What Happened in Yongsan (1)
I walked toward the place where black mana could be felt.
"Is that guy over there the leader of those black mages from earlier?"
"Tsk, you shouldn't go around saying things like that so carelessly."
A couple that passed me by was having a rather suspicious conversation.
The leader of the black mages?
Did that mean someone that impressive was around here?
But there was no one in the vicinity with notably strong black mana that stood out.
"Hmm... I'll have to ask them directly."
I approached the couple.
"But don't the police arrest people like that?"
"Maybe they've formed some kind of collusive relationship with the police? You know how it is in dramas—cops and villains on the same side and all that."
"Ohhh, that sounds plausible...... Hiiik!"
"Haha, excuse me."
The woman who had been in the middle of talking about that person clamped her mouth shut in fright the moment I approached.
As I drew nearer, the man and woman's faces grew progressively paler.
When I finally closed in, they began backing away.
"Why are you backing away like that? I still need to get closer, don't I?"
Upon hearing my thoroughly kind and mannerly words, the couple seemed immediately convinced and stopped dead while still mid-retreat.
"You see, I happened to overhear the two of you talking."
"Ah, y-yes......"
"Would you happen to know where that person you mentioned—the leader of the black mages—went?"
I even offered them a very kind smile as I asked.
Yet the man and woman who heard my words suddenly began trembling in their legs, cold sweat pouring down.
"What's the matter? Suddenly trembling like that—do you have some sort of health problem...?"
"N-No, it's nothing!"
The man answered so loudly all of a sudden that the attention of everyone nearby focused on us.
"What's with those people?"
"Isn't this a dangerous situation?"
"Those two look like they got caught by a dangerous villain..."
"Shouldn't we report this? Looks like a few people are gonna die today. I don't want to see any corpses today."
I had no idea why people were thinking that way, but at this rate the misunderstanding was going to deepen considerably.
"W-We must have mistaken the person. P-Please spare us..."
Hearing them suddenly beg me to spare their lives made it seem like they really did have health issues.
As a righteous citizen of Korea, this was not a problem I could simply overlook.
"As I thought, you seem to have some health issues, so I..."
"N-No, no, we're really fine...!"
Even the woman stepped in to insist they were fine.
Seeing them go so far as to say that, perhaps it wasn't that severe after all?
"Hmm... I understand. It's getting chilly these days, so please take good care of your health. Health is the most important thing, isn't it? There's nothing more important in this world than health."
"Yes! We'll keep that in mind! We're really sorry!"
"Haha, no need for apologies. If anything, I should be the one apologizing for detaining you two busy people."
The man and woman nodded their heads vigorously, as if moved by my sincere concern for their health.
I gave them a very polite farewell and once again headed toward the place where black mana could be felt.
Still, it was a bit of a shame. As someone walking the same path of black magic, I had wanted to meet that so-called leader.
But they said they'd mistaken him, so it rather took the wind out of my sails.
Somehow I heard a sound behind me as if someone had collapsed to their knees, but it must have been my imagination.
The farther I went toward the place where black mana could be felt, the more the surrounding scenery changed.
Most notably, living animals came into view.
Unlike the central district, which cleanly sold magic materials, artifacts, and weapons, this place displayed living animals receiving the utmost care—likely for use as sacrifices in black magic and shamanic rituals.
There were various reasons why animals destined merely to serve as sacrifices received such excellent treatment.
The first was to advertise that our shop was this well-managed, and the second was for the quality of the sacrifice.
In the majority of cases, sacrifices needed to be of high quality.
Well-fed so their flesh was plump and full, fur glossy with sheen, cries clean and clear, and not too advanced in age.
Of course, there were also rituals that required sacrifices of poor quality.
Curses employed in shamanism or black magic were examples of that.
But ordinarily such sacrifices were raised personally by the shaman or black mage themselves, so they were rarely seen in public places like this.
"Lord Marbas. What sort of things can one accomplish with a sacrifice like that?"
I addressed Marbas, who had been laughing nonstop ever since I spoke to the couple.
"If a single sacrifice like that can curse several people, it seems quite useful."
"Ah, is that so. Then with skill of that level, how many would be possible?"
Marbas burst into laughter once more at my words.
"...I must strive even harder."
That was true. I had contracted with Marbas.
As a righteous citizen, contracting with a demon—the very symbol of wickedness—was not something I particularly welcomed.
"Haha, of course not."
As I conversed with Marbas and looked around, I saw many truly curious things.
In one corner a pile of black orbs had been heaped high, and there was also a lizard from which black mana could be felt.
It was a lizard with a name tag reading Black Mana Beast Gecko Lizard, and in parentheses after the name was written Black Mana Beast House Gecko, so that one could know the creature's original name.
"Excuse me. What abilities does this lizard have?"
"Ah, that? It doesn't really have any special abilities. Just for ornamental purposes. As you know, sir, in public places like this we can't sell unlicensed ones, right? So we have to sell even these trifling ones."
"Ah, I see."
I had wanted to raise a few in a breeding room if it had useful abilities, but that was unfortunate.
Before I knew it, the sun was sinking low toward the earth, dyeing the sky a deep red.
"I've already spent the entire day here."
"Yes, I plan to head home a little later."
Unfortunately, though I had wandered the shopping district all day, I had not found the protagonist's party.
It was a place where all sorts of people gathered, so even if I had seen the protagonist's party I might not have realized it.
Or they might have taken an entirely different route from mine.
In any case, after walking around all day I was a bit tired.
My body wasn't particularly fatigued, but this was a matter of the mind.
I sat down on a chair by the fountain in an outer plaza that was relatively free of people.
I planned to kill time sitting on the chair and then go look if any commotion broke out.
While wandering the shopping district I had noted a few secluded spots, so the moment a disturbance occurred I could head straight there.
I spent the time stroking Miho, who was sitting on my lap.
Oh, this is lucky.
Before long a man and woman arrived at the plaza.
The man had red hair and red eyes, and the woman had short black hair cut in a bob and was wearing a white cap.
It was the protagonist's party.
That red-haired, red-eyed man was the protagonist of The Reincarnator Wants to Live, Seong Hyeon.
Surname Seong, given name Hyeon. Later he would become famous as the Red Flame Sword.
The woman walking right beside him was the spirit user Lee Jiwoo.
Later she would become a fairly famous spirit user, but at present it was still hard to say.
The fact that the two of them had come here now meant that I had luckily chosen a good spot for a villain to appear.
When Seong Hyeon entered the plaza, our eyes met.
I couldn't help but feel a slight bewilderment at his gaze that seemed fixed on me as if nailed in place.
Why is he doing that?
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Lee Jiwoo also seemed to have noticed Seong Hyeon's strange behavior and spoke to him.
"...It's nothing. Just that there don't seem to be many people around here."
Seong Hyeon mumbled and averted his gaze from me.
"Does that mean he deliberately went looking for places without people?"
"Huh? Why did you suddenly say it like th—"
At that moment, a large blue creature resembling a chinchilla suddenly popped out from beside Lee Jiwoo and let out a warning cry: Piiik!
"—Dodge! Hyeon!"
Then a freak who had charged at the two of them slammed into them.
Fortunately, because Lee Jiwoo had given advance warning, the two were able to evade the freak's attack without injury.
The villain who had ambushed them had an appearance that truly suited the word "freak."
A body as massive as the Hulk's, skin a mixture of pitch black and pure white, completely bald with not a single hair, and hands and feet abnormally large.
Lee Jiwoo, who had been floating in the air suspended from a large bird, gradually descended, while Seong Hyeon, who had thrown himself to the side, quickly recovered his stance and drew his sword.
"I don't know who you are... but attacking out of nowhere is a bit much."
Fwoosh.
Red flames sparked from the blade of the sword wreathed in Seong Hyeon's mana.
It was not yet in the form of Aura, but it still appeared he had gathered mana to envelop the blade.
The flames that seemed to leap from the blade were the fire energy densely packed into the mana taking form.
Seong Hyeon was from a reasonably famous ability-user family.
Born with a constitution attuned to fire for generations, he had learned martial arts and magic related to flames.
And what of Lee Jiwoo?
Lee Jiwoo possessed extremely high spirit affinity—to the point that she could simultaneously command multiple spirits of different attributes.
It took only an instant for Lee Jiwoo to get behind the freak.
After Seong Hyeon threw himself aside to dodge the freak's attack and Lee Jiwoo avoided it by going airborne, the moment Seong Hyeon drew his sword she summoned a spirit behind the freak.
That spirit was like a large lizard, its body glowing red as it stood on two legs.
And from its mouth it intermittently breathed fire—unmistakably a fire spirit.
"Hyeon! Now!"
At Lee Jiwoo's cry, Seong Hyeon raised his sword and started to charge forward, then flinched and glanced at me.
Why does he keep looking at me?
I was just an ordinary citizen.
After glancing at me for a moment, Seong Hyeon turned his head back and charged at the villain.
After that, everything proceeded smoothly.
There was the unfortunate incident of the freak's skin being so hard that Seong Hyeon's sword barely sank in, but that problem was solved by the two's excellent teamwork.
When the chinchilla interfered with the freak's attacks by releasing electricity, it was followed by consecutive strikes from Seong Hyeon and the bipedal lizard.
Seong Hyeon's sword and the spirit's attacks still failed to deal much damage to the freak, but the billowing flames gradually inflicted damage on it.
Even in the midst of that, there was the inexplicable matter of Seong Hyeon repeatedly glancing at me, but in the end, together with the police who had been dispatched, they successfully brought down the freak.
"They're even more impressive than I expected."
Their individual combat power was exactly at the level I had anticipated, but the two's coordination was excellent.
"Yes, truly."