Chapter 92 - House of the Lost (5)

Soo-ah and I walked toward the wall along the Cathedral courtyard, catching snowflakes as we went.

Soo-ah exhaled a puff of white breath and spoke.

"But how did you end up coming to Ellie unnie's place?"

"Some guys who hate me set a fire, so my house burned down."

I said casually.

"Kim Yo-han's Magic Classroom is closed for business."

"Ehhh! Honto!?"

"Honto." [TL: "Honto" is Japanese for "really," used colloquially in Korean.]

Crunch. I stepped on the snow that had already piled up and prepared to set up a Barrier near the wall.

A magical Barrier sounds impressive, but it wasn't anything grand. It used bread and wine, ritual symbols in Catholicism, to create an effect that warded off malevolent intrusion.

"Hold the wine for a sec."

Soo-ah obediently took the wine and spoke with a curious expression.

"Couldn't you have just set up a magical Barrier at your place too, Mister?"

"You need a yard for it. My place is a studio apartment, so there's no yard."

"Ahh."

A yard as a prerequisite for magic. That was where the conversation ended.

In any case, Ellie's Cathedral was bourgeois enough to have a large courtyard complete with a garden, so I began reciting the incantation.

I tore off a bit of bread and scattered the crumbs on the ground.

"Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell on Your holy hill...?"

Crackle.

I stopped the incantation at the sensation, like static electricity, that I felt at my fingertips as I was scattering the bread crumbs.

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

It wasn't that the spell had gone wrong or failed. It felt like something had bumped against it.

"Mister, what's wrong?"

"Something's interfering."

I followed the flow of Mana I had just sensed and walked toward the wall.

When I brushed my hand across it, I felt something carved into one of the bricks.

Shining my phone light on it, I saw the word "Aiel".

To confirm, I moved along the wall in a clockwise direction.

At regular intervals, words carved into bricks appeared in sequence.

Tual, Giel, Kael, Ol, Voil....

I stopped walking at the string of words, and Soo-ah, who had been following me and examining the bricks alongside me, tilted her head.

"What is it?"

"The next word on the brick is Yael."

"Huh?"

"I get the gist. Let's stop going around."

Further confirmation was pointless.

Soo-ah went dashing off, ta-ta-ta, to check for herself, then came back with a stunned expression.

"It really is! How did you know?"

"They're the names of the angels assigned to the twelve directions, the Twelve Houses of the Zodiac."

Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces.

Aiel, Tual, Giel, Kael, Ol, Voil, Yael, Sosol, Sizayasel, Kasuyoia, Ausial, Pasiel.

They were, in order, the angels presiding over the Twelve Houses of the Zodiac.

"...Directional Ward Magic, created by carving the names of angels in twelve directions."

Now I understood why I had felt that static-like sensation when I tried to recite the incantation.

A magical Barrier had already been set up.

Now that I knew, I could layer my own Barrier on top carefully, but... since the existing one was a higher-order method than what I had been attempting, I didn't see the need.

I lifted my head and gazed up at the Cathedral against the night sky where snow was falling.

I exhaled a puff of white breath.

"Whew...."

From the moment I saw Ellie using a Breathing Technique, I had expected this wasn't an ordinary cathedral, but.

'A magical Barrier....'

It really wasn't ordinary after all.

Had I not sensed the Barrier when I entered because Ellie had personally brought me in?

In any case.

"Mister, if you've got nothing left to do, let's go inside. I'm cold."

Soo-ah said, curling up inside her long puffer jacket.

"Ah! And write down the Barrier spell you were going to use today in the notebook for me."

I had given her a notebook with only safe spells of minimal effect organized in it.

Surprisingly, it seemed she had been studying it consistently.

"Sure."

It was a cathedral of unknown nature, but...

It was, for now, a place where I could safely spend the night.

I headed back with Soo-ah to the warm living quarters of the Cathedral.

***

A brawl between wizards in the middle of Seoul.

Shin Do-ryong dealt with the Murim Practitioners that Lee Mun-ryong had handed over.

He then immediately pursued and took down the wizards and Mercenaries who had fled.

The Special Operations Division agents who arrived late had fought the Mercenaries themselves, but...

"This is...."

They stared, wide-eyed, at the countless Mercenaries and wizards sprawled across the ground, then at Shin Do-ryong, the only person sitting calmly and resting.

For a swift cleanup, Shin Do-ryong, as Clan Head, also called in people from the Shin Family Main House's exorcist clan.

A refined beauty who looked young for her age, Shin Do-ryong's Paternal Aunt.

Shin Se-hee scolded Shin Do-ryong.

"All you do is run around causing havoc on your own... What would you do if you got hurt? Have some awareness that you're the Clan Head."

"...I did it because I could handle it."

Shin Do-ryong rose from his seat, and Team Leader Park approached with a report.

"The wizards causing the commotion were also dealt with by the Director... It seems to be resolved for now."

"But the gay Nazi Vampire himself got away fast, so we lost him."

Shin Do-ryong furrowed his brow.

Then Si-on, whom he had been waiting for, approached.

"Director, there's something I need to tell you."

Shin Do-ryong spoke in a softened voice.

"Go ahead. But first, you're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"...No, I'm not. Thank you for your concern. More importantly."

She showed him a video on a tablet screen as she spoke.

It was footage of Yo-han following Ellie through a walled gate and into the Cathedral.

"After the battle against the wizards targeting the Grimoire and Yoannis, it appears he took refuge in the Cathedral."

Si-on got straight to the point.

"Yo-han-ssi is the owner of the <Lemegeton> and a Civilian Collaborator, so the Special Operations Division needs to protect him immediately."

Shin Do-ryong gazed at the Cathedral shown in the footage, his eyes narrowing slowly.

"...It's a cathedral under the direct authority of the Vatican. If we touch it carelessly, things will get complicated."

He continued in a composed voice.

"Besides, that kid Yo-han isn't just a simple Civilian Collaborator anymore."

A wizard who had witnessed Yo-han drawing on the power of three Grimoires in the shopping mall hall had been captured by the Special Operations Division, and through that, it was revealed that Yo-han was the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>, <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, and one more Grimoire, three in total.

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

Si-on fell silent for a moment, and Shin Do-ryong spoke in a soft, low voice.

"For now, you've had a hard day, and there's still cleanup to handle. Let's talk about this later."

"...Understood."

Si-on quietly nodded.

***

Ellie's Cathedral also operated an orphanage, but it wasn't the main focus, so the number of orphans was small.

It was just the six girls I had seen during the campground incident before.

From what I heard, it was also a convent for nuns, so boys were sent to a partner orphanage, and only the girls who wanted to stayed and lived there.

When I finished washing up with warm water and came out in sleepwear,

the kids were huddled together in the living room watching a children's cartoon on TV.

Soo-ah had claimed one sofa for herself and was lying flat on it.

I watched TV blankly too, waiting for Ellie.

The plot was a typical adventure story about cute characters searching for treasure at sea.

[Haha! Kids! The treasure is calling us! Let's set sail!]

[Aye, Captain!]

[Woohoo~ An adventure!]

Rumble! Crash crash!

[Waaah! The Captain fell into the sea in a tidal wave and disappeared!]

[Here's the Captain's treasure map! Let's find the treasure in his place!]

Soo-ah, who had been watching the cartoon, blinked with an incredulous look on her face and said,

"Shouldn't they be looking for the Captain who fell in the water? These kids are absolutely crazy about money, aren't they?"

Well, she had a point, but...

I glanced sideways at Soo-ah and said,

"It's a kids' cartoon. The Captain's probably alive."

After watching the cartoon for a bit,

I looked at Soo-ah again.

It was a bit awkward to bring up, but now that I thought about it... there was something I needed to ask.

"...This is kind of out of nowhere, but. Could you lend me some money?"

I said it because I had to ask sooner or later anyway, but saying it out loud,

Soo-ah wasn't exactly an ordinary high schooler, but still...

No matter how rich her family was, here I was asking a high school girl to lend me money.

...No, age aside, the very idea of owing someone a debt wasn't great in the first place.

But Soo-ah turned her head toward me and spoke the same as always.

"How much?"

"It's not so much about how much. I need a laptop for work."

There was information gathering to do, and even if I later received Gold Coins through the Gnomes, I'd need to use the Mephisto Market to exchange them.

Using the Cathedral's shared computer to access the Mephisto Market was risky.

That was why I was thinking of getting a personal laptop while staying here.

"Got it. One moment."

Soo-ah got up from the sofa and sat down at the shared computer. She browsed laptops on Coupang.

"I don't really know laptops. I'll just pick one that looks decent."

Saying that, Soo-ah purchased a laptop in roughly the 1.5-million-won range that had a lot of reviews.

Of course, it was a loan, but...

I hadn't expected her to buy it so readily.

"Thanks. I'll pay you back as soon as I have the money."

"Hm?"

Soo-ah scrunched one eyebrow, then relaxed it and said,

"Forget it. It's not even my money anyway, it's my dad's. He's loaded, and you saved his daughter's life, so I'm sure he'd buy you a laptop."

Just then, the little kids who had been watching the cartoon shuffled over shyly.

"Soo-ah unnie... Can we get the Captain's Treasure Map set too..."

"What?"

Soo-ah propped her chin on the back of her hand with an exasperated expression.

"Do I look like a pushover? Do I look like a wallet to you? At least do a little song and dance or something."

The kids exchanged glances, then started bouncing and swaying their arms and legs to the ending theme song playing on the TV.

"...You're so off-beat it's kind of funny, though."

Watching them, Soo-ah added the Captain's Treasure Map set to the cart.

After that, Ellie, whom I had been waiting for, arrived.

"Yo-han-ssi, sorry to keep you waiting. Your room is ready."

"No, I barely waited at all. You didn't have to clean it up, but thanks."

I lay down on the bed in the guest room Ellie had shown me to and fell asleep immediately.

It had been a long day.

LMAOO i love her