-Even If It Were the Last Supper
* * *
By the time the strategy meeting ended, night had already deepened.
When the Director of the Bureau declared the meeting over, deep sighs broke out here and there.
So much had happened in a single day, and the discussion itself had drained no small amount of energy, leaving everyone utterly exhausted.
“Ah, I’m hungry. Let’s all go get something to eat. I’m dying here.”
Thor said, patting his stomach.
He was probably trying to show that his belly had gone hollow, but to the eye, it honestly did not look very hollow at all.
His firm muscles were flatly refusing to look pitiful.
In any case, it was true that everyone was hungry. They had eaten some light snacks during the meeting, but that was nowhere near enough to fill their stomachs.
“Let’s do that. Let’s hurry up and go eat a late-night meal.”
“Sounds good. But are there any restaurants open this late?”
Heimdall and Balder immediately agreed with Thor’s suggestion. Balder promptly took out his phone and began searching for nearby restaurants.
“Everyone, thank you for all your hard work. Unfortunately, the Bureau still can’t get off work yet. We still have a lot left to do, so we won’t be able to join you for the meal.”
Yu Jaeseon said with a regretful expression.
Sure enough, the other Bureau mages had already begun hurrying out of the conference room as soon as the meeting ended.
It was understandable.
The current situation outside was not that another terrorist attack had occurred, but various chaotic events were still in progress.
They said protests were still breaking out all over the place.
The terrorism carried out by Vanaheim, led by the lizardmen, had been completely suppressed, but an unexpected backlash continued to unfold.
From the people who had eaten the golden apple samples Vanaheim had scattered in the streets and on the airship, to those whose life force had been stolen by pigeons and lizards, they were supposedly stepping forward and staging protests.
Absurdly enough, they were protesting for the golden apples to be released as soon as possible. In other words, protests against the Bureau and the mages stopping Vanaheim.
In the end, Vanaheim had achieved its intended objective through a minor act of terrorism.
At any rate, because of that situation, the Bureau had far more work to do than just managing mages or preventing terrorism.
They had to monitor the movements of the protesters, and they had to wage another public relations war.
Most of the measures proposed during the strategy meeting would also fall to the Bureau to carry out. Things like contacting local mages and coordinating with the police and military.
To begin with, the Bureau was the kind of workplace that tossed things like “work-life balance” to the dogs.
I approached Yu Jaeseon, patted him on the shoulder, and said,
“You’ve got it rough.”
“Not at all. We’re the sort of people who are on standby twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year.”
It was surely not just my imagination that Yu Jaeseon’s smile felt bitter. Just because he was a civil servant didn’t mean he wouldn’t get tired and worn out.
“We’ll have to head straight back to the Hall as well. We need to inform the mages at the Hall of the current situation and hold an internal meeting.”
Han Dosu approached us and said.
The Hall’s middle managers were already leaving the room.
It seemed civil servants were not the only ones suffering from overwork.
“You’re holding another meeting in the middle of the night?”
“We have to. What else can we do? The situation is that grave.”
“Yes. Then we’ll be counting on you.”
In the end, only Thor’s team, our team, and Yantu remained.
As expected, being unaffiliated was the best. It almost felt like only the people with the lightest hearts had been left behind.
Those who remained were filled with the will to eat a late-night meal no matter what, even if it were the last supper.
“How about this restaurant here? It doesn’t seem too far from here.”
“It’s already past closing time. Instead of around here, if we go toward Sinsa-dong, there are lots of places open late. Let’s try over there.”
“Really? There’ll be barbecue restaurants too, right?”
“Of course there will. How could there not be barbecue restaurants in Korea?”
Thor, Heimdall, and Balder put their heads together and worked hard to choose a restaurant.
None of them were Korean, yet somehow they seemed to know more about Korean restaurants than I did.
“Come on, let’s go. Let’s head out first.”
I said to them with a faint laugh.
Just then, Yu Jaeseon returned and handed me a thick envelope.
“What is this?”
“The Director gave it to me. He said it was for your meal.”
“Oh! A cash gift? Thank you!”
Before I could even say anything in response, Cheon Danbi, who was beside me, cheered and snatched the envelope away.
At that sound, everyone gathered around.
“Wow! It’s a cash gift!”
“What’s a cash gift?”
“Money. Money in an envelope. Hahaha!”
“Yes. It’s a cash gift from the Director. It’s a kind of activity expense separate from your raid reward, so please use it freely.”
“So it’s meal money? Wow!”
Thor, who had finally understood what the cash gift meant, let out a cheer. Beside him, Heimdall and Balder shook their hips and danced.
“Please make sure to eat something hearty.”
“Man, I feel bad that we’re the only ones going out to eat.”
“Mage Yu Jaeseon, please hang in there. No matter how busy you are, make sure you eat, and take it easy while you work.”
“I will.”
“Now let’s go!”
We left the Bureau after exchanging noisy farewells.
Once we came out of the building, it was quite chilly. It was a cold that seeped into the bones.
“Brr, it’s cold!”
“Why did it get so cold?”
“It feels like winter suddenly arrived.”
“It’s abnormal weather. It shouldn’t be getting this cold already.”
“I know. It feels like the heat wave was just yesterday.”
Everyone shivered and said something.
The temperature was so low it felt strange. It seemed like we had been suffering from a heat wave until just a short while ago, yet now it had already become this chilly.
It didn’t seem like a natural change of seasons.
They said global warming had now turned into global boiling, but in a way that didn’t match the name at all, winter had become even colder.
But it was not even time for winter yet.
For some reason, it felt like an ill omen, and it bothered me.
“Let’s hurry. Since it’s cold, I want some hot soup.”
“Then should we go for gukbap instead of barbecue?”
“No. Let’s eat meat and gukbap and everything else too.”
We split into several taxis and headed to Sinsa-dong. Somehow, I ended up in the same car as Yantu and Balder.
As we rode along, I could see protests here and there outside the window. Even though it was late, it seemed the protesters had still not dispersed.
“They’re still protesting? Do they want golden apples that badly? They must be incredibly addictive. Now I kind of want to try one too.”
Balder said lightly as he looked out the window.
“That’s dangerous talk! It’s an extremely dangerous thing, so don’t even think about going near it.”
Yantu replied, waving his hands exaggeratedly.
“Have you tried one, Elder?”
“What? Of course I haven’t. I told you, you’ll be in big trouble if you eat one.”
At Balder’s teasing question, Yantu once again waved a clenched fist through the air as though he were about to give him a knuckle rap.
I did not join their frivolous conversation and simply kept staring out the window.
A few protesters even spilled out into the road, forcing the cars to stop.
The police soon pushed the protesters back onto the sidewalk, but they shouted at the police and at the people inside the passing cars.
“Release the golden apples immediately!”
“The citizens are all going to die. Distribute the golden apples for free!”
“Why is the Bureau blocking the golden apples? Hurry up and hand them over!”
“Hand them over!”
“Hand them over right now!”
“Is Vanaheim in league with the government? Why did they stop after distributing them for free?”
Because they were not an organized protest group, but merely individuals gathered haphazardly, they could not even chant slogans in unison.
The crowd was moving this way and that, aimlessly and disorderly.
Some people suddenly rummaged through trash cans and threw recyclables into the road, while others lay spread-eagled on the ground.
People calling for everyone to go to Vanaheim’s headquarters, people calling for everyone to go to the Bureau, people saying they should just raid the factory outright…
It was complete chaos.
“Good grief, what a mess. We went to all that trouble to stop the terrorism and save them, and now look at them…”
Balder shook his head.
It seemed even his desire to try a golden apple had vanished completely now. He continued,
“Vanaheim is probably inciting them on the internet and places like that, right?”
“Probably. Or maybe the addictiveness or mental magic is making them like that.”
Since he seemed to be expecting a response from me, I gave him one. I knew his remark about wanting to try one had been a joke, but I deliberately spoke in a way that heightened his sense of caution.
Then Balder glanced at my face and said with a laugh,
“Ah, come on. I was joking when I said I wanted to try a golden apple. Joking.”
“I see.”
“Mage-nim, please believe me, really.”
“I do.”
In the end, Balder shut his mouth. His face seemed to have turned a little red. He looked embarrassed.
I wondered if my answers had been too curt, but what more was I supposed to say?
Still, I felt slightly sorry that I had not properly responded to Balder’s attempt to converse casually. Should I say one more thing?
Just then, the car suddenly lurched hard.
What was that? For an instant, it felt as though the road had heaved up and down.
“What was that just now?”
“What was what?”
“It shook badly. It felt like the road moved up and down.”
“I’m not sure… Wasn’t it a speed bump?”
At my question, Balder answered as if nothing had happened.
There was no way there would be something like a speed bump on Gangnam-daero.
For a moment I wondered if Balder was taking timid revenge on me, but neither the taxi driver nor Yantu said anything, as though they had not felt the shaking either.
Was I the only one who felt it? In any case, it had only lurched for a moment and quickly returned to normal, so there was no way to find out what it had been.
Perhaps the taxi had run over some trash the protesters had thrown into the road. Surely it hadn’t been a person, right?
There were several people lying on the sidewalk, but not in the road. Now that I looked, the protesters had no particular reaction either.
It did not seem to be anything serious, so I stopped paying attention to it.
“We’ve arrived.”
A little while later, the car stopped, and the taxi driver said that while pressing the meter button.
Through the window, I could see Thor and Heimdall, who had arrived first, along with my team members gathered by the roadside.
I paid the taxi fare and was getting out of the car when I felt the road heave again.
Fortunately or unfortunately, this time I was not the only one who felt it.
“Huh! What is it? Why is it doing this? Is it an earthquake?”
“Could someone be using magic somewhere?”
Balder and Yantu staggered as they got out of the car.
“You definitely felt it this time, right?”
I replied as I grabbed Balder’s arm to steady him.
“Yes. What on earth is going on? It doesn’t feel like an earthquake, though.”
I didn’t know either. It was a peculiar feeling. As if the Earth had suddenly turned into a water pouch and was sloshing around.
With nothing to say in reply, I swiftly extended detection magic around us instead.
I did not detect any magic currently being cast.
The rest of our group gathered over there was also staggering. As if this was not happening only here, I could hear murmuring and what sounded like screams coming from far away, where the protesters had been.
Then it stopped before long. The sloshing tremor did not last long.
All at once, it became silent. Only a cold wind, like the chill of hell, swept past.