Unlike , who could conceal my presence as a mage almost perfectly, my subordinates had clear limitations in spreading and gathering their auras. aning they could reduce their presence, but had no way to hide the fact itself that they were awakeners.
So Kyung-tae was pestered with recruitnt offers until right before takeoff. When Kyung-tae finally declined, Jack, the mber who had been most enthusiastic about the offer, drooped like a retriever puppy deprived of a snack. My most loyal hound seed to have made quite the impression.
“Takeoff will comnce shortly. All passengers please verify your safety harnesses are secured.”
The pilot’s voice ca through the internal comms headset. The snow piled under the accelerating rotors scattered like fog, and the frozen weeds flashed their withered leaves under the winter sunlight. As the fluttering of those leaves passed a threshold, a gap began to form between the helicopter and its shadow. The widening gap was the increasing altitude. Outside below my feet, the ground and people sink at a rapid pace. The craft rising 8 ters per second soon traced out a semicircle as if gliding along the canal, turning its nose eastward.
In the midst of this, I discovered a nun gazing up at the sky on the outskirts of the city.
“…!”
Despite the blinding sunlight making her shade her eyes with a hand, her facial features were the spitting image of Grace from my master’s mories. And an unnatural sense of discrepancy. The plumting heart and surging pulse set my blood vessels ablaze. If my vision wasn’t capable of piercing through obstacles, I would have leaned out the door to chase her receding back.
“What’s the matter?”
Noticing my abnormal behavior, Kyung-tae asked worriedly.
“It’s nothing. I just thought I saw soone I know.”
A deliberately calm response, conscious of my surroundings. But my gaze remained fixed rearward. Kyung-tae murmurs, “Soone hyungnim knows…?” In the anti, the silhouette of the woman in a habit shrunk into a small, distant point. Even when her form grew indistinguishable, my quickened pulse showed no sign of easily settling down.
I wasn’t ready to et her yet.
The odds were slim that it was soone else who just resembled her face. A black and white habit was clothing the witch truly enjoyed wearing, to mock the white n’s god. It was rare attire in Utah where later-generation Protestant churches held dominant sway.
While pondering her garb, it was only after my head had cooled so that I realized the source of the unnatural feeling I sensed at first glance.
Opacity.
Preoccupied with only her face, I was late to notice that the headscarf and habit fluttering in the wind were nearly opaque even to the Eye of the Golden Age. This ant those clothes were at minimum artefacts of quality magical tools.
With conviction attained, I composed myself with slow deep breaths.
‘She can’t recognize anyway.’
The face of the woman gazing skyward held no particular emotion. It was simply the expression of soone distractedly glancing back after hearing a loud noise.
I could recognize her, but she could not recognize . So long as I was equipped with the ability to conceal myself and identify enemies first, there was no reason for as the hunter to overreact. Even less reason to flee recklessly at this very mont. I was rely startled by an unexpected encounter. There should be a limit even to chance etings.
“The town visible to the left is Glenwood, and the peak to the right is Bull Claim Hill. The herders spotted a group of boars. Two helicopters will drive the boars down the valley. Passengers, please ready yourselves to fire at any ti.”
Hearing the pilot’s voice over the line, I contemplated why the witch might have co here.
Firstly, the Trembling Giant itself.
She had already dispatched her cult to turn the Poplar Woods into a man-eating labyrinth. Like a criminal returning to the scene, or a scher assessing and scheming their next strategy, she had abundant motive to scout the woods and surroundings.
And as a mage outside the Round Table like , Grace too might have sought magical wisdom from the Trembling Giant. Although she lacked eyes like mine, once one beca a mage on the level of the Round Table’s masters, even indirect observation alone could produce so results. The outco would differ greatly depending on the ti and effort invested, though.
Perhaps proselytization was her aim. This region was teeming with humans tinged with vague mysteriousness. They were ideal human resources for Grace to bring into her flock. In extension, infiltrating existing groups here with her existing worshipers would also be a valid strategy.
Lastly, another imaginable reason was human hunting. Imperialist lapdogs were sure to be around here. Catching and killing them would be a trendously rewarding leisure activity for a witch. The list of potential prey she was after likely included the na of my accursed dead master, Crowhurst.
「Alright, passengers. The boars will erge straight ahead shortly. Straight ahead from your perspective, so don’t get confused.」
Giving this alert, the pilot lowered the craft’s altitude. It was flight keeping the ridgeline close to minimize noise propagation. The watershed approached like so sort of boundary. The mont we crossed that boundary, the large hybrid boars abruptly changed direction upon sighting the new helicopter, milling about in disarray.
「Now!」
The muzzle flashes light up in succession. Red blood sprayed over the snow-white mountains. Dead boars and startled boars roll down the slopes. But since that was the direction of pursuit, boars that tumbled down before they could get back up turned into corpses. Those shot in the belly bled more copiously than previously seen.
「Excellent!」
The militia mber assigned to brightened up. How fast and accurately the shooter shot them down was a factor directly tied to the speed of the hunting drive.
In any case, I calmly gunned down the boars. There were no specins of particular note. They were just animals. Though so with opened circuits were mixed in proportion to their numbers, none had “codes” of quality worth collecting.
「Don’t see any special ones in there, right?」
「Yeah.」
Kyung-tae, confirming with , continues his precise shooting. The group of so 20 boars rapidly dwindled. For a four-legged animal, running down a slope blanketed in snow made maintaining fore and aft balance tricky. The boars demonstrated desperate slapstick, stumbling and rolling repeatedly.
I revised my evaluation of this militia upward.
‘Their skill at herding prey is considerable…’
The three helicopters nimbly adjusted speed and position according to the movents of the target group. What was impressive was those tactical maneuvers were made without any instruction from Brigade Commander Neilson each ti. Their tactical movents seed to hold many aspects I and my kids could learn from. Of course, hunting people and hunting beasts cannot be technically identical. It was an unexpected benefit.
Seeming to share the thought, Kyung-tae fired questions over the internal line whenever there was a lull in shooting.
「You don’t recover the dead boars?」
The reply cos from Neilson in the co-pilot’s seat.
「No. We transmit the coordinates to a ground ops team nearby, so they’ll take care of retrieval instead.」
「Wow! You have a separate team working the ground too?」
「Yes. It’s one differentiating elent from other companies, and also one reason we price higher than others. If we had to land and string up corpses every ti we bagged a group, can you imagine the waste of ti? And how the movent of the helicopters would slow?」
「I see.」
「Mr. Kim paid so agreeably I didn’t need to explain such details. Long term, we want to attempt true joint hunting operations across very broad areas.」
Kyung-tae asked a new question.
「Is the brigade in your team’s na because the scale is so large?」
A brigade as a military formation was the minimum unit capable of independent operations, though it varied by country, at a minimum including over 1,000 combat personnel. Asked again, Neilson snorted with laughter.
「Of course not! The core tau-runners (awakeners) active number is just over thirty, and even combined with the other ard mbers it’s not yet 100. It’s called a brigade only counting local residents who join as general mbers as one family, so to speak.」
「What’s the difference between that and general mbers?」
「The mbers are actually more like custors. They’re the ones who contribute a few dollars monthly to help with community safety. We provide enhanced patrol service for the residences of such mbers. Also, send helicopters for ergencies at night. Of course, additional fees for maintenance and fuel apply for chopper dispatch.」
「So to speak it’s another business item, then?」
「I guess so. The system’s not completely established yet, though.」
「In the future you might beco a division or corps.」
「Hahaha! Wouldn’t that be grand! But even if everyone in this area joined, it wouldn’t be enough to form a corps. The population density is too low around here.」
In part, it ant they also served as a private security company. Demand was probably decently high in remote areas where it took police a minimum of an hour to arrive. An excellent case study of awakeners comrcially leveraging their abilities.
…
Dammit. I made an effort to shake off the returning worry, and anxiety about Grace, that arose unprompted.
‘Good thing we booked the hot springs in advance.’
The hot springs we planned to visit after the hunt were located about 10 miles (16.1 kiloters) south of Richfield, where we had a safehouse. It’d be best to contact the ones left in the safehouse there and check the surroundings.
Right now I had no way to get in touch, being out of comms range. Satellite phones also couldn’t be used while traveling by helicopter.
The pilot’s voice flowed from the headset.
「Alright, next prey is coming up soon. I’m told so suspicious ones are mixed in, so both of you get ready.」
Two agile helicopters herded a new group of boars from afar. Groups that were originally separate amalgamated into a single mass, forcibly grouped together. The hybrids of dostic and wild boars boasted abnormally large physiques.
Among them, the male at the lead was even bigger than the rest. Just from the looks of it, its weight exceeded probably around 1,000 pounds (around 454 kg). Its power and speed matched its size, making its sprint across the snowfield look like a high-speed snow plow. With the violently swirling snow, even discerning the boar beyond it with normal vision would be difficult.
「Whoa, that guy’s gotta be T-hog level, right?」
At Kyung-tae’s words, Jack riding along chid in agreent.
「We’re really lucky! That much power will for sure get an exotic ga rating! The bounty starts at $3,000 so we’ve definitely got to bag it! O’Neil! It is recording properly, right?!」
「Of course!」
As the militia mbers get fired up, I closely observed the boar’s galloping which brought to mind a tank. Its “code” undulating through the bristled hair on its back was, as expected, focused on the most basic physical enhancent. No completely new or outstanding parts, but inspired enough mana manipulation to be worth tucking away in my mind. Might co in handy soday.
「Huh?」
The pilot made a surprised sound. A new helicopter flying in at max speed cut in recklessly. We had no choice but to give way to avoid collision.
The hijacking craft’s occupants imdiately opened fire on the lead boar. They were trying to poach the prey we had cornered.
Neilson erupted in anger.
「Damn those utterly shaless bastards!」
Author's Thoughts
Disclair:
This novel is a work of fiction! While it may incorporate elents inspired by our "real" historical world, including historical events, settings, and cultures, it is important to note that the story and characters are entirely products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, or actual events is purely coincidental. This work should be enjoyed and interpreted as a work of fiction and not as a representation of historical facts or reality.
Also, if you find so error in translation please do let know by tagging (@_dawn24) in our Discord server. Since this series is kinda hard to translate. But I'll try my best to make it at least readable :)
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