I looked down at Suhyeon’s corpse, pondering for a moment over the situation that had unfolded in an instant.
I had no intention of scolding Grizzly.
It had only been trying to save me.
However, I would have to give it some separate training in controlling its strength later.
“Haaah….”
The whole thing had happened so quickly, and it was utterly absurd.
No, seriously, why had he charged at me with a knife in the first place?
He might not have been in his right mind because of the evil spirit, but…
still…
My eyes narrowed.
…In a way, this had also been the evil spirit’s doing.
Just then, a scream rang out behind me.
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Apparently, someone who had appeared a little later had witnessed everything.
I could more or less guess who it was.
“Ah…
Ahhh…”
It was the new maid, Kim Sora.
At her scream, Ellie hurried over and asked,
“Miss Sora!
What happened?!”
“T-The evil spirit!
The evil spirit did it again!
I-It pushed Mr.
Suhyeon…!”
Nice assist.
Just like how the chandelier had fallen and killed the shaman, from Sora’s perspective, Suhyeon’s body must have suddenly been hurled through the air, smashed through the railing, and fallen.
That’s right.
This was the work of an evil spirit.
There was no need to make the situation any more confusing, so it was more convenient to leave things at that.
You were going to kill everyone anyway.
Take the blame for it all.
Besides, if they found out that I possessed the Invisible Vampire, I would have to kill both of them to keep them quiet.
I had only killed someone because of an accident.
I wasn’t some lunatic who enjoyed killing people without hesitation.
Even if no clear physical evidence remained, the very act of killing someone would gradually increase the suspicion surrounding me.
If I could get through this without killing anyone, that would be better.
I approached Sora, who had collapsed to the floor.
While Ellie carefully considered what to say to comfort her, I spoke in a gentle voice to soothe her instead.
“I don’t want to…
Why don’t I want to die…?”
“I won’t let you die.”
“…!”
Faced with such a firm statement in the middle of this chaotic situation, Ellie and Sora’s eyes widened.
I smiled gently and gave them the words they wanted to hear.
“It’s natural to be afraid, but you don’t need to be so frightened.
If demons exist, that means God exists, too.”
If they became frightened in this mansion, the Boogieman inside Emily would only grow stronger.
That was why I was putting on the act of a seasoned expert who could give them a sense of reassurance.
This was only my second real encounter, and my first time performing an exorcism, though.
In any case, it seemed to have worked.
Sora’s eyes were still trembling, but she tried to stand up.
“I’m sorry.
I’m not the only one having a hard time.”
Ellie shook her head and helped Sora to her feet.
“No.
It’s natural to struggle.
Even so, we must walk through this darkness.”
Her voice was gentle yet resolute.
“For the sake of those who have fallen victim to the evil spirit, too.”
At Ellie’s words, I nodded.
“…Y-Yes, that’s right.”
I carefully turned my gaze away from the broken railing.
Yes, what had happened was already in the past.
What mattered now was moving forward to resolve the problem, just as Ellie had said.
For the sake of the shaman and Suhyeon, who had fallen victim to the evil spirit’s wicked machinations.
And to prevent any more victims.
And then, at that very moment—
KWAANG!
The door to Emily’s room, at the end of the dark corridor, shattered.
Pastor Go Juwon was suspended in midair, kicking his legs helplessly as he screamed.
“God!
GOD!
SAVE ME!
SAVE MEEEEEE!”
KWAANG—CRACK!!
He was slammed into the corridor wall.
Blood streamed from Go Juwon’s eyes and nose.
His body trembled violently before—
Like a tomato thrown against a wall and bursting, he collapsed, leaving a sticky smear of blood across the surface.
Pastor Go Juwon, deceased.
We had another victim already!
Sora looked as though she was about to burst into tears, her eyes welling up as she spoke.
“Y-You said God existed, too…!”
Well, I guess He didn’t feel like saving him…
Ellie and I had nothing to say.
Still, the one fortunate thing was that this time, it really was the work of the evil spirit alone.
…No, that wasn’t fortunate at all.
I rubbed my face with my palm and immediately pulled myself together.
There really wasn’t any time left now.
After coming all this way and going through all this trouble, if Smith, my source of income, died too, then all my efforts would have been completely wasted.
“You brought the brazier, right?”
“Yes, we found one, but…”
In response to my question, Ellie and Sora brought over an elaborate brazier decorated with gold from behind them.
Sora spoke cautiously.
“I heard it was an antique brazier used for rituals in Zoroastrianism…
Will it be all right?”
“It’s fine.
What matters is that it’s a brazier.”
I took a white coat from my bag and put it on over my clothes.
It was inscribed with names that possessed power.
I hadn’t intended to create an atmosphere or anything.
I had already brought the incense pouch with me from the beginning.
I fastened a waterskin containing Holy Water and a Holy Water Sprinkler to my waist.
Preparations were complete.
I looked into Emily’s room through the shattered doorway, where light spilled out.
I gripped the Grimoire with its cold iron cover.
“Then let’s go.”
Sora looked ready to cry, but when she saw Ellie firmly nodding, she took out the lighter she had brought and set fire to the pile of paper placed in the brazier instead of firewood.
Then she followed us.
Emily’s room was a complete mess.
Perhaps someone had tried to perform an exorcism and failed.
Pages from the Bible lay scattered everywhere, torn apart as though in mockery.
Smith sat collapsed on the floor, his face blank with despair.
And Emily…
The evil spirit inside Emily was leaning diagonally against the bed, staring at me with a spine-chilling smile.
“So, another person who doesn’t even believe in God has come here, speaking in His name and pretending to be His servant!”
The beautiful, melodious voice of the girl mingled with a shriek like metal scraping against metal.
“Go on, then!
This body is already mine, and this mansion is my stomach!”
I hadn’t intended to laugh, but I couldn’t help myself.
“—Ha!”
“…?”
It said I didn’t believe in God…
That was wrong.
I did believe in God.
There were plenty of things in this world that we couldn’t see.
But surely no one would deny the existence of energy such as solar power, electricity, or nuclear power, would they?
I smiled faintly at the Boogieman and spoke.
“When you use electricity, do you do it with a reverent heart?”
“—What?”
Great Lord, God, Amen, and so on and so forth.
It was all just entering a code to obtain the energy needed for magic.
Yes.
What mattered were the Incantation, the ritual, and the procedure.
“Creature of fire, I sanctify you.”
I took incense from the incense pouch and placed it into the flames of the blazing brazier.
“May all falsehood flee from you.
May you neither be harmed nor deceived.”
FWOOSH!
The flames touched by the incense blazed fiercely and shot upward.
“Almighty Lord, with this fire, bless that which has been created—”
The incense burned away in an instant, producing smoke that immediately filled the entire room.
“Bless it!”
I had only just learned magic, but I had at least begun to understand, more or less, what a magician was.
Gods, spirits, great names, demons.
Without distinction, they were people who confined the mysteries within arbitrarily established rules and used power that did not belong to them to accomplish whatever they desired.
Shameless people who took whatever they wanted.
That was what magicians were.
God existed, and He was a mass of energy.
As the smoke and incense filled the room, Emily’s face twisted.
Until then, she had been wearing that spine-chilling smile.
“Ugh…!
Uuugh—!?”
“Your kind is weak against the smell of incense.
That’s why you ran away when you saw me in the lounge.”
When Raphael burned the entrails of a fish together with incense, Asmodeus, possessing a maiden’s body, fled.
I approached the Boogieman, whose face was contorted as it glared at me.
Step.
Step.
I took the Holy Water Sprinkler out of the waterskin.
When David, the son of Solomon, took up hyssop, it became a Holy Water Sprinkler.
I swung it and sprinkled Holy Water over Emily’s body.
The moment the Holy Water touched her—
“AAAAAAAAAAAH!”
A shriek that did not belong to Emily rang out from her vocal cords.
Sweat trickled down her face, and her eyes darted about anxiously.
This is dangerous!
Dangerous!
That man is the real deal!
Damn those people who imitate Solomon, those who commit heresy in God’s name, those who plunder demons…!
A real magician!
I must not let him come any closer!
Just as she had hurled the pastor away, Emily glared at Yohan, straining her eyes with power.
But—
Yahweh, O Lord, God Almighty.
The sacred names inscribed on the coat, which warded off evil spirits, effortlessly blocked the attack, preventing it from having any effect.
Yohan drew closer, pushing through the smoke as the hem of his white coat swayed.
“Don’t come any closer…
I said don’t come near me—!?”
Emily tried to charge at Yohan to stop him by force, but an enormous invisible force pressed her down and pinned her to the bed.
“Guh—!?”
“Grrrr…”
The low growl of an invisible beast echoed through the room.
Naturally, it was Grizzly.
Emily’s eyes narrowed fiercely before suddenly softening.
In a sorrowful, innocent voice, she spoke to Smith.
“Uh…
Ah…
It hurts.
It hurts…
Grandpa.
Grandpa, help me.
This man is…!”
“E-Emily…
Is that you?”
I shoved the Holy Water Sprinkler aside, done with her nonsense.
“Shut up, you worthless creature.”
I reached out, grabbed Emily by her blonde hair, and slammed her head against the bed.
It wasn’t that I held any ill will toward Emily.
But when dealing with demons, I couldn’t afford to show weakness or hesitation.
“Should I drag the King of Ghosts before you and beat you until you come to your senses?” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
When the Son of God rebuked the ghost, the illness of the possessed man was cured.
“Do you think I can’t do it?
You nameless wretch, you insignificant creature that crawls through crevices.”
For an instant, the face of a shadowy evil spirit overlapped Emily’s face.
“This body is already mine!
Go on, try it!
I’ll bite my tongue and gouge out my own eyes!
This child will die because of you!”
“Go ahead.”
“—!?”
Emily’s eyes, or rather the evil spirit’s eyes, widened.
I bent forward and whispered into Emily’s ear in a low voice.
“Like you said, it’s your body, not mine.
You’re the one who’ll feel the pain, not me.”
I straightened up again and looked down at Emily’s face.
“Go ahead.
You have a pretty face, so it might even be fun to torment you.”
Of course, I was acting.
I wasn’t a psychopath who felt pleasure from tormenting other people.
Emily’s face twisted.
“Do…
you think I’ll be afraid of you just because you do this?!”
“Then why didn’t you come and kill me yourself?”
“—!?”
The reason I had become certain that I could exorcise it was that it had sent Suhyeon instead of coming to kill me itself.
If I had merely been an obstacle, it would have dealt with me directly.
But it hadn’t.
Instead, it had deliberately seduced Suhyeon and sent him after me.
It had continued avoiding me, killing people, and growing stronger.
I looked down at Emily’s face, at the evil spirit’s face, as its features contorted and the first signs of fear began to show in its narrowed eyes.
“You were afraid of me.”
“Ah…
AAAAAH…!”
The identity of the one who fed on fear in this space was reversed.
“Let’s finish this.”
I placed my hand on Emily’s forehead and recited an Incantation.
“Lord, imprison my enemies in iron cages.
Strike them down.
Defeat them.”
“St…
Stop…
STOOOOP!”
At the evil spirit’s scream, I withdrew my hand and brushed back Emily’s sweat-soaked hair, speaking in a gentle voice laced with mockery.
“Then cry.
You can beg, too.”
Feeling that stronger words were necessary, I recited a line from a novel I had enjoyed reading in the past.
“Cry.”
I bent down, pressed my forehead against Emily’s, and stared into her hollow eyes, peering into the abyss as I formed a fierce, twisted smile.
“Prove your innocence by crying, you mongrel.”
I would drag out the demon hiding inside her.
There would be nowhere left for it to hide.
“Ah…
Ahhh…!”
Emily’s mouth opened, and a black shadow poured out from within.
It flailed its long arms, trying to escape, but—
“Haaah…”
Grizzly, which had been waiting for this moment, caught it in its arms and dragged it back.
Its teeth sank into the shadow’s body.
“AAAAAAAAAAAH!
Mercy!
Great One!
Great One!
Great One!
Have mercy!
Mercy!
Mercy!
Mercy!”
The very mouth that had mocked me now screamed for mercy.
My eyes sank coldly.
No, begging and flattering me after everything was already over…
I let out a faint, incredulous laugh.
“You didn’t cry, you idiot.”
Then, in a low, quiet voice, I gave my command.
“Eat.”
The shadow shrieked in panic at my words.
“Great One!
I’ll cry!
I’ll become your servant!
You who turn stones into bread!
You who wear Solomon’s crown!
Master of the beasts that came from the stars!
Have mercy—!?”
It was already too late.
“Gyaa~.”
Grizzly happily tore the creature’s body apart with its teeth and claws, ripping it to pieces and devouring it.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH—!”
The mansion shook violently as the evil spirit was torn to shreds and disappeared.
From my perspective, it was a gruesome scene.
But to everyone else, it would probably look as though the exorcism had succeeded and the evil spirit had dispersed into thin air.
…I hoped so, at least.
Once everything was over, silence settled over the room.
Smith stared at Yohan in disbelief.
“You…
Who…
exactly are you?”
His voice trembled so much that he couldn’t finish the question.
In response to Smith’s question about my identity, I knew I would regret this out of sheer embarrassment a hundred percent later, but…
Perhaps I had gotten caught up in the atmosphere myself.
I introduced myself again, just as I had in the kitchen.
“Ghostbuster.”
This time, no one laughed.