Chapter 124 - Wizard May Cry (10)

The screams that had been ringing out intermittently stopped.

Whoooosh-.

In the mountains, only the sounds of falling snow and wind echoed.

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

Ha-eun looked down at the Jeonse Fraud Perpetrator's corpse for a moment, then turned to face me.

Sitting on a rock, I met those razor-sharp, beastlike eyes and spoke first.

"Well, you've gotten your revenge."

I repeated the offer I'd made at the abandoned building.

"Planning to turn yourself in now?"

A harsh, growling cry rumbled from Ha-eun.

"...It's not over yet."

"There are more people you want revenge on?"

At my calm question, Ha-eun lowered her head and staggered unsteadily for a moment.

"All of them... Yeah, all of them...."

She covered her face with both hands and dragged them down, baring her sharp teeth with blazing eyes.

"The police who didn't properly catch those bastards... the lawyers who defended them, the judges... that damn teacher at school... the firefighter who came late... I'm suffering this much, so isn't it weird that the bastards who won't help me get to be happy?"

"Leave the firefighter out of it."

I gave a faint laugh of disbelief, then said.

"I get that you're angry. But your logic's getting stranger and stranger."

"Maybe... I'm going to kill you too."

"I see. King astride a hind, boy, huntress...."

I rose from the snow-covered rock.

"Cow, hind, domestic duck."

"—?"

"Spirit of the Moon."

The spell was already prepared.

My right hand hung loosely at my side, clad in a white glove engraved with a Magic Circle, while the silver Pentacle in its grasp gleamed faintly in the darkness.

"Angel Iakaidel, heed Solomon's covenant."

Just as Ha-eun sensed something was wrong and tried to lunge at me.

Fwit-.

A single beam of moonlight descended and pierced Ha-eun through the heart.

"Huh?"

A dazed sound escaped Ha-eun's lips as red spread across the chest of her hoodie.

"Uh... ah...."

Ha-eun staggered several steps backward before collapsing onto her back.

Thud-.

The white snowfield was stained red as well.

[Fifth Pentacle of the Moon]

'A spell that pierces an enemy with the power of Iakaidel, Angel of the Moon.'

I walked over to the fallen Ha-eun and looked down at her.

"You should've run the moment you saw me, like you did back at the abandoned building."

...Right. Even that much rationality was gone.

Then, from a spot where nothing was visible.

"Khehehe~."

Along with an unpleasant laugh, footprints appeared in the snow as the invisible demon approached.

I turned slightly toward the footprints, toward Glasya-Labolas.

"You sure showed up fast."

"There wasn't even an opening for me to interfere. You're quite the wizard."

My eyes narrowed at the deliberately feeble, mocking tone.

"You were waiting for a farmer to pick the fruit for you once it was fully ripe."

"Hahaha!"

Laughter burst from empty air.

"Don't be so hostile. My work is done, and yours is too. There's no longer any reason for us to fight."

Glasya-Labolas looked down at Ha-eun's cooling body with delighted eyes.

"She's killed, she's had her revenge, and now that my Contractor is dead, the contract is over. I'll take the compensation I'm rightfully owed and quietly return."

And the moment Glasya-Labolas took a step toward Ha-eun and licked his lips.

"...Right. The contract's over."

A low, cold voice left my mouth. I summoned the Grimoire above my hand.

Fwoosh-!

<The Lesser Key of Solomon> opened, and chains of light shot out, binding Glasya-Labolas around the neck and limbs.

"Ghk- what!?"

The contract was over. Meaning he could no longer be protected by his contract with another human.

Bound by the chains of light, Glasya-Labolas screamed in agony.

"Aaaaaaaagh-!"

Shhhk- his invisibility was forcibly stripped away, revealing a black wolf standing on two legs.

"Gaaagh... What is the meaning of this!? Do not interfere!"

Glasya-Labolas roared furiously against the chains binding his body.

I answered in a calm voice.

"Do not try to steal sheep before the shepherd."

"Steal!? That is mine! I claimed it!"

"The Lord's light reaches everywhere. Not even a single grain of wheat belongs to you."

"You godless bastard! You wield the Lord's name like a hammer!"

Glasya-Labolas stared wide-eyed in disbelief and shouted.

"Don't do something pointless! This has nothing to do with you!"

Stirred by its master's display, <The Lesser Key of Solomon> shone even brighter as the chains wound tighter around Glasya-Labolas, constricting and pulling.

Clatter-!

"Ghhh...."

They forcibly brought Glasya-Labolas to his knees in the snow.

Thoom-

"...Ghk."

Glasya-Labolas glared up at Yo-han, his face twisted with rage.

A suppressed growl rumbled from the wolf's jaws as hot saliva dripped down.

"...Do you think you're some kind of saint?"

"No. I'm your master."

"—!?"

And those truly arrogant words bore down on Glasya-Labolas.

Bringing one of Hell's Archdemons to his knees.

"Looks like beating around the bush isn't getting through to you. So I'll say it straight."

I looked down at him with cold eyes and spoke evenly.

"If I tell you to do it, fucking do it."

Glasya-Labolas's eyes flew wide.

Through humiliation and rage, the insolent human before him overlapped with that arrogant king.

"⸺Sol."

His body, bound in chains of light, trembled violently as it swelled menacingly.

"Lomooooooon-!!"

He opened his enormous wolfish jaws and lunged.

I swung <The Lesser Key of Solomon> hard behind me.

The chains of light binding Glasya-Labolas were yanked taut, constricting even harder as they twisted.

"⸺!?"

They tore Glasya-Labolas's body into pieces.

His dismembered body scattered into black smoke, and Glasya-Labolas was driven back to the Hell from which he'd come.

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

Thunk-.

I reeled the chains of light back in, closed <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, and slipped it inside my coat.

I breathed out a cloud of white.

"Hoo...."

I turned around.

Then I approached Ha-eun, who lay staring blankly up at the snowy sky with a deathly pale face.

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

At the faint breath still escaping Ha-eun's lips, a healing spell momentarily came to mind.

'Blood to blood, bone to bone....'

But thinking about it, there was no point.

Ha-eun's body had been strengthened by her contract with the demon, so her breathing simply hadn't stopped completely yet.

If she hadn't truly died in the first place, the contract wouldn't have been released upon completion.

Even if I used healing magic, with a hole through her heart, the only difference would be whether she died a little later or not.

So I looked down at Ha-eun and spoke in a calm voice.

"It's a little rich coming from the guy who killed you, but do me a favor. Don't say that one thing as your last words. I'm sick of it."

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

Maybe she couldn't hear me, or maybe she was simply ignoring me.

Ha-eun only murmured the word she most wanted to say right now, the person she most wanted to see.

"...Mom."

And even her faint, wheezing breaths finally stopped.

At those utterly clichéd words, exactly the sort a child would say, I sighed.

"Haa...."

Crunch- crunch-.

After standing still for a while, I heard footsteps crunching through the snow and turned my head.

Si-on stood there in a black coat, a sword hanging at her waist.

It seemed she'd followed my trail after I left the house.

"Yo-han-ssi."

Si-on checked the bodies of the dead Jeonse Fraud Perpetrator and Ha-eun, then grasped the situation.

"...Good work."

Si-on bowed her head slightly, then continued.

"I'm sorry. It's required procedure."

She recorded the time and the conditions at the scene.

"...Demon Contractor, wizard. Engaged and killed."

"She's not a wizard."

"Pardon?"

I looked down at Ha-eun and said.

"Wizards don't cry for their moms."

Snowflakes drifted down onto Ha-eun.

The wind blew, and Yo-han was reflected in Si-on's black eyes.

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

Without thinking, Si-on reached out and gently took Yo-han's hand.

"Um... I... I'm sorry for doing that so suddenly."

Perhaps only realizing what she'd done afterward, Si-on lowered her head and apologized. But she did not stop speaking.

"However, I don't think crying has anything to do with whether someone is a wizard."

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

I gently closed my hand around Si-on's slender hand where it rested cautiously against my left.

I looked back at Si-on's composed face.

"...Your face is cold, but your hand's warm."

Realizing how that sounded, I hurriedly added.

"Ah, was that creepy?"

"No. It's fine."

Si-on gripped Yo-han's hand a little more tightly.

***

A Special Operations Division team arrived to handle the aftermath.

I came down from the mountain with Si-on and caught another short nap at her place.

Then, early in the morning.

Si-on left for work early, letting me ride along and dropping me off at the Cathedral.

"Yo-han-ssi, even though you were mistakenly treated as a suspect, thank you again for cooperating in resolving this bizarre case."

I gave Si-on a casual answer.

"Not really... I'm a Civilian Collaborator for the Special Operations Division, anyway. I just did what I was supposed to."

It was good that I'd learned Raziel had no intention of killing me right this second, but Yoannis's Vampire faction was still perfectly intact, so I needed to maintain my cooperative relationship with the Special Operations Division.

As the car neared the Cathedral.

"Come to think of it...."

I remembered something I'd meant to ask Si-on.

"Do you know Shin Se-hee? I heard she's your great-aunt."

"Pardon?"

Shin Se-hee was, of course, someone Si-on knew, and she was indeed her great-aunt.

But the unexpected name startled Si-on despite her composed expression.

"Yes, she is my great-aunt. But how do you know her, Yo-han-ssi...?"

"She sent some people before, saying she wanted to meet and talk with me. They backed off when I said I wasn't interested."

"I... see."

Si-on's eyes wavered ever so slightly. Her grip tightened on the steering wheel.

Back when the invisible murder case had first begun.

It had also been Shin Se-hee who told her that the higher-ups in the Special Operations Division might detain Yo-han.

...But she hadn't known Se-hee had gone so far as to send people to him separately.

'Why on earth is Great-Aunt interested in Yo-han-ssi?'

She'd wondered about it before, and it still bothered her.

"Maybe she wanted to see what kind of weirdo was getting close to her cute little grandniece?"

At Yo-han's casual joke, Si-on's shoulders flinched.

"Pardon? That's...."

Si-on thought of Shin Se-hee.

That possibility... might actually exist.

Not long afterward, the car arrived in front of Ellie's Cathedral.

I got out and said goodbye to Si-on.

"Thanks for the ride."

"It's no trouble. Take care."

I let out a light breath into the morning air and entered the Cathedral's living quarters.

And the moment I stepped through the front door.

Soo-ah came out to meet me and shouted.

"Staying out all night like it's nothing! Bastard Mister! Are you crazy!?"

Considering when she normally slept, it seemed she'd gotten up early just to check when I came back.

'Bastard Mister... Is that "son of a bitch" + "Mister"?'

I ignored her and walked inside.

"I told you I'd be staying out because of work."

"Even so!"

The sheer confidence of Soo-ah's shout left me dumbfounded.

Just then, Ellie came over from the kitchen.

"Yo-han-ssi, welcome back."

"Yeah, I'm back."

"Have you eaten breakfast? It'll be ready soon."

"I'll just have something light... But if you're making it for me, all the better."

"Okay! Ah, one moment."

Ellie went to get something, then handed it to me.

It was a drawing. One of those crooked little pictures a child draws in crayon.

Ellie smiled as though recalling an adorable sight.

"Min-hee told me to make sure I gave this to you when you got back, Yo-han-ssi. She says it's a Christmas present."

[Present for the Ice Cream Mister]

Looking closer, a stick figure drawn much longer than the others did seem to be receiving something like a gift box.

I'd briefly mentioned that I hadn't gotten a Christmas present from Santa. Was that why she'd drawn this?

"...Hah."

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't help laughing.

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

As I looked at the picture with a faint smile, Soo-ah gave me a strange little grin.

"Hmmm~ Mister, you've gotten kind of rounder."

"Huh?"

At Soo-ah's words, I touched my chin.

"Did I gain weight?"

Ellie had been making good meals lately, and I had been eating well.

"No, I don't mean you've gotten fat. I mean your whole vibe's gotten a bit softer."

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

"Well, you always did have kind and gentle sides to you... No, that's not what I meant! Mister?"

...It wasn't like I'd heard anything particularly profound.

And yet my eyes widened in surprise.

'...I've gotten softer?'

Hearing it from someone else made me realize something I'd only vaguely sensed myself.