Chapter 7 - Let's Learn Magic (4)

When I contacted him, the man who had posted the night security job spoke in a desperate voice and told me he'd pay for my taxi fare if I came quickly. I arrived in front of the building he had mentioned.

I had expected it to be an old, abandoned building somewhere on the outskirts, since it was supposedly haunted.

Instead, it was an ordinary building you could find anywhere near a university bar district: a café on the first floor, a PC bang on the second, and a study room facility on the third and fourth floors.

The lights were off in both the café and the PC bang, apparently because neither was currently operating.

As I looked up and examined the building, the man who had posted the security job approached me.

He was an ordinary-looking man in his forties. Despite the nice clothes he was wearing, his tired-looking skin and hollow eyes immediately stood out.

“You're Kim Yohan, the person I contacted, right?”

“Yes, that's right.”

“Thank you for coming even though I posted the job so urgently. The person who used to do it just ran off without saying a word, so I was in a difficult situation.”

The man smiled as he spoke, trying to lighten the mood, but his words came quickly, and there was something anxious about his eyes.

Anyway, from what I heard, the man's name was Park Cheolmin, and he was the owner of the building. He personally operated both the PC bang and the study rooms.

“Even though I called it security, that was just a convenient expression. It's not professional security work or anything like that. It's more like standing watch or doing a night duty shift. Have you served in the military?”

“No, I haven't. Still, I think I roughly understand what you mean.”

Since I was an orphan, I hadn't gone to the military, but I didn't bother mentioning that.

As I followed Cheolmin up the stairs, I quietly glanced at the tightly closed entrance to the PC bang.

It was ten in the evening. Late, sure, but certainly not the kind of time when a PC bang would normally close.

Well, if the owner wanted it that way, there wasn't much I could say.

Perhaps sensing my gaze, Cheolmin muttered awkwardly.

“Haah... There's been a pointless rumor going around lately, so business hasn't been good.”

“A rumor?”

“That this is a haunted building.”

Cheolmin spoke as though it were nothing, but his words were still rushed, and he remained visibly anxious.

“That's why I keep a part-timer here. Drunk college students or people with nothing better to do keep trying to come inside because they want to see a ghost....”

Cheolmin started to say something else, then stopped, and we arrived at the study room office on the third floor.

A little dust had accumulated since nobody had been using it, but the office itself was fine.

“Your job is simple, Yohan. Just sit here, watch the security camera footage, keep an eye out for anything strange, and occasionally patrol the study rooms on the third and fourth floors. There's a flashlight here. You absolutely must not run away or quit halfway through. You need to stay here properly until six tomorrow morning. Understood?”

Ever since we entered the study room, Cheolmin's words had practically been pouring out of his mouth.

His eyes wouldn't stay still, and it was obvious that he wanted to get out of this place immediately.

My eyes narrowed instinctively at the sight.

...Well, I had come here with the purpose of experimenting with Holy Water, so I didn't really care.

'There's a problem with this building. I'm hiding information from you!'

He was practically broadcasting it with his entire body.

I could understand why the previous part-timer had run away.

Anyone who didn't run away from this would be an idiot.

Anyway, Cheolmin left as though he were fleeing.

I was left alone in the silent study room office, staring at the gray security camera screens.

There were six screens in total. Every screen showed nothing more than dark study room corridors, desks, and chairs.

There didn't seem to be any particular problem.

'Come to think of it, wasn't there a genre of horror game where you just watched security cameras like this?'

The silence was natural, but an unpleasant stillness hung in the air.

And then—

Tatak— Tadadadadadak—! Kkang— Kkang—!

Suddenly, I heard rapid banging against the stair railing, loud enough to reach the inside of the office, as something rushed up the stairs.

“—?!”

Startled by the sound, my eyes naturally widened as I looked at the security camera screens.

But... there was nothing on the stairs.

“..............”

But now that I thought about it, even if there had been something there, that would have been a problem.

From a part-timer's perspective, watching a drunk person bang against the railing while running madly up the stairs was horrifying enough.

Jingle~ Jingle~ Jingle-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring

On the screen beside the one showing the stairs, the doorbell of the fourth-floor study room began ringing furiously.

The door was still closed.

Seeing that, I let out a small sigh.

“Whoa....”

I had come prepared for this because I wanted to experiment with Holy Water, but the sight was so blatant that I couldn't help sighing.

That said, was it extremely frightening?

Not really.

I reached out and turned off the security camera monitor.

Instead of taking the flashlight, I got up from my seat, took the Grimoire out of my bag, and held it in my hand.

Because I, too, had something I couldn't see.

Tap— Tap—

I left the brightly lit office and climbed the stairs shrouded in darkness.

After all, I had a monster with me.

When I opened the door to the fourth-floor study room—the site of the problem—

Jingle—

A chair greeted me.

Drrr... Drrr...

A wheeled chair in the dark study room corridor slowly rolled toward me.

“...........”

Someone's going to faint from shock....

A wild Ghost has appeared!

So I decided to call mine out as well.

“Grizzly, come out.”

“Haaaah...!”

At his master's call, the Invisible Vampire that had been waiting inside the Grimoire emerged and exhaled a cold breath.

I couldn't see him, but his overwhelming presence filled the space.

Drrr...!

Toward the chair, which had unmistakably hesitated—

Whoosh—

Grizzly's arm shot out, snatched something, and clenched around it.

It was something faint, like smoke, which I could now see with my own eyes.

Depending on the angle, it even looked somewhat like a human face.

“Gyaa.”

Grizzly bit down on what appeared to be the face of the hazy thing and tore into it.

Crack—

That was it.

The hazy ghost immediately lost its strength, broke apart, scattered, and completely disappeared.

“Gyaa?”

Grizzly looked around, opening and closing his mouth as he tried to eat the dissipating hazy smoke, but it was useless.

It had completely vanished.

'...He kind of looks like a raccoon that just washed cotton candy in water.'

As I was thinking that—

Three hazy things suddenly moved rapidly, passed right by Grizzly and me, and flew toward the door.

“Grizzly, don't touch them.”

It was good to know that Grizzly could deal with ghosts so easily.

But my goal this time was to experiment with Holy Water.

Jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle-ring-ring-ring—

I approached the hazy ghost ringing the bell like mad.

I opened the water bottle hanging from my waist and took out the Holy Water Sprinkler that had been soaking in the Holy Water.

For convenience, I called them ghosts or spirits, but I didn't believe they were the souls of human beings.

After all, I had paid tuition and even studied philosophy.

...Though I still had no idea why I had learned it.

Anyway, to borrow the words of my beloved teacher, Plato—

The human body and this world were merely leather that imprisoned the soul.

When a person died, the soul went to the true and proper world, the world of Forms.

Therefore, what remained behind in this land was not the soul.

It was merely the by-product of the soul, residual thoughts, data.

I swung the Holy Water Sprinkler and sprinkled droplets of Holy Water at the hazy ghost blocking the doorway.

Since David's son Solomon took up hyssop, this was what you would call a Holy Water Sprinkler.

The droplets of Holy Water touched the hazy smoke.

And that was it.

There was no sizzling sound of something being burned, nor any agonized scream.

It simply lost its strength, scattered, and disappeared.

The bell stopped ringing.

Jingle—

I opened the door and stepped outside.

Then I looked up at the stairs leading to the rooftop.

Without hesitation, I climbed the stairs.

I wasn't afraid.

Not because I was particularly fearless, but because I had the ability to fight back.

A powerful Familiar.

The knowledge contained in the Grimoire.

Magic.

Darkness was no longer a place where some incomprehensible thing could be hiding from me.

Tap, tap, tap—

I climbed the stairs and swung the Holy Water Sprinkler at the two hazy clouds gathered in front of the rooftop door.

Again, that was all it took.

And so, a series of incidents that had worn down a certain building owner and caused rumors to spread that his building was haunted was resolved by a few drops of salt water made by reciting an incantation.

I took a light, deep breath.

“Whoo....”

As I felt a comfortable silence instead of that unnatural stillness—

Only then did I begin to understand the discipline called magic.

Just as Edison and Nikola had captured the lightning of God and turned it into energy—

A discipline capable of plundering and exploiting strange phenomena and the Supernatural Phenomenon.

That was magic.