Chapter 101
Ian had not yet exchanged numbers with the Godmother. Thanks to that, their conversation took place through the community's private messages. The visuals were a little strange, but the communication itself was smooth.
[★Godmother: Is everything you said true?]
Ian told the Godmother everything he had gone through in as much detail as possible. He hid what needed to be hidden and boldly laid bare what needed to be revealed. He wrote down, without filtering anything out, the reason Eddie had attacked and the mage behind it.
[Me: Yes, it's true. I confirmed it with magic, so it should be accurate.]
[★Godmother: ……At least for now.]
[★Godmother: I truly, truly think this is a very unfortunate incident. I'm deeply sorry and ashamed that something like this happened in a community I manage. I'd like to offer you my sincere apologies.]
The moment Ian read the reply that came flying in, his eyes widened in surprise.
First of all, the Godmother had astonishingly fast typing speed. It took her less than ten seconds to write that long message. She even added onomatopoeia like “……” to portray the silence that fit the conversation's context. It really was a bizarre trait.
But Ian's surprise wasn't due only to that trait.
The fact that the administrator of a community—in other words, someone practically no different from the head of Korean mages—offered an apology so readily made him quietly impressed.
Honestly, she had no reason to apologize. It wasn't an incident where someone in an organization had committed a wrong, nor was it something that required anyone to take responsibility. It was a simple matter that would end once they dealt with a single mage.
If the Godmother had asked, “Why is that my fault? Forget it, who did it?” Ian wouldn't have felt particularly bad. After all, wasn't that the truth?
But she sent her apology in a very polite tone. It was proof that she had a character far above the average mage's. He had felt it when they first met, and she seemed to be a true oddity even among mages.
'Maybe the reason mages are all still at this level is because of the Godmother.'
The thought crossed his mind for a moment, but it had little to do with the situation at hand, so he promptly cut it off. Instead, he ground out the cigarette he had finished in the portable ashtray and tapped away at his phone.
[Me: You don't need to apologize, Godmother-nim. I don't particularly have any bad feelings toward you.]
[★Godmother: In that case, that's a relief. May I ease my guilt a little?]
[Me: Yes.]
[★Godmother: Thank you.]
[★Godmother: Then before we get to the main point, could you tell me what I should call you? Like everyone else, should I call you Newbie-ssi?]
Following that message, Ian thought for a moment and then simply gave her a slightly altered version of his real name. It was enough to use as a temporary nickname.
[Me: I think you can call me Ain.]
[★Godmother: Yes, Ain-ssi. Just a moment.]
After saying that, the Godmother paused for a while, then soon sent a long message.
[★Godmother: First of all, I've heard your claim. “A mage in the community provided the information, Eddie came to Korea, and I was the target.” Since you said you verified it with magic, this claim is probably true. But I can't just go after the community based on Ain-ssi's word alone. I need cross-verification. This isn't because I don't trust you, but because I need to follow proper procedure, so please understand.]
As he read the message and went down the stairs, the gukbap he had ordered for delivery was waiting at the door. Ian took the bag and went inside while composing his reply.
[Me: Understood. What would you like me to do?]
He didn't bother showing any resistance to the Godmother's words. They were, after all, fairly reasonable, and there was no reason to be uncooperative when trying to prove himself justified. It would be better to go through the procedure quickly.
Rustle.
He opened the delivery bag and checked the messages that had arrived.
[★Godmother: In cases like this, we usually take blood from both sides and render judgment with the scales. But right now we don't know the other party's identity, and even if we did, we can't recklessly make contact. They might flee. So we'll need another method.]
The Godmother sent that reply and then remained silent for a long while. The message-composing indicator kept showing, but no message came through. She seemed to be thinking something over.
Since the food had arrived at just the right time, Ian left a message telling her to let him know whenever it was convenient and started breakfast. He put saeujeot into the red broth, added the rice, and stirred it lightly. Then he ate it slowly with a spoon.
He usually handled breakfast with a homemade salad or toast, but today a fairly big incident had come up, so he simply replaced it with delivery. Fortunately, gukbap was decent enough for breakfast.
A little later, after finishing his meal, Ian washed the disposable container and put it back into the bag. By the time he had roughly tidied the table and wiped it down with wet wipes, a reply finally came from the Godmother.
[★Godmother: The important thing right now is determining whether Ain-nim's statement is true, so for the moment it's fine if it's only Ain-nim. But with something like this, we can't remotely use magic to determine the meaning in another person's words and distinguish truth from falsehood against a mage that strong. Even with blood, it's difficult. The Lemegeton says it can't do it for a mage at Ain-nim's level either.]
[★Godmother: But this incident is extremely important, isn't it? If things go wrong, everyone's personal information in the community could be exposed. I didn't exactly reveal my face, name, gender, age, and so on, but there are a few people who have openly put those things out there. So to prevent an information leak, I need to confirm that Ain-nim is telling the truth and handle things on my end as well.]
[★Godmother: But, but as I said, remotely using magic isn't possible. If I could summon the true body of the demon I control, that would be one thing, but even if it's bound by a one-sided contract, summoning it without any sacrifice is difficult. And finding a sacrifice isn't easy either. A lot of things are rare. Quite a few items aren't even listed on the cartel.]
[★Godmother: So using magic through a demon without meeting face-to-face seems impossible.]
[Me: What are you trying to say?]
[★Godmother: Ah.]
[★Godmother: So what I'm trying to say is.]
After he sent that message, unable to hold back any longer, the Godmother finally replied after quite some time had passed.
[★Godmother: I'm really not the kind of person to do this.]
[★Godmother: I'm absolutely not some debauched, obscene, promiscuous, or, anyway, that sort of person.]
[★Godmother: Could you come to my place?]
“……Ah.”
Ian's face twisted subtly as he read the reply.
*
[Eunha, no matter how I think about it, this doesn't seem right.]
The Lemegeton said. The grimoire, covered with an ordinary book jacket and wedged into the bookshelf, trembled briefly and pushed the other books beside it aside.
[Inviting a mage who possesses a grimoire written by a foreign god into this space is insane.]
“……But there’s no other way, is there?”
[Just ignore it!]
“If he's a mage who joined the community, I can't just ignore him. We're comrades, after all.”
[The only person who thinks that is you……. ]
“Does that matter?”
Eunha answered while brewing tea for her guest herself. All she was doing was dropping a tea bag into boiled water, but what mattered was the mindset with which one treated a guest, wasn't it?
If possible, Eunha also wanted to make tea with loose leaves, but since she wasn't used to it yet, trying it felt awkward. If it were tea she drank alone, that wouldn't matter, but this wasn't exactly that either. For now, using tea bags was much better than putting on airs.
'Is he coming soon?'
She let out a soft sigh as she stared at the clock on the wall.
The time was almost exactly noon. In another thirty minutes or so, he would arrive here.
“…….”
Thinking that way made her even more nervous. Rather than the tension between a man and a woman, her heart was simply pounding because another person was coming into her home. It was only natural, since she had never brought anyone else into her own space in her life.
She didn't regret her choice now. In order to drive out the traitor in the community, figuring out the truth hidden in his words was something she absolutely had to do. Only then would she be able to track him down.
She didn't feel any aversion to dealing with traitors. It was something she had already done several times in the past. Things had grown quiet lately, but until just a few years ago there had been countless bastards selling mages' information. Where those people were now would become clear once their heads were separated from their necks.
“……Phew.”
She exhaled, set the kettle on the electric burner, and brought it to a rolling boil. Gentle steam puffed from the kettle's opening and spout, and Eunha put on some random classical music through the speaker before settling in to rest.
The sounds of violin, piano, cello, and other instruments slowly began to fill the room. She narrowed her eyes and took in the magic circles etched into the ceiling and the floor.
Most of the magic written in the Lemegeton was ritual magic, so it couldn't be used without a magic circle. Its power was certainly reliable, but if she hadn't prepared in advance, she was practically no different from an ordinary person.
Eunha was safe because she'd contracted with a few demons, but other ritual mages often wandered around defenseless and ended up dying unexpectedly. So most of them didn't like leaving their own spaces. And quite a few of them only felt safe when magic circles covered every inch around them.
Eunha wasn't at that level yet, but even so, looking at magic circles made her feel at ease.
Right now, that was exactly the case. After checking that the magic circles were working properly, she sat in the rocking chair and quietly passed the time. Slow breathing gradually eased her tension as well.
After a while, the Lemegeton casually spoke up.
[……Since you still haven't contracted with Amdusias, don't go graduating from virginity just yet.]
“Solomon.”
Eunha's voice cut coldly through the classical music.
At that moment, the doorbell at her house rang ding-dong. She got up to check, and a familiar face was clearly displayed on the intercom.
“Ah.”
Had thirty minutes already passed?
Eunha cleared her throat once, walked to the front door, and slowly opened it. Then she welcomed Ian, who was standing there.
“……You're here.”
She said in an awkward voice as she looked up at Ian. Ian replied calmly.
“Ah, yes. May I come in?”
“Yes, yes. Come in.”
“Then, excuse me.”
Ian bowed his head and went into Eunha's house. Eunha swallowed hard and closed the front door.
The first outsider she had ever let into her home.
Praying desperately that he would leave this place without a single scratch, she followed after Ian.