In a sky where the sun had never risen, naturally, there was no such thing as the sun setting. Instead, as if a sheet of paper had been flipped over, the color of the world changed in an instant. It took less than a second for sunset hues to settle over the blue sky.
“……”
All of a sudden, the Hollow Earth theory came to mind. That idiotic conspiracy theory claiming that a world similar to the surface existed inside the Earth. It was absurd nonsense, no different from flat Earth theory or donut Earth theory, but Mysteries were the sort of bastards that greedily absorbed even nonsense like that and turned it into reality. Perhaps a conspiracy theory drawn here by the aura of the grimoire had taken root in this place.
‘The Hollow Earth theory is a conspiracy theory that says a world, including a sun, exists inside the Earth. Maybe the Earth stole the sun that originally existed here.’
Of course, it was only a hypothesis, and even if it were true, it would not pose any problem. He had no intention of drilling through the mantle and going underground. All he had to do was find the grimoire and snip it away, and everything would be over.
The problem was that, with the disappearance of the sun, yang energy had vanished from the school.
Since ancient times, the sun had symbolized yang, and the moon yin. Thanks to that, yang energy was strong during the day, while yin energy was strong at night. But in this space now, there was no sun, and only the moon hung serenely in the sky. It was not reflecting sunlight, but shining on its own.
Solitary Moon.
The lonely moonlight, with no source to grant it light, was driving away the sunset glow and dyeing the sky black. Like ink spreading across drawing paper, the sunset was consumed by the night sky and disappeared.
Ian stood in the schoolyard and quietly looked up at the sight.
The cause of that night sky was probably not only the Hollow Earth theory, but also the result of the Goddess of Night exerting her power.
It was the being commonly called Nut or Hecate. That fallen goddess, who caused headaches whenever she appeared, was chewing up the day and summoning the moon. Far in the distance, he had the illusion that a stone statue with three heads was slowly revealing itself.
It was an utterly overwhelming sight.
If he had seen something like that in reality, he would have contacted the Bureau immediately, but this was a virtual space created by a grimoire. Even with an anomaly of that level running rampant, he did not feel afraid. Rather, he found it interesting.
‘Even the gods from Greco-Roman and Egyptian mythology only bring harm to humanity once they pass through the hands of Mystery.’
Well, not every god in mythology was kind to humans in the first place. In a way, it might have been an extremely faithful recreation.
He had known for some time, ever since Pygmalion appeared, that beings from Greco-Roman mythology had been given physical form, but seeing a divine being with his own eyes still felt quite novel.
Of course, in the end, it was not a real god, but some anomalous bastard wearing its skin, so he was not particularly worried. If he looked for a way to kill it, one would turn up somehow, so being afraid of it would be ridiculous. If nothing else worked, he could simply throw an Outer Sea creature at it.
“……Hoo.”
His idle thoughts had gone on for too long. Ian waited until the sky was completely submerged in darkness, then took a cigarette from his pocket.
A special cigarette made by the Alchemist School. An item that purified the lungs and cut off addiction to tobacco.
It was expensive, so he did not particularly want to smoke them often, but his mouth felt bored, so he put one between his lips.
Chiiik.
When he lit it, smoke with the sweet scent of lemon candy rose in wisps.
Snow fell from the sky. Rain fell. Fallen leaves drifted down, and cherry blossoms scattered.
In a place where all four seasons coexisted, the temperature varied wildly as well, and with every step he took, the temperature of the air wrapping around his body changed from moment to moment.
These were traits he had not even noticed until he became aware that his memories had been manipulated. It was only natural, since the memory of a “new semester” had been implanted into his mind. A new semester originally began in spring, after all.
Now that he was aware, it was different. Ian stood where neither rain nor snow fell and quietly stared at the schoolyard.
[Faster! Run!]
[Haa, haa……!]
On the track, three male students were running side by side. However, they were not in particularly good condition.
Their legs had torn muscles, or bones shattered and piercing through the skin. Every time they ran, blood splattered down and fragments of bone and flesh flew about, but they did not stop.
One of them had his legs completely severed and was crawling along the track with his arms. Naturally, all his skin and muscles had been scraped away, leaving his bones and organs exposed.
“……”
A ghost story about students and a teacher who loved running so much that even after death, they continued to run around the schoolyard.
They had not been visible when the sun was up. It seemed they had appeared because of the unique nature of a school at night. It was not particularly surprising.
‘Summoning the grimoire…… is impossible. It’s probably because the two Outer Gods have manifested through the grimoires as a medium.’
It was not exactly a problem. It was unfortunate that he could not use re-creation or summoning magic, but aside from those, Ian had plenty of magic he could use. In the first place, someone who could not use magic without a grimoire was nothing more and nothing less than a grimoire stand.
‘The items I brought are all still here…… and they function…… without issue. Good. Shall we go?’
Before entering the school, Ian lightly stretched and rolled his stiff wrist. Then he tossed away the cigarette he had finished smoking and headed toward the main entrance.
The main entrance was covered with ghosts about the size of elementary school students. Their crushed bodies stared intently at Ian as they poured out words of curse.
He ignored them. He did not have enough time to lend an ear to the voices of mere minor spirits.
Middle schools ended classes before the sun went down, but high schools were different. Most high schools held evening self-study, so the time when students vanished completely was after 10 p.m. This space was the same.
[PM 10:13]
After confirming the numbers on his wristwatch, Ian took out a shard of glass from his pocket and narrowed his eyes.
It was the watch handed to him by the school ghost story. A bomb-like object where no one knew what would happen the moment it passed midnight. So it was only right to finish things at least before then.
“Hoo.”
Ian briefly stared at the white breath leaking out because of the cold air, then opened the school’s main entrance and entered the building. For an instant, the main entrance transformed into iron bars and pressed in to crush him, but when a mirror slammed into it, it turned into glass shards and scattered across the floor. Beautiful fragments shattered together with the evil spirits.
“Ah, you’re here.”
On the first floor of the building. Lee Seo-a, who had been sitting where shoes were changed, turned to Ian and spoke. Ian checked the few ghosts standing behind her and let out a small laugh.
“Selected evil spirits?”
“Yeah. One of them is Miss Hanako. Come on, you should introduce yourself, right?”
Lee Seo-a smiled faintly and stared at the small girl-shaped ghost. The girl, whose face was covered in bruises, timidly walked out and bowed her head.
[H-Hello…… I’m Hanako of the toilet……. I-I was beaten by Master here and chose capture instead of annihilation…… Hic…….]
“Mm-hmm. I subdued all the ones that attacked in a swarm and compressed them into a single entity, so she became quite a strong evil spirit. A masterpiece, really, a masterpiece.”
Lee Seo-a smiled proudly, then made a little “hup-cha” sound and rose to her feet.
“The white Outer God is waiting on the second floor, and the black Outer God is waiting on the third. We can move slowly.”
Ian nodded.
The reason they had split up was none other than the school’s special nature. For some reason, once night fell, the school grew larger and its structure became more complicated, so they had spread people out to make it easier to search.
If Leah and the Master of the Outer Sea had been ordinary humans, it would have been something they absolutely should not do, but fortunately, the two of them were beings on a completely different level from ordinary people. There was no need to worry that they would be defeated one by one just because they were separated.
Their current bodies were what one might call fantasies themselves, constructed through the special nature of this space created by the grimoire. In reality, they were merely walking grimoires. Thanks to that, if anyone other than Ian touched them, their bodies would burst like balloons. Mystery was no exception.
Even if, truly, in the unlikely event that they were defeated, all that would happen was that they would lose their form and return to being grimoires. Then he could just summon and use them again.
They were people who did not die, and even if they did die, it did not matter. They were the ideal resources to send out for exploration. The two of them did not like it, but that was not exactly an obstacle, so there was no problem.
The reason he had sent Lee Seo-a to the first floor was because, unlike those two, she was a human who could die. Thanks to that, he had been able to join up with her quickly.
“I took a quick look around, but there wasn’t really anything on the first floor. Ah, I did find a book like this.”
Lee Seo-a rummaged in her pocket and took out a red book. Ian stared at the book closely, then tilted his head to the side.
“It isn’t a grimoire.”
“Right. It’s a ghost story called the Red Book. A novel that drives you insane the more you read it? That sort of thing.”
Lee Seo-a smiled and tossed the book behind her. The evil spirits following her tore the book to shreds.
“I brought it just in case, but since you say it isn’t a grimoire, there’s no need to keep carrying it around.”
“Did you find anything else?”
“No. Ah, I haven’t been to the library or the swimming pool yet, so once we check those, the first floor is done. The basement…… I found the stairs going down, but it felt a little off to go there.”
“Good call. Let’s go to the basement together after everyone joins up.”
The moment he answered, an arm from an anatomical model flew past Ian’s vision. But before it could reach him, Lee Seo-a’s guardian spirit chopped the arm to pieces with a sword. Finely sliced bone and flesh fell to the floor.
After confirming once that Ian was safe, the guardian spirit shot toward the place the model had flown from. A few seconds later, it returned carrying the model’s head. Ian stared at the dripping head and wore a faint smile.
“……Having someone who’s strong against mental domination and even has combat power certainly makes companionship convenient.”
Most of the people Ian had moved with until now had shown vulnerability to mental attacks. In contrast, despite being under continuous memory manipulation, Lee Seo-a seemed to have adapted to some degree and wore a rather calm expression. She had not reacted much when she heard the sound of frogs, either.
Of course, memory manipulation was not a mental attack, and it was possible that the Laughing Buddha or other entities’ mental attacks had simply been stronger than the mental attacks in this place, but in any case, it was true that Lee Seo-a was quite useful. For the first time in a while, he was in a situation where he did not have to step forward himself, so he felt at ease.
‘Right, I should get carried for once too. I only need to handle the last part myself.’
When they found the grimoire, whether he liked it or not, he would have to act personally, but there was no need for that right now. It was far better to receive Lee Seo-a’s help and conserve his stamina.
Thinking that, Ian looked back at her.
“Let’s go to the swimming pool first. We’ll check the library after that, then go up to the second floor.”
“Okay. Let’s go, let’s go.”
Lee Seo-a hummed with her hands clasped behind her back. After a moment, she smiled coquettishly and, as if she had seen it somewhere, raised both hands.
“Ian, I’ll teach you everything.”
“No, never mind. Let’s just go to the swimming pool.”
The answer was immediate.
“……Hing.”
Lee Seo-a’s mouth drooped at the corners.
Unfortunately, aside from water ghosts, there was nothing particularly special in the swimming pool. The library was the same. There was not a single thing that looked like a grimoire, only ghost-story-infested books tucked between ordinary ones.
And so, the first-floor investigation ended.
Now it was time to go to the second floor.