—Me, on Television
Once Ren gave her permission, Cheon Danbi and Gil also actively voiced their agreement with my opinion.
“Right. We can just say she’s a hybrid. Vanaheim won’t want Ren’s identity revealed either, so they probably won’t try to make any information public from their side.”
“I think going on the broadcast is a good idea too. If you reveal on air that you’re protecting Ren, Vanaheim won’t be able to keep chasing her anymore. The bounty hunters won’t dare even think about it either.”
“Of course. Vanaheim will have to withdraw the bounty altogether. We’ll be revealing that Ren isn’t a missing person, but someone who walked out on her own two feet to escape illegal experiments.”
“Ah! You’re right. Then no one will be after Ren anymore.”
Gil looked relieved.
I hoped that would be the case too.
But hoping Vanaheim would meekly admit to their charges might have been naive.
They would probably not only deny it aggressively, but might even try to pin new accusations on Ren instead.
In the end, it would depend on the direction of public opinion.
It would become a fight over whether people believed the words of a hero or the words of a major corporation.
I hoped the halo of the name “hero” I was wearing would shine brightly.
Ren had the ability to protect herself, but being chased around by hyenas would undoubtedly be annoying and painful.
Though perhaps after appearing on the broadcast, a new hyena called public attention would latch onto her.
“With all of you by my side, I’m not worried about anything. So from now on, you don’t have to worry about me either.”
Ren said with a bright smile.
She certainly looked much brighter than before.
It didn’t seem like she was saying it just to make us feel better; being with us really did seem to be helping Ren psychologically.
In particular, Cheon Danbi living with her and looking after her attentively like an older sister must have been a help.
“Okay! Then that settles it. Now that Ren is going to appear on the broadcast too, we’ll have to pick out clothes for her as well, won’t we?”
“Great. Let’s pick out what Ren will wear on air too.”
Cheon Danbi and Gil went right back to talking about outfits. The two of them had been completely in sync since earlier.
It was surprising to see Gil so interested in clothes, and I had a feeling he’d been influenced by Cheon Danbi.
But this time, I didn’t mind the talk about outfits either. I knew very well that the two of them were doing it to put Ren at ease.
“I’ll wear anything Danbi unni picks out for me. I don’t actually have any clothes of my own, do I? I think I’ll have to borrow yours, unni…”
When Ren said that shyly, Cheon Danbi widened her eyes and replied.
“Wear anything? Absolutely not! This is your first time going on TV. Wait! This won’t do. Let’s go buy clothes right now. I saw the Mage’s closet too, and there’s nothing usable in there. Both of you need clothes.”
So the arrow was flying at me again.
This time, I couldn’t dodge it. Not for my sake, but for Ren’s, it seemed we would have to go buy clothes.
“Fine. Then we have to eat dinner anyway, so let’s go out together, eat, and then buy clothes or whatever. But don’t forget, we don’t have much time. The broadcast is at eleven, so we need to be at the station by ten.”
“Don’t worry. I know. I’ll pick out clothes for you in ten minutes.”
That was when we were about to leave the room together.
We realized there was something we had forgotten.
“Wait! What about the pigeon? Is it okay to just leave it here like this?”
Gil, being the youngest among us and therefore not yet too deep into forgetfulness, stopped us.
Only then did we remember the pigeon we had forgotten about for quite some time.
The pigeon was still staring at us without moving at all, in the exact same posture and with the same expression as before.
Since it was caught in a magic snare, that was only natural.
Even if we left it as it was, it wouldn’t be able to escape, but one never knew, so we had to be thorough.
“We’ll have to go to the station later, so observing the pigeon will have to wait. For now, I should put it in the magic space.”
“Huh? Magic space? You had something like that?”
When Cheon Danbi asked with her eyes round, I suddenly remembered my magic space.
The magic space attached to this room, the one I had once thought I should bring my teammates into and show them around.
But now was not the right time.
Once they went in there, they would want to stay inside for at least three nights and four days. That was how enchanting the place was.
The magic space I had just mentioned was the subspace that opened through a portal from the desk I had taken from the biohackers.
I approached the desk.
“There’s a magic space hidden here. This desk is a magic tool that opens a portal. I took it from the biohackers.”
“Oho! That desk is a magic tool? No wonder it looked so strange.”
“Gil, press the button on that side. At the same time as me.”
“Got it.”
Just as King’s subordinates had done, we pressed the buttons on the side of the desk at the same time, and the desktop flipped over, opening a portal above it.
“Wow! That’s fascinating. Inside that portal is the magic space, right?”
“This portal isn’t a door leading to another dimension or something that lets you move somewhere else. It’s simply the entrance to a subspace.”
As I was explaining, goblin heads suddenly poked out beyond the wavering portal.
“Ah! Who is that? There was someone inside?”
Cheon Danbi, who had stepped close to the portal, jumped in surprise and backed away.
I quickly stepped in front of the portal and gestured for the goblins to go back inside.
I wondered what I would do if they didn’t listen, but perhaps they remembered that I was the one who had frozen them, because the goblins soon slipped back inside.
Yes, even if words don’t get through, the memory of the body is a fierce thing.
“They’re goblins. Apparently, they were already inside when the black mage gifted that magic tool to the biohackers. In other words, it was a gift meant to let them make use of the goblins from the start. There were dozens of them, but I only brought three with me. To examine them.”
“Goblins? There are goblins on Earth?”
From the way she asked, it seemed Cheon Danbi knew at least something about goblins.
Even for races that had never immigrated to Earth, it seemed stories of their existence in other dimensions had been passed down.
“I don’t know where or how the black mage brought them here. They don’t have language chips, so I couldn’t communicate with them right away or ask.”
“Ah! I can help you with that. I can transform into a goblin and ask them.”
Ren said.
There was that method too. As expected, the trait called Polymorph was an ability capable of more things than I had imagined.
I even began to think she might be close to an invincible existence.
“I see. But we don’t have time right now, so researching the goblins will have to wait too. For now, I’ll put the pigeon inside…”
As I was about to grab the snare and send the pigeon into the subspace, I paused.
I didn’t know whether the goblins would get along with the pigeon. It would be a big problem if the goblins ended up eating it.
I knew nothing about goblin diets, but when hungry, anyone would eat just about anything.
“Gil, go see if there’s anything edible in the fridge.”
“Are you very hungry?”
“No. It’s not for me. I’m feeding the goblins.”
“Ah… yes. There are frozen corn dogs. Would that be okay?”
“Yeah. Heat them up in the microwave and bring them over.”
We really seemed endlessly kind.
After all, we weren’t just giving corn dogs to the goblins who had tried to harm me; we were even heating them up for them.
Gil soon returned with the heated corn dogs. When I held them out into the subspace, the goblins swiftly snatched them away and began chewing noisily.
I couldn’t tell whether they originally liked corn dogs or whether they had simply been very hungry.
In any case, now that we had filled their stomachs, next came the warning.
“Goblins! I’m going to send this pigeon in there, but you must absolutely not eat it. Understood? Behave like civilized people, all of you.”
Whether they understood or not, I gave them the warning. Since I spoke while pointing at the pigeon, the gesture alone should have been more than enough for them to understand.
But that didn’t mean I could trust them one hundred percent.
So I cast a magic barrier over the pigeon.
To think I was even putting a barrier on a criminal pigeon. Truly, I couldn’t help but be an exceedingly kind mage.
After sending the pigeon wrapped in the barrier beyond the portal, I looked back to find all my teammates gazing at me with misty eyes.
“What, are you all moved? Let’s get going. We need to eat too.”
After closing the desk portal again, I took the lead and left the room.
* * *
The moment I entered the brightly lit studio, I was seized by the question of whether agreeing to appear on the broadcast had really been the right decision.
“Damn…”
It was blinding.
It felt as if not only my vision but even the inside of my head was turning pure white.
My heart began pounding faster than when I had faced the giant monstrous life-form at the terror site.
But it seemed I was the only one.
Not only the program host and the production crew, but even Freyja were moving around the studio as if the lights didn’t bother them at all.
Everyone seemed used to lights so bright they could bleach your brain.
But this was my first time entering a broadcasting studio, and only then did it sink in that I was going to appear on television.
“Mage, please come this way. This is your seat.”
“Yes, understood.”
Until I entered the studio, I had been busy paying attention to Ren, whom I had brought with me.
The preparation process had been hectic too.
In the waiting room, I first exchanged greetings with Freyja and the production crew, then received makeup while discussing the flow of the broadcast.
It was a live broadcast arranged on short notice and in the format of a free-form conversation, so there was no complete script, but we still had to agree on the general structure and order of questions.
Because it was live, I also had to familiarize myself with the points I needed to be careful about.
“Then we just need to bring in the special guest for the second segment, right?”
“Yes. She’s a witness connected to Vanaheim.”
“Understood. Then the guest can wait here in the green room, and we’ll bring her in when the time comes.”
Although they knew that Ren was the missing person Vanaheim had been searching for, none of the production staff realized Ren’s true identity.
They merely thought she was a lizard person who had undergone biomodification surgery; no one even imagined that she was a hybrid.
That was how rare an existence Ren was.
“Now, the cameras are rolling. Assemblywoman Freyja, Mage Oudin, please look at the front camera. The cue sign will be displayed as numbers on the prompter there.”
Before I knew it, it was time for the broadcast.
In that instant, the lights grew even brighter.
Good heavens. They had already been bright enough that every sweat pore on the bridge of my nose should have been visible, yet they were getting even brighter from there.
My eyes were painfully dazzled and sweat began beading on my forehead, but I had no choice but to open my eyes wide.
The numbers displayed on the prompter were decreasing.
5, 4, 3, 2…