The next morning.
I was in the living room from early in the morning, watching TV.
Maybe because of the sound, my brother came out into the living room.
He must have just woken up, because he looked disheveled.
“Did the TV wake you?”
“It’s time to get up. I have to go to work.”
Seeing me already awake, my brother tilted his head.
“But what’s gotten into you? Up this early, watching the news and everything. You didn’t seem to go to bed until late last night.”
“I’m discharged now, so I should keep up with what’s going on in the world. Don’t worry, I slept enough.”
By the time I finished work and got home, it was three in the morning.
I had slept four hours, so that was plenty.
Since the middle of the war, my need for sleep had dropped sharply, so even four hours didn’t make me drowsy.
I felt like I could get by on even less now, but I was still making sure to sleep about four hours.
My brother, who had been nodding at my words, frowned as he looked at the TV.
“Another terrorist attack? The war’s over, but when I see things like this, it doesn’t feel over at all.”
At my brother’s words, I turned my gaze to the TV, and the broadcast I had been waiting for was on.
It was the first item on the morning news.
“At around two o’clock this morning, a large-scale explosion occurred at the residence of Chairman Yu Ilseok of RH Construction, located in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
According to police and fire authorities, the explosion occurred inside the mansion, and part of the residence collapsed amid intense flames. According to nearby residents…”
A photo of the dead Chairman Yu appeared on the screen.
My brother looked at the photo and said,
“This time, a chaebol chairman got hit in the middle of Seoul? This is going to cause an uproar. He had a bad reputation, sure, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of man who’d get targeted by terrorists…”
Before my brother could finish speaking, the screen changed to the half-destroyed mansion.
“Fire authorities were dispatched immediately and extinguished the blaze, but multiple casualties are presumed to have occurred.
Police have not ruled out the possibility that this incident was not a simple fire, but a terrorist attack carried out by outside forces.
A government official stated, ‘We plan to conduct a detailed investigation, including the possibility of involvement by remnants of the North Korean military or outside terrorist groups.’ This explosion and RH Construction…”
It was still the early stage, but the police investigation was proceeding as expected.
I had stripped all the casings off the plastic explosives and used a fuse instead of an electric detonator, so they would focus on terrorism.
It was a shocking incident, but the news ended there.
Because there were other important stories after it.
“Next news. Yesterday, the Chinese government officially announced its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Following the successive withdrawals of the United States and major European countries, China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has also left the agreement, dealing a severe blow to the international community’s cooperation on climate change response.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs…”
That was certainly important news too.
Important enough that my brother clicked his tongue after watching it.
I got up from my seat.
I had checked all the news I needed to see.
Now it was truly time to rest.
After that, I rested comfortably all day.
Once my brother left for work, Soph continued to immerse himself in the internet, and I wasted the day away with delivered food.
Soph’s storm of searching continued until the next morning.
The next morning, as I was getting ready to go out after receiving Magreta’s call, Soph said something that sounded almost like a complaint.
[This country, this Earth, is quite an interesting place. A world where science developed instead of magic… If I were alive, it would have made for a fascinating research subject.]
He sounded a little dejected.
“Couldn’t you still research it now?”
[Impossible. I am merely a thought-form parasitizing a staff. Conducting research or exercising creativity is beyond me. Even recovering my memories is no easy task, and you expect me to do research on top of that?]
The words I had offered as comfort did not work in the slightest.
I gave up on saying anything more and went out to the living room.
My brother was already in the living room, getting ready for work.
When he saw me, he asked,
“If you leave today, when are you coming back this time?”
I was wearing new going-out clothes I had received through same-day delivery. I had a backpack on my back, and even the invisible spear was hooked beside the backpack.
It seemed I looked like someone about to leave, even to my brother.
I tried to estimate when I would return.
“Well, I think I can come back within a month, but I’ll have to see how things go.”
It seemed it would only take about two more weeks for the ruins on the other planet to fill up with enough energy for two people.
But there was no telling how the situation might change.
“So I won’t be able to contact you during that time?”
“Yeah. If anything urgent comes up, leave a message at the number I gave you.”
I had left Jo Ilsu’s contact information with my brother.
I had removed all the dangers, and Jo Ilsu’s people would be keeping an eye on my brother and family, so this much preparation should be enough.
My brother didn’t seem satisfied with my answer.
“I have no idea where you’re working. Is it somewhere even satellite phones don’t work? Don’t tell me you’re going underwater or into space.”
What my brother said as a joke struck right at the heart of the matter.
Even so, I couldn’t tell my brother, who was an ordinary person.
I avoided answering by asking a question instead.
“You still haven’t decided?”
“Even if I decide, I’ll need at least another month to change jobs. You’ll find out the next time you come.”
With that, my brother and I parted normally.
It had been like that when we met again after a year, too, but we exchanged farewells like any ordinary family in the morning, with one person leaving for work.
I got a ride in Jo Ilsu’s car and went to meet Magreta.
When I met her in front of a downtown department store, her impression had changed completely.
On the other planet, she had gone around barefaced, with her hair tied back tightly.
She had been beautiful then too, but rather than pretty, she had looked cool, like an Amazon warrior.
Now, however, she looked like a movie star from Hollywood.
Her neat outfit, a blouse and slim-fit pants, her fully made-up face, and her excellent figure made everyone turn to look.
“Well? Makes you look twice, doesn’t it?”
When she said that with a hand on her waist, I had no choice but to nod.
Soph also admired her.
[Splendid. The original was good too, but Earth’s makeup techniques are something worth learning.]
It was admiration of a different sort than mine, but in any case, it was praise for Magreta.
Satisfied after seeing my reaction, she looked at the clothes I was wearing and sighed.
“I even gave you a card, so what is that?”
At her words, I looked down at what I was wearing again.
I didn’t see any particular problem.
They were clothes to wear on the other planet.
As long as they were sturdy and achromatic, that was enough.
Besides, I had used the card to my satisfaction.
“I used the card to eat as much as I wanted.”
There were several things I had thrown away after only eating part of them. It was the first time in my life I had wasted money like that.
“I knew it. Come on. I’ll teach you how to use a card.”
She grabbed my arm and headed into the department store.
Jo Ilsu, who had come with me, waved at us with a gloomy expression as we left.
Shopping with Magreta was different from what I had expected.
At first, the clothes she picked out were far more practical than I had thought.
“We couldn’t use military uniforms because they contain polyester. They could be made out of cotton or wool, but if we were going to do that, there’d be no need to use military uniforms.
They don’t have camouflage patterns, but it didn’t seem like the monsters identified people by sight anyway.”
She picked out several sturdy-looking sets of clothes and handed them to me.
They were several times more expensive, but they didn’t seem that different from what I was wearing now.
[You think those are similar? From now on, have someone else pick out your clothes.]
While listening to Soph’s rebuke, I continued being dragged around by her.
“Change your backpack too. The size of the backpack doesn’t matter anymore anyway. Let’s switch to something sturdy and comfortable.”
And so my backpack was changed too.
“Let’s take a wider variety of seasonings as well. We should pack sleeping bags and tents too; there should be ones made only from cotton and wool. And cosmetics, lotion, sanitary pads…”
She walked around the department store, gathering all kinds of things.
“Let’s pick up more things for our expedition team to use. We have exclusive rights, don’t we? Even if the delivery volume drops a little, they won’t be able to complain. No, I’ll revise the contract for you.”
At her grinning words, I had no choice but to raise both hands in surrender.
As we went around the department store, people’s gazes kept gathering on us.
It was because of Magreta’s beauty.
There were men who tried to approach Magreta too, but the moment they saw me beside her, they fled.
“Why are they acting like that?”
“Who knows. I’m not sure.”
I had only scattered a little energy toward those people.
And yet they had such frightened expressions.
It was hard to understand, but thanks to that, we were able to move around comfortably.
After sweeping through the department store like that, she said with a satisfied expression,
“Now let’s go eat. He says he’s on his way. He can’t spare much time, so we decided to meet at the restaurant upstairs.”
Dudududu.
Along with her words, the sound of a helicopter approaching could be heard.
“Let’s go. Looks like he’s arrived.”
When we went upstairs, the Americans had already rented out an entire Japanese restaurant in the department store.
Men in suits surrounded the Japanese restaurant, and they inspected us one by one when we entered.
We left all the items and backpacks we had brought and went inside the restaurant.
After we sat down, the person we had been waiting for arrived.
Magreta’s superior was a typical middle-aged American man with white hair.
He held out his hand to me.
“Good to meet you. I’m Samuel Carter, deputy director of the Geographic Information Agency.”
Since he said it in English, there was no honorific speech, but his courteous tone was clear enough even without interpretation.
I took his hand.
And I slipped a bit of energy into him.
[He’s an ordinary person.]
As Soph said, he was an ordinary person who did not possess dark energy.
Of course he was.
People who could sense dark energy were one in tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands.
Magreta, who came from an agency and could sense dark energy, was the unusual one.
After the handshake, the business card he gave me listed him not as being with the Geographic Information Agency like Magreta, but as belonging to the Department of State.
“Outwardly, I serve as Assistant Secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State. I came to Korea under that title as well.”
He spoke as if it were a cover job, but Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of State was not a position that could be ignored.
At the very least, it was a rank high enough that no one would say anything even if he came to a department store by helicopter.
After exchanging greetings with him, we ate a Japanese course meal.
The food looked expensive at a glance, and it was far tastier than delivery food.
After we finished eating like that, he opened his mouth.
“After hearing Magreta’s story, I gathered information on Mr. Hyeon through several channels. Even apart from what you did on that other planet, I learned that you have done remarkable things.”
At his words, Magreta looked at me. It seemed she had become curious about my past as well.
Ignoring her gaze, I continued listening to the deputy director.
“And if we add Magreta and David’s reports to that, there’s no need to further explain how helpful Mr. Hyeon can be.”
He placed a bag on the cleared table.
“The reason I said I wanted to meet you in person was partly to see your face, but also to build a bit more trust between us.”
When he opened the bag, there was a short staff connected to a machine inside.
A staff embedded with a black stone. An artifact.
“To build trust, sharing secrets is best. However, since it is an important secret that must not leak, we had no choice but to use an artifact.”
[To think it’s a staff with only mind-specialized magic left in it. A staff containing forbidden magic is certainly being passed around freely.]
Soph clicked his tongue between the deputy director’s words.
“It is an artifact that prevents anyone from revealing what they hear in this room to others. You simply need to keep your hand on top of it. Originally, it could not be used on Earth, but like the ruins, our scientists modified it.”
I could understand how they had managed to keep the secret until now.
If they blocked it with magic, there was no way the secret would leak.
She must have used this artifact as well, because she was looking at me with an apologetic expression.
Looking at the short staff, I asked Soph,
[Is it all right?]
[It is as that man says. It is mind magic, but it only has a function that enforces the keeping of promises. Well, even if other functions are hidden in it, it does not matter. You will not be affected anyway.]
It was an assurance from a trustworthy mage.
Believing Soph’s words, I placed my hand on the staff.
The deputy director activated the machine, and energy flowed out of the black stone and seeped into the staff.
“The black stone consumption is severe, so I’ll have to speak quickly.”
With my hand on the black stone, I looked at him.
The deputy director said,
“In a little while, this Earth will become uninhabitable for humans.”
From the very beginning, unbelievable words flowed from his mouth.