secret(3)

Outskirts of a city close to winter

Dry dust crumbled on the asphalt road surface.

“This is true. I didn’t expect you to ask me such an outrageous request all of a sudden.”

The white-haired woman next to me, Helena, looked at me with a tired face.

“It was absolutely necessary.”

“Of course it is. The Most Holy Heaven has allowed it.”

Helena von Schuschein Vega.

As the head of the Vega family, she looked at me with tired eyes and sighed quietly.

According to the great principle that a person from the Vega family must accompany a visit to Earth, this time she, not anyone else, came along on my journey.

The reason was based on the fact that Ensia was academic, and that other halfway personnel were not qualified to enter the earth.

“What is a necessary mission?”

“It’s about finding traces of Balthazar.”

I saw Kaya from Balthazar, and I passed the case to Laniakea that I want to investigate on Earth.

Laniakea also knew of the pentagram’s existence, so permission was quickly dropped, and thanks to that, Vega, who was in a hurry to prepare, couldn’t find a suitable companion, so Helena eventually followed me.

“…I know it’s important, but please finish it as soon as possible. I’m a busy person too.”

“It will take three days.”

“like.”

I first got her a place to stay.

Although they came together, they did not even act together.

It was comfortable for me to move alone, and Helena, an outsider, also seemed to want that.

I roughly booked the best hotel in the city center.

“Did you have Earth Money?”

“Yes. A little.”

Fortunately, the post-war Earth was alive with a currency economy, and the borrowed-name bank account that he had created during his lifetime still remained.

It wasn’t a lot of money, but it was enough to get a hotel.

“Hmm… are you more capable than you thought…”

“Yes?”

“it’s nothing.”

She said something incomprehensible and soon withdrew her attention from me.

As I was about to leave the hotel without delay, I turned to Helena with a sudden thought.

“Is it really that no one else can come here but me?”

It wouldn’t take too long to search for traces, but depending on the situation, you might have to look around a wide area.

It would be nice if Laniakea could help her, but she couldn’t descend recklessly, so having Skadi as the next best thing would be quite helpful.

At the time of the request for a visit, I nailed it, saying that I was the only one, but inside, I asked one more time because I wanted to know what else was different.

“Yes. It’s impossible.”

But what came back was Helena’s denial, shaking her head.

“Only those who have been registered and those who have been granted permission can enter and exit the barrier. In Helios, only the most holy sky, the main figure of Vega, and you, his apostle, can do that.”

“···okay.”

I expected it, but my taste is bitter.

I turned my back with my hat on.

“Then I’ll see you in three days.”

“Come on.”

I gave her money for her vacation and told her to enjoy her vacation, and I headed straight to the ‘Hunter Union’ where the members of Pentagram would be.

As I walked along the streets of the city that had begun to be rebuilt, I looked around with a new feeling.

The scenery of Seoul, which I revisited again, is crowded, and buildings I have not seen before are rising one by one in the empty space of the cleared rubble.

There was a lot of energy on all sides.

“Not bad.”

For half a year, the reconstruction work seemed to be on track, and thanks to that, the faces of people passing by were full of vitality.

Previously, if the atmosphere was ‘somehow’ to give strength, now it can be said that it is really full of hope.

It felt so good, I felt a little excited too.

Would you have walked for an hour in such a crowded city center?

Before I knew it, I was able to arrive in front of the Hunter Association building.

“…Have you been coming here for a long time?”

In my lifetime, I used to go in and out of fictitious days doing missions and stuff.

At that time, it was a newly built building, so it had a shiny appearance, but now, it is old and desolate, probably because it was directly hit by the winds and waves of war.

I sighed at the traces of time and took a step inside, but what appeared to be guards blocked my way.

“Stop it. You don’t look like an employee here.”

“From here on, it’s off-limits.”

When I saw her glaring at her with intense eyes, I sighed.

In the past, I would have received a salute and went in, but this is what it looks like when you wake up after dying.

I quietly developed a ‘disruption’.

“”Forget it””

I was ordered to forget the memory of seeing me after hiding my appearance with cognitive impairment.

The guards, who were dazed for a moment, soon disappeared scratching their heads.

I walked leisurely through the crowds and entered the building.

“”Electric wave interception”…”stealth””

Blocking interference from surveillance equipment, including CCTV, immediately looked at the people inside the building.

After reading each person’s information through mental control, I was able to sense Kaya’s signal from the top floor of the building.

“·······.”

The top layer of the Hunter Union.

Overlooking the entire city, the entire floor was Kaya’s office.

Did you say that you came out?

I entered it, seized by a strange feeling.

There was no need to kill the presence otherwise.

She had fallen asleep on her desk without the knowledge of the world.

“Ko…”

It seems to be a deep sleep, so even when people come in, it doesn’t even move.

Dark circles appeared in her eyes as well, and she seemed to be suffering from overwork due to urban reconstruction.

“I was the kind of guy who hated working even if he died.”

The Kaya I knew was a kid who didn’t want to do anything annoying, even if she died.

He had a rough personality and was an immature child who would not do hard work even if he died soon.

Did that kind of kid grow up like this?

“You’ve matured.”

You can’t hear it, but after complimenting her again, I put my hand on her head.

Magical power moved minutely, and mind control penetrated her consciousness.

“·······.”

The protective system of consciousness is thick and solid.

Kaya is also a skill equivalent to Arc Wizard.

Since he was with me until the final battlefield, the Circle is probably on a similar level.

Of course, it was not easy to look into it, and it required a lot of magical power and extreme delicacy to leave no traces.

‘It’s fortunate that I recovered a lot of power.’

Thanks to the recent rise in the realm of achievement several times, it seemed like it would be possible.

For the sake of privacy, I started picking out keywords about Balthazar step by step, without touching other memories as much as possible.

‘… I don’t have one.’

I spent several minutes searching all my memories for any trace of Balthazar, but I couldn’t find any.

Read at noblemtl.com

Just in case, I tried extending the range to the entire beast, but the result was the same there.

Kaya had never met Balthazar.

“Tsk…”

How did it happen…

Read at noblemtl.com

Just as he swallowed his regrets and tried to take control of his mind, a strange memory took hold at the end.

singularity.

Constellation.

contract.

Trial of Ascension…?

Familiar yet unfamiliar words are woven together.

I tried to judge it with my personal memory at the moment, but the memory was strangely linked to the existence of ‘Earth’ and ‘Kang Yu-jin’.

‘What?’

It must be an unfamiliar concept to me, but I was definitely involved in the keyword of this memory.

At the moment when a strange curiosity dragged her consciousness, Kaya’s head tossed and turned when she placed her hand on it.

she will wake up

“Ugh…”

. . . stimulated too long with mind control.

It was enough to wake her who is sensitive to magic.

I swallowed regret and withdrew my hand.

“·······.”

Kaya’s eyes slowly opened and looked at me.

A hazy gaze, drunk from fatigue and sleep.

I thought about erasing the memory, but it didn’t seem necessary.

Now, you don’t even know if this is a dream or reality.

I ran my gloved hand through her soft hair.

From the eyes that looked up at me, before I knew it, drops of tears flowed.

“Mister···?”

A hazy voice vaguely whispered my name.

Her tear-stained eyes were swaying with deep longing, holding me dearly.

“miss you···.”

“·······.”

I restored her tired mind and gently induced her consciousness to fall into a deep sleep.

“Sleep comfortably.”

The half-open consciousness sinks to the bottom of the surface again.

Seeing Kaya sound asleep, I left the place.

*

how much time has passed

Late at night when the sun has disappeared from the horizon.

Unknowingly, Kaya, who had been sleeping face down, got up.

“Ugh… when did I fall asleep?”

I still have a lot of work to do.

She yawned and suddenly felt the touch of tears on her eyes and cheeks.

“Eh… did I cry…?”

I’m still like a flower, but I’m not even a bookmaker.

Feeling embarrassed for some reason, Kaya wiped away her tears with her sleeve and suddenly remembered the dream she had earlier.

It was a dream of seeing ‘Kang Yoo-jin’ who stroked his sleeping head and whispered to him to sleep comfortably.

“·······.”

He looked down and picked up a picture frame on the side of the desk.

It was a frame with a group photo of Pentagram, taken together once.

She smiled bitterly as she brushed away Kang Yoo-jin in the photo, who was smiling faintly.

“…well. It can’t be.”

Let’s do something.

Putting down the picture frame, she relaxed her tired body.

But my mind is clearer than I thought. no, does it look better?

I haven’t been in such a good mood lately.

“Oh? Oh? Is it the power of a nap? It’s so lively?”

If it’s today, maybe I can finish all the overdue paperwork?

Feeling motivated for no reason, she eagerly picked up the pen.

The moment I was about to process the remaining paperwork.

Why ah-!

“Ah! What else!”

His expression crumpled at the emergency siren that went off when he was in a good mood.

She immediately picked up the radio and shouted.

“What!”

– A strong Magi reaction has been detected in Gangwon-do!

“In Gangwon-do?”

What wouldn’t be there anymore?

It’s a place where the purification is almost finished, so there shouldn’t even be a K-character of Magi.

“…Okay. I’ll go first.”

Still, it’s her job to check.

Wearing a robe, Kaya immediately started moving toward Gangwon-do.

*

The search for Balthazar ended faster and futile than expected.

When the legionnaires, or the head demons, descended on Earth, their huge demonic energy was engraved in the area as a trace. Fortunately, the satellite information of the area was stored in a data center in Gangwon-do.

The land encroached with thick demonic energy due to the descent of the legionnaires.

There were a total of three occupied lands created on Earth, aka ‘Ground Zero’, on Earth.

All of them were made by Diablo, and they were places I knew.

“Isn’t it also there?”

No trace of Balthazar was ever found.

He definitely didn’t seem to come to Earth.

‘Then what the hell did he look like?’

The human form that Balthazar imitated.

It was too similar to Kaya to be a coincidence.

No, it wasn’t the level of resemblance, it was just the level of changing the hair color and eye color of the same person.

It might be a little similar, but if it’s that much the same, you can’t dismiss it as a coincidence.

There must be a connection somewhere…

“…I’ll have to talk to Laniakea.”

As I sighed and was about to return to the hotel where Helena was staying, a strange energy passed my senses and I raised my head.

“Well···?”

It was a strange sensation that I had never felt before.

The feeling of magic that is deep and thick like an abyss.

When I instinctively raised my head at the uneasy feeling, I could see the sky of Gangwon-do, dyed in darkness with black clouds before I knew it.

…something was strange.

An ominous feeling followed the sense of ringing the alarm bell.

I left a message to call Helena and headed for the nearby forest, the center of the swirling clouds.

Hush-

After penetrating the thick forest for a long time, familiar terrain began to appear in front of my eyes.

“This is…”

As I entered, my steps slowed down.

This place is very familiar to me.

At the same time, it was a place I will never forget.

Here, the snow that has not yet melted is trampled on.

This was…the forest where I killed Maria.

‘I’m sure he would have purified all the demons.’

The snow accumulated on the floor still does not melt and paints the world white.

The deeper you go inside, the darker the magic, and the lower the temperature, the more your breath leaks out.

Time here, still seemed to have stopped in winter.

“·······.”

step faster

I stepped inward as if possessed, and headed toward the place where Maria’s body had been.

And where we finally arrived.

I saw an unknown person.

“ha···.”

The thick exhaled breath breaks into white breath.

In the middle of a cold winter forest, ‘he’ was on one knee in front of the trunk of the tree where Maria had died.

“…Who are you?”

I called out loudly, but In-young did not answer.

There was a moment of silence and I was about to ask another question, but ‘he’ opened his mouth.

“Fate and the law are really barbaric.”

The voice of In-young, who was dressed in black, was as rough as scratching iron.

“We are always swept away by the torrent of the river that cannot be resisted.”

he gets himself up

The tree trunk that was exposed was, fortunately, empty.

Only the flowers I left behind someday remain.

Leaving that spot behind, an unknown person turned around and looked at me.

“I asked who you are.”

I carved his image into my pupil.

A black and brilliant mantle and leather clothes covering the whole body.

The tips of his black hair were counted as gray, and he wore a pitch-black mask on his face.

Two pairs of eyes shining red above the mask flashed at me.

“Some call it the abyss, others call it the source of calamity.”

A harsh voice echoed through the forest.

“Because I have no name, the names I modify are as numerous as the number of beings I have met and killed.”

“Are you crazy?”

“hahahaha…yes. Maybe so.”

He smiled grimly and tilted his head.

“Kang Yu-jin, the messenger who is preparing. I set foot here to meet you.”

“It’s a monster. How did you come here?”

Earth is obviously a world isolated by barriers.

Let alone the Witchbeast, if it’s not a registered existence, even if it’s a Constellation, you won’t be able to enter it.

“···no.”

It doesn’t matter.

Even if you deny it, what happened is just happening.

I cleared my mind and focused on the reality in front of me.

I glared at him with hostility, and developed mental control.

“·······.”

However, it is not read.

There was no room for consciousness to squeeze into.

All living beings have a small gap in their consciousness, but there was no such thing in his mind.

It was so solid, it was like looking into the vastness of a perfect abyss.

“You won’t be able to read my consciousness with mind control.

He still spoke leisurely and sarcastically.

“…I’ll ask you one more time. Who are you?”

“I am the pinnacle of all demons and the source of all the demons that created them.”

Red eyes flashed with bright light.

“They say ‘Emperor’.”