Chapter 3 - Let's Become a Wizard (3)

I'd come to the university lecture to get my attendance credit, but naturally, I wasn't in any state to pay proper attention.

"Kim Yohan."

"Here."

Yohan sat in an out-of-the-way seat, raising his hand and answering as the professor took attendance, while worrying over his current situation.

"..."

Thinking about it wouldn't solve anything, but he couldn't just sit there with an empty head, could he? Yesterday, he'd been too scared and overwhelmed and had simply set the whole thing aside. Now he needed to investigate for himself, even if he only learned the basics.

I looked down at the Invisible Vampire, which should be sleeping inside the grimoire in my bag.

Questions sprang to mind.

It understood what I said and acted on my signals, but we couldn't have a normal conversation. I couldn't tell whether I really had it under control, or what it wanted.

... Was it even a vampire in the first place?

Sure, turning invisible would be among a vampire's powers, but this thing was different from the aristocratic vampires of legend.

I carefully took out the grimoire, opened it to the first page, and read.

[This book is an account of the magic I learned during my captivity in Damascus, as a survivor of the Ninth Crusade and a seeker of the magical arts.]

'... The Ninth Crusade. What year was that?'

A search on my smartphone brought up the information I wanted.

The Ninth Crusade ended in 1272.

And the image of the aristocratic vampire began spreading rapidly after 1477, following the death of Vlad III of the Principality of Wallachia, who had been rumored to be a vampire.

In other words, considering when the book was written, the vampire described in Mysteries of the Worm wasn't an aristocratic Dracula. It was literally a monster that craved the blood and flesh of humans and animals.

I also learned that such monsters were called things like strigoi and varcolac, but that wasn't important information.

Well, they apparently shared a weakness to sunlight and were active at night. That did fit the popular idea of a vampire.

[Whoever becomes the owner of the grimoire 'Mysteries of the Worm' becomes the master of the 'Invisible Vampire,' a familiar rivaling the 'Unseen Monster' said to have served the mad poet Abdul Alhazred.]

But Abdul Alhazred? And what the hell was the Unseen Monster?

Judging by the name, he seemed to be Arab.

It was depressing that I couldn't just laugh this off as some hardcore nerd's medieval-grimoire lore.

'Help me, Google!'

I searched the internet again. Surprisingly, something familiar came up.

'The Cthulhu Mythos.'

Basically, dark cosmic horror featuring an insanely powerful space octopus and humans getting mercilessly toyed with by terrifying Outer Gods.

I'd never actually read the Mythos or the novels devoted to it, but it had enough of a cult following to show up often in novels and comics, so I knew the broad strokes.

Abdul Alhazred — A character in the Cthulhu Mythos. A prophet of the Outer Gods and the author of Al Azif, the original text of the grimoire Necronomicon. Devoured and killed by an unseen monster in broad daylight on a street in Damascus.

I shut my mouth after reading about Abdul Alhazred's end.

Eaten alive in broad daylight by the monster he'd commanded... Very useful information.

I closed the grimoire again and put it back in my bag.

I wished this were all a dream. Seriously, being a philosophy major already gave me enough headaches worrying about my future job prospects. Now I had to spend my life trembling, never knowing when some invisible monster bastard might kill me?

"..."

Just then, the professor—a textbook example of someone with "I'm a professor" and all its authority plastered across his face—glanced at me and suddenly raised his voice. Ever since I'd confronted him once over having to buy a book, he gave me shit whenever he saw me.

"Raise your hand if you didn't bring the textbook."

I rolled my eyes and raised my hand. He launched into a lecture as though he'd caught me red-handed.

"You're adults, not elementary school children, and you can't even remember a single book you need for class. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. And these male students nowadays..."

If I didn't have the book, I could just listen without it.

This wasn't elementary school. I was paying tuition to attend university, so why did I have to listen to that crap? But he taught a course in my major, so I kept my mouth shut.

That didn't stop my irritation from rising, though.

Then I remembered the man who'd died last night.

'Think nice thoughts. Nice thoughts.'

Remembering the Invisible Vampire sleeping inside the grimoire, I stopped even that train of thought.

Class would be over soon. I'd just get some lunch.

... And the instant I reassured myself that way...

RIIIP!

The professor's throat was torn open.

"—!?"

The culprit, naturally, was the Invisible Vampire, which had slipped out of the grimoire unnoticed and taken physical form.

With its body invisible to everyone else, it sank its teeth into the professor's neck and tore into it.

CRUNCH!

It all happened so quickly that I could only stare blankly, my eyes widening.

THUD!

The professor's head fell off and rolled across the floor, blood spraying everywhere. Unable to comprehend what they were seeing, the people in the lecture hall reacted in the only natural way: screams filled the room.

"Aaaaaaah!"

I blended in with the fleeing students, ran down the hall, and ducked into the restroom.

Hiding in a toilet stall, I clutched my head.

'Why the hell did you kill him this time!? I was thinking nice thoughts!'

STEP.

I glared at the Invisible Vampire, which had caused this disaster on its own and followed me inside.

"Grrrr..."

A disgruntled growl came from its mouth.

Then another sound came from its stomach.

GRRRRUMBLE...

"What...?"

My own stupidity and complacency made me swear.

"... Fuck."

A fantastical magical being, a monster—but still a living creature. Of course it needed food. It was hungry.

It hadn't finished its meal where the man had been killed yesterday.

I'd fled the scene, so it had followed me, the owner of the grimoire.

It had endured its hunger until now.

Then it had read my thought about lunchtime and started eating.

But I'd left again, interrupting its meal a second time.

"..."

I remembered Abdul Alhazred's fate: devoured by his own familiar.

Calming my trembling body, I got up, left the university immediately, and headed for a butcher's shop. There was no time to waste.

A vampire. A monster that craved blood and flesh.

Obviously, I couldn't let it kill someone at every meal. That was murder, and far too conspicuous.

The man and the professor had died in accidents, but the moment I started feeding it people, I'd become a serial killer, with no possible way to deny it.

... That really was a last resort.

Unlike later fictional vampires that craved only human blood, the vampires of early folklore made no distinction between humans and animals.

I needed to find meat to feed it instead of people.

So at the butcher's shop, I grabbed whatever I could: pork, chicken—

"Ngh—!"

My hand hesitated briefly in front of the packs of beef.

But I took them in the end! I had savings from my part-time job. I'd manage somehow for now.

With trembling hands, I carried bags full of packaged meat in both hands.

Back home, I piled the meat into a large bowl and offered it to the Invisible Vampire.

"Please eat it..."

"Gyaak?"

It lowered its face toward the meat in the bowl and sniffed, then turned its head away as though something was missing.

"Gyaa!"

'You're a monster! Don't be so damn picky about your food!'

My brow furrowed involuntarily at the sight.

'Is meat alone not enough? What, do I have to buy some congealed blood?'

Realistically, bags of blood would be hard to come by. My own blood was even more out of the question. I'd be drained dry trying to feed something this big.

I opened the refrigerator to get some water and calm myself down. A carton of milk caught my eye.

Maybe it was the urgency of the situation, but something... something... started clicking in my head.

I hadn't read it in a specialist book or anything—just a comic—but milk was transformed blood.

A dairy cow's blood became milk.

There were even passages in Catholic writings that equated milk with blood.

I poured milk into the bowl of raw meat.

Pure white blood and flesh.

When I offered the bowl again, the Invisible Vampire sniffed it, then plunged its face into the bowl and ate the milk-soaked meat!

CHOMP! CHOMP!

"Gyaaa!"

It lifted its head and let out a happy cry toward me, then devoured the meat.

It was almost as though it were saying, "Thanks for the meal."

"Ha... haha..."

I laughed, whether from relief at having survived or at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"... Yeah. Enjoy."

Fine. I had to admit it. Even if I hadn't known it was real, I'd bought a grimoire and taken ownership of this bizarre magical creature, the Invisible Vampire.

I couldn't return to the life I'd had before buying the grimoire yesterday.

I couldn't live an ordinary life. Being ordinary wouldn't keep me alive.

It was time to stop passively getting scared, running away, and panicking.

I picked up the steel-covered book.

As though reading its master's will, the grimoire opened, revealing its magical knowledge.

If I couldn't understand it, I just had to become someone who could.

I had no choice but to become a wizard.

‧

‧

‧

And a little while later...

I hurled that piece-of-junk grimoire onto the floor.

CLANG!

"Seriously! Planetary days!? Solomonic magic? Pentagrams? What the hell is Ars Paulina!?"

All this traditional medieval magic lore made my head spin.

"Fireball! Where's Chain Lightning!?"

Honestly, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't hoped to become a fantasy archmage who shot fireballs from his hands.