After confirming that the tipster was a crazy conspiracy theorist who went around in a foil hat, I gave up hope and decided to make the rounds of the police stations that had taken the missing persons reports, one at a time.
But even with me going in and out of police stations, the situation was much the same. There were no signs of abduction, and the statements of the people who'd filed the reports amounted to things like 'My friend hadn't been in touch for days, so I came over and they were gone,' or 'They went out late in the evening saying they were going to the convenience store and never came back.'
The connected lenses and electrode patches the police had taken were ordinary machines, and even after widening the scope of the investigation with the possibility of online crime in mind, they didn't have so much as a lead, so the police seemed to be having a rough time searching for the missing too.
Not that I'd come away with absolutely nothing, of course.
"It's definitely strange, though. For simple running away from home, there are people who lived alone mixed in too. If it were someone who lived with family walking out, that'd be one thing."
"Right? You think so too, Reporter Seo? What on earth would a person who's already home alone run away from home for?"
Sergeant Kim of the Gwanak Police Station's Missing Persons Investigation Team took a long drag on the cigarette I'd bought him as tribute and blew it out.
11:49 a.m. We were the only ones smoking side by side in a corner of the station's parking lot. Inside the building, over by the duty team, Society Desk trainees and regular reporters had been running the place and had only just left, right before lunchtime.
I wasn't a Society Desk reporter and didn't want to be seen coming in and out of a place like this, so I'd deliberately picked an awkward time, and I'd gotten lucky.
"As for the appraisal of the game machines......"
"Same, same. Nothing wrong with them. You must've asked everywhere else already, Reporter Seo. You think I've only met one or two people like you?"
"There's always a one-in-ten-thousand chance, isn't there? More importantly, you're saying they just left their phones and wallets behind too?"
"Yeah. That's the problem. If they'd taken their phones, we could at least track their movements. They went out with nothing but their own bodies, basically."
"That's odd. It's not an abduction, and yet they leave their phones behind. Have you secured the nearby CCTV? Didn't anything show up?"
"Nothing. Doesn't show. But the way it doesn't show is a little strange."
"Strange, meaning."
"The missing person's right there on camera, but from some point on, they just aren't there anymore. Either they went into a blind spot, or they really did evaporate."
A busy downtown strip with cameras packed close together might be one thing, but alleys with cameras scattered here and there were sure to have blind spots.
A missing person who vanished in between. And no companion.
"Couldn't they have been abducted in a blind spot? There used to be a lot of that method, didn't there? Suddenly abducting someone who's walking along just fine, to cut the evidence and the time of the crime down to the extreme minimum."
"That method's been in use since way back in the double-eight days. But does it make sense that every one of those people got abducted without a single belonging on them?"
"If someone went around targeting only people with no belongings on them, it does kind of make sense."
"Hah. Reporter Seo, quit and write a novel. A mystery novel. The way you stick things together any old how, you're overflowing with talent."
Sergeant Kim sneered, dropping his cigarette butt and grinding it underfoot.
"There were no suspicious vehicles or people around either. You know missing persons reports are shared nationwide, right? I heard similar things have been happening lately, so I looked through some of the records too, and it's enough to leave you speechless."
"Enough that you'd say that, Sergeant Kim? There's no veteran like you, is there?"
"Don't force the flattery. You won't get anything more out of me that way, you know? Anyway, I've got to head back in soon. You should call it a day around here too, Reporter Seo."
Waving his hand to tell me to hurry along, Sergeant Kim went into the station. I gave a little bow to his back, then squatted right where I was and took out my notepad.
[Missing persons info: young new workers. Brigantes players. Game addiction. Depression? By what route? Simple missing cases? Game controlled brainwaves? With connected lenses and electrode patches? Human control? No belongings. CCTV secured, no signs of abduction. Family trouble? Relationships?]
"......You can't get anything to tie to Goldcrest out of this."
I bit down on my ballpoint pen, crunch, crunch.
In the tipster's case, she seemed to be on good terms with her missing sister. That scrapped the hypothesis of someone cutting off contact and disappearing over family trouble. Or despair over relationships, then? But there were definitely friends among the people who'd filed the reports.
Could someone with a friend close enough to come to their home over a mere lack of news really hide themselves on purpose because of relationships?
What's more, these people were all...... ordinary. The kind of human you find all over the street out there. Mid to late twenties. They had work histories as contract or regular employees, and had done part-time jobs too. In a word, people who'd gone out into society and lived perfectly normal lives. People with no link at all to Goldcrest or cults, let alone Goldrish Games, or anything of the kind. What on earth is this? How did they go missing? Did aliens really come down and take them or something?
Suddenly the tipster came to mind, in her foil hat, claiming 'We are being watched,' and all I could do was heave sigh after sigh. At this rate, wasn't I going to have to look into the alien abduction hypothesis too? Talk about a ghost story.
***
"Albion, are you okay? You slept for two whole days."
"Yeah. I feel refreshed, it's nice."
"Shouldn't you be asking us, who hauled that guy around, if we're okay, instead of the guy who just had a good sleep, brat?"
While a player is logged out, the character automatically falls into a sleeping state. Erman and the other characters already knew I had the binge-sleeping trait.
When I got down from Pidrin's back she rubbed her shoulder and grumbled in annoyance, but Estan, walking ahead, bellowed.
"How dare you go on speaking so rudely to the prince! Show him proper courtesy. Loegria's one and only......"
"Huh? Prince or not, that doesn't change the fact that we're the victims, you know? You're one to talk, you only barely got up after I slapped you. Nothing special, but all volume, huh?"
"Both of you, stop this fighting. Sir Estan, you need not press Pidrin to show courtesy."
"But my prince!"
"And you there, Pidrin, stop picking quarrels with Sir Estan. He may look like that, but Sir Estan is an outstanding knight."
"Hah. How outstanding? Has he taken care of a hundred barbarians or something? Or can he hoist a horse overhead and run with it?"
"That I do not know myself. Still, he does come from the royal castle's order of knights, so......"
"Heh, see! I figured as much from the moment he stuck a sword at Albion's throat out of nowhere, calling himself a knight. Hey, at least Daren and I never thought of killing a kid, you know?"
"That's right. That's right. Pidrin and I never, ever killed kids. That's something I can say with my chest out, proud."
"You wretches, you commoner pack of bandits, how dare you!"
Wow. At this rate I can't even imagine how close you all got while I was asleep.
From among the three squabbling and squawking away, I silently pulled out only Erman and walked off, step, step. Erman looked back and forth between them and me, and in the end stuck to my side.
"Albion. Are you okay? Does something hurt?"
"No. Nothing hurts. Why?"
"You don't look so good. It's fine if I'm just worrying for nothing, though."
Ah. Did it show?
Thinking about the missing people, I'd naturally become Seo Jae-won instead of Albion. Of course, whether I was Albion or Seo Jae-won, the NPCs in the game wouldn't particularly care.
"It's nothing. I was thinking about incantations, that's all."
"Incantations?"
Still, the show must go on. My belief that a real man who's drawn his sword should at least slice a radish hadn't changed.
If, as that foil-hat conspiracy theorist of a tipster said, the Brigantes Chronicle game itself was the problem, something would go wrong with me too, since I was playing it. If not, that would settle that the disappearances had some other cause, so I had nothing to lose.
Swinging the hand that held Erman's, I answered him.
"Stronger magic you can use right away. Now you don't have to wait for hours and hours. The healing magic I used on Daren is similar. With incantation magic, it'd get better in no time."
"Really? Albion, that's amazing! So you don't have to use objects carved with spells anymore? And if Sir Estan gets sick again, you can heal him right away?"
"Maybe I owe it to Sir Estan."
Because Estan had fallen to my curse, I'd gotten to try out all sorts of protection, healing and curse-breaking letters.
Uh, wait. I'm the one who put the curse on Estan, so in the end do I owe it to myself? I really am smart.
"So from now on I'm going to keep practicing incantation magic. The biggest problem is finding a target."
"A target? You mean someone to cast magic on? You can cast it on me."
"What?"
What's this kid suddenly talking about?
It was absurd, but Erman's blue eyes were still sparkling with admiration and awe.
"Cast it on me. I was the first one you ever cast magic on, Albion. Remember that wooden necklace? Thanks to your magic, I got to meet General Eghon. So I want to repay you too, Albion."
"I don't mind, but there are all kinds of magic. To practice healing or curse-breaking magic, I need a patient or someone under a curse."
"Can't you put a curse on me? Then you can just use your magic after that."
"If I did that, Sir Estan would try to kill me. Asking what on earth I think the Prince of Loegria is."
"I'll talk to Sir Estan. Albion, you're my only friend. So Sir Estan will understand too. Nothing's more important than loyalty and friendship."
"Uh, uh. I'm kind of grateful you'd say that, but."
I'd stake my damn hand on him not understanding. I stole a glance at Estan, still huffing and puffing behind us.
"......Just in case, see it for yourself first and then decide. Can you sneak out later when everyone's asleep? I'll show you incantation magic then."
"Okay."
Erman lowered his voice in case Estan heard. Quick on the uptake and sweet, as always. I ruffled Erman's silky hair in place of an answer.
The distance left from Puil to Tintagel... at this speed, it would take about 20 days.
The closer we got to Tintagel, the sparser the villages became, and narrow roads, forests, plains and wastelands took their place.
In the end, for all the money I'd squeezed out of Estan, we ended up sleeping in the open, and as soon as we'd settled in we fell dead asleep. Precisely speaking, only Daren and Pidrin did.
When I crawled out, dodging the eyes of Estan, who'd insisted on standing watch alone, Erman slipped out of his bedding too before long. We muffled our footsteps and tiptoed some distance away, and the moment we were in the forest, Erman started pestering me.
"You're going to show me this incantation magic now? What kind of magic is it?"
"Hold on a second. Why are you so impatient?"
It was my first time using incantation magic, so if possible I wanted to see the effects for myself before choosing. That was because Erman, full of expectation, was looking this way with sparkling eyes, and somehow it made my shoulders puff up.
All right. I'll let only Erman in on a little secret.
"Titania!"
"Huh?"
<You called, Albion?>
Glittering powder scattered in midair. As always, Titania appeared fluttering her translucent wings and began circling around my head.
I'd mostly been keeping her put away while I was awake, so she seemed happy to be out for once.
"Stop flying around. I called you to ask one thing. Am I the only one who can see you? Other people can't?"
<Well, obviously. If Erman or Calhog or Cadwin could see me, there'd have been an uproar in no time. And then I couldn't have helped you either.>
"A, Albion? Who are you talking to right now?"
"Hold on a sec. ......Then can't I set it up separately so other people can see you?"
Titania thought hard about my question, then did a handstand in midair.
<Well? It's not in the settings, but if you want, showing me to an NPC you designate should be possible? But I can't go as far as revealing the system. That's outside my authority. This world has a kind of binding force, so—>
"Anyway, so you can make it so people see you. Then let Erman see you."
<Aha? Only Erman?>
"I can't help it if I'm going to keep using the skills I unlock from now on. It's purely a measure for convenience, so don't look at me like that and just hurry up and do it."
<You're a shy one, aren't you, Albion? Mm-hm, got it. I'm the perfect adventure guide, so something like that is easy.>
Titania did one lap of the air, scattered glittering powder, and shot up high enough to reach the tree branches.
Light fell on Erman's face, and there was the sound of fingers snapping.
-Snap.
[> Render.Override("Forgotten_Key", observer="Erman", Visibility=Visible) [STATUS] SUCCESS]
The window that came up briefly vanished in an instant.
Titania came down slowly, fluttering her wings. The fairy's foot met the tip of Erman's small, straight nose.
Only then did the faint light flowing from Titania's body begin to reflect in his blue eyes. Erman's mouth slowly fell open.
***
<Hello, Erman?>
Just moments ago, it had been a quiet forest.
Dark, a little chilling, the kind of frightening place where you'd think it was lucky at least to have Albion along. A place where the cries of scops owls and horned owls sounded eerie.
But right before his eyes, a bright light shimmered. The thing slowly coming down from the sky was small and delicate, as if it might blow away or go out at the first breath of wind.
Without realizing it, Erman cupped his hands together and held up the light. Inside the light, whose weight he couldn't even feel, was a beautiful being unlike anything he'd ever seen.
<This one's name is Titania. The fairy of Tir na Nog who helps with Albion's adventure.>
"A fairy?"
He felt as if he'd lose his wits. A fairy was this small and pretty?
What he'd heard, surely, was that fairies played mean, nasty pranks, so you had to be careful. And also that humans had so disliked and shunned fairies that the fairies had gone off into the forests.
But Titania was smiling sweetly at him, and her wings looked fragile enough to break. She was so beautiful and wondrous that he couldn't possibly imagine her playing such wicked pranks.
<If you want magic that gives you a midsummer night's dream, just say so anytime. If you need a bad nightmare, that's welcome too, little human.>
"I, my name...... is Erman."
<I know, dear. I've been watching you all along with Albion.>
"Really? Since when?"
Erman looked to Albion for an answer, but Albion himself only tossed his head indifferently. He apparently had no intention of answering from the start.
"Titania. Bring up the Ogham skill, no, the magic."
Albion said this curtly and plopped down on the ground.
He put both hands on the ground and drew a brief breath, and the boy's voice spread low across the forest.
"<Open your eyes, behold, and hear.>"
Erman watched the sight, forgetting even to breathe. A language he had never once heard. Pronunciation with a grain similar to the short, sharp word Albion had shouted while aiming at Estan's chest.
A faint vibration rang out underfoot. As Erman faltered, sharp branches thrust up around his feet, one after another, and from between the split bark new shoots bloomed breathlessly.
Though no wind was blowing, Albion's bright hair rippled in the shadows.
"<I am the one who seeks without end. The one who pursues the truth beyond the stars.>"
"Albion, wait!"
"<A will that does not look away from the real. From the advancing foot I erase even hesitation, and here, now, I ask.>"
Titania sensed the danger and flew up. No sooner had Erman scrambled back than the growing stems shot up with a fierce sound.
This...... something was wrong. It was off. Erman's instincts warned him, but the two had already come to where there was no turning back.
-CRRRRACK!
"<My word is Luis. No concealment is eternal, so drive out falsehood and show me the hidden truth!>"
"Albion!"
At the same moment the incantation ended and Erman cried out Albion's name, rowan trees grown from who knows where twisted and tangled together and packed tightly around the two boys in the middle of the forest.