Chapter 105 - The King in Yellow, Flesh and Blood, Mad Moon (1)

He had known from the very beginning that the man was not a good person.

This was a memory from the past.

His mother and father had been murdered by an organization led by a certain Wizard.

He was locked inside the Wizard's mansion as a Sacrifice for a demon summoning.

Later investigation revealed that his parents had been in a business relationship with the Wizard, and were killed as an example after they skimmed a relic the Wizard had been searching for.

And then, just before the ritual could begin, there before the black-haired pretty boy, before Mia's eyes, a golden-haired Vampire appeared.

Germany had fallen to the Allied forces, and the Vampire Nazi unit had been annihilated by Priest John of the Vatican. It was Yoannis, who had fled to America.

He cut down the Wizard with casual ease, the same Wizard the organization members had been trembling in fear of.

"W-wait! Spare m–!?"

Shlaaash–!

"Just so we're clear... I didn't kill these people because they were bad guys."

Yoannis strolled leisurely toward the collapsed Mia.

"This is a turf war between Wizard organizations. I'm not a good person either."

He dropped to one knee and extended a hand to Mia.

"I'm not even human, after all."

Blue eyes flashed, and sharp fangs were bared.

"Still, if you've got nowhere to go, want some help?"

Mia stared into Yoannis's blue eyes for a moment.

".........."

With trembling fingertips, he took Yoannis's hand and stepped outside.

In the center of the dead Wizard's mansion, the bodies of organization members lay strewn about, and Ghouls were feasting on the corpses.

Munch, munch–.

And a fierce-looking Asian man dressed like a mafioso seized a struggling organization member by the neck and snapped it.

Crack–!

It was Chairman Kim in his younger days.

"Hey–! Yoannis! You dump the small fry on me and disappear! Where the hell did you go!"

"It was obvious they were stalling with underlings while the Wizard set up a Summoning Ritual, so I tracked him down and killed him. Oh, and I found treasure in the back."

At the word treasure, Chairman Kim lit up and shouted.

"Treasure! What is it? A gold nugget? An Artifact! Don't tell me, a Grimoire!?"

Yoannis spread both arms wide and presented the bewildered Mia.

"Ta-da! A cute pretty boy!"

"Don't give me that shit! Don't give me that shit! You're killing me!"

Chairman Kim fumed for a moment, then looked down at Mia and said,

"...So, you gonna eat this one?"

"–!?"

Mia's dark eyes wavered, and Yoannis stroked his chin with a playful, sly smile.

"Hmm~ 'Eat,' you say~ That's ambiguous."

Then he took off his coat and draped it over Mia's trembling body.

"It's cold outside. Keep this on."

Yoannis spoke in a calm, gentle voice.

"I'm not going to eat him. No reason to kill him, either. I just felt like helping, so I am."

Yoannis looked at Chairman Kim and grinned.

"Kind of like picking up an ugly colonial orphan, right?"

Chairman Kim's face crumpled.

"Dammit! How long are you going to milk that one!"

"Forever."

"So damn annoying. Seriously!"

Mia glanced up at the side of Yoannis's face.

...He had known from the very beginning that this was not a good person.

But the fact that he had helped was real.

Mia fidgeted with the coat and pulled it tighter.

The coat he'd been given was warm.

And after living with Yoannis for a while...

When he learned that the man had a thing for pretty boys with delicate features....

Yeah, it sounded insane, but.

He was happy.

"Mmm...."

In a room where no sunlight entered, Mia slowly opened his eyes in the darkness, naked on the large bed.

"...Master?"

Yoannis was nowhere to be seen.

He checked the time.

2 PM. The sun was up. For an ordinary Vampire, this would be the time to sleep the hours away.

Mia got out of bed and put on Yoannis's white shirt, which had been carelessly draped over a chair.

Naturally, the difference in build meant it hung loose all over.

".........."

It wasn't like he particularly wanted to wear it or anything.

...Yoannis, his master, liked this sort of thing. That was the only reason he put it on.

In any case, Mia left the bedroom and walked down the connecting corridor.

He headed to Yoannis's private Workshop.

He was probably there.

And sure enough, when he opened the soundproofed Workshop door,

Clang– clang! Clang! Clang!

Heat poured out along with the steady rhythm of hammer strikes.

Yoannis, wearing a serious, expressionless look completely unlike his usual smiling face, was re-grinding and enchanting his Damascus steel Magic Sword over the forge.

It was a Magic Sword that Yoannis, a masterful Alchemist, had personally crafted.

But after fighting Shin Do-ryong and the Invisible Vampire back-to-back recently, he was repairing and reinforcing it.

Mia leaned against the doorframe and watched the process in silence.

When Yoannis finished his work, he smiled at Mia and said,

"Did I wake you?"

"No. I just woke up on my own."

Mia checked his iPad and reported first.

"It looks like Kim Cha-ryeo, one of Chairman Kim's surviving children, has gone off on her own to try to kill Kim Yo-han, the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>. What should we do?"

"Let her do what she wants. She's my disciple's blood, so I'd look after her if I could... but there's no reason to look after someone who acts on her own."

"Understood."

Mia glanced at the Magic Sword's blade and said,

"...Are you going out to fight again, Master?"

"Not right now. Just preparing."

Yoannis recalled Kim Yo-han's calm face.

And fighting Yo-han again right now would be dangerous.

That was a Wizard who had survived all that chaos.

He would certainly have prepared ways to shore up his weakness in Ritual Magic.

Charging in recklessly, and the one who'd pay the price would be Yoannis himself.

In this world, how long someone had been a Wizard or how old they were meant absolutely nothing. The strong were simply strong.

And.

"It's the Wild Hunt season. It's dangerous outside the house."

The Wild Hunt. In Greece, it was known as the period when Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and the maiden hunters who followed her would hunt men.

In Norse tradition, it was the legend of Odin leading valkyries and ghostly warriors, seeking worthy fighters to kill and conscript into his army.

Either way, differences aside, it was a period when hordes of supernatural beings were active, hunting people to kill.

And the traditional way to deal with the Wild Hunt was simply to not go outside at night.

Because a house was the oldest, most fundamental Barrier dividing inside from outside.

But there was another reason beyond that.

"In my experience, there's always going to be some deluded idiot who thinks he's clever, trying to exploit the mystical energy gathered by the Wild Hunt for some harebrained scheme."

Yoannis stretched and walked out of the Workshop.

"Getting involved is just exhausting."

"...I see. Understood."

Mia accepted this immediately.

If Yoannis was calling it a deluded idiot's scheme, the sheer scale of stupidity was beyond Mia's imagination.

***

Ellie's Church, Yo-han's small room.

Gloves engraved with a Magic Circle to compensate for the weaknesses of Ritual Magic.

The magical Artifact was functioning properly, and it seemed like I could finally move forward as a Wizard without any obstacles.

But I immediately ran into a different kind of problem.

I narrowed my eyes at the [Mephisto Market] message board.

[Author: Gyges]

[Title: I'm a newbie Wizard, and I have a question. Who's currently the most famous and powerful Wizard?]

It wasn't that I particularly wanted to become the strongest Wizard in the world or anything.

It was just that the problems I currently faced were the kind that would be solved by getting stronger as a Wizard.

So I'd posted a question to get a sense of how high the ceiling was for Wizards, asking who the strongest one was.

".........."

...Nobody left a single reply.

I checked other posts.

[Author: WheelchairMaster]

[Title: Sigh~ The quality's really dropping. At this rate, Mephisto Market is going to–]

(Image of a masked rider striking a pose)

[–Rider, appear!]

[Two-HeadedSnake – The fact that this template is getting posted means Mephisto Market is truly dead]

└ [Mephi-chan – Hey, fellow mage! Don't say such mean things! It's not dead!]

...I looked at another post.

[Author: FreeTheGrandMaster]

[Title: What even is that templ–]

(Image of two knights riding a single horse)

[–ar Knights, appear!]

[TyrantKaiser – What the fuck kind of template is this?]

└ [FreeTheGrandMaster – The suffering from such a shitty template lasts mere seconds! But the agony the Knights Templar have endured since Grand Master Zyk's death, framed as heretics and slandered as sodomites, has lasted centuries...!!]

[WheelchairMaster – But you're active on Mephisto Market, so... doesn't that kind of confirm the heresy thing?]

└ [FreeTheGrandMaster – Good sir, might you share where you reside?]

My eyes narrowed involuntarily.

My politely written question had been buried at the bottom.

So why the hell were those bizarre posts drowning in replies?

And then, there was a knock at my door.

Knock– knock–.

"Mister, I'm coming in." "Come in."

Soo-ah walked in. It wasn't that anything had happened; she'd just wandered over because she was bored, as usual.

"Huh? What are you doing, mister? A forum?"

"A Wizard forum."

Since Soo-ah was my apprentice, a Wizard's apprentice, there was no particular need to hide it.

"I posted a question, but nobody's replying."

"Hmm~."

Soo-ah showed interest and skimmed through the posts.

Then she grabbed a chair, plopped down right next to me, and said,

"Move over! I'll get you tons of replies!"

"What?"

And Soo-ah hammered away at the keyboard and posted a new thread.

[Author: Gyges]

[Title: Nooo, big brooo! Not theeeere! I'm gonna get all weiiird–!]

The body of the post was identical to the question I'd written, but the title had been changed.

My jaw dropped of its own accord at the sheer absurdity.

I slowly turned to look at Soo-ah.

'...Is she a crazy bitch?'

As if anyone would actually click on a post with a title this moronic–.

[ILovePrettyBoys – What? Why isn't this a big-bro-and-pretty-boy-little-bro incest smut pic? It's just a normal question?]

–They freaking did!

And it wasn't just ILovePrettyBoys. Replies suddenly started flooding in.

At the sight, Soo-ah turned to me with a triumphant grin.

"Heh~ You're welcome."

"...Yeah, thanks."

My eyes narrowed involuntarily.

****