Chapter 103 - You Die (6)
12 min read ·
Kim Cha-ryeo's body twisted from the impact of the blow to her jaw and went flying.
Thud-!
She hit the basement floor first.
I landed and immediately summoned Grizzly to finish it.
"Grizzly!" "Gaaah-!"
Grizzly swung its arm and crushed Kim Cha-ryeo's head.
Crack-!
"...Whew."
I let out a breath and looked down at Kim Cha-ryeo's headless corpse.
Seeing her like this, she really did resemble Kim Mi-ryeo more.
"Ha...."
A self-deprecating laugh escaped me at the absurd thought that crossed my mind.
I'd truly become a proper wizard.
".........."
Whether Kim Cha-ryeo had come for revenge on behalf of Chairman Kim or Kim Mi-ryeo, or simply to kill me and take the Grimoire, I didn't know.
...Well, revenge is a personal matter, so
if she wanted to do it, that was her prerogative.
But as I said before, no matter who the opponent is or what the reason, I had no intention whatsoever of taking it lying down.
In any case, charging in recklessly without thinking things through was fitting for a child of Chairman Kim's.
That insufferable bloodline of Chairman Kim's. ...Were there more of them out there?
I pulled my gaze from Kim Cha-ryeo's corpse, briefly scanned the basement, then looked up the long staircase leading to the upper floor.
My eyes narrowed.
Regardless, what mattered right now was Ellie and Soo-ah's safety.
To keep hiding out at the Cathedral, Ellie needed to stay alive... and Soo-ah was, for the time being, my magic apprentice.
I'd told Soo-ah to put up a magic Barrier, but whether she'd managed it properly was another question.
I spoke as I climbed the stairs.
"Grizzly, eat on the way." "Gyaah~."
Grizzly followed behind, carrying Kim Cha-ryeo's corpse and eating as it went.
Chomp chomp~!
I stomped up the stairs.
Creeeak, creeeak-.
Crack- crack-!
The Mountain Lodge's hallway convulsed and warped, walls forming like a maze to block the path ahead.
It really didn't want me meeting up with the others, apparently.
I calmly regarded the wall.
Well, didn't matter.
I'd been sitting tight to assess the situation, but.
Honestly speaking, this was more my style.
CRASH-!
Having finished devouring the Man-eating Ghoul, Grizzly's fist smashed through the wall.
"GAAAAAAH-!"
The translucent vampire roared and charged forward.
BANG! CRUNCH! BOOM! BANG! CRASH!
As if the warped layout of the house meant nothing at all.
It destroyed every wall blocking the way and carved a path through.
The Mountain Lodge shook.
***
Soo-ah and Ellie ran toward the kitchen, bringing the others with them.
But it seemed the lodge had abandoned all pretense of hiding behind human means.
Whoosh-!
A large flower vase came flying at Ellie's head.
SHATTER!
Ellie swung her arm and smashed the vase apart.
Click-!
Something that looked like a hidden mechanism in the wall activated, and a concealed crossbow fired an arrow.
"...Whew."
Ellie exhaled and caught the arrow mid-flight, snapping it in two.
Soo-ah's eyes went wide at the sight.
"Unnie, were you in special forces or something?"
"Haha... My foster mother taught me."
Ellie smiled awkwardly.
The Breathing Technique she'd learned from a nun under the direct authority of the Vatican meant "special forces" wasn't entirely wrong.
Contrary to her gentle appearance, she was strong and not easily taken down.
But the onslaught continued.
Hummm-!
Objects throughout the Mountain Lodge flew at Ellie, targeting her as the designated [Second Victim].
"AAAAAHHH!"
A kitchen knife sailed past the screaming Cha Do-won, aimed straight at Ellie.
Ellie snatched the incoming knife out of the air and used it to slash and deflect the other projectiles flying toward her.
Clang-!
Perhaps bound by its rules, the Mountain Lodge's Anomaly targeted only Ellie.
The others were relatively safe for now, but....
Once Ellie was killed, it would immediately designate a third and fourth Victim and kill them too, so there was no room for comfort.
That was why Soo-ah had grabbed the tablecloth covering Kwon Do-yun's body in the living room and shouted:
"Grab the wine!"
Poisoned or not, wine was still wine, and it could be used for a Barrier.
"Oh, got it!"
Kim Dok-seo snatched whatever wine she could from the wine rack and ran.
"Ah!?"
The squirming hallway of the Mountain Lodge caught her foot and she tripped.
The lodge's layout was shifting, trying to isolate them.
"No! My hundred-and-twenty won!" [TL: Kim Yong is a web novelist; 120 won is the micropayment price of a single chapter, so he's literally valuing Kim Dok-seo by the amount she spent on his work.]
Kim Yong caught the falling Kim Dok-seo in his arms and rolled them both tumbling into the kitchen just in time.
Kim Dok-seo stared at Kim Yong in disbelief.
"Thanks for the help, but... did you just say 'hundred-and-twenty won'?"
"No, I said 'my precious reader.'"
Kim Yong spoke with a perfectly serious expression.
"And even if I did say a hundred and twenty won, that is absolutely not a small amount of money. I'm always grateful to my readers."
"Author-nim...."
Kim Dok-seo's eyes wavered. She lowered her head for a moment, then raised it again.
"...There's something I need to tell you. The truth is, I've never actually read your novel."
THUD.
Kim Yong's face went blank.
"What?"
"I saw a post on a web novel community saying you had two or three dropped series, that your uploads were ridiculously slow, and that you posted more delay notices than actual chapters... so I just bought a few of the latest chapters and wrote troll comments. ...Can you forgive me?"
And Kim Yong's previously ordinary face twisted into something demonic.
"Absolutely not!"
Kim Yong delivered a sharp flick to Kim Dok-seo's forehead.
Bonk!
"Gakh!"
"It's not two or three dropped series! It doesn't go over that! Not to brag, but... I only have one!"
That was nothing to brag about.
"In the first place, at my upload speed, it's impossible to churn out dropped series like popcorn!"
"...Author-nim, I think that's also a pretty serious problem."
Kim Yong's eyes trembled.
"D-don't change the subject!"
She wasn't changing the subject.
"Anyway! When we get out of here, you read it from chapter one to the latest! It's fine if it's not your taste and you drop it, but... if you enjoy it, leave a comment! And write a review! Got it!?"
Kim Dok-seo nodded.
"Got it. Then you'll become a good author who never posts late again, right?"
Kim Yong's pupils wavered, and he flicked Kim Dok-seo's forehead again.
"I-I told you not to change the subject!"
Garbage.
And Soo-ah, preparing the magic in the kitchen, shouted:
"I need to cast the spell! If you're not going to help, be quiet!"
"S-sorry."
Kim Dok-seo had grabbed the wine they needed, and they found bread by rummaging through the kitchen.
But....
".........."
Soo-ah bit her lip and stared at the squirming floor.
With the floor shaking like this, there was no way to draw a Magic Circle with wine.
That was exactly why she'd brought the tablecloth, just in case.
With wine, this method was actually easier.
Soo-ah spread the tablecloth out and poured wine and Holy Water over it, drawing a magic circle.
"I'm putting up the Barrier now! Everyone, get on!"
The others climbed on.
Soo-ah scattered bread crumbs over the Magic Circle and chanted the incantation as Yo-han had taught her.
"Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle-"
Hummm-.
A blue light seeped from the wine-colored Magic Circle, rippling.
"-who shall dwell upon Thy holy hill?"
As if sensing something was wrong, the objects in the kitchen rose up and hurled themselves at Ellie with renewed fury.
Whoosh-!
"Soo-ah! It's fine, keep going!"
Ellie swatted and smashed the incoming objects with a frying pan, but.
"Ah! God... protect me...."
Soo-ah flinched in shock, and the realization that Ellie might die if she failed made her tense up.
Her voice faltered, and kitchen knives rained down at Ellie once more.
And then, accompanied by steady footsteps.
"Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust."
A calm voice rang out through the kitchen, now filled with bladed cooking tools turned instruments of murder.
"I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord."
The Magic Circle drawn on the tablecloth glowed, and the blades could no longer rampage, trembling helplessly in midair.
Screee, screeech-.
"My goodness is nothing apart from Thee."
Yo-han, having entered through the kitchen's back door, picked up the incantation and completed the spell.
"Therefore, preserve me."
Crackle-.
The completed magic Barrier repelled the murderous instruments, pushing them back.
Soo-ah stared at me with trembling eyes.
"M-Mister!"
"Once you start chanting, don't stop even if a knife's at your throat."
I stood before the Magic Circle and checked its condition.
"Still, you did a good job preparing the Barrier. Well done."
There was no time to hesitate. I immediately turned to Ellie and held out my hand.
"I need to check something. Give me the Victim role paper."
"Oh, yes! Here!"
Ellie handed it over without suspicion, and I tucked it into my coat pocket.
"Yo-han-ssi!?"
"I'm going to take out the Anomaly. It's easier if I keep its attention on me."
The Mountain Lodge Anomaly, it had been altering the building's layout and moving the structure itself like a living thing to obstruct us, but.
It attacked in the order of the mystery game's [Victims] and didn't directly harm anyone outside that sequence.
In other words, if I became the [Victim] and simply refused to die, the game itself could no longer progress.
Rather than clumsily trying to protect the others while enduring the onslaught, it was far easier to stuff everyone inside the Barrier and act alone.
Ellie looked startled, apparently not having expected me to take it. I spoke casually.
"Don't leave the kitchen until morning."
Ellie seemed like she wanted to say something else, but.
"...Understood. Please, be careful."
As if not wanting to hold me back, she closed her mouth, gripped the cross hanging from her neck, and nodded.
I turned and stepped out through the kitchen's back door.
The Mountain Lodge's living room greeted me. The layout had been thrown into total disarray.
Sinister energy now visibly filled the lodge, thick enough to see, and I could feel it glaring at me.
[...A mess. What a mess! This isn't a mystery whodunit! You've ruined it! You've ruined everything!]
"I don't know, I think it was kind of questionable as a mystery whodunit from the start."
I shrugged at the ominous, narrator-like voice.
"At the very least, you should've opened with a locked-room murder, not poisoning."
The enraged Monster House howled.
[DIEEEEEE-!]
Poisoned wine, kitchen knives, crossbow bolts, marble fragments, a mounted deer head.
Various other hidden murder weapons came flooding in.
And.
"GAAAAAAH-!!"
Grizzly destroyed every last one of them.
CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-!
They couldn't so much as graze the hem of my coat.
"GAAAH-!"
Grizzly surged forward, pummeling the lodge's walls with a barrage of blows, but.
"Gyat-!?"
[AAAAAHHH!]
The walls stretched like rubber, denting inward before squirming back to their original shape.
The Barrier separating inside from outside.
Apparently, it had no intention of being breached easily.
Well, didn't matter.
I casually checked the window where darkness hung thick, then
deflected a flying blade with <De Vermis Mysteriis> and gazed at the Mountain Lodge as it writhed, trying to kill me.
"...Let's see this through to the end."
A war of attrition.
. . .
How much time had passed?
Four hours? Five?
One thing was certain: it would have been far harder without the Breathing Technique.
I sprinted through the living room as it flipped top and bottom and scrambled every direction, dodging attacks and smashing furniture to pieces.
"Huff... Grizzly!"
"GAAAH-!"
BANG! BOOM! BANG! BANG! CRASH!
The room was a wreck by now.
Kwon Do-yun's corpse, which had been in the living room, got swept up with the furniture at some point and came flying, only to be splattered by Grizzly.
I considered stepping in the blood leaking from the remaining lower half to draw a ritual Magic Circle, but.
Of course, the lodge didn't sit still for that.
Creeeak-.
Like a violently shaken cocktail, top and bottom suddenly inverted.
The one silver lining was that it had already been flipped once before, so it reverted to its original orientation.
Meaning there was a sofa where I was falling.
I dropped down and landed sitting on the sofa.
Grizzly swatted away the knives raining down from above me.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The deflected or slipped-through knives fell onto the sofa.
I tilted my head slightly to the side and shifted my arms and legs to dodge the blades.
On top of the already ruined sofa, the blades embedded themselves as a bonus.
In that state, I leaned back against the sofa.
I raised my head and looked up at the Mountain Lodge ceiling, now completely saturated with black energy.
[Why! Why! Why won't you just die! Die! Die already! That's your role! Stop dodging! Just die!]
Countless eyes and mouths formed from the black mist squirmed as they looked down at me and screamed.
I casually glanced toward the window.
Instead of pitch-black, impenetrable darkness, I could see a bluish dimness laced with light.
A faint smile crept across my face. The time had finally come.
Being in the mountains, sunrise came early.
Meaning, in magical terms, Friday had become Saturday.
I'd always liked Saturdays, but now I loved them.
"Die, die, die, you're getting on my nerves."
[If it annoys you, then die! Just die!]
From inside my coat, the artifact I'd ordered from the [Mephisto Market].
I pulled out a white leather glove inscribed with a Magic Circle.
It reduced output, but it could skip the process of drawing a Magic Circle. A magic item.
"A king riding a dragon, an old woman leaning on a servant, a pig, a dragon, an owl."
I slipped the leather glove onto my right hand and gripped the metal Pentacle.
"Spirits of Saturn, answer my call."
[Second Pentacle of Saturn]
I looked up at the ceiling and sneered at the black mist brimming with killing intent.
"If you love murder and death so much."
The Pentacle and the Magic Circle overlapped on my hand, and the metal Pentacle began to glow.
[...Wait ...wait! Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait!]
Only now sensing something was wrong, the black mist, the Mountain Lodge Anomaly, recoiled in terror, but.
"You die."
The spell activated.
Without a moment to resist.
[Ah, AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH-!]
The light of the magic that destroys obstacles in a wizard's path blew the cursed Mountain Lodge away, Barrier and all.
BOOOOOOM.
The people in the kitchen were knocked off their feet by the enormous blast.
When they opened their eyes, they couldn't believe what they saw.
"...What is this?"
Every wall of the Mountain Lodge, save for the floor, had been torn away as if swept up by a massive hurricane.
The sky, the snow-covered mountains, the outside, all visible.
And.
They saw the one man still standing upright, in a white coat.
The wind tugged at the hem of his coat.
With the rising sun at his back, the backlight cast his face in shadow, making it hard to see.
He was someone they'd been chatting with casually just the day before, and yet.
Kim Dok-seo's voice trembled.
"Who... what on earth... are you?"
It was a question I hadn't heard in a long time.
Feeling good, I took in a breath of the crisp morning air and answered.
"Ghostbuster."