9. Akan (1)
9. Akan (1)
Yuma stared at the clock hanging on the wall of the first-class cabin.
Half past ten at night.
A time that felt far too distant from the physical exhaustion he felt now.
Jeobeok.
He stepped past the sprawled corpse of Hekad and the charred remains of the nameless mage.
After taking his seat, Yuma felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him.
"I need to rest a bit. Don't go to the front—there are bodies there."
After reclining his seat back slightly, Yuma looked at Cloné and spoke. Cloné nodded her head rapidly.
"Y-Yes! Please rest!"
Yuma slowly closed his eyes.
"Three hours... Wake me in three hours."
Because if he slept any longer on this damned train, he had no idea what could happen.
Right after speaking, Yuma fell asleep almost immediately.
Cloné's sparkling golden eyes stared intently at Yuma's face.
'He's handsome. Handsome. Handsome.'
Cloné examined each of Yuma's features one by one, admiring them.
'Heum... I will become the greatest mage on the continent!'
Because only then could she stay right by his side.
Her golden eyes stared directly at Yuma like that for a long time.
And then she took out the magic tome she always kept in her bag and began reading it fervently.
***
Cheolkeodeong—
Yuma slowly opened his eyes.
As if a dense fog had lifted, his mind cleared.
He saw Cloné dozing off by the window seat.
The clock on the wall pointed to 4 in the morning.
"...."
Yuma tapped Cloné on the shoulder.
"Cloné."
Cloné's eyes flew open wide, and she raised her head.
"Y-Yuma-nim!"
"Didn't I tell you to wake me in three hours?"
Cloné hung her head deeply.
"I-I'm sorry. You looked so exhausted...."
About three hours remained until they reached the final stop, the transfer city Akan.
"Now you sleep. For the remaining time."
"Yes."
Cloné reclined her seat back and quietly closed her eyes. Yuma picked up the magic tome she had been reading.
Seureuk—
The elegant way he turned the pages almost made him look like a young professor at an academy.
'I can't understand a word of this.'
He couldn't comprehend a single thing. Yuma, who had skimmed about three pages before closing the book, stared at the sleeping Cloné.
'Resonance, was it?'
Blue-haired Sword Saint.
The being Cloné must meet, according to the oracle given to Princess Brigitte on her path to becoming the ruler.
The transfer city, Akan. From here on, they were in the southern part of the empire.
He had to take Cloné and find the person mentioned in the oracle.
'If only the target were something more concrete... like an object, it would've been easier to find.'
Regrettably, the target they had to find was a person.
Already, he could foresee a rough journey ahead.
Yuma turned his head toward the being who had been staring at him for a little while.
"Do you have some business with me?"
That being was one of the people Yuma had bluntly ignored a few hours earlier. It was a man with conspicuous blue hair.
"Ah, greetings! Sir Yuma. I am called Mayor Gelmour, the one who manages Akan, the transfer city and final stop we will arrive at shortly. If you have any schedule to handle in Akan, I would absolutely like to help make it convenient for you. Sir Yuma, you are the savior of my life."
The mayor of Akan, Gelmour.
He was, remarkably, the administrator of their primary destination.
"Sounds good. But first, I'd like to look around the city freely with my companion. I'd appreciate it if you could recommend a decent place to stay or a restaurant."
Gelmour bowed his head sharply.
"O-Of course. I will do my best to ensure you face not even the slightest inconvenience while using the city. And if you could meet with me just once more before you depart, it would be an honor."
"As long as you're the one coming to find me, I have no problem with that."
"Of course. Sir Yuma."
Gelmour deemed it unnecessary to maintain any kind of mayoral dignity in front of this man. He had single-handedly driven out the Dawn Revolutionary Group, which was notoriously infamous for having multiple master-level fighters deployed in its ranks.
And because he had personally witnessed that martial might.
Power that made it clear he had not been appointed as the Princess's agent through luck or fortune, but purely through his skill.
The Sword of the Princess.
'Princess Brigitte's sword...!'
This ash-gray-haired man before his eyes seemed to lack nothing in living up to such a title.
If it were this man, he might truly become the sword to strike down Prince Schubert. That was what Gelmour thought. Gelmour jotted down a list of inns and restaurants where there'd be no need to worry about being ripped off or shallow tricks. And on the back of that paper, he wrote his own name.
Gelmour extended that paper to Yuma with both hands.
"If you show them this, no one will try any funny business with you, Yuma-nim."
This was, indeed, very practical help.
"Thank you. You can go now."
"...Yep!"
But being thankful was one thing, and being a bother was another.
Cheolkeodeong—
Seven in the morning.
The magic train arrived at the final stop, the transfer city Akan.
Yuma and Cloné got off the train.
Yuma furrowed his brows slightly, because someone was blocking him right at the door.
The being blocking his path was wearing a familiar uniform. It was an outfit that looked like the one worn by the employees of the magic train, the <Halo>.
He was a middle-aged man with a splendidly styled moustache.
The man very naturally guided the two who had emerged from the first-class cabin into a reception room. A reception room that wasn't much different from the one at the capital station branch.
The man bowed his back deeply.
"Allow me to formally introduce myself. Yuma-nim. I am called William, the branch manager of the Akan branch of the magic train Halo."
"I'm Yuma."
"I'm Cloné!"
Cloné beamed brightly and raised her hand high.
William gave a wrinkled, kindly smile.
"A pleasure to meet you. Miss Cloné."
William looked back at Yuma.
"First, I shall deliver a message from Count Benosetian. As the owner of the Halo, he apologizes for the events that took place last night. And he sincerely thanks you for protecting the train. Regarding the revolutionary group Dawn that attacked the magic train, he intends to utilize his own authority to conduct an independent investigation. That is the entirety of the Count's message."
It was a tedious message, no different from what Yuma had expected.
William opened his eyes wide—eyes that had been nearly shut until now.
"And now, I shall offer you advice regarding this city, Akan."
The moment he said he had advice about the city they had just set foot in, Yuma finally felt a bit of interest.
"When you were in the first-class cabin just now, the mayor of Akan, Gelmour, was present—did you happen to meet him?"
"I spoke with him briefly before getting off. He told me to reach out if I needed any help."
At Yuma's answer, William nodded his head slowly and continued speaking.
"It has been four years this year since Gelmour was appointed mayor of Akan. He certainly is a capable man as a merchant, but he is not suited to be the ruler of a city."
"He can't fully control the city?"
"Correct. And there exists a true master of this city, whose very existence Mayor Gelmour does not even clearly know."
"True master?"
"Underground King Belak. He rules the underground of Akan. By using drugs as his weapon. He has now grown so bloated that he is even eyeing the surface."
It seemed this place was not a transfer city but a drug city.
"Why have you left this matter alone?"
William shook his head.
"We have reported it, but only instructions to conduct an internal audit came down. However, about half of the city's security forces are already individuals pickled in Belak's drugs."
Yuma was beginning to understand why the revolutionaries last night had been shouting so loudly about revolution. The state of the country was a mess.
"I have no intention of irresponsibly telling Yuma-nim, who has come bearing the will of the Princess, to resolve this. I simply thought you needed to be aware of it."
"Your judgment is correct."
It was something he needed to be aware of.
"Is that all?"
"Yes, that concludes my business. Yuma-nim."
"Then we'll be going."
Yuma and Cloné stood up.
***
A corrupt city.
A city of pleasure.
A city of drugs.
Akan.
Yuma walked the streets of that Akan.
It was only 3 p.m., but he needed to rest because Cloné's stamina had reached its limit.
Perhaps because night had not yet fallen.
The warning from William, the Akan branch manager of the Halo, didn't quite hit home yet.
A stubbled middle-aged man was exclaiming in admiration as he checked goods inside a box.
"Wow, the fish and fruit are really in season right now!"
"Come on now, stop admiring and let's settle up quick, Mr. Hans."
Cloné took in the countless transactions happening on the street.
"Trading activity is certainly bustling!"
"It is."
Yuma carefully read through the paper he had received from Gelmour and confirmed that there was a nearby inn among the list.
It was an inn named 'Uollo.'
Yuma entered the inn and headed immediately for the counter.
"This is a token of my acquaintance with the mayor of Akan. Bring out the owner."
The clerk at the counter saw the official seal stamped on the paper, and his eyes flew open wide.
"Understood!"
After voicing his compliance loudly, he went into the inner part of the staff room where the owner's office was.
A moment later, a white-haired middle-aged man walked out to the counter.
"Oh, oh! It really is Mayor Gelmour's official seal. I will guide you. Esteemed guest."
Yuma stared into the middle-aged man's eyes. The middle-aged man tilted his head when Yuma did not follow him up the stairs.
"Do you have some other business to attend to?"
Cloné also looked back at Yuma.
"No."
Yuma took hold of Cloné's cute little hand and went up the stairs.
The reason Yuma had briefly eyed the owner of the Uollo Inn was simple.
'His eyes.'
He felt a cloudiness in his eyes. A filthy, rotten ominousness.
It might have been a false sense of foreboding born from knowing that Gelmour had already lost control of this city.
But there was no harm in being cautious.