Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: Astram (2)
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When the two stepped into the alleyway, a human lay collapsed, drenched in blood.
Judging by the amount of bleeding, death seemed certain unless a high priest showed up and worked a miracle.
Beside him, a man who looked like a feline beastkin was rifling through the downed man's pockets. A beastkin robber!
Tae-jin made up his mind. It was already too late—they needed to turn tail and run. With a kid clinging to his side, picking a fight here was no smart move.
At that moment, the robber looked up and stared straight at Tae-jin.
There was no embarrassment on his face at getting caught red-handed. If anything, it held a gleam of anticipation, like that plump bastard looks ripe for the picking too.
In this moment of crisis, what flashed through Tae-jin's mind was knowledge from Earth: When you encounter a crime, shout loud to rally help from bystanders.
"Over here! Robber! Help, everyone!"
He'd hoped for a crowd to gather murmuring in concern, but reality didn't play out that way. All he heard were doors creaking shut and locking tight from all directions—no one came running.
Something's seriously off.
The robber eyed Tae-jin, then grinned with satisfaction as he extended the claws on his left hand. Of the four nails, one gleamed with particular sharpness. So that glint earlier hadn't been a dagger—it was a meticulously honed claw.
In the end, approaching the scene hadn't been the wisest choice. Renata, standing at his side, gripped Tae-jin's hand tight.
Her hand trembled just a little, but her ears stood rigidly upright, and her expression remained composed and resolute.
Looking closer, the fine hairs all over her body were bristling slightly too—like an animal instinctively puffing up to look bigger in the face of danger.
Meanwhile, cold sweat poured down Tae-jin's back. Stumbling drunk into a robber's path with a kid in tow—what kind of idiot move was this? Hardly the responsible guardian play.
Tae-jin berated himself inwardly, but it was too late for regrets. Somehow, he and Renata had to get out of this mess together.
In a pinch like this, the only thing Tae-jin could rely on was his magic prowess. With his head spinning, he rattled off a quick incantation to summon a fireball. Magic came in all varieties, but nothing felt as straightforward and intimidating as a good old fireball, right?
That said, it wasn't burning steady and fierce like usual—it flickered feebly. Where it normally felt like a solid core wicking at its heart, now it was just a wispy will-o'-the-wisp bobbing in the air.
Its size swelled and shrank unevenly, unreliable to anyone who laid eyes on it. If it resembled a swaybacked mule with the flu, that'd be spot on.
Should've tried casting drunk at least once before.
Rather than hurling it outright, Tae-jin opted to hold the fireball steady while backing away slowly. But the robber had no intention of letting a drunken mark slip away. He crouched low for a beat, then lunged forward in a blur.
Tae-jin reflexively conjured a handful of smaller fireballs and lobbed them ahead. They only singed a bit of fur near the robber's ears—no clean hits.
The robber's left arm shot out straight. Tae-jin clocked the trajectory: Renata's neck, or her chest.
Damn it all—Tae-jin yanked Renata into his arms and hit the dirt, rolling. The odds of those claws raking his back before he could scramble up were high, but better that than her throat getting shredded.
Right then, someone burst from behind Tae-jin and charged the robber. At the same instant came the wet rip of tearing flesh.
What the—?
Tae-jin hauled himself up from the ground and whipped around.
A single forearm, claws extended, lay rolling on the dirt. Two figures in plain clothes and festival masks had leaped out from behind him—they'd just lopped off the beastkin's arm.
A sharp, metallic tang of blood overpowered the grassy scent wafting from every direction. But the newcomers showed zero concern whether the beastkin bled out. They barely spared a glance for the human victim either.
Tae-jin had no supernatural nose for a killer's bloodlust, but even a fool could see it: These were Empire agents.
Still clutching Renata to his chest, Tae-jin spoke carefully.
"Thank you for the save. Mind telling us who you are?"
A predictable question, but one with weight. Would they own up to their true affiliation with cool indifference—You're in the Intelligence Bureau's sights. Keep your nose clean—or spin some surface-level cover story?
"Astram City vigilantes. We were patrolling nearby when we heard the shout and came running. That was a close one. You alright?"
What nonsense. What vigilante squad shows up sword-drawn in twenty seconds flat on a "noise complaint"? And in festival masks with street clothes, no less?
They hadn't even apprehended the armless robber either—just glanced his way and left him be. Tae-jin's gut screamed it: The moment he stepped out of the alley, those two would finish the guy off.
Of course, having felt mortal peril firsthand, Tae-jin wasn't about to plead for the robber's life. The creep hardly screamed "model citizen."
Tae-jin dipped his head in a quick bow.
"Thanks. You saved our skins."
"All in a night's work. After a scare like that, head home and get some rest. Festivals mean accidents popping up everywhere."
"Will do. Thanks again."
Tae-jin took Renata's hand and headed for the street. Her palm was slick with sweat.
Renata kept up her brave front, her voice bright as ever. But her fingers clamped his tight, quivering faintly.
"Oppa, you okay?"
"Yeah, fine. Sorry, can't chat till we're home. That cool?"
Renata nodded, and Tae-jin walked on, nerves on high alert.
Facing down death, then the chill night air—it was sobering him up fast. His limbs still tingled from the booze, though.
Tae-jin murmured a terse incantation, clipped short enough to sound like a single syllable.
A third eye bloomed open at the crown of his head. It rocketed skyward like a soaring eagle.
A hazy overhead view bored into Tae-jin's mind. His spirit aloft gazed down upon him. Staring at the top of his own skull felt profoundly strange.
Tae-jin's vision layered double. The scene hitting his retinas through his normal eyes... and the feed piping straight into his brain via magic.
Scrying yourself from the heavens usually meant closing your eyes to block out regular sight.
But not this time. There were bound to be more agents watching from the shadows—he couldn't let them spot him strolling blind.
Any hint he'd caught on, and they'd burrow deeper out of sight.
Tae-jin split the dual feeds in his mind and dissected them. He slapped his own cheeks to sharpen his focus.
"Oppa, what's wrong all of a sudden?"
"Booze won't quit. Head's still spinning."
He brushed it off and trudged on in silence. Redoubling his focus pushed the earthly view to the back of his awareness. He navigated carefully by the bird's-eye map of his position, dodging other pedestrians.
He tracked the movements of countless people milling about at once. He spotted the beastkin robber's head getting lopped off, his corpse stuffed into a large sack. Nothing crucial.
Tae-jin varied his pace—speeding up, slowing down, even pausing on benches now and then. He scanned for anyone matching his rhythm and Renata's.
Gotcha.
A human in a round hat. He trailed at about fifty paces back.
Slowed when Tae-jin did, picked up when he hurried. Leaned against a tree to light a smoke when Tae-jin sat.
Taking that position as anchor, Tae-jin probed the opposite vector. There—a second tail. Long yellow hair.
Two agents who'd iced the robber, two more shadowing him.
Right, those were the four he'd clocked on entering Astram.
As he thought that and moved to drop the spell, something odd caught his ethereal eye.
A figure he'd never have spotted without the aerial perch. Up on a nearby rooftop, someone peered down at Tae-jin and Renata.
Cold sweat beaded along his spine. Just like triangulating the fourth agent off the third's spot, he drew imaginary lines between the fifth, himself, and... nothing behind.
But ahead, atop a storefront—another figure, feigning a smoke, eyes locked on Tae-jin. His gaze bored through the tourist throng, doggedly tracking him and Renata.
Tae-jin released the spell and drew a deep breath. The visual overload lifted from his brain, replaced by a wave of vertigo.
"Oppa, you're acting so weird tonight. What's up?"
Renata's slender, soft fingers tightened. Tae-jin ruffled her hair as he replied.
"Moved around after drinking, and the buzz hit hard. Total spins."
"Why can't you hold your liquor, Oppa?"
"Nah. Never caught flak for it anywhere. You're the booze fiend. Kid like you downs this much—imagine your tolerance grown up."
They picked up the pace, bantering idly. Pointless stuff, but Renata seemed to sense the tension too.
Confirmed agents: at least six. Who knew how many lurked unseen.
The trek to Astram had been open plains the whole way. Easy enough to tally tails.
Two agents at departure from the last city. Four by arrival. And before even one night passed, at least two more tagged on.
No reason for such a sudden swell.
Things were going sideways.
Tae-jin's heart hammered.
