Lair Under the Bridge (17) - The Association Does Not Intervene
The Wolha Association did not intervene in fights between mages. Even if mages battled each other and someone died, it was up to the guild or circle they belonged to to get involved. The Association stayed out of it. The Association had only one purpose: concealing magic. That was its sole reason for existing.
Over the long years since its founding, its duties had expanded. It now mediated requests and traded magic materials, among other things. But those were all side tasks. The most vital responsibility remained the concealment of magic. Whether mages fought or killed one another was none of the Association's business.
Conversely, if anything threatened the concealment of magic, the Association would react—no matter how small the risk.
After the incident ended, Serpina had Dong-hyun and Go-eun call in the cleanup service. Since she'd heard they provided it for free anyway, she planned to make full use of them. She guided the arriving Association employee to the abandoned factory where they had dealt with the Cat Mom.
The employee took one look at the scene and recoiled in horror, immediately calling a superior. That superior was equally horrified and called another superior. In less than an hour, even Vice Branch Manager Negin had been summoned. And Negin, upon seeing the abandoned factory, reacted with the same shock as everyone else.
"Wait, what the hell happened here?!"
One wall of the abandoned factory had collapsed, tilting the ceiling along with it. The concrete floor showed clear cat paw prints mixed with unmistakably unnatural traces of destruction. Bloodstains scattered everywhere completed the picture. If it had ended there, they might have counted themselves lucky.
"Vice Branch Manager, I think you should see this too."
"What now?"
Negin looked at the smartphone screen her subordinate held out. Her eyes widened, and her entire body went rigid.
Curious about what could cause such a reaction, Serpina drifted closer and peeked at the screen.
It was a post on an internet forum. A video was playing. The footage was low-quality, clearly shot on a phone, and the frame shook constantly, but the general events were clear enough.
The flood of comments beneath the post made it obvious how much attention the video had already attracted.
"Scene cleanup, comment manipulation... Do we need to edit the video too? No—if we don't manipulate memories as well, this could get dangerous... Haha. Hahahahaha...."
Negin's hollow laughter trailed off. The employees' faces paled as they instinctively realized their hopes of a timely departure had just vanished into the horizon.
The actual culprit, Serpina, felt almost no reaction at all. Hmm. Sounds like a lot of annoying work.
Negin shot her a fleeting resentful glance, but quickly looked away. To be honest, none of this was really Serpina's fault. If anything, Serpina had ended the situation as quickly as possible before it could spiral further. From a cleanup perspective, white flames were far easier to explain than a ten-meter cat rampaging around. They could simply claim flammable materials left inside the factory had exploded by accident.
And the most important point: even if it had been Serpina's fault, Negin probably wouldn't have dared voice any real complaint.
How could anyone scold someone capable of that?
The factory's steel support beams had melted and flowed like ice cream on a summer day. What made it truly terrifying was how sharply the melted sections were divided from the untouched ones. The heat had been restricted with surgical precision, as if someone had drawn a line.
Negin tried to calculate how much mana she would need to expend to achieve the same result, then shook her head. Melting steel might be possible for her—on a full-moon night rich with mana, using her specialty magic at full power. Difficult, but not impossible. She hadn't won her position through luck.
But containing that heat so it didn't leak outward would require triple—no, quadruple—layers of magic circles drawn with her staff, and then...
She stopped thinking there. At any rate, she had reconfirmed one crucial fact: she must not get on Serpina's bad side. Not when the other woman could do something like this on a crescent-moon night, on the spot, without any magical tools whatsoever.
Negin let out a small sigh and spoke.
"We'll handle things here. Leave the aftermath to us."
In truth, she desperately wished Serpina would just leave. Her subordinates had already begun muttering about how distant their quitting time had become. The last thing she needed was for Serpina to take offense.
"Sure. Then I'll leave it to you."
Fortunately, Serpina was not the type to refuse help when offered. As she turned to go, Negin suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, right. I'll deposit the Cat Mom bounty into your registration card."
"Registration card?"
"Your Wolha Association registration card. I asked Ayoung to deliver it. Didn't you receive it?"
"Ah, that."
She had received it. She simply didn't carry it around, since she had no pockets.
"That card does have payment functions. But it only works at Association-related locations and offers almost no benefits, so you're better off using a regular card most of the time."
"Really? Well, I'll keep it in mind."
It wasn't important information. Serpina ended the short exchange and left the abandoned factory, returning beneath the bridge at her usual leisurely pace.
As Negin watched that relaxed retreating figure, one of her subordinates approached.
"Vice Branch Manager. Preparations are complete. Shall we begin?"
"Ah. Yes. You set up the light and sound blocking barrier too? Safety distance secured?"
"Yes. Double-checked everything."
"Good. Begin."
One minute after Negin gave the order, the abandoned factory erupted in a massive explosion. The strangely melted steel beams, the concrete marked with distinct cat paw prints—everything turned to powder and disappeared. Yet not a single spark of light or sound leaked beyond the barrier. To any outside observer, it would simply look as if the factory had spontaneously blown itself apart.
Assuming they could even see the factory at all in this darkness that emitted no light whatsoever.
The next morning, articles appeared online reporting that flammable materials left in an abandoned factory on the city outskirts had exploded, destroying the structure. Despite the scale of the blast, there were no casualties because it had occurred during curfew hours. The pieces also argued that the incident proved how necessary curfew regulations truly were.
"Then please proceed with the final agenda item."
Meanwhile, somewhere else, the Wolha Association's general meeting was underway. Every branch manager and the supreme leader herself had gathered in one place. Because the Association encompassed most mages and non-humans across the globe, the number of items on the agenda was always substantial. This particular meeting, however, had dragged on far longer than usual.
"We strongly advocate for the liberation of magic!"
The persistent demands came from the faction that insisted on ending the concealment of magic and stepping into the open—the so-called Liberation Faction.
"Why must we live hidden away like criminals? How long are we supposed to remain in the shadows with the magic we've refined through blood and sweat?"
The one delivering this passionate speech was relatively young among the Association's executives. Another executive immediately countered.
"Have you forgotten what happened when magic was revealed before?"
Before the Association's founding, roughly a thousand years ago, magic had not been so thoroughly hidden. Witches lived in deep forests, werewolves appeared on full-moon nights—such things circulated quietly as rumors. And then the witch hunts began.
Humans reject what is different. They will treat other humans as objects to be bought and sold over nothing more than a slight difference in skin color. There was no need to explain what would happen to those who wielded mana—a power ordinary humans could never touch.
"Wasn't that a thousand years ago? And we're not suggesting we reveal everything at once. If we take time and let them grow accustomed gradually..."
"No."
The single word was spoken politely, yet it carried an unyielding finality that allowed no persuasion. The other executives cleared their throats and looked away. The young executive realized the momentum had completely shifted with that one syllable. Nothing he said from this point forward would be accepted.
The owner of that firmly opposing voice was the master of the entire Association. The supreme leader and strongest mage—Narel Liliasen.
There was no democracy within the Wolha Association. All decision-making power rested with Narel alone. Usually she listened carefully to others. In fact, she was often told she was too lenient and needed to learn when to be decisive.
But on one matter she never yielded: the concealment of magic.
This time was no exception.
"Very well. Then we will conclude this meeting here."
The vice-leader seated beside Narel broke the heavy silence. With the meeting's end, it was once again decided that the concealment of magic must be maintained without compromise.
After the meeting, Narel leaned back in her chair with a small sigh.
"Sigh. The Liberation Faction's voices grow louder every day. This is truly troublesome."
The vice-leader responded gently.
"It's not that I don't understand. We haven't told them the real reason, after all. The excuses we've given aren't enough to convince everyone."
"But we cannot reveal the true reason. This matter is classified even among our own elven people."
"Haha. There are still many things even I don't know."
"...I am sorry for that. But this is the best path. To hide, and hide, and bury the truth until no one remains who knows it."
The leader sighed again beneath the heavy weight on her shoulders. Yet it was a familiar burden, so she soon regained her composure.
"In any case, the meeting is finished. We can finally have a moment of rest. Have you contacted the Shinsi branch manager?"
"Yes. The private jet has been prepared. We can depart at any time."
"Hehe. Excellent. Then we will leave tomorrow morning. For Korea."
Narel smiled happily as she thought of the near future. Once she met her benefactor, this heavy burden would lighten even a little.
"......"
And someone's quiet gaze watched Narel from the shadows.