Chapter 46 - Mephistopheles (3)

The office of Team Three, Special Response Section, Bureau of Anomalous Phenomena Countermeasures.

Operative Lee Hyeeun seemed to have a sudden flash of inspiration.

“Team Leader Sion,” she said to Sion, who was reading a new case report at the next desk. “If that Yohan guy seems suspicious, why don’t we secretly break into his home and search it?”

Despite her usual calm, impassive face, Sion’s eyes widened in surprise.

“... I see. That is an option.”

Then she gathered a pen and a sheet of A4 paper from her desk and handed them to Hyeeun.

“You should write an apology too, Hyeeun. Fill this sheet with ‘Breaking and entering is a crime. I will not do it.’”

“How could you?!”

Sion smiled faintly at Hyeeun’s startled reaction and took back the pen and paper.

“I’m joking. But breaking and entering really is out of the question. You’re free to entertain suspicions or theories in your own head...

“But we haven’t received a request to investigate or a report of a crime, and we have no conclusive evidence. Entering someone’s residence without authorization would be an abuse of authority and a crime.”

Hyeeun slumped.

“Aww... I’m sorry.”

“No. Thank you for looking out for me.”

Sion nodded gently and continued in a calm voice.

“... And Yohan is no longer merely a suspect. He’s a civilian collaborator. I need to rein in my personal suspicions.”

She turned her gaze back to her desk, thinking. Her hand rose to her lips, and her eyes narrowed.

Of course, breaking and entering was unacceptable. But quite apart from that, if Yohan truly was the master of both <Lemegeton> and <Mysteries of the Worm>, entering his home rashly would be dangerous.

Now that she knew he was a magician, looking back, it must have been Yohan who defeated the boogeyman at the painter Smith’s mansion. He had also repelled Edward Coffin in the recent campground incident.

Sion did not consider him an ordinary person who had simply stumbled upon a grimoire.

She recalled his unhesitating movements as he lured the ghouls, and the genuinely calm look in his eyes—unlike her own.

A magician who knew little about the world of magicians but had grown powerful quickly. That was Yohan.

Every time Sion had confronted him so far, the Special Response Section had been close enough to intervene. Yohan, too, had been unable to act rashly.

His identity had not yet been exposed, giving him reason to hesitate. She was an opponent whose death would be less troubling to him than the cleanup afterward.

But if she entered his living space without permission to collect evidence, he would regard her as a dangerous enemy and act without hesitation.

“...”

Sion caught herself, lowered her hand from her lips, and relaxed her narrowed eyes.

She had just said she shouldn’t suspect Yohan now that he was a civilian collaborator.

... And here she was again, indulging in her habitual suspicions, deductions, and wild conjectures.

And while her suspicions about the case still concerned her—

Sion reached out and took out a file containing Yohan’s photograph and basic personal information.

—what concerned her more now was why she kept thinking about him.

‘Kim Yohan, twenty-one, single, raised in an orphanage...’

They had never met elsewhere, and the only thing they had in common was their age: twenty-one. Yohan’s birthday was a little earlier than hers.

Just then, Hyeeun leaned toward Sion’s desk again.

“Team Leader Sion.”

Sion casually closed the file.

“Yes? What is it?”

Hyeeun pointed at the case report on her desk.

“Is the report you’re reading about a case we’ll be taking? I was curious.”

“No, another team is currently handling this one. I was reviewing it just in case.”

The report contained a brief account of the uncanny incident and a photograph of a laptop screen.

[Win This Girl, That Girl, Every Girl~ Heart-Pounding Harem Academy Life~ Together in Love and Death]

It had the deliberately old-fashioned look of a dating sim: pretty girls with hair in every color, a school backdrop, and sparkling stars and hearts.

It was not an official release, but a game that had spread after an unknown person distributed it online. On some message boards, rumors described it not as a dating sim but as a haunted game.

The problem was that searches of the rooms of people who had recently gone missing had found the game running on their phones, laptops, or computer screens.

As a result, the Special Response Section had classified it as an urban-legend-type uncanny phenomenon, in the same category as videos one must not watch. It was currently under investigation.

“...”

But with its emphasis on firepower, the Special Response Section was not particularly good at eliminating this sort of uncanny phenomenon.

If Team Three investigated and joined the effort, they might need Yohan’s help.

* * *

Yohan’s small studio apartment.

I sat with my back against the wall of my studio, listening to Grizzly eat.

CRACK—CRUNCH—CRUNCH!

As long as there was meat and blood mixed in, Grizzly happily ate bones, clothes, and even shoes, so I didn’t have to worry about stripping the corpse and disposing of its clothing separately.

Of course, I wasn’t watching Grizzly eat the body. Staring at someone while they ate was a bit much, and it wasn’t good for my mental health either.

“...”

This is out of nowhere, but the woman who gave birth to me was reasonably attractive.

I don’t even remember her face anymore, but she probably was. If I dredged up the tiniest, vaguest fragments of memory...

She never seemed to go to work or do any sort of job. But she never brought men home either.

Still, we lived in a nice place. I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back, maybe it was an upscale studio apartment?

Anyway, judging by how she sometimes left me at daycare and went out looking utterly delighted, I suspect she was some rich man’s mistress.

That life continued for a while. Then she got pregnant.

Her belly grew, and she spent more and more of each day stroking it.

Maybe it was instinct, but I tried to behave myself. You might wonder just how well a little brat could behave, but I did my best.

Then a girl was born, and when I turned five, that woman abandoned me at an orphanage.

I didn’t cry. Or did I? Anyway, I’d already expected it to some degree, so it wasn’t much of a shock.

I don’t know why she abandoned me. I’m not curious either. She must have had a reason she thought was good enough.

Well, it happens all the time. Starting a new family, with something unnecessary getting in the way. That sort of thing.

I don’t particularly resent her. There’s no point.

The moment she let go of my hand and waved bye-bye, we became complete strangers. What was there to resent?

If there was one thing I learned from that woman, it was that you had to live your life for yourself.

“...”

I looked at the tarp, stained by the blood that had spilled onto it.

When I checked this woman’s wallet, I found several IDs, so I wasn’t sure what her real name was. But going by the one on top, her name was Kim Gaeun. I didn’t know what she had been after when she searched my home and pointed a gun at me.

My best guess was that word had spread about the magic I used during the zombie campground incident, and she’d come for my grimoire.

Or she’d wanted leverage to exploit me. I couldn’t think of any other reason for someone to suddenly attack me.

Thinking of it that way, killing her had been the right choice.

My precious self, being dragged around because someone had leverage over me? I couldn’t stand the thought.

Kill them before they can blackmail me.

And that was enough to sort out my thoughts.

My personal space—my territory, in animal terms—had been invaded. Having dealt with the stress of that, I returned my attention to the task at hand.

I examined the things I’d taken from Gaeun’s corpse.

First, the gun with the suppressor. I wasn’t interested in firearms, so I didn’t know the details, but judging by its appearance, this was another Walther semiautomatic pistol, the kind that showed up often in movies and other media.

“A suppressor...”

It definitely reduced the sound of a gunshot, but not to the little pfft or pew you heard in movies. Wasn’t it more like turning a loud BANG into a bang?

Naturally enough, I’d never actually used one, so I didn’t know.

Next was her phone. It was locked with a passcode, so I couldn’t get into it.

I’d summon her spirit—her stored postmortem memory data—and get the passcode if I could. If that seemed impossible, I’d smash it and throw it away rather than let her colleagues or acquaintances track its location.

“Gyaaah~.”

Grizzly seemed to have finished eating just then, letting out a satisfied cry and licking its lips.

Good. Now it was time for the spirit-summoning ritual I’d been eagerly planning for so long.

I looked around my small studio.

If someone from the magical world had tracked me down here, that meant I could be attacked again at any time.

An unsafe den had to be abandoned.

So...

Looking at the plastic bags containing Kim Miryeo’s hair and the zombie magician’s hair, I said, “Please. Give me some useful information.”

It would be nice if I turned up something like a hideout.

I moved the tarp into the bathroom and cleaned the floor thoroughly.

When I opened my hand, <The Lesser Key of Solomon> appeared.

HUMMM—

I heard <Mysteries of the Worm> vibrating. I ignored it without a second thought.

Step one of the spirit-summoning ritual.

If the ritual was performed in a magician’s workshop, day or night didn’t matter much, but the space still had to be darkened.

It was already night, so I only needed to draw the curtains and turn off the lights.

Second, once the space for the magic circle was clean, draw the necessary circle while reciting the prayer.

“God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us.”

“That Your way may be known upon the earth, Your salvation among all nations.”

Once that was done, sprinkle holy water around the circle with the holy-water sprinkler while reciting the incantation.

“Zazai, Zamai, Puidamon, El, Yahweh, Yah, Yagla, aid me.”

That completed the magic circle, at least.

I lit the camping brazier, placed it in the center of the circle, and took out the parchment pentacle I had prepared.

[The First Magic of Saturn]

“Spirits of Saturn, answer my call. Aid me in what I desire.”

I tossed the hair of Kim Miryeo, the old zombie magician, and my newly acquired strands of Kim Gaeun’s hair into the burning brazier.

CRACKLE—CRACKLE—WHOOSH!

All I’d added was hair, yet the flames surged upward and produced smoke. From the hazy smoke, the shape of a human face emerged.

[“Ah... Aah...”]

A woman with a slender face. First came the magician who had dug into people’s brains and eaten them.

It was Kim Miryeo’s stored memory data.