Amazement, admiration, and awe.
Smith stared at Yohan, unable to figure out what to say, when Yohan drove away the Boogieman and Emily, freed from possession, woke up coughing.
“Kh, cough…
cough!”
“Emily!”
Smith immediately rose to his feet, and I stepped away from Emily to give them some space.
Smith approached Emily with trembling steps.
“G-Grandpa…
I…”
“Th-thank you…”
Looking at Emily’s pale face, which was beginning to regain some warmth, he pulled her into his arms.
“Thank you…
Thank you…”
He held his granddaughter, whom he had thought he would never see again, and wept.
Seeing them like that, I quietly walked away.
“…..”
There was no reason for me to wedge myself between them and take credit for what I had done.
Nor did I want to.
It wasn’t as though I had exorcised the Boogieman possessing Emily out of some noble purpose or kindheartedness.
This was business.
I had completed the job, so all I had to do now was collect the money as promised.
As I walked toward the door, Ellie looked at me with astonished eyes before coming to her senses and speaking.
“Mr.
Ghostbuster!
I knew I could trust you!”
Even though I had said it myself, hearing someone say it so openly made me feel both pleased and embarrassed.
“Just call me Yohan.”
Ellie glanced at Smith and Emily, then smiled gently with a relieved expression.
“All right, Mr.
Yohan…
Thank you so much.”
I looked at Ellie for a moment as she smiled with such pure, compassionate kindness.
Apparently, she had genuinely wanted to save Emily.
In any case, my first exorcism had succeeded.
One problem solved!
…That was what I wanted to say.
“….”
I looked at the pastor’s corpse leaning against the wall outside the door.
The shaman, Suhyeon, and the pastor.
The problem with the evil spirit had been resolved, but three people had died, and dealing with the aftermath was going to be a problem.
Now that the Boogieman was gone, the blizzard that had isolated the mansion would naturally subside as well.
What was I supposed to tell the police when they arrived?
‘The culprit behind the deaths was an evil spirit possessing Emily, and I successfully exorcised it!
Problem solved!
You can all go home now!’
The moment I said something like that, I would be arrested as the prime suspect and subjected to a drug test.
I stared quietly at the corpse.
‘I can’t just tell Grizzly to eat all the bodies and dispose of them…’
The evil spirit was gone, and the supernatural phenomena had been resolved.
But it would be strange if the corpses suddenly disappeared.
Besides, the fact that three people had come to the mansion wouldn’t disappear with them.
If the bodies vanished, it might make the situation even more suspicious.
Noticing that I was looking at the pastor’s corpse, Ellie cautiously turned her head, glanced at Emily, and spoke quietly.
“Um…
I think we should cover him with a bedsheet, just like we did with the chandelier.”
She was probably worried that Emily would be shocked if she saw the body after waking up.
“Let’s do that.”
I nodded at Ellie’s suggestion and turned away.
After all, staring at a corpse wasn’t going to solve anything.
It was bad for one’s mental health.
And it wasn’t as though thinking about it would magically produce a brilliant solution.
For now…
“Anyway, shall we get something to eat?”
“Pardon?”
Time to replenish my energy with some food.
I had eaten a hurried dinner before getting to work, and now I was hungry.
When you’re hungry, you don’t have the energy to do anything, and your brain stops working properly.
At our conversation, the maid Sora, who had been sitting collapsed on the floor, finally came to her senses and spoke in a trembling voice.
“Um…
I-I’m sorry.
My legs have given out…
I can’t stand up…”
She had seen the evil spirit emerge directly from Emily’s body, and the shock must have left her weak.
I shrugged and joked to help her relax.
“It’s fine.
At least you didn’t wet yourself.”
“W-Well…
I did.”
Sora squeezed her eyes shut, and liquid trickled out from beneath the skirt of her loose-fitting maid uniform.
“…It’s okay.
You’re still alive, aren’t you?
I discreetly took a step away as I spoke.
“I’ll make something to eat myself.”
Even if she was a maid, she had been so frightened that she had wet herself.
It would be a bit much to tell her to hurry up, wash herself, and prepare a meal.
***
After Ellie and I covered the corpse with a bedsheet, Ellie returned to her room, concerned about Emily’s condition after waking up.
Meanwhile, I rummaged through the kitchen, looking for something edible.
There were instant noodles and microwave rice.
So even a mansion had instant food like this.
Well, it was convenient, after all.
Honestly, instant noodles with rice were quick, delicious, and filling, but…
It was all carbohydrates, which wasn’t particularly good for me.
I rummaged around a little more and found some thinly sliced beef for bulgogi and some vegetables in the refrigerator.
“Oh, bulgogi…”
I looked at the package of beef for a moment and thought.
I had saved both Smith’s life and his granddaughter’s.
Surely he wouldn’t get angry just because I ate some of his bulgogi beef.
“There’s meat and vegetables, so how about making curry?”
You might wonder what I was doing making curry with bulgogi beef, but it actually worked surprisingly well.
It was simple, delicious, and good for the body, too.
I took out a suitable pot, poured in some cooking oil, and stir-fried the beef.
Since the meat was thinly sliced, I had to be careful not to let it stick to the pot.
Once it was sufficiently cooked, I added potatoes, carrots, and onions that I had cut into bite-sized pieces and stir-fried them together.
Then I poured in water to make the broth.
Once it boiled, I added the curry powder.
All that remained was to wait a little, and the curry would be ready.
As I watched the curry bubbling away in the pot—
I suddenly wondered whether reciting a magical Incantation over the curry would make it taste even better.
‘O curry, I sanctify you.
Become more delicious!’
It sounded amusing, but it was also ridiculous, so I abandoned the idea.
Then I sensed someone behind me and turned around.
Ellie and the others had entered the kitchen.
“You made curry.”
“Yes, I found the ingredients.”
Sora, who had changed her clothes, stared at the pot of curry with wide, astonished eyes.
“As expected, a professional really is different…
So calm…
And even making food…”
Someone might wonder how I could eat in a mansion where corpses were scattered everywhere…
“Because we’re alive.
We have to eat.”
It went down just fine.
I had to make sure it did.
There was no one else to take care of me, so I had to look after myself.
It was better to eat whenever I could and recover my strength.
Once daylight came, the police would arrive and question us.
Rest was important if I wanted to hold up under questioning and avoid making mistakes.
In any case, Ellie listened to me and nodded.
“That’s true…
We’re alive, after all.”
As though something had occurred to her, she turned to Emily and spoke cautiously.
“Emily, let’s eat together, too.
Your body has been weakened by the possession, so you should eat to recover.”
“I…
I don’t have an appetite…
Sniff…
Ugh…
It’s because of me…”
Tears welled up in Emily’s green eyes.
“Because of me, other people…”
Emily’s small shoulders trembled.
Apparently, she still remembered some of what had happened while she was possessed.
Smith and Sora discreetly turned their gazes toward me.
Now I understood why everyone had come into the kitchen.
They hadn’t come for curry.
They wanted me, as the supposed expert in these matters, to say something comforting.
I wasn’t a psychological counselor, though.
Still…
I looked at Emily, the blonde girl whose body was trembling pitifully.
…I felt sorry for Emily.
More precisely, I sympathized with the situation she had found herself in.
It was similar to mine.
She hadn’t wanted any of it, yet she had become entangled in bizarre events connected to people’s deaths.
I had the Grimoire, while Emily had the Boogieman.
I had decided to live as a magician and the owner of a Grimoire.
Emily, on the other hand, had been freed from the Boogieman, so she could simply go on living happily.
That was where our situations differed, but there were still similarities.
So I approached Emily.
“Emily.”
“Sometimes, you end up killing a person or two unintentionally in life.
Don’t get too depressed about it.”
“…Pardon?”
Emily’s face went completely blank.
Ellie, Smith, and Sora also stared at me with their mouths hanging open in shock.
Emily and Ellie spoke in trembling voices.
“Um…
Thank you for trying to comfort me, but…
well…”
“M-Mr.
Yohan, I understand that you’re trying to console Emily, but…
I-I don’t think that’s quite appropriate.”
At their reactions, I discreetly turned my gaze away.
‘Was that not the right thing to say…?’
Apparently, after deciding to become a magician, even my personality had changed.
I had become an average magician.
The average magician standard.
The magician average, so to speak.
Just then, the curry in the pot finished cooking, and I changed the subject.
“So, who wants some curry?”
Perhaps they had only just realized how hungry and exhausted they were, but everyone served themselves some curry and began eating.
“…It’s delicious.”
Emily hesitated for a moment before joining them.
“I’ll have some, too.”
In any case, I had succeeded in helping Emily regain some of her strength.
Then I looked at Smith and Ellie and spoke.
“Oh, there’s something I’d like to ask both of you, while I have the chance.”
In the mansion, isolated in the darkness with corpses scattered here and there, the aroma of curry filled the air as morning approached.
***
Surprisingly, dealing with the aftermath turned out to be simple.
I had prepared myself for the worst-case scenario of being dragged into an interrogation room and subjected to intense questioning.
But when Smith explained the situation at the mansion, government officials wearing black suits arrived instead of the police.
They investigated various parts of the mansion, made us promise to keep everything confidential, and then sent us home.
At my request, Smith told them that the evil spirit possessing Emily had been driven away through Ellie’s prayers.
Ellie strongly objected, but when I explained that I had personal reasons for asking, she agreed to support the story.
Honestly, I couldn’t quite put it into words, but considering the strange aura I sensed from Ellie, I suspected that she would have survived on her own even if I hadn’t been there.
In any case, if the officials who had come to the mansion really belonged to the secret government organization I had imagined, then either they were more careless about their work than I had expected…
…Or perhaps something so urgent and dangerous was happening elsewhere that the incident at the mansion seemed insignificant by comparison.
Either way, it worked out well for me.
Some time passed, and now I was at the airport to see Smith off as he departed for the United States.
Although the government organization had covered up the incident, people had still died, and Smith seemed to be leaving for Emily’s sake because he was worried about the rumors.
“Mr.
Yohan, I truly cannot thank you enough.”
“No, Emily managed to endure it herself.
That deserves the credit.”
I didn’t strictly need to come just because he had invited me, but he was my first client, and I wanted to ensure customer satisfaction.
Besides, there might come a time when I needed to flee abroad myself.
There was no harm in keeping in touch with Smith after he moved to the United States.
After all, I had saved his granddaughter’s life.
Surely he could at least treat me to a meal if I ever visited America.
Emily looked at my face, and when our eyes met, she spoke.
“Um, thank you so much.”
She spoke politely, and I responded with a gentle smile out of courtesy.
“Take care.
If you ever need help again, get in touch.”
“……..”
Emily gazed at my face quietly for a moment before turning away.
.
.
.
After Yohan left, Emily was drawing something in a sketchbook in the airport lounge.
Scratch, scratch—
Her pencil moved, making a steady sketching sound.
Smith approached her with a pleased expression.
“Emily, what are you drawing?”
“Huh?
N-No!
It’s nothing!”
Emily hurriedly closed the sketchbook in surprise.
“I-I see.”
Smith assumed she was embarrassed to show him a drawing that wasn’t finished yet, so he walked away.
Emily sighed and opened the sketchbook again.
It was a scene from one of her memories of being possessed.
Yohan, gripping her hair while she was on the bed.
“Uuuh…”
Emily’s face turned bright red at the explicit drawing she had made herself.
She covered her face with both hands.
The tips of her toes curled inward.
She no longer had nightmares.
And the Boogieman had been exorcised.
But Emily had developed a strange fetish.