What Did You Do in There?
I had loved black magic since I was a child.
If you asked me why, well…
It might have been the free structure and effects unique to black magic, or perhaps the decadent feel that set it apart from every other kind of magic.
In the end, that was all there was to it.
I had loved black magic since childhood, and I still did. I loved it so much that I had become a black mage myself.
Black magic was a thoroughly dualistic art. Anyone could attempt it—yet without black mana, you could not even begin. In that sense I had been extraordinarily lucky. I had been born with black mana.
Because of that innate black mana I could cast black magic without ever contracting a demon, so I had never bothered to form one. At the same time, though, I sometimes thought a contract might be better. The nature of the art demanded black mana for every casting, and black mana was not an energy one could simply pick up off the street. Exhaust it, and I would be powerless until it recovered. That also meant I could never sustain a spell for long. A demonic contract would free me from those limits, at least to some degree.
Even so, I had felt little desire to bind myself to a demon.
Not until I met Baek Sejin.
The moment I first saw him I knew. This man was different. A man whose trademark was those suspicious, half-lidded eyes. When I heard he handled black magic, my interest spiked—and at the same time I thought, of course he does. Wasn’t it ridiculous? Deciding it was only natural that he used black magic simply because he looked shady.
And yet… yes. Walking into a place this quiet, I was beginning to feel that the thought had not been so wrong after all.
“What are you thinking about so intently?”
“Just random thoughts. Nothing important.”
Baek Sejin, walking beside me, smiled as he spoke. He seemed to believe the smile was kind, but from the receiving end, could anyone truly take it that way? It was the sort of smile that made you wonder. Most people would assume he was concealing some scheme while he spoke to them. I thought so a little myself.
I prided myself on having met countless people while studying black magic, yet I had never encountered anyone quite like him. Being a first, I could not help growing cautious.
Still, there was a reason I found myself drawn to Baek Sejin anyway.
Overwhelming combat power and black magic. He had said he had only been learning black magic properly for a few months, hadn’t he? Even so, the scale of the magic he could deploy was more than enough to captivate me. Moreover, it was a form of black magic I had never seen before. He claimed he had learned it from Marbas.
I stole a glance at him. Still smiling that cheerful smile, a full head taller than me, a sword hanging at his waist, an objectively handsome face. Every one of those elements was transformed, by the single trait of those half-lidded eyes, into a villain as if painted straight out of a picture book. That, too, was rather impressive in its own way.
“Where the hell is this trail supposed to be?”
Hwang Ju-hyeon grumbled.
“Perhaps you might try sensing the residual mana?”
“Residual mana?”
Following Baek Sejin’s advice, Hwang Ju-hyeon closed his eyes and concentrated. His brow furrowed; a moment later he opened his eyes and pointed.
“That way feels denser, yeah. Haa… doesn’t our team have anyone with a tracking ability for this kind of thing?”
He sighed and complained.
“Indeed, the trail continues in that direction.”
Baek Sejin smiled and set off the way Hwang Ju-hyeon had indicated.
“What? You could track it too?”
“A little.”
Looking thoroughly unimpressed, Hwang Ju-hyeon fell in behind him. Step by step, Baek Sejin and the rest of us pushed deeper into the mountain.
“Seriously, where did those bastards go?”
Hwang Ju-hyeon muttered.
“We are following the mana trail diligently, so we should meet them soon—unless the trail I have been tracking is a trap, or belongs to another team.”
The smile on Baek Sejin’s face as he said it somehow looked sly.
We were making steady progress toward the cave. If everything went according to plan, Moon Seyeon would successfully contract with Behemoth and I would gain control of the mountain’s avatar—an absolute win-win. Behemoth’s avatar was roughly the size of a small mountain and lived up to that bulk; a single footstep made the ground tremble. It would be an enormous help whenever I or the people around me were in danger. That same enormous size would inevitably drag us into more troublesome incidents, but that still beat people dying right now.
As we walked, the cave drew nearer. All that remained was to naturally peel Hwang Ju-hyeon and Lee Ye-rin away from us…
Then the entire mountain began to shake.
Rumble—
“What the—an earthquake?!”
“Everyone, careful!”
“Hup!”
I could not help being thoroughly startled. For the mountain to roar like this, Behemoth had to be moving. I sprinted toward the cave to find out what had happened.
“Huh? Where are you going!”
When I suddenly broke into a run, Moon Seyeon and the other two chased after me. Uncertain what we might face, I drew my sword in advance and gripped it firmly.
I reached the cave mouth at a dead sprint—and found Seong Hyeon’s team just bursting out of it. They had been racing to escape; the moment they saw me blocking the entrance they slammed on the brakes and came to a tense halt opposite me.
“What did you do in there?”
I asked, smiling as kindly as I could. My effort was wasted; they regarded me with extreme wariness.
?
I looked at Seong Hyeon. Our eyes met; his own trembled even as he raised his sword and leveled it at me. Cold sweat slid down his jaw.
Next I looked at Kim Gabyul. The instant our gazes locked she rolled her eyes and deliberately avoided mine. Lee Jiwoo was shaking from head to toe, and Go Sang-hyeok was holding his greatsword in front of himself like a shield.
Overall, the atmosphere did not seem particularly friendly toward me.
Tension hung thick in the air. Hoping to ease it, I smiled and continued.
“Haha, why is everyone so tense?”
“Baek Sejin. What’s your angle?”
Seong Hyeon spat the words in a rigid voice.
???
After studying my reaction he pressed on.
“What were you doing here?”
What I had done? Well… early this morning I had negotiated with Behemoth here.
“I can’t say I did anything in particular.”
I kept the conversation with Behemoth to myself. There was no benefit in volunteering it.
“……Is that so.”
“So then—may I know what exactly you were doing inside this cave?”
I lowered my hands and stepped closer. For every step I advanced they retreated the same distance, keeping the gap constant.
“At this rate we will never manage a conversation…”
“……Put that sword down first, then talk.”
Go Sang-hyeok answered, eyes flicking between me and the blade.
“That would be difficult. After all, I am on the police team today, am I not? Police have a duty to apprehend criminals.”
“Why no answer? I asked what you did.”
I was already quite anxious. If they had meddled with something they shouldn’t have, my entire plan would be thrown into chaos. Judging by the way the mountain had shaken, the plan was already in pieces.
“……What are you going to do with us?”
Lee Jiwoo asked in a trembling voice. What was the intent behind that question?
“……Who knows?”
“We won’t tell anyone what we saw here, so just let us go.”
“Uh… thank you?”
“Hm?”
My blank reaction drew a puzzled look from Seong Hyeon.
Fortunately the misunderstanding was cleared up. I finally understood why conversation had been so difficult: they had mistaken me for a villain.
The full story went like this. While being pursued by our team, Seong Hyeon’s group had coincidentally approached the cave. Kim Gabyul had then uncannily sensed the black mana of Behemoth leaking from within, and so they entered. At the far end of the cave they discovered a massive horn standing in the center of a cavern. The moment Kim Gabyul drew near, Behemoth’s avatar—detecting Gabriel’s presence—suffered a PTSD episode and gave one violent heave. Naturally they had bolted in panic when the mountain suddenly shook, and in the process they had run straight into me. They had then misread the entire scene as a black mage whose unethical laboratory had just been exposed.
So that was why Kim Gabyul kept avoiding my eyes—because she was the one who had caused the accident?
We left the cave together.
“Haha, you already know I’m not that sort of person, don’t you?”
“……Right.”
“Mmm… yeah, yeah.”
The replies were lukewarm at best. Well, never mind that.
“You do realize I’m on the police team, don’t you?”
I tossed Seong Hyeon a binding artifact. At the same time I used another artifact to call the teammates who were still wandering around unable to find the cave entrance.
Time to round up the criminals.