The Captain of the Pursuit Squad of the Namgung Clan.
Bright Moon Sword Song Gwang-sik, who had been observing Il-hyang from a distance.
His reaction was swift.
‘We caught the Mansi Sect’s tail!’
This was an enormous achievement.
He immediately sent word to the Namgung Clan.
Fortunately, a Namgung Clan branch house was not very far from this place.
“What should we do?”
“About what?”
“Shouldn’t we intervene?”
“Just us?”
“They’ll die.”
The Vice Captain of the Pursuit Squad.
Na Han-il could not hide his pity as he watched the fleeing wanderers from afar.
At that sight, Song Gwang-sik smirked.
It was a laugh that seemed terribly parched and dry somehow.
“If they die, then nothing can be done about it.”
If they got involved now, there was a risk that the Mansi Sect bastards would pack up the entire operation and all flee.
‘We can’t have that.’
It was unfortunate, but it would be better if the wanderers were caught and killed right now.
That was what he thought.
But the situation began to turn a little strange.
“Huh?”
He had not expected it at all, nor had he wanted it.
But the four wanderers fleeing over there.
Each of them had one decent trick.
The wanderers scraped together the capital they had.
And in the end, to everyone’s utter surprise.
They succeeded in escaping from the Mansi Sect’s puppet.
“……That’s unexpected.”
“It truly is.”
Leaving behind the puppet burning in flames.
The wanderers clenched their teeth and fled.
Like that, they reached the official road and finally shook off the pursuit.
“……It hurts…… Si-u hurts so much…… Sister! Sister, where are you……?”
The puppet made of wood was turning into a lump of charcoal, yet it still raised its severed arm and flailed it about.
The sight was nothing short of grotesque.
“……When will the experts from the branch house be able to arrive?”
“I sent word by carrier hawk, so shouldn’t they arrive in about two days?”
“That’s too late.”
Bright Moon Sword Song Gwang-sik felt deep regret inside.
The matter had become tangled.
It might sound a little cold, but.
The wanderers should have been captured by that peculiar puppet instead.
But now that they had succeeded in escaping like that.
‘The Mansi Sect bastards will run off again.’
Then everything would return to nothing.
Even now, he had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Song Gwang-sik irritably scratched the back of his head with his hand.
Then, with a slightly hollow expression, he looked at Vice Captain Na Han-il.
“Is the escape route secured?”
“Yes. I’ve deployed the men.”
“……Now that it’s come to this, if needed, we intervene. Tell them in advance.”
“Understood.”
The situation had become quite troublesome.
He had not intended to participate directly.
He had meant to delay it until the very, very end.
‘One way or another, we have to hold them here, even if only by the ankle.’
Should he scatter Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense even now?
But this was not the first or second time they had lost the bastards after trusting only that.
Yet if they intervened directly, the danger level would rise several times over.
By his estimation, the Mansi Sect expert who had come here was at least a Captain-level master or higher.
Otherwise, why would they openly send people back to a place that had already been completely raided once by the Thousand Blood Sect?
‘How many Blood Jiangshi did they move?’
He could not gauge it.
At least the puppet doll burning before his eyes was only at Peak Expert level, so it would be manageable if they had to face it.
But if there were two or more Blood Jiangshi.
Operations or whatever else aside, running away would be the correct choice.
‘No. Should we run away right now?’
When they had already caught the tail?
Did they really have to give up like this?
Song Gwang-sik’s mind grew complicated.
Then, suddenly.
His thoughts even reached Il-hyang, who had originally been their surveillance target.
‘What the hell was that bastard thinking, coming here again?’
At first, Song Gwang-sik had thought Il-hyang was in league with the Mansi Sect.
But what was this?
The fellow had obediently been kidnapped and dragged away by the Mansi Sect’s minions.
From that point on, he had felt things proceeding differently from what he had expected.
‘What a headache. I need to know whether that bastard is an ally or an enemy.’
If that bastard was an ally?
The matter might be resolved easily.
But if he was an enemy?
‘Even if all the experts from the branch house come, we won’t be able to guarantee victory.’
It might be different if even one elder of the clan came.
The plan was turning into a complete mess in an entirely unexpected place.
At that moment.
“Did you all do this?”
“……!”
A woman’s voice suddenly rang out.
In that instant, Song Gwang-sik felt the hairs on his head stand on end.
***
Magic circle.
What had been called a Magic Circle in the lower dimension.
This was an act of dividing a kind of boundary.
When drawing a magic circle.
One clearly defined the boundary between inside and outside.
Then used the language of the world, in other words, runic script, to intentionally twist the rules of the world.
‘That’s the most basic part.’
The higher one’s achievement in magic grew.
Or the deeper one’s understanding of runic script became.
The form of a magic circle rapidly simplified and shrank in size, while its power instead grew stronger.
The method for gauging the skill of the mage drawing a magic circle was very simple.
A mage’s ability was judged by how much they could raise the power of a magic circle with a simpler form.
In the lower dimension, Il-hyang had defined the entire process by which magic circles were simplified as “compression.”
In that sense, the magic circle before his eyes right now was very, very low-grade and crude.
‘But it’s a dangerous kind.’
The first thing he saw as soon as he carefully emerged into the corridor with the children.
Was a massive, complex-patterned magic circle drawn outside the stone door of the room where they had been confined.
He had felt it even while inside the room, but overall, the flow of mana had been unstable and unpleasant.
Now the reason was clear.
‘This is a kind of brainwashing magic.’
Because it used extremely primitive runic script, he could not interpret it precisely.
But he could properly read the flow of mana running through the entire runic script drawn in the magic circle.
This was certainly magic that directly interfered with the mind.
Mental magic was a kind of magic that had been thoroughly forbidden in the lower dimension where Il-hyang had originally lived.
After all, it was magic of the black magic line that demons had specialized in.
‘They mean to control the minds of the sacrifices and have them directly offer human sacrifice to something.’
For that, the effect of the magic circle seemed extremely feeble.
But in this place, there were still many special medicines that Il-hyang had yet to fully understand.
If they borrowed the power of medicine too, actual mind control might have been possible.
‘But.’
Even if voluntary human sacrifice were possible.
Unless the one receiving the sacrifice was at least Demon King-class.
This sort of human sacrifice inevitably produced an extremely small return compared to the resources invested.
‘Or not? Is the value of human souls not so high here?’
While Il-hyang briefly stared at the magic circle, lost in thought.
The children stood forlornly in the corridor, lingering around Il-hyang.
Growl—
At the sudden sound of a stomach rumbling, Il-hyang came to his senses and turned his head.
“Ahem, ahem. This is a reaction unrelated to my will. C-continue what you were doing.”
Because Il-hyang had been examining the diagram drawn on the door with such a serious expression.
An Won-myeong averted his gaze with a needlessly embarrassed look.
Il-hyang was still covered in blood.
Thanks to that, An Won-myeong still found Il-hyang terribly frightening.
“No, Young Master. Getting out of here comes first.”
“Right?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
With those words, Il-hyang took the lead.
In any case, now that he had found the target of the request.
Rather than clashing head-on with the Mansi Sect, getting out of here seemed better.
They were about to head outside like that.
‘The place where I escaped before looked like the back gate, judging by this building’s structure.’
After pondering for a moment, Il-hyang stared steadily at the front gate.
In ordinary circumstances, there was a high possibility that all sorts of traps had been set up in that direction.
‘Let’s go toward the back gate.’
In truth, this was an improvised judgment.
But in conclusion, Il-hyang’s decision this time was an excellent one.
‘……There’s no obstruction at all?’
Honestly, he had braced himself to run into traps or guards once or twice.
But unexpectedly, they received no obstruction at all until they slipped out through the back gate.
‘What is this?’
All the children had been terrified that something might leap out from the doors on either side of the corridor and attack them at any moment.
Yet there was not even the slightest sign of that.
‘Lucky.’
If he had been escaping alone, he was confident he could flee somehow whether there were enemies or not.
But right now, Il-hyang had roughly eighty children attached to him as extra mouths.
He wanted to avoid encountering enemies as much as possible, so this was very fortunate.
“Ohhh! It’s outside.”
“Waaah!”
Eighty children burst into exclamations all at once and breathed in the outside air.
Though the scenery was somewhat desolate, made up of rocks and stony mountains.
An Won-myeong and the other children were simply happy at the fact that they had come outside.
Il-hyang was the same.
‘Now if we just leave this place like this…… Huh?’
THOOM—
While guiding the children through a valley between the stony mountains.
Il-hyang suddenly whipped his head around at the vibration of mana spreading through heaven, earth, and the four directions.
‘This is?’
His pupils expanded, and the blood in his body began racing swiftly.
It was certain.
This was magic right now.
And it was wide-area magic cast by a mage of at least intermediate level.
In that instant, an intense light flashed in Il-hyang’s eyes.
‘This is the real thing.’
In this world, were they called immortal cultivators or Sorcerers?
Well, the title did not particularly matter.
Il-hyang grew dizzy at this fairly distinct, chilling tremor that shook the air.
‘Dangerous.’
If he ran into that person, he would probably die.
A wave of this level was at minimum 4th Circle magic.
From the 4th Circle onward, it was a realm where one could say mages broke their shells and carved out their own path.
That was why curiosity boiled up in him like mad.
What kind of view did mages of this world have toward magic?
What magic was that?
Was it truly worth risking danger?
His hesitation was brief.
“Young Master. If you follow that path from here, you’ll find a side path used by herb gatherers. Follow that down the mountain.”
“Mm? What about you? You’re not coming with us?”
Il-hyang glanced at An Won-myeong, who was sniffling.
Then he fixed his gaze south again and answered.
He could not be bothered to explain at length.
So.
“There is a pursuer over there.”
“What? Really? Where?! Is he over there?!”
Clear terror surfaced on An Won-myeong’s flustered face.
The children around him also looked around with frightened faces.
“There is still some distance, but someone will have to become bait here.”
“Th-then…….”
Il-hyang tried his best to draw the most solemn expression possible onto his face and said, “Do not worry about me and hurry away, Young Master.”
“You…….”
For an instant, An Won-myeong was choked with emotion.
But he immediately nodded shamelessly with his uniquely plump face.
“All right. Then I’ll leave it to you!”
With that fat body, An Won-myeong moved faster than anyone else.
He pushed aside the children blocking his path and advanced.
“Move! Move, you lot!”
The fellow hurriedly moved along the dried-up watercourse of the valley that Il-hyang had explained.
Several children stayed behind and hesitated for a moment as they looked at Il-hyang, who had volunteered to be bait.
But.
BOOM— RUMBLE—!
From far away.
When a tremendous explosion that anyone could feel rang out, they all screamed and ran down.
Once the hindrances had disappeared like that, Il-hyang let his stiff expression melt loosely and rubbed his lips.
“Ah, as expected, I really can’t resist.”
He knew there was danger over there no matter who looked at it.
But he could not endure this.
Il-hyang was a mage.
From the very beginning, mages.
Were a hopeless breed whose important screws in their heads had gone wrong.
“Ahahahahat!”
As he felt the mana in the air running wild like mad, Il-hyang felt his heart leaping for the first time in a long while.
How should he describe this emotion?
At the extremely clear scent of magic he was feeling for the first time since coming to this world.
Il-hyang’s expression became one of rapture, like an adolescent boy struck by the fever of first love.
‘My mouth is watering so much I’m going insane.’
Death?
Fear?
Those things were nothing before new knowledge.
The closer he drew to the source.
The more he felt the flow of mana changing to an astonishing degree.
Magic operated in such an irregular method.
What kind of magic was it?
Danger coming for him or whatever else.
Il-hyang did not care at all.
He was simply half out of his mind at the thought of encountering a new kind of magic.
If he could face new magic.
To Il-hyang, something like his life was utterly trivial.
Like that, one screw-loose madman was rushing toward death like a moth to flame.