-Eradication
I came out of the magical space early in the morning. I hurried so I could get out before Gil woke up. Fortunately, Gil was still asleep.
I looked down at the sleeping Gil. I felt no mana fluctuation.
For now, Gil still couldn’t be called a mage. His mana wasn’t strong enough, nor was he accustomed enough to controlling it, to maintain mana fluctuations even while asleep.
‘When will he fully awaken as a mage?’
Until then, I thought I would have to protect him. It wasn’t just that he was living on the streets—he had now become someone hunted by a biohacker organization.
On top of that, if others learned of this child’s unique mana fluctuation, there might be people who coveted him.
Leaving Gil be, I went out onto the rooftop. The morning air was fresh, though not as fresh as the air inside the magical space.
Even though I had only been inside for a relatively short time before coming out, my body was brimming with vitality. It was thanks to the mana of the space itself.
Had I slept for about two hours? After waking from that short sleep, I had strolled through the garden, eaten, and trained in magic.
When I practiced mana control in a space filled with mana energy, activating mana in the real world felt extremely light.
Simply staying in that space filled my mana on its own, but it was also an unparalleled place for training.
I found myself newly curious about the magical space.
‘It really is mysterious. How does the magical space operate? Who manages it?’
Mana wasn’t the only thing that replenished itself automatically. When I returned, the place had been filled to the brim again with newly prepared delicacies from land and sea.
Not only that, but the house and garden were kept spotless.
I thought of it as a space Oudin had created. But I had no memories regarding the management of the space.
Was there someone else connected to the magical space?
Last night, I had explored the space here and there. After looking around the house and garden, I also set out to explore the area beyond.
Outside the mansion, there were abundant and varied minerals. There were countless materials that dwarves would probably go wild over if they saw them.
There were also living creatures inside the space.
From insects to small animals, a fairly proper ecosystem had formed. It seemed to have a basic food chain.
In other words, the food chain was a chain of mana.
Not even a single tiny insect within the space lacked mana, and the predators that fed on them contained mana of even higher quality.
And at the very top of that food chain was me.
After all, the various foods in the refrigerator were made from the living creatures inside the space.
‘But who hunts and prepares them, and who does the cooking?’
There was no one else in the space. I was the only one there. And yet, even if I didn’t cook or clean, everything was done automatically.
Even if it was a magical space, it was quite fascinating that it operated on its own without me giving any orders.
I decided to look into it gradually. For now, the mere fact that I had the magical space was something to be grateful for.
Caw!
Caw!
The crows flew over. It had only been a day, yet it felt as though it had been a very long time.
“You’re only coming now? Why didn’t you come back last night?”
[Oudin, who is that kid?]
[Why didn’t we come back last night? When we returned at dawn, there was a stranger in the room. And Oudin was nowhere to be seen. So we couldn’t even go inside and had to wander around.]
Hugin asked with his eyes gleaming with curiosity, while Munin put on a needlessly pitiful look and tried to elicit sympathy.
[Did you just come out of the magical space? You left us behind and went in alone? That’s so mean! You didn’t even wait for us?]
[Is that child on our side? Is he a mage?]
Unlike usual, the two of them were each focused on different things as they chattered away, so it felt even noisier.
First, I soothed the one who was whining.
“Sorry. I went in alone, ate my fill, and rested. You two must be hungry too, right?”
[It’s fine. We’re not gluttons like humans.]
[I asked who that kid is.]
I had to answer Hugin’s persistent question as well.
“He’s a younger brother I came to know on the street. Of course he’s on our side. He’s not a mage. You’ll be seeing him often from now on, so get along with him.”
Hugin looked at me as if urging me to explain in more detail, so I briefly told them how I had met Gil.
[Oho. An interesting child. He’s been living on the streets with zombies, you say.]
[Got it. We’ll try to get along with him, so hurry up and introduce us.]
“He’s still asleep. Wait until he wakes up. In the meantime, tell me what’s going on in the world. Did you see or hear anything? What’s the atmosphere out there like?”
At my question, the crows let out something like a sigh.
[It’s complete chaos.]
[Zombies infected with the virus were rampaging all over the place.]
[There were also stories about people seeing strange races, but we haven’t confirmed them.]
[There were monster sightings too.]
[A disaster must be coming.]
[Maybe the black mages are creating a whole bunch of bizarre life-forms.]
[In any case, since chaos is breaking out everywhere now, it must be getting harder to keep it quiet. They say even the news is making a fuss about it.]
I had been listening quietly as the two sent voice transmissions back and forth, but I reacted when they mentioned the news.
“Ah! I should listen to the news.”
It was good to hear news from the crows, but since news existed in modern society, turning on the computer would be faster.
Until not long ago, it had seemed as though information was being blocked, with even the Incheon Port explosion incident being covered up as an accident. But now, it seemed the situation had gone beyond what even the government could suppress.
I quickly went back into the room.
Perhaps he had woken up in the meantime, because Gil was sitting blankly on the mattress.
“You’re up?”
“Yes. Mage-nim, did you sleep well? You couldn’t sleep comfortably because of me, right? Huh? But why are there crows here?”
Seeing the crows following me into the room, Gil’s eyes widened. A smile quickly appeared on his lips.
It seemed he didn’t only like zombies—he liked animals too.
“These are the crows I keep. Their names are Hugin and Munin.”
“Wow! You raise crows? I’ve never seen anyone who raises crows before. I’ve seen someone who raises pigeons, though.”
“Try to get along with them.”
“Hello, crows?”
I left Gil to play with the crows and hurriedly turned on the computer, then opened a news site.
As soon as I played a video, a sharp voice burst out.
“We can’t just leave things like this! We have to take this opportunity to completely eradicate the zombies!”
At that moment, Gil whipped his head around and looked this way. Then he strode over, stood behind me, and peered at the computer screen.
Gil’s face had already darkened to an ashen color.
What was on the news was a street interview.
A man was heatedly insisting on the eradication of zombies. Behind him, a burned-out car could be seen.
Had the zombies set that man’s car on fire? Or had the car burned because of fire magic used in the process of suppressing the zombies?
In any case, if he had seen his own car burning right in front of him, it was understandable that he would be so worked up.
But Gil seemed to think differently.
“Eradicate them… How can he say something like that…?”
Gil’s breathing was rough.
I silently focused on the news.
The footage had now changed to the studio. It was a morning news program holding a discussion with an invited expert.
“As you’ve just seen, many citizens are feeling anxious. Public opinion is also rising that zombies should be swept up on a large scale. Still, the zombies who displayed abnormal behavior and rampaged yesterday have all been subdued, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right. The areas where zombie riots occurred yesterday were Seoul Station, Yeongdeungpo Station, Yeouido Hangang Park, Gangnam Station, Itaewon, and the area in front of Hongdae. They have all been cleared out.”
The places where the zombies had rioted were all areas with heavy foot traffic.
As if someone had deliberately chosen them, the riots had occurred only in busy districts with many witnesses, where it would be difficult to block the news.
“They say mages played a major role in suppressing these riots. In many places, mages appeared before the police even arrived and swiftly completed the eradication, didn’t they?”
“That’s correct. With the exception of Seoul Station, mages cleared out the zombies with fire magic at all the other locations.”
“But I heard the reason the zombies displayed abnormal behavior was because of a virus. In that case, even if the zombies in question were eradicated, could the virus not have already spread?”
“You need not worry about that. According to a thorough investigation by the authorities, the virus that spread among the zombies does not cause illness in humans. And since the zombies were eradicated with fire magic, the virus was also incinerated.”
At that moment, I heard a low groan from behind me.
“Uuugh…”
Gil was shaking his head and groaning. It seemed that simply hearing news about the eradication of zombies was painful for him.
I stopped the video. This much news about the zombie riots seemed sufficient.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes… No. I’m not all right. I feel sorry for the zombies. When humans are sick, they go to the hospital, so why do zombies get burned to death just because they caught a virus?”
I did not answer. No matter what I said, I didn’t think Gil would understand.
[Doesn’t this seem like they’re deliberately creating an issue?]
[Wasn’t the virus nothing much, and they just burned the zombies to death for no reason?]
[Did they create the incident to make the mages look good?]
[Rather than that, it seems like they’re trying to get rid of the zombies.]
The crows were laying out their own opinions. Fortunately, it was through voice transmission, so Gil couldn’t hear them.
Gil was staring at the computer screen with a stiff expression.
I opened another channel. This one, too, was a morning current affairs program being conducted in a studio.
“…There hasn’t been any major chaos in our country yet, but they say disaster-level incidents are occurring in places like the United States and China.”
“That’s correct. Overseas, terrorist attacks by black mages are worsening day by day. But in fact, there are stories that there has also been a terrorist attack by a black mage in our country.”
“Is that true? If it was a black mage’s terrorist attack, that would be an incomparably greater problem than the zombies’ abnormal behavior. What incident was it?”
“They say the explosion at Incheon Port last time was not a simple accident, but a terrorist attack by a black mage.”
“But didn’t the government say it was merely an explosion accident?”
This channel was broadcasting something a little bolder. It was bringing up matters that went beyond the government’s reporting guidelines.
“There were rumors not only of an explosion, but also of abnormal orcs rampaging. But the government did not announce that fact either.”
“Ah, if black mages have begun moving in our country as well, this is no ordinary problem.”
“That’s right. There are even rumors that it wasn’t the work of a single black mage, but that a Magic Tower was involved.”
My ears perked up. The story that the Incheon Port explosion had been the work of Samir and the Magic Tower was bait I had scattered for the Imperial Family. Had they taken the bait?
I became curious whether the name Samir would actually be mentioned on the broadcast.