Ch.147Chapter 6. Hellfire Peninsula (4)

At that moment, Incheon Port.

Thud.

At dusk, as Incheon Port gradually darkened, a small boat arrived at the dock.

It was a vessel that shouldn’t have been able to arrive at all, but something like magical energy surrounded the exterior of the boat.

“Wow, boss. It’s complete chaos here.”

“Shut up. It’s because of that chaos that we were able to get in.”

Two men with sharp features disembarked from the boat, followed by a small girl who appeared to be less than 10 years old.

“Kid. Sink the boat. Make sure it sinks naturally somewhere in the Yellow Sea.”

“…Cough.”

The girl coughed up blood. Red blood flowed between her fingers, and the relatively larger man quickly checked her condition.

“Boss, she’s exhausted. Do you know how many detours we took to get here from Shanghai? She needs rest.”

“You idiot. That’s a monster. Even in a one-on-one fight, this little girl would beat you. This is nothing to her. She’ll recover soon.”

The man pulled something out of his pocket with a cold expression and put a watch on his wrist.

“I don’t know why Korea is in such chaos, but what matters is that this is our opportunity. With ability users scattered across the country, it’s the perfect situation to approach them. So from now on, we’ll…”

“Recruit them into the Chilryunhoe?”

Flash!

Lights suddenly illuminated Incheon Port, shining on the group that had disembarked from the boat.

“Kuk…! How…!”

“No matter how well you concealed your boat with mana, you can’t escape from Cheonrian.”

“Kuk…! Is Korea’s surveillance ability monstrous…!”

“Haven’t you watched too many pre-2010s movies? Sneaking in from the west by boat—that hasn’t worked for a long time.”

“You…! [Crater]!”

“That’s right.”

A-rank hero Crater clenched his fist lightly and extended it toward the man.

“Things are already chaotic enough without you guys causing trouble. Will you surrender quietly, or should I make your organization cut ties with Chilryunhoe?”

“Arrogant… Just because you’re a Korean ability user, you think you’re strong as an individual?!”

“Yeah. That’s part of it, but.”

Clap, clap.

As Crater clapped his hands, soldiers in black suits lined up behind him, standing guard.

“We’re now stronger than you guys.”

“Kuk…! Getting stronger just because a meteor happened to fall in your country…!”

“So what? If that’s how we got strong, then you should get as strong as us too. Haven’t you heard of the Miracle of Nakdong River?”

“Shut up!”

The man pulled out two sashimi-like knives from his pocket.

“Brother Wang!”

“Jangga! Take that child and run! We’re done for! You must return to the mainland with that child!”

“I won’t let you escape! You child abusers who forced a 10-year-old to use magic until she had a nosebleed!”

Magical energy began to solidify like a glove over Crater’s clenched fist.

“You may look human on the outside, but you’re no different from demons!”

As Crater began to charge forward, the soldiers behind him opened fire with their rifles.

“Chilryunhoe demons in human disguise! I’ll arrest all of you!!”

* * *

Crack!

In the middle of the school playground, a massive ice pillar about 5 meters tall formed.

The ice pillar was as thick around as a 500-year-old zelkova tree that might be considered a local landmark in a rural village.

Crack, crack.

Inside the white ice pillar, a demon who had been about to unleash what looked like an ultimate skill with both arms spread was frozen in place, its sharp teeth exposed.

“Phew.”

Baek Seol-hee took a light breath as she examined the interior of the ice pillar that sealed the demon.

The demon’s eyes were fixed on her.

Just before freezing, the look in its eyes had clearly been nothing but rage and murderous intent.

“Is… is it really okay…?”

“Yes, it’s fine. Unless it breaks out with a force stronger than my seal, the seal will hold.”

“Haa, we’re saved…!”

The person who appeared to be a staff member sighed in relief and sat down.

He wasn’t from the Academy but was one of the staff members from a regular high school.

“Thank you, really thank you. These kids, instead of evacuating when the demon appeared, they kept taking out their smartphones to record it…!”

“……”

Click, click.

Camera flashes sparkled from the direction of the classroom.

Students in school uniforms were pressed against the windows, busy taking photos with their smartphones of the sealed demon and Baek Seol-hee in the middle of the playground.

“What about the evacuation announcement?”

“The announcement was made. But this student here….”

“……”

A high school girl with injuries on her face kept her head down silently.

The girl was wearing a uniform from a regular high school, not the Academy uniform, and magical energy was flowing from her clenched fist.

“Ah. Headquarters. Please confirm.”

Baek Seol-hee placed her hand on her Taegeuk Watch.

“Is this what I think it is?”

[Yes. She’s a civilian. A student who has been hiding her ability.]

There are many people in the world who live openly with their abilities.

But very rarely, there are those who hide their abilities.

There’s no time to go into all the reasons now.

Baek Seol-hee approached the high school girl and took her hand.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, Yejin, we were able to safely seal the demon. And no one… not a single person died.”

“…What happens to me now?”

“Hwang Ye-jin. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

Baek Seol-hee glanced at her name tag, then placed her hand on Hwang Ye-jin’s shoulder and patted her gently.

“You haven’t done anything wrong, Yejin. You stepped up to save people. Some people might talk about how it’s sinful to hide your abilities, but… it’s okay. I, the Association, will help you.”

Baek Seol-hee hugged Hwang Ye-jin and patted her back.

At the same time, she used ice crystals that had scattered on the ground to discreetly observe what was happening in front of them, making sure others’ cameras couldn’t see.

-Wow, insane. Did Snow White just hug her? This is epic!

-Shouldn’t we report this? So creepy. She’s been living among us like it was nothing all this time. She could have killed us with just a flick of her finger.

-Hey. Didn’t you pick a fight with her last time?

-I didn’t know! Oh god…! Why would an ability user secretly hide in a regular high school…!

-She can hear us. Hehe. Be careful? They say you become a demon if you hear that.

She understood their fear.

To them, ability users were like ticking time bombs.

“It’s okay, Yejin. Your life will be very different from now on, but there was nothing wrong with what you did. You tried to save people. Right?”

“…That demon.”

Hwang Ye-jin pointed at the demon with a face that looked like she might cry.

“Is it… dead?”

“We don’t know yet. Whether it lives or dies. That’s… a matter that depends on her choice.”

Baek Seol-hee looked up at the sky briefly, then stepped back from Hwang Ye-jin.

And then—

Whoosh!

She lightly rolled her foot on the ground, creating a circular ice barrier taller than the high school wall.

Waaah!

People cheered just seeing Baek Seol-hee use her ability.

Ignoring them lightly, Baek Seol-hee placed her hand on her Taegeuk Watch.

“Yejin. I’d like to talk more, but demons are rampaging in other places too. There might not be someone like you there, so I need to go help. Let’s talk more deeply later.”

“…Yes!”

Seeing that color was returning to Hwang Ye-jin’s face, Baek Seol-hee smiled and spread her wings again.

Flutter.

Creating wings of ice, she jumped from the ground and lightly landed on the ice pillar.

The pillar, which had seemed to shake momentarily, stabilized as soon as Baek Seol-hee stepped on it gently, and she leaped high into the sky, spreading her wings.

“This is Snow White. A-rank demon sealed in Daejeon. You know the situation, so come quickly and clean up. Don’t make A-rank heroes do unnecessary work.”

[Ah, understood! We’ll dispatch personnel and take care of it right away! The demon is…]

“Sealed for now.”

Baek Seol-hee took out her smartphone and checked the map.

She had passed through a total of 19 locations.

Demons were sealed in ice pillars at each location, and so far, no one had died.

But.

“How many demons… have died?”

[From what we’ve confirmed, about 20… entities have died.]

“…Kuk.”

Baek Seol-hee flapped her wings faster and headed south.

“I’m heading to Jindo right now, so please have headquarters deal with the C-rank demons in between! I’m going to face… an S-rank demon!”

[Yes! Um, Snow White! Right now, the ‘Goblin’ is also heading toward Jindo along the southern coast!]

“What?”

Baek Seol-hee suddenly stopped her wings.

“Goblin? Are you crazy, were all the demons killed by the Goblin?”

[Not all of them. The Goblin is also… well.]

The headquarters agent continued, sounding somewhat dumbfounded, as if witnessing an unbelievable reality.

[The Goblin is currently subduing demons. Those that have eaten humans are killed, but…]

“……!”

Something resonated deeply in Baek Seol-hee’s chest.

“The Goblin is… subduing demons?”

[It’s somewhat violent, but right now he’s beating demons with a club and then…]

“…Beating demons?”

[Yes. And now, this is something that doesn’t make any sense, but…!]

A video sent by the headquarters agent appeared on Baek Seol-hee’s smartphone.

[Right now, the Goblin is sealing demons in something like talismans!]

“……?”

No way.

“How is that even—”