Chapter 61 - The Great One (5)

A weekday, broad daylight, a café like any other.

I looked at the black-haired high school girl sitting confidently across from me, the kind whose face was cute and pretty as long as she kept her mouth shut.

I watched Soo-ah, who self-proclaimed herself as super-duper adorable, and asked out of courtesy.

"Don't you have school?"

"I go when I feel like going."

Soo-ah continued with a nonchalant expression.

"Meaning I'm not going."

Very bold of her.

Well, sure, education is only compulsory through middle school.

High school is up to you. If you don't want to go, you just take the equivalency exam.

It wasn't my problem to worry about.

Soo-ah stirred her drink with a straw and said,

"So, Mister, you're one of those weird things, a Ghostbuster slash wizard, right?"

Ghostbuster... she wasn't wrong about it being weird. Being a wizard wasn't any less strange, either.

"That's right."

"But what's the difference between a wizard and... an exorcist? Or a shaman?"

I thought for a moment about Soo-ah's question.

...Well, it had only been about a week, but she was the one who said she wanted to learn magic.

I did need to give her at least a brief explanation about occult wizards.

Orientation. It was OT time.

Honestly, I hadn't been a wizard for very long either, and I'd taught myself by reading grimoires on my own.

But I told her about what a wizard was, at least as I understood it.

"For example, say you bought a house. But some weirdo squatted in it and refused to leave. Claims he's been living there way longer than you."

"What the heck! That's insane!"

Obviously, this wasn't about an actual person. It was a metaphor for anomalies.

"Now, a shaman is someone who listens to the squatter's story, hears about his past, gets mad, coaxes him, and eventually talks him into leaving."

I took a sip of coffee and continued explaining.

"...An exorcist or a wizard is someone who beats the squatter with a club and drives him out. Depending on the situation, a wizard might even go,

'I was just looking for a slave anyway. Lucky me, you walked right into it,' and turn the squatter into a household slave on the spot."

After hearing the example, Soo-ah blinked, then shrugged and said,

"...I kinda like the latter approach. Very satisfying and straightforward."

"Good. Then let's pause the lesson for now."

"Huh? Why?"

I stood up from my seat and said,

"Ghostbuster, exorcist work."

I'd only been humoring Soo-ah since she came to find me, but it was almost time for my appointment with a client.

And I thought she'd be too lazy to tag along, but...

Soo-ah apparently meant it when she said she'd work as my assistant. She walked right alongside me.

"Ooh~ So are you gonna draw a magic circle and fire a beam, like when you wiped out those zombies last time?"

"Doubt it. That kind of thing is actually pretty rare."

In fact, this particular request had nothing to do with anomalies.

Inside the female client's room.

Depending on how you looked at it, maybe a human face? She pointed at the wallpaper where mold had bloomed in a pattern resembling Munch's The Scream.

The woman said in a trembling voice,

"E-ever since that appeared... the room feels darker, I guess... my body doesn't feel right either, and my mood's been bad. I-is this some kind of paranormal phenomenon?"

I stared at the mold, silently putting on a serious expression.

'Well, of course living in a room with mold that big would be bad for your respiratory system.'

Obviously, it wasn't an anomaly.

It was certainly creepy-looking mold, sure.

'I feel like I had a case like this before, too....'

Well, among the requests that came in, some did involve real anomalies, but most were like this.

Poke poke, poke poke poke.

Soo-ah prodded my arm with her finger, and when I leaned my head down,

she rose onto her tiptoes and whispered into my ear.

"Isn't that just mold? I think she needs a therapist, not an exorcist."

"You're right."

I answered briefly.

Regardless, since the client believed it was an anomaly, I decided to perform a suitable exorcism.

It wasn't like she'd listen even if I tried to convince her otherwise.

And so, the method for exorcising a mold spirit:

First, open the windows for ventilation.

Then, put on a mask and rubber gloves, and carefully scrub the wall with a wet mop sprayed with mold remover.

Scrub scrub scrub.

As I moved my arm diligently, sweat formed on my forehead, and then,

"Here."

Soo-ah approached wearing a mask and dabbed my forehead with a handkerchief.

...Wiping sweat could be considered an assistant's role, if you stretched it. I just never expected to receive that kind of service during a mold removal rather than an actual anomaly extermination.

Anyway, time to wrap up.

"Hair dryer."

"Here."

Whirrr.

Once I dried the wet wall with the heat of the hair dryer, the job was done.

The mold that had undulated like Munch's The Scream vanished just like that.

...And the female client blinked and asked,

"Um, isn't this just... cleaning mold?"

Well, yes, obviously it was.

"That's right. It manifested in the form of mold, so I removed it through cleaning."

I nodded and said in a gentle voice,

"Now, what's important from here on is to pull back the curtains during the day to let sunlight in, and to ventilate the room so that positive energy can flow inside.

...And malevolent spirits don't just appear in places filled with Yin Qi. They also appear in the anxious hearts of people. Pushing through things on your own is admirable, but sometimes it's good to visit a professional counseling center and talk about what's bothering you."

After I spouted some appropriately reassuring words, the female client, whether she was genuinely convinced by what I said,

or whether she just wanted to hurry up and kick out the lunatic who cleaned her mold and called it an exorcism while dragging around a high school girl,

nodded and said in a trembling voice,

"I, I see. ...Understood. Thank you so much."

Anyway.

Mold spirit exorcism complete! Another case resolved.

Normally, for cases like this that didn't involve real anomalies, I'd just give some counseling and charge a consultation fee.

But this time I'd actually done physical work, so I charged a bit extra for labor.

You know how apartment security guards get tipped when they help with heavy lifting? Same idea.

Once we stepped outside,

"Hmm...."

Soo-ah pressed her index finger to her lips in thought, then pulled it away and said,

"It kinda feels like a scam, but also kinda not."

"Well, I did the work."

"True, I guess."

Soo-ah gave a light nod.

I'd expected her to say the exorcist gig was more boring than she thought and head home. But she didn't.

Then Soo-ah abruptly said in a matter-of-fact tone,

"But if you're going to work anyway, wouldn't you make more money by releasing actual ghosts into people's homes and then charging to get rid of them?"

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

My eyes slid sideways to glance at her.

'Is this kid a psycho? She's a real budding wizard, all right.'

"Are you a psycho?"

Soo-ah scrunched up her face and raised her voice.

"No! I'm not saying we should do it! I'm asking why you don't! I was just curious, okay!?"

...Well, the answer to that question was simple.

"Not my style."

As I'd said time and again.

For me, money was something I needed for a safe and peaceful life. It wasn't my top priority.

...Of course, I wouldn't deny that more was always better.

But ever since I got the grimoire, I kept getting dragged into bizarre incidents just by minding my own business.

Going out of my way to create incidents for a few extra bucks,

making unnecessary enemies, or drawing the Special Operations Division's attention again? No thanks.

Shin Si-on alone was more than enough of a paranoid nuisance.

"If a request is something I can handle, I set a price and do the work I'm paid for. That's enough."

I said casually as we walked.

"Well, I said a lot, but... basically, I just don't want to do that kind of crap."

Soo-ah walked alongside me and slightly turned her head to look at my profile.

'Hmm... so he doesn't like that sort of thing.'

"Got it. I was just genuinely curious, that's all."

Then she said in a nonchalant voice,

"Anyway, work's done now, so teach me again."

"Sure. Got any questions?"

"Do you need talent or anything to use magic?"

I thought about Soo-ah's question for a moment, then spoke.

"...To put it in terms you'd get, say you want to be the fastest runner in your class."

"Huh? Fastest runner? What are we, elementary schoolers?"

I gave a slight shrug.

"It's an analogy. Anyway, there's someone way faster than you, so you can't win.

That's where magic comes in, to make yourself first place. Whether you make your legs faster or put a curse on the kid in first, whatever it takes."

I paused mid-step and looked at Soo-ah.

"The contradiction of this story is that if someone is truly talented, they can get what they want without needing magic at all."

The original fastest runner, I mean.

"Sure, magical talent probably exists, but you don't need to obsess over it. Whatever you'd have wouldn't be the real deal anyway."

Soo-ah listened to everything I said.

She pressed her index finger to her lips and thought for a moment, then,

"But magic is still my own power, right? So doesn't that mean I won first place with my own strength?"

She said with a playful grin.

"Anyway, I came in first in the race, so yay!"

She had a point.

You should live life with a positive attitude, after all.

I pointed my index finger at Soo-ah.

"That's wizard-like thinking right there. One point for student Soo-ah."

"Yay~ What's my total score? Do I get something at ten points?"

I said flatly,

"You get to feel good."

Soo-ah blinked.

"That's kind of underwhelming? But also kind of nice?"

"Things you can redeem with points are always kind of underwhelming."

"Fair point."

As I walked, I thought of the notebook I'd tucked inside my coat.

The wizard points were a joke, but if she collected ten, maybe it wouldn't be bad to give her the notebook where I'd compiled my magic knowledge.