Chapter 63 - The Great One (7)

Special Ops Team 3 office.

Since Kim Yo-han, the owner of a grimoire, had been assigned as Team 3's civilian collaborator,

Team 3's female agent Lee Hye-eun had been studying up to learn more about grimoires when a question came to mind, and she asked Si-on.

"How does someone become the owner of a grimoire? Is it bloodline? Talent?"

With the owner of <Lemegeton>, the most famous grimoire in the world, having appeared, it was only natural she'd be curious.

"Good question. ...However, bloodline is surprisingly not a major factor."

Si-on pressed her index finger to her lips, thought for a moment, then spoke.

"A grimoire does take an interest in its previous owner's children, but that's all it is, interest. If the child doesn't suit its taste, it leaves.

Even Rehoboam, King Solomon's own son, only received <The Key of Solomon>, a grimoire Solomon specifically created for his son. He was never chosen as the owner of <The Book of the Angel Raziel> or <Lemegeton>."

Si-on continued her explanation in a calm voice. She had possessed the knowledge to begin with, but having been assigned as Yo-han's handler, she had sought out and read even more records on grimoires.

"Magical talent is also important, but grimoires seem to prioritize personal taste above all else.

Even Isaac Newton, the greatest wizard Britain ever produced, was never a grimoire's owner."

Hye-eun was surprised for a different reason.

"What? Newton? He was a wizard!?"

"He's called the first modern man, but he's also known as the last wizard of the medieval era."

Returning to the topic of Yo-han's grimoire, Hye-eun flopped forward onto her desk, chest pressed against it, arms stretched out in front of her, and let out a sigh.

"...This Kim Yo-han person. He was chosen by King Solomon's grimoire, so... he won't cause trouble, right? ...I hate having more work piled on."

"That, I'm not so sure about. King Solomon himself wasn't exactly a paragon of virtue to begin with."

"What? He's in children's storybooks!"

"They only took the good parts."

An indispensable figure in the realm of magic.

Son of David, Solomon.

He was by no means a villain or a tyrant.

But was he simply a kindhearted saint? ...That wasn't the case either.

'One beloved by God.'

Receiving great wisdom and love from God,

he became the owner of <The Book of the Angel Raziel>, created his own unique magic, and through that power, subjugated the 72 demons of Hell, its kings, archdukes, generals, and nobles.

He governed his people with wisdom and brought prosperity to the Kingdom of Israel.

...And then he grew arrogant.

The genius wizard-king who deceived even the heavens.

In short, enter Solomon the Celestial Demon!

While basking in God's favor, he took countless beautiful foreign concubines who worshipped other gods.

He lavished his amassed wealth on his own pleasures without restraint.

'I don't even listen to my Mom and Dad!'

Wielding God's power and authority, he defied and ignored His word.

"That's..."

Seeing Hye-eun looking disheartened, Si-on added,

"Still, having gone on a mission with him myself, Yo-han-ssi doesn't seem like the type to cause problems. So don't worry too much."

Yo-han always tried to act rationally. And....

Si-on recalled the image of Yo-han shattering the false world a demon had created, using the light of the Pentacle.

That was truly a sight befitting the owner of a grimoire Solomon himself had crafted.

<The Lesser Key of Solomon>.

After all, <Lemegeton> was a grimoire for dominating and subjugating demons.

Not a grimoire that worshipped demonic power.

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

However... that didn't mean he wouldn't cause trouble.

It wasn't that he'd recklessly start problems; it was that if he set his mind to it, he absolutely could.

Especially if Si-on's speculative theory was correct, and Yo-han was also the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>.

"Shall we grab some coffee?"

In any case, Si-on offered some reassuring words to put Hye-eun at ease.

Then she checked the mission documents laid out in front of her for the upcoming operation.

'The Table of the Great Ones.'

It was material related to Chairman Kim, now confirmed to be a cannibal wizard.

***

A winter night street tinged with chill.

On the way to the bus stop, Soo-ah chattered away in a bright voice.

"Mister, so when are you going to have that meal with Ellie unnie?"

I answered casually.

"That dinner invitation was just Ellie being polite. She'd be put in an awkward spot if I actually called her."

"Hmm~ It didn't seem like just politeness to me. Sometimes she types your number into her phone and almost calls you, then stops."

"Really?"

After the camp incident, Ellie had said she'd buy me a meal. She actually meant it?

Trudge, trudge.

Soo-ah glanced down at the water bottle of Holy Water in her hand as she walked.

"I know it's a bit late to ask, but... the power that casts magic. Does something called mana really exist?"

Since this was a question related to her magic tutoring, I gave it some thought before answering.

"It might not be the perfect analogy, but to borrow Newton's words on gravity..."

'I do not know the cause of gravity. But it is certain that this force arises from some cause. And since gravity actually exists and acts according to its laws, that is sufficient.'

"We don't know why magic works. But it does. So mana exists."

Soo-ah stared at my face and blinked.

"Newton? Were you a science major, Mister? I thought you were humanities."

"...I was humanities. And even humanities majors know Newton."

Well, Newton was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, philosopher, alchemist, and more.

A polymath with so many specialties there was nothing he wasn't involved in.

And at this point, one might as well mention his less-than-cool side too.

When his cat had kittens, the mother cat's flap in the door would have worked just fine for both, but he went ahead and cut a separate smaller flap for the kittens. A lovable airhead, that one.

He invested his entire fortune in the South Sea Company stock, lost everything,

and reportedly stood at the docks wailing with dead-fish eyes,

'My entire fortune! Bakayaro! Fuzakeruna!!' [TL: Japanese expletives meaning "Idiot! Don't mess with me!!" - Newton's actual losses in the South Sea Bubble are historical; the Japanese is comedic embellishment by the narrator.]

Even a genius was helpless against the irrationality of the stock market. He even had that human touch covered.

'Isaac Newton! Even your human charm is the strongest of all!'

Modern philosophers are too tame. The philosophers of the past were far too multi-talented.

...Then again, back in that era, if all you could do was philosophy, you'd simply starve to death.

You had to be good at fighting, or have some other skill.

Every philosopher whose name survived... was a survivor.

Anyway.

Soo-ah walked in silence for a moment, thinking, then,

"I feel like I've barely learned one thing... A week is nowhere near enough."

she said in a deliberately bright voice.

"Mister, can't you tutor me in magic a little longer?"

She tilted her head slightly and looked up at me, maybe on purpose. Soo-ah's black hair slid smoothly down along the angle of her tilt.

For a split second, the thought 'Nice hair' crossed my mind.

"Pay up."

And my answer was simple.

"If you want to learn anything deeper, doing a bit of assistant work isn't going to cut it."

"Haha, fair point~."

Soo-ah laughed lightly, then murmured,

"If I told my dad I wanted to learn something weird like magic, he probably wouldn't give me the money. ...Actually, he doesn't care, so maybe it wouldn't matter."

Tap, tap. She walked a few steps ahead.

Soo-ah stopped, turned around, faced me, and said,

"Then, Mister, will you take me?"

Instantly, my eyes narrowed. I made a snap judgment.

'Fuck, this girl's trying to get someone thrown in jail.'

I quickly scanned the surroundings.

No one nearby filming. Soo-ah's phone? Was the recording function on?

At my reaction, Soo-ah made an incredulous expression and continued,

"I didn't mean it like that. You know... in fairy tales, people sometimes offer their children as servants to an evil wizard to get what they want."

Though even she seemed to realize how weird her own words sounded, and she averted her gaze slightly.

"...That's what I meant."

I let out a small sigh.

"That was the kind of statement that could easily make people think I'm scum if they overheard it."

"Okay, I'm sorry. ...So what do you say?"

I stared quietly at Soo-ah standing before me.

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

I didn't know the full details, but I could roughly guess.

From everything she'd said so far,

I didn't know what had happened between Soo-ah and her father, and I didn't care, but her father was neglecting her.

He gave her the money she needed but not his attention.

Most likely, Soo-ah didn't let it show, but she hated having to use her father's money.

My eyes involuntarily narrowed and my brow furrowed.

...Even so, it irritated me.

There was no real need to do this, but since I was her magic teacher right now, I looked at Soo-ah seriously and spoke.

"This pisses me off, so I'll say it. Don't throw words like that around so carelessly."

I valued myself above all else. The first thing a person should care about is themselves.

That's why seeing someone who didn't value themselves put me in a foul mood. It irritated me.

"Take care of yourself, and try to live your life a little more positiv..."

VROOM, CRASH!!

A black car veered onto the sidewalk and slammed into Yo-han's body.

SHATTER!!

Yo-han's body flew from the impact, smashing through a convenience store window and crumpling to the ground.

Soo-ah's eyes went wide and blank.

"...Mis, ter? Mister!"

Soo-ah tried to run to Yo-han, but

was immediately grabbed by Chief Kim, Chairman Kim's subordinate, who had stepped out of the black car.

"The Chairman has extended an invitation. Please come with us."

"Let go of me!"

At that moment, two of Soo-ah's bodyguards who had been following behind came running.

"Miss!"

Chief Kim drew a suppressed pistol from inside his jacket and pulled the trigger twice.

Bang! Bang!

The two bodyguards, who never expected someone to open fire in the middle of a street, died just like that.

At this, one of Chief Kim's subordinates spoke up cautiously.

There weren't many people around at the moment, but still....

"Um, Chief, this is...."

"Of course it's not fine."

Chief Kim clenched his teeth, his expression twisted.

"But right now, that bastard Chairman Kim has completely lost his mind."

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

"Cleanup comes later. If we don't bring her, we're dead."

Chief Kim radioed the van following behind, ordering them to collect the bodies.

He loaded Soo-ah, whose face was frozen in shock as she stared at Yo-han and the fallen bodyguards, into the car and drove off.

Screech.

The black car departed, and two of Chief Kim's men in black suits immediately stepped out of the van.

They collected the bodies lying in the street.

After shoving the bodyguards' corpses into the van, they approached Yo-han.

The convenience store clerk, who had been crouching nervously behind the counter, cautiously came out and asked,

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"What does it look like? Taking him to the hospital."

Chief Kim's men answered offhandedly as they lifted Yo-han's body.

And one of them sensed something off.

'...No wounds?'

He'd been hit by a car, yet he seemed somehow unscathed.

But he didn't think too deeply about it.

Probably hidden under the coat, or maybe his insides were wrecked.

They quickly loaded Yo-han into the van as well.

The two subordinates got into the driver's and passenger's seats to dispose of the bodies and pulled away.

"...Huh?"

...And the eyes of the one driving widened in surprise, then shock.

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

In the rearview mirror, he could see the man in the white coat, loaded in alongside the corpses, calmly opening his eyes.

And in his hands was an eerie book bound in a black iron cover that hadn't been there before.

THOOM.

The van suddenly grew heavier and lurched.

"Wh-what? ...Ah, AAAAGH!?"

The moment the subordinate in the passenger seat flinched, a 'CRACK' rang out as his head burst as if something invisible had seized and crushed it.

Blood splattered across the inside of the van.

The subordinate in the driver's seat tried to scream.

"Hee, eek! Haah! Aah..."

"Don't stop. Keep driving."

A low, cold voice rang out.

Through the rearview mirror, icy, blazing black eyes stared back.

"Just change the destination. It's not the hospital."

Then came what sounded like the snarl of an enraged beast.

"Gaaah...."

The subordinate in the driver's seat felt something envelop and grip his head.

Yet even though his face was clearly covered... he could see.

'Transparent? Glass? Transparent?'

"Haah... ahhh...."

Terror flooding his body, his teeth chattering, he gripped the steering wheel tight and drove.

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

I opened my coat and quietly checked inside.

[Sixth Pentacle of Mars]

'A spell that blocks fatal injuries.'

The metal Pentacle I had kept inside my coat flickered faintly.