-To Incheon
It was time for us to get moving as well.
“I’ll have to go to the Bureau right now.”
“Then I’ll get ready and head straight to Incheon.”
“Yes. I’ll see you at the scene.”
Yu Jaeseon left in a hurry.
At least I’d had him drink a bottle of potion. That was some comfort.
I hadn’t slept last night either, but since I’d spent the night in the magical space, I actually had more mana than usual.
I checked the time. 8:40 in the morning. Right in the middle of rush hour.
Getting to Incheon was going to be quite a hassle.
If I’d known this would happen, I should have asked Yu Jaeseon to lend me a car.
The car I’d obtained in Vanaheim had been left behind in the mountains of Danyang.
I quickly changed clothes and called Cheon Danbi as I went down to Gil’s room.
[Oh, you’re heading to Incheon now, right?]
Cheon Danbi said the moment she picked up.
She already knew that a terror attack had occurred in Incheon.
“Yeah. I have to go right away.”
[Wait there for a bit. I’ll come over there and pick you and Gil up.]
“What? You have a car?”
[A dwarf who runs an auto repair shop agreed to lend me one. You know, the place that fixed Oudin’s car last time. He said he wants to help Mage Oudin in any way he can.]
The transportation problem had been solved from an unexpected place.
So this was what it meant for public opinion to improve and for us to have more people on our side.
It felt like I was receiving things without having done much for them, but it still felt good.
“Thanks. And Lily…”
[Yeah. I’ll take care of that, so don’t worry.]
I was about to ask what we should do about Ren, but Cheon Danbi neatly cut me off.
Even without a long explanation, she understood and answered right away. That was Cheon Danbi for you.
After I hung up, I saw that the front door to Gil’s room was open, and Gil was standing in front of it, staring at me with wide eyes.
“Did something happen?”
He asked without knowing anything. That, too, was just like Gil.
Gil rarely used the internet, so he tended to be out of the loop.
“We’re moving out. They say simultaneous terror attacks have happened all over Incheon.”
“Ah! Really? I’ll get ready right away.”
There wasn’t really anything to prepare. He only had to change clothes.
Soon, we were standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Cheon Danbi to arrive.
A little while later, a white SUV entered the alley.
It was old, but it looked sturdy—just the right kind of car for us to take to the scene.
“Hurry up and get in!”
Cheon Danbi shouted through the open window before she had even stopped the car.
Gil and I waited for the car to come to a halt, then climbed in.
The moment Gil got into the back seat, he said something strange.
“Huh? It’s a cat?”
I wondered what cat he was talking about and turned around, only to see that there really was a cat sitting in the back seat.
“Lily, the runaway cat.”
Cheon Danbi answered and giggled.
“What? Then is that Ren?”
“Ren?”
Gil and I asked at the same time, and the cat looked at us, nodded, and meowed.
“Yeah. It’s Ren. He said he wanted to try transforming into a different living creature this time. For practice, too. And it’s more natural to have a cat riding in a car than a crow, right?”
“Good call. Since there aren’t any crows to fly with, that’s better.”
“It’s amazing all over again. The fact that you can transform into any living creature. It really is an incredible ability, Ren.”
When Gil expressed his admiration, the cat meowed again.
Then Gil smiled as he looked at the cat.
It seemed Gil had understood Ren’s answer.
Gil’s ability to commune with living creatures was just as astonishing.
And so, with Ren transformed into a cat riding along as well, we headed for Incheon.
As expected, the roads during rush hour were congested.
I wondered if it might have been better to take the subway, but since we might have to go to multiple places, a car was better in terms of mobility.
While we were in the car, I told Cheon Danbi and Gil about the conversations I’d had with Yu Jaeseon yesterday and today.
“That’s good. So now we have someone inside the Bureau we can trust.”
“I hope we have even more people on our side from now on.”
“More than anything, I think it’s important to identify the people inside the government and the Hall who are colluding with the black mages. Everything keeps going wrong because of them.”
“That’s true. Now that we’re working with Mage Yu Jaeseon, we should be able to uncover them.”
Cheon Danbi and Gil shared their brief thoughts.
After that, silence continued for a while, and soon everyone focused on what we had to do today.
“Do you think the ones who caused today’s attacks are Vanaheim, or the Magic Tower?”
“We’ll know quickly once we get to the scene. The Magic Tower’s black mages have a distinctive form embedded in their magic circuits.”
“You mean the shape of countless overlapping pentagons?”
At Gil’s words, I turned my head and looked back, a little surprised.
“You knew about the Infinite Pentagon mark too?”
“I’m not particularly skilled at detection, but I’ve been at several scenes, haven’t I? There were traces of magic circuits left commonly at all of them, so I remembered it.”
“Well done. That’s right. That’s the symbol of the Magic Tower.”
“Oh! Our Gil really is an amazing mage, isn’t he?”
When even Cheon Danbi praised him, Gil seemed embarrassed and quickly continued.
“Then Yasin and Nasanhaegyeong were also black mages of the Magic Tower?”
“Yeah. Aside from An Seokju, whom Vanaheim raised independently, all the black mages we’ve opposed until now have been black mages of the Magic Tower.”
“In the end, we have to fight the Magic Tower. But is there only one Magic Tower in our country?”
“I don’t know for sure, but judging by what’s been revealed so far, there’s only one. Samir’s Magic Tower.”
“Samir’s Magic Tower? Is this Samir the owner of the Magic Tower?”
“He’s its leader.”
“But that black mage named Samir has never shown himself until now, has he? How did you know, Mage?”
“I heard it from people in the underground organization. And I know because the Infinite Pentagon mark is his symbol.”
I told my team members as much as I could about Samir.
I couldn’t talk about Samir from my previous life, but I told them what I had learned through what I’d heard and experienced in this world.
“If he’s the leader of the Magic Tower, he must be an incredibly skilled black mage, right?”
“Probably. That’s why we’re gathering allies too.”
“And he isn’t alone either.”
“There’s no need to be afraid. Our team isn’t easy to deal with either. If we join forces, we’ll definitely bring him down.”
“Of course! Our side’s leader is Oudin, so what’s there to worry about?”
Cheon Danbi, who had been listening quietly, suddenly spoke with force.
“That’s right. We have…”
Gil was about to agree, so I quickly cut him off and stepped in.
“We also have a divine mage, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Ah! A divine mage. But we don’t know who that is.”
“I know now. It’s Bruno, the divine mage who raised me when I was young.”
“What? It was someone you knew?”
“What?”
Since I’d already brought it up, I told them as much as I knew about Bruno as well.
I said I had found a diary Bruno had written and learned about his magic from it. That the pure white light was the characteristic of his magic.
I also said that while I didn’t know where he was now, he would surely appear someday and lend strength to our side.
“So that’s why there was something different about Oudin’s magic.”
Cheon Danbi nodded as she spoke.
“What? What do you mean?”
“You’re different from ordinary mages. I felt there was something similar to the way of a divine mage. Like hearing the transmissions of crows or other living creatures.”
“That’s right. Mage, you’re on a completely different level from other mages.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You use mental magic and spatial magic so easily.”
“Me? If you know the details, those things aren’t exactly that easy, you know?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
I was the one surprised by what Cheon Danbi and Gil were saying.
My magic was different from other mages’? And they had noticed that? I hadn’t even shown them much until now.
Through last night’s training, I now understood it to some extent myself.
The ability to freely manifest spatial magic was linked to divine magic. This universe, space-time itself, was divinity.
“Anyway, what I’m saying is that Oudin is an amazing mage. And that it’s a relief we have a powerful divine mage named Bruno on our side. By the way, where should we go first? You said terror attacks broke out all over Incheon, right?”
At Cheon Danbi’s question, I took out the Hall communication device.
Usually, Cheon Danbi handled searching the internet and gathering information, but since she was driving now, it was my job.
The Hall communication device still hadn’t sent me any notifications, but I could enter the board.
The board would be more accurate and faster than information from internet news.
Just a quick scan was enough to tell that Incheon had become a complete mess.
Explosions had occurred at several subway stations, and strange creatures had appeared in various parts of the city.
At Incheon Airport, strange creatures had appeared on the runways, preventing planes from taking off and landing.
When I gave them a rough explanation of the situation, Cheon Danbi let out a sigh and said,
“Isn’t Incheon Airport the biggest problem? Planes can’t take off or land. Should we go there first?”
“Hmm, no. It looks like the government and the Hall mages have already been dispatched there, so let’s go downtown.”
“Ah, should we? Then where downtown?”
“Let’s go toward Incheon Terminal. There are a lot of reports about strange creatures appearing around there.”
“Okay!”
As she merged onto the expressway, Cheon Danbi focused on driving for a while.
Gil was quiet as well, looking out the window.
I looked over the Hall board and internet news again to grasp the situation in Incheon.
Incheon Airport was indeed a serious problem. It wasn’t just one or two planes that had stopped; as the number of aircraft unable to take off or land increased, the control system was becoming a chaotic mess.
Incheon Airport was the gateway in and out of Korea and also a hub airport, so if it wasn’t resolved quickly, it would end up affecting other countries as well.
But the strange creatures that had initially only been discovered on the runway had reportedly appeared inside the airport too.
It was no ordinary problem.
In any case, because of that situation, it seemed most of the government and Hall mages had rushed to Incheon Airport first.
That was why I’d suggested we go downtown, to split our forces.
The chaos downtown was beyond description.
Police and military forces seemed to have been dispatched to respond at the subway stations where explosions had occurred.
Since they were explosions, there must already be many casualties, but if it was only explosions, mages wouldn’t necessarily need to step in, so I set those places aside as well.
The strange creatures appearing here and there throughout the city were the targets we needed to deal with.
There were especially many reports coming in from around Incheon Terminal, which was why I’d said we should go there first.
“We’re getting off the expressway now. Incheon Terminal is close from here, so everyone get ready!”
Cheon Danbi informed us and drove the car onto the ramp.
After a long time, once again, it was Incheon.