Chapter 78
Inside a tiny conference room.
Five people sat around the round table, silently staring at Ian as he entered the room. Two of them were faces he knew.
Kim Iseo and Park Mina. Bureau agents who had even visited Ian's house.
They weren't especially close, but they had at least met once. There was nothing odd about them being in the conference room.
The other three faces were ones Ian was seeing for the first time.
They were probably Bureau agents, or wizards cooperating with the Bureau like Kim Yul.
Ian didn't pay them much mind and sat in an open seat before turning to Kim Iseo. Standing in front of the whiteboard, she met his eyes and bowed slightly.
“Thank you for coming, Wizard. Did you have any trouble on the way here?”
“Not really. More importantly, if you put the building right in the middle of the city, isn't it inconvenient to respond to emergencies?”
“When we handle urgent missions, we usually use the underground route. Once we're done with introductions, I'll show you that as well.”
As she said that, Kim Iseo looked over at the three of them.
“These are two wizards who cooperate with the Bureau, and a shaman.”
“…….”
Ian hid his hands under the table and turned to look at them. They were looking back at him as well.
He had long known that there were three wizards cooperating with the Bureau, but he hadn't expected another shaman. She must have joined recently, or they had kept it quiet because there was no need to mention it.
Either way, it didn't matter much.
The fact that shamans existed at all was already something he knew.
It was basically a shamanic society rife with frauds, but a few real shamans still lived and breathed within it. Their numbers were minuscule, but their competence was every bit as proven as that of the Vatican's exorcist priests.
Of course, how could a mysterious group that had existed for centuries be made up of nothing but lies?
The deeper the history, the more likely even absurd-sounding things were to be true. Shamans were one example, and so were Africa's voodoo priests. They were practically wizards, but anyway.
Ian narrowed his eyes and shot the three of them a sidelong glance.
After they traded looks for quite a while, an old woman in ritual robes slowly rose from her seat and spoke.
“What a fearsome child.”
She let out a short breath as she stared at Ian.
“You're being protected by an unknown guardian deity. What kind of black magic are you using?”
“Ah, Grandma. You can't ask wizards that kind of thing.”
At the shaman's words, the man sitting beside her answered.
“You'll end up with your head caved in.”
“I'm not a wizard, though.”
“We're not the sort who care about that kind of thing, are we?”
“…….”
“So I'd appreciate it if you'd respect our unwritten rules too. And stop calling it black magic. It's pretty unpleasant to hear.”
“I'm not in good enough shape today to talk to a freak who handles yokai.”
She clicked her tongue and looked down at the book hanging from the man's waist.
The red grimoire bearing the name [Classic of Mountains and Seas] gave off a thick smell of incense and blood. It was proof that he'd used magic right up until just before coming here. The shaman, who knew what kind of magic he used, frowned in obvious disgust and headed for the conference room door.
“If the purpose of this little meet-and-greet is over, I'll be going now. I never intended to get friendly with wizards in the first place.”
The moment she turned the doorknob, her phone vibrated and a call came in. The shaman answered it as she left the conference room.
“Oh my, yes, customer. Yes, yes. Ah, a gut ritual? Our base price starts at 2,000. Is that all right? Ohoho.”
Click.
The conference room door closed. The wizard who had been talking to her shrugged and leaned back in his chair.
“That money-obsessed shaman bitch. She's not the sort of talent suited to the Bureau, which follows the noble ideal of serving humanity.”
Park Mina let out a dry chuckle at his words, but he ignored it and turned back to Ian with a broad grin.
“Namgung Minhyuk. The owner of the grimoire ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas,’ and a wizard who's been cooperating with the Bureau for nearly three years.”
“…….”
“We're not that bad over here either, so there's no need to come at us so sharply. You're not really cooperating with the Bureau anyway, are you? It's just that our interests line up.”
As he said that, he took a sip of the instant coffee mix on the table.
“In my case, I decided to cooperate because avoiding the Bureau's attention was such a pain. My magic is a bit flashy, you see. I can't help drawing attention.”
It wasn't something he was particularly curious about, but Ian quietly listened to what he had to say. There was no need to get hostile.
‘He doesn't seem like a wizard who joined the community.’
It wasn't as if they shared some kind of badge that let wizards in the community recognize one another, but even so, there was such a thing as intuition.
Wizards in the community generally weren't very talkative. Of course, there were a few like that, but none of them went around bragging about what their magic was like or what their grimoire was called the way that man did. Everyone lived by hiding what kind of magic they used.
The only exception was the matriarch, who had revealed that her grimoire was the Lemegeton.
As for the others, who knew? At least none had stepped forward to say so themselves.
So Namgung Minhyuk probably wasn't a wizard in the community. Kim Yul's look of disgust, like he was staring at a bug, was enough to be certain.
He had long since known that there were wizards who hadn't joined the community.
There was no need to be especially surprised now. Ian just nodded quietly until he finished speaking.
“Oops, I talked about myself too much.”
After some time passed, Namgung Minhyuk smiled and turned to the other wizard.
“Why don't you introduce yourself too? We're colleagues who'll be working together from now on.”
“I was waiting for you to shut up. How does your wife put up with that filthy mouth of yours?”
The green-haired woman who had been sitting quietly until then said in a flat tone. Minhyuk shrugged.
“My wife likes this sort of thing.”
“Birds of a feather, then.”
She let out a long sigh and turned to Ian.
“Nice to meet you. I'm Asakawa Mika, a wizard from Japan. I've been living in Korea for over five years now.”
“……Japan?”
“Yes. Japan is very hostile to wizards. It's hard to survive there unless you're a shrine maiden or a psychic. So I came over.”
Mika let out a sigh and flicked her crossed leg.
“Over there, the Bureau treats wizards almost like monsters, shrine maidens try to kill them for being blasphemous, and psychics work for some weird organization called a magical girl group... Leaving Japan is the smart choice. And I'm pretty smart.”
He hadn't been especially interested in Japanese society, so he hadn't known, but it seemed they had their own circumstances over there too. He had heard from Miko, while trading for a bike, roughly how the shrine maiden group worked, but the Bureau and magical girls were news to him.
The Bureau was one thing, but what on earth were magical girls supposed to be? If the psychic group was a magical girl organization, did male psychics go around wearing frilly dresses too?
“…….”
Just imagining it made disgust surge up inside him.
Fortunately, becoming a wizard didn't seem to have changed his sexual preferences or tastes. Ian nodded inwardly with a relieved sigh.
“Are you using polite speech because your Korean is awkward?”
“No. I just like it when other people see me as a crazy bitch. I guess you'd call it a thrill, anyway.”
“…….”
“Mm, I love that look. A handsome man's filthy gaze makes me wet.”
She was a total nutcase.
That honorific was being used for a different reason than the matriarch's. There was no need to answer her with the same polite speech he used for the matriarch.
“Ms. Mika.”
Kim Iseo called Mika with an expressionless face. Mika giggled and stood up.
“Yes, yes, I'll keep it moderate. More importantly, can I go now? I only came to say hello, after all.”
“Do you have something urgent? The operation briefing is in a few hours.”
“I do. My debut stream is today. I need to get ready properly.”
“……You mean that VTuber thing you said you'd do last time?”
“Yes. I got lucky and passed the audition. I'll be back in about three hours. See you then. Ah, my username is just ‘Mika,’ same as my name, so come watch if you're curious.”
Mika winked and left the conference room with that. A little later, Namgung Minhyuk also left after taking his wife's call. Naturally, he didn't come back.
As if worried someone might say they weren't wizards, each of them was acting however they pleased. Ian wasn't in any position to say anything, so he placed his hand on the table and looked back at Kim Iseo.
“What do we do now? Can I go too?”
“……I was planning to give you a tour of the Bureau facilities. Would you like to come with me?”
She loosened her tie slightly, as if feeling stifled, and asked. After thinking for a moment, Ian opened his mouth again.
“Is it safe?”
“It'll probably be the safest place in South Korea.”
She said it with certainty. Ian gave a small smile and nodded.
It was a chance to learn the Bureau's layout, so there was no reason to refuse. In an emergency, he might have to forcibly open or warp a route, so knowing it in advance would be useful in many ways. It would also be useful if he ever had to carry out a terror attack after they stabbed him in the back.
It would be nice if that never happened, but he couldn't say for sure that it wouldn't.
He still hadn't built up enough trust to believe them blindly, so for now it was the right thing to keep watching.
“Understood. Then let's head out right away.”
Kim Iseo nodded and came over to Ian's side. Ian moved to follow her.
“Have a good trip.”
“……Iseo.”
The two of them left the conference room with Kim Yul and Park Mina seeing them off. The woman, about a head shorter than Ian, looked up at him and handed him a small notebook she'd taken from her pocket.
“It's the Bureau manual. Just follow it as you read.”
“Hmm.”
As Ian let out a thoughtful murmur and opened the manual, Kim Iseo said as she walked toward the elevator.
“First, let's go to the underground quarantine area.”