Chapter 406

For reference, it was midnight.

Receiving a call at such a late hour—even if it lasted only a second—was enough to make anyone uneasy.

"What is it?"

However, no matter how long Kim Giryeo waited, he couldn't figure out what the call had been about.

Normally, in a situation like this, Ahn Yoonseung's response would fall into one of two patterns.

The first: he would call back and explain what had happened.

The second: he would send a message along the lines of—

(Oh no, Hyung-nim (paid sticker) I accidentally held down the button and called you immediately! I can't believe I bothered you this late at night!! If the notification woke you up, I'm truly sorry, Hyung-nim!! ㅠㅠㅠㅠ)

Kim Giryeo briefly imagined those possibilities.

But his plain black phone never rang again.

Ahn Yoonseung didn't send a single message either.

"-_-"

Then, at this point, should the recipient be the one to call back?

Soon, a perfectly ordinary option surfaced in the alien's mind.

He could simply contact him first and ask, "Why did you just call?"

It was the most natural thing to do.

However, instead of carrying out that simple action, Kim Giryeo suddenly began expending mana.

"A call that connects for barely a second in the middle of the night."

Normally, it would have been easy enough to dismiss.

But the soul of the great mage trapped within this young body sensed something strange.

It was the instinctive premonition of a being who had lived for a very long time.

So he immediately went as far as reproducing the [Searcher] spell to determine Ahn Yoonseung's exact location.

And the moment he discovered where the caller was, Kim Giryeo began preparing to leave without the slightest hesitation.

In the middle of the night.

Leaving the house over what was, on the surface, nothing more than an accidental one-second call.

But Kim Giryeo didn't think it was a waste of effort.

It was fine.

After all, he had already quit his job.

For the sake of his very first acquaintance on Earth, he could display all the initiative of an unemployed man he wanted.

***

And then, after the alien living by the seaside began to move, some time passed.

"-_-"

Now, this was what happened.

iii

A beige blanket that reflected the room owner's simple taste.

Just as she had finally managed to close her eyes, the phone beside her bed suddenly began ringing without pause.

She had splurged for once, thinking that she was now a working adult earning her own money, and even subscribed to a ringtone service featuring the latest songs.

"Ugh..."

She had never imagined the day would come when she would regret spending a mere 990 won.

The young woman in her twenties, buried beneath the blanket, groaned as she pushed herself upright.

Then she picked up the phone lying beside the bed.

"Ah, why does it have to ring just when I was finally about to fall asleep after tossing and turning—"

Being dragged awake just as she was finally drifting off was enough to make even a Buddha angry.

Seonwoo Yeon, the resident of this perfectly ordinary room, struggled to focus on the text displayed across the phone screen.

[Hunter Kim Giryeo]

But who was the person who had awakened her from her sleep?

Even after seeing the caller ID, Seonwoo Yeon showed no particular surprise.

After all, there was nothing unusual about that name.

"Unlike what you'd expect from an S-rank Hunter, he's always been someone who calls pretty often..."

The problem wasn't who was calling.

It was this.

[Current time]

[00:56]

It was almost one in the morning.

Rather than think too deeply about it, Seonwoo Yeon decided to answer first.

"Hello?"

But instead of an ordinary greeting, the response she received was bizarre.

"I'm sorry."

Soon, a familiar voice came through the speaker.

It was slightly rough from smoking, but unmistakably belonged to the alien creature who, above all else, spoke perfectly fluent Korean.

"I'm really sorry for calling you at this hour, but could you come to the address I'm about to send you right now?"

In the middle of the night?

All of a sudden?

Perhaps it was simply because she wasn't fully awake yet, but such a trivial doubt crossed her mind.

"I... I can't use my skills right now. Not the big one. That's why I'm asking. You'll have to come to me, because I can't go to you."

Although the two of them now knew the truth about each other, the person on the other end still refrained from casually using the word "magic."

'If you pay attention, he's careful even about little things like that...'

Seonwoo Yeon continued thinking as she ran her fingers through her tousled hair.

It had already been a month since Kim Giryeo retired.

His absence still didn't feel entirely real.

And yet, all of a sudden, he had called around midnight.

On top of that, he was asking her to go out somewhere that hadn't been part of any schedule.

"Anyway, I need your help. Please come and assist me."

An alien.

She had never imagined such a thing could actually exist.

Yet ironically, the migrant from another world standing before her now was, by nature, quite a gentleman.

'Of course, he says strange things all the time, but fundamentally, he's not the sort of person who hurts others without reason.'

Moreover, Kim Giryeo had the peculiar trait of fully understanding the hardship suffered by office workers.

And yet this office-worker-friendly mage had suddenly called a civil servant in the middle of the night.

What on earth was going on?

"I don't know what happened, but I should hurry."

Fortunately, Seoul's roads weren't crowded at this hour.

As a result, Seonwoo Yeon quickly reached the location Kim Giryeo had sent her.

"What the...? I didn't even need to drive. Isn't this just the mountain near the apartment?"

For reference, the destination was a small mountain.

Thanks to her Awakening, mosquitoes no longer bit her.

But as a B-rank hunter whose night vision wasn't particularly exceptional, she began climbing the mountain while relying on her phone's flashlight.

"Hunter Kim Giryeo?"

And only a few minutes into the hike, she encountered the person who had called her.

"You're here?"

Kim Giryeo.

He was dressed entirely in black.

So completely black that, at first glance, only his head seemed to float in the darkness.

"What the...? He looks the same as always..."

Up to this point, there was nothing particularly surprising.

But the silhouette lying beside him left Seonwoo Yeon completely stunned.

Upon closer inspection, someone was lying at Kim Giryeo's feet.

"Gasp!"

A person.

And judging by the bare, grayish shaved head, she could even begin to guess who it was.

"Isn't that Ahn Yoonseung-ssi?"

Srk, srk.

Seonwoo Yeon pushed through the bushes and approached.

"What on earth happened here?"

"Don't touch him."

But the hand she extended to lift the fallen Ahn Yoonseung was immediately stopped.

"He's dead."

The drowsiness clouding her mind vanished in an instant.

"He was already in a corpse-like state when I arrived. So don't come any closer."

"-_-"

"The strange thing is, Ahn Yoonseung definitely called me. But no matter how much I've searched since I got here, I can't find his phone anywhere..."

Perhaps because of the shock, Seonwoo Yeon couldn't speak.

Until only moments ago, she'd been thinking about how cold it was during the nighttime hike.

But now, thanks to the shock coursing through her body, she barely felt the temperature at all.

"What?"

What kind of nonsense was this?

Seonwoo Yeon carefully examined her acquaintance's condition.

And the moment she realized the alien was telling the truth, panic exploded inside her.

Most striking of all was how pale her face had become.

So pale that the light from her phone almost seemed unnecessary.

She had assisted detectives before.

She had seen countless cases.

But even so, she couldn't easily accept a situation in which someone she knew had suddenly died.

"No, this—! No, seriously, what the—"

But panicking on her own wasn't going to solve anything.

"But why did you call me first? Th-this is serious. We need to call the police right away!"

Still, her previous experience proved useful.

Seonwoo Yeon summoned her stubborn mental fortitude and first addressed the questions that had risen in her mind.

"The police..."

Then came the answer from the alien named Kim Giryeo.

"How am I supposed to trust Earth's police and call them first?"

"What?"

"Of course, I called the police several times early on after my reincarnation. In fact, when I was kidnapped by a human trafficking ring, I only barely survived because they arrived quickly..."

"What are you trying to say?"

How could that alien remain so calm in a situation this shocking?

The other person continued speaking with a level of composure that would have made anyone wonder.

"But you were at the scene back then, so you should remember. When I first reported it to the police station, they turned things around and accused me of being the criminal."

"This is a magical murder. There are no fingerprints and no traces of blood left behind."

His statement that this had been murder followed immediately.

"From what I investigated myself, it seems there used to be a Gate here."

"Murder."

"It looks like it was cleared, and in the process, any evidence that might have helped the police disappeared. Ah, come to think of it, that could mean Ahn Yoonseung's phone is still inside the Gate as well..."

"This is murder?"

"Of course. There's no reason a Korean man in his twenties would naturally die on a mountain at this hour."

The man who introduced himself as an Archmage shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyway, as I said earlier, we don't know who the culprit is yet."

"-_-"

"But I found Ahn Yoonseung using a method that's difficult to explain. If the police ask why I came here in the middle of the night, things will get complicated."

"Even so..."

"First of all, I wanted you—as a human—to help me so there wouldn't be any misunderstandings.

I'm sorry."

His reason for not calling the police himself was soon explained.

But even then, only half of Seonwoo Yeon's real questions had been answered.

"But what exactly happened?"

Even the Archmage, who had assumed he could easily uncover the truth with magic, eventually spoke in a voice filled with disbelief.

"To be honest, I came here knowing nothing. So right now, I don't understand the circumstances either."

"Even you, Kim Giryeo-ssi?"

"I'll call the police like you said. For now, at least..."

Kim Giryeo briefly looked down at the Earthling lying on the ground.

"Hunter Seonwoo Yeon. By the way, there's something I want to ask you."

Then, without showing any further reaction, he turned his head toward the other person standing there.

"Is it illegal on this planet to read the memories of the dead without their consent?"

Seonwoo Yeon answered.

"Not at all."

Having naturally memorized procedures relating to unattended deaths while assisting government agencies, she had never imagined she would use that knowledge in a situation like this.

"In fact, people on Earth do something similar. If they find evidence of a crime on a corpse, they'll immediately consider applying for a warrant to conduct an autopsy."

As Seonwoo Yeon spoke, the mage nodded.

So it seemed there would be no major legal issue with what he intended to do next...

"Understood. Then when the forensic team arrives, please explain things to them clearly."

"Yes?"

"The blood splattered behind that tree belongs to Hunter Kim Giryeo, so you can ignore it."

"Wait a minute... what do you mean by that?"

"Anyway, I'm glad I saved some mana."

Later, Kim Giryeo used a spell to read memories.

As a result of using high-level magic, he coughed up blood and collapsed a short distance away.

That was why Seonwoo Yeon ended up taking his phone in his place.

***

Around two hours had passed since the B-rank civil servant made the emergency report.

"Are you awake?"

"Losing consciousness over and over is rather unsettling. I'll have to fix this somehow when I get the chance."

For the sake of ensuring the investigation proceeded smoothly, the case had not yet been made public.

Even after the police were successfully contacted, the situation remained a whirlwind of confusion.

"Hunter Kim Giryeo, by the way, what exactly were you doing earlier? You weren't... reading Ahn Yoonseung's memories, were you?"

"What you're thinking is correct."

"Then did you figure out who did this?"

"Unfortunately, no. There are a few... several problems."

Reading the memories of the dead.

It was a technique unavailable to humans.

Even in a civilization with science this advanced, humans could do little more than identify where memories were stored.

Analyzing the memories hidden within synapses was magic that consumed an enormous amount of energy.

Perhaps because of that, even the Archmage had struggled somewhat to uncover the truth behind the case.

"In the range of memories I was able to access immediately, the culprit's face never appeared."

The first reason quickly came to light.

"And of all things, Ahn Yoonseung suffered a subdural hematoma..."

"Ugh."

"It looks like there was some kind of fight. There are injuries all over the corpse, and those injuries created gaps in his memories too."

That was the second reason.

For reference, Kim Giryeo had refused to go to the hospital, so after giving a brief statement, he had been brought to Seonwoo Yeon's house instead.

"I haven't even invited an Earth friend over to my place yet."

A one-second phone call.

Seonwoo Yeon's genuine [Searcher] skill.

The police's question about why she had gone to meet Ahn Yoonseung was plausibly explained using those two facts.

"-_-"

The scent of green tea lingered throughout the room.

Old wallpaper whose design had long since fallen out of fashion.

A desk lamp purchased on impulse after an especially stressful day spent dealing with complaints.

Inside this thoroughly ordinary home, the two continued their conversation.

"What do we do now?"

Seonwoo Yeon was the first to raise the question.

No matter how strong-willed she usually was, even she couldn't remain completely composed in a situation this extraordinary.

"What do we do... and how?"

The initial shock had been overwhelming.

Now everything felt strangely distant, as though all of her senses had gone numb.

Seonwoo Yeon stared blankly at the man lying on the bed.

Then the lung-damaged mage, still trying to catch his breath, spoke.

"There's a way."

He couldn't use the memory-reading technique again for the time being.

Moreover, now that the investigation had been handed over to the police, he could no longer approach the victim freely.

"I found someone in his memories who may know what happened."

"Who?"

"Choi Jin... I need to go see Choi Jin."

Only silence remained.