Episode 17

“Yul, you said you won’t do anything else…!”
“That’s why I asked first.”
“You asked in English! You could have asked in Korean, but you bothered to talk in English!”
“I forgot.”
“You mean pretended to forget!”

Without ever raising his voice, Flag quietly screamed into his ear, which Odysseus only smiled back to. The smile that he gave the man roughly conveyed the meaning of ‘So what can you do about it?’

“Flag, give it up. Children are always bound to cause trouble.”
“Damn iiiiiit…!”
“Yul, you too… Next time, at least give us a little bit of a warning before you do something. I don’t think Captain Songha sent you here because she believed your promise anyway.”
“That is true.”

Perhaps thanks to her experience of already raising a child, Migo had a much quicker sense when it came to the moment. Nodding as acknowledgment of her request, Odysseus replied with an empty promise.

“I’ll tell you in advance next time, then.”

He was going to keep the promise, but it didn’t really mean much.

“Have you finished discussing?”

When silence lingered in the air for a moment after their scuffle was over, Lucian spoke up.
Even though their conversation had been in Korean, there was a faint smile on Lucian’s face as if he knew exactly what they’d said.

‘Well, he’d have to be an idiot if he couldn’t tell from the timing.’

What would a conversation in a foreign language immediately after the young magicks user expressed his intention to participate in a fight mean? If he couldn’t understand that, then that person would have to have an intelligence lower than a goldfish.

“Yes, we are.”
“Your comrades seem concerned.”
“…Yul is still young, after all. And he doesn’t have much combat experience.”
“More importantly, this kiddo likes our Captain too much. It’s a bit troublesome because he keeps trying to bite whoever attacks our Captain, like this incident.”
“You want to be bitten too, Hyung?”
“See?”

So this is how he gets payback? Odysseus slapped Flag’s hand away from his head and kicked the man in the shin. Flag’s body suddenly doubled over, crying out silently.

“Well, then. Let’s finish up the briefing. Operations team.”
“…There is nothing in particular to be cautious about. They’re just a bunch of thugs who live in District 33.”
“They aren’t affiliated with anyone?”
“They do have a group of about thirty or so people, but there is no unity. It would be embarrassing for other organizations to call them a mafia or gang. It’s more like they’re just neighborhood friends who gathered together to make a group.”
“Hm, but aren’t they decently competent if they managed to get into Red Wing?”
“That’s not true. According to Buff, yesterday was the first time he’d ever seen the four of them. Not to mention, their reason for visiting was to buy cheap pistols… but they couldn’t even afford that.”

The man in Ray-Bans laughed far too frivolously for the setting. Of course, if what he said was true, then his laughter was understandable.

“Anyway, there won’t be any issue if we kill them. Their relations aren’t the type to be able to plan revenge either. I say that we just execute the four responsible as an example.”
“Good. Let’s begin immediately. How many should we dispatch?”
“Personally, I believe about one or two from the security team would be enough… but I could increase those numbers if Mr. Yul is planning to come, since we don’t know how Iron Stick will react.”
“Okay, let’s do that. We’ll leave after lunch, so make a list and get ready before then.”
“Are you also joining us?”
“I can’t just sit back when Odyssia: Freedom is being so kind and cooperative.”

They were putting in a lot more effort to win him over than he’d expected.
For a moment, Odysseus contemplated whether he should stick a drug detector into his lunch. They probably weren’t that insane, but who knows?
If the world operated with common sense, then the current era wouldn’t have ended up in this state.

With a little bit of concern, their lunch began.

“But kiddo. Seriously, why did you suddenly volunteer back there? You could have just left it to those guys.”

Fortunately, there were no drugs in the food. Later, when they went hunting, they were given a separate car for the three of them to ride in alone—they were given a driver, though.

“Ah… It’s nothing much.”

To Flag’s subtle question, Odysseus returned a subtle answer.

“There’s just something I want to test.”
“Test?”
“The alchemy recipe that I got yesterday. Some parts overlapped with what I was already researching. Thanks to that, I think I found something new, or at least discovered a new standard knowledge.”
“Oh, really?”

He hadn’t gotten around to researching the newly attained special mana bullets yet, but the bomb alchemy recipe that Pluto had sent him was different. The moment he compared the four cases, including the magick formula he purchased, Horn’s research papers, and the formula for a normal mana bullet, Odysseus was able to discover ‘something’.

“The problem is, I’m not sure if it works properly or how strong it is… And I want to see how effective it is on a person, but we rarely fight people in Freedom. But it isn’t as if I can use it on the head of Iron Stick either.”

If he was not careful, the life of his test subject could be lost in an instant, so how could he use that on her? Odysseus swore to the God of Pain that he would not let her die without suffering. She was to be made a sacrifice that would please Oizys, the God of Pain.

“Riiight. Okay. I see. But it would have been nicer if you had told us that beforehand.”
“I promised that I would next time.”

In any case, Odysseus spoke while moving his fingers to display a message on the device. It was at an angle that would be difficult for the driver in front, or even any cameras that might be present, to capture.

「牢家** 難嫩 音 綠吸 **蒼」

On the surface, it was a seemingly disorganized list of Korean-Chinese characters with no connection whatsoever. However, for those who have memorized each and every pronunciation and meaning of each Korean-Chinese character, it was a slightly different story.
To the sentence that translated to ‘Do you think our conversation will be recorded?’ Flag tapped the boy’s shoulder, affirming.

「藩苛」

Following that, he answered by manipulating his own device. Using the pronunciation of Korean, the answer could be read as ‘tled’. Separating it from its Korean-Chinese meaning, it could be interpreted along the lines of ‘They could translate what we say,’ and using abbreviations was a common occurrence in Korean.

‘That’s true. We aren’t the only Ara Gayans here.’

It was difficult to find people who had memorized Korean-Chinese over a certain level, even in the Eastern Continent, but it was relatively easy to find people who could speak Korean.
Therefore, they had to speak with the expectation that what they said would be overheard.

“But what exactly did you find?”

Then let’s be careful. Right back at you. Remember the act? Even while they were exchanging notes back and forth in Korean-Chinese, Flag continued to chatter on. It was so that the driver wouldn’t get suspicious of them.

“Right, I am curious about that part as well.”

Migo, who was sitting in the back seat, joined in on the conversation. She could speak Korean but not Korean-Chinese, so she was instead covering their device screens with her whole body to prevent them from being caught on camera—as expected from the people that Captain Songha decided to be the best fit for this mission.

“It’s nothing special… Just… a combustive explosion formula?
“…What?”
“It really isn’t anything special, though. All it helps with is to burn and explode mana more efficiently.”
“Th-that’s nothing special?”
“…Sounds really special to me.”
“Not really, no?”

Since it was possible to create flames and explosions even with primitive magick, this really wasn’t that significant of a feat.
The only difference was that if primitive magick was like lighting a fire with a flint and steel, using a formula was similar to lighting a fire with a flamethrower.
Even this, judging from the fact that he was easily able to extract the concept, was quite common… In other words, it was likely a low-quality formula, just like how the energy consumption efficiency of the same type of electronic device varied depending on its quality.

“It’s just a more refined and efficient version of primitive magick. That is good enough for now, though, since I don’t have anything else.”

In the first place, he couldn’t use the magick in battle. He didn’t know its level of power yet and hadn’t even set up the coordinates and range designation formulas properly, either.

“…But kiddo. If what you’re going to practice is combustive explosion, does that mean the guys that we’re capturing today will be burst apart ali–”
“Car 1 has located the target. We will now stop slowly.”

Before Flag could finish his question, the driver spoke up. In fact, Car 1, which he mentioned, was stopping on the side of the road about 50 meters away.

Thunk.
Circulating the mana within his body, Odysseus opened the door and stepped out. Lucian, Ray-Bans, and the other people who’d been riding in Car 1 had already stepped onto the sidewalk.
With the target in the middle, the people in Car 1 and Car 2 stood parallel to one another.

-How was the ride, Mr. Magicks User? No motion sickness?
“I don’t get motion sickness.”
-That’s good.

While Ray-Bans was smoking, Lucian spoke to him through his earsets, which had been given to them before they left for the operation.

-As we’ve previously discussed, we will be the ones to ward them. Please surround the ones who run away.
“Understood.”

Immediately after they spoke, he saw Lucian’s group begin to move. The boss, Lucian, and the control tower, Ray-Bans, remained put, while the others stepped forward to begin the warding.

-Target has spotted us.
-Wow, they actually noticed us? I thought they wouldn’t have known.

He wasn’t going to use his gun. It would be too wasteful to use his gun against those weaklings.

-Drivers. Stop them from running to the other side.

Likewise, he would not take his knife out. Since it was impossible to know just how powerful the combustive explosions were going to be, they had to be caught as unscathed as possible.

“I’ll try capturing them. Don’t help me.”
“Sure.”

Screech!
When Car 1 and Car 2 sped forward and blocked the road, the four brawns jumped back in surprise and headed back to the buildings. That was when Odysseus put some force into his step. Since he’d warned them in advance, neither Flag nor Migo looked surprised.

Skidding to a stop with a slide, the boy tackled one of the men, tripping them. Because he’d done this by lifting his body with his hands and spinning like he was doing a windmill, the opponent could not retaliate.

“What in the hell is this little–?!”

He could easily make up for physical conditions with mana enhancements. Thus, he easily toppled over a giant who was likely over three times his weight, then somersaulted to straighten himself.

Phoomp.
The moment his two feet were back on the ground, he shot forward like a bullet and punched the next man in the gut. With the feeling of the bulging stomach rippling under his fist, the man coughed saliva onto him.

“Disgusting.”

He was trying to hold back his strength, but the opponent had been weaker than he’d expected.
Glancing at the man flying away, Odysseus then turned to the third man. As expected of street thugs, they failed to show a proper reaction even when half of their men were down.

That just meant they had no choice but to be hit. One of Odysseus’s legs broke through the sidewalk’s concrete while he swung up his other leg. The clean side kick hit the enemy in the stomach and pinned him to the exterior wall of the building.

“Wh-what in the–?”

Finally, as he pushed up his glasses that had slid down slightly with the back of his hand, he used his other hand to grab the man’s hand that was reaching for his knife. Boom! Caught in the boy’s small hand, the man floated a bit up into the air, then came back crashing down.

“…Wow.”

With this, all four men were successfully neutralized.
Instead of being happy over his expected outcome, Odysseus stepped on the head of the first man he’d defeated just as he was about to rise. He didn’t use any force so that the man’s head wouldn’t be crushed in. He did get a broken nose, however.

“Well, this is slightly unexpected.”

Ray-Bans seemed a little stunned when he saw that his lackeys failed to do anything. Meanwhile, Lucian had a wide smile that couldn’t get any brighter than it already was.

“This is amazing. Your skills are–”
“Excuse me, Lucian. You said you were going to kill these people, right?”
“Oh, yes. We are.”
“Then is it alright if we kill them after I do some experiments?”
“By experiments, you mean…?”
“The bomb alchemy recipe that you gave me. I modified it a little.”
“Modify, modify, you say…? Haha, of course. Please, go ahead.”

Breaking the shin bones of the men who kept trying to stand back up, Odysseus waved at the Pluto members.

“Back up a little. The radius of the explosions might be a little big. Ah, and take these three away, too. I want to experiment on them one by one.”
“Yes, of course. You guys. Hurry up and take them away. Keep them subdued if they try to resist.”
“Yul, are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”

With the fattest of the men left near him, Odysseus opened up the research log that he’d recorded on his device. The last paragraph contained a very basic, bare-bones formula that had most of the important information omitted.

“I’ll just fill in the numbers as I see fit, no need to specify coordinates, and for now, set the range to 1.1…”

In order to use magick, one needed calculations to specify the coordinates, range, and power, and had to draw a magick circle to guide the flow of mana. However, since Odysseus didn’t have any information values needed for the calculations, he filled in the numbers as best as he could, then drew the according magick circle.
The lines made of mana glowed as he drew them across the pavement. Possibly due to a concussion, his test subject was unmoving, only groaning on the ground.

“I hope this just takes off one of his arms.”

After raising the test subject’s arm onto the magic circle that he drew, he backed up next to where the others were standing.

“I’ll start now.”

Immediately afterward, he inserted his mana into the last point of the unconnected magick circle.

Boom!
With a large explosion, a massive flame burst out from the subject’s arm. Its force had been so great that even the head and torso, which hadn’t been in the radius of the magick circle, were covered in burns with some chunks of flesh gone. The former was from the traces of the flames, while the latter were scars from the arm that burst apart and the fragments of pavement.

“H-haaaah.”
“…Incredible.”
“Oh, dear god.”

However, those who were horrified by this sight were only the next test subjects.

“Ah, I must have set the numbers too high.”

Leaving behind the burnt corpse, Odysseus shrugged his shoulders.
Since he had a baseline now, the next one should have better results.