Chapter 131 - Grimoire Harem (2)
10 min read ·
Namgung Soo's office and private quarters.
Soo-ah kept her head slightly turned as she fidgeted with a lock of black hair at her temple.
".........."
Namgung Soo sat in his chair with his back turned, speaking without looking at Soo-ah's face.
"...So, has anything happened lately?"
"Not really. Nothing's happened."
To be honest, she had gotten swept up with Yo-han and Ellie in the bizarre Murder Lodge Anomaly Incident, where the lodge itself was an Anomaly, but they had all made it out unharmed, so she figured it was fine.
"I see."
Namgung Soo merely gave a small nod and asked nothing more.
"If anything happens, tell me. You may go now."
"...Yes."
Namgung Soo's secretary had sent her a message saying her father was worried about her, but....
It was only the same routine report as always.
Soo-ah turned and walked to the door, and just as she grabbed the handle and opened it....
Namgung Soo's voice came from behind her.
"I've decided to assign you a new bodyguard, so hear the details from my secretary."
"What?"
At the unexpected words, Soo-ah turned to look back, but Namgung Soo still had his back to her, gazing out through the sunlit window.
".........."
Soo-ah stared at his back for a moment, then turned around again and left the room.
As soon as she stepped out, she was startled to find Namgung Soo's secretary and a woman in a black suit waiting in the hallway just outside the door.
"You scared me!?"
The secretary introduced the neat-featured woman with short black hair standing a step behind.
"As the Chairman said, Miss, for your safety, a bodyguard will remain close by and personally guard you for the time being."
Yu Geom, Soo-ah's new bodyguard, bowed slightly with a measured, restrained motion.
"My name is Yu Geom."
"When you say close by, you don't mean you're going to follow me all the way to Ellie unnie's church, right?"
Soo-ah narrowed her eyes slightly at the sudden development, and Yu Geom answered resolutely.
"If Sister Ellie allows me to use the garden or parking lot, I will remain on standby in a camper van."
".........?"
Soo-ah stared at Yu Geom's face, wondering whether she was joking, but her expression didn't change in the slightest.
'Resolute~.'
In the end, Soo-ah replied with obvious reluctance.
"...For now, okay."
Then she turned and walked down the mansion hallway.
She wasn't going back to the church right away anyway. She had to stay here and attend a social gathering with her father, so it didn't matter for now.
Besides, whenever trouble broke out, she always ended up receiving help. It would be ridiculous to throw a fit just because she didn't want a bodyguard following her around.
...Still, she'd have to talk to the secretary again later about Yu Geom bringing a camper van all the way to the church.
Yu Geom quietly followed behind Soo-ah, watching her with solemn black eyes.
".........."
Her gaze lingered on Soo-ah's small back and the gentle sway of her wavy black hair.
'...Cute.'
Soo-ah didn't know it, but Yu Geom was a martial artist of Namgung Soo's private military force, the Sword Division. She had already been guarding Soo-ah for some time, having kept watch over Ellie's church both to protect Soo-ah and to monitor Yo-han, the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>.
And personally, she liked cute things.
Anyway, since she was already back at the family home, Soo-ah slung her cloth bag over her shoulder and headed to the library.
Soo-ah browsed the books lining the shelves.
"Hmm~."
She had simply passed them by when she hadn't been interested, but now that she looked, there were quite a lot of books related to the occult.
They were mystical texts Namgung Soo had collected from around the world after losing his wife in an Anomaly Incident, searching for magic that could bring her back to life or turn back time.
'...Could Dad actually be into this stuff?'
Thinking she'd bring Yo-han a few that looked interesting and study some herself, Soo-ah slowly wandered through the library, browsing as she went.
And then, for some reason....
".........?"
She stopped in front of one particular bookshelf.
A book caught her eye with a design that looked like something straight out of a historical drama or an old martial arts novel.
It wasn't even particularly eye-catching.
Yet Soo-ah reached out without thinking, pulled the book from the shelf, and read the title on its cover.
"Shan... haijing?"
<Shanhaijing> [TL Note: The English translation of the book is "Classic of Mountains and Seas".]
And then she felt mana from it. The original <Shanhaijing>, a book recording mystical creatures....
The Grimoire imbued with supernatural power opened its eyes.
~Shan! Shanhaijing!
Shanhaijing looked around.
Shanhaijing?
It had dozed off for a bit, and judging by its surroundings, it seemed to have somehow ended up in someone's library.
How Shanhaijing had ended up all the way here.
It remembered the conversation from a night when the stars had shone beautifully, when <Baopuzi> had awakened from its sleep and come to find <Shanhaijing>.
Put roughly into human language, it probably went something like this.
Shanhaijing?! Shan-shan! Haijing-haijing?
(You're going to Korea to find a master?)
Baopu! Baopu-baopu! Baopu~!
(I felt mana calling to me! I'm going to meet them!)
And so <Baopuzi> left without the slightest hesitation.
Shanhaijing....
After thinking for a moment, <Shanhaijing> made up its mind.
Shanhaijing!
I'm going to meet an awesome, super-hot wizard too!
To a Grimoire, an awesome wizard meant a compatible master whose mana it found attractive.
And so <Shanhaijing> followed the mana <Baopuzi> had sensed all the way to Korea. That part went well enough, but then....
It stopped at a zoo, pressed itself against the glass to happily watch a platypus, and ended up getting caught by an employee.
Shanhaijing~ Shanhaijing~.
"Huh? Why is there a book lying here?"
Shanhaijiiiiing~!
Then a zoo employee remembered that Namgung Soo collected old books like this and sent it to him as a gift....
Still asleep, <Shanhaijing> was stored in an ordinary library by Namgung Soo, who failed to realize it was a genuine Grimoire.
<Shanhaijing> examined Soo-ah as she opened it.
Shanhaijing~?
The girl had certainly awakened it, but she seemed a little lacking to be called an outstanding wizard.
Then <Shanhaijing> noticed the true source of the mana that had awakened it.
It was Yo-han's <Magic Guide Notebook>, filled with safe spells he had organized for Soo-ah, sitting inside the cloth bag over her shoulder.
It was too weak to be called a Grimoire... but it was an object around the level of a magic-assist artifact.
In other words, as far as <Shanhaijing> was concerned, Soo-ah was the apprentice of an outstanding, attractive wizard!
Shanhaijing~.
<Shanhaijing> laughed happily to itself at the thought of using Soo-ah to reach that wizard.
Soo-ah briefly skimmed through <Shanhaijing>.
"What is this? A picture book? Some kind of old animal encyclopedia?"
Losing interest, she closed it again and slid it back onto the shelf.
Shanhaijing-?!
<Shanhaijing> was startled, but it had no intention of staying in the library. So it waited until Soo-ah turned her back....
It rolled off the shelf and dropped straight into Soo-ah's cloth bag.
Roll~ Slip~ Thump.
Nestled among the other books inside the bag, <Shanhaijing> lightly fluttered a few of its pages.
Shanhaijing~.
Soo-ah noticed none of this and continued browsing the other books.
"Hmm-hmm~."
***
Namgung Soo's room, after Soo-ah left.
Namgung Soo leaned back in his chair and tapped the desk at a steady rhythm with his index finger.
There was nothing strange about a father assigning a bodyguard because he was worried about his daughter's safety, but....
For Namgung Soo, the feelings behind it were complicated.
Wasn't he trying to use Regression to turn back time and make it so his wife had never died?
Wasn't he trying to erase the Soo-ah who existed now?
If so, there was no reason to assign one of the Sword Division's valuable martial artists to protect Soo-ah.
".........."
...And yet, when Soo-ah was actually kidnapped by Chairman Kim....
He had belatedly ordered the Sword Division to protect her.
It was ridiculous.
Namgung Soo let out a self-deprecating sigh.
"...Haa."
Still, the reason he had moved Yu Geom, who had been secretly protecting Soo-ah from the shadows, directly to her side was because the atmosphere in Seoul had been strange lately.
Namgung Soo once again looked over the articles attached to the materials his secretary had sent to his tablet.
['A Tiger on the Streets of Seoul?' Drunk Man Reports Tiger to Police, Causes Disturbance....]
[Citizen Reports Seeing Crocodile in Han River...]
Tigers and crocodiles in the middle of Seoul... Naturally, they weren't real animals.
According to reports from Sword Division members on patrol duty, they were Anomalies.
Yokai from myths, folktales, and legends around the world were wandering through Seoul.
‧
‧
‧
As the sun began to set, orange-red light and darkness mingled over Seoul.
A passerby walking near the Han River suddenly narrowed their eyes.
'What was that?'
For an instant, something had appeared on the river's surface, but....
It had been there for only a moment.
The passerby decided they'd imagined it and continued on.
And beneath the surface.
A gigantic crocodile? A lizard? The six-legged monster with twisting horns swam through the water.
"Kaaaaa...."
Blub, blub....
[Bukavac – A monster from Slavic mythology.
A gigantic reptilian monster with two horns and six legs that inhabits lakes.
It kills prey by striking them with its freely moving long tail or strangling them with it. Its cries are bizarre and extremely loud.]
Along a road where the streetlights had begun to come on.
A man taking a shortcut home blinked.
"—?"
It wasn't a strange object in itself, but it was something that shouldn't have been there.
Between the streetlights spaced at regular intervals stood a traffic light.
"What the hell?"
Thinking he might be hallucinating, the man pinched his cheek. Something about it gave him the creeps, so he ignored the traffic light and kept walking.
The traffic light trembled and laughed at the man's receding back.
"Khehehehe~ Kaaaa!"
Its shape rippled and changed, then it turned into a crow and flew away.
[Hedley Kow – A fairy from English folklore.
It can freely change its form, disguising itself as objects that do not belong in their surroundings to play tricks on humans.]
An empty street at sunset.
Dozens of human shadows passed across a wall.
[Tariaksuq – A Yokai from Inuit legend. Its name means "shadow people". Their bodies are invisible, and only their shadows can be seen.]
Elsewhere, in a deserted, shadowy back alley, a huge tiger kept its head lowered as it tore into and ate a cat.
Crunch- crack- crack-.
When the tiger raised its head, it revealed a grotesque human face, its mouth and pointed teeth stained with blood.
"Waaaaah~ Waaaaaahk~!"
It mimicked the cry of a baby.
[Mafu – A Chinese Yokai with the body of a tiger and the face of a human. It mimics the cry of a baby in the mountains to lure people in and devour them.]
***
A restaurant with the entire dining hall reserved.
A sharp-featured black-haired man in a black suit and brown coat.
Pierre, the owner of the Grimoire <Heptameron>, spoke affably to Yoannis, the blond vampire seated across the long table from him.
"Lord Yoannis, thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Since I have business here for a while, I thought it only proper to pay my respects to Korea's foremost wizard."
"Drop the 'Lord'. It sounds ridiculous. And you sure know how to talk."
Yoannis regarded Pierre with unimpressed blue eyes.
"Considering you'd already scattered your familiars all over Seoul before coming to see me."
"...Haha. My apologies if that displeased you."
Yoannis and Pierre stared at each other for a moment.