Chapter 133 - Grimoire Harem (4)
11 min read ·
Pierre frowned as he glared at Yoannis's S&W M500 large-caliber revolver.
"Tsk."
He had thought Lou Carcolh's shell and regenerative abilities would be enough to withstand ordinary compact handguns or even standard-issue rifles.
Apparently, even that could only do so much when ridiculously huge bullets were pumped into it one after another.
He had simply been outgunned.
At that moment, the Mage Slayer standing atop the table shot Pierre a look, asking if he was really going to fight this out.
Pierre tightened his grip on the grimoire in his hand for a moment.
".........."
Then he relaxed his grip and signaled with his eyes for the Mage Slayer to stay out of it. He also glanced at the Dullahan, whose shoulder armor had been shattered.
'...Was I too hasty?'
As long as he operated in Seoul, he would eventually end up fighting Yoannis if they failed to establish a cooperative relationship.
(Of course, being allies did not mean they would never end up fighting.)
Still, now that his surprise attack had failed to kill Yoannis, there was no reason to keep trading blows here and let someone else reap the benefits.
...Besides, he had already done enough for what he had been paid.
Among wizards, stabbing each other in the back and fighting whenever a deal went south was an everyday occurrence.
Pierre shamelessly smiled at Yoannis and said,
"I did try to kill you, but please don't get me wrong. I don't hold any grudge against you, Yoannis."
Pierre then took three small glass bottles from the leather holders on his belt.
"Personally, I actually wanted to do business with you. It's just-."
He dropped them onto the floor and shattered them.
"Lady Boris asked me to send her regards."
Crash-!
The glass bottles shattered, releasing the Banshees, ghostly fairies that had been sealed inside, and they let out piercing screams.
Screeeeeeech-!!
The Banshees tore through the restaurant hall like a gale, a storm of ghosts obscuring everyone's vision.
Whoooooosh-!
Their reverberating screams dragged down the temperature and spread bitter cold in every direction.
Even with his vampire body, Mia frowned at the chill and breathed out through blue-tinged lips.
"Haaaah-."
".........."
Yoannis swept open the left side of his black coat, wrapped it around Mia, and pulled him close against his body with one arm.
"—!"
Mia flinched and looked up at Yoannis in surprise.
"M-Master!?"
"Stay close."
Yoannis spoke in a low voice as he watched the Banshees. He snapped his fingers.
Fwoooooosh!
Lines of green flame spread outward from Yoannis in every direction.
The quintessence of alchemy, magical fire.
Greek Fire burned through the incorporeal evil spirits that wavered like smoke.
Screeeeeech....
The blazing green flames greedily spread from one Banshee to the next, devouring the storm of ghosts.
It was pathetic enough that a fire extinguisher, which worked by cutting off oxygen, could put it out. But it was still magical fire imbued with supernatural power, capable of burning things ordinary flames could not, and it worked especially well against Anomalies.
The Banshees burned away and vanished.
Aaaah....
Tiny green embers, all that remained after they burned, drifted through the air.
Yoannis cut off the mana to keep the flames from spreading, and the Greek Fire dwindled before going out completely.
The restaurant hall had been left in ruins.
Looking at the vanished Pierre and his group, as well as the shattered windows, Yoannis let out a quiet breath.
"They escaped."
Naturally, they had used the Banshees as a smokescreen and fled.
Yoannis and Mia approached one of the broken windows where the wind blew in and cautiously looked down from the building.
Peeek~.
Several jeeps could be seen rapidly putting distance between themselves and the restaurant.
Vroooom-.
Down below the building.
Apparently wary that Yoannis might pursue them, several men who looked like foreign mercenaries and had yet to get into the vehicles spotted him and looked up.
"Haaaah...."
They grinned savagely like wolves baring their teeth, exposing sharp fangs.
Their red eyes gleamed.
Vampires.
Naturally, they were not vampires under Yoannis's command.
The vampire mercenaries taunted Yoannis, climbed into the remaining jeeps, and drove away.
The jeeps sped along the dark city streets in a line.
Mia recalled what Pierre had said before fleeing.
'Lady Boris asked me to send her regards.'
"Master, by Boris, do you mean...?"
Yoannis furrowed his brow slightly before answering.
"He must mean the young lady of the Strigoi Bloodline."
Vampires broadly fell into three categories.
The Vlad Bloodline, the aristocratic sort of vampires people commonly imagined when they thought of Romania's Vlad III or Dracula.
The Strigoi Bloodline, a more savage type blended with the man-eating ghoul legends of Slavic folklore.
And finally, the Liches, wizards like Yoannis who had turned themselves into vampires to overcome mortality and the physical limits of the human body.
...Though strictly speaking, "Lich" was less a vampire bloodline and more a term orthodox vampires used to distinguish undead wizards who did not belong to any of their clans from themselves.
Mia nodded.
"Right. But why would she target you, Master?"
"Who knows? She never liked me to begin with, and in this line of work, reasons to kill someone can crop up at any time."
Yoannis gave a light shrug.
"Or Pierre might simply have said that to shift the blame onto Boris."
"If he was trying to drive a wedge between you with just a few words, that's rather flimsy. ...Besides, it looks like Boris supplied him with vampire forces as well."
"Haha, true."
Yoannis gave a short laugh, dumbfounded by Pierre's behavior.
He did not know exactly what sort of deal Pierre had made with Boris, but....
Pierre had received vampire forces from Boris through their deal, weighed Yoannis against Boris, and decided that Boris was the easier one to do business with.
So Pierre had attacked Yoannis according to his original plan.
"The fact that he brought along a mercenary famous for killing wizards in the first place means he probably planned to ambush and kill me if our deal fell through."
But regardless.
"Either way, I can't just let this slide after being attacked like that."
Yoannis recalled Pierre checking the condition of the headless knight, the Dullahan.
"...To command a Dullahan, you need to possess its head. From the looks of it, that one seemed to be a Familiar he was rather fond of."
The Dullahan's head itself was a valuable artifact required to control the Dullahan. Pierre was almost certainly keeping it somewhere near himself.
Yoannis's blue eyes flashed as he smiled.
"Let's take Pierre's Dullahan head from him. And the grimoire <Shanhaijing> he's after, too."
"Haa... Understood."
Mia gave a small nod, pulled out his tablet, and began contacting the vampires under their command.
Although he had sighed because it was obvious this would turn into something much bigger, Mia's black eyes quietly smoldered with anger.
".........."
Whatever Pierre's objective had been, Mia could not forgive him for threatening Master... for threatening Yoannis.
Yoannis entered the Ghost Merchant Pierre's hunt for the <Shanhaijing>, with Pierre himself now in his sights.
***
Inside one of the speeding jeeps.
"Haaaah...."
Pierre loosened his suit tie to relieve some of his stress.
He lifted the cloth covering a birdcage.
Creeeak-.
From inside, he took out the beautiful head of a young girl with short black hair and closed eyes.
Black mist writhed from the severed neck. It was the Dullahan's head.
"Hmmm...."
Pierre placed the Dullahan's head on his lap and gently stroked it with his hand.
Her hair was soft, and her cheeks were plush yet cool to the touch. It was soothing.
More than anything, she was beautiful to look at.
Every time he stroked her, Pierre understood why mafia bosses in fiction kept cats.
There was something calming about the simple act of stroking something.
Vrrrrrr-.
Just then, his phone rang.
"Haaaah...."
Pierre sighed before answering in his courteous business voice.
"Yes, Lady Boris."
The voice of Boris, the current head of the Strigoi Bloodline, immediately came through the phone.
[Did you meet Yoannis? How strong is he? Has he really become a washed-up has-been like the rumors say?]
"...I've never seen Sir Yoannis in his prime, so I can't make a comparison. But calling him a has-been would be misleading. He was strong."
[Hmmm... Really? Well, I suppose they do say he's a vampire who's been alive since ancient Greece, back before Christ.]
"Ah~ I suspect that's the part that's merely a rumor. Sir Yoannis himself likes Greek culture and talks about it often, but I doubt he's lived quite that long."
Pierre analyzed the matter in a languid voice.
"He's probably Greek, but not from the BC era... I suspect he may have come from the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire."
More than anything, Pierre recalled the brilliant green flames of 'Greek Fire'.
Three things the Eastern Roman Empire could never hand over to foreigners.
The emperor's robes and crown – Naturally, only an Eastern Roman emperor could wear them. If they fell into foreign hands, it meant the empire itself had fallen to foreign invasion.
Born in the Purple – Princesses born in chambers adorned with imperial purple, the symbol of the royal house. The reasoning was that a princess carrying the emperor's blood could not be married off to a barbarian king.
Greek Fire – A secret art of Constantinople, passed down within the imperial family and guarded with the utmost care. The method of creating the mysterious magical flame.
Princesses, however, had long since begun to be married off in political marriages for diplomatic purposes, and the emperor's crown had also passed into foreign hands when the Byzantine Empire was conquered.
But 'Greek Fire' alone had never been passed on. Its method of manufacture had been lost when the empire fell.
After hearing Pierre's explanation, Boris responded in disbelief.
[So you're saying Yoannis is some royal from a fallen kingdom?]
"No. The Byzantine Empire changed ruling dynasties countless times, so honestly, that doesn't mean much. But considering he was in a position to learn Greek Fire and calls himself Greek, I'd guess he came from a prominent noble family in the Greek region."
[...I don't need that kind of pointless speculation! What I want to know is how strong Yoannis is-!!]
Pierre held the phone away from his ear and let Boris's noisy rant wash over him.
If Boris wanted to know that badly, she could simply go and clash with Yoannis herself.
Well, whatever. Pierre had gotten vampire mercenaries out of the deal, after all.
He gave just enough of a response to Boris to keep the conversation moving.
"Yes, yes. I'm glad the Anomalies you purchased earlier proved useful. Lady Boris is a major client, after all."
Once the call ended.
The Mage Slayer sitting beside him gave a quiet laugh.
"A major client, huh... You certainly know what to say, considering you were just comparing him to Yoannis and feeling out which one was the better option."
"There's nothing wrong with looking for a better client."
"Hmmm~ I suppose not. But are you sure this was wise?"
The Mage Slayer looked at Pierre.
"I'm talking about backing off without killing Yoannis. Didn't you just provoke him and make yourself another enemy for no reason?"
"Doesn't matter."
Pierre turned his head and looked out the window.
"I can beat him. I just don't want to cause too much of a commotion and draw the Bureau's attention before we even know where the <Shanhaijing> is."
He looked at the swirling winds of the Wild Hunt, visible to Pierre's eyes as a wizard who dealt with ghosts.
".........."
Pierre contentedly stroked the Dullahan's head.
Even against a Grand Wizard, he was confident he would not lose inside the 'Wild Hunt'.
The Mage Slayer considered Pierre's words.
"Hmmm~."
Personally, Mage Slayer would not have minded attracting the Bureau's attention.
Mage Slayer took out a photograph of Shin Do-ryong, Director of the Bureau for Abnormal Phenomena Countermeasures, and looked at it.
Since Mage Slayer was in Korea anyway, why not take the chance to fight the unofficial Greatest Under Heaven?
Fighting the real Greatest Under Heaven was the goal, after all.
The Mage Slayer tucked the photograph away again and asked Pierre,
"So where are we going now?"
"Why, to Korea's real greatest wizard."
"Pardon?"
Pierre smiled.
"Kim Yo-han."
Since Yoannis had turned him down, he would try Kim Yo-han next.
***
Ellie's Cathedral.
After dinner, I was on my way back to my room when I saw the kids in the living room watching an animal program on television.
"So cute~."
"Waaah~."
Then Min-hee looked at me and asked,
"Mister, do you know that animal?"
The animal on the television was a rock hyrax.
"That's a rock hyrax. Its Korean name literally means 'rock raccoon', but it has nothing to do with raccoons. It's actually related to elephants."
It wasn't exactly impressive knowledge, but Min-hee's eyes sparkled with admiration.
"Amazing! You're a rock hyrax expert, mister!"
'What even is a "rock hyrax expert, mister"?'
The kids watched the animals on the program with fascination and said,
"I want to see a rock hyrax for real."
"The zoo...."
Come to think of it, I had once been preparing a cabin camping trip for the kids, only for the cabin to turn out to be some crazy murder cabin and the whole plan to fall through.
In the end, the Cathedral kids still had not gotten to go anywhere for fun.
And apparently that had been bothering Ellie too.
Ellie approached the children with a gentle smile and said,
"Then how about we go to the zoo this weekend?"
She cautiously asked me as well.
"Um, Yohan, what do you think?"
"I don't mind. Sounds good."
It would have been one thing if I had work, but I didn't. Since I was freeloading here, the least I could do was help chaperone the kids.
"I'm glad you're okay with it too, Yohan!"
Ellie smiled brightly.
Anyway, the zoo trip was set.
When Ellie said, 'We should let Soo-ah know too', I called Soo-ah.
Vrrrr....
The phone rang.