#101. The Place Reached Against the Current (3)
—
“─The fact that you have ruined everything your boss had built.”
At the tattooed man’s words, the entire gang felt as if a blade had pierced their lungs.
“Fire! Fire at him! There’s no need to listen!”
Their leader, Brook, bellowed, as if desperately trying to erase his guilt.
*Clatter—*
A ridiculous number of gun barrels were aimed at a single man.
Fingers tensed, and triggers began to be pulled.
“……?”
“……!”
It was at that moment that they sensed an unfamiliar presence above them.
*KWAANG───!*
A boy, clad head to toe in barrier, fell like a comet in front of the tattooed man.
“Wh…!”
Before the word “What” could leave Brook’s mouth, the triggers were pulled, and over a dozen gun barrels erupted with fire.
────────!
The deafening gunfire filled the alley.
“W-Wait, cease fir─”
Brook, who was about to shout ‘ceasefire,’ saw what had happened and his pupils trembled violently.
“─Don’t stop shooting! Fire! Fire! He’s a mage! Do not stop under any circumstances! Don’t give him a chance to use another spell!”
The bullets flying through the air were being blocked by a transparent barrier, falling uselessly to the ground.
*Could that bastard Colin have brought a mage to his side?!*
But how? The fool was already cornered, with neither funds nor manpower to spare!
“Keep firing! Fire! Fire! Break through his defenses and turn him to shreds!”
Fear surged in the hearts of Brook and his gang.
The very word *mage* invoked terror.
And in that moment, even the tattooed man—Colin—who was receiving unexpected help, felt the same bewilderment.
Before his eyes was the boy’s back.
A frame still yet to reach adulthood, but exuding an overwhelming presence.
*A boy…? A mage…? Who is he…?*
His gaze was drawn to the boy’s stark white hair.
He quickly ran through his mental list of orphans in the slums, but no child with such hair came to mind.
No.
Even among all the residents of this sector, there was no one with such white hair.
Let alone a mage.
If such a person had existed, word would have spread, and some organization would have already recruited them.
*…An outsider?*
That seemed the most likely possibility.
For some unknown reason, this outsider was aiding him.
*Clack! Clack!*
“Hurry up and reload─”
Brook’s words were cut off.
An unknown force suddenly pulled his entire body toward the ground.
*Clang! Clang! Thud! Thud!*
“M-My body…!”
“W-What the hell?! I can’t move! There’s no strength in my body!”
Brook and his gang dropped their guns and collapsed onto the ground.
At first, they tried to hold themselves up with their palms against the dirt, but within seconds─
*Thud!*
─they were all sprawled flat on their stomachs.
“Ugh…!”
“What… What is this…?!”
They struggled desperately but couldn’t even lift their heads properly.
Soon, they realized it wasn’t some external force pressing them down.
*My strength…! It’s gone…!*
It was something within their own bodies.
As if their muscles had simultaneously lost all function.
Watching this, Colin was utterly astonished.
*Is this also magic?*
His heart pounded.
Could it be? A miracle capable of reversing the course of this war?
Perhaps, by any means necessary, this boy was someone he had to hold onto.
“I have some questions. Do you have a moment to talk?”
The boy turned around and asked.
His face was younger than expected.
And his tone—calm, as if simply asking for directions—gave the scene an almost surreal feeling.
And then—
*Swish! Crack!*
“For now, you stay quiet. I’ll listen to your side after I hear what I need to.”
“H-Hiiik…!”
Brook, who had been struggling, suddenly fell silent.
Anyone would.
A knife had just flown and embedded itself right in front of his face.
*A knife… stuck into concrete…? Is this magic too?*
A chill ran down Colin’s spine.
And the icy voice of the boy sent another wave of cold through his chest.
“I’ll ask again. Can we talk?”
The boy turned back toward him, after confirming Brook had gone silent.
*Talk?*
Was he saying he would simply leave if Colin refused?
“Yes. What do you wish to ask…?”
“Nisoha, correct? I want to know your connection to Niles, and which organizations are at war in this sector right now.”
Niles.
Before even processing the question, that name made Colin’s heart drop.
Just hearing it aloud squeezed his chest tight.
*How does this boy know my late brother’s name…?*
Colin’s lips parted in confusion, but before he could speak, he saw something beyond the boy’s shoulder—
More enemies had appeared at the alley’s entrance.
One of them, wielding a knife, locked eyes with Colin and lunged forward with a curse.
“You motherfucker! Dieee──!”
His speed, cutting through his own allies, was no joke.
“Is my question difficult?”
Despite the loud shout, the boy remained focused solely on Colin.
Why?
Had he not heard it because he was concentrating too much?
*No…!*
Colin’s face paled as he envisioned the knife plunging into the boy’s back.
The magical barrier was down.
There wasn’t enough time to recast a spell, and the mages he knew were all weak in close combat.
He had to protect the boy.
Colin forced his exhausted body into action.
Just as he was about to lunge at the attacker—
*Whoosh—!*
The boy, who had been still until now, suddenly spun.
His movement flowed like water, stepping inside his opponent’s range before turning again—
*KWAANG──!*
A flawless over-the-shoulder throw.
He had used the enemy’s own momentum against them, making the impact and resulting sound overwhelming.
Everyone in the alley was left stunned, simply watching.
“Guh…!”
The attacker convulsed, foaming at the mouth, before losing consciousness.
“M-My body, I can move again!”
“R-Retreat! We can’t fight him!”
As if a spell had lifted, the enemies scrambled to their feet and fled.
The boy simply watched them run.
But Colin was too shocked to comment on that.
Because, in the boy’s movements, he saw an unmistakably familiar habit.
One he could never forget.
His voice, barely more than a whisper, left his lips.
“Niles… Brother?”
—
—
–
“If you receive healing from Veronica one more time, you’ll recover much faster.”
Who was this *Veronica* referring to?
Colin, who had been staring blankly at the pure white light hovering over his shoulder, snapped out of his daze and asked,
“So… you’re saying my brother was alive?”
“Until 78 days ago.”
“Ha…”
A suffocating weight pressed down on him, like a storm cloud rolling in.
The mere fact that his brother, whom he had thought to be dead after falling into the Elton River, had been alive all this time was already shocking enough.
But the realization that he had truly died—less than three months ago—was an even greater blow.
“How… how was my brother living there?”
It was an unbelievable story.
One he *didn’t* want to believe.
At first, Colin thought the boy was lying.
But the details spilling from his lips were things only someone truly close to his brother could have known.
And so, Colin had no choice but to slowly accept reality.
The boy, too, had already finished evaluating him—examining his emotions like one would observe water in a vessel.
“He built an organization. He wanted to change the environment of the sector.”
“…….”
Colin remained silent for a long time.
He seemed to be chewing over the boy’s words, forcing them down like a bitter pill.
Then, with a voice thick with emotion, he finally spoke.
“My brother… he was the same as ever.”
His ideals had remained unchanged, whether here or there.
A thought crossed Colin’s mind—had his brother been too exhausted to swim against the current and return to this place?
“…….”
That might very well be the case.
His brother had poured every last drop of his strength into realizing his dream *here*.
“…And he died saving me.”
The boy’s story was brief.
That was the final sentence.
Colin, whose eyes had begun to regain their vitality, turned to Ray.
The brother he knew never acted without reason.
There must have been *something* he saw in this boy—something that made him bet his very life.
‘I think… I know.’
Looking into the boy’s eyes, Colin felt he had a faint understanding of what his brother had seen.
That overwhelming magic he had just witnessed.
Of course, that played a part, but it wasn’t *everything*.
“Now then, why don’t you tell me your story?”
“Understood.”
Colin nodded, regaining his composure.
“The only organization currently at war in this sector is Nisoha.”
“An internal conflict?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The division within the organization had begun the day Niles disappeared.
“There were already people who followed my brother but didn’t agree with his ideals. So, once he was gone, it was only natural for them to start voicing their dissatisfaction.”
The group split into factions—those who supported Nile’s vision and those who opposed it.
At first, fierce battles broke out.
But after realizing how much both sides were losing, they had been locked in a tense stalemate for years, each controlling half of the sector.
“However, the balance of power recently collapsed. They brought in mages from outside. *Not just one, but multiple.*”
Ray understood now.
That was why the thugs earlier had recognized magic so quickly.
“And among the ones who fled earlier, the leader of the opposition faction was there—Brook.”
Brook.
Ray recognized the name.
Niles had mentioned it before.
“He was the one who shot Niles on the bridge, wasn’t he?”
“What? What are you talking…?”
Colin’s face contorted with shock.
But then, as he fully grasped Ray’s words and connected the pieces in his mind, his expression twisted further—his rage boiling over.
“Brook…! That…! That ungrateful…! That *filthy, backstabbing son of a bitch*…!”
*Grit──!*
The sound of his teeth grinding echoed through the alley.
The color of his rage was as red as blood, filling the vessel of his emotions to the brim.
He hadn’t known that Niles had been *betrayed*.
Of course.
If word had gotten out that Brook had betrayed the boss of the organization, he never would have been able to rally such a force behind him.
“Mage… would you be willing to help us?”
Colin, who had been hesitating for some time, finally spoke.
“The supporters of my brother are being *crushed*. They outnumber us ten to one in the streets they control. But if *you* join us, we might have a chance to turn the tide.”
Ray could tell—Colin had wrestled with himself before making this request.
And it wasn’t just because they shared a connection to Niles.
*He’s desperate.*
Colin bore the responsibility of protecting those who remained loyal to his brother.
For some reason, Ray thought back to his own past in Sector 50—how he had wandered the streets every day, searching for food to keep his younger siblings from starving.
“…I sincerely beg you.”
But Ray didn’t want to decide just yet.
It was true that he owed Niles a debt of gratitude.
But that didn’t necessarily mean he was obligated to help Niles’ former subordinates.
*Niles was Niles.*
*His followers were his followers.*
A debt of gratitude should be repaid *to the person himself*.
He had no duty or responsibility to aid these people.
However, he *did* want to hear more about Nile’s past.
Taking a slow breath, Ray shifted the topic to something he needed to confirm first.
“I can’t decide right away. I have companions, and I need to discuss it with them. More importantly, did the mages Brook brought in use *red gemstones*?”
“Wh-what…? How do you know that…?”
So it was true.
One of the arrows on Walter’s ring had changed into a blinking dot.
The exact location wasn’t clear yet, but this confirmed that one of *Murcred’s* officers was somewhere within Sector 46.
Even *Curiosa* hadn’t known who exactly it was.
*”We haven’t seen each other in years—not since we were first assigned our missions. The last time I saw them was ten years ago.”*
That was one of the things he had revealed in their first exchange of questions.
He had no interest in what they looked like now.
And even if he *did* know, he wouldn’t have given up the information so easily.
Regardless, it seemed Brook had enlisted *Murcred* to gain the upper hand.
And not just their regular forces—one of their officers was involved.
‘…But why would Murcred be supporting Brook in the first place?’
Pushing that question aside for now, Ray continued his inquiries.
“What kind of magic did they use? Any defining characteristics?”
“That would be…”
Just as Colin was about to respond, his eyes widened in shock.
“T-there…!”
Following his trembling finger, Ray turned around.
At the entrance of the alley stood a man.
A man who was conjuring a fireball the size of a human head in his palm.
And that wasn’t all.
*Sizzle!* *Crackle!* *Clang!*
Looking up, Ray spotted two more men standing on the rooftops of the adjacent buildings.
One had eerie violet lightning crackling around his hands.
The other wielded a sharp ice spear, its tip glinting menacingly.
“Ah…”
Colin’s face turned to stone.
He remembered all too well how many of his men had been slaughtered by those terrifying spells.
He cursed himself for his carelessness—he had lingered here too long after assuming the immediate danger had passed.
He didn’t care what happened to *him*.
But what had this boy done to deserve this?
‘Of all people, the child my brother sacrificed his life to save…’
And now, because of his own foolish negligence, that boy was about to die.
He swallowed dryly, preparing to apologize.
But before he could, the boy spoke first.
“Rather than killing them, wouldn’t it be better to capture them?”
