The Proposal (4)

The heart of Uijeongbu had been scorched to bare earth.

The mountain of scrap that had teemed with the Steel Machine Golem and its minions was gone without a trace—the work of twenty Magic Spheres poured down in a single barrage. And contrary to what Hanseong had feared, there was no sign of a counterstrike. Small wonder. The notice of a completed subjugation had appeared in the same instant as the blast.

The moment the spoils stored themselves, Hanseong spoke with Minjae over the smartphone. The subjugation he had been asked for was finished, and it was time to settle the price. In the course of that talk he invited Minjae, and the survivors of Uijeongbu with him, to the Suwon Provisional Government.

Two reasons.

The first was Jihye's request. If Minjae, who could craft items with special abilities, joined the Air Corps Base, the Special Mission Battalion's strength would rise with him. The second was simpler still: having Minjae remain in Suwon was convenient for Hanseong. Collecting whatever he commissioned would be far easier.

"Yes. I'll have that passed along."

With the matter settled, he ended the call and relayed to Jihye the transport Minjae had asked for.

"Thank you, Mage."

Perhaps because she had gotten what she wanted, the strain left Jihye's face. Seoyeon, who had been listening in, let out a breath of relief.

"Whew. Thank goodness. If you'd turned us down, I had no idea how we were supposed to get back to Uijeongbu."

If Minjae's party joined Suwon, they could simply stay. Watching the two of them unwind, Hanseong's eyes sharpened.

With this, every condition is met.

Five champion-grade monsters, subjugated. That earned him the right to challenge the fourth trial, and there was no reason to hesitate. Recall Phantom, and enter the tower.

"Then I'll take my leave first."

"Oh—yes! Thank you for helping us."

Once the farewell with Seoyeon was done, Hanseong steered Phantom out of the container building. He was on the point of ordering a return to base when a voice caught him from behind.

"Mage! Wait a moment."

Jihye came hurrying after him. He halted Phantom, and she stepped quickly into his path.

"What? Something left to say?"

"Yes! Ah, it's—well..."

She faltered. After a glance around, she pressed close to Phantom and dropped her voice to a whisper.

"...Great-Uncle said he has something to tell you, Mage. So, if you don't mind, could you spare him a little time?"

Brigadier General Lee Jongpil, head of the Suwon Provisional Government. Now that he thought of it, they had not properly met since the Hwaseong operation ended. Thanks, most likely. He waved Phantom's hand.

"If it's thanks, tell him there's no need."

"Ah! That is part of it. But he said there was something else important he needed to discuss..."

Something else? Had they found another region in a plight like Hwaseong's? He considered it a moment, then nodded. Better to finish any business before he entered the Mage's Tower.

"All right. I'll go."

"Yes! I'll call a car right away."

The answer she wanted brought a bright smile to Jihye's face. She said she would fetch a vehicle bound for headquarters, and left.

Phantom was alone all at once. Hanseong set the replica to standby and meant to look over the loot from the Steel Machine Golem—when a familiar voice carried from far off.

"Ah! Mage!"

Seo Haeun, the shadow assassin. She had spotted Phantom from a good distance, left her companions behind, and kicked off the ground.

"Hehe. Fancy running into you out here."

She closed the gap in a breath and stopped before Phantom, smiling a little shyly.

"Lucky me. I was thinking I'd come find you before long anyway."

"Hm? Why me..."

"Ah, to give you this!"

Haeun drew something from her pack—a skill book—and held it out to Phantom without a moment's hesitation.

"It's a mage-only skill book from the Soul Predator's loot. You're the only mage I know, so... please, use it freely!"

A mage-only skill book, and one taken from the Soul Predator. There was no reason to refuse. Hanseong accepted it through Inventory.

A status ailment of sleep. In other words, it could force a target to sleep.

Pretty useful.

Especially for subduing someone without injuring them—or as a means of freezing monsters of elite grade and above. He learned the skill at once.

A satisfying ability. What pleased him most was that it could put to sleep not a single target, but every living thing inside the area. He was holding a quiet smile when Haeun spoke again.

"Um, and I have a question."

"...?"

"Do you happen to know anything about the tower? I finished a job quest recently, and it told me to enter the Assassin's Tower."

Hanseong's eyes went round. A notice ordering her into a tower meant Haeun had reached level 30. Her contribution in the fight against the Soul Predator must have been considerable. Turning the question over, he answered at once.

"You'll know when you go."

"Th-that's true, but..."

"If you mean to enter, though, tell the people around you before you go. Time inside a tower and time in the real world don't flow the same."

Remembering his first entry into the Mage's Tower, he filled in the rest. He had spent less than a day inside, and a full week had passed in the world outside. He added that one entered as a consciousness-body, and gave her a brief account of the trials.

"Mmm. I see."

At some point she had taken out a notebook, and she scribbled down everything he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠said. When the notes were finished, she smiled brightly.

"Thank you! That helped."

Mincheol, who had come with her, cut in.

"Haeun. We ought to get going..."

"Ah, yes! Then I'll excuse myself."

He leaned in and whispered the rest. Haeun bowed to Phantom and turned to go. She was leaving. Watching her, Hanseong reached out with Phantom's hand and caught her.

"One moment."

"Yes?"

"Take this."

Through Phantom he drew from a corner of Inventory a skill book that had been left to gather dust. Skill Book: Lightning Flash—an assassin-only book, taken when he subjugated the Wolf King, the champion monster of Daejeon.

"Th-this is...!"

"I have no use for it."

He answered her startled look in a flat voice. A gift received had to be met with a fitting return.

"Hehe. Thank you. I'll put it to good use!"

Haeun beamed. The exchange neatly concluded, she left with Mincheol. Once the two were out of sight, brakes cried out.

Screech!

"Mage! I'm here."

Jihye's voice, and a black military vehicle stopped right in front of them, bound for headquarters. Phantom climbed in at once, and the vehicle shot off down the road.

Before the commander's office, inside headquarters, Jihye knocked and opened the door. As on the last visit, Brigadier General Lee Jongpil sat behind the desk.

"Ah. Come in."

He rose and greeted Phantom with a face noticeably brighter than before—the Hwaseong affair, no doubt, having ended well. Sure enough, once he had shown Phantom to the sofa, the general bowed his head without a moment's hesitation.

"It's late in coming, but I wanted to thank you for your help with the Hwaseong operation. Because of you, a great many citizens lived."

This much Hanseong had expected. He shook Phantom's head, then went straight to the point.

"I was told you had something to say to me."

"That's right. I wanted to discuss our course from here on, with you."

"Our course...?"

"Hm. Before that, I ought to say this."

The general's face darkened. He was quiet a moment, as if ordering his thoughts, then spoke in a heavy voice.

"Do you know how things stand in Sejong?"

"No. Not really."

Not that he knew nothing. Before coming here he had heard a story about Sejong from Minjae—that support had been requested, and they had been turned away at the door.

"Then have you heard that a mobilization order was issued? A conscription, proclaimed for every citizen of level 10 and above."

"Ah, I told him about that."

Jihye slipped carefully into the talk. Hanseong nodded Phantom's head, as if to grant that she was right, and the general said the rest would go more quickly for it.

"Recently, some of the survivors living at the Suwon Air Wing set out for the Sejong Provisional Government."

Their reasons for leaving Suwon were several at once. The housing did not suit them, or they had judged the medical facilities to have reached their limit. And so some three hundred survivors, traveling as families, left Suwon for Sejong.

"And a problem came of it."

"What kind of problem?"

"Entry was refused under the standard Sejong set. Anyone below level 10."

Children and the old alike. Sejong would allow no exception to the rule, and permitted entry only to survivors of level 10 and above.

"Then the ones who couldn't enter..."

"They could hardly stay outside the safe zone, so all of them came back to Suwon."

A natural judgment. They would have had no other choice. What the general said next, though, Hanseong had not expected.

"The family members of level 10 and above who had come to Sejong with them wanted to return to Suwon as well. Sejong blocked even that, I am told."

With the conscription in force, they were warned that the government's orders took precedence over any individual's freedom. The families who had gone to Sejong were, quite literally, parted from one another while they still lived. The general's face grew bleak, and his fist closed tight.

"I cannot recognize, as the legitimate ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠government of the Republic of Korea, a group that picks and chooses which of the people it will take."

It was the sort of remark that would have been a problem before the Cataclysm. His face twisted.

"Nor do I see what meaning there is in this retaking of Seoul they aim at."

Hanseong thought the same. Seen as a whole, what mattered most now was securing food and safe ground—and rather than Seoul, it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seemed far more urgent to reclaim the regions already occupied by champion-grade monsters, places like Hwaseong and Uijeongbu.

"So I have no intention of following Sejong's instructions. The Suwon Provisional Government will move with priorities of its own."

"Meaning..."

"As I said before, for the time being we will concentrate on securing survivors and expanding the safe zone. We mean to keep securing food as well."

When he had finished, the general at last brought out what he truly wanted.

"...An alliance?"

"Yes. I already know you have no wish to belong to a group. So—an alliance, and cooperation between us. What do you say?"

Cooperation. A fine word, and all the more in a world where the apocalypse had begun and survival itself was the aim of living.

But...

Hanseong was skeptical. Put plainly, helping the Suwon Provisional Government was well within his power. If he cared to, he could erase every zombie in the city of Suwon inside of two days.

And what can they do for me?

Would he ever need their strength? He had food enough, and force enough. He was about to turn the question back on the general when Jongpil spoke first.

"I will provide coins, food, and safe land."

The first two he could set aside. Safe land, though—what did that mean? Phantom's head tilted, Hanseong asked at once, and the answer came.

"Any region you want, I will recognize as your domain. A guard around the clock, of course—and I can see to it that no one enters without your permission."

A rather tempting condition. If matters went as the general said, the security of his base would be settled to a fair degree. A champion-grade monster would change the story, but raids by human hands could at least be prepared for.

The offer itself is the same as the one with the Vigilante Corps.

The Vigilante Corps of Daejeon, where his parents were. He had a cooperative pact with them as well: they protected his parents and the orphans, and if an enemy of champion grade or higher appeared, Hanseong lent his strength.

This might even be a little better...

Unlike the Vigilante Corps, the Suwon Provisional Government was paying with something that would actually be of use. He was closing out that line of thought when the general spoke again, his face tense.

"Can you give me an answer?"

Finished with his deliberations, Hanseong raised three of Phantom's fingers.

"Apart from what you just said, I have three conditions. Meet all of them, and I'll accept your proposal."

"Good. Let's hear them."

The first.

"You said you would take in every survivor without discrimination. If one of them has committed a crime, what will you do?"

"I have already looked into a place to keep them isolated. Before long I mean to gather them all and put them to labor."

"Labor?"

"Yes. We plan to farm on a large scale from here on. There is a limit to holding out forever on food from before the Cataclysm."

A use he had not considered—and hearing it, it did not sound bad. Farming demanded a great deal of labor, far more productive than simply locking people in cells.

Still...

There was a point he had to settle for certain. He put it into words.

"And those who committed violent crimes—murder, and the like? Do you mean to give them the same sentence?"

"No. What I just described applies only to those who might yet be reformed. I do not think those who have killed are owed any mercy."

All the more so after the Cataclysm. The general's answer was firm, and Hanseong nodded, as if to say he thought the same.

"Good. Then the second."

"Speak. I'm listening."

"I expect you proposed this alliance because you need the strength to stand against monsters of champion grade and above."

"Correct. Far and away the greatest reason."

The general agreed without resistance. Hanseong went on.

"Fighting monsters doesn't particularly matter to me. What I want guaranteed is that the final say in any battle is mine."

"Meaning...?"

"If I judge the opponent too strong, I won't force the fight. That's what I mean."

The condition was for himself. Unless he was left with no choice, he had no intention at all of fighting monsters near his own level, or above it.

"Understood. However bad things become, I have no thought of driving you to your death."

The second condition, accepted. Only the last remained. Hanseong spoke the words he had prepared.

"Of the loot the Suwon Provisional Government holds now, or acquires later, transfer to me every item that has to do with mages."

The larger that government grew, the wider its hunting grounds would spread, and the more loot it would take. Among that loot, mage-related spoils would surely appear. He wanted every right to them signed over to him.

"Understood. You have my word."

"I'll pass the same along to the Special Mission Battalion."

General and Jihye both answered readily, and the third condition was accepted with the rest. No reason left to refuse. Hanseong had Phantom stand and held out a hand.

"I'll be counting on you."

"And I on you."

The general took Phantom's hand. A smile gathered at the corner of his lined mouth. It was the moment an alliance was forged between the Fire-Lightning Mage and the Suwon Provisional Government.