“Fuck.”
In a tiny studio apartment, a man who had woken up in the late afternoon spat a curse as he looked down at the blood running over his body.
He was sure he had given himself first aid. Maybe he had thrashed around too much in his sleep, because the slashes he had painstakingly stitched up had torn open again. Was it because the wounds had been inflicted by a mage? Even after spraying on the Cartel-made spray, his recovery was far too slow. Or perhaps it was because that mage was someone who had implanted a Mystery into her body.
Whatever the reason, he didn’t like it one bit. The man clicked his tongue, picked up the spray he had left by the bed, and roughly sprayed it over the wound.
Hissss.
Along with a stinging pain, bubbles seeped out from the wound.
If he left it alone, pain severe enough to make moving difficult would come crashing in. Preparing for it, he chewed and swallowed the painkillers he had set aside in advance, then took out a bug trapped in a glass bottle and burst it.
Crunch!
The dead bug scattered its carapace in every direction and oozed white fluid. The man brought it to his mouth and gulped it down.
“……Urgh. Tastes fucking awful…….”
The man grumbled briefly, wiped the bits of carapace from his hand with a tissue, then went into the bathroom and washed off the fluid. It was nice that the fluid had analgesic effects, but if left on the skin, it caused necrosis, so it had to be washed off.
“Phew…….”
The man dried the water from his hands on a towel and went out to the living room. Though, calling it a living room was generous in a studio apartment, and it wasn’t particularly spacious, but he liked his modest home and had no intention of moving. He had a separate workshop anyway, so there was no need to change residences.
He beat his throbbing thigh with his fist and flopped down onto the small sofa. Then, looking up at the dark ceiling, he muttered.
“That rotten bitch…… I should’ve killed her there.”
Rotten bitch.
That was what he called Mariang.
No point hiding it.
The insect sorcerer who had fought Mariang on the upper floors of the hotel was none other than him.
David König.
Born in Germany. The last descendant of the destroyed König family. And a mage who, despite having learned magic from the gravediggers of Walpurgis, betrayed them and went into hiding.
The reason the König family had been wiped out was, in truth, nothing special. They had sided with the Nazis during World War II, lost, and were all executed.
The reason David was alive was because the König family’s only illegitimate child had luckily fled to another country, married, and had a child. Then that child had another child, and that child had another, until the present David was born.
So if one were to be precise, most of the blood flowing through his veins belonged to ordinary humans, while the rest could be said to belong to mages.
Fortunately, the side that exerted greater influence was the mage blood. Thanks to that, he had talent in magic as well.
While collecting bugs clinging to the corpses of mages, he had caught the eyes of the gravediggers, ignored their rules, and entered Korea roughly ten years ago. It was enough time for even his heart to become Korean.
But that didn’t mean he was unaware of news about criminal mages. Naturally, he also knew of Mariang. That was why he had recognized her identity the moment their eyes met.
So he attacked, and the fight ended without a conclusion. All they managed to do was inflict serious injuries on each other. He had thought, inwardly, that he had grown stronger, so he tried to kill her without asking any questions. The result was nothing but disappointing.
Should he at least be glad he was still alive?
Though it had already been a full day, even thinking about it now only irritated him. David let out a deep sigh and picked up the phone rolling around on the table.
“……Ah, I didn’t charge it. Fuck.”
The remaining battery was around twenty percent. He swept back his long-grown hair, plugged in the charger, and sank into the backrest. In that position, he ordered food and checked the stock market he had been looking over until last night.
Unfortunately, the stocks he had invested in had fallen like shit. They had dropped nearly fifty percent from when he first bought them.
“Fuck. A man’s gonna die!”
Of course, David’s life wasn’t so tight that he would drop dead just because his stocks fell a little. Still, he couldn’t help feeling like absolute shit. He had failed to kill Mariang, his recovery was slow, and even his stocks had fallen, so he wanted to scream like some clown bastard living in the sewer.
But he had a mage’s dignity, so he did not.
Naturally. A mage was far too elegant to be put on the same level as a mere clown bastard.
“Haa.”
David sighed, crossed his legs, took a long drag from his e-cigarette, and opened the community.
A mage community that did not exist overseas and was active only in Korea.
Commonly known as the Mage Gallery. A playground and communication channel for mages created by the owner of the Lemegeton using the power of a Great Devil.
It wasn’t that mage communities didn’t exist overseas, but those were somewhat more abyssal. To begin with, exchange wasn’t particularly active.
Information sharing? Why share information when it was so precious?
Cooperation? Fuck off. I’m far too great to receive help from the likes of you.
Friendship? You dare, when you’re someone like you?
And so on.
Due to various forms of individualism beyond even that, foreign communities used by mages were, for all intents and purposes, closed down. Those who used them actively were all weak beginner mages, so information couldn’t really be shared, and plenty of them acted up only to die without anyone knowing.
Korea, on the other hand, perhaps because it had copied a fairly large community as it was, had a completely different character from them.
David personally used it with more than enough satisfaction. Otherwise, why would he make sure to enter it at least three times a day?
Today was no different. As soon as he connected to the community, he quickly began reading through the featured posts.
A short while later, he found one post with an unusually high number of views and recommendations. His eyes widened as he checked the title of the post.
[Guys, I caught a mage named Mariang? Is this good? T_T]
Mariang.
At the appearance of a name he could never simply overlook, David opened his mouth and clicked the post.
[Guys, I caught a mage named Mariang? Is this good? T_T]
[Anon (psycho who thinks he’s a newbie)]
(A photo of Mariang, her limbs gone, sitting on the sofa and dozing)
I ran into her on the way, so I blew off her limbs and caught her first, but she wouldn’t go into a Poké Ball T_TTT
This is bad, right?
[Recommended 113][Not Recommended 0]
[Comments]
-? Mariang? That Mariang?
└Anon: Yes…… Is this famous? Sorry to say this early on, but I got her pretty quickly T_TTT Should I reroll???
└Youcrazyfuckinglunaticshitheadwhatthefuck. Mariang? Mariang? As if Eddy wasn’t enough, now Mariang?
-★Godmother: To think you would post something like this as soon as you returned home…… As expected, I think it would be better not to associate with StrawberryYogurtSmoothie……
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: What are you even saying. He’s like that because he associates with Godmother instead lol
└★Godmother: Banned.
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: ?
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: (Comment deleted by administrator.)
└★Godmother: (Mage V emote)
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: (Comment deleted by administrator.)
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: (Comment deleted by administrator.)
└StrawberryYogurtSmoothie: (Comment deleted by administrator.)
-TamingMaster: Do you maybe give off some kind of pheromone that attracts mages? How long has it even been since you met Eddy, and now you’ve met Mariang too? You even captured this one alive.
└It’sHot: Look at him capturing her alive because she’s a woman. Transparent as fuck lol
└Anon: That’s not it, you fucker
-DeepSeaAnglerfish: Newbie, are you having a hard time lately? Still, no matter what, you shouldn’t do it with something like that. Just tell me instead.
└Anon: I said that’s not it, fuck, I just blew off her arms and legs so she couldn’t run away!
└DeepSeaAnglerfish: Mm-hmm, I see. I’ve never tried it either, but I’m sure it’ll still feel good.
└Anon: Fuck, she doesn’t believe me.
-But is it okay to openly post that you caught Mariang like this? Isn’t someone going to suck up the information like a mosquito and sell it off, like last time?
-Dolores: There’s no such thing as a way to contact Laplace! Most information shops don’t accept anything related to Laplace either! If you’re caught holding it, the Clock Tower will clean you right up!
└Oh, I see. But there could still be someone from Laplace here.
└★Godmother: Our community can only be accessed by Korean IPs. Also, before the first login, if my scanning magic detects the particular corpse smell of someone affiliated with Laplace, I tend to block them outright. So there are no Laplace members here.
└? You said you only look at our character.
└★Godmother: Baal is capable of seeing even what lies within that character.
└Fucking broken Lemegeton, nerf it.
└All-time Lemegeton cup
└Well, if it were possible to sell information to Laplace, there should’ve been some kind of action from the moment he posted about killing Eddy. It’s way too quiet.
-These fuckers are nice as hell. Nobody leaked info about Eddy? I think I’m starting to like you guys.
└Why would we sell out info on Korean mages when there’s barely any to begin with? Sure, I like corpses, hate civilians, and when gathering materials I just charge in headfirst, but we’ve got to protect our Mage Gallery bros……
└There’s that too, but the way that traitor bastard died was posted in the notice not long ago without a single mosaic. Of course, Eddy died before that bastard did, but still, anyone with a sane head on their shoulders would lie low lol
└True. The notice literally says, ‘From now on, we’ll run automatic detection on information sales, and if you’re caught, we’ll come find you and kill you.’ Who’d be crazy enough to sell it?
Though the post had just been uploaded, it already had countless comments. Even now, comments were being added in real time. David stared blankly at the contents of the post, then, as if possessed, left a comment.
-BugInYourEar: How the fuck did you do it, you bitch.
+
Kim Yul’s swimsuit photo saved on Ian’s phone