Ties from My Previous Life (9)
The monster… had some kind of mechanical device on it?
The creature blocking our path looked anything but natural. A mechanical contraption had been crudely bolted onto its head, obvious to anyone who saw it.
I had no idea how this had happened, but fighting that thing right now would be suicide. We didn’t even know how much damage the assassin had taken. There was no way we could take it on.
‘But… we can’t run from that thing either, can we?’
No matter how strong the assassin was, he was still human. Without skill assistance, there was a hard limit to how fast a pure physical body could move.
On ice, trying to run fast only made you slip. Without a dedicated movement skill, even if you generated powerful force, you’d just slide across the surface. The speed increase granted by magic power followed a logarithmic curve.
That was why I’d thought we could escape… but this case was an exception. One leap from that thing covered dozens of meters. Running was obviously impossible.
“Miss Jihyun, fighting that thing will be incredibly difficult. And we can’t run either.”
“…I know.”
“But that doesn’t mean we don’t have options. You know the behavioral traits of high-ranking monsters, right?”
“Traits?”
“If they have to give something up, they always go for the most valuable target!”
Just like how that A-rank monster had targeted Han Yeseo. Higher-grade monsters possessed a certain level of intelligence. That was why it had knocked the rest of us out before fighting her.
But what if it looked like it might lose the others? What if it had no choice but to let them go? Under the assumption that it could win, it would single out the single most valuable prey.
It was also the reason Han Yeseo hadn’t been able to fight at full strength. If the monster decided it couldn’t beat her, it would immediately flee and try to devour the others instead.
“Alright. We split up, got it? We run in a big circle around the man in the middle until we get past him!”
If we pulled that off, everything would work out.
Lee Jihyun and I immediately put the plan into motion.
We drew a wide arc with the man at the center. The monster approached us, but because of our positioning, it ended up getting closer to him. Soon, it would spot the assassin and attack him.
That would be our chance to slip away.
“Let’s meet again alive!”
“Yeah!”
I left Lee Jihyun with a promise to see her at the entrance and broke away from the battlefield. For something I’d come up with on the spot while panicking, I thought it was pretty decent.
But then a strange thought suddenly hit me.
It felt… off.
‘Wait… a second…?’
The opponent’s goal was to capture me alive. They might kill me if everything was exposed, but as long as I was breathing, they could keep trying to kidnap me. If I died, that became impossible.
And the country would gain an incredibly strong justification to act.
So why would they try to kill me here? It didn’t make sense.
If they were willing to prepare something like this, they should’ve prepared something else instead…
‘Huh…?’
Then I saw a sight that made me doubt my own eyes.
Tap tap tap tap tap—
We had positioned ourselves so the monster would target the assassin. As intended, it headed toward where he was hiding. Under normal circumstances, it would fight him first, then come after us.
And while it was distracted, we just had to get as far away as possible. That was how it was supposed to go.
At least until the monster walked right past the assassin without even glancing at him.
Shhhk—
The man didn’t react at all. Instead, he casually raised his hand and pointed straight at me, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The monster’s gaze followed the man’s finger. At the end of it was none other than me.
Our eyes met.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap—
The monster immediately charged. It ignored the assassin completely and came straight for me.
I was the weakest one here. Strength? Versatility? The monster didn’t have the ability to make such distinctions. My magic power was by far the weakest of the three.
And yet… it was targeting me?
The monster’s behavior was clearly…
“It can… tell us apart? It’s following a human’s orders…?”
Monsters had some sense of kinship with their own kind, but they weren’t supposed to be able to distinguish between individual humans. They were horrific creatures that could never be domesticated.
If they could be tamed, humans would have done it long ago and used them in wars. That was just the kind of species we were.
But monsters had evolved along a completely different path from Earth’s lifeforms. They were monsters that instinctively viewed all humans as enemies.
They had some cognitive and reasoning ability and could judge priorities, but the level of behavior they were showing now—ignoring the kidnapper and attacking only us—had never been reported before.
I had tested whether they could be controlled through magic. It was possible to make them attack their own kind using brainwashing or hallucinations, but making them obey commands like this had always been impossible. There had been a few cases reported through Unique Abilities, but…
“Kuhuhu… hahahaha hahaha hah!!!!!”
When I showed my shock, the man burst into loud laughter. It seemed my guess was correct.
I could roughly piece together the truth now.
‘They didn’t drag us in here. This monster was originally inside this Gate…!’
This monster had been here from the start. It had grown a bit stronger, but that was probably from being fed external magic power.
They must have attached that mechanical device to an existing monster and then reinforced it.
‘They’re using that insane technology just to kidnap one person?’
A technology that could bring monsters under human control. It was an invention that could change the world.
It would probably be easier to attach that device than to kill an S-rank monster. And if you could control an S-rank monster… clearing that Gate would be as good as free.
So why would they use such a groundbreaking invention… on us?
Ah!
‘…This technology definitely doesn’t belong to them!’
It wasn’t illegal under international or domestic law. Even if it were, the government would support it, and government support basically meant it was legal.
So there was no way they would be running secret experiments like this. There was no reason to test an unfinished technology on people like them.
This had to be a leaked technology that someone had developed through unknown means, and these guys were hurriedly making use of it. I wasn’t sure why they were using it on me… but there were probably limitations.
Maybe it couldn’t be maintained. That would explain why they were using it on me as quickly as possible.
‘Lee Jihyun… she’s gone.’
As planned, she had already moved far away. From her perspective, it would be hard to tell whether the monster was fighting me or the assassin, so she probably couldn’t come back to help.
So what now? Should I give up? That wasn’t the answer.
Because it was obvious that an incomplete technology would have limits.
‘That monster can’t kill me.’
The man’s side needed to send me back alive. So they would control the monster to some extent. Even if they couldn’t fully control it, they would have adjusted it. They would have set it so it wouldn’t kill people.
In that case… there was a chance.
No matter how slim, if there was even the slightest possibility… then all I had to do was make it happen.
Because that was how a wizard thought.
Tap tap tap tap—
Escape was impossible anyway. So I would attack first.
The massive monster charged. I responded in kind. But I couldn’t meet it head-on. If I did, I would lose. A wizard’s role was to fight from the rear, not to stand on the front lines.
Its enormous body moved, and its giant foreleg came crashing down to crush me. I somehow dodged using magic and began chanting a single powerful spell.
Ziiiing—
The attack struck the monster’s flank. But it didn’t deal much damage.
It simply hadn’t been a strong enough spell.
‘…I know. My odds are terrible.’
The odds were low. But what other choice did I have?
I steadied my mind once more and focused on the attack.
Trick Shot
Of course, as if to prove just how absurdly low my chances were, my body gradually began to fail. The monster’s attacks sent me flying.
I was torn.
I was slowly breaking apart.
‘…Tsk.’
My mind kept urging me to stand and fight, but my body was in no condition to obey. All those scenes in shonen manga where the hero gets back up through sheer willpower? They’re all lies.
When the body reaches its limit, it gives up no matter what the mind wants. It’s the same logic as dying when your neck is cut in half, regardless of how strong your spirit is.
‘Still… I have to keep going…’
Even if I somehow defeated this monster, the man would still be waiting. With Lee Jihyun gone, victory seemed impossible.
I had to run. But running was impossible too. So why was I still attacking? Because the odds weren’t zero.
No matter how low the probability, if there was even a chance of winning, I had to challenge it. That was the way of a wizard. To challenge the impossible and ultimately uncover the truth—that was what it meant to be a wizard.
“You won’t die, right?”
I didn’t know exactly what secrets Baek Sowol was hiding, but I knew she wouldn’t die. So I would keep challenging it.
Even if I failed, it wouldn’t be the worst outcome.
***
“Goddamn it. This is even harder than I thought.”
The result? Defeat.
That monster was disgustingly strong.
The victory conditions had never been in my favor from the start. I was already exhausted, and I had to survive without fatal injuries. The monster only needed to subdue me. It didn’t matter if I died here.
I had managed to inflict considerable damage with my magic. The monster would probably die soon.
But I was in a similar state. There wasn’t a single unharmed spot on my body. Even breathing was difficult.
The monster finally vomited blood and collapsed. But it wasn’t over. One more enemy remained. It had let Lee Jihyun escape, but…
“I kept my promise. I let that woman go.”
“Ugh… I’m not even a little bit grateful, you know?”
“I wasn’t asking for gratitude. I let the woman go, so stop resisting.”
After that, the assassin appeared without a care in the world. My body was in tatters, so resistance was impossible.
“I’m surprised. To think you were a mage. One of those ultra-rare mages… Ha. You really are an astonishing person.”
“Since I’ll probably die if I get dragged away anyway, how about you just kill me here and lie that the kidnapping succeeded?”
“That won’t do. Besides, no one would know. We simply accepted a request. Our objective is to capture you alive and deliver you to our client.”
“Really? I’m very curious who this client of yours is.”
“You might find out eventually.”
The man treated me like a fish already caught in his net. Honestly, it stung my pride, but there was nothing I could do.
I was already half-defeated. What could I possibly do now? Still, from the way he was talking, it sounded like I might get another chance later. So I wasn’t too worried.
As long as I stayed alive, I could still escape.
‘If I had known this would happen… maybe I should have hidden the fact that I’m a mage…?’
It would have been easier to escape that way…
‘Ha. Since when did I start thinking like this?’
My body really must be reaching its limit. All sorts of random thoughts were popping into my head.
Strength slowly drained from my body, and a strange warmth began to spread. Ah. It looked like I was finally at my limit.
I hadn’t achieved greatness as a wizard, but in the one month and two weeks I had lived inside Baek Sowol’s body after reincarnating, I could confidently say I had been happier than ever before.
‘Then now…’
It was time to bring this life to a close…
Huh?
But… now that I thought about it, I wasn’t supposed to be able to die, right?
Then what was this strange feeling?
‘What the hell is…?’
“What are you doing? Why are you suddenly moving your magic power? You can’t possi—”
KWAaaaaaaaAAAAAANG—
Suddenly, an incomprehensible light exploded from my body and struck the assassin.
“Kugh…! What… is this…?”
The assassin who took the hit had his clothes burned away and looked completely disoriented.
What on earth just happened?