Chapter 4
004 – What Magicians Do
Whirrrrr─.
Nothing is more irritating than mosquitoes in summer.
I wanted to swat them away, but my body felt heavy.
My consciousness felt like it was sinking deeper and deeper into the sea.
Was I being held down by sleep paralysis?
The unpleasant sensation lasted only a moment─.
Sway, sway─.
Something tickling my face snapped me fully awake.
It was morning.
The cold air from the air conditioner that had been running all night made me shiver.
Turning my head, I saw Imp Bori-bori curled up in the corner, their tail sticking straight up like an antenna and swishing back and forth.
Dead mosquitoes clung to the tip of their tail, and Bori-bori casually brushed them off with a hand.
I didn't need to wonder what had tickled my face and woken me.
‘It wasn’t a dream!’
Honestly, even last night, I’d secretly hoped Bori-bori might just be a hallucination.
But hopes usually have a way of betraying you.
My morning was undeniably real.
Reality… That thought brought last night back to me.
Ms. Ming, the Thai woman who lived across from me, had come to my place.
And Bori-bori had drawn a magic circle for ‘Sealing’ and threatened her like a viciously barking dog, chasing her away.
It had all been real.
Splash, splash─.
To shake off my dazed feelings, I splashed cold water on my face and left the apartment.
Then I saw Unit 302 right across from me standing wide open like a well-cooked clam, while the landlady stood in front of the door clutching her phone and talking to someone.
“I’m telling you! That crazy bitch left with the door wide open and disappeared! She won’t answer her phone, either! Ah, I’ll call you back!”
What on earth was going on─.
Maybe she sensed my presence, because the landlady spoke to me first.
“Yuseong! Do you happen to know Ms. Ming, the woman who lives across from you?”
“Uh…why?”
My heart sank.
Memories of what happened flooded my mind, and tension coursed through my veins.
“She’s days late on rent and won’t answer her phone! She left the door wide open and vanished! Do you think something happened to her?”
“…Something happened?”
Trickle─.
Maybe it was the summer heat, or maybe the tension, but cold sweat ran down my back.
Whatever she made of my awkward demeanor, the landlady glanced around, leaned toward me, and spoke in a hushed voice.
“That foreign girl kept bringing men over. Different men, too, over and over. And lots of them had tattoos. Wouldn’t be strange if something happened.”
“Ah….”
“But you seem like a good guy. You don’t bring women home, either! So wholesome!”
“…That’s a compliment, right?”
“Of course!”
Did the landlady know?
That I’d brought home not some wholesome woman, but something that might be a ‘demon.’
It was right behind me even now.
Anyway, the landlady went inside Unit 302, Ms. Ming’s apartment.
A foreign woman who’d lived a freewheeling life, then left with the door wide open.
Since some kind of ‘incident’ might have happened, the landlady said she’d look around as the owner.
Though she might also have been looking for valuables to cover the overdue rent in Ms. Ming’s apartment, in case she’d fled in the middle of the night.
I went into Ms. Ming’s apartment with the landlady.
Honestly, I was also personally curious to ‘take another look at that blood-splattered place.’
Last night, Unit 302 had been a complete sea of blood.
I’d been kind of curious how the landlady would react if she saw it─.
Ms. Ming’s apartment was surprisingly clean.
Sure, it was a little messy, but compared to the ‘total fucking wreck’ I’d seen yesterday, it was clean as a palace.
No blood, no nauseating smell.
As if nothing had happened.
All that remained was the lived-in feeling of a ‘young woman having lived there.’
It was as if everything had been a dream.
Huh. Weird.
As I left Unit 302,
Imp Bori-bori, who was walking a few paces behind me, spoke.
“Pii-bbeop.”
Pi—what?
Come to think of it, they’d said that yesterday, too.
What on earth did it mean?
After stopping by the convenience store, I turned on my computer.
Then I roughly searched for what Bori-bori had said.
「Pibbeop is a representative divine being in Thai folk religion, a deadly evil spirit. It often appears in horror films, and in the folk religion of Thailand’s Isan region in particular, it is described as eating raw human and animal flesh and organs.」
「The evil spirits in the film The Medium, directed by Na Hong-jin and Banjong Pisanthanakun, are also a type of Pibbeop.」
━Yes, I’m from Isan. Have you heard of it? It’s famous for its food.
Ms. Ming’s voice from last night, which had tickled my ears, overlapped with it.
The evil spirit of Thailand’s Isan region: Pibbeop.
“Bori-bori, is that the Pibbeop you were talking about?”
I looked at Bori-bori with the eagerness of an elementary-school student who’d solved a difficult problem and wanted to check the answer key.
But Bori-bori was just curled up in the corner, watching me warily with those red eyes.
Ms. Ming, who’d looked so ominous last night, like a ghost.
And the Thai ghost ‘Pibbeop.’
Would it be overthinking to trust the word from Bori-bori’s mouth and connect the two?
A few days ago, I’d have said, ‘There’s no such thing as ghosts in this world─,’ but.
Sway, sway─.
Bori-bori was probably a demon.
If there are demons, why wouldn’t there be ghosts?!
Honestly, let’s admit it.
Last night, I’d been targeted by a Thai evil spirit!
Why would an evil spirit target me?
━Looks like I might finally get to suck out a little yolk for once.
Come to think of it, they’d also said they were going to suck out my yolk.
What yolk did I have? They probably meant they’d eat my soul or organs.
Tap-tap─. So I searched again.
And found Thai slang.
「Eat the yolk: A macho expression. Used for a man taking a woman’s first experience, etc.」
“…Uhh?”
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Thai slang used when a man takes a woman.
Why would Pibbeop Ming say that to me… Wait, Ms. Ming was a woman, wasn’t she… Hold on, what’s Thailand famous for….
Aaah, fuck!
Suddenly, a chill ran through my whole body, and I felt cold wind seeping into every crevice of my bones.
Ding─.
It took a few minutes after I turned off the air conditioner for the chill to finally subside.
Once I’d calmed down a little, I was finally able to grasp the situation properly.
I’d nearly been attacked in all sorts of ways by an evil spirit from abroad, and somehow survived.
And it seemed that ‘Bori-bori’ had helped me.
# # #
Demons and ghosts—honestly, I’d thought they were just made-up stories.
But before I could deny it, ‘Imp Bori-bori’ was clearly right there.
I grilled the last bit of chuck flap tail in the fridge, and Bori-bori ate it with gusto.
Since I could see them, since they existed right in front of me, there was no point in believing or not believing.
Whether I denied it or accepted it,
their existence remained unchanged.
Just as a hunter doesn’t disappear even if pheasants bury their heads underground in fright at the sound of a gunshot.
Everything was crystal clear.
My ‘everyday life’ had changed completely.
Honestly, it was chilling.
Thump-thump-thump─.
My heart raced wildly, unable to calm down, like I’d just run several laps around the neighborhood.
It was scary and bizarre, and somehow thrilling.
Maybe I should say exciting!
Ghosts! Demons!
For the past few days—no, months—I’d been lying around at home, feeling more and more worthless.
But right now, I felt more special than anyone.
So what should I do now?
I thought about what I could do in this situation.
Then the ‘Sealing’ magic circle came to mind.
“Right!”
I went over to the fly screen.
I remembered that I’d drawn a magic circle on it.
Buzz-buzz-buzz─.
But the magic circle I’d drawn was nowhere to be seen, and mosquitoes were zipping in and out.
Come to think of it, the mosquitoes had been attacking my ears this morning, too.
“What? Was I imagining it?”
Half nervous and half hopeful, I drew a small Sealing magic circle on the white frame of the fly screen.
The material was a water-based marker that wiped off easily.
Whirrr─.
The mosquitoes couldn’t get through the holes in the fly screen anymore.
It worked.
And at that moment, I felt like I’d figured out the limits of this bizarre ‘magic.’
“Ah! It has a time limit!”
Probably half a day to a full day.
I’d have to experiment in various ways to find out more about how effective it was.
For example, how much could ‘Sealing’ block?
The magic circle on the fly screen kept out insects like mosquitoes, but didn’t block the wind, which still came through just fine.
If it rained, raindrops would probably slip right through the holes, too.
What were the criteria and principles behind what it could block?
It was fascinating, and I was curious. I wanted to figure it out.
“Bori-bori, do you know any more drawings like that?”
I turned and asked Bori-bori.
But Bori-bori had finished eating and was curled up in the corner again, busy glaring at me warily.
They’d just waltzed into my house, eaten the food I made, and were wearing my clothes, yet still acting wary of me?
Talk about ungrateful.
A downright demonic attitude!
Well, I guess they were a demon!
A being that could even chase away the Thai evil spirit Pibbeop with a growl!
A target for exorcism in movies and games!
But they’d helped me last night.
That was an undeniable fact.
And it takes ‘time’ to become close to anyone, after all.
I suddenly thought of Bori, the Border Collie mix I’d found in a box when I was in elementary school.
The dog had conjunctivitis and all sorts of skin diseases.
「Surgery costs: 6,074,000 won」
My younger sister and I had to empty out all the New Year's cash we’d saved to pay the vet bills.
People had all said their piece about why I’d picked up an abandoned dog and wasted so much money on it─.
Everyone had something to say.
That was when Dad told me:
─Yuseong, good deeds always cost money.─
Good deeds cost money.
A ‘good deed’ is something you’re willing to pay for….
“Money, huh.”
「Balance: 114,000」
Tsk, I’m seriously in trouble.
With Bori-bori, my food expenses had doubled, and I barely had enough money to pay the rent.
If I didn’t pay rent, the landlady might break into my place this time.
There was only one answer.
Make money.
The more, the better.
Considering the expenses I had to pay right away, I should take a high-paying day job to cover the urgent bills, then find something I could do long term.
My expectations rose more than I’d expected.
If my bank account got comfortable, I’d have room to learn about this bizarre ‘magic,’ too, right?
Maybe I could use the magic I trained in and learned to make even more money.
Then use that money to learn incredible new magic and make even more─.
A perpetual-motion machine, in a nutshell.
‘Had my brain ever worked this fast lately?’
Apparently, becoming a ‘sorcerer’ had made me smarter, too.
Because in games, sorcerers are usually INT characters.
I opened Pumpkin Market on my phone to look for short-term jobs.
Since college, I’d occasionally found work there whenever I needed some extra spending money.
「Please catch the bugs in my houseㅜㅜ 10,000 won per hour」
「Moving help wanted, same-day hourly pay negotiable」
Things like that.
But today there were lots of job postings in a format I’d never seen before.
[Urgent/Same-day pay] Overnight building security *Dusk-grade* daily pay 220,000.
Let's put eyes on dolls together ^^ *Ritual class welcome* 12,000 per hour
*Buying sorcerer juice in bulk, 2030s welcome*
**The words inside the boxes were unfamiliar.
Dusk-grade? Ritual class? Sorcerer juice?
Wondering what on earth those words meant, I clicked one of the posts as if entranced.