System
A new Quest has been generated!
An Unexpected Quest, Unknown Death, has been forcibly accepted!
Quest
Unknown Death
The reclusive Grand Mage Siegfried Bassmann has died for an unknown reason.
Yet everything has a cause.
Discover how he died and who killed him.
Grade: Supreme Peak
Restriction: Jin Taekyung
Mission: Reveal the truth behind his death (Incomplete)
Reward: ???
Failure: ???
I stared at the Quest window floating in midair.
The name of the deceased in the first line of the description told me that this corpse, which had met such a gruesome end, belonged to one of only three Grand Mages in the entire world.
Siegfried Bassmann.
Siegfried, also known as the “Hero.” The greatest Hunter ever produced by Switzerland, a permanently neutral country, and a Grand Mage with exceptional talent for summoning and barrier magic.
If Magic Johnson was a War Mage who specialized in combat and killing, Siegfried was one of the few scholars who had devoted himself to the study of magic itself.
At least until today, when he was found dead in his own hideout.
“Was he like this when you arrived?”
Magic Johnson nodded, his expression grim.
“Yes. I could hardly believe it myself. I checked several times before I accepted that the body was Siegfried’s.”
“How often did you keep in touch?”
“Once or twice a year after he went into hiding. Even then, I’d have to contact him ten times or so before he answered, and it took him ages. This is my first time here. He was intensely private and hated visits like this.”
“Then the last time you heard from him was…”
“Hmm. About three years ago, I think.”
“Three years. I heard he went into hiding nearly ten years ago.”
“The last time we met, just before he retired, he gave me a communication artifact he’d made himself. Told me to use it if anything was truly urgent.”
I took the artifact Magic Johnson pulled from inside his clothes. It was a crystal ball about the size of an adult’s fist, and it held a considerable amount of mana—as if to prove a Grand Mage had made it.
Of course. Normal radio signals and communications would have been impossible inside a space surrounded by layers upon layers of barriers. He probably intended it that way.
I’d never met Siegfried Bassmann, but by all accounts he was a shut-in. He avoided attention of any kind, and once a subject caught his interest, he’d dig into it until he’d dissected every last part of it.
“I contacted him every Thanksgiving and Christmas, but he stopped answering three years ago. I knew what he was like, so I let it go. Being called a hero made him uncomfortable, and he hated attention from the press. Even after the Great Cataclysm ended, he’d sometimes disappear into his research for long stretches.”
I couldn’t make sense of it.
A Grand Mage who had gone into hiding to escape the public eye had died like this in his own refuge.
One thing, though, was certain.
“This wasn’t an ordinary natural death. Whatever killed him, a body couldn’t end up like this in just three years.”
Maybe not even in three hundred.
Would a shut-in Grand Mage whose hobby was magic research and whose specialty was staying home run his hideout on gas and electricity?
This enormous cavern, which could only be entered by breaking through its barriers, was filled with all kinds of magic. Everything, from the temperature to the humidity, was controlled perfectly.
And Siegfried’s body showed none of the rot or stench of ordinary decay.
It’s just… dried out. As if something sucked every bit of life from it.
I’d never seen a death this strange, even in Murim.
Which left me with more questions. How had he died in his own hideout? And how deeply was his death connected to my enemies?
“Michael Silbert. And The Prophet.”
The two likeliest suspects.
Magic Johnson understood what I meant. “If I had to choose one of them, I’d pick the first without hesitation.”
“Why?”
“Because we know there’s a connection between Michael and Siegfried. From everything we’ve seen, Michael Silbert must know Sky is unconscious. Otherwise, he’d never have joined forces with terrorists to pull off something this insane.”
It was a plausible theory. Siegfried had built Area A inside Ares Guild’s headquarters, and he could well have learned the truth about Cheon Taemin’s condition while doing it.
But…
“I’m asking because I don’t know, but was Siegfried close to Michael Silbert when he was alive?”
“That…”
“Then how likely is it that he told Michael a secret that big?”
Magic Johnson paused and let out a low groan.
“Unlikely. No, you might as well call it impossible. Very few people had any relationship with Siegfried, myself included. And there was only one person he ever said he truly respected.”
I had a feeling I knew the answer.
“Cheon Taemin.”
Magic Johnson nodded. “That’s right. Siegfried genuinely respected Sky. From what he told me, it was practically worship. He even spoke about Sky in an interview once.”
“Oh. I think I remember that.”
I had a vague memory of seeing the interview. There were online profiles full of information about well-known Hunters, Siegfried Bassmann among them. I’d heard the interview caused a stir at the time: it was unusual enough for him to speak to the press, let alone express such strong feelings about anyone.
“Perhaps… that’s why Lee Jungryong commissioned Siegfried to build Area A.”
Team Leader Choi spoke up suddenly, then continued slowly.
“Siegfried Bassmann was a master in that field, and he had very few personal relationships. On top of that, he deeply respected my maternal grandfather. He would have kept the secret.”
Magic Johnson gave a small nod.
“That’s true. Even I knew nothing about Area A, and I was one of the people closest to him. Hell, I never thought he’d accept a commission from anyone.”
“At least when it came to maintaining secrecy, Lee Jungryong’s judgment was accurate. But if the information wasn’t leaked, the question that remains is…”
“How did Michael Silbert find out?”
I muttered the question as I examined the body again, searching every inch for signs of torture. Even with every sense sharpened, I found nothing new.
If this wasn’t simply a lizard shedding its tail, then there had to be a reason he needed to be killed.
I couldn’t prove it yet, but Michael Silbert was still our likeliest suspect. Finding out what had happened here could be the first step toward bringing him down.
There’s something. There has to be…
I kept searching the body, repeating those words to myself. At last, frustrated, I looked up and saw someone standing nearby.
Or rather, a monster shaped like a person.
“Why are you standing there trying to look cool? You’ve been quiet this whole time.”
The Skeleton King stood with his arms crossed, deep in thought. He frowned.
“Silence, foolish human. This body was engaged in profound contemplation.”
“What kind of bullshit were you contemplating now?”
“Can you not feel it?”
I stopped. “Feel what?”
“This space. The concentration of magical power is higher here than elsewhere.”
If he’d said mana, I would have argued immediately. My Qi Sense was better than anyone else’s here, and I hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
But magical power was another matter. The Skeleton King was an S-rank monster. When it came to sensing magical power, even I couldn’t match him.
“Large human. Did you not feel it?”
Magic Johnson scratched the back of his head.
“I did, though not as clearly as you. I just didn’t think it was strange.”
“You are infinitely more foolish than this body. Why?”
“This isn’t just a house. It’s also a laboratory equipped with everything Siegfried could want. You could rummage through a single storage room and find mountains of monster corpses and Magic Gems.”
“…Huh?”
Oh. He had a point.
Just as filtering shit water wouldn’t make it perfectly clear, the same was true of Magic Gems and monster corpses. No matter how thoroughly they were purified, some magical power would remain.
Siegfried’s hideout was full of things that held magical power. No wonder the concentration was high.
“I see what you’re thinking,” Johnson went on, “but even if monsters are the reason there’s so much magical power here, that doesn’t tell us anything. If a monster killed Siegfried, there should at least be signs of a fight.”
“…H-huh?”
I was an idiot for getting my hopes up.
The Skeleton King could only blink at Johnson’s perfectly reasonable objection. I muttered, “Fucking moron.”
“How dare this treacherous human insult whom!”
“Shut up before I pull your jawbone off. I’ll let it slide since you actually tried thinking for once.”
“…”
“Don’t go confusing the investigation. My head’s about to explode as it is.”
The Demon Realm was far away. My fist was close.
The Skeleton King closed his mouth, looking thoroughly displeased. Team Leader Choi, who had continued examining the body, clicked his tongue.
“If this was an assassination, there should be at least a small wound. But there isn’t one. The body is clean.”
“Then…”
“Magic is the only explanation I can think of.”
Yet even Magic Johnson, a Grand Mage himself, looked troubled.
“I specialize in offensive magic, but I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this. It’s far more complex and sinister than the magic we use. Closer to that fellow’s work, if anything.”
“That fellow,” who had been keeping his mouth firmly shut, frowned.
“This body merely places vengeful spirits into dead flesh. This body knows nothing of such wicked magic.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Isn’t that already fucking wicked magic?
But since he said he did not know, what could I say? Besides, he was quite unlike an ordinary monster, so he had no reason to lie.
Damn it. It has to be him.
Michael Silbert.
That name alone kept circling through my mind.
Comments
Comments need a network connection.