Before signing the contract, Ian confirmed a few more matters. The two agents answered every one of his questions kindly.
Fortunately, there was nothing in it that would disadvantage him or rub him the wrong way. Ian nodded, added a few more clauses to the blank space in the contract, and signed it.
The clauses he added were nothing special.
When he went out on a mission, his own safety was to come first. And only trustworthy personnel were to be selected and sent out with him as a team. Those two were all.
They were selfish clauses, but there was no need for him to go out of his way to be selfless.
Ian did not think of himself as the sort of hero who might appear in a movie. He had become a mage, but in any situation, his own safety was always the most precious thing to him.
Even if he was not some lunatic who could look upon others’ sacrifice or death without batting an eye, he would not grow depressed or grieve simply because he failed to save them. Heroism or altruism—he had none of that. In a mysterious world where lives could be cast away like straw, selfishness was a necessity for survival.
So he felt no guilt about writing those clauses.
Tap.
Ian finished signing and set down the pen. Kim Iseo checked what he had written and nodded.
“We should be able to accommodate this much. However, separate from the agents looking after you, Mage, they will not sacrifice themselves. We have our own policies as well, so……”
“I’m not asking for sacrifice. It’s enough if they protect me when necessary.”
“In that case, there should be no problem.”
Leaving Kim Iseo nodding behind, Ian took the pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
He did not intend to smoke. He wanted to, but for now, he had to hold out until the two of them left. He had not the slightest intention of smoking inside the house.
“Then is that everything we needed to discuss?”
“For now, yes. We will take this contract back to the Bureau and conduct a final review. Once the results are out, we will send you a message from our side.”
“Is there any chance the contract won’t be concluded?”
“No.”
It was an immediate answer. Ian gave a faint laugh and pulled out a cigarette.
Then, at a question that suddenly occurred to him, he looked at Kim Iseo as she handed the documents to Park Mina and parted his lips.
“What would have happened if I’d refused to cooperate and sent you back? Would I have gone up as a target to be dealt with?”
“……I’ll be honest with you. If a mage refuses the Bureau’s proposal, that mage is registered as an individual deeply connected to mysteries. They become a target for remote surveillance by the Bureau.”
It was an answer that could be called moderate if one chose to see it that way, and violent if one chose to see it otherwise. Ian rolled the cigarette in his hand between his fingers and listened closely to her words.
“In any case, mages are beings who draw mysteries to them. Since mysteries derived from them can kill civilians, the countermeasure we take against that is surveillance. As for assassination…… it is carried out against mages who harm ordinary people, or mages whose danger level is extremely high.”
“……”
“However, killing a mage is no easy matter, so we also tend to go through a great deal of preparation.”
“Is it all right to tell a mage something like this?”
“I consider it part of the process of building trust.”
Kim Iseo said so with a calm expression. Ian stared quietly at her pink hair and dull black eyes, then let out a long breath.
“All right, I understand. In any case, as long as I don’t touch ordinary people, you won’t assassinate me.”
“That’s correct.”
“Can you tell me how many mages have been assassinated so far?”
“None in Korea.”
“……Is that so?”
An answer he could not tell was a lie or not. But it was not such an important matter, so he did not pay it much mind.
After that, Ian exchanged a few short words with the two of them before seeing them off. Kim Iseo and Park Mina left after thanking Ian for cooperating.
The house had emptied in an instant. Ian stood blankly against the wall for a moment, looking down at the table, then put the cigarette in his mouth and went up to the rooftop.
The weather, having just entered February, was still chilly. Spring would arrive in another month or two, but for now, it was winter. The wind that blew seemed to prick at his bones.
That sensation helped his thoughts turn. Ian lit the end of the cigarette and took in the sight of snow beginning to fall in fine, soft flakes.
‘So the troublesome thing that comes with getting involved with the Bureau was surveillance.’
Whether he accepted the Bureau’s offer or not, surveillance would ultimately follow him either way. Mages with strong egos would never accept an act that was no different from restraint.
They would rather fight; it was clear there would not be a single person among them great enough to live their whole life under the Bureau’s gaze.
……No, thinking about it, there was one.
One of the mages cooperating with the Bureau. There was exactly one being who lived under their surveillance.
‘What kind of person are they, to just accept being watched?’
He could not quite understand it, but there was no particular need to. Why would he be curious about the mind of someone practically no different from a freak? It was best to simply think, So that’s how it is, and move on.
At any rate.
He had found out why most mages did not want to get involved with the Bureau. That alone was a gain of sorts.
It went without saying, but he had not the slightest intention of handing information about the mages he had met in the community—people like Lee Seoa, Han Yuna, or the Godmother—over to the Bureau. No matter how devoid of loyalty the society of mages might be, there were still unspoken rules. If he did not want to become the common enemy of every mage overnight, he could not do something like that.
“Phew……”
Ian exhaled smoke into the air and checked whether there were any CCTVs nearby.
Fortunately, this place was a blind spot.
He flicked off the cigarette ash, opened his hand, and summoned the Hand of Re-creation.
[Woooong.]
The pure white grimoire vibrated softly the moment it was caught in his grasp. The sight made it seem as if it were sulking, asking why he had only called it now, and Ian gave a faint laugh as he brushed the dust off the grimoire’s cover.
The Bureau probably thought that the only grimoire Ian possessed at present was the Records of the Deep Sea.
Since the only thing he had openly taken out in front of them was the Records of the Deep Sea, they likely did not know whose hands the Hand of Re-creation was in—or even that it existed in the first place.
He had used the grimoire at the theme park, but at that time, his face had been thoroughly covered.
Thanks to that, even the Bureau seemed not to have realized that the “mage” they had encountered at the theme park and the “mage” who had cooperated with them at the hospital were the same person.
It was only natural. The magic he had used was completely different, so predicting that they were the same person was practically impossible.
If that had been possible, the Bureau would have identified every mage’s true identity long ago.
Whether intended or not, the imbalance of information was beneficial to Ian. It was better to keep one hidden than to needlessly show off that he had two grimoires.
The probability was exceedingly low, but the Bureau could suddenly lose its mind and betray him. There was nothing wrong with having at least one unexpected dagger up his sleeve.
‘When I handle the cartel’s request, I’ll use both, but at least when I’m cooperating with the Bureau, I should only use the Records.’
The Records of the Deep Sea had outstanding firepower, but in terms of versatility or stability, it fell far short of the Hand of Re-creation.
However, it was not as if only summoning magic was recorded in the Records of the Deep Sea. Even if it was impossible to instantly kill an opponent the way re-creation magic could, various offensive spells were prepared within it.
Using only those would be enough to carry out missions. He merely disliked the feeling of walking around in shackles.
Well, when it came to the Messenger or creatures on par with it, there was not much risk in summoning them when needed, so it seemed all right to judge the situation and summon them as appropriate.
“……Phew.”
Having organized his thoughts, Ian exhaled smoke toward the clouds and ground the cigarette out in the ashtray.
Even if he made preparations like this now, once he entered actual combat, there would ultimately be too many variables, and there was a high possibility things would not go according to plan.
Still, it was better than having no plan at all.
Ian put the cigarette butt into the ashtray and closed the lid.
Now it was time to rest.
*
Kim Iseo and Park Mina did not exchange a single word until they had gotten some distance from Ian’s house.
Then, around the time his house was no longer visible, Park Mina carefully opened her mouth.
“……Where on earth did a mage like that pop out from?”
She took off the suit jacket she had been wearing and leaned back against the seat.
Cold, clammy sweat had soaked her shirt and underwear unpleasantly.
“Judging by his looks, he’s definitely Korean…… Did he pick up a grimoire when he was young? Or is he from a mage family?”
“What mage family would there be in Korea?”
Kim Iseo answered, tapping the steering wheel.
Mage families commonly referred to as purebloods were mostly in Europe. England had the most, followed by France and Germany.
It was not that they did not exist in other countries, but at the very least, there were none in Asia.
It was a region where shamanistic beliefs had developed more than magic, so even when the Age of Exploration was in full swing, mages had not so much as glanced at Asia. Korea was no exception.
“He probably picked up a grimoire at least more than ten years ago. That’s the only explanation. There’s no way a mage of that caliber suddenly appeared out of nowhere.”
“Right? Phew…… How on earth did he live in hiding for ten years?”
“I don’t know. So little is known about the ecosystem of mages. They’re the sort who don’t even share information properly among themselves……”
“Gloomy.”
Mina muttered that and gazed out the window.
The sun was half-hidden beyond the horizon, scattering sunset light in every direction.
As she stared at the moon rising on the opposite side of the sun, she parted her lips.
“That grimoire. What do you think its identity was?”
“I don’t know. But it’s definitely high-ranking.”
The answer came immediately.
“At minimum, it’s on the same level as the Lemegeton, or perhaps even higher.”
“……Could it be a grimoire related to the Cthulhu Mythos?”
“I don’t think so.”
The grimoires that appeared in the Cthulhu Mythos.
Nameless Cults, the Book of Eibon, the Songs of Yste, and so on. Fictional grimoires that appeared in simple novels were treated not as grimoires but as a kind of anomaly when manifested in reality. That was because the stories themselves had come to possess power.
However, that did not mean these things did not teach magic at all. Since they were books written by fictional magi and mages, they were extremely dangerous, but their knowledge was also remarkable, so many mages tended to seek them out.
However, these fictional grimoires had one fatal flaw.
“Cthulhu Mythos grimoires all make their owners terminal, don’t they? Unless it’s a grimoire that researches immortality, like the Rites of the Corpse-Eating Cult, they all die within five years.”
“……Ah, I think I saw something about that.”
“There are so few cases that it isn’t very well known. It’s something I found separately myself.”
Kim Iseo swept her hair back, slightly irritated by the road that had begun to clog up again.
“If it’s a grimoire that actually exists, like the Necronomicon, that might be another story, but with the rest, if you possess one, you absolutely can’t make it past ten years before dying. So the grimoire that man had probably isn’t something related to the Cthulhu Mythos.”
“Then what is it?”
“Let’s not go out of our way to be curious.”
Kim Iseo answered.
“For me, as long as that person is useful to the Bureau—and to my objective—that’s enough. And…… in this world, there are many things one is better off not knowing.”
“……”
“Let’s just do our own work.”
“……Okay.”
Park Mina answered with her eyes closed.
The two of them spoke no further and headed straight for the Bureau.