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#048. Where evil gathers (5)
“Instead of money, you do me a favor later. Then, we’ll both be doing each other a favor, so wouldn’t it be fair?”
「… … .」
Please, please.
If you think about it, the calculation couldn’t be more certain or clean than this.
Ray nodded.
“good.”
“Yeah. I won’t ask you to do anything unreasonable.”
That’s how Veronica ended up in the abandoned factory, burning her brain cells.
The magic circle I’ve encountered for the first time in my life boasts such an unconventional level of perfection and scale.
‘This one uses elements of the transformation system… This one too… If we look a little closer, we’ll probably understand.’
My head feels dizzy because of the vibrations of mana felt from all directions.
If it weren’t for the drawing Ray gave me, I wouldn’t have even been able to figure out the shape of the magic circle.
“It’s okay if you don’t overdo it.”
“You can do it. Really. Yeah.”
“Then I’ll come back a little later.”
Magic circle analysis was a task that had to be based on theoretical knowledge.
So Ray’s innate sense of mana wasn’t of much help this time.
Ray turned around and Veronica looked around to catch her breath.
Crackle─! Crackle─!
I could see a large crowd of children crowded around the window, and small sparks flying among them.
Suddenly, I remembered the excited words that Yulta and Morphine had said when they came in from playing on the street.
“There’s Brother Ray! He’s the leader of the North Street!”
“That’s right! I saw those big, scary-looking guys bowing their heads to Ray hyung!”
The two younger brothers couldn’t hide their excitement, their eyes sparkling.
I wonder if the words power and strength have taken root in the minds of boys at this age and are causing endless division.
‘I guess that’s true. I haven’t asked him directly yet, though.’
When I first arrived at the abandoned factory, I was shocked.
There were children swarming around, big enough to make you hesitate just by looking at them.
“Don’t be scared. They’re the ones I called to give you some work to do. Looks like they got there first.”
I followed Ray inside, keeping an eye out for him.
As I was examining the magic circle with half anxiety and half tension, a few children approached me, timidly.
“If Ray-nim goes to see me and asks if I can help, I will help him…”
At that moment, I was able to realize it.
This means that the other side was also watching this side.
“It’s okay! I’ll call you if I need help!”
I feel a little better now.
Since he is Ray’s friend, I can’t treat him carelessly.
“Yes, I understand! Madam! If you need any help, please call me anytime!”
“I’ll be waiting, ma’am.”
Madam.
The girl flinched.
Children used words they had heard whispered in the street.
Seeing Veronica call Ray by his name so casually, he thought she was his girlfriend or someone comparable to her.
Strictly speaking, ‘sa-ma-nim’ is a polite term used to refer to another person’s ‘wife’.
“now….”
“Yes? Go ahead, ma’am.”
Veronica blushed.
I was timid so I couldn’t say no to Ray.
However, the word madam didn’t sound too bad to me… no, it wasn’t that bad at all.
I’m your wife!
Without realizing it, my back straightened.
With an elegant gesture, he lifted his notebook and covered his mouth like a fan, and with a slightly more elegant gesture, he pointed to the floor.
“Ahem. Could you measure the distance from there to here?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
It had nothing to do with magic circle analysis.
“Hehehe. Could you please check the temperature of this part too?”
“Okay, ma’am!”
Again, this had nothing to do with magic circle analysis.
Anyway, Veronica worked hard as a wife and was still doing so consistently.
Knock. Knock. Knock!
As soon as the workers passed by, the sloppy posture was instantly filled with elegance.
I continued to contemplate in that state.
‘The starting point is clearly here. If we can figure out how the elements in this part are combined, we can completely figure out the entire structure.’
I felt my head overheating, but I never gave up.
He knew better than anyone that hard work and persistence were his greatest weapons.
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How much time has passed like that?
“Okay!”
Cheers erupted.
The anxiety and frustration that had filled the bowl evaporated in an instant, and a deep joy surged in its place.
But it didn’t take long for that elation to be replaced by shame.
Because soon he realized that everyone was looking at him.
“ah….”
My face felt hot.
I didn’t realize I raised my voice too loudly.
“I’m sorry! Let’s go back to what we were doing!”
Veronica struggled to turn away the gazes that had gathered around her.
Ray came over and spoke to me.
“Did you figure it out?”
“Oh, yeah! You said you wanted to know when the magic circle would be activated?”
Veronica, who had returned from being a housewife to being a bookseller girl, said while cooling her face with a fan.
And then Ray gave me a notebook and pen and I wrote down a complicated formula.
“Exactly 49 hours and 12 minutes later. So it will be activated two days later at 2:30 p.m.”
It was a time that did not deviate greatly from Ray’s expectations.
The man’s return visit is at 2pm.
‘I’ll get there then and check to see if Cedric and the kids are all gathered.’
And just before the magic circle is activated, he will leave the place alone.
There are other possibilities, but the flow will not deviate from there.
“Is it possible to change the activation point?”
“Well… in theory it’s possible. I guess I’ll just have to try it to find out.”
Veronica added cautiously, watching Ray’s expression.
“May I ask what you’re trying to do? Just looking at this magic circle, it looks extremely dangerous….”
Pure white mana bloomed in the girl’s bowl.
Mana soon took the form of a small sun, emitting gentle rays of light.
Irresistible beauty.
Ray couldn’t help but lose his mind for a moment.
Why on earth is that?
Why do Veronica’s worries only take this form towards me?
This phenomenon did not occur when Veronica was concerned about her elders or her younger siblings.
It was something that had already been confirmed several times.
“What are you trying to do…?”
A dull mumbling escaped Ray’s lips.
It was clear what they wanted to do.
Getting rid of the man.
After much thought, I came to the conclusion that it was impossible to persuade or clumsily subdue a man.
It would be better to just remove it.
When the right opportunity comes, like now.
That opportunity was a magic circle that would destroy everything above it.
‘… although interrogation is the best way to obtain information.’
There may be some information missing in the basement as well.
Additionally, it is possible to collect missing information by moving on to the next sector.
“I’m not pressuring you to answer. I just wonder if I can be of any help…”
The immediate question was whether to tell this story to Veronica.
Even if she had told the truth, Veronica wouldn’t be able to help much beyond analyzing the magic circle.
Two days later, there would be only the man and herself here, and that was the optimal condition for the plan to succeed.
The presence of other people was only a nuisance.
But I had a question.
“Are you worried that I might get hurt?”
If you spill some of the truth.
So if I could make Veronica even more worried.
“Yeah, right. If it’s dangerous, you might get hurt.”
Then will that little sun become more beautiful than it is now?
*
The entrance to the northern dump, where piles of scrap metal are piled high.
There was a boy standing there carrying a cross-body bag.
Pure white hair and skin.
A face with elegant lines.
The boy with his colorful appearance stood out sharply in a landscape filled with old and broken things.
It looked like a painting drawn in a different style than the others.
But strangely enough, it didn’t feel foreign.
It was because of the boy’s mood.
Cold eyes and a cold expression.
The boy’s flashy appearance was overlaid with the raw feeling unique to those surviving on the streets.
“… … .”
The boy, who was looking toward the city with dry eyes, lowered his head and checked the watch on his wrist.
[PM 13:57]
It’s almost time to come.
As I thought that and raised my head again, I saw a man in a coat approaching from afar.
The bright yellow excitement and anticipation in the bowl was clearly visible from afar.
Thud. Thud. Knock.
The two emotions gradually came closer and stopped before my eyes.
“Huh? What? You were… last time.”
“I came out to pick you up.”
“You’re saying I’ll pick you up? Hehehe.”
The man smiled as he looked at Ray, who bowed his head politely.
The emotions in the bowl flickered like small flames, following the man’s chest.
It seemed like he wasn’t offended by the fact that someone had come out to pick him up.
“Okay. Let’s go. Is everyone here?”
“Yes. We have successfully completed the move-in process and are waiting in the hideout. Everyone is just waiting for the teacher to arrive.”
Ray glanced up and took out the line he had prepared.
Among the many kinds of emotions distributed in the man’s vessel, caution and hostility were not even slightly reflected.
Just like last time.
Even though it’s such a close distance.
The man did not seem to be a very careful or cautious person.
Rather, by Ray’s standards, he was on the very careless side.
The plan to use Cedric to gather the sacrifices on the magic circle also had many loopholes when examined closely.
Considering the completeness of the magic circle and the importance of the plan, the man’s carelessness could be considered a fatal flaw that did not match his abilities.
But it could have been.
There is no such thing as a perfect person in this world, and everyone has flaws.
Whether it’s a minor flaw or not.
Or, as is now the case, a fatal flaw.
That was one of the conclusions the boy came to after observing people for a long time.
And at the same time, that was the reason why I had questions while reading a book about God in a bookstore recently.
“God is invisible to our eyes. He has never been seen anywhere. But under the value of our inner faith, he is… .”
It was a book that organized many hypotheses and theories about God.
There were dozens of types of stories and many of them were difficult to understand, so I couldn’t read them all.
But there was one thing that was common in most of the stories I read.
God is an omnipotent being who created the world and created humans as his own clone.
The moment he encountered that passage, a long-held thought deep in the boy’s heart stirred.
“… Humans are imperfect animals.”
I had a question.
If God is so omnipotent, why didn’t he create humans as perfect beings as he is?
To use a factory metaphor, God could only produce defective products that had some flaw in them.
If so, wouldn’t that be proof that God is not omnipotent?
The boy returned the book on God to the shelf, recalling a word he had seen in the dictionary.
“Contradiction. Words or actions not in agreement with each other.”
Since the elements that make up the boy’s world were thorough logic, a book full of contradictions was not worth reading.
At that moment, a man’s voice heard from beside him woke Ray up.
“Is this the right way? It doesn’t seem to be the way I came last time.”
“It’s a shortcut.”
“Oh, right. You guys are more familiar with places like this than I am, so you’ll know the way better.”
We walked quite a distance, but there was no sign of the hideout appearing.
That was only natural.
Because Ray was deliberately taking the wrong path and wasting time.
The current time is 2:08 PM.
And the magic circle was activated at 2:27.
“The only limit is to slightly advancing the activation time. The elemental bond is too tight, so further manipulation is impossible with my current level.”
Ray came up with several plans to eliminate the man, and was able to execute one of them thanks to Veronica’s help.
The plan was simple.
In an abandoned factory, he stalls for time with a man, and then escapes alone just before the magic circle is activated.
There was clearly an unbridgeable gap between the man and his own abilities.
But at least I could be confident that I wouldn’t fall and be defeated before the magic circle was activated.
The battle will be focused on evasion as much as possible, and the time we have to hold out in the abandoned factory is now being reduced little by little.
‘This man must know that the magic circle’s activation time is still 30 minutes away.’
The actual activation occurred 3 minutes earlier than that.
This fact will make a huge difference in the outcome of upcoming events.
“Three minutes. Okay.”
“…Can you really accept it so easily? There’s a chance that the results of my manipulation of the magic circle could be wrong.”
Of course, Veronica showed her concern.
The girl couldn’t understand why the boy took her words so easily when it came to important plans.
The boy couldn’t understand the girl’s lack of confidence in her own abilities.
“Veronica. You’re smart.”
「… … .」
It wasn’t easy for Ray to judge Veronica’s skills.
Veronica’s magical knowledge is on par with that of an old man, as has already been confirmed in various situations including classes.
“I trust you.”
The magic circle’s control section was also perfectly transformed, just as Veronica explained.
In conclusion, a plan that has already taken into account several variables and calculated the possibilities.
Of course, success couldn’t be guaranteed 100%, but the boy was confident that the odds were close to 100%.
“Hey, Captain. When on earth are we going to get there? You said it was a shortcut, but it seems much slower than the route I took.”
The man started to get annoyed.
I guess I’m starting to be satisfied with this.
Still, it took more than 7 minutes longer than the original route, so the intended purpose was sufficiently achieved.
“I’m sorry, I think I got my directions a little mixed up. But this fork in the road is definitely the right way.”
Ray took the lead and turned the fork in the road.
Sure enough, beyond the pile of scrap metal, the roof of an abandoned factory was visible, and the man closed his mouth, which was about to say another word.
Thud. Thud.
The direction the man and Ray were looking was exactly in front of the abandoned factory.
The tightly closed iron door began to grow larger and larger, and the man’s emotions also began to intensify.
“I knew you would succeed in gathering people. From the moment we first met, you could tell he had a desire to become stronger.”
An uncontrollable smile fell from the corners of the man’s lips.
“It’s all thanks to you, teacher.”
Ray continued to gauge the man’s condition, throwing out mechanical answers.
The plan’s execution presupposes that the man enters an abandoned factory.
If a man who senses something strange stops at the door, things will get very difficult.
Although we had put some countermeasures in place, it was clear that we would be taking on far more risks than if things had gone smoothly.
“It’s quiet inside. Is everyone holding their breath waiting for me to come?”
But fortunately, I didn’t feel anything special about the man.
At least until this moment when I reached the door and grabbed the handle.
Kkieeeeeeeeee───
The man pulled the handle.
The iron door began to open with an eerie creaking sound, and the scenery inside gradually came into view.
“Okay! Everyone, I’m here──.”
The smile disappeared from the man’s face.
The children waiting for him could not be found even if he looked for them with his eyes wide open.
All I see is empty space.
There was only darkness filling the place and the red lights of the blinking jewels.
It happened almost simultaneously.
The man turned his body while drawing up the mana of the circle.
fault!
I heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind.
Ray, who had closed the distance for a moment, swung his knife, and the man raised his forearm to block the attack.
visor!
With a sharp metallic sound, the two were pushed away from each other by a considerable distance.
Man inside.
The boy towards the entrance.
“You! What are you doing now!”
Unlike the man who paused for a moment to assess the situation, Ray quickly moved on to his next move.
Kicking, kicking, kicking──!
He began to quickly close the iron door using his strength that had been increased to the maximum.
With that, the light coming into the factory began to rapidly diminish.
“This kid─! Don’t answer me right now─!”
A man with a sword drawn from his waist ran at me, screaming.
Ray paid no attention and focused on closing the door.
Kick-kick-kick──! Clang!
The door closed and darkness fell.
He felt something fall behind him, and Ray immediately turned around, crossing his arms.
Chae-Ang─!
Ray’s arm, hardened like metal through magic, deflected the curved blade without any impact.
“Defense with bare arms now…!”
Ray, who had been turning around without stopping, landed a roundhouse kick to the stomach of the surprised man.
Thud!
The magically enhanced power was truly enormous.
The man was pushed so far that he fell and rolled on the floor.
A perfect clean hit.
The thick darkness that covered all around did not bother Ray in the least.
The colorful mana flowing through the blood vessels was like a luminous substance that indicated the location of the opponent.
However, the only objects to which it applied were living things.
Crunch.
Ray quickly felt around on the floor and found the chain he had prepared in advance.
And with that, he began to wrap the two handles of the iron door around it.
Clank. Clank.
It was clear that he couldn’t tie it perfectly because he couldn’t see ahead properly.
But it would be enough to buy time for the man to escape from here.
Hurrah!
The view from behind brightened.
A cold voice rang out along with the sound of a man getting up.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on.”
Ray turned around and could see several fireballs floating around the man.
Shadows appeared and disappeared across the landscape as fireballs the size of a person’s head billowed.
In the meantime.
“Where are the kids?”
The man’s face was revealed, distorted like a demon’s.
A torrential downpour of intense anger.
However, Ray noticed that his opponent did not seem to take much damage from the kick.
“I’ll give you ten seconds. Explain this whole situation to me so I can understand it. Otherwise.”
Puddle, thud, thud!
“I will tear your limbs off and throw them into the riverbed.”
The man began to count the seconds.
10. 9. 8… .
As time passed, Ray took no action.
I just stood there, staring at the man’s bowl.
The blood-red mana that had consumed the bowl was raging like heated air, banging its head against the outer part of the bowl.
An angry person cannot look around and becomes numb.
also.
‘They don’t realize that the magic circle has been manipulated.’
But this is not enough.
It is necessary to stimulate the man further and make him completely forget about the magic circle.
Ray moved his lips.
With the tip of the knife taken out of his bosom.
Aiming at the opponent’s face.
“Walter. I have come to eliminate you on the orders of the boss.”