The day after he went down to Busan.
Ian tested several more items at Lee Seo-a’s workshop, then set off for the station in time for his train.
Fortunately, he did not run into any anomalies on the way. Whether Lee Seo-a’s evil spirit had handled the matter properly, the Administration Bureau did not put anyone on his trail either. It was something to be grateful for.
“I’ll get going. Thanks for helping me in so many ways.”
Right before they parted.
Ian adjusted the bag on his shoulder and waved at Lee Seo-a. She waved him off as if it were nothing.
“It’s fine. Contact me again if you need anything. Any time is fine.”
They had already exchanged numbers. From now on, whenever something came up, there was no need to go out of his way to send a message through the community. A call or a text would be enough.
For Ian, expanding his network of mage acquaintances was a welcome thing. If the other party had been evil, he might have had to think it over, but there was no need to hesitate over a mage who had lent him her workshop and even shaken off his pursuers.
He checked the contact saved clearly on his phone under the name Lee Seo-a, then sat down on a conveniently empty bench. Lee Seo-a cautiously took a seat beside him.
“I’ll let you know by text about the cartel.”
“Won’t the Administration Bureau notice if you do that?”
“When you joined the community, the Godmother’s magic was placed on your phone, right? Then they can’t track it.”
That was new information.
He had known the mage community was no ordinary thing, but he had not imagined it could even interfere with phones. The mage called the Godmother seemed far more remarkable than he had thought.
Just as he was inwardly admiring her, Ian frowned at a thought that suddenly occurred to him.
“……Wait. Then doesn’t that mean the Godmother could eavesdrop on my phone too?”
“She can’t. If that were possible, the mages would have gone to find the Godmother and killed her ages ago. Even I would have tracked down who she was and sliced her to pieces.”
Seo-a answered immediately, to his relief.
“……That’s true too.”
“It’s true that the Godmother has a fairly high-grade grimoire, but that doesn’t mean she can eavesdrop or monitor people however she likes. Above all, mages tend to be sensitive to surveillance conducted through mystery, don’t they? If you can’t even notice that, you should quit being a mage.”
She spoke rather forcefully, but everything Lee Seo-a said was true.
Mages were fundamentally strongly individualistic. There were oddballs who were not, of course, but most put themselves before others and tried to deal with anything that got in the way of their own safety. There was no way they would realize they were being surveilled or wiretapped through mystery and simply leave it be.
So it was safe to assume that the Godmother probably had not pulled any tricks in particular.
Ian himself had known that some kind of magical effect had been placed on his phone once, but he had not felt anything unpleasant.
So it would be better to set aside needless suspicion.
‘I don’t know how long the community has been around, but the fact that it still exists means the administrator is that capable. If a problem were going to happen, it would have happened long ago.’
There had been no change in administrator midway either, so the mage called the Godmother must possess quite decent character and ability. Even if that were not the case, she was carrying out her duties as moderator without issue.
In that case, there was no need to worry about it.
As Ian was thinking that, the KTX began pulling into the station. Ian stared at the train that was beginning to appear in the distance, then turned his head toward Lee Seo-a.
“Contact me if you ever come up to Seoul. I’ll help you.”
“Okay. Get home safely. I’ll go first.”
“Sure.”
Lee Seo-a answered as she lightly tapped Ian on the arm. She stood there until Ian boarded the train and departed, then left the station the moment it pulled away. After that, she returned straight to her workshop.
Creeak, click.
The workshop door opened and closed. She threw the padded jacket she had been wearing onto a chair, lay down on the bed set up in the corner, and took out her phone.
“…….”
She swiped past the lock screen, a photo taken in front of her master’s funeral portrait, opened her contacts, and checked the number saved there.
In the contacts list, which had originally not had a single number saved, someone’s name was clearly entered.
[Shin Ian]
A rather unusual name in Korea. An eccentric who had picked up the grimoire of an Outer God and become a mage, yet remained perfectly sane without the slightest hint of madness.
Lee Seo-a stared blankly at his number, then smiled like a fool and put down her phone.
“My first friend in life……”
Ian did not know it, but Lee Seo-a felt a fairly deep sense of inner intimacy toward him.
A person who had known of her existence even before becoming a mage, had become one according to her advice, and had even joined the community.
It was only natural for her to feel an inner closeness. That was why she had invited him to the workshop, and why she had squeezed out what little sociability she had in order to become as friendly with him as possible.
This was the result.
They had even exchanged numbers. A friend, something she had never once had in her life, had finally been made today.
Though their ages and genders were different, was that really important? What mattered was that they were both mages and that they could communicate well with each other, was it not?
Surely that was the case. Yes, absolutely. There was no room for doubt.
Merlin and Solomon up there in the heavens, and even her biological parents, were surely nodding in agreement.
“Heeheehee.”
She hugged her phone and laughed as she rolled around on the bed.
The guardian spirit standing quietly beside Lee Seo-a shed tears of emotion and gave her a firm thumbs-up.
*
[Title: No mods around? I’m going for it.]
[ㅇㅇ]
(A photo of a ghoul wearing a bikini and lying on a bed)
Ghoul lolol
[Comments]
-(Mod! sticker)
Early morning.
The woman who checked the community as soon as she opened her eyes let out a deep sigh and deleted the newly uploaded post. After checking all the posts that had gone up while she was asleep, she handled the posts that needed handling and got up from the bed.
[You are awake.]
As she blinked her bleary eyes, a deep voice came from the direction of the desk. The woman nodded, drained the cup of water placed by her bedside, and answered.
“Good morning, Solomon.”
[I have told you repeatedly, but I am not Solomon. I am something like the thoughts he left behind in this book.]
The grimoire bearing the name “The Lesser Key of Solomon” vibrated with a low hum. The woman smiled gently and went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee to start the morning.
“But I can’t call you by another name, can I? You dislike it when I call you Goetia, too.”
[Is there no better name?]
“Mm…… I’m sorry. I don’t really have a talent for naming things.”
[Tsk. It cannot be helped. Just keep calling me Solomon.]
“Yes.”
Answering so, the woman opened the curtains, placed a chair near the window, sat down, and began reading a book. It was the sort of nourishment for the mind written by a famous psychologist.
She always began her day like this, with a book and a cup of coffee. It was a habit she had picked up since childhood. Back then, it had been cocoa rather than coffee, but her tastes had changed somewhat now.
“……Mm.”
After she finished reading the book, she washed the coffee cup, then studied the contents recorded within the grimoire. Information on the seventy-two demons was never enough no matter how much she read, so she always received Solomon’s help while driving the knowledge into her head.
[Amdusias is a demon who controls trees and plants through music. If summoned, he will grant you musical talent. However, when he appears in the form of a unicorn, if the summoner is not a virgin, he will use music to kill the summoner.]
“It’s fine. I’ve still never even held hands with a man.”
[I know. Therefore, there should be no need to hesitate in summoning him. The offerings required are one horse, ivory, and the blood of a virgin.]
“Yes.”
[What you must be careful of is that if you say something displeasing when he is in a bad mood, you may be killed instead. Therefore, at such times, rather than proposing a deal first, you must sing or play an instrument to improve his mood.]
“What would be safe to offer as a deal?”
[Knowledge. Knowledge about plants and trees, and knowledge about music. It is good to learn. He will tell you about plants and music that belong to mystery as well.]
“Mm. I understand.”
She wrote down what she had learned in her notebook with a quill pen.
Once the study session, which continued for about three hours, ended, her free time finally arrived.
During her free time, she tended to keep the community open on her phone and put a yoga video on the TV while doing light exercise. She replaced meals with homemade sandwiches.
During breaks from exercise, she quickly checked the posts uploaded to the community and deleted the ones that needed deleting. For posts that were amusing or absurd, she secretly pressed the recommendation button without anyone knowing.
And then she exercised again.
“Hngh……!”
After repeating the process of contracting and relaxing her muscles several times, her day’s exercise finally came to an end. She immediately took off her sweat-soaked clothes, finished showering, and lay down on the bed.
With this, all her fixed tasks were done. From this point on, it truly did not matter what she did.
But what she did during this time was always predetermined.
She placed her device on a phone stand, played a collection of Mozart symphonies through a Bluetooth speaker, and logged into the community.
[Title: Today’s. Fun. Anomaly Mukbang. Time.]
[SweetGrandpa]
(A photo of something’s limbs placed on a grill)
Good,food. If,only,I.had,one,lady,to.eat,with.me,,,,,,,that’d.be.nice.
[Recommendations 0][Downvotes 0]
[Comments]
-BugsInYourEars: Gramps, aren’t there any bugs near that temple? I need to restock on anomalous insects.
ㄴSweetGrandpa: No.bugs!Ate.them.all!
ㄴBugsInYourEars: Fuck.
[Title: Seeing posts getting deleted means the Godmother’s here right now.]
[StrawberryYogurtSmoothie]
(A photo of a cat shoving its face into the camera)
Hurry up and unblock my comments, okay? Why do you only block comments while letting me write posts, okay?
And I don’t curse much, okay?
Ah, the more I think about it, the angrier I get, okay? Do you really want to fucking die, okay?
[Recommendations 0][Downvotes 1]
[Comments]
-★Godmother: Would you like me to block your posts too?
ㄴStrawberryYogurtSmoothie: I’m sorry, okay.
“This person really is…… not a bad person, but……”
Just as she let out a deep sigh and muttered, the grimoire spoke to her.
[More importantly, Eunha. How long are you going to stay at home doing nothing but managing the community? Is it not about time you left the house, caught some mysteries, and tested your magic? And you are getting older now, so date a little. When exactly do you plan to have children? Do you think it makes sense for your nickname to be Godmother when you have not a single child?]
“……I’m still young. I’m only in my early twenties. And outside is scary. You never know when you might run into some anomaly. It’s safer to just stay at home.”
[You simply do not want to go out when there are many people around, do you not? I have seen you going for walks at dawn, the most dangerous time of all.]
Faced with that cowardly and petty fact, Eunha did not answer and scrolled down the community.
Then a certain post caught her eye.
[Title: This magebro caught a Reptilian for the first time today.]
[CrazyMoonWorld]
(A photo of a Reptilian wearing a suit)
It was pretending to be an Administration Bureau agent, so I followed quietly, but no matter how I looked at it, it didn’t seem human, so I just went for it.
But after I killed it, turns out it was a Reptilian, fuck lolololol
The cartel buys these for a really high price. Is my life finally turning around?
I’m in a good mood, so I’m giving out burgers.
Line up!
[Recommendations 4][Downvotes 2]
[Comments]
-Line.
-BugsInYourEars: Line.
-SeriousMagicAddict: Line.
-TamingMaster: Line.
The Godmother skimmed over the post and comments, then quietly tapped on the keyboard.
-★Godmother: Line.
Even for a moderator, a free hamburger was a serious matter.
[Haa…….]
She lightly ignored the grimoire’s sigh.