Chapter 16
When he got home, it was already evening. Ian ordered a simple delivery dinner and emptied the contents of his bag onto the desk. He carefully set aside anything fragile.
A fairly meticulously made [Dying Eyeball]. And other miscellaneous items piled up on the desk. Ian stared at them for a moment and let out a low groan.
“......Should I buy a safe and store them in it?”
He didn't think a thief would break into his house, but if one really did and took his creations, it would be a major disaster. Leaving them lying around anywhere didn't seem like a good idea.
Who knows? Some creepy Santa might suddenly smash through the window, not to give gifts, but to grab everything in the house and run off.
The problem was that he couldn't simply dismiss such fantasies as just fantasies. He hadn't known it before he realized it, but now he knew that mystery was alive and breathing in this world.
And Christmas was coming soon. If anything related to Santa were to appear, now was the perfect time.
‘For now, I should probably buy a storage box.’
It wasn't enough to just watch out for Santa. In case the Bureau ever stormed his house, it was only right to hide any obvious evidence.
“Phew.”
Ian pushed his stray thoughts aside for the moment, took a shower, and then tucked the creations into a drawer. Until he could get a storage box, he planned to keep them here for a while.
It wouldn't be completely safe, but it was enough for temporary storage.
After sorting out his things, he lay down on the bed and took out his phone.
There weren't any messages piled up. Just a few ads.
He deleted them all and opened the community. The message, Solomon is opening the book, flashed up and disappeared, and in that same moment he logged into the community.
[Workout completed.]
[Has anyone seen a vampire noble? Are they hairless like regular vampires too? I'm trying to feel some kinship.]
[I heard some Arab mage suddenly started looking for a grimoire that went missing in Israel? What happened?]
Among the usual trash posts, he found one title that caught his interest. Ian turned off the living room lights and clicked on it.
[Title: I heard from an Arab mage I know that they're suddenly searching for a grimoire that vanished in Israel? What happened?]
[Heatwave]
TL;DR
They're supposedly combing the whole country to check whether any of the stored grimoires are missing.
I heard it was at the request of the Korean Bureau. Does anyone know what's going on?
[Upvotes 0][Downvotes 0]
[Comments]
-At the Bureau's request? Why would they be looking for grimoires there? This isn't the Clock Tower.
ㄴHeatwave: Exactly. Ah, fuck, I'm suddenly getting insanely pissed off? Why the hell are these bastards trying to stick their noses into mages' turf?
ㄴㅇㅁ: Dohwang going off like that is seriously badass.
-They'd be looking because something involving grimoires happened. In any case, it's related to the supernatural. Maybe The Eighth Book of Moses was found somewhere? There must have been some place that recently got hit by a surge of mystery.
ㄴHeatwave: Is that so? Now that you mention it, didn't these bastards look for grimoires the last time something happened too?
ㄴDuring the Spontaneous Human Combustion incident, yeah.
ㄴHeatwave: Ah, right. There was some crazy mage throwing a fit back then. Thinking about that, looking for grimoires doesn't seem that strange after all.
ㄴㅇㅁ: Dohwang's instant about-face is seriously badass.
ㄴHeatwave: Fuck off already, seriously.
Spontaneous human combustion.
Ian had never even heard of that incident. It seemed the Bureau had covered it up.
More importantly, they were looking for grimoires.
With a low groan, Ian thought back to what had happened in Korea recently.
Meeting the Eight-Feet Ghost probably had nothing to do with the grimoire. It was a fairly strong aberration, but if you had to classify it, it was closer to a minor spirit. It wasn't serious enough to warrant the Bureau stepping in at a national level.
“......Then it really was the Monkey Dream.”
If he were to talk about possibilities, that one was the most plausible. There might have been an even more serious incident somewhere else, but Ian first tried to work through it based on himself.
If the Bureau was competent, it would have surely realized that Monkey Dream wasn't a normal phenomenon. Anyone steeped in mystery would have been able to tell that someone was behind it.
The likeliest person behind it was a mage, or another faction that knew how to handle aberrations. The Bureau hadn't asked for the grimoire search for nothing.
And that was the first assumption.
The second was much simpler.
‘The survivors from the subway gave statements about me. I was running around spouting Christian terminology all over the place, so it wouldn't be strange for them to search for a grimoire that vanished in Israel, practically that religion's holy land.’
The disguise he'd originally wanted was just a priest, but bringing a grimoire with him seemed to have backfired. From ordinary people's point of view, whatever it was probably wouldn't be a big deal, but for the Bureau it would be another matter.
Either way, both outcomes were good news for Ian.
Whether they had requested the investigation to identify another mage's identity or to uncover the owner of a Christian grimoire.
Ian, who didn't belong to either category, was effectively outside the scope of the investigation. With Seoa's magic having also disabled the CCTV, he didn't seem to have anything to worry about for the time being.
The only things he needed to watch out for now were resisting any detection methods the Bureau might use, and that female agent he had seen at the convenience store.
‘When will they show up?’
The incident had happened just two days ago. Maybe because it hadn't been such a huge uproar, they were taking quite a while to show up.
What if he ended up blabbing to the whole neighborhood that he'd met the Eight-Feet Ghost?
“......No, they wouldn't believe me even if I told them.”
Even if he told them everything that happened that day with complete sincerity, there was no way people would believe him easily. They'd probably just cautiously suggest that he go see a psychiatrist.
And if he went around openly talking about having encountered mystery, he might also draw the Bureau's attention. Maybe that's what they're after.
It could all be a delusion of grandeur. He might simply be getting paranoid from overthinking everything too much.
But he didn't think that was entirely a bad thing.
The more cautious he was, the more options he had, and the more ways he had to deal with things.
Once he was a mage, he couldn't slow his thoughts down. If he got used to the life of a mage, maybe that would change, but not yet.
“......”
Ian lay back on the bed, stretched out once, posted on the community, and closed his eyes.
[Title: I'm going to sleep now. Please leave a good-night con.]
[Yeah.]
(Turn off the lights con)
Even if his head was a mess, there were still things he had to do.
*
Knock knock knock.
“Is anyone home?”
“......Ugh.”
Ian opened his eyes at the sound of the voice. He instinctively checked the time and got up from bed.
8:00 a.m.
It wasn't a time of day when someone would usually come by unannounced.
There was no doubt it wasn't a normal visitor.
“......”
He rubbed his face, gulped down some cold water, and looked around.
The grimoire that should have been on the desk was somehow right beside his pillow. All the other items were in the drawer. The only mystical object visible to the naked eye was the grimoire.
Knock knock knock.
“Is anyone home?”
With another knock, a bright male voice came through. Ian sprang to his feet and first put the grimoire into the boiler room.
Click.
He locked it from the inside. He placed the key on the bathroom shelf.
A spot that would be hard to find unless someone reached in and rummaged around.
In the bathroom mirror, Ian messed up his hair, steadied his breathing, then tightly grabbed the talisman he'd carelessly tossed onto the desk. After that, with an expression like someone drenched in exhaustion, he shuffled toward the door.
“......”
Perhaps they had heard his footsteps, because the person outside stopped knocking. Ian quickly checked the visitor's face through the lens on the front door.
‘One man and one woman. They're wearing suits, and the person I saw at the convenience store isn't there.’
But their overall atmosphere was similar.
That meant they were Bureau agents.
I had a feeling, and sure enough, they were.
Ian clicked his tongue inwardly, unlatched the front door, then yanked it open irritably and glared at the visitors.
“......Who are you? If it's a package, just leave it by the door.”
“Ah, my apologies. We're not couriers; we're the kind of people who do this sort of thing.”
The man among the pair said that. With a beaming smile, he took a business card from an inner pocket.
[Gyeonggi Suwon Police Station]
[Detective Division: Kim Min-su]
It was an utterly unremarkable business card. The very fact that a detective had turned up out of nowhere could be intimidating to ordinary people, but aside from that, there was nothing strange about it.
But to Ian's eyes, the card's true face came into sharp focus.
[Mystic Management Bureau]
[Negotiation Division]
[Staff Member Kim Min-su]
The true face of the business card was visible only to those who had faced the supernatural.
If he had been an ordinary person, he'd have blurted out the Bureau's name immediately, but Ian wasn't. He immediately realized this was nothing more than a leading question.
A business card that only showed its true form to those who had encountered mystery. Saying the Bureau's name was practically the same as undeniable proof that you'd encountered the supernatural.
‘A test, or maybe a probe, aimed at someone whose encounter with mystery hasn't been confirmed. Through this, they can determine whether the other party has had contact with mystery and deal with it accordingly.’
Once he'd figured out their intent, there was no reason to play along.
He kept his expression calm and looked up at the man.
“Why are you suddenly here, Detective......”
The moment the man heard the word detective, his expression softened slightly.
It lasted only an instant. He quickly reset his expression and put the card away, folding his hands together politely as if nothing had happened.
“We're hoping to ask you about an incident that happened while you were working a part-time job recently. We need a statement, so would you have a moment?”
“Ah... yes. Come in. It's a bit cramped, though.”
“Ahaha, that's fine. We only need a moment.”
Ian kept up the act of being sleepy as he carefully opened the door.
“Then, excuse us.”
“Then we'll come in.”
The two Bureau agents passed through the front door and went inside. The man casually took off his shoes and walked into the living room, while the woman gave Ian a slight bow and followed him.
“......”
Ian cast a cold stare at their backs and shut the front door again.
Creeeeak.
Click.
The line of sight between outside and inside was cut off.