Nom, nom, nom~
“Gyaaa~.”
Grizzly finished eating Miryeo’s head and let out a satisfied cry.
“……”
Looking down at the half-eaten corpse, with its neck and arms severed, Grizzly finally remembered Yohan’s words, which had been floating around in its mind.
‘Grizzly, you mustn’t eat anyone unless I tell you to.’
“Gyaat!”
Some strange person had carelessly touched it, so the Grimoire, The Mysteries of the Worm, had summoned it awake, and it had attacked.
It had also happened to be hungry.
And the person it had eaten wasn’t one of the ‘people’ its master had forbidden it from eating without permission, so it had simply eaten her…
“Gyaaa…”
Grizzly looked down at Miryeo’s corpse.
…Still, there was more of her left uneaten than there was eaten.
Maybe its master wouldn’t scold it too much?
No!
Its master must have left that food for it to eat!
…Or had he?
Grizzly paced around the room in circles.
Then it noticed the CCTV screens monitoring the rooms in the basement.
One of the screens showed the room where Yohan was being held.
“Gyaa!”
Its train of thought shifted from ‘What should I do if I get scolded…?’ to ‘My master!’
It smashed through the locked door.
BANG!
“Haaaa…”
Grizzly emerged into the basement corridor.
It turned its head, looking around.
Then it moved in the direction where it could sense Yohan’s presence.
Although the surroundings were unfamiliar…
This was a journey to find its master.
Grizzly’s adventure had begun!
***
Inside a room enclosed by iron bars like a prison cell.
Yohan had pretended to be unconscious and allowed the ranch employees to lock him up here.
A reasonable amount of time had passed, and just as he was about to pretend to regain consciousness—
He heard the voices of terrified people.
“W-Where are we?!”
“I definitely ate lunch, and then… my head started spinning…”
“D-Does anyone have a phone?!
C-Call the police!
The police!”
A calm woman’s voice rang out.
“Everyone, I understand that you’re confused, but please calm down.”
I naturally opened my eyes and looked around.
A beautiful woman with a calm expression, whose emotions were difficult to read, was trying to soothe the others.
It was Shin Sion, Team Leader of Special Response Division Team 3.
“……”
Sion briefly hesitated when she saw Yohan open his eyes.
However, to prevent the people from falling into further confusion, she showed them her Special Response Division identification card and revealed her identity.
“My name is Shin Sion.
I’m a civil servant working for a government agency.
I can’t give you a detailed explanation, but you can think of me as something like an agent.”
“W-What?
A government agency?
Is that for real?”
“What on earth is going on here?”
“Is this really the time to worry about that?!
We’re going to be okay, right?!
Let us out of here!”
Sion spoke in a calm voice, bringing the volume of their voices down.
“Everyone, please be quiet for now.
The people who locked us up might hear us and come here.”
Yohan also watched her, keeping a little distance from the crowd as he thought to himself.
‘An official title or an armband really does come in handy at times like this.’
If I had been in her position and shown them my Ghostbuster business card, saying—
‘Ahem!
I’m someone important!’
They would have immediately treated me like a lunatic.
Of course, I had no intention of doing that anyway.
In any case, she was a government official…
Did that mean she belonged to the same organization as the officials who had come to Smith’s Mansion instead of the police?
A government organization responsible for Supernatural Phenomenon cases.
If that was true, then I would have to revise my plan to reunite with Grizzly, who had awakened out of hunger and come looking for me, and then find the wizard responsible for all this to obtain information.
If I moved carelessly just to gain an advantage, I might expose my identity.
That would be dangerous.
Besides, if I wanted to think things through, I should have considered this possibility when I came here to investigate…
Sion’s quiet voice rang out as she reassured the others.
“There are other agents outside.
Since the signals I was sending have stopped, they’ll be coming to find us soon.”
My eyes narrowed slightly.
…Right.
There was no way she had come here alone.
There must be other colleagues stationed somewhere near this ranch.
While calming the people down, Sion briefly narrowed her eyes and glanced at Yohan.
There really were other Special Response Division agents outside.
It was true, and she had said it to reassure the others, but… it was also meant to keep Yohan in check.
If Yohan really was the culprit behind the college murder case, then he possessed a powerful Familiar.
He could summon his Familiar to escape and kill everyone here to silence them.
That was why she had revealed the presence of other agents, making it harder for him to act recklessly.
Of course, it was merely a deterrent with no real power to restrain him.
Depending on how the situation unfolded, Yohan could still do something unexpected at any moment, so she had to remain cautious.
With that in mind, Sion briefly explained to the people that this place was an organ-trafficking organization disguised as a livestock farm, and that they could escape safely if they remained calm.
I pieced together the information coming from Sion’s mouth.
As expected, she was basically concealing information about wizards and the existence of Supernatural Phenomena.
Of course, it was also true that this was an organ-trafficking organization.
But judging from the conversation I had overheard between the ranch employees earlier, the boss here was a wizard.
Which meant this place was a wizard’s workshop.
In any case, as I had already thought, the appearance of an official from a secret government organization meant that I had to revise my plans.
For the sake of gathering information, I had personally wanted to meet another wizard besides myself…
But it wasn’t worth risking having my identity exposed.
Anyone who would carry out a mass kidnapping like this had to be insane.
Rather than meeting them, it would be better to—
Quietly escape with Grizzly and the bag containing my Grimoire.
The problem was how to retrieve the Grimoire without arousing the suspicion of that government official…
The kidnapped people sat on the prison floor, overwhelmed by fear while desperately clinging to the hope that they might survive.
I quietly watched Sion, who had finally escaped the crowd’s questions.
And then—
At that very moment, Sion looked at Yohan as well, and their eyes met.
“……”
Suddenly looking away would be suspicious, too, so Sion cautiously approached him.
She sat down beside Yohan and spoke quietly.
“Unlike the others, you seem quite calm in this situation.”
Avoiding the conversation altogether would also look suspicious, so I responded.
“…I was just keeping my mouth shut because I was scared.”
Since I assumed that Sion, as a member of a government organization, knew about the supernatural incident at Smith’s Mansion, I continued.
“And I’ve gotten somewhat used to things like this because I keep getting caught up in them.”
I was presenting myself as someone who frequently got involved in Supernatural Phenomenon cases.
“…I see.
You get caught up in things like this quite often.
May I ask what you do for a living?”
“Ah, well, for now, I’m an Exorcist.”
“An Exorcist?” New chapters come out on g.com first.
Sion’s eyes wavered briefly at the unexpected answer.
At that moment—
BANG!
The sound of gunfire rang out from the direction of the basement corridor.
It wasn’t just one shot.
Bang!
Bang!
BANG!
As the gunshots rang out in rapid succession, both Sion’s and my eyes widened in response.
Sion furrowed her brows and stood up.
“I’ll go check on the situation.
It’s dangerous, so everyone, please stay here.”
Sion was conscious of Yohan’s gaze, but right now, she had to act to ensure the safety of the kidnapped people.
That was why she decided to reveal one of her cards.
Humans might seem to have no connection to mystery, unlike Supernatural Phenomena, but that wasn’t necessarily true.
Humans possessed a mystery of their own.
For example, the inexplicable superhuman strength displayed at the scene of a fire.
Or the tales of humans who killed monsters appearing in folklore and legends.
It was a technique that was different from, yet similar to, magic, which plundered energy, power, and mystery from other places.
A technique cultivated through training and then unleashed.
Sion placed her palm against the iron-barred door.
“Hoo…”
Taking a deep breath, she braced herself with her legs and struck the barred door with her palm in an explosive blow.
BANG!
With a rattling sound, the locking mechanism shattered, and the door creaked open.
Sion looked at Yohan and spoke.
“Mr.
Yohan, I’m sorry for deceiving you earlier.”
She had told the others to remain here for their safety, but Yohan was a slightly different case.
If she left him here, everyone else might end up dead.
Since she had already revealed one of her cards, she decided to reveal more.
“I already knew who you were, Mr.
Yohan.
I read the report detailing what happened at the painter Smith’s mansion.”
“I heard that you helped a nun exorcise an evil spirit.
Would you be willing to cooperate with us in this incident?
The situation has changed, and we need help.”
In response to Sion’s request, I stood up and said,
“…I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’ll do my best.”
The woman had just smashed an iron-barred door with her bare hands and was asking me to accompany her.
What else could I do?
I had to go with her.
Ironically, in a chaotic situation like this, I felt that staying beside this woman would probably be the safest option.
I was also interested in the mysterious power Sion had just demonstrated.
…If I had to find the closest term I knew to describe what she had just done, would it be martial arts?
Yeah, to be honest, I was a little excited.
If I learned it, could I use it too?
Maybe I could even fire off sword energy or palm strikes that sent shock waves flying through the air!
My eyes narrowed slightly.
If that were possible, I’d immediately throw magic away and switch to martial arts.
No, wait.
I could just study both whenever I had the time.
What was so special about magic, anyway?
Magic was simply the ability to do things that ordinary people couldn’t.
In that sense, the two were similar.
Yohan’s dark eyes gazed at Sion.
Sion possessed knowledge of wizards, but she did not fully understand what it meant to be one.
A being who even coveted techniques that humans had painstakingly developed.
That was precisely what a wizard was.
In other words, according to a wizard’s way of thinking, if someone could cut the sky with swordsmanship, then it was no longer swordsmanship.
It was magic.