Chapter 132 - Grimoire Harem (3)

Yoannis and Pierre.

For the moment, they simply exchanged a little small talk while feeling out each other's true intentions. It was an icebreaker.

Yoannis asked in a relaxed manner.

"<Heptameron> is supposed to be a grimoire that traps ghosts to extract their knowledge or puts them to work. Yet you can even command monster-type Anomalies. Quite a useful talent."

"It's nothing particularly impressive. Just an application of magic."

Pierre placed the leather-bound grimoire <Heptameron> on the table.

"There's an Eastern ghost called a Changgwi. Have you heard of it? It's an Anomaly where a tiger controls the soul of a human it devoured and uses that spirit to lure in new prey. What I do is similar, only in reverse."

He explained helpfully.

"I make the ghosts under my command latch onto Yokai and control them that way. Well~ there are also Anomalies that follow me willingly because staying with me makes it easier for them to find food."

As he spoke, Pierre studied Yoannis's reaction.

'Of course he noticed that I was the one who released those Anomalies.'

Looking into the blue eyes fixed directly on him, Pierre let the carefully manufactured business smile fade from his lips.

"...I didn't release those Anomalies into Seoul because I wanted to start a turf war with you or steal a slice of your pie."

Since Yoannis had already figured it out and even brought it up directly, Pierre leaned back comfortably in his chair.

"There was simply something I was looking for in Seoul."

He smiled.

"As I said earlier, I contacted you partly to introduce myself, and partly because I have a personal interest in you."

...And those words drew a reaction from Mia, the black-haired, feminine-looking pretty boy who had been standing demurely beside Yoannis, cradling the sheathed Zweihänder in his arms.

"-Huh?"

Mia's eyes narrowed.

This was a business meeting, but what kind of way was that to talk when Yoannis's lover was standing right beside him? Smiling while saying he had a personal interest in him? What was he trying to pull with my man?

Mia glared at Pierre, and Yoannis corrected the misunderstanding.

"...Mia, I don't think he means it that way."

Then Yoannis turned back to Pierre.

"By what you're looking for, do you mean the owner of the grimoire <De Vermis Mysteriis>?"

Kim Yo-han, owner of the grimoires <De Vermis Mysteriis>, <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, and <Baopuzi>.

After the Vatican's wizard hunter, Father Johan, he was another wielder of multiple grimoires, except he possessed three of them when even a single grimoire appearing was normally enough to cause an uproar.

Most of the wizards coming to Seoul or turning their attention toward it were interested in Yo-han, the new owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis> and a wielder of multiple grimoires.

...However, the famous wizards who had attacked him to obtain those grimoires had ended up dying while trying to kill Yo-han.

Edward Coffin, a former member of the British Wizard Council whose bounty had been set low compared to his actual ability thanks to his connections.

Alphons, an exceptional elemental wizard who had once been considered a leading candidate to become the next Dean of the Paracelsus School, one of Europe's great schools of magic.

Chairman Kim, the head of a wizard family established in Seoul.

Every last one of them had died at Yo-han's hands. Chairman Kim's entire family had even been wiped out along with him.

Yo-han himself might not have realized it, but in the wizarding world, he had become someone whose grimoires everyone coveted, yet who was too dangerous to touch.

At the same time, he was too significant to simply lose interest in and ignore.

He was the elephant in the room.

"If you're after Yo-han, you're a little late. The party's over. He's allied himself with the Bureau and is hiding out in a Vatican church now."

"Ah~ I certainly do want <De Vermis Mysteriis>. It's a grimoire specialized in Summoning Magic, and the 'Invisible Vampire' is quite appealing as well."

But Pierre hadn't come to Seoul because of Yo-han.

"What I'm after is a different grimoire."

Pierre smiled and spoke in a languid, pleased voice.

"One of the grimoires that made its way into Korea, <Shanhaijing>."

Whether that claim was true or a lie remained unknown.

"Hmmm~."

Yoannis leaned back in his chair as well and shifted his gaze slightly.

"You already have a grimoire. Yet you want another one?"

His gaze pointed toward <Heptameron>, the grimoire resting beneath Pierre's hand on the table.

"You're greedy."

"That's what wizards are like."

Pierre answered without hesitation.

"Owning multiple grimoires. ...There's already precedent for it, so there's no reason I couldn't do it too, is there?"

Whether he actually could was another matter.

It was the average wizard's 'If it's me, I can do it' mentality.

"So, getting to the point, how about joining forces with me, Yoannis?"

Given the distance across the table, their hands obviously couldn't reach.

Even so, Pierre extended his hand as though offering a handshake.

"I'm not an idiot either. I can make a reasonable guess as to why <Shanhaijing>, after remaining hidden all this time, came to Korea. ...It must be because of Kim Yo-han."

His voice was languid yet sharp.

"And as it happens, you're hostile toward Yo-han too. How about we kill him together?"

The number of grimoires someone possessed did not necessarily determine how powerful a wizard was, but....

From a grimoire's perspective, it made that wizard vastly more appealing.

"I heard you fought Yo-han because you wanted <De Vermis Mysteriis> as well. Why not use me this time and take it for yourself?"

In other words, eliminate the competition.

"For powerful wizards like us, the things we desire are like flowers."

Pierre's languid yet forceful voice echoed through the restaurant hall.

"We don't care about other people's opinions or morality. If a flower catches our eye, we pluck it. Once we're bored of it, we throw it away."

Still holding out his hand, Pierre spoke to Yoannis almost in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Isn't that how wizards live?"

"...I see."

Yoannis sighed, all interest gone from his face, and rose from his seat.

"Haa... let's end the conversation here. And forget about the deal."

"Excuse me?"

Pierre was momentarily taken aback and asked in confusion.

"...I didn't think it was such a bad proposition. Was there something about it you disliked?"

"It's just a matter of taste. I don't mind plucking something if I like it. I do the same thing. But once you've plucked it-."

Yoannis's blue eyes looked down at Pierre.

"Staying by its side until the last leaf falls is the least the one who plucked it should do."

Then Yoannis reached out, pulled Mia against his side, lowered his hand, and gently grabbed one of his buttocks.

"Kyaaa-!?"

"That's how I, Yoannis, love."

Mia's face flushed as he bit his lip.

"Don't say something like that while grabbing my ass...!"

Pierre's shoulders shook as he burst out laughing in disbelief.

"Pfft, hahahahahaha...!"

'Damn mercurial bastard.'

He was the most irritating kind of person to negotiate with. Well, it didn't matter.

Pierre had expected there was a decent chance Yoannis would refuse, even if not quite like this.

He could simply move on to another plan.

"...The only reason you can say something like that, Sir Yoannis, is because you're a vampire who isn't bound by time."

Pierre stopped laughing and spoke in a low, languid voice.

"Humans live by taking what they need and cutting loose what they don't."

Pierre took <Heptameron> in hand and rose from his chair.

"It's unfortunate our conversation ended this way."

"You brought some pretty dangerous company for what was supposed to be a simple talk."

Yoannis casually indicated one of the restaurant's shadowed walls with his eyes.

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

The shadows there rippled, and a headless black knight, the Dullahan, appeared.

The Ninja who had been standing concealed against another wall also emerged, palms pressed together.

Whether this was an actual Japanese Ninja or just some foreign weeaboo was hard to say....

But this was a Breathing Technique user who had recently become famous as a wizard killer.

"Do-mo, Yoannis-san. I'm Mage Slayer."

"Do-mo. I'm Yoannis."

Yoannis calmly returned the Ninja's greeting.

They exchanged greetings.

A gust of wind swept through the restaurant hall.

Then Yoannis swiftly drew the sword from the scabbard Mia had been holding.

Shiiing-.

He knocked aside the attack of the charging Ninja, who wielded a short Japanese Wakizashi in each hand.

CLAAANG-!!

Steel crashed against steel.

"—!"

Mage Slayer was forced backward, flipped through the air in a somersault, and landed atop one of the restaurant tables.

But the Dullahan immediately followed up, its black cloak billowing like the robes of the Grim Reaper as it attacked Yoannis.

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

The Dullahan brought its raised sword crashing downward.

Yoannis swung his sword to the right and met the strike head-on, blocking it.

Claaang-.

The instant the impact knocked the two blades slightly apart, he flicked his wrist, drew his sword back toward himself, and swung at the Dullahan's exposed left flank.

Magic coiled around the rippling pattern of the Damascus-steel Magic Sword.

".........!"

It was a potentially fatal blow that cut through the armor and bit deep.

Rather than retreat, the Dullahan stepped forward and twisted its body, deliberately bringing the hardest part of its shoulder pauldron into the blade first.

Clang-! CRACK-!

The impact cracked and shattered the pauldron, but it kept the Dullahan's body from being cleaved apart.

The Dullahan hurriedly staggered backward.

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

Clatter....

Fragments of the shattered shoulder armor fell away, exposing pale white skin beneath, while bloodlike black mist seeped from the wound.

Mage Slayer adjusted the grip on the blades while staring at Yoannis.

"A magnificent Aisatsu. You're worlds apart from those Zanshita wizards who can't even manage an Aisatsu."

Aisatsu = greeting / Zanshita = fool, third-rate nobody.

In the world of Ninjas, Aisatsu was proper etiquette.

Anyone who died without even receiving an Aisatsu was nothing more than a half-baked Zanshita.

Anyway.

Pierre frowned in disbelief at the spectacle that had unfolded in the span of an instant.

The Dullahan was commonly known as a headless undead knight, but it actually had nothing to do with the undead. It was a fairy that appeared before those whose time to die had come and announced their death.

Because of that, it was sometimes equated with the Valkyries who came for warriors at the moment of death, making it an exceptional warrior in its own right.

And Yoannis had beaten that Dullahan in close combat and swordsmanship?

Pierre stared at Yoannis with an incredulous expression.

"...Have you ever considered going around calling yourself a swordsman instead of a wizard?"

"At least call me a Magic Swordsman, would you?"

Yoannis replied lightly, and Pierre brought out the Familiar he had kept hidden in case a fight with Yoannis broke out.

Wriggle, wriggle~ CRACK!

One of the tables broke apart, the cloth covering it melting away under poison as an enormous snail emerged with a roar.

"Kishaaaaat-!"

"That's-."

Bewilderment crossed Yoannis's face.

"A knight-killing snail!?"

"Hehe~ The nightmare of French knights."

Pierre smiled in satisfaction.

[Lou Carcolh – A monster from French legend. A snail depicted fighting knights in tapestries of chivalric literature.

It possessed a shell harder than steel, acidic fluid that corroded armor flowed over its body, and it attacked by extending tentacles.]

Its shell itself was extremely hard, and sticky acidic poison coated its body, causing any sword that touched it to go dull.

It was a dangerous Anomaly for anyone who relied on a blade.

Which was why Yoannis, without a moment's hesitation, planted his sword into the floor.

Shhk- click.

From inside his coat, he drew two enormous handguns with long barrels.

S&W M500 large-caliber revolvers, which he aimed at Lou Carcolh.

"Kishat?"

He pulled the triggers again and again.

The long barrels of the magically enhanced revolvers spat fire, launching rounds with power approaching that of artillery shells.

BANG! B-B-B-B-BANG! KABOOM!

"KISHAAAAAAAAT!?"

The barrage smashed Lou Carcolh's shell to pieces and burst apart its slimy flesh, spraying chunks of meat in every direction.

THUD....

"A knight-killing snail."

Lou Carcolh collapsed dead, and Yoannis spoke as he ejected the spent casings from his revolvers.

"But guns kill knights and Anomalies alike."

If guns couldn't kill an Anomaly, it simply meant the firepower was insufficient.

...And.

Pierre looked down at Lou Carcolh, which had been blown apart and killed in an instant, and let out an irritated sigh.

"Haaaaaaaaa...."

Goddamn guns....

No, he knew they were convenient, and Pierre used them all the time himself... but they still pissed him off.

Modern firearms were way too damn strong.