After traveling for several hours, Go Yu-jin and I arrived in Gwangju and made our way to the place where many Awakeners had gathered.
“We all have to step forward! This is our land. How much did we suffer at the hands of those Japanese bastards in the last war?”
“That’s right!”
“This time is the same. In the end, they will set their sights on this land again, and unlike before, those Chinese bastards will invade too and join in the plundering! My sons, my daughters, my brothers and sisters! I can’t bear to watch them be sacrificed any longer!”
“That’s right!!”
“In the last war, we were powerless!! But now we say this. We can do it!!”
“We can do it!!”
Amid the voices shouting spiritedly here and there, we slipped past the people and moved to the place where the guilds were clustered. While doing so, I also noticed what seemed to be people gathering war supplies, and just then I caught one man and asked him,
“Where do I need to go to meet the person in command here?”
“…Who are you?”
“I’m someone who came down here after being commissioned by the government.”
At my words, the startled man pulled out his phone and contacted someone.
Then, after saying a few things, he turned to me and said,
“They say someone will come if you wait a bit. They told me not to guide you around carelessly because they need to look into various things.”
I nodded at the overly guileless answer, and after some time spent with Go Yu-jin looking over the situation around us,
“Are you the ones?”
A group of rather stern-looking men approached, and seeing the one at the front who spoke to us, I rose from my seat and said,
“I’m someone who came down here after being commissioned by the President. Haven’t you received any separate contact?”
“…No. We don’t know anything. At a time like this, when those government-related bastards have all run off somewhere and aren’t even showing their noses, we’re all pretty bewildered to hear that someone suddenly came from the government.”
“Hmm…. There’s no real way for me to prove it. What would you have me do?”
“…Why are you trying to meet the leadership?”
The reason was very simple. It was to identify friend from foe and to understand the current response situation.
Otherwise, I might end up attacking the wrong place.
“I’m a black mage. I should at least be able to distinguish allies from enemies, shouldn’t I?”
At that moment, he looked thoroughly startled. Then he told us to wait a moment and made another call to someone. After a little while,
“Hyung-nim, a black mage came by. Could you talk to him for a bit and see if he’s someone you know?”
A voice came from beyond the phone, and soon the man handed it to me.
So I took it and said to the person on the other end,
“This is Geum Seong-chan. Do you know who I am?”
-Eok?! Has the great mage come in person!? –
At the uproar, I said to the one on the phone,
“The title of great mage is too much for me. In any case, the government asked me to support this side, so I came over after taking the commission, but I don’t know what the situation is.”
-I’ll come there myself. I’m Tae Jeong-un. 3rd Company Commander of the 2nd Battalion! –
I had a rough idea of who he was.
That was because I knew, more or less, the faces and names of those who had belonged to the command structure. Moreover, it was a unit that had often carried out operations together with the 1st Battalion I had commanded in the latter part of the war.
“Pleased to meet you. I’ll wait here, so come at your leisure.”
After he answered that he understood, I handed the phone back to its owner, and after a brief exchange he looked at me in surprise.
Then he hung up and spoke carefully.
“For now…. let’s go to the commander. He says he’ll come there.”
Thus, the men guided us with bewildered expressions.
After that, it took less than ten minutes to reach the command post, and there were people there who welcomed us warmly.
One was a familiar-looking man who seemed to be a black mage, and the other looked like the commander.
He was an old man who looked rather strict, but he smiled and welcomed me warmly.
“Welcome. I didn’t expect that a great mage would come all the way to support this shabby battlefield!”
In this era, the ones who could be called “great mage” were only high-ranking Awakeners. Because of that, everyone who had guided me looked shocked, and I asked the commander,
“I heard that circumstances are not very favorable. So I’d like to quickly grasp the battlefield and deal with it. Is that possible?”
“…The opponent is the Chinese fleet. Their numbers are by no means small.”
Even so, it did not look like they exceeded ten thousand, but there was no need to say something startling to these people as though I were showing off.
So when I asked for detailed information, he agreed, and we entered the building that had been set up as the command tent.
Judging by how people were moving busily and receiving various reports, it felt like a fairly fierce engagement was taking place on the coastline, and then the man suddenly edged up to me and asked,
“Th-that person who came with you…. isn’t she also… a great mage?”
Go Yu-jin was also someone whose face was fairly well known. She had ended up growing distant from battle, but during the war she had been quite famous.
At the man’s question, Go Yu-jin stepped forward and introduced herself.
“I’m Go Yu-jin.”
“Hup!”
It was Tae Jeong-un, clasping both hands over his mouth, and the commander, not missing it, asked,
“That fellow usually isn’t startled easily, so you seem to be remarkable people. Thank you.”
“This isn’t just remarkable! They’re both great mages!”
“At my age, there aren’t many things left to surprise me, but thank you. My heart is pounding thanks to you.”
There was an ease to his joking words, and I said to him,
“I intend to clean up the battlefield as quickly as possible. I’ll help as far as my strength allows.”
“There isn’t all that much information. Even now, all we can do is block the Awakeners approaching through the sea. Even the naval bombardment and such was continuous only in the early stage of their approach. Now it’s gone beyond infrequent and has all but stopped.”
Then he showed me a coastal map and explained while indicating several places.
Meanwhile, I saw people receiving reports and checking various things, and after quickly surveying the battle situation, I confirmed that the Chinese forces were marked with red pins and our forces with blue pins.
‘They’re spread out quite widely. Some of the Chinese troops have even occupied islands and are holding out there?’
“They’ve occupied quite a lot of islands.”
“There are probably many more islands we haven’t identified. It’s just a blessing that the huge ships haven’t been able to come in deep.”
“So it’s to our advantage that they don’t know our waters well?”
“That’s right. These waters have an especially large number of reefs and the current is swift, so they’re extremely treacherous.”
Even in such a place, they were still encroaching on the coastline because of the Awakeners capable of plunging straight through the sea.
There was no way it would not be difficult in many respects.
And if the sea were not so murky, they might already have completed most of the sea charts and pushed even their huge ships in.
Seen from that angle, it really could not help but feel fortunate.
“Let’s set our direction toward focusing on the occupied areas first. I’ll cover this place broadly, taking it as the starting point.”
Everyone was startled as they looked at the range I indicated.
Then, cautiously, they asked,
“There’s no way you could handle that large an area, is there?”
“It may feel like bluster, but if two great mages are joining forces, do you really think we can’t do it?”
Everyone swallowed dryly, and Tae Jeong-un, too, subtly lent weight to our words.
“Please trust them just once. They’re war heroes. And besides…. this person is that famous… ‘The Worst.’”
I let out a small laugh at Tae Jeong-un carefully speaking so that only the commander could hear, and the commander, startled at the mention of The Worst, seemed to firm his resolve as he said,
“I entrust this to you.”
“Yes, thank you for trusting us.”
After that, we received some additional information while examining certain areas in more detail, and then we left the command post.
As we did, Go Yu-jin looked at me and asked,
“But don’t you dislike that, being called The Worst?”
“To our allies, it’s enough if I’m treated as a great black mage. But to the enemy, The Worst is quite a useful title.”
“I suppose…. in a situation like war, being imprinted as fear isn’t a bad method either.”
In truth, Go Yu-jin as well had been the Golem Meister to our allies, but to the enemy she had been called the Madwoman. And that made sense too, since for a black mage she preferred extremely close combat, and once she launched an offensive she was so recklessly aggressive that from the enemy’s perspective she could only seem like a crazy bitch.
Looking at her now, she did not give that impression at all, but when I occasionally saw her handling golems during Gate subjugations, it was a little easier to understand.
In any case, once the two of us headed toward the battlefield, it did not take long for us to realize that the situation was even worse than expected.
There were simply too many presences touching the mana I had spread over a wide area.
There seemed to be at least four to five thousand, and most of them had firmly established positions on the islands and sea, pressing our forces while advancing little by little.
At least in the case of our side, their numbers were large, so it felt as though they had endured by throwing people into the grinder, and it was impossible to even estimate how great the damage had been until now.
“The souls…. are sorrowful.”
Because Go Yu-jin was also a black mage, she seemed to have grasped the flow of souls she could sense, and her expression was rapidly darkening, when she asked me,
“…Are you going to kill them all?”
“I have no intention of leaving any of them alive. Whether they came of their own will or were forced to come, they came here and did something worth dying for.”
Grinding her teeth, Go Yu-jin said to me,
“The sorrowful vengeful souls…. I’ll guide them, so please.”
In her current state, Go Yu-jin did not have the power to handle that many people all at once. It would be different if she could use 7th Circle magic, but at best she could use 6th Circle spells, and even then only extremely simple ones.
“I want to become strong enough to match my realm somehow.”
“If you do it, you can become that strong. I believe it.”
So while Go Yu-jin prepared magic to call in and guide the souls, I too began shaping the mana I had spread over a wide range.
At that moment, the enemy seemed to notice that something was wrong and started moving in a hurry, but before they could escape the sea, the spell was completed.
Then some of the enemy somehow tried to put up defenses to resist, but as though this were not a spell such hastily thrown-together defenses could do anything about, I snapped my fingers and activated the magic.
“Deadly Purging.”
The moment the spell was activated, the entire space occupied by mana undulated, and as the wave spread, every living thing within the area twisted and burst apart in tune with it, dying in explosions.
All our allies positioned for defense were shocked stiff with their mouths hanging open at the sight of thousands being wiped out in an instant by a single spell, and judging that about half the enemy had been dealt with in that one strike, I turned around, cast an Amplify magic on our side, and shouted,
“Recover the relics and equipment from the enemy corpses. I only shook apart and burst the molecular structure of living beings, so the equipment should be intact. Even if it feels unpleasant, you’ll have no choice but to use it. If you want to protect what is precious to you, that is. Move!”
Only after I even clapped my hands, urging them to move, move, move, did the Awakeners and some brave residents finally start moving quickly. While that was happening, I spread my mana widely and searched for the remnants of the enemy.
‘It seems the group that invaded this place was somewhat larger than I thought.’
I examined the enemies within the reach of my influence even far out over the wide sea, and after determining that there were even more of them floating on the sea than those who had died, I merely watched Go Yu-jin guiding the souls.
‘If one realizes their shortcomings and has the will to improve them, the possibility for growth is limitless. Just as she taught me, this time I will help her.’
It was time to repay her for looking after me long ago, when my spirit had been dying.
