Chapter 26 - Ghostbuster (10)

While searching Kim Miryeo’s wallet, Yohan found something that made his eyes widen slightly. It was a student ID bearing the name of ○○ University—the university he had taken a leave of absence from.

'... She went to the same university as me.'

What’s more, she was in the College of Humanities, just like me. I looked down at Kim Miryeo’s headless corpse. I wasn’t the type to feel a sense of belonging or camaraderie over some organization or shared alma mater, so I wasn’t exactly pleased.

Besides, having a crazy magician who’d professionally set up an entire front farm to kidnap and eat people as a fellow student... was awkward.

I was an orphan who’d barely scraped into the philosophy department just to get a degree from a decent four-year university. This only tainted the place and cheapened its diploma.

... Well, I’d already taken leave and had no particular intention of going back, so it didn’t matter. Still, it was a curious coincidence.

I continued searching Miryeo’s corpse, but I wasn’t a professional detective. There was nothing else I could really learn here. I silently stared at the body.

"..."

The same university... A coincidence. Yes, it was a curious coincidence.

The words surfacing in my head churned together. The university murders. A magician’s corpse from that university. The grimoire’s teleportation ability. The government officials who would soon arrive.

A story came together, and I gave my head a slight shake.

"No, no, no. That’s far too convenient."

... But it wasn’t necessarily implausible. It more or less held together.

Before trying what I’d just thought of, I decided to take care of what needed doing first. I opened the CCTV recordings and checked them. Judging by the employees’ conversation when they brought us in, they must have planned to clean everything up before the government officials found it. All footage except today’s had already been deleted.

I deleted the footage of Kim Miryeo gleefully discovering <Mysteries of the Worm> in my bag, only to suddenly lose her arms and head and die. After erasing all the recordings, I switched off the CCTV system. Now no one else could see what happened in this underground workshop.

Now, should I collect what I needed?

I took the grimoire bound in worn brown leather, <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, out of my bag. As I held it, it opened on its own to the page I wanted.

The First Pentacle of Saturn – A pentacle that summons and subjugates spirits, making them answer the summoner’s questions.

After checking the required materials again, I set <The Lesser Key of Solomon> on the desk beside <Mysteries of the Worm> and <Cultes des Goules>. Then I took out the plastic ziplock bags and tweezers I’d packed in case I needed them to collect magical materials. I picked up a few severed strands of Miryeo’s blood-soaked hair and stored them in a bag.

Later, I’d use them as materials for necromancy to summon her residual thought—her memory data. Even if she was a corpse, I’d finally encountered another magician. I had to get information while I could.

As I continued searching the room, I found an unexpected prize. This apparently was Kim Miryeo’s private workshop after all. Among the magical materials stored in a metal cabinet with multiple compartments, I spotted one labeled [Parchment]. ... There was also a compartment labeled [Human Skin] beside it.

Let’s ignore that. I wasn’t an Aztec or a psychopath. I didn’t want to see flayed human skin.

Anyway, this parchment probably hadn’t been made according to the instructions in <Mysteries of the Worm>, but it should still be parchment made by a magician. It ought to have some effect. I took a few sheets and put them in my bag.

A wry smile escaped me.

... How did the saying go? A tiger leaves its skin when it dies, and a person leaves their name. Surprisingly, magicians seemed to leave both skin and a name.

My eyes narrowed as I looked down at Kim Miryeo’s corpse. Yes, her name. Frankly, that was the most important thing.

Kim Miryeo. A magician in a criminal den where people were murdered and eaten. A student at ○○ University.

A man killed while still alive on the university street, and a professor beheaded in a lecture hall. From the secret government organization’s perspective, she had... a suitable profile for the culprit behind those murders.

A curious coincidence. A silver lining? No, perhaps a villain’s luck was a better way to put it.

I simply hadn’t been exposed yet. My situation wasn’t good, and it wouldn’t be surprising if my identity came to light at any moment. Perhaps someone in the government organization already suspected me.

For some reason, Sion’s calm black eyes came to mind.

'... Something about her bothers me.'

Even if it was a coincidence, there was no reason not to use it. If things went well, I might even get out from under the secret government organization’s investigation.

If Grizzly hadn’t killed Kim Miryeo, she would have killed me and used my flesh and skin, just as she always did. So let me use the parchment you made—and your identity.

You’re dead anyway. Take the blame for all of it. You must have killed a mountain of people. Adding a few of mine won’t even show. Do one last good deed before you go.

... Hmm. No, now that I thought about it, covering up a crime wasn’t a good deed.

Anyway, I placed <Mysteries of the Worm>, the decisive piece of evidence in the university murders, on Miryeo’s corpse. It might have been wishful thinking, but she looked exactly like a magician who’d died because she couldn’t properly control her grimoire’s familiar, the Invisible Vampire.

Once the government officials found the corpse and grimoire and started piecing things together, I’d summon it back with its teleportation ability at the right moment. These books wandered wherever they pleased—used bookstores, bazaars. If they assumed it had disappeared after its master died, it wouldn’t be especially strange.

... Well, it was a gamble of sorts. If the government officials had the power to control or seal a grimoire, I’d lose mine just like that. This might be a pointless, dangerous stunt.

But things couldn’t go on like this. I needed to be wary of the government officials, but right now I had no idea what weight class they were in. I had no information. And so...

Yohan’s eyes gleamed coldly.

I intended to use this to find out whether they could control a grimoire, too. If it really looked as though they were going to seal it, I could just tell Grizzly to come out and wreak havoc.

<Mysteries of the Worm> hummed and vibrated in protest atop the corpse, but I ignored it.

Next...

My gaze turned to <Cultes des Goules>. ... What was I going to do with this?

Did I want it? Not particularly. Its magic wasn’t to my taste.

I opened Cultes des Goules and skimmed it again. It also felt as though bits were missing here and there, as if someone had deliberately abridged its contents.

'... Is this not the original?'

While leafing through it, I came across a passage.

"The pineal gland... the pineal body... the third eye?"

It was magic that opened the third eye by making an elixir pill from the pinecone-shaped organ situated between the eyes—one of the brain’s endocrine glands—and eating it.

'Hmm... The pineal gland?'

Come to think of it, there was a Cthulhu short story where some mad scientist stimulated his pineal gland with a mechanical device and awakened his third eye. He became able to see invisible, jellyfish-like creatures floating through ultraviolet light, and used them to kill people.

... Did it end with the protagonist narrating the story shooting him dead?

Anyway, even the names gave different impressions.

Human flesh. The name alone makes you not want to eat it. Sounds like it’ll give you complications and weird diseases.

Pineal gland. The name alone sounds mysterious. Sounds like eating it will give you amazing psychic powers.

Of course, that was obviously a bullshit joke.

"Fuck... Why the hell would you eat this?"

People stuffed themselves full of all kinds of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Sure, eating them would be great for your health. If you wanted a long, healthy life, exercise regularly and eat plenty of vegetables. Why the fuck eat human flesh?

It was as insane as the kings of old gulping down mercury because they wanted to live longer. Of course... this was real magic, so eating it would have an effect. But it still wasn’t to my taste.

While Yohan was reading the copy of <Cultes des Goules>...

HUMMM! HUMMM! HUMMM!

The vibrating grimoire with the dark iron cover, <Mysteries of the Worm>, could no longer stand it. <The Lesser Key of Solomon>... was in its league, so that was tolerable. But having the attention that rightfully belonged to it stolen by something so inferior—not even an original—was utterly unbearable.

FLIP!

The grimoire opened, spewing dark, tentacle-like energy.

"What—!?"

It snatched the copy of <Cultes des Goules> from the startled Yohan’s hands and tore it to shreds.

The copy scattered in pieces. The black, tentacle-like energy slipped back into Mysteries of the Worm and vanished.

"..."

It had happened so suddenly that I stared wide-eyed at <Mysteries of the Worm>. One possibility occurred to me.

'... Did it devour it?'

You know how, in mobile gacha games, you feed low-rarity characters to high-rarity ones to level them up? Had it eaten a weaker grimoire to unlock its abilities, like that?

Could feeding it other grimoires have been the requirement for unlocking the parts of <Mysteries of the Worm> written in languages I’d never been able to understand?

... If that was the case, I didn’t mind. The book hadn’t been to my taste anyway. I carefully picked up <Mysteries of the Worm> and checked its contents. My eyes narrowed of their own accord.

"..."

The incomprehensible languages were still incomprehensible. This wasn’t some kind of grimoire upgrade. It had simply gotten annoyed and torn the thing apart.

"You insane fucking grimoire—!"

I hurled <Mysteries of the Worm> straight onto the floor.

CLANG!

Mysteries of the Worm vibrated and cried out again.

HUMMM!

<The Lesser Key of Solomon> regarded it with contempt.

"Hah... Forget it. Let’s get back to work."

I put Mysteries of the Worm back on the corpse and ordered Grizzly,

"Find and kill everyone wearing the same uniform as that employee—the person you ate earlier."

I’d learned what I needed to learn and taken what I needed to take. Now it was time to destroy the evidence.

Officially, Kim Miryeo—the owner of this underground workshop and the culprit behind the university murders—had to have possessed <Mysteries of the Worm>. She had to have been keeping a disobedient Invisible Vampire.

That meant no one who knew what really went on here could remain alive. Interrogating them would quickly reveal inconsistencies, wouldn’t it?

"Don’t let a single one of them leave this basement."

At my command, Grizzly ran its tongue around its mouth, licking off the blood.

"Gyaaah!"

It answered enthusiastically.