The Foreigner on the Periphery

The mage, Kim Cheol-su, called out warmly.

"Man, how long has it been? To think I'd see you here... You haven't changed a bit, sir! I knew you were a quarter elf, but it's still amazing. The phrase 'a face untouched by time' was practically made for you!"

Minjun grinned as well. He hadn't expected to run into an old acquaintance—a student he had taught decades ago.

The younger face from memory overlapped with the wrinkled skin before him. Though their relationship had been teacher and student, their official ages hadn't been far apart, and they had looked like peers back then. Yet the passing years had widened the gap in their appearances this drastically.

Kim Cheol-su felt the transience of time, while Minjun was reminded of the fleeting nature of short-lived species.

"But what brings you here?"

Minjun explained the situation. At that, Kim Cheol-su recoiled in shock.

"What?! Wh-what did you just say?"

It was a reaction similar to Oh Man-sik's when they had run into each other at the Witch Cooperative.

The smuggling claim was just a cover, but if this truly was a fragment of Asiph-1, it wasn't entirely false either.

Kim Cheol-su also knew about the Sword that possessed people, and he recognized the possibility that the assemblyman's killer had been controlled by it. Yet he was still shocked because he simply couldn't believe Minjun's current line of work.

"An agent? You're an agent?"

A choked sound rose from his throat.

"Are you saying... you work as a contracted agent for the Immigration Office now, sir?"

His tone was flabbergasted.

"No, but an agent... Someone as soft-hearted as you, sir... Good heavens."

Now it was Jeongpal who opened his eyes wide. 'What? Soft-hearted?'

'Who?'

While the orc stood there with his mouth hanging open, the mage continued.

"I still remember. During the dog days of summer, you saw some students slaughtering a dog and stopped them, saying they shouldn't do something so cruel even to an animal. How could someone who couldn't even stomach the sight of butchering animals do such rough work...?"

Minjun clicked his tongue inwardly.

Back when he held a teaching post, he had just finished his Earth-customized socialization training, making him practically a bundle of pretense.

Anyone who remembered him like that couldn't help but feel a jarring disconnect.

The only reason he had stopped that brutal, bludgeoning slaughter was because he had learned that stepping in was the 'right thing to do' by universal standards. But the other party had misunderstood, assuming it was because Minjun had a tender heart.

In fact, speaking of slaughter, if they knew that in his younger days he used to go around popping Dragon heads rather than worrying about dogs, they might move past fainting and go straight into convulsions.

Feeling awkward, Minjun changed the subject.

"Anyway, can I take a look?"

"Ah, of course. Why would the police stop the Immigration Office from verifying something? But why are you just standing here instead of going right in? I thought I heard voices being raised earlier."

Minjun silently pointed at the Team 2 leader standing next to him. The detective's face immediately flushed red. At the same time, the smile vanished from Kim Cheol-su's lips.

"Were you blocking him?"

"Ah... well... strictly speaking, standard procedure requires an official document..."

"If we are strictly speaking about procedures, doesn't the command authority here belong to me?"

"..."

"You know full well that when the Immigration Office requests cooperation, it can be permitted at the discretion of the on-site commander without an official document. Why didn't you report to me first? Why are you making judgments and decisions in my place? Sounds like you're overstepping your authority. Am I wrong?"

The interrogating tone was flat and gentle, but his eyes were fierce. The Team 2 leader looked at him with a sour expression before finally lowering his gaze and muttering.

"...I apologize."

Only then did the benefactor who had contributed to saving the Team 2 leader's Appendix look away. That achievement was buried, unknown to both the one who bestowed the favor and the one who received it.

"I was so distracted by the forensics that I failed to oversee things properly. If you were inconvenienced, please understand, sir."

Then, pointing to the scene, he continued.

"Actually, I was just at a loss myself. Seeing how it possessed a perfectly sane person, it's definitely some terrible curse, but there are absolutely no traces left behind. Could you perhaps take a look?"

A scene unfolded where a high-ranking police mage was instead requesting cooperation from the Immigration Office. The old man's eyes were filled with anticipation as he looked at Minjun.

"That's what I came for, so of course."

Following the guide inside, Minjun saw the troll collapsed on the floor. Just as he had heard, the murder weapon was nowhere to be seen.

The killer's entire body was twisted, swollen, and stained purple. Blood pooled around the corpse. Unlike Kwak Do-chul's wife or the forensics officer who had barely survived, this newly discovered 'host of the Sword' was dead.

In the CCTV footage right before his death, he had been emitting sword aura as he lopped off the assemblyman's head. However, he wasn't registered as a Supernatural Ability User.

'An unregistered Weapon Master. In this day and age, why bother?'

Feeling puzzled, he first searched for traces of the Sword.

Fwoosh!

Wreathing his eyes in white flames, he scanned the surroundings. After closely examining the corpse of the troll who had wielded the Sword, he spoke with certainty.

"There are no notable traces in the spirit realm."

Kim Cheol-su let out a sigh.

"If you can't see it, sir, then it must not be Magic."

"Right. Whatever is attached to that Sword isn't a curse."

It was the moment his hypothesis of mind control via a soul was practically confirmed. Therefore, the reason to find the Sword became even clearer.

"Then, in this state, there's no way to track the Sword."

"Hold on a second."

After slipping into his old way of speaking without realizing it, Minjun focused his mind.

Trolls were known to endure pain well, but looking at the state of the corpse, he must have suffered immense agony before dying. And those who met a gruesome death found it much harder to pass on peacefully.

So, if Minjun's guess was right, that troll's soul was probably...

'Still in here.'

The agent stared at what others could not see. As he exerted his power, a hazy aura oozed out from the troll's body. Then, it slowly formed a shape. It was similar to the corpse. It looked like a rag that had been haphazardly wrung out and left to dry without being flattened.

=Aaah! Aaaaaah!=

The agent chanted a spell and subdued the troll's wraith. Its memories connected with Minjun's consciousness. Because it wasn't a proper spiritual body, its inner world was closer to pandemonium. Minjun concentrated as much as he could, searching for meaningful fragments within it.

And he barely managed to fish out the most recent memory.

"Jeongpal."

"Yes?"

"I'm looking into this guy's memories from when he was alive."

Gasp! The sound of a shocked Kim Cheol-su drawing in a sharp breath could be heard. 'Did my old teacher master psychometry during all this time?!' Unable to even imagine that such a man of great character would have dabbled in Dark Magic or Necromancy, he could only marvel.

"That forensics officer who stabbed a mage and ran off before getting caught right away. Was his species an orc?"

Jeongpal shook his head.

"No, he's human."

"Then that means there's at least one intermediate host we don't know about."

"Excuse me?"

Minjun recounted the scene he had seen in the memory.

"I just looked into how this guy got his hands on the Sword, right?"

"No way?!"

"Yeah. The guy who held the Sword right before this troll acquired it was an orc."

After the forensics officer fainted, that longsword had passed through at least one intermediate host, including an orc, before possessing the troll.

"This is getting more complicated than expected."

Nodding, Minjun stared into the jumbled memories of the deceased.

After painstakingly piecing the fragments together, the record of the day he obtained the Sword was complete.

*

That day, the troll had been minding the tobacco shop he ran. Looking at the surrounding scenery, it seemed to be the Orc community.

It was a secluded spot with barely any passersby, let alone customers.

An orc approached the troll, who was idly killing time. He had actually noticed the other party coming from a kilometer away. It was because of the unfamiliar footsteps, the unnatural breathing... and the alien presence.

He debated whether to hide, but ultimately decided to face him. There was always a chance he might be a 'customer'.

However, the orc who revealed himself was holding a longsword. Feeling the sudden explosion of murderous intent, the troll quickly reached out. He pulled out a troll-sized greatsword hidden beneath the counter.

And the fight began.

The troll was horrified. The opponent's Sword didn't have a single wisp of sword aura on it. Despite that, it blocked the aura of a Weapon Master like him. Aside from the inability to use sword aura, the orc's movements were on par with a Weapon Master.

Furthermore, the orc's Sword didn't break even after clashing with sword aura over and over again. According to common sense, this was impossible.

Just as the offensive and defensive exchange, which shouldn't have been so intense to begin with, reached a fever pitch—

-Clang!

The orc dropped the Sword on the ground. It was far too defenseless to be considered an intentional opening. The troll saw hundreds of paths to slice him to ribbons right then and there, but he hesitated instead of attacking immediately.

At that moment.

-Spurt!

Blood sprayed from the orc's eyes, ears, and nose as he collapsed.

And just like that, he died.

The troll had no idea what was going on. He was confused, but he needed to clean up the corpse first. If he left it as it was, his cover might be blown.

He took out some chemicals hidden behind the cigarette display case. Then, with practiced skill, he dissolved the body and disposed of it. Thankfully, it was practically a ruin, so there were no witnesses.

After finishing the cleanup, the troll looked at the Sword. Outwardly, it seemed like an ordinary sword you could get anywhere. There were probably thousands of similar swords floating around Korea alone.

However, he had experienced its extraordinary performance firsthand. He carefully tore a few scrolls, but no particular spell was detected. This meant the secret to its hardness—which had even withstood sword aura—lay not in Magic but in the material itself.

'Just what the hell is this?' Greed rippled through the troll's heart. He approached and grabbed the hilt of the Sword.

At that moment, the world was dyed blood-red. And a holy, incredibly noble voice echoed in his ears.

*

"Hmm."

Minjun, who had been reading the wraith's mental imagery, frowned. There were no memories left after that point. It seemed his mind had been completely dominated.

So, the agent decided to trace further back into the past. Because far too many suspicious points had been discovered in the troll's memories.

'What reason would a Weapon Master have to set up a tobacco shop in a neighborhood with no foot traffic and just sit there all day? And what's with all the suspicious items hidden around the shop?'

As he pieced together the fragments of various surfacing scenes, Minjun fished out a single phrase.

And he asked a question.

"'Abrams Helper Service?' What's this now?"

"...!"

Kim Cheol-su's face instantly stiffened. He hurriedly cut into the conversation.

"Is that phrase in the troll's memories?"

The mage explained.

It was the name of a contract killing syndicate that had relatively recently made a name for itself.

"Interpol is tracking them down frantically, but their trail is hard to find. Even when they capture a few killers alive and interrogate them, they have no information on the leadership."

"Was this guy working for them by any chance? It's too vivid in his memory to brush off as unrelated."

"...!"

The police officers' faces grew even more serious.

What if the true identity of the assemblyman's killer was an assassin belonging to a transnational contract killing syndicate?

"If that's true, it explains why he wasn't registered as a Supernatural Ability User!"

"Sir, could it be that this wasn't an accidental crime?"

"I can't give a definitive answer on that. It's clear that his reason was blown away the moment he grabbed the Sword."

A killer had assassinated the assemblyman, but he did it while possessed by the Sword?

It was hard to accept from a common-sense standpoint. Killers killed people in exchange for money, and they invariably maintained cool-headed rationality both during and after the kill. Yet in this case, it was difficult to find any financial incentive or premeditation.

Minjun searched through even older memories, but they were all similar records. Scenes of guarding a shop with no customers all day long. The agent didn't give up and continued digging through the pool of memories. The further back into the past he went, the more incomplete the scenes became, and it was hard to understand the context and meaning as if they were riddled with holes.

In the midst of that.

"Huh?"

Minjun barely managed to fish out one more scene.

Someone had visited the tobacco shop.

A foreign car that didn't fit the neighborhood pulled up, and the door opened. A woman who didn't look like a resident stepped out. She was painfully thin and frail, looking as if a gust of wind might snap her in half, with an unmistakable look of illness about her.

She approached the shop and held out a neatly folded banknote; the troll snatched it and handed over a pack of cigarettes.

That was it.

'Not much substance to that.'

Because he couldn't hold onto the wraith any longer with his incomplete Necromancy, he lifted the spell. Freed from its restraints, the troll's wraith shrieked and fled far away instead of returning to its corpse.

*

Kim Cheol-su immediately shared the information Minjun provided with the rest of the police. He looked like he wanted to continue moving together with Minjun after that, but Minjun bid him farewell there for now.

Even if they moved separately and the police managed to acquire the Sword first, it wouldn't be a bad thing for Minjun. He could officially request to inspect the evidence, and if necessary, secretly intercepting it would be a piece of cake.

The place he headed to next was the murdered assemblyman's residence. Regrettably, however, he couldn't find anything that could serve as a clue there.

Returning to the car, Minjun fell deep in thought.

"This is tricky. It's difficult to even ask Lakefield to search with spirits. It's too common-looking of a sword."

Since there were no magical traces, observation and tracking through the spirit realm were also impossible. After pondering for a moment, the agent decided on his next destination.

"Jeongpal, you're off today anyway, right? If you have time, want to follow me around and do a little part-time work? How's your body?"

The orc's eyes sparkled.

"I felt like I was going to die just this morning, but strangely enough, I'm not tired. I'm fine. Where should I take you?"

If he had just needed a simple chauffeur, he would have brought Cathy along. Minjun needed a police officer to accompany him.

"Where is Kwak Do-chul's wife right now?"

Jeongpal recited the name of the university hospital that had once been owned by Changcheon but was now in the hands of the Red Dragon.

"Let's go there. I need to see that woman."

To begin with, the incident that had first revealed the Sword to the world was the murder she had committed. She might hold the most important clue.

However, Jeongpal's reaction was ambiguous.

"I think interrogation will be difficult."

Unlike the forensics officer, Kwak Do-chul's wife had fainted at the scene and still hadn't regained consciousness. She was in a state where questioning was impossible.

Minjun spoke as if it were no big deal.

"It doesn't matter."

"Ah, are you going to dig up information using a method other than talking?"

Jeongpal, not being a mage, assumed Minjun had some method he didn't know about.

Even so, his reaction was still negative.

"The guardians probably won't allow it. That woman's father is a four-term assemblyman. You've probably heard his name, boss. If you say you're bringing an agent into his unconscious daughter's hospital room, he'll oppose it to the bitter end... He's a heavyweight among heavyweights, so I don't even know if the Immigration Office's influence will work."

Jeongpal tried to dissuade him. He judged that this was a completely different level of difficulty from sweet-talking a few police officers. However, Minjun didn't seem to care.

"An assemblyman? Perfect. I have a friend who can order around your average assemblyman with a flick of his finger."

"...?"

"How badly was the woman hurt?"

Jeongpal flipped through his documents and explained. She had suffered fractures all over her body, including her spine, compounded by brain damage; without the healing of a high-ranking priest, she had almost no hope of waking up.

"As you know, clergy of that level take reservations three years in advance, right? Even for an assemblyman, it seems there's nothing he can do. Unless he's a Dragon sponsoring the order, he has no choice but to put his name at the bottom of the waiting list and wait endlessly."

Minjun snatched the documents and skimmed through them.

"Her injuries are only to this extent? That's a relief."

"Huh?"

Contrary to Jeongpal's guess, Minjun fully intended to interrogate her directly.

After waking her up first, that is.

"Let's swing by my place for a second before we head to the hospital. I have something to grab from the basement."

"...?"

Filled with questions, Jeongpal started the engine.

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