EP.164 This Is the Back Alley
He was a thuggish-looking man with a knife scar on his face. Even A.B., who maintained an objective perspective, would have had illegal acts spring to mind the moment she saw him.
He had a razor-sharp longsword slung over his shoulder, and his reaction to A.B.’s officer uniform was utterly casual.
“…An officer?”
Criminals can’t even meet an officer’s eyes. They aren’t even a match for officers, from the power they’re granted to their authority.
Yet this vicious-looking man showed not the slightest hint of intimidation at the sight of an officer. He even wore a challenging smile.
“Oh my, officer sir. That fellow there is one of ours. Sorry, but can’t you give way a little?”
A.B. replied stiffly.
“He is already dead.”
“Heh heh. We know. We need his corpse more than his life, that’s all. Since he was our comrade, we thought we’d give him a proper funeral.”
A cackling laugh followed.
Faced with their comrade’s body, they showed no sign of sorrow whatsoever. They were merely watching it greedily, as if it were a treasure chest.
“Running off and dying on us like a headache... Hurry up. We want to take him before he’s completely ruined. How about you step aside now?”
Now that he was a corpse, there was no reason for A.B. to care, but neither was there a need to comply with the demands of such suspicious individuals.
A.B. refused outright.
“I refuse.”
“Keh. Why?”
“I have no obligation to answer you.”
“Oh my, is that so. So says our officer, then.”
His tone was dripping with sarcasm. Not a shred of respect for an officer could be found in it.
The man thrust his shoulder-slung longsword forward threateningly.
“Really, no fear at all. Even for an officer. When you’re all alone... And a captain at that—there’s so many of them you could kick one up on any street corner.”
At the man’s words, a subordinate beside him cautiously pointed out,
“Uh, boss. A captain is pretty high up. Major comes right after.”
“Don’t butt in, you bastard!”
The man roared, then immediately aimed his longsword at A.B. He clearly understood the meaning of pointing a sword, and he clearly did not care even if his opponent was a military officer.
“And what if you’re a captain? Do swords not cut you? Or do bullets not work?”
This time too, the subordinate cautiously pointed out,
“Bullets don’t work. A captain-level officer learns the Bullet-Deflection Ki Art first thing.”
“You’ve got a serious lack of tact! Hey, you go first!”
Having been corrected twice, the man lost his temper and aimed his sword at the subordinate beside him. The underling, nearly skewered, shrank back in fear.
“Wh-what?”
“Bullets might not work, but a blade will! Go and stab her! And slice open that bastard’s belly too, fast! Before it becomes unusable!!”
The man swung his sword wildly and shouted. Other nearby underlings began approaching A.B. as if driven.
I don’t know if many hands make light work, but fear is definitely lighter when shared. Perhaps emboldened by the comrades stepping forward with them, the thugs’ steps grew increasingly forceful.
Sensing the hostility, A.B. warned them in a low voice.
“Warning. You are currently displaying threatening behavior toward a soldier of the Military State. Cease immediately. This is an order. If you disobey...”
But A.B.’s clear, ringing voice posed no particular threat. The thugs snorted and grew even more arrogant.
“What’re you gonna do? Beat us all up by yourself?”
“Let’s see if that precious officer’s skin can’t be cut by a blade either.”
A.B. was in a predicament. To think they would recognize an officer and still attack.
The Military State dealt quite severely even with murders targeting ordinary citizens. If word got out that an officer had been attacked and killed by criminals, the military police would be dispatched immediately, without a moment’s delay or mercy.
A unit with the authority to pour the Military State’s power against its own citizens would launch a partially discriminatory attack against its own people. No matter how lawless they were, they wouldn’t be able to withstand that.
Yet they were threatening an officer without any thought of the consequences, unless they intended to summon the military police...
No way.
A.B. murmured.
“…Could that be your true objective?”
No one answered A.B.’s self-query. The thugs, each gripping a blade tightly, walked toward her.
“Heh heh. I’m curious if an officer’s blood is the same color as ours...”
There were seven of them. All armed with bladed weapons. Furthermore, from the gaunt man who appeared to be their leader, traces of ki manipulation were felt, though his level wasn’t very high.
“Warning, problematic...”
To overcome this crisis, using the golem would be rational, but that would be an act exposing her identity as a communications soldier. Only suicide would remain after that.
Should she engage in close combat? But it would be like an egg striking a rock. A.B. was not a combat specialist professionally trained in ki manipulation.
Kill or be killed. Or simply be killed.
Use the golem to defeat them and then commit suicide, or be struck down by their hands as she was.
It required lengthy deliberation, but the moment of choice was fast approaching. Amidst the street lamps faintly illuminating the road, blades flashed coldly.
The blue blades that would put holes in A.B.’s body and spill her red life...
It was just as A.B. made up her mind and clenched her fist.
“You crazy bastards!!”
Thud-dudududu.
Dozens of people poured out into the street. Without a word of argument, they swarmed the thugs who were about to attack A.B. Caught off guard, the thugs were swept away by the crowd.
Screams and utter chaos. And a relentless beating that followed.
Even those armed with blades were helpless before the violence of numbers. All the more so when their opponents were uniformly armed with long weapons.
“Have you lost all sense of fear?! A magician, and now an officer. You’re stirring up every hornet’s nest you can find! If you want to get stung, get stark naked and tap-dance in front of the nest! Don’t go poking around everywhere!”
A heavyset middle-aged man shouted as he pummeled a thug at the very front. The scar-faced man, startled by the sudden attack, raised his longsword high and charged at the middle-aged man.
“You lot, you’re the Market! How dare smuggler scum act so insolently...!”
The scar-faced man surrounded his sword with ki and thrust it straight out. A ki-wreathed blade that would tear flesh and split bone. Even the middle-aged man’s portly body wouldn’t stay unscathed if struck by that ki-clad sword.
But the middle-aged man retreated with an agility that belied his bulk. The blue-glowing tip of the blade narrowly passed before the man’s nose.
“Heugh! That rotten bastard’s even swinging a sword!”
The fussing middle-aged man then pulled out a large crowbar with a split end. He wedged the man’s sword into the split of the crowbar. The entire flow was so natural, as if the two had rehearsed it.
Clang! The blade caught between the prongs of the crowbar. A flustered expression surfaced on the scar-faced man’s face.
In that state, the middle-aged man twisted his hand, and the longsword caught in the crowbar was flung right out. The middle-aged man’s crowbar, leveraging the principle of the lever, crashed down on the now-disarmed man.
“You’re the one who doesn’t know his place! This is our territory, you bastard!”
Crack.
The sound of bone breaking came from the scar-faced man’s skull. Now his face would bear the mark of a crowbar in addition to the knife scar.
What sentiment the man expressed regarding this is unknown. Simply because he had lost consciousness.
His eyes rolled back, and his gaunt body collapsed straight to the ground.
“Liddle bastard. Scaring the liver out of me...”
Breathing heavily, the middle-aged man immediately scurried over toward A.B. Before she could even be on guard, he bowed his back, rubbed his hands together ingratiatingly, and came out with the utmost deference.
“Oh dear, Captain! This wasn’t the will of our entire district, not at all. Those bastards are the weird ones. They’re crazies who call themselves the Shadow of the Military State. Them running wild like lunatics is causing us terrible headaches too...”
From A.B.’s perspective, the group that had suddenly appeared and subdued the thugs was just as suspicious.
However, unlike the thugs who were brandishing threatening blades, what these newcomers were holding were mostly familiar objects like crowbars and pokers. So much so that they could blend into everyday life just as they were without any issue.
Was it because the tools created a more moderate atmosphere? A.B. relaxed her guard slightly and spoke.
“...Query. What, then, are your identities?”
“Oh dear! I should have introduced myself first!”
The fussing middle-aged man introduced himself, sweat streaming down his face.
“Yes, yes. My name is Krin. I’m in charge of managing the public distribution warehouse for the market merchants.”
Goods need to be brought into the market, and a warehouse is needed to store those goods safely.
But this place is a paradise for petty criminals. You never know when a thief might appear, so you can’t rest easy with just a warehouse and a lock.
The market merchants allied together to safely store and transport their goods, and deliverymen and laborers got tangled up in it, growing larger until they formed their own force.
“So, to put it simply, a merchants’ union... no, not even that. We’re just people who protect the merchants’ goods in their stead. Mere warehouse keepers.”
Krin spoke with the utmost deference, but A.B. felt a sense of déjà vu at that name.
Krin. Store Manager. Market.
It was definitely mentioned when she caught the pickpocket child.
“...Krin Store Manager? Are you perhaps the head of the organization called Market?”
At that, Krin foamed at the mouth and shook his head.
“No, no! What head! Just the face of the operation! We’re a union of sorts, a horizontal relationship, formed to protect the warehouse goods! Flat as still water!”
From the movements he had shown moments ago to the ki manipulation he wielded with the crowbar, he was clearly no ordinary person. But Krin thoroughly humbled himself and repeatedly bowed his head.
Instead, he merely grumbled about an absent figure in a tiny voice that no one could hear.
“That magician bastard, what kind of nonsense did you spout to the officer...!”
There was no shortage of suspicious points, but A.B. pressed no further. Learning ki manipulation or possessing uncommon physical skill was not a crime.
“Acknowledged. I have matters to question regarding this situation. Please cooperate with me.”
“Of course! Isn’t that the duty of a model citizen!”
Standing stiffly straight, Krin waited for A.B.’s words. A.B. sorted the information briefly, then asked what she was most curious about first.
“What is the Shadow of the Military State?”
Krin answered as if he had been waiting.
“It’s a criminal organization that suddenly appeared in the Military State recently and has been running amok.”
“A criminal organization? Is it perhaps the Resistance?”
“Ahh, no. The Resistance at least puts on a pretense of seeking cooperation from citizens. Those guys... are just outlaws.”
“With the law of the Military State in place, how can outlaws brazenly roam about?”
Krin wholeheartedly agreed with A.B.’s question.
“Exactly what we’re saying. We’ve been racking our brains over it too. These bastards, as if they’re not afraid of the law, have been rampaging in every direction lately. Robbery, looting, arson, even murder. They run around in small groups committing all kinds of acts, so we’re just at a loss.”
“Has the authorities not taken any particular measures?”
“The Military State has been a bit busy lately, hasn’t it. They even conducted a large-scale random checkpoint about three months ago. I suspect they haven’t stepped forward yet because that hasn’t cooled down completely.”
A.B. suddenly recalled three months ago.
About three months ago, there had been a prison break in Tantalos. A.B. reported it to the mainland immediately upon observing it, and the mainland reacted instantly. They declared nationwide martial law while attempting to recapture the escapees through massive inspections.
But the Tantalos escapees had either vanished into thin air or gone underground and were nowhere to be seen. Instead, only unlucky petty criminals were rounded up en masse.
“...That is a reasonable story.”
Perhaps, this current situation was a harmful consequence of enforcing strict inspections when public order hadn’t even deteriorated.
“Still, well, if it gets worse, the bigwigs will step forward and sort it out! Ha ha ha! A commoner like me simply puts his faith in the lords above!”
Krin, who had been laughing heartily, soon lowered his voice and hinted subtly.
“So, what I mean is, later on, when the higher-ups ask, please convey that the people on our side are innocent. If we get dragged in because of those idiots, it’d be so unfair we wouldn’t even be able to do hard labor properly.”
Judging solely by Krin’s groveling attitude, it truly looked like he was soliciting a favor. A.B. instinctively felt repulsion, but considering the content, there was nothing problematic.
A.B. nodded.
“Affirmative. Regarding this matter specifically, should an opportunity arise, I will report to the superiors.”
“Oh my! Thank you, thank you, good sir!”
The store manager, bowing his head politely, had a satisfied smile on his lips. But at Eibi's following words, that smile froze stiff.
“This is the second question.”
“Huh? Second…?”
Perhaps flustered, Keurin's eyes trembled slightly. Despite his reluctant expression, Eibi asked without concern.
“Who exactly is the Magician?”
Those who called themselves the Shadow of the Military State were deliberately disturbing the peace. Their actions lacked a certain rationality.
That meant there was a somewhat larger conspiracy behind this.
Eibi realized this fact with a signal soldier's intuition.
Then, who exactly was the Magician who hunted them?
“The Magician? Aha, that. What should I say...”
Keurin, who had been watching his nerves, sweated profusely and replied.
“Haha. Well, you know. People who do tricks commonly seen in back alleys are called magicians. Like con games, shuffling cards weirdly in card games, performing puppet shows, or surprising people with sleight of hand. Those kind of people.”
“Are such people still around?”
“Oh dear. Almost none. They're called magicians but they're like swindlers or tricksters; in a proper country, how could scum like that roam around? Almost all gone. Almost all.”
Keurin waved his hand, slightly opening his eyes and asked. In an instant, his raccoon-like eyes shone with cunning.
“But why are you looking for the Magician….”
Eibi answered truthfully.
“Just now, the person who collapsed in front of the main building mentioned the existence of a Magician.”
“…Is that all?”
At the returning question, Eibi turned her head abruptly and asked.
“You. I warn you. If you know more, testify immediately. If you do not cooperate, I will have no choice but to suspect you as well.”
At Eibi's retort, Keurin was startled.
“Oh no, no. What did I do?”
“How did you come to be here?”
Keurin, back to his submissive posture, looked around as if afraid someone might hear, and answered in a small voice.
“Actually, I also got called by the Magician. He said those bastards appeared in our area, so go catch them.”
Eibi nodded and pointed out sharply.
“So Magician is a term referring to an individual. Confirmed.”
“…Haha.”
Keurin, laughing awkwardly, seemed to avoid further talk. Eibi nodded and looked around once.
While the two talked, the merchants of the Market were tidying up the area. As if putting away goods, they restrained the fallen ones, picked up dropped items, and were erasing the traces of the brawl. Before they knew it, the street was clean.
“Leave the cleanup to us. We'll handle it well ourselves.”
“Turn them over to the police. They must be punished by military law.”
“Would there be any reason not to?”
“The main building will report to the precinct police. Your private punitive actions are not allowed, so be careful.”
“…Would there be any reason not to.”
Eibi left them behind and walked away.
Shadow, Magician, and Military State.
She was a soldier loyal to the Military State, and at the same time, a signal soldier who must soon die.
During the brief reprieve left to Eibi, eliminating the one called ‘Shadow’ and uncovering the Magician's identity would be the last loyalty to present to the Military State.
Additionally, making a safer Military State would be a gift for Anna and Hughes.
Tomorrow would become busy. Eibi walked with firm steps along the street.
And as she disappeared into the darkness, Keurin, who had kept his head bowed, clicked his tongue and straightened his back.
“…I've done my part, Magician. That damn bastard suddenly shows up and makes me do such trivial things.”
A few hours ago, Keurin encountered ‘him’, who had appeared as if popping up in the middle of the Market.
If the Market's base hadn't been a secret space set up in the middle of a huge logistics warehouse, and if only Keurin's close associates knew how to open it, Keurin would have at least welcomed him somewhat.
In other words, Keurin was not at all glad to see him.
The Magician, who had been carefully reading the list of smuggled goods secretly hidden in the Market. When Keurin returned, he welcomed him as if he were the owner.
In that moment, Keurin sensed that he would be blackmailed and played in the Magician's palm.
His intuition hit the mark astonishingly well.
-There's some trash in this area. I've seasoned them up a bit, so why don't you go clean it up?
Keurin immediately led his forces and set out.
Ambush the Magician? Keurin isn't the type of man to make that gamble. Not only does no one know the Magician's true power, but there's no way to beat the Magician with gambling in the first place.
And.
“Let crazy bastards fight crazy bastards. I don't need to butt in.”
The Shadow of the Military State is a bizarre group with unknown purpose. They even show somewhat self-destructive aspects.
They will inevitably come into conflict with the Magician. Every time the two clash, blood will flow in the back alleys.
Though it's uncertain who will win, Keurin knew the outcome of conflicts that had happened in the back alleys.
Like Pasan Kwonsa, Chamcheol Sword, Fire Row.
All those who conflicted with the Magician met death.
It wasn't the Magician who killed them, but the one who survived was always the Magician.
How will it be this time?
“Ah, I don't know. Let them figure it out. I just need to do my own work.”
While Keurin grumbled with a complicated mind, one of his employees pointed at a corpse foaming at the mouth and said.
“Manager! What should we do with the corpse that poops gold?”
According to the Magician, in that stomach was a rare spice nicknamed ‘sprinkled gold powder’. Selling it would be quite profitable.
But Keurin flatly waved his hand.
“Just bury him. Touching that kind of stuff will bring bad luck.”
“What a waste.”
“Quiet. How do you know if that's true? Even if it's real, how can you sell something that came out of a stomach? Just think you stepped in shit.”
“Got it.”
The employee clicked his tongue, putting the corpse into a wrapping cloth, and muttered.
“Tsk. What a lucky fate. He won't lack travel money in the afterlife.”
“Bury that bastard and write on the tombstone ‘a man with the most expensive cause of death in history’. His name might remain in history.”
Keurin spat out and took out a cigarette made of magic tobacco. On the street lit only by dim streetlights, a red flame stood out.
Whoosh. With a deep sigh, magic tobacco smoke rose. The hazy smoke billowing under the spreading streetlights looked exactly like a blazing sun and clouds.
The magic tobacco, which had made the timid Keurin get involved in smuggling, today again soothed his weary mind and gave meaning to life.
As Keurin was savoring this trivial happiness, another employee spoke to him.
“Smoking again? It's bad for your health.”
“I'm balancing things out, kid. My body is too healthy compared to my mind.”
Keurin, inhaling deeply the magic tobacco again, looked at the now much cleaner street with hazy eyes and muttered.
“We need to lay low for a while. All hell's going to break loose.”
Shadow, Magician, and even officers. The situation was snowballing.
Though Keurin had weathered many hardships up to now, it was hard to predict how this matter would end.
The night grew as deep as Keurin's sigh.