Chapter 97 - Wild Hunt (5)

A selfie of a black-haired pretty girl striking a pose... Soo-ah selfie.

Leaving aside the self-proclaimed adorably cute wallpaper.

'...Well, objectively speaking, she is cute.'

It was just her personality that was weird.

...Then again, was I really one to talk?

Anyway, I clicked around with the mouse and tried out the laptop's features.

Soo-ah watched me do this for a while, then.

"Hmm~ Mister, your phone's all scratched up?"

She picked up my phone that I'd left lying around and said playfully.

"~Want me to buy you a phone too?"

"I'm not replacing it, kid."

I cut her off flatly and guarded my phone screen.

After chatting about trivial things and hanging out for a bit, Soo-ah went back to her room.

Click.

I locked the door.

Opened the desk drawer.

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

I took out the meat and small milk carton I'd swiped from the Orphanage fridge and poured them onto a plate.

Looking at it, it was stew meat... If the side dishes were short on meat tomorrow, I'd be the culprit.

...I'd have to restock it tomorrow.

To conserve energy, I called out Grizzly, who had been sleeping inside <De Vermis Mysteriis>.

"Gyaaaa~."

Considering how much Grizzly usually ate, this was barely a snack, but it had also exerted itself fighting the clown aberration.

Just leaving it inside the grimoire and starving it entirely didn't sit right with me.

"Gya gya~!"

Grizzly swallowed everything in one bite and licked the remaining drops of milk from the bottom of the small dish.

Watching that, I stroked Grizzly's head.

"I'll go to the bank tomorrow, get a new card, and feed you plenty."

Now that I knew the Special Operations Division wasn't hostile toward me.

It was possible to go to the bank and get a card reissued.

Still, things weren't exactly comfortable.

A fair amount of money had gone toward making Pentacles out of gold, silver, and alloy materials, and I'd usually used the money in my regular account first whenever I needed to spend, so there wasn't much left.

Considering Grizzly's food costs in the current situation, plus other expenses, things were far from comfortable.

It was emergency money in the truest sense, which was why I'd been saving it.

...It stung that the 100 million won of Kim Mi-ryeo's emergency funds I'd stored in the Secret Workshop safe had vanished before I could even use it.

"Gyaaaa~."

Grizzly stretched its head toward me and licked my cheek with its translucent tongue.

Lick lick.

I hoped this was a display of affection and not because I looked tasty.

I scratched Grizzly's head.

"Gyaooo~."

Before long, Grizzly showed interest in the new room that had become its temporary shelter and began looking around.

"Gyaa?"

A simple but decent room with a bed, desk, and wardrobe.

But Grizzly whipped its head around as if searching for something, then looked at me and cried out as if something was wrong.

"Gyaa!? Gya gya... Gya gya gya gya gya...!"

If I were to translate that into human language, it would be something like:

'Master! Something's wrong here! There's no fridge!'

...or so I figured.

"Haah...."

I let out a quiet sigh.

First order of business tomorrow, buy a personal mini fridge.

I'd need one anyway to store meat, milk, and Grizzly's food.

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

I summoned the Gnomes.

The Gnomes emerged from the floor and looked up at me.

"What's going on, Gnome?"

"Can we play in the room again, Gnome?"

"...Have you guys gathered any gold coins again?"

At my words, the Gnomes tilted their heads and looked at each other's faces.

"Got gold coins, Gnome?"

"Don't got any, Gnome."

"Uhihi~ The snacks Master gives us taste better than rocks, Gnome!"

"That's right, that's right! Crackers and star candies taste better, Gnome!"

"Gnome is no longer a wild Gnome, but a domesticated Gnome, Gnome!"

They shook their heads or giggled.

'Damn... Should I confiscate all their snacks?'

A mean thought crossed my mind for a moment, but I dropped it.

I didn't want to mistreat them over food.

'...Then again, gold coins wouldn't be that easy to gather.'

I patted the Gnomes on the head and sent them back.

But a moment later.

One Gnome quietly glanced around and approached me.

"Hehe~ Emergency snack gold coin, Gnome."

It pulled out a single gold coin from its fluffy beard pouch and beamed.

"Master needs it so I'm giving it, Gnome. It's a secret from the other Gnomes, Gnome."

I looked down at the Gnome in surprise.

"Gnome...!"

"Master...!"

The Gnome looked up at me with sparkling eyes.

How heartwarming~.

However, after that, two more Gnomes came by one after another, said the exact same thing as the first, and handed me gold coins.

The total came to three gold coins.

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...And in stark contrast to this peaceful atmosphere, outside the dark cathedral.

On a building rooftop with a view of the cathedral, a group of mercenaries watched the walled cathedral through binoculars.

"How's it look? Think the guy's coming out?"

At his fellow mercenary's question, the one on watch paused his surveillance and spoke.

"No, there's been no sign of him coming out since he went in earlier."

"...Should we have gone for him back then after all?"

"The nun was with him too. If she got caught up in it, we wouldn't come out looking good either."

Since it was a cathedral directly under the Vatican, touching the nun or the orphans would invite retaliatory punishment as an example.

"From what I've observed, there's also a civilian who's not affiliated with the Vatican."

That was, naturally, Namgung Soo-ah, the other freeloader at the cathedral along with Yo-han.

In terms of freeloading seniority, Yo-han was her senior.

Given that the heiress of a chaebol family was mooching off an orphanage, she was arguably worse than Yo-han, who was staying there because his home had burned down and he had nowhere else to go.

"No idea if it'll work, but how about we kidnap that girl and use her as bait to lure him out? Even if it fails, we could at least get intel on the cathedral's interior layout."

"Not a bad idea. Getting tired of just waiting around like this anyway... Hm?"

The mercenary who'd been talking while stretching looked up at the sky, and saw something.

Swoosh.

A shadow's blade descended from the sky and split him clean in half, killing him.

Splaaash-!!

The cleanly bisected body toppled over, spraying blood.

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

A figure clad in black cloth and wielding a sword had killed the mercenary the instant they landed.

The mercenaries, stunned by what happened in an instant, reacted a beat too late.

"Huh? Wha- AAARGH!"

"Gurk-!"

Before they knew it, they'd been surrounded by warriors in black cloth who found their blind spots and stabbed and slashed them to death.

An organization specialized in raids and ambushes.

Namgung Soo's private military, the Sword Division.

"Damn it-!"

One mercenary who hadn't been ambushed yet, thanks to his position, gritted his teeth and clutched a necklace-shaped magic charm in his hand.

It wasn't a powerful spell.

'A spell to reinforce the legs.'

But in a situation where escape was the priority, it was a good spell.

Seizing the opening while the other mercenaries died.

The mercenary reinforced his legs with magic and kicked off the building's rooftop at full speed.

Crack-!

He tried to leap to the rooftop of the adjacent building and flee.

But.

"―!?"

A spear flew through the air and pierced through the airborne mercenary's heart.

Thud.

He dropped back onto the rooftop as a corpse.

The one who had thrown the spear from that rooftop was a powerfully built old man with white hair swept back.

Lee Mun-ryong leaped across the gap between rooftops and landed.

He retrieved the spear embedded in the mercenary's corpse, and the Sword Division silently held their positions and formed up.

The one who appeared to be the leader of the Sword Division group assessed Lee Mun-ryong's movements and spoke.

"...Supreme Spear."

"Oh~ You recognize me? I'm flattered."

"What's your objective?"

One of Lee Mun-ryong's eyebrows rose.

They'd merely crossed paths while each going about their business. To demand his objective out of nowhere, how rude.

That said, it wasn't exactly something he needed to hide. Everyone who ought to know had already figured it out.

Lee Mun-ryong rested the spear on his shoulder and gestured toward the cathedral with a glance.

"My client is staying over there. I've just been doing my patrols."

One leg slid half a step forward, and he shifted his grip on the spear in his hand.

Many against one, a standoff on a rooftop in the night.

"What about you lot?"

Lee Mun-ryong said, looking at the Sword Division warriors.

"Want to go at it?"

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

The Sword Division did not engage Lee Mun-ryong. They turned and leaped between the buildings, moving away.

They had only been ordered to monitor the area around the cathedral, confirm the status of Kim Yo-han, the owner of <De Vermis Mysteriis>, and eliminate any mercenaries who could pose a threat to their young lady, Namgung Soo-ah. There was no reason to take the risk of fighting Lee Mun-ryong.

Lee Mun-ryong watched the Sword Division disappear at a speed that was practically flying, then relaxed his stance.

"Like a bunch of crows."

Then he stood on the building rooftop, letting the winter wind hit him as he gazed at the cathedral.

He thought of Kim Yo-han.

'...To survive that mayhem.'

The kid was impressive.

***

A peaceful morning walk to school, under a sky with cartoon-like clouds and bathed in morning sunlight.

A pretty girl with green eyes and cute braided black hair skipped along merrily.

Baopu! Baopu!

My name is Baopuzi!

I'm a new grimoire who recently enrolled at Grimoire Academy.

There's still a lot I don't know, and I'm not used to academy life yet, but....

I'm making lots of grimoire friends and working hard to become an excellent grimoire!

Everyone, please cheer me on in my academy life!

And as Baopuzi was running along to get to Grimoire Academy, she came out onto the road and bumped into someone.

"Eek... B-Baopu?!"

In the moment she let out a cute yelp and stumbled.

The person she'd bumped into extended an arm and caught Baopuzi by the wrist.

"Are you okay?"

At the soft, calm, low voice, Baopuzi looked up at the other person.

'Huh? Th-this person is...!?'

A calm face with black hair.

She was flustered by the unexpected appearance of the handsome wizard Kim Yo-han.

The background around them was dyed in sparkling pink.

"Huh? Oh? I-I'm fine."

"Good, that's a relief."

Baopuzi shyly lowered her face and tucked her hair behind her ear to tidy it.

He wasn't an incredible heartthrob, but there was something magnetic about him.

The wizard before her was saying he could put her to good use.

Thump, thump.

Yo-han left, and Baopuzi stared blankly after him.

'...Will I get to see him again?'

And then, a grimoire who looked like a bespectacled bookish girl approached Baopuzi.

"Baopuzi? What are you doing?"

"Aah! Shanhaijing!"

This is Shanhaijing! A knowledgeable and erudite grimoire who loves mysterious creatures and man-eating monsters that have devoured people. She's a good kid!

Her favorite animal is the platypus!

She says she's never seen such a bizarre creature before.

It looks just cute on the outside, so is it really that weird? Anyway!

We've been close friends since we grew up in the same neighborhood as kids.

"Well, you see, I met this really cool wizard... Could he be an academy senior?"

"Huh? There's no way a wizard like that would be on the way to the academy... CRACK!?"

Shanhaijing's glasses shattered at the sight of Yo-han, revealing her beautiful eyes.

"That's the most popular wizard in the whole academy! Yo-han sunbae!?"

"Whaaaat!?"

As Baopuzi stood there in shock, a group of fierce-looking senior girl grimoires swarmed in from the side.

"Hey! You're just a freshman and you're already fluttering your pages at Yo-han sunbae? What a shameless grimoire!"

"Whaat? I-I'm not that kind of grimoire... B-Baopu!"

Baopuzi's tiny fists became a blur as they unleashed a rapid flurry of punches.

She might be from the countryside, but her mystical power was high, so most grimoires were no match for her.

Baopuzi pummeled the senior grimoires into the wall with her rapid-fire punches.

Then, reequipping the pink shoujo manga background, she gazed at Yo-han's retreating figure.

"Why would the academy's top wizard be so kind to an ordinary grimoire like me...."

It was strange, yet made her heart race.

And then.

Having fallen asleep only to become the academy's most popular wizard in a dream, I wore an expression of utter disbelief.

"What the hell... What kind of ridiculous dream is this?"

Was this the kind of absurd dream you had when you became a grimoire's owner? Wasn't this an aberration in itself?

While I was thinking this.

Splaaash-!

Cold water was dumped on my face.

A pretty girl with long straight blonde hair, long eyelashes, and an unmistakably haughty and aloof air stood before me at an angle, holding an empty cup.

The surrounding grimoires were squealing.

"Look over there! The young lady of the prestigious Solomon family! It's Lady <The Lesser Key of Solomon>!"

<The Lesser Key of Solomon>, now wearing a pretty-girl filter in the dream, clicked her tongue and spoke.

"Tch! Why didn't you reply to the lengthy message I sent at 3:57 AM?"

"...That's when people are supposed to be sleeping."

At my perfectly reasonable answer, <The Lesser Key of Solomon> turned her head away.

"Hmph! Just because I favor you and always want to be by your side, don't think you can act so insolent."

And then another grimoire butted in.

A black-haired pretty girl in a black gothic dress, trembling while holding a kitchen knife, shouted.

"Get away from Master! I'll protect you, Master!"

I could pretty much guess who it was, but... the surrounding grimoires helpfully identified her.

"It's the crazy psycho grimoire <De Vermis Mysteriis>! Run!"

<De Vermis Mysteriis> and <The Lesser Key of Solomon> bickered as usual.

...And then I realized why I was having this dream.

This was a nightmare.

BOOM-!

A sound of something descending from the sky behind me.

I turned to identify what it was, and my eyes went wide.

"Elsi...."

No, a mature, tall woman with silver hair.

"...Raziel!"

Raziel's fist became light and rained down upon me.

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"Huurgh!"

I woke from sleep drenched in cold sweat.

Baopu... Baopu....

When I lifted my head, I saw <Baopuzi> lying on my chest with its pages spread open.

<De Vermis Mysteriis>, <The Lesser Key of Solomon> were also strewn across the bed.

I remembered now.

I must have been reading grimoires in bed before sleep, gotten tired, and dozed off just like that.

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

I got up from bed, gathered the grimoires, and placed them on the desk.

I thought back to Raziel, whom I'd encountered at the shopping mall hall.

...Could I have won even if I'd been in perfect condition?

Honestly, I wasn't sure. My head hurt just thinking about it.

On top of that, student council president Gremory was roaming around with unknown intentions.

Judging by the power I'd sensed from her, she was on a completely different level from the Gremory I'd seen in the dating sim world.

Well, worrying about it wasn't going to solve anything.

That said, I had no intention of wallowing in despair and lying down to die, either.

Sure, I'd lost my home, and the damage from everything was considerable.

But the most important thing was that I was alive, and my body had recovered.

I even had a room now, even if it was temporary.

I walked to the window and looked out at the dark winter scenery.

Wild Hunt... a storm of aberrations.

If aberration incidents were going to be occurring frequently,

then whether through the Special Operations Division or on the private side, I could work as a Ghostbuster again and earn money.

With that, I'd prepare new magic items, learn new spells.

I would find a way through this chaos.