The Kidnappers (2)
There was one thing he really wanted to tell beginner heroes.
Being a hero was far more boring than most people imagined.
You couldn’t think about it with modern standards in mind.
Everything here moved at a snail’s pace.
Daily life, technological progress, even travel.
You might spend ten hours on horseback or walk for three days while starving.
If you were lucky, you’d get a cheap inn with a bed stuffed with straw. More often than not, you ended up sneaking sleep beside someone else’s stable.
Being called a hero party got you treated like con artists or wandering swindlers far more often than it earned you respect.
“If you’re a hero, then I’m a dragon knight! Get lost, you bastard!”
Most villages had never even heard of heroes, and even if you proved it, expecting them to understand the verification process was asking too much.
It wasn’t like this era had hero Instagram accounts or anything.
The only saving grace was the existence of magic. Without that fantasy element, he might have been burned at the stake in some backwater village.
So if you’re dreaming of an epic, romantic hero’s journey and thinking about signing a contract with a Story Fairy, think again.
You’d be much better off signing for real estate instead. At least then you’d have a fighting chance at surviving as a hero.
Just like the current Julian.
Clatter. Clatter.
A wooden spoon scraped listlessly against the bottom of an empty stew bowl.
It knew the stew was long gone, yet it kept scraping anyway.
“Haa… I’m starving.”
Gurgle.
As usual, his party had run out of travel funds and were filling their stomachs with the cheapest stew available.
“Meyrin. Let’s just… sell that.”
Julian, a modern man weak to hunger, finally caved and begged Meyrin.
“What? No way!”
Meyrin’s face flushed red as she shouted back.
“Do you ever think about the future, Julian? That’s selling our future! How the hell are we supposed to cross that distance without it?!”
Tou nodded in agreement.
“She’s right. A portal scroll is incredibly valuable. Selling it would cover all our expenses, but… without it, we’d be looking at a death march.”
Even the tough-as-nails Tou called it a “death march.” He was referring to crossing the Malaca Swamp.
The Malaca Swamp was less a swamp and more a jungle.
An area the size of a small principality, entirely covered in sticky, disgusting marshland. It was said to be so saturated with magi that bizarre monsters constantly spawned there. Yet reports of actual encounters were almost nonexistent.
Why?
Because anyone who met them died.
“We are not going through the Malaca Swamp!”
To avoid that nightmare, they had been saving the low-grade portal scroll they received at the start of their hero’s journey.
Portal scrolls varied in range depending on grade, but in this slow, tedious world, they were the only item capable of surpassing modern speeds. No airplane or jet could compete with instantaneous spatial leaps.
It was a miracle even to modern people. To them, it was practically divine.
Even the cheapest low-grade portal scroll cost as much as a small house.
“You’re right… without this portal, we’ll face serious inconvenience in the future. But…”
Julian’s expression turned unusually serious, like a real hero for once.
“Money only has meaning when it’s there exactly when you need it.”
“So a portal scroll is something we can afford to be without when we need it?”
“Hah.”
Julian smirked at Meyrin’s retort.
What would she know?
She was born in an era before AK-47s even existed.
“Do you guys even know what leverage is?”
“?”
Julian had a plan.
Sell the portal scroll, but buy it back later.
Whoosh—
He unfolded a map of the city they were staying in.
“We’ll sell the portal scroll and invest the money. Then we’ll triple it, buy the scroll back, and still have travel funds left over.”
“Leverage… is that some new kind of dice gambling?”
Tou asked with a dead-serious expression.
Tsk tsk.
Julian shook his head.
“You primitives wouldn’t understand even if I explained it.”
“…Then why ask if you think we wouldn’t get it? Hero? You got a death wish?”
“Just trust me. I’ve already scouted which land will skyrocket.”
“Land…?”
Of course, the investment failed spectacularly.
Even predicting which neighborhoods in South Korea would rise was nearly impossible without seeing the results first. Claiming to know which plot of land in an unfamiliar city on the Archidia Continent would boom was pure arrogance.
It was the cocky move of a rookie who had only studied hard but knew nothing about the real world.
“God… damn it!”
Thud!
He slammed his forehead against the ground in the plaza, venting his frustration.
“Why?! Why is it dropping?! School district! Transportation! Noble accessibility! It had everything?!”
The Constellations had probably dropped like flies at that moment.
“Hey now, Julian. Stop yelling. You’re shaking me.”
Meyrin, sitting on the prone Julian’s back, kicked his butt lightly as she spoke.
“Ugh…”
“Oh? The chair talks? Even after blowing all our portal money?”
“…I haven’t blown it yet, okay?”
A house couldn’t just run away.
Technically, he hadn’t lost the money yet.
“Hah? Really? Then where is all that money right now?”
“That’s… if you just wait a little…”
“Doo~oon’t waaait~ for the tiiime we neeeed~”
“I am a chair. Please have a seat.”
In the end, the situation forced the mage Meyrin to take magic part-time jobs in the village just to earn basic travel funds.
And Julian had no choice but to spend the whole day acting as her chair.
Meyrin sat cross-legged, calmly reading a book.
No… it’s not over yet… if I just hold on, maybe… this is Archidia’s Gangnam…
Julian squirmed again as another random thought crossed his mind, causing the book to fall.
Thump—
It was a book with a red cover, the same color as Meyrin’s hair.
High-Dimensional Magic Research Journal
Redrian Supreme
“What the… this is…”
“What else? You’re taking forever to recover the investment money, so I figured learning dimensional magic and making a portal myself would be faster.”
Meyrin picked the book back up and muttered.
“Dimensional magic…?”
“Yeah. That’s the academic term for portal magic.”
“…Sounds fancy.”
“As fancy as calling losing money ‘leverage’?”
As expected of a mage.
She was sharp.
At least on par with a top-tier university medical student, maybe even better.
Julian resolved to be a sturdy chair once more.
Clack!
“Please have a seat, my lady.”
“Good~”
She sat on him again, crossed her legs, and resumed reading the book with great focus.
* * *
Crackle—!
‘Huh?’
The flashback ended.
The moment he saw the book, memories from his first hero life had flooded back.
‘This book… it’s the same one, right?’
Click! Click!
Countless camera flashes went off around him.
“One more F-rank pose, please!”
“Porter sir! Look over here and cry for us once!”
“Is showing off your F-rank your official declaration of intent?!”
Brushing off the reporters’ nonsense, Junil stared blankly at the book’s cover.
He had suspected it before, but the flashback made it certain.
‘It’s definite…’
This was the exact book Meyrin had been holding.
But how had it ended up falling from Sar?
Sar was a character from the seventh round.
He had nothing to do with the first round.
Hadn’t the setting been slightly more advanced than medieval times?
‘Don’t tell me… the future of the first round became the seventh?’
No way.
Junil shook his head.
Hadn’t the continent’s name been something other than Archidia?
‘Then what is it?’
The only connection was the Fairy Corporation.
Could that really be a link?
Just because two movies were made by the same CJ studio didn’t mean the characters knew each other.
Even if they all shouted lines like “Player entrance~!” “Roll it!” “Me? I’m a cop from South Korea, you bastard!” they could never know or influence one another.
The Fairy Corporation should be the same.
‘Wait. But Sar did show up, didn’t he?’
Only now did Junil finally register this bizarre fact.
He had been too busy fighting to think about it properly until now.
‘This is completely different from some random goblin showing up. Sar… is a named character.’
He had never defeated Sar in the seventh round, yet the creature had crossed dimensions and entered this world.
‘Wait a second…’
The term suddenly felt familiar.
‘Dimensional magic.’
“Yeah. That’s the academic term for portal magic.”
Portal magic was academically called dimensional magic.
Then the ultimate evolution of portals would be travel between dimensions?
‘When you think about it, wasn’t the Red Gate I entered also a dimensional portal?’
The Red Gate that had connected to Archidia could also be considered a kind of portal.
In other words, portals could link dimensions.
Whether that required the power of a Story Fairy or could be done with an individual’s strength alone remained unknown.
But—
‘Still…!’
Junil gripped the red-covered book tightly.
‘There’s hope.’
Maybe he could open a Red Gate with his own power and go see her again.
“Isilen, do you happen to know anything about this book?”
He asked Isilen, who had been in spirit form.
After all, she had also crossed over from another dimension through a gate.
He thought she might know something.
“…Isilen?”
Isilen had vanished.
In her place stood Suyeon.
“Oppa! Are you okay?! Why would you go that far just to save Kang Hae-il?!”
She was panting heavily.
She had chased after Junil, who had shot forward like a bullet to save Kang Hae-il, and was completely exhausted.
Not only her—helicopters were landing everywhere, and countless people were rushing in from all directions.
There were Awakened like Yu Jihun and Kim Ri-el, but ordinary people seemed to outnumber them.
Among them, paramedics cut through the crowd, shouting at the top of their lungs.
‘Oh. Right.’
He had been so absorbed in the book that he had forgotten.
He had just saved Kang Hae-il from falling.
Kang Hae-il was still lying unconscious across his lap.
Eyes closed.
“Ah, that’s right! Hae-il hyung!”
Slap!
Even after smacking his cheek, there was no response.
It was only natural.
‘I was bedridden for almost two days after releasing my Awakening too.’
Losing consciousness after an Awakening burnout seemed to be a hero cliché.
It had happened to Junil as well.
“We’ll take him! We’re the Awakened Treatment Team!”
Paramedics wearing caps and masks approached Junil and took Kang Hae-il away.
“Uh… wait a second!”
Junil jumped up and followed them.
“C-can I go as his guardian? This hyung doesn’t really have any guardians.”
“…”
Would they reject him because he was F-rank?
That was what Junil thought, but it wasn’t the case.
“Well… sure. Get in. We heard you’re the closest person to him.”
They readily let Junil board the ambulance helicopter.
“Uh…? I-I’m a healer too! Let me come with you!”
“There’s no space. We already have plenty of healers on our side. Please look after the other injured. Kang Hae-il’s case received special instructions.”
“…Huh?”
The words “Hey, I fought a World Boss! I’m way better than you backup healers!” rose all the way to Suyeon’s throat.
But unlike Moon Junil, she was a civilized person and held it in.
In the end, only Junil got on board.
“Ah… okay. O-oppa, call me!”
Thududududu…!
The propellers began spinning, making it impossible to hear, but she still waved and made a phone gesture toward Junil.
Junil waved back at her.
As she grew smaller in the distance, Yu Jihun and Kim Ri-el approached and took her away.
After confirming that much, Junil finally turned his gaze elsewhere.
‘Hm?’
The Constellations were saying strange things.
‘What? Kidnapped?’
Kidnapped? Not rescued?
It was ridiculous.
Who would dare kidnap an S-rank Awakened?
‘Don’t tell me there are lunatics like that even in modern times, not just the Middle Ages?’
When Junil focused his mana toward his ears, he faintly caught the pilot’s radio transmission.
“Yes… secured. Guardian… we also secured one guardian… no issues. It’s an F-rank porter. Subduing him will be easy. Yes… we’ll arrive within twenty minutes.”
But there were.
There were such lunatics.