A Rat's Ambition
The slaughtered corpses were left abandoned in the front yard of the Security Bureau.
Though their leader had escaped, losing all his subordinates meant the syndicate was effectively dismantled. An entire faction had collapsed overnight. It was bound to have a significant impact on the city.
There was no telling how things would change.
'It's unlikely to head in a positive direction, though.'
Southred was a massive garbage dump.
It wasn't a city that would improve just by clearing out a few pieces of junk.
It needed a much more thorough sweeping.
But that was none of his business. Both Muzark and Yen were already overwhelmed with their own immediate problems. Neither of them had the luxury to worry about complete strangers.
The temporary team headed straight to the Chief's office upon their return.
"I'm sorry. The investigation was a failure."
As the team leader, Yen reported the results.
They hadn't achieved a single one of their official objectives. Of course, there were suspicious circumstances—namely, the demons found at every single explosion site. However, they hadn't brought back any physical evidence.
To this, Yen added an unexpected caveat.
"It was my sole decision."
Muzark looked at Yen with surprised eyes.
"I prioritized the safety of my team. No matter how I looked at it, the situation felt artificially engineered."
"I understand, but it is a regrettable decision nonetheless."
"Yes. I will take full responsibility."
She even bowed her head, claiming it was her own oversight. It was clearly a calculated move, performed with Lahar's gaze in mind. Even so, it must have stung her pride.
Somehow, his debt to her only seemed to grow.
The events after entering Southred had been no different. They had merely reconfirmed the obvious fact that the city was practically lawless.
They had essentially gone in, caused a massive ruckus, and come right back.
"I've heard enough."
Shadia let out a sigh.
"Since you returned empty-handed, I can't even offer empty praise. But yes, safety is important. All three of you are vital assets to the Security Bureau. I won't press the matter too deeply."
Perhaps it was because he had just witnessed the chaos of Southred, but Muzark could sense the subtle authority and weight behind Shadia's calm demeanor.
"I will dispatch a follow-up team to the explosion sites. Yen, please stay. The other two may dismiss themselves. You must be exhausted from the field mission, so go get some rest."
Taking their leave, Muzark and Lahar bowed and exited the Chief's office.
The door clicked shut, and their footsteps faded into the distance.
Once only the two of them remained in the room, the atmosphere shifted instantly.
"Lahar is colluding with criminals from other cities."
"Are you certain?"
"It's circumstantial, but yes."
Yen's eyes grew sharp.
"I believe we should deal with him as soon as possible."
"Yen, do you realize what you're saying?"
"Of course. I'm saying we should kill the traitor."
"If only it were as simple as it sounds."
Shadia toyed with the temple of her glasses resting on the desk. As the head of an organization, this wasn't a decision she could make lightly.
"Lahar's faction within the Security Bureau is the obstacle. If we try to eliminate a colleague based on mere suspicion without concrete evidence, they will never accept it. The fallout would be immense."
"Then we just shouldn't get caught. Leave it to me."
"And how do you plan to do that? Do you have a scheme?"
The corners of Yen's mouth curled upward.
"I'll have to pray. Pray that an unfortunate accident befalls that bastard soon. Considering how much the heavens owe me by now, don't you think they should grant me at least one favor?"
She meant she would disguise his death as an accident. It was no idle boast. Yen was as rich in practical experience with various incidents as she was in magical knowledge.
Despite her confident pitch, permission was not granted.
"...The risk is still too high. We must assume a significant number of them have already infiltrated the city. There's no guarantee they won't run rampant even if we kill Lahar."
"How frustrating. So we're just supposed to sit back and take it?"
"No. I want to approach this with a bit more caution."
Rattle. Shadia slid open her desk drawer.
Inside lay about a dozen pebbles, neatly arranged as if they were a prized collection. She picked one up and channeled her mana into it, causing a faint blue haze to rise from the stone.
The flow of mana pointed toward the floor below.
Yen knew exactly what this phenomenon was. Tracking magic utilizing a medium—a method where a beacon planted on a target transmitted their location in real-time.
While various tracking spells existed, Shadia's magic excelled in its sheer stealth. The beacon was so minuscule and leaked such a negligible amount of mana that even skilled mages would struggle to notice it.
"When on earth did you plant that on him?"
"I keep tabs on the movements of most high-risk individuals."
"But that only gives you a rough idea, doesn't it?"
"That's enough. When the opportunity arises, we must pluck them out by the roots in one fell swoop."
One had to look at the bigger picture.
The criminals crawling into Eastred weren't doing so just to cause minor mischief. There would inevitably come a moment when they made a major move to achieve their grand ambition.
Shadia was aiming for a clean sweep.
"Ha, fine. If you have a plan, I'll follow it."
"You've softened quite a bit without me realizing, Yen."
"It's about time I softened. I lived a harsh life only to end up stuck here in Redline anyway."
On the inside, however, Yen swallowed the words rising to her throat.
'If only they were the kind of idiots who would actually fall for that.'
At the same time, in the second-floor lounge of the Security Bureau.
"We finally get to talk one-on-one, junior."
Muzark and Lahar sat facing each other across a table. This meeting had come about because Lahar had intercepted Muzark immediately after they left the Chief's office.
"Why are you looking around like that? Is this your first time in the lounge?"
"I haven't had any reason to come here until now."
"Really? Well, I suppose Yen did baby you quite a bit."
Had Lahar tried to lure him outside, Muzark would have flatly refused. But inside the Security Bureau, he judged there was at least a basic safety net, so he accepted the invitation.
'Though that might have been slightly naive of me.'
Muzark glanced at the firmly closed door. The window on the door was completely blocked by the back of someone's head. Someone was keeping watch to ensure they wouldn't be interrupted.
"You look uncomfortable, so I'll cut to the chase."
Lahar made his proposal with a bright, beaming smile.
"How would you like to join us?"
"Aren't we already colleagues? We work together at the Security Bureau."
"Ah! Haha. I suppose that's true, too."
He scratched his cheek as if embarrassed.
"You really don't react the way I expect, junior."
"Is that so?"
"I thought you'd be shocked if I threw a straight fastball and got right to the point. I wanted to fluster you a bit, too. But it didn't work. Were you this calm when the Mage Hunter came after you?"
Just as Lahar said, Muzark's expression remained entirely unchanged. But anyone close to him would have realized that his mind was racing at breakneck speed.
'What is he plotting?'
The weight of Lahar's seemingly casual words was anything but light. Even if he hadn't explicitly admitted it, it was practically a confession. A confession that he was plotting treason right inside the Security Bureau.
And now he was asking him to join?
"Come on. Let's be honest with each other."
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb. I don't have much time. While those two upstairs are busy exchanging predictable platitudes, I need to convey my intentions to you. With as little misunderstanding as possible."
The hostility Lahar had occasionally flashed during the mission had completely vanished. He was as casual and relaxed as if he were just going about his day. This bizarre incongruity only heightened Muzark's guard.
True to his word, Lahar was blunt.
"Yen and the Chief have probably already marked me as a traitor. I did act suspiciously, and to be honest, I didn't care much about hiding it. I had more important things to worry about."
He popped a snack into his mouth, then pointed at Muzark with the hand holding the bag.
"The rookie who snatched Harmensales from Yen. You were a real thorn in my side, so I sent the Mage Hunter to shake up the Security Bureau, but you went and survived that, too. I started getting curious."
"So you wanted to gauge my abilities."
"And the results exceeded my expectations. Personally, I rate you higher than Yen. She might be superior right now, but in terms of potential... well, Yen is basically half-crippled, isn't she?"
Muzark listened in silence, crossing his arms. Since Lahar was already fully aware that he was under suspicion, continuing to play dumb would just look ridiculous.
"What exactly are you people trying to do?"
"It's simple. We're going to restore Eastred to its original state."
"...Restore it?"
"We don't really care for oppression, you see."
It aligned perfectly with what the man in Southred had claimed.
'A garbage dump is fine just being a garbage dump.'
How was he even supposed to respond to this?
"I couldn't agree with you even if you beat me to death."
"So you're on that side too, junior? Well, there are plenty of people who prefer things the way they are now."
"If you knew I'd reject you, why are you sitting here telling me all this?"
"I wanted to teach my naive junior a little lesson about how the world works."
Lahar sucked the seasoning dust off his fingers with a loud smack.
"Listen, I genuinely acknowledge your talent, junior. I think if you put in the effort, you might actually make it up to Orangeline. But would that dramatically change your life? Not a chance."
"You speak very easily of another person's life."
"Haha. It might sting, but you'd do well to take it to heart."
He spoke with absolute certainty.
"You might be exceptional down here, but you won't be up there."
"..."
"The Empire is ridiculously massive. Sure, you'll be thrilled for a few days after getting recognized and climbing up, but what then? The head of a rat becomes the tail of a rabbit. And if you manage to become the head of a rabbit, what's next? The tail of a pig?"
There was always a higher level.
If one aimed for the top in the Empire, it was a dilemma they had to face eventually. Just how many years would they have to keep running? How long would talent and effort continue to pay off?
What if the place they finally reached after running endlessly wasn't the summit? What if their legs broke, or they collapsed from exhaustion, unable to climb any further?
At that point, they would merely plummet back down, exposed as a mediocre commoner of lowly birth.
"You can never become a dragon, junior."
Lahar declared flatly.
"Even if you died and came back a hundred times, it wouldn't change. It's not a matter of your effort; it's your birth. For the high and mighty up there, that place is their starting line. But for us, it's a sky so high we can't even see it."
It was a structurally unwinnable race.
"So, you're telling me to be satisfied living as the head of a pack of rats?"
"Exactly. I knew mages were smart."
Muzark fell into silent contemplation.
'He has a point.'
A mage didn't necessarily have to aim for the top. While the upper regions certainly provided a better environment for a mage to grow, did he absolutely have to grow?
Redline was the very bottom of the Empire.
Looked at another way, it was the region where a mage's relative value was highest. Because the number of mages was extremely low. Just by mastering a basic Shield, one could reign over countless non-mages.
Yes, it made sense.
Even without joining hands with Lahar, it was a path worth considering. He could sever his ties to his past life on Earth, forget the truth behind his transmigration, and simply choose to live as the king of the rats...
However, Muzark's actual thoughts were heading in an entirely different direction.
'What happens if I kill this bastard right here, right now?'
First, the feasibility.
'Can I kill him?'
Yes. It would be incredibly simple.
Through this mission, he had fully realized the utility of his Shield.
'The problem is dealing with the aftermath.'
The subsequent chain of events played out in his mind.
It would inevitably cause a massive uproar. It was broad daylight, a time when everyone was on duty, and Lahar's subordinate was standing guard right outside the door.
The cancer within the Security Bureau ran deeper than he had imagined. Moreover, it was highly questionable how Shadia, who was obsessed with organizational order, would react to Muzark's rogue action.
The scales tipped toward reality rather than a momentary impulse.
"I don't think this is a question I can answer right away."
"Of course. Take your time and think it over carefully."
Capturing him alive was a better option than killing him on the spot.
Just as Muzark was about to warm up his Magic Circuit—
"I'll head out first. You sit here for just one minute before you leave, junior."
"Is that absolutely necessary?"
"Not absolutely. It's just that if you don't, my friends might go and stab your teammates to death."
Muzark's eyes snapped wide.
"What were their names again? Misha and Evan? Honestly, Yen might be a bit too tough, but who knows? Maybe she'll end up in a state where she can never use magic again. You didn't seriously think we were all just monkeys, did you?"
Lahar bared his teeth in a grin as he stood up. He was the kind of man who could casually threaten lives.
So nonchalantly, as if he were merely choosing what to have for lunch.
"Ha."
A dry laugh escaped Muzark's lips. Lahar's true nature, which had remained completely obscured throughout the mission, was now laid bare to its very depths.
"I take back what I just said."
Muzark's face turned ice-cold.
"I don't need to think about it, you piece of shit."
"Oh, come on. It's not like you ever intended to join us anyway."
"But I can promise you one thing."
He spat out each word, practically chewing them.
"I am going to report everything we just discussed to the Chief and wait for her authorization. And when she decides to excise cancer like you once and for all, I will personally slit your throat."
"See? That is the crucial difference between you and us, junior."
"What?"
The reply was simple.
"We don't need reports or authorization."
Leaving those final words behind, Lahar walked out of the lounge.
Muzark suppressed the urge to lung after him. "Monkeys" was a derogatory term for non-mages. Which meant there was a mage among Lahar's cohorts. There was no telling how they were communicating.
With other people's lives on the line, he couldn't afford to act rashly.
'There might be other traps laid out as well.'
In the silence of the room, Muzark's gaze darkened.
"What a fucking lunatic."
It was the first time he had ever felt such a distinct, burning murderous intent. This wasn't even a situation where his own life was hanging by a thread, like with Claude Regan or the Mage Hunter.
Suddenly, he realized how much he had changed.
At some point, "killing" had become a viable option in his problem-solving toolkit. Muzark had acquired a mindset that would have been impossible—and forbidden—for the Korean man named Baek Si-woo.
'What will I be like in the future?'
One year, two years... five years from now?
Would he become the kind of person who wouldn't hesitate to hunt down and slaughter someone like Lahar on the spot? If he did, it could hardly be called growing as a human being.
Yet, in a way, it was undeniably growth. It would mean he had reached a position where he could act decisively and handle the consequences on his own.
For a long while, Lahar's words echoed in his mind.
'The head of a rat, the head of a rabbit, the head of a pig.'
And finally, the head of a dragon.
Lahar had spoken of the limits of those born at the bottom.
But he would never be able to fathom Muzark's limits.
Never, through the narrow vision of a mere commoner.