Shin Ian poured cold water into a cup, his gaze scrutinizing the appearances of the two visitors.
‘No firearms are visible,’ he mused.
He scanned their waists, thighs, and chests.
There was no discernible space anywhere for a pistol, nor any abnormal bulges. It was safe to assume they carried no overt weapons.
Yet, no one could be certain what lay within their bags. They might suddenly produce a gun or a knife. While they wouldn’t act rashly, if they gained any certainty during the conversation, their demeanor would undoubtedly shift in an instant.
Should that moment arrive, conversation would cease to hold any meaning. His first priority would be to summon his grimoire and respond.
“……”
‘I have no experience killing, but if necessary, I would not hesitate,’ he thought. He had already run simulations countless times in his mind. Though it was far from a normal way of thinking, he knew that once he had stepped into the realm of the arcane, a normal mindset would no longer suffice for survival.
If he didn’t want to die, he had to be willing to kill.
This truth applied equally to uncanny beings and to fellow humans. Any notion of exception was a mere luxury.
Of course, this did not imply an indiscriminate willingness to kill.
He had no intention of becoming a murderer. His plan was to first subdue, then interrogate, and finally, act according to his judgment.
If possible, Shin Ian wished to avoid taking a life. Unless his opponent bared their fangs first, killing remained the absolute last resort.
“……”
Having gathered his thoughts, he steeped a green tea bag in the water he had poured. Shin Ian placed the cup on a saucer and approached the two individuals seated around the table.
“Here is your green tea. My apologies, I don’t have much to offer you.”
“Oh, it’s quite alright,” Kim Minsu said, smiling faintly. “We were the ones who showed up unannounced, after all. We should be grateful for whatever you provide.”
Kim Minsu took a sip of the tea, then noticed a talisman peeking slightly from Shin Ian’s pocket and tilted his head in curiosity.
“A talisman, I see? Are you perhaps a Buddhist?”
“Ah, no, I’m not. I simply followed a friend to a shaman’s house recently, and they told me something was about to happen, so I should buy a talisman. I bought it on a whim, figuring it couldn’t hurt. It wasn’t particularly expensive either.”
“I see. Are you a believer in shamanism?”
“Fifty-fifty. Honestly, don’t many of them often spout nonsense?”
“Haha, indeed.”
He chuckled once more and clasped his hands on the table. The woman, meanwhile, remained silent, holding her bag clutched to her chest.
Shin Ian remained wary of every movement. Though he outwardly showed nothing, he was fully prepared to draw his grimoire and react at any moment.
Kim Minsu then addressed him.
“Well, as I mentioned, we’ll just ask a few brief questions and then leave.”
“Alright.”
“The convenience store manager told us that Mr. Shin Ian said the person who damaged the store so badly was a drunkard. Is that true?”
“Ah, yes, that’s correct. She was a rather peculiar-looking woman.”
“Hmm.”
As if prompting him to continue, he leaned forward slightly. Shin Ian, without hesitation, recounted the story he had already formulated in his mind.
“She had rather long hair and was of average height. However, the way she stumbled in made it obvious she was intoxicated. It was also very early in the morning.”
“I see.”
“Instead of picking out items, she just stood there, staring intently at me, like a ghost. I was a bit unnerved, but then she suddenly started swinging her arms, smashing the display shelves.”
“Hmm.”
“Startled, I immediately rushed out from behind the counter, telling her to stop. But when I saw the display shelves up close, they were utterly shattered. For a single woman to cause such a rampage, the damage was quite severe.”
Kim Minsu fell silent. The woman showed no change in expression and remained perfectly still.
‘It’s still fine,’ Shin Ian thought to himself, and continued speaking.
“Suddenly, a thought struck me: ‘Could this be a ghost?’ Something like that. It’s a common trope, isn’t it? A ghost suddenly barging into a convenience store where someone is alone.”
“It’s a storyline that often appears on TV shows, too.”
“Yes. I thought it was something like that, and for a moment, I was terrified. But I still gathered my courage and approached the woman. As I got closer, however, she suddenly flew into a frenzy, smashed the convenience store door, and ran out.”
“With her bare hands?”
“Yes. I’m not entirely sure how that’s even possible, but… in any case, that’s the end of my story.”
Shin Ian finished his account there and took a sip of his green tea.
“But couldn’t you confirm all of this by checking the CCTV footage? There doesn’t seem to be a reason to specifically come and ask me…”
“The CCTV malfunctioned at that precise moment. So, we couldn’t obtain any footage.”
“Ah… so perhaps it really was a ghost then…”
“Well, that might be the case. What’s certain, however, is that the drunkard is a repeat offender we’ve been tracking. She likely hasn’t left the vicinity yet.”
With that, Kim Minsu drained his green tea. Then he abruptly stood up and bowed his head to Shin Ian.
“Thank you for your cooperation. You’ve been through a lot due to this unfortunate incident, and yet you’ve even offered us refreshments. We’ll be sure to contact you once the culprit is apprehended.”
“Ah, yes. I’m glad if I was of some help. I don’t feel like I told you anything particularly significant, though.”
“Even minor details must be scrutinized carefully. In any case, we’ll be taking our leave now. We wish you a good day.”
He gestured to the woman. She nodded, then rose from her seat and gave a slight bow to Shin Ian.
After offering Shin Ian a brief farewell, the two walked to the front door and put on their shoes.
Just as they opened the door and were about to step outside, Kim Minsu turned back to Shin Ian and casually remarked.
“That talisman. Keep it; it’s a valuable item. It seems to have saved your life once.”
“……Pardon?”
“Haha.”
Instead of answering Shin Ian’s bewildered question, he departed the apartment. Shin Ian stood still in front of the front door for a moment, then let out a small laugh and placed the talisman on the table.
‘A valuable item, indeed,’ he scoffed inwardly.
It was merely something he’d bought for a few tens of thousands of won (TL Note: Approximately 10,000 won is about 7-8 USD, so ‘tens of thousands of won’ could be anywhere from 14-80 USD.) from a rather dilapidated shaman’s house. What could possibly be so valuable about it?
Still, since it had successfully diverted the attention of the Administration, it hadn’t been an entirely unnecessary expense.
Shin Ian stretched languidly, then returned to his room and summoned his grimoire.
‘With this, the matter concerning Hachishaku is concluded. All that remains is the Monkey.’
Unlike Hachishaku, which had produced direct witnesses, nothing had yet been revealed about the Monkey dream. With the Administration’s focus solely on Israel and Christian grimoires, there seemed to be no need to worry for the time being.
For Shin Ian, this was a development to be welcomed with open arms.
Now, it seemed best to simply enjoy some leisure while awaiting Lee Seoa to provide information related to the Cartel. Though he hadn’t accumulated a vast sum of money, it was enough to comfortably last him for several days.
“Time to eat.”
He placed the grimoire he held into his bag, then went to a nearby supermarket to buy groceries and began preparing a simple meal.
The homemade meal, eaten after a long time, was surprisingly palatable.
****
“Senior. Is this truly alright?”
Inside the sedan, on their way back to the Administration.
The woman behind the wheel asked Kim Minsu. He tore his gaze away from the window he had been staring blankly through and turned to her.
“What about it?”
“Just letting it go so easily. I’m wondering if it was right to simply listen to his story without even performing memory erasure.”
“Ah, I thought it was something serious.”
Kim Minsu let out a small laugh and sipped his coffee, which he had bought from a nearby cafe.
“There was nothing problematic about his statement. He’s the type of person whose aura is ambiguously strong, meaning he can’t clearly perceive the forms of the arcane, unlike those who are either truly weak or truly powerful. It’s a rare constitution, though not unheard of. We even have one or two such individuals in our Administration.”
“……Is that so?”
“Yes. And Hachishaku likely sustained damage and fled because of the talisman he possessed. From a quick glance, it seemed to be an exorcism talisman, so it would certainly be capable of harming Hachishaku. If it had been a lesser spirit, it probably would have died on the spot.”
“……But what about Agent Kim Yiseo’s request for us to confirm whether he’s a wizard?”
Agent Kim Yiseo.
She was an agent from Response and Team 3, who had personally subdued Hachishaku. She was also the one who directly witnessed the bleeding that occurred at the convenience store.
Kim Minsu recalled her face and burst out laughing.
“Do you even realize what a headache that request was?”
“……”
“Let’s say, just for argument’s sake, that Shin Ian—that man—really was a wizard, as she claimed. We would have just brazenly entered a wizard’s residence. If we had asked him ‘Are you a wizard?’ there, both of us would have been dead. Even the slightest hint of suspicion would have been our undoing.”
“……Even so.”
“Does it sound like a lie?”
The woman fell silent. Kim Minsu let out a deep sigh and placed his coffee in the cup holder.
“Park Mina, we need to know our place. We’re individuals with no abilities who survived uncanny beings and joined the Administration. We can’t simply accept death based on one agent’s word, can we? I’m not ready to die yet.”
“……I feel the same way.”
“Right? It would be different if we were dying for the noble cause of protecting humanity. But if we had died there, it would have been a pointless death. Besides, the Negotiation Department is already short-staffed these days; we can’t afford to die, too.”
“You’re right… The workload has been absolutely murderous lately.”
Park Mina shivered, recalling the piles of documents awaiting them at the Administration.
Kim Minsu leaned back in his seat, gazing at the car’s ceiling, and murmured.
“And well, it’s probably unlikely he’s a wizard. We checked his business card, didn’t we? He thought I was a detective.”
“……Right? Even a wizard couldn’t discern that.”
“This business card is one of the byproducts of a quarantined uncanny being. If someone is aware of encountering the arcane, they’ll recognize it as an Administration business card. Otherwise, it just appears as any ordinary business card.”
Kim Minsu turned his head to look out the window and continued.
“For someone to recognize this trick and then bluff us, they would have to be a wizard of insane caliber… in which case, we’d already be dead.”
Wizards proficient in magic rarely pay much heed to the Administration. Not only do they feel no need to, but they are also confident in their ability to escape even if they draw attention.
Indeed, the wizards currently under investigation were all roaming the world without a care for the Administration’s scrutiny. They were a truly deranged lot, but their immense power was the problem.
‘If Shin Ian were one of those wizards, then Mina’s and my heads would already be separated from our bodies by now,’ Kim Minsu thought, taking another long sip of his coffee.
“Anyway, there’s no need to suspect he’s a wizard. That man is just an ordinary person, an ordinary person who doesn’t even know what he’s encountered.”
“That’s a relief. I’ll report back to Agent Kim Yiseo separately.”
“Do that. It’s quite convenient to have such a competent junior.”
“You’re competent too, Senior.”
“Right? We make quite the competent pair. Hahaha.”
“Ehehe.”
Laughter filled the car as they drove back to the Administration.
