Chapter 134 – Leap (Three)

Curiosa, who had been waiting at the center of the Magic Circle, spoke upon seeing Ray.

“Finished with your farewells?”

“Yes. We can depart.”

“You don’t look particularly regretful. Then again, you said you can’t feel emotions.”

The voice behind the mask sounded utterly lifeless and haggard.

Ray looked around at the Magic Circle covering the vacant lot, composed of tens of thousands of lines and intricate patterns, then spoke.

“Thanks for your hard work. Both you and Veronica.”

Curiosa was momentarily stunned.

Soon, realizing Ray’s words carried a sense of appreciation, she chuckled and said.

“Right. Of course it was hard work. This is my masterpiece of the century. Consider yourself lucky. There’s probably no one else in the world but me who can design and draw a large-scale Teleportation Magic Circle like this.”

Curiosa, radiating confidence, suddenly paused.

Then, abruptly lowering her voice, she said.

“…But you should know. There’s a chance the teleportation could go wrong. In that case, you’d be horribly torn apart and die in a Spatial Rift. It’s an accident that happens even in short-distance teleportations, let alone one of this long distance.”

“……”

If her intention was to scare them, she probably needed to chase away that immense confidence brimming in her Vessel first.

‘It’s safe to assume a very high probability of success.’

Ray was composed.

Seeing his demeanor, Philip and Veronica also showed no particular agitation.

Just as Curiosa was slightly flustered by the unexpected reaction.

“Curie-nim.”

Veronica spoke.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll definitely find a way to remove the Curse Seal as well.”

The girl’s Vessel was filled with pure white worry.

Ray saw it, and Curiosa felt it.

A genuine and abundant emotion.

Curiosa, her breathing growing rapid, approached Ray and whispered softly by his ear.

“Give it to me. Calling me by a cute shortened version of my name doesn’t seem like such a great idea.”

“……”

“It’s a nickname too unfitting for someone of such dignity and grace.”

“……”

“There are stronger-sounding ones, you know. Like Curitron, or MegaCurie─.”

Why not say it yourself.

Ray gave her a strange look.

Anyway, the preparations for activating the Magic Circle proceeded swiftly thereafter.

“Is everyone ready?”

Curiosa, who had stepped outside the Magic Circle, amplified her voice and shouted.

Ray met her gaze and replied.

“Begin.”

It happened soon after.

Woooooong───!

With the resonant sound of immense Mana, the Magic Circle began to glow.

The pale purple and dark brown streaks of light starting from the Magic Circle’s outer edges raced in all directions along the tens of thousands of lines and patterns like boiling blood.

Wooooooooong───!!

A resonant sound so loud it made their ears feel stuffed.

Light so intense they couldn’t keep their eyes open.

That overwhelming force even created the illusion that the ground was shaking.

Seeing the light streaks converging more and more towards the center, Philip’s face turned pale.

“Hey, hey guys. We haven’t known each other long, but I, I think meeting you guys is the greatest fortune of my life!”

“Philip, stop talking nonsense. It’s a Magic Circle I participated in creating! There’s absolutely no problem with the design─.”

Wooooooooong────!!

“─…right? Ah, probably?”

The light streaks continued to surge ominously, heedless of Philip and Veronica’s anxiety.

“Almighty god, please look upon us here with mercy…”

“Philip, nothing will happen by praying to a voyeur.”

Around the time Philip began reciting a prayer he’d picked up somewhere.

Fwaaaaat───!

Light enveloped the world.

And a few seconds later.

Where their vision returned, nothing remained.

The wasteland on the outskirts of Sector 37.

Zzzzzzip!

The space in the air split open lengthwise and spat something out.

“──!”

“……!”

“…….”

Nyaa─

Sizzle! Thump!

Three humans and two animals.

The group appeared in mid-air, about two meters above the ground.

Thump─! Thud─!

Ray and Nero, who spun their bodies like acrobats in mid-air, landed safely on two legs and four paws respectively.

Whooosh── Pat!

Veronica, who had wrapped herself in wind, gently set foot on the ground.

“Uhehehe! I’m alive! I’m alive!”

Philip, hanging upside down in mid-air, caught by the wind, spat out a cry of joy.

“I’ll live a good life from now on!”

While trying to right his posture with the wind’s help, then.

“Thank yo─ Ughhhh!”

He vomited.

“Ugh, that’s why I said to skip breakfast just in case…? Ugh!”

Veronica, who had approached to help, saw Philip’s vomit and started throwing up as well.

…The girl had a weak stomach.

“Uweeehk!”

“Hueeehk!”

The two of them vomiting their guts out in harmony.

For now, aside from nausea, no particular side effects of the spatial teleportation seemed apparent.

Ray averted his gaze from the two and looked around.

“……”

An endless expanse of wasteland and road.

Sparsely piled Scrap Heaps.

The silhouettes of Sector buildings visible not far ahead in the distance.

…And the still hazy sky.

‘Nothing has changed at all.’

Ray took Walter’s Ring from his pocket and checked the arrows drawn by the Binding Magic.

Two pointing upstream along the river.

Two pointing downstream.

‘One of the downstream arrows is Curiosa.’

The Binding Magic settings had been readjusted by Curiosa.

So that they wouldn’t be tracked by the other Executives, but the two of them could still confirm each other’s locations.

‘The rest of the arrows are for the remaining 3 Executives.’

Vicious, Obsess, Lazy.

It was unclear exactly which arrow pointed to which Executive.

Also, Curiosa didn’t know much about the remaining three.

「We learned Magic and had the Curse Seals engraved after being taken to separate Laboratories. After that, we couldn’t see each other’s faces anymore.」

What type of Magic they wielded.

What kind of Emotional Curse they were subjected to.

Those were facts they could only learn upon direct encounter.

「Before being taken to the Laboratories?」

「Before that, we lived in the same orphanage. We weren’t close, but what I remember about those three…」

Curiosa trailed off for a moment.

「…They were cunning.」

「Cunning?」

They were the type whose minds worked exceptionally fast in unpleasant ways—bullying others, forming cliques, giving orders.

「Be careful, kid. Your strategy of exploiting emotional weaknesses might not work on them.」

「And don’t forget, the 4th Circle is a level that could be called a human weapon in itself. You beat Allerger easily, but that wasn’t the normal case.」

“……”

He had no intention of avoiding encounters with the remaining Executives.

Since they might know more about the Doctor and Mercread than Curiosa did.

…Although, it was highly probable that combat, rather than conversation, would be chosen as the means of negotiation.

‘It doesn’t matter.’

The more he dismantled the organization, the higher the chance the Doctor would appear.

For now, it seemed there would be no encounter with the remaining three Executives here.

Putting the ring back in his pocket, Ray approached the two who were still suffering.

“Are you both alright?”

“Ah, I don’t think I’m alright! Ugh, uwehhk!”

“A-ah, no! Ray, don’t come over here! H-huehk!”

“……”

The commotion continued for a while.

About ten minutes later.

Philip, who had slumped onto a discarded sofa nearby, spoke.

“I really came back from the dead.”

“Ugh. I told you we should have come on an empty stomach.”

Veronica also looked drained of energy, but seemed to avoid sitting on the sofa, perhaps worried about dirtying her clothes.

Afterwards, the group checked their physical condition.

“Aside from some slight body aches, there don’t seem to be any special aftereffects?”

“Yeah. Not a lot, just a little? I think it’ll be fine after about a day.”

Originally, spatial teleportation was said to come with considerable aftereffects.

Curiosa herself had said that if she skipped a Sector, she’d be bedridden with body aches for the whole day.

‘She must have put a lot of care into designing the Magic Circle.’

Ray thought he should properly thank her later.

It was at that moment that Curiosa, who was tidying up the Magic Circle, suddenly looked around frantically, sensing some unknown energy.

The group, having finished their rest, got up and began walking towards the Sector.

Tap─ tap─ tap─

Since it wasn’t too far, they could reach the outskirts before long.

“So far, it doesn’t seem much different from the Sector 40s.”

“No. Curie-nim said it. She said there’s a clear difference between the 30s and 40s.”

The children passed through the outer district streets while observing their surroundings.

Old, damp buildings.

People with lifeless expressions.

The Slum scenery, familiar to the point of being tiresome.

Then, Philip noticed a difference from the previous Sectors.

“Is that number on that sign real?”

[Street 192-2]

A truly vicious number of digits.

Veronica’s mouth fell open.

“Sector 46 had up to Street 61, right? So simply put, that means this place is at least three times larger…”

The Slum scenery that seemed endless no matter how far they walked added credibility to the speculation.

Tap─ tap─

“……”

Unlike the other two, Ray was focusing not on the scenery but on the emotions contained in the Vessels of the residents.

Depression, anxiety, regret, frustration,

Loneliness, feeling lost, wariness……

‘Just in case it was different.’

They were emotions of gloomy hues.

Commonly seen in any Slum.

Perhaps the forms of anxiety and poverty don’t change much no matter where you go.

Tap─ tap─

Perhaps thanks to their fancy attire.

Compared to the number of vagrants teeming in the streets and alleys, the number of provocations directed at them was remarkably low.

Most judged them as targets not to be messed with upon seeing them.

And those who didn’t─

“Kihihi, hey, stop for a sec…?”

Swish! Thud! Crash!

“Ahhhhk!”

─had to have the backs of their hands shattered by Ray’s descending work boot.

Crunch!

“Ahhhhk! H-h-h-huk! I’m sorry!”

“Is this really Sector 37?”

“Y-yes! P-please! M-my, my hand! Guk!”

Ray squeezed information out of the vagrants like lemons.

Whether this was indeed Sector 37.

How large the Sector was.

If there were organizations occupying the streets.

And other minor details Curiosa hadn’t been able to remember one by one.

Crackle!

“Kuaaaahk! Y-yes! I, I know what Magic is! Kuk! M-Magic tools aren’t c-common, but they are u-used…! Guk─!”

Thud!

A vagrant who couldn’t bear the pain fainted, smashing his head on the ground in front of the knife he had dropped.

“……”

Ray slowly lifted his foot from the back of the other’s hand.

Philip and Veronica exchanged glances.

‘He’s definitely harsher than usual, right?’

‘Yeah. He was always harsh, but it seems more so now.’

They thought perhaps he was reacting more sensitively to external threats upon arriving in a new environment.

The increased Sector area meant the number of lurking dangers and variables within had also increased.

Crack!

“Ahhhhk!”

Philip and Veronica’s speculation was indeed correct.

But the real reason Ray’s methods had become harsher was different.

It was because.

The black malice in the vagrants’ Vessels had first surged not towards him, but towards Philip and Veronica.

“Kueuuk! T-the organization with the g-greatest influence in the e-eastern streets is─! H-kuk!”

By the time the fifth vagrant’s hand bones crunched.

Ray and the group were able to sketch a rough outline of the place called Sector 37.

How much time had passed repeating this cycle of information extraction and movement?

The group realized the surrounding buildings were gradually becoming taller and cleaner.

It was the boundary between the Slums and the general city area.

Philip spoke with a tired expression.

“Phew. Finally out. If the Sector is this big, moving around without a car would be tough too.”

The group’s top priority destination was the Ignis cash withdrawal machine said to be in the Sector center.

The Black Cards obtained from John and Skyle in the Sector 48 wasteland.

They planned to check how much money was deposited there and then make activity plans accordingly.

…But at this speed, it might take hours to get there.

“Hmm, should we cast Enhancement Magic on our legs and move?”

“Wait a moment.”

Ray, cutting off Veronica, looked towards one side of the street and said.

“That might not be necessary.”

A Rickshaw in the form of a bicycle with a large passenger seat in the back.

A shabbily dressed man dozing off on the saddle.

“Uh… can we ride that?”

“Hmm. There were sometimes Rickshaws in the downtown area where we lived too.”

“Right. For out-of-town travelers. But ultimately, it’s pulled by a person, so the speed wouldn’t be that great…”

Philip trailed off and looked at Ray.

At that moment, Ray’s eyes were seeing something different from the other two.

Colored Mana was flowing through the Rickshaw’s steel frame.