Chapter 351: The Land of Mages
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 351: The Land of Mages
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
That is the official name of the country commonly known as Britain.
As its name suggests, the United Kingdom is a union of four regions: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Like other European nations, it is also a class-based society with a clear distinction between the royal family, the nobility, and commoners.
“So this is London…”
After a long twelve-hour flight, I left the airport and arrived in the city center. An exotic landscape, completely different from Korea, unfolded before my eyes.
Rows of old-fashioned buildings, the kind I’d only seen on the internet, lined the streets, which bustled with people dressed in suits and dresses.
What’s more, it wasn’t uncommon to see horse-drawn carriages traveling on the roads.
It felt as if I had stepped into a world where the past and present were intertwined.
Even more surprising was the ‘race’ of the pedestrians.
While humans make up about 60% of the population in South Korea, in Britain, they accounted for a mere 20%.
In other words, the remaining 80% were of other races.
Cat-folk, rabbit-folk, dog-folk, minotaurs, bird-folk, halflings, vampires, and more.
Races rarely seen in Korea were so common here that a simple turn of the head would bring them into view.
In particular, the sight of centaurs—once persecuted to the brink of extinction—pulling carriages instead of horses was more than just fascinating; it was astonishing.
For the record, the reason they were persecuted was their resemblance to magical beasts.
This stirred people's fear of the monsters, and the centaurs ultimately became scapegoats for that fear.
Traces of persecution against other races could be found throughout human history.
Although things have improved somewhat in modern times, discrimination against non-humans still lingered in many corners of society.
In that respect, the scene in downtown London was quite a shock.
To see so many different races living together in harmony.
It was the complete opposite of Korea, where humans were the overwhelming majority everywhere you went.
“…It’s certainly something else.”
For a while, I walked around London feeling like a tourist.
I couldn't help but gasp in admiration as I passed Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, both considered symbols of the city.
Then, I noticed a line of street stalls near a park.
They were selling a variety of goods: clothing, antiques, accessories, books, art, and food.
Among them, what caught my eye was, of course, the food.
After all, Britain has always been famous for its cuisine, hasn't it?
I’d had a meal on the plane, but after walking for quite a while, I was getting hungry.
Besides, it was 1 p.m. in London—perfect for lunch.
‘…But what in the world is that?’
As I browsed the stalls, I saw something that made me doubt my own eyes.
“Welcome! Four pounds each!”
The vendor wasn't human but an enormous bear-kin.
“What is that?”
He glanced at what I was pointing to and tilted his head.
“Are you a tourist, by any chance?”
“Yes, well… something like that.”
For the record, I was speaking English.
This wasn't a skill from the dating app, of course. I had yet to be matched with an English speaker.
It was simply thanks to the English I’d studied in my spare time.
“Then this might be your first time seeing one. This is a ‘sardine skewer,’ very popular with our beast-kin customers.”
“…A sardine skewer?”
“It’s a salted sardine, lightly grilled and skewered whole.”
“…”
No matter how I looked at it, it didn't seem grilled at all.
Aside from a few faint char marks, it was basically raw fish.
It looked like a stream of blood would gush out if I took a bite.
“Haha, you don’t have to worry. There are no parasites.”
“Hmm…”
That wasn't really the problem, was it?
“Would you like one?”
“…I’m sorry, but I’ll have to pass.”
I politely shook my head as the foul, fishy smell assaulted my nostrils.
Unless I’d been starving for three months straight, I had no intention of ever putting that thing in my mouth.
“Heh heh, no worries. I’ve been running this stall for twenty years, and I’ve never seen a human eat one. If you’d like, why don’t you head over to that block? There’s plenty of food over there targeted at humans.”
“Thank you.”
I gave a slight nod and walked in the direction the vendor had pointed.
Just as he’d said, as soon as I turned the corner, a delicious aroma wafted toward me.
I headed for the most interesting-looking stall.
“Freshly baked pasties! How about one?”
“A pasty?”
I’d never heard of it before.
“It’s a traditional Cornish dish. We take a pastry dough, fill it with meat, potatoes, and onions seasoned with salt and pepper, fold it into a half-moon shape, and bake it for a long time.”
I looked at the pasty, steam rising from it.
It looked crispy, almost like a fried dumpling.
“Um, I’ll have one, please.”
“Thank you! That’ll be five pounds!”
Five pounds, at the current exchange rate, would be about 9,000 Korean won.
The prices were definitely steep, likely because it was a tourist area.
‘Good thing I exchanged some cash.’
There was no way a street stall like this would accept a credit card.
The moment I took my wallet out of my pocket and handed him a 10-pound note…
Snatch!
“?”
A little kid suddenly appeared out of nowhere, snatched my wallet, and bolted into the crowd.
He weaved through the packed street with a practiced skill, as if he’d done this a hundred times before.
Before long, he had vanished completely.
Crunch—
I watched his retreating figure and took a bite of the pasty.
Since it was freshly baked, it was crispy and overflowing with savory juices. It was quite delicious.
“S-Sir! You have to go after him! Even the police have trouble catching those street urchins!”
“Before that, could I get one more pasty? It’s better than I expected.”
“…Pardon?”
The vendor who took my order asked again, dumbfounded.
Too busy chewing to answer, I instead conjured a small flame in the palm of my hand.
The vendor’s eyes widened.
“…Are you, by any chance, a mage, sir?”
I gave a slight nod to his now very cautious question.
He silently began to wrap up a new pasty. It seemed that in Britain, the so-called Land of Mages, people had a certain faith in them.
Fortunately, I still had the five pounds I’d received as change.
*
In an alley in the London slums.
Pat-pat-pat!
“Pant, pant, pant…!”
A boy who looked to be less than ten years old was running frantically through a place filled with homeless people and filth.
As if evading pursuit, he darted through the complex alleyways again and again. After running for some time, the boy slipped through a hole in a wall and headed somewhere.
Out of breath, the boy finally stopped in front of a shabby-looking tent.
“I’m back! Come on out!”
Whoosh!
At that moment, a stream of young children poured out from inside the tent.
“Koby!”
“Brother Koby!”
Koby shot a triumphant look at his younger siblings and pulled a wallet from his coat.
“Look at this! I scored another good one today!”
It was a long wallet made of expensive leather.
He hadn't checked how much was inside yet, but its heavy weight filled him with anticipation.
However, the children’s expressions were not so bright.
“You stole again…? Sister Delia told you not to…”
“Y-Yeah, if a constable catches you, he might beat you with his club.”
“Brother Koby…”
Seeing the worry and concern on their faces, Koby gave a bitter smile.
As they said, pickpocketing was a huge risk.
If he got caught, he could be beaten to death by a constable’s club.
But for parentless orphans trying to survive in the rough and dangerous city of London, it was a necessary choice.
“Don’t worry so much. You know how fast I am, right? Even the constables can’t catch me.”
Koby was confident.
Confident that no one in London could ever catch him.
“Alright, gather ‘round. Let’s see how much is in here.”
“O-Okay…”
The children huddled together, eagerly waiting for Koby to open the wallet.
They knew full well that pickpocketing was wrong and dangerous.
But more than that, they were hungry.
For orphans in the slums who had to dig through trash cans just to survive on days without rations, this was simply life.
If they could just set aside their conscience for a moment, even 20 pounds would be enough for them to eat their fill for the day.
And as always, when night came, they would gather and pray.
They would think of the person whose face they didn't even know and quietly apologize, ‘I’m sorry for stealing your wallet.’
But when they opened the wallet, the children’s faces instantly turned pale.
“…B-Brother.”
The girl who was the next oldest after Koby called out to him, her voice trembling with fear.
Koby’s own hand, which he tried to keep steady in front of the others, was shaking slightly.
“…Damn it.”
Inside the wallet they had opened was a thick wad of 50-pound notes.
A quick count suggested it was at least 2,000 pounds.
For reference, that was a huge sum of money, equivalent to about 3.5 million Korean won.
Having pickpocketed many times before, the children knew one thing: an ordinary London citizen would never carry this much cash.
A noble, perhaps, but not a commoner.
In that instant, the color drained from the children’s faces.
The constables were scary, but to them, nobles were beings so far above them that even looking at them was a sin.
“W-What do we do…?!”
“Brother…! Sister Delia warned us over and over not to get involved with nobles…!”
“M-Maybe we should return it right now…!!”
“Stay put!”
Koby forced his voice to be loud, suppressing the children’s panic.
“…He wasn’t a noble. He was Asian, so he was probably a tourist. Besides, he was wearing a hat pulled down low so his face wouldn’t be caught on CCTV. We won’t get caught.”
“B-But…”
“Siena.”
At Koby’s call, Siena, the second oldest, flinched.
Her face was still filled with terror.
“With this money, you can buy that book you wanted. And Benjamin.”
“Y-Yeah…?”
“You said you wanted to try the meat pie they sell in front of the station, right?”
A meat pie that cost between two and five pounds—that was one child’s Christmas wish.
“For a while, all of you will be able to eat one proper meal a day. And not garbage, but real food.”
““…””
At his words, everyone fell silent.
They were all too young to act rationally and resist the temptation of escaping their hunger.
Even Koby, the oldest, was only nine.
“…Instead, until the end of the year, we’ll have to pray more than three times a day—”
“Finally found you.”
At that moment, an unfamiliar, heavy voice cut through the air.
Koby whipped his head around.
“You little rats.”
Standing there were two menacing-looking police officers.
“H-How did the constables find us here…?”
Koby muttered in disbelief.
This was their hideout, a place that had never once been discovered. He had successfully evaded the police more than ten times.
“Damn it…! Everyone, run—!”
“Going somewhere?”
Thud!
“Keuk?!”
A kick from the Ronin Tribe officer, who had approached without him noticing, sent Koby flying into the air before he tumbled across the ground.
No matter how quick he was, an ordinary little boy stood no chance of escaping a wolf-kin.
Flop—
“G-Gasp…!”
The impact was too much for his small body to handle. Koby lay sprawled on the dirt, wheezing for air.
“Aahhh!”
“B-Brother!”
“Brother Koby!”
The children screamed and tried to run to Koby, but the other officer blocked their path.
Meanwhile, the Ronin Tribe officer pinned Koby down with his foot and checked the wallet.
“Whoa, look at all this.”
A strange light gleamed in the officer’s eyes as he saw the bundle of cash.
At a glance, it looked like more than his monthly salary.
“I had a feeling I should follow, and I can’t believe I’d reel in such a big catch. My morning prayers paid off.”
The officer gave a foul smirk and tucked the wallet into his coat.
An unexpected windfall.
“G-Give it back…”
“Hm?”
Grip—
The officer looked down at the hand tugging on his trouser leg.
“The… wallet… give it baaack…!!”
“Ha.”
Seeing Koby glaring up at him with murderous eyes, the officer scoffed.
Smack!
“Gack?!”
Another kick sent Koby rolling across the ground.
“A piece of trash, a back-alley orphan, dares to say what to me?” the officer growled, slowly approaching him.
Crack!
He kicked Koby again as the boy writhed in pain.
The agony was beyond what he could bear, and Koby couldn't even scream.
His body, small even for a nine-year-old, trembled pitifully.
Smack, crack, thud!
Regardless, the officer continued his merciless assault on Koby.
“B-Brother!”
“We’re sorry! We won’t pickpocket anymore! So please…!”
“Sob, sob, B-Brother Koby…!”
“Waaahhh! Brother…!”
The sounds of brutal violence and the cries of small children filled the street.
Public authority preyed on the weak, and no one listened to their screams.
This was the dark underbelly of London, the capital of the Land of Mages—a nation that had undergone brilliant development since becoming the cradle of the Magic Revolution.
Thud, smack!
“You filthy orphan, you dare talk back to me?!”
There was no hope here.
“Hey.”
A strange voice echoed low through the street filled with screams and stench.
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the sound.
From beyond the darkness, where the building’s shadow had hidden everything from view, someone slowly emerged.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit much for a grown adult to be doing that to a child?”
Kang Hyun-woo’s eyes, fixed on the officer, were heavy and dark.