I was at a loss as to how I was supposed to obtain the necessary materials.
Although Yohan had casually tossed the grimoires aside, he obviously hadn’t given up on making pentacles.
Lying on the hotel bed, he spent some time thinking about his future plans and course of action.
To be honest, although precious metals like gold and silver were expensive, they were relatively easy to obtain, so they weren’t much of a problem.
The real issue was the rare materials.
After doing a quick search, he discovered that in the case of alloys containing mercury, such as those used for Mercury’s pentacles, a common example was a metal called amalgam, which was used in dental treatments and made by mixing mercury with silver or gold.
It was the stuff used to fill cavities.
As it turned out, that stuff was expensive, too.
He could probably use other metals mixed together, but since mercury was involved, he wanted to use something whose safety had been verified.
In any case, he wasn’t even sure whether he could obtain a substance used in dental treatments.
And even if he managed to get all the materials, there was still the problem of turning each metal into a circular plate of the exact size he wanted.
If I had blacksmithing skills and owned a forge somewhere, I could simply get the metal and hammer it into shape.
Naturally, I had neither blacksmithing skills nor a forge.
Besides, if I wanted to keep learning new spells in the future, I’d need all kinds of different materials.
It wasn’t as though I were some master of DIY and self-sufficiency from YouTube.
There were limits to how much I could make for myself.
So, what I’d come up with was still just a hypothesis based on wishful thinking, but…
A society of wizards.
A market where they sold magical materials.
The people who had visited the Smith Mansion weren’t ordinary police officers but government officials.
There was a Secret Government Organization that managed Supernatural Phenomenon cases.
If such an organization existed, then there ought to be a social network or community among wizards as well.
That was what I needed to find.
Where people gathered, trade followed.
There should be a market specializing in the materials needed for magical rituals.
Of course, this was all speculation on my part.
I didn’t even know whether such a place existed.
The Mysteries of the Worm and The Lesser Key of Solomon.
I thought about the two grimoires I possessed.
I’d jokingly mocked them as obsolete, mediocre grimoires, but…
They had to be extraordinary items.
I couldn’t determine their exact value since I hadn’t formally studied magic, though.
In any case, if a wizard organization existed, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that its members might target my grimoires.
If I made a mistake, I could end up being targeted not only by government organizations but by other wizards as well.
“……”
I stared blankly at the hotel ceiling for a moment.
It made me uneasy, but in the end, the conclusion was inevitable.
I knew there were risks involved, but…
If I’d decided to live as a wizard, I had to find out whether a society of wizards existed, one way or another.
I needed to be careful about what required caution and make use of whatever opportunities I could.
I’d agonized over it in various ways, but ultimately, nothing changed much.
For now, I’d keep doing what I could and wait for an opportunity to gather information.
And what I could do, naturally, was exorcism.
My work as a Ghostbuster.
“Gyaaa~.”
I listened to Grizzly’s cries as he splashed around in the bathroom.
I also had to train Grizzly.
There was plenty to do.
***
“Hmm~ It’s good, but there’s just something missing.”
Minjun, an aspiring model, was rejected at an audition after hearing those familiar words for what felt like the hundredth time.
He’d grown remarkably tall during high school and had a decent appearance, so people had always told him he was handsome and looked like a model.
In his youthful innocence, he’d naturally assumed that he would become one.
Reality, however, hadn’t gone the way he’d hoped.
Remembering the auditions he’d failed, Minjun worked a part-time job as a waiter.
“Thank you for waiting.
Here’s the food you ordered.”
It wasn’t the glamorous life he’d dreamed of as a child.
He wasn’t going through anything so difficult that he wanted to kill himself, nor did he have any particular complaints about his part-time job. This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
He simply wondered how long he would have to keep living like this.
There was only a vague sense of anxiety.
Was he slowly ruining his life while clinging to the flattering label of an aspiring model?
Those depressing thoughts tended to surface whenever he failed an audition.
As time passed, it gradually approached closing time.
Pedro, a Black man wearing an apron, emerged from the back of the restaurant and spoke.
“Minjun~ The boss says we can wrap things up early today.”
“All right.”
Pedro was a decent guy.
He spoke Korean well and worked hard, making him a good coworker.
The reason they were closing earlier than usual was that they were holding a farewell party for Pedro, who was quitting his part-time job and returning to his home country.
After finishing the farewell party, eating some of the restaurant’s food, drinking, and chatting in the empty dining area, they headed home.
It was Pedro’s last day at the part-time job.
Seeing that Minjun, a good coworker and friend, was feeling down after failing yet another modeling audition, Pedro felt concerned and spoke up.
“Minjun, have you ever heard of Vodou?”
Caught completely off guard by Pedro’s question, Minjun answered in a foolish-sounding voice.
“Huh…?
You mean that stuff from horror movies where people cast curses and make zombies?”
Pedro laughed.
“Haha~ It’s not like that.
That’s just a perception that developed when it got mixed with American occultism.
Real Vodou involves worshipping the Loa and receiving their help.”
“…Help?”
Perhaps it was the alcohol, or perhaps it was because he was feeling depressed.
Although the story sounded absurd, Minjun listened to Pedro.
At Minjun’s home.
Following Pedro’s instructions, Minjun prepared a white dressing table intended for women.
“Pedro, is this enough?”
“Yeah, that’ll do.
Ezili Freda, the Loa of love and beauty, likes white and pink.”
Pedro sprayed perfume on the dressing table and placed a small framed portrait of a beautiful goddess with pure white skin and a benevolent expression on it.
Minjun looked at the portrait of the goddess with a cautious, slightly uneasy gaze.
As if he understood, Pedro smiled and spoke.
“Are you surprised that the goddess of an African folk religion like Vodou is white?”
“Huh?
No…
Well…
A little?”
“There are Loa native to Africa, but there are also Loa that came into existence when they merged with the local gods of various regions.
This happened because Black slaves were sold and taken to different places during the colonial era.”
As he listened to Pedro’s explanation, Minjun gazed at the portrait of the benevolent-looking goddess.
“Ezili Freda is a Loa who came into being when Black slaves brought to Europe saw pictures of the benevolent Virgin Mary and goddesses.
They hoped that one of them would save them.”
“However, she’s different from Mary because several goddesses have been mixed together.
She likes handsome men.
She has many lovers.”
As Pedro continued explaining, Minjun grew flustered.
“Huh?”
“From now on, Minjun, you’ll become a devotee and lover of Ezili Freda and receive her help.”
In short, Pedro explained that as Ezili Freda’s lover, Minjun should carefully clean her altar—the dressing table—every morning and maintain it by spraying perfume on it.
If he offered her gifts such as dresses, accessories, and sweet desserts, Ezili Freda would bring him good luck.
“However, there are some things you need to be careful about.
Ezili Freda hates the smell of cigarettes and marijuana.
You must never smoke cigarettes or use drugs.”
“Also, although she’s a benevolent Loa, she’s very jealous.
The more Minjun listened to the explanation, the more he wondered what on earth he was doing.
Still, he figured there was nothing to lose by giving it a try, even if it was all a scam, so he decided to go along with it.
Of course, Pedro didn’t believe any of this was real, either.
Before leaving Korea, he simply wanted to help Minjun, whom he’d grown close to, regain his confidence.
He’d only wanted to give his friend the placebo effect of believing that a goddess was helping him.
The only problem was the timing of the ritual.
The Eighth Book of Moses, The Book of Raziel the Angel, The Lesser Key of Solomon, and The Mysteries of the Worm—
Grimoires that would drive any wizard mad with excitement, and could genuinely drive someone insane if things went wrong, had gathered in one place.
Mysteries had converged in Korea.
And because Minjun happened to be Ezili Freda’s type, the ritual actually worked.
On the very day he set up the altar, Minjun saw a beautiful goddess in his dream.
And then…
“I keep finding myself drawn to him.
There’s just something about him that feels right.”
He passed a modeling audition.
“Hey, I’m only telling you this because it’s you.
Buy this stock in advance.”
“…Really?”
Minjun tried to buy the stock he’d been told about, but ended up buying a different one by mistake.
“Ah…
I bought the wrong one.”
The stock he’d purchased by accident skyrocketed.
Good fortune clung to him, and everything he did went well.
And then…
In the luxury officetel he’d moved into, his new, beautiful model girlfriend pointed at a closed bedroom door.
“Oppa, what’s in that room?”
“Oh~ that?
Don’t worry about it~.”
It was the room containing Ezili Freda’s altar, the dressing table decorated with offerings.
Claiming that every successful model did it, Minjun spoke in a dazed voice while smoking the marijuana he’d been given.
“…If I don’t need to worry about it, then it won’t matter if I open it!”
His girlfriend, who had also smoked marijuana, opened the door.
Wearing a smile, she walked inside, admiring the gorgeous dresses and glittering necklaces and earrings made of precious metals.
“Haha!
It’s like a doll’s room.”
She took out a dress, held it up against herself, and beckoned to Minjun.
“Oppa~ Come here.”
As if entranced, Minjun approached his girlfriend and kissed her.
Their clothes came off, and their bare skin pressed together.
The portrait of the goddess on the white dressing table trembled and toppled over.
.
.
.
…And now, in the present.
Yohan had listened to the entire story told by Minjun, a man with a haggard appearance, at a café.
“I see.
…It must have been difficult for you.
Thank you for telling me everything honestly.”
He tried not to show it on the outside, but he looked at Minjun with an exhausted, incredulous gaze.
You crazy bastard…
You smoked drugs, had sex, and did every single thing you were told not to do.
His brows instinctively furrowed.
Was it because this was occultism that he wasn’t taking it seriously?
If I were to compare it to real-world safety precautions, this was like—
Someone soaking themselves completely in water, then picking up a pair of chopsticks and sticking them into an electrical outlet.
I looked at the Ghostbuster business card I’d given Minjun earlier.
…I felt bad saying it, but…
I wanted to take the business card back and go home.