It was eight hours after we saw the underground city that we teleported again.
It was morning, with the sun rising, but since the time of sunrise differed from planet to planet, there was no way to know the exact hour.
When we left, the spirit was terribly reluctant to see us go.
-I have a duty to protect this planet and its facilities. You don’t have to worry.
That was what she said to us as we departed, but her expression said otherwise.
Seeing her face, like an abandoned puppy’s, it seemed the other team members couldn’t bring themselves to leave either.
Even Hannah, who was always composed, looked as if she were about to burst into tears.
Before we departed, I made her a promise.
“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely come back.”
Even if I hadn’t promised, I intended to return to this planet.
It wasn’t a building. An entire city had appeared.
Leaving that alone and abandoned… was out of the question.
After saying goodbye to the spirit, we climbed onto the device on the surface.
Flash.
The world was engulfed in light, and we returned to the fourth planet.
We arrived at the sealed underground ruins—the place where we had first arrived.
Before the light vanished and I could see how the scene had changed, I heard an angry voice.
“When the hell are these people supposed to come?”
That voice did not belong to the technicians guarding the ruins. It was a voice I had never heard before.
We had not arrived somewhere else.
This was indeed the underground ruins connected to Earth, a place we had visited several times.
I turned my head toward the voice.
There, the technicians had been seized by people I had never seen before and were being interrogated in English.
“They’ll be here any moment!”
“And when exactly is ‘any moment’? The passage connected to the surface is destroyed, and I can’t understand how the people here handle their work.”
The technician who had been answering the man’s words opened his mouth at the woman’s remark that followed.
“We already explained that to you…”
Another technician stammered from the side, but his words did not get through either.
“And how are we supposed to believe that?”
The woman picked at her ear and ignored the technicians.
I quickly checked the newly appeared people.
Behind the Western man and woman interrogating the technicians were two more men.
A middle-aged Black man who looked trained, and a handsome young man.
While I was observing them, they also noticed our arrival.
“People have appeared on the altar.”
At the middle-aged man’s words, the handsome man turned his head.
When he saw Magreta, his face lit up.
“Maggie. It’s been a while!”
Magreta’s face stiffened.
“It’s Magreta, Mr. Everlock Sterling.”
Unlike his delighted greeting, Magreta’s reply was cold.
Magreta usually showed a smile even when she was displeased, but not this time.
At the man’s words, the two people who had been arguing with the technicians also looked at us.
The young woman saw Magreta and frowned.
“Magreta!”
At the woman’s words, spoken as if she were grinding her teeth, I asked Magreta.
“Do you know them?”
“They were at the place where the advance team trained. They’re my seniors by quite a bit. I didn’t expect them to come to this planet.”
If it was the place where she had trained, she must have meant not Earth, but another planet.
The planet where they intended to evacuate the people of Earth. These people had not come from Earth, but from that planet.
Since she called them seniors, they must have awakened dark energy much earlier than she had.
But Magreta was not happy to see them.
And neither was I.
When I was on Earth, the deputy director had said he would send support.
But what I had in mind was not such a small group, but enough people to be called the main force.
Since they were Magreta’s seniors, they would all have some decent skill, but in the end, they were ordinary ability users.
The man who had picked a fight with the technicians, the trained-looking middle-aged man, and even the pretty but neurotic-looking woman—I could not sense any special ability from any of them.
[Only one of them seems different.]
As Soph said, only one of them felt different.
Unlike other energy users, he was pushing away my senses themselves.
As if he had his own domain, my senses slipped around him.
It was the first time I had felt something like this.
It was almost like…
[He’s a mage.]
He seemed like a mage.
The person in question was the handsome man who had greeted Magreta.
He was a confident young man with a model-like figure, a movie star’s face, and sharp eyes.
Like his handsome face, the ability he possessed was special.
The man named Sterling looked over those of us standing beside Magreta.
He frowned at the sight of us.
As if something dirty had clung to an object he liked, he even clicked his tongue.
He did the same when he looked at me.
Unlike me, he did not seem to know that I used magic.
“Miss Magreta, it’s been a while.”
“H-hello.”
Unlike the woman and the handsome man, the other men greeted Magreta normally.
Meaning, they gave her the courteous greeting men gave when they saw Magreta.
The woman shot them a glare at the sight, but the men did not even seem to notice.
While they exchanged greetings, we stepped down from the altar, and the technicians retreated with sighs of relief.
Thanks to that, we were the ones who had to deal with these people.
As we approached, Sterling stepped forward.
“We came after hearing something had happened, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. I did see that the passage had collapsed midway, but I couldn’t bring myself to trust what the technicians said.”
They seemed to take it for granted that Sterling would step forward.
There was no need to ask who the representative was.
At Sterling’s words, Magreta shrugged.
“I don’t know how they explained it, but it’s all true. We’ve just returned from scouting because of that matter.”
Sterling frowned at Magreta’s words.
“You didn’t come from the new base?”
“No. We came back from scouting the ruined city that’s producing the monsters.”
At Magreta’s words, Sterling’s eyes flashed.
He asked urgently.
“There’s a city?”
He showed more interest in the city than in the monster factory.
Seeing him lean in, Magreta let out a sigh.
“You can hear about that when the report is given. More importantly, how did all of you end up coming here?”
At Magreta’s question, Sterling crossed his arms and answered.
“The things happening on this planet have strayed that far from expectations. Since we have to send more personnel than anticipated, verification was necessary. We came to carry out that verification.”
‘So it’s like an audit or inspection to confirm the facts.’
I could understand it, but it was pointless.
It took at least more than a week for a person to go to Earth. Before, it had taken well over two weeks.
Sending information was the same.
And yet they thought to send people here to verify things.
Even if they took the information back, it would be useless.
The situation would have changed again in the meantime.
However, what I thought did not matter.
They were already here, and whatever they did would have nothing to do with me.
All I had to do was send them to the base.
Just then, the woman grumbled.
“We can move now, can’t we? I don’t know how many hours we wasted here.”
She had cut in because the conversation between Magreta and the man was dragging on.
At her words, the conversation stopped, and I immediately signaled to Hannah.
Hannah walked to the altar.
Time had passed, and the team members’ dizziness had all faded. We also had enough energy to move to the terraforming ruins.
The newly arrived people and the exploration team teleported again.
The technicians wanted to come with us too, but there were too many to move all at once.
This time as well, they had to guard the ruins.
Vwoooom.
The sight of the technicians on the verge of tears was swallowed by brilliant light.
When the light vanished again, a greenhouse appeared before my eyes.
When we had left, it had been an empty greenhouse, but now it was not.
Except for the center of the greenhouse, where the pond was, the ground was full of sprouts.
Life was growing in the once desolate greenhouse.
Only a few days had passed, and sprouts had already emerged.
It was astonishing.
[Is this magic too?]
[That greenhouse is also what you people call a relic, a magical facility. With the energy these ruins absorb, it can freeze time for the living things inside the greenhouse or accelerate it.]
I was not the only one surprised by the greenhouse.
“Wow, sprouts have already come up.”
The team members were amazed too, but the people who came with us widened their eyes.
“Was farming possible on this planet?”
“They weren’t as incompetent as I thought.”
While the woman and the middle-aged man were astonished, Sterling frowned again.
“They started farming? This wasn’t reported either.”
Magreta refuted him as he crossed his arms and tapped his finger.
“It’s only been a few days since we started.”
“A few days? That’s absurd…”
Sterling stared at Magreta in disbelief, but she snorted and walked ahead first.
The greenhouse was not the only thing that had changed in a few days.
The corridors and lobby aboveground were different from before as well.
Laundry and monster hides were spread out in the lobby.
Forge smoke drifted from a room in the corner at the end of the corridor, and the smell of food came from another room.
People greeted us, and others maintained their equipment.
Before, it had looked like a shelter where refugees were gathered, but now it looked more like an advance base than the base we had before.
Before, it had been my own base, but now it felt as if it had become everyone’s base.
If this had been not long ago, I might have felt regret, but now that I had gained “my own city,” I could look at the scene with a calm expression.
From what I heard from the people, David, who had been in the lobby with the others, seemed to be using one of the rooms as his office.
Before going to meet David, I spoke to the team members.
“Good work. I’m going to make my report, so you’re dismissed until the next assembly.”
At my words, Hannah checked the people who had come with me, then bowed her head.
“Good work.”
After Hannah, Tom stretched and said,
“We rested plenty and now we’re resting again? This exploration team may be dangerous, but the work-life balance isn’t bad. Master Sergeant Woo, I’m going to the forge. Want to come?”
When Tom mimed shaking dice, Master Sergeant Woo shook his head.
“No. I’m going to rest.”
Master Sergeant Woo took his spear and walked toward Sergeant First Class Kim, who was maintaining weapons on one side of the lobby.
Tom shrugged as well and headed toward the forge room where smoke was drifting out.
After everyone left, I looked at Magreta, and she narrowed her eyes as she spoke to me.
“You’re not telling me to go too, are you? I have to come with you.”
She pointed at the people who had come with us.
I shrugged. I had intended to take her with me anyway.
Seeing me speak comfortably with Magreta, Sterling frowned.
It seemed he really did not like me talking to her.
Together, we entered the room David was using as his office.
David, who had been pleased to see me, stiffened when he saw the people who entered with me.
When Sterling tried to speak after seeing David, David opened his mouth first.
“Could you wait a moment? Let me hear the report first.”
“Is it all right if I do it here?”
I pointed to the Americans who had come with us.
“It doesn’t matter. They must have come to verify the facts anyway.”
Just as the advance team members in the lobby had recognized them, David also seemed to know these people well.
I told him exactly what I had seen.
Of course, I left out the story of the other planet we had stopped by on the way.
That was something I had promised the team members, and Magreta as well.
In fact, Magreta had strongly insisted that we keep it secret.
I did not know why, but it was good for me.
After hearing my words, David’s face turned grave.
“So there are ruins where monsters even stronger than the one that attacked the base are being created…”
David’s expression darkened as much as it could.
It was only natural.
A single scout monster had wrecked the base, and now monsters stronger than that were continually being produced…
As the person in charge of the base, he had no choice but to feel the future go pitch-black.
Seeing David’s expression, Sterling, who had been silent, spoke.
“Please don’t worry. The main force will arrive soon.”
At those words, David’s face brightened.
“How many can come?”
Sterling looked at me.
“That is what we came to determine. They may have scouted it, but there could be exaggeration mixed in, so we will have to confirm it ourselves.”
He was saying he did not trust me, but I was not particularly angry.
If they went there themselves and died, that would be their responsibility.
“We need to confirm it as quickly as possible. However, we will need someone to guide us.”
He said that while looking at Magreta.
At the sight, my eyebrow twitched without my realizing it.
‘This bastard?’
If they were going to go, they could go by themselves. He wanted to take my team member to that dangerous place?
However, at his words, Magreta and David looked troubled.
It seemed difficult for them to refuse.
If he had told me to do it, I would have told him to go ahead and try dragging me there, but with things like this, the story had changed.
I stepped forward.
“I’ll guide you. As the box carrier and explorer, I should be the perfect fit.”
David’s face brightened at my words, but Magreta looked at me with worried eyes.
Soph was the same.
[You must not kill him right away. We need to find out how he came to use magic.]
[What do you take me for, a murderer? I’ll guide them properly and come back.]
Both Soph and Magreta misunderstood me.
If they fell into danger because they did not listen to me, that would be their fault.
I intended to properly fulfill my role as the box carrier and explorer.
Modern Mage (2)