Hermit Wizard

The Master of Vigilance (5)

Walking all night? In this cold weather?

“Unlike Garam, I don’t have fun watching TV. In the last few days, I was looking out the window to organize my thoughts or meditate. Then I came to realize it naturally. I saw the same faces too often…”

“…”

“I have seen the same faces many times since last night.”

“Do you still see that person?”

When I looked out the window and asked, Mrs. Pearl, shook her head.

“It takes at least an hour or two to come back. I mean, those people come out every hour or two around your house and walk around it.”

“Or, it could mean that they are going around a wide range that takes one to two hours to make one round. Considering the normal walking speed, it is about 4km to 8km in a straight line…”

What? It was a strange revelation, something that raised concern. It couldn’t be. Doing some walking exercise all night long, even in such cold weather. No matter how much I thought about it, it wasn’t normal. I didn’t know what that person was doing, but I couldn’t just let it pass over.

When you found out that suspicious people were roaming around your neighborhood, it would be natural for ordinary people to feel anxious and report them. In this situation, it wasn’t easy to change the sudden way of thinking of trying to find out the culprit’s identity and know its purpose. Unless you were a person with quite many delusions or a self-conscious excess who believes the world revolved around you.

But I was different. If her story was true, it was too likely that the masterminds’ purpose was me. If anyone ever doubted my abilities or already spotted it, it was a reason to spy on me. As long as the culprit was walking around the barrier, I didn’t think that person was an alien. It must be human. Maybe they were sent from some country’s intelligence agency? Was I exposed to them? …How?

If I really was their target…how did they know my identity and where my home was? I couldn’t think of a plausible route. Did Mrs. Pearl lie? However, she had nothing to gain by telling such a crude lie.

“Does it also look suspicious to you, Yoon?”

As I nodded my head with a serious look, Mrs. Pearl, looking at my expression, asked.

I responded with a dark look, “It’s definitely strange to hear what you said.”

Once under the premise that what she said was true, I quickly started rolling my head to see if I had left any clues which could be traced back to me. When I summoned the Waterbird of Decay, I used magic at a level that ordinary people could recognize. Did they figure out those Waterbird’s flight paths? …No. It wasn’t known that the source was here because they moved in an invisible state. Moreover, at that time, since the Channel was first opened, there were no other races in Korea that could track the Waterbird. Let’s skip that one. Could there be any traces of Waterbird left near this apartment? It couldn’t be. The decay liquid they shed completely disappeared without a trace if there was no target. This was because the decay liquid wasn’t made by pure chemical action but a kind of magic instead.

The only place where they spilled magical materials produced by their biological organs except around Mapo Bridge was this apartment building’s rooftop. I confirmed that what spilled there was cleanly extinguished after a while. Even if someone collected the decay liquid left on the Mapo Bridge, it would be impractical to estimate this apartment’s location with it. Let’s also skip that one.

As I was so troubled, I was confronted with a possibility at the moment. I felt a cold chill on my back. No way…no way…

…Dasan Call Center?! No, I immediately denied it again. No, this was really too much.

“Because I know a little bit about the way humans behave…I felt suspicious. I’m sure you also think it’s suspicious, Yoon.”

Did they say that she lived with a human man for 40 years? Mrs. Pearl continued.

“Then, maybe what I’ve seen is not human? Is it something to do with the crack in that space…”

“…First of all, it must be human.”

Because if they were of an alien race, they couldn’t enter the apartment complex within the barrier without my permission.

“If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t know.”

They weren’t empty words, and it was very likely that if she hadn’t really told me, I couldn’t find them, and it would keep happening. They weren’t trying to break into my house, they were just wandering around, so there was no risk of getting caught in barrier magic. I had to literally see them myself to thin out the suspicious people among the humans in the barrier. It was unreasonable to search the entire range of several kilometers.

“I’ll have to do some reconnaissance around the apartment complex first.”

Since it required a formidable construction to expand the scope of the magic used to peek at Garam and Mrs. Pearl from inside our house to outside the house, I decided that it would be better to send a summon to explore directly. After organizing my thoughts, I came out of the veranda to call them. I couldn’t break the magic of concealment in front of Mrs. Pearl and reveal the Channel on my chest.

With that in mind, we walked into the living room. The boy sitting on the sofa stood up, looking at us. Was he listening? Ah, it didn’t seem like that. Something was in the hand of the boy looking our way. Mrs. Pearl’s silk cloth. They didn’t know when the letter would come, so it seemed to have been taken out. The boy got up from his seat, and he walked toward us.

Then he talked to Mrs. Pearl, “Did you finish talking? Another letter came.”

Mrs. Pearl, who received the silk cloth, glanced over the contents. Then, as if surprised, her eyes widened.

“The priest is coming directly?”

“That’s what it says. What a fuss. The elders, really.”

Garam clicked his tongue and spoke as if he had become annoyed.

“Since it’s been like this, it won’t take a few days, and he’ll be here right away. I’m going to sleep, so when the Daejong-maek comes, say hello and wake me up.”

Then he suddenly went to the sofa and laid down. What do you think you’re doing right now? When he raised his hands while lying on the sofa, the spirit of the magic that we had seen on the playground before came to mind. He flipped it over his body and immediately fell asleep with his nose snarled.

While I was out on the veranda, Parvache looked at Garam and clicked his tongue in the living room.

[What’s that all of a sudden?]

…Yes, I do all the star shows alone. I looked at Mrs. Pearl, asking for an explanation of how things were going.

“Ah… Garam made himself a dream for sleeping. It’s not a common dream, but it looks like he’s collecting something.”

…Ah, yes. Ignoring Garam, who was doing that, I just went into the room and tried to call a summon, but I changed my mind and ate instead.

The enormous Mana flowing out while inducing the existence of a different dimension couldn’t be easily concealed. It was different from the Mana used to seal this house’s door or spy around the house. I’m worried that I might get caught about the Channel on my chest if I drew uncalled attention. It was also worrying about leaving these two at home and going far. Come to think of it. I had to tell Parvache about the story I heard from Mrs. Pearl.

“Who is it that Daejong-maek? Daejong-maek?!”

It seems that I just heard a strange name in their conversation.

“Ah… Daejong-maek is famous for being very good at witchcraft among young Maek-Dream Eaters. At the same time, he was also a priest, and he was the one who received the title of Daejong. I thought they are going to send someone who had good witchcraft to look at the barriers that you made, but when I think about it, of course, he was worth sending.”

“Why?”

“Because Garam is here. Daejong-maek can use very high-level spells among the magic of Maek. Garam appears to be in the dream of the same race and tells a story, but I hear that the Daejong-maek doesn’t stop at appearing in dreams, but he also…”

I cut off Mrs. Pearl’s words.

“Can you ask him to come after a while? He wouldn’t be able to approach this far because of the barrier anyway, and I’m not in a situation to meet at the border right now.”

I couldn’t help but keep her mouth shut when she told me that much.

-Woong woong

Without any warning, lingering energy, like water and smoke, flowed through Garam’s nose and mouth. The energy gathered through the living room floor and eventually created a human-like phenomenon. And in the blink of an eye, there was a young man with long hair tied back, standing in front of us. Mrs. Pearl wrapped up what she had been saying, looking at the new young man.

“…Daejong-Maek appeared in a dream of his own people, and through that dream, it said that he could also use magic to move to the person’s side. This is the first time I have actually seen it.”

Then she turned her head and greeted the young man.

“Long time no see, Daejong-maek.”

“Hey, Mrs. Pearl. Long time no see.”

I couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat when I saw another person appearing before my eyes.

Ah, crazy.

As if not noticing my astonishment, the man looked at Parvache first with a calm expression.

“Ah… I don’t know what to call you…”

He continued with a strange smile on his lips.

“Greetings to those who have existed for many years. Your soul is so hazy that it is difficult to see, but this color must have been polished by a long time that I cannot measure. Forgive me for being ignorant of other worlds and not giving you the right name and title. I am Yusu from White Deer.”

He had a slippery voice. Even after receiving a long greeting, Parvache just nodded. Was he also on the alert now?

“And…you must be a Master Yoon. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

He looked at me with a big smile. I didn’t know what he meant, but the title suddenly increased when that kid called me. He looked at Garam and Mrs. Pearl in turn.

“Thank you for feeding these two for a few days and putting them to bed.”

“…”

My head was complicated, and I couldn’t hear his words properly.

“What a great soul, as I’ve heard. It’s the opposite of the person next to you. His soul was trembling so powerfully that I was blinded, but I can’t see the years’ colors because of its prestige. I see why they were misunderstood. If I hadn’t heard it beforehand, I would have mistaken you for the elder who crossed the wall without a hitch…how amazing!”

I wasn’t happy to hear such praise in this situation.

This guy. He appeared too easily. Inside my house! What flowed out of the sleeping Garam’s body was initially mental energy, but suddenly it turned into a teleport. Then that guy appeared without any disturbance in the middle of my house, which was the barrier’s magical center and equipped with all fifty thousand magical defenses.

What method did he use? The magic they used went beyond my common sense, no matter how many times I saw it. Space transfer was a magic that I couldn’t do without quite a bit of preparation. Nevertheless, I had made formidable arrangements to prevent teleports into this house in case of an emergency.

However, this race appeared here in an unimaginable way, as if making fun of my magic without touching my traps and defenses in the first place. I think it was a completely different method from the teleport principle I knew. If that method brought a strong person that I couldn’t handle in the barrier, it could be a pain. Under the premise that the words of Mrs. Pearl were true, it was a possible scenario as long as at least one member of Garam’s race was in this barrier first.

I didn’t know what the principle is, but I felt a sense of crisis that I needed to quickly find a way to reinforce this barrier. While I was in such a serious thought, Yusu slapped Garam, lying on the sofa, on the cheek.

“Hey, hey. Wake up, boy.”

“No…”

Garam quickly opened his eyes, perhaps because he was sleeping by magic.

“Ah, you have arrived.”

“You just saw me in my dream. Why are you saying hello again?”

Garam took a deep breath and exhaled, then stood up.

“Well, then, I have already explained everything in the dream. So, what do you want to do? Can I show you around if you’re going to go right away?”

“I have another memorial service tomorrow. We’d better move right away today. I have to finish it quickly and go back to White Deer.”

Then he looked at me and said, “Master Yoon, I have something to tell you. Could you please give me a moment?”