As Eunha had said, unlike when they entered the mirror world, returning was possible without any particular trouble. Ian straightened his disheveled clothes as he took in the familiar scent of Eunha’s room.
“……”
Outside the window, it was still bright. When he glanced at the clock on the wall, not much time had passed compared to when they had entered the mirror. It was only natural, since the flow of physical time was different.
However, the passage of time as his body felt it was quite honest, regardless of the world’s time, and the accumulated fatigue was still pressing heavily down on his shoulders. He had used two fairly large-scale spells, so it couldn’t be helped.
If he had his way, he would have liked to throw himself onto the bed right away, but unfortunately, this wasn’t Ian’s house. If he and Eunha had built up some remarkable relationship, that might have been one thing, but they hadn’t, so he couldn’t very well shamelessly declare, “I’ll just sleep for a bit before I go.”
And besides, he still had more things to do anyway.
It wasn’t time to rest easy just yet.
“Ah, you arrived safely.”
While he was thinking, Eunha, perfectly intact, walked out of the mirror Ian had passed through. Ian turned to her and nodded.
“Yes. Fortunately, I wasn’t summoned alone in the sky like before.”
“……You were summoned in the sky?”
“Yes. I high-fived some birds over Incheon.”
“How are you alive……?”
Eunha muttered in disbelief. Since most mages didn’t know how to use flight magic, it was an entirely natural reaction. Modern mages didn’t learn how to perform acrobatic flights on broomsticks like in the movies.
Even the ones who could use it could only fly for short bursts. If some sort of magical flight race were held, the contestants would probably all have their blood pathways twist up and die before even reaching the finals. It wasn’t classified as high-level magic for nothing.
Compared to that, Ian’s flight magic carried relatively little risk. At worst, his head ended up in a “ddu-ddya-ddya” state. Compared to other flight spells that made the body snap, break, and fall apart, it was practically merciful.
Of course, that didn’t mean he could abuse it.
“Will you have lunch before you go, or will you just leave right away?”
Eunha asked casually. Ian thought for a moment, then answered while loosening his stiff wrist.
“I’ll decide once Yuna returns. I am a bit hungry.”
“Then let’s at least decide on the menu. Is there anything you like?”
“Mm…… jeyuk?”
“All right. I’ll look into it.”
Eunha gave a faint smile, took out her phone, and moved to the living room. Ian put her behind him and quietly waited until Yuna, the last one, returned.
‘Strangely, Yuna’s existence is being excluded from the questions she’s asking.’
It was a thought that suddenly came to him.
Asking whether they would eat before leaving, and asking about the menu. Both were questions that should have included Yuna’s opinion as well. If only Ian and Eunha had gone to the mirror world, it wouldn’t have mattered, but that wasn’t the case.
“……Looks like she doesn’t like you very much, Yuna.”
Ian shook his head with a bitter smile. Eunha, having faintly heard his voice, poked her head in through the crack of the door.
“Yes? Did you say something?”
“Nothing. I was talking to myself, that’s all.”
“Ah…… all right.”
Eunha withdrew obediently, and Ian took off his coat as he waited for Yuna to return.
A few seconds later, Yuna walked out of the mirror with an awkward gait, staff in hand. Then the cracked mirror completely shattered into pieces and evaporated like dust. The entrance into the mirror world had been destroyed.
An entrance that remained intact when demons came and went, but broke once a human entered and exited. He wasn’t sure whether to call that malicious toward humans or friendly.
From an ordinary person’s perspective, a dangerous passage disappearing would probably be a good thing, and for a mage, a safe hiding place disappearing would probably be a bad thing.
It was a pointless thought now that it was gone. Ian grinned at Yuna, who had crossed over safely, and pushed himself off the wall.
“You’re here.”
“Y-yeah…… G-Godmother is……?”
“She’s in the living room. Are you okay? Dizzy, or hurt anywhere?”
“N-no. I’m fine…… hehe…….”
Yuna smiled awkwardly and brushed the dust off her legs. Not that it did much; the dust already clinging to her clothes like stains didn’t budge an inch. As if that displeased her, her brow furrowed, but that wasn’t going to make the dust disappear.
“Eek……!”
“Forget it. Just go home later, do your laundry, and take a shower. More importantly, Eunha asked if we’re eating lunch before we go. What do you want to do?”
Ian asked as he took out the grimoire he had kept in the inner pocket of his coat. Yuna pouted her lips in thought, then looked up at Ian and answered.
“I-I’ll do whatever you want. A-are you going to eat……?”
“Uh…… probably? I’m hungry for now. If we’re going to eat out, we might as well eat here and be done with it.”
“T-then I’ll eat too.”
Rustle, rustle.
Yuna put the staff into the guitar case she had brought with her. The staff, slid in at an angle, lay quietly inside the case without any part sticking out.
“Wh-what’s the menu?”
“Probably jeyuk.”
“Je-jeyuk…… not bad…… sounds good…… eheh…….”
“Someone will pay, I suppose. Still, probably Eunha…… hm.”
Ian, who had been speaking, stopped without finishing his sentence and stared at Yuna. Her cheeks reddened slightly under his fixed gaze.
“Why, why are you looking at me like thaaat……?”
Yuna fidgeted with her fingers and avoided Ian’s eyes. She looked unmistakably embarrassed, but Ian opened his mouth with a serious expression.
“Now that I think about it, you didn’t really do anything in this whole incident, did you?”
“Eh.”
A dumb sound escaped her lips at the unexpected point. Ian paid it no mind and continued.
“I dealt with the cultists and the reptilians, and Eunha brought you all the way to Incheon and even made a contract with a demon. What did you do?”
“Th-this is an unfair accusation! We were only supposed to make the contract and come out in the first place! There wasn’t any need to do anything!”
Yuna retorted. Ian closed his eyes and let out a thoughtful “Hmm……”
“But you still didn’t do anything, did you? In other words, you’re trash.”
“Uegh.”
“So you should buy lunch. You’re rich anyway.”
As he said that, Ian patted Yuna on the shoulder.
“Thanks for the meal. I appreciate it.”
“……Hiiing.”
In the end, Yuna pouted and looked up at Ian with a pitiful expression. Then she burst into a soft laugh and tilted her head.
“O-okay. I’ll buy lunch. You did bu-buy me gukbap last time, so…….”
She was talking about their first meeting—the after-party they had gone to after escaping from the amusement park. That had already been several months ago. Time really did fly, Ian thought.
And teasing her hadn’t been serious anyway. If he had truly been condemning her, he would have been angrier. Yuna would have responded accordingly too. This level of joking was perfectly acceptable between friends.
Of course, he was serious about making her buy the meal.
In any case.
The two of them gathered their belongings and left the dressing room. Eunha, who had been sitting in the living room, spotted Ian and Yuna and rose to her feet.
“You’re here. Yuna, did you discuss the meal?”
“Y-yes. We decided to eat before leaving…….”
“Mm, I see. I chose jeyuk for the menu. Is that all right?”
“Yees…….”
Yuna answered in an utterly deflated manner. Inside the mirror world, she had at least managed to raise her voice, but now that she had returned to reality, she had become the weakest communicator again.
It couldn’t be helped.
After all, wasn’t Yuna the kind of person who considered stirring up trouble on community forums one of the joys of life?
Eunha, on the other hand, was an administrator of that community, capable of chopping off Yuna’s neck at any time. If her IP were blocked, the only thing Yuna would be able to do was wail in all four directions.
Fortunately, that did not apply to Ian. He did not think of himself as an anonymous troll stirring up trouble, nor as a ghost haunting the community.
Of course.
What could he do when that was the objective truth?
“I-I ordered. They said it’ll take about thirty minutes…….”
While he was thinking, Yuna finished placing the order. Ian nodded and hung the coat he had taken off on a nearby coat rack.
He took the Book of Contract out of his bag. The blue grimoire settled into his hand, and one of the chains attached to the lower corner jingled as its end continued to point somewhere.
It was the direction Mariang was in. He swept up his tousled hair and took out his phone.
There was only one person he had to contact.
*
An alleyway in Incheon.
Between damp buildings where even sunlight did not seep in, Mariang crawled across the ground with difficulty. Her limbs, regenerated to some extent, scraped a little, but that wasn’t much of a problem since they would recover quickly. The only important thing was that she had to meet her master as soon as possible.
‘He asked where I was, but he never told me where he was. How am I supposed to get there……?’
She leaned against the wall and exhaled. Her hair, caked with muddy water, dust, and stone powder, itched terribly, but she had no hands to scratch with, so there was nothing she could do. It would take three more days for even her fingers to fully regenerate.
“Phew…… I want to wash up.”
The moment she said that, footsteps suddenly came from the end of the alley.
“……”
Mariang’s face sharpened at once.
She had not forgotten the situation she was currently in.
She had fought the insect sorcerer and fled all the way to Incheon, but the Bureau was still pursuing her. She did not clearly remember how she had ended up fighting the insect sorcerer, but that didn’t matter anyway. The important thing was that she had to lay low for the time being.
‘Even if it’s an ordinary person, I’ll have to kill them to silence them. The attack method I can use right now is…… using my tongue like a harpoon—’
“Ah, she really is here.”
The moment she thought that, a woman’s thin voice faintly reached her ears. However, her reaction was far too calm for an ordinary person. No civilian could see a human with all four limbs blown off and not be shocked.
Then who was it?
Mariang glared coldly at the owner of the voice.
The first thing that entered her eyes was blond hair. Bright blond hair tied into twin tails swayed in the wind, and eyes resembling amethyst shone clearly even in the darkness.
She was not very large in build. Her appearance suited being called a girl more than a woman. Around her neck hung a rosary adorned with gold.
The moment Mariang confirmed that, she realized the woman’s identity.
“Vatican?”
“You speak French. Can you speak Italian?”
Cecilia Capone.
She approached Mariang without hesitation and opened her mouth. Mariang was silent for a moment before answering.
“……A little.”
“Ah, that’s a relief. It’d be a little strange for fellow Europeans to speak Korean to each other.”
“How did you know to come here?”
Mariang shifted her position so it would be easier to launch her tongue. As if unused to her twin tails, Cecilia held down the hair that kept slapping her cheeks with both hands and answered.
“Your master’s request. I mean Ian, yes.”
“……What?”
Mariang’s eyes widened. Cecilia let out a deep sigh and held out the sack she had brought.
“He told me to collect you and bring you over. To his house. So let’s go.”
“……”
“Get in.”
Cecilia shook the sack in her hand. Mariang’s face twisted slightly.
But in the end, as if resigned, she crawled across the ground and went into the sack.
Slip.