When we stepped out the door, a U.S. military officer was waiting for us.
“Well then, where shall I take you?”
Unlike before, he asked in an extremely polite voice.
Margretta looked at me.
“Come to think of it, why did you say you weren’t coming with us? Do you still have business here?”
“That’s right. I should have asked first. Can we take things from this warehouse besides weapons?”
At my words, Margretta tilted her head.
“It’s not that we can’t. The outside storage yard is all part of the same warehouse, after all. With that order, we can requisition everything. Heavy equipment or armored vehicles would be impossible, though.”
That was a relief. I nodded.
“That much is enough.”
Margretta asked,
“But why?”
I subtly pointed at the officer.
Seeing my gesture, Margretta narrowed her eyes.
“You’ll have to tell me later.”
“Yes.”
Margretta said to the officer,
“Please take us back to the armory.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll take you there right away.”
The vehicle we had arrived in had left with Maxwell, but arranging a new one wasn’t difficult.
We got into the car the officer called, and headed for the warehouse.
Vroooom.
After a short drive, we arrived once more at the storage yard where the armory was located.
I had the car stop at the entrance, then reached my hand toward the front seats.
[Sleep.]
When Soph’s spell ended, the driver and the officer fell asleep where they sat.
[Perhaps because they are ordinary people living on Earth, they have practically no resistance to magic.]
After I got out of the car, Margretta also checked the two sleeping men and got out.
“I can’t even tell whether they fainted or just fell asleep. Either way, I don’t think they’ll wake up easily.”
She looked at me and shook her head.
“I don’t know whether to call it amazing or frightening… Hyun’s magic seems like something no one on Earth could stop.”
I pointed at the armored vehicles lined up in the storage yard.
“In exchange, Earth has modern weapons, doesn’t it? Fighter jets, missiles, tanks—I find those more frightening.”
Margretta pouted.
“That’s a completely different direction, though. It’s a strange comparison, but even if you used that magic to steal, there’d be no worry of getting caught.”
“The problem is that I don’t need to.”
“Ah… right.”
Margretta, who had sounded as if she was about to argue, sighed after hearing my answer.
I no longer needed money badly enough to steal.
Thanks to even selling the scout black stones, I had plenty of money.
They said the more money you had, the better, but right now I didn’t need that much money.
What I needed now were relics, abilities like magic, and supplies to put into the box.
“Now that there’s no one to listen, I’ll tell you why I came here.”
I took the box out of my backpack.
When I placed my hand on it, I could sense the inside of the box.
It was the box that had been filled to the brim after I put all the armory’s weapons inside.
But now, more than half of it was empty.
“After learning new magic, it seems my other ability strengthened as well. The inside of the box has grown larger.”
“Even larger than it already was?”
Margretta’s eyes widened at my words.
“Yes. When we transfer through space, many of the items inside the box will disappear, but if I put more in, more should remain. So I’m thinking of filling it further with things we can afford to lose.”
There were many things we needed besides weapons and ammunition.
Food and rations, medicine, unit equipment and clothing, and even all sorts of electronic devices.
In particular, if I took a large number of radios, at least one pair might remain.
“At the very least, I intend to give the expedition members proper equipment.”
Even if they weren’t weapons, I knew better than anyone how much modern equipment could raise combat strength.
“Wow, wow, I’ll look too.”
Margretta, who had been exclaiming in admiration at my words, came back to her senses. She ran toward the place where supply crates were stacked.
I followed after her, then looked back down at the box in my hand.
It wasn’t only the inside of the box that had grown.
It felt different from before.
When I asked Soph, I received an answer I hadn’t expected.
[Electricity, water, fire, air, and earth. You have now, in effect, mastered all the elemental magic a mage is supposed to learn as the basics. Though it was through a shortcut, you too can now be considered a full-fledged mage who has learned all the basic magic.]
A full-fledged mage?
What changes once you become a full-fledged mage?
[This is the sort of problem that arises when someone advances through a shortcut. A full-fledged mage who knows nothing…]
Hearing my question, Soph grumbled before explaining again.
[It is the same with other things, but a mage’s growth is also like climbing stairs. You grow little by little, and then at a certain moment, you advance by one stage.
It is not easy to cross that stage, but once you do, you become a different mage than before.]
[Then did I become much stronger this time? But I didn’t feel like I was blocked by anything…]
[To think there is not even a wall when learning magic through a shortcut. The world truly is unfair.]
At my words, Soph grumbled again.
I had been told I had grown stronger, but it was difficult to confirm here.
Instead, I asked Soph something else.
[Then since you recovered your memories, Soph, does that mean you became a full-fledged mage too?]
[I am a little different from you. I recovered magic I had already completed. I also recovered electromagnetism, which serves as the foundation of elemental magic. You might say I have reached the limit of a full-fledged mage.]
Sparks flew from the staff strapped to my back, and several kinds of magic unfolded.
Lightning gathered and transformed into a small light, and that light combined air molecules to create water.
The water was then electrolyzed and burned, and the heat called forth wind.
[It is not exact, but roughly speaking, it is like this. After all, most physical phenomena arise from electromagnetic force.]
Ridiculously enough, even though I knew nothing about magical theory, I could tell the level of the magic Soph had just performed.
I spoke in a dazed voice.
[That really is amazing.]
[The fact that you can recognize it is even more absurd.]
[When you say the limit of a full-fledged mage…]
[If you surpass that limit, you become a high-ranking mage. A mage who can handle gravity.]
If it was gravity, did that mean magic that let you fly through the sky and make objects float in the air?
No, I had heard of something else that gravity mages could do.
Surely, when we saw the spatial-transfer ruins, Soph had said it.
[That is right. The mage who can properly operate the ruins is a mage who handles gravity—a high-ranking mage. A high-ranking mage is the true administrator of the spatial-transfer ruins.]
***
Margretta and I rummaged through the supply crates and packed the box full.
Perhaps because it was a warehouse at Pyongyang Airport, it contained every kind of supply imaginable.
Not only ordinary supplies, but even cigarettes, alcohol, and condoms.
After filling the box with supplies like that, we woke the officer and the driver.
“We’ve got everything. Let’s go back to the helicopter.”
The officer, waking from sleep, spoke with a bewildered expression.
“Pardon? But we just arrived…”
“It’s. All. Done. That’s all you need to know.”
When Margretta emphasized it again, he nodded with a tense expression.
“Understood. Let’s head back.”
The officer urged the driver on, and we headed toward the waiting helicopter.
By now, the officer seemed to have given up on thinking altogether.
He saw us off with a blank expression.
Leaving the officer behind, the helicopter carrying us headed north again.
A few hours later, the helicopter landed on the parade ground of the Baekdu Mountain base.
Transport helicopters that had arrived before us were lined up on the parade ground.
The Americans from the main force had already gotten off the helicopters and were gathered on one side of the parade ground.
The sight of them sitting on the ground and grumbling made them look like seasoned mercenaries.
We headed for Margretta’s barracks.
The Koreans I had seen before were nowhere in sight.
It seemed they had all gone into the barracks.
Instead, on the way to the lodging, we saw people we knew.
Sterling and Lee Jaeyun.
The child of an American power broker and the third generation of a Korean conglomerate family.
The two of them were blocking the road and talking loudly.
From what I heard, it was because of the lodging for the Americans on the parade ground.
“Have them vacate the lodging.”
“I heard they’ll be departing soon. Wouldn’t it be fine for them to wait on the parade ground or somewhere nearby for a while?”
At Sterling’s order, Lee Jaeyun answered with a stiff face.
For words coming from Lee Jaeyun, they sounded polite, but Sterling didn’t seem to care what he said.
“That is what I should be saying. Wouldn’t it be enough for you to give us the lodging and have your people wait outside?”
“That’s…”
Veins bulged on Lee Jaeyun’s forehead.
Was this what it looked like when a small power was trampled by a greater one?
It was a more amusing sight than I had expected.
However, we needed to pass through, so I couldn’t keep watching.
“May we pass?”
At my words, the two of them looked at me.
Both grimaced when they saw me.
It seemed they recognized me.
However, their reactions were a little different.
Lee Jaeyun looked annoyed, but Sterling looked at me and Margretta with a troubled expression.
Sterling immediately turned his head and poured out words at Lee Jaeyun.
“Then I’ll take it that you’ll vacate it. See to it quickly.”
Leaving the stunned Lee Jaeyun behind, Sterling walked away without looking back.
Lee Jaeyun stared blankly at Sterling as he left, then at us.
“What on earth…”
As I passed by him, I greeted him.
“I’ll see you next time.”
“I’d rather not.”
Perhaps because of what had happened before, his response was not very pleasant.
I grinned at him.
“Well. I don’t think you’ll be able to avoid it.”
Seeing his rigid face, I walked on again.
A moment later, Margretta asked me,
“Don’t tell me you were imitating me just now.”
“…No.”
“If you had been imitating me, I would have gotten angry. It didn’t resemble me at all.”
It seemed I should refrain from imitating Margretta.
We did not have much time, so we could not stay on Earth for long.
We decided to return the next day.
Margretta and I would be the first to depart.
Next would be the American main force, and last would be the Koreans.
As we went down to the underground ruins, Margretta and I talked about that.
“It seems that thanks to the black stones we brought this time, everyone can be transferred. If we’d been short on black stones, the Koreans would have transferred much later.”
“I think that would’ve been better.”
“It can’t be helped. We’re short on time.”
Had I put even more people in danger because I had worked hard?
Perhaps she saw my expression, because Margretta added,
“It seems they won’t immediately drive the Koreans into hunting. The hunting and combat will be handled by the American main force, and the Koreans will work at the base or carry loads even within the hunting teams.”
In the end, they were local laborers and porters.
When I thought about it, it was no different from what I had first done.
When we arrived at the ruins, the American officer in charge approached hesitantly.
I looked at him, puzzled by how different he seemed from before, and he pointed at the pile of luggage to one side.
“There’s more luggage than before. Will that be all right?”
As he said, the place was piled high with luggage.
There was far more than what we had taken last time.
It didn’t look like even a legendary strongman could lift it.
“There are more people transferring, so it couldn’t be helped.”
He spoke while sweating profusely, and I nodded for him.
“Let’s give it a try.”
In truth, taking it with us wasn’t the problem.
The problem was making sure people didn’t find it strange.
As I headed toward the luggage, the officer in charge followed and asked,
“By the way, even if you’re going to farm, there are an awful lot of seeds. Some aren’t edible, and there are even tree saplings.”
“They’re for testing.”
“I suppose so. Since you don’t know what will survive.”
They were indeed for testing. It was just that the place where these seeds and saplings would be planted was another planet.
I planned to plant them in the underground city where the spirits lived.
“All right, let’s lift together! One, two!”
“Heave-ho!”
To deceive the eyes of the onlookers, I lifted the luggage together with Margretta.
In truth, Margretta only put her hands on it.
And so, the two of us carried the luggage and crossed through the portal.
White light and the flow of energy passed by, and we arrived at the underground ruins.
After setting down the luggage, I checked the box and was greatly surprised.
A lot of items remained inside the box.
More than twice as many as I had expected.
[It is thanks to your rank rising. Just as the box grew larger, more items remained.]
The weapons left in the box were more than enough to arm all the members, with plenty to spare.
If that was the case, I had to change the plan.
Full-fledged Mage (1)