episode_0112

A few hours after the incident.

“So, you’re the new Inspector-nim, right?”

“That’s right, Irene-yang.”

After being barely rescued with her friend’s help, Irene came to the Inspection Bureau with a man who suddenly appeared and claimed to be an Inspector-nim. She had heard of such a position but had never seen one in person.

“Do you need anything else?”

“I’m fine. I just used too much magic in a short time and got exhausted. Can I go now?”

“No, Irene-yang. You need to rest for a few more days. Please call if you need anything.”

She was puzzled. It was the first time she had met this person, yet he was treating her so kindly. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t even told him her name, but he knew who she was. Even his gaze felt somewhat burdensome.

“We will soon find out who attacked you. I will do my best to help.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

Irene closed her eyes for a moment. The attackers? She didn’t want to be sure, but several negative possibilities came to mind.

‘No way, it can’t be…’

At that moment, the Inspector-nim posed a question.

“Those people, who are they?”

“Those people, you mean?”

“I mean the people who were with Irene-yang. Can you tell me who they are?”

He must be talking about Violet.

Hearing the Inspector-nim’s words, Irene recalled the request Violet had made on their way here.

“Irene! Just listen! If anyone asks about us, tell them this!”

She had conveyed several instructions through the communicator she had placed in her ear.

Irene recalled her friend’s circumstances.

‘If she gets investigated, it might get complicated.’

Violet was a former research subject. Moreover, her abilities were too useful, even in Irene’s own opinion.

She wondered if she could truly trust this young man who introduced himself as an Inspector-nim. He was too kind, as if he knew her, which made him suspicious. No matter what, she couldn’t put her friend in trouble.

“Do you know who they are?”

Irene decided to lie to protect her friend. Remembering the instructions from Violet’s communicator, she opened her mouth.

“Those people? They’re a secret security detail my father prepared in advance.”

“A security detail?”

The Inspector-nim’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.

What name did Violet say to use? She combined a few requests and pieces of information her friend had given her to come up with an answer that would suffice.

“…They’re called the Ariel Group.”

Violet’s hastily given alias transformed into a suspicious armed organization.

“Ariel Group?”

“Yes. I’d only heard of such a thing before. This is the first time I’ve seen them in person.”

“Is that so…”

The Inspector-nim thought for a moment, then gave a few more instructions before leaving the room.

As he stepped outside, the Inspector-nim sighed. Seijis was inwardly perplexed.

‘It’s a relief that Irene was saved, but something is wrong.’

This was different from the situation he knew. He didn’t know everything about the future, especially what had happened five years ago.

After all, at that point in time, he wasn’t an Inspector-nim. He only had the information he had investigated to some extent before coming back through the loop of time.

His early placement in this position by five years was the result of a trick facilitated by his knowledge of the future and a few skills.

‘It’s very different from the future I know. Why?’

Originally, Irene Solstis’s kidnapping incident would have happened a few weeks from now.

The location and time were also different. It was in the vicinity of the western district, in the middle of the night. The perpetrators and reasons for the kidnapping were unknown. She had barely escaped from her confinement right after the academy collapsed due to an unknown incident.

Most importantly, the person herself didn’t talk much about what happened at that time. It was a story he could only hear because he was close to her.

The current situation was different. The kidnapping attempt occurred in broad daylight in front of her house. The process also changed. A gunfight broke out in the middle of the city, and even the outcome was altered.

‘Could my existence have affected the time when things were supposed to happen?’

He recalled concepts of alternate history, time travel, and time paradoxes.

‘Ariel Group? I’ve never heard of such a thing. If it existed, she wouldn’t have been kidnapped.’

Seijis re-examined the data he had just seen. Inside the tablet monitor were surveillance camera footage of the city and organized reports. It was the situation during the gunfight.

He repeatedly watched the scene where over a hundred armed soldiers appeared from within the smoke.

They fought against the armed organization attempting to kidnap Irene and disappeared back into the smoke when he arrived.

An armed organization in black attire, not hesitating to use explosives.

They appear anywhere, anytime.

Presumed to have teleportation abilities. Uses perception-disruption devices. All have similar builds. A clone army?

The Federation? It’s possible those sinister bureaucrats interfered. The Four Great Clans? While they cooperate for their own causes, they fight for dominance behind the scenes. They might have intervened.

Or there are other secret societies.

Suddenly, a possibility came to his mind.

‘Is it the Obsidian Legion? No way, it can’t be the Witch of Boundless Power, can it?’

Startled, Seijis compared and analyzed the entity from his nightmares with the one on the screen.

He calmly took a breath and gathered his thoughts.

‘No, it’s not impossible, but… it’s not the witch.’

The witch Violet’s height, as he remembered, was close to 180 cm. Comparable to an adult male. However, the figures on the screen were shorter than that. Roughly between 150 cm and 155 cm.

‘And Violet hated firearms.’

Within the Obsidian Legion, which actively utilized firearms and advanced weaponry, the Witch of Boundless Power was a rather anomalous presence. Although she liked using explosives, she hated ranged weapons. The witch preferred cold weapons and only trusted her physical abilities.

The individuals Irene introduced as the Ariel Group were different. They actively mobilized numerous firearms and heavy weapons.

‘The agents of the Obsidian Legion hate clans and corporations. Irene isn’t an exception.’

However, according to eyewitness accounts, they evacuated civilians and police, albeit in a somewhat high-handed and rough manner. If it had been the real witch, she would have attacked anyone.

In the first place, the witch couldn’t possibly be active at this point in time. As far as he knew, the witch had appeared around the same time he started his work as an Inspector-nim.

‘Could there have been another organization I don’t know about?’

Suspicious. But there was nothing he could do for now. There were too many things to deal with.

‘Still, I’ve neglected other students. I should start preparing to contact them.’

Seijis looked back towards the room. If he had focused on increasing his own power until now, it seemed he would have to meet the people he hadn’t met yet from now on.

***

Apart from Seijis’s own concerns, his actions had little to do with the cause of this incident. Though his actions themselves had twisted the future’s path considerably.

This incident occurred as a butterfly effect stemming from the actions of a red-eyed, blonde-haired girl.

A short time before the attempted kidnapping, Violet’s raid on the A13 Research Institute within the Chloris Great Forest caused a troublesome butterfly effect. In a brief skirmish with Kroshel, Violet used the Hand of Destiny and actively engaged in sabotage inside using her clones. The destruction of the institute, which should have lasted several more months, was accelerated.

This resulted in two problems.

First, the destruction of the A13 Research Institute caused considerable chaos. Most of the researchers and data that had survived the monster escape commotion were vaporized by bombs. The catastrophe caused by the unknown intruder, who claimed to be an Obsidian Legion agent, was greater than expected.

The clans were terrified. The Magnabyss Group re-examined their facilities and rapidly strengthened security. The political turmoil and cleanup issues involved in this process delayed the work they were originally supposed to do.

As a bonus, Kroshel’s actions, who was originally supposed to participate in Irene’s kidnapping, changed. The injuries he sustained at that time weren’t severe, but his mobility was somewhat restricted.

As a result, the situation led down an unexpected path. The kidnapping plan, which was originally scheduled for a few weeks later, ended up incomplete, and Irene’s impatient uncle hastily carried out the deed. And the result was a mess.

This was the full story of the Central 12th Street shootout. However, accepting an already happened outcome as it is, is difficult even for a mature adult.

So, during his conversation with Rigel, Julius made no attempt to hide his outright mockery.

“Well done. Truly well done. All the media in Lustrum are happily chattering about this. What exactly is this nonsense?”

His head throbbed.

‘I told them to wait because there were security issues to handle, but they went and messed things up on their own!’

In an office in Helios, the atmosphere where the two clans’ discussion was taking place was filled with discomfort.

On a TV screen turned on in one corner of the room, live news covering the [Central 12th Street Shootout] was being broadcast. Some media even used the term [terrorism] to discuss the incident.

‘Who in their right mind would stage a kidnapping in broad daylight?’

What was supposed to be a discreet, nighttime operation turned into a war involving mercenaries, drones, and even the clan’s secret weapons.

‘They mobilized heavily armed mercenaries, their own clan’s troops, and even launched a suicide drone attack in the middle of the city. And they failed?’

The root cause of the problem was the sudden intervention of an unidentified strike force, but considering the speed at which the Inspection Bureau moved, it was thought that failure was inevitable.

“Good heavens, who’s stupid enough to launch a surprise attack in broad daylight?”

“You seem young and unfamiliar with tactics. For these kinds of operations, you should always aim for an unexpected opening. If you attack in broad daylight, wouldn’t anyone see it as an act of terrorism?”

“You should have just waited a bit longer, shouldn’t you? Although it was delayed due to circumstances, we were also preparing.”

“No. There’s no time right now! You all know that, don’t you?”

No matter what Julius said, Rigel refused to admit his mistake and kept grumbling. Seeing this, Julius’s eyes narrowed even further. The masked employees standing behind him also showed signs of discomfort.

Although they acted according to orders from above, they wondered why they had to support such an idiotic fellow. While they didn’t like Irene, the man in front of them was so pathetic it was embarrassing to compare him to her niece.

‘Well, if such an idiot becomes Helios’s leader, it’ll be easier to manipulate him. Could that possibly be the higher-ups’ intention?’

Rigel crossed his arms and threw a tantrum.

“This is all your fault!”

Julius wasn’t the only one angry. Rigel’s anger surged because he had missed the ‘meat’ right in front of him.

Irene had been handed over to the Inspection Bureau’s Inspector-nim. At least most of the individuals mobilized for this operation were mercenaries. The ‘hunters’ also technically belonged to Helios but operated unofficially. While there was circumstantial evidence but no concrete proof, they might be able to get by, but the costs and resources invested had gone up in smoke.

“Mr. Rigel. We clearly gave you advice. We also consulted. We even provided the group’s assets. Do you know how expensive that Stregonix was?”

The Stregonix they provided was a weapon in the research and development phase. If they had captured that immature girl, it would have been helpful for research. Analyzing and applying her unique abilities would have allowed them to possess even stronger durability and magic manipulation capabilities.

But they failed.

“You Magnabyss mages always just posture! That tin can! Why did you give it to me? It was useless!”

“Listen, Mr. Rigel. You’re the one who ruined things!”

Julius was dumbfounded. If the Magnabyss mages and developers had heard that, they would have hit Rigel over the head with a wrench.

“As expected, I shouldn’t have trusted that useless tin can!”

Contrary to his claims, the Stregonix proved its worth. It had almost subdued Irene, despite her being exhausted. Regardless of the kidnapping’s success, the data obtained from the raid was planned to be used effectively.

After huffing and puffing for a while, Rigel seemed to calm down and spoke in a slightly more subdued tone.

“Alright. Well, it can’t be helped. As you said, it was partly my fault, but you’ll have to provide more support.”

“Understood. Then, we’ll see you next time.”

The Magnabyss employees quickly exited. Julius spoke to the masked man beside him.

“So, Kroshel. What do you think?”

“He’s more idiotic than I imagined.”

Currently, Kroshel had temporarily left the school and accompanied Julius. After all, he was one of the people who was supposed to subdue Irene. Laughter could be heard from behind the mask.

“Yes, but you also need to reflect. Why couldn’t you stop those things last time?”

“That…”

“The big plan is just around the corner. You need to focus.”

Hearing Julius’s criticism, Kroshel fell silent. The silence continued.

Their heads throbbed. The blunder committed by the idiot dreaming of becoming Helios’s next leader had already happened, so nothing could be done, but the problem was the other perpetrators.

The unknown black armed organization that had ruined their operation.

“The report said so. The intruder at the research institute claimed to be from the Obsidian Legion?”

“I heard it clearly. They claimed it themselves.”

After saying that, a thought crossed Kroshel’s mind.

‘Could this incident be the work of the same people who raided the research institute previously?’

Everything was unknown.

“Once everything is over, you should come to the clan. It’s a waste of your talent to be playing student council president.”

“Understood.”

Everything was unknown to them.

One thing was clear: to accomplish their grand plan, they had to stop this unidentified enemy.

***

After all the incidents concluded, the Violets were conducting a post-mortem review.

“Who would have thought the Inspector-nim would appear there!”

“The escape plan almost got tangled up. We need a vehicle!”

“Why did Stregonix appear there? Who attacked Irene?”

This battle was almost a victory, but the Violets realized their shortcomings. Moreover, they failed to capture any prisoners. At this rate, their friend would be attacked again.

“We didn’t realize it during the fight, but we need to rethink our escape methods.”

After much discussion, the conversation veered off to an unexpected topic.

“How do we deal with flying things?”

“If only we had a flying machine!”

If they had a helicopter or a plane, they could have carried Irene and escaped quickly.

Everyone nodded their heads. When the Violets fought among themselves, they could just reverse-generate things, but with their friends and other people involved, troublesome problems arose. Seeing the Inspector-nim traveling by plane and the drones this time, they had many takeaways.

After a fierce 10-minute marathon meeting, the Violets realized one important point.

The problem was in the sky.