Chapter 145
“Hah…… hah…….”
A narrow alley.
Mariang roughly wiped the blood dripping from her cheek with the back of her hand and gasped for breath.
Pain rose from her crushed knee, but she had already modified her pain receptors, so it wasn’t unbearable. It only creaked a little; she could still move well enough.
“Tsk…….”
She clicked her tongue hard and leaned her back against the wall.
Thighs, back skin, belly skin, arms, shins, and innards.
Not a single part of her was intact. Her entire body was drenched in blood. It only didn’t show because she was wearing a black dress. The iron smell unique to blood had long since buried her own scent. A nauseating yet sweet fragrance spilled from her all over.
Thanks to having grafted in some of a succubus’s bodily fluids, her blood contained a slight amount of aphrodisiac compound. But its painkilling effect was stronger than its ability to stir sexual excitement, so she gathered the flowing blood in her palm and drank it down in one gulp.
Gulp.
The disgusting taste spread through her mouth. The fleeting pleasure made her head spin, and the pain pounding through her body slowly subsided. Only then did Mariang’s expression relax a little.
“You damn bug bastard.”
She slid down to the floor and let out a breath reeking of blood.
Rustle.
At the same time, a bug’s head crawled out of the gaping hole in her thigh. Mariang frowned hard, shoved her finger into the hole, and pulled the bug out. It wriggled like a maggot, but she paid it no mind and crushed it, bursting its body open.
Crunch!
The bug’s burst fluids and pus stained her palm. She wiped it off on her clothes and opened an umbrella to make shade.
“You, woman in the shadows. Become my veil.”
When she chanted the spell, the magic circle engraved on the inside of the umbrella glowed.
A concealment spell that warped outsiders’ perceptions and hid her from observation. It wasn’t one of her main spells, so her proficiency was lacking, but it was enough to hide herself. She took out the hemostatic agent she had brought, swallowed it, and stared at the street beyond the alley.
“Where did she go?”
“Team 2, take the left. Team 5, the right. The rest of you, follow me.”
“Yes!”
Bureau employees in black suits ran through the street in perfect coordination. It was a chaotic sight, yet the passersby didn’t spare them even a glance. They probably had some device that filtered what people perceived.
The Bureau was unrivaled when it came to using science to turn mysteries into tools. Even if they had strange devices, it wasn’t odd at all.
“…….”
For a moment, she considered killing them one by one, but quickly dismissed the thought. There was no need to pick a fight and make things worse.
‘I’ve already drawn too much attention. I should have killed him quickly and run.’
Of course, Mariang wasn’t so weak that merely being chased by the Bureau would hurt her. In fact, she could have wiped them all out.
The number of pests she had hunted down after being pursued so far was already nearing several hundred; how could she possibly be beaten by Bureau agents? If they were strong operatives, that would be one thing, but the ones over there were all low-level lackeys. Even if they wanted to, they simply couldn’t lose.
Then who had inflicted a mortal wound on her?
It was obvious.
‘The insect sorcerer…….’
A man dressed in a bizarre outfit, with a mantis mask pulled over his face.
The way he muttered “Transformation” every time he switched masks was incredibly ridiculous, but his skill was anything but a joke. A mage who could manipulate hundreds, perhaps thousands, of insects at once while also fighting hand-to-hand could never be weak.
‘A Korean insect sorcerer. His spells were similar to the gravediggers of Walpurgis in Germany. Did he learn magic from them?’
The gravediggers of Walpurgis.
An organization of hard-liners that never crawled out of Germany and dealt only in grotesque magic that mages disliked.
It was such a closed-off place that getting into the organization was extremely difficult, and because they never leaked magic to the outside, they were lunatics you could only find in Germany. She hadn’t expected to see a mage using the magic of such an organization here in Korea.
‘Did he run away, or is he just an especially exceptional oddball among those hard-liners?’
She couldn’t tell.
And she didn’t particularly want to know. It wasn’t an important fact.
What mattered was that the man had dealt her a mortal wound, and that he had suffered one himself.
By now, he was probably hobbling around, shaking off the Bureau’s pursuit just like she was. Stupid bastard.
“Haa…….”
Mariang exhaled and looked down at her body, which was slowly starting to recover.
Regeneration she had gained by grafting werewolf bones into herself. Feeling severed nerves and tendons knit back together, she fumbled out her phone and picked it up. Then she called someone without hesitation.
[Hello?]
The other person answered in French. Mariang leaned her head against the wall and spoke.
“Walter, it’s me.”
[I know, Mariang. What is it?]
Walter.
The head of Laplace answered in a gentle voice. Mariang continued at once.
“I’m in Korea right now. I came to retrieve Eddie’s body.”
[……Mm. So this was a solo operation. Why didn’t you report it in advance?]
“Do I really have to report my personal business to Laplace too? I was just trying to collect the remains of my dead lover.”
[Ahaha, Mariang. Both you and I know that isn’t your true purpose.]
Walter chuckled.
[You just want to use Eddie’s corpse as material, don’t you?]
“What’s so strange about that? It’s just the heart of an ordinary woman who wants to love even her lover’s corpse.”
[Ordinary women do not think like you.]
“I don’t know what you want me to say. Anyway, I ran into an insect sorcerer here. He was using magic similar to the gravediggers of Walpurgis.”
[Oh? That’s news to me. Why are there so many eccentrics in Korea? Is the land particularly auspicious?]
“That mage is pretty strong.”
[Gravediggers are all like that. Hmm, but Mariang. So what is it you want to say? Did the insect sorcerer beat you up, so you’re asking for help? Want me to take revenge for you?]
Walter asked, his voice still lightly amused. Mariang glanced back at the Bureau agents still running around and answered.
“The Bureau found me. I need a place to hide.”
[Why not just check into a hotel? Or go down to the provinces.]
“I mean I need somewhere much safer than that.”
She tried moving her leg, which had recovered somewhat. The throbbing pain was still there, but she could at least walk well enough now.
“That mirror world you made. I’m going in there to rest for a bit. Tell me where the entrance is.”
[The mirror world, huh…… Now that you mention it, there was such a thing. I didn’t pay much attention to it since it was a failure, but…… yes, it should be enough to use as a hideout.]
“…….”
[I can make an entrance in no time. Break a nearby mirror and send me a photo of it.]
“Thanks, Walter.”
[Not at all. We help each other out.]
Walter replied at once. Whether he was turning the pages of a grimoire or not, he continued speaking amid a rustling sound.
[More importantly, Mariang, if you’re in Korea, could you move together with Miss Irene? She’ll be arriving in Korea tomorrow as well.]
“……Why is Irene coming here?”
[Her goal is similar to yours. She’s trying to find the person who killed Eddie. And while she’s at it, she’ll gather some information…… anyway, I’m asking you to look after her.]
“……All right.”
Mariang answered with a sigh.
Walter burst out laughing.
[Then I hope you get some comfortable rest in the mirror world.]
*
“Inside the mirror world, a world that is both similar to reality and different from it unfolds. You can think of it as something like a parallel world.”
Eunha explained as she stood in front of the mirror.
She had somehow ended up wearing a black leather jacket and a snug jumper that clung to her body. These were clothes she only wore when she was on the job. They could fairly be called a kind of combat uniform.
“However, it isn’t a real parallel world. It isn’t the kind of thing the scientific community commonly claims either.”
“Th, then……?”
“An imperfect copy of reality created by mystery. Well, something like that. It’s a little hard for me to explain in detail too.”
“U, um…….”
“It isn’t dangerous. I already sent a demon inside to test it once. You’re free to go in and come back out.”
Eunha fastened the Lemegeton to her belt and looked back at Ian. Ian met her gaze with a serious expression.
“Then what’s the purpose of going in?”
“Exploration, and a contract with a demon. Whatever it is, it’s still a mystery that arose in my house. That alone is reason enough to investigate. As for summoning a demon, if it’s done somewhere that isn’t reality, I don’t have to bear the risk if it fails, so doing it there is safer.”
“Hmm…… I understand. How do we get out?”
“You just find a full-length mirror in the mirror world and pass through it. The mirror’s location appears where we first set foot.”
“So we don’t need to wander around looking for it.”
“That’s right. And, um…… this world has a very strong apocalypse vibe. The buildings are all in ruins, and there are almost no survivors.”
That was interesting as well. Ian tilted his head slightly.
“You mean a post-apocalyptic setting?”
“Yes.”
“Did you determine the cause of its destruction?”
“Yes. Turns out aliens attacked.”
“……Pardon?”
For a moment, Ian couldn’t make sense of her words and frowned. Eunha scratched her cheek and answered.
“The reptilians revealed their true colors, and every country except the United States was destroyed. The United States is making its final stand.”
“No…… what were the mages, including the Clock Tower, doing, and why is it the United States……?”
“Magic doesn’t exist in that world. More precisely, not just magic, but anything related to mystery doesn’t exist there at all.”
Ian let out a hollow laugh at her explanation. Eunha tucked the materials Ian had handed her into her bag, wearing a faint smile.
“Pretty interesting, right?”
It certainly was interesting.