TRPM 56

chapter 56

The shaman rubbed her limp arm while being questioned by the police.

The language barrier wasn’t much of a problem.

She was an Awakened.

And ever since the strengthening of the Awakener system, it had become much easier for Awakeners to learn foreign languages. Learning Korean hadn’t been that difficult.

Her tone and accent were awkward, but at least she could make herself understood.

“People dragged me here by force… but then suddenly, a wolf appeared…”

“…A wolf?”

…That much they understood.

But the police conducting the investigation couldn’t make sense of what she meant.

“Are you saying a ninja suddenly appeared then, or what…?”

“The wounds left on the bodies did look like they could’ve been made by a huge wolf…”

They could understand her claim that mercenaries had dragged her into the hotel.

Of course, that was a lie to cover up the fact that she had gone in on her own.

The problem was what came next: she said a wolf had suddenly appeared and slaughtered all the mercenaries.

The shaman had no reason to lie about the wolf, and there was physical evidence backing her story, so it was probably true.

“Sigh… if only the nearby CCTV was still working…”

“The victims, who were preparing the terror attack, must have disabled all of them.”

A psychometry user was investigating the scene, but it seemed the mercenaries had gone out of their way to leave no traces. Even psychometry wasn’t yielding proper clues.

While the police were troubled over this, the shaman was thinking of Sarang—who had saved her, then treated her like a toy.

“She vanished as soon as others showed up.”

As if she didn’t want anyone but the shaman to see her, Sarang had disappeared.

“That wolf must have been someone’s familiar, not a monster.”

Familiars—beings summoned by mages to make up for insufficient forces.

The shaman also used shikigami as familiars, so she had a fair amount of knowledge about them.

Which was why, the more she thought about the wolf, the more amazed she became.

“A familiar strong enough to defeat that many mercenaries…”

The mana required to maintain a familiar’s summoning was proportional to its strength.

That was why the shaman used only weak shikigami for scouting.

But given the wolf’s combat power, it was obvious that an ordinary mage couldn’t possibly handle it.

“Just how powerful is the mage who controls that wolf…?”

She recalled the moment when her talisman had instantly burned away as she tried to cast a spell.

Perhaps the presence she had detected then was none other than the mage controlling the wolf.

“Kids, today you need to stay quietly at the hotel, okay?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Weren’t we supposed to visit Seokguram today?”

The students asked when the teacher suddenly changed the schedule.

But the teacher only dodged the question with vague excuses, without giving any proper explanation.

“What if a giant wolf goes ‘ROAR!’ and eats you up?”

What on earth was that supposed to mean…

The kids laughed, saying wolves don’t go ‘roar,’ while I quietly spread my senses to check on students from other schools staying in this hotel.

“…Looks like it’s the same for other schools too.”

They had also had their schedules abruptly changed—either returning early or staying in the hotel all day.

Something big must have happened in Gyeongju.

If a massive gate had appeared or a dungeon raid had failed, releasing monsters, we would’ve been evacuated to shelters. Since that hadn’t happened, it didn’t seem monster-related.

Was it terrorism?

If it were, we would’ve been escorted to shelters under the protection of Awakeners.

“…No, that doesn’t fit either.”

If it was terrorism, canceling the schedule without telling us the truth would make sense to avoid panic.

But the fact that some schools were even returning early didn’t match up.

In a terror situation, evacuation to shelters was standard. Yet there was no sign of that.

“Then… maybe it’s already over?”

That seemed the most likely explanation. Something had happened, but the situation must have been resolved overnight.

“Gunwoo! Let’s play games in our room!”

As I was thinking, some boys called out to me.

They probably meant the mobile game that was trending in our class lately.

And the reason they were calling me was obvious.

“…Because I’m the weakest.”

Not that I was bad, but my in-game character was underdeveloped. Unlike the others who were serious about gaming, I only played occasionally.

I never intended to compete seriously with the others anyway.

So I always played along and let myself lose.

“Don’t bully Gunwoo!”

“Yeah!”

“Gunwoo, don’t play with them, come with us instead!”

To the girls, our playful games must have looked like bullying me for being bad.

They stood protectively in front of me, facing off against the boys, and both I and the teacher sighed.

“Sigh… I can’t exactly force them to stop…”

Since the teacher looked troubled, I decided to step in.

“I’ll go with whichever side has the best player.”

The kids’ eyes lit up.

They all whipped out their phones and launched the mobile game.

“My combat power is the highest!”

“So what! You always lose to me!”

“Yeah? Wanna prove it?”

Just like that, the kids naturally started a group match.

“…You handle the kids better than I do.”

The teacher, relieved, left us to play and went off somewhere—probably to talk with other teachers or hotel staff.

While watching the kids get absorbed in their games—

“Woof!”

“Huh? Oh…”

Sarang bounded toward me, leaping into my arms.

“…Don’t tell me you only just came back?”

“Woof!”

I had assumed she’d already returned and gone into Lee Haeun’s subspace, but apparently not.

As I stroked her, I glanced at Haeun.

She was completely focused on her game, so it wasn’t the right moment to put Sarang away.

No choice. I’d have to hold her for now.

“…Wait.”

Now that I thought about it, the teacher had said: What if a giant wolf goes ‘roar’ and eats you up?

I had thought it was a joke…

“…”

“Whine?”

I stared at Sarang. She looked back as if to ask what was wrong.

Could the suspension of our field trip have been because of her?

Considering the command I had given her, it was very possible.

If she had attacked someone as a huge wolf, it wouldn’t be something easily overlooked.

The police and Awakeners were probably scouring the area, searching for her.

“…Can’t be helped.”

If I left her traces, they might lead the authorities here. I needed to erase them.

Fwoosh…

I summoned the Flame of Samadhi and burned away every trace of Sarang.

She was made of Haeun’s aura and my internal energy, so it wasn’t as though she had left footprints.

“But her traces in the ambient mana would still remain.”

From the moment she’d left with my command until just now when she returned, her presence would’ve left impressions in the mana.

So I burned them away.

“…You sure wandered far.”

From where I stood, I extended my inner energy to the hotel where Sarang had apparently been, erasing every trace she had left.

I could faintly sense signs of a battle there, but I didn’t dwell on it.

I could feel the police and Awakeners investigating the hotel, but I didn’t dwell on that either.

“W-what the hell!”

The psychometry user, investigating the scene of last night’s massacre, suddenly cried out in terror.

Naturally, the other police and Awakeners nearby, who had been inspecting the area or moving bodies, turned to him.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Hey, are you okay?”

Sweat poured down his face, as though he’d just witnessed something horrific.

He slowly began to speak.

“Fire…”

“Fire?”

“Yes… it was fire…”

Fire?

It was true that the mercenaries had used all sorts of powers while fighting in the hotel, but none of them had used fire magic.

They had deliberately avoided it so the sprinklers wouldn’t activate.

Even the shaman, the eyewitness, hadn’t reported any fire magic.

So why fire, all of a sudden?

“I don’t know… I was trying to extract information about the wolf from the lingering mana… but then—”

It suddenly ignited.

Not just the traces in the mana—
even the memories I saw through my ability…

All of them were burned away.

“…What? You’re saying fire erased your memories?”

“Yes! I definitely saw the wolf, faintly but clearly, through psychometry! But now… only those memories are cleanly burned away!”

At those words, everyone’s expressions hardened.

They would need to confirm by checking his memories directly, but…

If someone truly had the power to erase specific memories—?

And if instead of just erasing the wolf, they had erased all of the psychometrist’s memories?

“…That’s an absurd ability.”

One of the Awakeners investigating muttered.

Then a police officer added:

“Let’s withdraw.”

It would be reckless to keep investigating at such risk.

“But—”

“Think about it. That wolf was a familiar sent to rescue the captured shaman. Erasing his memories must have been the familiar’s master. The existence of such a powerful mage is shocking, but—”

Our focus should be on the mercenaries who planned the terror attack and the people behind them.

“We’ve already gathered enough information about them. For now, let’s not stir up trouble needlessly.”

A mage of that caliber is beyond what we can handle anyway.

“…”

“…”

At those words, both police and Awakeners fell silent—then all agreed.

They too were human, capable of fear.

And none of them wanted to risk dying by poking at something far beyond them.