Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 548
Chapter 548
Jin Geumho left Kim Hyunsu’s residence and strolled along the street.
Sung Hoyun and Grain stood on either side of him, and the security team moved in unseen places.
Since he had already been targeted by a sniper once, the level of vigilance around Jin Geumho was several times stronger than usual.
Yet Jin Geumho himself didn’t pay it much mind.
Sung Hoyun asked Jin Geumho,
“Are you in such a good mood?”
“Hm? Does it show?”
“Yes! You’ve been smiling the whole time.”
“I see!”
“You almost died, yet you’re still that happy?”
“Didn’t we gain some major benefits thanks to it? If that hadn’t happened, how would we have gotten cooperation from Kim Hyunsu? By risking my life, we caught a good flow and achieved the results we wanted. That’s reason enough to be in a good mood.”
“Anyway, you were reckless. Please don’t ever take such risks again.”
Sung Hoyun was genuinely worried about Jin Geumho.
Grain, who had been listening to their conversation, shook his head.
“As the captain says, please don’t do anything that dangerous. If something had really happened to you, Mr. Mayor, I wouldn’t still be in this world.”
At the time, the responsibility of protecting Jin Geumho had been Grain’s.
If Jin Geumho had died, Grain would have taken his own life to take responsibility for the failure in protection.
He never wanted to go through such an experience again.
Jin Geumho looked at Grain and let out a small chuckle.
“Still, thanks to it, didn’t we learn about the underground city? That’s a big gain.”
“I also didn’t know there was such a city beneath the slums. And I didn’t know there was a child with abilities like Remura’s either.”
“Remura… She’s an amazing child. Thanks to her, it feels like I’ll be able to live healthily for a few more years.”
Thinking of Remura, a smile naturally came to his face.
The people of the underground city, after learning Jin Geumho’s identity, all feared him. But just one person—Remura—still maintained the same warm attitude as ever.
To her, Jin Geumho wasn’t the mayor of Neo Seoul, but just a kind grandpa.
When he stood in front of Remura, Jin Geumho also couldn’t help but become an ordinary grandpa instead of the mayor of Neo Seoul.
Sung Hoyun asked,
“What are you going to do about the underground city?”
“Now that we’ve confirmed a new possibility for humanity to live, we should support it more. In the worst case, if Neo Seoul collapses, it could become the final stronghold.”
“Understood. I’ll look into the methods.”
“Quietly and discreetly. You know, right?”
“Of course.”
Sung Hoyun answered with a bow of his head.
Up until now, he had never once talked back to Jin Geumho or harbored doubts about his words.
It was Jin Geumho who had brought him into Neo Seoul and raised him when he was wandering the streets after losing his parents, and it was also Jin Geumho who had awakened his talent.
Like the other Numbers, to Sung Hoyun, Jin Geumho was more than a parent.
Suddenly, Jin Geumho frowned.
Pain flared from the spot where the bullet had pierced him.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine! It’s just that the pain flared up for a moment.”
“It’s because you haven’t completely healed yet. Let’s go to Remura.”
“No. I don’t want to trouble that child over pain like this.”
“Then just think of it as going to see your granddaughter.”
“Granddaughter?”
“That’s how it looked.”
Grain smiled.
Other people don’t know.
They don’t know how much pressure and stress Jin Geumho suffers under.
The position of bearing the lives and deaths of twenty million people in Neo Seoul isn’t something where you can make any decision easily.
Sometimes you have to be cold-hearted, and sometimes you have to send subordinates to positions where death is all but certain.
The seat where you have to see people not as living beings but as numbers is precisely the seat of the mayor of Neo Seoul.
Because of that, Jin Geumho lived with constant headaches.
He just didn’t show it in front of people thanks to superhuman mental strength and willpower.
It was a secret known only to his closest aide, Seo Taeran, and the Numbers.
Reading the mood, Sung Hoyun urged Jin Geumho.
“It’ll take some time to develop the supercomputer to be mounted on Divine Judgement together with the West District. Once we start, we won’t be able to rest, so it’s important to make your body condition perfect first. Please receive treatment while staying with the child Remura. When your condition becomes perfect, you might come up with even better ideas, right?”
“Really?”
“Yes! I’m certain.”
“Then… shall I?”
Jin Geumho answered with a reluctant expression. But he couldn’t hide the faint smile that rose to his lips.
---
Thump thump!
When Zeon knocked on the door, someone opened it as if they’d been waiting.
“Welcome!”
The one who greeted Zeon was none other than Tesserina.
Seeing Tesserina covered in dust, Zeon tilted his head.
“You look busy?”
“Yeah, I was turning my lair upside down.”
“Why?”
“I’m rearranging the interior. It’s nothing, so come in first.”
Tesserina grabbed Zeon’s hand and pulled him in.
She made Zeon sit down in a chair in the reception room.
“Wow!”
Looking around the room, Zeon exclaimed.
It was incomparably more splendid than before.
Antique furniture carved with ornate patterns, gorgeous paintings, and all kinds of sculptures filled the reception room.
A lair must be splendid, no matter what.
And the reception room shown to others must be even more splendid—that was a dragon’s motto. And Tesserina was a dragon.
In this age, the only being with such a splendid reception room was Tesserina. Even so, she didn’t seem satisfied. Her face still clearly showed discontent.
As Tesserina served Zeon tea, she asked,
“But what brings you here at this hour?”
“I came to say thank you.”
“For what?”
“You stopped Tridgion’s attack.”
“Oh, that? If I’d just let it be, my lair would’ve taken damage too, so what could I do? I pushed myself a bit for that.”
“Thank you!”
“I did it to protect my lair—what’s there to thank me for?”
Tesserina made an embarrassed expression.
Zeon smiled and drank the tea she gave him.
“Smells good.”
“It’s a special herb tea brought from Kurayan. I drink it sparingly myself.”
“Nice! Is it okay to give me something this precious?”
“If it’s you, Zeon, it’s fine. And I asked Brielle.”
“For what?”
“To grow the herb seeds.”
“Brielle should be able to grow them well.”
“Yeah!”
Tesserina beamed.
If it was Brielle and the high elves, they would be able to grow herbs well.
Knowing how delicious freshly picked herbs were, saliva naturally welled up.
After finishing all his tea, Zeon said,
“You should be careful from now on.”
“Hm?”
“You used such powerful magic in the slums, so Neo Seoul will definitely take an interest and dig into it.”
Jin Geumho never turns a blind eye to anyone who could be a threat to Neo Seoul. He would certainly move the Numbers to identify the person who used magic.
Tesserina nodded.
“So for the time being, I’m not going outside the lair.”
“Also, stay away from the underground city for a while.”
“Why there too?”
“The City Hall found out.”
“Ugh! City Hall again?”
“It was something they were going to find out about sooner or later.”
Zeon smiled bitterly.
City Hall would never just leave the underground city alone.
A clean underground city was itself like a gigantic air-raid shelter.
It had the optimal conditions to prepare for any emergency.
And on top of that, there was the cheat-like existence called Remura.
If the underground city was managed well, they could save lives in crises like this one.
If it was the Jin Geumho and Seo Taeran he knew, they would definitely try to specially manage the underground city.
“It’s good news for the people living in the underground city. City Hall will definitely provide enormous support.” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
“That’s good, then.”
Tesserina nodded.
She knew well how harsh the lives of the underground city’s people had been before Zeon and she helped.
Things had gotten a little better lately, but there was still a lot lacking.
“Do you think Jetoya will like it?”
“He’ll like getting support, but he’ll be wary of excessive interference."
“Then you’ll stop it from becoming like that, right?”
“I have to.”
It was an inevitable flow for City Hall to intervene in the underground city. But he had no intention of letting City Hall take the lead and manage it.
The owners of the underground city were Jetoya and the residents.
He had no intention at all of standing by while City Hall messed with their living grounds as it pleased.
“Come to think of it, it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen Jetoya’s face. He’s in the middle of a dungeon raid, right?”
“Yeah!”
“Since he still hasn’t come back, it looks like he’s having a tough time?”
“Seems so!”
Raiding a dungeon was never easy.
You never knew what kind of variables might be lurking inside.
Moreover, the dungeon raiding party led by Jetoya was a group that had only just begun.
They didn’t have as much experience as other raiding parties, so they had no choice but to go through trial and error.
Even so, Zeon couldn’t help them.
He knew well that excessive help would only hinder the growth of the dungeon raiding party.
Zeon stood up from his seat.
“I should get going.”
“Already?”
“I’m a bit tired. I should go home and rest.”
“That makes sense.”
Just because the battle with Tridgion was over didn’t mean Zeon’s work was all done.
For the past few days, Zeon had been moving busier than anyone else, checking the damage in the slums.
It was so he could later get compensation from the West District.
If someone else had done something like this, the West District would’ve scoffed. They had no intention of taking responsibility just because a bit of the slums had been damaged.
But if the one taking action was Zeon, the story was different.
That was how big a figure Zeon was.
His weight class was on par with the rulers of each district, or even above them.
Naturally, the weight carried by a single word of his was different.
And moreover, the cause of this incident lay with the West District.
If Zeon pressured them, they had no choice but to comply.
Dealing with all sorts of things like this, Zeon had become quite tired too.
It wasn’t physical fatigue, but mental fatigue that had built up.
Zeon left Tesserina’s house and headed to his own.
“Zeon hyung!”
“Hello.”
Some of the kids on the street recognized Zeon and greeted him.
They thought of Zeon as the guardian deity of the slums.
Because he was there, the slums had been able to become this bright. So they treated him more warmly than anyone else.
Just looking at the kids’ smiles, Zeon felt his fatigue ease somewhat.
“You’re all safe, right?”
“We lived thanks to you, hyung.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Oh! And this time, we’re moving into a house too.”
“A house?”
“My dad built a house outside Sinchon. We’re going to live there from now on.”
A toothless boy answered with a wide grin.
Zeon realized that the house the boy was talking about had been built with sand hardener on the outskirts of the slums.
“That’s great!”
“Yes! Dad said that now that we have a house, he’ll work hard. Hehe!”
Hope was blooming in the slums.
The smiles on the children’s lips were the proof.
At their laughter, Zeon felt his fatigue melt away.
This was a place worth protecting.
A smile, like the children’s, also appeared on Zeon’s lips.
