-Restoration
Once all the living creatures had gone into the truck, Gil locked the cargo bed and turned back to me.
“The area’s become a complete mess. We’ll have to clean this up too, right? And restore the road that caved in… Please take care of just the black mage, Mage-nim. I’ll handle cleaning up the surroundings.”
“Yeah. Would you?”
Since Gil seemed to have more than enough strength left, I told him to go ahead.
Sure enough, as if he had so much mana overflowing that he needed to use some of it up, Gil filled both hands with mana and began spreading it out in every direction.
He cast the magic lightly, as though restoring the road that had split and caved in like an earthquake had struck was nothing at all.
Simply through intent, lightly and briskly as though conducting an orchestra, Gil spread his hands in all directions, and everything around us was restored as if time itself had been rewound.
The cracked, gouged, sunken road joined back together and regained its original form. Even the burn marks left by the flames vanished without a trace.
“Whoa! Bravo!”
Cheon Danbi, who had gotten out of the car at some point, burst out in admiration and clapped her hands. Gil gave an awkward smile and bowed.
As if what he was doing really were some kind of concert or performance.
Both of them had a peculiar sense of humor.
“Mage-nim, drink one bottle of this first. You need to recover your strength quickly.”
Cheon Danbi handed me a potion as I stood there blankly.
Recover my strength quickly, she said. Hearing that made me feel like I had become an old man.
I must really have looked like a skeleton drained dry just from standing still.
I silently drank the potion Cheon Danbi had given me.
“It’s tasty.”
“Tasty? That’s a top-grade potion made from the roots of the World Tree, so its effects are amazing, but the taste should be anything but normally bitter.”
I’d made a joke, but that didn’t land either. They laughed and reacted to all sorts of ridiculous things among themselves.
I turned around and walked toward Na Sanhaegyeong, whom I had bound in midair.
I wondered what to do with him.
No matter how quiet this outskirts road was, there was no way no one had seen the commotion that had taken place here. During the battle, I had seen several cars approach, then turn around and flee.
The police would show up sooner or later.
Even if they didn’t, I had to report this to the government.
‘How will they react if I say I caught a black mage? The government Administration Bureau or the Hall leadership will try to take him away, won’t they?’
Since Yu Jaeseon had given me free-pass authority, accessing information wouldn’t be a problem, but that was only when the information actually existed properly.
If someone was determined to hide it, the information itself would end up leaving no trace.
Even if Yu Jaeseon could be trusted, I didn’t know how much power he had to control things.
And I had no trust in the leadership of the government or the Hall.
‘I’ll have to take him with me. Once he wakes up, I can ask him about the Magic Tower or Samir.’
Having reached that conclusion, I immediately prepared to transport him.
I released the spatial magic and strengthened the chains of restraint wrapped around Na Sanhaegyeong. Then I placed another layer of barrier over him to block sound and light.
The potion Cheon Danbi had given me was indeed effective; I could feel my mana recovering quickly. My magic flowed as naturally as water.
Lastly, I used telekinesis magic to load the white lump of ice into the car trunk. Once I released the spatial magic, the freezing began to come undone as well, and it was already melting.
Still, since I had wrapped him in the chains of restraint and the barrier, there would be no problem keeping him confined for a while.
“We’re taking him with us?”
Cheon Danbi asked, glancing at the trunk.
“I don’t trust the government or the Hall. I’m going to take him and interrogate him myself. Rather than wandering around searching for the Magic Tower, wouldn’t it be faster to ask a black mage for directions?”
“That’s true. But after that? Are you going to keep dragging him around?”
“We’ll think about that as we go.”
“So we’ve taken a hostage?”
Gil had come over beside us before I knew it and chimed in.
“Yeah. A hostage.”
“But isn’t there some kind of reward from the government or the Hall if you capture a black mage and hand him over?”
“There probably is. But right now, information is more important than a reward.”
“Information about the Magic Tower?”
“Yeah. The Magic Tower is the black mages’ stronghold. If we want to stop the catastrophe, we have to smash the Magic Tower.”
“Ah…”
Perhaps my words about a catastrophe and smashing the Magic Tower sounded too intense to him, because Gil let out a wordless exclamation.
“Anyway, I plan to investigate him myself. If the police or government officials come and ask, let’s say the black mage was defeated in battle and fled. Let’s get our story straight.”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
“Okay. Don’t worry.”
“Then is everything done?”
I looked around.
It was spotless. The road had been restored as if nothing had ever happened. There were a few burn marks left in the forest, but that was all.
All the living creatures were obediently inside the truck, and there wasn’t even any particular sign of movement.
The only things that had not been restored to normal were the two black mage underlings who had fallen into the cracks in the earth.
Now, if we moved only Na Sanhaegyeong’s passenger car and the truck blocking the middle of the road, the cleanup would be perfect.
Gil had done all of this as though it were nothing special.
I looked back at Gil anew.
I had thought he only possessed the trait of extending concentric waves of mana to commune with other living creatures and absorb mana, but he also had an innate talent for restoration magic.
“You cleaned it up perfectly. Well done.”
When I praised him, Gil smiled brightly.
“Shall we move the cars now? Cheon Danbi, you know how to drive, right?”
“Of course.”
Cheon Danbi and I were walking over to move the passenger car and the truck respectively when loud sirens rang out, and police cars, fire trucks, and a large bus gradually came into view.
I had no choice but to call it perfect timing, as though they had waited until both the battle and the cleanup were over before appearing.
“Let’s leave the vehicles. We should at least let those people move the cars.”
I said to Cheon Danbi with a small laugh.
“Shall we? They sure came quickly.”
“You two get in the car for now.”
Following my words, Cheon Danbi and Gil got into our car. I stood alone beside it and greeted them.
The police cars, fire trucks, and large bus all stopped behind the truck. For a short while, no one got out and they simply stayed still.
Then a voice came from the loudspeaker of a police car.
“Identify yourself!”
The road had been cleanly restored, and I was simply standing there quietly by myself, yet it seemed they were so frightened they couldn’t even bring themselves to approach.
For their sake, I put a kind smile on my face.
“I’m Mage Oudin. The battle situation here has ended. The restoration is finished as well. The black mage was defeated in battle and fled.”
They must have been dispatched after receiving a report that a magical battle had broken out here. The report probably said there had been earthquake-like tremors and flames shooting up.
Since that was the case, it was only natural for ordinary people who weren’t mages to be so frightened that they couldn’t carelessly get out of their vehicles, so I spoke kindly.
Only then did the doors of the police cars fly open and the officers got out.
“Oh my, Mage Oudin-nim was here! I apologize for not recognizing you.”
A man wearing the rank insignia of an inspector approached me as he spoke. He seemed to be the highest-ranking officer among the dispatched police.
“I’m Han Sanggil, chief of the Jungang District Unit of Jecheon Police Station. It’s a great honor to meet you, Mage-nim.”
“Not at all…”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to such an excessive greeting and was vaguely glossing over it when the chief turned around and waved his hand.
“Everyone, get out! Come and greet Mage-nim!”
At that, the people in the fire trucks and the large bus all poured out. They were firefighters and soldiers.
I thought even soldiers had been mobilized, but when I looked, the soldiers’ appearances were unusual. Their hair was long, and shirts and such were sticking out from under their uniforms.
‘Wait, aren’t those reservists? So they brought people who were undergoing reserve forces training?’
I couldn’t help laughing.
If it had been urgent, they wouldn’t have appeared this late, and if they had intended to mobilize soldiers, there was no way there wouldn’t be a single military unit nearby. Yet the way they had been dispatched was unbelievably sloppy. Mm, reservists.
On top of that, they had likely been dispatched to respond to a magical battle, yet I couldn’t see a single mage.
“Wow! It really is Mage Oudin-nim!”
“It’s an honor!”
“He looks exactly like he did on the internet. It really is Mage Oudin-nim!”
“I never thought I’d see him this close.”
“He’s a hero!”
The military, police, and firefighters they had mobilized as best they could came over, chattering noisily.
I was grateful that they cheered so enthusiastically, but I truly didn’t know what to do with myself. It was to the point that I wondered if they were fans meeting a celebrity.
The district unit chief turned back to face me again with a proud expression, like the leader of a cheering squad who had just seen his team perform properly.
“It truly is an honor to meet you. I had no idea Mage Oudin-nim had visited the Jecheon area. How fortunate that you happened to be here when a black mage appeared. Jecheon does have two mages, but they’ve gone to Seoul right now.”
“They must have gone to attend the World Mage Conference.”
“That’s right. But how is it that Mage Oudin-nim didn’t attend the World Conference and is here…?”
If I left him alone, it seemed like the chatter would go on endlessly. I thought I should cut him off at an appropriate point and leave this place quickly.
“I was passing through because of personal business. I have to get going now. Shall I give you an overview of the battle?”
“Ah, yes. I would appreciate that.”
“A black mage and two underlings appeared, three people in total. They blocked the road and attacked. A magical battle broke out, and when the black mage was defeated, he fled. The two underlings died.”
“They died?”
The chief looked surprised and glanced around.
“You’ll have a hard time finding the bodies. When the road split open due to the black mage’s gravity magic, they were sucked underground.”
“What? Ah, I see.”
“Before restoring the road, I checked underground, but they must have fallen too deep, because I couldn’t see them. So I simply sealed it up.”
In truth, I hadn’t restored the road, nor had I checked underground, but I just said it that way. Would it make me look at least a little humane?
“Oh my, of course. How could anyone find them? We heard from the people passing through here who reported it, and they said an earthquake had struck and the road was splitting apart. And there were flame explosions on top of that… In any case, we came here fully prepared, but I was actually surprised to find everything so intact.”
The district unit chief eagerly agreed with my words.
It seemed he also didn’t want to turn the ground over to find the bodies, so he was rationalizing it.
“Anyway, the restoration is finished, so please just handle the vehicles. That passenger car is the vehicle the black mage came in, and the truck is what his underlings came in. Ah, right! There are living creatures loaded in the truck.”
“Living creatures? Do you mean mana life-forms?”
The chief asked with a surprised expression again.
“They were originally mana life-forms, but they’ve lost their mana now, so you don’t need to worry. There are four lizardmen too, but they’re being docile. They seem a little out of it, as if they were subjected to mind magic by the black mage.”
“Mind magic?”
“They’ve only been neutralized. Don’t worry, just drive the truck as it is and park it at the district unit for a while. I’ll contact the Administration Bureau separately and have them take care of the aftermath.”
“Ah! Yes. Thank you.”
Only then did some of the tension leave the chief’s face.