-Solid Allies
* * *
The next morning, as I left home, I quietly pressed my ear to the front door of Gil’s place.
It was silent. I couldn’t hear a thing.
Still uneasy, I extended my detection and checked inside, where I sensed mana flowing gently.
It seemed Gil was quietly training.
Only after confirming the stable, concentric ripples of mana did I finally feel relieved and leave the house.
“Mage Oudin, thank you for coming. This way, please.”
When I arrived at the Administration Bureau, I was guided from the lobby by an employee who had been waiting for me and headed to the conference room.
But for some reason, the atmosphere in the Bureau seemed unsettled.
“Did something happen?”
“There’s been a disturbance. Or should I call it a protest? The zombies were shaken by what happened yesterday and are holding a demonstration.”
In that short time, a new situation had already unfolded.
They said that since early morning, zombies had gathered in droves at Gwanghwamun Square.
Apparently, every intact zombie who hadn’t been arrested or killed had gathered there, to the point that Gwanghwamun Square wasn’t enough and even the streets leading toward City Hall were packed.
The zombies must have seen the video that spread across the internet yesterday. Some of them must have witnessed it with their own eyes as well.
After watching their fellow zombies burn to death in a mage’s fire magic, there was no way they wouldn’t be swept up in anger and fear.
No matter how much they had lived like ghosts of the streets, the zombies could no longer stay still.
“The number of zombies is increasing by the minute! They say Cheonggyecheon and Euljiro are packed too.”
“We won’t have enough police forces, will we? Should we mobilize the military?”
“No, it’s too early for the military. That’ll only provoke the zombies for no reason.”
“Then I’ll have the regional riot police sent up.”
“Hurry! If we can’t suppress this quickly, it’s going to become a massive headache.”
As I passed by the situation room, the urgency in the air was palpable.
Still, I thought it was fortunate that they weren’t immediately dispatching mages and were responding to it as a protest.
But the mood among the people wasn’t exactly favorable.
“Ah, what a pain. What if the zombies go crazy again and attack people?”
“That probably won’t happen. The zombies gathered now are all in a normal state. The ones showing abnormal behavior were all subdued yesterday.”
“How do you know that? You can’t even tell just by looking.”
“They’re holding the protest in a fairly orderly manner. They’re not just rioting blindly…”
“That’s how it starts. Then a protest turns into a riot, then terrorism. You can’t think of zombies the same way you think of humans.”
Even the employees who hadn’t been deployed were talking about the zombies.
But their words carried not only worry, but also disgust.
They weren’t taking the protest simply as a protest; they were already exaggerating it into a riot or terrorism. Underneath it all was the assumption that the zombies’ reason couldn’t be trusted.
If even the Bureau employees were like this, ordinary people would be worse.
“This is the room. Please go in.”
The employee guiding me pointed to the conference room door.
“Yes. Thank you.”
As I opened the door to the conference room, I set aside my thoughts about the zombies for the time being.
Because of Gil, I kept paying attention to the zombies, but in any case, that was something for the Bureau and the police to handle.
For me—and for the mages—there was something else that had to be done right away.
We had to face the Magic Tower and Vanaheim head-on.
When I entered the conference room, familiar faces greeted me.
“Mage Oudin, welcome.”
Yu Jaeseon, who had formed the investigation team and would be presiding over the meeting from now on, was the first to greet me, and beside him, Director Park Hongguk lightly raised a hand in greeting.
“Welcome.”
Han Dosu of the Hall nodded and spoke calmly.
“Oudin! Have you been well? Good to see you again! We’re here. We decided to join the Magic Tower investigation team too!”
As if a cheerful greeting wasn’t enough, the person who quickly came over and enveloped me in a firm hug was Thor.
Since I had to pry off his bear-like bulk, I had no choice but to greet Thor first.
“Thor, you’re still in Korea? Didn’t you say you were going back home?”
“I haven’t left yet. We all stayed here.”
Behind Thor stood Heimdall and Balder as well. The two smiled brightly and waved.
“You all didn’t leave?”
“After the Incheon terror attack, we decided to stay in Korea a little longer. Once I thought about the world’s greatest mage being here in Korea, I couldn’t bring myself to leave.”
“The world’s greatest mage? Who’s that?”
“Wait, are you asking because you really don’t know? Oudin, it’s you!”
“That’s an exaggeration…”
“It’s not an exaggeration. It’s the truth! Do you think there’s another mage in the world who can use space magic that freely?”
There was Thor’s specialty: exaggerating and laying it on thick.
I let out a small laugh and turned my gaze to the others.
“Things in Norway are all right these days. I thought I’d have a lot to learn from you, so I decided to stay in Korea.”
“The situation in England isn’t very good, but I told them I’d study space magic before returning. Please teach me a thing or two.”
Heimdall and Balder spoke in turn.
As if the three of them had agreed on it beforehand, they were all using me as their excuse.
In any case, it was welcome news. The three of them had experience clearing a place with me, so they were mages I could trust.
Besides, right now, Korea was in a situation where even one more mage was precious.
If they joined the investigation team, they were more than welcome.
“I asked Mage Thor myself. We showed excellent teamwork back in Neo Forest last time, didn’t we? Since Thor’s detection skills are so outstanding, I asked him to join the Magic Tower investigation team. Though I didn’t expect two more mages to come along as a one-plus-two package.”
Han Dosu spoke with a joke mixed in, unlike his usual self.
At that, everyone burst into quiet laughter.
“That’s excellent. I’m simply grateful. Then is everyone here now? Shall we begin the meeting?”
I asked as I went to the table and took a seat.
Then Yu Jaeseon, who had been looking at his tablet, raised his head and looked toward the door.
“Ah, yes. However, there is still one person who hasn’t arrived yet…”
Before Yu Jaeseon could finish speaking, the conference room door opened as if someone had been waiting for that very moment, and a dwarf entered carrying a large piece of machinery.
Breathing heavily, he was none other than Yantu.
“Yantu?”
Yantu set the machine down on the floor, swept his gaze around the conference room, winked at me with one eye, and opened his mouth.
“Oh my, mages. How do you do? My name is Yantu.”
It was an attitude completely different from how he usually treated me. He even bent at the waist and greeted everyone with utmost politeness.
“What? Don’t tell me Old Man Yantu is joining the investigation team too?”
“Don’t tell you? Hah! What a rude thing to say. The Administration Bureau said they needed our dwarven detection equipment. So what could I do? I had to help. Besides, it’d be a shame for dwarves to be left out of a war against dark mages.”
His attitude toward me, however, had not changed at all.
His uninhibited informal speech, and that boldness that suggested he had no fear of mages whatsoever. It was definitely Yantu.
At Yantu’s unique way of speaking, with its comical accent, the mages all quietly smiled.
“I was the one who requested his help. I heard Elder Yantu’s equipment and detection skills are the best in the industry.”
Yu Jaeseon said with a smile.
“Good. Glad you came, Old Man Yantu. Show us what you can really do this time.”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it. I’ve upgraded my detection equipment again. Just you wait and see!”
Perhaps because the tension had eased, Yantu’s manner of speaking became even more comical, and this time everyone couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.
As I looked one by one at the people laughing in the conference room, my mood lifted.
It felt very good from the start.
We had gathered for a serious meeting, but I liked the atmosphere, where people could open up and laugh.
It was likely only possible because everyone trusted one another.
Not only were they all people I knew, they were also people I could trust.
I no longer had to fight alone. I could fight alongside them. That feeling welled up inside me on its own.
Thinking that such reliable people would stand with me as allies from now on made me feel reassured and grounded.
“Then shall we begin the meeting?”
At Yu Jaeseon’s announcement, everyone erased their smiles and focused.
After briefly introducing the people gathered there, he asked me to give an outline.
“First, Mage Oudin, please explain the mission the investigation team will be undertaking from now on.”
“Yes. The reason we formed the Magic Tower investigation team is because, in order to assault the Magic Tower, it seems we must conduct an investigation first. The problem is that even mages currently cannot see the Magic Tower at all.”
I calmly continued my explanation.
Attacking a space that could not be seen was no different from fighting with one of your senses cut off.
So the first thing we had to do was make the Magic Tower’s space visible.
Making it visible from the outside wasn’t actually that difficult.
Just as I had teamed up with Yu Jaeseon during the Amoeba terror incident to catch Vanaheim’s dark mage, all we had to do was dye the mana waves and display them.
Of course, the space magic comprising the Magic Tower was incomparable to An Seokju’s magic in complexity and precision, so making it visible wouldn’t be simple. Still, if we seriously searched for gaps in the space magic, it shouldn’t be impossible.
“But even if we succeed in making it visible, that will only be the exterior. In the end, we have to go inside.”
The more important mission of the investigation team would begin after visualization. We had to accurately understand the interior of the Magic Tower’s space.
What kind of barriers protected it, what traps were lurking there, how many floors it had and how many rooms in total—we had to find all of it out.
Only when we understood it well enough to draw an internal map would the combat mages be able to infiltrate the Magic Tower with confidence afterward.
“The investigation will not be easy. From what I’ve determined so far, the Magic Tower is a space formed from high-level space magic. It is not a physically fixed space, but rather a space that both exists there and does not exist there. Like Schrödinger’s cat, its existence is only precisely determined when someone observes it.”
“Good grief, what in the world does that mean? To put it simply, are you saying the Magic Tower appears and disappears?”
Yantu honestly expressed his difficulty in understanding.
Looking around, I saw that everyone else, just like Yantu, wore expressions that said they didn’t understand at all.
“For now, you can understand it that way. That is why we need the investigation team. We must observe that place first and fix our gaze on it with magic.”
Just as I finished saying that, there came a knock at the conference room door.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward the door.
Yu Jaeseon quickly approached it.
“What is it? I’m sure I told you not to interrupt, as this is an important meeting…”
“I’m sorry. But the department chief said this news had to be relayed.”
“What news?”