Chapter 142
For a shop whose owner was a cat, the merchandise was more ordinary than expected. Ian left the grooming cat alone and looked over the items displayed in the case.
Beast blood. Mystery organs. Sand from the Sahara Desert, Antarctic glaciers, lava, sandstone, cow testicles, human wrists, eyeballs, hearts, and so on....
A wide variety of items were lined up in glass bottles.
If a normal person had seen the list, they would have fainted on the spot, but for mages these were ingredients they used so often they were almost sick of them. Ian stared at the candy made mainly from a male deer's eyeball, then turned his head toward the cat.
“Are you the owner?”
“Then would I be a thief cat, nya?”
The cat shot back immediately.
“My name is Pleas, nya. I’m the owner of this shop, nya.”
“...I heard this was a chain. Do you manage all of them yourself?”
“Of course, nya. This body is my familiar. It is called Leopold General August V, nya. It’s the one in charge of the Korean branch, nya.”
It was a name stuffed full of every grandiose word imaginable. The sort of naming sense that would have made some Roman emperor have a seizure if he'd heard it. Ian already felt like he knew what kind of person the mage named Pleas was.
“The one in Japan is the 7th, the one in China is the 6th, and the one in Russia is the 8th, nya. I’m controlling all of them, nya.”
“So that means the body is a real cat, and you’re the one talking? Uh, Pleas?”
“That’s right, nya.”
Pleas washed her face like a cat and sharpened her claws on the wall-mounted scratcher. Then she looked at her sharply raised claws and curled her mouth into a satisfied smile.
“Perfect, nya....”
“......”
Ian let out a dry laugh and shook his head.
He hadn't expected to meet anyone crazier than Dolores here, but a cat that had popped up out of nowhere changed his mind.
Still, it didn't really matter as long as they could talk. If he were trying to build a friendship, that would be one thing, but he wasn't.
And when in life would he ever get another chance to have a conversation with a cat in human speech? Ian decided to just enjoy the situation.
“I’m looking for a goat’s heart, thread spun with virgin’s blood, and a plant grown by absorbing virgin’s blood. Do you have them here?”
“Common stuff, nya. Follow me, nya.”
In reply to Ian, Pleas jumped down from the counter. Then she pointed with a front paw at the display case in the corner.
“First off, everything in that display case over there is beast organs, nya. As for the goat’s heart, there are two kinds—male and female—which one do you want, nya?”
“Female.”
“Then take the one on the left, nya. The price is 5,000, nya.”
“...It's just a beast heart. Why is it that expensive? Isn't this a little too much of a rip-off?”
“Nya-nya-nya-nyan.”
Pleas laughed. Her green snake eyes turned toward Ian.
“Are you maybe a newbie who only just became a mage, nya? It's been a while since I've seen someone startled by the price, so this is pretty funny, nya.”
“......”
“It's easy enough to take the organs out of beasts, but refining them so they can be used in magic and keeping them from rotting as time passes requires a rather tricky processing procedure, nya. Naturally, the price includes that labor, nya.”
Hop.
Pleas jumped up onto the display case and sat in a loaf pose.
“Do you want lower-quality materials, nya? Then order from Cartel. They sell items that can be used for offerings and all sorts of other things, nya. But we handle only materials that can be used for magic, nya. If you think it's expensive, go somewhere else, nya.”
“...Haa.”
Ian, who had been quietly listening to her explanation, let out a deep sigh.
The godmother probably hadn't specifically requested something Cartel also sold. It was surely because the quality of the goods sold here was far better that she'd asked him to come.
And although the prices were pretty absurd, it didn't matter much if he thought of it as something the godmother would reimburse in full. He could easily stomach a little temporary bleeding. If the money in his account wasn't enough, he could just call the godmother right here and get more.
“I hope they perform as well as they cost.”
In the end, Ian picked up the bottle containing the heart. Pleas smiled brightly. It was still only a cat's smile, though.
“A wise choice, nya. Do you think I opened a chain store for nothing, nya? Leave it to me, nya!”
“I’d also like to buy the thread and the plant right now. Please show me where they are.”
“Understood, nya. Follow me, nya.”
Pleas hummed to herself as she dropped down to the floor and trotted away on all fours. Yuna, who had been silent until then, opened her mouth in a dazed little “hee.”
“I-it's cute, despite how rude it sounds....”
“Nya-nya-nya-nya. My familiars are all cute by nature, nya. They take after me, nya.”
“I-it suddenly seems ugly, too....”
“What did you say, nya?”
The roughly two meters of thread spun by a virgin and the plant grown by absorbing virgin blood each came with a price tag of around 20 million won.
Thus, including the heart, his total spending came to 90 million. Since there was roughly 300 million won in his account, about a third of it had vanished in an instant.
‘It's basically a department store that sells nothing but luxury goods.’
As if anyone could say the mage society wasn't closed-off, the prices were downright vicious. Ian let out a deep sigh and swiped his card.
“Nya-nya-nya-nya-nyan! Thanks for the cool deal, nya!”
“......Yeah.”
After packing the items for the godmother into a separate box, Ian kept browsing the shop with Yuna. He still needed to buy materials for alchemy, and he planned to get whatever he could for contract magic as well.
The Blue Shackles and the Book of Contracts were basically geared more toward contracts.
There were also many stealth and defensive spells recorded in them, but the bulk was still contract magic. Some summoning rites for spirits and Mysteries related to contracts were recorded as well. There were even rituals for calling cosmic beings.
Of course, summoning some wildly overpowered entity out of nowhere was impossible. Nothing of that sort was recorded in the grimoire.
Instead, you could summon something like a cosmic cat.
A cosmic cat didn't look all that different from a real cat. Its breed resembled a Persian, and its size was ordinary. But since it was a life-form that swam through space, it had abilities to match.
Things like not needing to breathe, not feeling hunger, or not being affected by temperature, and so on.
Aside from the survival abilities developed to endure extreme environments, it didn't have any other offensive traits, but it was still a species with exceptional defense. That was the cosmic cat. Its lifespan was also much longer than a human's.
But even if he summoned one, he wouldn't have any use for it beyond being a pet, so he had no particular intention of contracting with a cosmic cat. If that was the case, it would be better to just raise a normal cat.
Anyway.
Aside from these cosmic beings, it was also possible to summon spirits such as gnomes, salamanders, sylphs, and undines.
The four elemental spirits commonly handled by spirit summoners.
Some people think that because they're closely related to the four elements, they can throw around firepower like elemental magic, but spirits have very little talent for combat. At most, they can provide support.
As a result, there are almost no spirit summoners who fight directly; most of them show up as support, helping other mages. They're not the kind of 'just press a button and it does it for you' class you see in fiction.
For these reasons, Ian didn't really plan to summon spirits either. The magic he used was all from the cosmos, not from Earth. The four elemental spirits had no room to assist him, and he'd be lucky if they didn't end up helping only to blow themselves apart in the process.
So spirits were ruled out. It was far better to put shackles on a Mystery and use it however he liked.
Or demons and angels wouldn't be bad either. If all else failed, it would also be fine to put a chain around a mage's or esper's neck. Unlike ordinary contract magic, a contract with an Outer God could be forced on the other party unilaterally.
‘If I disable them first, shackle them, and dominate them, that should be a sight to see,’
Thinking that, Ian carefully surveyed the display case.
“Hmm.... Maybe I’ll just buy this one.... My magic doesn't really need materials anyway....”
Behind Ian, Yuna muttered as she lifted up a blue pendant. Ian turned his head.
“What is that?”
“N-nothing special.... It's a gem made by collecting the blood of mages who donated their organs, mixing it together, and hardening it. It reduces the risks of magic....”
“Not bad. Does using that make you more efficient? You said your blood decreases every time you use magic.”
“Y-yeah. I should probably be able to use magic a few more times than usual....”
Yuna slipped the pendant around her neck.
“How is it....?”
She only lifted her head slightly to look up at Ian. His face was reflected clearly in her murky black eyes.
Ian gave a small smile and answered.
“Looks good. It suits you.”
“R-really....? Ehehe.... Then I'll buy it....”
At Ian's compliment, Yuna giggled and went to pay for the pendant. He vaguely caught “300 million” and Yuna's shocked voice.
Leaving her behind, Ian picked out a few things he needed.
Things for contract magic, and things for alchemy.
When he carried nearly a dozen items and set them on the counter, Pleas, still in loaf pose, told him the price.
“Altogether, it normally comes to a little over 200 million, but I'll give you a special discount, nya. Pay 150 million, nya.”
“If you're giving me a discount, knock it down more.”
“Do you want to die, nya?”
He didn't want to die. Ian gave a small smile and swiped his card through the reader. With a ding, 150 million vanished from his account.
His account had emptied in an instant, but since he could earn it back quickly enough, he decided not to dwell on it.
Ian put only the items he would take with him immediately into his bag, and sent the bulkier things like the large candlestick and heavy chains by courier. That added an extra 100,000 won to the bill.
“The delivery will probably arrive in about three days, nya. Since it's being sent through the magic post office, your address won't be leaked, nya. I don't know the address either, nya.”
“That's a relief.”
“Nya-nya-nya-nya-nyan. Well then, customer? Thanks for your business, nya. If there's another chance, let's meet again, nya.”
“Yeah, got it.”
Ian nodded and lightly patted Pleas on the head. She closed her eyes and let out a purring growl.
After a moment, Ian suddenly remembered something and went, “Ah.”
“Just one question. Is there a shop here that sells this cigarette?”
He pulled a small cigarette out of his pocket. Pleas sniffed the lemon scent wafting from it and nodded.
“They sell them at the shop across the street, nya. It's probably about 500,000 won a pack, nya.”
“Much cheaper than Cartel....”
“Did you buy it there, nya? Don't do that, nya. The mage-specialty goods sold at Cartel are marked up by several times, nya. They're just money-sucking ghosts, ghosts.”
Ian gave a bitter smile. After patting Pleas on the head a few more times, he went into the shop across the street with Yuna and bought ten packs of cigarettes.
The shop owner was an elderly man with a shiny head, and whether he had studied alchemy professionally or not, he made five packs of cigarettes on the spot. He handed over the remaining five packs as pre-made stock.
“5 million. I'll pay.”
He did just that. Ian swiped his card without hesitation and grinned as he hefted the heavy bundle of cigarettes. Yuna, standing beside him, stared at him with a sour expression.
“A-a chain smoker....”
“These are quit-smoking cigarettes. I'm not a chain smoker anymore.”
“A lie with real conviction....”
Yuna's mouth twitched. Ian flicked her on the forehead and took out his phone to contact the godmother.
‘There were a few messages....’
Messages he hadn't checked because he'd left it on silent. Before contacting the godmother, Ian quickly skimmed the texts first.
[Kim I-seo: Mister Shin Ian, since you didn't answer my calls, I'm leaving you this text. To get straight to the point, I'd like to ask for your support in a Management Bureau operation. It's a place called the Museum of the Five Senses, and most of the personnel who returned from the recent operation died—]
[Cecilia: What are you doing? Wanna play a game?]
[Lee Seo-ah: I'm preparing to move. I'll be heading up to Seoul soon. The Seoul mages should tremble at the appearance of a national-power-level mage.]
[Kim Yul: (Photo)]
[Kim Yul: It's the swimsuit I just bought. What do you think?]
He quickly filtered out the messages that weren't very useful. In the end, all that remained was Kim Yul's swimsuit photo and Kim I-seo's message.
“Hmm.”
Ian quickly replied to Kim Yul's message with [Don't send me things like this.] then saved the photo and checked Kim I-seo's text.
In short, they had dispatched the Response Team to a place called the Museum of the Five Senses, but most of them died and only about five people returned. It also said that they found a drawing made by a mage named Irene of Laplace inside.
‘Laplace again.’
It was a place he got tangled up with far too damn often. Ian clicked his tongue, left a message saying they'd talk face-to-face later, and called the godmother.
She picked up before the ringing even went twice.
[Hello?]
“Yes, Ms. Eunha. I’ve purchased everything you asked for. Should I bring it over right away?”
[Ah, yes. You can come right over. And it's about time to repair the magic on the bike, so bring the bike too. I'll take care of it.]
“Understood. Then....”
Just as Ian was about to end the call, he looked at Yuna standing there blankly beside him and spoke again.
“I think I’ll be bringing one more person. Is that okay?”
[Uh.... Who is it?]
The godmother's voice dropped for a moment. Ian answered with a smile.
“It's Strawberry Yogurt Smoothie.”
[Ah. That troublemaker.]
Ian burst out laughing at the immediate answer that came back without hesitation.