-Backup
“In any case, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Oudin.”
Thinking of the excellent materials inside the magical space of my house, I held out my hand to the dwarf man.
I intended to get along with the first dwarf I’d met since coming to this world. Dwarves, an outstanding race of craftsmen, were people who could be of help to a mage.
What else could I do? The one in need had to be the one to reach out.
“Oudin! What a splendid name. My name is Yantu.”
Yantu clasped my hand and spoke in a friendly manner.
But it was still too early to pretend we were that close. Before we could become friends, there were things we had to confirm about each other.
“So, Mr. Yantu, what was it you were detecting here?”
“As I told you, I was testing a newly developed detection device. It wasn’t as though I was detecting anything in particular. But what were you detecting here, Mage? It looked like you were searching for someone……”
“That’s right. I was in the middle of tracking a missing person. It’s a job I was commissioned to do.”
Yantu smoothly slipped past my question like an old fox and answered with a question of his own.
I answered as simply as I could. I was already feeling a little displeased after hearing that he had looked into my detection magic with his mana detection device.
“Ah! Tracking a missing person, is it. Then could that person perhaps be someone who went missing during the Incheon Port explosion incident…?”
Yantu’s eyes gleamed as he revealed his curiosity.
“The Incheon Port explosion incident? Why would you think that?”
“Well, because more than a few people died or went missing then.”
Instead of answering, I threw the question back at him, but Yantu was no pushover either. His eyes widened, and he remained perfectly calm, as if I had asked something obvious.
I had no intention of revealing the information I had. I asked another question.
“I see. The explosion must have been quite large, then. Did you see the scene at the time, Mr. Yantu?”
“I saw it from far away. I was looking out at the sea while having a cup of morning coffee, and right then—boom!—an explosion went off at Incheon Port. Gave me quite a shock, I tell you.”
“Do you live around here?”
“I live in the Incheon dwarf district. Where else would a dwarf live?”
As he answered, Yantu stared straight at me.
Only then did information about this world come to mind. I remembered that dwarves who settled in Korea were regulated to live only in designated districts.
“Ah, right. By the way, Mr. Yantu, what kind of work do you do? Are you an artisan who independently produces equipment?”
“I do make and sell equipment privately, but I also have a job. I work for the Incheon Port Private Security Corps. I’m in charge of technical support.”
At Yantu’s answer, my antennae twitched. The Incheon Port Private Security Corps?
It seemed there were private security corps at the harbor in addition to the official harbor police and guards. Well, there must be many occasions to station guards at the docks.
“Then were you working at Incheon Port that day as well?”
“The day of the explosion? No. I saw it from near my house. Unfortunately, that day was my day off. A special day off, at that. It’s very rare for every member of the security corps to rest together, but strangely enough, that day, everyone was off.”
“Hmm. That is strange.”
“Very suspicious, isn’t it?”
I recalled how the docks had been empty that day. There was no doubt someone had exerted influence to deliberately clear the place out.
“But after the incident occurred, everyone was called in. We had to help clean up the scene. And I was given a special assignment. They had me investigate the explosion. After all, I have excellent detection equipment.”
Before I knew it, Yantu was chattering away as if he had let down his guard against me.
Did he think this was an opportunity to brag about his detection device? Or perhaps he was simply a talkative man by nature.
“Just between you and me, Mage, that wasn’t an accident. Boom, boom! The explosion was deliberately caused by someone. It was an incident. And what’s more, it wasn’t a bomb that went off. It was an explosion caused by magic. Boom!”
Yantu’s manner of speaking was comical, but I listened with my ears pricked. I felt a rising expectation that I might obtain information from an unexpected source.
“Did anything come up as a result of your detection? Did you find out who caused the explosion?”
“It did.”
“Really?”
“I detected traces of the magic circuit that caused that suspicious explosion.”
Yantu spoke with great pride.
I swallowed hard.
The traces of the magic circuit that had caused the explosion had to be the infinite pentagon shape I had seen that day.
The traces had disappeared in an instant back then, so for Yantu to have detected them again afterward with his detection device was impressive.
If so, that meant the device might still have a capture of it.
“Then you’re saying traces of that magic circuit remain in the device?”
Traces of a magic circuit were like the fingerprints of the mage who activated that magic.
If traces remained, that would provide a clue to track the black mage.
“They were there, but they’re gone now.”
“What?”
“The moment I tried to analyze the magic circuit stored in the detection device—boom, boom!—the device suddenly exploded. The mage had prepared a mechanism in advance. If anyone traced it, it would automatically explode and vanish.”
At Yantu’s words, I let out a faint sigh. I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
Just as the magic circuit had scattered and disappeared when I discovered it, the traces caught by the detection device had also exploded the moment he tried to analyze them.
As I had guessed, that old black mage was not only skilled but thorough.
“That’s a shame. Even the device exploded.”
“It’s all right. The device I used then was the previous version of this fellow here. But haven’t I already produced this upgraded new detection device? Haha! And the traces of the magic circuit haven’t disappeared completely either. Who do you think I am? I left a backup!”
“There’s a backup?”
I hurriedly asked again. The light that had vanished was shining in once more.
“It’s not only mages who are impressive. The equipment we dwarves make is impressive too. We’re quite thorough when it comes to equipment, you see. I prepared for contingencies. Do you know how much effort went into making that product? Haha! The device exploded, but the backup remains. I installed a black box.”
Yantu’s face shone with pride.
I had no choice but to acknowledge it. If he had made such a detection device and even installed a backup system, he had every right to be proud.
“That’s amazing. I admit it. I’d like to acquire a detection device myself. By the way, do you have that backup information with you right now?”
“No. I left it at home. I haven’t finished analyzing it yet, so I haven’t even reported it to my superiors. In any case, Mage, you seem very interested in the Incheon Port explosion incident. Is it because of the missing person you’re currently tracking?”
Yantu asked while subtly studying my face.
As expected, this man was still probing me. He had not completely let his guard down.
“That’s part of it… To tell the truth, I was at the scene that day. I had gone there to work as a mercenary. Several of my companions who went with me were killed or injured. So I’m personally pursuing that mage.”
I mixed truth and lies in moderation, even adding a story that might stir his emotions. One way or another, I had to obtain that backup information.
“What? You were at the scene that day, Mage? As a mercenary?”
“That’s right. As you can see, I’m a freelance mage who takes on private commissions.”
“Ah…… A freelance mage.”
Yantu looked at me with a peculiar expression. It seemed like he either pitied me for being a mage doing mercenary work or suspected my words.
“Your companions died and were injured, Mage. Then it’s only natural that you’d want revenge. Very well. I’ll share the backup information with you.”
At last, Yantu nodded.
Perhaps that expression had come from pure sympathy after all.
“If you want to see the backup information, follow me. I don’t know whether you’ve ever been to the dwarf district. It’s a wonderful place.”
“Is it close to here?”
“It’s not far. Ah, right! Coincidentally, the mana lines you stretched out earlier for detection were headed straight toward the dwarf district.”
As Yantu said something unexpected, he raised his hand and pointed in one direction.
Glittering silver lines. The mana lines I had spread out still remained.
Some had already scattered, but the trajectories that remained and gathered in one direction were clear. That place had to be where Ren was.
In other words, had Yantu been looking into my mana lines all this time and conversing with me while knowing that the direction of my detection was toward the dwarf district?
I raised my guard toward Yantu once more.
“That way is the dwarf district?”
“The missing person you’re searching for may very well be in the dwarf district too, Mage. Then shall we go?”
Yantu picked up his detection device and took the lead.
I followed behind him, carefully watching his back and the detection device.
* * *
The dwarf district was located on Wolmido.
Though it was called an island, it was no longer truly an island. It lay in a position that embraced Incheon Port and shielded it from the sea.
We walked there.
“We’re here. It’s dark, isn’t it? Watch your step.”
Sure enough, from the moment we entered Wolmido, everything around us was dim.
Although it was not yet time for the sun to set, it felt as though darkness had already fallen here. It was because of the terrain.
Wolmido was very different from the image of it I remembered from my previous world.
It also felt quite different from Incheon, where we had just been. The scenery spread out before me looked like another country, not Korea.
It was a landscape that seemed as though a god had carelessly tossed clumps of earth and rocks about. Jagged, strangely shaped rocks were visible here and there, and in several places, piles of red earth rose like towers.
Everywhere was shadowed, like the inside of a cave.
“This is a unique landscape.”
“As expected, this is your first time in the dwarf district, Mage. The high and mighty don’t come here. You’d think they’d be curious about the place where magical equipment is made.”
“Is that so?”
I answered Yantu half-heartedly while examining the trajectory of the mana lines.
There was no doubt I had gotten closer to where Ren was. The trajectory of the mana lines had become even clearer.
“What’s over there?”
I asked, pointing in the direction the mana lines extended.
“Ah, that’s toward the central plaza. As it happens, that’s where we’re going too. Are the mana lines pointing that way?”
“Let’s go there.”
“But this is strange. Can you still see the mana lines? Magical detection should be impossible around the central plaza… That area is called the safe zone of our district, and even the use of magic is prohibited there.”
It seemed Yantu could not detect the mana lines because he wasn’t using his device right now.
But it was not a problem for me.
As Yantu said, there seemed to be an anti-magic device near the central plaza. The trajectories gradually blurred in that direction.
Even so, it was not to the point that detection was impossible.
Paths wound here and there between the red earth towers. We walked in silence for a while.
The buildings in the dwarf district were extremely peculiar. If one did not look carefully, it was hard to even notice that there were buildings.
The terrain and the structures had become one, making it difficult to tell where the rocks ended and where the houses began.
Still, as we approached the central plaza, the shape of the village began to reveal itself little by little. Shops lined the area, and the houses had fairly distinct forms.
“Now, this way.”
Yantu, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped and opened the way for me. Then he stretched out one hand and indicated the direction.
There were stone steps before my eyes. And below the stone steps, I could see a wide plaza. That seemed to be the central plaza.
The moment I set one foot down onto the stone steps, the world suddenly turned upside down.