Chapter 126
Ian didn't regret buying a 60-stick cigarette pack for a whopping 100 million won.
Objectively speaking, it wasn't such an unnecessary expense. Though it looked like a cigarette, it was just a simple indulgence with no addictive properties and no harmful substances at all. On top of that, it cleaned out your lungs and even erased your existing cigarette addiction, so buying it to quit smoking was the right thing to do.
In the end, it was always better to take care of your health as early as possible.
He had started smoking because life was rough, but now he was at least in a pretty decent place. There was no reason to keep going with a cigarette in his mouth. It wasn't even a healthy indulgence, so quitting cleanly this time wouldn't be a bad idea,
“Mm.”
Ian accepted the silver cigarette case handed to him by the owner and examined it from every angle.
Its design was extremely plain. A pure silver cigarette case with no decorations engraved on it at all. Inside, twenty pure white cigarettes were packed tightly together. The remaining forty came wrapped separately in paper.
“I threw in five extra as a bonus! And here's a sample too, so smoke it on the way!”
“Is it all right to smoke in this building?”
“Yes! The boss here is a huge smoker to begin with! Everyone else just doesn't smoke because they're self-conscious!”
Then there was no reason to hesitate. Ian nodded, slid just one cigarette between his fingers, and tucked the rest into his pocket. The metal case clinked against the lighter he'd gotten as a free gift.
“If it's something made by the Clock Tower, can mage shops sell it too?”
Sizzle.
As Ian lit the cigarette and asked, the shop owner inhaled the lemon scent wafting over and took out a cigarette of her own. Unexpectedly, she smoked a cigar.
“You're talking about the 'Owl,' right? A closed market only mages can use.”
“That's right.”
“Then you should be able to get it there. It'll be much cheaper than here, too.”
“......”
“Ah, and just so you know, I'm not selling things at outrageous rip-off prices or anything. I buy things that only mages can get at a markup and sell them to the cartel, so of course I need a service fee! Besides, if you're not a mage, this is the only place you can even get them!”
So come often. I'll give you a discount, she added. Ian only smiled in response before leaving the shop.
Naturally, he had no intention of ever visiting this place again. There was somewhere else where he could get it cheaper, so why would he bother coming back?
“Hoo.”
Ian exhaled the smoke and started walking.
‘Once I'm done with business in Busan, maybe I'll look up information on the Owl in the community.’
So far, while hanging around the community, he hadn't really seen anyone talking about the Owl. Maybe there just wasn't a market in Korea.
It wasn't all that surprising, but the birthplace of magic wasn't Asia—it was Europe. Of all places, England was the most developed, followed by Greece, France, Germany, and the like. Magic had spread to the Middle East, including places like Damascus and Israel, but East Asia had never really had much to do with it.
It couldn't be helped. Since ancient times, their ancestors had trusted shamans and rituals more than that eerie power called magic, so shamanism flourished in Korea and sorcery flourished in Japan.
China was the exception. It was the only Asian country with an almost fanatical obsession with martial arts, so there were practically no mages or sorcerers left. It was safe to say they were effectively extinct.
Why else would the China-born 'Classic of Mountains and Seas' end up in the hands of a Korean mage? The Baopuzi written by Ge Hong, along with the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, the Jade Pivot Scripture, the Scripture of Great Peace, and more—those Daoist grimoires were now spread all over the world instead of China.
Whether they meant to or not, Chinese mages had effectively been shut down.
Well, to be honest, it was basically their own karma.
All the mages that existed in China had carried on their lineage through a single sect, much like a martial arts school. The problem was that sect was dead serious about using magic through cannibalism.
And the other problem was that this was happening during the time Mao Zedong was chairman.
For reference, Mao Zedong once designated sparrows as harmful birds and wiped them out completely. Coincidentally or not, mages had also once been designated as harmful beings.
And this was the result. In China, mages had been shut down.
‘A few criminals did slip in, but the real Chinese mages were wiped out.’
Ian ground out the cigarette he'd finished in the ashtray and let out a breath. A refreshing, sweet lemon-candy fragrance filled his nose and throat all the way down.
Of course, there probably wouldn't be an Owl market in China. With the customer base extinct, there was no reason to build a market.
Japan... he wasn't sure. Mika had said mages were being persecuted there, but Japan still had far more mages than the Korean Peninsula did. Maybe there was a hidden place quietly operating somewhere.
As for Korea, well, that was something he'd just have to look into from now on.
Thinking that, Ian looked over all the shops on the first floor.
There wasn't anything that especially caught his eye, so he bought one prisoner's ankle and one gold candlestick, then had them shipped to his house. Both were things often used in alchemy, so having one of each on hand would be helpful in many ways.
“The parcel service fee is 100,000 won. Thank you for using our service.”
The price was a little ridiculous, but he just let it go. What could he expect from a company obsessed with money?
After sending the parcel, he headed straight down to the second floor.
Unlike the first floor, the second floor wasn't divided into separate shops; the whole level was crammed full of weapons.
Bladed weapons and firearms alike were densely displayed on the walls and shelves. The air carried a faint smell of gunpowder.
“......”
There wasn't even any clerk assigned to help Ian in particular.
Honestly, this was better than having someone stick to him. He downed the remaining Americano, tossed the cup into a nearby trash can, and slowly looked around the second floor.
‘The best bet would be something easy to carry and with decent firepower.’
The only firearm he had right now was the handgun the Bureau had given him.
It took 9mm rounds, so its firepower was decent enough, but it was inevitably weaker than the revolver he had used before. When it came to completely cutting off an arm or a leg rather than just disabling it, a revolver was still a little more useful than an automatic pistol.
Ian's fighting style leaned much more toward magic than guns. Guns were always a support tool and could never be his primary means of attack. Besides, they were far too straightforward a weapon, so they were a little awkward to use unless it was a surprise attack or a chaotic melee.
Most of the times Ian had used a gun so far were ambushes. If he had faced Edina, Camilla, or Unicorn Saranggae head-on, firearms probably wouldn't have been all that useful. He likely wouldn't have been able to fire more than a few shots before getting taken out in return.
Even Ian himself was currently in a situation where the magic on his coat let him ignore all kinds of bullets. Unlike other mages, this one even worked against surprise attacks, so its safety was beyond question. A headshot would still kill him all the same, but the coat's magic made it easy enough to handle, so it didn't matter.
Anyway.
If guns were just a support tool, there was no need to be obsessed with automatic pistols that kept requiring trigger pulls. It was far better to fire one powerful shot after another and create openings.
In that department, revolvers were still the best among handguns.
“......I'll buy this one first.”
Ian muttered as he held a plain-looking silver revolver in his hand.
Grip? Excellent.
The bullets? That was the catch. They used special cartel-made rounds, so they were expensive, but there was almost no recoil, and the firepower was enough to smash even a skull like a watermelon. It suited Ian's purpose perfectly. There was no better item than this.
The only flaw was that it was a little heavy, but that was perfectly bearable. He nodded, put the revolver into its dedicated case, and went looking for other weapons. After picking out a few daggers and paying for them along with the revolver, he went back up to the first floor.
“Ah, you're here.”
The lobby already had Lee Seo-ah in it. Holding her phone as if she'd just been about to send a text, she turned to look at Ian.
“Did you buy everything?”
“Yeah. You?”
“I did too, more or less.”
Lee Seo-ah shrugged and lifted the bag she was holding.
Inside the bag were a box of bone powder, three curse dolls, horse blood, and a whole bunch of someone's fingers. They looked quite bizarre, but as magical materials, they were utterly ordinary.
“On top of that, I had a death-row inmate's corpse delivered to the workshop. It was a bit expensive.”
“How much?”
“About 50 million won? If it were just a corpse, that'd be one thing, but for skin with all the organs gone, it was pretty expensive.”
Ian made a sour face after hearing the price of the corpse.
‘My newly bought cigarettes are more expensive than a corpse...’
The weight of the cigarettes stored in his inner coat pocket suddenly felt heavy, but he ignored it. He could just think of them as having a better value than a corpse.
“If we've got no more business here, should we head out now? Or do you want to look around the arena?”
“No thanks. Let's head back soon.”
“Sure then.”
Lee Seo-ah grinned and hummed a tune as she walked toward the elevator. Smiling, Ian followed after her, and the cartel employees bowed deeply toward the two of them.
Polite to a fault, but it was the cartel, so he let it slide. Ian adjusted the position of his bag slightly and pressed the elevator button hard.
“When are you planning to solve the school ghost story?”
“Probably tonight? After I split up with you, I was planning to get ready and head out. That was what I was shopping for.”
“Ah.”
“The shamans did ask me to handle it, but they themselves couldn't remember what kind of place it was. It seems like a pretty nasty one, so I'm planning to prepare thoroughly.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“What supernatural thing isn't dangerous? Since when has the supernatural ever been friendly to humans?”
“......That's true.”
Ian gave a wry smile. Lee Seo-ah also let out a snort of laughter and boarded the elevator that had arrived.
“More importantly, what? You're worried about me? I'm kind of touched.”
“Well... I do worry. We're not total strangers, after all.”
“......Right. We're friends.”
Lee Seo-ah's cheeks tinted slightly red as she smiled bashfully. Since she'd never had a friend in her entire life, the word 'friend' carried a fairly pleasant resonance for her. Maybe because of that, she glanced up at Ian and parted her lips a little.
“Then as a friend, will you come with me? To deal with the school ghost story?”
“......Together?”
“Mm... if you're busy, then never mind,”
“No, I don't really have anything on my schedule, but...”
Ian trailed off and quickly racked his brain to see if there was anything urgent. But nothing in particular came to mind. He did intend to stop by the Owl, but that wasn't an urgent matter either. He still had plenty of time to help Lee Seo-ah handle one request.
“Hmm.”
The hesitation was brief.
Even so, the message she'd left when she took her own life after getting caught up with the foreign god still lingered before his eyes. Sending her alone to a dangerous place wasn't something that put him at ease; helping her when he could did. Ian turned to look at Lee Seo-ah and gave a faint smile.
“Half the fee.”
“Deal.”
The two of them smiled and shook hands.
Still, they had to take what they could get.
*
It was well past midnight.
Lee Seo-ah and Ian stood in front of the school called Sayo High School, staring at the tightly shut front gate.
What lay beyond the gate was a well-maintained artificial-turf field, soccer goals, and the school’s main building. Ian idly twirled the new cigarette between his fingers and stared at the eerie school.
‘It had been ages since I'd been to a high school.’
It had already been years since he graduated. Not that it was all that long ago, but it still felt like a while. His school days had been pretty ordinary, too. No standout memories, and no nightmare memories either... for an orphan, it had been a pretty decent time.
“Lulling a school ghost story into a false sense of security is surprisingly easy.”
Lee Seo-ah, also an orphan like Ian, came up beside him and said,
“You just have to act like the obvious weakling at school.”
“......”
“That's why we're dressed like this.”
She grinned and looked back at Ian. Ian also looked down at her and let out a deep sigh.
“......School-uniform cosplay at our age.”
There was nothing to hide.
Lee Seo-ah was wearing her own high school uniform, while Ian was wearing a rented one.
The school uniform he'd worn after so long was still as uncomfortable as ever. At least he had his coat over his shirt; otherwise the chill would have seeped deep into his bones.
“Don't complain too much. It can't be helped.”
“It isn't like it has to be this way. We could just go in and it probably wouldn't matter—”
“All right, let's go!”
Ignoring Ian's complaint, Lee Seo-ah tossed the bag with the corpse in it over the gate and nimbly vaulted over the school's front gate. Ian let out a deep sigh as well, stepped on the bars, and slowly climbed over the gate.
The moment his feet touched the ground.
With a rustling sound, his vision brightened.
“......?”
His face slackened in blank confusion. Ian blinked a few times, then raised his lowered head.
And what he saw was this.
“Ugh, I don't want to go to school. It's already the new term?”
“You've been off for ages.”
“Vacation? As if. They make us come to school even during break!”
“Hey there! Don't run! And you—did you dye your hair? Why's it that color?”
“Ah, Teacher! I'm Jagal, okay! It's real! A-ah! I-I swear it's real! Don't pull my hair!”
A daytime where night had vanished. A cherry blossom-lined route to school. Students everywhere.
“......”
A thick cherry blossom fragrance brushed past Ian's nose and then faded away.
The sunlight pouring down was warm. Spring's signature freshness filled the air, and students, full of energy, were trudging toward the school.
No matter how he looked at it, it was clearly an abnormal situation. Ian immediately shook off his confusion, hardened his expression, and thrust his empty hand out into the air to summon his grimoire.
“Senior!”
That was when someone suddenly came up behind him and hugged his arm tightly.
“Ehehehe, it's really my senior. Ooh, senior smells so good...”
“......What kind of ghost story is this—”
Ian muttered and turned to look back at the thing that had grabbed his arm.
At the same time, his body came to an abrupt halt.
“Good morning, senpai!”
The first thing he noticed was black hair like the deep sea. Cherry blossom petals scattered through those jet-black strands that seemed to admit no light, and Ian's face was reflected clearly in her blood-red eyes. Her expression was undeniably flustered.
“You.”
“Yes! I'm your adorable junior, ■■■! And your girlfriend, too!”
At her natural reply, Ian was rendered speechless. Regardless, the black-haired girl smiled brightly at him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“Now that school's back in session, I can see your face every day! Ehehe, my reeeal senpai. I seriously thought I was going to go crazy from missing you, you know?”
“No, what the hell is this insane situation?”
“Heehee, I'll come to your classroom every break! Be prepared, senpai...! Ah, and if you cheat, I'll kill you, okay? If you're talking to another girl when I come by too, I'll kill you. Especially if you're with Teacher Lea, I'll really wipe both of you out.”
“......Hah.”
“Cheating is a no-no! Mwah mwah mwah.”
She, the one who had perfectly taken on the appearance of the Lord of the Outer Sea, planted kiss after kiss on Ian's nape.
Ian felt his mind go fuzzy and squeezed his eyes shut.