A fire at this time of year.
As I ran toward the direction the sound had come from, I organized my thoughts.
The weather had only just begun to warm, so the air itself was far from dry. Moreover, by coincidence, the place where the fire had broken out was where the Works Office village stood.
‘Meaning this is someone’s work.’
It seemed the Wansang Merchants were getting quite anxious.
Thinking of the most reasonable culprit I could infer, I ran toward the increasingly close commotion.
“Water!! Pour water, quickly!!!”
“Oh no, what do we do! It is all burning, all burning!!”
At the entrance of the Works Office, the people of Wailing Pool Village had gathered in small groups. The people who had run over after hearing the noise were carrying water jars and putting out the fire, but judging by the force of the flames rising up, it did not look as though it would be easily contained.
“Oh my, my lord. You have come.”
“What happened?”
“Th-that is, we definitely checked everything carefully and even locked the doors...... but from somewhere inside, the flames......”
With his face covered in soot, the Works Clerk rambled on, words that could have been excuses or something else.
“Are you certain there is no one inside?”
“Pardon? Yes, ah, probably. The flames rose after the doors of the Works Office had been closed.”
The Works Clerk rolled his eyes as if lacking confidence and trailed off. Just as I was about to open my mouth to say something to him, an urgent voice came from behind.
“M-my lord! My lord, oh my, my lord. Something terrible has happened.”
When I turned around, Jang, who served as the village head of Wailing Pool Village, was bowing his head.
“What is it?”
“The children, Jeong and Dam, are still inside. They insisted they would finish that thing today no matter what and show it to you, my lord, saying they could sleep in the Works Office tonight. I had no choice but to come out first, but I never dreamed something like this would happen......”
Jang, looking a complete mess from running through the fire here and there, poured out his words urgently.
KRA-KRA-KRAK!
Before Jang could finish, there came the sound of one Works Office building collapsing, unable to withstand the flames.
“Oh no, oh nooo. What do we do, what are we to do?”
Pained wails came from around us.
I ordered Yu-bong, who had arrived late, to check the personnel, then stepped straight into the Works Office, where flames were rising.
Crackle, crackle—
RUMBLE!
Another pillar collapsed with an acrid smell.
Goodness, what a waste.
How much would it cost to restore all this again?
Engraving in my heart that one more debt to hang around the Wansang Merchants’ neck had been added, I stepped inside, and a wave of heat swept over my whole body. At the same time, I raised my senses and curled up the corner of my mouth at the smile that leaked out on its own.
‘Of course.’
At the sensation I felt brushing past from behind, I summoned Sword Amid the Battlefield.
CLANG!
Along with the sharp sound of blades colliding, a heavy impact traveled into my hand.
“Did you wait long?”
When I asked lightly, the masked man who had appeared before me spoke.
“They said the newly arrived Magistrate of Namwon was skilled. I suppose that is true.”
“The Wansang Merchants are rather bold, are they not? To think that even after suffering such losses, they still felt like trying again.”
At my words, the man adjusted his grip on the sword in his hand and said,
“Today will be the last day you run your mouth.”
“I do not recall many bastards who said things like that amounting to much.”
“You are arrogant, just as the rumors say.”
The man’s figure, after spitting out the short words, wavered for an instant.
SSSST, FLASH—
CLANG!
‘Not bad.’
I adjusted my grip on my sword as my palm rang with numbness and muttered inwardly.
His attack was so fast that I could not have guaranteed the result if I had not checked his ability name in advance and prepared.
Divine-Arrival Swift Sword.
Fifth Bloom.
Instead of the figure that had disappeared again, I threw Sword Amid the Battlefield toward the ability name still gleaming there.
Keugh—
At the short groan I heard, I recalled the sword, and from one side of the space, the man appeared, staggering while clutching his side.
“H-how.”
At the man’s mutter, I shrugged as if it were nothing and answered.
“My skill is simply that outstanding.”
“Damn it.”
“Why not stop here, unless you plan to stake your life?”
“I cannot do that.”
At the man’s words, I tilted my head.
What else was there?
Just then, a commotion came from outside.
Waaaaaah—!!!
The noise of people moving in perfect order to put out the fire, someone shouting, and something colliding all mingled together in confusion.
“What is that now?”
At my words, the man clutching his side gave a triumphant smile and said,
“The cries of the common folk who could no longer endure the corrupt official’s tyranny and rose up.”
“Oh.”
So while I had come inside, they had overturned the outside. That seemed to be what he meant.
Seeing the smile vanish from my face, the man seemed to regain some composure. He straightened his back and said,
“Do not worry, Lord Magistrate. I will end it here so you do not have to see anything ugly.”
“In that state?”
The moment I snorted and looked him up and down, a familiar voice rang in my ears.
“My lord! My loooord!!!”
“Huhuhuuung!!!”
What the masked men dragged out were the brothers Jeong and Dam, trapped in an iron cage like one used to hold animals. Perhaps they had hung a magical tool for sound control on it, because I heard the children’s cries only once. Yet their voices were already hoarse, as if they had been shouting for a long time.
“Dear me.”
I clicked my tongue shortly.
“To drag even children into this. The Wansang Merchants have chosen the worst move they could make.”
As I spoke coldly and took one step forward, the man warned me.
“If you move any farther from there, the children’s lives are forfeit.”
“That is a textbook villain line.”
“It does not matter. The corrupt official who even laid hands on children will die here today.”
How did this not deviate from expectations by even an inch?
I swallowed a sigh at the stale feeling that flashed through me for a moment and gestured toward the children with my chin.
“I see. Then what about those children?”
“They will return to their original owner.”
“Original owner? You speak as if you are handling pets.”
“That is none of your concern.”
None of my concern, my ass.
Muttering inwardly, I took another step forward, and as if they had been waiting, flames began rising around me.
BZZZZZT—
As if the work of a fire-type ability user, blue flames different from ordinary fire began burning with enough force to devour everything, and a fierce heat soon wrapped around my entire body.
“My loooord!!! My lord!!!”
“Huhuhuuung!”
The man laughed as if the children’s cries from inside the iron cage amused him.
“What a pity. You will burn to death just like—”
I did not listen any further and stretched out my hand.
SHWEEEEEK—!
Kek.
From the darkness where Sword Amid the Battlefield shot out, I heard a short groan.
“H-how!!!!”
When the fire-type ability user beyond the wall died on the spot, the man’s eyes widened, as if he had never expected me to find him immediately.
What could I do? I had seen him from the start.
The Mirror of Safety and Peril’s ability to read ability names was like a seeing-through lens, so obstacles before my eyes posed no problem at all.
“You were saying something about burning to death?”
I drew up my energy and shook off the flames that had caught on the hem of my clothes. With each touch, light as if brushing off dust, the hem of my clothes fluttered, and the blue flames that had lost their caster drifted through the air before fading.
Since the flames had been raised with mana, it was only natural that I could shake them off with mana.
‘If anything, a natural fire not created by mana would have given me more trouble.’
Since I had dealt with the caster first, flames that had lost their sustaining force only needed to be brushed off.
By contrast, the man, who had not expected me to so easily find and kill the fire-type ability user, was looking this way with eyes that seemed to be seeing something impossible.
“Th-this cannot be.”
“So, keep talking. What were you saying?”
“Damn it. In that case—”
The moment I took one more step forward, the man signaled to the masked men around him with his eyes. The masked men drew their swords all at once and ran not toward me, but toward the iron cage where the children were.
“My lord!!! My loooord!!!”
“Huhuhuuung!!!!”
The children’s screams split the sky.
‘Tsk. Look at the level of what they do.’
Instead of running toward the iron cage as he expected, I clicked my tongue shortly, stopped where I stood, and crossed my arms.
The moment the man’s triumphant face filled with doubt—
KRA-KRA-KRAANG!
“Aaaagh!”
“Keugh!”
“Aaaaaagh!”
With death throes, the masked men were roasted whole and tumbled to the ground.
The man who had barely avoided the thunderbolt was crawling on the ground while clutching one blackened arm, and around them, white light that had not yet fully vanished flashed.
“Are you done watching?”
At those words, that bastard Ju-hwan walked out of the darkness with an awkward expression and said,
“What were you going to do if I had not thrown the thunderbolt?”
I snorted and answered.
“I was going to kill you first.”
“Please stop making unfunny jokes.”
“Who said it was a joke?”
I was serious. I had already noticed that the bastard had been weighing his options.
The reason he had warned me in advance that the Wansang Merchants would move soon was probably not loyalty to me, but so he could openly look for a way to survive.
I did not particularly want blind loyalty from him, but I had no need for a bastard who would stand back and weigh his options even in a situation like that.
At my steady gaze, that bastard Ju-hwan trembled.
“Y-you bastard!!!!”
The man, belatedly realizing that the previous strike had been Ju-hwan’s work, shouted as if grinding his teeth.
“What, are you surprised that the guy you believed was your secret move betrayed you? That is what you get for trusting him. Just looking at him, he has the face of someone who would betray you.”
“My lord, that is a bit much.”
When I asked sarcastically, that bastard Ju-hwan muttered something.
“Why? Am I wrong? It is written right on your forehead: I am ready to betray you at any time.”
“Damn it—”
Ju-hwan bit his lip as if wronged. Still, seeing as he could not argue back, it seemed that even he felt it hit a sore spot.
I moved my gaze from Ju-hwan, where it had lingered for a moment, and spoke to the man.
“Go to the Wansang Merchants and tell them this. This time, our losses are severe, so I will collect the proper price.”
Someone had to deliver the message, so unfortunately, I could not kill him here.
But his reaction was unexpected.
“Hah, the Wansang Merchants? As if I would serve those mere g—”
The moment the bastard spat out a few words—
THWACK-THWACK!
“!!!!!”
At what happened in that instant, both Ju-hwan and I stopped for a moment.
Because the man’s head had quite literally “burst.”
Just in case there was a presence I had missed, I raised my senses, but I felt nothing around us.
Which meant......
At that moment, I heard Ju-hwan mutter as if he had barely escaped the shock.
“J-just now, this—”
At a sudden thought, I spoke to that bastard Ju-hwan.
“Hey, say anything that starts with g.”
“Pardon?”
“It seems there was some kind of restriction. Something starting with g.”
Even at my words, that bastard Ju-hwan only tilted his head with a bewildered face, as if he still did not understand.
What a useless bastard.
“Damn it. If I had known this would happen, I would not have removed your restriction so easily.”
“What did you say just now?”
“Never mind.”
That was clearly the end of someone who had touched the wrong forbidden word.
I did not know whether he had self-destructed knowingly or had been caught without knowing, but if they had set up a device like that, it was clearly information with some value.
Just as I was organizing my thoughts, voices came from outside.
“My lord!! My loooord!!!”
“My lord!!”
Only then did I turn my head and look around. It seemed they had succeeded in putting out the flames for the most part.
Seeing the people entering while calling for me, Ju-hwan checked the faces of those at the very front and opened his mouth wide.
“Wh-what in the world is this......?”
At his dazed face, I curled up the corner of my mouth and smiled.