Chapter 22 - Ghostbuster (6)

[Weekend Farm]

Away from the bustling city center. An escape from the complications of life, even if only for a brief weekend. A place where you could become a shepherd and indulge your dreams of moving to the countryside.

Sparkling sunshine, gleaming pastures. Watching the pastoral scene of a peaceful farm, where free-roaming sheep wandered about bleating, Yohan thought to himself,

'Cute sheep.'

He didn't particularly dream of moving to the countryside. Naturally, city life was more comfortable and preferable, but this quiet, leisurely atmosphere wasn't bad.

Of course, that was strictly a tourist's perspective. Actually raising livestock would be exhausting, what with getting up early, all the work to do, and having to clean up animal shit.

Just then, a farm employee opened the gate to the sheep pen and said,

"Everyone, you're welcome to go inside for a closer look. Feel free to look at the other animals, too."

"They're so cute! Honey, let's go over there."

"Sure, all right."

"I'd like to live somewhere like this when I'm old."

Following the employee's guidance, the ten or so people participating in the farm experience, myself included, scattered to look around.

The reason I'd gone to the trouble of booking and paying for a visit to Weekend Farm was its unusual program: if you paid to buy a farm animal, you could slaughter it under an expert's supervision.

Of course, rather than "Pay to legally kill an animal," the program description dressed it up in respectable-sounding phrases like "Experience medieval slaughtering," "Meat doesn't come easily," and "An experience that teaches the weight of a life."

Anyway, finding a market for magicians was one thing, but I couldn't just sit around doing nothing in the meantime. I'd joined this experience so I could make pentacles using parchment or whatever metals I could get hold of.

Wondering which sheep would make good parchment, I knelt on one knee and stroked a reasonably well-grown sheep as I mentally reviewed how to make magical parchment.

"BAAA."

Step one of making medieval magical parchment: skin the dead animal with a knife prepared beforehand, reciting the incantation.

'Adonai, Shaddai, Tetragrammaton, and the holy angels of God.'

'Appear, and grant this parchment power and virtue, and consecrate it.'

Step two: hold salt in your hand and recite the incantation.

'O God of gods, bless and consecrate this salt. Let the parchment gain virtue through the power of the salt. Amen.'

Afterward, thoroughly rub salt into the hide and leave it in the sun for a day.

Step three was just ordinary parchment-making. Soak the hide in a bowl or tub containing water and lime for three days, then take it out and remove the lime clinging to it. Afterward, secure it firmly so the parchment wouldn't curl, and dry it in the shade for three days.

Finally, put the magical incense you'd prepared into a brazier and dry the parchment in the rising smoke. That completed the magical parchment.

My eyes narrowed, and a sigh escaped me without prompting.

"Ha..."

Skinning an animal wasn't exactly easy... It seemed simple enough in my head, but actually doing it would obviously be difficult and time-consuming. I'd have to be careful not to damage the hide, too.

I needed it, so I'd eventually work through the trial and error, but I really wished there were a market that sold magical materials.

As Yohan looked around at the sheep with those thoughts in mind...

"...!"

Behind him, a pair of composed eyes watched him cautiously, their surprise hidden from outward view.

They belonged to Shin Sion, Team Leader of the Special Response Section's Team Three.

'Kim Yohan...!? What on earth is he doing here?'

She'd concealed her identity and joined the farm experience as a customer to investigate a livestock farm that might be a magician's workshop. She'd never expected to encounter Yohan here.

"..."

She quietly calmed her startled heart. It was fortunate that her face didn't readily betray her emotions.

Sion moved casually, pretending to look at the sheep, and observed Yohan from his blind spot.

You could call it paranoia... but it was suspicious when someone did something out of character. For example, if someone who always ate pork cutlet for lunch ordered something different one day, you could dismiss it with, 'They must just have felt like eating something else today.'

But there was definitely a reason, however trivial, that they'd wanted something different that day.

According to her background investigation, Yohan wasn't the sort to pay for a livestock experience that catered to dreams of country living.

Yet he'd come. For a student on leave who'd quit his part-time job, it ought to be money he couldn't spare. Yet he'd deliberately paid to come. Why?

She could be wrong, since she hadn't spoken to him directly, but her investigation had given her the impression that Yohan was a rational person. He tried not to waste anything when he did something.

Yet he'd gone out of his way to visit a livestock farm unrelated to either his major or his hobbies.

... Because he had a reason to come? To obtain something?

If so, why [Weekend Farm]? What distinguished this farm from the other farms offering livestock experiences? ... The programs they offered?

Had he perhaps come knowing it was another magician's workshop...?

As Sion brought a loosely clenched fist to her lips in thought, a smiling farm employee approached.

"Haha! Miss, there's no need to be so scared. Our sheep are very gentle."

"Oh... yes. I'm a little afraid of animals."

Sion immediately relaxed her expression and gave an awkward smile as she answered.

For now, she should concentrate on investigating the farm. She took her eyes off Yohan.

Even when no evidence such as fingerprints remained, the bodies could reveal how the victims had died. If Yohan really was the culprit in the university murder case, that meant he possessed an 'invisible familiar' capable of lifting an adult man effortlessly and severing his neck bones in a single stroke.

Sion looked at the people chatting peacefully and enjoying their day off.

"..."

Considering how quietly he'd kept to himself since the university incident, Yohan probably wouldn't go on a rampage. But if she provoked him rashly, everyone here could get caught up in it and killed in the worst case.

... And her suspicion of Yohan was still only conjecture, after all.

With that in mind, Sion observed the farm employees' behavior. They served the customers with smiling faces, but she also sensed something mocking in their manner. Yes, something about them was suspicious.

Everyone who had disappeared at the farm so far had one thing in common: they'd come alone. That was why Sion had stationed Special Response Section operatives outside and ordered them to storm the place if her regular signals stopped, then come in alone as a customer. She intended to investigate by acting as bait herself.

This time, however, the circumstances were a little different.

"Everyone! Lunch is ready. Come and eat."

An employee directed the customers toward grilled meat, vegetables, and soup laid out on outdoor tables.

"The meat and vegetables were all raised right here on our farm."

And, of course, the food contained sleeping pills.

After eating...

"..."

The customers slumped over the tables. With practiced movements, the farm employees collected their belongings separately and loaded the unconscious people onto stretchers.

"We're taking everyone today. Isn't that risky?"

"According to inside information from the Special Response Section, they'll be coming to investigate soon. The young lady says to clear everything out today and wrap things up."

"Ah, so since we're shutting down, we're just using the whole lot as magical materials. Tough luck for these people."

"Do we take their stuff to the young lady as usual? What a nasty hobby she's got."

"Keep quiet... or you'll get eaten."

Meanwhile, slumped over their tables, Yohan and Sion each had their own thoughts.

'The grimoire in my bag vibrated, so I only pretended to eat. These people are absolute fucking bastards... But the Special Response Section? Magical materials?'

With luck, I might meet another magician sooner than I'd expected.

The employees' conversation confirmed Sion's suspicions. This was indeed a magician's workshop. And...

'So there really was someone selling information from inside the Special Response Section.'

With luck, she might also obtain information about the spy within the Section.

And so Yohan and Sion were quietly carried off together on stretchers, down to the magician's workshop in the villa's basement.

Yohan was a little concerned that the bag containing his grimoire had been confiscated, but it was all right. It was almost Grizzly's mealtime, after all.

It would wake up inside the grimoire and come to me.

* * *

A beautiful woman with a slender face, Kim Miryeo inspected the possessions of the latest batch of 'meat' in her room at the heart of the workshop, from which she monitored the entire place through CCTV.

Like a hunter appraising her catch, she assessed her spoils. Killing people and taking both their flesh and their possessions was one of Kim Miryeo's hobbies.

Not that any of their belongings amounted to much.

"As expected, ordinary meat all carries the same sort of stuff. Nothing interesting."

It didn't particularly matter, since the point of the exercise was to feel superior in the first place.

Sneering, Miryeo checked the other bags.

"What's this? A cooler? I can understand the meat, but why put milk in here?"

Thinking this was a strange piece of meat, she checked its other bag.

"...?"

The instant she picked it up, a weighty sensation made her feel something unusual.

No, something special.

Inside the bag was an odd book with a dark iron cover.

"... Huh?"

She understood instinctively. This was a genuine grimoire.

Her eyes widened, and with trembling hands, she grasped the grimoire's cold iron cover and lifted it out.

Miryeo was too excited to notice, but the title engraved on the cover, <Mysteries of the Worm>, writhed and rippled as if displeased, changing to <De Vermis Mysteriis>.

Miryeo immediately opened the grimoire.

'Latin... It's an original?!'

She slowly read the book aloud in an excited voice. Since it was in Latin, she couldn't interpret it perfectly, but she could still make out a little.

"The owner of this book... is the master of the Invisible... Vampire? Haha!"

Unable to contain her joy, Miryeo laughed loudly.

"Ha—hahahahaha! It's real! A real grimoire!"

She'd heard that when a grimoire found its master, it would make its own way to them and appear. There was no doubt about it. It had come to meet her as one of her spoils.

Miryeo laughed like a madwoman.

... Then the grimoire fell to the floor with a thud.

"Huh?"

Had she been so delighted that her grip had loosened? Dropping her precious grimoire on the floor was unacceptable.

Miryeo tried to reach out to pick it up again, but it wasn't there.

Her hand wasn't there.

"Huh? What? Huh? What? Aaaaaaagh!"

The two arms that had held the grimoire moments earlier were gone. Red blood flowed from exposed bone and flesh.

"Aaaagh! W-why-y-y-y?!"

Because she wasn't the grimoire's master, of course.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

The sound of something being chewed rang out.

Miryeo turned her trembling gaze toward it.

... She couldn't see anything. But something was definitely there.

There was something invisible and transparent there!

"Ah... aaah!"

Breathing raggedly with pain and terror, Miryeo backed away and fell.

"Hah! Hah! N-no. This isn't right!"

The Invisible Vampire.

Grizzly looked around the room.

"KEEEE..."

Master. Yohan wasn't here. Still...

Grizzly looked at Miryeo.

... It seemed he'd left it a meal.

Miryeo's pupils quivered wildly, and her teeth chattered. If she hadn't perceived anything at all, she might have remained oblivious. But having only half awakened her third eye, she could sense the invisible monster's presence.

"D-don't come near me... Stay away! Stay awaaaaay!"

"HAAAA...!"

Its mouth opened, exposing the monster's sharp teeth.

Miryeo kept screaming at the invisible thing approaching her, but...

CRUNCH!

Her head was bitten off, and she collapsed where she stood.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

The sounds of a skull breaking and a brain being crushed filled the room.