By the time they reached their destination, the sun had almost fully risen. The moment the car stopped, Ian glanced at his wristwatch.
6:40 a.m.
A dim dawn had settled over the world. Beyond the horizon, the sun had half revealed itself, scattering vermilion light in every direction. Bathed fully in that glow, Cecilia got out of the car and began gathering the boxes she had brought. Ian also stepped out, a cigarette held between his fingers.
The clients—in other words, the devout Catholics who were the parents of the possessed victim—lived in an ordinary villa complex. Naturally, there were bound to be many eyes around, so the two of them parked the car in an alley and collected the items they would use for the ritual.
“An exorcism is ultimately a battle of stamina. The outcome depends on who gets exhausted first.”
“Hmm.”
“So if you’re still sleepy, shake it off, and if anything feels stiff, loosen it up beforehand. Once we go inside, it might get rough.”
It was advice he had no reason to refuse. Following her words, Ian lightly stretched his wrists and shoulders, then lit the cigarette and drew in the smoke. A sweet lemon scent filled his nasal passages, and his head felt a little clearer.
Since it wasn’t addictive at all, he no longer smoked as often as he had before, but he still liked this sensation. Perhaps it was because the cigarette contained no harmful substances whatsoever.
Either way, it didn’t particularly matter. Ian leaned against the wall of the alley where the faint light seeped in and exhaled a long breath of smoke. The ash-gray haze mingled with the vermilion glow, forming a translucent barrier.
As he did, Cecilia approached, having taken out some kind of priestly cassock from a box. Catching the lemon-candy-like scent coming from Ian, she tilted her head in curiosity.
“Did you change cigarettes? It smells really… sweet. It doesn’t smell like tobacco.”
“I switched to something they sell at the Clock Tower. Its effects are a bit hard to call tobacco, too. It’d be more fitting to call it medicine.”
“…Medicine? Are you trying to quit smoking?”
“I’ve quit regular cigarettes for now. More importantly, why did you suddenly bring that?”
Ian glanced down at the black cassock held in her hand. Cecilia let out an “Ah” and handed it to him.
“You can wear this. It’s just a formal procedure.”
“…Then wouldn’t it be fine if I went in as I am? I’m not exactly clergy.”
“It doesn’t matter, but if you pretend to be a priest, the demon probably won’t try to interfere as actively. You could say it reduces the voice of temptation? Anyway, the situation should be a little better than if you went in normally. What do you want to do?”
Cecilia lightly fluttered the cassock in her hand. Ian thought for a moment, then held the cigarette in his mouth and nodded.
“I’ll wear it. Give it here.”
To be honest, he didn’t care about things like the voice of temptation. He was practically immune to most mental attacks, so there was no chance his mind would be broken by the voice of a mere demon. Even if he spent his entire life rubbing shoulders with demons, his mind would likely never be eroded by them.
But separate from that, he wanted to avoid a situation where something kept talking to him nonstop.
Because it would be annoying, wouldn’t it? Even if one wasn’t fooled by a swindler, anyone would hate it if that swindler stuck close and kept whispering in their ear. If the cassock could block that, it was a profitable trade.
Ian examined the black garment in his hands this way and that before asking Cecilia.
“Do I just put it on like a coat?”
“Yeah. First take off what you’re wearing now and put that on. I’ll handle the rest.”
He did so.
Cecilia neatly folded the coat Ian had taken off and placed it inside the car. A moment later, she discovered the grimoire in the inner pocket and frowned.
“…Is it all right not to take this?”
“I can summon it, so it doesn’t matter. Besides, if anyone else touches it, they’ll just die.”
“Ah.”
Cecilia nodded, then approached Ian and dressed him properly in the cassock.
First, she fitted the collar around his neck, then fastened the rest of the garment. There were more buttons than expected, so even just doing them up took a fair amount of time.
“The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; You hold my lot.”
After fastening the final button, she recited a verse from the Bible. To Ian, who was not a clergyman, it looked like a procedure with little meaning, but the reality was different. A faint golden light shimmered over the black cloth and then faded.
A sacred art that only devout clergy, and among them only those selected by the Pope, could learn. Unlike magic, a spell activated purely by faith wrapped once around Ian’s body. As a finishing touch, Cecilia made the sign of the cross over him and wore a faint smile.
“May the Lord’s protection be with us. Let’s go.”
She lightly tapped Ian on the chest and turned around. Ian fiddled for a moment with the collar touching his neck, then chuckled and followed after her.
*
The person who had requested the exorcism lived on the third floor of an ordinary villa. After gathering all the items they would use for the ritual, the two pressed the bell beside the door.
Ding-dong.
Before the short sound could even fade, the door opened slightly.
“……”
Through the gap appeared the face of a haggard middle-aged woman. She stared at Cecilia with bloodshot eyes, then checked the nun’s habit Cecilia was wearing and relaxed her expression.
“…Ah, Sister.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Sister. We are exorcist priests dispatched from the Holy See. We have come in response to the request for Miss Park Hansol’s exorcism.”
Even as she brazenly lied and called herself an exorcist priest, her expression did not change. Perhaps that made her seem quite reliable, because the woman opened the door fully and let Ian and Cecilia into the house. Cecilia entered first, and Ian followed after her.
“……”
He stepped properly into the entryway.
At the same time, the stench of rotting corpses rushed over him.
A scent as though hundreds of animal carcasses were decaying at once, and a school of fish had all rotted into mush together.
No matter how one looked at it, it was not a pleasant smell, yet Cecilia maintained a calm expression as she took off her shoes and entered the living room. Ian’s expression, on the other hand, was not very good. To be honest, he wanted to pinch his nose shut immediately.
Having seen all sorts of bizarre things, his tolerance for visual disgust had become fairly strong, but his sense of smell was still inevitably sensitive.
After all, wasn’t smell an area where adaptation was nearly impossible? You just endured it.
Depending on how one looked at it, that might be considered adaptation, but unfortunately, it did not apply to Ian. He clicked his tongue inwardly and turned his head toward the source of the smell.
A firmly closed door. A wooden bedroom door messily hung with crosses, salt, and other things like trash.
It was a sight far removed from ordinary, and that was exactly what it was. Ian quietly stared at the door before turning his head at the middle-aged couple’s call.
“Is the Father also an exorcist priest? Or merely an apprentice…?”
“Ah, I am also an exorcist priest. I serve as the Sister’s assistant.”
“I see. Haha, your face is far too handsome to be a priest. If my daughter were well, I’d want to introduce you to her.”
Park Hansol’s parents were simply ordinary believers.
They possessed no special power, nor did they know about the hidden side of the world.
Through this possession, they might come to realize the existence of evil spirits or demons, but that was not much of a problem. Devout believers tended to believe in the existence of demons and other wicked beings anyway. Simply put, they had a mindset similar to those who commissioned shamans to perform rituals.
Surprisingly, their worldview was closer to reality than what ordinary people thought of as reality. Strictly speaking, it was not something that should be dismissed as religious delusion.
“Here is some green tea. I’m sorry this is all I have to offer.”
When the two sat on the sofa, Park Hansol’s father brought over teacups and sat facing them. Cecilia smiled softly.
“Not at all. This alone is something to be grateful for. Thank you.”
“Thank you.”
“Haha, thank you.”
Park Hansol’s father smiled and crossed his hands. But his eyes were not smiling. Only the hazy pupils unique to a ruined man remained in place. Ian quietly drank the green tea while observing the couple’s atmosphere.
It went without saying, but the two of them were practically no different from corpses. Their bodies were intact, but their minds were in tatters. Their only daughter had been possessed by a demon and was wasting away, so it could not be helped. He could understand that it would be hard to endure as parents.
Of course, that was as far as it went. Ian understood their feelings, but he did not empathize with them. Cecilia seemed to be the same, as she set down her teacup and asked the two for their understanding.
“When the exorcism ritual begins, the entire house may become steeped in yin energy. So I would like the two of you to stay outside until I contact you.”
“O-outside? We can’t perform the ritual together?”
“No, you cannot. Even skilled exorcist priests find exorcisms difficult. If the two of you remain here, the entity we manage to drive out may take root in one of you again.”
Cecilia answered in a firm tone. She smiled at the anxious couple as if to reassure them and tightly gripped her rosary.
“Do not worry. We will save your daughter without fail. I swear it in the name of the Lord.”
“…Can we believe you?”
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
“…Ah.”
“The Lord is with us. Please, have faith.”
Cecilia held the couple’s hands and closed her eyes. Then she slowly recited a prayer. Ian stood there awkwardly, merely moving his lips as he played along with the act.
Then, with the word “Amen,” the prayer ended. Park Hansol’s parents left the house after giving Ian and Cecilia their final farewells. Now only the two of them remained.
“Let’s go. There’s no time to delay.”
Cecilia immediately lifted a box. Ian nodded, drained the rest of his green tea, and stood up, taking hold of the doorknob to Park Hansol’s room. He turned it and opened the closed door.
Creeeeak.
The door opened with an eerie sound. The already severe stench grew worse, and the rats crawling across the floor were startled by the sudden noise and fled.
“……”
In one corner of the room, a dried pool of blood had congealed. It was probably the blood of the priest Cecilia had mentioned, the one who had died at the scene. It seemed that although the corpse had been recovered, the blood had not been cleaned away.
Clatter.
Cecilia glanced at the bloodstain, then set the box down on the floor and took out holy water from inside.
Holy water produced directly by the Vatican.
In other words, salt water, but holy water strengthened by sacred art was of an entirely different purity from the holy water used by mages. Since it demonstrated an effect several times stronger, it was perfect for use in a ritual.
Without hesitation, Cecilia dipped her finger into the holy water and made the sign of the cross. Then she handed the bottle to Ian as well.
“You put some on too.”
“……”
Ian did not argue and quietly picked up the bottle, making the sign of the cross just as she had. As he did, he stared at the ordinary-looking girl lying on the bed.
Her appearance was that of a child who looked only elementary school age.
She had no fingernails or toenails. Scabs of blood had taken their place. Her body, which had not taken in proper food for days, was also withered and emaciated. If someone struck her with a low kick, she looked as though she would snap on the spot.
To be honest, it would be a lie to say his curiosity was not stirred, but given the atmosphere, he did not say it aloud even as a joke. Instead, he set the holy water in his hand on the table, then took a bell, a cross, an incense burner, a lantern, and other items from the box and placed them in the corner. Cecilia tightly bound Park Hansol’s arms and legs with rope.
It was then.
“Another being bearing the Lord’s radiance on its back has crawled in. No, is it two?”
Park Hansol’s mouth, which had been in a comatose state, abruptly opened. But what emerged was the deep voice characteristic of an adult man.
If it had been an ordinary priest, his body might have flinched, but unfortunately, those present here were an inquisitor raised in the Vatican since birth and a mage loved by an Outer God. Both were talents capable of shrugging off the sudden appearance of a demon as though it were nothing.
Cecilia pulled out her Bible, and Ian snorted as he summoned his grimoire.
“It matters not how many more of you crawl in here. Rather than groan away, never knowing when I might be enslaved by the master of the Lemegeton, I would sooner make this brat’s body my own—!”
“You talk too much. Shut up already.”
Thwack!
Cecilia struck Park Hansol on the head with the Bible. The demon, who had been muttering with his eyes rolled back until only the whites showed, blinked in confusion, unable to grasp the situation for a moment.
“Huh?”
“You think I haven’t seen things like you before? Wretched thing that crawled out of evil. There is no place for you beneath the Lord’s heaven, so return whence you came. If you cannot, then so be it. I, too, am one who judges heresy. I shall put your existence to the test.”
Cecilia cut the demon off lightly, then used the cross-shaped dagger she had brought to slice deeply into her palm. Hot blood flowed down, dripping onto the face of the one bound in rope.
The blood of a believer blessed by God. For a demon that had not even properly completed its possession, it was far too difficult to endure; the creature screamed and convulsed.
“Aaaaaaaagh!!! It burns, it buuurns!”
“Filth that feeds on evil. From this moment on, I shall judge you. As an inquisitor of the Vatican and the twenty-fourth Exterminator, I command you: reveal your name.”
Sizzle.
Cecilia dipped the branding iron she had brought into holy water, then pressed it against Park Hansol’s forehead without hesitation.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaagh!”
The demon screamed. The windows rattled, and something like sweet smoke faintly seeped from her body.
Ian stood still, staring at it without much thought.
No matter how great a demon it might be, a demon that had not properly manifested and had not even completed its possession perfectly could do little more than struggle. Even if its smoke was one that manipulated the dead, Ian and Cecilia were more than capable of brushing it off with a snort.
So Ian merely waved his hand roughly to clear away the smoke blocking his vision.
At that moment, warmth spread through his entire body.
“Urgh?!”
Not a physical heat, but a heat boiling up from within.
In other words, desire. To put it more crudely, lust.
“……!”
Cecilia seemed to have felt something similar as well; her cheeks flushed as she pressed her thighs together.
‘So it was a demon related to sexual desire……!’
It was not a power that caused some magical phenomenon, but one that simply stirred emotions and desires. It was not dangerous, but it was more than enough to fluster them.
Surprisingly, there were more demons than one might think that could interfere with love or sexual desire. Even among the great demons, several were capable of wielding similar powers.
Thanks to that, they could narrow down the number of possible demons by process of elimination, but faced with the unexpected situation, the two first exchanged glances and immediately escaped the room. Fortunately, whether the cross and salt placed at the threshold had done their job, the smoke could not come out of the room.
“Phew……! Haa.”
“……Ugh.”
Ian sat on the floor and caught his breath, while Cecilia rubbed her thighs together and covered her face with her hands. Ian stared at her blankly, then roughly raked a hand through his hair and asked without much thought.
“Do you need to change your underwear?”
Thwack!
The Bible that came flying slammed into his abdomen.