-A New Request
I immediately went out to the entrance.
Outside the door, Handain was standing with her phone pressed to her ear. The moment she saw me, she lowered it and fired off a barrage of words.
“What? You were home? Then why didn’t you answer your phone? I’ve called you so many times since earlier. I came on a whim wondering if you might be here, and here you are coming out of the house?”
“I attended a meeting at the Hall of Magic and just got back. I turned my phone off for the conference.”
With Gil’s disappearance weighing on my nerves, having to deal with Handain was irritating.
But I couldn’t just ignore her completely. After all, I had taken on Banaheim’s work, and on top of that, I had taken her car without permission yesterday.
“But why don’t I see the car? There was no car outside, so I didn’t even expect the Wizard to be home. It’s a relief that you were.”
As expected, Handain brought up the car first.
Feeling guilty, I tamped down my irritation and answered.
“The car I borrowed broke down a bit yesterday, so I left it for repairs. I’ll return it once the repairs are finished. I’m sorry.”
“It broke down? No surprise. I didn’t think you’d return it in one piece after driving it straight to a monster outbreak. It’s fine. You don’t even have to return the car. By the way, you were really incredible yesterday? They say you took down that monster all by yourself, Wizard?”
Handain responded coolly to the car news without a hint of surprise, then praised my exploits from the day before.
“I don’t have to return the car?”
“It’s a company car. I’ll file some paperwork saying the Wizard needed it for the job. Get it fixed and use it comfortably.”
Even if it was a company car, could she really tell me to use it however I pleased?
I couldn’t tell whether I should marvel at how nice major corporations were, or marvel at how incredible Handain’s clout was.
Then again, she might have some other ulterior motive.
Seeing Handain smiling so brightly somehow made me even more suspicious.
Just as I was wondering what she could want badly enough to come all the way to my house, and was about to ask her business, Gil’s voice drifted up from below.
“Wizard! Are you back?”
I hurriedly leaned over the railing and looked down. Gil was standing side by side with the landlady in front of the first-floor entrance.
It seemed they had come out after hearing me and Handain talking outside.
‘What? He was at the landlady’s place this whole time?’
My worried heart melted away, and I felt relieved.
“You were there?”
I asked simply, but Gil seemed to realize from my expression that I had been looking for him. He answered with an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry. I was going to stay quietly at home, but the grandmother came up and said she’d show me the second-floor room.”
“That’s right. I told him to take a look at the room. Oh my, we didn’t even know the Wizard had come back.”
Perhaps worried that I might scold Gil, even the landlady stepped in to defend him.
“Is that so. Good job. So, do you like the room?”
“Yes. I like it very much.”
“Good. Stay there with Grandmother a bit longer. I need to talk with my guest.”
“Yes. Please go ahead.”
I told Gil to stay there because Handain concerned me. I didn’t like Gil being exposed to anyone who wasn’t on friendly terms with me, whether it was Handain or anyone else.
Was this what it felt like to be protective? Someone might call it overprotective, but that was how I felt regardless.
It was by no means a safe world.
“Who is it?”
“Let’s talk over there.”
Pretending not to hear Handain’s question about Gil, I led her to the roof behind the rooftop room.
There was no parasol or anything, but with a couple of chairs and a table, it was space enough for a conversation.
“Wow! The view here is incredible? You can see for miles in every direction!”
Handain poured out exclamations of admiration.
It was a view overlooking downtown Seoul—from the nearby Hall of Magic to the distant Namsan World Tree—so it was worth the admiration. In terms of view alone, my home was no less than a penthouse.
I sat down first, settling into a chair. Handain circled the roof once and then sat opposite me.
Having confirmed that Gil was safe, I was ready to talk with Handain in a much more relaxed frame of mind.
“So what brings you here today? I suppose you didn’t come to ask if there’d been progress on the job already……?”
“Of course not. I watched on the news yesterday where the Wizard was and what you were doing.”
“Then what is it? Have you come to rush me?”
“I’d like to place one more new request with you.”
The business Handain finally brought up was unexpected.
“A new request? I haven’t even finished the missing person tracking case yet.”
“Please continue with that as well, but there’s something else I’d like to ask. I know the Ren tracking case won’t be easy. It’s such a tricky matter that progress won’t be smooth.
Our employees are also tracking that case, not just you, so we’ll get results somehow soon enough.”
I looked straight into Handain’s eyes.
This woman had lied to me from the very beginning, and her request to track Ren had ultimately been a ploy to use me as bait.
And now she was saying something no different from telling me to back off because the company would handle the Ren case.
What on earth was she scheming?
“What is this new request?”
“I’m sorry, but for this matter, I can only tell you the details after you sign a contract with Banaheim. It’s a top-secret matter.”
“You want me to sign a contract before I even know the contents? Who would accept a request like that?”
It was absurd. I wondered what kind of trick this was now.
But it was also true that being offered a top-secret job piqued my curiosity.
“The contract won’t be suspicious in itself. It will just be a standard contract with a confidentiality clause. The job isn’t that difficult, and the compensation will be very generous.
There is one thing I can tell you about the job. It’s related to the Banaheim Chairman.”
The bait was excellent.
She was tempting me not with money, but with the fact that it was related to the Banaheim Chairman.
Instead of answering immediately, I stared intently at Handain.
“It’s a job that requires a Wizard of outstanding ability. You sufficiently demonstrated your ability yesterday by subjugating the tentacle monster.
To be honest, we would also like to have Wizard Odin as Banaheim’s exclusive wizard, but I suppose you wouldn’t want that?”
“I’m satisfied as a freelance wizard.”
“Yes. I thought as much. However, please take the request. You don’t have to answer immediately, so please consider it.
If you feel inclined to sign the contract, contact me and visit Banaheim. We truly wish to have Wizard Odin.”
Handain must be an employee quite recognized for her abilities at the company. She was skilled and seasoned at headhunting.
Her attitude was impressively precise—she didn’t hesitate to lie for business, yet she never said more than necessary.
But of course, I wasn’t someone who would fall for such things.
I was sick and tired of people loyal to organizations, and I despised them.
An attitude of willingly jumping into a fire pit alongside an organization looked like nothing but pure foolishness to me.
However, even so, Handain’s proposal was drawing me in.
My heart was telling me that if I wanted to dig into Banaheim and find out what they were doing behind the scenes with the Black Wizard, I had to accept this proposal.
“You heard Yasin’s broadcast, right?”
I tossed out an off-topic question. I wanted to see Handain’s reaction to Yasin, the Black Wizard.
“Yes? If you mean Yasin’s broadcast, you’re referring to the Black Wizard’s terror warning, correct? I was driving, so I couldn’t watch it directly; I heard about it.”
Handain seemed flustered for a moment but instantly hid her confusion and answered calmly.
It was something an ordinary person would have reacted to with great fuss. Everyone who had seen Yasin’s broadcast was terrified.
Handain’s calm reaction was even more suspicious. It was also just as I had expected.
“He announced that he would send out more monsters from now on. Whether that’s true or not, wizards are going to be extremely busy. If terror attacks occur, they have to fight.
Even if they don’t happen immediately, a state of alert must be maintained. I’ve also decided to work with the Hall of Magic regarding the Black Wizard’s terrorism.”
“So you’re saying you won’t have time? But the job we’re requesting won’t take much time. Though in times like these, I suppose everyone will be trying to recruit you.
Please know this. Banaheim will offer you the best treatment possible. I sincerely hope you’ll consider it favorably.”
“Understood. I’ll consider it.”
“Thank you. Please give me an answer within a few days. It’s an urgent matter. I’ll wait for your contact.”
Handain gave a slight bow and immediately stood up.
I waited until she had gone all the way down the stairs, gotten into her car, and left before going downstairs.
When I rang the landlady’s doorbell, Gil and the landlady came out right away.
“Wizard, you were looking for me, right? I’m sorry. I should have left a note.”
“It’s fine. Nothing happened, so it’s okay. So, you saw the second-floor room?”
“Yes. I looked around the room and cleaned too. The grandmother said she’d give me some fruit, so I came down to the first floor.”
“The Wizard’s younger brother is very kind. Even though I told him he didn’t need to help, he stepped up and helped clean.”
The landlady looked at Gil with a smile.
The two seemed to have grown close in that short time. Standing side by side, they looked just like a grandmother and her grandson.
“I’ve cleaned the room up completely now, so you can move in right away. And you don’t need to pay a separate deposit. Since you’re the Wizard’s younger brother. You can start paying rent from next month. Here, take the keys.”
When the grandmother held out the keys, I gestured for Gil to take them.
Gil’s face was slightly flushed as he accepted them. It was an expression of deep emotion.
I knew well the feeling of having your own room for the first time after living on the streets.
“Thank you.”
Gil bowed his head deeply to the landlady and me in turn.
When I also bowed, the landlady bowed back and then went inside her house.
Gil and I turned toward the stairs.
“I need to buy you a phone right away. I was worried because I couldn’t find you.”
When I finally revealed my worried feelings, Gil became restless and apologetic again.
“Ah! You were worried. I’m really sorry.”
“Stop apologizing.”
“Yes. Did you return safely from the Hall of Magic?”
“Yes. I received generous compensation, so let’s grill some meat today.”
“Really?”
It was when we had gone about halfway up the stairs. Suddenly, a subtle shift in the air was felt from behind.
I quickly turned around.
Gil had turned around at the exact same time.