The Burning Puppeteer (2)

A bright, ringing voice.

The woman on the other end of the line was Kurogane Kotori, the crow shaman who lived across the sea in Japan.

A call from someone that unexpected didn't rattle Hanseong in the slightest.

"I'm in Korea."

"A little while ago."

He tossed the answer out without much care, then turned the question around on her.

"More to the point, is the Enchant Ring finished already?"

There was only one reason he had given Kotori a smartphone: so she could reach him the moment every ring he had commissioned was done. That, however, was physically impossible. Completing an Enchant Ring meant repeating the same skill a hundred times over. She had called about something else.

The guess landed cleanly.

"Something else? What?"

Of course he did. It was the alias of the Burning Puppeteer.

But still...

Why was Kotori, all the way in Japan, bringing up the puppeteer? As far as he knew, the only ones aware of what was happening with that woman were the Vigilante Corps and Jihye. He pressed her like an interrogation.

"How do you know that name?"

The puppeteer was collecting information on him.

Hanseong's eyes narrowed. Last night in northern Daejeon came back to him all at once.

...They did say they'd come see me soon.

So this was them scraping together everything they could before that meeting. And of all people, they had reached out to Kotori. Surely the two of them weren't already acquainted. He asked anyway, just in case.

"Did you know the puppeteer?"

The moment she finished, Hanseong opened the Information Strategy Board and scrolled to the bottom of the post Kotori had written. He found the puppeteer's comments at once.

Comments asking for information on him. They had been left on the posts of every survivor above level 30, and among those names were several Hanseong knew well.

Lee Minjae, the Magic Engineer. In a tone that left no room for argument, he cut the puppeteer's request down in a single stroke. Right behind him came a comment from a named hunter who had only recently joined the Air Corps.

Seo Jihun, the Frenzied Rider. The Ark Mechanic Seo Subin's older brother had written his reply in a rather violent register. And then there was a comment from someone Hanseong had never seen on the board before, and yet felt he could name anyway.

Someone leaving comments on every post, just as the puppeteer had. The one using the name SpecOpsCommander was almost certainly Jihye. She did, after all, actually command the Special Mission Battalion.

He was still paging through the posts when he realized Kotori had never written a reply of her own. He asked at once.

"So what did you say?"

"I'm asking if you handed over my information."

A wise decision. If she had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠passed anything along, Hanseong had fully intended to erase Kotori before a mouse or a bird could notice.

He was just about to tell her no when a memory cut across his mind.

Ah. Wait. Now that I think of it...

The crow shaman. She specialized in searching, didn't she? He was fairly sure she had once told him she could share every sense with her crows. And the number she had tamed already ran past a thousand—dozens of times more than the Vigilante Corps' pigeon trainer.

Then she could be useful.

If he turned a full thousand crows loose to search, wouldn't it be easier, and faster, to find the puppeteer? The thought settled, and he spoke at once.

"Crow shaman."

"Come to Korea. Right now."

"No. I'll come get you myself."

Kotori had never used a Warp Gate. He opened one on the spot and dispatched Phantom through it. The place he meant to guide her, though, was not the Suwon Base. It was the Jamsil Base. Obvious enough. Call her to Suwon, and his identity would be exposed.

How long passed after that?

Like a drop striking a still lake, a single tremor ran through the empty air. A man and a woman stepped into the Jamsil Base: Phantom, and Kotori.

"W-wait a second. I never even said I was going..."

She stammered, plainly startled. She was only a projected duplicate, of course, but the sudden change of scene had still thrown her badly off balance. It didn't last. The view beyond the officetel window locked the surprise onto her face.

"...Ah."

A landscape nothing like the place she had just left. The moment she spotted the signs written in Korean, she asked again, her voice still stunned.

"I... I'm really in Korea?"

"Yeah. This is Seoul."

"How do you even move this fast..."

Kotori let out one wondering breath after another. Then the startled, flustered look vanished without a trace, and she only bounced her shoulders like a child thrilled to be somewhere new. Hanseong spoke lightly.

"First time in Korea?"

"I've never even left Japan. There were... circumstances."

Kotori laughed, a little awkward, and went straight to the point.

"More importantly, why did you call me here?"

"I want to borrow that power of yours."

"What? My power..."

She tilted her head, curious, and Hanseong laid out the situation: everything that had happened with the Burning Puppeteer, and the fact that he wanted her to loose the crows she had tamed and find the woman. When the explanation ended, Kotori stole a glance his way.

"Mm. Finding them isn't really a problem, but..."

Anyone could see she wanted something. Hanseong nodded Phantom's head as if he already understood.

"Don't worry. You'll be paid."

"Really? How much?"

"A hundred thousand coins."

"I'll do it right now."

Kotori was suddenly brimming with enthusiasm. Of course she was. To Hanseong it was nothing more than the take from clearing a single small rift, but to Kotori, who could not do that, it was a fortune.

"Then first, tell me what the puppeteer looks like. Starting with their appearance..."

"I don't know."

If I knew that, I'd have found them myself.

Hanseong shook his head, and Kotori's brow creased. That was fine. Even without a description, there were plenty of ways to search.

"How old are they?"

"Don't know."

"Then... an area where they might be living?"

"Don't know that either."

Gwangju existed, of course, but that region had already been combed through. There was no point mentioning it, so he simply said he didn't know. Kotori's face soured.

"...Are you messing with me?"

"Do I look like I have that kind of time?"

"There's no information at all! How am I supposed to find anyone? Fine. I'll ask you instead. Tell me every single thing you do know."

She practically shouted it, incredulous. Hanseong answered at once.

"The name is Baek Yerin. Sex is probably female."

"And what is probably supposed to mean...?"

"It doesn't sound like a man's name."

"Haa. So the only thing we actually know for certain right now is their name?"

"Exactly."

Hanseong nodded Phantom's head. Kotori, for her part, looked troubled.

"That isn't enough to find them. I need at least a general description before I can even start."

"Fine. Then I'll change the terms."

"How?"

"Baek Yerin's puppets. The ones wandering around in gas masks. Find the three areas where the most of them are gathered, and tell me."

Her class was puppeteer. She was bound to keep a great many puppets around her. Hanseong was sure of it. Unless her surroundings were absolutely safe, it would be better to have them guarding her. Only then did Kotori break into a smile.

"Mm. That should be a little easier to find."

"Good. Then start the search."

"Hehe. Have those hundred thousand coins ready."

Kotori smiled with complete confidence. She flung the window open and, out of nowhere, carved a formula into the empty air. A moment later, hundreds of crows appeared in the sky.

Caw! Caaaw!

Their numbers swelled as the moments passed, and the sky over Jamsil turned pitch-black. He was watching the search begin when the smartphone resting on his knee suddenly rang.

It couldn't be Kotori. Who was it this time? Hanseong tapped the call button.

"Hello."

The caller was none other than Yuna. Hearing his voice through the phone, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah. Why'd you call?"

"Difficult how?"

She hesitated. Then she spoke as if whispering.

...!?

Hanseong's face hardened. Yuna had seen the puppets of Baek Yerin, the puppeteer. Grave now, he pressed her.

"Now? Where?"

From the way she was talking, she seemed to be watching it happen in real time. She kept reporting.

"Got it. I'm on my way."

He had been curious himself—about what the puppeteer meant to say, and about what they wanted. He stored the Phantom at the Jamsil Base, then released it straight into the Vigilante Headquarters, to meet the puppets they had sent.

Meanwhile, around that same time, an uneasy standoff was holding in front of the main gate of the Daejeon Vigilante Headquarters. On the vigilante side, two hunters had come out to speak for the rest: the druid Park Sangmin, and the Butcher, Jeong Yeeun.

Facing them were three people, men and women alike. They had one thing in common. Every one of them had a crude gas mask pulled down over their head.

"..."

A strange silence held for a while. Then a voice broke it—the voices of the three behind the masks.

"Hello. Pardon the intrusion."

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble..."

"Could you call the mage for us?"

At a glance it sounded like a polite request, but the way the three of them spoke was nothing short of grotesque. They sounded less like people than like machines. Sangmin was the one who answered.

"Why are you looking for the mage here?"

"Well. If someone went out of their way to find the unit stationed in northern Daejeon and make it withdraw, anyone would assume they were connected to all of you."

"And to begin with, the only factions that even know a unit is there are Sejong and you of the Vigilante Corps."

The puppets answered as if they had been waiting for the question. Sangmin shut his mouth. He couldn't find a single opening to refute them. The puppets shrugged.

"It's all right. We didn't come to fight."

"What we want is a conversation."

"...A conversation?"

"Yes. Please call the mage. Once the mage arrives, we'll explain the details step by—"

They were repeating themselves when their mouths snapped shut. Sangmin and Yeeun, by contrast, gaped. There was only one reason. Out of empty air, a figure in a motorcycle helmet had walked into view: the person at the heart of the whole discussion. The Fire-Lightning Mage.

A footfall rang across the silent grounds. Phantom, now fully in sight, reached a hand toward the puppets as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Blades of wind formed in an instant. The puppets edged back, wary of Phantom, and spoke in warning.

"Stop doing anything rash."

"You of all people should know."

"What happens if a puppet is destroyed."

He knew. He had lived through it last night. An explosion strong enough to turn dozens of meters in every direction to ash. At the very least, the vigilantes' front gate would be blown away, and then some. Even so, Hanseong had no intention of withdrawing Wind Cutter. If they tried anything, he had to answer at once.

"...What did you come here for?"

"To speak with you."

"About what?"

"Before that, let us say this in advance. We have no intention of fighting you. We only mean to state our respective purposes and find a point of agreement. That is all."

They would state their purposes. At those words, Hanseong's eyes lit.

"Then you first."

"What you want. Why you seized the leadership of the Sejong Provisional Government, and why you tried to surround Daejeon. All of it."

At his demand, the three puppets turned to face one another and each gave a shrug. Then they nodded, obedient, and opened their mouths.