Chapter 71 - Encirclement (5)

The vampires' hideout.

Yoannis looked down at Chairman Kim, who was breathing roughly, and spoke in a playful voice.

"I look away for a moment and... you've become an arm-cut."

"What?"

Chairman Kim scowled at the incomprehensible remark for a moment.

"...You crazy son of a bitch-!"

Then understanding hit, and his face twisted as he clutched his severed left arm.

"Hahaha~."

Yoannis laughed and handed over Chairman Kim's severed arm along with a blood pack he had recovered.

"You're alive, so that's good enough, isn't it? Here's some blood. Drink while you listen."

Chairman Kim's face was still twisted, but.

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

He obediently took the severed arm, pressed it to the stump, and drank the blood.

Slurp, slurp-.

Yoannis spoke in order to assess the situation.

"First off, I can tell something serious happened at your building. What went down?"

Chairman Kim finished drinking the blood from the pack and answered with a confused expression.

"...I don't know either."

"So you're saying the entire building was hit by a massive, incomprehensible magical attack out of nowhere."

Yoannis nodded and thought for a moment before speaking.

"Hmm... The owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>, perhaps?"

"What-!?"

Chairman Kim flinched in shock, and Yoannis shrugged.

"Process of elimination. The only wizard in Korea right now capable of pulling off something like this would be the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>."

To be frank, even beyond Korea, in all of Europe where the wizard population was far greater, finding someone capable of this wouldn't be easy either.

'...No, but seriously, how did they do it?'

Aside from Chairman Kim, who had escaped early on, there were no other survivors.

In a brief span of time, everyone in the building had been massacred. Not a single drop of blood left behind.

Given the enormous magical energy that had been detected... it seemed like something had been summoned, but....

If <De Vermis Mysteriis> had been used, there would have been a messier aftermath, with corpses or traces left behind.

Could the owner possess some other means besides <De Vermis Mysteriis>? Or was this an unexpected third party?

In any case, Yoannis's mind was turning.

Perhaps this very incident.

Could also be a chance to uncover information about the hidden owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>.

Even if it turned out not to be them, it would still mean gaining intel on another dangerous wizard.

Either way, it would help in formulating future plans.

"It could be that someone stumbled upon your distasteful little dinner gathering by chance and wiped everyone out, but."

Yoannis's blue eyes fixed on Chairman Kim.

"Even the smallest detail is fine. Was there anything different about that gathering compared to the usual ones?"

Chairman Kim, his mind still in disarray, recalled the last conversation he'd had with his secretary.

"The only thing different was... we brought along a girl named Namgung Soo-ah, Namgung Soo's daughter, to use as leverage against him...."

"Good. There's something right away."

Yoannis ordered his subordinate vampires to look into Namgung Soo's side. Including confirming whether Soo-ah was alive or dead.

"Everyone who attended the dinner gathering is dead. If this girl Soo-ah is the only one who survived, then there really is a connection."

Then his secretary, Mia, approached Yoannis and reported.

"Master, as you commanded, I've raised the bounty on the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis> to 10 billion won."

Chairman Kim's eyes went wide with shock.

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

Yoannis spoke nonchalantly to the stunned Chairman Kim.

There was no objection. After all, the largest wizard faction on Korean soil now was Yoannis's vampire clan.

"Troublesome, dangerous types who've sensed something unusual are going to come swarming in anyway.

Inside the dimly lit room.

"Since that's how things stand, let's push the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis> even harder."

The eyes of the vampires who had arrived from America gleamed.

***

Bureau for Abnormal Phenomena Countermeasures, medical ward.

A gentle-looking woman with neat bobbed hair and glasses.

Min Min-hwa, owner of the grimoire <Dongui Bogam>, was busy moving about with the medical team, treating the wounded from the Special Operations Division.

Thanks to her, there were no further deaths among the injured.

Team 3 agent Lee Hye-eun came out of the medical ward and approached Si-on, who was resting in a chair in the hallway.

"...We're really lucky Min-hwa-ssi is here."

"Yes, we really are."

Her expression was calm and neutral, but Si-on nodded with genuine sincerity.

Hye-eun recalled the <Dongui Bogam> in Min-hwa's hands and said,

"The Director's <Muyedobot'ongji> is the same way, but what exactly are the criteria for a grimoire? ...If we just rummaged through museums, couldn't we arm our whole team with grimoires?"

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

Hmm... That would be a problem in its own way....

"According to the research data, the item needs to have some degree of connection to the mystical."

Si-on explained in a calm voice.

"Unofficial historical accounts say that Baek Dong-su, the author of the <Muyedobot'ongji>, was a disciple of Kim Gwang-taek, the Sword Immortal."

"...Sword Immortal?"

"They say his swordsmanship reached a transcendent level, and though I'm not sure if it's true, apparently even in old age his skin remained pale and unwrinkled, making him look like a child."

"Sounds like something out of a martial arts novel, like Rejuvenation."

And while they were resting and chatting casually like this.

Buzz! Buzz!

Si-on's phone rang, and when she checked who was calling.

...It was Yo-han.

"Excuse me for a moment."

Si-on stood up and answered the phone around a deserted corner of the hallway.

"Yes, this is Si-on."

***

Yo-han's small studio apartment.

First, I checked to see if there were any signs of someone breaking into my place.

Paimon had said he'd erased the evidence, but.

What if someone suspected me as the culprit behind the building incident on a hunch alone?

What if they'd installed surveillance cameras or something while I was away from home?

That said, I'd only been gone for one night, so I didn't really think anything would actually be there.

In any case, fortunately, there were indeed no signs of intrusion, and no surveillance cameras either.

Well, I wasn't a professional detective, so if I'd missed something, there was nothing I could do about it.

After finishing my brief check.

I filled a bowl to the brim with milk and meat and gave Grizzly his meal.

"You held out well. Eat up."

"Gyaaa~."

I never thought I'd feel this way, but....

Chomp chomp~.

I stared blankly at Grizzly happily eating for a while, letting it heal me.

Then I sat in my chair and turned to the complicated thoughts I'd been putting off.

My eyes narrowed.

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

The first thing I needed to confirm was whether Chairman Kim was alive or dead.

I had summoned an army of demons and swept the building clean, but.

The problem was that I hadn't even seen Chairman Kim's face.

If he'd been caught up in it and died, that would be fortunate, but... if not, I had to find him and finish the job for certain.

I looked at Si-on's number in my phone contacts.

...There was an easy way to check.

Since an incident had broken out, the Special Operations Division would have mobilized.

I could just ask Si-on.

But before that... I turned on my computer and logged into [Mephisto Market].

I had no idea why he ate human flesh, but.

Chairman Kim was a wizard with social standing, one who owned an entire large building.

It was possible he was a [Mephisto Market] user.

If he was alive, he might have posted something related to the building incident.

And even if not, there could be some kind of information.

And then.

As I scrolled through the latest Korean-related posts flooding in one after another.

"Fuck...."

I came face to face with the scale of what I had caused.

There were other posts too, but almost all of them were buzzing about what had happened in Korea.

'...Did the ripple of magical energy register like an earthquake or something?'

If word had already spread among wizards to this extent, there was no point in lying low anymore.

I called Si-on right away.

Buzz-. Buzz-.

After a few rings, Si-on's calm voice came through.

"Yes, this is Si-on."

"Sorry for calling so late. It's just, something...."

It was embarrassing to say, considering I was the one who'd caused it, but I went ahead.

"It seems like something serious happened, and I also have something I'd like to discuss."

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

There was the sound of a breath being drawn on the other end of the line, then Si-on's voice came through.

"...I suppose a wizard of your caliber would have sensed something, Yo-han-ssi. However, we're still in the middle of our investigation, so I can't share the details just yet.

If we end up formally requesting your cooperation later, I'll fill you in then. But what did you want to discuss?"

I wasn't thrilled about it, but if I wanted to get information, I had to reveal some of my own.

I kept the specific details hidden and told her the gist:

That I'd been attacked by Chairman Kim's subordinates while taking Soo-ah, whom I'd gotten to know during the campground incident, back to her home.

Si-on was startled at the name "Chairman Kim" and after a moment of deliberation, she shared the situation with me.

"You're a civilian collaborator, Yo-han-ssi, and... if you're involved, then you're involved."

As I had previously guessed, Chairman Kim turned out to be the parent of Kim Mi-ryeo, the cannibalistic wizard who had been running the front ranch.

He had apparently been operating a dinner gathering where people were kidnapped, killed, and their flesh consumed.

Well, I already knew that part, so I let it go in one ear and out the other.

What mattered was this: during the serious incident (the demon summoning I had carried out), Chairman Kim had fled.

The Special Operations Division had pursued him, but an outside force, another collaborator of Chairman Kim's, had appeared and taken him away.

At the news that Chairman Kim was alive.

"Thanks for telling me. Would it be possible to share updates on the Chairman Kim case going forward?"

My eyes naturally narrowed, cool and steady.

"I'll cooperate too. There's the Weekend Ranch case, and while I wasn't the target this time, I was still attacked."

It wasn't like I'd wanted to become a civilian collaborator for the Special Operations Division, but.

"Like you said, I'm a civilian collaborator, and if I'm involved, I'm involved."

Since that was already the case, I would use every resource available to me.

Now that I knew Chairman Kim was alive and that he had collaborators.

I would use the Special Operations Division to corner them.

My dark eyes smoldered quietly.

I stroked the head of Grizzly, who had finished eating and padded over silently.

This time, I would kill him for certain.