Chapter 30 - Master of the Grimoire (2)

The Special Response Section conference room at the Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Countermeasures.

A formal meeting was underway concerning Weekend Farm, the magician's workshop disguised as a livestock farm, and the National Disaster-class grimoire, <Mysteries of the Worm>.

“Having examined all the evidence recovered underground, we've confirmed that Kim Miryeo owned the workshop. She appears to have died after failing to tame her familiar.”

“Kim Miryeo. Chairman Kim of ○○ Group's daughter, correct? What do they have to say?”

“He claims he didn't know. He's begging our forgiveness, saying he's terribly sorry his child did something like this, but... Hah. Honestly.”

A low voice resounded through the conference room.

“Chairman Kim is our bureau's largest financial backer. Let's leave it at that for now.”

At that, everyone present cautiously turned their eyes toward the head of the conference table.

Given the subject of the meeting, he had attended in person: a man with a well-trained physique who looked younger than his years, his eyes languid yet cold.

He was Shin Doryong, director of the Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Countermeasures, the agency to which the Special Response Section belonged.

Shin Doryong flicked a hand to move the meeting along, as though telling them not to waste time.

“Let's move on to the next issue, Team Leader Shin.”

“... Yes, sir.”

Shin Sion, the composed, black-haired woman who led the Special Response Section's Team Three, rose at the director's call and took over the meeting.

She brought up a presentation on Mysteries of the Worm, the grimoire found resting on Kim Miryeo's corpse.

“Some of you may not be familiar with it.”

A black-and-white photograph of an iron-covered grimoire appeared on the presentation screen.

“This is <Mysteries of the Worm>, a grimoire designated a National Disaster-class threat by the Wilmarth Foundation, the international organization for responding to uncanny incidents.”

One of the operatives raised a hand.

“I've heard of it, but... what exactly qualifies as National Disaster-class?”

It wasn't as though she'd said national-authority-class or something. Suddenly calling it National Disaster-class didn't give them much sense of what it meant.

“It means exactly what it says: a threat to the continued existence of a nation and the maintenance of its social systems.”

Sion's calm voice filled the room.

“If it appears or is misused, it can cause mass casualties or disasters, potentially leading to an apocalypse.”

“... However, precisely because it is so dangerous, most people who obtain <Mysteries of the Worm> cannot handle the grimoire and destroy themselves. As a result, it isn't widely known.”

The next slide showed a black-and-white photograph of a beautiful, black-haired woman with a refined air, dressed in a black mourning gown.

“The master of <Mysteries of the Worm> who was active during the First and Second World Wars...”

She held the iron-covered <Mysteries of the Worm> in one hand.

... And, in contrast to her cool expression, she was holding up her fingers in a V toward the camera.

“Its danger became known through this magician, whom other magicians feared and called ‘She Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken.’”

Team Leader Park spoke in a bored voice.

“That sounds like the nickname of someone who'd storm an academy covering elementary through high school, then get her ass kicked by a high schooler.”

“... Nicknames like that were fashionable in those days.”

In any case, Sion continued the meeting.

“Ultimately, she was defeated by Father Yohan of the Vatican, who at the time was the master of the grimoires <The Book of the Angel Raziel>, <The Key of Solomon>, and <The Eighth Book of Moses>.”

“<Mysteries of the Worm> was then sealed away at Miskatonic University... But judging by its reappearance, it seems to have broken the seal after finding a compatible master.”

That concluded the broad background explanation.

“The Invisible Vampire, the familiar bound to Mysteries of the Worm, is itself dangerous.”

“But compared to the magic within the grimoire, it is quite literally no more than an accessory. According to the Cthulhu Mythos—”

Sion explained the forbidden magic contained in <Mysteries of the Worm>, magic that even other magicians feared yet coveted.

A secret art of body theft that transformed one's body into maggots, which burrowed into another person's brain and took over their body.

A secret art of returning to the past, sending either one's mind or one's current physical body back through time.

And the most dangerous of all.

“We don't know whether it actually works... but it reportedly contains a spell to summon a Great Old One called ‘the Worm That Gnaws at the Night,’ which ate away at and destroyed Shaggai, a planet in a distant galaxy.”

Team Leader Park couldn't hold back.

“Wait, wasn't this written by a magician who used to be a Crusader? Why the fuck is he suddenly summoning a giant space worm?”

Sion rested a hand against her chin, considered the question, and answered.

“The cover of <Mysteries of the Worm> is said to be made from a meteorite that fell from the sky—meteoric iron. ... Perhaps there is a connection.”

“Damascus is also where <Al Azif>, the original text of the <Necronomicon>, was written. I suspect it may have been influenced by the Outer Gods.”

The Special Response Section personnel fell silent. The human slaughterhouse tied to Chairman Kim was already enough of a headache.

Now a National Disaster-class grimoire, too...

“...”

For now, they were keeping the information under wraps...

But if word got out that the grimoire had been in Korea, there was no imagining how many magicians would converge on the country.

They kept working so hard. Why did the workload only keep growing?

The Special Response Section personnel hoped the vanished <Mysteries of the Worm> had found a new master and gone somewhere abroad.

And they prayed that master would destroy themselves, just as Kim Miryeo and its former masters had.

After a few more exchanges, the meeting came to a reasonably tidy close. Sion cautiously approached Shin Doryong.

“Director, there's something I'd like to discuss with you privately.”

“Hm? Certainly. Come to my office.”

Shin Doryong readily nodded and ushered her into the director's office.

Once seated on the office sofa, Sion's eyes flickered with momentary uncertainty.

The secretary had set black tea and strawberry cake in front of her, as though serving her a snack.

“... Director, what's this?”

Shin Doryong signaled for the secretary to leave, then smiled gently at Sion.

“Call me Dad when it's just the two of us. You like strawberry cake, don't you? We can talk while you eat.”

“I'd prefer to keep work and my personal life separate in the workplace.”

Proud of his daughter's words, Shin Doryong smiled as though he found her adorable.

“My Sion is all grown up. But...”

He continued in a low voice.

“If you wanted to keep work and your personal life separate, you shouldn't have joined an organization where your dad is the director.”

“As long as you're my beloved child, that's impossible.”

Sion looked at him with a composed expression.

“You're the one who taught me the breathing technique and how to fight the uncanny, Director.”

“I taught you those things so you could protect yourself if something happened. I didn't teach you so you'd join the Special Response Section.”

Shin Doryong's eyes narrowed, then immediately softened when he looked at Sion.

He really ought to show her a stern face sometimes.

'Her eyes take after mine... but her face looks like her mother's.'

Seeing Sion's face, with its resemblance to her late mother and traces of both himself and the woman he loved, made his resolve crumble.

“... So, what did you want to tell me?”

“I think it may be premature to conclude that Kim Miryeo died because she failed to control <Mysteries of the Worm>. Quite apart from the crimes she actually committed, I think Kim Miryeo...”

Sion continued cautiously.

“May have been murdered by the real master of <Mysteries of the Worm>.”

Shin Doryong brought a hand to his chin, tapping around his lips with his index finger.

“Go on.”

Though Sion herself called it wild speculation, Shin Doryong listened to her entire deduction, nodded, and said,

“For now, I'll grant that this Kim Yohan may be suspicious.”

Her theory was that Kim Yohan, a suspect in the university murders, had happened to discover that Kim Miryeo attended the same university as him.

To conceal his own crimes, he might have killed her, deliberately left behind <Mysteries of the Worm>, which could serve as evidence of guilt, and even intentionally revealed the Invisible Vampire.

“But the only thing supporting your deduction is your suspicion of this man, Kim Yohan. You understand that, don't you?”

Sion nodded.

“... Yes.”

“All right. I've worked in the field myself, so I understand an operative's instincts. And he is the most suspicious of the people who were in that university lecture room.”

Shin Doryong lowered his voice.

“But there's no evidence that Kim Yohan really is the master of <Mysteries of the Worm>, and this isn't the time to spread our personnel thin.”

Chairman Kim, the father of Kim Miryeo, who had operated a human slaughterhouse disguised as a livestock farm.

“A conglomerate heiress may receive a generous allowance, but would she have enough money to buy a farm and build a huge underground facility beneath it? And could she pull all that off without the group's chairman knowing?”

“... Probably not.”

“Exactly. He denies it, but that old bastard Chairman Kim was backing her, one hundred percent. There are bound to be more facilities like that fake farm.”

Shin Doryong's eyes narrowed, gleaming coldly.

“He's been using his connections to narrowly evade us all this time... We need to use this opportunity to root him out.”

His eyes immediately softened again, and he addressed Sion gently but firmly.

“So put your personal investigation on hold. That isn't what's important right now.”

Sion looked down at her cold tea and answered.

“... Understood, Director.”

“Tsk. I told you to call me Dad.”

Shin Doryong added the words with an air of hurt disappointment.

* * *

Yohan's small studio apartment.

After reading the pages that had previously been written in an incomprehensible language, Yohan narrowed his eyes and lightly tossed <Mysteries of the Worm> onto his desk.

CLANG!

He sighed.

“Hah... How come there's no proper magic in this thing?”

When the pages had fluttered open, I'd gotten my hopes up a little. Maybe it would reveal some hidden, real magic, like Fireball.

Instead, I got the three brothers of utterly fucking hopeless magic.

First, a spell that turned your body into maggots so you could steal someone else's body?

If I turned into maggots, would that even be “me”? No, it'd be maggots eating someone's brain.

As I keep saying, I'm what matters most to me. I'm precious.

I didn't want to become anything other than myself.

Second, a spell that sent you back to the past?

That one was absolutely off-limits.

I'd read Cthulhu stories, so I knew. According to the lore, a race called the Hounds of Tindalos lived in the gaps between time.

Normally, you'd never encounter them. But if you traveled through time, the Hounds of Tindalos would notice you, and you'd spend the rest of your life being hunted.

Besides, stories about returning to the past were popular these days, and I liked them too, but time travel had always been something that never did anyone any good in fiction.

Things would get tangled up somewhere, and the butterfly effect or whatever would turn everything into a complete mess.

You'd end up worse off than if you hadn't done it.

Third and last—this bastard was the most hopeless of all.

Summon a giant space worm and let it eat away at Earth?

What happened once Earth blew up? Was I supposed to live in space? Move to Mars?

Just watch me never use those three brothers of hopeless magic. Not a chance.

I could practically feel how fucked I'd be if I used them.

Utterly drained, I slumped back in my chair.

'Fine... Let's admit it. ... There is no Fireball.'

That was more shocking than the fact that I had no fucking mom or dad.

“Gyaa?”

As I sat slumped there, Grizzly came over and rubbed its head against my hand.

“...”

I stroked Grizzly's head.

“Gyaaa~.”

Seriously, what would I have done without Grizzly? ... Of course, the university murders wouldn't have happened, and I wouldn't have these headaches.

But that was all in the past. Wasn't my current situation what mattered?

As far as I was concerned, Grizzly was the best thing in <Mysteries of the Worm>.

'... And, well, there are all sorts of other spells, too.'

I opened <Mysteries of the Worm>, whose magic was such a minefield that <Mysteries of the Land Mines> might have suited it better, along with <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, and started reading.

No need to learn anything weird. Time for some sensible magic study.