The Encounter (4)
Drip drip!
As Minjun sat with a grim expression, lost in thought, a sudden sound of water flowing echoed from the table.
"?!"
Only then did his gaze shift. A different kind of bewilderment spread across Minjun's face as he discovered something. He cautiously called her name.
"Uh… Cash?"
Cash froze in the same position as when she was pouring tea into the guest's cup. The problem was that the tea had already started spilling over. She had stopped moving her hand for some unknown reason, leaving the cup to overflow.
"Uh, it's spilling. It's overflowing!"
Bradley shouted, but Cash only stared blankly into space. She remained frozen in that position until the teapot ran out.
"...Cash?"
Still no answer. The table was now soaked in a light crimson liquid. Minjun sighed lightly and snapped his fingers.
Whoosh!
The damp table and floor dried up in an instant. Bradley's face showed intrigue. While the magic itself wasn't extraordinary, he could tell from the speed and control that it wasn't ordinary. It would have been easier to just burn the whole table, but Minjun managed to clean up the water so efficiently.
"Your skills are still top-notch."
"Anyway, you want me to buy you a drink, right? Alright, let's go."
Bradley pointed to the side.
"Can I leave her like this?"
"Cash? Cash? Cash?"
After calling her three times like that, she responded without even turning her eyes.
"…Yes."
"We need to go and have a private talk. You've worked hard today. Just clock out and head home."
"…Yes."
"Ah... Hey, Cash? Are you really okay?"
"…Yes."
Minjun scratched his head and stood up, awkwardly muttering.
"Make sure to lock the door when you leave."
"…Yes."
Even after her last response, she still didn't move a finger, holding the teapot tightly.
The rain had stopped. The two of them walked down a dimly lit street, heading to a nearby place. Once they entered, there were no other customers besides them.
"It's so empty. Is it because it's still early?"
To Bradley's comment, Minjun replied.
"This place is always like this."
This emptiness was actually the reason he chose this place.
They sat at the bar table, and the bartender slowly approached. Seeing him, Bradley nodded and said, "Just as I expected."
This was the place Minjun would come to when he wanted to drink alone and avoid conversation. If you sat alone, the bartender would typically offer a word or two, but here, that never happened. Even after coming here for years, Minjun still didn't know the bartender's name.
There was a simple reason for that. The only bartender in this bar was an Ent.
"Culrilla, double. On the rocks."
"Same for me."
The bartender nodded, extending a branch with vines from his side and grabbed the ice bucket, bottles, two glasses, snacks, and napkins all at once. Despite his slow pace, his hands moved with impressive speed, multitasking in an efficient way reminiscent of an octopus.
A moment later, the bartender finished setting up in front of them and walked slowly back to his corner. He extended a root and dipped it into a water container, seemingly thirsty.
After confirming his usual lack of interest in customers, Minjun created a sound-blocking barrier.
"Alright, let's talk."
"The thing I most want to talk about right now is this: Can you really run a business like this?"
A mute bartender? Bradley pointed out that it could be fatal to sales.
Minjun replied, "People who like this atmosphere come here. People like me. And the owner is a bit of an eccentric, so I doubt they care much about sales. Anyway…"
Minjun read the mischievous vibe in Bradley's expression. He seemed eager to ask about Minjun's ex-wife, so Minjun decided to steer the conversation in another direction on purpose.
"Why did you come to Korea?"
Seeing through Bradley's intentions, he replied somewhat deflated.
"Because of the Princess Vermi's escort. I came early for a reconnaissance trip."
"What? What princess?"
After hearing the name again, Minjun dredged up someone from his blurry memories.
"Ah, from the Gelanco dimension?"
Now that he thought about it, he remembered hearing something about a planned visit to Earth. But was Korea among the countries they would visit?
"Ah, wait a minute."
After thinking for a moment, something seemed off.
"Why is the U.S. immigration handling the escort for a princess from Gelanco visiting Korea?"
Bradley had a similar false identity to Minjun. Their work patterns were the same except for the fact that Minjun's area of operation was in Korea.
"You know, the Vermi Princess's faction has weak political influence within the United Federation. They didn't get enough security personnel, and there's a rumor that they asked for cooperation from Earth."
"Weak political influence? But the princess faction contributes a substantial amount to the GDP of their dimension, doesn't it?"
"They say it's about 15%. Even so, it's still considered second-rate. Politics really is strange when you look at it this way."
Minjun rolled his eyes and spoke.
"Anyway, the Korean government requested agents from the U.S.?"
"They said the scale of security they wanted was unreasonable, so external help became unavoidable."
At this point, Minjun became more skeptical.
'Did they request something beyond the capacity of immigration itself?'
If that were the case, he could have been called in for the job, but this was the first time he had heard of this. Did Jenkins intentionally exclude him?
'Or maybe Cash took care of it and filtered him out.'
Guard duties that required staying with someone for several days were exactly the kind of task Minjun hated, so that made sense.
He casually asked a few more questions.
"Why is Korea involved suddenly? Is there a problem selling gold?"
Gold, unlike the past, was now closer to an industrial material. It was consumed in large amounts as a magical reagent for various uses. From extracting energy from magical stones to its essential role in industrial magic, the demand for it was high, especially from dragons.
If you looked deeper into the gold market, it was divided between alchemists who supplied magic-refined gold and the bio-synthetic gold imported from the Gelanco dimension.
The former had the advantage of being flexibly produced by using alchemists, while the latter couldn't be mass-produced by just "effort," but it was of excellent quality as a magical reagent.
Minjun predicted that this visit was somehow related to Gelanco's top export. But Bradley's next words took a different turn.
"Officially, it's for business. But I heard… this could lead to the 8th mass migration to Earth."
"8th? Now?"
The most recent mass migration approved by the committee was in 1981, so if it happened now, it would be after 40 years.
After hearing this, the first thing Minjun wondered was the "size" of the migration.
"Wait a minute, what's the average height of the Vermi princess's faction?"
"About 3.5 meters."
"Well, then it would obviously get rejected. She's bigger than a troll."
"It's not an easy task. That's why I've heard the committee is preparing a rather enticing gift," Bradley responded.
"Hmm."
It was an interesting story, but since it wasn't something that would come to fruition anytime soon, Minjun didn't want to continue on that topic.
Having sufficiently taken the wind out of his sails, Minjun now decided it was time to bring up the conversation he truly wanted to have.
"Alright, now let's actually talk."
"Hold on, let me take a sip."
Bradley, who had momentarily neglected his drink while focused on the conversation, finally grabbed his glass.
He took a sip and immediately made a face as if something was off.
"Cough! Why did you have to order something that tastes like disinfectant?"
"Doesn't it bring back memories? The dimension we worked in together," Minjun remarked.
Bradley paused to reflect briefly, then smiled wryly.
"Right... All the alcohol they sold there had this kind of smell. You couldn't tell if it was booze or just pure alcohol."
Bradley broke off his reminiscing and spoke again.
"Anyway, what I know is this: After we completed our mission in the previous dimension, the inmates who didn't collect their severance scattered. You and I were dispatched here, but Del went off to some other place alone."
"Luckily, yes," Minjun replied, recalling how grateful and blessed he felt at that moment, to the point where he briefly considered starting a religious practice. He felt as though the universe itself was encouraging him, reminding him that life was worth living.
If he hadn't been a dark magician, he might have truly begun a life of faith.
"Let me say it again, 500,000 talents... Well, I guess she might have had some savings from before. But how she gathered that much? I don't know the details. But I do know this: After we separated, I heard that Del got an enormous amount of praise in that dimension."
"...What? That woman? She was praised for doing her job well?" Minjun recalled Del's actions in that dimension.
There was the incident where, instead of catching the space bugs they were supposed to, she nearly attacked a refugee ship; or when she almost destroyed a colony by tearing through the cloaking barrier while opening a dictator's secret vault; or when she confused the maintenance procedures for fusion engines and rocket propulsion, sending all their comrades into space and leaving them stranded for a week...
Thinking back on these one by one, Minjun couldn't help but feel the chill run down his spine. Those terrible memories of drifting in the dark, frozen space for days came rushing back.
"Well, I guess the work we did wasn't suited to her strengths. And now that I think about it, most of the accidents Del caused were actually unintended, right?"
"That's what makes her so dangerous. Other people try desperately with purpose and fail, but she doesn't even intend to and still manages to do it!"
The near-supernatural marksmanship that hits targets without being detected on the radar, or the precise manipulation of the cloaking barrier's weakness that lets her rip it apart, or her over-technology tinkering that recreates the effects of a fourth-generation recoil-less propulsion engine using an outdated fusion engine...
These were things that most people could never do, no matter how hard they tried.
But Del did it all without a care... and by mistake!
Minjun shuddered as he recalled those nightmares, and Bradley spoke up.
"Anyway, my guess is that she must have achieved something amazing in that dimension and received a special pardon."
"Like Telesia?" Minjun unwittingly mentioned the name, and immediately froze, his expression stiffening.
"..."
Bradley couldn't hide his own emotional reaction.
The name just mentioned was from someone who had served with them in 'that dimension.'
"Hmm?"
As an awkward silence settled between them, Minjun suddenly realized something.
"Wait a minute."
The mention of Telesia's name triggered the thought.
"That means Del must have regained her memories, right?"
"Probably."
The limited memory erasure that occurred during labor reform-type imprisonment made it impossible for the prisoners to recall who they were or the crimes they committed before their capture.
"...So, is she okay now?"
Bradley chuckled softly.
"Why? Are you worried about her, the woman you used to live with?"
"Of course, I'm worried!"
Minjun said with a sharp tone.
"Of course, I'm worried! I'm worried about what might happen to me if she remembers she's a criminal and goes completely insane!"
Bradley responded with a skeptical tone.
"Come on, how could that happen?"
Minjun scowled, as if the memories made him more anxious, and took another sip.
"A crazy woman going crazy again? That's exactly what makes it even scarier. I'm worried her condition has gotten worse."
Bradley sighed deeply and scratched his head.
"You married her because you liked her."
"I didn't know she was like that."
"Didn't you get any hints?"
Minjun murmured, his voice tinged with sadness.
"The first 80 years we lived together, she was fine."
"Either way, you should prepare yourself. You know, I was shocked when you said 'killed' earlier. I couldn't believe it."
Minjun had said "I killed the dragon," but Bradley misunderstood it as "I killed my ex-wife."
Bradley continued.
"Of course, you're the best person I've ever met..."
In that moment, Minjun recalled a word from the old man he met earlier today at the Witch's Cooperative.
"…'Assassin,' though," Bradley added.
"It's hard to believe you killed her that easily. She's not someone you can just kill like that."
It's not rare for divorced couples to wish death upon each other, but Minjun and Del's case was far more intense.
Each had their own reasons.
One thought the other was too dangerous, and the other thought the other was too lovable. That's why they both wanted to kill each other.