Chapter 112 – A Flower Blooming in the Mud (One)

The Loyalist Faction’s hideout, operations room.

Colin wore a flustered expression after hearing Ray’s story.

“…So, you’re saying we should lure all the enemies to one location and annihilate them in a single strike?”

A table with a sector map spread out.

Ray and Veronica sat across from it.

A mouse was perched on Ray’s hand, holding a piece of chocolate in its paws and nibbling away with full cheeks.

“To be precise, the targets for annihilation are only the Wizards, and Brook and his loyalists. We will lure in everyone, including those who were neutral, though.”

A murmur spread among the squad leaders standing behind Colin.

“Isn’t the idea of annihilating them all at once a bit unrealistic? Even if we figure out how to lure the enemies in the first place.”

“You’re a Wizard, so you wouldn’t just say something without reason…”

“……”

Amidst the confusion, 1st Squad Leader McCully recalled the situation from an hour ago.

The 1st and 2nd squads, having returned to the hideout, waited anxiously for Ray.

─Shouldn’t we go provide support again?

─Even if we go, our numbers won’t increase much with these personnel. We don’t have the leeway to pull troops from elsewhere.

─I’ll radio the other squads. To find out their return times. If support is possible.

The person who quelled the commotion and unease was unexpected.

─That won’t be necessary.

It was Veronica.

─Ray said to go back and wait.

A face filled with worry.

But the sentence carried an infinite trust in the boy.

─We just have to wait.

Filled with conviction, her voice left the 1st and 2nd squads with no choice but to accept Veronica’s opinion.

And so they waited for Ray.

During that time, the squad members moved the seized food supplies to the warehouse, and Veronica used Magic to tend to the wounded from other squads who began returning from engagements.

Nearly an hour passed.

─We should have forced the Wizard to wear a transceiver…

─Shouldn’t we go check on him now?

Just as the suppressed anxiety was beginning to amplify.

A radio call came down from the lookout on the roof.

「The Wizard is returning!」

Veronica flung away the arm of the wounded soldier she was treating and strode purposefully towards the building entrance.

The wounded soldier, whose discarded arm hit the bed frame, screamed ‘Agh! My arm!’ but she didn’t hear it.

The 1st and 2nd squads also gathered at the building entrance.

Creeeak───

The door opened and the boy appeared.

─Why is everyone gathered?

‘Why is everyone gathered?’

It was a tone that genuinely wondered.

McCully and the other squad members were momentarily flustered, at a loss for words.

Meanwhile, the girl who had been fussing around the boy, checking that he had no major injuries, wore a satisfied expression.

There were bloodstains on his dusty clothes, but they didn’t seem to be his own.

Bloodstains.

Whose could they be?

Within the given circumstances, there was only one plausible guess.

Gulp.

McCully swallowed and asked.

─Those two Wizards…

─I handled them.

Handled. No one was unaware of what that word meant.

A shiver ran through his chest.

A huge cheer erupted from the entrance.

As the excitement subsided, Ray spoke.

─Has Colin returned?

─Yes. Hyung returned a while ago after scouting 37th Street. Several other squads have also returned after securing supplies.

Though they returned with numerous serious casualties.

─I think it would be good to gather Colin and the other squad leaders in one place.

─Do you have something to say, Your Highness? Perhaps you should report to Colin Hyung first and get some rest…

McCully couldn’t finish his sentence.

─I’ve thought of a way to end the war.

Because of the words the boy spat out immediately after.

“……”

McCully snapped out of his reverie.

That was the reason everyone was gathered in the operations room now.

The boy’s summons.

But who would have thought the ‘way to end the war’ would be the idea of luring and annihilating the enemy.

“We’ve discussed lure operations in meetings before too.”

“But that was about funneling them into alleys, not buildings. And only some of the enemy engaged in combat, not all of them.”

“It’s a bit far-fetched…”

The murmuring only grew louder.

McCully looked at the other squad leaders showing negative reactions and thought.

‘These guys haven’t gone on a mission with him, so they don’t know.’

How powerful a Wizard the boy was.

And how quick his judgment and ability to act were.

There was undoubtedly an unconscious tendency to look down on him because he was a young boy.

That perception was perhaps unavoidable, even natural in a way, but McCully now knew.

‘He’s young, but he’s a veteran. I don’t know about his ability to plan operations, but at least when it comes to the act of fighting.’

He wouldn’t have spoken idly now.

Taking a steadying breath, he opened his mouth.

“I think it’s best to at least hear the Wizard out to the end.

“Everyone, quiet. Ray-nim’s story isn’t finished yet.”

McCully’s eyes met Colin’s, who had turned his head back.

The two, who had spoken almost simultaneously, exchanged the knowing look of ‘those in the know’ with faint smiles.

Ray continued his story.

“I used this mouse, with Familiar Magic, to scout the enemy area and return.”

Just then, Nero, who had been prowling around the hideout, hopped up onto the table.

It settled in the center of the table and stared intently at the mouse on Ray’s palm.

The moment the two animals’ eyes met.

……

……

The black tail swished with interest.

The twitching pointed snout stopped.

The mouse, clutching the chocolate piece, fled into Ray’s coat pocket, and the cat tried to climb onto Ray’s lap to touch it.

“No. It’s not food.”

While Ray put Nero down on the floor and gave it a warning, Veronica finished explaining Familiar Magic to the people.

“S-so, you mean you went and saw in detail what the enemy is doing inside?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Ray explained what he had seen.

“The enemy was digging into building floors in groups of five. In multiple locations. Using drills and Magic.”

The completely unexpected content caused everyone’s thoughts to momentarily freeze.

“Digging into… the floors?”

“Judging from their conversation, it seemed like they were looking for something.”

Four Opposition Faction operatives.

One Mercread Wizard.

Each group was composed like that.

The Wizard seemed to have a role in supervising the workers in addition to helping with the digging.

Perhaps they were Overseers to prevent the Opposition Faction operatives from pilfering whatever they dug up.

“So, it’s not under Brook’s orders that they’re digging.”

“Then they’re digging under the orders of those Mercread Wizards?”

“That probability is high.”

“Don’t tell me… Is that why they’re dragging out the war? To carry out their work comfortably in places where residents have evacuated?”

Murmuring spread again among the squad leaders.

Ray put an end to the debate.

“It’s correct that they’re digging under Mercread’s orders. Brook was also included in the workforce and was being monitored.”

Ray recalled what he had seen and heard through the mouse’s eyes and ears.

A street near the border zone.

It was the first floor of a general store that had temporarily closed.

Brook was working with his subordinates, digging up the floor with drills and pickaxes.

「Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why am I doing this shit!」

「H-hyung. Please lower your voice a bit… Th-the Wizard might hear on his way back.」

「Fuuuck! Let him hear if he’s gonna hear! We’re the employers! We’re the ones who paid to bring them here!」

Brook swung his pickaxe in anger.

Clang!

「If only we had pushed out Colin’s bastards earlier!」

Clang!

「And wiped them all out!」

Clang!

「Why are we dragging this out like idiots!」

Brook threw the pickaxe.

It hit the wall, bounced off, and the back of the handle struck Brook’s forehead.

Thud! Thump!

Brook, struck by the unexpected blow, fell backward.

Whoosh! Crash!

The pickaxe plunged into the earthen floor revealed by the peeled tiles. Right next to the face of the fallen Brook.

「……」

「……」

The pickaxing stopped, and silence flowed.

「H-hyung, are you okay?」

「Keheheh… Keheheheheh……」

Brook let out a laugh.

His body shook.

「Fuck! I thought I was gonna die! To come all this way! You think I’d die so easily!」

The subordinates watched Brook, who screamed as if having a fit, in silence.

「You think I’d die! After all the effort I put in to surpass that bastard Niles! To kill that idiot who couldn’t even use all the groundwork I laid!」

It was a strange thing.

The boy, separated from his Familiar mouse by a distance of hundreds of meters, suddenly felt anger.

He already knew Brook had betrayed Niles.

He wasn’t in a state of focused concentration to heighten his emotions.

So why was he angry?

Though the exact reason was unknown, the emotion the boy felt in that moment was undoubtedly genuine.

Snap!

Between the shelves of the general store, the mouse watching Brook and his subordinates bared its teeth fiercely.

Its tiny, white front teeth, the size of fingernails, were ferocious and threatening.

But unfortunately, that terrifying weapon did not sink into the neck of the human before it.

Because Ray had raised his composure and immediately quelled the anger.

After that, Brook unabashedly revealed his inferiority complex towards Niles.

「What was I lacking compared to that bastard? Compared to that uptight bastard! What! did I lack!」

「Yeah, maybe at first. But when the organization grows, you have to raise the rates too. With the number of operatives we have, who can live on that pittance of income!」

「Everyone secretly thought the money they got was too little. Right, isn’t that so? So why can’t everyone forget that bastard!」

Through the mouse’s eyes, he couldn’t see the emotions contained in Brook’s Vessel.

But how venomous the emotions he was emitting were could be sufficiently understood just from the content of his sentences and the agitation in his voice.

「O-of course, Hyung, you are far superior to that bastard Niles.」

「I also didn’t like how Niles ran the organization.」

The subordinates, while appearing very tense, also skillfully soothed Brook’s emotions.

Once he showed signs of calming down a bit, one subordinate swiftly changed the subject.

「But, is something like that really buried in this ground?」

「That’s right. To say it’s buried somewhere in this sector, isn’t that too irresponsible?」

「Goodness, at this rate, we’ll really end up turning over every piece of land in the sector.」

Brook got up from his spot.

Bending over, he picked up the pickaxe that had fallen to the ground and said,

「Wizards are an inscrutable lot to begin with. But the story about it being buried is probably true. They described it in such detail. It must mean the item they’re looking for is really that.」

Brook seemed to reminisce for a moment before speaking again.

「A gem that emits a brilliant yellow light, as dazzling as the bright sun. They said electricity might spark around it, so be careful when you find it.」

Zzzt! Zzzzt!

“……”

The lights in the operations room flickered before regaining their normal brightness.

Ray, emerging from his thoughts, parted his lips.

“The item they’re looking for seemed to be a gem. A gem that emits a yellow light.”

The murmuring stopped.

Everyone listened intently to the boy’s story.

“If I pretend to have secured that gem, I should be able to sufficiently lure the enemy. The place to lure them to.”

A small sphere of light blossomed from the tip of the boy’s finger and moved over the map.

“It’s here.”

The place where the sphere of light stopped was on the outskirts of 38th Street, belonging to the border zone.

To be precise, it was a basin surrounded by desolate rocky hills, with a few abandoned buildings inside.

Also, an unspoken fact was that it was a place located at the very edge of the observation range of the enemy executives.

“I went and saw it myself; the space is quite wide. They were all 4 or 5-story buildings. If we lure them there, there should be enough space for all the enemies to enter.”

Colin and the squad leaders had many questions they wanted to ask immediately.

It was a bit difficult to follow the boy’s train of thought.

But they believed he would explain everything if they waited, so they remained silent.

“I plan to annihilate all the enemy Wizards and make all the personnel who were neutral change their minds and surrender to the Loyalist Faction. To do that.”

Ray caught his breath.

“I plan to choose one building and draw a Magic Circle over the entire area of that building.”

“A Magic Circle… you say?”

“Yes. It’s a method of drawing the activation circle of Magic in a predetermined location to amplify its power.”

A statement that sounded impulsive at first glance.

However, all the statements Ray was currently making were the result of his own analysis and consideration of the situation.

‘The longer the war drags on, the more disadvantageous it is for the Loyalist Faction.’

The enemy was waging a grueling war of attrition, wearing down the Loyalist Faction to death.

With the human weapon known as Wizards.

And leveraging the vast field of view using Familiars.

‘If I participate, I can increase the chances of victory in battles, but.’

The problem was that engagements broke out simultaneously in various streets every day.

The enemy had about 30 Wizards.

On the other hand, this side had only himself.

‘…It’s still too much for Veronica to perform combat alone separately.’

Ultimately, the enemy and allies differed in the very scope they could cover engagements.

Also, from today’s engagement, he confirmed that there could be many 2nd Circle users among the enemy Wizards.

…No, it was almost certain there were many.

Before returning.

The other engagement sites he checked by sending the mouse.

The several Wizards he saw there clearly showed formidable skill.

‘If, while continuing guerrilla warfare, I get surrounded by many 2nd Circle users.’

Then even he couldn’t easily guarantee victory.

In the end, the conditions input into the boy’s mind were these.

End the war in a short time.

Also, assume a situation of facing multiple 2nd Circle users simultaneously.

During the return to the hideout, deep contemplation continued─

“Of course, drawing a Magic Circle is absolutely not an easy task. On the contrary, it’s a very difficult task with a high level of difficulty.”

─The boy recalled the method he used when dealing with Walter.

That was precisely a Magic Circle.

“But there’s no need to worry. Because we have an expert in Magic Circles.”

Ray turned his head.

Veronica, whose eyes met his, made a ‘Me?’ face.

Realizing everyone was looking at her, her cheeks flushed red.

But her shoulders, unbeknownst to her, rose a full three centimeters.

Clearing her throat and composing her embarrassment, Veronica spoke.

“Drawing it isn’t difficult. If you just tell me what kind of Magic Circle, where, and how much to draw. Besides, I won’t be drawing it alone, right? Right, Ray?”

“……”

“Ray…?”

“……”

“I’m not drawing it alone… right?”

The girl’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.