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“Gyeoul! Are you awake? Do you know who I am?”

“…Lee… Ha-yoon…”

Before I collapsed, I wasn’t seriously injured. The magic power inside me moved strangely, pain surged, and I eventually passed out.

But…

How badly was I hurt for Ha-yoon to say something like that?

And where did everyone go? Why is Ha-yoon the only one by my side?

“Everyone, ahem. Ha-yoon, can you get me some water first?”

“Here! Drink slowly.”

I reached for the water bottle, but my body wouldn’t move properly.

I asked Ha-yoon to help me drink, then continued speaking.

“Where did everyone go? Did they go to eat?”

“…Well…”

“How many days have passed? What about Chae-song’s funeral? Has the Academy been sorted out?”

“……”

Ha-yoon hesitated to answer.

I started to feel uneasy.

“…What is it? Why are you hesitating?”

“…Don’t be shocked, Gyeoul.”

After much deliberation, Ha-yoon finally revealed something quite shocking.

Ten days had passed. If the magic power inside me had gone berserk, that much time was entirely possible.

Maybe I have more magic power than Ha-yul.

Because of that, I couldn’t attend Chae-song’s funeral, even though I should have been the one most responsible.

Fortunately, Ha-yul covered all the expenses, and everyone helped with the funeral and comforted each other.

Currently, Chae-song is at the city columbarium, and Chae-rin went back to the house she lived in as a child to gather herself. Once I’m discharged, I should visit the columbarium first, then go to that house.

But… what followed was something that made me forget everything else.

“What do you mean? Kidnapped?!”

For a moment, my consciousness blurred, and I almost collapsed again.

Eun-chae and Kang-woo were kidnapped.

Even Jeong Ha-yul disappeared that day.

“Did you report it? Did you request support? The Association, the Guild, Hwarang—shouldn’t we be mobilizing everything to find them?”

“Everyone is already looking… We’ll have good news soon.”

Everyone is looking, but they haven’t found anything in 10 days.

And you say we’ll have good news soon?

“…”

Infinite Cheongdam, which can repel monster invasions, wouldn’t be breached by ordinary villains.

And there aren’t any high-level villains left who would target Jeong Ha-yul.

Then, it must be the Satan Church.

I can’t just lie here in the hospital.

“I need to find them.”

“You’ve been lying down for 10 days! You couldn’t even hold a water bottle properly—where do you think you’re going in that state?”

“I’ve recovered a bit with magic power. Something’s definitely happened, and I need to find them.”

For some reason, the circulation of magic power is at least ten times smoother than usual.

The amount of magic power is also on a completely different level.

It’s like the difference between a river and an ocean.

I lightly circulated my magic power a few times to boost my condition.

It’s not like I’ve been lying down for years—it’s only been 10 days.

Even if there’s some minor muscle loss, it’s not enough time for my ligaments and tendons to weaken.

A few cycles of magic power will fix this in no time.

It’s nice that you’re worried, but in this situation, that kind of worry is a luxury.

I immediately called a nurse and expressed my intention to be discharged.

“Already? Even so… you should stay a few more days…”

The doctor came and suggested observing my condition a bit longer, but I don’t have time for that.

I called Park Seol-hwa right away.

“Gyeoul! I just heard you woke up. I’m on my way to the hospital, almost there, so just wait a bit…”

“Please tell them to discharge me right away. I need to find my family.”

I’m sorry, but I cut off Park Seol-hwa and said what I needed to say first.

“…Alright, put the doctor on the phone.”

Fortunately, unlike Ha-yoon, Park Seol-hwa didn’t try to stop me.

As soon as I handed the phone to the doctor, I was discharged immediately.

“I’ll go with you, Gyeoul.”

“…Do you even know where I’m going to say you’ll come with me?”

“Wherever it is, I’ll go with you.”

Judging by Ha-yoon’s expression, this wasn’t a situation where she would listen if I told her to stay.

If we have to face an Apostle, or if Eun-chae and Kang-woo are in danger, having Ha-yoon, who uses magic, would actually be helpful…

“Just listen to me. If I say run, run. If I say hide, hide.”

“…Don’t worry, if it gets dangerous, I’ll be the first to run.”

I don’t want to see anyone else die like Chae-song.

Especially if the cause is me—I don’t think I could handle that.

I swallowed the last part.

As we headed to the hospital rooftop, I asked Ha-yoon for more details.

The police, LK, Daehyun, Osung, Hwarang, and even the Association are all looking for our family, but after 10 days, they haven’t found a single clue.

Even the heroes are out looking, but they haven’t found anything… This means something big.

If an S-Class hero’s magic signature can’t be detected, it means they’re either hiding their magic power on purpose or being forced to hide it.

“Like a barrier?”

“Yeah, like a barrier or those handcuffs they use on villains locked in the Association’s basement. The ones that seal magic power.”

“Yeah, the ones Seol-hwa made.”

“If they’re wearing those, we wouldn’t feel any magic power. It would be impossible to detect.”

“Then how do we find them? There’s no way. Even the police can’t find them…”

To find an Awakened One, heroes are more efficient than the police.

But to find civilians, the police are better than heroes.

However, since even the police haven’t found any traces of the three, we can’t wait any longer.

It’s not certain, but… I think there’s one way I can do it now.

The magic-sealing devices made by alchemist Park Seol-hwa… I think I can find them.

If I search everywhere except the Association’s basement, I should be able to find them.

“Didn’t they say a lot of them have already been released into the black market? There must be quite a few.”

“That’s why we need to start quickly. This should be enough.”

Detecting magic power won’t harm civilians.

But what I’m about to do… isn’t ordinary magic detection.

It’s a crazy move to cover the entire country.

If there were civilians around me right now, they might get injured by the sudden burst of magic power.

We arrived at the hospital rooftop.

“I’m going to release my magic power now. Make sure it doesn’t flow downward.”

“Got it, I’ll do my best.”

“Please, if even a little flows down, others could get hurt.”

As soon as Ha-yoon gave the signal that she was ready, I drew out all the magic power in my body.

The most efficient place to release it is the palm.

I aimed my palm toward the sky and released the magic power upward as much as possible.

I imagined a dome large enough to cover all of South Korea, as big and thin as possible.

About five minutes after I started spreading the magic power…

Park Seol-hwa appeared on the rooftop.

“What, what are you doing now? Why are you using so much magic power…?”

“Detection.”

I couldn’t explain in detail—every time my concentration wavered, a huge amount of magic power leaked out.

Fortunately, Park Seol-hwa was someone who could understand what I was doing with just three words.

“That’s completely insane… No, wait. With that immense amount of magic power, it might actually be possible…”

She must know about my magic power since she and Ha-yoon did something to stabilize it.

She nodded to herself for a while, then seemed to reach a conclusion.

“This could work! Keep going for now.”

Park Seol-hwa took out a pen and paper and started scribbling something, but I couldn’t pay attention anymore.

I had to focus on the magic power flowing out.

But even after pouring it out for a while, I hadn’t even covered half.

‘That seemingly endless magic power is already half gone… Is this really going to work?’

“Got it!”

At that moment, Park Seol-hwa, who had been exclaiming, shoved her notebook in my face.

“Gyeoul! Operate it like this!”

She must have been scribbling a new magic operation method.

While others take months or years to create one, she just whipped it up on the spot.

She truly deserved to be called a genius.

Following the method Park Seol-hwa showed me, I adjusted the magic operation. The amount of magic power leaking decreased, and the speed at which it spread increased.

‘This way… it might just barely work.’

Finally, just before my magic power was completely exhausted, I managed to spread it across all of South Korea.

Excluding the Association’s basement, there were 12 of Park Seol-hwa’s sealing devices detected in South Korea.

“…That’s a lot.”

“Did you find them? Really?”

“Yes, let’s move.”

I was certain that among those 12, there must be one hiding Jeong Ha-yul’s magic power.

As I marked the detected locations on a map, Park Seol-hwa narrowed them down.

There were eight places we needed to visit.

Some places had multiple devices, while others had only one, so it came down to eight locations.

‘It would take too long to go to all of them myself.’

I requested support from all the S-Class heroes.

Park Seol-hwa, Kim Yu-shin, Kim Bong-du, Jang Gil-yong, Lee Ha-yoon.

“I’m going with Gyeoul.”

“…Alright.”

In the end, I managed to get Jeong Ho-min, Yoo Soo-gap, and Jo Se-hee to help as well.

Everyone responded to my call without hesitation.

That jerk Jang Gil-yong had already beaten me up without any context, so I asked Park Seol-hwa to talk to him in advance.

I assigned weaker heroes to closer locations.

Naturally, A-Class heroes near the capital.

As we moved further out, stronger S-Class heroes were assigned.

We agreed that all S-Class heroes would gather as soon as something was found.

I headed to a place called Geumsan, which was somewhere in the middle.

“…Is this really the right place?”

“It seems like a perfect place to hide, doesn’t it?”

In Geumsan County, Jecheon-myeon, Chungcheongnam-do.

If you follow the Jeokbyeok River, you’ll come across a mountain.

We followed that mountain up.

The unpaved road was so rough that I thought the tires might burst or the car might break.

There were graves scattered along the way.

The rugged mountain terrain, with cliffs here and there.

It wasn’t a high mountain, but it seemed like a place where no one would come except to tend to graves.

“I can definitely feel that the magic power is being suppressed abnormally. But you felt this all the way from Seoul?”

“…Honestly, I didn’t think it would work either.”

“I had a vague feeling when I was helping control your magic power, but now it’s clear… You’ve become incredibly strong.”

As we reached near the summit…

The shape of a building started to come into view.

But…

“…An inverted cross.”

An upside-down cross, a black church.

With a goat’s head embedded above the entrance.

It was the Church of Satan.

 

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