Inside a small conference room.
Five people sat around a round table, quietly watching Ian as he entered. Two of them were faces familiar even to him.
Kim Iseo and Park Mina. Bureau agents who had even visited Ian’s home.
They weren’t particularly close, but in any case, they had met before. There was nothing strange about them being in the conference room.
However, the other three were faces Ian was seeing for the first time.
They were probably Bureau agents, or magicians cooperating with the Bureau like Kim Yul.
Ian paid them little mind and sat down in an appropriately empty seat, then looked back at Kim Iseo. Standing in front of the whiteboard, she met Ian’s gaze and gave a polite bow.
“Thank you for coming, Magician. Did you experience any inconvenience on your way here?”
“Not really. More importantly, isn’t it inconvenient to dispatch if you build the place in the middle of downtown?”
“When we need to handle urgent missions, we tend to use the routes underground. Once we’ve finished introductions, I’ll show you those as well.”
As Kim Iseo said that, she looked back at the three people.
“Two magicians cooperating with the Bureau, and a shaman.”
“……”
Ian hid his hands beneath the table and turned his head toward them. They, too, looked at Ian.
He had already heard that there were three magicians cooperating with the Bureau, but he hadn’t known there would be a shaman as well. She had probably joined recently, or they had simply kept quiet because there was no need to mention her.
Either way, it did not matter much.
He already knew shamans truly existed.
The world of folk beliefs was basically overrun with frauds, but within it, there were still a handful of genuine shamans alive and breathing. Their numbers were extremely few, but their competence had been proven, no different from the Vatican’s exorcist priests.
After all, how could a mysterious group that had existed for centuries be built on lies alone?
The deeper the history, the higher the possibility that even absurd-sounding things were true. Shamans were like that, and so were Africa’s voodoo practitioners. Voodoo practitioners were essentially magicians, but in any case.
Ian narrowed his eyes and glanced over the three of them.
After they exchanged looks for quite some time, the old woman in shamanic robes slowly rose from her seat and opened her mouth.
“What a frightening child.”
She stared at Ian and let out a short breath.
“You are being protected by some unknown guardian spirit. Just what kind of sorcery are you using?”
“Ah, Grandma. I told you, you’re not supposed to ask things like that among magicians.”
At the shaman’s words, the man sitting beside her replied.
“Keep that up and you’ll get a highway paved through your skull.”
“I am no magician.”
“We’re not exactly the kind of people who care about that, are we?”
“……”
“So I’d appreciate it if you followed our side’s unwritten rules too. And stop calling it sorcery. It feels pretty damn unpleasant to hear.”
“I am not in good enough condition today to converse with a freak who handles yokai.”
Clicking her tongue, she looked down at the book hanging at the man’s waist.
The red grimoire labeled The Classic of Mountains and Seas gave off a dense scent of incense and a reek of blood. It was proof that he had been using magic until just before coming here. The shaman, knowing what kind of magic he used, frowned in displeasure and moved toward the conference room door.
“If the purpose of making one another’s acquaintance is over, I will take my leave. I had no intention of getting friendly with the likes of magicians to begin with.”
Just as she turned the doorknob, her phone vibrated with an incoming call. The shaman left the conference room while answering it.
“Oh my, yes, honored client. Yes, yes. Ah, a gut ritual? A ritual starts at twenty million won, is that all right? Ohoho.”
Clack.
The conference room door closed. The magician who had been speaking with her shrugged and leaned back in his chair.
“That money-crazed shaman hag. She’s not exactly talent suited to the noble purpose of the Bureau, which works for the sake of humanity.”
Park Mina let out a dry laugh at his words, but he paid it no mind and looked back at Ian with a broad smile.
“Namgung Minhyeok. Owner of the grimoire The Classic of Mountains and Seas, and a magician who’s been cooperating with the Bureau for close to three years.”
“……”
“We’re not that bad on this side either, so there’s no need to come at us too sharply. It’s not like you’re sincerely cooperating with the Bureau anyway, right? We’re doing it because our interests align.”
As he said that, he took a sip of the instant coffee on the table.
It wasn’t something Ian was particularly curious about, but he silently listened to what he had to say. There was no need to act hostile for no reason.
‘I don’t think he’s a magician who joined the community.’
It wasn’t as if magicians who had joined the magician community were connected by some collar that allowed them to recognize one another, but there was still such a thing as intuition.
Community magicians generally were not that talkative. Of course, there were a few who were, but there was not a single one who went around blabbering about what their magic was like or what the name of their grimoire was, like that man did. Not most of them, but all of them lived while hiding what kind of magic they used.
The only one who had revealed that her grimoire was the Lemegeton was the Godmother.
As for the others, well. At the very least, not a single person had stepped forward and revealed it themselves.
So Namgung Minhyeok was probably not a magician who had joined the community. Kim Yul’s gaze, looking at him as if he were a bug, was enough to make Ian certain.
He had long since known that there were magicians who had not joined the community.
There was no need to be greatly surprised now. Ian simply nodded quietly until the man finished speaking.
“Oops, I spent too much time introducing myself.”
After quite some time had passed, Namgung Minhyeok smiled and turned his head toward the other magician.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself too? He’s a colleague we’ll be working with from now on.”
“I was waiting for you to shut your mouth. How does your wife live while putting up with that filthy tongue of yours?”
The green-haired woman who had been sitting silently until now spoke in a flat tone. Minhyeok shrugged.
“My wife likes this sort of thing.”
“Birds of a feather, then.”
She let out a deep sigh and turned her head toward Ian.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Asakawa Mika. I’m a magician who came over from Japan, and it’s already been over five years since I started living in Korea.”
“……Japan?”
“Yes. Japan is very hostile toward magicians, you see. If you’re not a shrine maiden or a psychic, it’s hard to survive. That’s why I came over.”
Mika sighed and swung her crossed leg.
“The Bureau over there looks at magicians almost like they’re aberrations, shrine maidens try to kill magicians because they’re impure, and psychics work in some weird organization called a magical girl group… Leaving Japan is a matter of intelligence. And I’m on the smarter side.”
Ian had no particular interest in Japanese society, so he hadn’t known, but it seemed they had their own circumstances there as well. He had heard roughly how the group called shrine maidens operated from Miko while trading the bike, but the Bureau and magical girls were new to him.
The Bureau was one thing, but what in the world were magical girls? If a group of psychics was a magical girl organization, did male ability users also walk around in frilly dresses?
“……”
The mere thought made disgust surge within him.
Fortunately, becoming a magician did not seem to have changed his sexual orientation or tastes. Ian inwardly let out a sigh of relief and nodded.
“Are you speaking formally because your Korean is awkward?”
“No. It’s simply because I like it when people look at me like I’m a crazy bitch. I suppose you could say it gives me a thrill. Anyway, that’s how it is.”
“……”
“Mm, yes, that gaze is so nice. A handsome man’s dirty look… I feel like I’m going to get wet.”
She was a lunatic, plain and simple.
Her honorifics were being used for a different reason than the Godmother’s. It did not seem necessary to respond in the same polite speech as he did with the Godmother.
“Ms. Mika.”
Kim Iseo called Mika with an expressionless face. Mika giggled and rose from her seat.
“Yes, yes, I’ll keep it in moderation. More importantly, can I go now? I only came to say hello too.”
“Do you have something urgent? The operation briefing is in a few hours.”
“I do have something urgent. Today is my debut stream, you know. I need to prepare hard.”
“……Is that the VTuber thing you mentioned wanting to do last time?”
“Yes. I got lucky and passed the audition. I’ll come back in about three hours. See you then. Ah, my nickname is just ‘Mika,’ same as my name, so if you’re curious, come watch.”
With those words, Mika winked and left the conference room. A moment later, Namgung Minhyeok also left after getting a call from his wife. Naturally, he did not return.
As if to prove they were magicians, every single one of them acted however they pleased. Ian was in no position to criticize others, so he placed his hands on the table and looked back at Kim Iseo.
“What do we do now? Can I leave too?”
“……I was planning to show you around the Bureau facilities. Would you come with me?”
Perhaps frustrated, she loosened her tie slightly as she asked. Ian thought for a moment before speaking again.
“Is it safe?”
“It’s probably the safest place in the Republic of Korea.”
Her words were spoken as if she was certain. Ian gave a faint laugh and nodded.
It was an opportunity to learn the structure of the Bureau, so there was no reason to refuse. In an emergency, he might be able to forcibly open a route or distort it, so knowing it would be useful in many ways. It would also be good for causing terror in preparation for the possibility that they stabbed him in the back.
It would be nice if such a thing never happened, but one couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t.
He still hadn’t built enough trust to believe them blindly, so for the time being, watching them was the right thing to do.
“Understood. Then let’s leave right away.”
Kim Iseo nodded and approached Ian’s side. Ian followed her.
“Have a safe trip.”
“……Iseo.”
Seen off by Kim Yul and Park Mina respectively, the two left the conference room. Kim Iseo, who was about a head shorter than Ian, looked up at him and handed him a small notebook she had taken from her pocket.
“It’s the Bureau manual. Please read it as you follow me.”
“Hmm.”
As Ian let out a thoughtful hum and opened the manual, Kim Iseo walked toward the elevator and spoke.
“First, let’s go to the isolation area underground.”