A Rather Special Field Trip
"Hahh..."
A dry sigh slipped from Jeolji-ah's lips. The first ambush had been nothing to speak of — he'd cleaned it up in the blink of an eye.
But the moment he turned toward Russia, the pursuers started clinging to him all over again. He dealt with those just as quickly, yet the slow creep of exhaustion was something even he couldn't shrug off.
"I don't know about the others, but you lot are Holy Warriors, are you not?"
Jeolji-ah spoke with sad eyes to the men in white coats sprawled at his feet, their arms and legs broken.
At first, only the Pope's awakened had come at him. Now Holy Warriors were mixed in among them.
"You are a heretic. A filthy apostate who fell for a witch's sweet whispers and dares to raise a hand against the Saint."
Even with a Holy Warrior's superhuman recovery, bones shattered like that would take time to mend. Their bodies healed fast — the pain, however, was still extreme. And yet what truly enraged them was not the agony. It was that they could do nothing about the heretic standing right in front of them.
"I—"
"Shut that filthy mouth! No words of yours will sway me."
"...I suppose not."
Jeolji-ah gave up on speaking. He was a Holy Warrior himself; he understood this young man's conviction and stubbornness better than anyone. He had been the same once, and in truth he still was. Compared to these hot-blooded youths he had simply gained a slightly wider view. The essence had not changed.
"Then try stopping this old man, just once. I don't know about those others, but I've no wish to kill you."
That did not mean he was soft enough — or stupid enough — to leave them intact so they could keep chasing him.
Crack.
"Gaaah!"
Jeolji-ah started breaking the thighbones of every Holy Warrior under his heel. There was no hesitation in his hands, and screams burst out on all sides.
He rendered them all incapable of fighting, and the instant he turned his back, a presence flared behind him. His body whipped around.
What? There's no one left who can move.
He had killed every last awakened and incapacitated the Holy Warriors. There had been no mistakes.
Whoosh.
Jeolji-ah's senses were not wrong. A heavy fist grazed right past his head. Even with a body tougher than steel, a clean hit would have landed with real force.
"You... how did you recover so fast..."
Jeolji-ah stared at the Holy Warrior who had attacked him, confusion written across his face. It was a familiar one — a man he had just put down with his own hands. Even Jeolji-ah himself could not have recovered that quickly.
"That necklace..."
His gaze, sweeping the Holy Warrior's body with a keen eye, locked onto a single point.
"A Holy Relic?"
The divine power it radiated was so faint that Jeolji-ah had only just noticed it. Faint or not, it was still a Holy Relic — enough, apparently, to restore a body in an instant.
"This is a Holy Relic bestowed by the Saint himself to strike down the witch!"
Jeolji-ah was already no longer listening. He drove a fist into the Holy Warrior's jaw, and in the instant the man staggered he slipped behind him and locked an arm around his throat.
"Ghk... kkh—"
Even a Holy Relic could not keep blood flowing to the brain. The Holy Warrior's body went slack at last. Jeolji-ah tore the necklace from his neck and hurriedly called Karen.
"Inquisitor! Is the Saintess all right?"
Karen switched the call to video, and Ellie greeted Jeolji-ah with a bright, beaming smile.
"Hahh... thank goodness."
Jeolji-ah patted his chest in relief. The only people who could create Holy Relics were the Saintess and the Saint. The Saint was in no condition to do any such thing, so he had feared something had happened to her.
Jeolji-ah held up the necklace and told Karen everything that had happened so far.
"Then..."
The Holy Relics that already existed had lost their power; something like this was little more than an empty shell with no will inside it. Even so, it had been enough to get one man back on his feet, however briefly.
Ah. So that was what the Inquisitor had meant the last time. That it would be better if the Saint simply died.
"...I understand. Thank you for telling me."
He hung up, and as rage and disgust toward humankind surged through him, Jeolji-ah offered a silent prayer.
How can they wear a human face and still...
How could they do this to the Saint they served? These people who did not even recognize the grace of the one who had raised them to their positions.
"Heretic..."
The Holy Warriors, unable to use their legs, still writhed and crawled toward Jeolji-ah, trying to stop him. Now, at last, he understood how they had been persuaded.
"You wouldn't listen anyway. Even if I told you the Saintess has appeared, you'd just decide she's a witch after the Saint."
He had heard several times that there was movement up above — so this was it. And it was cunning. They had brought the Saint down themselves, and now they were pinning it on a witch. They had shown the Holy Relics and gathered the Holy Warriors.
"Because of you... the Saint..."
Had they spread word that if they only eliminated the witch, the Saint would rise again? A desperation he could well understand.
The Pope's words were sly, wrapping their own selfishness thickly in reverence and faith toward the Saint.
He had to move. From here on, the side that persuaded first would have the advantage.
"Hahh... they even wrecked the motorcycle."
Whether they had meant to pin him in place, his beloved bike lay in pieces off to one side, reduced to scrap while he had been fighting. The vehicles the pursuers had arrived in were in no usable condition either.
"Thank you."
With those brief words, Jeolji-ah bid farewell to an old friend, then began to run on his own two feet down the endless road stretching on beyond the horizon.
Perhaps because he was drawing closer to the north, white breath puffed from Jeolji-ah's mouth, and the heavy snow falling from the sky kept him company.
"Do you think something happened?"
When Ellie asked, worry in her voice, Karen answered with a calm, unreadable face.
"Things seem to be moving a bit faster. What we have to do hasn't changed, so don't worry about it."
That's Uncle for you.
Ellie's heart, which had been racing with worry, found its proper rhythm again in the unhurried atmosphere Karen always carried with him. Just being near him was enough to feel safe.
"Hey... doesn't Master look a little fatter?"
"Does he? Maybe a little...?"
At Samsaek's words, Ellie examined Karen's face from every angle. Come to think of it, his face did look a bit puffy, as if he had put on some weight.
"Eating that much, of course he's going to gain."
The same routine had already been repeating for more than two days. While they drove, a little hand would constantly reach over from the passenger seat asking for snacks, and they would stop at rest areas now and then to stockpile food and eat. At the end of each day they would arrive at a hotel built along the Hunter Highway and collapse straight into bed.
"But Ellie hasn't gained any weight? She ate more than we did... that's amazing."
As Samsaek said, Ellie looked exactly the same as when they had left home. She had even eaten more than Karen, who already put away more than most grown men — appetizer, main course, and dessert, every course, every time.
"You're right."
"She's just the type that doesn't gain, plus she's still growing."
"I guess so. I think the little bit of weight you've put on looks nice, Karen. I wish I could gain a little too..."
Ellie grumbled, looking down at her own pale, slender arms and legs. Even working out diligently with Chaerin, she never put on any fat or muscle.
"Don't you dare say that outside. The entire Alliance would stone you."
Thud-thud-thud-thud. As if speaking for their hearts, a tremendous blizzard slammed into the windshield. The impact punched into their ears as if they had been struck by hail.
"The snow's coming down all of a sudden again."
Even with the wipers at maximum speed, snow instantly reclaimed every strip of glass they had just cleared. So Karen simply switched the wipers off and started clearing the snow with a shield instead. The shield swept back and forth across the glass in less than a second, giving them far better visibility than the wipers ever had.
Weather like this should have stopped everything — cars with chained tires, fully equipped people, all of it. But the car Karen was driving pressed on without the slightest hesitation. If anything, it seemed glad there were no other vehicles in the way.
"That's your ability, right, Uncle?"
"That's right."
As Ellie said, the car was not even driving on the road. At the speed they were traveling, he deployed a shield right above the packed snow. You could just as well say he was laying a road on top of the road.
Mana draining away like an ebb tide, and the concentration that required on top of it — and he was even clearing the windshield by hand. Mage or awakened, anyone who saw this would have been stunned. Karen was doing it as naturally as breathing.
He's amazing, as always.
Watching Karen work what might as well have been magic, Ellie found herself looking at him with fresh wonder.
"Huh? Vladivostok?"
Ellie looked outside at the GPS's clear, cheerful voice, but the blizzard was so severe she could barely see to either side. Even peering through the windshield, she could not find the city the navigation had just named.
What?
All that entered her vision were half-collapsed buildings, desolate and eerie. There was no trace of human life anywhere.
Regardless, the GPS ended its guidance in the same bright voice, and Ellie sat there bewildered.
"This is Vladivostok? It's nothing like what I looked up."
From the materials Ellie had found, there was a statue standing in the square, and an enormous, long bridge connecting the city to an island. But where had that beautiful port city from the photographs gone, and why was this ruin here instead?
"That's old data. It's not classified or anything — the Alliance just deliberately never updated it."
When the Cataclysm hit, the whole world had suffered. But this city — a coastal city jutting out into the sea — had, unfortunately, suffered even more.
"Almost everyone who lived here died, and the few who barely survived lost their homes and left. No need to relive a nightmare, I suppose."
"That's so sad..."
Hearing the story, the hideous ruins looked different to Ellie. Each one was like an abandoned nest that had lost its warmth.
"But thanks to that, a secret organization was able to plant its base here. I told you about it at the rest stop, didn't I?"
"Yes. The organization called Root, created under the orders of the Saint and Solari."
"Apparently their headquarters is in an abandoned secret bunker from the old Soviet days."
Screeech. Karen's car came to a stop in front of a museum — a place that had once exhibited weapons used since the World Wars. Anti-aircraft guns melting under accumulated snow, secondary guns from warships, rusted tanks scattered here and there.
"Let's go in."
Now the real field trip would begin. And a museum was the perfect venue. The only difference was that instead of eating kimbap, they were going to devour a secret organization.
Karen and Ellie pulled on the thick parkas from the back seat, and Samsaek slipped snugly into Karen's arms.
"...You really need to lose some weight."
"You'll be fat soon too, Master."
"I'll never get as fat as you, so don't worry."
Whoooosh. When they opened the car door, Russia's weather seized Karen and Ellie with vicious force. The two of them hurried into the museum as if being shoved along by the blizzard.
The inside was not much different from the outside. The exhibits had been looted or reduced to garbage dumped in every corner, and broken windows and debris fallen from the walls were visible throughout.
"Hmm..."
Looking at a museum directory that had at least kept its shape, Karen fell into thought.
It's too big.
All the Goddess had told him was that the secret organization's headquarters lay beneath this museum.
"Master! Want me to look around? I want to explore."
Samsaek poked his head out and said. The inside was not as cold as outside, so perhaps it was livable. Or maybe the thought of happily running around this curious museum interior had simply beaten the cold.
"Sure. Go look."
Samsaek vanished with a swish of his tail, leaving Ellie and Karen alone in the vast main hall.
"Should we look too?"
"No. If that guy can't find it, we won't either. If a cat can't find it, there's no way a human's going to spot it with the naked eye. Let's rest a bit."
Karen crooked a finger toward a broken tree branch in the distance. A shield kicked the branch like a soccer ball and delivered it right in front of him. Then he reached toward everything wooden in sight and started gathering it before him.
Thud-thud-thud-thud. Things came flying in like cannonballs, stopping dead in front of Karen, and only when they had piled nearly to his shoulders did he stop collecting.
"Ah! I know this! A campfire!"
Ellie finally caught on to Karen's intent, her eyes sparkling. It was one of the items on the Things to Do list she held so carefully against her chest.
"I have a lighter!"
"Huh? Why do you have that?"
"I prepared everything! Campfires are a five-star, you know?"
Just how far did that list go? Suddenly curious, Karen asked.
"Can you show me that list?"
He had noticed the star ratings increased toward the back, and he was curious what waited at the end.
"Even for you, Uncle, that's a secret. Is... that okay?"
Ellie watched his face even as she said it, and Karen showed no sign of being offended — he actually welcomed it.
"Of course."
Hearing a refusal from Ellie for the first time, Karen smiled, genuinely pleased. That was right. A person ought to know how to say no. Even more so if she was going to become a leader of the church someday.
"It's because it's embarrassing. It's nothing special. You know it's absolutely not because I don't trust you, right?"
Ellie kept adding things, feeling sorry, so Karen just nodded so she wouldn't feel awkward, and lit the fire.
The flames climbed the kindling from below and in an instant lit the whole pile to its peak, pouring out heat. Karen and Ellie watched the brilliantly burning fire for a moment. The soft sound of snow piling up outside, the wind leaking through the broken windows, and the crackle of the flames wove themselves into a beautiful harmony.
"I'll go get some more branches."
"Go ahead."
There was plenty of firewood, but Ellie wanted to add some with her own hands. She approached a piece of wood in the corner that looked just the right size to lift.
Clink-clink-clink.
The moment Karen and Ellie stepped apart, a cold metallic sound cut into the peaceful performance — a sudden, jarring discord.
Cylindrical sticks came rolling across the marble floor, cold frost settled on its surface. Karen first formed a shield over himself and Ellie like an umbrella, then examined what had rolled over.
"Smoke grenades?"
He had been at a loss for how to find Root, and here they were coming out to greet him. How considerate. Though the welcome for the person who would become their master was a bit on the rough side.
Looks like they need some educating.