Spoiler (3)
In a forest teeming with colossal trees.
Everything here was green, yet an alien presence descended from the sky.
It was a woman with reddish-brown hair.
She rode the wind, drifting down slowly.
Shaaaaaaa…!
The forest stirred with a busy clamor at the intruder’s arrival. The trees shook their bodies, rustling their leaves against one another.
It was distinctly different from the sound of ordinary wind.
The forest’s inhabitants knew how to tell the difference.
From behind the massive trunks, beauties with hair that seemed to hold both sunlight and moonlight appeared one by one.
They stared at the red-haired woman descending, and the one at the center raised her hand.
“She is a child blessed by the World Tree. Lower your guard.”
At once, the sound of rustling leaves died down.
“What brings you here, Meyrin?”
“I’ve come to borrow Master Isilen’s wisdom after a long time.”
Meyrin lifted the hem of her skirt in a polite curtsy as she made her request.
“She is not here.”
“Then I’ll go inside and leave something in the records. Or even just looking at Master’s records would help me.”
Outsiders entering the World Tree’s domain was strictly forbidden, yet—
“Very well.”
Meyrin was an exception.
The elves led the way, guiding her. She passed through a labyrinth of tangled tree roots so complex she would never find her way even if she lived here a lifetime, and finally reached her master’s space.
There was no door. Only a sign that read Isilenyele before a bend in the path.
“This is Isilenyele’s room. Do not call her by the name Elrnya any longer.”
“Yes… I know. I just keep forgetting.”
“Then stop forgetting.”
“…Telling me not to forget to stop forgetting doesn’t make me stop forgetting. Do you even know what forgetting is?”
Meyrin tried to brush it off with a joke, but the elves corrected her sternly.
“Isilenyele is doing everything she can to reach Ersaren. Forgetting the meaning behind that name is an insult.”
With a sharp turn, the elves vanished after delivering those words.
Meyrin took off her hat and stepped into the room.
“To reach Ersaren…”
She knew.
Her master wished to become an elf of an even higher order.
And she had the talent for it.
After all, she had been a prodigy since childhood.
Yet Meyrin had always thought the same thing.
“It doesn’t suit her at all.”
The position others wanted for her didn’t fit her in the slightest.
She was far too curious for such stuffy, conventional duties.
That was why Meyrin still called her Elrnya.
The girl who wanted to become starlight.
That was the name that suited her best.
A peaceful, sunny morning.
In a public cemetery in Pocheon, groundskeepers were running their weed whackers.
The thick scent of grass and the roar of machinery filled the air.
Wiiiiiiiiiing…!
Amid the noise, the hired workers chatted back and forth.
“People coming here have really dropped off lately. Man…”
“It’s because of that incident the other day.”
“What incident?”
“You know, the one where corpses were walking around~!”
“Come on. You actually believe that?”
“Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I?! These days there are more goblins popping out of the mountains than raccoons!”
“Goblins are still monsters. Living things! But if corpses start moving, that’s ghosts! Totally different!”
Wiiiiiiiiiing!
Even over the deafening whine of the weed whackers, the old men kept talking. To them, this kind of noise was everyday life. They were used to it.
Probably everyone around here was the same.
Even the animals, most likely.
There was only one exception.
“Uuuuugh…”
Isilen crouched beneath a rock, covering her pointed ears with both hands as she hid.
The sound was bad enough, but the sharp energy pouring out from those machines was unbearably vicious.
“Why don’t you just stop them from coming here? Why suffer like this?”
“Well… huh?”
Isilen’s eyes widened as she looked up.
“…Junil!”
A faint spark of joy flickered in her gaze.
“You came quickly.”
“Well… it’s been a day. From your perspective, it’s probably like I just went to the bathroom.”
Wiiiiiiing!
The conversation was cut short again, like blades of grass being shredded.
“Uuuuugh…”
“……”
Junil stared down at her, utterly dumbfounded.
These elves really are exhausting.
In truth, casting a spell to block sound waves would be nothing to her.
She could even manipulate perception on a wide scale—sound was trivial.
But elves refused to use magic that dulled their own senses.
They said it felt like temporarily severing one of their own arms.
“Sigh. Can’t be helped, I guess.”
Junil simply sat down beside the rock where Isilen was hiding and waited.
Only after the whine of the weed whackers finally died down did Isilen cautiously crawl out.
“Phew.”
She brushed the dirt off her clothes and asked,
“Did you bring another contaminated object?”
“No. I came with a different proposal this time.”
“…A proposal?”
“Before that, a question. Why did you come here, Isilen?”
“Well…”
Isilen started to speak, then closed her mouth.
Though the World Tree had told her he was the hero, the hero was not part of the World Tree’s own kin.
She could not reveal details about Ersaren or anything else to such a person.
When she hesitated, Junil teased her.
“Don’t tell me you came to see me?”
“That’s right.”
“?”
Both Junil and the Constellations were thrown off balance.
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
The Isilen he had met so far was not the type to spout nonsense.
She had never even joked before.
“I don’t want to go into detail.”
“…Right. I don’t want to hear it either.”
“Anyway, I came to make a proposal.”
“What kind?”
“Isilen…”
“?”
Junil suddenly struck a thuggish pose, resting one hand on the rock as he spoke.
“Wanna do a job with me?”
A brief silence fell.
Isilen raised her hand.
She formed a perfect circle with her fingers.
Was she agreeing?
Then—
“!?”
Thwack!
She flicked his forehead.
“Ow!”
Junil looked at her in utter bewilderment.
The reason was even more absurd.
“Don’t speak down to me.”
She seemed rather sensitive about etiquette.
“A-anyway, you don’t really have anything to do here except grow mushrooms, right? Let’s work together.”
“Alright.”
“Huh?”
Isilen accepted without hesitation.
“But I can’t get too deeply involved.”
“It’s nothing like that. It’s a simple task.”
“What is it?”
Her pointed ears twitched.
It meant she was listening carefully.
In a dark underground space.
A massive table had been prepared.
Figures in black robes gathered one by one.
Thud!
The person seated at the head of the table slammed his fist down violently.
“As you’ve all heard, there was a traitor among us.”
The entire room fell silent.
They already knew who the traitor was.
The two who were not seated here.
When the man who appeared to be the leader snapped his fingers, two enormous skeletal soldiers dragged in two bound men.
“These bastards… made gap investments in the Mok-dong redevelopment district.”
Gulp.
Everyone swallowed dryly.
This was the first time they had heard the details of the betrayal directly from their leader’s mouth.
One of the bound men spoke up.
“W-what does that have to do with anything?! I didn’t leak any information!”
“Oh really?”
“Do you have proof that I leaked anything?!”
“Do you think we’re idiots?”
“What?”
“Even if you didn’t leak it yet, you would have soon enough.”
“What are you…?”
“If we pull this off properly, your property value will drop. Do you understand what that means? And you think you can endure that? With your gap investment?!”
“……”
The man who had been boldly defending himself fell silent, then suddenly exploded.
“You… you sons of bitches!”
He began cursing furiously.
“You fucking bastards! You said we were only hitting Gangnam at first! Why the hell are you messing with Mok-dong too?! This place is nothing special! You’re ignoring Banpo, Apgujeong, Cheongdam—why the fuck are you doing this here—”
—Shunk!
The skeletal soldier’s massive blade stabbed him through the back.
“Guhk!”
Every nerve in his spine was severed. Agony like his brain was being burned alive engulfed him.
He couldn’t even scream properly. His body twisted violently before going limp.
“……”
Everyone silently watched him die.
“You all know how we began.”
The leader addressed the group.
“You know why we were chosen.”
He raised both arms.
“We gathered to normalize the value of all land in this country, and our will was acknowledged by our revered cult leader! Aal! Kal Badal!”
“Aal! Kal Badal…!”
The cult leader they served was real.
He rarely showed himself, but he possessed tremendous dark magic prowess.
Shockingly, even ordinary Awakened could become warlocks by forming a contract with him.
Of course, they had to offer something in return.
They had to sacrifice living humans.
Only those with such resolve could become Pollak-ers.
“We swore loyalty to him! We will normalize this land! If we lose that will, we lose our power! Aaaal! Kad! Myuuuum!”
Oooooooong!
The complex magic circle densely drawn beneath the table glowed with red light.
“Aaaaaal! Kaaal Badal!”
As every member chanted in unison, the light grew even brighter.
Soon the light swallowed the entire space.
Fwaaaash!
A short while later.
The men in black robes stood atop the roof of a building.
“This is the place… Boa Constrictor’s Eye.”
Beneath their feet was a drawing of a snake and a massive eye.
What Junil had seen in the book about boa constrictors was a spatial teleportation marker.
Everyone had been moved simultaneously to the operation site.
The leader stepped forward and began the mission briefing.
“This is the rooftop of a major academy!”
Indeed.
The rooftop of the largest academy building in Mok-dong.
Why an academy, of all places?
There were two reasons.
“The greatest factor maintaining value in this area… is the school district.”
Since the school district played a major role in supporting the region, they would strike at its heart.
“By attacking this place, we will achieve the normalization of value!”
Of course, that wasn’t the only advantage.
“More importantly, an academy means countless children packed tightly into the narrowest possible space.”
The most valuable sacrifices were young children. Living ones.
And academies were places where they willingly gathered in dense crowds.
Moreover, academy buildings were taller than regular schools, making them far more efficient to occupy.
“We will offer all these children and summon the ‘Being of Judgment’ that our leader spoke of!”
Occupying the academy was essential to summoning the World Boss even faster.
“If you’ve heard the briefing… everyone to your positions!”
The black-robed figures nodded and moved with crisp efficiency.
Although the plan had changed at the last minute, they had received and memorized the updated instructions multiple times.
Besides, their opponents were just children.
“Hehehe… This is our chance to wipe out all the seeds of those filthy speculators.”
“Exactly. We’ll leave a wonderful country for the next generation.”
Their humanity had already been eroded bit by bit by the entity they contracted with. They no longer even saw other humans as people.
The tiny seeds of resentment that had bloomed in place of conscience had grown into a mountain, becoming demons.
They now had nothing to fear.
“Sacrifice them allllll!”
Ooooooooong!
They still had no idea.
Across from this academy building.
A masked man and woman stood silently, watching them.