Chapter 57 - The Great One (1)

Special Ops Team 3 office.

Seeing Si-on arrive at work after finishing her rest at home, the female agent Lee Hye-eun made a surprised expression.

"Team Leader Si-on? You came in? You were given the day off today."

"Yes, I have some documents to collect and things to think over."

Then Team Leader Park handed Si-on the materials she had requested and spoke with an annoyed expression.

"When someone who's supposed to be on leave shows up at the office, it makes everyone uncomfortable. Just grab the documents and go."

"Understood. Thank you for the materials."

That was certainly a fair point. Si-on nodded.

Then Team Leader Park pulled out a laptop and showed it to Si-on.

"Fine, since you're already here, have a coffee before you leave. I had something to show you when you came in anyway."

Hye-eun squeezed in beside them and looked at a certain site displayed on the laptop screen, then asked Team Leader Park.

[Mage Net]

"Wow... what a lame name. What is this?"

"A site frequented by wizards and wizard hunters."

Si-on's eyes narrowed slightly.

'Wizard hunters.'

Originally, it had been a nickname referring to Father Yo-han of the Vatican, who had been active during the First and Second World Wars.

The owner of the grimoires <The Book of the Angel Raziel>, <Eighth Book of Moses>, and <The Key of Solomon>.

The terror of aberrations and wizards alike.

That had been its original meaning, but now the term was also used to describe hunters who killed wizards for the bounties on their heads or to steal their artifacts.

Wizards who knew the era when Father Yo-han had been active would mock such hunters for daring to call themselves wizard hunters.

Si-on thought about that, then explained to Hye-eun.

"Typically, information about Europe, where the wizard population is large, tends to come up frequently."

"However, well-known wizards are invited to a site rumored to have been created by a demon. Since they use that one instead, this isn't a site where you can obtain significant intelligence."

A site created by lower-tier wizards for information sharing and trade, where hunters straddling the line between the occult and reality gathered.

That was Mage Net.

Of course, it wasn't just them; government agencies from various countries also monitored the site to pick up minor rumors and intelligence.

...And then.

When Si-on looked at the information Team Leader Park showed her, which had recently become a hot topic on the site,

[Grimoire <De Vermis Mysteriis>, Owner – Estimated Location: South Korea, Bounty: 3 Billion Won]

her eyes widened slightly before narrowing again.

"...Excuse me for a moment."

She immediately searched the site for other information, but... fortunately, information about <The Lesser Key of Solomon> and its owner Yo-han had not been leaked.

What this information revealed was:

Given that the information about <De Vermis Mysteriis> discovered by the Special Operations Division had been leaked, there was someone on the outside selling information.

And at the very least, among the internal personnel with whom Si-on had shared Yo-han's information for the sake of cooperation, there was no one selling it.

Si-on let out a breath of relief.

"Haah...."

It wasn't certain yet, but it was a relief.

Lee Hye-eun looked at the bounty information and said,

"The owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>... isn't that the man named Kim Yo-han, the one you suspect is the real owner, Team Leader Si-on?"

Team Leader Park answered on Si-on's behalf in an indifferent voice.

"Solomon... that name's way too long. <The Lesser Key>, <Lemegeton>, its owner has been confirmed, so there's no chance of that."

Si-on slowly nodded.

"...That's right."

Except for a few special cases like Father Yo-han of the Vatican, a grimoire typically meant one per wizard.

Grimoires were dangerous magical items to handle, and in the first place, there was no way top-tier grimoires like <The Lesser Key of Solomon> or <De Vermis Mysteriis> would tolerate the existence of another grimoire.

".........."

And yet, for some reason....

The things Yo-han had shown inside the Harem Academy came to mind.

The sight of him mocking Gremory, the Student Council President, and unleashing magic to destroy the false world.

Si-on's calm eyes narrowed as she sank into thought.

She had caught criminal wizards a few times before, but Yo-han was incomparably more remarkable than any wizard Si-on had ever seen.

He was working as a freelance exorcist only because Korea had so few wizards.

If he had been active in Europe, where wizard schools and families thrived, it would have been one of two things.

Either they would have tried to kill Yo-han immediately, before he could grow any further.

Or the headmaster of a school would have personally rushed over to make him a direct disciple and heir apparent.

In the case of wizard families, they would have lined up all the women of the family and told him to pick whichever one he liked, adding that men were fine too, doing whatever it took to bring him into the family.

Of course, that was an exaggeration mixed with humor, but that was how extraordinary what Yo-han had shown truly was.

'I shouldn't suspect him, but....'

Could there really be anyone else in this country that <De Vermis Mysteriis> would choose as its owner besides Yo-han?

Like those few special cases, could Yo-han be the owner of more than one grimoire?

...She found herself thinking about it despite having no evidence whatsoever.

Separate from such thoughts, however, Si-on looked at Mage Net and once again felt relieved that Yo-han's information wasn't floating around on a site crawling with killer mercenaries.

It was a feeling different from her suspicions about him as a grimoire owner, or the way her nerves prickled whenever she saw Yo-han's face.

".........."

Si-on brought her hand to her lips and thought of Yo-han.

He said it was just his job and there was no reason to thank him, but his serious commitment to dealing with aberrations...

...Of course, his methods had been somewhat shocking.

The jokes he would casually toss out from time to time came to mind.

***

<Books of Moses>.

A collection of ten volumes compiling the chronicle of Moses's life.

Volumes one through five were ordinary books, and volumes six through ten were grimoires.

And the rabbis who had been storing and managing the <Books of Moses> were currently holding a celebration.

The <Eighth Book of Moses>, which had vanished without a trace, had returned on its own.

In any case, at the place where the grimoires were stored,

the other <Books of Moses>, volumes six, seven, nine, and ten, glowed and spoke to the Eighth Book.

The Eighth Book likewise glowed and responded to its sibling grimoires.

Translated into human language, it might have gone something like this.

'Mo-mo-mo? Mo-mo-mo-mo-mo, mo-mo?'

Didn't you say you found someone similar to our former owner and were going to meet them?

'Se-se-se, se-se-se-se-se-se... se-se-se!'

Raziel asked me to come along, so I went. But he was a little different. He was charming, sure, but... well! That psycho crazy grimoire <De Vermis Mysteriis> was there, so I just came back.

...And currently, in Yo-han's secret workshop, which had formerly been Kim Mi-ryeo's secret workshop, the grimoires <De Vermis Mysteriis> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon> stood upright on top of the table, facing each other.

Vvvvv...!

Fwap!

They flung open simultaneously and slammed their covers together!

THOOM...

Vvvv... Vvvv... <De Vermis Mysteriis> vibrated with displeasure.

It was sulking because Yo-han had been looking at <The Lesser Key of Solomon> more lately, memorizing Pentacle patterns.

I was chosen first! We had so much fun together, just the two of us!

Back in the old days, even when he threw me, there was affection behind it. Lately, the throws felt halfhearted.

Naturally, this was a delusion. Yo-han had always thrown both <De Vermis Mysteriis> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon> with equal irritation.

Vvvvv...!!

In any case, <De Vermis Mysteriis> glared at <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, which had been stealing its owner's attention lately.

Their power was roughly equal, so neither could do anything to the other.

Besides, they were both Yo-han's grimoires.

...And then.

I blinked as I watched the grimoires suddenly flapping their pages and squabbling.

"...What the?"

I picked up <De Vermis Mysteriis> and separated them.

<De Vermis Mysteriis>, now held in my hand, vibrated with satisfaction.

Vvvvv~.

<The Lesser Key of Solomon> regarded <De Vermis Mysteriis> with a look of utter contempt.

Anyway.

I held <De Vermis Mysteriis> open and read it.

I had been focusing exclusively on Pentacle magic recently, and now that I had tracked down Mephisto Market, where I could obtain magical reagents, I was thinking of trying my hand at crafting an artifact this time, a magical tool described in <De Vermis Mysteriis>.

Perhaps because <De Vermis Mysteriis> had been written by a wizard who came from the Crusades, when it wasn't dealing with magic of foreign divine origin, it contained quite a bit of Catholic-tradition magic and folk magic that had circulated through Europe.

The magical tool I was going to make this time was one used by wizards who had chosen rogue as their subclass.

A magical candleholder called the Hand of Glory.

The effect of the magic was that when the candle was lit, it rendered the user invisible to others.

An invisible wizard and an Invisible Vampire.

A matching set with Grizzly.

The essential ingredient was the hand of an executed criminal....

The material procurement was so brutal that I had given up, but since Mephisto Market sold them, I decided to try making it.

"Let's see, what other materials do I need? Saltpeter, and... Lapland sesame?"

Saltpeter was potassium nitrate, and... but....

My eyes blinked involuntarily.

Lapland? Where even is Lapland? Would domestic sesame not work?

I decided to get help the way I always did.

'Help me, Google!'

When I searched online, fortunately, where Lapland was came up right away.

It was the name of a region in northern Sweden.

Looking at the grimoire, the description read as follows:

[The north is a land where the vestiges of Odin, one of the pagan gods and the god of magic, remain strong. Plants that enhance magical effects grow well there, making them highly potent.]

...Well, if that's what it says, what can I do? I'll use it.

Fortunately, Mephisto Market also sold Swedish sesame.

I added the necessary items to my cart and placed an order on Mephisto Market.

A delivery arrived at the door of the secret workshop almost immediately.

However, there was a problem.

Looking at the wrist severed from an actual human corpse, still dripping with blood,

'Wow... I've really become your average wizard now.'

...is not the kind of sentiment I felt. No.

The problem was that Grizzly saw the severed hand and thought it was a snack meant for him.

"Gyaaaa~."

He started circling around me.