-Magic and Equipment
“So you’re saying the explosions and those bizarre orc bastards running wild here weren’t an accident caused by some screwup at the port, but terrorism carried out by a black mage?”
Hwangga pulled his chair closer to me and said it with his eyes darting around.
“That’s right.”
“I knew it. So the Samir Magic Tower’s terrorism has begun. No wonder I’d been hearing talk about a magic tower.”
Hwangga muttered, jiggling his leg as if somewhat excited.
“Did you hear anything else about the Samir Magic Tower?”
“No. What I told you last time is everything, Master Mage. Just rumors that the black mages from the Magic Tower were going to carry out a terrorist attack.”
“No one said they’d seen a black mage in person?”
“Nope. All we saw plenty of were those stinking orcs. Didn’t see so much as the tip of a black mage’s nose. You’re the only mage I’ve ever exchanged words with in my life.”
I probed him lightly, but got nothing out of it.
But this time, my purpose was to spread a rumor from my side, so for now, the seed had been planted.
“Anyway, this country is a mess. None of that came out on the news. They said the explosion was an accident! And they didn’t mention the orcs at all!”
“That’s the government for you. When have they ever revealed everything to the public?”
When I chimed in appropriately, Hwangga grew even more agitated and continued.
“Exactly! The government and the mages don’t even see people like us as human. They’re always taking the side of other races.
But why did the Samir Magic Tower have to release orcs in Chinatown of all places? What did we ever do wrong for them to carry out terrorism here?”
Hwangga complained harshly. In truth, however, he was frightened. His knees were trembling.
They had piled up plenty of weapons in their underground space, but the Chinatown organization was not a combat group. They were merchants.
They did not have the nerve to face black mages.
“Wasn’t it because there’s a port in Incheon? They must have done it to smuggle in the orcs. I don’t think Chinatown itself was necessarily the target.”
“Either way, we’re the ones who suffered the damage. Do you know how many shops were wrecked? And it’s not like the government will properly compensate us……”
“Didn’t the police come at the time and investigate the damage and all that?”
It was about time to start probing about Ren and Vanaheim. I naturally brought up the police investigation first.
“They did. They checked the damage, and they collected every CCTV memory from the streets and the shops. Two teams came by.
First it was patrol officers, then detectives or investigators or whatever they were—men in plainclothes—came around asking this and that.”
They collected the CCTV memories nearby? It occurred to me that the plainclothes people might not have been police, but investigators from Vanaheim.
They must have seen footage of me with Ren on the cameras.
“Did you happen to tell the police or the plainclothes people about me?”
I asked because I wondered if Hwangga or the Chinatown organization members might have told the Vanaheim people about me when they came.
At that, Hwangga’s expression turned serious and he shook his head.
“No! Why would I talk about you to the police, Master Mage? We’re not that kind of people. Have you ever seen an underground organization cooperate with the government?”
The way he denied it so gravely somehow made him seem even more suspicious, but it wasn’t an important issue anyway.
“All right. Good. It’d be best if you didn’t talk about me anywhere from now on either.”
“Of course. That will absolutely never happen. We’re people who act on trust, so please look favorably on us too, Master Mage.”
Just then, the japchae rice came out.
When I lowered my head and began silently eating, Hwangga quietly left his seat and disappeared through the back door of the kitchen.
He probably wanted to hurry to the underground space and chatter with his comrades in the organization. That the mage had appeared again.
I let him be. I didn’t believe in their trust or loyalty. I had come here to have them spread the rumor.
Now that I had scattered the bait, it was time to wait and see what bit.
* * *
After finishing my meal, I left the Chinese restaurant and slowly walked down through Chinatown.
I had activated detection magic, but since detection could not be precise while moving, I walked while loosely scanning the area.
To avoid the eyes of Hwangga and the organization members, I headed somewhere a little farther away.
I came out onto the road leading toward the port. It was along a main road, but there were actually fewer pedestrians on this side.
‘This should be good.’
Since the last place I had seen Ren was Chinatown, I had to begin tracking from around here.
I took up position behind a bridge pier beneath an overpass. It was a dim, secluded place that people were unlikely to pay attention to.
I took Ren’s hair and clothes out of the envelope I had brought. I activated detection, focused on them, and absorbed the physical signature permeating the hair and clothing.
Doing this allowed for a precise search. Because quite some time had passed since Ren had been in this area, it would have been difficult to find traces with ordinary detection magic alone.
After finishing the absorption of the physical signature, I raised the waves of magical energy within my body and stretched the detection out in every direction.
Lines of magical power like sparkling silver threads scattered as if dancing.
Of course, they only looked that way to my eyes. Ordinary people would see nothing at all.
The lines of magical power stretched outward, tangling with and overlapping one another.
Some lines faded away limply, but others drew even clearer trajectories.
They were Ren’s movements.
I was fully immersed in detection like that when it happened.
“Well! Impressive. That is a truly outstanding detection spell.”
A gruff voice suddenly came from somewhere.
My nerves sharpened, and I quickly looked around. A man was standing beside the bridge pier.
A man with a small but solid build and a bushy beard. He had a hat pulled low over his head and was holding something like a square box in his hands.
“Who are you? Why are you secretly spying on me?”
I turned toward the man and asked sharply.
“No, no. Secretly spying? Not at all. I was working here as well, and our detection lines happened to overlap. So I ended up peeking, you see.”
The man took a step toward me.
“Are you a mage?”
“No. We mainly use equipment rather than magic. I was just testing a newly developed magical power detection device.”
As he stepped out from the shadow of the bridge pier, I could finally see him properly. Now that I looked, the man was not human, but a dwarf.
I first examined the equipment in the dwarf’s hands.
The body, which from the outside looked like a simple box, was made of wood and metal.
The antenna-like protrusion sticking up from the top indicated that it was detection equipment.
He said it was newly developed, but the wooden parts were smooth and glossy, as if they had been handled for a long time.
“What were you detecting here?”
When I asked, the man suddenly got angry.
“But are you a human supremacist, Master Mage? You’re speaking down to me quite openly. Listening to you, I’m starting to feel rather offended. It’s beginning to rub me the wrong way. Just because I’m a dwarf doesn’t mean I’m a lower species than humans.”
His face flushed red and blue, and he seemed to have quite a temper, but his manner of speaking was oddly funny, so he did not feel intimidating at all.
Still, it was true that I had treated him rudely, so I immediately apologized. I also changed my speech to a more polite tone.
“I’m sorry. You appeared out of nowhere and spoke to me, so I was unconsciously on guard.”
Now that I looked, his white beard was fluttering. He seemed old as well, so I supposed he had every right to feel offended when I spoke casually to him right away.
When I apologized without resistance, the man’s expression quickly softened.
“Hm, hm. I apologize for butting in so suddenly. I should have pretended not to see and passed by while you were working, but curiosity got the better of me…… I’ve seen quite a few mages, but this is the first time I’ve seen a detection magic circuit this intricate.”
He was not even a mage, yet he had grasped the circuit of my detection magic. My wariness rose anew.
More than anything, I became curious about the dwarf’s magical power detection device.
“The device’s performance must be remarkable. You can even look into magic circuits with that?”
“It’s an upgraded version. Originally, it could only detect the distribution of magical power, but now I can see all the way into circuits. My equipment-making skills are rather excellent, you see. Hahaha!”
The image of him getting angry had vanished without a trace, and the man cheerfully began boasting about himself.
In any case, if what he said was true, it really was an outstanding technology.
Wouldn’t equipment of that level be more impressive than a mediocre mage?
“Excellent. I’m getting curious about that device. Since you looked into my magic circuit with it, please give me a chance to examine it as well.”
“Yes, of course I’ll show you. But even if you’d simply asked to see it, I would have let you inspect it as much as you liked. Did you really have to attach a premise like, ‘Since you peeped at mine, hand yours over too’? Honestly, human mages……”
The dwarf acted prickly again, then seemed to realize he had misspoken. He laughed heartily to gloss it over and continued.
“No, what I mean is, human mages are generally rational, so they can feel a little cold. But you are people of exceptional ability, so isn’t that only natural?”
He was beating someone and applying medicine all by himself.
I did not care either way. All I wanted was to see the equipment.
“Here you are. Take a good look.”
The dwarf smiled broadly as he handed me the magical power detection device.
I quickly accepted it and began examining it.
There was no way to tell by sight how the device operated. Its shape was simple, and there was not even a single button on the outside.
I looked through the interior with detection magic, but there did not seem to be any special mechanism inside either.
I could feel magical power flowing through the device. A unique wave was running through it.
‘So this is dwarven equipment? It really is completely different from human machinery.’
Dwarves were a race naturally skilled at making equipment.
It was not merely that they were good blacksmiths. Magical power dwelled in the equipment they made.
Most dwarves possessed magical power even if they were not mages. I could sense a considerable amount of magical energy from the man before me as well.
However, dwarves did not activate magic with that power so much as imbue it into equipment.
“You can’t really tell by looking, can you? I thought so. This device wasn’t made to be sold to humans; I made it for my own use. Its operation method is unusual, so only dwarves can use it.”
The man said it as if bragging.
I gave a bitter smile and returned the device to him.
“I see.”
No wonder he had readily shown it to me. It meant the equipment was useless for a human to possess.
It probably operated through an exchange between the waves of magical power flowing inside a dwarf’s body and the waves of magical power imbued into the equipment.
“Ah, but don’t be too disappointed. This is only a prototype. Once it’s completed, of course I’ll make a modified version that humans can use too. A man has to make a living.”
The man grinned as he said it, and somehow it felt even more irritating.