Chapter 90
The winter sun rises late. In the early morning, before the sky had even turned vermilion, the nameless mountain was still cloaked in darkness.
The crescent moon hanging at the edge of the night sky was scattering a dim moonlight, but it was nowhere near enough to illuminate the mountain. The glittering stars could serve as landmarks, but not as a sun. The stars beyond the star system were only revealing their own existence, not lighting the Earth.
So they turned on the flashlights.
Lee Min-su and Kim Mi-ryeo, walking at the very front, marched ahead with large flashlights in hand.
But the mountain, thick with fog, could not take in the light as it was. As if an invisible curtain hung there, the beams did not stretch far and could barely light a few meters ahead.
"It's ominous."
Lee Min-su said, wiping away the droplets gathered on the back of his hand.
"This flashlight isn't an ordinary item. Since it uses blood as a battery, its performance is definitely solid, but even so, this much... If we'd brought a normal flashlight, we wouldn't have been able to see anything at all."
"Yeah. Could this fog be some kind of anomalous phenomenon too?"
Kim Mi-ryeo waved her hand through the fog. The formless mist fluttered lightly in response to her gesture.
"I-seo, any anomaly readings yet?"
"Yes, there are no special responses."
Kim I-seo answered while looking at the handheld device she was carrying.
A tracking device capable of detecting all manner of mysteries, including anomalies. The only things it had picked up were the evil spirits running about the mountain and a few yokai. The kind of monsters you often saw on mountains. Nothing particularly special.
Still, there was one thing it had detected: one familiar signal.
"But there is one Jangsanbeom."
"Ah, a Jangsanbeom. On a mountain this size, it'd be about right."
"Exterminating the Jangsanbeom isn't our goal, so let's ignore any odd voices we hear for now. And let's avoid getting separated as much as possible."
"Understood."
Lee Min-su answered, raising the flashlight's beam even brighter. Ian walked silently behind them.
"......"
As Kim I-seo had said, there didn't seem to be anything special here. The gazes he'd been feeling all this time were all from ghosts.
However, the fact that they were clearly lying in wait for the lives of the living was an abnormality in itself.
Ghosts were not, by nature, that crazed about slaughter. No matter how powerful an evil spirit was, the usual methods were limited to cursing someone to death or possessing them and tormenting them.
Killing someone by exerting physical force? That was something only an evil spirit controlled by magic could do. Like how Lee Seo-a can cut things down through her guardian spirit.
'Then did a mage get involved?'
At that thought, he looked up at the ghost hanging upside down from a tree. It didn't seem visible to the others, but to Ian it was a female ghost, clear as day. Blood dripped from the face of the thing, which looked as though it had been smashed with a hammer.
A grotesque sight. However, there was no sign that it was being controlled by anyone.
At the very least, it didn't seem to be under the control of a spirit medium like Lee Seo-a. If so, that would mean some other external factor was at work.
'Could it be the Monkey's Paw?'
He couldn't know. That was why he was moving forward—to find out.
Ian let out a soft murmur and tapped the cover of the grimoire in his hand with his finger.
The Chronicle of the Deep Sea. He couldn't use summoning magic, but he could still handle other magic without issue.
He wanted to use alchemical items too, but Kim Yul was the only one here who knew Ian was an alchemist. There was no need to tell the Agency agents that he had two grimoires, so if he wanted to use alchemical items, he'd have to wait until he was alone with her.
"Hehe. Why are you looking at me like that?"
The moment he thought it, Kim Yul felt his gaze and turned her head to ask. Instead of answering, Ian caught the fishy tang drifting from the ends of her hair. Looking more closely, the tips of her hair had turned a faint watery blue.
"Did you use magic?"
Ian asked casually. Kim Yul smiled bashfully and came over to his side before answering.
"Nope? This is just a phenomenon."
"A phenomenon?"
"Once you learn four-element magic, the traits of the element you learned naturally show up on your body. Didn't you know that?"
"......There just aren't enough mages to use as samples. I've never seen any record of it."
"Mm-hmm. That's true. I only found out after I learned it too."
The Agency agents listened in on the two mages' conversation. But Kim Yul paid them no mind and kept talking.
"I work with water. So waste doesn't build up in my body, and my body temperature stays cold all the time. Thanks to that, I never sweat."
"......"
"But my body also has a lot of water. Weird, right?"
She opened her mouth wide and stuck out her tongue. Even though she hadn't done anything, pooled saliva dripped along her tongue.
"Look. I drool a lot. Down there too."
"......I really wasn't curious, but thanks for telling me."
"Hehe, don't mention it."
Slurp.
Kim Yul sucked the saliva back in before it could spill and wiped her lips with the back of her hand.
"So I don't smell. If waste doesn't build up in my body, how could I smell? I'm completely odorless, okay? Go ahead and check."
She thrust her head toward Ian and spread her arms. Ian looked down at her with an uneasy expression, then let out a long sigh and carefully sniffed her.
Fortunately, the disaster of a foul stench burrowing into his nasal passages never happened. All he could smell was the same briny tang and skin scent he'd noticed before.
"......It definitely doesn't smell that bad."
"Right?"
"But if it smells briny, doesn't that mean impurities are mixed in......?"
"It was probably dust or something stuck on me. Anyway, it isn't a smell coming from me. I'm fine even if I don't wash."
She replied with a shameless grin.
"Anyway, since I handle the power of the elements, my skill is basically guaranteed. I won't hold you back. Trust your big sis and just follow me, newbie."
"......"
"Do you know how many kinds of magic I can use, hmm? I can attack, I can defend, and I can even do this."
Kim Yul turned to look at Lee Min-su and Kim Mi-ryeo, then folded her hands together.
"Water, having become one with me, heed my command. Gather before your light and light my way."
The moment she recited the spell, she opened her clasped hands. The moisture trapped in the mud rose up as droplets and clung to the flashlight lens.
Whoosh!
The transparent droplets scattered the light. Rainbow brilliance spread in all directions, brightly illuminating the way ahead.
Lee Min-su and Kim Mi-ryeo, already familiar with her magic, weren't surprised, but Ian gaped in admiration.
"So it can be used for that kind of purpose too."
"The power of the elements is mostly based on the user's imagination. The downside is that you have to design the spell formula yourself and imbue that phrase with power for a whole year to complete the incantation, but the effect is good."
Kim Yul shook the droplets from her palm and spun around.
"Let's keep going. We can see ahead clearly now."
The magic she used wasn't bright enough to illuminate the pitch-dark mountain, but it was enough to light their path. The group took up their hesitant steps once more and began moving toward their destination.
Before long, they found a small stream. It wasn't very wide, and the water wasn't deep. They were about to detour around it when they spotted footprints pressed into the mud and stopped in place for a moment.
"Those were made just now."
Lee Min-su said, pointing a finger at the clearly visible footprints.
"The moisture hasn't dried yet."
"They were stepped on five minutes ago. Look here—the water droplets have been crushed flat. It hasn't even had time to pool again yet."
"......I don't know that much, but it's certain someone was here just now. Let's track them."
So they did.
After Kim Yul poured the stream water into the flask she'd brought in advance, the group followed the long trail of footprints deeper into the mountain. In the meantime, the sun gradually began to rise. It was the point when the horizon beyond turned vermilion and sunlight began to spread between the leaves.
Shadows replaced the retreating darkness, and the footprints at the end led into a small village.
Because of the trees, they couldn't get a full view of the village. The thick fog didn't help, either.
"Let's start by gathering information. We should avoid jumping straight into a forceful clash."
Kim I-seo spoke. She slid a knife into the knife case hidden inside her pants and tucked a pistol into her belt. Kim Yul pouted as she watched.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them all?"
"I'll consider it."
"I mean we should do that from the start."
"The Agency isn't a bunch of thugs. And we're not some merciless gang of killers."
"So inefficient~."
Kim Yul crossed her arms and spat on the ground. Before entering the village in earnest, Ian turned to Kim I-seo and held out his hand.
"If you have a spare pistol, I'd like to have it. Do you happen to have one?"
"Weren't you using a revolver?"
"I had to get rid of it for personal reasons. I don't have it now."
"Ah. Then I'll give you one. Do you have a holster?"
"I brought one. Give me a few magazines too."
"Understood. Here you go."
Swoosh.
Kim I-seo took a pistol and three magazines out of the case she'd handed over. Ian slipped the pistol into the holster hidden inside his coat and shoved the magazines into a place where they'd be easy to reach.
"If you're done preparing, let's go in."
Ian nodded. The group slowly entered the village, whose shape had begun to emerge.
A secluded village in the middle of Nameless Mountain. In another era, perhaps it wouldn't have been strange, but in this day and age it was a closed-off place you rarely saw. As they slowly stepped inside, the sensation of his whole body being pressed down brushed faintly through his mind.
"......"
There wasn't a single streetlamp in the village. No mart, no cars, no utility poles. The only buildings were a few container units, a few hanok houses, and some tents.
Because there was no electricity, the village at dawn was still sunk in darkness. The sun had risen, but its light hadn't yet reached here. Heavy silence hung thick with the fog.
"......The footprints lead over there, toward the containers."
Small footprints stamped into the mud. The traces, as if left by bare feet rather than shoes, stretched straight toward a container at the edge of the village. Lee Min-su let out a long breath and stared fixedly into the container's interior.
Then he frowned and pinched his nose shut with his finger.
"......There's a thick smell of blood coming from inside. There seem to be at least five corpses in there, possibly more than ten."
"......"
He didn't bother asking how he'd figured that out. He probably had some kind of superpower related to smell. It wasn't all that surprising.
What mattered was that there were corpses deeper inside the village. Apparently they hadn't even bothered trying to hide them.
"You're really going to investigate?"
Kim Yul said with a grin.
"Wouldn't it be better to just kill them all?"
He didn't answer, but Ian also agreed with her inwardly.