Chapter 85
Foreigner’s Area
A place that is South Korea, but where South Korean laws are not fully enforced.
But it’s also a place where violent crime statistics are lower than anywhere else in South Korea.
Here’s why…….
“That’s a big liver. A robbery in Corleone’s district, not anywhere else.”
“Fuck off…… fuck off……!”
That’s because the law in Corleone doesn’t count.
“Sin, sorry, ha, one chance……!”
A dark back alley in the red-light district of Area C.
There was a man currently pinned down and subdued under a maid, desperately begging for his life.
A balding man, whose name I don’t know but can only assume from the tattoos on his face to be a member of a local gang, he was in this state because he was caught trying to extort money from a passing drunk.
“Master, what shall we do?”
Alessia asks what to do with the guy.
In a situation like this, I, as the superior, would decide what to do with him; it was the rule of Corleone and the law of the Foreigner’s Area.
“Hand holding the sword. Break it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alessia doesn’t hesitate a moment at my answer, twisting his arm in an instant.
“Aaaahhhhhh!”
A scream echoes through the alley as his arm was broken.
Passerby’s glance over to see what’s going on, but when they see me in my black suit and Alessia in her maid’s outfit, they continue on their way as if nothing has happened.
” Whoohoo! Whoohoo……!”
I gesture to Alessia, who is holding him down, to move aside, then squat down in front of him.
“I’m sure you know why you’re being treated like this.”
“I know……! I know……!”
He replies, trembling.
I slap his bare head with the palm of my hand.
“There is no next time. Go tell your friends, your coworkers, your bosses. If you pull this shit on Corleone’s turf one more time, I’ll make a beehive out of you. Do you understand?”
“……Yes, I’ll pass it on, I’ll make sure of it!”
That’s all I had to say.
“Go.”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
He scrambled to his feet with his one remaining hand, bowed his head, and ran away.
As I stare after him, I hear Alessia’s voice behind me.
“You’re not going to kill him?”
“I don’t really want to see blood.”
And I intended to use him as a warning of sorts.
If I killed him, I’d never know what happened next, but by letting him live, I’d have more control over him.
At my gesture, a few of the waiting gang members began to walk behind me.
“Word must have gotten out on this side that we’re here, so let’s check out the other side a bit and then head back.”
“I’ll follow.”
Still, today was better than usual.
The last time I’d been out with Parnello, a street vendor had gotten caught up in a gang fight, and Parnello had personally wiped out every last one of the thugs on the spot, then paid the vendors for repairs and comfort.
Once they were taken care of, the nightly walk was uneventful, just a few passing drunks and brothel workers saying hello in passing.
‘It’s a little more subdued than usual, by the way.’
There are fewer people out and about than usual.
The place where the mugger just appeared was also a place where crime cannot happen because there is usually quite a bit of foot traffic.
If you think about it, the atmosphere has changed somehow, whether it’s the influx of new people or something else.
“Master.”
I was slowly circling the area, deep in thought.
Alessia, who was leading the way, suddenly stops dead in her tracks.
I wonder if something else has happened, but the surroundings are eerily silent.
As I stare in wonder, Alessia points to something and opens her mouth with a serious expression.
“……that.”
That?
I looked at where she was pointing and saw a small shop.
The name of the shop was written there [Egg Bread].
“Please buy it.”
She…… very confidently asked me for the egg bread.
“You want me to buy……?”
“Yes. Actually, I forgot my wallet.”
“You can pay with your cell phone these days.”
“I forgot it.”
“You had it.”
“It’s gone.”
……Doesn’t she just want to rip me off?
Well, they weren’t overpriced and she drove all the way here, so I let out a little huff and bought her a bag.
She grinned and hugged the bag and immediately bit into one.
“It’s good, it’s warm, ah, Master, would you like one too?”
With that, she hands me one of the egg buns.
I bought it for her, but she’s sharing it with me?!
“……Yes. Thanks.”
Anyway, it doesn’t matter so I take one and bite into it.
It tastes like ordinary egg bread but Alessia, walking beside me, was munching on it eagerly, as if it was very delicious.
“Did you always like egg bread?”
Alessia shakes her head at my question and swallows her egg bread.
“You mean egg bread? Um……I guess you could say I like it, because I have fond memories of it.”
“Good memories?”
“It’s a secret. It’s a precious memory.”
Alessia smiles brightly at my question.
“Well, I think we’ve had our fill of diversions. Our patrol is almost over, so…… you want to go back?”
“Yes, we should get back.”
I said and turned around.
“Master, the motorcycle is this way, but…….”
Alessia looks puzzled as I suddenly walk in the opposite direction, reaching for the side of the road.
I turned my head to look at Alessia and gave her a mischievous grin.
“Taxi.”
Honestly, your motorcycle is a little scary.
* * *
The next day.
“Based on our research so far, we can say that dungeons are influenced by mana. Aura and mana were observed in earnest only after the dungeons were created, so the concept only slowly began to take hold afterward.”
From the very first class, the children of Class A were faced with a dungeonology class called Sleeping Pills.
The calm voice of the instructor and the boring content of the class were already slowly draining their energy.
But what can you do, dungeonology is a mandatory subject for heroes who enter dungeons.
“The origin of dungeons is not fully understood. Scientists speculate that dungeons are a precursor to the merging of the outside world with our own. Our world is slowly merging with other worlds. The growing mana and aura are evidence of this.”
And now, the instructor who could be considered one of the authorities on such dungeonology was speaking in front of us: Mr. Park Hak-soo.
“Now, let’s take a look at some of the most popular papers…… huh?”
Park Hak-soo, who was talking to his class, suddenly realized that the students were quiet and stopped talking.
“Eing…… Everyone’s eyes are dead. Yeah, dungeonology is definitely not fun, right?”
The children shake their heads as Park Hak-soo mumbles that with a sullen expression.
“No? Is it fun?”
But when Park Hak-soo didn’t get the ‘yes~’ he was expecting, he shook his head with a look of approval.
“Okay, it’s not like we’re in a seminar, but I’ve been talking too much about class. Then……I’ll tell you something to wake you up. Did you all see the news about the prisoners who escaped from Niflheim this time?”
The kids, who had been slumped over the boring stuff up to this point, began to lift their heads and their eyes lit up at the mention of recent events.
“Ha, look at you. Your eyes light up when I talk about something else. Well, it’s TV and the internet, so everyone is talking about it these days.”
True to his word, the current hot topic in South Korea is the story of the villain who escaped from Niflheim.
Recent investigations by prosecutors and police have revealed that the villains were smuggled into Korea, so both society and the Academy were paying attention.
Of course, the prosecutors and police only published the information submitted by the Dike Law Firm as if it was their own investigation.
“Anyway, there’s a guy named ‘Miner’ who escaped this time. His ability is called Excavation and he can crush any hard ore like a sponge cake.”
Korea was flooded with dungeons at the time.
It’s not a great ability for raiding, but it would have been a great help if he had utilized it. But he didn’t.
“Instead, he took advantage of the chaos to rob the hardest places. Like the vaults of the……bank, for example.”
Korea at the time was in what could be called the Dark Ages.
The country’s small size meant that the damage was minimal compared to other countries, but the dungeons that sprang up across the country attracted few heroes, and the lack of legislation made it difficult to stop them.
“But one of the places he robbed was the Korean Magic Stone Repository, the highest-ranking place in the country where they store the magic stones, which are practically treasures, and do you know what happened there……?”
As the children began to pay attention to the increasingly exciting story, Park Hak-soo, who had been building up the tension, suddenly clapped his hands and shouted.
“BANG!!!”
The students gasped in surprise and he smiled as if he was very satisfied with their reaction.
“Hahahaha, yes, that was everyone’s reaction, as those expensive magic stones were caught in the explosion. But the surprise didn’t last long, because unlike other minerals, magic stones are not affected by ordinary explosions.”
They are only affected by aura and mana attacks, and a mundane blast won’t break them or so the miner thought.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me anyway but here’s the thing: the blast suddenly started generating dungeon spawn signs and we were able to catch the miner, because he got stuck in that dungeon.”
He laughed in amusement and the students were getting tired of hearing about down-on-his-luck villains.
“Well, so the miner is quite a name in dungeonology because his timing was so exquisite that everyone has been focusing on the phenomenon ever since. When a mass of pure mana is strongly stimulated from the outside, causing a rift in reality, it becomes a dungeon, right? ”
“In other words, could we create a dungeon artificially?”
One of the students in front raised his hand and asked.
“So what happened to that hypothesis? Did it work?”
“Haha, did it work? Have you ever heard of people creating artificial dungeons like that?”
Park smirked and gave the answer.
“Of course it failed. Quite a few people tried it, but a hypothesis is a hypothesis. It never happened even with high-purity magic stones but it did lead us to a lot of research on magic stones, which has led to the development of many artifacts nowadays. How about that, isn’t dungeonology pretty fun this way?”
This time, unlike before, the answer is a resounding yes from the children.
Park Hak-soo smiles warmly at the sight of the children.
“Well then, since you all seem to have woken up a bit, let’s get right on with the lesson. If you want to know how the broken magic stone affects the atmosphere, you can look at the paper I was going to tell you about earlier…….”
The other kids sighed as he continued his explanation, casually relating it to the lesson, as if everything he’d said so far had been a buildup.
* * *
-Geeeeeeeee. Tsk. Geeeeeeeee. Tsk.
The warehouse is filled with the repetitive sound of conveyor belts.
Countless vacuum pistons are working hard, emitting repetitive sounds, and the pure white steam that is constantly emitted is faintly spreading in the air.
“Hahaha…… This is bad. Trouble.”
And in the midst of the steam, a gaunt figure begins to move.
The man dragging a raggedy bandaged limb across the ground stops to look up at the sky.
“One dead, three missing. You think that makes sense?”
He spins around to reveal the shape of his face but the man was unrecognizable as his body covered in tattered bandages.
At his words, the ground shakes and steam begins to rage.
“Advance the time. No more distractions. For all to hear our message.”
At his words, everyone around him looks at him in fear and nods, clenching their fists to keep from trembling.
Nodding is the only freedom they have in his furious presence.
In the midst of such a cold atmosphere──
“Ring around the rosie──”
The man in the bandages started humming and singing.
“Ring around the rosie.
A pocket full of posies.
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!”
The mood had grown colder, despite the obviously upbeat song and then he solemnly declared.
“Let it be known that──the Great Plague has begun.”
