Chapter 48 - Mephistopheles (5)

It cost money, but it would save time. I took a taxi to the address of Kim Miryeo’s secret workshop.

Since she had built it without her magician family knowing, I worried I might have trouble finding it even after getting there. But I found the building at the address right away.

It was a typical vacant two-story building with a FOR RENT sign, on a street that saw little foot traffic. It looked ordinary for a magician’s workshop... But perhaps that very ordinariness kept it inconspicuous and made it a secret workshop?

After a quick look around, I approached the entrance and checked it. The door had a keypad lock. I entered what looked like a passcode from the information in my notebook.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP

CREAK

The door opened.

... Smooth sailing so far. Apparently, this really was the secret workshop.

Inside, it looked like a typical rental property that had gone bust. A dusty concrete floor. Furniture that looked as though it had been left behind during the cleanout, and lumber with no discernible purpose.

I looked around with my phone’s flashlight, but nothing stood out. Thankfully, there was no one there. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a ghost turning up... but I hoped not to run into any homeless people or streamers exploring abandoned buildings. Perhaps because the door had been locked, there were no signs of anyone living here.

... That was enough of a look around the first floor. Upstairs next?

I looked at the staircase inside the building. Since there was nothing particularly unusual here, the first floor was probably a decoy, with the real workshop upstairs.

At the top of the stairs, I found another metal door with a keypad lock. I entered another passcode from my notebook, and this door opened too.

“Ha!”

The sight revealed inside drew a laugh from me.

Expensive-looking white marble floors and lavish decor. Compared with the shabby exterior, the interior was beautifully furnished, though some dust had accumulated since Kim Miryeo’s death left it unattended.

Since this was my workshop now, I took off my shoes at the entrance and stepped inside. And honestly, I was surprised. It looked like a workshop—or a private shelter—built across the entire second floor.

There was a living room with a sofa, seemingly intended as an ordinary living space. Whether to guard against snipers or preserve secrecy, there were no windows, but there were vents in several places instead. There was also a room with a running generator, and a monitor displaying CCTV feeds of the area around the building.

My eyes widened in surprise in what looked like the kitchen.

“... Isn’t this an indoor masonry oven?”

Not a little household one, but a professional setup. She probably hadn’t put it here to make Italian pizza... Well, you could make it in there.

‘... Maybe I should try that sometime?’

She had probably installed it because she needed it to prepare magical ingredients. How did I know? I’d seen processes in <Mysteries of the Worm> that required an oven.

Fantasy magicians just had to sit at a desk studying, or accumulate mana through meditation. Occult magicians had to make pottery, pick medicinal herbs out in the fields, and know how to do all sorts of things. When you thought about it, it really was a hands-on profession.

Anyway, I’d felt the same way at the underground workshop: these secret workshops were better equipped than I expected. Everything was on a grand scale. Did all rich magicians have one of these? I wouldn’t know. I was a street-trained magician who had happened to pick up a grimoire and taught myself.

There were also cabinets stocked with magical aids such as beakers, flasks, and filters. Having looked around everything worth seeing, I finally turned to the safe making its presence felt in a corner of the living room.

Once again, I entered a passcode I’d learned from the spirit, and the door opened without any trouble. I wasn’t happy about the spell’s limitations or the way it had cut out on its own halfway through... Still, [The First Pentacle of Saturn] certainly delivered.

Inside the safe were assorted documents, identification cards, bankbooks, and bank cards. Naturally, neither the IDs nor the bankbooks bore Kim Miryeo’s name.

“A bank account under a stolen identity.”

She must have opened it using the ID of someone she’d killed in the underground workshop.

When I checked the amount recorded in the bankbook, I froze for an instant, my eyes widening.

... One hundred million won.

I’d have to check the balance through the card to know for sure, but given that she’d kept it here in the safe as emergency funds, the money was probably still there.

“...”

I wasn’t so overjoyed that my hands were shaking. No, I was happy, but how should I put it? I felt dazed. I’d obtained more money than I’d ever had in my life by killing one magician. Technically, one magician plus dozens of minions... but let’s not sweat the small stuff. If they kidnapped and killed people on a magician’s orders, they were practically familiars.

Anyway, Kim Miryeo must have prepared it as emergency money to use without her magician family knowing. That meant one hundred million won with the loose ends already taken care of, safe to spend.

The spoils of killing magicians. A secret black-market website selling magical goods, a fucking awesome secret base, and a bankbook holding one hundred million won.

“...”

... This was dangerous. I might start seeing other magicians as treasure goblins.

I took a moment to calm down.

Yes, money was good, and wanting things was fine. But being ruled by greed wasn’t. My safety always came first. Not wealth. I couldn’t let the means become the end.

... A few days ago, I’d thought about my goals. Nothing had come to mind then, so I’d settled on learning a foreign language, exercising, and getting a driver’s license. But my ultimate goal was always the same: my safety, and a peaceful, stable life.

The more money, the better, but it still wasn’t a reason to risk my precious life. I only needed enough to keep Grizzly fed... and live comfortably.

A nice home would be good too, but too much space would be hard to clean, so moderately nice would do. Air conditioning to keep me cool when it was hot, and good heating when it was cold. Oh, a bathtub would be nice as well. My current place didn’t have one.

I liked good food, but I didn’t particularly want shark fin and steak for three meals a day. I ought to eat with my health in mind. And I wasn’t interested in designer goods, cars, or watches.

Supreme happiness... I wasn’t sure what supreme happiness even was, but I had nothing against it. It would be nice to have. Still—small joys mattered too.

Eating delicious food, reading an entertaining comic or novel, or watching a movie. Taking a leisurely nap in the warm sunshine. Enjoying a favorite hobby. Things like that.

So... I wasn’t going to go out of my way to pick fights with magicians. I would simply make sure to kill them when necessary to protect my peaceful, stable life.

I looked down at the bankbook and card.

... Of course, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t take them.

Woohoo! One hundred million won!

Money was essential for feeding Grizzly and obtaining magical ingredients, after all. A good thing was a good thing. It put me in a good mood.

I pulled out the swivel chair at the desk near the safe, sat down, and spun around once.

“I’m rich.”

I proclaimed it in a low voice. I considered another spin, but... One hundred million won was certainly a lot of money. Still, in Seoul these days, taking two spins while declaring yourself rich over one hundred million won would be ridiculous, so I settled for one.

I got up from the chair. Having a secret workshop was great, but moving immediately after becoming a civilian collaborator for the Special Response Section would look strange. Changing my registered address to this place was out of the question too. So I’d treat it as a hideout and only visit when I needed it.

My business here was done. I decided to go home and take a closer look at Mephisto Market.

... However, as Yohan celebrated his newly acquired one hundred million won, he had no idea that the necromancer Edward Coffin, whom he’d tossed to Grizzly as food, had carried a bounty of one million dollars—roughly 1.3 billion won.

Nor did he know that a bounty of three billion won had been placed on his own head—or, to be precise, on the head of the owner of the grimoire <Mysteries of the Worm>.

* * *

In the room of Chairman Kim, owner of the grimoire <Cultes des Goules>, the blond vampire Ioannis, newly arrived in Korea, read a post by a new magician on Mephisto Market.

[Gyges – Hello. I’m a newbie here. I have a question. Are there any cool attack spells like Fireball?]

Ioannis raised an eyebrow and murmured to himself.

“Hmm, a young magician who still has some innocence. I like the username Gyges too. That’s the Greek myth of Gyges from Plato’s Republic. I like Plato, you see.”

After writing a brief reply to the question, Ioannis continued.

“At the Battle of Potidaea, where the Athenian army was ambushed, Socrates risked his life to save his pupil Alcibiades, striking down enemies who coveted the lavish ornaments on his pupil’s armor. ... And then he witnessed the Alcibiades he’d saved brutally massacring prisoners who had surrendered.”

Ioannis’s blue eyes curved with amusement.

“When I imagine Plato, a beautiful boy from a distinguished family, taking care of his teacher after he returned from the war a broken man... I can’t lose my erection.”

Chairman Kim looked at Ioannis with an utterly exhausted expression.

“... Ioannis, enough of your bullshit. What the hell is this?”

Chairman Kim held out a post about a newly wanted target from a website that served both as a community for unverified, lesser magicians and as a haunt for self-proclaimed magician hunters—hunters after the bounties on magicians’ heads and their magical items.

The information about the target was exceedingly simple.

[Name: Unknown, Age: Unknown, Gender: Unknown]

The only information was that this was the new owner of <Mysteries of the Worm>, which had appeared in Korea, and that the bounty was three billion won.

Ioannis shrugged and spoke casually.

“My pupil, who covets only the meat before his eyes, act like an uncanny being with capital at your disposal. It’s not as though you can’t afford it.”

“It’ll bring flies swarming around the meat! That’s the problem!”

Ioannis smiled at the enraged chairman.

“Meat...”

His pupil still saw the other party as meat he could eat whenever he pleased. Unchecked greed made fools of wise men and made even elephants look like ants.

“The moment <Mysteries of the Worm> chose him as its master, he ceased to be meat, or some weak animal flies could bring down. He’s a dangerous predator.”

Ioannis drank the wine in his glass.

“I don’t even think those hunters can actually catch him.”

The purpose of the bounty was simply to let the hunters run loose first, draw out information about the target, and wear him down.

“Release the hounds first to tire out the prey. That’s hunting at its most basic.”

The vampire’s blue eyes flashed as he looked at Chairman Kim, who had fallen into a disgruntled silence.

“Once he’s exhausted, we can either make a deal or kill him. ... A net spread across heaven and earth.”

A look of incredulity crossed Chairman Kim’s face.

“You read martial arts novels too?”

“I have plenty of time.”

Ioannis smiled and sipped his wine.

* * *

Yohan’s small studio apartment.

I looked at the question I’d posted on Mephisto Market.

[Gyges – Hello. I’m a newbie here. I have a question. Are there any cool attack spells like Fireball?]

For some reason, the only person who’d replied had a weird username.

[LoveLovePrettyBoys – Magic comes in many forms, so I can’t say there aren’t any... But a gun is more effective than a half-baked attack spell. Just carry a gun.]