Request To Handle A Disturbance

The daily life of a black mage was ordinary.

No, it was not much different from that of an ordinary person.

Going to work normally, working, and then leaving for home was the entirety of daily life.

Occasionally, the only special event was being drafted due to a sudden Gate occurrence nearby to prepare for a situation where monsters might pour out.

Even then, after the Gate was handled, we were deployed to collect the byproducts.

Spending time with this repeated daily routine was what black mages did in this day and age.

“After I complained to the relevant government department last time, an apology was sent. They said they would improve the paperwork and disclose information transparently so that the same thing doesn’t happen again?”

I received the document An So-mi handed over, read it, and nodded.

But seeing this reaction of mine, she asked with a bewildered expression.

“Is that the end of your impressions?”

“Then what other reaction should I showcase?”

“…The government is saying they’ll improve the transaction method thanks to you, Mr. Seong-chan. This is quite a big deal!”

I thought it could be as An So-mi said, but I felt, ‘So what?’

Looking at me, Go Yu-jin cut in and spoke.

“I told you it’s a difficult thing to expect a reaction from Mr. Seong-chan. Give up already.”

“Sigh, how can a person be so insensitive?”

Go Yu-jin, who met my gaze for a moment, splayed her head away slightly.

Seeing her ears turn slightly red, she seemed to be having strange thoughts again.

“If there’s no more work, shall we head home?”

Eventually, it was An So-mi who took back and organized the documents as if giving up, and we were the ones preparing to end the day’s routine by finishing up the work Go Yu-jin was doing.

“By the way, what’s left in the Gate handled today that they’re searching more?”

Go Yu-jin was the one who received my question.

I asked because I recalled her talking with a government official, and Go Yu-jin spoke as if it were no big deal.

“It’s a so-called ‘lingering-type’ Gate with about a week left until closure, and they said it seems appropriate to conduct a Gate ecology survey?”

“An ecology survey; isn’t it an issue where the conclusion has already been reached that Gate generation is a fragment of a collapsed world?”

Many countries and institutions have already investigated Gates and reached the conclusion that it is not a single civilization, but countless broken civilizations colliding with our world in the form of Gates, opening entrances.

In-depth research is still underway regarding through what route they collided and why they manifest as Gates, but seeing that there are no significant results even though hundreds of Awakeners called sages are rushing into the research, it is literally just an unknown territory.

“It’s not that kind of ecology survey. Literally, they seem to be investigating the natural environment possessed by the Gate. Insects, plants, minerals, things like that.”

“Ah. I suppose they’re trying to find new materials?”

Go Yu-jin nodded upon hearing my words, but then An So-mi cut in.

“New materials are already overflowing with monster byproducts, and it’s an inexhaustible spring; what more are they looking for?”

It wasn’t a particularly wrong statement, so I also pondered briefly and spoke as if reaching a conclusion.

“Perhaps they’re looking for the source of mana.”

The two were puzzled by the sudden talk.

Very few facts were known about the power called mana.

It was clear that it was a powerful energy and could be converted into any property.

It could be adjusted according to human will, and mana patterns matching individual inclinations also existed.

Some said it was the power of mental strength, and others said it was a power requiring trans-regional understanding, but if one looks only at the conclusion, the fact is that no one knows what it is.

For some monsters, mana acted like poison, and for other monsters, they greedily absorbed mana and used it as if using their limbs.

But a truly important fact is that mana dwelling in a living being disappears completely if that subject dies.

‘That’s why the theory of mental strength was influential…’

Was it because there was no alternative that can be clearly identified other than that?

Anyway, the two women said that couldn’t be the case after hearing my words.

“Finished!”

It was An So-mi who suddenly stood up with a cheerful shout, and Go Yu-jin also organized the documents and rose from her seat.

“What are you two doing today?”

“I’m going to the gym!”

Go Yu-jin was the one who looked at me after hearing An So-mi’s answer.

“I’m thinking of visiting the library.”

“What are you going to see?”

“The Necronomicon. I applied for a loan.”

The two were revolted after hearing my words.

“…Did the old fogies allow the loan?”

At An So-mi’s words, I thought of a few 1st generation black mages who were being called old fogies.

“There was permission from Han Sang-gil.”

“…What’s with that old fogy all of a sudden?”

I lightly shrugged my shoulders, and at the words to head home, the two left the office with pleasant expressions.

But just then, the phone rang, and An So-mi shook her head while looking at Go Yu-jin.

I also shook my head while looking at Go Yu-jin, but Go Yu-jin gave an awkward smile and picked up the phone.

An So-mi and I let out sighs of complaint involuntarily, but as Go Yu-jin’s expression grew more serious, we wondered what was going on.

“…Since when?”

Go Yu-jin spoke in a quite serious tone, and after listening for a long time, she was the one who hung up with the answer, ‘I’ll go soon.’

“I’m sorry. It’s an emergency request, and it seems like it’ll be enough if I go alone, so you two head home.”

“What kind of request is it that you have such a serious expression?”

“An Awakener rampage at Seoul Station.”

“If it’s Seoul Station, there are several large guilds nearby. Why was the request sent to us?”

“They say the Awakener who went on a rampage is a black mage.”

The first way to handle a black mage is to press them down with overwhelming power through the same black magic, and the second is literally the method of pressing them down with overwhelming power to kill them.

Even if the first and second seem the same, the reason they are clearly different is that the latter is a method of necessarily killing, while the former is that if there is a powerful black mage, they can suppress a relatively low-grade black mage so that they don’t go on a rampage.

In that sense, Go Yu-jin of our guild is a black mage who is quite trusted by the government.

Unlike typical black mages, she was a physical-type, but also a relatively good black mage who didn’t cause as much damage to the surroundings as possible.

‘It seems like a troublesome request…’

But two things can be thought of regarding the part where the request came.

One is a black mage rampage that is difficult to handle, and the other is the possibility that someone related to a fairly well-known person is involved or is the party themselves.

“Let’s go together. Anyway, it’s on the way home.”

“It’s a road that goes 10 minutes out of the way, though?”

I asked while meeting the gaze of An So-mi, who was nitpicking.

“Dinner together?”

“No thanks. See you tomorrow!”

It was An So-mi who dashed out of the office.

Even though no one would have held her back, she made a very quick judgment and fled. Eventually, I ended up leaving the office alone with Go Yu-jin, and when we arrived at Seoul Station in less than five minutes, I could see why the government had made the request.

“It’s a Curse User.”

If the lineages of black mages were subdivided based on the basic framework, they could be placed into a total of four categories.

One was the Curse User throwing a tantrum before our eyes, and the other categories were divided into Summoners, Destruction Mages, and Body Modification Mages.

Strictly speaking, Go Yu-jin was half-Body Modification Mage and half-Summoner, and I leaned toward focusing on curses and destruction.

To be precise, I could do everything, but it would be correct to say that I preferred those two the most.

Anyway, the black mage currently rampaging before our eyes had spread darkness as if seizing Seoul Station with a powerful area-of-effect curse, and seeing the numerous signs of presence inside, it was considered that they were wandering the darkness due to the curse.

I became curious as to why they did this, but realizing our appearance, a government official came in a hurry and explained the situation to Go Yu-jin.

“Thirty minutes ago, they suddenly caused a mana rampage and spread darkness throughout the entire surroundings using Darkness magic. Following that, it is expected that they caused a blood rampage using Blood Magic.”

I scowled at the mention of Blood Magic.

‘It doesn’t seem like they used themselves as a medium, but they used a terrible magic.’

In Blood Magic, two options existed.

The method of exerting powerful strength using one’s own blood. This is very powerful as it uses ‘True Blood’, but it is a method that eats away at the caster’s life.

And the other way was the method of using others’ blood as a sacrifice.

I didn’t know what was happening in the darkness now, but I heard Go Yu-jin answering after grasping the rough circumstances.

“You’ve definitely blocked the darkness from spreading, right?”

“Yes, the mages of the White Tower have been mobilized, and five mages have deployed a barrier.”

“What about purification?”

“We’ve sent a request to the Saint Guild. But we cannot estimate when they will arrive.”

“Sigh, it would be solved easily if a ‘Chantra’ were here…”

The two were in quite serious expressions. But it wasn’t a difficult task.

I lightly raised my hand, and Go Yu-jin shook her head while looking at me.

“Head home. I’ll take care of things here.”

“It’s not that, but isn’t it a part that can be solved simply if you dispel that magic and make the caster pay the price for the blood magic by calculating it in reverse?”

The two were stunned at my words, and then Go Yu-jin asked.

“There’s no way that would work, is there?”

“Seeing as the signs of presence are intact, not much blood has been consumed. It seems they literally only induced a frenzy, but in this case, the burden can be simply turned back to the caster, and as for the Darkness, wouldn’t it simply disappear if the mana is scattered after inverse calculation?”

“…Is that simple?”

I nodded calmly.

At the end of the 3-year war, the probability of a black mage without that level of ability surviving was extremely slim.

It was a method learned somehow in order to live.

Go Yu-jin, stepping back with an expression that said she had no choice, said.

“Give it a try.”

“I-is that really okay?”

It was the flustered government official. Most officials in the current government were Awakeners.

Even the president was a hero who built his reputation by moving from one battlefield to another, and the government he led could be called a quite strong group that gained the support of many Awakeners.

“Let’s finish quickly and meet the one who caused the rampage.”

I emitted mana. At the same time, I read the mana pattern of the Darkness that the opponent had worked on in advance.

In order to read the mana pattern, I had to start by scattering my mana like threads and pushing it inside the magic.

Then, I had to induce it to be pulled according to the opponent’s will rather than imbuing the mana with my own will, which is a method that is not easy without experience.

However, it was an act I could do naturally, and I soon became aware of the opponent’s mana pattern.

‘It’s the most basic mana pattern, are they at a level just out of apprenticeship?’

Black magic was also divided into circles, and they appeared to be roughly a 4th Circle user.

So I began to press down the pattern using mana of about the 5th Circle, and as I unraveled them one by one as if calculating in reverse and scattered them into the air, the thick darkness was washed away cleanly in an instant.

But everyone was flustered by the revealed appearance.

“…Wh-what is this?”

Every person wandering around was walking like a zombie in a naked state.

Some were dripping sticky liquid from their genitals as if saturated with pleasure, and it was not a normal state even at a glance.

‘They did a terrible thing…’

I traced the source of the mana, and after simply penetrating the barrier that was soon unfolded, I said to Go Yu-jin.

“Let’s go catch the culprit.”

“Y-yes, I see.”

Go Yu-jin’s face and ears were dyed red as if she were embarrassed.

‘She’s not a prude, though… Is this something that would feel that embarrassing?’

They were just zombies(?) saturated with pleasure lined up here and there.