-Golden Apple-
My detection magic hadn’t picked up anything unusual. At the very least, no magician with high magical power was lingering nearby.
That meant there wasn’t much to be on guard about.
If it wasn’t magic, it wasn’t my place to step in.
Even if someone had intruded, if they were an ordinary person, Yantu and the locals here would handle it themselves.
Even if the police had come, this was the dwarf district, so it was better for them to step in and resolve it.
“Could it be people from Banaheim?”
Ren asked in a trembling voice.
“Well. If they asked me to track you down while tailing me, that would essentially be a confession that they’d intended to use me as bait from the very beginning.”
If that were the case, I couldn’t just sit still. It would be no different from Banaheim picking a fight with me.
Of course, I had accepted the commission while keeping that possibility in mind.
I recalled Handain’s face.
Handain would have known full well what kind of characteristics Ren possessed and what role she had played at the Banaheim research facility.
Yet he had lied to me about everything and entrusted me with the commission.
*What wicked people. I’ll gratefully keep the commission fee. As payment for protecting Ren.*
Banaheim’s dark secrets were in my hands. I planned to hold onto them and use Banaheim as much as I could in return.
Just then, Yantu returned home.
“What happened?”
“Nothing much. Something got caught in the barrier, just as I thought. Nothing to worry about.”
Yantu shook his head and replied casually.
“What got caught in the barrier?”
“A drone.”
“A drone?”
“Yeah. My guess was right. Those Banaheim bastards were following you, Magician. Since you’re skilled at detection magic, they sent a drone from far away.
You came here and didn’t come out for hours, so they must’ve been frustrated. They boldly tried to bring the drone closer, but it got caught in our barrier, and—boom! It died a glorious death.”
Yantu giggled as he explained the situation.
I was secretly furious. Now it was certain that they had used me as bait.
Was this what it meant to be a massive corporation—thinking so little of a single magician that they could use me as a tool without a care?
“So the drone was smashed? But if it was a drone, wouldn’t it have transmitted video in real-time?”
“What are you talking about! Did you think the barrier of our dwarf district was that simple? It blocks both sound and visuals completely. It’s an ironclad defense. They wouldn’t have been able to transmit anything, so don’t worry. The security of our dwarf district is enough to make even the Pentagon weep!”
Yantu waved his hand dismissively and said with a face full of pride.
It seemed a bit of an exaggeration, but I didn’t feel the need to point it out. Either way, that was a relief.
“You’re sure?”
“Of course. The drone died a glorious death, but I checked all its memory and data, so I’m certain. All those Banaheim bastards saw was the barrier of the dwarf district.”
“And you’re sure it was sent by Banaheim?”
“Obviously. It’s not like there are many people eager to spy on our dwarf district. Maybe they wanted to show off—the company logo was plastered right on the drone.”
“Humans with no equal in arrogance.”
The drone must have followed me all the way here. When and where had it started tracking me?
Had it been since I left home this morning? Even so, since it hadn’t been caught by my detection magic, they must have tracked my movements from very far away.
I had stopped by Chinatown, performed detection on the street, met Yantu, and come here. Until then, Ren hadn’t been with me, so even if they had monitored me with a drone, it wouldn’t have mattered.
I mulled it over for a moment, then spoke to Yantu.
“I need to come up with a story.”
“What? A story?”
“Anyway, Banaheim knows I stayed here for several hours. So I need to prepare a reason to explain it away.”
“Ah, I see. Well, couldn’t you just say we ran into each other on the street and I invited you here?”
Yantu tilted his head and said. That seemed to be the extent of the story he could come up with.
“Invited me here and locked me in an underground cell?”
At my words, Yantu let out an awkward laugh.
“Hehe. You don’t still hold a grudge against me or anything, right? Don’t worry—whether by drone or whatever, they couldn’t see what happened at Central Square. We’ve always had thorough defenses. We don’t allow spying by magical or mechanical means.”
“Yeah, good. Even if they couldn’t see anything, they still know I was here, so I need a plausible excuse…… Hmm. That should work.”
“That?”
As I looked around and fixed my gaze on one spot, Yantu opened his eyes wide and followed my gaze.
There sat the magical power detection equipment that Yantu had been testing earlier.
“What’s that?”
“Give that to me. Let’s say I came to the dwarf district to purchase equipment.”
“Give it to you? You don’t mean for free, right?”
Yantu’s eyes grew even wider. It seemed to be quite expensive equipment.
“What, you don’t want to?”
“No. It’s not that, but……”
“Just lend it to me. As you know, I have absolutely no need for that equipment. I can detect things with magic, so why would I need it?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“I only intend to pretend to carry it out for an alibi. I’ll return it later, so don’t worry.”
“Then let’s do that.”
Though he looked extremely reluctant, Yantu nodded half-heartedly. It seemed my words about why a magician like me would need detection equipment had persuaded him.
That wasn’t entirely the truth. Of course, I wasn’t going to use the equipment, but I planned to take it and study it.
It was quite an impressive device, and I had been disappointed that I hadn’t been able to analyze it earlier.
“Well, I should get going now. If I stay too long, their suspicions will deepen.”
“Yeah. That would be best.”
I turned to look at Ren. While Yantu and I had discussed the situation, she had listened quietly.
Her face still showed lingering anxiety.
“What do you plan to do, Ren? I think it would be best for you not to leave the dwarf district for the time being. Yantu, what do you think? Will it be alright for Ren to stay here?”
“Of course. Where would she go? The surveillance might catch up to her again. This is the safest place.”
Then Ren bowed her head to us and said.
“Thank you so much. Magician, Elder Yantu. If it weren’t for the two of you, I don’t know what would have happened to me…… I will never forget this kindness.”
“What kindness? People help each other; that’s just how we live. Ren looks like a dwarf right now, no matter who looks at her. So us dwarves will definitely protect her.”
I was nearly moved to tears by Yantu’s words. Seeing him speak like that, I felt I could trust him.
Ren bowed her head repeatedly, expressing her gratitude.
“Elder Yantu, thank you. I’m so grateful to both of you.”
“Stay hidden here for a while. I’ll go back and try to divert Banaheim’s attention elsewhere. Leave Banaheim to me. They touched me, so I won’t sit still either.”
Just as I said that, Ren suddenly raised her head as if she had thought of something.
“Magician, if things become difficult because of Banaheim, I have some information that could be used to strike against them.”
“Information to strike against Banaheim?”
“Yes. Banaheim is a renowned and respected conglomerate in Korea. But behind the scenes, they’re doing suspicious things. If this information is leaked to the press, it will be a blow to them.”
My ears perked up.
Honestly, if I wanted to attack Banaheim for their evil deeds, the fact that they had bought me and were experimenting on me would be enough. But that information was difficult to use openly. To expose that matter, I would have to reveal myself.
But there was other information?
“What is it?”
“While going to and from the Banaheim research facility and undergoing experiments, I tried to observe as much as I could. In case I needed to use it someday. That’s how I found out—Banaheim seems to have joined hands with a black magician.”
“They joined hands with a black magician?”
I asked back in surprise.
In this world, black magicians were public enemies.
If Banaheim had joined hands with a black magician, it was no ordinary matter. Illegal experiments would seem like a minor issue in comparison.
“I overheard some researchers talking. It was when my biorhythm was going haywire from the side effects of the experiment, so they must have thought I had lost consciousness. They were talking right next to me as I lay on the experiment table.”
“What were they saying?”
“They said that during the prototype clinical trials, the people from the Magic Tower experienced the same side effects. But somehow, the black magician from the Magic Tower saved the dying people.”
“What? A black magician from the Magic Tower? There’s a Magic Tower in Korea too? And Banaheim is working with them on experiments? This is no ordinary information.”
Yantu said this and whistled. He seemed genuinely surprised.
It seemed that the existence of a Magic Tower within Korea was definitely information that most people didn’t know.
While the Incheon Port explosion had made it clear that black magicians had begun operating in our country as well, the news that a major corporation was working with a Magic Tower to carry out some scheme was surprising even to me.
On the other hand, my heart was racing. Perhaps if I dug deeper starting from this information, I might get one step closer to Samir.
Of course, there was still no evidence that the Magic Tower Banaheim had joined hands with was Samir’s Magic Tower.
“Did you by any chance hear the black magician’s name or the location of the Magic Tower?”
“I couldn’t hear that far. The researchers didn’t seem to know specific details about the black magician either. They were only talking about the experiment results.”
“What was the prototype that underwent clinical trials?”
“The Golden Apple.”
“Golden Apple? Isn’t that what grows in Neo Forest?”
Yantu tilted his head and asked back with a bewildered face.
I was briefly bewildered as well.
I knew of the Golden Apple of Neo Forest from Odin’s memories.
In the center of Namsan in this world, there was no Seoul Tower, but rather a gigantic, sacred tree—the World Tree.
Around the World Tree, a dense forest had formed—that very forest was Neo Forest.
Neo Forest was a place abundant with magical power, where mystical plants grew, and last year, Golden Apples had borne fruit there.
A mystical fruit containing tremendous magical power. According to legend, eating a Golden Apple granted one eternal life.
“The real Golden Apples came from Neo Forest. The Golden Apple I’m talking about now is the name of a health supplement prototype that Banaheim is developing. They said it was a groundbreaking product that would realize the dream of eternal life.”
As the word “eternal life” kept appearing alongside “Golden Apple,” alarm bells rang loudly inside me.
The infinity pentagon, the symbol of Samir’s cult that signified eternal life, came to mind.
I had seen the mark of the infinity pentagon in this world as well—from that old black magician at Incheon Port.
Now, I had a strong feeling that the Golden Apple experiments were related to Samir’s Magic Tower.
Samir had yet to reveal himself in this world, but he was undoubtedly lurking somewhere.