Chapter 5 - Let’s Learn Magic (2)

The next day, Yohan came to the department office to apply for a leave of absence.

It wasn’t really because he wanted to take on more part-time work to pay for Grizzly’s food.

It was because this seemed like the natural thing to do.

Bustle—

I glanced around at the other students who had gathered in the office to apply for a leave of absence.

I could hear them whispering about the professor’s death.

Well, of course they were anxious. A professor had suddenly been killed in the middle of a lecture, with his head falling off.

Naturally, they wouldn’t want to attend classes anymore.

People were already calling the university cursed, too.

It was a shame to waste my credits by taking a leave in the middle of the semester, but it couldn’t be helped.

Taking a leave of absence seemed natural enough, but the real reason was to secure more time.

If I wanted to protect myself and learn magic from now on, my university activities would only get in the way.

And the murderer who killed the professor… I thought it was an accident rather than murder, but—

Either way, if there were people looking for me, the first place they would investigate would be the university.

There was no reason to keep attending and leave traces behind.

Well… if they said something like,

‘The culprit probably took a leave of absence to hide themselves. Let’s investigate every student who took a leave!’

‘Oh! Let’s investigate every single one and kill them!’

—I wouldn’t have much to say in response, but if I kept considering every possible scenario like that, there would be no end to it.

So I simply decided to take a leave of absence.

And so, I filed my leave request alongside the other students and left the university.

***

Working part-time at a comic book café.

It was the part-time job I currently had, and personally, I liked it.

Not that there was nothing difficult about it, but it was definitely much better than loading and unloading cargo.

Most of my work consisted of making coffee, cooking ramen, organizing books that customers had finished reading and left behind,

and dealing with customer complaints or telling couples to stop their lovey-dovey behavior behind the curtains.

Personally, I don’t really care about something like kissing.

But what the hell is wrong with people who leave used condoms behind?

At least throw them in the trash.

Of course, this depended on the owner,

but when there were no customers, I was allowed to take out a comic book and read it.

Honestly, that was a major reason I liked this job.

It was the typical kind of part-time job that was insanely busy when it was busy and completely relaxed when there was nothing to do.

And right now, I was taking advantage of that free time to read the grimoire in the corner behind the counter.

For some reason, the pages seemed to go on endlessly, and there were several pages I couldn’t understand at all, but after reading through it roughly, I learned that—

There were many different kinds of magic.

However, the primary magic described in The Mysteries of the Worm belonged to the branch that had been called ritual magic during the Middle Ages.

You know, the kind where you draw a big circular magic circle on the floor and need a whole bunch of preparations.

Ritual magic was also divided into two branches.

There was demonic contracting, in which you directly formed a contract with a summoned demon,

and ceremonial magic, in which you borrowed the authority of gods, angels, and Great Names to command summoned demons or spirits and make them obey.

The latter seemed overwhelmingly better, but both had their advantages and disadvantages.

To put it simply, demonic contracting was a direct transaction with a demon.

Because of that, the terms of the transaction were more flexible. You could ask the demon to kill someone, or ask it to let you use the power it presided over.

Of course, demons weren’t going to work for a measly reward.

In exchange for granting you power, they demanded payment.

The contractor’s soul.

With demonic contracting, you received no assistance whatsoever when it came to this.

You had to protect your own soul and complete the contract using nothing but your own strength.

If you made a mistake, you could lose your soul and have your entire life held hostage, becoming nothing more than a demon’s plaything.

Ceremonial magic, on the other hand, was safe.

(Well, that was assuming you prepared the magical procedures properly.)

Since the demons had been summoned by borrowing the authority of higher powers, they couldn’t just fool around.

Instead, however, the services they could provide were limited to that extent.

They could answer a wizard’s questions or teach magical knowledge such as astronomy, astrology, and Necromancy.

Perhaps because The Mysteries of the Worm was a grimoire written by someone from a Catholic Crusade, ceremonial magic was its primary focus.

I preferred ceremonial magic anyway, so I didn’t mind.

…Though it made me sound like a narcissist.

I was the most important person in the world to myself.

I was learning magic to protect myself and live a peaceful life.

Putting my soul up as collateral and taking unnecessary risks would defeat the entire purpose.

Ding~

Just then, the door opened and a customer came in, so I closed the grimoire.

Studying was studying, but I was getting paid, so I had to work.

A little kid who looked like an elementary school student came in with a woman who appeared to be his mother.

“Welcome. Is it just the two of you?”

“No, just one. My kid has an academy class starting at six. I’ll pay in advance, so please make sure he has dinner at five-thirty. And please make sure he safely gets on his academy bus, too.”

“…………”

I didn’t panic.

It was a common occurrence.

In situations like this, instead of raising my voice as if I had just heard something ridiculous,

I spoke in a polite and gentle tone.

“Ma’am, we’re a comic book café, not a kids’ café.”

I had to make it clear that we couldn’t provide such a service.

“Of course, we’ll make sure our customers are safe while they’re here, but since this is a space used by all kinds of people, we can’t give special attention to any particular individual. I’m sorry.”

“What!? The café over there does it! Why won’t you do it here?!”

Then go to the café next door.

Actually, I was a little curious. Why did she specifically come here?

Either way, I had said what I needed to say as an employee, and now my job was simply to listen to the customer’s complaints to a reasonable extent.

As I listened to her stream of complaints—

I calmly watched Grizzly’s reaction as he crouched inside the counter.

“…………”

After sending the customer away and returning to my seat, I reached over and stroked Grizzly’s head in the blind spot of the CCTV.

“Grrr~”

I had been worried that he might act on his own again.

Fortunately, it seemed that my command not to touch anyone unless I directly signaled him to kill them—or, to put it more mildly, ‘bite them’—had worked, and he didn’t act on his own.

There absolutely could not be a third incident at a place where I was present.

At least for now, I needed to keep a low profile.

I checked the news article about the professor’s incident on my phone.

That was the kind of game I was playing now.

One side was searching, while the other was hiding.

Looking at it that way, it might seem like we were evenly matched, but I—the one hiding—was overwhelmingly advantaged.

The incident had been caused by Grizzly, and the best evidence they could possibly find was nothing more than the coincidence that I had been present at the scenes of the first and second incidents.

There was no need to do something foolish like, ‘I’ll have Grizzly cause more murders to confuse the investigation.’

There was no need to engage in a battle of wits at all.

I simply needed to stay quiet, hide myself, and let time pass.

A quiet café with no customers.

Rustle, rustle—the sound of pages turning echoed through the café.

Yohan’s dark eyes calmly devoured the knowledge contained within the grimoire.

***

The lecture hall where the professor had been murdered.

A calm-looking woman with black hair.

Shin Sion, the team leader of Division 3 of the Special Response Division, surveyed the scene while listening to a report from one of her subordinates.

“What happened to the body we sent to the forensics team?”

“Yes, well… they said they didn’t find anything.”

“Nothing?”

When Sion frowned, the female agent hurriedly added an explanation.

“Yes. I mean, they found some minor fingerprints, but there was absolutely no trace of the entity that directly killed the victim.”

“Looks like the type who doesn’t leave traces.”

Sion quietly brought her fist to her lips and pondered while looking at the bloodstains on the floor.

“…Where is Team Leader Park investigating?”

“Well, since a professor was killed, he thought the graduate students were suspicious, so he went to investigate them.”

A rough-and-ready investigation along the lines of ‘Catch the culprit!’

But…

“In a situation like this, I suppose that’s one way to do it.”

As they continued investigating, the agent let out a relieved sigh.

“Still, it’s a relief that no one else has died.”

A series of Supernatural Phenomenon incidents occurring right in places packed with people.

The university might already have become a playground for a murderous mage, so they had been on edge.

Fortunately, nothing else had happened.

…But Sion flatly said,

“No. It’s the worst possible situation.”

“What?”

“They’re not being controlled by the magic. They’re trying to control the magic.”

Sion realized she had frightened the agent and smiled apologetically.

“Sorry. It’s just my imagination.”

But the question still lingered in Sion’s mind.

For someone who had obtained the power to kill people without being discovered, they were far too quiet.

That very silence frightened her.

“…What on earth are they planning, and what are they doing?”

Sion brought her fist to her lips and quietly muttered to herself.

***

And at that very moment.

Yohan was making a list of the tools necessary for performing magic,

because he wanted to test whether it really worked.

The required items differed depending on the magic being performed, but if he had to pick out the essential things—

A brazier, a censer, holy water, a holy water sprinkler, and an enchanted dagger to be used as a multipurpose tool.

Those were the five items.

“…That’s a hell of a lot of preparation.”

Anyway, since he had decided to give it a try, he was reading the book and preparing everything step by step when something made him doubt his own eyes.

[When making incense or preparing ingredients, earthenware bowls made directly by the mage themselves are more effective.]

My eyes blinked on their own.

“…What?”

What… I had to make it myself?

I couldn’t just buy one?

A deep sigh escaped from within me.

“Haaah……”

And that weekend.

[Children & Families! Exciting Pottery Experience!]

“Children~ friends~ everyone! Thank you so much for coming to our pottery workshop! Now, shall we all have fun making our very own beautiful bowls~!”

“Waaaaah~! Let’s make them!”

The bright, ringing voice of a young female pottery instructor welcoming the participants echoed through the workshop.

Her professional spirit was so strong that she made sure to include every participant, even reaching out toward the non-child participants and speaking in a cheerful voice.

“Now~ Don’t be shy, even if you’re sitting in the back!”

At this children’s event, there was exactly one adult male participant!

With the gazes of all the parents and children focused entirely on me, I lowered my eyes helplessly and quietly answered.

“Yes… Let’s make one….”