Chapter 169
[ Three days, you say? ]
"That's right."
Jinseong answered Rise's question, which sounded strangely excited.
Then Rise spoke to Jinseong with a face that seemed to have made some resolution.
[ Understood. I'll make sure to educate my successor thoroughly so that I can show you by then. ]
Jinseong smiled contentedly at Rise's words about 'thoroughly' educating Narumi.
"Good. Then I'll hang up now."
[ Understood. I'll be eagerly awaiting the day of your visit, Shinju-nim. ]
Thus, the call with Rise ended.
Jinseong placed the smartphone carefully on the wireless charger and then looked at the sky through the window.
The sky was filled with a yellow moon shining brightly, its surface full of bumpy marks like acne scars.
Jinseong quietly looked at the yellow moon for a while, then began to busily move around the room packing his luggage.
Then he used space-folding to head to the airport.
The destination was Germany.
Like last time, it was to enter Japan by 'detouring'.
* * *
The night passed when someone might have read the movement of the stars, someone might have caught their successor like catching a mouse, and someone might have barely escaped from impurity and gathered their shaken heart.
Morning broke and it became time for people to be active, and the mansion began to fill with the sounds of people moving busily and the fragrant smell of food. And as usual, guests and hosts began to fill their seats in time for the meal.
"Ah-sha. Another joyful time for dining etiquette lessons has come today."
"It's not joyful..."
In the spacious dining room, people were ordering and eating the breakfast they wanted.
"Kyah! This is the taste! I missed the beer I used to drink with wild bear mates in Russia."
"Stop showing off, idiot... Th-that's non-alcoholic..."
Anastasiya was forcibly seated next to Agnes and was learning dining etiquette in real-time, and nearby, Lee Arin was drinking non-alcoholic beer with an expression as if she had just returned from heaven.
And Lee Serin was scolding Lee Arin, who was showing off while holding a beer bottle with 0.00% written in huge letters on the surface.
But even in this warm atmosphere, there was something different from usual.
Something that no one else noticed, but only Lee Serin could perceive.
It was that Gremory, who usually stuck to Lee Serin's side like glue, had shrunk to a much smaller size than usual.
The demon had changed its body to a smaller size, as if it had removed a chunk of flesh or rewound time to return to childhood, and was sitting on Lee Serin's lap. It was quietly nestled in Lee Serin's arms, flicking its tongue and staring blankly into space.
Gremory's unfocused eyes stared at the empty air, and in that emptiness, it was reflecting something in its eyes.
[ Hmm. ]
Gremory's eyes moved here and there as if searching for something.
And as they moved, the image reflected in its eyes changed, showing not the dining room but the corridor, rooms, and garden. And all these places were repeatedly divided and overlapped into various times, and the events that happened there were stored in Gremory's mind in the form of videos, as if rewinding a tape.
Gremory's eyes saw everything.
The bizarre ritual Jinseong performed in the garden, twisting the sorcery ritual of Abrahamic religions.
The muttering Jinseong did on the roof.
The conversation Lee Yang-hoon had about military connections and topics related to North Korea.
All of these were seen clearly as if recorded on CCTV, and even the voices were heard vividly.
But there was one thing.
What happened inside the room of Jinseong, the sorcerer staying in the mansion and the brother without the blood of a contractor mixed in, couldn't be easily peeked at.
As if enveloped in hazy smoke, or as if CCTV had been filled with noise for unknown reasons making it impossible to see properly, a bizarre power that twisted and distorted Gremory's divine power was residing there.
Of course, it wasn't that it couldn't be penetrated.
It was just that it couldn't exert its power properly due to the restriction of only being able to project power through the contractor, but if it drew up divine power through Lee Serin, the contractor, it could vividly peek at what happened in Jinseong's room as well.
But there was no need to go that far.
Even without penetrating Jinseong's room, it could be known that he had left the mansion without a word.
[ My contractor, my cute contractor. My kind-hearted and cute contractor who wanted to take your unrelated by blood brother to see the Sain Chamsageom being exhibited at the National Folk Museum of Korea in Gyeongbokgung Palace. Unfortunately, your brother has gone somewhere again without a word. ]
The demon slipped out of Lee Serin's arms and stood beside the dining table. Then it absorbed back into its body the 'eyes' it had spread throughout the mansion using its divine power.
Then its body, which had shrunk small enough to fit in Lee Serin's arms, gradually swelled and changed to its usual large size.
R-really...?
Lee Serin slightly turned her gaze upon hearing Gremory's harsh words.
"Hmm. The food you made is so spicy that it feels like the fatigue and drowsiness experienced in the morning are completely gone."
Where she turned her gaze, the Grand Witch was there.
The Grand Witch, wearing a tight-fitting dress as always, was spitting out words to the chef that were hard to tell whether they were insults or compliments.
"Th-thank you."
"Of course. You should be thankful. It's not often that one can experience such a feeling of their tongue being burned by fire from the morning, right?"
"I-I'm sorry..."
"What I meant was, it's a dish that captures the characteristics of Korean food perfectly."
"Thank you."
"Of course, that's if being only spicy is the characteristic of Korean food!"
"I'm sorry!"
"I'm not saying that's bad. Mexican food is like that too, isn't it?"
"Is, is that so?"
"Of course, I don't particularly like Mexican food!"
The Grand Witch repeatedly raised and dropped the chef's spirits, and the chef looked confused, not knowing which tune to dance to.
[ It's quite entertaining to see her becoming increasingly prickly. At least she's not being a nuisance, just stopping at being prickly... But as it gets worse day by day, it seems like she might cause trouble soon. ]
If, if only brother were here, she'd behave...
Lee Serin sighed at the sight of Odilia being incredibly prickly.
The Four Tiger Evil Cutting Sword seemed like something he'd be interested in, where on earth did he go...?
* * *
He has set the stars for you (Er hat euch die Gestirne gesetzt)
As guides on land and sea (Als Leiter zu Land und See)
So that you may delight in them, (Damit ihr euch daran ergotzt,)
Always looking to the heights (Stets blickend in die Hoh)
Jinseong traveled by plane from Incheon Airport to Frankfurt am Main International Airport, and from Frankfurt am Main International Airport to Kagoshima Airport.
He quietly entrusted his mind to the choral-style accompaniment praising God flowing from his earphones, and in the solemn atmosphere drawn by the small sounds, he quietly calmed his mind. Like sand dancing in still water losing its strength and sinking to the bottom, like making muddy water clear and allowing the sun's light to reach even below.
He was gathering his thoughts in the silence drawn by the music.
Even if delusions try to confuse me (Mich verwirren will das Irren;)
You embrace me there (Doch du weißt mich zu entwirren).
When I act or when I write poetry (Wenn ich handle, wenn ich dichte,)
You show me the right path (Gib du meinem Weg die Richte).
Jinseong didn't eat anything. Without a piece of bread or a sip of water, he just listened to the music continuously like a person obsessed with music, keeping his eyes closed and maintaining the same posture, and this eccentric behavior continued until the plane safely landed at Kagoshima Airport.
"Phew."
Upon arriving at Kagoshima Airport, Jinseong moved to the restroom, stretched his chest and shoulders wide, and took a deep breath as if trying to inflate his body. Then he slowly exhaled, and again took a deep breath as if inflating his body like before.
After repeating this action several times, Jinseong's body naturally relaxed and his muscles loosened.
Jinseong led his moderately relaxed body out of the airport slowly, took a bus, and smoothly slipped through the surveillance network that Japan had installed paranoidly to catch sorcerers.
And as soon as he slipped out, he used consecutive space-folding to move.
Towards the base he had created in Japan.
Towards the shrine where Saigo Rise would be waiting.