Crisis Response Press Conference
I walked for what felt like forever—past a pristine white corridor that showed no sign of use, through several security doors and checkpoints, then along hallways where people finally began to appear.
“...This is ridiculously far.”
“Please understand, it’s for security. Just around this corner.”
And just as the agent said, the moment we turned the corner, a soundproof door that looked like something out of a movie theater stood wide open.
Clack. Clack.
The second I stepped through the entrance, a barrage of flashing lights exploded in my face. I flinched and threw a hand up to shield my eyes. The agent stayed at the doorway and didn’t follow me in.
“Ugh.”
I blinked a few times until my vision recovered, then sat down at the prepared table. There were four chairs, so I picked the one farthest in.
“Um, the seat next to you…”
A nameless bodyguard standing behind me pointed awkwardly at the chair beside mine, looking embarrassed.
“Ah.”
I half-lifted my hips and scooted over one seat.
Tch.
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!
Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!
These flashes are murdering my retinas for real.
“Excuse me, reporters? Could you maybe turn the flashes off?”
“...”
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!
Hmm. Everyone’s being so cooperative. I was fully prepared to force every single flash to die if they didn’t listen.
“Thank you.”
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!
...So what am I supposed to do now?
The agent who’d been stuck to my side was probably waiting out in the hallway so he wouldn’t end up in any photos…
I ignored the reporters who were just silently snapping pictures and hammering away at their laptops, and instead glanced back at the bodyguard standing behind me.
“What now?”
“Y-yes? Pardon?”
“I don’t think they dragged me out here just to take pictures…”
“Uh, um.”
Looks like this guy doesn’t know anything either.
Am I really just supposed to sit here like this?
Click-clack. Click-clack.
Clack. Clack.
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!
I was half-seriously considering showing them a gaming Triceratops just to fill the silence when more people finally entered through the doorway.
A white-haired old man came in first, coughing as he took the seat farthest inside.
Next was a thick-cheeked middle-aged man in military uniform who sat in the second chair.
Last came a rail-thin older woman who took the seat closest to the entrance.
“We will now begin the press conference.”
Ah.
So I was supposed to wait for these people.
Good thing I didn’t start doing anything weird on my own. That would’ve been mortifying.
“First of all, since we prepared this gathering for the people’s right to know, we ask that you report without bias or distortion. Additionally, please follow the guidelines for questions that were provided in advance…”
The older woman who kicked things off rattled off the precautions to the reporters in a smooth, polished stream. When I looked closer at her collar, I spotted a Rose of Sharon badge.
People who make their living with their mouths really are something else. That diction is honestly enviable…
“—and that is what we ask of you. For now, let’s proceed with the prepared content. Magician?”
“Eh, yes. Yes! Me?”
“Would you mind introducing yourself first?”
“Ah, yes.”
Well, there wasn’t anything I was forbidden to say, and we hadn’t coordinated any lines in advance, so I could just wing it, right?
I stood from my seat, faced forward, and gave a slight bow.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Yuria, the magician who was dragged to another world as a hero and managed to come back alive.”
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!
The shutter noise jumped up a noticeable notch.
Alright, time to give them a proper impact. I brought the index fingers of both hands together right in front of my eyes.
“Magic might still feel a little unfamiliar, but…”
And then, as I spread both fingers wide to the left and right while pouring mana into them…!
Flash! Whoosh!
A palm-sized miniature fireworks display bloomed right in front of my face.
“Whoa.”
“Waaah—”
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!
“Yeah, I do stuff like this.”
Clap clap clap clap
Hmm.
They’re even clapping for this…
I ended up rubbing the bridge of my nose for no good reason.
After the magic show, of course, came the endless questions.
“Kim Gyeong-deok from Daehan Ilbo. How does it feel to be back in Korea?”
“It’s been so long that everything feels new, and I missed it… but now that I’m actually here, it’s strangely calm.”
Starting with the obvious ones…
“Yu Ji-min from Daegyeong Newspaper. A lot of people are wondering whether ordinary people can use magic as well. What’s your take?”
“I’ve been thinking about whether there’s a way, and we’re preparing for it. Hopefully we’ll have good news someday.”
Questions I’d expected, but still couldn’t give a firm answer to…
“Daviri from The Restaurants Magazine. There are quite a few people curious about the food from the other world.”
“If the chance comes someday…?”
And then completely unexpected ones. After fielding a question from a foreign reporter whose magazine name alone screamed high-end dining, I grabbed the water on the table and gulped it down.
“Questions! Help!”
Seriously… there are way too many…
The range and volume of questions had no end.
“Kim Ji-hong from Samcheolli News. Some people are concerned that you might have been tortured or threatened since arriving in Korea…”
“Excuse me…?”
What is this now.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that. If anything, the meals come on time and there’s no war, so it’s dozens of times better than when I was in the other world.”
“Kim Jeong-hun from Ocell News…”
“Jeong Yu-jeong reporting…”
“Reporter…”
“Newspaper…”
Gaaaaah
Stop! Halt the wave of questions!
I turned a pleading look toward the people sitting beside me.
“...We’ll continue with questions a little later.”
Nice one, Assemblywoman.
“First, we have a major announcement.”
The assemblywoman cleared her throat with a deliberate ahem and gestured toward the old man seated farthest inside. He rose from his chair and walked over to the podium area.
It looked like the kind of spot a host would stand and talk from.
“Please dim the lights for a moment. Yes. And power on the beam projector as well.”
After some rustling and fiddling while he pulled out a laptop and got things ready…
“Would you all look here?”
My mouth fell open the moment I saw the screen.
“Uh…”
The forbidden tome of the evil god that I’d handed over to the United States.
Actual footage of the experiments that used that book was now playing through the projector.
“What kind of video is this?”
“I’m recording for now, but why is the book that size?”
They decided to just go public with that?
Screeeech! Screech! Screech!
Mechanical noises made even more grotesque by the low-quality speakers, people thrashing in seizures, gunshots that rattled the eardrums.
When the video ended and the bright fluorescent lights came back on, the reporters’ faces had gone grim and stiff.
“I am Lee Myeong-gwan, Research Director in charge of preliminary studies on magic. The footage I just showed you should be regarded as a harbinger of an unprecedented threat facing humanity.”
Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!
“Specifically, a research task force has already been established with the goal of preparing response measures within the human domain and identifying the cause—work that must be done together with Ms. Yuria. Over six thousand personnel from one hundred ninety countries have already been deployed.”
The reporters hammered their keyboards as if terrified of missing a single word from Director Lee Myeong-gwan, their expressions cycling between the gravity of someone copying down a declaration of war and pure blank shock.
One hundred ninety countries, though? Even I hadn’t known that. If other nations are taking this this seriously, it’s a win for me too.
“But there is no need to fear. Because Ms. Yuria possesses information about this unidentified phenomenon, we fully intend to receive her assistance.”
At the mention of my name, every camera fired off shutters in unison.
Click! Click! Click! Click!
Ah. I get it now.
They mean to put me front and center in this form.
Until now, the public’s perception of me had been simple. A curious person. A magician who uses magic and flies through the sky. That kind of image did me no favors at all.
Right now, saving Earth—saving the world—requires the cooperation of a great many people. So they need to see my presence as larger, and more necessary. This whole setup was the buildup they’d prepared for that purpose.
“Yes. I have judged these to be traces of an evil god that I learned of through certain means in the other world. I cannot go into detail because merely knowing the specifics is dangerous, but I can promise that I will cooperate fully for the sake of humanity.”
And I meant every word.
This was the Earth I’d barely managed to reach with my life intact.
I’d even browbeaten the Goddess into rolling back a once-ruined Earth to the past. There was no way I was going to sit on my hands now.
“Does that mean only a small group will hold the information and refuse to disclose it?”
“No.”
I looked around at the reporters and continued.
“This is the Earth I gazed at while overcoming tens of thousands of crises in the other world. It is my homeland. My resolve is that I will never lose it. I hope my sincerity reaches you.”
Of course, it wasn’t some grand spirit of selfless sacrifice for humanity.
I simply couldn’t allow the place where I could rest without worry—my comfortable haven, my home—to collapse.
As I finished speaking and gave a small bow, the reporters’ barrage of questions began again.
Is it true you lived for three thousand years?
“Of course. Though I don’t exactly have a way to prove it.”
Is your body structure the same as a normal human’s? Any plans to participate in that kind of research?
“I’d rather skip the human experimentation…”
And so on and so forth…
…
..
.
Aside from the minor accident of my voice going completely hoarse, it was clearly a major step forward.
While I fielded the reporters’ rambling questions, I brushed away the unease that had been lingering in one corner of my heart.