Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 538

Chapter 538

Jin Geum-ho sat in a chair and looked out over the underground city.

In the vast underground space—so huge that there would still be room even if the corpse of the dragon lying beneath City Hall were brought down here—countless houses and buildings were lined up in dense rows.

Without him even realizing it, a new city had formed beneath Neo Seoul.

The lowest-tier residents, whom the people on the surface had scornfully called “alligators,” had created a city of their own.

An ordinary person might have felt anger toward those who had built a city under their territory without permission, but Jin Geum-ho was different.

“Good.”

The human potential that had built a city of this scale without any help from Neo Seoul pleased him.

To survive in this harsh desert ruled by monsters, you had to have this kind of strong self-reliance.

It was because Jin Geum-ho existed that Neo Seoul could exist as it did now.

In other words, if Jin Geum-ho were to disappear, Neo Seoul could collapse like a sandcastle.

In fact, Neo Seoul was currently in extreme chaos.

Ever since Jin Geum-ho had been sniped a few days ago, the confusion hadn’t been brought under control at all.

As each district proclaimed investigations and mobilized awakened, the chaos only grew worse.

Jin Geum-ho was receiving reports about the situation on the surface through Seo Tae-ran.

It was to this extent even though he had been away for only a few days. If he were actually to die, it was grim to imagine what would happen.

Jin Geum-ho was human too.

Even though he had awakened and could live longer than others, that also meant the time he had left wasn’t that much.

In the not-too-distant future, he would die, and Neo Seoul might not be able to endure his absence and could crumble.

That was why he hadn’t returned to City Hall.

It was like giving Neo Seoul a vaccination in advance for the time when he would no longer be in this world.

“Grandpa!”

At that moment, someone called out to Jin Geum-ho.

A smile formed on Jin Geum-ho’s lips.

Because there was only one person in Neo Seoul who would call him that.

“Remura!”

When he turned around, Remura was walking over holding a cup of water.

“How is your body feeling?”

“Thanks to you, Remura, I’m completely better.”

“Still, you shouldn’t overdo it yet.”

“Whose words would I ever disobey? Don’t worry. This old man won’t take a single step from here until Remura says I can move.”

“Hehe! Here, drink some water.”

Remura smiled and held out the cup.

Jin Geum-ho took the cup and showed a kind, gentle smile.

When he saw Remura, he was reminded of his daughter.

When she had been about Remura’s age, his son and daughter—twins—had been swept up in the Great Cataclysm and lost their lives.

The face of his daughter, now faded even in memory, strangely overlapped with Remura’s.

Perhaps he felt that way because Remura had saved his life. But that fact wasn’t important to Jin Geum-ho.

What mattered was that he felt those emotions.

Originally, Remura had been a quiet and timid child.

If she hadn’t met Zeon, she would have lived with that personality forever. But after going to the World Tree Village with Zeon, Remura’s personality had changed greatly.

She had become more positive and much brighter.

That was why she could call Jin Geum-ho “Grandpa” so boldly, even though he was someone she was meeting for the first time.

That warmth and personality of Remura’s shook Jin Geum-ho’s heart.

Jin Geum-ho smiled and pointed to the seat beside him.

“Sit here.”

“Yes!”

Remura quickly sat down next to him.

“Remura, aren’t you afraid of this old man?”

“Why would I be afraid?”

“Hm?”

“You’re not a monster, so why would I be afraid?”

“Hahaha!”

At Remura’s innocent answer, Jin Geum-ho burst out laughing.

Jin Geum-ho gently patted Remura’s head.

“You’re right. It’s normal for people not to be afraid of other people. We’re living in a very abnormal world. We’ve lived like this for so long that no one even realizes anymore that it’s wrong.”

“……”

Not knowing how to answer, Remura just blinked her big eyes.

Jin Geum-ho didn’t blame her.

He hadn’t said those words to hear Remura’s answer, but to steel his own resolve.

Jin Geum-ho changed the subject.

“Do you have any thoughts about wanting to live in Neo Seoul?”

“I used to, but not anymore.”

“Why?”

“The people who need me are here, and I like it here. Before, this place smelled so bad that people couldn’t live here. All kinds of filthy waste that Neo Seoul threw away flowed into here. But now, as you can see, there’s no bad smell, and the streets are clean. There are smiles on people’s faces too. Even though sunlight doesn’t come in, for those people this is a more comfortable place than anywhere else in the world. And for me too.”

“I see.”

Jin Geum-ho nodded.

Just as Neo Seoul was his reason to live, this underground city was that kind of existence for Remura.

“Then how about this? Let’s connect City Hall, where this old man is, with this place. Then we can see each other anytime, can’t we?”

“That’s…”

“Why, is it not possible?”

“It’s not that. When Jetoya Oppa comes back, I need to discuss it with him. He’s the one who actually leads this underground city. And Zeon Oppa’s opinion is important too.”

“I see. All right. When Jetoya comes back, let’s talk about it.”

“Yes!”

“Hahaha!”

Jin Geum-ho burst into hearty laughter again.

Whenever he was with Remura, laughter spilled out of him at all times like this.

It felt like he had laughed far more since coming here than he ever had after the world ended.

Just then—

“Remura-nim!”

Someone was urgently calling Remura from far away.

Remura stood up from her seat without hesitation.

“It sounds like another patient has appeared. I’ll go check.”

“Go.”

Remura hurried off toward where the voice had come from.

As she disappeared from his sight, the smile that had been on Jin Geum-ho’s lips vanished as if it had been a lie.

“Tae-ran.”

“Yes.”

With that reply, Seo Tae-ran appeared from behind a house.

“Where is Ho-yeon?”

“He’s just sent in a report.”

“Is that so?”

“They say the sniper was a golem.”

“A golem?”

“And the sniper rifle was a specially manufactured weapon from the East District.”

“Golems are mainly researched in the West District, aren’t they?”

“That’s correct. Both the West District and the East District are entangled in this incident.”

Seo Tae-ran’s voice was extremely cold.

It was proof that she was truly angry.

The angrier she got, the more composed she became—that was her nature.

“What about the golem?”

“They say it self-destructed immediately after being subdued by Seong Ho-yeon.”

“Thorough.”

“It seems it was prepared for the moment it would be captured.”

“The other Numbers are moving too, right?”

“Of course.”

“All right.”

Jin Geum-ho’s eyes sank deeply.

“May I ask how long you plan to stay here?”

“For the time being, I want to stay here. I’ve worked for Neo Seoul for over a hundred years. Don’t you think I’m allowed to enjoy this much of a vacation?”

“I’d actually like to recommend it.”

Because she always stayed close to Jin Geum-ho, Seo Tae-ran knew his condition better than anyone.

Recently, Jin Geum-ho had been plagued by frequent nightmares and hadn’t been able to sleep properly. But since coming here, he hadn’t woken up even once and had been sleeping deeply.

Seeing the person she respected most resting comfortably gave Seo Tae-ran great peace of mind.

Jin Geum-ho smiled and said,

“Thank you for thinking that way. I’m fine enjoying my vacation, but you’re the problem. There’s an enormous amount of City Hall work to handle, and you have to go back and forth between both places.”

“Don’t worry about that.”

“Hm?”

“There happened to be an empty room in Zeon’s building. So I set up a temporary office there. I selected some of the smartest City Hall staff and have them stationed there.”

“Hahaha! Without meaning to, we’re troubling Zeon. He’s a kid who absolutely hates attention.”

“What can we do? Being in the spotlight is the fate of those who possess great power.”

At Seo Tae-ran’s words, Jin Geum-ho nodded.

Originally, not many people knew that Zeon owned a building in the slums. But after Jin Geum-ho entered the underground city through Zeon’s building, it drew a lot of attention.

The fact that you could go to the underground city through Zeon’s building was still a secret, but people had realized that there was something there.

Jin Geum-ho’s survival was still not publicly known. But seeing City Hall staff frequently going in and out, people were leaning toward the belief that Jin Geum-ho was alive.

Along with that, people learned that the building the City Hall staff were visiting belonged to Zeon.

“What about the building’s security?”

“It’s airtight.”

“Did you take separate measures?”

“No. It’s covered in all kinds of barriers and magic circles, including a subspace storage. It’s to the point that most awakened wouldn’t even dare think of entering.”

“Did you just say subspace storage?”

“Yes. There’s a huge subspace storage hidden there.”

“Was subspace storage something that could be installed so easily?”

“If it were, subspace storages would be spread all over Neo Seoul.”

“As expected, that boy has many secrets. Just how did he make something like that?”

Jin Geum-ho shook his head.

In over a hundred years of meeting countless humans, he had never seen someone who hid as many things as Zeon.

No matter how much you peeled away, something new kept coming out, like an onion.

Seo Tae-ran asked carefully,

“Shall we look into it?”

“No. Leave it.”

“Is that all right?”

“There’s no reason to poke a beehive. Above all, he’s my lifesaver.”

“Understood.”

Seo Tae-ran bowed her head deeply.

Jin Geum-ho turned his head and looked out over the underground city’s panorama.

“If we develop it well, this place too could become a new cradle of humanity.”

---

“So you let City Hall staff in?”

“I had no choice. There was no grounds to refuse.”

At Tesserina’s words, Zeon gave a bitter smile.

He had always thought that someday his building and the underground city would be exposed to City Hall, but even he hadn’t expected that day to come so quickly.

But Zeon had no choice. To save Jin Geum-ho, he had to open up his building.

Zeon picked up his teacup and said,

“By now, the subspace storage on the first floor of the building has probably been exposed too.”

“I’d hidden it very well though?” 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Seo Tae-ran, the Mayor’s secretary, isn’t an ordinary woman. She’s probably already noticed and started analyzing it.”

“Do you think I’ve been exposed too?”

“I can’t tell that much. But it doesn’t look like it would hurt to be careful.”

“Hm. For the time being, I shouldn’t go outside. I absolutely hate annoying things.”

Tesserina muttered as she looked around her house.

The building she had received from Yoo Se-hee had already been perfectly reborn as her new lair.

From the outside it still looked shabby, but inside it was so splendid it couldn’t be compared unfavorably with any building in Neo Seoul.

You could tell why dragons were called incarnations of greed just by looking at Tesserina’s residence.

No matter how much she had moved into a human body, her essence itself didn’t change.

Zeon didn’t think that kind of Tesserina was bad or dislike her.

Everyone lived according to their instincts, and Tesserina was just living faithfully in line with her identity.

Pouring more tea into Zeon’s empty cup, Tesserina said,

“It feels like a bloody wind is about to blow through Neo Seoul. I don’t like it.”

Because a dragon’s premonitions were fairly accurate, Zeon couldn’t help but nod.