Chapter 54
Rather than continuing their conversation, the two of them hurried straight to the hospital room where Kim Soyeon was admitted.
Even as they rode the elevator and opened the hospital room door, they kept their nerves taut in case anything might transfer over—but thankfully, nothing did. They breathed a sigh of relief and stepped inside.
Inside the four-bed room, two elderly patients, one young man, and one child were lying in their beds. Ian and Cecilia immediately walked over to the child.
“...Huh? Who are you, big sister and big brother?”
On the bed with the nameplate reading Kim Soyeon, Soyeon—her arms and legs in casts—watched the two of them warily. Ian handed her the snacks, chocolate, and drinks he’d bought on the way and smiled.
“The Sister sent us. You’re Soyeon, right?”
Cecilia was briefly dumbfounded by Ian’s behavior, so completely different from how he had been around her, but he paid it no mind.
“Here, these are for you. I didn’t know what you liked, so I just bought a little of everything. Go ahead and eat.”
“Wow...! These are my favorite snacks and drinks! Can I really eat them? The Sister told me not to eat food from strangers!”
“Our Soyeon learned well, huh? Then should I call the Sister so you can talk to her?”
“Um... no, it’s okay!”
Soyeon smiled bashfully and opened the potato chip bag.
“I’ll trust you, big brother! You don’t look like the kind of person who’d do anything bad!”
Ian burst out laughing at the child’s innocent remark. After ruffling Soyeon’s hair, he sat in a nearby chair and waited for the doctor. Cecilia hesitated for a moment too, then pulled out the companion bed and sat on it.
“But who are you, big sister?”
“Ah... I’m Cecilia. I’m a nun...”
Soyeon asked while munching on the potato chips, and Cecilia answered awkwardly. Her stiff voice made it plain how bad she was with children. Ian looked at the two of them for a moment, then took out his phone and checked the time.
3:00 p.m.
Considering it had been 2:00 when they first came into the hospital, not much time had actually passed.
It was proof that time in spatial Mysteries was hard to pin down. Whether it was a theme park or a hospital, time passed glacially compared to reality.
By contrast, the library seemed a little faster. Even though they hadn’t stayed inside for that long, it was already night when they came out, so apparently not all spatial Mysteries were slow after all. Ian let out a low hum and put his phone back in his pocket.
‘If time moved extremely fast or slow compared to reality, that’d be a real headache.’
There was a reason the cartel had so many requests left over that involved spatial Mysteries. Setting aside the Mystery’s inherent difficulty, even a little tampering with time made things incredibly tricky... no matter how much of a magician you were, you couldn’t meddle with time itself.
‘I can, though...’
The alchemy recorded in The Hand of Re-Creation, [Pocket Watch of Eons].
It was a one-use rewind device that would return to the chosen point if you wound it as desired, but the materials required were just as outrageous as its cheat-like effect. Like [God’s Finger], which could mold reality at will, it needed flesh from a great being as a base, along with fragments of time, a golden hourglass, and a great many other alchemical creations besides.
Something he couldn’t be sure he’d be able to make now, or even later.
Foreign gods’ grimoires were all well and good, but the problem was that they were full of amazing things that were as out of reach as a painted rice cake.
The same went for The Hand of Re-Creation and the Deep-Sea Chronicle. There were items and summons that practically screamed, ‘I’m amazing!’, but he couldn’t actually use them. The alchemy couldn’t even be made in the first place, and as for the summons, he couldn’t control the fallout when he called them forth...
It really was the definition of a mixed blessing. Ian let out a deep sigh and leaned back against the chair.
A few minutes later, the doctor came by and told them Soyeon’s condition.
“There shouldn’t be any particular aftereffects. We’ll just keep observing her for another week, and then we can decide whether to discharge her.”
“I see. Thank you.”
The doctor gave Ian a polite bow, chatted with Soyeon for a bit, and then left.
Ian relayed the doctor’s report to the Sister and waited for her to come by. Cecilia had fallen asleep at some point, apparently exhausted.
Ian was tired too, but since he hadn’t exerted himself nearly as much as Cecilia, he could still manage.
He coughed at the stinging pain in his throat and stared blankly out the window. He answered Soyeon whenever she spoke to him and idly fiddled with the cigarette pack in his pocket. By the time evening was almost over, the Sister had returned.
She stepped carefully into the room, then let a warm smile bloom when she saw Cecilia sleeping peacefully. Soyeon had also fallen asleep by then, so Ian was the only one there to greet her.
“Oh, Sister. Did the event go well?”
“Yes, all thanks to you, Ian. Thank you.”
The Sister firmly pressed three 50,000-won bills into Ian’s hand and said.
“I don’t need things like this.”
“Take it. It’s something I’m doing for my own peace of mind. If you don’t accept it, I may have to go to confession.”
“...”
Ian finally surrendered to her not-quite-a-threat. He smiled ruefully and tucked the neatly folded bills into his pocket.
To Ian, who already had money to spare in his bank account, it wasn’t a huge amount, but it came with the giver’s feelings. There was no need to make a fuss over it.
“Then I’ll accept it. Thank you.”
“Good, good. You worked hard. More importantly, what do you plan to do now?”
“I think I’ll go home. I’m a little tired.”
The Sister nodded at Ian’s answer.
“I see. Then let’s meet again next time. Thank you for today.”
“Not at all. Please call me again if you need anything.”
After that, Ian exchanged a few more words with the Sister and left the room. Cecilia’s peacefully sleeping face flashed into view for a moment, but he soon turned away and left the hospital.
Night had fallen.
Ian went into the dim hospital smoking room and skillfully put a cigarette between his lips.
Fssst.
When he lit the tip with his lighter, a faint glow flickered up. He sat in the chair and sorted through his thoughts while exhaling smoke into the air.
‘What was the purpose Cecilia mentioned back at the motel?’
He’d missed the chance, so it had become a topic he could no longer ask about, but there would still be another chance. Cecilia wasn’t dead, after all, so he figured they’d probably be able to talk again in the near future.
If possible, he wanted to avoid getting tangled up with the Vatican, but they were already deeply entangled. To untangle it, he’d have to meet them face-to-face and talk it out.
And the Bureau.
He’d managed to avoid them well enough until now, but not this time. Whether he intended it or not, his face had been exposed to the Bureau.
“...”
He had expected something like this would happen someday. The longer your tail gets, the more likely it is to be stepped on. Long or short, getting caught was only a matter of time. He didn’t know how other magicians might handle it, but there was no need to compare himself to them and adjust accordingly.
“Hoo...”
He tilted his head back and exhaled the smoke.
A foreign god’s grimoire was as conspicuous as it was dangerous. It wasn’t for nothing that Yu Hana had been shocked the first time she saw it. Unless she was blind, she would have realized long ago that the summoning used at the hospital wasn’t ordinary summoning magic.
What mattered was their reaction. They hadn’t been hostile in the hospital, but reality was a different story.
Right in front of them, he had openly summoned a monster on the level of a hospital director. In one sense it was an impressive feat, and in another, a brazen act that openly revealed he was a dangerous element.
Well, in the end, he escaped thanks to it, so he had no regrets. He’d just have to weather whatever backlash came next.
Fssst.
He stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray and tossed it away.
Once he stepped outside, the cold winter wind wrapped around his whole body and scattered away. Ian zipped his coat all the way up and brushed off the blood crust clinging to the hem.
Other clothes he could just throw away, but not this coat. He’d already put too many spells on it. It was too valuable to toss aside so easily.
“Haa...”
He walked on while breathing out white puffs into the air. The pale smoke rose against gravity, then scattered before the moonlight.
Since there were no Bureau agents at the place he’d escaped to, it seemed he had woken up where he first entered the hospital. Thanks to that, he’d been given time to prepare.
He didn’t know when the Bureau agents would come looking, but it probably wouldn’t take very long.
It seemed best to make alchemical items in advance, just in case they turned hostile. The defensive magic on his coat was still intact, so a sneak attack would be easy to block. The reverse-targeting spell on the coat could still be used a few more times, too.
At the very least, he didn’t have to worry about dying of exposure. Ian wrapped himself up against the bone-chilling cold and took a taxi home.
*
The Bureau agents received an emergency summons from the branch chief the moment they reported that the mission had been completed safely. The members of Response Team 3 who had taken part in the mission, along with Park Hee-su, immediately went up to the branch chief’s office.
“Branch Chief.”
“Come in.”
Just from having their names called, permission was granted. Yeoul swallowed nervously and opened the door to the branch chief’s office, stepping inside. The others followed behind her.
The branch chief was already seated on the sofa, waiting for them. She smiled and pointed to the seats opposite her.
“Sit down. I have a lot to say. Ah, you like cake or tea, right?”
“Yes, I do. Thank you. I’ll have some gratefully.”
Yeoul answered awkwardly, unable to hide her tension. The others were much the same.
It was only natural.
One of the Bureau’s rare psychic-type espers. She had an insane résumé: she had single-handedly slain a spatial-type Mystery, and after starting in office work had gone through Support, Recon, and Response.
Kim Bom, branch chief of the Bureau’s Capital and Gyeonggi Branch.
It wasn’t for nothing that she headed Korea’s most important branch, the capital branch. Even by global standards, she had such an unusual career and such formidable ability that she could hold this position.
The other branch chiefs were not weaker than her, but there was no one who could beat her in a fight. In the first place, the very concept of force meant little in front of her.
Because she was the kind of person who could erase the very idea of battle from your mind. So some people called her things like a clicker, Gandhi, or a pacifist. Those were all nicknames other branch chiefs had given her.
However, unlike those nicknames, her personality wasn’t nearly so peaceful.
Usually gentle, but once she got crossed, she would run wild without end—a two-faced personality.
As a result, many Bureau agents weren’t eager to meet her one-on-one. Kim Bom was lenient toward Bureau agents, yes, but she was still a ticking time bomb. They didn’t want to stir up trouble for no reason.
Yeoul was the same, but with a direct summons like this, there was nothing she could do. Doing her best to steady her trembling hands, she took a sip of the tea that had already been set out.
“So, you met a magician?”
Kim Bom asked them. Park Hee-su answered.
“Yes, we met one hell of a guy.”
“O-oppa!”
“From what I could tell, the magic he mainly used seemed to be summoning.”
Ignoring Park Min-a’s horrified reaction, Park Hee-su continued.
“As you read in the report, he controlled the situation with summons he had called himself, and kept the hospital director pinned down. Thanks to that, we were able to escape too.”
“...”
“I’m not sure what the summons were either. But I’m certain they weren’t ordinary summons—demons, fairies, spirits, and so on.”
“...Could it be a Foreign God?”
“A Foreign God... I’ve never actually met such a being, so I’m not sure. But when the summons first appeared, I felt as if even my very existence were being twisted.”
“All right, I understand.”
After listening carefully to Park Hee-su, she let out a deep sigh and folded her hands together.
“You don’t know that magician’s name, do you?”
“No. But I know his face.”
“Good. From now on, I’ll place information on that magician in Database Class 1. And as for what to do with him...”
“Assassination is worth considering.”
Yeoul picked up on Kim Bom’s words. With a serious expression, she recalled what she had seen that day and parted her lips.
“He’s a magician capable of facing the master of a Mystery head-on. If we leave him alone and he ends up going down some strange path or losing his mind, then there’s no turning back.”
“What about the risk if we fail?”
“We can’t fail. The moment we fail, the Bureau will have to go all out. If failure is a possibility, then it’s better not to attempt it at all. Assassinating a magician isn’t easy, so this will require a very careful decision.”
Yeoul paused for a moment, then lowered her head slightly.
“Assassination is one option, but the success rate won’t be very high. It should be used as a last resort.”
“Hm... does anyone have another idea?”
At Kim Bom’s question, Kim I-seo opened her mouth as if she’d been waiting for it. Her pink hair swayed with the nod of her head.
“I think we should try to win him over.”
“Win him over?”
“Yes. If we keep someone with that level of power as an ally or partner of the Bureau, we’ll be able to make good use of him in the future. We might even be able to take down Mysteries we haven’t been able to crack until now.”
“If we want to cooperate with a magician at that level, we’ll probably have to humble ourselves quite a bit.”
“I think that’s a loss worth accepting.”
An opinion completely opposite to Yeoul’s. But Yeoul didn’t rebuke her.
It was only natural for agents to have different opinions. There was no need to turn it into a fight just because their views differed.
They were different opinions to begin with, not wrong ones. As long as there was a superior who would make the final call, there was no reason for the two of them to argue.
“Anyone else have a different opinion?”
“...”
“Looks like there isn’t. Good. Those were the two ideas I happened to have as well. And among them, the method that would benefit the Bureau and humanity is...”
Kim Bom fell silent for a moment as if sorting out her thoughts one last time, then spoke in a solemn voice.
“This is the one, after all.”