarkable face spoke as he poured alcohol into the glass of the person sitting across from him.
“They say he uses black mana.”
The middle-aged man wearing glasses accepted the drink and answered indifferently.
The conversation continued as they exchanged drinks.
“I’ve never seen a black mana user who was sane.”
“Even so, at his level, you could say he’s gone mad in a relatively gentle way. At the very least, he doesn’t harm civilians, and he seems to have his own kind of convictions.”
“Hah, the convictions of a black mana user. That’s frightening. He’d be more extreme than a fanatical terrorist.”
Black mana, created by corrupting the energy of nature, was domineering, allowed for rapid growth, and had lethal effects on those who faced it.
However, because it was tainted energy, the more one used it, the more it adversely affected the user’s mind.
When weak, it began with obsession and compulsions, and as one grew stronger, one’s moral sense gradually faded until one became a fiend.
“His territory is gradually expanding. We need to do something. Have you still not found any leads?”
The area of Hahoe Mask, which had first begun southwest of the Han River in Seoul, now encompassed several districts.
On top of that, he sometimes appeared in completely unexpected places, making his behavioral patterns impossible to predict.
“…He isn’t easy to catch. They say he uses teleportation as casually as eating, and it’s difficult to sense his presence before he uses his power.”
“Huh, teleportation. And that concealment ability as well. He seems to be an even bigger figure than I thought. Is he someone who recently returned to Earth?”
The man with the blurry face downed the alcohol in his glass in one gulp and looked at the middle-aged man sitting across from him.
Under that inorganic gaze, the middle-aged man repeatedly adjusted his glasses and avoided his eyes.
“In any case, with him running wild and getting involved in our business at every turn, he’s becoming quite the nuisance.”
“…I’ll pay more attention to it.”
“I’d appreciate that. We’ll take measures on our end as well.”
The man smiled unpleasantly, set his glass down on the table, and rose from his seat.
“Well then, I’m busy, so I’ll be going. I’ll take care of the bill, so take your time.”
He waved a hand once and left with soundless footsteps.
“Phew…”
After the uncomfortable company ended, the middle-aged man, now alone, let out a sigh with a much lighter heart.
Then he kept lifting his glass, pouring for himself.
Perhaps because it was an expensive establishment, the alcohol tasted damnably good.
How much time had passed like that?
Ring-ring-ring—
When the sudden ringing shattered the silence, he frowned and checked the caller.
The name of a subordinate appeared on the screen. What could possibly be happening at this late hour before dawn?
When he reluctantly answered the call, an urgent voice flowed from his smartphone.
—Section Chief! I’m sorry for calling so late! A report came in from the outskirts of Seoul, and the scale is quite large.
The subordinate quickly explained the circumstances.
A large-scale human-meat factory discovered thanks to reports from survivors, and Hahoe Mask.
After hanging up, he sighed again and rose from his seat.
It was no longer the time to sit around drinking.
***
3 a.m.
Heinz, having finished the gold bar transaction, was walking through the night streets.
Hans, who had attacked the factory, had just finished the battle and was in the middle of cleaning up.
He planned to rendezvous with Hans here, far from home, and inspect the lottery ticket to see whether any tricks had been done to it, so he intended to wait until the work was finished.
‘I was also thinking I’d turn the tables and rob them if they put a tail on me again.’
He had been quietly looking forward to it, but there had been no particular news so far.
When they parted, the masked man had seemed suspicious of him, so he thought there was a chance.
Had the warning been that effective, or were they simply very cautious?
‘Well, if they know how to keep a reasonable line, they wouldn’t be bad as trading partners. We’ve opened a channel for now, so that’s enough. If they show signs of not knowing their place and trying something stupid, I can clean them up then.’
This place, too, was within Hans’s area of surveillance.
For the time being, he would just have to manage it with a little more attention.
For that reason, he was wandering the night streets, and because of the hour, there were noticeably fewer people than before he had gone to make the transaction.
Even this much was probably only because this was a fairly busy area.
Since Hans had already swept through this place once, even those from the underworld seemed to be keeping their heads down.
The atmosphere was one of avoiding major trouble if possible and just letting things pass.
Thinking that he had created this peace made his chest swell with pride.
‘What does it matter whether it’s peace made through violence or whatever else? An eye for an eye, violence for violence. It’s definitely effective, at least.’
On one side, two drunkards who had gotten into an argument were exchanging punches, but that sort of thing happened all the time, didn’t it?
It was a trivial matter with no need for him to intervene.
‘Oh, a hook! Uppercut! The other guy’s no pushover either, huh? They’re evenly matched.’
Because they were drunk and couldn’t feel pain, they charged in and kept attacking, adding a sense of excitement.
Though both of them seemed completely wasted, so their staggering punches missed more often than they landed.
He was watching the drunkards’ fight with interest when it happened.
“You there. Come talk with me over there for a bit.”
A voice spoke from behind Heinz.
In an instant, tension surged, and his nerves stood on end.
His senses sharpened to the point that he could hear the heartbeats of the drunkards fighting in front of him.
And yet he still could not sense the presence of the person who had spoken.
He slowly turned his head and looked behind him.
The man stood less than a meter away, looking at him.
When their eyes met, he jerked his chin toward an alley and walked ahead.
‘I still can’t sense him. What should I do?’
He hesitated for a moment because he was flustered by the sudden situation, but the answer had been decided from the start.
‘Since when have I ever played it safe? If it really doesn’t work out, I can just run. Running away is my specialty, after all.’
He immediately followed him into the alley.
The man who had arrived first was waiting with his back against the wall and his arms crossed.
“Well, you’ve got some sense, at least.”
He was probably referring to the fact that Heinz had followed him instead of running away.
I did not answer and simply looked at him.
I did not know who he was, but he must have called me because he had business with me.
“Don’t be so wary. I don’t particularly intend to harm you.”
With a faint laugh, he pushed himself off the wall and approached me.
He came right up to my face, ignored my frown, and kept sniffing.
What exactly did this man want to do?
“Hmm, I still don’t know. It’s a smell I’ve never encountered before.”
The man stepped back again and looked into my eyes.
“So, where are you from?”
“What are you talking about? You sniff me out of nowhere on our first meeting, and now you’re asking where I’m from?”
I asked back, sounding displeased.
I could tell he was no ordinary person, but I had not yet grasped the situation, and it felt like I was being pushed around at his whim.
“What? Are you someone who hasn’t been back on Earth long?”
He muttered to himself, then nodded.
Then he tossed out a remark as if it were nothing.
“You’re a vampire. Right?”
A strange smile appeared on his face.
“Actually, so am I. Though I’m sure we’re from different places.”
It was the moment Heinz encountered a vampire from another dimension.
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