Chapter 7
“So…?”
Harun looked at Kael, who was standing in front of the stall, and spoke.
More precisely, he was looking at the small figure standing beside Kael.
The figure was bundled up tightly from head to toe.
In a worn hood, a black mask covering its face, and oversized sleeves that reached over its hands.
At a glance, it was little different from the vagrant children commonly seen on the underground levels. The problem was that Harun wasn't naïve enough to be fooled by such a disguise.
“Did you pick up a kid while I wasn't looking?”
Kael didn't answer.
“Hey.”
Harun narrowed his eyes.
“Explain.”
“Treat it as if it isn't here.”
“What?”
“As if it isn't here.”
Kael said that and entered the stall.
Lin watched Harun cautiously for a moment, then followed Kael inside.
Harun stared at the two of them with his mouth hanging open.
“Good grief.”
A sigh escaped him.
Harun had seen every kind of person on the underground levels, but this was the first time he'd seen someone return from work with a tightly bundled kid and tell him to treat the child as if it didn't exist.
“You're really something else.”
Harun muttered as he raised the shutter halfway.
He had business to run.
***
Kael sat in front of the workbench inside the stall as usual.
Harun had piled up things needing repair since morning.
Small magilight stabilization modules and discarded security devices.
And assorted components of unknown purpose.
Kael picked one of them up.
He opened the black casing and exposed the circuit board.
He read the mana flow and found the blockage,
scraped it out, then secured the connection.
Vrrrm.
Light came on in the first device.
Kael immediately picked up the second item.
Lin sat beside the workbench and watched him.
At first, she stayed quiet.
But once Kael started fixing the device, she gradually changed.
Lin's gaze followed his fingertips.
Kael's hands weren't fast, but they were calm. Above all, they never faltered.
Zap.
The second device came alive.
Click.
The lock on the third device clicked open.
Vrrrm.
A blue light came on in the fourth magilight.
Lin unconsciously leaned forward.
Kael scraped the soot from the last circuit board, then hooked a thin silver wire over the joint. Power reached the dead output section.
Harun, watching from a distance, grinned.
“Our circuit fixer really is something. Your hands are working well today, too.”
“Be quiet.”
“Look at you, talking to the boss like that in front of a customer.”
“You're the boss?”
“It's my stall, isn't it?”
Kael didn't respond and placed the repaired device on the cloth.
Then Lin asked very cautiously.
“Um….”
Kael spoke without turning his head.
“Why?”
Lin hesitated for a moment, then spoke.
“Are you, by any chance, a magitech engineer?”
“A magitech engineer?”
He thought for a moment, then said,
“Ah.”
He nodded briefly.
“You mean people who handle things like this.”
“Yeah.”
“No.”
It was a curt answer.
Lin stared at him blankly for a moment.
“No…?”
“That's right.”
“Then how are you so good at fixing them?”
Kael didn't answer her and picked up the device.
At his attitude, Lin pressed her lips together slightly.
Her eyes had narrowed a little compared to before.
She was sulking.
Kael noticed but pretended not to.
Even so, Lin didn't back down and asked again.
“Then… are you a mage?”
Kael's hand stopped for the first time. Then he slowly raised his head.
“A mage?”
Under his gaze, Lin shrank back a little.
“I-I mean, yes. So… are you a mage?”
Kael looked at her silently. A sharpness had entered his eyes, which had been indifferent moments ago.
He set the device down on the workbench for a moment and asked her a question.
“Do you know about mages?”
Lin blinked as though she'd heard an unexpected question.
“Uh… a little.”
“A little.”
Kael repeated the word.
Until now, he had never seen a mage from this world in person.
The concept of magic existed.
Mana circuits… and magitech devices, too.
However.
Someone who circulated mana through the circuits in their body, interpreted formulas, and twisted the laws of the world.
He had never seen such a person.
So he couldn't simply let Lin's words pass.
“Tell me.”
Lin seemed slightly surprised by his tone.
“What…?”
“The mages you know.”
He looked straight into her eyes.
“What are the people called mages in this city like?”
Lin moved her lips beneath the mask.
After hesitating for a moment, she cautiously opened her mouth.
“In Magitera, only people equipped with artificial mana circuits… in other words, ACUs… can use magic.”
Kael said nothing, but his gaze grew deeper.
Seeing his reaction, Lin continued.
“Circuits are divided from first tier to ninth tier. The higher the ACU's number, the more complex formulas it can process and the stronger magic it can use.”
“Tier….”
Kael muttered softly.
“But having a high-tier circuit isn't enough. The brain has to process the formulas, too… If its computational capacity is insufficient, the person breaks down before the circuit gives out.”
Lin fidgeted with her fingers.
“That's why there aren't many high-tier circuit users. It costs a lot, compatibility rates are low, and if it fails….”
When she trailed off, Kael finished for her.
“You die?”
At his words, Lin gave a small nod.
“Or you break.”
Mages in this city weren't born; they were made.
The corner of Kael's mouth twisted.
“Interesting.”
Lin asked cautiously.
“Interesting…?”
“I mean it's horrible.”
“Oh.”
Lin closed her mouth again.
Kael tapped the circuit board on the workbench with his fingertip and continued questioning her.
“Then are all the people called mages in this city using a device called an ACU?”
Lin tilted her head as though thinking.
“Yeah… I guess so?”
“I guess so?”
“At least as far as I know.”
Lin quietly caught her breath beneath the mask.
It still seemed difficult for her to look Kael straight in the eye, but her tone was more relaxed than before.
“ACU stands for artificial circuit unit. It's a device implanted in the body to receive mana and connect to the brain so it can calculate formulas.”
Kael narrowed his eyes.
“You mean it's not a tool outside the body, but something inserted inside it.”
“Yeah. Usually it's implanted in the spine, the back of the neck, or near the chest. I've heard that the higher the tier, the closer to the brain it's connected.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“It is. Very.”
Lin nodded.
“That's why just anyone can't do it. It costs a lot, you need a compatibility test, and you need authorization for the procedure. I hear lots of people die after having cheap circuits illegally implanted.”
Kael silently looked down at the circuit board, then his fingertips slowly followed an old circuit line.
“Implanting a mana circuit into the body.”
He muttered softly.
“It's more surprising that anyone survives after doing that.”
“But you can't use magic without an ACU.”
At Lin's matter-of-fact attitude, Kael fell into thought.
If that was common sense in this city….
Kael slowly raised his head and looked at Lin.
“Then are you using one, too?”
Lin's hand stopped.
“…What?”
“An ACU.”
Kael asked, watching her reaction.
“I asked whether you'd had one implanted in your body, too.”
The color drained from Lin's face.
“N-no. I don't have one.”
“I see.”
“Yeah.”
Lin vigorously nodded as she denied it, but.
“Hmm.”
Kael instantly realized it was a lie.
However, he didn't ask any further and lowered his gaze to the circuit board on the workbench.
“All right.”
That short answer made Lin look even more uneasy.
“You believe me…?”
“You said you didn't have one.”
….
“That'll do for now.”
Lin shut her mouth.
Just then, Harun's voice came from outside the stall.
“Watch what you say, both of you.”
Kael raised his head at that.
“Do you think this is your room?”
Harun spoke quietly.
“Why are you talking about things that dangerous here?”
“You were listening?”
“I'm old, not deaf.”
Harun glanced around, then lowered the tent a little further.
“Don't casually bring up words like ACU or mage here.”
….
Lin's shoulders shrank a little.
However, Kael asked calmly.
“Why?”
Harun looked at him as though dumbfounded.
“You ask why?”
“Yeah.”
“Ha.”
Harun put a cigarette in his mouth, then took it back out.
“You really don't seem like someone who's lived a year on the underground levels when I look at you sometimes.”
“I think I know as much as I need to.”
“No. You only know what you need.”
Harun leaned against the workbench and lowered his voice.
“Down here, even the concept of magic itself is hazy.”
“Even though magitech devices are common?”
“That's different.”
Harun pointed at the broken devices on the workbench.
“These are objects. If they break, you can take them apart, fix them, and sell them. But a mage is a person. Someone with an ACU implanted in their body.”
He paused for a moment.
“And there are hardly any people like that here.”
As Kael quietly listened, Harun continued.
“Why do you think? Because it's expensive. Filthy expensive. Even a single low-tier ACU costs more than hundreds of people from the underground levels could ever touch in their lifetimes. High-tier? Don't even ask.”
“That much?”
“You ask if it's that much?”
Harun laughed.
“A single ACU is worth as much as the lives of hundreds—no, thousands—of people from the underground levels. I'm not exaggerating. Circuits cost more than people.”
Lin's hand quietly gripped her sleeve.
Harun added in a low voice.
“Mages who fall to the underground levels are usually low-tier. First or second tier, and rarely third. They're the ones cast out from above because they were no longer useful, driven out by debt, or because their circuits had broken.”
“Where are they?”
“Dead.”
Harun replied immediately.
“At first, they all think they're something special. They can make a little fire or put up a weak barrier. But down here, people like that stand out the most, you know?”
“You mean they become targets.”
“That's right.”
A brief silence fell inside the stall.
Lin lowered her head, while Kael tapped the circuit board on the workbench with his fingertips.
“So the word mage itself is dangerous.”
“You finally get it.”
Harun glared at Kael.
“Especially you.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
Harun indicated Kael's hand with his chin.
“You're weird enough as it is. You read mana flow without a schematic, and even devices you've never seen turn on when you fiddle with them.”
“I don't just fiddle with them.”
“That's what it looks like to me.”
Harun bared his teeth.
“On top of that, once they hear you talking about mages and ACUs, these idiots start letting their imaginations run wild—wondering whether there's something implanted in that guy's body, or what might come out if they cut him open.”
When Lin drew a sharp breath, Harun glanced at her, then spoke even more quietly.
“So keep it down.”
“…All right.”
“Good. Please do.”
Harun grumbled.
“Just repair things today. I don't want the whole stall ransacked because you started spouting weird nonsense.”
Kael didn't answer.
It was then.
The area outside the stall suddenly erupted in commotion, making it sound as though a fight had broken out.
“What is it?”
But this time, it wasn't that.
Harun lifted the tent flap slightly and looked outside. People had gathered in one of the market's passageways.
Frowning, he leaned out beyond the tent.
“Hey.”
He grabbed a passing man's arm.
The man tried to pull free, but stopped when he saw Harun's face.
“What's going on? Why is it so noisy?”
“You don't know?”
“Would I be asking if I did?”
The man looked around once, then lowered his voice.
His voice was mixed with excitement and fear.
“They came down from the upper levels.”
Harun's expression hardened at his words.
“What?”
“People from the upper levels. Men in suits. Security officers are with them, too.”
“The Public Security Bureau?”
“No. Not the Public Security Bureau.”
The man swallowed dryly.
“They're with a corporation.”