Chapter 106 - The King in Yellow, Flesh and Blood, Mad Moon (2)
10 min read ·
Soo-ah had cheered up, played around for a while, and then gone back.
I rested my chin on my hand and checked the comments that had come in.
".........."
'ILovePrettyBoys'
That one didn't seem to have figured out I was Gyges, but....
It was the username Yoannis used on Mephisto Market, the gay Nazi swordmaster vampire.
Seeing someone I'd fought with my life on the line get baited in by a stupid post title like that stirred complicated feelings, but....
Well, maybe it was because he'd been around the wizard world for so long.
Setting aside the weird posts he usually put up under that weird username, whenever I posted a question, he did give surprisingly useful information.
[ILovePrettyBoys – Combat has a lot of variables when opponents are evenly matched, and magic is fundamentally a discipline of study. Personally, I think comparing which wizard or which School's magic is stronger is meaningless.
It's like asking whether an auto mechanic or an electrician would win in a fight. In this world, the strong are strong.]
ㄴ[WheelchairMaster – What are you talking about? Obviously the car-wizard is the strongest! Just run the electric-wizard over with a car and it's game over!]
ㄴ[Dress – Hmm~ but I think the electric-wizard would have better versatility and adaptability. You could counter car-magic attacks with electric-car magic.]
ㄴ[Two-HeadedSnake – Are you playing bumper cars? You'd both die.]
Overusing it wouldn't be good, but... were clickbait titles really the way to go?
At any rate, starting with 'ILovePrettyBoys,' comments began pouring in one after another.
Most of them were just people chatting and messing around with each other, but some did answer the question.
[AlchemistofGunpowder – The strongest wizard, huh. Honestly, if I only talk about what I've personally seen and filter out the rumors....
The Alchemist of Constantinople, the Green Lion That Swallows the Sun, Yoannis looked the strongest to me. Got his hands on the Holy Grail, and with infinite mana he was putting out firepower on the level of a thermal power plant all by himself.]
ㄴ[TyrantKaiser - Yoannis? That shit-eating gay bat bastard got the Holy Grail ripped right out of his heart by a wizard hunter and washed up ages ago.]
ㄴ[FreeTheGrandMaster – He's not exactly washed up, is he? Vampire stuff aside, the man's just strong on his own, cutting down Vatican knights with pure swordsmanship.]
I rubbed my chin.
'The Holy Grail....'
I wasn't sure if that was really the Catholic Holy Grail they were talking about.
But it seemed like using magical Artifacts to enhance one's magic was a common enough practice.
[Two-HeadedSnake – If you're talking about Grand Wizards... it'd have to be Hermes Trismegistus. It's a title only the greatest wizard inherits, after all.]
[WheelchairMaster – Being a Grand Wizard doesn't necessarily mean you're better at combat than a regular wizard, but... if we're picking the strongest among Grand Wizards, wouldn't it be the chairman of Miskatonic University?]
A wide variety of comments had been posted, but the two names that came up most often were.
'Hermes Trismegistus.'
'The chairman of Miskatonic University.'
Those two.
Of course, considering there were other wizards called Grand Wizards on the same level as those two, the actual number of strong wizards had to be even higher.
"Hmm...."
...Well, I did manage to gather some information in my own way.
But honestly, since I hadn't actually seen them cast magic or fight in person, I had no real sense of how strong they were.
Still, from listening to other wizards talk.
I did learn what separated a wizard from a Grand Wizard.
To use a painting analogy, a wizard applied supernatural power to the canvas of reality with a brush, while a Grand Wizard dyed reality itself with that power.
'So... like dumping a bucket of paint on it?'
Well, nothing really changed for me right now.
For the time being, I needed to keep studying magic from the grimoire and raising my proficiency.
And studying English too.
And just as I was about to go on with another ordinary day.
Whoooong–!
A gust of wind blew in and rattled the window hard.
"–."
It was winter, so of course a rough wind could blow. Nothing strange about that.
But for the briefest instant, a split second, truly a flash.
I felt an enormous power and froze.
I turned my head to look at the dark window where the sun had already set.
It wasn't as prolonged as when I had summoned Paimon before.
But I felt it.
Fwshhh–!
<De Vermis Mysteriis>, sitting on the desk, flipped open by itself and spread to a certain page.
『The Lord of Interstellar Space, the Storm King, the King in Yellow, unspeakable Hastur.
He does not particularly seek to harm humans. Yet he is one of the most dangerous among the Great Old Ones. Partly because of the immense power he holds... but perhaps as some jest of Mystery.
Unlike the true names of other outer gods, which cannot be pronounced, Hastur's true name can be spoken by human vocal cords.
Do not perform a play praising the King in Yellow. Do not call the King's name. For the King may descend to behold his devoted subjects.』
...Nothing was confirmed yet, but.
If I were to guess why <De Vermis Mysteriis> was going out of its way to show me this.
".........."
Yes. A Great Old One written about in my grimoire, <De Vermis Mysteriis>.
It meant that some idiot had summoned a cosmic horror on the same level as 'The Worm That Gnaws the Night' to Earth, if only for the briefest of moments.
***
A theater stage, rented out entirely it seemed, with no audience and only a handful of actors standing about.
Fair skin, gentle features, a face anyone would call handsome.
Aspiring actor Kim Se-geon quietly let out a tense breath.
"Whew...."
This play wasn't through the theater company. It was a private commission, where he'd been hired to perform according to a script provided by the client.
It was a little embarrassing to think this about himself, but....
He was popular enough thanks to his looks, but his actual acting fell short, so he hadn't found much success with the company.
He'd even had the fantasy that if he made it as an actor... maybe he could find the mother who had abandoned him.
But just scraping by as an actor who couldn't land roles was hard enough.
That was why he'd taken the private commission that promised a large sum for a single performance.
Honestly, he thought it was a bit suspicious, but the other actors figured it was just some rich person's eccentric hobby.
Or maybe some kind of secret audition.
A cheerful actress spoke up.
"They said just act like you normally would, so let's all give it our best."
"They don't even care if we act badly, and they'll still pay as promised? That's weird."
"Ten million won per person for a single play... you think some famous foreign director is secretly holding auditions?"
The other actors speculated and joked among themselves as they prepared.
...And the reason they guessed it was a foreign director was because the person who had commissioned this strange play was indeed a foreigner.
An elderly foreigner wearing glasses and fine clothes, Robert, checked his wristwatch.
"That's enough chatter. Let's begin."
He spoke in fluent Korean.
At his words, the actors took their positions.
Se-geon, too, stood at his mark and glanced at the lead actor standing center stage.
A human-shaped figure draped in a large yellow cloak? A mannequin.
Calling it the 'lead actor' was strange, but that mannequin really was the lead of this play.
'The King in Yellow.'
This play had an unusual setup: a mannequin playing the role of the King in Yellow stood at center stage.
While the actors, playing the role of the King's subjects, praised the King in Yellow.
".........."
Se-geon felt that strange, nagging unease again, but....
"Aah– the King in Yellow has stolen from me. The power to decide the course of my dreams, and the power to flee from them."
The play had begun.
He'd already read it in the script, but....
Despite the eerie atmosphere, the content of the play itself was lively and entertaining.
A comedy where the King's subjects bumbled about in a flurry preparing for the imminent arrival of the King in Yellow, exchanging ridiculous banter and witty remarks.
And the client who had hired the actors.
Yoannis and Yo-han's assessment: an idiotic wizard.
Robert's mouth split wide in a grotesque grin.
"Just a little more...."
Robert stroked the yellow grimoire, seemingly bound in serpent skin, that he had spent his entire fortune to acquire.
<The King in Yellow>.
Of course, in its current state, it was merely the original text of the play 'The King in Yellow,' not a grimoire.
<The King in Yellow> would become a grimoire only when Hastur was summoned through the performance of the play.
That was precisely why Robert had come to Seoul, to conduct a Summoning Ritual for Hastur using the Mystery that had gathered here due to the Wild Hunt phenomenon.
At the thought of the immense power he would obtain and of crushing the School that had dismissed his research, saliva pooled at the corners of Robert's mouth in anticipation.
Like water coming to a boil, the Mystery gathered on the stage churned and roiled.
And so Act 1 ended.
The play moved on to Act 2, where the King's procession began.
And the actors were bewildered.
'Huh? There was a second act?'
But their bodies moved on their own, carrying the play forward.
One of the actors who sensed something wrong tried to break free.
"Huh? W-what?"
Prick– Blood spurted from their nose and they lost consciousness.
Their body swayed limply but kept on moving.
The role devoured the actor, and they became the King's subject.
Completely unlike the atmosphere of Act 1.
They moved in grotesque motions, singing hymns that sounded like wailing, circling round and round the mannequin draped in the yellow cloak.
Se-geon had no idea what was happening to him.
He hadn't lost consciousness, but he wished he had.
The stage, the world, rippled and swayed.
He'd never done drugs, but was this what the world looked like on them?
...He felt like throwing up.
"Ah, ugh, uurgh–."
Ah, he was already throwing up.
Whether that was good or bad, he wasn't sure, but at least he hadn't lost consciousness.
The other actors had all already passed out and collapsed on stage.
Robert, who had been sitting in the audience, burst onto the stage, screaming incomprehensible words filled with ecstasy.
"★ㅎ□?@#S%他!"
The moment those words rang out, the mannequin's form began to shift before Se-geon's eyes, the stage warping and undulating around it.
Ooooooh–.
The yellow cloak wrapped completely around the mannequin's body and surged upward.
Two meters? Three? It towered high, looking down upon the humans.
'...An illusion?'
The trailing edges of the cloak stretched long, splitting into multiple tendrils that writhed like tentacles.
Control of his body returned.
The dizziness faded and the rippling stage looked like an ordinary stage again.
But the vision of 'the King in Yellow' only grew more vivid.
And Se-geon thought.
He couldn't make sense of any of this, but perhaps it was because he was an aspiring actor?
Or perhaps because he was lost in his role?
If the King had arrived, a subject must kneel.
That wasn't hard. Honestly, he was about to collapse anyway.
The instant Se-geon dropped to his knees and bowed–.
BANG–!
The sound of something bursting, and then.
Thud–.
The heavy sound of something toppling over.
Robert's head had exploded, and he had crumpled to the floor.
Now only one person on that stage remained conscious. Se-geon, alone.
[A, e, i, o, u, ga, na, da, ra, aah~.]
...But a voice that should never have been heard rang out.
[Hmm~ so you are the subject who called upon Us.]
The voice resonated clearly inside his skull, reverberating through his brain, through his head.
Long, cold fingers reached out and caressed Se-geon's face.
[You knelt while still in your right mind. Good.]
".........."
He couldn't even think of lifting his head. He couldn't say a word.
[In accordance with the grimoire's contract, We shall bestow power upon you. Kill the worshippers of Cthulhu.]
With that declaration, as though there was nothing more to see.
The mannequin draped in the yellow cloak collapsed.
And the play came to an end.
Se-geon lost consciousness.
And then....
Squirm, squirm~.
The grimoire <The King in Yellow> slipped free from the dead Robert's hand and stood upright on its edge.
Yellow!
Grimoire <The King in Yellow>, its first contract with a wizard in a long, long time!