Chapter 134
In a small outlying village in Greece, a quiet place with more sheep than people and more grass than roads, a blond girl was painting with the lake as her backdrop.
“……Hmm.”
Swish, swish.
The moving brush laid paint onto the canvas. The sunset was painted orange, and the clouds were swept away in white. The green mountains were rendered with rough brushstrokes, and the blue lake was finished with soft dabs, as if she were stippling it in.
And over that blue lake, she depicted the floating corpses as black dots. With those painstaking, precise touches complete, she smiled in satisfaction and lifted the canvas with both hands.
Just then.
“Your painting is still as good as ever, Irene.”
“……!”
The girl whipped her head around at the sudden voice. Her gaze was rather sharp, but the moment she recognized the owner, it relaxed back into languid ease. The girl called Irene let her shoulders sag and hugged the canvas tightly.
“Walter.”
“Long time no see, Irene. Have you been well?”
Walter.
The head of Laplace and the mage who possessed the foreign god’s grimoire, he walked over slowly in light clothes, stepping through the grass, and smiled at the corpses floating on the lake.
“What are those?”
“A work.”
Irene muttered without the slightest hesitation. She crouched down and, with a faintly flushed face, stared at the drowned bodies on the lake.
Blue-skinned corpses, swollen and beginning to rot. Small fish had gathered around their distended bellies, as if they would burst if touched. The fish, whose names she didn’t even know, jostled one another to tear into the softened flesh.
Blood spread like paint.
“Why is it that humans always think of themselves as the sovereigns of all creation? Any being that lives by eating something should, by rights, tremble in fear that it, too, could be eaten by that something.”
Irene laid the canvas flat on the ground, bit her finger lightly until it bled, and then painted blood around the blue paint as it spread across the lake.
“Humans in the past all had to risk their lives just to survive. They had to test plants themselves to see whether they were poisonous, and on hunting days, they had to be prepared to lose an arm or a leg.”
“Hmm.”
“But now? We’ve become too comfortable. We don’t cling to survival anymore. That’s a work of art expressing that contradiction and humanity’s lost glory.”
Irene’s golden eyes glittered in the sunset. Walter stroked his chin as if mulling over her words, then gave a wry smile and crossed his arms.
“Haha, sorry. I guess Irene and I have different ideas about art. To put it bluntly, it sounds like bullshit.”
“Hmph. Artists are lonely by nature. I only make my own work...”
Irene muttered that and set the canvas back on the easel. Then she turned to Walter.
“So, what’s the reason you suddenly came looking for me?”
“Nothing much. I came to tell you that Eddie died.”
“Eddie?”
Irene tilted her head as if she didn’t know who that was. Walter explained personally.
“You know, that mage from the Clock Tower. The old man with white hair and a beard.”
“……Ah, that man.”
She sat down on the chair with a disinterested look. Her hair fluttered softly in the wind.
“He had it coming. He wasn’t that strong for all his reputation, and he wasn’t even handsome enough to inspire me... He probably died in some pathetic way.”
“Ahaha, that’s harsh. Did you always hate Eddie that much?”
“He was a man with no reason to like. Honestly, I wanted to kill him, but I couldn’t even feel inspired to paint him, so I gave up.”
Irene waited with a languid expression until the paint on the canvas dried. Walter didn’t seem like he intended to stay that long either, and he brushed the leaves off his pants before turning back to Irene.
“Well, that’s not the important part. What matters is where he died.”
“Where did he die?”
“Korea.”
“And why is that?”
Irene asked without even turning her head away from the canvas.
“Didn’t he just go showing off there and get himself killed?”
“Probably. But I did ask him to do something for me. I told him to track down the foreign god’s grimoire.”
“……”
At Walter’s continued words, Irene’s gaze turned toward him. Stars sparkled in her amber eyes.
“The foreign god’s grimoire?”
“Yes.”
Walter smiled faintly.
“Eddie may have been stupid, but he wasn’t a moron. He wouldn’t have gone to Korea and met a violent death for no reason.”
“Mm-hmm. I’m sure.”
“There must be something related to a foreign god there. Ah, not the Lovecraft side. That side is already fully claimed.”
“I know. I saw one recently too.”
“Yes. Anyway, that’s why I’m thinking of paying Korea a visit.”
“You stay put. I’m going.”
Irene stood up and said that. Walter smiled faintly.
“You, Irene? You’ve never even left Greece.”
“It’s a foreign god’s grimoire. You know how badly I’ve been craving one. I hate things that have already gone down in history like yours. Something completely new. A grimoire written by an unknown god from beyond the cosmos.”
Her expression grew flushed with excitement. Her flowing golden hair gleamed even brighter in the sunset.
“I won’t let anyone else have it. I’ll find it. I’ll be the first to feel that beauty with my own hands, and I’ll paint it.”
“What if it already has an owner?”
“What are you talking about?”
Irene tilted her head.
“With me here, there’s no way the grimoire would prefer another owner.”
“……Haha.”
At the clear answer, free of even the slightest hint of doubt, Walter let out a dry laugh and pulled his hat down.
“Then you go, Irene. I’ll focus on my work a little longer.”
“Yeah. Leave it to me. I’ll bring it back.”
“Yes. And, well... this is just a heads-up, but a foreign god recently descended on Earth.”
“What? When?”
“Mm, don’t shove your face in so close. It makes me want to skin you alive and stuff you. Hmm... the exact time was probably a month ago? Something like that.”
“……? That’s way too recent, isn’t it? Then there’s no way you wouldn’t have known.”
“Right? I thought that was strange too.”
Walter tapped the grimoire tucked inside his coat and smiled.
“Something unusual seems to have happened. While you’re there, investigate that too. I’m looking into it as well.”
“Yeah, got it.”
Irene nodded. She stared at the corpses swimming in the lake, and the corners of her mouth trembled.
“Korea, huh...”
An unbearable thrill started in her heart and coursed through her entire body.
*
The school ghost story Seo-ah had been looking forward to was a heart-pounding game of collecting ghosts. But what she actually ran into was the fallout from the birth of the foreign god’s grimoire, and all she managed to bring home was ‘Hanako-san of the Toilet.’
Even that was a loss. She’d used up roughly fifteen evil spirits at the school alone, but the only thing she got was one, so from Seo-ah’s point of view it was nothing but a losing job.
What did she choose to do after everything was over?
“Come out, you cult bastards!”
Right—she went on a rampage.
“How dare you scam me?! That supposed school ghost story wasn’t even the real thing, you fucking shaman bitches!”
Crash!
Downtown Busan. Seo-ah raided the small rest house of a shaman association in the center of the city. The shamans, who had been peacefully exorcising some ghost and talking about the god they had recently begun serving, jumped at the sudden assault from a mage.
“Oh, you crazy bitch! Stop, stop! Let’s talk first!”
“Screeeech! T-that one’s not allowed! Not that ritual blade! Aaaah! Not that talisman either!!”
“There are way too many things that aren’t allowed! Just shut up!”
“Aaaahhh!!”
At dawn, as the moon hung low, old and young shamans alike stomped around and screamed. But Seo-ah didn’t stop; she unleashed the ghosts and had them smash everything around her. Her guardian spirit brandished a kitchen knife and danced wildly with it.
“You crazy bitch, stop it!”
She didn’t stop. Seo-ah stood in the middle of the room and kept commanding the ghosts.
“Smash that pig head over there too.”
“Kyaaaah!”
Her bizarre rampage went on for a full two hours, and only stopped as the sun began to rise. The shamans who had been making a racket were exhausted and sprawled across the floor. The oldest shaman among them mumbled as she dimly looked up at Seo-ah.
“……You crazy bitch, did yer granny put you up to this?”
“My granny died a long time ago.”
“That’s what I’m askin’... did that bitch tell you to do it...”
“I caught my granny and sent her on her way a while ago. She kept nagging me to stay a shaman even after she died.”
“You crazy unfilial brat...”
“What are you talking about? I said I sent her on her way.”
Irene answered as she looked down at the shaman.
“Enough. I think I should get paid for this job. Hand over double the money. And give me a few talismans too.”
“What? No, you little wench! What kind of natural-born thief are you? The fee is a full 100 million won, 100 million! And you want double? On top of that, talismans too? Damn it, you trashy thing. Just kill me already.”
“Sure. Die. Goodbye.”
“Let’s talk this out.”
The shaman sprang to her feet.
“Even so, two hundred million won is hard for us to come up with right away. Give us a little time. No, what on earth happened there that made you act like this? Huh?”
“Muggles can’t understand. If you don’t like it, become a mage. And do you think I don’t know you lot have been taking a cut from every rite you perform? Do you think I don’t know why my grandmother left behind so much?”
Seo-ah tapped the shaman on the head with her finger.
“Hand it all over right here. Pull out bundles of 100 million won in cash. I’ll give you ten minutes.”
“……”
The shaman fell silent. Fortunately, it was the silence of agreement. She went with the other shamans to the safe in the rest house and started counting the money. Ian watched the scene with a wry smile.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t really their fault. They were just people who weren’t mages, who had carelessly entered a school ghost story and been swept away and killed. They must have been horribly wronged too.
But what could they do? It was also true that they had handed the request over to a mage without even finding out the cause of death. If Seo-ah had gone to the school alone, she probably would have been torn limb from limb and died the same way.
She was only that enraged because she knew that.
Whatever the case, Ian had nothing to lose. He was getting more money, and he could even squeeze a talisman or two out of them, so was there any reason for him to step in?
“You should’ve done that sooner. Hah, Ian. Let’s eat something expensive for breakfast today.”
Seo-ah had come up beside Ian before he knew it and said that. Ian chuckled and nodded.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
A little while later, the shamans came back sniffling with the money. The two of them stuffed the cash into their bags without any hesitation and left the rest house.
It was a pretty good haul.