Chapter 11
Chapter 11
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Lee Seo-ah
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Serious Magic Addict.
Her workshop looked less like a workshop and more like a cursed room. A taxidermied deer head hung on the wall, and the floor was littered with all sorts of objects related to necromancy.
The curtains blocked every window, so not a single ray of light seeped into the house. No electric lights were on either—only the faint flames of candles and incense sticks illuminated the space. An eerie atmosphere permeated the air.
Even putting it kindly, it resembled the home of a mentally unhinged occult fanatic. It was certainly no place for an ordinary high school girl to live.
That said, it made sense as a mage's lair, so Ian followed her inside and glanced around.
“What do you think? Pretty impressive, right? I made this place all by myself.”
She said it with a proud expression.
“I scraped together the money with my own blood and sweat to buy every single thing here. Look at those candles over there? Those are the indestructible candles actually used by an exorcist in France ages ago. That one alone cost ten million won.”
“……That’s expensive.”
“That’s just how it is in this line of work. You wouldn’t know since you’re new to it.”
She trailed off there, suddenly realizing they hadn’t introduced themselves, and awkwardly extended her hand.
“I’m Lee Seo-ah.”
“I’m Shin Ian. I’m truly grateful for all the help you’ve given me in so many ways.”
“……Ahem. Glad to hear it. Anyway, let’s fix that speech pattern first.”
Lee Seo-ah said as she pulled orange juice from the fridge. Ian glanced at the blood packs crammed inside, then politely accepted the juice she poured for him.
“My speech?”
“Yeah. Mages don’t use formal speech with each other. Not unless it’s a master-disciple thing.”
“Why not?”
Lee Seo-ah answered his question as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Why would we? We don’t need to act meek. Mages often use anomalies as magic ingredients, but using another mage as material can be pretty efficient too. If you come off as weak, you might get stabbed in the back and ground up in a blender.”
“Oh…….”
“Doesn’t matter with normals. But when dealing with another mage—or someone who knows you’re one—it’s best to be as domineering as possible. So talk casually with other mages too.”
“Got it.”
Ian switched to casual speech right away. Lee Seo-ah let out a short laugh at his surprisingly quick adaptation.
“Nice. So, straight to business?”
She jumped up from her seat and started clearing the items off the table. Ian started to stand to help, but she stopped him.
“No need. If another mage touches them, the spiritual power I’ve fed into them weakens. Better if I do it alone.”
With that, Ian had no choice. He let out a small groan and placed the diffuser he’d brought as a gift roughly by the window.
A subtle lavender scent began to fill the workshop.
The unrealistic space felt a bit more relaxing with the aroma added.
Ian set the diffuser down and sat back on the floor, sipping his juice.
‘Spiritual power, though.’
Ian knew what spiritual power was. One of the three elements of magic was souls, after all.
From a magical perspective, humans consisted of two concepts: the body and the soul. The moment either died, a person ceased to be human.
Intact soul, dead body: a ghost.
Dead soul, intact body: a corpse.
The former—ghosts—refined into pure energy became spiritual power.
As far as Ian knew, only one mage handled it.
“You’ve mastered necromancy?”
“Yeah. Good guess?”
Lee Seo-ah replied as she hauled a massive, unidentified skull. After grunting and shoving it into a corner, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned to Ian.
“But never ask another mage that way in front of them. It could sound like you’re picking a fight.”
“……What?”
“That’s how it is in this world. Stuff like ‘What’s your magic?’ or ‘Have you learned this spell?’—it’s basically taboo. I don’t fully get it either, but that’s how it is, so I’m telling you.”
“…….”
What a complicated society. Ian shook his head and walked over to the now-cleared table.
“Ever met other mages before?”
“Nope, you’re my first in person. I know they exist from the community, but no clue who they are or what they’re up to.”
Lee Seo-ah naturally stepped aside. Ian dumped the items from his bag onto the table and sorted them by type. As she watched the materials he’d brought, she tilted her head at the cube-shaped anomaly.
“What’s this? You said you caught an Eight-Foot Ghost. This is something else.”
“Ran into it on the way here. Monkey Dream. Know it?”
“Oh, that one. Yeah, it’s famous, so I do. But why’s it lingering in reality? It only shows up in dreams.”
“That’s what I thought too.”
Ian let out a deep sigh and recounted the subway incident.
Lee Seo-ah tapped her lips with a finger after hearing it all, frowning. Her already fierce features grew even more intimidating as she narrowed her eyes.
“That’s pretty serious. If a dream-only anomaly’s invading reality, someone else must be involved.”
“…….”
“Eh, whatever. Honestly, I don’t care about that. The real issue is you showed up on the subway CCTV.”
“I hid as much as I could.”
“You think that’s enough? With evidence left behind, the Management Bureau will absolutely track you down.”
Lee Seo-ah shook her head with a weary expression.
She’d clearly dealt with the bureau plenty. With her long experience as a mage, she’d probably tangled with them more than most.
Ian smiled wryly as he tore open the fish packaging and extracted the eyeball.
“But there’s no way around it. I couldn’t exactly fool the cameras there.”
“Hmm…… True.”
Lee Seo-ah crossed her arms thoughtfully.
Ian left her to it and opened his grimoire to review the alchemy recipe.
He’d brought everything needed.
One creature eyeball and anomaly flesh. Human blood he’d drawn himself at home, water and poisonous herbs bought before boarding the train.
Nothing left behind by mistake. He could start the alchemy right away.
His first alchemy since the Primate Slayer Knife. Its effects were already proven exceptional, so this new item would be too.
A tool to crush an opponent’s eyes with no risk. Unless fighting a blind foe, sealing one of the five senses was invaluable. Disposable was a downside, but he could just make more.
‘I wonder if other alchemists make stuff like this.’
Hard to say. He’d need to meet one or read related books.
‘I’d like to see what they create sometime.’
Ian thought that as he pulled out a sheet of paper and spread it on the table.
At that moment, Lee Seo-ah, who’d been standing quietly, cleared her throat and retrieved an urn from a shelf.
She opened the lid, pinched some bone dust, and stared at Ian as she lifted it.
“No helping it. I’ll assist you this once.”
“……With what?”
“The subway thing. How long since you escaped?”
Ian paused and checked his watch.
“About 30 minutes?”
“Tricky timing. The Busan branch is slow, but 30 minutes is enough for them to secure the scene…… and probably start memory wipes. They might’ve checked the footage already—or be doing it now.”
But.
Lee Seo-ah added that, then slowly sprinkled the bone dust onto the floor.
“If we corrupt the footage now, it won’t be too late at least.”
“Corrupt it?”
“Common ghost story stuff, right? Haunted video, CCTV with a ghost on it. Necromancy makes summoning one easy.”
Lee Seo-ah swept her foot over the bone dust on the floor, drawing a circle. Then she pricked her finger with a needle and dripped blood onto it.
The blood crawled across the bone dust like a living thing with a mind of its own.
Ian’s first time witnessing another mage’s magic firsthand.
He watched her with keen interest and took a step back.
Lee Seo-ah grabbed a handful of bone dust, let it trickle slowly from her hand, and moved her lips.
“Come forth. Evil spirit wandering the nine heavens. Your master who wields mysteries commands you—manifest here and obey my will.”
The moment her words ended.
A pale arm suddenly sprouted from the pile of bone dust on the floor. Soon, it crawled up and glared at Lee Seo-ah with savage eyes.
It was unmistakably an evil spirit brimming with resentment. But Lee Seo-ah didn’t flinch and issued her order with a blank face.
“Resist if you want to stay unrested and unobliterated. But if you’d rather keep wandering the nine heavens, do as I command.”
[……You, young sorceress. How dare you defy heaven’s will and summon an evil spirit? Are you not afraid of divine punishment?]
The evil spirit wept blood tears as it spoke. Lee Seo-ah snorted.
“Not words I want to hear from an evil spirit. Shut up and obey. You know why I called you, right?”
[…….]
“Go on. Or should I destroy you here?”
Lee Seo-ah snapped her fingers. In that instant, a towering woman materialized behind her.
Her guardian spirit. The evil spirit spotted it and wailed, scrambling toward the wall. It passed through as if natural and sped off in the subway’s direction.
Ian eyed the evil spirit with unease, then turned to her guardian spirit.
The guardian spirit, a kitchen knife embedded in her forehead with blood streaming down, waved at Ian.
Ian awkwardly waved back.
It felt pretty weird.