Yohan clenched and unclenched his hand for a moment, recalling the sensation of the Grimoire attempting to be summoned earlier.
He had never been separated from the Grimoire since obtaining it, so he had never realized this before.
Apparently, the Grimoire had a convenient teleportation function that allowed it to come whenever its owner called.
Even if it wasn’t physically in his hands, he effectively still had the Grimoire.
And Grizzly was right beside him, too.
Until he found the Grimoire, that had been his ultimate goal, leaving him no room to consider anything else.
But now that he knew he could safely retrieve the Grimoire, which was his most important objective, he had reached a crossroads.
Should he simply follow Sion and escape, or…
I stole a glance at Grizzly, who tilted its head in confusion.
It was hard to imagine Grizzly had come all the way here without causing any trouble.
It wasn’t as though there was complete trust between master and Familiar, but…
I was acting this way because, as its master, I understood Grizzly.
I wasn’t some naive optimist who believed, “My dog doesn’t bite.”
I’d learned my lesson at the Smith Mansion.
Grizzly was curious and mischievous.
If left alone without its master, it would inevitably cause trouble.
If it had found something like a giant refrigerator used for storing corpses, it would surely have opened and closed the door a few times.
Or maybe not, but it was certainly possible…
And if there were CCTV cameras in this underground workshop, the footage would be discovered later when Sion’s colleagues, the government officials, searched every inch of this place.
So, if there was any evidence that might reveal Grizzly’s true identity…
I had to find it and destroy it.
…The problem was figuring out how to naturally separate myself from Sion.
“……..”
I wasn’t keeping my mouth shut because of the Ghouls, but because of the Grimoire’s teleportation function and my plans for what came next.
However, seeing Yohan remain silent as though he were genuinely shocked, Sion studied him for a moment.
“Mr.
Yohan, it’s okay.
Take a slow, deep breath.”
Unless it had been definitively established that Yohan was the owner of the Grimoire and the culprit behind the university murders, he was still a citizen Sion had a duty to protect from these unreasonable supernatural incidents.
I gave Sion a small nod, playing along.
“…Thank you.
I’m okay now.”
In any case, there were monsters nearby that devoured people.
I couldn’t just stand around doing nothing.
For now, I’d follow Sion.
If there really was evidence that could expose my identity, I could take the risk of killing Sion and the government officials and destroying the evidence.
I wasn’t particularly keen on killing government officials for no reason, since that would only invite trouble.
I’d certainly leave a trail and end up being hunted down.
Still, that would be better than getting caught right now.
What had happened had already happened, and there was no point complaining about it.
I’d only come to a ranch to make some parchment.
And now I’d gotten tangled up with a government organization.
…What terrible luck.
I might have to prepare to flee abroad sooner than I’d expected.
…Wasn’t there some kind of magic that let you learn foreign languages quickly?
Sion looked at me and spoke again.
“You’re staying calm and handling this well.
Let’s back away and look for another route.”
For the time being, I decided not to make any unnecessary moves and to wait for an opportunity.
“That sounds good.”
I followed Sion as we slowly retreated, trying not to attract the Ghouls’ attention.
Or, more accurately, I tried to retreat.
Then we heard an anxious, irritated voice coming from behind us.
“Hah!
Hah!
Found you.”
“Did you find an exit?
What about the police?
You said your colleagues were coming.”
In an instant, Sion and I both froze.
Disobeying Sion’s warning to wait in the prison because it was dangerous, two people who had looked like a couple among the prisoners had followed us.
Sion held up her palm to stop them from coming closer, but naturally, they ignored her.
They approached her as though she were a lifeline they’d finally found.
In an irritated, hushed voice, one of them said,
“Why are you taking so long?
Hurry up and find an exit.”
…Well, …I could understand.
Of course they were anxious.
They might have thought they were going to be abandoned.
Their nerves were frayed by fear, making them lash out with harsh words.
They were impatient and trapped in an extreme situation, so it was understandable that they couldn’t stay put and had followed us.
But what the couple did next—
The woman and man who approached us saw the Ghouls devouring human flesh.
“Ah— Aaaaaaah!”
They let out primal screams.
—They behaved exactly like victims in a horror movie.
The sort of behavior that practically guaranteed a natural death.
“Gaaah!”
The Ghouls’ heads snapped around toward us.
…All right.
I hadn’t intended this, but it was an opportunity.
I made a quick judgment.
Once I’d made my decision, I couldn’t afford to hesitate.
I spoke quickly to Sion.
“You asked me to cooperate with this incident, right?
I’ll do it.”
“What?
Mr.
Yohan!”
I immediately sprinted forward, drawing the Ghouls’ attention and luring them away.
At the sight of a mammal turning its back and fleeing, the Ghouls instinctively gave chase.
“Gaaah!”
Sion’s black eyes trembled as she watched Yohan run off, leading away six of the twelve Ghouls that had been here.
Sion couldn’t possibly kill around twelve Ghouls while protecting Yohan and both members of the couple.
…That was why this was the rational decision.
While one person risked his life to lure away some of the Ghouls, Sion, who had combat abilities, could protect the other two, break through the remaining Ghouls, find an exit, and bring back reinforcements.
Still, he had made that decision far too readily.
Sion punched an approaching Ghoul, shattering its jaw, then frowned and spoke to the terrified couple.
“Stay close to me!”
Had Yohan made this decision because he was accustomed to supernatural incidents, or was it something else…?
He had already disappeared into the distance, and neither Yohan nor the Ghouls were visible anymore.
“Gahaaah!”
Excited by the sight of a human fleeing with the tails of his white coat fluttering behind him, the Ghouls gave chase.
Before they could completely catch up, the human turned down a side passage at a corner of the corridor.
The Ghouls followed him into the side passage.
The Ghoul at the very back watched this happen.
It thought it had better hurry up before the other Ghouls devoured the human.
At that moment—
From the corridor where the other Ghouls had chased the human…
BOOM!
CRUNCH—!
CRACK!
CRUNCH!
Sounds of something exploding, being crushed, and being slaughtered rang out.
“…?”
The Ghoul instinctively stopped.
Then, from the side corridor…
Tap— Tap—
The calm sound of footsteps echoed as a human in a white coat walked out alone.
In his hand was a strange book that looked like a lump of steel, something the Ghoul hadn’t seen earlier.
CRUNCH—!
That was the last thing the Ghoul, which had lagged behind the others, ever saw.
“Gyaa~.”
Grizzly finished off the last Ghoul that had chased after Yohan by bringing its hand down on the creature’s head, killing it.
“Good job, Grizzly.”
I asked Grizzly about something I hadn’t been able to check earlier because Sion had been there.
“Before you came to me, did you see a wizard?
Or anything that wasn’t an ordinary human?
Maybe a room that looked special?”
I’d succeeded in separating myself from Sion.
But that didn’t mean everything was resolved.
If the owner of this underground workshop was a wizard, that person could be dangerous.
“Gyaa?”
Grizzly thought carefully about my question, then made a series of hacking sounds before opening its mouth.
It showed me something resting on its transparent tongue.
It was a human finger with a well-manicured nail.
“Haaah…”
Damn it.
So it really had caused trouble after all.
No wonder.
It must have been hungry since I hadn’t fed it, yet it hadn’t shown any interest in the Ghoul corpses.
I furrowed my brow and spoke to Grizzly.
“Grizzly, didn’t I tell you not to eat people whenever you felt like it?”
“Giaat!?”
Grizzly shook its head vigorously, acting as though it had been treated unfairly.
“Gyaa!
Gyagyagya!
Gyagya!”
“Hmm…?”
Was there something more to it?
In any case…
The good news was that, if Grizzly had properly understood my words, the crazy wizard who had been kidnapping people on a large scale was already dead at Grizzly’s hands.
The bad news was that I now had to destroy the evidence before the actual government secret organization officials arrived.
It was a race against time.
“Grizzly, take me to where you ate the owner of that finger.”
…I was also curious about Grizzly’s reaction.
I intended to investigate the matter myself.
***
Inside Kim Miryeo’s room, where the door had been smashed apart…
The room served as a central control room with several CCTV monitors, as well as what appeared to be a private office.
I narrowed my eyes.
After looking at the corpse lying in a pool of blood that had flowed from its severed neck and arms…
“You really did eat someone!”
“Gyaat!?”
Grizzly once again acted as though it had been wronged.
One of my eyebrows rose at its reaction.
…What’s going on?
Feeling uneasy, I briefly looked around the room.
On a desk near the corpse, I spotted a peculiar book with a dark reddish-black cover.
This is—
The book’s title was The Sikshik Gyojeon.
This was a wizard’s workshop, so it was unlikely to be an ordinary book with nothing unusual about it beyond its title.
After opening the book and giving it a quick read, I understood why Grizzly had been acting so indignantly.
The magic recorded in this Grimoire resembled ancient dietary shamanistic practices.
You know, the sort of thing where someone with poor eyesight eats the eyes of a bird with excellent vision, or someone with a bad liver eats the liver of a beast.
But The Sikshik Gyojeon went a step further.
It sought eternal youth and longevity through cannibalism.
Of course, that was just a fancy way of describing it.
The actual principle was to eat humans until you were no longer human.
To become a Supernatural Phenomenon itself, thereby extending your lifespan.
Hmm~ So, with the right aptitude and talent, you could become a vampire, too?
The vampires mentioned here probably weren’t monstrous vampires like Grizzly, though.
They were more likely the aristocratic sort of vampires.
I looked down at the corpse, which was missing its head and arms, and smiled faintly.
There was a reason Grizzly had acted as though it had been wronged.
If the person had practiced according to the instructions in this Grimoire, they were no longer human anyway.
In any case, it wasn’t my cup of tea.
It wasn’t as though I were suffering from some disease that would kill me in a day or two.
I was perfectly healthy and had plenty of years left to live, so I didn’t find the idea particularly appealing.
Besides, I was the most important person in the world to myself.
…I had no desire to become something else.
I put The Sikshik Gyojeon down and looked at Grizzly.
“Gyaa~.”
Grizzly cried as though asking whether I’d finally understood its grievances.
And as Grizzly’s master, I considered the situation.
The outcome was good, but this was…
Ah, Grizzly realized this guy wasn’t even human, that he was a bad person who had imprisoned its master, and ate him for that reason.
(×)
Ah…
Grizzly had just woken up.
It was hungry, I wasn’t around, and it was off its leash, so it simply picked up whatever it could find and ate it.
(○)
No matter how I looked at it, the second explanation was the right one.
…It still needs to be punished, doesn’t it?
Calmly, I took a water bottle out of my bag and removed the hyssop branch soaked in Holy Water inside it.
“Gaat!”
When Grizzly saw it, it crouched in a corner of the room, whimpering.
“Gyaaaa…”
It was pretending to be pitiful because it didn’t want to be punished.
“Don’t think acting pitiful will save you!”
You had to be firm when disciplining someone.
“I told you not to eat just anything whenever you felt like it!
Bad!
Bad!”
Smack!
Smack!
I brought my wrist close to Grizzly’s head and struck my own wrist with the hyssop branch, making a series of sharp slapping sounds.
“Giiaah…!”
While I was still scolding Grizzly, someone came through the broken doorway.
“M-Miss!
Something terrible has happened!
The Ghouls— You!?”
A ranch employee entered, then spotted the woman’s corpse and me.
His face stiffened in shock.
That was enough scolding for now.
Time to destroy the evidence.
“Grizzly, eat.”
At my command, Grizzly immediately got up, bit into the ranch employee’s neck, and killed him.
CRACK—!
“I have some investigating to do, so stay here and behave while you eat that.”
As I listened to the sounds of Grizzly eating the employee, I took a pair of fingerprint-proof gloves out of my coat’s inner pocket.
If you’re wondering why on earth I carried something like that in my pocket…
Obviously, it was for situations like this.
Wondering whether there was anything else I could learn, I carefully searched the corpse, which was missing its head and arms.
This really does make me look like a criminal…
I couldn’t help laughing.
No, I am a criminal.
But the word criminal sounded too violent.
So let’s put it another way.
Let’s say I was acting like a wizard.
I found the wallet, opened it, and checked the identification card inside.
The name of the person whose corpse lay before me was Kim Miryeo.