After returning from the hospital, Ian washed up, ate, and immediately flopped onto his bed as if diving into it.
Normally, he would have read a grimoire or browsed the community until right before falling asleep, but today he was fairly tired and didn’t feel like doing anything in particular.
Rather than force his brain to work or study in this state, it was far better to just sleep. He needed to manage his condition for tomorrow, too.
Thinking that, Ian placed the Deep-Sea Travelogue beside his head, pulled the blanket over himself, and closed his eyes. Before long, his breathing evened out.
[…….]
The Deep-Sea Travelogue, which had been lying there quietly, began wriggling over the moment Ian fell asleep and stuck itself firmly to his chest. The Hand of Re-Creation, which had been sitting on the desk, stared at it as if it were pathetic, then, a few minutes later, burrowed into Ian’s side as well.
That night, he dreamed that two women whose faces he didn’t know were embracing him.
*
The next morning.
Ian sat up with sleepy eyes and peeled off the grimoires clinging tightly to his chest and side. The grimoires resisted for a moment, but soon obediently withdrew.
“……I’m sure I put you somewhere else. Why are you stuck to me?”
He stared hazily at the grimoires sprawled on the bed, then drank the water he had left by his bedside to chase away his sleepiness. Stretching, he got out of bed.
Perhaps because he had slept so soundly, the drowsiness vanished quickly. Ian gathered some clothes, took a shower, then took out ingredients from the fridge and prepared a simple breakfast.
In the past, he had almost never cooked for himself, but recently he had been trying to develop some interest in cooking.
There was no particular reason, except to avoid delivery drivers turning out to be aberrations, or being suddenly kidnapped by some spatial Mystery. While he was at it, he also intended to pay a little attention to nutritional balance.
Just because he was a mage didn’t mean he could sit in the back and spam magic with a click. If anything, since he often had to run around on the very front lines, it was only right to build up his stamina while he could.
Sizzle.
He grilled some frozen pork shoulder of unknown purchase date in a frying pan, then placed rice and mung bean sprouts in a bowl. After that, he cut the moderately cooked pork shoulder into small pieces and laid it over the rice.
Pork shoulder and mung bean sprout rice bowl, complete. Ian took some random sauce from the refrigerator, mixed it in roughly, and had a spoonful.
“Not bad.”
It tasted better than he had expected. He ate just enough to fill his stomach, washed the dishes, then sat on the bed.
He briefly wondered if he should go work out, but decided to just rest today.
His head was a little complicated, and he had muscle aches from moving around so much yesterday, so it seemed best to get some proper rest.
It was about time he returned to his main job anyway. It would be better to adjust his condition in advance.
Thinking that, Ian began tending to the cover of the “Hand of Re-Creation,” as he had promised before.
He gently wiped away dust with his fingers, checked for stains, and brushed off impurities with a brush. As if enjoying Ian’s touch, the Hand of Re-Creation vibrated faintly and sank deeper into his grasp. The Deep-Sea Travelogue jabbed the corner of itself into his thigh, as if asking him to do it too.
Bzzzt.
Just then, the phone he had left by the bedside vibrated. Ian set down the grimoire he had been tending to for a moment and checked the screen.
[010-……: It’s me, Cecilia. Meet me. We need to talk.]
A message from someone he had more or less expected. He hadn’t thought she would text him as early as the very next day, but he had anticipated that Cecilia would contact him in some way or another.
Ian thought for a moment, then tapped on his phone keyboard.
[Me: How did you get my number?]
[Cecilia: I asked the sister and she gave it to me. More importantly, where do you want to meet?]
[Me: I haven’t agreed yet.]
A few minutes after Ian sent the message, a reply arrived.
[Cecilia: You have questions for me too, don’t you?]
[Cecilia: I’ll tell you. Let’s meet.]
At the calm reply, Ian gave a faint laugh and tapped on the keyboard.
[Me: Let’s meet at a cafe. I’ll send you the address.]
*
Jingle.
A small cafe not too far from Ian’s home.
When he opened the door and went inside, the part-time worker welcomed him cheerfully.
“Welcome!”
“Hi.”
Ian gave her a perfunctory response and looked around for Cecilia. Before long, he found her sitting alone in a corner, sipping coffee.
‘A weapon…… doesn’t look like she brought one.’
Cecilia’s outfit was extremely ordinary. She had taken off her coat and placed it on the seat beside her, and there didn’t seem to be any place where she could be hiding a gun or a knife. At most, she might have something like a switchblade in her pocket, but he could react to that much easily enough.
He had left the bloodstained coat behind, but he had brought the Reverse Sight. If Cecilia revealed hostility, he could respond immediately and suppress her instead, so there was no need to worry too much.
‘……Aren’t I thinking too violently from the start?’
The thought suddenly occurred to him, but as a mage, prioritizing his own safety was hardly strange. Ian put on a composed expression again and walked toward Cecilia.
“Ah.”
She spotted Ian and set down the coffee cup she was holding.
Espresso.
The classic coffee beloved by Italians. But Ian frowned slightly at the dreadful bitterness he could feel just from the smell and operated the kiosk.
“How do you even drink that? Isn’t Americano better?”
“You damned Korean. Don’t insult coffee.”
“This is driving me insane.”
Ian let out a dry laugh and ordered an iced Americano.
A short while later, he sat across from Cecilia with his finished drink. She stared at the pale brown coffee with hatred in her eyes.
“Devil’s sewer water……”
“……I don’t think that’s something a clergyman should say.”
Ian took a sip of his Americano and got straight to the point.
“So, what did you want to say?”
“…….”
Instead of answering right away, Cecilia took a sip of coffee as Ian had. The hot, bitter liquid writhed over her tongue and slid down her throat. Thanks to that, she felt as though the winter chill had eased a little.
“……The reason I came to Korea is to find the mage who picked up the grimoire of an Outer God.”
Without beating around the bush, she revealed her objective at once.
“The prophets of the Vatican told me to find the owner of the grimoire in Korea and deal with them as I saw fit. They didn’t give me any more information than that.”
“……Deal with them.”
“Befriend them, or kill them. They left the judgment to me.”
Clink.
Cecilia set down her espresso cup. Then she looked at Ian with a serious expression.
“So I established my own standard. If the owner of the grimoire was still sane, I would befriend them. If they had already gone mad, I would kill them. But fortunately…… I don’t think I need to kill you.”
Her gaze shifted for a moment to the bag Ian had brought, then moved back to his eyes.
“I want to build a relationship with you. Let’s be friends.”
A relationship. Friends.
It was true that, if one only looked at the words in the sentence she had spoken, it sounded somewhat anticlimactic. But the meaning contained within was not so simple.
“…….”
Instead of answering right away, Ian looked into Cecilia’s violet eyes and tapped the table lightly.
The Vatican. The Holy See. The holy land of Catholicism.
It was an organization known by various names, but it had few points of contact with mages and little known information. Why would a place like that try to build a relationship with a mage chosen by an Outer God, which was no different from heresy?
‘Considering killing me was one of the options, their focus probably isn’t on securing the grimoire or my person. The most likely possibility is that they want to create a point of contact.’
Ian didn’t know in detail what benefit the Vatican would gain by befriending the owner of an Outer God’s grimoire. However, it was certain they had moved directly like this because there had been a prophecy saying it would be more beneficial than leaving him alone.
Honestly, it wasn’t a bad proposal for Ian either.
As far as Ian knew, the major organizations connected to the Mysteries existing in this world were the Bureau, the Cartel, the Holy See, and the Clock Tower. If one looked into the details, there were other groups as well, but those were the ones primarily mentioned.
And there was absolutely nothing for Ian to lose by building friendly relations with some of them.
If they were asking to build a relationship with a contract or various conditions attached, Ian would have considered it in a way that let him gain benefits too. But there was no need to attach complicated meaning or think selfishly about a simple “let’s be friends.”
The Holy See did not wish to antagonize the owner who had picked up an Outer God’s grimoire.
Ian did not want to create friction with the Holy See and make an enemy of an entire organization.
Since their interests aligned, there was no reason to refuse Cecilia’s proposal.
Of course, that didn’t mean he trusted her completely. Just as their interests aligned now, this was the kind of industry where their relationship could suddenly sour and he might get a knife in the back.
‘It’s better to build the relationship while always assuming betrayal. At least until trust develops.’
Having organized his thoughts, Ian took a sip of coffee and nodded.
However, instead of immediately accepting her offer, he casually asked a personal question that had occurred to him.
“How were you so sure the grimoire I have belongs to an Outer God?”
“It’s hard for most people to notice, but I serve God. Realizing that it’s a resident of another world isn’t difficult for me.”
A resident of another world.
She was referring to the Watcher. It seemed the Vatican’s clergy could roughly tell where the creatures summoned by the Deep-Sea Travelogue came from. Even if they didn’t know the detailed environment or background, they could probably guess that it was something that did not exist in this world.
However, recalling that she had said nothing when he used magic, it seemed she couldn’t detect ordinary magic.
‘I’ve learned one thing.’
It wasn’t particularly amazing information, but it was better than nothing. Ian smiled faintly and set down his coffee cup.
“Fine. Let’s get along. I’ll call you if I need you in the future.”
“……Need me?”
“When I’m dealing with the Cartel’s requests and such, it’s better to move together than to move alone.”
“……Are you saying you’re going to use me as a tank?”
“In game terms, yes.”
Ian answered with a faint smile.
Cecilia’s regenerative ability was extremely valuable for a vanguard. To put it nicely, she was a reliable shield. To put it badly, she was a meat shield.
Either way, to Ian, she was practically a good companion.
“I won’t call you every time. I’ll respect your wishes too. I don’t intend to force you to act through threats or anything like that.”
“……As long as you don’t force me, that’s fine. And…… hunting aberrations is originally my job anyway. If there’s an opportunity, I’ll join you.”
Cecilia answered with a faint sigh, then slumped over the table and mumbled.
“But sometimes, let’s just hang out like friends. I’m already having a hard time because I don’t have anyone close to me in Korea……”
“Are you the type to get lonely easily?”
“……A little?”
At her honest answer, Ian let out a small laugh. He left his half-finished Americano behind and stood up.
“Let’s go eat. To celebrate becoming friends, I’ll pay. What do you want?”
“……Pizza.”
“Sure, let’s go.”
Ian picked up his bag and looked down at Cecilia. She downed the rest of her espresso, put on the coat she had taken off, and followed him out.
They arrived at a pizza place.
Cecilia ate all thirty pizzas on the spot. Handing only the Hawaiian pizza that the owner had given as a free service to Ian, she smiled happily.
“Delish. You eat too.”
“…….”
That day.
Ian resolved never to take Cecilia to any restaurant other than a buffet again.