-Sinkhole
Unfortunately, Samir’s name never made it onto the broadcast. The hosts suddenly started playing it safe.
“Wait a moment. I think it would be inappropriate to state unverified rumors as fact on the air. Among the rumors going around, there were even claims that someone had seen a monster. But upon verification, those turned out to be mistaken.”
“Ah, of course. I was merely saying that such rumors existed as well. Haha!”
They had only tested the waters, and then it ended anticlimactically.
I had hoped the name Samir would be mentioned on air and drift from mouth to mouth for the whole world to hear.
If that had happened, there would have been some kind of reaction. Samir would no longer have been able to remain hidden in the dark.
I let out a shallow sigh.
In the video, the discussion was moving in a new direction.
“Let’s return to the zombie incident. Due to the zombies’ abnormal behavior, public opinion is rising that the residences of other races should be restricted. In the case of zombies, some are even saying they should be completely isolated and housed separately.”
“That’s right. Public anxiety is growing. Aren’t the dwarves already living only within restricted zones? I believe there was a problem with simply leaving zombies to live out on the streets.”
Beside me, I could sense Gil tensing up again.
After suppression and extermination, now it was isolation and confinement. The flow was not good.
At the same time, it struck me as strange. If zombies had been accepted as immigrants because they had some utility, shouldn’t the government not be allowing this kind of public sentiment to go unchecked?
As if to answer my question, a politician appeared on the broadcast.
“To discuss this issue in depth, we have invited a guest to join us here. It is none other than the elf National Assembly member, Ms. Freyja.”
The screen brightened as though new lights had suddenly been switched on in the studio. The elf’s face appeared in close-up.
A woman of eye-opening beauty—Freyja, the elf National Assembly member of the Republic of Korea.
Freyja exchanged greetings with the panelists and immediately began to speak.
“Hello. I’m Freyja. I believe the very term ‘other races’ should now disappear. What need is there to distinguish one another? We are all living as members of this country. Elves and zombies alike are full citizens who have obtained citizenship in the Republic of Korea.”
“You’re absolutely right. Earth is no longer a place for humans alone. But isn’t a zombie rampage a rather difficult issue? What are your thoughts on that, Ms. Freyja?”
“Although sick zombies did cause a disturbance, wasn’t it ultimately only zombies who died? Not a single zombie harmed a human.”
As befitted a politician, Freyja’s way with words was smooth.
Still, I had assumed that elves, being a race close to the privileged class, would not take the side of zombies, who could be called the lower class. It was unexpected.
Of course, she surely had some political motive of her own.
“Wow! She really is saying nothing but the truth. So our country had a National Assembly member like that!”
Gil, who had been listening quietly, exclaimed in admiration. The kid was staring fixedly at Freyja on the screen with eyes that looked as though he were being sucked in. It was almost as if he had fallen for her.
The people in the studio were not much different. Everyone was nodding along to Freyja’s words.
Even the man who had been voicing an opposing opinion just moments ago was looking at Freyja with an expression of deep agreement.
Seeing it now, it didn’t seem like the reason they all felt such agreement was solely due to Freyja’s eloquence.
‘Could Freyja be using mind magic?’
I immediately activated my golden vision. One must not take the elves’ smooth words at face value. They were skilled in mind magic.
As expected, when I looked at Freyja through my golden vision, I sensed waves of mana.
Since I was not seeing her in person but through a screen, I could not be completely certain, but it seemed unmistakable that Freyja was using magic.
‘Why go so far as to use mind magic……?’
While I was sinking into thought in puzzlement, the screen suddenly changed, and breaking news came on.
An urgent voice poured out.
“We bring you breaking news just in! A massive sinkhole has occurred in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. It is near Seolleung Station.
Citizens passing nearby, please evacuate immediately. Subway service has currently been suspended. Traffic around the site is also being controlled.”
Behind the reporter, the background image was shaking chaotically.
A moment later, the camera showed the sinkhole. The ground had caved in around the subway station. It was a sinkhole so enormous that the entire area was collapsing.
“As you can see, a massive sinkhole has formed, large enough that the subway station itself has sunk. Cars and even buses passing through this area have been swallowed up. Erosion is still continuing even now!”
Footage taken by a drone appeared on the screen. Looking down from above made it even clearer just how horrific the scene was.
A deep, enormous hole was visible at a glance. Inside it, buses and cars that had been sucked in were tangled together, with only their ends barely visible.
“My goodness! What on earth is that?”
Gil cried out in shock and scooted closer to the screen.
[Good grief! Has the black mage’s terrorism finally begun?]
[Phew. What a mess. But judging by the size of that hole, isn’t something coming up from underground?]
The crows also could not take their eyes off the screen and chattered noisily.
I had activated my golden vision to examine Freyja’s mind magic, and I was still watching the screen in that state.
But then something astonishing was reflected in that golden vision.
‘No! That’s……?’
I could see a magic circuit spread widely around the sinkhole. The magic circuit stretching out radially was in the shape of layered pentagons overlapping one another.
An infinite pentagon. I thought I knew who the black mage who had created the sinkhole was.
The old mage who had caused the Incheon Port explosion surfaced in my mind.
Even if it was not him, it had to be a black mage connected to Samir, at the very least.
“I have to go there.”
When I sprang up from my seat and said that, Gil stood up after me and replied.
“Mage, I’ll go with you. I’m curious what that living creature inside the sinkhole is.”
“What? A living creature?”
I asked Gil back, wondering what he meant, and at that very moment, the news began talking about a strange life-form.
“We have received new information! News has come in from citizens inside the subway station that has collapsed into the sinkhole, and they say an unidentified strange life-form has appeared inside the sinkhole!”
I was more than a little surprised. What surprised me was not the fact that a strange life-form had appeared, but that Gil had noticed it first.
Even I, who had been examining the scene with golden vision, had failed to detect the presence of a living creature.
It was underground, so it had not appeared on the screen at all…….
“How did you know?”
“Just…….”
Gil tilted his head and hesitated over his answer.
In that instant, I sensed waves of mana flowing from Gil. The waves spread out in concentric circles toward the computer screen.
“I felt like that living creature was calling me.”
Gil said, pointing at the screen with his finger.
The screen showing the collapsed subway station was shaking chaotically, and no matter how I looked, I could not see any sign of a living creature.
Perhaps Gil’s ability was far more remarkable than I had guessed.
“……A military special forces unit has just arrived. Mages who were nearby are also said to have been dispatched. The most urgent priority is the rescue of citizens inside the subway station…….”
At that moment, the video suddenly cut off. It seemed something had happened at the scene. I turned off the computer and said to Gil,
“All right. Let’s go together.”
“Yes!”
The site would clearly be dangerous, and taking Gil there might be reckless, but in order to confirm Gil’s ability, it seemed we had no choice but to go to the scene.
‘I can just protect him.’
As I strode down the rooftop stairs, I thought how nice it would be to have a car.
If we wanted to get to Seolleung Station quickly, we would have no choice but to catch a taxi.
But when I had gone all the way down the stairs, I saw a black SUV parked right up against the front of the house.
The car door opened, and Han Da-in stepped out.
“Mage Oudin, hello.”
“What brings you here?”
“I was curious whether there had been any progress on the matter I requested.”
“It’s only been two days.”
“In a missing person case, the golden time is important, isn’t it? We still don’t even know whether the missing person is alive or dead, so wouldn’t I be in a hurry?”
Han Da-in said it with perfect nonchalance. She knew full well that Ren had run away of his own accord, yet she was talking about the golden time.
“I don’t have anything worth reporting yet. More importantly, I have somewhere I need to go urgently, so let’s talk later.”
I also had many things I wanted to ask Han Da-in. But to dig into Vanaheim’s experiments related to Ren and the golden apples, I needed to approach the matter intelligently.
Most of all, going to the sinkhole site was the urgent matter right now.
I turned away, ignoring Han Da-in, but she continued as if to stop me.
“You went to the dwarf district on Wolmido yesterday.”
I turned my head and looked at Han Da-in. My eyebrow rose on its own.
“Were you tailing me? Why? After entrusting me with the job, you didn’t find me reliable?”
“Tailing you? Of course not. One of our team members said they happened to see you, Mage. They saw you coming out of Wolmido.”
Han Da-in waved her hands briskly and tried to gloss over it.
The excuse was so sloppy and the acting so awkward that I almost laughed.
“A team member just happened to be passing in front of Wolmido and saw me? I went to the dwarf district to buy equipment. If you’re suspicious, feel free to follow me around again. For now, I’m busy, so lend me your car.”
I gave the answer I had prepared without much sincerity and swiftly snatched the car key Han Da-in was holding.
“What? No, what are you doing right now?”
“Let me borrow it just for today. If a major corporation like Vanaheim commissioned me, you can provide this much support, can’t you? Am I wrong?”
While Han Da-in was flustered, I quickly got into the car. I also told Gil, who was standing blankly beside me, to hurry up and get in.
Though Gil watched Han Da-in’s reaction, he immediately climbed into the car.
“Where are you going?”
“Didn’t you watch the news?”
“The news? No, don’t tell me you’re going there right now…… No, you really are? You’re saying you’re going to take this car to the sinkhole site right now?”
Han Da-in shouted, tapping on the car window.
I started the engine and replied.
“I’m still a mage in name, aren’t I? Shouldn’t I go and rescue people?”
“Wait! Why would you go there? The ground is collapsing there right now! Cars are falling in and everything!”
Leaving behind Han Da-in, who was shouting and fuming, I hurriedly stepped on the accelerator.
The car drove very smoothly.