Hermit Wizard

The Soul Flows High (4)

After that, he only repeated similar words and seemed to know no more details. While trying to get the direction of the question, Parvache suddenly interrupted.

[Min-joon, let me ask them a question.]

Parvache directly asked questions telepathically.

[Do you have any traces of the Dragon’s corpse or whatever kind it is?]

The memories receiving the questions were answered.

“We do not know.”

[Okay…then let’s change the question. If there is any trace of the Dragon, which place is most likely to remain?]

I knew what Parvache was thinking. I didn’t know what kind of resurrection they’re aiming for, but they may need a medium. The easiest thing to think of was the body, the vessel of the soul. However, I wasn’t sure if this concept worked for Truth-Seeker either. What if we find the location, destroy it, or get our hands on it?

“…There is only one place that would be possible. His nest.”

There was probably a high possibility that they would answer that they didn’t know again, but I asked.

“Where is the Dragon’s nest? If you don’t know, what is the most likely place for that location?”

He paused for a moment as if looking back on their memories.

“…An executive said once. He said that He enjoyed staying in a place similar to his original land…”

“A little more detail.”

“The world environment in which He originally lived…the dry atmosphere and high temperature. And the land of the lonely.”

It seemed that the memories were referring to desert terrain.

“Hmm…”

It was better than nothing at all, but it wasn’t a very helpful hint. How many lands in this world could be classified as deserts? How large was that area? After that, the questions and answers continued for a long time. I continued to ask questions about finding the executives of this organization while continuing to derive information that could be a clue.

As a result, I found out that their hands were closer than I thought. The wizards had increased since the Channel opened. They already had a rough grasp of the scale. The wizards that the Korean government secretly fostered were also within their target range. On the other hand, we also learned that the rank classified as apprentices were all given similar artifacts.

How much time had passed?

“Huh?”

[Min-joon, look at that.]

Parvache called me to see if I have found the same thing. Body fluids began to flow out of the body tissue, similar to the Fake God’s nose.

‘I should wrap up the interrogation for today.’

He could go completely insane if we overdid it anymore. Just because he answered well didn’t mean his mental state was calm. He was just giving a quick answer because the suggestion was taking precedence over any confusion or conflict. I threw telepathy that only Parvache could hear.

‘Let’s ask questions about the Channel on my chest…when Yusu isn’t here.’

[Yes, I agree.]

I didn’t know if there would be any information in these lower ranks’ memory, but I wanted to check it out. Did this organization know that the Dragon had opened a Channel on my chest? If they knew, I wanted to ask why. Had he ever done this to anyone other than me? Had the Dragon ever opened a Channel on the body of any kind of other creature? Usually, the Truth-Seekers do that to their ascetics—a kind of medal for those who serve themselves.

I would like to know. But…that was all for today. I reached out and lowered the Fake God’s shackles back into the magical freezing fluid.

-Woooong!

The Fake God’s body began to sink into the magic solution in the tank. He would like recovery in there, and then we could continue again later. Whether he felt his body immersed in the liquid, the Fake God, whose sight was sealed, spread telepathy in all directions.

=Until when… you… keep…=

Desperation, despair, and pain mingled in his will. I didn’t evade it but accepted it into my brain. Now, frowning or suffering from cheap guilt was nothing but a mental escape. As long as he was already in my hand, I would use him as much as possible. He tried to brainwash or torture me to open the Channel to A-Verdag and become a Truth-Seeker on his own. I was aware that he had quite a bit of detailed knowledge on how to torture humanoid creatures.

=Uuugh!=

I didn’t know if this alien race signed a contract with the demons before or after he realized my existence. Was the reason to find a way for A-Verdag to overcome the fear of death felt as a contractor of the demon? Or was it that he inevitably signed a contract to subdue me like a step towards A-Verdag? Either way, it made no sense anymore. I had been asking countless questions to the Fake God so far, but I had never asked about this.

This was for sure. He wouldn’t become a Truth-Seeker. However, I was planning to prevent the loss of his soul to the demon. At least for the entirety of my life. The Fake God’s body continued to descend, and finally, his head was completely immersed in the tank. At the same time, he lost consciousness and drooped.

***

“Phew, I’m dying.”

It was the well-groomed brunette man. He roughly buried his body on the couch in the corner of the lounge and slowly released the bow tie with one hand.

“You’re joking too much, Mr. Wright.”

The chief secretary, who thought that the word “dying” didn’t suit this situation and the man, blew a critic. The man glanced at a taller black woman than himself, and he shouted bah and snorted. Then he lay down without taking off his top as if he didn’t want to care.

“If you just lie down like that, your tuxedo will wrinkle.”

“Then what?”

The man responded in a withering manner. The secretary, who was looking down at the scene, asked just in case.

“You’re not going to leave like this, are you?”

“That’s exactly what I think.”

Grace, the man’s secretary, sighed. Then she approached him as if she had decided something.

“Eugene, wake up. At least say hello before you disappear. Again, if you’re going missing in the middle again, Angela will be hysteric.”

The secretary who called both her boss and the First Lady of the United States by their first name soon frowned at him. It was because Eugene closed his eyes as if he wouldn’t listen to her anymore.

“It will be uncomfortable throughout the administration if we continue to hate like this. Angela is rumored to have been working on this charity party for weeks.”

“It’s less than two years away. For someone my age, that time will pass quickly.”

“But Benjamin must be running for re-election. He’ll announce his candidacy when spring comes. And the approval rating is good.”

“Then I won’t let him get re-elected. How about a sex scandal?”

At the joke that her boss threw, his secretary shook her head as if there was no chance.

“That didn’t work even 20 years ago. In today’s social atmosphere, it’s even more…”

“Oh, really, people these days are so open-minded. They have no dignity.”

“Anyway, if you’re going to disappear and be hated, you’d rather bite her.”

“I absolutely hate it! She’s not my taste.”

Grace looked down at the grunting Eugene.

“…Anyway, if you’re really going to leave like this, let’s talk about work before that.”

“Isn’t what we are talking about also work? Did I come here for the party? I came to work.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s about real work.“

“…”

The man quietly raised his upper body. He threw his eyes as if he was about to speak. Grace stood up and opened her palms. Simultaneously, the sound and music of people’s conversations leaking from outside the lounge’s closed-door were cut off.

“The Disaster Response Project Team members entered Mauritania yesterday.”

“Did you get an intermediate report?”

“Yeah.”

Grace nodded. In the spring of last year, a Channel that appeared near Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, was flooded with criminal-type races, less than even 1m in height. It was a race classified as HSN-R6-T18 according to the United Nations’ Table of Alien Classifications.

The meaning is as follows.

-Hostile

-Supernatural powers such as magic, etc.

-Non-intercommunicable ability to communicate with humanity

-Risk Level 6: Need national-level armed response excluding nuclear options

-Technological Civilization Level 18: Technology equivalent to the 18th century in human history (presumed to be capable of mass production at a low level)

This was one of the bad cases among the alien that could come out of the Channel, but fortunately, there weren’t many. Also, because they fought them with firearms, the Mauritanian army successfully eradicated the disparate alien race and sealed the Channel’s vicinity. However, the problem was that the level of closure was insufficient.

Since their initial appearance, there had been two other invasions, the most recent of which occurred a month ago. Nouakchott has become a ghost city, and refugees from the old capital were all over the country. The neighboring countries refused to accept refugees. The government, which quickly completed the relocation of the capital, had been shouting for a while that Mauritania can solve its own situation even though the country has reached its tipping point. Though the concept of sending U.N. troops or overseas troops has already disappeared, they had refused even to show signs of countries with minor or no damage.

But only after the incident a month ago did they accept outside help. Nevertheless, they refused U.N. channel-related disaster response organizations to enter the country. Only the Global Initiative for a Better World (GIBW) disaster response team was allowed to enter the country due to a lack of religious background among private aid organizations, and related personnel arrived in Mauritania yesterday.

Their main task was to go around refugee camps, distribute aid, and provide medical services. However, some of them entered the country for a completely different purpose.

“…Alice did the executive move with the group, right?”

“Yeah. This is what her children learned from refugees.”

Grace displayed the document on a tablet P.C. and handed it over to Eugene. Eugene, who was skimming the contents, raised his eyebrows as if the document had exceeded his expectations.

“How come in a country where there is no changeable infrastructure and no alien groups to be used as instructors?”

“There is a high possibility that the information itself, the ones we could not secure…is wrong.”

“Get off from the sight of the United States? This small country?”

Mauritanian troops were mobilized in Nouakchott’s third interracial invasion a month ago. Among them, there was a group that stood out. Apparently, they were wearing the same uniform but moved separately from the other units, and crucially they didn’t use firearms. General soldiers saw a scene where they poured cold air from their hands to freeze the alien races. This story seems to have spread among civilians, despite strict military control.

“I see why they accepted our support and refused the entry of the U.N. aid team. Are they worried about leaking information? If it’s practicable…it means they’ve already fostered a great army of wizards, right?”

“Yeah. The refugees say they are gathering and training in a place not far from the relocated capital. Alice has already confirmed the location.”

“It’s fast. As expected…”

Grace looked into Eugene’s eyes and asked.

“Then, what should we do?”

The man shrugged his shoulders and answered.

“What do we do? Withdraw the wizards’ power? It looks like they’ve gotten a little bit bigger and even trained in combat, so this time, like in Washington, instruct them to move alone without an apprentice.”

Since El Paso’s painful experience, he had been refraining from using apprentices.

“The old ways don’t work anymore.”

Instead, they couldn’t make fun of these wizards forever, so the work to improve and strengthen the apprentices’ supplies was in full swing… but until it was completed, the executives would be busier for the time being.

“Tsk.”

The man complained in a small voice. The times had changed so strangely, and now the executives had to do the work themselves, so they had no choice but to run out of hands. The secretary nodded her head, picked up the phone, and made a short call. The code she spat out would be passed on to the local rescue team in Mauritania, and soon it will be passed on to Alice.

“By the way…”

After finishing the phone call, Grace looked at her boss.

“What are you going to do in Seoul?”