Chapter 67 - Encirclement (1)

Lick, lick~.

I slowly blinked awake to the sensation of something lapping at my cheek.

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

The hotel ceiling I'd last seen before falling asleep came into view.

Thankfully, it seemed I hadn't been attacked in my sleep or kidnapped to some other location.

Well, that was exactly what I'd prepared for.

Before losing consciousness entirely, I'd summoned Grizzly in the room.

When I turned my head slightly to the left, following the feel of an invisible tongue against my cheek,

"Gyaaaa~."

Grizzly, who had been curled up beneath the bed licking my cheek, cried out happily upon seeing me wake.

I stroked Grizzly's head and spoke quietly.

"Good job. ...You ate plenty yesterday, so I'll feed you later."

"Gyagya~."

I dismissed Grizzly's summoning.

Then I rustled upright in bed, raising my upper body, and turned my head to the right this time.

Maybe because it was a double-sized bed,

"Mm... mmn...."

I could see Soo-ah sleeping a short distance away, curled up on her side.

...Well, after being kidnapped yesterday and seeing so many terrifying things,

she probably hadn't wanted to sleep alone in another room.

Next, I touched the sensation I felt on my forehead to check.

There was gauze stuck over the cut.

I looked again at Soo-ah's face as she slept beside me.

...Had she been nursing me and fallen asleep?

If so, that was rather thoughtful of her.

Perhaps the sound of me rustling awake had woken Soo-ah too.

"Mmn...?"

She tossed and opened her eyes, and our gazes met.

"Ah...."

Soo-ah stared at my face blankly for a moment.

"...You're up?"

"Just now."

She glanced carefully at my forehead and spoke.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine. Thanks for the gauze."

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

Soo-ah abruptly turned her head away, then rustled upright herself.

Smoothing down her messy bedhead, she said,

"So... what are you going to do now?"

I scratched my head and swept my hair back, thinking over her words for a moment.

'Good question, what do I do now?'

No, to be precise, there was plenty to do.

It was just that, honestly, there were so many things to worry about and think through that I couldn't figure out where to start.

So for now....

"How about we wash up and grab some breakfast first?"

Gurgle....

Both our stomachs rumbled at the same time.

After everything we'd been through yesterday,

it was a meal for recovering our strength.

***

While washing up, I peeled off the gauze on my forehead to check.

It hadn't been a big wound to begin with, but the cut on my forehead had healed completely.

'...Did residual healing magic help the recovery?'

Anyway, the hotel breakfast buffet.

Of course the food was less extravagant compared to the dinner buffet, but it was only that there were fewer greasy dishes.

As expected of an expensive luxury hotel, right?

There was a wide variety of food suitable for breakfast,

and it all looked quite appetizing from the outside.

"Hmm...."

I walked with a plate in hand, surveying the neatly arranged buffet offerings.

Part of me wanted to grab the meat dishes right away, but....

Not now! I headed toward the vegetable section.

First, I put a small serving of mushroom namul on my plate.

This was my first meal after falling asleep on an empty stomach while exhausted.

So I'd start with vegetable side dishes to ease the burden on my stomach.

I returned to my seat and sat down, picking up a mushroom with my chopsticks.

"Oh?"

I noticed traces of charring on the mushroom. It wasn't plain mushroom namul; it was stir-fried mushroom namul.

And when I put the stir-fried mushroom in my mouth to taste it,

'This is...?'

My eyes paused for a moment, then narrowed.

It didn't taste strange or bad.

...Quite the opposite, actually.

'What is this savory sweetness-!?'

Butter? Had they sautéed the mushrooms in butter? ...No, it wasn't butter. That lingering umami flavor....

It hit me.

...Oyster sauce. They'd stir-fried the mushrooms in oyster sauce, giving them that breath-of-the-wok flavor.

Then finished with a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

'Damn... that's good.'

"-Ha."

My mood lifted. I let out a quiet, light laugh.

It wasn't as though any extraordinary ingredients had been used or any complicated process was involved.

But the fact that someone had put this much care into a single mushroom side dish that nobody would pay attention to.

I'd been blindsided.

...And then.

Soo-ah, sitting across from me, had witnessed the ghouls' horrific human-flesh party just yesterday.

'...Is he seriously getting happy over stir-fried mushrooms right now?'

She watched me with an incredulous look as I smiled faintly.

In any case.

After finishing a reasonably filling meal,

Soo-ah and I sat in the back section of the hotel lounge, sipping coffee and talking....

To be precise, we decided to discuss what lay ahead.

Soo-ah reported first on what she'd done while I was asleep.

"Mister, the blood on your coat was really noticeable, so I sent it to my house for cleaning. I put the things from the inner pockets in the hotel dresser drawer."

...It was true that blood on a white coat would stand out even more.

The hotel might not think much of it, assuming it was paint, but since it was actual blood,

sending it to Soo-ah's house instead of using the hotel's service was a sensible call.

"I told my dad's secretary that you saved me when I was about to be taken, so I wasn't taken. ...Is that okay?"

"It's better to get our story straight that we never went to the building in the first place. ...Though they'd catch that lie quick if they checked the building's CCTV."

It wasn't that I regretted what happened yesterday.

...I'd just been so furious that I'd caused a scene too openly.

But something bothered me. I checked my phone. No missed calls.

The dangerous woman with black hair, a youthful face that still carried a composed expression.

'Shin Si-on....'

An entire building full of people had vanished, ghouls or not.

It was a large-scale paranormal incident.

...Yet the Special Operations Division was far too quiet. Silent.

At the earliest, I'd figured around the time I finished breakfast,

Si-on would've reviewed the building's CCTV footage and come marching in with her Special Ops agents, each of them armed and ready to rough me up.

'Yo-han-ssi, let's go.'

'...Can't you at least give me time to finish a cup of coffee?'

Clang-!?

'Hey! Don't try anything funny! Everyone, let's beat this guy up good!'

'Yaaaah! Get him!'

Clang! Clang! Clang clang clang!!

I glanced toward the hotel lounge entrance.

...Thankfully, nothing like that had happened yet.

My eyes narrowed.

Had they not even discovered the incident itself yet?

This was something I should have done before losing consciousness.

Should I go to the building now and erase the evidence?

Or, since it had been the night of a cannibalistic party, had Chairman Kim deliberately turned off the CCTV that could leave evidence?

It was possible, but too optimistic.

As I sat there racking my brain,

<The Lesser Key of Solomon> fluttered and opened on its own.

Soo-ah flinched at the sight, but since she already knew magic existed, she didn't pester me with questions or make a fuss.

I looked at the page it had opened to and furrowed my brow.

It was the page for Paimon, the 9th of Solomon's 72 demons.

Written on that page was text that clearly hadn't been there originally, nor had I written it.

[Complimentary service~ Your Majesty]

There was no need to even guess who'd sent it... a thoroughly unpleasant little note.

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

Now I had a pretty good idea why the Special Operations Division hadn't come to arrest me, why everything was so quiet.

Most likely, Paimon's side had done something to the building and erased all evidence that Soo-ah and I had been there.

Was this some attempt to put me in his debt?

I decided to employ the Solomonic method of dealing with demons. Dine and dash.

Thwap-.

I closed <The Lesser Key of Solomon>.

Thanks for the service, but let's not see each other.

I'd already resolved this, but I resolved it again.

I would not summon demons.

Soo-ah watched me and spoke cautiously.

"Mister, what's wrong? Do we need to run? ...Want to come to my house for now?"

"No, it's fine. I don't think there'll be any immediate problems."

I knew she was being polite, but the offer to hide me at her house was appreciated.

It was also a bit absurd.

I let out a light laugh and took a sip of coffee.

"You should get some rest too. When did they say the coat cleaning would be done?"

"Ah, I'll call and ask."

Once again, it seemed like things had more or less worked out somehow.

***

The dining gathering hosted by the cannibal wizard Chairman Kim.

The Table of the Great Ones had been designated a paranormal incident.

And the Special Ops agents who had raided the building, which served both as the gathering's venue and as Chairman Kim's wizard workshop, sensed something was off.

".........?"

It was a wizard's workshop. Naturally, they'd planned their operation expecting all manner of strange and dangerous things to appear.

...But this strangeness was a different kind of strangeness.

There was nothing.

To be precise, not a single person was in sight.

Neither Chairman Kim himself nor his private soldiers were anywhere to be found.

The building was clearly well-maintained, yet an eerie silence hung over it, as if it had been abandoned for years.

The tools used to prepare human flesh remained, but not a single drop of blood was left.

The only things that could be considered evidence were a single broken window, the only one unlike all the others, and a few pieces of destroyed furniture that appeared to be traces of a fight in the party hall.

They checked the CCTV, hoping it might shed light on what had happened here, but....

Zzzzt-.

Only black noise filled the screen. The electronic devices inside the building had been completely destroyed.

Bureau for Abnormal Phenomena Countermeasures, firing range.

Bang! Ba-bang! Bang bang!

Si-on stopped her shooting practice.

She read the building investigation report that her subordinate Lee Hye-eun had rushed in with, then spoke in a composed voice.

"It's a blackout phenomenon."

"Uh... you don't mean it in the sense of a power outage, or the medical term for losing consciousness, right?"

Given the situation, the operation would need to be revised. Si-on checked her equipment as she spoke.

"I'm using it as an occult term. This occasionally happens in paranormal incidents. Just as light illuminates darkness, the reverse can occur, where darkness blots out the light. Electronic devices get destroyed."

However, for them to be destroyed this thoroughly, no half-baked anomaly could have caused it.

...What on earth had happened in that building?

And currently, the criminal who had been their target from the start, the sole person possessing evidence of what had occurred in the building, was on the run, having lost his power base.

An anomaly that had devoured countless people.

The cannibal wizard, Chairman Kim.

Fully armed, Si-on addressed the members of Team 3.

"Effective immediately, Team 3 will also be joining the pursuit operation for Chairman Kim."