Chapter 45 - Mephistopheles (2)

[God's Healing Campground]

The news had reported a toxic gas accident here. Even now, the grounds remained off-limits to civilians. But the property was large enough that it was possible to find a gap and sneak past the government agents surrounding it.

Of course, that only got you into the outskirts. Venture farther in, and you would be caught.

The person wearing a motorcycle helmet checked the reading on the toxic gas detector in their hand.

"..."

Naturally, the reading was normal. This hadn't been a real toxic gas leak, after all.

... Though any gas might have dispersed by now.

The detector was only a precaution. Everyone in the know knew that this bizarre incident had been caused by the necromancer Edward Coffin.

The helmet came off, revealing a woman with a short black bob and a harmless-looking face that somehow brought a small animal to mind. Her eyes, however, were sharp in contrast to her cute features.

Kim Gaeun, a freelance reporter and the broker who had supplied Edward with safe houses and information in Korea in exchange for payment, felt the cool breeze and gave a peculiar smile.

Naturally, the reporter identity was a cover. Her real occupation was brokering deals with magicians.

"... Something's strange."

It was funny to call an uncanny incident strange, but it was. Something this huge had happened, yet Edward hadn't sent any kind of signal. Nor was there any sign that he had visited the safe house she'd prepared.

She had wondered whether the Special Response Section had dealt with him, but their movements suggested that they, too, had no idea what had become of Edward.

She had leaked the possibility that Edward might be dead, but... the other magicians seemed just as clueless. If anything, they couldn't believe he was dead.

If another magician had killed someone as renowned as Edward, keeping it secret would be strange. They would have spread the news to build their own reputation. There was a bounty on his head, too.

In other words, someone entirely unconnected was involved—not the Special Response Section, not another magician, and not a bounty hunter...

"Ha!"

A laugh escaped Gaeun's lips.

'Edward Coffin.'

That terrifying magician who wore death like a cloak had attacked a campground, only to be killed by some unrelated person who happened to be there?

Ridiculous—ridiculous... though it was...

Her eyes grew serious. She remembered something Edward often said.

'Mystery draws mystery.'

Edward had been searching for the famous grimoire <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, commonly known as <Lemegeton>.

At first, she'd thought filling a campground with zombies to find a grimoire was a pointless act of madness. But what if it had actually worked and brought the grimoire's master to the campground?

"... I'll have to look into this further."

Gaeun murmured quietly and put her motorcycle helmet back on. She started her motorcycle and left before the government agents could spot her.

Afterward, Gaeun dug into the backgrounds of the campground survivors.

She had her own information channels, and there were also people who sold information to the Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Countermeasures for money, so it wasn't particularly difficult.

There were just a couple of unexpected names: Namgung Sua and Sister Ellie.

Those two were out. She couldn't approach them carelessly.

A little investigation revealed that one was the daughter of Namgung Su, a fairly well-known figure in these circles, and belonged to a chaebol family. The other, Sister Ellie, belonged to a religious order directly under the Vatican.

In this world, even magicians avoided the Vatican. Nothing good would come of approaching them needlessly.

So Gaeun decided to choose a suitable survivor other than those two and pry some information out of them.

Wearing a smile on her distinctively cute, harmless-looking face, Gaeun approached a man from the survivor list.

"Excuse me. I'm a reporter with ○○. There are a few things I'd like to ask you. Do you have a moment?"

"Huh? A reporter? ... Well..."

The man, who was smoking in an alley during a break from work, looked bewildered at her words.

A government official had told him that everything had already been settled with the broadcasters and other companies, so no reporters would approach him. He had also been told that if anyone claiming to be a reporter asked about the incident, he should retreat to the nearest police station or somewhere crowded.

But the cute woman in front of him didn't look dangerous at all. In fact, she was rather his type.

Besides, they had said no reporters would approach him, but things didn't always work out perfectly, did they?

'She's cute. Maybe I should ask for her number?'

The survivor nodded.

"... If it's just a few questions."

A little later, in a deserted alley.

"Aaargh—"

"From now on, only answer what I ask."

Gaeun spoke as she pinned the man to the asphalt, sitting on his back and twisting his arm.

"Did you know fingers bend out of shape more easily than you'd think?"

His pupils trembled with terror. Gaeun pressed her advantage.

"Go ahead and report me to the police. They won't catch me."

That was something of a bluff. Being reported to the police would be a nuisance. Still, anyone easily caught by ordinary police couldn't work as a broker for magicians.

"Tell me what happened at the campground."

"I-I don't know. ... My memory's fuzzy."

Gaeun looked down at him.

If civilians caught up in bizarre incidents requested it, the Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Countermeasures offered therapy and dulled their memories of the incident to a degree. It was supposed to prevent PTSD.

But it literally only blurred those memories. She could make him recall them soon enough.

Gaeun gagged the man with a cloth and bent one of his fingers backward.

CRACK!

"Mmmph—!"

He was little more than babbling from the pain, but Gaeun obtained the information she wanted from him.

She checked it against the photograph of Kim Yohan on the survivor list.

"Ha—haha!"

The sheer magnitude of the information made her laugh.

A man named Kim Yohan had drawn a magic circle on the hall floor and chanted a spell. The zombies had turned to dust and disappeared.

'Mystery draws mystery.'

To think the master of <Lemegeton> had actually appeared, just as Edward's insane plan intended.

She had no definite proof yet, but the odds were high. Otherwise, Edward's disappearance couldn't be explained.

According to the information she'd obtained from the survivor, the groundwork—drawing a magic circle and so on—made him a typical ritual magic user. A traditional magician. The prepared strike of such a magician was dangerous, but without time to prepare, they were no different from ordinary people.

Moreover, judging by the date Edward had arrived in Korea, Yohan couldn't have had the grimoire for long.

An ordinary person with tremendous magical ability who wasn't yet accustomed to this world.

There were countless ways to find a weakness and exploit him. ... Or, if he refused to cooperate, she could subdue him and sell him off.

He might have killed Edward through sheer luck, but he was still an ordinary person unused to this sort of thing. All she had to do was catch him off guard with a sudden attack, then intimidate him into submission.

The smile never left Gaeun's lips. Without hesitation, she climbed onto her motorcycle and headed for Yohan's home.

It was a shabby-looking low-rise building full of studio apartments. The lights were off in Yohan's room.

Gaeun stood at the door and rang the bell, but there was no response.

Good. She needed to gather more information anyway.

Using the equipment she'd brought, she disengaged the door lock and broke in.

CREEEAK!

She opened the door and checked the floor at her feet, but there were no particular devices.

It was a small, neatly organized studio. Keeping her shoes on, Gaeun entered and searched the interior.

In the kitchen, she saw an earthenware bowl, some plants, spices, and medicinal ingredients.

She spread open the white trench coat hanging on the wall and saw magical symbols along with inscriptions:

[YOD, HE, VAU, HE] [ADONAI] [EL] [ELOHIM]

"... Haha."

Gaeun smiled. She couldn't see the grimoire, but this was enough.

Then, at that moment—

CREEEAK!

The door opened. Gaeun immediately drew a suppressed gun and aimed it at Yohan as he returned home.

"Quiet. Close the door."

"..."

Yohan, the composed-looking man from the survivor list, did as she said and closed the door without a word.

CREEEAK! THUD.

She'd expected him to panic, but he was calm. He even raised both hands slowly without being told. Good. He caught on quickly.

"Ha! Good. If you've got something to say, say it now. But keep your voice down."

Yohan opened his mouth, and a low voice rang out.

"Don't come into someone else's home with your shoes on."

"What?"

And then.

SPLASH!

Before Gaeun even realized what was happening, something pierced her torso, killing her.

The light vanished from her eyes, and blood surged up and trickled from her mouth.

...

Suspended on a transparent arm that had pierced her torso straight through her heart, Gaeun's legs swayed.

I sighed as I looked at the woman's corpse impaled on Grizzly's arm.

"Hah..."

I hadn't actually killed her just because she'd worn shoes into my home. But if she'd intended to talk to me, she wouldn't have kept them on.

If she were a foreigner, I could have excused it as a cultural difference...

But a Korean breaking into someone else's home, keeping her shoes on, and pointing a gun at the owner when he returned?

That was body language saying, with every ounce of conviction, that we should forget talking and immediately fight to the death under no-holds-barred rules.

... Well, I'm joking.

I'd had no intention of letting her live from the moment she broke in.

Finding out who the corpse was could wait. If blood spread across the floor and seeped downstairs, I'd be in serious trouble.

"Grizzly, take that to the bathroom and eat it."

"Gyaa? ... Gyagyagyagyagya."

At my words, Grizzly glanced at the bathroom, then spoke to me. Roughly translated into human speech, I imagined it meant:

'Masht er! The bathroom isn't a place to eat!'

"Well..."

I considered Grizzly's words for a moment and nodded. That was certainly true.

Come to think of it, telling it to eat where I relieved myself every day was a bit much. I'd hate that, too.

The bathroom wasn't a place to eat.

"Then wait a moment. Be careful not to let blood drip from the corpse."

I took out the tarp I'd kept in a corner of the room. If you're wondering why I had one at home, obviously it was to prepare for precisely this sort of thing.

I spread it over the floor for the corpse.

An incredulous laugh escaped me.

Once again, I was keeping up the magician average.

I looked at the woman's corpse.

As it happened, it was Saturday, and I'd just returned from gathering ingredients for the spirit-summoning ritual I was planning anyway.

I'd search the corpse for information, then summon her spirit and ask about anything I couldn't figure out.