A Sense of Wrongness (4)

The memory Hanseong had drawn out of Yoon Cheolmin.

It was something that had happened about two days earlier. In it stood Yoon Cheolmin himself, and a man dressed in a rather peculiar fashion—combat fatigues, a stab-proof vest, and a gas mask that hid his face entirely. Yoon Cheolmin was the first to speak.

"So. You mean to join Sejong?"

"Yes, Minister."

The man in the gas mask nodded. The words came out clumsy. A moment later he bowed his head.

"I apologize for failing to answer the special summons order at once. In my heart I wished to come immediately, but there were many monsters in Gwangju requiring processing..."

"Not at all. I understand perfectly."

A special summons order. And Gwangju.

Two scraps of information, and Hanseong knew at once who the man was.

The Burning Puppeteer.

Of everyone the Sejong Provisional Government had once named on its Special Summons List, the only one Hanseong had never met was the Burning Puppeteer of Gwangju. He had not expected the man to appear here. Curiosity kindled in his eyes, and he read on.

"Then you'll be staying in Sejong from today?"

"Yes. Before that, however, I must first move all of my luggage from Gwangju. The quantity of loot is considerable, so I would like to request vehicle support."

"If that's all, we'll see to it."

"Ha-ha. Thank you."

The puppeteer broke into a laugh. Hanseong had felt it from the start: the man's speech was unnatural past the point of mere clumsiness. It carried a wrongness.

Still. This is unexpected.

He would never have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠guessed the puppeteer would come to Sejong of his own accord and offer to join. Hanseong thought back to the day the man had reached out to him on the Information Strategy Board.

Exceedingly polite, every line of it. Back then the puppeteer had asked whether Hanseong had joined the Sejong Provisional Government, and Hanseong had of course answered that he had not.

He was still turning the old exchange over when the puppeteer in the memory changed the subject.

"Ah, now that I think of it, there is something urgent I must tell you, Minister. May I speak?"

"Hmm? To me? What sort of matter?"

"The truth is, it is nothing else..."

He drew the words out long and thin as he closed in on Yoon Cheolmin. Then, in the instant a small whisper leaked from the gas mask—

Noise burst in out of nowhere, the rasp of a radio tuned to the wrong frequency. With it, part of the memory's vision went dull and fogged.

What?

He was still puzzling over the sudden distortion when the static vanished as abruptly as it had come. The clouded vision cleared again, and Yoon Cheolmin's voice followed at once.

"Hmm. Yes. I understand what is meant."

Hanseong's brow tightened. A moment ago Yoon Cheolmin's speech had been perfectly ordinary. Now it had gone clumsy, the same way the puppeteer's had.

Yoon Cheolmin opened a drawer and drew out a sheet labeled as an order. He adjusted his grip on the pen and began to write.

That's...

Authorization to move military forces belonging to the Sejong Provisional Government. When he finished, he pressed his seal to the bottom of the order and held it out to the puppeteer.

"Show this to Lieutenant Colonel Park. He will see to the rest."

"Yes. Thank you, Minister."

The puppeteer took the document and left the room at once. A moment later the door shut, and Yoon Cheolmin's vision clouded over again.

That was the end of it. Mind Reading closed.

"..."

So that was the hidden reason a unit of the Sejong Provisional Government had been posted in northern Daejeon. Hanseong turned on Yoon Cheolmin at once.

"What did the Burning Puppeteer say?"

Mind Reading had taken Yoon Cheolmin's memory almost perfectly. The single gap was the moment the puppeteer had stepped in close and whispered. Hanseong meant to settle that question first.

"...What? Who? Burning?"

"The Burning Puppeteer. The one who came to you two days ago wearing a gas mask. From the moment that bastard whispered in your ear—"

He got no further. The man listening to him had begun to change.

"B-Burning, who? Burning, b-buh-buh, burn, burning, who? Burn, burn, burning, who...?"

His whole body shuddered. The focus drained from his eyes, and they began to roll, wild and unmoored. No one could have called it a sane reaction. He went on like that for a while, and then, all at once, his eyes flew wide.

"Hhk—! Th-the Fire-Lightning Mage!?"

"..."

"W-why are you here...?"

He was badly startled, as if he were seeing Phantom for the first time that day. A few tests made it plain. He had lost the memory of everything that had just happened.

What in the world is going on?

Hanseong frowned. Two things, at least, were certain. The Burning Puppeteer had worked some trick on Yoon Cheolmin. And the one who had sent the Sejong Provisional Government's troops to Daejeon was the puppeteer himself.

...Puppeteer.

Had he turned Yoon Cheolmin into a puppet and taken the strings, just as the job's name suggested? Searching for proof of the guess, Hanseong cast Detection.

Just as he'd thought. The guess hardened into certainty. Along the bottom of Yoon Cheolmin's status sat a cluster of abnormal conditions, and they had the puppeteer's fingerprints all over them.

Then what's his goal?

The Burning Puppeteer. Hanseong had never paid the man much mind. There had been no reason to make contact, and so he could not begin to guess what any of this was for.

He's aiming at Daejeon. That much is certain.

Otherwise there was no need to go so far as puppeting Yoon Cheolmin just to move an army. He settled the question quickly and chose the first thing that had to be done: wreck the puppeteer's plan.

"Write a withdrawal order."

"A-an order...?"

"An order telling the unit stationed on the outskirts of Daejeon to pull out. Write it."

Phantom seized Yoon Cheolmin by the collar. Crushed under that pressure, he snatched an order form from the drawer and wrote in a rush. Phantom tucked the finished sheet into Inventory.

"Ah. And one more thing."

"...?"

"Contact the posts at every main gate and the rear gate. Anyone who tries to enter with their face hidden—a mask, a gas mask, anything—turn them away. No exceptions."

It was the least he could do. From what he had seen, the puppeteer could use Puppetry only by getting close to the target.

"Th-that includes you..."

"Except me."

He cut the man off flat and turned Phantom around. He had taken everything this place could give him. It was time to go.

"I'll come see you again later."

With that, Phantom vanished without a trace, just as it had when it first appeared. Left alone, Yoon Cheolmin stared blankly at the empty air, as if a ghost had led him by the hand.

After storing Phantom in Inventory, Hanseong fixed on the place he would bring it out again: the Sejong Provisional Government troops posted on the northern outskirts of Daejeon. He was just about to call it forth when a shout broke his concentration.

"Oppa? Oppa!"

Yuna. Hanseong slipped free of Phantom's controls and turned his head. She was watching him through narrowed eyes.

"...You are listening to me, right?"

The sullen look said she had been talking for some time. He hadn't caught a word of it while he was piloting Phantom, and the laugh he offered was awkward.

"Ahaha, sorry. What did you say?"

"I said I'm heading back to Daejeon soon."

"Huh? At this hour?"

It was nine in the evening. Late for the road. He answered with open worry.

"It's too late. Wouldn't it be better to sleep here and leave early tomorrow?"

"It's fine. I've got things to do there."

Yuna shook her head, then smiled as if she were about to play a winning card.

"And I picked up a skill like that teleportation of yours. Ah—strictly speaking, I didn't learn it. Bwing did."

The eagle-owl sat on her shoulder: the Boundary Guide. According to Yuna, it had recently learned to leap in a single bound to any place it had marked as its nest. In plain terms, something very like a Return Stone.

"Did you. That's a relief, then."

"Yeah. Oh, right. And I'm saying this now, just in case..."

She lowered her voice.

"...Don't go charging off on nothing but my word, like last time. All right?"

"Don't move in a hurry?"

"What I pass you might not be accurate. Check it carefully, and move as cautiously as you can."

Most of what Yuna brought him was something she had seen or heard herself, and Hanseong had a habit of acting on it almost too well. That was what worried her. If she was wrong, the damage would land squarely on him.

"So keep that in mind, and—"

She shut her mouth. Hanseong, who had been listening, was avoiding her eyes with a distinctly awkward face. She asked again, already afraid of the answer.

"...Don't tell me you already moved."

"Uh. If you can call it moving..."

The matter was already half finished. He had pressed Yoon Cheolmin and come away with the withdrawal order. He showed her the paper and sketched what had just happened in Sejong, the Burning Puppeteer included. Her reaction was not the one he expected.

"Huh? Someone in a gas mask?"

"Yeah. A guy who looked like this."

He took out a notebook and drew the puppeteer as he had appeared in Yoon Cheolmin's memory. Yuna's eyes went round.

"Ah! This person—I've seen them."

"...What? Where?"

"In Daejeon. They came looking for the Vigilante Corps about two days ago. Said they were here to see the chief, so I told them the way."

"And after that?"

"I don't really know. I didn't follow..."

Hanseong's face hardened. It had to. Daejeon was where his parents were staying, and something that turned people into puppets had gone there.

Before I deliver the order...

He would stop in Daejeon first. Confirm that his parents were safe, and look in on the vigilante chief as well. If Puppetry had already eaten into the man, the chief's authority would have to pass to someone else—if only to keep him from being steered the way Yoon Cheolmin had been.

"Then I'll head back."

"Wait. I'm coming with you."

"Huh? You too, Oppa? But Bwing's skill can only move me and these little ones..."

She looked troubled. The eagle-owl, it seemed, could carry only Yuna and the animals. Hanseong brought Phantom out.

"It's fine. I'll travel with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this."

"Ah, right. Then I'll see you in Daejeon."

"Yeah."

They said goodbye with a promise to meet again. The eagle-owl spread its wings wide. A hard wind wrapped Yuna, and a moment later she was gone, thin as smoke. Hanseong confirmed it, then stored the Phantom he had taken out back into Inventory and released it once more.

It came out before the headquarters of the Vigilante Corps, at Daejeon City Hall.

Meanwhile, at that same hour, in Busan.

The survivors there were sunk in worry, every one of them. The alliance that had kept the monsters off their people had collapsed completely not long ago, and there was only one reason. A named survivor had come to Busan ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠without warning, and he was the root of it.

The Fire-Lightning Mage.

In the battle that followed, Oh Jeongho, leader of the Busan Alliance, was killed, and the officers who had followed him were wiped out with him. Once that center was gone the alliance came apart, splintering at last into countless small bands. The company of the shield warrior Park Dohyeon was one of them.

"Is everyone gathered?"

Thirty men and women sat packed close together. Dohyeon faced them, let out a quiet sigh, and spoke.

"As I announced yesterday, we have to reach a decision today. Which region we will leave Busan for, and where we will settle."

The reason for abandoning Busan was the Fire-Lightning Mage as well. More precisely, it was a post the mage had written on the Information Strategy Board.

That about ten days from now, rifts will open again all across the world.

Everything the mage had posted so far had been accurate enough to pass for prophecy. A rift opening in ten days was as good as fact. What even the mage did not know was where. It might be Busan again, the same as last time. Nothing promised that a place which had already hosted a Rift would be spared the next one.

If that happens...

This time it would truly be the end. Busan no longer had much of a fighting force worth the name, and if a rift broke and monsters poured out, holding the city would be harder still. So the heart of today's discussion was simple: leave before that day came, and go where the survivors were thickest.

"Then let's hear your opinions."

Dohyeon closed his mouth. The survivors, who had been doing nothing but watch one another, began to speak one by one.

"Sejong would be better, wouldn't it?"

"Mm. I agree."

"Me too. It's a recognized government, at least."

"And more than anything, that monster's in Suwon, isn't he?"

He was. The Suwon provisional government held the monster who had laid the Busan Alliance to waste: the Fire-Lightning Mage. Faced with that fact all over again, the scattered opinions drew slowly toward a single point, and at last the decision was made.

"Very well. Then we'll spend three days gathering as much food as we can, and move to Sejong. As for securing vehicles to get us there..."

Dohyeon was still speaking when footsteps sounded, not far off. The survivors seized their rifles as one and leveled the muzzles.

"Who's there! Come out, now!"

"We know you're hiding!"

"Come out or we shoot!"

They were wound tight enough to snap. It could not be helped. After the Busan Alliance fell and its people split into many bands, no one could trust anyone else. Dohyeon took his shield and stepped to the front, ready to fight at a moment's notice. The tension stretched thin.

A step.

The presence came again, and the one who had made the sound stepped into view. Eyes went wide all around. The figure was strange enough to earn it.

"...A gas mask?"

Dohyeon murmured it, blank. Just as he said, the visitor who had appeared without warning was a woman in her mid-twenties, her face hidden behind a gas mask. She turned toward Dohyeon and his people and spoke in a warm, familiar voice.