Yohan finished washing up quickly, draped a soft bathrobe over himself, and stepped out of the bathroom.
It felt nice to have the drink that had gotten on his hair washed away.
This was a hotel with a milk bath service that had received good reviews.
It wasn’t as though I’d booked this hotel just to enjoy myself.
Splash—splash!
I watched Grizzly, curled up inside the enormous bathtub, playing with the water.
“Grizzly, having fun?”
“Gya!
Gyagyagyagyagya!”
Apparently, he was enjoying himself.
“Be careful not to break the bathtub.”
He sometimes opened and closed the refrigerator door whenever he pleased, but he’d behaved himself at the Smith Mansion, so this was his reward.
We’d worked together, after all.
If I was going to indulge in a little luxury, I might as well let him enjoy it with me.
I gazed at the scenery outside while basking in the warm sunlight streaming into the hotel room.
Doing this while everyone else was supposed to be working made me feel like some big shot.
…Well, in reality, I was a student on leave, had quit my part-time job, and was a freelancer with an irregular income.
A Ghostbuster, though.
Thirty million won.
That was how much I’d received for exorcising the Boogieman.
It was a lot of money, but when I thought about all the things I’d need to spend it on throughout my life, booking hotels and enjoying myself like this was certainly a luxury.
Still, if you had money, you should indulge yourself while you could.
It wasn’t as though you could afford luxuries when you had nothing.
I’d worked hard, so I deserved to rest when it was time to take it easy.
…Although, as it turned out, I wasn’t going to be able to relax completely without a care in the world.
I sat down in a chair and narrowed my eyes.
“……”
I stared at the two grimoires lying on the table.
One had a dark iron cover, while the other had an old leather cover.
The Mysteries of the Worm and The Lesser Key of Solomon.
Somehow, I’d ended up with two grimoires.
‘So, it turns out that even an orphaned bastard with no parents like me is popular with grimoires—!?’
Now all that was left was for the grimoires to transform into the bustiest, most beautiful virgin girls in the entire city.
“—Ha!”
Just kidding.
I had no idea why, but they must have taken a liking to me.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have splashed a drink in my face and forced me to buy them.
…And looking at things positively, I did need a new grimoire.
I reached out, picked up The Mysteries of the Worm, and opened it.
I looked at the pages written in a language I couldn’t understand.
I hadn’t even learned everything in the sections I could already read.
It felt as though the book was only showing me the preparations needed to learn magic and some basic spells, while keeping the rest hidden from me.
How was I supposed to unlock the other sections?
“…….?”
Usually, things like this became available when your skills improved.
Or perhaps—
I looked toward the bathroom, where Grizzly was playing in the bathtub.
Did I need to build a bond with Grizzly, who was connected to the grimoire?
‘Grizzly!
It’s a new spell!
Bao Grizzly!’
‘Gyaaaa!
Gyagyagyagyagyaaa!’
An incredibly stupid delusion flashed through my mind.
I quickly shook it off.
In any case, since I’d hit a wall with The Mysteries of the Worm, studying magic with my new grimoire, The Lesser Key of Solomon, seemed like a reasonable option.
I put down The Mysteries of the Worm.
Its iron cover vibrated with a dissatisfied-sounding vrrrrm—vrrrrm, but I ignored it and opened The Lesser Key of Solomon to read.
[The best way to avoid being deceived by a demon is never to make a deal with one in the first place.
However, if you have no choice but to make a deal with a demon—]
As the book suggested, I had no intention of messing around with demon summoning, so I turned the page.
I didn’t think I was an incredibly intelligent and cunning person capable of outmaneuvering demons.
…If I’d been intelligent and cunning, I wouldn’t have gone to the Philosophy Department.
So I wasn’t going to summon demons in the first place.
If you could avoid danger, it was best to do so.
Still, it would be good to know how to deal with them, so I’d read that section properly later.
But this wasn’t what I was looking for right now.
At my current level, summoning famous, powerful demons like Solomon’s Seventy-Two Demons—the kind that frequently appeared in pop culture—was far beyond my abilities.
What I was looking for was—
As if it had read my thoughts, the grimoire’s pages turned.
—and there it was.
Pentagrams.
Also called pentacles, they were magical ritual aids consisting of circular metal medallions or parchment on which magic circles had been drawn in advance.
The word pentagram referred to a five-pointed star, an important element in magic.
The Mysteries of the Worm covered this topic too.
However, while that book only contained pentacles engraved with basic, universally applicable five-pointed-star incantations—
The Lesser Key of Solomon proved that the name Solomon in its title wasn’t just a marketing gimmick.
It contained forty-four magic circles known as Solomon’s Forty-Four Pentacles.
These pentacles drew upon the magical power of the seven planets—
Well, technically, the Sun was a star and the Moon was a satellite, but let’s group them under the term planets for convenience.
Anyway, there was the First Pentacle of Saturn, the Second Pentacle of Saturn, and so on.
Each of the seven planets had its own assigned pentacles.
“Let’s see.
The instructions for making them are…”
Pentacles could be made from either metal or parchment.
When making them from metal, you had to use a metal corresponding to the attributes of the relevant planet.
Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Sun.
Silver for the Moon, iron for Mars, an alloy mixed with mercury for Mercury, tin for Jupiter, copper for Venus, lead for Saturn, and gold for the Sun…
Gold?
I closed my eyes, massaged the bridge of my nose for a moment, then opened them again.
Nothing had changed.
The Sun required gold.
And although the Moon was overshadowed by the Sun, it was a problem too.
…No, the Moon and the Sun.
Sure, they were major celestial bodies, but wasn’t this a bit too much?
Did the other five planets have no pride?
Why didn’t they get to use precious metals?
Shouldn’t the book take a wizard’s financial situation into consideration…?
“Haa…”
Then again, Solomon was a king’s son, and his occupation was king.
He must have splurged on expensive materials whenever he used magic.
So much for not summoning the seventy-two demon lords of my own free will…
Looking at the materials again, I couldn’t afford to summon them anyway.
My gaze slowly shifted toward the grimoire with the cold iron cover.
The Mysteries of the Worm.
Perhaps a book written by a teacher from the streetwise Crusade was more beginner-friendly for a novice wizard like me.
I closed The Lesser Key of Solomon, picked up The Mysteries of the Worm, and read the instructions for making pentacles.
The instructions in The Mysteries of the Worm described how to make them from parchment.
[When making pentacles or copies of grimoires, the parchment intended for ritual use will be more effective if prepared by the wizard personally.
For magical parchment, the skin of a young lamb that has not yet engaged in reproductive mating is the best choice—]
Didn’t I remember reading something almost identical when I was making pottery…?
I had to make the parchment myself, too…?
It was an old-fashioned medieval method, but at least the book did provide instructions.
“……”
No…
I’d made pottery myself, and now I had to make parchment myself, too.
Was I a wizard or a production-line worker?
I rested my chin on my hand and thought for a moment.
‘…Do I really have to use pentacles?’
Couldn’t I just use the ambient magical power in the air, like they did in fantasy novels?
Basic first-circle fantasy magic, where you gathered mana into a ball and threw it.
I picked up the two obsolete grimoires that didn’t even have something as basic as a Magic Missile and casually tossed them aside.
Clang—thud.
The Mysteries of the Worm and The Lesser Key of Solomon lay miserably scattered across the hotel table.
***
Meanwhile, in Finland.
The owner of The Book of Raziel the Angel.
A beautiful girl with silvery-white hair.
Elsie, the saintess of the Holy Maiden Monastery, was searching the internet for information about Korea.
“Hehe~ Lord Raziel, please watch over me.
I’ll research Korea and find out where that man named Yohan is hiding.”
Light streamed out of The Book of Raziel the Angel.
[Well done, Elsie.]
“Now, let’s see…
From Finland all the way to Korea…
Huh?
What’s this?”
Elsie’s sky-blue eyes blinked.
“The Hwan Kingdom versus Finland: The Great Ancient War…
The Hwan-Fin War?”
A mysterious great war from Earth’s distant past, fought over supremacy of the planet, which she’d stumbled upon by chance.
“Allied nations…
Tyrannosaurus rex…
The Space Marine Chapters are joining the battle?”
[Elsie…
Please don’t look at things like that.]
A weary voice echoed from the Book of Raziel the Angel.