After flying for several hours, the helicopter arrived at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, twenty-five kilometers from Pyongyang.
After the Allied Forces occupied Pyongyang, the airport had become a military airfield and base used by the Allies.
The helicopter landed in a corner of the runway.
When we got off, a Humvee approached.
An officer got out of the Humvee that stopped beside the helicopter.
The officer looked me and Magreta up and down, then asked Magreta,
“Are you MG?”
“Yes.”
Magreta answered with a bright smile, but the officer held out his hand with an expressionless face.
“Show me the documents.”
Still smiling, Magreta handed him a sheet of paper.
The U.S. military officer looked at the documents and immediately contorted his face.
“It doesn’t say what it’s for, there’s no quantity listed, and the recipient’s name is blank... So it was one of your people’s jobs after all.”
“Who knows?”
Magreta smiled again at the officer’s words.
Looking at her, the officer shook his head.
“That’s how it always is with the CIA. Damn it. Let’s go.”
The officer shoved the documents roughly into the file he was carrying, then crooked a finger at us.
We followed him into the Humvee.
As I climbed in last, Magreta whispered,
“Let’s go pick up the weapons first. That ‘magic’ relic is on its way to Korea right now.”
The officer in the passenger seat saw Magreta whispering into my ear through the rearview mirror and frowned.
Seeing that, I whispered to Magreta as well.
“To make that face even after looking at you, he must really hate us.”
No one made that kind of expression after seeing Magreta smile.
“Soldiers have hated the CIA since World War II. Of course, we’re not CIA, though.”
Magreta smiled at the rearview mirror and whispered softly.
“Tch!”
The officer clicked his tongue and turned the rearview mirror away.
The Humvee left the runway, drove along the shoulder, and arrived at a warehouse a short distance away.
Outside the warehouse, in the open storage yard, armored vehicles, various equipment, and boxes of supplies were lined up.
The Humvee passed between those items and reached the warehouse.
Before we got out of the Humvee, the officer asked,
“You don’t have a separate transport vehicle prepared, or any other personnel, right? The two of you are the only ones transporting it?”
He seemed unable to understand why only two people had shown up at the arsenal.
Magreta smiled and pointed at me.
“Not two. One.”
“What on earth is this...”
The officer sighed and shook his head.
Once we got out of the Humvee, the officer had the soldiers guarding the arsenal open the warehouse door.
Rrrrrrrk.
The arsenal opened wide.
Inside, it was filled with weapons and explosives.
“You won’t need help, I assume? We shouldn’t be watching either, so we’ll wait outside. Take as much as you need and come out.”
Once we entered the arsenal, he turned on the lights and lowered the warehouse door.
Rrrrrrrk. Thud.
When the door closed, Magreta gave a small laugh.
It was a different smile from the one she had been showing until just now.
“See? Sometimes stereotypes make the work easier.”
Inside the warehouse packed with weapons, there was no one but Magreta and me.
I took the box out of my backpack.
Seeing the box I pulled out, Magreta said,
“I didn’t tell the higher-ups about the box. I told them Hyeon’s spatial movement ability had been enhanced and needed testing.”
Magreta tapped the box with her finger and continued,
“If I told them about the box, they’d know Hyeon can use his ability even on Earth. As far as I know, there hasn’t been anyone who could use abilities on Earth. If they found out, no one would just sit still, you know?”
Magreta had taken care to hide my information on her own.
As expected, telling her everything had been the right answer.
Holding the box, I asked Magreta one last question.
“How much can I take?”
“You heard him earlier, didn’t you? There’s no quantity limit. We can just say it was all used for testing, so take as much as possible.”
Magreta spoke with confidence, but that expression didn’t last long.
“Don’t tell me... you put it all in?”
Because every weapon, bomb, and round of ammunition inside the huge warehouse had vanished into the box.
“I knew the inside of the box was incredibly large, but you could put this much in even on Earth?”
The arsenal here at Sunan Airport was larger than the arsenal of most divisions.
Most of it was weapons and explosives made of steel, so the weight was enormous, but my box worked by volume.
My box, which had continued growing all this time, was able to contain the entire arsenal.
Thanks to the black stone of the spear, which had been refilled at the terraforming ruins, I didn’t have to worry about energy consumption either.
Looking at the empty arsenal, Magreta shook her head with a dumbfounded expression.
“I give up. You exceed my expectations every single time.”
Listening to her hollow voice, I put the box back into my backpack.
When I shouldered the backpack, she knocked on the door.
“We’re done. Please open the door.”
“You’re finished already? Well, there probably wasn’t much to take... Step back. I’ll open the door.”
Rrrrrrrk.
The warehouse door rose upward.
The officer gestured from outside the open door.
“Then let’s go... My God, what is this!”
His eyes widened as he casually looked inside the warehouse.
Thud.
The folder in his hand fell to the floor.
“It’s empty, completely empty! This, this is... impossible.”
His open mouth would not close. It looked as though his jaw might fall off.
Magreta smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
“We took everything. Let’s go now.”
Creak.
The officer’s face moved slowly, like a broken robot.
Turning his head, he asked Magreta,
“How... how did this happen?”
Magreta smiled again.
She raised her index finger to her lips and said,
“You know, don’t you? What our side does is secret.”
After that, we returned to the airport.
The officer’s attitude had changed one hundred and eighty degrees.
He acted carefully, watching Magreta’s mood.
Screech.
A short while later, the Humvee stopped on one side of the runway.
“We just have to wait a little. They say it’ll arrive soon.”
The reason we had come back to the runway was that a plane would soon arrive.
That plane was carrying the relic I had requested.
While waiting for the plane, I borrowed Magreta’s satellite phone and contacted my brother in Seoul.
“Hello?”
—Who is this?
“It’s me. Your younger brother.”
—You’re back?
My brother asked bluntly if I had returned.
Judging by his tone, he seemed to have figured out where I had been.
“Huh, you noticed?”
—How could I not, when they’re blasting the articles everywhere like this?
Indeed, with articles like that out, there was no way my brother wouldn’t know.
If anything, this was better.
Since there was no need to hide it, I could speak more comfortably now.
“That’s how it turned out. I just got back.”
—You’re not hurt anywhere, right?
“Yeah, I’m fine. I called because I don’t think I’ll be able to come home since I’m busy.”
—From the fact that you’re calling, I figured as much. Oh, right. I decided on what we talked about before. I’m going to America.
“That’s good.”
It was a relief.
I had already booked tickets to Paradise, but being in America was safer.
—When I said I was going to America, things were processed in a flash. I didn’t even need a handover, and my work visa came out in a single day. It was ridiculous, really, but after seeing the articles, I roughly understood.
Now that my brother had made his decision, there was one family member left.
“Together with Father in the countryside... No. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”
—That old man wouldn’t take a single step from that land even if it killed him. Even if we asked him to come with us, he wouldn’t listen.
“...I know.”
I knew very well why we had fled to Seoul.
That stubborn old man, who treasured his land above all else, definitely wouldn’t listen to a word we said.
—Seeing as you’re even bringing up the old man, this must be more troublesome than I thought.
Instead, from my words, my brother grasped the situation we were in.
As expected, he was sharp.
“That’s how it is.”
—Got it. I’ll take that into account when I move.
“Yeah, be careful. I’ll contact you again next time.”
—You be careful.
This much was enough for my brother.
I turned off the satellite phone and looked at the Humvee.
Magreta was leaning against the Humvee, looking toward the end of the runway.
It was a picturesque sight.
Beside her, the officer was chattering away earnestly.
“Would you like a cigarette?”
“There’s coffee in the car as well.”
Seeing his attitude completely reversed made me smile faintly.
Just then, something flashed in the direction Magreta was looking.
I pushed energy into my eyes.
Narrowing them, I looked at the distant sky.
A plane. A huge transport aircraft.
I didn’t know whether such a large plane was necessary to bring a relic, but the only thing coming this way right now was that transport plane.
“It’s coming.”
The U.S. officer looked up at the sky with a puzzled expression, but Magreta straightened immediately.
“It’s a huge transport plane. That must be it, right?”
“I heard it would come on a C-5.”
I had never seen a C-5 transport plane before.
The only thing I had seen was a propeller transport plane, a C-130.
The transport plane flying here now was far larger than the one I had seen.
“It’s a large jet transport with four engines, bigger than an airliner.”
“Then that’s it.”
“Does... bringing that item require a transport plane that big?”
Since the U.S. military officer was listening, I changed my words.
At my question, Magreta made an uncharacteristically awkward expression.
“It’s not the only thing being brought over.”
The plane drew closer and closer.
The silhouette of the transport grew clearer and clearer.
Vroooooom.
The sound of jet engines began to reach us.
The officer seemed to finally see it as well.
“Huh? A transport plane...”
He looked at me with startled eyes.
Not long after, the transport plane landed on the runway.
Its body, which looked twice as large as an airliner, settled onto the runway.
Perhaps because of its size, the plane continued to run for quite a while even after landing.
Thanks to that, we had to get into the Humvee and follow the transport plane.
Wooooooong.
A short while later, the plane stopped.
As the rear ramp slowly lowered, people in various outfits became visible inside.
Most of them were not soldiers. They were trained people, but almost none of them looked like military personnel.
I knew people like this well.
The U.S. advance party.
The people coming out of the plane were America’s dark energy users.
People began descending from the plane.
Magreta pointed at them and said,
“They’re the real main force. After receiving Sterling’s report, the homeland sent proper personnel.”
There were far more of them than I had expected. Well over a hundred people got off the plane.
In the middle of that stream of people, a large man saw Magreta and waved.
“Maggie!”
Hearing her nickname, Magreta looked at the man and sighed.
She reluctantly raised her hand and gave a small wave.
“You’re here.”
The man strode over, hugged Magreta, then looked at me with shining eyes.
“Is the guy beside you your boyfriend?”
At his question after releasing her, Magreta could not answer right away.
“...Who knows.”
“Oh? You’re not denying it this time.”
The man grinned and extended a large hand to me.
“Nice to meet you. You’re Mr. Hyeon, right? I’m Maggie’s older cousin.”
I had thought as much. His build was completely different, but there was something about him that resembled Magreta.
Like that commercial smile he was showing me right now.
“And I’m the one who brought Hyeon his item.”
As he offered a handshake, he showed me the bag in his other hand.
It was the bag containing the relic.
Magic Relic (1)