Who Are You? (4)
In the dark of night, the blade caught the moonlight and gleamed a cold, murderous blue.
The silver edge shone with a hunger for blood, flaunting its razor keenness as if it could barely wait to cut.
That was the light reflecting off the dagger in my hand.
I kept the longsword at my hip and carried the lighter dagger instead.
"Well, we came because you said it was here, but is he really in this place? You're certain this time, right?"
The building in front of me was a crumbling ruin on the verge of collapse.
"My Holy Power led us here, so it should be right. Even if it isn't, it just means we pick up another clue."
Kim Gabyul's eyes flared pure gold as she spoke.
Her irises had always been yellow, but now they poured out actual golden light as she looked at me.
"And because of Gamigin's mana, tracking is a lot harder than usual. Without that, we'd have found him already."
She swept her golden gaze over the ruin, then continued with open dissatisfaction.
"Or just ask Marbas. Wouldn't that settle it for sure?"
"About that… he keeps saying the real fun is following the clues yourself, so he won't tell me a thing."
[Is that not the true delight of deduction?]
At my words, Kim Gabyul's face went blank with disbelief.
"Right… of course the demon who contracted with a guy like you wouldn't be normal. Or maybe I should just call him an ordinary demon…?"
"Haha, I'm just an ordinary person, though."
"Don't give me that nonsense."
She shut me down flat.
Truthfully, I hadn't meant it either.
But getting hurt still hurt.
"If you keep talking like that, I might get my feelings hurt."
"You say you might get hurt while smiling like that? And stop smiling already. That's why we look like the villains."
"What's so wrong with me smiling? Besides, from the black mages' point of view, don't we look like the villains?"
"Maybe. Anyway, enough small talk. Let's go. The trail leads down into the basement of this ruin."
Kim Gabyul and I were out investigating the trail ourselves, away from the academy.
She had decided the investigation would be too difficult inside the academy and dragged me out with her.
Even when I suggested leaving it to the police and just resting, she insisted on hauling me around for the search.
Police or not, she felt more at ease handling the investigation herself.
She was also the best at finding black mages, no question.
Nothing beats a holy mage for hunting black mages.
That was why I had ended up leaving the academy with her in the first place.
Of course, part of it was that I owed her, but more than that, with Kim Gabyul along we could find the black mage fast, finish the job, rest, and even collect the bounty—solid gains all around.
So we had left the academy together that morning…
And we were still hunting the black mage.
It was already dawn.
Even after using holy arts all day, Kim Gabyul showed no sign of tiring and kept dragging me along.
"We're going in."
I followed her into the ruin.
From the outside it had looked like nothing more than a collapsed house, but the moment we stepped inside it transformed into a haunted house crawling with every kind of ghost.
"Quite a lot of ghosts here."
"Probably for security. Looks like there's definitely something here."
—Gyaaaaah!
Every time Kim Gabyul's glowing eyes swept over them, the ghosts shrieked in agony.
The spirits the black mages had stationed to stop intruders couldn't even approach her; they could only writhe in pain from a distance.
"This looks like the basement entrance."
Where she pointed, a staircase clearly led underground.
"So we just go down there?"
"No idea. Let's find out."
We descended the stairs.
After a short walk we hit a dead end.
Stairs had brought us down, yet a wall now blocked the way.
"Looks like we'll have to smash the wall."
"Haha, so it's finally my turn."
I coated the sword with Aura.
Black mana compressed and dyed the silver blade pitch black.
I swung my arm and brought the sword down on the wall.
I sliced through it as cleanly as cutting soft bread.
—Kuuuuung!
The wall split under the blade and collapsed.
There was probably a proper way to open it, but I neither knew nor needed to know.
Smashing it open was enough.
At the same instant, magic came flying.
A mass of flame, black mixed with red, hurtled toward us.
I swung the sword that still held Aura and split the fireball cleanly in two in a single motion.
Corrupted by my black mana, the spell lost its power, fell to the floor, and slowly died out.
"Haha, what an amusing little gift."
"D-don't come any closer!"
As the dust cleared, a wide cavern was revealed.
It felt lived-in, as if someone had been staying there for a long time.
At the far end, a man stood with his back to a door, glaring at Kim Gabyul and me.
He had sharp features and brown hair whose tips had gone white.
His cheeks were sunken from poor nutrition, giving him a skull-like look, and deep wrinkles made him appear far older than he probably was.
"A person living under a nest of ghosts… rather ironic."
Not that I, who lived with a demon, had any right to talk.
"…Why only one? When I checked the monsters earlier there were at least three…"
Kim Gabyul muttered.
I was puzzled too. In the original work they had always been described as "black mages" or "a black mage gang."
Two possibilities came to mind.
The first, from an ordinary person's view: this one man might have chosen to sacrifice himself so the others could escape.
The second, from the perspective of someone learning black magic: he might have offered the others as sacrifices to gain power.
"Are you the black mage who attacked the academy? Where did the others go?"
The man's face twisted at my words.
"…There are no others! It was just me! I did it alone!"
He shouted, insisting he alone had terrorized the academy.
"Baek Sejin, restrain him already. We can figure out later whether he's telling the truth. Use that thing, got it?"
"Understood."
I charged the man.
Even as Kim Gabyul and I closed in, he did nothing—simply closed his eyes as if accepting death.
He kept them shut even while I sealed him inside a translucent cube.
"Can't you use sleep magic or something?"
"No. You?"
"Haha, unfortunately I can't either. Looks like we'll just have to leave him like that."
The man who had been waiting with closed eyes slowly opened them when he realized we were talking instead of killing him.
Then he panicked at the translucent black cube imprisoning him.
"…You're not going to kill me?"
"Why would we kill you? You're valuable evidence. Don't even think about getting out. I tested it myself—it's pretty solid. Especially against black mages."
Kim Gabyul eyed the man in the cube while dialing somewhere.
"Hello? …Yes, we found one. …The others? We have to track them now… Yes, get here fast. I'll send the location."
"The police?"
"No, the academy. More importantly, let's move. They can't have gotten far."
Kim Gabyul carefully scanned the surroundings with her golden eyes.
She glanced once at the man, then hurried onward—not back the way we came, but toward the door behind him.
When she opened it, a living space appeared.
It was laid out like an ordinary home, with everyday furniture simply placed around.
Everything here could become evidence, so we stepped inside carefully.
"There's a path here."
Deeper in, another door opened onto stairs leading upward.
They had probably escaped this way.
"Looks like they really only just ran. I can still see the mana traces. Let's go up."
Kim Gabyul said, staring at the stairs with glowing eyes.
As we climbed she looked back at me and asked,
"That cube? Barrier? Whatever it is—how long can you keep it up?"
"As long as my mana doesn't run out, indefinitely."
"Really? How much do you have left?"
"Plenty. And since it's constantly draining mana from the guy inside, it'll last even longer."
Kim Gabyul looked puzzled.
"When I tested it, that didn't happen."
"What would I do with Holy Power? The spell is built from black mana. Absorbing Holy Power would only make it unstable and shatter it."
"True."
Same principle as pouring black mana onto a spell made of Holy Power—it breaks.
Opposing forces of mana simply clash.
After a long climb we finally emerged onto a mountainside.
"Looks like they split up from here."
Kim Gabyul said, studying the ground.
"I can sense the mana traces from this point too, so let's divide. I'll take the left."
We decided to separate.
Catching one and then going after another would be inefficient and risk letting a villain escape.
I summoned Miho onto my shoulder.
"Kyeng~."
Miho yawned from her perch.
Seeing her, Kim Gabyul nodded and sprinted off to the right.
"Miho, time for us to move as well."