Chapter 445
Chapter 445
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 446
Chapter Title: The Paris Auction Raid
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Kwaaaang—
Paris, France, the grand venue hosting the VIP auction.
With a massive explosion, the wall shattered, turning the event hall into a scene of utter chaos in an instant.
Moments later, figures in black gas masks emerged from the darkness and mercilessly slaughtered the people inside the hall.
—Kyaaaaak!
—This is Security Team 1! Armed intruders have breached the main hall!
The security personnel sprang into action at the intruders' invasion.
That was when it happened.
A pure white light flashed, and the agent leading the charge collapsed, spewing blood.
Caught off guard by the sudden turn, the agents halted in confusion.
Blocking their path stood a man in a gas mask wielding a long spear.
"Sorry, but you can't pass through here."
The agents stared blankly at the spear in the man's hand.
An extraordinary aura emanated from it. It was the Bangcheon Hwaguk, known as an S-Rank weapon.
"......J-Jaun?"
"Correct."
Whoosh!
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the spear swung, drenching the floor in red blood.
The agents died without mounting even the slightest resistance to the man's swing.
Then, a voice came through the communication magic tool hanging from the man's ear.
—We've secured the Shinmokhyeol. It's the real deal.
"Okay. Time to withdraw."
The man exchanged glances with his comrades behind him and leaped out through the broken window onto the rooftop to escape.
From the high vantage point, the scene on the ground unfolded before his eyes.
The site was engulfed in pandemonium.
Sirens wailed from all directions, and citizens screamed as they fled.
The man savored the view with a satisfied smile.
"Yeah. This is exactly it."
He wanted to admire the ground-level chaos longer, but time was running short.
He had to escape before the Association's reinforcements arrived.
......Right as he prepared to dash away in flight.
"Baek Eun-seong!"
A voice calling his name rang out from nearby.
Looking up, four people stood before the man—no, Baek Eun-seong.
They were familiar faces.
Europe's elite special agents, who had been hunting Jaun for a long time.
"......Jacob? Long time no see. Got some newbies behind you?"
Baek Eun-seong glanced at the blonde woman standing tensely behind them.
Their eyes met, and she gripped her sword tightly.
"By the way, she looks kinda familiar......
Muttering to himself, Baek Eun-seong's eyes widened as it clicked.
"Ah! I got it! Britain's rising star, Lily Rose! Right?"
Jacob turned at Baek Eun-seong's friendly greeting.
"Lily. Go down and help evacuate the civilians."
"I'll help too—"
"No need. We'll handle this."
Lily bit her lip.
She was frustrated but knew she'd only be a liability in combat.
"Understood."
Lily jumped straight down to the ground.
Jacob watched her go in a daze before turning his gaze back to Baek Eun-seong.
"You'd gone quiet for a while. Starting up again?"
Baek Eun-seong answered with a smile and charged forward, swinging his spear.
Jacob blocked the attack with his sword and unleashed thorns of flame.
Roarrr!
"Still mixing reinforcement and manifestation styles, huh."
Baek Eun-seong swung his spear to deflect the incoming flame thorns aimed at him.
Attacks from the other agents followed from both sides, but Baek Eun-seong barely dodged them.
"......Annoying."
As he spun to counterattack.
A voice came from the communication magic tool.
—Baek Eun-seong. Get ready. Deploying.
"Okay."
Fwoooosh!
Black smoke billowed from an unknown source, filling the ground below.
With their vision suddenly obscured, the agents reacted in panic.
—Cough, cough! What is this?
—Urk! Mana control is......
The smoke that enveloped the entire building was a special gas that temporarily disrupted mana.
Realizing this, the agents tried to fend it off with their mana, but it had its limits.
—Escape while they're distracted.
"Got it. Got it."
Seizing the agents' disarray, Baek Eun-seong sprinted across the rooftops.
Glancing back, he saw the agents still reeling.
Baek Eun-seong smirked in satisfaction before removing his gas mask and rendezvousing with Jin and Sika on the adjacent roof.
"Ended up more anticlimactic than expected."
"Yeah. How long's it been since we pulled off a clean success like this?"
Jin, pleased with the mission's triumph, turned to Baek Eun-seong.
"But Baek Eun-seong. Why the stiff face?"
"Hm? Nah. Just feeling uneasy 'cause it went too smoothly......
Baek Eun-seong scratched his head.
"What's uneasy about it going well?"
"Whenever things went too smoothly, 'that guy' always showed up to ruin it."
That guy, Kim Sun-woo.
It had been like that for the past two years.
Whenever they executed a perfect plan, he'd appear at the last moment as if he knew every move, always interfering.
And by that guy's pattern, it was about time for him to show.
......But.
Even as he boarded the getaway airship his comrades had prepared.
Kim Sun-woo never appeared.
Feeling a hollow anticlimax, Baek Eun-seong truly sensed Kim Sun-woo's death for the first time.
"......Damn. Got attached, huh. Feels empty for no reason."
At the top floor of the Mage Association headquarters, in the chairman's office. Kim Jin-cheol sat listening to the report on the incident.
"Jaun stole a total of seven treasures. Among them is the Shinmokhyeol, known as the heavenly elixir."
"Shinmokhyeol, huh......
Shinmokhyeol.
A mystical item in the form of reddish firewood, befitting its name with its immense vital energy.
Simply keeping it nearby granted tremendous mana recovery, and drinking the sap from the wood provided substantial healing effects.
It was called the 'heavenly elixir' in the world,
but it had one other hidden use.
"......So that was the goal."
It could regenerate a human body.
And Jaun targeting the Shinmokhyeol meant they intended to revive Jin Cheon-woo's body.
"Understood for now. You're dismissed."
The subordinate bowed and left the chairman's office.
Left alone, Kim Jin-cheol stared out the window, lost in complicated thoughts.
"......Even in death, you keep gnawing at my insides."
Four months had passed in the Boundary World.
In that time, I became Kim Jung-hee's disciple and received instruction in numerous auxiliary magic spells.
Truth be told, I had no ambition to grow my auxiliary abilities, but with synergy spells like Reversal Orb and Mana Storm increasing in use, I figured systematically learning them wouldn't hurt, so I accepted.
Of course, refusing instruction from a great mage with the 'Educator' trait wouldn't make sense anyway.
"The five basic forms of auxiliary magic seem fairly mastered. And reaching this level in just four months...... It's honestly unbelievable."
Kim Jung-hee looked at me with exasperated eyes.
Overly generous praise, like something Lee Seo-jun might hear.
I felt awkwardly undeserving and didn't respond.
Partly because I couldn't shake the thought that it was fake talent from the 'Outsider's Boon.'
"Oh, right. Starting tomorrow, we'll move to the eight forms."
"What about six and seven?"
Auxiliary magic training is akin to a sort of Go game.
Interpreting and solving various formulas. And learning solutions by situation, step by step.
"Six and seven cover formula interpretation methods. But you're freakishly good at that already, so it'll probably be pointless."
No argument there.
"......Ahem. Got it. So training ends here for today?"
"Yes. You can rest now."
"Thank you for your efforts."
I stood, stretching grandly. Staring at formulas all day left my eyes bleary.
After simple stretches, I checked today's training results.
[You received high-level instruction.]
['Formula Comprehension (A)' proficiency has increased, slightly affecting 'Mana Control Technique (S)'.]
['Mana Control Technique (S)' proficiency has risen slightly.]
[Acquired skill, 'Formula Decomposition (B)'.]
[Acquired skill, 'Formula Synthesis (B)'.]
[Formula Comprehension (A)] [Proficiency: 33%]
Several months had passed since receiving Kim Jung-hee's tutelage.
In that span, I'd acquired various auxiliary skills, and Formula Comprehension's proficiency had risen to 33%.
Considering the next rank up, it was remarkably steep growth.
Of course, proficiency plateaus as it accumulates, so maintaining this pace would be tough.
Still, compared to manifestation magic I'd studied for years, auxiliary magic definitely felt rewarding to grow.
The thrill of learning new spells was addictive too.
Maybe Kim Jung-hee was right, and I really had talent for auxiliary magic.
"......Hoo."
Lost in such thoughts, I gazed up at the night sky.
Life in the Boundary was growing familiar with time, but so was my growing impatience.
Because in the living world without me, I constantly worried something had happened to the main characters.
"......Wonder what everyone's up to."
I recalled the events Lee Seo-jun at age 20 faced in the original story.
Shifting to the special task force as his stage, he'd encounter new incidents.
The biggest among them was 'Jaun,' the original story's main villain.
But my interventions had flipped the plot entirely, so it might not proceed the same.
Lost in thoughts of the original plot, a sudden curiosity struck me.
"Oh, right. Something I've wanted to ask for a while."
"Hm?"
Kim Jung-hee, preparing to leave, turned with puzzled eyes.
Staring straight at his face, I asked.
"Do you happen to know Lee Seo-jun?"
The first day I met Kim Jung-hee, he'd reacted to the name 'Lee Seo-jun.'
Meaning he knew of Lee Seo-jun's existence too.
But there was a discrepancy.
Lee Seo-jun hadn't been born yet during Kim Jung-hee's active years.
And at my question, Kim Jung-hee's expression grew serious.
"I do. Probably around your age."
......As expected.
He had hidden knowledge I didn't know, just as I'd suspected.
"How do you know Lee Seo-jun?"
"That child's father came to see me once."
Late at night.
Returning home from work, Han Se-yeon stared absently at the small something on the table.
"Ngaa."
The small something took the form of a hand-palm-sized tree.
For the first three days after they met, it had been a sprout, but it suddenly grew rapidly into a small tree.
"Gretel."
At Han Se-yeon's call, Gretel blinked its eyes cutely.
A few months ago with Kim Jin-woo, it had been fairly large, giving a childlike impression, but now it was completely infant-sized.
It had even lost its memories, not recognizing her.
In the past, it would flee in terror at the sight of her alone.
"Ngaa."
Gretel let out a small cry in response to Han Se-yeon's call.
Han Se-yeon smiled warmly at the sight and gently patted Gretel's waist.
"Ngaa."
Gretel beamed an angelic smile, as if enjoying the touch.
But only for a moment.
The angelic smile vanished in an instant, tears welling in its large eyes.
"......Ah."
One of Gretel's recent frequent moods.
It would show a happy smile one second, then burst into the saddest sobs the next.
Lacking childcare knowledge, Han Se-yeon panicked at the sight.
"Don't cry. Don't cry."
She hurriedly grabbed tissue to wipe the tears pooling in Gretel's eyes.
But Gretel's tears didn't stop, so she hugged it close.
"Ngaaa......
Seeing Gretel cry endlessly, Han Se-yeon felt like joining in.
She couldn't fathom the reason.
She'd heard babies cry from hunger or bodily needs, but that wasn't it.
"Shh. Don't cry. Stop."
"Ungaaa......
As Han Se-yeon soothed Gretel, a thought crossed her mind.
Maybe faint memories of the past lingered in Gretel.
Making it miss its former owner, Kim Sun-woo, and cry.
The idea made her feel downhearted too.
She missed Kim Sun-woo just as much.
Gretel had fallen asleep from exhaustion before long.
Han Se-yeon carefully laid it in a small blanket and finally exhaled in relief.
Gazing at the sleeping Gretel, she anew felt the greatness of her parents who had raised her.