Field of Vision (1)

"There's no way both of us should still be alive in that situation. If the Management Bureau had intervened, they'd still be waiting here, but that doesn't seem to be the case either."

This is actually the biggest problem.

I thought about how to explain this.

Naturally, I couldn't tell her about the grimoire. Even if we'd crossed the threshold of death together, the nun was a religious woman.

At best, she'd react like an executioner. She certainly wouldn't react any differently—and with that sacred advantage of hers, she'd behead me on the spot.

So I gave her the most reasonable answer.

"I really thought I was as good as dead. You'd been taken down, and there was nothing left for me either."

"Yes... That's right."

"It was the final moment. The True Ancestor mocked me, taunting me about how much fun it would be to decide how to kill me. So I made one last desperate attempt."

"No way?"

"To!"

I shouted the battle cry while pretending to point accusingly.

"I poured out the stuff bubbling inside me! Right up until I did it, the True Ancestor kept laughing at me, saying she didn't think such disgusting crap would work. But... the moment I did it, she couldn't even dodge, got drenched in it, and her body started melting right away!"

"What...!"

"It happened in an instant. The True Ancestor melted rapidly and screamed. Then she turned into countless bats, but even the bats began melting and shrieking. I thought that was my chance. I struck her with a desperate final blow. And, well, as you can see, the True Ancestor disappeared. I don't know if she died completely, though. There were so many bats that some of them might have escaped."

It was a flimsy excuse, but this was the only explanation I could give right now. The process was a lie, but Secriem really had turned into bats and fled after being reduced to a wreck.

When lying, you should mix lies into a foundation of truth. That's the only way to make it more convincing and credible.

"What in the world..."

The nun looked bewildered, as if she couldn't believe my bullshit.

"That's impossible. You really drove her off like that?"

"It's true. Honestly, it's not completely impossible, is it? I already have a record of driving her off the same way in the subway."

"...The same way."

The nun stroked her chin and nodded.

"Ah, yes. I suppose it might be possible in a mystical sense."

"A mystical sense?"

"As I said, you drove her off the same way once before. Perhaps that fact made it an extreme weakness for her."

It served as a weakness?

"You know those legends, right? Things like the weakness of an evil dragon. Legends in which a wound inflicted by a particular hero becomes an absolute weakness. In other words, there's a legend that if you perform the same method the hero used, it becomes the way to exorcise that being."

"Ah, I more or less understand."

A hero defeated an evil dragon by a certain method.

Then that method becomes a sort of exorcism legend, turning into a conceptual weakness that works best against that entity.

That is... convincing?

"In the case of the Red Woman, a legend was established that she could be defeated by eating a lot of garlic and vomiting it onto her. That's why you were able to defeat her."

"Oh! Of course!"

It was practically nonsense, but it all fit together. Since it benefited me if the nun interpreted things this way, I pretended to be deeply impressed.

"Then I'm a hero?! A hero capable of creating a legend about defeating an evil vampire!"

"W-Well, yes, for now. Honestly, it's remarkable. To create a legend... If this had been ancient times, you'd have been treated as a legendary hero or saint, wouldn't you? The Vatican would have to reward you for this."

"A reward?!"

"If I report what happened this time, they'll give you something."

"Wow!"

The Vatican was going to reward me!

It would definitely be an amazing item!

"Phew... Anyway. Save the celebrating for later. Let's get out of here first. We can't let the Management Bureau catch us after going through all that. We also need to clean up the situation."

"Yes."

I immediately retreated with the nun.

* * *

We went outside the city, which was shrouded in fog. The two Management Bureaus were probably still fighting in there. The large-scale perception-obstruction operation was probably still underway too.

Apparently, Ghanak ultimately never descended. If it had, it would have been obvious by now.

It had crossed over from the first cycle to the second, and since I defeated it in the second cycle, it had disappeared entirely.

We entered an abandoned church nearby.

"Wait."

The nun said she needed time to recover, then went into a room to rest. After sustaining such serious injuries, she certainly needed time to recuperate.

But her nun's habit was completely torn up, which made things a little awkward to look at.

Anyway.

"..."

I sat in a pew and thought about the grimoire.

Just what had that bizarre figure been?

[Reality Recognition Value: 5,400]

A value over 5,000 couldn't possibly be normal. Besides, it had risen in real time as the grimoire devoured the True Ancestor. There was definitely something going on. Something immensely important that I didn't know about.

And besides, wasn't this awfully similar to the reality re-recognition device I'd experienced beneath the Management Bureau?

What should I do?

How could I find out?

Could I continue using the grimoire?

I currently had [6,401] points. There was very little I could do with that...

As I dozed off thinking about that, the nun came out.

"Phew. I'm finally feeling a little more clearheaded."

"Huh? Your clothes are good as new."

"Oh, I restored them with my own power."

"You can restore clothes too?"

"They're special clothes. Anyway. As I recovered my strength, I tried to sense the Red Woman's presence."

A tracking spell?

"Amazingly, I can't sense her at all. If she'd escaped, there should have been traces of her power, but I can't find any."

The power Secriem had left was equivalent to that of a single bat.

It might have been impossible to track because it was so faint. Or perhaps she was caught and eaten by a crow while flying around.

"Does that mean she really is dead?"

"Yes. It seems that way."

The nun nodded.

"You worked hard. Now that the Red Woman is dead, you won't be targeted anymore."

"Phew... Finally. This miserable life on the run is over."

"Yes."

The nun smiled sweetly.

"But you've already set foot in this world. That means there's always a chance you'll run into more strange incidents in the future."

"That..."

"You'll have to deal with it. That's the kind of world this is. I won't take back the weapons I gave you, so keep them. Use them to protect yourself. I'll give you some silver bullets too."

"Thank you...! But why are you talking as if you're about to leave?"

"Well, that's right, isn't it?"

She's leaving?

"I also have to go to the Vatican and file a report. I came to Korea to hunt vampires in the first place, so now that the mission is complete, I should go home."

"Oh."

So that's how it was.

If we defeated Secriem, the nun would return to the Vatican.

"What a shame."

"Indeed. I had grown rather fond of you, too."

The nun grinned and extended a finger, lightly running it over my shoulder.

"That tickles!"

"Why is your skin so sensitive? Well, I'm sure our paths will cross again someday. I'll give you my contact information. Call me if you run into trouble. I'll help if I can."

I accepted the business card.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to ask for your help."

"I'm the one who's more grateful. Thanks to you, we were able to catch the Red Woman. Hunting down a descendant of the True Ancestor is a huge achievement. It must have dealt a tremendous blow to the True Ancestor herself, too. It'll make dealing with vampires much easier from now on."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Secriem had been defeated, but vampires were still my sworn enemies.

"Then goodbye. I'll contact you soon about the reward."

"Yes. Oh, but in the end, the reinforcements never arrived, did they?"

"As if we'd had time to call them."

"But how are you going to get back?"

"This is a church, after all. I'm planning to use up this cross to teleport to the Vatican."

Teleport?!

"I was wondering why you were saying goodbye here, but that's why!"

"Hehe, it can't be helped. Even if I don't look it, my wounds are deep. I need to get to the Vatican right away and receive proper treatment if I want to live."

"Go quickly! Hurry! Why are you just standing there so calmly?"

"Urk."

I immediately started shoving the nun along!

I'd been holding up someone who was in a hurry!

"A-Anyway! Don't go running around claiming you're going to become a vampire hunter! Just live a normal life! Try not to set foot in the hidden world as much as possible! Vampire hunters aren't normal, I tell you!"

"Ah, yes, yes."

I let that nonsense go in one ear and out the other.

And parted ways with the nun.

* * *

It had been a good meeting in many ways.

But had it been the best outcome? Without the grimoire, I would have lost to Secriem.

If I had met the nun without the grimoire... I probably would have become Ghanak by now. Then I would have invaded again in the fourth cycle. It would have been a bizarre turn of events in many ways.

Anyway.

With this, I had established a connection with the Vatican. I'd gotten the nun's contact information, and I was even promised a reward. On top of that, I'd crushed Secriem, so this cycle had turned out to be an absolute jackpot.

I no longer had to fear vampire attacks. Besides, I wasn't tied down to an organization like the Management Bureau, so I could try anything I wanted.

The depression born from the despair that I'd ruined everything was healed to some extent by defeating Secriem.

"All right."

Starting today, the Immortal Kim Geunhong is back!

Let's start working again to overcome this enormous anomalous situation I'd been caught up in. It might be good to gather clues about the ending, too.

Of course, my top priority was to find out about my grimoire. That "Reality Recognition Value" was bothering me far too much...

"Let's head back for now."

Now that Secriem had been crushed, I could finally return to my long-missed home. I should see Mom and Dad, eat a home-cooked meal, and heal a little.

I moved while thinking that.

First of all, I was in the countryside, and with only a Class 2 automatic driver's license, I couldn't drive a Damas. So I planned to catch a taxi into town and then take a bus, but—

"Hmm? What's this?"

I took out my phone to call a taxi, but—

[□□□□□□□□□□□]

"What the hell? What's wrong?"

Every single character on my phone was garbled.

"..."

Ominous.

It felt as if something terribly ominous, like a spiderweb, had stuck to my face.

My phone's text suddenly becoming completely garbled in this situation?

I opened an internet browser.

The keyboard was garbled into □□ too, but I'd memorized the entire keyboard anyway, so I figured I could still search.

[...]

Forget searching—the screen itself wouldn't even come up.

It just kept loading.

Maybe the abandoned church couldn't pick up Wi-Fi?

"Could something be wrong with my eyes..."

I rubbed my eyes, but the text was still garbled.

Did I hit it somewhere while fighting and break it?

I went outside the church for now.

But when I stepped out—

ㅡSwish.

The instant I opened the door, I shut it again.

...Fuck.

What the fuck is that out there...?