TRPM 270

I learned that Oracle had some real muscle and found out about her new companions, but knowing that doesn’t mean I can do anything about it.

Someone might say, “Why not just take out her new companions—the Grand Sorcerer and the Heavenly Demon?”…

‘Even I can’t handle the fallout from that…’

First, the Grand Sorcerer.

That old man was a hero who operated in the same era as Richard, the chairman of the World Awakened Association, Sir Sergei from Russia, and Shin Hanji, the chairman of the Seoul Awakened Academy.

Moreover, the Grand Sorcerer had left many obligations to those heroes, so if I killed the Grand Sorcerer, I’d inevitably make enemies of them.

‘And the Heavenly Demon…’

The Heavenly Demon himself is a problem, but the bigger issue is the numerous groups that follow him.

Unless I planned a massacre and killed them all, it would be wise to avoid touching the Heavenly Demon.

For those reasons, given who I am now, the most I could do was pass information about Oracle to Chairman Richard.

[(Grand Sorcerer…? I didn’t mishear, did I?)]

“(You heard correctly.)”

[(Huh… how did this guy—?)]

Chairman Richard showed undisguised dismay when he heard that the Grand Sorcerer had sided with Oracle, but that’s not really important here, so I’ll move on.

That Saturday.

The operation to root out the Awakener supremacists in the Regiones Guild was scheduled for Sunday.

So on Saturday I was doing what I usually do—climbing the back mountain with others for training.

That is, with Yeon Mirae, Lee Ha-eun, and Sofia.

‘… Hm?’

But unlike usual, I felt someone trailing us.

“……”

“……”

“……”

It seems the other three felt it too.

Yeon Mirae and Lee Ha-eun are far more advanced than the person following us, so of course they’d notice. Sofia, who used to work as a spy, had become sensitive to presence to avoid being detected, so it wouldn’t be hard for her to sense a pursuer of that level.

‘What kind of guy is this?’

The person following us had tried to hide their presence somewhat, but they were only at a level that made us scoff.

As we moved toward a clearing wary of that opponent…

Click!

A sound came from the glasses the person was wearing.

Even if you heard it, it was so slight that only someone with my level of senses could catch it.

‘Ah—paparazzi, huh.’

When I realized that, I explained to the other three that the person trailing us was just an ordinary paparazzo.

“Ah, I see.”

“For a second I thought—”

“Let it be.”

The other three relaxed at once.

Usually, people associate “paparazzi” with a negative image, but not us. If someone came to someone’s home and forcibly took pictures, we’d catch them and hand them to the police, but someone taking pictures from outside—we don’t have any reason to stop that.

‘It’s unavoidable that celebrities’ private lives get photographed.’

When I walk around, I often see people taking my photo more than I expected.

Now that I am known as the world’s strongest Awakener, just posting my location on social media while photographing me can draw a lot of attention.

That doesn’t mean I approve of someone following us up a mountain like this.

Still, we shouldn’t mistreat people like that.

‘A tiny camera on the glasses…pretty decent equipment. Looks like they had some backing.’

That meant it wasn’t an amateur but a hired professional paparazzo—likely contracted by the Ironblood Guild or journalists.

Someone might ask why the Ironblood Guild would hire a paparazzo, but guilds sometimes hire paparazzi to promote their Awakeners. If an Awakener is photographed doing volunteer work and an article runs, the guild’s image improves as well.

‘Of course, if it’s staged it becomes contrived, so there are cases where they keep it secret even from the Awakener.’

If the paparazzo was hired by the Ironblood Guild, they probably kept it secret for that reason. But it’s also possible the Ironblood Guild didn’t hire them. Even so, it’s not a good idea to interfere without reason, so I decided to let it slide.

‘If they act weird, we’ll chase them off then.’

With that thought, we arrived at the clearing and naturally started training as usual.

Click…!

Then the paparazzo started taking pictures from a fairly distant hiding spot.

Seeing that, I thought:

‘… Looks like they’re not from the Ironblood Guild.’

Taking pictures of our training wouldn’t benefit an Awakener or a guild. If it were inside the Ironblood training room, you could spin a story about how nice their facilities are. But what use is photographing people training in an empty clearing?

‘Seems they’re not here to capture ordinary daily life.’

Occasionally people come to the clearing and take pictures of us training—but those are amateurs using smartphones. This person came purposefully, with proper gear, so they were different. If a guild had hired them to learn our training methods, photos wouldn’t meet their needs. Our training in the clearing is usually just sparring or study. Yeon Mirae might be developing a new martial art, and Sofia might be replicating organizational techniques, but those things are hard to glean from photos alone.

“Phew…!”

“Hah…!”

I pushed thoughts about the paparazzo aside and focused on sparring with Yeon Mirae and Sofia. I concluded the paparazzo posed no real harm.

But that evening, I had to change my mind.

“Geon-woo! What the hell is this?!”

Before dinner, Lee Ha-eun burst into my house and thrust her phone at me.

But my gaze wasn’t on the phone—rather it was on our front door that Ha-eun had smashed.

‘… I set wards so the door shouldn’t break under ordinary circumstances…’

Seems the Grand Sorcerer’s forces were too much.

There are few wards sturdy enough to block an attack from a Grand Sorcerer. I thought I’d repair the door later and strengthen the wards, and then looked at the phone Ha-eun had shoved at me.

… On it was a photo that made it look like Yeon Mirae and I were kissing.

‘It’s not edited. Because of the composition it just looks like Mirae and I are perfectly aligned so it appears that way.’

If you looked closely, anyone would see it was a coincidence, but at a glance you could think we were kissing.

“That’s uncanny.”

“Uncanny?! What are you talking about?!”

“Hmm?”

When I muttered that while looking at the photo, Ha-eun glared at me.

Her hair flickered as if on fire from her mana—she was seriously angry.

“Why only Mirae-unnie?!”

“… You don’t actually think this is a real photo of Mirae and me kissing, do you?”

“… Huh?”

Ha-eun’s hair drooped at my words. She checked the phone to see what I meant and flushed when she realized it was only a clever photo.

“Then what about this?!”

Ha-eun changed the photo and showed me another—this time of me and Sofia.

At a glance it looked like Sofia and I were embracing tenderly…

“That’s from sparring—when I deflected Sofia’s attack as if slipping it off?”

If you looked carefully, it wasn’t an embrace either; again, it was merely the composition that made it seem that way.

“Uh… then this?”

“… That’s Kang Garam, right? Isn’t that a picture from when we went to investigate traces in an erosion-type dungeon together?”

“Th-then this?”

“Ryu Ayoung? And… at a glance it looks like I’m feeding dessert to Ryu Ayoung with a spoon? But I was just pointing a spoon at Ryu Amin next to her.”

“… Then this?”

“Is this from when I got my dungeon raid certification and we were at the market? Do you really think this looks like Elena and I with linked arms? It’s because Elena and I were holding paper bags.”

Ha-eun’s voice got smaller and smaller.

Each of the photos Ha-eun showed was the type that could cause misunderstanding.

She must’ve collected only photos that could be mistaken that way.

Ha-eun saw them, came over without permission, even smashed the front door, and scolded me.

“… Sorry…”

Yeah, she admits she was wrong.

“More importantly, where did those illusion photos come from?”

“Ugh… I don’t know…”

At my question she answered that. I checked the URL on Ha-eun’s phone and opened it on mine.

‘… The person who wrote this just collected and organized all these illusionary photos of me that were floating around.’

Then why were there so many illusion photos involving me?

They were all taken with women around me, in postures that could be misinterpreted.

One or two could be coincidences, but so many suggested someone was deliberately taking pics in compositions likely to cause illusions.

‘And whatever it is, they must have a motive.’

From just these photos, it seems they want Ha-eun to think I have relationship problems with women so she’d be upset…

‘… Come to think of it, there was that paparazzo who took secret photos of our training today.’

Could that paparazzo be the perpetrator?

Considering the photo quality, only someone with that kind of equipment could do it… And more importantly…

‘At least the one with Sofia in it could be from today.’

I’m not certain, but during sparring with Sofia today we took a pose similar to the one in the photo.

So while other photos might not be from today, the one with Sofia likely was taken by the paparazzo I saw earlier.

And that paparazzo looked hired by someone else…

‘If I see that paparazzo again, I should tail them.’