The Woman Under the Bridge
The woman was holding one item in each hand. In her left hand was a pair of fishnet stockings, and in her right, a selfie stick. Either object would have looked perfectly normal in the hands of a young woman. But carrying them openly like this was definitely strange.
When her eyes met Serpina’s, the woman froze for a moment in surprise, then muttered under her breath.
Without hesitation, she swung the selfie stick in her right hand straight at Serpina’s head. It was an empty stick with no smartphone attached. Even if it hit someone, it would only be mildly annoying. If anything, the stick itself would probably break first.
But Serpina had no intention of getting hit. She wasn’t generous enough to let some unknown intruder beat her up for free.
With a single half-step forward, Serpina easily dodged the selfie stick and assessed the woman’s level.
Skill level below beginner. Just the type who swings with raw strength.
Anyone who actually got hit by an attack like that would have to be an ordinary person with no power whatsoever. Still, if she had to give some credit, the woman had decent sense for someone who clearly had never learned proper technique.
Whoosh—!
Just as Serpina was about to lose interest, the sound of the wind created by the selfie stick rang out strangely loud. It didn’t sound like a light plastic rod at all. It sounded more like someone swinging a thick wooden club.
She hadn’t misheard. Serpina trusted her senses.
Grab.
The selfie stick, mid-swing, was caught firmly in Serpina’s hand. The heavy weight she felt in her arm was clearly not the original mass of the stick.
“Y-you caught it?!”
Ignoring the woman’s shocked cry, Serpina examined the selfie stick in her grip. She had wondered if it only looked like a selfie stick on the outside while being made of heavy material inside, but that wasn’t the case. Unexpected, yet in a way exactly as she had predicted—the inside of the stick contained an unfamiliar type of energy.
The nature and feel of the energy was something Serpina had never encountered before. However, the way it was being utilized was familiar.
Mana.
This was definitely the method of processing and using mana. In the other world, it had been called magic.
Upon analysis, there were two spells at work: one interfering with mass and the other with durability. The sound like a wooden club being swung wasn’t just an illusion. It really did possess power comparable to one.
“Let… go of that!”
The woman struggled desperately to pull the selfie stick free from Serpina’s grasp, but it wouldn’t budge.
Meow…
Perhaps the commotion outside had woken him. Heemang, still looking half-asleep, staggered out of the cardboard house.
The moment the woman saw him, her eyes flashed.
“Found you!”
She abandoned the selfie stick and threw the fishnet stockings from her left hand. The stockings hurled toward Heemang suddenly expanded in mid-air. The mesh grew larger, the overall surface area increasing dramatically. By the time they had stretched far beyond the size of ordinary stockings and could only be called a net, they were closing in to wrap around Heemang.
“Oho.”
But they were caught in Serpina’s lightning-fast hand.
“What…!”
Two failures. And on the second one, when she caught the stockings, the woman hadn’t even seen Serpina’s hand move. Only then did she realize that Serpina was an overwhelmingly superior being.
She quickly lowered her head to apologize, but it was already too late. It had been too late ever since Serpina’s alarm magic activated.
“W-wait, plea—”
“Too late.”
Thud!
Serpina’s merciless fist slammed into the woman’s face. It was a picture-perfect strike. The woman collapsed unconscious without even realizing when the punch had been thrown.
…….
The woman who had invaded the space under the bridge slowly regained consciousness.
Choi Ayoung came back to her senses bit by bit.
Uh… ugh. Where… am I…?
How much time had passed since she blacked out? The first thing Ayoung noticed upon waking was the smell of dirt right in front of her nose, followed by the rough texture against her cheek.
What was I doing again…?
Her mind was still hazy about what had happened. Enduring the throbbing pain, Ayoung opened her eyes and saw black fur.
Soft, fluffy-looking fur.
Meow.
A cat’s cry came from right beside her ear.
Cute… a cat… a cat…?
Her mind snapped awake instantly.
“The cat!”
Ayoung shot upright and reached out to grab the cat that had been licking her cheek. But the cat slipped smoothly between her arms as if it had predicted her movement.
“Are you awake now?”
A voice came from above her head. Hearing it, the memories just before she lost consciousness flashed through her mind. Coming to catch the cat, then getting hit by someone and collapsing. The middle parts were a bit fuzzy, but that was the gist of it.
Ayoung lifted her head. There stood Serpina, observing Ayoung’s fishnet stockings with the look of someone examining an interesting toy.
“Expansion and contraction, plus homing. It’s for capture. But wouldn’t it be much simpler to just use a binding spell instead of going through all this trouble?”
Serpina analyzed the magic imbued in the fishnet stockings without even sparing Ayoung a glance. From her demeanor, one could feel the unmistakable, unhidden composure of someone overwhelmingly powerful.
Ayoung immediately sprang to her feet and bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle. The spot where the fist had landed throbbed painfully, but she paid it no mind.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t realize you were a senior and behaved rudely!”
It was a picture-perfect apology that clearly came from plenty of experience.
But Serpina paid no attention to the apology. She casually tossed the analyzed fishnet stockings back and asked,
“You. You came to catch Heemang, right?”
Who’s Heemang? Ayoung’s mind drew a question mark for a split second before she caught on and answered.
“Yes! If you’re talking about that black cat, then yes!”
“Why?”
“Um… it wasn’t registered, so I didn’t know it was a cat you were raising, senior!”
“No. Not that. I’m asking what you were going to do after catching Heemang.”
“Th-there was a request to bring him in!”
“Why Heemang specifically? If the request was just to catch a stray cat, there are plenty of others.”
“Well, that’s… um…?”
The questions went back and forth a few times. Even Ayoung, who had been answering by reading the room, finally realized something was off. The conversation was subtly misaligned.
“Um, excuse me, senior? I’m sorry, but may I ask one thing?”
Serpina didn’t answer. Taking the silence as permission, Ayoung hesitated before asking,
“Which organization do you belong to, senior?”
“……”
“…Then, where did you learn magic, senior?”
“……”
Even after several questions, Serpina remained silent. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to answer—it was that she had no answer to give. Understanding the meaning behind the silence, Ayoung’s face turned deathly pale.
“An… unregistered mage…?”
Unregistered mage. At the interesting term, the corners of Serpina’s mouth curved up slightly.
“You. You’re telling a very interesting story.”
Serpina’s mind spun quickly. The existence of the term “unregistered” implied that registration was the norm. Which meant there was an organization that handled registrations. And from Ayoung’s questions about “affiliation” and “where you learned magic,” it was clear that belonging to some group and learning magic was considered ordinary.
Whether that was truly ordinary or only ordinary among certain people would require further investigation. But for now, Serpina felt interest for the first time in a while.
She had been growing a little tired of sleeping all day anyway. Dragons could sleep for hundreds of years at a stretch, but Serpina—who had originally been human—had no desire to sleep that long. It wouldn’t be bad to pick up a hobby or two.
Serpina nodded and commanded,
“Guide me.”
“Pardon?”
“You said someone asked you to catch our Heemang. Who was it? Guide me there.”
It almost sounded like Ayoung’s eyes were spinning in their sockets. Her thoughts were written plainly on her face. Serpina didn’t bother with long, tedious persuasion. She simply raised her fist.
It was a gesture understood universally, in this world or any other.
Even so, Ayoung squeezed her eyes shut and shouted,
“I-I can’t sell out my client’s information! Especially not to a criminal!”
Smack!
Sparks flew in front of Ayoung’s eyes. She clutched her head and crumpled to the ground with a groan.
“Uuuuuuuu…”
“Who are you calling a criminal? You want to get hit again?”
“You already hit me…”
“If you don’t guide me right now, you’ll learn what it really feels like to get hit.”
“B-but first… you’re not a criminal, right?”
Even while clutching her head and whimpering, tears welling in her eyes, Ayoung’s gaze burned with firm resolve. Serpina had seen eyes like that a few times before. People who didn’t know how to bend usually had that look.
She clicked her tongue softly and answered,
“Yeah. I’m not a criminal or anything like that.”
At Serpina’s firm confirmation, Ayoung’s complexion brightened noticeably. She let out a small sigh of relief.
“Phew… That’s a relief. Then I’ll guide you. It’s a bit of a walk from here. Is that okay?”
“Of course. Ah, wait a moment.”
Serpina, who had answered without hesitation, paused and scooped up Heemang as he tried to walk past the side of the bridge.
Meow.
Heemang, grabbed by the scruff, cried out in clear displeasure. Serpina stuffed him into the box at home and closed the lid. There was a brief scratching sound at the door, but it soon quieted down.
“Um. Aren’t you bringing the cat with you?”
“No.”
Serpina’s curt reply carried an oppressive weight that discouraged any further questions. Ayoung didn’t ask anything else and began guiding her.
She climbed the ramp up to the bridge and pointed at her beloved vehicle parked there.
“Here. Hop on. It looks small but there’s actually plenty of space, so don’t worry!”
“…What is this?”
“Hehe. Cool, right? I bought it on a whim not long ago. It has a mana efficiency rating of Rank 2, and the exterior looks completely ordinary, so it doesn’t even need a separate camouflage spell. That’s the best part of this model.”
Ayoung, seemingly having forgotten her fear of Serpina, chattered away as she placed one foot on the modified electric scooter.
“Oh, right. Just a moment. I should do this properly.”
She rummaged through her bag, pulled out a bicycle helmet, and put it on. Then she took out another and offered it to Serpina.
“……”
Serpina silently stared down at the helmet being held out to her. She put it on.