Former Ranker's Newbie Life

Do-Jin had neither the headspace to think about the stream still running nor a moment to shake off the crushing fatigue weighing him down.

“Securing the situation comes first. Figure out what the hell happened here, and do that before anything else!”

Nepas’s rampage had torn the surrounding terrain apart. Since the battlefield lay close to Kula, there was no way the disturbance hadn’t been noticed over there.

“Everyone and everything at the scene is a suspect, a witness, and evidence! Do not overlook a single rat or a speck of dust!”

The city defense force rushing out in a panic was inevitable. As the commotion outside grew louder, Do-Jin found it hard to suppress a sigh.

So much for resting.

People liked to say reward came after hardship, but it looked like he still had a lot more suffering to grind through first.

Either way, I need to see this through to the end.

Leaving things to play out on their own felt wrong, and there were too many loose ends he couldn’t ignore. Do-Jin forced himself to stay focused, and as he did, his thoughts slowly began to clear.

The soldiers spotted Do-Jin stepping out of the wagon and raised their bows and other weapons all at once.

“Don’t move. Make even the slightest move and we’ll attack immediately!” one of them barked.

Do-Jin let out a long breath and raised his hands. He turned his head slowly, taking in the situation. Ordinary soldiers wouldn’t cut it, and even officers wouldn’t be enough. He needed whoever was actually in charge on-site.

What the hell is that woman doing? She should be here explaining things already. Don’t tell me she got dragged into the fight.

Deneve briefly crossed his mind, but before he could dwell on it, a contingent of armed soldiers and several officers approached, led by a young man in ornate armor that looked more decorative than practical.

“Your Excellency, it is dangerous!”

It was a hassle to even explain, so Do-Jin simply shook the pendant and emblem he had been holding since he climbed out of the wagon.

However, the young mayor didn’t even bother to look before declaring, “That man is clearly a prime suspect in this incident! Take him into custody immediately! We also need to confirm what he was planning inside that wagon, so move everything inside out at once!”

In that moment, Do-Jin caught the urgency and impatience bleeding through the mayor’s eyes and voice. That reaction added weight to a possibility he had already been considering.

“Wait.” Do-Jin took a single step back as he spoke, and the soldiers who had been inching closer stopped cold.

From the scene alone, Do-Jin looked like a high-risk threat, and anyone approaching him couldn’t help but hesitate.

“What are you all doing? Stop freezing up and restrain him right now!” the mayor screamed at the top of his lungs.

“I will fully cooperate with any investigation into what happened here. However, I cannot allow you to handle what is present here however you like. I am a mage of Elthomagia, and I am the one who prevented the disaster that nearly occurred here. By right, Elthomagia holds authority over the investigation of this site.”

His firm words sent a ripple of confusion through the city defense force, and the tips of the soldiers’ spears began to tremble.

If that is true, then we are pointing weapons at an imperial mage.

Do-Jin was satisfied after finally seeing them react as they should, but the mayor still wasn’t buying it.

“There is no way a lie like that will work! Restrain him immediately! You may kill him on the spot if he resists!”

Do-Jin was certain the young mayor had something rotten lurking behind him. Why else would smugglers use this area to move important cargo? They trusted the route was safe, and there was a good chance that this man was the reason. Passing near a city with a mayor backing them was about as reassuring as it got for criminals.

There’s not much Deneve could do at this point.

It was a headache. Do-Jin needed to check whether she was safe first, yet here he was wasting time on these NPCs. He couldn’t fight openly, and he couldn’t abandon the bomb and run since it was a crucial piece of evidence. Still, the situation didn’t tilt entirely against him. The people who had answered Do-Jin’s call arrived at the scene.

“Do-Jin!”

“Mr. Do-Jin!”

“Raid leader!”

Theresa led a group of around twenty people who rushed in and formed a wall in front of Do-Jin. When the city’s defense force saw that, they immediately stopped pressing Do-Jin under the mayor’s unhinged orders and retreated like they had been waiting for an excuse.

“Who the hell are you people now?!”

“What the hell are you even saying? Who do you think stopped this place from blowing up in the first place?!” someone from Theresa’s group replied.

“Enough! Those bastards are obviously in on it too! Arrest them all— No, kill every last one of them!”

An officer from the city defense force spoke up with clear discomfort in his voice. “My lord, if that man truly is a mage of Elthomagia, then this could turn into a serious disaster. We should confirm the situation properly first—”

“And what if something even worse happens while we hesitate! What if more of his accomplices show up and cause even more damage! I will take full responsibility, so follow my orders immediately!”

The command was practically unhinged, but soldiers were still soldiers. In the end, the standoff between NPCs and players teetered on the edge of turning into outright combat.

The raid members maintained a defensive formation around Do-Jin while slowly retreating.

“Uh... what do we do? Those guys are all guards,” one of them said in a low voice.

“Hahaha... we run, I guess. The problem is that we have to take whatever’s in that wagon with us,” replied another.

That damn bomb is huge. Fuck. Things have really gone to shit, Do-Jin thought.

Trying to subdue them without killing anyone wasn’t realistic either, since there had to be well over two hundred of them.

We don’t have a choice. We pull back first, find Deneve, and deal with this fast.

Just as Do-Jin wondered what the hell had happened to her, a booming voice, amplified by magic, thundered across the area.

“Everyone, stop!”

All eyes turned toward the source of the voice.

“I-it’s Elthomagia!”

A flag bearing Elthomagia’s sigil fluttered proudly overhead. Among the roughly thirty mages gathered there, Do-Jin spotted Deneve doubled over and gasping for breath.

Huh. She’s... useful.

Do-Jin immediately revised the assessment he had made of Deneve just moments earlier. She had sprinted at full speed, with only one thought echoing through her mind: Do-Jin’s instruction to contact Elthomagia if anything went wrong.

She had seen Do-Jin do incredible things more than once, but even he had limits. A monster he couldn’t handle had appeared, and the moment she realized that, Deneve started running like her life depended on it. At the branch mage tower in Kula, she stamped her feet and shouted until her voice cracked, begging them to help because Do-Jin was in danger.

“He is one of ours. From this moment on, Elthomagia will assume control over this site.”

At that declaration, the mayor’s face drained of all color as he shouted back. “No matter how powerful Elthomagia may be, the duty to protect Kula belongs to me as its mayor! By His Majesty the Emperor’s sacred decree, full authority over this area—”

Before the mayor could finish his pitiful protest, the space itself trembled. An old man appeared, his face half-hidden behind an eyepatch that covered one eye.

“There is no need to worry. If necessary, I can meet with the imperial court in person at any time.”

The words dripped with arrogance. No matter how influential a mage of Elthomagia might be, invoking the imperial court so casually wasn’t something one did lightly. However, the violet eyepatch covering the old man’s eye carried the weight to make those words feel entirely natural.

“M-Master Albert...!”

Albert Grace handled Elthomagia’s affairs, great and small, in place of the reclusive Grand Master Sion Grace and the other Violet-ranked masters, who cared for nothing but magic. The moment the mayor saw the eyepatch-wearing mage, all color drained from his face.

“Address him properly.”

“Y-Yes. My apologies, Master Albert Grace.”

Lineage, titles, and noble standing meant nothing before a Violet-ranked master of Elthomagia. Those mages had already discarded everything except the name and color granted to them by their Archmage. Those two things were more than enough.

“I find this situation deeply unpleasant, but I will not hold you accountable since this was done in ignorance. You did not knowingly point your weapons at a member of Elthomagia, did you? Step aside. From this moment on, Elthomagia will take control of this area.”

The mayor couldn’t bring himself to say a single word. Meanwhile, every member of the city defense force on site let out a breath of relief. Albert began walking toward Do-Jin, and the players who had gathered to protect him silently parted to clear a path.

So this is the kid... Albert quietly studied Do-Jin.

Sion Grace himself had personally registered him in Elthomagia’s database. He was the only mage of Elthomagia who had never been assigned a color, and the only one whose entry carried the handwritten note “disciple” beside his name.

Master Sion... you really are impossible to pin down. Still, this is a relief. It finally feels like you are taking an interest in the world again.

The person Albert respected, revered, and cherished above all others was a brilliant, childish, utterly impossible Archmage. After losing her closest friend, Sion Grace had withdrawn from the world, yet she had personally chosen this boy as her disciple. Albert would be lying if he said he had never felt a trace of jealousy, especially after serving Sion his entire life without ever once being formally recognized as a disciple.

Even so, his gratitude far outweighed any envy. These days, the once awe-inspiring Sion felt more like a stubborn granddaughter, and it was oddly reassuring to see that reclusive girl finally make a friend.

“I do not know what exactly has happened here. However, no matter what it turns out to be, Elthomagia will stand on your side.”

Do-Jin knew how formidable Albert Grace was, and how painfully meticulous he could be. That was precisely why the man’s excessive courtesy felt so unsettling. Do-Jin had a fair idea why, but knowing the reason did not make it any easier to stomach. Still, this was no time to be choosy.

A Violet Mage of Elthomagia. With this, I can clean up every last headache at once.

Do-Jin turned to Albert and said, “There is an item inside that wagon that was meant for mass slaughter.”

He then pulled out the secret ledger he had obtained earlier. “This is a ledger I took from the smugglers who were transporting the bomb. It is not complete, but it should be enough to serve as a death register for a good number of parasites gnawing away at the empire. If my guess is right, the mayor over there with the dead-eyed expression should be listed in it as well.”

“Hahaha...”

Realizing the scale of the incident far exceeded his expectations, Albert let out a hollow chuckle.

After briefly asking Albert for leave to speak, Do-Jin gestured to Deneve, who had been lingering off to the side with her eyes darting around. She pointed at herself, her expression clearly asking, Me? Only after he beckoned several more times did she finally shuffle over.

While Deneve stood before Albert as stiff as a wooden doll, Do-Jin casually asked, “Do you have any interest in a fast-track promotion?”

“Excuse me?”

Deneve could barely keep up with what was happening, and she was not the only one. The people who had rushed over in a panic to help Do-Jin were just as bewildered. The viewers watching the stream fared no better, struggling to follow the relentless chain of escalating events.

└ Um... excuse me, but when exactly are we allowed to catch our breath?

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