Chapter 8
-Underground Level 23. Target with a mana response neutralized.
A brief report came through the radio, but Pale did not bother answering.
Thud, thud.
Accompanied by guards in black protective suits, he was slowly descending the metal stairs.
-Underground Level 22. Two first-tier responders confirmed. Processed as unrecoverable.
-Underground Level 21. Three illegal ACU users subdued. No residual response.
The low-tier mages hiding in the underground levels were disappearing one by one. Since the people speaking over the radio were agents of at least the fourth tier, he thought the operation would proceed smoothly.
“….”
However.
There was only one thing that mattered most to him right now.
‘Her’ life or death. Of course, it would be preferable if she were dead; if she was alive, they could simply kill her. The underground levels were sometimes used as a megacorp cleanup site, so no one would be able to stop them even if they made a spectacular scene down here.
-Pale.
At the new report, Pale broke his heavily guarded silence.
“Speak.”
-A faint mana response has been detected on Underground Level 19.
Pale stopped walking.
-The response is unstable. It differs somewhat from an ACU signal, but the location is estimated to be inside the scrap market.
“Send me the coordinates.”
-Yes.
As soon as he gave the order, Pale checked the coordinates that appeared on his wrist terminal.
The corner of his mouth slowly lifted.
“You went to a lot of trouble to hide.”
Pale raised a hand and gave a signal.
“We’re moving.”
..
..
The scrap market on Underground Level 19 was unusually quiet. The crowds that were always so noisy had vanished somewhere, as though they were insects instinctively crawling into dark, narrow places.
It was solely because people from the upper levels had come down. To the people in the underground levels, those from the upper levels were simply that kind of presence.
“This way.”
One of his subordinates went ahead and pointed to an old stall at the edge of the market.
“….”
At a glance, it was an utterly ordinary scrap stall. Judging by its appearance, it repaired discarded junk and put it back to use. Faint mana leaked from the magitech devices mixed among the objects on display.
‘It couldn’t be because of these objects… could it?’
A response leaking from scrap this poor could trigger a detector, but something about it felt off.
The stall owner calmly looked at Pale standing in front of him.
“We’re closed.”
“Oh?”
He had remarkable nerve. Normally, most people would cower and grovel as soon as he stood before them. It was extremely rare for anyone to answer him so calmly.
“If you need something, come back tomorrow. We don’t have much here that suits the tastes of the upper-level gentlemen.”
Pale ignored him and shifted his gaze toward the inside of the stall.
“You inside.”
He spoke in a low voice.
“Come out.”
The old man’s eyes twitched.
“There’s nobody inside. Just a heap of scrap and dust.”
“Is that so?”
When Pale tilted his head slightly at the man’s words,
“Does dust breathe?”
his subordinates stepped forward and aimed their guns at the stall owner’s chest and head. He slowly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Good grief. You’re an impatient lot.”
“I said for the bastard inside to come out!”
One of Pale’s subordinates shouted.
“Don’t make me say it three times.”
After a brief silence, a black-haired, black-eyed young man pulled aside the tent flap and walked out.
He looked like a greenhorn who had fallen into the underground levels. But something about him felt cold, so Pale raised his wrist terminal and scanned the young man.
[Biological response confirmed.]
[No citizen registration information.]
[ACU not detected.]
[Mana response: faint.]
[Circuit identification unavailable.]
Pale fell into thought for a moment.
There was a mana response despite the absence of an ACU. But no such case had ever been reported.
That meant…
‘Is the scanner malfunctioning?’
Pale took a step toward the young man and pointed at him with one finger.
“You.”
The young man silently looked at him.
“Are you a mage?”
At Pale’s single question, the atmosphere froze.
The young man looked at Pale for a moment, then answered his question calmly.
“What if I am?”
Harun’s expression twisted.
“Ha.”
He could not tell whether the young man was insane or simply an oddball. Either way, he was impossible to understand.
Pale’s subordinates also raised their guns a little higher.
Pale silently looked at Kael.
‘At most, he’s first tier. Either the scanner is broken, or he’s someone who uses the lowest-output magic among first-tier mages.’
Pale was troubled by the contradiction in his own thoughts.
Even if it was the lowest output, could an ACU really go undetected?
No such case existed among all the incidents reported so far. It was not even a possibility.
“….”
[ACU not detected.]
[Mana response: faint.]
[Circuit identification unavailable.]
Pale looked down at the words displayed on his wrist terminal, then looked back at the young man. He slowly surveyed the area around the stall.
‘Could it be mana residue left from handling scrap?’
A mage.
They were people who had an ACU implanted, passed a compatibility test, and been assigned a circuit tier. Whether registered or illegal, only humans with an ACU implanted in their bodies were called that.
Yet no ACU was detected in this young man, and no circuit could be identified amid the faint mana response.
Then the answer was obvious.
A halfwit under the delusion that he was special. That had to be it. The underground levels were full of all kinds of lunatics.
Pale sneered at the young man.
“A mage… without even an ACU?”
Yet the young man did not even blink at his threat.
“Go ahead and test me.”
As the guns rose again, the tension intensified.
Pale stared at the young man, scanning every detail of his expression and movements.
“….”
That wasn’t a bluff. Moreover, this bastard was deliberately provoking him. Pale realized that much, but he did not fall for the man’s ploy. Instead, he found him intriguing.
Why?
Was he hiding something inside the stall?
Or did he have some powerful backer who would make it troublesome if Pale touched him?
Pale’s eyes narrowed.
‘What gives him that kind of confidence?’
Normally, he would have broken the young man’s fingers one by one until his curiosity was satisfied.
But the timing was bad.
-Pale.
The radio crackled.
Without taking his eyes off the young man, Pale answered.
“Speak.”
-A residual signature similar to the target’s unique wavelength has been detected at the wastewater junction on Underground Level 18.
His gaze changed.
“Are you certain?”
-It is not a complete match. However, it is similar to Seraph’s unique circuit residue. It is likely to fade further with time.
“….”
Knowing that time was short, Pale clicked his tongue inwardly.
It was clear that both the young man before him and the stall owner were hiding something.
But he judged that neither was worth digging into right now. Besides, the target’s residual signature would disappear with time, and once the underground transport routes became tangled, it would be difficult to track them again.
More than anything, he was too busy to hold onto an interesting toy.
Pale raised a hand to stop his subordinates, and the guns slowly lowered.
He approached the young man and then said,
“Count yourself lucky.”
After saying that, he stepped back.
“Halfwit.”
Instead of answering, the young man merely shrugged once.
That attitude grated on Pale’s nerves again.
Normally, anyone would consider themselves lucky to be alive.
But the young man’s attitude suggested that he had anticipated this outcome to some extent.
Pale hesitated for a moment, but then
“…Fuck.”
he gave his subordinates a short order.
“We’re moving.”
“Yes.”
The men in black protective suits turned around in unison.
Before leaving, Pale looked at the young man one last time.
“If I see you again.”
As though trying to memorize the face of his prey,
“Let’s see if you can shrug like that then.”
the young man calmly replied,
“I look forward to it.”
***
Kael lifted the tent flap and entered the stall.
Lin was huddled in a corner, trembling.
She had pulled her hood down low and was covering her mouth with both hands.
Kael looked down at her for a moment.
“…It’s all right now.”
Lin did not answer.
“They’re gone.”
“….”
Kael let out a short sigh at the sight of her.
“Haa.”
Only then did Lin slowly raise her head.
Her blue eyes, visible above the mask, were shaking violently.
“Th-they’re really all gone?”
“Yes.”
“Really…?”
“Why would I have any reason to lie to you?”
Kael sat in the chair beside the workbench and casually put one foot up on it. Harun would have thrown another fit if he saw him, but Harun was currently outside the tent, keeping watch on the surroundings.
Kael looked at Lin with a serious expression.
“I don’t particularly want to ask, but.”
Lin’s shoulders stiffened at his words.
Kael tapped the circuit board on the workbench with his fingertips and asked Lin a question.
“The ones they were looking for. That’s you, isn’t it?”
Lin flinched.
That reaction alone was enough.
Kael narrowed his eyes.
“As I thought.”
“….”
Lin lowered her head and slipped her fingertips inside her sleeves. She looked more frightened by this question than she had when Kael deliberately stalled for time in front of Pale.
But Kael did not pressure her. He merely continued speaking in a low voice.
“If I’m going to protect you, there are some things I need to know, at least roughly.”
“….”
“Information matters. It can change the course of a war, not just the outcome of a small-scale battle.”
Lin slowly raised her head, but Kael continued speaking calmly, ignoring her reaction.
“It’s basic stuff.”
Lin’s eyes wavered at his words, but she remained silent for a long time.
Kael waited without rushing her until she spoke of her own accord.
“I, I….”
At last, Lin opened her mouth in a tiny voice.
Her voice trembled.
“I’m the granddaughter of a high-ranking executive at Seraph Industries.”
Kael’s fingers, which had been habitually tapping without pause, stopped.
Seraph Industries.
Medicine, biological circuits, circuit stabilizers, artificial organs, and high-tier treatment facilities.
And the fragment of a component for preserving biological circuit tissue that Harun had shown him.
That name clicked into place with the others in his mind.
“Continue.”
Lin gripped the edge of her mask.
“Those people… were my bodyguards.”
“Were?”
She nodded.
“More precisely, they were people pretending to be bodyguards.”
Her voice grew even quieter.
“They weren’t assigned to protect me….”
Lin swallowed, then spoke almost in a whisper.
“They were assassins assigned to kill me.”