Chapter 26
Chapter 26
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 026
Chapter Title: Ghostbuster (10)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
While investigating Kim Mireh's wallet, Yohan spotted something that made his eyes widen slightly.
It was a student ID from ○○ University—the same school where he'd taken a leave of absence.
…This girl went to the same university as me.
And not just that—she was in the humanities college, same as me.
He looked down at Kim Mireh's headless corpse.
He wasn't the type to feel any sense of camaraderie from shared affiliations or academic pedigrees, so it wasn't exactly a pleasant surprise.
Especially since she'd gone to the trouble of creating a professional disguise as a ranch.
Even if a deranged mage who kidnapped and ate people turned out to be a college classmate… it was awkward, to say the least.
This was the university he'd barely scraped into for philosophy just to snag a four-year degree—something an orphan like him had fought tooth and nail for.
Having a scandal taint it would only cheapen his diploma.
…Well, I'd already dropped out, and I had no plans to go back anyway. So it doesn't really matter.
Still, it was a bizarre coincidence.
He continued searching Mireh's body but didn't uncover anything else noteworthy.
He wasn't a professional detective, after all, and there wasn't much more to find here.
Closing his mouth, he stared silently at the corpse.
"……"
Same university… coincidence. Yeah, a weird one, sure.
Words swirled chaotically in his mind.
University murder case, a mage's corpse who graduated from that university, the grimoire's teleportation ability, government officials about to barge in.
A story clicked into place, and he shook his head lightly.
"No, no, no. That's too convenient."
…But it wasn't entirely implausible.
It all fit together reasonably well.
Before testing the idea that had popped into his head, he decided to handle the necessities first.
He checked the CCTV footage.
Recalling the staff's conversation when they'd been captured, it seemed she'd planned to tidy everything up before the government officials arrived.
Everything except today's footage had already been deleted.
The video showed Mireh discovering the grimoire in his bag, rejoicing—then suddenly losing her arms and head, dying on the spot. He erased it.
With the records wiped, he powered off the CCTV entirely.
Now, nothing from this underground workshop would be visible to outsiders.
Alright, time to grab what I need.
He pulled the weathered brown-leather grimoire, Mysteries of Insects, from his bag.
As he gripped it, the book flipped open automatically to the page he wanted.
After double-checking the required materials,
he placed Mysteries of Insects and Cultes des Goules on the desk.
He'd brought a vinyl ziplock bag and tweezers from his bag, figuring they might come in handy for gathering magic ingredients.
Carefully, he plucked a few strands of Mireh's blood-soaked severed hair and stored them in the bag.
He'd use them later as material to summon residual thoughts or memory data via necromancy.
Even if she was just a corpse now, she was still a mage he'd crossed paths with.
He had to extract any information he could while he had the chance.
Continuing his search of the room, he stumbled upon an unexpected haul.
This really was Kim Mireh's personal workshop, after all.
Among the magic ingredients stored in the multi-tiered metal cabinets,
he spotted a compartment labeled [Parchment]. …There was also one labeled [Human Skin] next to it, but whatever.
He ignored that. He wasn't Aztec, and he wasn't a psycho.
He had no interest in seeing flayed human skin.
Anyway, it probably wasn't the real deal like in the grimoires, but it was still parchment made by a mage, so it should have some effect.
He pocketed a few sheets in his bag.
A wry smile crept onto his face unbidden.
…Tigers die and leave their skins; people die and leave their names, huh.
Mages, surprisingly, seemed to leave both.
His eyes narrowed as he gazed down at Kim Mireh's corpse.
Yeah, the name—that was the key.
Kim Mireh: mage of a criminal den who killed and ate people.
○○ University student.
A man burned alive on campus streets, a professor's head severed in a lecture hall.
To a government secret organization,
she made a perfect suspect for the university murders…
A freaky coincidence—fortune amid misfortune? Nah, more like rotten luck.
She just hadn't been caught yet.
His own situation wasn't great either; his identity could be exposed at any moment.
Hell, there might already be someone in the government organization suspicious of him.
For some reason, Sion's calm black eyes flashed in his mind.
…Feels off, doesn't it.
Even if it was coincidence, there was no reason not to exploit it.
If it worked, he might slip out of the government secret organization's investigation.
If Mireh hadn't died to Grizzly,
she would've killed him as usual and used his meat, skin—everything.
So he'd use her parchment and her identity in return.
Since she was dead anyway, he'd take it all.
She'd probably killed mountains of people; a few more from him wouldn't raise flags.
One last good deed on your way out.
…Nah, on second thought, covering up crimes isn't exactly "good."
Either way, he placed Mysteries of Insects—the decisive evidence tying her to the university murders—on top of Mireh's corpse.
It might be wishful thinking on his part,
but it perfectly resembled a mage killed by her own poorly controlled familiar from the grimoire, the Transparent Vampire.
When the government officials discovered the corpse and grimoire, they'd draw their own conclusions.
At the right moment, he'd teleport Mysteries of Insects back using its ability.
Grimoires popped up in used bookstores and bazaars all the time.
They'd assume it vanished after its owner's death—nothing suspicious there.
…Of course, it was a gamble.
If the officials had the power to seal or control the grimoire, he'd lose it for good.
It could be a pointless, risky move.
But sticking around like this wasn't an option.
He had to be cautious of the government officials, but he had zero intel on their level.
No information. That's why…
Yohan's eyes gleamed coldly.
He'd use this to test if they could control the grimoire.
If it looked like they might seal it, he'd have Grizzly bust out and cause chaos.
Mysteries of Insects, placed atop the corpse, vibrated discontentedly with a low hum, but he ignored it.
Next up…
His gaze shifted to Cultes des Goules.
…What to do with this.
Did he want it? Not really.
The magic in here wasn't his style anyway.
He flipped open Cultes des Goules and skimmed it again.
Once more, it felt like chunks were missing, as if someone had deliberately edited and summarized the contents.
…Not the original?
As he browsed, his eyes caught on a section.
"Pineal gland… pinecone gland… third eye?"
It described extracting the pineal gland—a pinecone-shaped organ between the eyes, one of the brain's endocrine glands—turning it into an elixir, and consuming it to awaken the third eye.
Hmm… pineal gland, huh?
Come to think of it, there was a Cthulhu story where some mad scientist stimulated his pineal gland with a machine, awakening his third eye.
He started seeing invisible things—jellyfish-like creatures drifting in the ultraviolet spectrum—that killed people.
…And the ending had the narrator/protagonist getting shot, I think?
Anyway, the vibe was different right from the name.
Human flesh. Made him want to puke just hearing it. Eating that would probably give him some horrific disease.
Pineal gland. Sounded mystical. Eating it might grant cool superpowers.
Of course, it was all bullshit nonsense.
"Fuck… why the hell would anyone eat this shit."
Humans were packed with endocrine disruptors from polluted environments. Yeah, that'd be great for your health.
If you wanna live long and healthy, exercise, eat your veggies. Why eat human flesh?
It was on par with ancient kings chugging mercury for immortality—pure insanity.
Of course… this was real magic, so it'd probably work. But it still wasn't his thing.
As Yohan read through the Cultes des Goules copy like that,
The dark iron-bound grimoire, Mysteries of Insects, could no longer hold back.
Cultes des Goules? Fine, whatever—it was a higher class, at least.
But to have its master's touch stolen by something so low-rent—not even an original?
Unbearable.
Tentacle Lash
Charaak-! Dark tendrils erupt, shredding the inferior grimoire to pieces.
"What the—!?"
The dark tendril-like energy snatched the Cultes des Goules copy from Yohan's startled hands and tore it to shreds.
The fragments scattered,
and the black tendrils slithered back into Mysteries of Insects, vanishing.
"……"
Stunned by the sudden event, he widened his eyes and examined Mysteries of Insects.
One possibility occurred to him.
…Did it eat it?
Like in those mobile gacha games where you feed low-rarity characters to high-rarity ones to power them up.
Had it devoured the weaker grimoire to unlock new abilities?
Maybe the parts written in incomprehensible script—the ones he couldn't read—had required feeding it another grimoire?
…If so, not really my style anyway. Whatever.
Cautiously, he picked up Mysteries of Insects and checked its contents.
His eyes narrowed involuntarily.
"……"
The incomprehensible script remained just as incomprehensible.
It wasn't some power-up or enhancement.
The damn thing had just gotten pissed and shredded it.
"You crazy grimoire—!"
He hurled Mysteries of Insects to the floor.
Kang-.
Mysteries of Insects vibrated again with a whine,
uung-.
looking pitifully at Cultes des Goules.
"Haa… fine. Let's just get on with it."
He placed Mysteries of Insects back on the corpse
and gave Grizzly his orders.
"Find and kill all the staff in the same uniforms as that guy you ate earlier."
He'd gathered what intel he could and taken what he needed. Time for evidence destruction.
Officially, the owner of this underground workshop—and the university killer—was Kim Mireh,
and she should've had a disobedient Transparent Vampire familiar from her grimoire.
Which meant no insiders who knew the place too well could be left alive.
They'd spot inconsistencies under interrogation in no time.
"Don't let a single one leave this basement."
At his command, Grizzly licked the blood from his mouth in a wide circle
and roared vigorously.
"Gyaah~!"