Chapter 108
Judging by her attitude, the nun wanted to use me to track down the True Ancestor.
So I could negotiate with her over that while achieving my own objective.
"Decide... By any chance, Sister?"
I asked, pretending to be worried.
"You're not going to eliminate me for learning about vampires just because I become uncooperative, are you?"
"What? I told you I'm with the Vatican!"
Perhaps she took it as an insult; the nun shouted.
"Do you think we're some kind of cult? Do you really think the Vatican would do something like that? Eliminate a civilian? That's absurd! We protect the values of love and peace, you know!"
Actually, I knew the nun's true identity.
She was a half-vampire. I learned that during the Giant Incident, and she refused to drink blood right up until the moment she died.
Despite vampire blood flowing through her veins, she was a true believer who would bolt upright even in her sleep to refuse to drink blood.
Naturally, she'd react this way.
That's why I could trust her.
I spoke, gently prodding at her pride.
"Really...? The Vatican doesn't have some secret special forces unit that assassinates me to protect the world's secrets, right?"
"Your imagination is fucking wild!"
"I hear that a lot."
"Enough. Haaah."
The nun sighed, pressed her fingers to the space between her brows, and waved a hand.
"We don't do that sort of thing, so rest easy... Anyway, I should clear up a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?"
"It's true that vampires and things like them exist in the hidden side of the world. Naturally, that's shocking. But isn't it strange that ordinary people don't know such monsters exist?"
"Yes... So you hide them after all?"
"Don't be so suspicious!"
The nun shouted, unable to withstand my suspicious gaze.
"Yes, fine! We do hide information! Because there's nothing to gain from ordinary people finding out! But that doesn't mean we'd assassinate someone! We fight vampires to protect people. Wouldn't an organization that kills people just for knowing a few secrets be putting the cart before the horse?"
She had a point.
But those bastards in the fake Administration Bureau didn't follow that principle.
"I understand. I'll believe you, so please calm down. What do I have to do now? To be honest, I'm terrified of vampires."
"There are paths people like you can take."
"What kind?"
"You can descend into madness and become a vampire hunter. Enter a psychiatric hospital. Or disappear without anyone noticing."
"Excuse me...?"
"Encountering a vampire in modern society never ends well. You suffer from a phobia until you go insane. Otherwise, you'll eventually be hunted down and turned into a ghoul."
"A ghoul...!"
Tokyo Ghoul!
"You don't want that kind of ending, do you?"
"I want to live!"
"Good. I'll tell you how."
Only then did the nun smile sweetly.
"As long as you do exactly as I say, you'll definitely survive. I'm a specialist who hunts vampires, after all."
"Like Han Segun?"
"Yes, something like Han Segun."
"What about Constantine and Van Helsing?"
"They're classics. They're friends who stand shoulder to shoulder with me."
"You know your stuff."
"I've consumed every piece of vampire-related media there is, regardless of nationality."
As expected of an expert.
"Now then, you. What's your name?"
"Here's my ID."
I showed her my ID for now.
"The name's Kim Geunhong... Ah, ah. That's ominous. Having the character 'Hong' in your name. Not good."
"What? Why not?"
"'Hong' means red. It's related to blood. That's not good in a world like this."
"What kind of ridiculous nitpicking is that?! A Christian believing in superstitions?!"
"That's the kind of world this is! Here!"
Hongik Ingan is supposed to be a good thing...!
"All sorts of sorcery and symbolism exist here. Anyway. The blonde vampire you encountered is an extremely powerful vampire. Do you happen to know what a True Ancestor is?"
"The progenitor of vampires?"
"We understand each other pretty well. Yes, that's it. Anyway, we don't know the true name of the vampire that attacked you, but we call her the 'Red Woman.'"
The Red Woman, huh.
It was a nickname that suited Secriem very well.
"You're saying the Red Woman is a True Ancestor?"
"More precisely, perhaps I should say she's an avatar of a True Ancestor."
"An avatar?"
"A being created by a True Ancestor using her own blood. Not by biting a human or empowering another vampire, but literally with her own blood."
"What kind of...?"
"How should I put it?"
The nun explained.
Apparently, it's created through an evil ritual. You fill some enormous vessel with your own blood and chant an incantation, and a fountain of blood surges up, taking the shape of an avatar.
"Though it's made of blood, there's no difference between it and a vampire. It's an independent individual with its own self-awareness. That's why some people treat it as the same entity as the True Ancestor and some don't, but that's not important. Anyway, these avatars are extremely useful minions to a True Ancestor... but at the same time, they're dangerous elements who dream of independence. So they cause a lot of trouble."
Ah.
So this was Secriem's backstory.
Since I had inherited some memories from the first loop, I knew a fair amount about Secriem, but I didn't remember this background.
"So you're saying the Red Woman is in Korea because she wants independence?"
"That could be it. Vampires get involved in a lot of political struggles, too. She may have revealed herself to build her own faction."
That deduction was probably correct. Secriem really had been trying to build her own faction. In the end, Ghanak's descent had utterly destroyed it... Still, I had to investigate that.
"In any case, if these powerful vampires expand their faction, a very great disaster will occur."
"Wait a moment."
But this had always puzzled me.
"I understand that the Red Woman is an extremely powerful vampire. But why was such an incredible being trapped in the subway?"
"To be honest, that's a mystery to me, too."
What do you mean, you don't know?!
"The Red Woman had been out of sight for a while. I thought she was either dead or hiding, but then this happened. I really don't know either. There must be some reason..."
Saying this, the nun rubbed her chin and looked at the ceiling.
"Could it be the Administration Bureau?"
"The Administration Bureau? What's that?"
She's bringing that up first?
"Haaah. This is why beginners are such a pain. I suppose I'll have to explain everything."
The nun explained the Administration Bureau.
It was, quite literally, one of the things generally known in this hidden world. Naturally, as someone who had belonged to it, I knew all about it.
But.
"But it's also true that it's a suspicious organization. Strange from the outset, you could say."
The Administration Bureau as seen from the Vatican's perspective.
The nun explained it.
"What...?"
"This is a warning. If you meet someone claiming to have come from the Administration Bureau or something, never trust them. You never know what might happen."
"What on earth do you mean?"
"I understand that it's an organization that protects humanity from unholy things, but what they protect is humanity as a whole, not individual humans. It's an organization that can dispose of an individual's life whenever it wants."
"..."
Is she talking about the fake Administration Bureau?
So even the Vatican didn't know that the fake and real Administration Bureaus were separate.
"Now that you're involved in something like this, you'll have no choice but to hide. If you reveal yourself too much, you'll end up in the Administration Bureau's surveillance net."
"..."
"But if you just sit around doing nothing, the Red Woman will definitely come after you."
I knew that.
"Avatars of True Ancestors are incredibly arrogant. You could say they're effectively just below a True Ancestor in rank. If beings like that were defeated by an ordinary person, they would never let it go."
Even if it were an ambush, if I got knocked out by some neighborhood grade-school brat, I'd never forget that grudge. I'd try to get revenge no matter what.
"Phew... I know. I was expecting revenge, so I've already made various preparations."
"Even so, don't worry too much. You've met me, haven't you? Besides, something about this is strange no matter how I look at it."
"What is?"
"The Red Woman. She's clearly weakened. Otherwise, there's no way she could have taken a beating like that."
"Well... I think so, too."
We can set aside the fact that neither of us knew why a being roughly equivalent to an avatar of a True Ancestor was trapped in the subway.
But seeing as she'd been trapped there and had even fallen to my garlic attack, she was definitely weakened.
"Now, here's a question. What do you have to do to live without worry?"
"Kill the Red Woman...?"
"Bingo."
The nun smiled sweetly.
"Shall we hunt her down together?"
"What?"
"The Red Woman will definitely come looking for you. Which means we don't need to search for her ourselves. Thankfully. Tracking someone down is the hardest thing in the world, and now we don't have to."
Wait.
"Hold on. Sister? Does that mean you're planning to use me as bait...?"
"Kim Geunhong, you like Han Segun, right? I'm a specialist on Han Segun's level. The vampires I've hunted and killed so far would stretch in single file around the Earth."
"No! Do you think I'd agree just because you say that?!"
This crazy woman is trying to use a person as bait!
"I said don't worry, didn't I? The Red Woman is definitely weakened. In that situation, with me—someone who stands shoulder to shoulder with Constantine, Van Helsing, and Han Segun—present? This is a guaranteed clear, no question! Do you plan to live in fear for the rest of your life? Even right now, aren't you worried that a vampire might come looking for you? You want revenge on that monster, don't you!"
At some point, the nun had risen from her seat and begun radiating brilliance, putting on a holy display.
Just as I had acted naïve to pursue the nun route, the nun was acting to use me as bait!
"Come on! Let's become Han Segun together! I'll even supply you with a gun! Just say the word!"
The nun reached out a hand to me.
She looked incredibly holy, but madness rippled in both her eyes.
This woman wasn't normal either...!
"Get a grip! How am I, a civilian, supposed to lure a vampire out?! That's far too dangerous! Does it make any sense for a member of the clergy to use a civilian as a combatant?!"
"You've already set foot in this Mad Moon's world. Even if you don't like it, you'll have to deal with it."
She keeps saying this!
"No, fine, maybe that's true for the other things! But are the two of us really all the manpower we have? Can't the Vatican request that the Swiss Guard be dispatched or something?"
"Do you want to see the Swiss Guard fighting in Korea with halberds?"
"Of course I do."
That would be insanely cool!
"The authorities don't like that."
"You care about the authorities? Couldn't you get government approval or something?"
"It worked in Europe, but not in Korea."
"Why not?!"
"You aren't a member of the EU."
So that was the reason?!
"Don't worry. Of course we have reinforcements. Do you really think I'd go after a big shot like that alone?"
"Reinforcements..."
"Crusaders who fight demons."
Is she talking about the things summoned by the church?
"Besides, how many churches are there in Korea? There are plenty of forces willing to hunt down and kill vampires. So let's go together! To the Mad Moon's world!"
She kept asking me to go to the Mad Moon's world with her, to the point I felt like I was going insane.
However.
When someone asks a man to go to the Mad Moon's world.
There is no man who would refuse.
I pretended to be surprised, but in fact, I was calmly working through the calculations in my head.
First, what I needed to find out was whether Ghanak would descend in this loop. If it did, we were fucked. I had to deal with it somehow.
Therefore, I had to go to that city occupied by the cultists.
Of course, Secriem might find me in the process. And when Ghanak descended, she might find me while fleeing. Either way, if I went there, Secriem would definitely discover me.
As such, I needed a bodyguard.
A nun would make a very good bodyguard.
Good.
Let's go.
"All right. Let's go, then—to the Mad Moon's world."
"Great! From today onward, we're allies!"
The nun and I faced each other.
ㅡSmack!
Just like that, we performed a Slam Dunk high five.