Chapter 93 - Wild Hunt (1)

Not my small studio apartment, but the guest room at Ellie's Church.

Something was pressing down on my body, so I slowly opened my eyes and checked.

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

Had they moved on their own?

<De Vermis Mysteriis>, <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, and <Baopuzi> were stacked on top of me.

...This was why I kept waking up in the middle of the night.

<De Vermis Mysteriis> in particular, that bastard had a heavy iron cover and absolutely no shame.

I thought about just throwing them all on the floor, but....

These guys had gone through a lot following me yesterday, and I'd forcibly drained their Mana too, so they were probably running on empty.

"Mmm...."

I shifted slightly to the side to make some room.

I laid the Grimoires down, pulled the blanket over them, and gave them a few gentle pats.

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

'...Does this even mean anything?'

It felt like I was doing something stupid because I wasn't fully awake yet.

Kind of like one of those deadbeat boyfriends who are occasionally nice?

I quietly slipped out of bed and got up.

I was a bit tired, so I could probably close my eyes and fall back asleep, but....

Sleeping in carelessly at someone else's place was careless of me.

...Well, if I was going to think about it that way, the problem started the moment I fell asleep in the first place.

I drew the curtain and looked outside.

It was six in the morning.

Since it was winter, sunrise came late, and the outside was still dimly blue-dark.

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

And I could see Ellie clearing the snow that had piled up overnight.

If I hadn't seen her, that would've been one thing.

But having stayed the night here, being in her debt, I couldn't just pretend I didn't notice.

Worst case, after Ellie finished clearing the snow...

'Hey, I saw you looking at me earlier. And you went back to sleep? Get out.'

...If that happened, I'd have to start the morning without breakfast and go wandering again.

Well, knowing Ellie's personality, that probably wouldn't happen, but still.

In any case, I threw on some clothes and a coat and headed outside.

Ellie, her face slightly red from the cold, exhaled a puff of white breath and greeted me cheerfully.

"Yo-han-ssi! Good morning. You're up early!"

"...Good morning. Thanks to you, I slept well."

After I'd unconsciously dropped the formalities yesterday, I'd kept speaking casually since.

Going back to formal speech would've been awkward, so I just kept it casual.

Ellie herself didn't seem to mind either.

"Let me help you clear the snow."

"Ah! You must be tired, it's fine. Go back to sleep."

"It's fine, I'm already awake. Do you have a spare snow shovel?"

"There's one in the storage shed. I'll show you where it is. Let's go!"

It wasn't like I was helping with anything all that impressive.

But Ellie smiled softly, walked slightly ahead with a cheerful spring in her step, and showed me where the shed was.

"We only need to clear the path to the front gate, so everywhere else is fine."

She handed me a snow shovel.

"Got it."

I cleared the piled-up snow alongside Ellie.

That said, there hadn't been that much snow to begin with, and Ellie's shoveling speed was fast, so we finished quickly.

Judging by the pace, she really hadn't needed my help at all.

Anyway.

"Yo-han-ssi, we finished so quickly thanks to you. Thank you."

Ellie said in a bright voice, clapping her hands together.

"You must be hungry, right? I'll start making breakfast now."

She said that and headed back to the living quarters.

I stayed behind for a moment and breathed in the cool morning air, then exhaled.

"Phew...."

I had worked up a bit of a sweat, so I was definitely hungry.

I watched the sunrise gently illuminating the world.

Honestly, I hadn't expected to be able to watch the morning sun this peacefully.

"...Breakfast, huh."

I'd put in some work, so... there was no reason to refuse.

I headed back to the church too, washed up quickly, and came out.

A delicious smell was coming from the kitchen, and Ellie saw me and said,

"Soo-ah usually doesn't get up until past noon, and the kids will eat a bit later. Let's eat first."

And while I'd already guessed from the smell....

Ta-da!

The table was set with several side dishes and a hearty soybean paste stew packed with brisket.

'...That's a solid breakfast.'

Ellie said in a careful voice.

"I heard from Soo-ah that you like rice... Is this not to your taste?"

"No, it's just that I imagined a Western-style church breakfast would be bread and soup, so this is unexpected."

She spoke Korean well, but Ellie was still a foreigner, after all.

"Haha~ We eat that way too sometimes."

Ellie laughed, and I sat down.

"Thanks, I'll eat well."

I tried the soybean paste stew from my bowl and said,

"It's good."

That wasn't just a polite remark. It was genuinely delicious.

At that, Ellie said in a bright voice,

"I'm glad. Please eat lots!"

Eating breakfast together with Ellie like this.

Si-on came to mind without thinking.

Come to think of it, when we were trapped in the Anomaly Dating Sim world before, Si-on had always prepared meals for me.

Si-on preferred bread for breakfast, so she kept things simple.

A slice of toast, a fried egg, and a salad.

She did add extra bacon or sausage for me, but Si-on usually ate just that.

Her mouth was small too, so the way she took tiny bites and chewed slowly was kind of cute.

Even if she was from the Special Operations Division, cute was still cute.

It was just an idle thought.

Like how you know a panda can easily tear a person apart, but it's still cute.

In any case, the breakfast Ellie made was delicious.

***

Bureau for Abnormal Phenomena Countermeasures, conference room.

Given the severity of the situation, a meeting had been called early in the morning.

Shin Do-ryong frowned and looked at Shin Se-hee.

"Why are you here, Paternal Aunt?"

"You worked me to the bone last night and now you're going to call me an outsider? I'm here as an elder of the Exorcist Clan."

Shin Do-ryong let out a light sigh and spoke to a Special Operations Division agent.

"Proceed."

Considering what was happening in Seoul right now, he was going to have to put the clan's exorcists to work anyway.

The meeting moderator gave a brief overview of the situation.

Wizards had gathered and caused chaos, drawn by the bounty placed on the Grimoire <De Vermis Mysteriis> itself and its owner.

That matter, at least, was settled.

The vampire Yoannis, the mastermind behind the incident, had fled into hiding.

But most of the wizards and mercenaries who had caused the rampage were either dead or subdued.

Cleanup and information control were being carried out diligently.

The problem was that so much supernatural energy had gathered in one place that it had begun to amplify itself.

As a result, Anomalous Phenomena across Seoul had increased.

"Cases were already on the rise recently, but... it seems this current rode that wave. One particular Anomalous Phenomenon has manifested."

The agent conducting the meeting pulled up materials on the presentation screen and continued.

"In Europe, where the wizard population is large, they call this phenomenon the Wild Hunt. It refers to a period when faeries, demons, and monsters hunt humans. The Eastern equivalent would be the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons."

An Anomalous Phenomenon in which Anomalies themselves grew stronger.

Shin Do-ryong spoke in a calm voice.

"In exorcist terms, it's cleanup time. I've experienced a Night Parade of One Hundred Demons before."

Shin Do-ryong then gave brief instructions to each Special Operations Division team.

Everyone was tired from yesterday's events as well.

Since the meeting was held mainly to assess the situation, it wrapped up quickly.

However, one truly critical piece of information.

<De Vermis Mysteriis>, <The Lesser Key of Solomon>, <Baopuzi>.

The owner of three Grimoires.

Information about Kim Yo-han was not disclosed.

To begin with, even the fact that Yo-han was a Civilian Collaborator of the Special Operations Division and the owner of <The Lesser Key of Solomon> was a secret outside of Si-on's Team 3 and a select few, so the number of agents who knew about Yo-han was small.

And now, in Shin Do-ryong's director's office.

Regarding Yo-han's treatment, Si-on had come to speak with Shin Do-ryong privately.

"The culprit behind the university murders, it was Kim Yo-han after all, just as you initially suspected."

Si-on swallowed her tension and did her best to speak in a calm voice.

"...That's correct. However, rather than calling it murder, it may be more accurate to reclassify it as an accident."

Shin Do-ryong silently watched Si-on.

"Both the first incident near the university district and the second incident in the university classroom carried the risk of his identity being exposed. The Yo-han-ssi I observed up close is not the kind of person who would do something like that."

Si-on continued.

"Therefore, I believe it should be classified as an accident caused by the Grimoire going berserk, something even the Grimoire's owner did not anticipate."

She had been the one in the Special Operations Division who suspected Yo-han more than anyone, and she never expected she'd end up defending him.

But the Yo-han Si-on had seen was more than just the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>.

"...Of course, since people died, it cannot be taken lightly. Even so, I believe Yo-han-ssi's help is needed to deal with the current Wild Hunt Anomalous Phenomenon and to stop Yoannis, the leader of the Madas Clan."

She looked straight at Shin Do-ryong with calm, dark eyes.

"Therefore, I believe it would be a premature decision to treat the owner of the Grimoire <De Vermis Mysteriis> as a hostile party."

"Hmm... Alright, understood for now."

Shin Do-ryong gave a light nod, and Si-on rose from her seat and left the director's office.

Outside, she ran into Shin Se-hee, who had been waiting.

Though the age gap between Se-hee and Shin Do-ryong wasn't large, to Si-on she was a great-aunt.

Also, setting aside the fact that Shin Se-hee opposed Si-on succeeding Shin Do-ryong as Clan Head, Se-hee had looked after Si-on before her stepmother came into the picture, and they were on good terms.

Si-on bowed her head in greeting, and Shin Se-hee nodded before entering the director's office and saying,

"That child looks more and more like her mother as time goes on."

"She's her daughter, so of course she does."

"Hmph! ...What is this?"

Shin Se-hee picked up the documents related to Yo-han that were sitting on the desk and began looking through them.

She came across Yo-han's photograph.

"This child is...?"

And in that instant, memories from the past surged through her mind like a storm.

Shin Se-hee's father, who was Shin Do-ryong's grandfather.

The Clan Head of the Shin Clan two generations prior had been a bold man, in both the best and worst senses of the word.

'If they're my seed, they're all my kids. What's the point of raising them separately?'

He raised every child born from his various lovers and concubines under one roof.

And naturally, infighting broke out and many blood relatives died.

Shin Se-hee, however, was a child her father had late in life, so she was too young to be seen as a threat.

She grew up as a proper young lady of the main house.

Because of that, despite being Shin Do-ryong's paternal aunt on the family register, the age gap between them was only six years.

When Shin Se-hee was seven and Shin Do-ryong was one.

"Ababoo~ booboo~."

"So cute! I'm going to carry him and hold him and raise him myself!"

Shin Do-ryong's mother had died during childbirth, and his father dismissed him as a cursed little viper. It was Se-hee who cared for him.

When Shin Se-hee was eight and Shin Do-ryong was two.

"Mama~ Mama~."

"Not Mama, I'm your Paternal Aunt! Paternal Aunt Se-hee!"

"Auntie~ Auntie~ Aunt."

"So smart! The smartest, cutest baby in the whole world!"

When Shin Se-hee was fourteen and Shin Do-ryong was eight.

Feeling sorry for Shin Do-ryong, who was undergoing training that bordered on abuse, Se-hee looked after him even more.

"You worked hard at training again today. ...Is there anything you want to eat?"

"Hamburg steak! The hamburg steak Se-hee-noona makes is the best!"

"Hehe~ Not noona, I'm your Paternal Aunt."

When Shin Se-hee was twenty-two and Shin Do-ryong was sixteen.

His older brother died during a yokai extermination, and the younger brother, who had run away in fear, later took his own life, dreading their father's reprimand.

On a rainy day, Se-hee held an umbrella over Shin Do-ryong as he silently stared down at the bodies of his brothers, left unattended because their father had called them pathetic.

"...You'll catch a cold."

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

When Shin Se-hee was twenty-four and Shin Do-ryong was eighteen.

"You can't just hit a clan elder! Honestly!"

"That bastard called you defective. It pissed me off."

Shin Se-hee had been born with a condition that made it impossible for her to bear children, so she'd been called defective before.

"...You're going to be the next Clan Head, you know. Act with more dignity. And it's not 'you', it's Paternal Aunt."

When Shin Se-hee was twenty-six and Shin Do-ryong was twenty.

"Why didn't you show up to the arranged meeting yesterday?! It was important... And who are those women next to you!?"

Shin Do-ryong scrunched up his face at Se-hee's nagging and shouted.

Thud!

"Shut up! Am I a kid? Stop telling me what to do!"

"Waaaaaah!"

Shin Se-hee cried the hardest she'd ever cried that day, and it took Shin Do-ryong a whole week to console her.

End of flashback.

Shin Se-hee came back to her senses and stared blankly at Yo-han's photograph.

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

Her eyes slowly narrowed, and her fingers gently pressed against her lips.

Then she turned her head and looked at Shin Do-ryong.

Shin Do-ryong tilted his head.

"What?"