Chapter 227: Magic Kingdom (2)
Chapter 227: Magic Kingdom (2)
"We're innocent!"
I shouted as I gripped the iron bars.
"Are you an idiot?"
Al’shel spoke from behind me, and I didn't really have a comeback. Even I thought I looked like a fool.
"No, I just... I've always wanted to try saying that if I ever got thrown in a cell."
Come to think of it, I’d been locked up a few times before. But that was back when I was younger... and that time I ended up in the drunk tank after passing out in my Magical Girl form doesn't count.
Besides, it’s true that I’m innocent, isn't it? I came here because I was invited, not to stage some kind of invasion.
I gave the bars another shake, but all I got for my trouble was a stinging jolt of electric magic through my hands. No guard came by to tell me to shut up or anything of the sort.
Moreover, to be perfectly honest, these bars were so weak that I felt like I could rip them out and walk away if I just put some muscle into it. There might be some magic applied to them that I didn't recognize, but physically speaking, that was the case.
Well then, now that I’ve confirmed the possibility of escape through my little prisoner roleplay, shall I enjoy the inmate life in peace?
With that thought, I looked around. The cell was much cleaner than I had imagined. The toilet even had a partition that reached about neck-height when sitting down. The bed had a plush mattress, and there were even curtains to provide some privacy.
Did we have stuff like this back home?
I pondered for a moment, but the only thing that came to mind was a pseudo-torture chamber where the toilet was just a concave groove with constant running water, and the "bedding" consisted of three rags—one to lie on, one to cover yourself with, and one to use as a pillow.
Even then, most captured invaders used every means at their disposal to blow the prison apart. In the end, we only took prisoners if they were truly vital individuals or humanoids who expressed a desire to defect after passing a lie detector spell or psychic interrogation.
"So, Al’shel, what do you think?"
"What are you talking about all of a sudden? Have you gone senile since earlier?"
Senile? I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was annoyed, but couldn't he cut me some slack?
To be fair, the current situation was my fault. Even when we were being apprehended earlier, I could have easily escaped. I was the one who expressed the intent to surrender and let us get caught.
I thought we’d be released soon if I mentioned we were invited, but it’s been hours since we were locked up. There’s still no word on our release.
To make matters worse, Brigadier General Un-ho—the man who was supposed to guarantee our identities—had turned into a piece of shriveled jerky inside my robe. I’d been stuffing all the food provided into his mouth, but there was no sign of him waking up.
I’m glad I hid Un-ho in my clothes. If I had presented this as our guarantor, we probably would have been treated as suspicious entities and executed on the spot. Whether we’d actually die is another matter, but things would have been much more grueling.
No, now isn't the time to think about that.
"I mean, these guys are way too lenient with invaders."
"Ah, that is true. Usually, immediate execution is the standard, like on Earth. Honestly, I am a bit surprised they haven't started a set of tortures yet."
I felt a slight pang of guilt when he mentioned a "set of tortures." Earth wasn't much different, after all.
"Anyway, what do you think about that? I think it's because all these guys have heads full of sunshine and rainbows, just like Un-ho."
Like, 'Hawa-wa! Those who surrender are good people. We have a duty to treat them with at least basic decency.' Or something like that.
"Hmm, I doubt that. There are countless Mascots out there, aren't there? Although I only first encountered the existence of Mascots and Magical Girls after coming to Earth... I suspect it is only Lord Un-ho whose head is uniquely full of flowers."
Hmm. Is that so? Come to think of it, Lin—Baek Si-hyun’s Mascot—was much more businesslike.
"Then why do you think the treatment is so good?"
Since my theory was already debunked, let's hear his. Honestly, I was bored. We had no idea when we'd be let out.
I leaned back against The Wall in a comfortable position, sitting on the bed with my arms crossed over my stomach, and waited for his answer.
"It is likely... the 'leisure of the strong.'"
Words I never expected came out of Al’shel’s mouth.
"The strong? These Mascots?"
Brigadier General Un-ho was fairly strong, but he was nowhere near the level of the truly powerful. And from what I’d seen of Lieutenant General Lin, she specialized in support; in terms of pure firepower, Un-ho seemed stronger.
Of course, this probably wasn't some mess of a military where rank was determined solely by combat power, so it wasn't a clear-cut distinction.
...Probably.
"Individually, they are certainly lacking. To begin with, even if the countless individuals out there attacked us all at once, they wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning."
Isn't he contradicting himself? He just said it was the leisure of the strong.
"Explain."
"Yes, I expected you to ask. Individually, the inhabitants of this Magic Kingdom are certainly weak. There may be strong individuals, but they are likely a tiny minority. However, there is one decisive difference between this place and the Demon Train or Earth."
Al’shel seemed to have developed a taste for explaining things; he wagged his finger like a schoolteacher. Perhaps his experiences on the Demon Train had stimulated him. His sarcasm had diminished, replaced by a more direct manner of speaking.
"The vast majority of beings living in this land are mages above a certain grade. If you consider that the entire adult population consists of C or B-Rank mages by Earth's standards, wouldn't you call that a sufficiently powerful world?"
...What? The entire population consists of C and B-Rank Heroes?
"What? Wait, what's the population of this place?"
"Based on what I confirmed upon entry, there are tens of millions in just that city. I cannot tell how many such cities exist due to information-blocking magic, but the total population must easily reach the hundreds of millions."
What on earth...
While I stood there dazed, imagining a massive army of mages, Al’shel’s lecture continued.
"Did I not mention that my magic was blocked when we first entered this world? To be honest, not a single one of them possessed the power to pierce my barrier. However, just as a light drizzle eventually soaks one's clothes, when thousands of interference spells are hammered in, five or six are bound to break through. Of course, I was caught off guard, but this is truly a first-time experience for me."
A nuance of genuine admiration seeped into Al’shel’s voice.
"I wondered how a world so heavily saturated with Otherworldly Power had not collapsed, but if there are this many people with a certain level of ability, it is entirely possible. It would be wonderful if the Demon Train could reach this level."
Ah, I see.
Only after hearing those words did I realize.
Even though it was a world built solely on magic, the Magic Kingdom was at the goal I was aiming for. A world that successfully defends against the Otherworld, where individuals can fight back against its influence.
A world that doesn't rely on a few strong individuals, where culture is developed, and society... well, I haven't seen much yet, but given the existence of modern cities, it seems to be functioning properly.
If the Demon Train showed the process, the Magic Kingdom might be the destination.
"...Do you think our world or the Demon Train could ever become like this?"
"Hmm. It will be difficult in the near future. The concentration of Otherworldly Power in this world is extremely high, and they have already finished refining that power into their own world's system. There is no telling how long they have fought the Otherworld or how long it took to establish the process for training individual strength."
Could we get some training know-how from them?
Actually, the Magic Kingdom residents I’d seen so far were all chaotic Mascots who spent their days doing nonsense or betraying each other—and the one I saw most often was Un-ho.
Since Un-ho was a Brigadier General, and I’d only seen an image of a shambolic military where generals fight on the front lines and flag officers get scolded by company-grade officers...
I had imagined some kind of apocalyptic fairy-tale land of sunshine and rainbows, but contrary to my expectations, it seemed to be a much more balanced world. Though the fact that their military was a mess remained unchanged.
Anyway, when does Un-ho plan on waking up? I’d been shoving food and water into his mouth for a while now, but it was just being sucked in like a black hole without any sign of his condition improving.
"When is this guy going to wake up?"
"Feeding him food is likely pointless."
Al’shel, also bored, got up from his bed and offered a comment while observing Un-ho being subjected to my "food torture."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I've never seen Un-ho incapacitated for this long."
Even after being trampled by an O-Rank Monster, he’d bounce back in twenty to thirty minutes. He’s been in this state for over a day now.
"It is likely a lack of mana. He consumes a small amount of mana for regeneration, which is why he isn't returning to his original state."
"He said his mana is basically calories, though?"
Didn't he turn into this piece of jerky because he used all of that up?
"That is merely the medium. ...Though I must admit, I have never heard of storing mana in such a fashion. In other words, if he has mana, he stores it as fat; it does not mean that increasing his fat will automatically increase his mana."
Ah, so that's how it works. No wonder his belly was getting bigger the more I stuffed food in, while his skin remained shriveled.
"Then what do we have to do to restore his mana?"
I asked Al’shel, without stopping the flow of food into his mouth.
"Normally, one could wait for mana to be generated from within, but his generation rate is too slow. You can see that from the fact that Lord Un-ho hasn't recovered yet."
Is that it? The thing Al’shel uses because he doesn't want to accept Otherworldly Power.
"The other method is to simply absorb the Otherworldly Power scattered in the surroundings. The higher the concentration in the area, the better the effect."
That’s the standard method we use. Martial artists use a combination of both, and it's the method used by almost everyone except Espers.
"But didn't you say earlier that the concentration of Otherworldly Power here is higher than on Earth?"
Then I don't understand why Un-ho, who usually recovers in twenty to thirty minutes on Earth, is still in this state.
"Hmm... Perhaps it is because I scraped the surroundings so clean in my haste that there isn't even a 'seed' left to act as a core. Mana has a tendency to cluster around a small seed, after all."
"Just get to the point."
"If I transfer a bit of mana to him, he will recover shortly."
...This brat?
"Why haven't you done that until now?"
I mean, we had more than enough time.
"Was I supposed to? Honestly, I didn't think Lord Un-ho’s recovery would make much of a difference in our current situation, so I was just waiting for him to recover naturally."
Wow, look at this personality. He’s in this state because you drained him.
But then again... right. It’s my fault for not explaining it, which is why things got so twisted.
"This guy is a Brigadier General. That means if we wake him up, he can at least guarantee our identities."
I picked up Un-ho, who had a potbelly from all the food but was otherwise shriveled, and shook him in front of Al’shel’s eyes.
"...You are joking, right? Or does the ranking system in this world start from 'Star'?"
Al’shel sounded bewildered, as if he found my words hard to believe.
"It's hard to believe, but he's a general. So let's just wake him up."
"...If you say so."
Still seemingly unable to believe me, Al’shel rolled his eyes and quietly let his mana flow.
And then.
Ptu.
As if spitting, he spat out a green, slimy substance onto the floor.
"...What is that?"
"It is a seed of condensed mana. You just need to feed it to Lord Un-ho."
...Not through a magical flow or direct transfer? You actually make a physical seed and shove it into his body?
I quietly examined the green slime. No matter how I looked at it, it looked less like a seed and more like a glob of phlegm.
"...This is going to be sticky if I pick it up, isn't it?"
"It is mucus, so yes."
I wanted to smack Al’shel for acting like it had nothing to do with him, but I exercised infinite patience and suppressed my anger. If this was the only way, I had no choice.
Steeling myself, I pried Un-ho’s mouth open and shoved his face directly into the stone floor where the slime was.
Thanks to that, the green slime entered Un-ho’s mouth, but the impact caused some of it to splatter.
"Ugh."
A small glob of slime landed on my hand.
It was disgusting.