Chapter 352: The Land of Mages (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 352: The Land of Mages (2)
I’d once heard that pickpocketing tourists was rampant in Europe.
That’s why I’d cast a tracking spell on my wallet beforehand.
Thanks to that, it wasn’t too difficult to chase down the kid who had stolen it in the bustling streets of London.
Of course, I never expected to witness a police officer beating a child to a pulp.
“...This is no business for a tourist to meddle in.”
The Ronin Tribe officer muttered in a low voice.
I couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh at the sight of him threatening a civilian, his killing intent on full display.
This would be unimaginable in Korea.
‘It’s probably because of their class-based society.’
Unlike in Korea, police officers in the UK belonged to a relatively high social class.
While they were far below the nobility, they were certainly considered above commoners.
This was due to the long-standing social perception that the police force was a profession for the illegitimate children of nobles or the sons of quasi-noble families.
“If the wallet you're holding is mine, does that make it my business?”
I pointed a finger at his chest.
Inside his slightly bulging pocket, the signal from the tracking spell was pulsing silently, a beacon only I could perceive.
“...Do you have any proof this wallet is yours?”
“My ID is inside.”
At my words, the officer’s face twisted visibly.
He bared his fangs in annoyance and glanced around, as if checking for other witnesses.
‘...So the UK is just as messed up.’
The Britain I’d heard about was a developed nation that boasted a steady economic growth rate and had the second-lowest rate of monster-related damage after the United States.
I’d also been told that thanks to the royal family’s good governance and the nobles’ spirit of noblesse oblige, it was rare for commoners to suffer hardship.
But the Britain I was seeing with my own eyes seemed no different from Korea, contrary to my expectations.
No, in some ways, it felt like it was saddled with even more problems than Korea.
“H-Hey...”
Just as the atmosphere was growing more hostile, an officer who appeared to be his colleague stepped in front of the Ronin Tribe man and whispered something to him.
Instantly, the Ronin Tribe man’s face went pale.
“Sir... are you perhaps a mage...?”
The killing intent that had been pressing down on me moments ago vanished without a trace. The officer addressed me cautiously, like a butler speaking to a distinguished guest.
It was a similar reaction to the street vendor’s, but far more intense.
After a moment of thought, I took a spare staff from my inventory and showed it to him.
“What if I am?”
Thud-
In that instant, the officers dropped to their knees with incredible speed.
“I-I’m sorry! In my foolishness, I have committed a grave discourtesy to a mage!”
“I sincerely apologize for not stopping my colleague in time!”
Their attitudes had flipped like a coin.
I couldn’t even muster a laugh.
I tore my gaze away from them and approached the boy lying on the ground.
“Wheeze... wheeze...”
He was much younger than I’d expected.
Was he seven or eight years old?
‘No, maybe nine? His small frame is likely just from malnutrition.’
Not only was his face pale, but a faint, airy sound escaped his lips, a sign that he’d been struck in a bad spot.
His chest and abdomen were visibly swollen.
‘Are his bones broken?’
I grabbed the boy’s wrist and checked his pulse.
As I suspected, his 9th through 11th ribs were fractured. On top of that, his internal organs had ruptured.
Blood was pooling in his abdominal cavity, which was why his stomach looked so bloated.
‘He’s critically injured. Without emergency treatment, he has ten minutes at most...’
I pulled a high-grade holy water from my inventory.
Normally, I would have used a low-grade one. It wasn’t about the money; a highly concentrated holy water could be poisonous to a child.
But in an emergency like this, I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about such details.
“Gurgle...”
Lifting the unconscious boy’s chin, I forced the holy water down his throat.
A bright radiance soon enveloped his body, and his expression eased as he fell into a more peaceful sleep.
“Koby!”
“Big bro!”
As I stepped back, the other children who had been watching from the side rushed to the boy’s side.
I watched them for a moment before turning back to the officers.
They were still on their knees.
“I have a few questions, if you don’t mind.”
“Y-Yes! Of course! Anything!” the Ronin Tribe officer answered, his voice trembling.
“I was under the impression that in the UK, children under the age of ten are not held legally responsible for their crimes, making it impossible to arrest or even prosecute them. Am I mistaken?”
“N-No, that’s correct...”
“In that case, an officer’s duty isn’t to arrest or punish the child, but to investigate the incident, return the stolen item to the victim, and then consult with the child’s guardian. So why did you resort to violence?”
Although I wasn’t an expert on British law, I was certain of one thing.
There was no justification for a police officer to beat a child not yet ten years old to the brink of death over a simple act of pickpocketing.
“W-Well, that’s...”
As the officer stammered, I stomped on the back of his hand.
Crunch-
“Guh...?!”
“You’re too slow to answer.”
“I-I’m sorry...!”
The officer clenched his jaw, not daring to even lift his head.
It was an excessively submissive posture to show a mage whose identity was completely unknown.
“Does it hurt much?”
“N-No, not at all...!”
“Oh? That’s a relief.”
“Yes...? What do you mean by-”
Crack-
“...Huh?”
In that instant, the officer’s right arm went limp, broken. It was a strike so fast and clean that even with a Ronin’s kinetic vision, he couldn’t follow it.
A moment later, a scream echoed through the street.
The man clutched his right arm, his body trembling violently.
“I broke it cleanly, so it should heal in three weeks. No, since you’re of the Ronin Tribe, two weeks should be enough.”
“Th-Thank you deeply for your mercy, esteemed mage...!”
The bruised arm swelled up instantly.
I had also struck his acupoints, so not only would the pain be excruciating, but he would also suffer from aftereffects like trembling hands or a loss of strength even after the bone healed.
I walked past the Ronin Tribe officer and turned my gaze to the man beside him. He was shaking as if an earthquake had struck.
I extended my hand to him.
“Th-Thank you...”
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
I kicked the man as he tried to take my hand.
After tumbling gracelessly to the ground, he looked up at me with a bewildered expression.
“Hand over the wallet.”
“...Ah.”
*
After retrieving my wallet and sending the officers on their way, I checked on the boy.
As expected of high-grade holy water, his bones had already healed perfectly.
However, not even holy water could drain the blood that had pooled in his abdominal cavity.
For that, I had no choice but to make a small incision in his abdomen and drain the blood myself.
I took a dagger from my inventory and shaved it down with my aura.
After about two minutes, I had fashioned a decent-looking needle.
‘Sterilizing it with fire should be fine.’
The holy water would take care of any potential infections, so I didn’t need to worry about that.
Ignoring the worried and fearful gazes of the other children, I checked the boy’s pulse again, found a suitable spot with the needle, and carefully pierced the skin.
A moment later, dark red blood began to slowly trickle out of the hole.
‘...Just a moment ago, I was sightseeing in London, and now I’m playing doctor for the kid who pickpocketed me. What a life.’
I inwardly chuckled at the absurd situation and infused some of my energy into the boy.
About ten minutes passed.
“Ugh...”
The boy regained consciousness.
His complexion was definitely better than before.
“Wh-Where...?”
“Stay down.”
Plop-
I pressed a finger to the forehead of the boy as he tried to sit up.
“You’re...”
“Koby!”
“Big bro Koby!”
Unable to wait any longer, the other children who had been standing by swarmed the boy.
The scene stirred a distant memory in a corner of my mind.
It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, so I was about to leave the tent when...
““Thank you!!””
Their voices, high and clear as only children’s can be, rang out loudly.
I glanced back to see every one of them bowing their heads to me.
“Th-Thank you so much for saving Koby!”
“Th-Thank you!”
“Thank you...!”
“We won’t pickpocket anymore...!”
Seeing the grimy children sniffling, I felt a sigh about to escape my lips.
It wasn’t pity.
It was just that an old memory had surfaced.
It was from sixteen years ago.
I was only five when I lost my parents in a monster attack and became a street urchin just like them, begging to survive.
Before I was lucky enough to be noticed by the head nun and taken into an orphanage, I had pickpocketed dozens of times myself.
Of course, I failed and got beaten more often than not.
In any case, it would be ridiculous for someone like me to get angry at them for pickpocketing.
In short, it was hypocrisy.
“Don’t worry about it.”
I didn’t lecture them about not stealing or telling them to obey the law.
I knew better than anyone that their lives were too cold and harsh to live by the book.
‘...Should I have just handed him over to the officers and been done with it?’
It goes without saying that I could have easily avoided being pickpocketed at the street stall.
I was aware of the movements of everyone within a 200-meter radius, after all.
But I didn’t.
‘What was I even expecting, coming all this way...’
I sighed internally, finding myself searching for a cigarette I’d never once smoked in my life.
These kids were of a different race, and they were older than I was back then. The only thing we had in common was being street urchins who survived by pickpocketing.
No matter how I thought about it, the only explanation that came to mind was, ‘I just did it on a whim.’
It wasn’t as if I was nostalgic for those days.
I used my magic to suppress the thoughts that were running wild in my head, resolving to chalk up my decision to a simple caprice.
“U-Um...”
It was then.
A young-looking girl tugged on my sleeve to get my attention.
She seemed to hesitate for a moment before holding out her small, cute hand and offering me something.
It was a ‘rock.’
A shiny one, at that.
“What’s this for?”
“...It’s... it’s my treasure.”
“What?”
When I asked again, the girl’s lips trembled as she practically forced the rock into my palm.
“Y-You can have it! It’s a reward for saving Koby!”
“...”
In that moment, though I didn’t show it, I felt a shadow fall over my face.
I searched for something to say but couldn’t find the right words. In the end, I just patted the girl’s head.
The feel of her coarse, dusty hair once again stirred a sense of nostalgia for those days.
After that, I left the tent without another word.
Flutter-
‘Sigh... Right, I should head to the hotel and unpack...’
I was lost in thought for a moment, staring up at the gloomy sky, when...
-!
A fairly strong presence registered on my senses.
I didn’t know who it was, but they were clearly stronger than your average A-rank Hunter.
I turned my head in the direction of the presence and saw a person standing there silently, their hood pulled down so low I couldn’t see their face.
“You!”
A rather pleasant, beautiful voice echoed through the street.
But the voice was filled with a passionate emotion, like fury.
Shing!
The unidentified woman revealed an inexplicable anger as she drew the sword from her hip.
It was a greatsword, massive and ill-suited for her small frame.
“What did you do to the children?!”
“...The children?”
“Don’t play dumb!”
Just then, the large pool of blood remaining on the ground caught my eye.
“...Ah.”
That’s when I understood what kind of misunderstanding had occurred.
I sighed internally and raised both my hands.
“The children are safe inside the tent. Why don’t you see for yourself?”
I was done getting dragged into any more trouble.
Silence hung in the air during the tense standoff. The woman was the first to speak.
“...You’re not lying, are you?”
“I swear on God’s name.”
In Europe, where the church’s influence was immense, the phrase ‘I swear on God’s name’ carried as much weight as a legally binding contract.
Even without a signed document, a recording of the oath was enough for a court to consider a contract established.
Of course, I was irreligious.
“...If you try anything funny, or if you try to run, I’ll cut you down.”
I nodded at the cautious woman and slowly backed away.
Once I was a fair distance from the tent’s entrance, the woman, still wary of me, hurriedly peered inside.
“Kids!”
“Huh? It’s Delia!”
“Delia!”
The woman hugged the first girl who came running out of the tent and began to meticulously check on the children’s condition.
She was so devoted, anyone would have mistaken her for their guardian.
In the process, her hood fell back.
For a moment, I was at a loss for words. I’d thought she might be pretty from her voice, but this easily surpassed my imagination.
White hair—no, it was closer to silver—golden eyes, and a gentle gaze.
A beauty whose appearance would naturally draw gasps of admiration.
No matter how I looked at her, she was no ordinary person.
‘A noble...? Or maybe a knight?’
Based on her looks, she was likely the daughter of a high-ranking noble, but whatever the case, it was clear her status was high.
That changed my mind.
At first, I’d planned to find an opportunity to slip away, but since I’d be staying in the UK for a while, getting acquainted with a noble didn’t seem like a bad idea.
‘...She’s pretty from the side, too.’
Of course, I didn’t have a shred of personal interest.
