115 — Chapter 115

The room was littered with broken flowerpots and garments that had been roughly cast aside.

A pale mist of condensation clung to the window glass, gathering into a single heavy droplet that slid downward through the settled dust. Reflected beyond that transparent line were a man and a woman, both breathing heavily.

Beneath a slipped robe, shoulders as white as snow were covered in marks that hadn’t been there a moment ago. Red flowers had bloomed as chaotically as the two mingled mana signatures. A mixture of sweat and saliva trickled down along a collarbone.

Hadn’t I explained to the students that a tentacle’s favorite thing was human body fluids? In that sense, what Cheon So-baek and I had been doing in this deserted research office for over an hour was an act that produced enough nutrients to last a tentacle a lifetime.

An irregular heartbeat, the likes of which I had never felt before. Even with my eyes closed, her face—an expression I’d seen for the first time—remained burned into my optic nerves.

As every gesture, glance, and touch replayed endlessly in my mind, a sorrowful, sobbing voice reached my ears.

“I’ve been defiled…”

“…….”

“I can no longer remain as Hayan (White). As soon as I return to Seoul, I’ll have no choice but to report this as workplace sexual harassment to the Special Unit and change my name to Blackie…”

“Oh, come on! Be quiet. Anyone hearing you would think I was the one who pounced on you.”

That was my voice.

Cheon So-baek, who was listening beside me, gave me a flat look. Though my breath was ragged, my attire was largely the same as when I’d entered.

That was because the one whose robe had been stripped, whose hair was a mess, and whose shoulder bore red teeth marks was me. On the other hand, she looked refreshed, as if she had finally fulfilled a long-held desire.

“Ah, I feel much better now. Do you have any idea how annoyed I’ve been every time I looked at your face lately?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean that collar and the handcuffs on your wrists. It’s like they’re warning everyone, ‘This one’s mine, so don’t touch.’ I’ve been wanting to fix that for a while.”

If she had her way, she said, she would have torn them all off and recycled them, but knowing that would only lead to more conflict, she’d changed her mind. She decided to just put one on me herself.

What kind of imperialist mindset was this?

My body, which had once belonged solely to Mala-nim, had been torn into three pieces just one year after returning to Earth—like the African continent carved up by Britain, France, and Germany. To avoid a second Fashoda Incident (a 19th-century colonial dispute), the cruel empires had established a solution: maintaining a silent peace through a balance of power reminiscent of the Three Kingdoms’ tripartite division.

It was clear they didn’t give a damn about the tentacles groaning and being trampled beneath them.

“Anyway, with this, I’ll be able to tell immediately even if you go somewhere far away.”

Cheon So-baek looked at my shoulder with a satisfied expression. I felt a strange swirl of mana along with the pain from the wound. It was a slave—no, a brand of dominance—carved through magic.

A sort of proof of ownership.

Just like the collar Yoo Se-byeol had put on me, it was enchanted with various secondary effects like location tracking and measuring residual mana levels.

“But Miss Soso…”

“So-baek.”

“So-baek… nim.”

She wasn’t even planning to hide it anymore. In that case, there was no reason for me to maintain this uncomfortable dynamic. I immediately dropped to my knees on the floor and asked her.

“What happens if I dispell this magic?”

The possessiveness that Cheon So-baek, Yoo Se-byeol, and No Yeon-hwa all shared toward me. Even as an Apostle of the Outer God who could see through the principles of all creation, their behavior was something I still hadn’t grasped the core of—primarily because it was only possible because I permitted their obsession.

Setting aside the mass-produced collar and handcuffs, a brand of dominance had no chance of working properly on a mage like me, whose realm was several levels higher than Cheon So-baek’s. It was about as persuasive as saying an elephant was being held back by a piece of twine.

“If I set my mind to it, breaking a spell of this level is nothing. No matter how powerful a mage Commander Cheon So-baek is, there would be nothing she could do at that point—”

“I’ll die.”

“Pardon?”

“I’ll hate you enough to die, for the rest of my life.”

“…….”

As it turned out, both the rope and the wooden post it was tied to were far too sturdy for this young elephant to pull away from.

---

That evening.

I lay on the hotel bed and confessed everything that had happened during the day to No Yeon-hwa.

There wasn’t a particular reason. I only contacted her because I had to have a ten-minute phone call with her before bed whenever I was in Busan. I couldn’t quite remember when I’d started thinking that way, but it seemed to be shortly after I’d taken a short nap on the train.

—So, what do you want me to do about it?

“Are you not going to empathize with me?”

The conversation between No Yeon-hwa, an extreme T (Thinking), and myself, an extreme C (Choksu/Tentacle), continued to run on parallel lines. I could state with certainty that she was colder than an Apostle of the Outer God who lacked blood and tears.

—You’re the one who goes around wagging your tail until you get bitten by a fox. Why are you coming to me to complain?

“You’re quite sensitive today. Did something bad happen?”

—It’s because it’s annoying. It took a whole year for you to drop the surname when calling me by my name. But what? You’re already trying to speak informally with that woman?

“Is it the form of address that’s bothering you?”

Although I was used to using respectful titles for others, I was willing to speak comfortably with her. Because I was the older one. If it meant I could hear the “No Yeon-hwa acting cute for her Oppa” voice—which I still had a recording of—every day, it was a winning trade no matter how I looked at it. I occasionally played a remixed version of it during my broadcasts to get a great reaction from the viewers.

“Would you like to try calling me ‘Oppa’ as a test?”

—Die.

Click.

The moment the connection was severed, a small explosion echoed from a base station outside the hotel. It seemed the communication line had been cut by her Word-Spirit. Simultaneously, I was hit by the sudden impulse of ‘wanting to hold my breath for thirty minutes.’

To think her power could take effect from this far away—it seems the day she ascends to the Upper Level is not far off.

After immediately nullifying the Word-Spirit with my Tentacle of Suggestion (41st Tentacle), I lay down in bed, preparing for sleep. The frame and mattress were plush, free of any creaking or the vibrations I usually felt whenever Alexei tossed and turned below me. Perhaps because I had grown so used to sleeping in discomfort, my eyes remained wide open and alert.

“I’m bored without Alexei around.”

『Fear not.』

“Since I’m bored, should I go pester Digestion?”

『Fear…』

Come to think of it, I hadn’t heard the details of what she discussed with the Blade Emperor back at the villa on Mount Cheonsan. Or how she had coaxed him without even using the Tentacle of Suggestion. I had told her to always stay inside my sleeve, yet she was missing again today.

I’d recently discovered that she seemed to be moving freely through space via a Gate she created inside her own stomach. No wonder I could never win when I tried to play Bori-Bori-Ssal¹ by thrusting my fist into my sleeve whenever I was bored.

“She’s not going to turn into a monster like Gargantua later, is she?”

Getting out of bed, I prepared to go find Digestion (86th Tentacle). I had a rough idea of where she’d be. No doubt she was wandering through the shallow ocean waters, gobbling up fish just like last time.

Drapping my robe over my shoulders, I stepped outside and slowly spread my mana, surveying the nearby harbors. Even in the dark of night, the statues of Mayor Park Mak-rye—the Butcher of Busan—scattered throughout the city shone brightly, making it easy to navigate. Perhaps because it was a popular tourist city, I could see families out for a stroll. After watching a group throw Choco Pies toward a tentacle corpse washed up on the white sands, I moved toward a place where I felt a stronger surge of mana.

“Strange. She should definitely be around here somewhere…”

『Fear not?』

“You’re asking if she’s disguised as a human and hiding in the crowd? She doesn’t have the ability for that, and more importantly, she lacks the intelligence.”

By the time I reached the old shipyard, where the statues were no longer visible, I suddenly came to a halt. I had sensed a faint ripple of mana.

The structure of the spell formula, floating overhead like a twisted, slender thread, was Channel—a First-rank White Magic spell I had seen many times before. Since it was a spell used by almost any mage, it wasn’t a particularly special situation, but the source was familiar.

“It’s Sir Hans.”

『Fear not?』

“Hans the Witherman. Don’t you remember? The mage from the Blue Tower whose wife cheated on him three times.”

He was the man who had served as the commentator when I entered the Tower of Proof with Yoo Se-byeol. He was the one who designed this year’s Tower of Proof and the one who had quickly crossed over to Yeouido to defeat Perez after sensing the anomaly during the Monster Wave Defense. His name had been on the faculty list Robert showed me on the train, so it wasn’t strange for him to be in Korea right now.

That aside, what was he doing in a remote place like this, communicating via Channel? He wasn’t trying to find and subjugate Digestion, was he?

I carefully snagged the Channel floating in the air by extending a very thin thread of mana. Then, I adjusted the property and density of my mana to be as similar as possible to the spell’s structure, slowly infiltrating it. It was an act commonly known as ‘wiretapping.’

Since he was an Upper Level mage, he might normally realize someone was eavesdropping, but perhaps due to the distance, he didn’t seem to notice. Through the static, I heard his weary voice.

『…Can I trust you? …If so, what about my daughter’s safety?』

『…Then, as soon as the operation begins… nullify the Pact of Busan.』

Even though I only heard a fragment of the conversation, I was instantly certain. They were definitely plotting a suspicious conspiracy.

『FEAR NOT!』

“Whoa, you startled me. Please stay quiet for a moment.”

『NOT!』

“Are you asking if I should report this to the Special Unit? I am the Special Unit.”

To think I’d catch such a big fish while looking for Digestion—talk about luck. However, it was too early to suspect Hans. Back when Perez, under Karzos’s orders, tried to kill Yoo Se-byeol to steal her scabbard and obtain the Philosopher’s Stone, Hans was the one who had stepped up before anyone else to stop it.

“Hearing him mention his daughter, he might be being blackmailed. Let’s listen a bit more.”

『Not?』

“Yes, exactly. The daughter his wife had with another man, who doesn’t share a single bit of his DNA.”

Mala-nim really has an incredible memory for things like that. I hadn’t heard a name yet, but it seemed the daughter was being held captive. I channeled a bit more mana to eavesdrop further. Then, a word that allowed me to deduce the opponent’s identity slipped from Hans’s mouth.

『…I don’t know who you are, but you’re quite impressive… to think you’d disguise yourself as one of the professors.』

『…Then the business with Perez… was that a different faction from yours?』

Perez, disguise, and factions. This was undoubtedly the work of demons.

I withdrew the thread of mana before being caught and immediately contacted Ha Yeri. Knowing she wouldn’t be asleep at this hour, I decided to report it right away.

—Sigh… Hayan, I presume.

As expected, she started with a sigh.

—I’m warning you for the last time: please do not make prank calls to the direct line meant for emergencies. I sent you all the way to Busan, and the first thing you do on your first night is call me—

“I think there are demons in Busan. Disguised as one of the professors who entered the Red Tower.”

—Your evidence?

Her tone turned serious the moment I brought it up. Even though Hans wasn’t nearby, I lowered my voice and relayed the contents of the communication I’d overheard. My heart raced for the first time in a while, feeling like an agent on a classified mission reporting stolen intel.

While third-party interception couldn’t be used as evidence in court, it couldn’t escape the judgment of the Special Unit. After hearing the whole story, she deduced the severity of the situation from the limited information.

—Their location is the Magic Tower, the so-called cradle of mages. If they are disguised as a professor, there’s a high probability they are a Familiar of an Archduke.

“I agree. But I am not afraid. As the ‘Mage of Light,’ Sae Hayan, I will surely strike them down.”

—Hmm…

Surprisingly, Ha Yeri hesitated for a long time. Could it be that she didn’t find me reliable? In truth, between No Yeon-hwa and the undercover Cheon So-baek, there was no shortage of combat power here to carry out an operation.

However, as if thinking of something else, she lowered her voice and asked me.

—Agent Sae Hayan.

“Yes, Commander Ha Yeri.”

—Can I entrust this matter entirely to you? The details are top-secret; I will provide all the support you need.

A classified mission entrusted solely to me. This was finally the moment I was recognized by ‘Minor Justice,’ Ha Yeri. No matter what the order, I was ready to follow it—even if it meant being pointed at by the world or betraying my comrades.

I immediately dropped to one knee inside the shipyard and replied.

“Of course. Whatever the task, just give the word.”

—To uncover the demons’ schemes, it’s best to infiltrate their ranks. Come to think of it, when is the next Council meeting?

“Hmm, let’s see. It’s about time for one, so it should be three nights from now.”

—Did you pack your Patel mask?

“Naturally. I never know when or where I’ll need to disguise myself, so I always keep it hidden inside my robe… wait?”

As I talked to her so naturally, I ended up dropping my smartwatch right in the middle of my answer.

…How did she know?