Chapter 58 - The Great One (2)

I brought the severed wrist of a hanged criminal into the Workshop kitchen and placed it in a clay bowl.

Why the kitchen? Because the process of making it was essentially the same as cooking.

Well, actual cooking uses ordinary ingredients, and if you mess up, the food just doesn't taste great, but....

Anyway.

Depending on how it was used, it could freeze anyone who saw the candle's flame, put people to sleep, or render the user invisible. A versatile thief's magic tool.

Making the Hand of Glory, step one.

First, drain the blood from the severed wrist thoroughly.

I stared at the wrist, blood slowly seeping from the cut surface.

'...Can I drain this with kitchen towels like you would with meat?'

But given the size and the bone inside, it might be better to soak it in sugar water first to draw out the blood rather than using kitchen towels.

As I was thinking about how to drain the blood from the wrist sitting in the clay bowl...

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

I casually glanced to the side.

"Gyaaah~."

Grizzly was crouched next to me, tongue out, licking in a circle, smacking its lips.

'...Looks like one of those cats on the internet drooling over a piece of chicken.'

I turned my gaze back to the severed wrist.

It was expensive, but... I had the money. Should I just buy one as a snack?

".........!"

Then it hit me.

At the thought that had just crossed my mind, I slowly dragged my palm down my face.

"...Haa."

Damn... I was about to buy a human hand with the same casual feeling as buying a treat for a pet... I'd really gone off the deep end.

It wasn't that I'd been suddenly struck by some pang of conscience or anything like that.

I hadn't killed the person, and why would I feel guilty about making a candle out of a piece of corpse that would just rot if left alone?

It was more like... I was startled? No, that wasn't it either.

I hadn't been that startled.

I poured sugar water into the clay bowl to drain the blood from the severed hand.

I examined the submerged wrist closely.

Five fingers. Judging by the size of the hand, probably male. No wrinkles, so it likely hadn't belonged to a very old person.

The blood spread through the water, a pale red diffusing outward.

And naturally, since it was a severed hand, it was a disturbing sight.

If it weren't necessary for making a magic tool, I wouldn't have even touched it.

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

...That was the extent of it. No other thoughts came to mind.

Right. I understood now.

Not in some extreme situation like a haunted mansion, a cannibal wizard's basement, or a campground crawling with zombies.

I'd simply come to realize, once again, that I had become the kind of person... the kind of wizard who could accept something like 'this' without batting an eye in the course of ordinary daily life.

"...Ha."

I let out a light laugh and set aside the pointless thoughts.

After all, doesn't everyone occasionally reflect on their profession? It was nothing special.

And there was something more important to deal with.

I casually glanced to the side again and looked at Grizzly.

"Gya? Gyagya!"

Right, Grizzly's training.

Part of me wanted to just buy one and give it over, but... was it really right to give a treat every time it wanted one?

After mulling it over, my eyes flashed with resolve.

Alright, I'd decided. No treats!

I spoke firmly to Grizzly.

"No! That's not a snack!"

"Gya... ah!?"

'Not... a snack?' Grizzly's jaw dropped in shock.

Seeing that, I wondered if I'd been too harsh.

I really didn't want to be mean when it came to food, after all.

Conveniently, enough time had passed while I was thinking.

I poured the blood drained from the wrist into Grizzly's food bowl and added some meat.

"I need that one for magic, so it's off-limits. Eat this instead."

"Gyaaah~."

Chomp chomp~.

Grizzly ate happily, and I returned my focus to crafting the magic tool.

I patted the wrist dry with kitchen towels and pressed to squeeze out the remaining blood.

Since I'd need it again, I wiped the clay bowl dry too.

Now for step two of making the Hand of Glory.

There wasn't much to it, but waiting for the blood to drain had taken a while.

The next step was to generously add salt, saltpeter, and pepper into the clay bowl made by a wizard, then grind them well together with a mortar.

Clatter~ clatter~.

Then I placed the drained wrist in the mixture and kneaded it thoroughly.

Squish~ squish~.

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

Somehow, kneading a severed wrist like this made me feel like Kira Yoshikage. [TL: A villain from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure known for his obsession with severed hands.]

Anyway, I'd kneaded it well, and the next step was....

"Place it in a location with no sunlight and let it cure for about fifteen days."

...My eyes narrowed as I reread the contents written in <De Vermis Mysteriis>.

'Is this seriously a recipe...?'

It was absurd, but since I already knew this, I closed De Vermis Mysteriis.

Thunk.

I wrapped the clay bowl in plastic wrap and stored it in the Workshop fridge.

Due to the crafting process, that was all I could do today for the magic tool.

What could I do when it said to wait? I'd just have to wait.

'...Still, fifteen days, huh.'

Well, I could study other magic, or take on Ghostbuster jobs if any came in.

I had a hundred million won, but that was strictly an emergency fund, and having more certainly wouldn't hurt.

In any case, Grizzly had finished its snack too.

"Gyaaah~."

And I should head home for dinner.

***

As most vampires probably would, the blonde Greek vampire Yoannis liked winter.

The sun set early and rose late, after all.

It meant more time to be active, more time to play outside.

...And beside him, the delicate, feminine-featured, pretty boy vampire with black hair.

Mia walked alongside Yoannis as his attendant, grumbling all the while.

"Master came all the way to Korea in person. ...That Chairman Kim bastard couldn't even get on all fours and give Master a tour of Seoul, and he has the nerve to turn down Master's invitation to go out. The absolute audacity."

"Haha~ I've seen that one scramble away on all fours plenty of times. No need to see it again."

Yoannis said it lightly, as though it didn't matter.

"Besides, he's the head of a Wizard Family now. He said there's a family event coming up soon, so he must be busy."

"Ha! You mean that laughable dinner gathering called 'The Table of the Great Ones'?"

Mia sneered with a scathing frown.

"Playing at being Ghouls while calling themselves the great ones...."

"Hehe~ I think blood and human flesh are pretty similar, don't you?"

"Th-the feeling is different! ...And that dinner gathering is just so debased. It puts me in a bad mood just watching."

Mia said with a pout, and Yoannis gently smiled and stroked his hair.

"Mmm...."

Despite all the grumbling, the way Mia closed his eyes and quietly enjoyed having his hair stroked was endearing.

And Mia's words were not wrong.

"It's not to my taste either."

The Table of the Great Ones.

On the surface, it was a dinner gathering hosted by Chairman Kim, but naturally, it was no ordinary meal.

Using the power of the grimoire <Cultes des Goules>,

it was a venue for luring influential wealthy people to his side by dangling the bait of youth and vitality through cannibalism.

What they did was eat human corpses like Ghouls,

yet they dressed in fine clothes and adorned themselves with jewels, playing at being kings and nobles.

Watching from the sidelines, it was quite the amusing farce.

Yoannis chuckled softly.

Of course, it also served the purpose of building the family's power.

But in Yoannis's eyes, this was also Chairman Kim's hobby.

His dim-witted disciple enjoyed watching the so-called wealthy and powerful of society disgustingly tear into corpses.

Just as he himself had torn into his younger sibling's corpse in a back alley as a child.

Crash.

Just then, someone rushed past, apparently trying to catch a bus that had just stopped.

Yoannis wrapped an arm around Mia's shoulder and stepped one pace to the side.

As a result, he lightly bumped shoulders with a sharp-eyed, black-haired man in a white trench coat who had been passing right beside them in the opposite direction.

Yoannis immediately flashed a gentle smile and gave a slight nod.

"Ah, sorry about that."

"No, it's fine."

The man in the white coat also gave a light nod and went on his way.

Mia watched the departing man and grumbled.

"He bumps into Master and just gives a little nod before walking off. How rude."

At Mia's words, someone born in an era without a class system, Yoannis, who had lived through an era where class distinctions were firmly established, let out a small laugh.

He appreciated the concern, but it was funny.

"Hahaha...."

He opened his coat and pulled Mia in from behind, tucking him snugly inside.

"Well then, we'd better stick this close together so nobody bumps into us again."

"M-Master, p-people are watching."

Yoannis lowered his head, buried his lips in Mia's pretty black hair, breathed in the scent, and whispered.

"Then shall we go somewhere with no people?"

Mia ducked his head down and hid inside Yoannis's coat, murmuring quietly.

"Yes...."

Yoannis held Mia in his arms and walked on.

Times change, but some things never do.

That when you bump shoulders on the street, a mutual small nod and going your separate ways is the way to go.

And that a beautiful pretty boy is lovely.

And....

The man in the white trench coat.

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

Yo-han briefly thought about the blonde foreigner he'd just bumped into.

'...His Korean was surprisingly natural?'

It had been just a short phrase, but it had sounded perfectly natural.

Obviously it wasn't a particularly deep thought, so he continued on his way.

His legs carried him forward, the hem of his white coat swaying.

***

Yo-han's small studio apartment.

In the kitchen (right in front of the bed), I grilled the meat I'd bought on the way back.

Sizzle.

Beef brisket. A fatty cut that some people disliked for its texture.

But I liked the savory flavor and the chew.

Putting effort into cooking for a good meal was fine, but simply grilling meat and dipping it in oil sauce had its own appeal.

In actual real-world time, it had only been yesterday.

Less than a day had passed, but I'd been trapped in a Dating Sim game and struggled for a whole week.

Plus, the ten million won commission fee promised by the Special Operations Division had come in.

So I'd decided to eat a bit more lavishly than usual tonight.

That was why, while grilling the meat, I added some extra water to the curry I'd made yesterday so I could drink it like soup.

Bubble bubble~.

I hadn't finished the Hand of Glory, but....

Tonight's dinner, the brisket with oil sauce and curry set, was complete.

I narrowed my eyes and smiled, looking down at it.

'Curry, plus meat on the side....'

The calories were excessive, but splurging like this once in a while was fine.

First, I dipped the brisket in the oil sauce and ate.

Sliced thin so it wasn't too chewy, and that savory texture was great as expected.

Then I ate some rice and spooned up some curry.

"Hehe...."

The curry that would normally have been the main course was now just a side soup! ...What bourgeois luxury!

Of course, I was joking.

Obviously, having some curry alongside beef didn't make a person rich.

But what did it matter? It was delicious.

Just as I finished that satisfying dinner, my phone rang.

...The caller was Namgung Soo-ah.

Well, she called about pointless things from time to time, so it wasn't unusual.

When I picked up, a youthful but irritated voice immediately rang out.

"Mister! You haven't eaten yet, right?"

"I just ate. Why?"

"Ugh! What the heck! Why'd you go and eat on your own! Whatever! It's cold, so just open the door!"

"...What?"

Just as I blurted out in confusion at the incomprehensible words,

Ding-dong. Ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong!

The doorbell rang furiously, and when I opened the door,

there stood the girl with long straight black hair, sharp eyes, and a cat-like face. A cute appearance that sharply contrasted with her total lack of manners.

Namgung Soo-ah was standing there. But not in the school uniform I'd seen her wearing at the campground.

She was wearing a chic, expensive-looking short dress with a fluffy white coat draped over her.

She looked like a young lady who'd just come from some bourgeois party.

"Wow~ Your place is tiny! But it's clean, I'll give you that. How boring."

Soo-ah carelessly kicked off her shoes at the entrance and waltzed in on her stocking-clad feet.

She tossed her coat onto the bed and plopped down on it herself.

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

Fine. I was the one who'd given her my address. ...I just hadn't expected her to show up completely unannounced like this.

Anyway, she wasn't a total stranger, so her coming over wasn't really an issue.

For now, I spoke to Soo-ah calmly.

"Don't people usually sit on the floor?"

"Ew... The floor is hard."

Soo-ah stared at me as if I'd said something idiotic.

Maybe it was because the last person who'd visited was Si-on.

The difference in upbringing felt even more stark.

Honestly, Soo-ah was so brazen it was almost impressive, so the thought of kicking her out didn't even cross my mind right away.

'Let's see just how much more she pushes her luck.'

That was the thought that came to mind.

And....

Having decided she was in a safe place, Soo-ah's phone rang, and she pulled it from her coat to check.

Naturally, it wasn't from her father, Namgung Soo.

...It was a text from someone on Chairman Kim's side.

[You are invited to a dinner gathering.]

Soo-ah's mood soured again. She set her phone to silent and placed it in a corner of the bed.

After her father Namgung Soo had declined, now they were extending the invitation for some unknown dinner gathering to her.

Her father's acquaintances... calling them acquaintances was laughable in itself.

Anyway, she recalled Chairman Kim, whom she'd seen at a party attended by her father's business associates.

A grotesque old man. Though it wasn't simply his age that put her off.

...Something about his presence felt inhuman. It made her skin crawl.

She had no idea how other people could stand next to that old man, laughing and chatting and flattering him.

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

Soo-ah pulled out a small chocolate piece wrapped in plastic and popped it into her mouth.

Eating a piece of chocolate when she felt anxious.

It was a habit that had formed after the campground incident, or more precisely, after eating at the hotel buffet with Yo-han.

As the sweetness spread through her mouth....

Soo-ah looked at Yo-han and grumbled.

"You have a guest and you're not even offering a drink?"

And I immediately raised my hand and lightly smacked Soo-ah on the head.

Smack.

"Are you out of your mind?"

"Ow-ow-oww!?"