Chapter 130
“There’s a title called Godslayer.”
Lea said.
She sat at the same table as Ian and drizzled hydrochloric acid into a beaker. The human mannequin standing behind her flinched its shoulders.
“It’s a common epithet, isn’t it? One who killed a god. A title created to praise that great feat. Well, anyone can call themselves a Godslayer, so the word itself doesn’t carry much power, but there have still been a few beings who actually brought gods down.”
Ribbit, ribbit.
A frog trapped in the beaker thrashed when the hydrochloric acid touched it.
A frog that kept moving even after its organs had already been torn away.
Naturally, it was one of those horror stories. The frog born from a dissection experiment possessed the ability to dominate other people’s minds through its croaking and make them slit open their own bellies, but unfortunately Ian’s body was immune to mind control. Seo-ah could endure this much as well.
Lea? Did it even need an explanation?
“Earth has one too, right? Someone who killed a god.”
“...Kratos?”
“...Who’s that? I meant Longinus.”
Sizzle.
By now, the frog had melted into a limp, gooey mess from the hydrochloric acid. Lea shook out the last remaining drops, then set the beaker filled with green and red liquid down on the desk.
“Strictly speaking, the figure called ‘Jesus’ who appears in Christianity isn’t a god. But if you dig through actual history, he’s the closest thing to one.”
“...You’re pretty well versed in Earth’s history too.”
“Thanks to someone, I studied a bit on my own. It wasn’t very interesting, though.”
Clink.
Lea moved the beaker to the corner of the table. In that corner, frog corpses that had died the same way were already lined up in beakers.
The sight was cruel, but he didn’t pity or sympathize with them. Ian’s heart wasn’t deep enough to spare sympathy for Mysteries. What mattered was simply that the ‘dissection frog’ horror story had been resolved. He took a long drink of the cold water he’d brought and leaned back in his chair.
When Lea sat down beside him, a faint hyacinth scent drifted out. It almost smelled sweetly of milk.
“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that, in the end, even gods can die. Outer Gods are no exception.”
“...I already know you got rid of the moon. I’m aware of that.”
“That’s a relief. Then you also know I’m not an immortal being.”
“....”
“Do you understand why you should cherish me?”
“I can’t really imagine anyone killing you, though...”
Ian gave a bitter smile and looked around.
The school science lab.
Inside the cold, eerie, tightly sealed room, Ian, Seo-ah, and Lea were seated around the same table. Everyone else was busily ripping open their own bellies and spilling their organs and blood everywhere.
An organ talent show, in the literal sense. It was the result of hearing the frog’s croak directly. The students with no resistance all fiercely hacked at their own abdomens and chests with scissors, box cutters, and shards of glass. Thanks to that, red spider lilies bloomed everywhere in a sea of crimson.
Even among Mysteries, if you had no resistance, you ended up like that. The law of the jungle seemed to hold true even among Mysteries.
It wasn’t strange.
“What you’re trying to say is that even Outer Gods can eventually die, and that goes for the owner of the grimoire that created this space as well?”
“Exactly. That saves me the trouble of explaining.”
Lea answered while undoing the top buttons of her shirt, as if her chest felt a little tight. Seo-ah stared at her blankly, then subtly lowered her gaze.
“....”
Her expression twisted, as if it had soured her mood.
“I’ll skip the part that fish already explained about the grimoire’s appearance. Either way, you’re probably more curious about ‘why did the grimoire’s appearance cause this to happen?’ than about that.”
Lea brushed her hair back with her hand and fixed her gaze on Ian.
“The reason is simpler than you think. It’s because the grimoire wasn’t finished yet, but was forcibly released.”
“...Released.”
“There are plenty of substitute words—letting it loose, releasing it into the wild, and so on—but they all mean roughly the same thing. It was just hurriedly let out, and Mysteries clung to it.”
A soft rustle, and a few strands of her snow-white hair fell over the back of Ian’s hand.
“The grimoires we write normally can’t be touched or read by anyone except authorized people. Even if it’s an Outer God, you still have to be prepared to take some damage.”
“....”
“But all of this is based on a completed grimoire. A grimoire that hasn’t even finished being written yet is bound to be weak. It’s a little strange that it can’t even shake off the horror story parasitizing it, but it’s not an impossible thing.”
“Then if we just find that grimoire and dispose of it, we can get out of here?”
“Yes. If left alone, it’ll probably keep growing stronger little by little, then completely devour the horror story and go off to find its owner. As for what happens to the person inside the horror story, that’s obvious.”
It really was obvious. They’d just become part of the grimoire and vanish.
“Then aren’t you in danger too?”
“If it eats me, it’ll be the one that suffers a backlash and dies.”
She replied with a calm expression.
“I don’t know much about the grimoire called Rebirth, but I do know the Outer God’s name. It’s a god called Hermit’s Shackles, and it’s come after me a few times only to have its limbs torn off. There’s no way something like that could eat me and survive.”
Ian gave a wry smile at her voice, which held not even a trace of worry.
“Yeah, I get it for now. Anyway, once we find the grimoire, this farce is over too.”
“It’s easy to say, but it won’t actually be easy. Probably all sorts of horror stories will struggle to stop you. Whatever the reason, the grimoire is like the source that let them take shape, so they’ll do everything they can to protect it.”
“We can’t just sit here, though. We have to do something.”
“That’s true. At least it’s a relief that that human is with you.”
Lea’s gaze turned toward Seo-ah. Seo-ah, who had been lightly ignoring the frog’s mind control, flinched when she met that look. But she didn’t lower her head or show any sign of fear.
“Hmm.”
Perhaps that had piqued her interest. Lea let out a soft snort and crossed her legs. Of course, if it was interest, it was only enough for a tiny insect to stop fleeing and raise its antennae.
“Since we’re at it, shall we check what kind of magic humans have directly designed and developed? Most school ghost stories are closer to ghosts than anomalies, so that woman’s magic should have pretty good compatibility.”
“...What good is watching supposed to—”
“Don’t answer me. Humans hate the sound bugs make when they cry, right? It’s the same thing, so just listen. A quiet dog is more popular than a barking one, after all.”
“....”
Seo-ah pressed her lips tightly together. Ian let out a deep sigh after seeing her expression darken.
“...Lea, I know how you feel about other humans besides me, but could you please not say it like that right now?”
“That’s a difficult request. But if it’s your request, I’ll try.”
“That’s good enough.”
Ian answered absently and turned to Seo-ah. Lea tried to draw his attention away by sliding her hand over his thigh, but Ian ignored it.
“You can handle the things that make up the school ghost story yourself, right?”
“...It’s not a difficult task. In fact, I’m already secretly running a scout right now.”
Seo-ah answered while pulling a glass bottle filled with bone powder from her pocket.
The bottle was filled with her blood. The bone powder swam wildly in that red liquid.
“I’ve observed about fifteen horror stories so far. If I list the famous ones, there’s Hanako of the Toilet, KuneKune, Red Tissue, the blackout broadcast, Beethoven, infirmary surgery, the mass-suicide classroom, and so on. There are a ridiculous number of them. Every one of them is closer to a ghost than to an anomaly.”
“....”
“Perfect for collecting.”
She gave a faint smile and shook the bottle. The blood inside surged from side to side like waves, and in response, the laughter of evil spirits sounded around them.
“Let’s move when the sun goes down. The school after hours has fewer eyes on it than it does now, so it’ll be easier to act.”
Ian nodded. He tapped the table with his fingers and quietly stared at the beaker holding the frog.
‘I have no intention of getting another grimoire. Two is already too many.’
There’s the saying that more is better, and the saying that too much is as bad as too little. If he ended up possessing one more Outer God grimoire here, it would clearly be too much.
If he could control it, maybe it would be fine, but that would definitely require a lot of effort. In many ways, he’d have to go running all over the place.
But... as a mage, it was impossible not to feel greedy.
A new magic, an unfinished grimoire from an Outer God swimming through the cosmos. He was incredibly curious about what knowledge was written in it and what its signature magic was. If it was going to end up in someone else’s hands, disposing of it would be the right thing to do, but if it was going to be disposed of anyway, then maybe it would be better to take it for himself.
‘The Lord of the Outer Sea and Lea might have a fit, but in the end, the decision is mine.’
Tap, tap.
He sorted through his thoughts while drumming the table in a steady rhythm. Seo-ah was in the middle of choosing which evil spirits to use, and Lea was staring at Ian silently with a blank expression.
A long while passed.
‘Good.’
Ian made his decision.
‘If compatibility is 100 percent, I’ll keep it. If not, I’ll discard it.’
Outer God grimoires basically come with madness. But if compatibility was perfect, that side effect might as well not exist. Just as with the Hand of Re-Creation and the Deep-Sea Logbook, if this new grimoire was also 100 percent compatible, then owning it wouldn’t drive him mad.
Ninety-nine percent? He’d throw it away without hesitation. Anything below that was no exception. He already had two near-perfect grimoires, so there was no reason to take on a new addition while taking on that risk.
‘And even if the compatibility is high, if it doesn’t latch onto me first, I’ll need to think about it a little more. There’s no guarantee Hermit’s Shackles will be as friendly to me as the other two.’
Those were pretty harsh conditions, but that was exactly why he needed to be even more careful. If he slipped up, he might lose his mind, and he couldn’t afford to act carelessly.
And... if it passed all of those conditions and became the third grimoire here. As for the relationship with the other two Outer Gods...
“Mm.”
Well, I suppose that would be for them to handle.
It definitely wasn’t his business.
Ian nodded as he thought that.