Chapter 56: I Can Hear Your Voice

[Translator – Aren]

Only after catching our breath were we finally able to take a proper look around the church.

We’d been too busy running for our lives to notice, but this church was far larger and wealthier than we'd expected. And with Seoul having been shrouded in fog for so long, multiple crosses had been erected outside so people wouldn’t lose their way even in the dense mist.

The cross we’d briefly spotted while running had been one of those.

When I looked outside again, I saw countless corpses strewn around the cross standing silently beneath the steps. I’d be smelling enough Amalgam corpses in the days to come. I had no desire to start enjoying that scent early, so I quietly shut the door.

Looking around, I realized the room we’d rushed into wasn't the sanctuary but a multipurpose room. Aside from the slightly oversized cross hanging on the wall, the interior felt surprisingly ordinary in contrast to its exterior.

Then again, the church’s exterior, hidden by the dense fog, was covered in smooth glass panels. It was the sort of building that probably glittered brilliantly in direct sunlight.

The thought crossed my mind as I finished checking outside and returned to the multipurpose room. Without having been told to, Hamza and Lee Sejun, who’d already been waiting there, began moving the benches.

"Heave—ho. Heave—ho.”

"Let’s finish the barricade and get some rest!”

Only after wedging the benches firmly against the door did we finally let out sighs of relief.

I’d lost track of how far we’d run from Olympic Park.

We’d sprinted so desperately that sweat poured from every inch of us. And thanks to the damp, humid fog, our soaked clothes refused to dry.

At least this multipurpose room with its hanging cross had much thinner fog. Breathing was noticeably easier.

Now that I’d finished scouting outside, it was finally time to take my gas mask off again. I yanked it off in one motion, gripped it in my left hand, dropped my backpack, and collapsed onto the floor.

Everyone looked equally exhausted.

The pastor had already knelt before the cross, hands folded in prayer. Behind him, Shin Nain knelt as well, quietly responding to each line. The pastor prayed, and Shin Nain answered with "Amen."

"O Lord, we pray in thanks that You guided us safely into Your house. Lord, Lord, have mercy upon us.”

"Christ, Christ, have mercy upon us.”

Hamza quietly slipped into a corner, rummaged through his backpack, and pulled out a compass.

Apparently, even if Seoul was buried beneath fog, the cardinal directions had not changed. After getting his bearings, he turned toward the proper direction and bowed.

"Allahu Akbar. Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah…”

I, Baek Jemin, don’t have a single prejudice against religion, but the moment I heard Hamza’s opening line, I instinctively flinched.

Fortunately, Hamza wasn’t nearly crazy enough to strap explosives to himself. That helped me relax almost immediately. I know that’s an unfair stereotype, but I think people who spend their days cheerfully wandering through cities full of monsters deserve a little understanding, too.

I quietly inched a little further away from Hamza.

Then I dug through my backpack and pulled out one of the precious bags of hardtack I’d been saving. My right palm still throbbed and stung, but hunger came first.

Rip.

The moment I tore open the bag and popped a piece into my mouth, life felt worth living again.

Crunching hardtack to pieces was what amateurs did. I simply rested it on my tongue, letting it slowly dissolve in my saliva.

Pro tip. If you let military hardtack dissolve, it’s surprisingly sweet. You don’t even need the little sugar candies that come with it.

-Slurp, slurp, slurp, slurp...

As I’d been happily sucking on it, rolling it around my mouth like a piece of candy, I suddenly felt someone starting at me. When I turned my head, I saw Lee Sejun looking at me with utter disgust, his own packet of hardtack half-open.

"What?"

"Jemin-ssi, who the heck sucks on hardtack like it’s candy?”

"Sucking on it is the proper way to eat it. It makes it last longer. Pro tip. Sejun-ssi, instead of crunching through it, try sucking on each piece. You’ll stay full longer, you know?”

"That’s disgusting. You’re really showing your age.”

"Sejun-ahjussi. I look way younger than you do.”

The nerve of this punk, trying to attack me over age when he looked a lot older than I did.

Still, being told I seemed old because of how I ate hardtack was a strange feeling.

Then again, I heard soldiers these days hardly eat hardtack anymore. Even back in my day, anyone who went out of their way to eat it was considered kind of weird.

Apparently nowadays, they barely even issue hardtack in the military, which made it all the more ironic that we’d brought so much of it with us.

After finishing a few more pieces and taking another sip from my canteen, I finally felt human again.

By then, the Supreme Archmages had each recovered from the mental strain in their own ways and gradually gathered together.

The pastor unfolded a folding chair that had somehow survived and sat down. Shin Nain stood quietly brushing off the moisture from his poncho. Hamza rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a few hand warmers. And Lee Sejun was stuffing fistfuls of hardtack into his mouth.

Everyone had taken off their gas masks, either holding them in one hand or hanging them from an arm.

"Baek Jemin, how’s it looking outside?”

"Nothing unusual from what I can tell. If I had to guess, their Eyes-branch mage is probably scanning this area too.”

The answer came immediately after the Pastor’s worried question.

Everyone except Hamza was carrying a rifle. We’d fired like lunatics just to reach this church. Without that firepower we never would’ve broken through. We’d have been swallowed by sheer numbers. That alone suggested the Seoul wizards’ firepower was fairly limited. 

Considering South Korea’s strict gun control, the odds of Seoul wizards possessing firearms were extremely low.

Which meant they’d probably stolen them from military bases inside Seoul.

Therefore, instead of risking scouts unnecessarily, they probably relied on Eyes-branch wizards, using something like clairvoyance whenever something unusual happened.

And to identify exactly what those unusual events were, they distributed spell phones to survivor groups.

When I laid out that theory, the pastor slowly nodded.

"That does make sense. The real question is whether we’d notice if it happened. If an Eyes-branch wizard is watching us, Jaemin, Shin Nain, Lee Sejun, would any of you be able to tell?”

"The effects of upright Holy Alteration Battle Arts clearly change depending on one’s level of mastery, so I can’t make any promises.”

Shin Nain, the least advanced wizard among us, answered cautiously.

Removing his headset, he organized his thoughts one point at a time.

"Considering that the spawn of demons who’ve survived in Seoul this long would almost certainly surpass us in Holy Alteration Battle Arts. However, the fact that they can’t immediately pinpoint our exact location suggests their observation has limits. Either they can only maintain it for a short time, or their magnification…In other words, there’s probably a limit to how closely they can observe us.”

"Shin Nain, can’t you hear anything?”

"Seoul is incredibly noisy. It’s difficult to distinguish individual sounds.”

Under circumstances like these where we couldn’t accurately identify the enemy, even Shin Nain’s detection abilities had obvious limits.

His current mastery was Eyes-branch, Stage 1, and Ears-branch, Stage 2.

This lunatic’s Eyes-branch, Stage 1 could only look a few hours into the past at most. Ears-branch, Stage 1 let him hear people’s thoughts, and Stage 2 let him hear the thoughts of monsters.

His detection abilities were unmatched. They were so useful that we’d practically learned to overlook his countless personality flaws. But in actual combat they still felt just a little lacking.

Lee Sejun’s exceptional physical abilities translated directly into overwhelming firepower. Shin Nain, on the other hand, specialized in silently supporting the team through hand signals and information. Not that he was a poor scout. Far from it. It was just that there was still one decisive piece missing from his toolkit.

That was when Hamza handed me a hand warmer.

"Jemin-ssi, here. We sweated a lot, and it’s so damp here that we might get cold pretty quickly.”

"Oh…Thanks."

When I turned my head, I saw Lee Sejun already kneading one of the hand warmers in his hands.

After giving one each to the pastor and Shin Nain, Hamza shared what he thought.

"I don’t think they’ll try to pursue us or make contact right away.”

"Why not? The Seoul wizards hate soldiers, right?”

Even Kang Areum, the friendliest Seoul wizard we’d met, had barely reacted when she heard about the soldiers murdered by the Dubai Sticky Witch, Jeong Nari.

At this point it wouldn't be strange to assume that most people left in Seoul instinctively hated the military and the government. So if the Seoul wizards had mistaken us for soldiers, why wouldn’t they come after us?

Hamza answered from a perspective none of us had considered.

"Our Aphorism…"

"Supreme Archmages."

"We need to look at us, Supreme Archmages, more objectively. We’re all wearing combat gear, or civilian clothes, under those smelly ponchos. We’re wearing gas masks, carrying rifles, and loaded down with military gear. We even have explosives. And on top of all that, we can use magic. And now we causally shot our way through a gigantic monster horde."

After humbly accepting my correction, Hamza naturally switched to calling us Supreme Archmages and continued.

"If you were a Seoul survivor, you’d be shocked too. Like, “Woah, they just fought straight through all those monsters?! They have guns! They’ve got that much ammunition! And they’re using magic too?! What are we supposed to do against that?!’”

"Now that you mention it, how much ammo do we have left?”

"About 1800 rounds.”

We really had burned through a lot.

Considering all the ammunition we’d looted from the fallen soldiers near Jangji Station’s department store, that meant we’d spent nearly 600 rounds this time alone.

No wonder my rifle barrel was still scorching hot.

Since the thought had crossed my mind, I removed my magazine, cleared the chamber, and started field-stripping my rifle for maintenance.

Time was precious in an environment like this.

The moment I pulled out the bolt carrier and picked up my cleaning rod, the pastor, Shin Nain, and Lee Sejun all began maintaining their rifles as well. I threaded an oiled cleaning patch through the rod, scrubbing the powder residue from the barrel while looking at Hamza.

"So, you think the Seoul wizards won’t attack us immediately?”

"They’ll probably keep watching and follow us. After all, they still hate soldiers. They’ll be careful.”

"The Muslim has a point.”

Pastor Park Yohan let out a weary groan, carefully inspecting his K2. He looked almost overly cautious, making sure not to pinch his fingers in the rifle’s hinge while reassembling it.

"Wizards gain far more by hunting other wizards. We already know that. We don’t know how many survivors are still left in Seoul, but by now, they've probably formed factions. They’ll have rivalries and political positions. If that’s the case and a group of wizards suddenly appears, one with no ties to any of Seoul’s internal politics, one they can kill without upsetting the local balance of power, then they’d have every reason to hunt us. If only to strengthen themselves. In other words, we’re in an extremely dangerous position.”

"Pastor, you’re surprisingly cynical. I thought pastors were supposed to have flowers blooming in their heads or something.”

After swallowing another piece of hardtack, Lee Sejun looked genuinely surprised.

The pastor immediately frowned at his remark.

"Listen here. We saw that witch at the department store barely a day or two ago. If I’d already forgotten about it, I’d be suffering from dementia, dementia.”

"That’s exactly the problem.”

Hamza cut in at the perfect moment, absentmindedly adjusting the turban beneath his hood.

"We don’t know what kind of wizard will come after us. We know far too few spells. We need to at least exchange what we know and expand our options.”

"But we’ve got guns.”

I tapped my AR-15, the one Lieutenant Shin Hangi had expertly customized for me, which was I currently maintaining. 

The difference between having firearms and not having them was enormous. I didn’t know exactly what other kinds of magic could do, but if most of them merely enhanced physical abilities, then guns could make up for that difference.

Then something unexpected happened.

"Hamza’s right.”

"Pastor?”

Pastor Park Yohan stroked the bluish stubble growing along his jaw as he spoke.

He was backing Hamza’s argument. This Protestant fanatic was actually agreeing with the Muslim, Hamza? The unprecedented sight made me blink. The pastor adjusted his glasses and clicked his tongue.

"This isn’t even a matter of faith. I am simply agreeing with a perfectly sensible opinion, so why are you giving me that look?”

"So what’s your reasoning?”

"It means the enemy will be wary of our guns too. Magic may have all sorts of bizarre tricks, but guns are incredibly powerful and straightforward. Whether you’re from Seoul or not, everyone knows how dangerous a firearm is.”

Having finished cleaning his rifle, the pastor began reassembling his K2.

"That department store witch used chunks of concrete as a shield. Just like that, even if every wizard used different magic, they’ve probably all developed ways to deal with firearms. South Korea may have strict gun control, but soldiers and police obviously had guns. And some survivors would’ve managed to get their hands on them. They’d naturally think about countermeasures. An Eyes-branch wizard could detect hostile intent and help people stay concealed. Or they could deliberately create a disturbance to lure monsters over and make us waste ammunition."

"Lure them…”

That was when Shin Nain narrowed his eyes. He’d realized something.

The pastor noticed that Shin Nain had read his thoughts and simply smiled. Since the idea was already out, he might as well share it with all of us. Everyone understood that much.

"They probably pulled the same trick against the first blockade line. My guess is that the reason monsters kept attacking every section of the front was because the Seoul wizards were directing them. They were spreading our attention thin. Their goal wasn’t to escape alongside the monsters. It was to slip out unnoticed.” 

“They can block the major highways and key cities, but how are they covering the mountains and all the other routes?"

"They’re probably using drones.”

Lee Sejun, who knew military matters better than most of us, answered with a yawn.

"Though honestly, I thought they were supposed to disband Drone Command, but I guess it’s still around. They’ll do anything to keep those desk generals’ jobs safe. They should’ve spent that effort on keeping more career NCOs instead.”

"Come to think of it, I heard the military’s desperate for experienced personnel these days. So why didn’t they approve your application for long-term service, Sejun-ssi?”

The instant the words left my mouth, Shin Nain shot me a look full of resentment.

Ah!

Regret hit me instantly. I frantically waved both hands.

"No, don’t answer. You really don’t have to.”

"Huh? I mean, it’s nothing special…”

"Then definitely don’t tell me.”

I was over 90% sure he’d failed his career review because he’d admitted something like, ‘Ah~I wish I could become a cute TS anime girl~’ on a psychological evaluation or to a military counselor.

I decided then and there to never be curious about Lee Sejun, the 24-year-old former short-term Staff Sergeant, ever again.

For nobody else’s sake but my own.

"Anyway."

I tucked the now pleasantly warm hand warmer inside my jacket against my cooling chest.

Then, instead of another hand warmer, I pulled out the Magic Crash Course booklet.

"So basically, if we rely on guns alone, an enemy who’s expecting firearms could turn that against us.”

If guns alone weren’t enough, then the answer was obvious. We had to learn more magic.

Immediately noticing my intentions, Shin Nain finished reassembling the rifle he’d left on the bench, slung it over his shoulder, and plopped down cross-legged.

"May the Holy Alteration Battle Arts guide my path.”

Lee Sejun wiped the gun oil from his hands using his poncho.

"Let’s work hard to achieve our dreams.”

"What about you two? Hamza? Pastor?”

"I’m good.”

The pastor was still skeptical about learning Alteration-type magic.

That didn’t mean he was spending the whole time reading the Bible through. Instead, he accepted the map Hamza had brought, spread it across the bench, and studied it.

"I’ll think about whether we should take the back alleys or stick to the major roads. You three go ahead. Hamza, you just keep saying your prayers. If you try learning Alteration-type magic now, your Dogma-type magic might end up getting weaker, and then we’ll all die. Got it?”

"But I want to learn Heart-branch magic. I want to run away faster.”

"And that’s exactly why I'm telling you not to learn it. If you did, you’d ditch us and run off by yourself.”

I couldn’t help admiring the pastor’s foresight. At the same time I also had another thought.

Just as expected. Hamza, that little bastard.

He should just stay a Dogma-type wizard for the rest of his life.

* * *

April 18th, 2028, 10:12 PM.

Safely barricaded inside the multipurpose room, we finally had the chance to rest and spend some time studying magic.

Though it was accompanied with some dry-heaving and vomiting.

But in the end, each of us made meaningful progress.

Thanks to me rambling on about Monk Cheonghwi and the pastor’s numerological theories along with Mister Anderson Makenford’s seemingly endless occult knowledge, both Lee Sejun and Shin Nain managed to advance.

Though judging by their eyes they’d been bored out of their minds.

I’d briefly considered reviewing every last bit of it while explaining, but when I imagined trying to memorize that endless mountain of information myself, even I got scared, so I trimmed it down to the important parts.

As a result, our Alteration-type trio achieved the following.

"Ears-branch, Stage 3. This…”

"Huh? What is it?”

“I think it’s the voices of the dead. They don’t sound like living voices. It’s like they’re echoing from somewhere far away. There’s no life in them.”

"Are you actually talking to them in real time?”

"No. They’re their dying words. Their final thoughts at the moment they died…”

Shin Nain had awakened Ears-branch, Stage 3, presumably [Hearing the Dying Words of the Dead].

Normally, Shin Nain spoke crisply, cutting straight to the point. But this time his words kept trailing off. Eventually he put his headset back on, turned the volume all the way up, and began loudly singing an upbeat children’s hymn.

"Forward, soldiers of the Lord~Let us shout! The brave army!”

He’d probably recover if he kept singing for a while.

I quietly looked away from him, then noticed Lee Sejun practically vibrating with excitement.

"This Hand-branch magic…Wow. Didn’t I just become insanely strong?”

Lee Sejun had learned Hand-branch, Stage 1 [Blood of the Right Hand].

Thanks to me generously passing on everything I’d learned fighting my way this far, Lee Sejun finally understood just how incredible Blood of the Right Hand really was. It was knowledge his naturally dim-witted brain could never have reached on its own, which made his awestruck reaction less than impressive.

He was already throwing little shadow punches, bouncing his shoulders excitedly.

At first glance, it was almost heartwarming, like watching an ambitious young man celebrate his own growth and achievement.

But then, the new branch of magic I, Baek Jemin, had awakened whispered its horrific side effect to me.

If I let my concentration slip, I’d start hearing other people’s thoughts completely at random with no filter whatsoever.

"Whoa. If I just let my right hand bleed and start throwing punches, I’d beat the crap out of everybody.”

'Totally like a magical girl, right?’

"You little shi. What’s with that completely unnecessary last thought?”

"Huh? What last thought?”

"No, forget it.”

'Jemin-ssi’s acting weird. Is he jealous of my youth and my bright future?’

-Thwack.

I covered my face with one hand and sighed.

Ears-branch, Stage 1. Sound Perception.

Its side effect was hearing thoughts I absolutely did not want to hear.

My own Ear-branch, Stage 1 resembled Shin Nain’s, but wasn’t exactly the same. When I focused, I wouldn’t hear people’s thoughts, but something else. You could think of it as hearing the sound of hostility or goodwill.

People who bore me no ill will sounded like calm water, quiet and still. People who held hostility toward me sounded like a babbling stream, its water endlessly flowing.

And thanks to that I immediately knew who disliked me the most.

Lee Sejun.

I could hear the constant babbling of a flowing stream.

I couldn’t think of any reason why he’d dislike me, so I deactivated the spell. And then I found out why.

'The guys who least want their gender swapped always end up getting gender swapped… So Jemin-ssi’s some dangerous competition.'

-Thud.

I sighed to myself.

Shin Nain.

Had he really been living, hearing this kind of crap all the time?

Just for today, at least for today…

I decided to forget that disgraceful nickname, “Shit-obsessed Zealot,” I’d given Shin Nain.