-A Suspicious Pigeon
When I caught it with a magic snare, the pigeon belatedly flapped its wings as if trying to fly away, but by then the movement was futile.
The bird could not leave my grasp.
“You’re going to take the pigeon with you?”
Gil, who had been watching, asked.
“Yeah. I need to take it back and examine it closely. I don’t think it’s a genetically modified pigeon, but there’s something suspicious about it.”
“Ooh! What is it? That pigeon, I mean. It’s filled to the brim with life force. It’s really suspicious, isn’t it?”
Cheon Danbi said, tilting her head.
“It’s filled with life force? Then did the pigeons suck out people’s life force?”
“Wait a second. You’re right. It’s not just this pigeon—the pigeons around here are all like that. Looks like the pigeons might be the culprits.”
“Then we shouldn’t just take this one. We need to capture them all. Gil! Capture every pigeon nearby.”
“Got it!”
Gil and I moved busily, throwing magic snares at the pigeons.
The pigeons, gradually realizing what our movements meant, began to take flight and flee.
For the time being, we ran toward the area where people were still collapsing and captured the pigeons there first.
As we were doing that, the crows hovering in the air flew toward us. They were chasing the pigeons that were trying to escape and driving them toward us.
Ren and the crows were doing their part in their own way.
Cheon Danbi had gone back to breathing life force into the people in danger.
While helping the paramedics and police officers transport the collapsed victims, she was saving the most critical ones first.
Every member of the team found what they had to do on their own and moved in perfect order.
Order was returning to a place that had looked as if the end of the world had descended upon it.
No more people were collapsing now, and the transport of those who had fallen was almost finished as well.
Gil and I stood there like bird hunters, holding dozens of pigeons threaded through snares.
“Looks like it’s been more or less settled, right?”
Cheon Danbi said, catching her breath.
“Are you okay?”
“With what?”
“I was wondering if you used up too much life force. We’re in the middle of the city, so there’s no nature around. It’d be hard for you to recharge your life force, so I was worried you might collapse too.”
“Oh, I’m fine. I told you I came fully charged with life force today. I’m someone who lives in the shade of none other than Neo Forest, where the World Tree is. When it comes to life force, I’m overflowing with it.”
Then Cheon Danbi stood right in the middle of the intersection, closed her eyes, and spread both arms wide, as if she intended to share her surplus life force with everyone.
As Cheon Danbi slowly began turning in a circle, fresh energy flowed in all directions.
I could feel it too. The abundant life force imbued with the energy of the World Tree.
It felt different from usual. It was an overwhelmingly rich life force.
Had Cheon Danbi reached a new realm as a druid?
“This is different from before. You’ve never carried around this much life force before, have you?”
“Actually, I learned a new technique from Ren.”
“From Ren?”
“Yeah. Ren was born with an innate ability to polymorph, right? Apparently, that works by condensing, transforming, and moving life force. Maybe that’s why Ren’s better at handling life force than I am, even though I’m the druid.”
“Really?”
It seemed Ren still had more abilities I didn’t know about.
Every member of the team was exceptionally capable. I was simply worrying for nothing.
Today, too, thanks to Cheon Danbi and Gil investigating things in detail, we had been able to discover why people were fainting. I was grateful.
Only when the scene had been more or less brought under control did Han Dosu and the other mages of the Hall arrive.
“The cars on the road weren’t moving at all, so I only just got here. But what is that? Why did you catch pigeons?”
“They were suspicious. It seems the reason people collapsed was because of them.”
“Because of pigeons?”
Just then, An Guktae from the Bureau arrived.
An Guktae likewise made the same excuse for his late dispatch.
“It looks like the situation is already over. I’m sorry I’m late. I was trapped in my car, then switched to the subway, and even then I’ve only just arrived.”
“Yes. Since this intersection was blocked off, all of Gangnam must have turned into traffic hell.”
Not only had the intersection been blocked, but with ambulances coming and going, the roads in every direction must have been completely paralyzed.
A difference of a hair’s breadth at the time of departure had widened into a difference of over an hour.
“Was it a black mage’s terror attack? But those pigeons, why…?”
“For now, there are no traces of black magic having been used. It doesn’t seem to be an infectious disease either. The reason people collapsed appears to be symptoms of sudden life force depletion.”
“Life force depletion?”
“That’s right. It seems these pigeons sucked out people’s life force.”
“The pigeons sucked out life force?”
“Is such a thing possible?”
After I briefly explained what we had discovered so far, both Han Dosu and An Guktae looked back and forth between me and the pigeons with expressions of disbelief.
“They look like ordinary pigeons on the outside… Are they magical animals?”
“I do sense a faint trace of mana.”
“I don’t know exactly what the pigeons are yet either. We’ll have to take them back and run a detailed examination.”
“Ah! Then may I take one to the Bureau as well?”
“I’d like to take one to the Hall and examine it too. Could you spare me a pigeon?”
“Of course. Naturally. There are so many of them. Actually, why don’t the Bureau and the Hall divide them between you? I’ll just take one.”
Like a generous hunter, I held out all the birds I had caught to the two of them.
Han Dosu and An Guktae thanked me, divided them in half, and left me one.
It was a strangely comical sight.
In any case, the scene had been cleared, and there was nothing left for the mages to do there.
The police would just have to remove the cars involved in the accidents and reopen the road.
Before leaving the scene, I scanned the area once more, but there was no black mage hiding anywhere.
“I think it should be fine to wrap things up here now.”
At my words, An Guktae replied with a relieved expression.
“It’s fortunate it ended at this level. I thought another terrible terror attack had happened. Thank goodness you arrived early, Mage, and prevented it from spreading over a wider area.”
“It is fortunate that it ended at this level, but we can’t relax. This couldn’t have occurred naturally.”
“Yes. Of course, we’ll take the pigeons and investigate them thoroughly.”
“Whoever caused this must have had a purpose. In any case, we’ll be going now. Please take care of the rest.”
“Understood. Mage, you worked hard.”
Leaving only An Guktae behind, everyone departed the scene. Han Dosu and the mages of the Hall also took only the pigeons and hurried away.
With Gang Yonghun’s arrest, the Hall must urgently need to reorganize internally.
I took Cheon Danbi and Gil and returned to where we had parked the car.
“You both did well today.”
“We always do well. We’re Hero Oudin’s team, after all!”
Judging from the way Cheon Danbi boasted, she had regained her composure.
Everyone was relieved that it had not been a serious terror attack and had been settled at this level.
When we got into the car, the crows immediately flew in. The crows had done their part well today too. Perhaps because of that, they were unusually dignified today, sitting quietly in the back seat.
I quickly started the car so Ren could transform as soon as possible.
The traffic congestion around the completely blocked intersection had eased somewhat, and in the direction we were heading, the cars were moving smoothly.
By the time we had passed through the streets packed with people and were crossing the wide-open Han River bridge, Ren transformed back into her original form.
As if she had something she wanted to say, she hurriedly opened her mouth.
“Mage, about those pigeons. I think I know what happened.”
“Did you figure something out?”
“You know that faint mana flowing out of the pigeons? I can feel a familiar energy in it.”
“A familiar energy?”
“I think they’re Vanaheim test subjects. Specifically, test subjects that were injected with my blood or genes, or something like that.”
“What?”
At Ren’s words, everyone, including me, stared at her in shock.
For a moment, we all sat there blankly as if we had been struck in the head, then gradually began saying what occurred to us.
“Ah…! Then the reason the pigeons were able to suck out life force was because they took Ren’s ability?”
“So it was Vanaheim after all.”
“Then are you saying this pigeon isn’t a real pigeon, but something that polymorphed?”
At Gil’s words, everyone this time looked at the pigeon in Gil’s hand.
I couldn’t examine it closely because I was driving, but I remembered the unusual look in the pigeon’s eyes from earlier.
That unwaveringly calm gaze, almost not like an animal’s.
“Ah, now that you mention it, this pigeon really does look a bit strange.”
Cheon Danbi said, craning her neck to peer at the pigeon.
“I’m not completely sure either. I don’t know if it’s another life form that polymorphed into a pigeon, or if they simply injected my traits into an ordinary pigeon.”
Ren said. It seemed Ren didn’t have a definite answer either.
“The important thing is that Vanaheim definitely caused this incident. They released test subjects? Why? Did they do it simply to make people collapse?”
When I said that, everyone began pondering Vanaheim’s objective.
“It can’t be simple terrorism. Vanaheim isn’t the Magic Tower. Their goal wouldn’t be mere terrorism.”
“But they carried out the amoeba terror attack last time too.”
“Even then, their real objective was something else. They were trying to frame the dwarves as terrorists so they could search the dwarf district. To find Ren.”
“There must also have been a message of protest against the Magic Tower. They deliberately committed the terror attack in front of the Magic Tower building. Kim Seonho sent a message of protest to Yashin.”
“Ah, I see. Then what message are they trying to send this time?”
“A bio-company releases test subjects and depletes people’s life force? I get it. They’re trying to sell medicine.”
“Golden Apple?”
“Golden Apple!”
“They’re laying the groundwork for the release of Golden Apple.”
For a moment, we all shouted Golden Apple together.
As we talked, everyone had arrived at the same conclusion.
This incident caused by Vanaheim was not intended to kill people. It had to be meant to deplete their life force and increase the usefulness of Golden Apple.
“Kim Seonho has already caused another incident. Releasing test subjects—what a fanatical move. And to do something this bold while Vanaheim’s black mage is under investigation by the Bureau, no less.”
“More than anything, I’m so creeped out that Vanaheim made test subjects with something extracted from Ren.”
“This won’t do. We can’t keep Vanaheim’s experiments hidden any longer. We need to expose everything.”
As we exchanged our various thoughts, we arrived home.
We all went up to the rooftop room together and began observing the pigeon we had caught, placing it in the center.
The pigeon stared straight back at us with that same calm gaze.