Chapter 49 - Now, Whoever Sees This— (1)

Late the next morning, I sat down at my computer and investigated Mephisto Market some more.

... Well, I was really just browsing the site.

As I’d seen yesterday, they sold not only magical supplies but all sorts of other things, from guns and blades to household goods and food. There was also a message board where you could make posts, like the one I’d put up yesterday.

You could even trade with other users... with other magicians, through the site.

I’d hold off on that for now. With such a huge information gap, trying to trade with another magician could just get me scammed.

You could also send inquiries to the site administrator, who called herself Mephi-chan.

[Mephi-chan Inquiry Center]

P.S. If you wish to protect your privacy, please use the shop when requesting custom-made items.

[Dress – Buying virgin women or men. Good with their hands preferred.]

[Mephi-chan – Mage-kun! Mephisto Market isn’t a place for buying and selling people! But what do you need them for?]

[Dress – Making a robe. Need thread woven on a loom by someone pure.]

[Mephi-chan – Then say you need thread in the first place.]

[Dress – If I buy a virgin woman or man, I can produce it in-house. Forget it. A pain, but I’ll just weave it myself.]

I scrolled down with the mouse. There wasn’t any particularly useful information.

Still, I clicked another post to gather a little more.

[LoveLovePrettyBoys – Mephi~ chaaaan~!]

[Mephi-chan – Yes~ It’s Mephi-chan! What can I do for you?]

[LoveLovePrettyBoys – Smooch! Heehee (runs away with a bashful look)]

There really wasn’t any useful information. This was a waste of time.

My eyes narrowed of their own accord, and I left the inquiry section. There were new comments on my question from while I’d been asleep, so I decided to check those instead.

The person called “LoveLovePrettyBoys” had advised me to carry a gun, but there might be other advice, right?

And soon, I was frowning again.

Instead of answering my question about whether Fireball existed—

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

—they were chattering about useless crap among themselves in the comments.

[Gunpowder Alchemist – Gunpowder is also a product of alchemy. Guns are magic too.]

[Wheelchair Master – Fireball... Reminds me of D&D. Kind of makes me want to play a tabletop RPG again.]

[Two-Headed Snake – Don’t recruit for tabletop RPGs here. The lunatics all pick wizard and the party falls apart.]

[Wheelchair Master – Uh... But sorcerers are basically psychics, not magicians...]

[Two-Headed Snake – No spellcasting classes! Pick fighter or barbarian and put your bodies on the line so I can cast spells safely!]

Once again, I left my question post.

... Well, I supposed people let loose when their anonymity was guaranteed.

'But why are they playing around in the comments instead of answering my question?'

“... Forget it.”

It was funny for me to say this when I was a magician myself, but every user here was a magician. There was a very high chance they were criminal serial killers who could murder someone without batting an eye.

They might be playing at being friendly and cheerful here, but they weren’t the sort of people I could let my guard down around.

Besides, posting and hanging around in online communities wasn’t my thing to begin with. Just a personal preference.

And wouldn’t I be leaving traces of myself?

It wouldn’t matter for an ordinary person, but... I was a magician with a grimoire. Even in a meaningless post written out of boredom for fun, I might carelessly let slip something that revealed my location or identifying features.

Then why had I posted that question about Fireball?

... Fireball was a matter of great importance.

Anyway, I decided to use the magicians’ message board only to find information or ask questions. It would be a waste not to use something available to me at all.

That settled the message board. It hadn’t been the part of Mephisto Market that concerned me most or seemed most important in the first place.

I looked at the shop again.

“...”

What I wanted to know most was how things purchased here were delivered.

'There’s a field for entering an address. Does that mean ordinary delivery?'

So I decided to buy something myself to find out.

It was nearly lunchtime. For this very purpose, I’d deliberately avoided buying potatoes, carrots, and onions when I went grocery shopping that morning.

Of course, they cost over twice as much here as at the supermarket... but I had money, and this was a test purchase. It didn’t matter.

I put the items in my cart and clicked the purchase button. Immediately—

[Thank you for using our service. Your package has arrived.]

—a message arrived on my phone.

When I stepped outside to check, there was a package beside the door. Naturally, it contained potatoes, carrots, and onions.

“Ha!”

It was so absurd I laughed.

A package that arrived the instant I ordered it. Honestly, if anything, that was more impressive than Fireball.

I didn’t know how it worked... and there was no need to go out of my way to find out. What mattered was that I could use it.

According to the precautions, you obviously couldn’t use it somewhere crowded. The system apparently left the package outside if the person who’d ordered it was inside a room.

Now that I had a decent idea of how to use Mephisto Market, I took the potatoes, carrots, and onions out of the package and set them on the cutting board.

Time for lunch, then.

“Gyaaah~.”

As I stood in the kitchen, Grizzly came over from where it had been curled up.

“Yes, yes, I’ll feed you too. You’re in for a treat.”

Smiling, I took out the milk I’d bought that morning—not our usual milk, but one that cost a thousand won more—and mixed it with meat.

“Grizzly, do you know what this is? Milk that costs a thousand won more.”

“Gyaa?”

Grizzly tilted its head, then ate with its usual enthusiasm when I held out the bowl, gobbling it down.

Was there no real difference?

I drank some of the more expensive milk I’d poured separately for myself.

“Hmm... Maybe it tastes a little richer?”

Should we switch to this milk while we were at it?

Well, considering how much Grizzly drank, it wouldn’t be just an extra thousand won... but I’d come into a hundred million won, and I was eating good food myself. I ought to feed Grizzly good food too.

As I was thinking that—

BZZZ.

My phone buzzed. When I checked, it was Namgung Sua, who had, for some reason, been contacting me occasionally since the campground incident.

“Mister! I watched Constantine like you recommended, but the movie barely explains the story! You said it was a masterpiece. Did you trick me?”

I’d enjoyed it because Constantine was cool... but she was right about the story being hard to follow. Still, I didn’t think I’d gone so far as to call it a masterpiece.

Anyway, this was all I could tell Sua right now.

“So what? I’m about to eat. Hang up.”

BEEP.

I ended the call and casually tossed my phone aside.

But...

BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.

The phone started making a racket again.

“Haah...”

I sighed and picked it up, but...

“...”

Once I saw who was calling, my eyes narrowed of their own accord.

[Shin Sion]

BZZZ. BZZZ. BZZZ.

It was Shin Sion, the Special Response Section’s pathological skeptic (no doubt about that).

* * *

In the Special Response Section’s Team Three office, Shin Sion, a black-haired woman with a composed appearance, was giving her team a brief lesson on grimoires.

“Now that Mr. Kim Yohan, a grimoire owner, will be joining Team Three as a collaborator, I’ve explained what I know about grimoires. Do you have any questions?”

Hyeeun took the opportunity to ask something she’d been wondering about.

“Yohan’s grimoire, <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, is the one you told us Father Yohan at the Vatican owned, right?”

“No. The names are similar, but they’re different.”

“What? They’re different?”

Sion wrote on the whiteboard as she explained.

<The Key of Solomon>, <The Lesser Key of Solomon>

“The grimoire Father Yohan owned is <The Key of Solomon>.”

Hyeeun blinked.

“What’s the difference? Is the Lesser Key smaller?”

“No. Both are grimoires created by King Solomon, but—while <The Lesser Key of Solomon> preserves the magic King Solomon used and the power to subjugate demons, <The Key of Solomon> was created to protect his son Rehoboam. It is an anti-magic grimoire containing the power to block magic.”

While she was sharing this occult knowledge, a Special Response Section operative hurriedly opened the door and entered with a report.

Team Six had gone missing while investigating an uncanny phenomenon in the form of a game that appeared connected to the recent disappearances:

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

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Some time after Sion called Yohan, she stood outside his small studio apartment. With her usual composed expression, she let out a tense sigh.

“Whew...”

At the appointed time, she rang his doorbell.

DING-A-LING!

The bell rang briefly, then the door opened and Yohan appeared.

CREAK.

“Thanks for coming all this way.”

Seeing Yohan emerge through the door, Sion bowed her head, concealing her nervousness.

“Not at all. Thank you for letting us use your home to resolve this uncanny incident.”

“Of course I’ll help. That was our deal, wasn’t it? It’s nothing fancy, but come in.”

Sion entered and neatly took off her shoes in the entryway.

“Um, this isn’t much, but...”

She handed over the paper bag she was holding.

I accepted the bag from Sion. Even the paper bag looked expensive, making me wonder what was inside. When I checked, I found a box filled with expensive-looking slices of cake.

... A housewarming gift?

“Thank you. I’ll enjoy these. Shall we talk about the details while we eat?”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

I discreetly studied Sion. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking behind that composed face.

She might be an irritating pathological skeptic... but I could tell she’d been brought up well.