Briefing

Ian clamped a cigarette between his teeth and climbed the stairs of the shabby motel where Anastasia was staying.

“........”

There were corpses strewn around the stairwell. Corpses riddled with stab wounds from knives and axes. No matter how bad the area’s security was, this was a bit too much. A few bodies even looked as if they had been left there for quite some time.

He didn't particularly care. Territorial disputes among themselves were no concern of Ian’s. He lit the cigarette and headed for Anastasia’s room, which he had already scoped out.

Fortunately, he didn’t run into anyone on the way. Security was so terrible that even the CCTV cameras so common in Korea were nowhere to be seen. He had planned to shoot and smash anything in sight, then storm the front desk and destroy the computer and monitors too. It looked like that wouldn’t be necessary.

Thud.

As he stood before the door, smoke spilling from his lips, a pained groan came from inside. Of course, smashing someone’s eyes didn’t kill them. Ian clamped the cigarette between his teeth and ignited the 'Sound-Eating Flame'.

With a hiss, the sounds of the world vanished. For Ian, it was the perfect environment.

‘Sight has been cut off, and hearing has been erased too. At this point, it’s basically the same as having all cognitive function stripped away.’

The two most important senses in battle are sight and hearing. With both of those smashed, it was almost laughable to call this a fight. All he had to do was go in and pull the trigger.

He didn't know why Anastasia had come to Korea or why she’d killed her employer. But it wasn’t something he needed to know. What mattered to Ian was simply testing the alchemical item; her circumstances were none of his concern.

“.......”

The bang rang only in Ian’s head. He roughly yanked off the broken doorknob and forcibly wrenched open the shut door.

The sight inside was miserable. Three figures with empty eye sockets were crawling across the floor like insects, and Anastasia was on the bed, convulsing with foam at her mouth. Ian didn’t hesitate and put a bullet between Anastasia’s eyebrows.

Anastasia, dying with blood streaming from her nose and ears, died on the spot. Just in case, Ian checked her pulse to confirm her death before turning to the three.

Of the three, the two men had been hit with human eyeballs, and the woman with fish eyes. Ian first put bullets into their joints so they couldn’t thrash about, then sealed their mouths with the duct tape he’d brought. Even the struggles of mercenaries who couldn’t properly use their limbs were easy enough for Ian to suppress.

‘For now, keep the lighter lit…….’

After setting the lighter—practically Eddie’s trophy—on the table, he crouched down and carefully examined their crushed eyes. The mercenaries’ bodies trembled like aspen leaves in the face of incomprehensible terror, but it didn’t get in the way of the inspection.

Ian first examined the woman hit by the fish eyes, starting with her eye sockets. Even for him, this was the first time seeing the result of offensive magic this close up.

“…….”

Normally, a person’s eyeballs are beneath the eyelids. But the mercenary’s eyes were gone. Not figuratively, but literally—the eyeballs had vanished. Only red blood pooled there, sloshing gently.

The traces of the eyeballs floated on top of the blood. Fragments of optic nerves, irises, pupils, bits of the sclera…… To be honest, it wasn’t a pleasant sight, but he could at least confirm that the eyes had burst bluntly and left traces everywhere.

By contrast, the eye sockets of the two hit with human eyeballs showed no traces at all. Blood had pooled there too, but that was it. Not a single piece of evidence remained to prove that eyeballs had once existed in those empty holes.

That could only mean one thing.

‘The better the quality of the material, the more finely and precisely the destruction occurs.’

In simple terms, think of the difference between a 5,000-won saw from a hardware store and a grinder. Both can ultimately cut something apart, but a saw inevitably throws fragments everywhere and is a pain in the ass to use. A grinder, on the other hand, just needs to be loaded and switched on to pulverize something without leaving a trace.

Well, if he had to put it in a metaphor, that was how it was. In other words, the better the material the item was made from, the cleaner and better the effect came out.

‘I’d like to peel it all the way back to the cerebral cortex if possible, but I suppose it’d be hard to confirm that here. Let’s stop at this point for now.’

What he had learned, in the end, was that items made using human eyes worked better, and that two images could be held in the pupil at once. Expanding a range that had been limited to a single target to two—if only by one—wasn’t a bad thing.

Phew…….

With that, the brief experiment was over. Ian put bullet holes neatly through the heads of the struggling mercenaries, then had the bodies transported through Cartel service. The deer-headed man he hadn’t seen in a while checked Anastasia and the others’ faces and nodded.

“I’ve confirmed it. Would you like to receive the payment right here?”

“Sure, deposit it. The account information should still be on file with Cartel, right?”

“Yes. I’ll transfer it right away.”

Ian sat inside Indemnis’s vehicle and stared out the window. Then the money, minus Indemnis’s usage fee, was deposited. It wasn’t much. Still, he’d known that from the start, so it wasn’t a big deal.

“The deposit is complete. Have you checked it?”

“Yeah.”

“Understood. Then where should I set the destination?”

“Just take me to a nearby restaurant. A decent one.”

“Yes.”

The deer-headed man manipulated the navigation and went looking for the best restaurant nearby. Fortunately, it was fairly decent.

*

Four days later, Ian arrived at the Bureau’s conference room an hour before the appointed time. Inside were the Bureau agents assigned to the operation. Some familiar faces were there, and plenty of unfamiliar ones as well. Ian met the gazes turned on him for a moment, then slipped his hand into his coat pocket and sat in an empty seat.

“Mr. Shin Ian.”

As he did so, Kim I-seo, who had been preparing the briefing, approached him. Beside her stood another woman with short bobbed hair. She was definitely the person who’d been called Park... something or other. They hadn’t interacted much, so he couldn’t remember clearly.

What he vaguely remembered was that she’d mostly played a role like analysis rather than combat, but if she was being sent on an important operation, her usefulness must have been proven already. Ian gave her a casual nod and turned to Kim I-seo.

“I didn’t have anything else to do, so I came an hour early. Was that a nuisance?”

“Not at all. It’s just that most mages either arrive on time or a little late, so I was a bit surprised.”

“Is that so?”

Ian gave a slight smile and leaned back against the chair.

The Bureau agents were chatting among themselves while getting their weapons ready. Ian watched them and spoke.

“If you were planning to discuss something outsiders shouldn’t hear, I can step out for a moment.”

“There isn’t anything like that, so don’t worry. Besides, Shin Ian-nim isn’t an outsider either. Ah, have you eaten yet? We have a tradition of sharing boxed lunches together before the briefing for a big operation like this. If possible, we’d like you to join us.”

“Is that some kind of ritual to pray for a safe return?”

“Something like that. We don’t know when we’ll be able to gather and eat together again.”

Kim I-seo waved at the Bureau employee who appeared carrying boxed lunches. They walked over to her.

“Someone is going to die. We’re not expecting some fairy-tale where everyone comes back without a scratch. So this is the last meal before death. That’s all.”

“……The Bureau has it rough too.”

“I won’t deny it.”

At Kim I-seo’s refreshingly frank admission, Ian gave a wry smile. He accepted the lunchbox she handed him and began eating with the other agents. The agents were aware of Ian's presence, but they didn’t bother showing him any disgust or anger.

“…….”

Breakfast continued in a quiet atmosphere. The Bureau agents exchanged glances with one another and moved their chopsticks with stiff expressions. By contrast, Ian ate while looking at his phone with a listless expression. Honestly, it wasn’t very tasty.

‘Maybe we should hire a new chef.’

He briefly had such a thought, but Ian only let out a deep sigh without saying it aloud. Still, he ate everything, because he’d been given that bit of courtesy.

After the meal, he lay on the sofa and spent the time resting until briefing time. As he was doing so, someone climbed on top of him. Ian, who had been closing his eyes under the heavy weight, frowned and opened them.

“Hi?”

Their eyes met. Her black eyes were ringed with dark circles, and her hair was like wet seaweed. She wore a black T-shirt that clung tightly to her body and a short white tennis skirt.

Ian let out a deep sigh at the sight of her oddly flushed cheeks.

“Kim Yul.”

“Long time no see. Have you been well?”

She smiled brightly. Then she bent her upper body and hugged Ian tightly. Ian was horrified.

“Ah, you smell! Get off me!”

“I don’t smell! Smell me! Sniff me!”

“You crazy bitch!”

“Grrr!”

“Ah, don’t bite my neck……! Damn, why are you so strong……!”

“Maybe you’re the weak one?”

Kim Yul giggled and brushed Ian’s lips with her finger. Ian, looking annoyed, pushed her face away with his hand.

Then the conference room door was thrown open and a blood-soaked man came in.

It wasn’t his own blood. He was a mage drenched in yokai blood, not human blood. The blood-red grimoire in his hand greedily drank the blood, leaving the man’s face clean.

“Hoo…… I was late because I was teaching the yokai a lesson after a long time. Good thing I still came to the right place.”

Namgung Minhyuk. The master of the grimoire [Shanhaijing], a mage who commands yokai.

As he came into the conference room, shaking blood from his hair, Mika, who had been standing behind him, kicked Namgung Minhyuk in the back.

“Hurry up and go inside. Don’t block the way with your bloodstinking body.”

“Tch, use your words.”

“No.”

Mika stuck her tongue out at Namgung Minhyuk, then spotted Ian and Kim Yul tangled together on the sofa and widened her eyes.

“Wow…… doing the cowgirl in front of everyone, huh. You’re both bold. Did you already get it in?”

“Shut up.”

“Yep.”

Mika shrugged her shoulders.

With that, everyone who was supposed to gather had gathered.