Chapter 8

Let’s Learn Magic (5)

Published on Oct 8, 2026

Chapter 8 - Let’s Learn Magic (5)

The break room of the Special Response Division. The members of the Special Response Division were resting, exhausted and sprawled out.

They had a hard time last night because of the incident involving a haunted commercial building.

Unlike places where ghosts naturally appear, such as abandoned buildings, gloomy locations, or houses with tragic histories, this was a criminal act in which someone deliberately released ghosts into a commercial building to cause supernatural phenomena, lower the building's value, and then purchase it cheaply.

It was originally an incident that the Special Response Division had been investigating before the college incident.

Compared to the college murder case, where a person had been killed in the middle of the street, its danger level was lower, but it was still dangerous.

Team Leader Park of the Special Response Division's Fifth Division frowned as he stretched his tired shoulders.

"That professor murder case is giving me enough of a headache already… and now we have to deal with this fucking ghost merchant."

The youngest female member of the Third Division looked up at those words and asked.

"Ghost… merchant?"

Creak—

Just then, Sion entered the break room and answered for him.

"A mage operating in Europe. He's the owner of the grimoire Heptameron."

[Heptameron — A grimoire said to have been written by an Italian scholar named Pietro of Abano. It contains methods for trapping ghosts inside bottles and using the knowledge and skills they possessed.]

"He's a mage who abuses magic by trapping ghosts in bottles and cans and selling them as products."

Sion placed some drinks and a few documents on the table.

"First of all, everyone did a great job. Let's take a break and have some coffee."

Team Leader Park took a cup of coffee and said.

"Thanks. I'll enjoy it. So, how's the cleanup going?"

"We caught the organization that smuggled the canned ghosts, but some of them had already been distributed… For everyone's safety, we'll have to find the affected buildings and purify them."

Irritation crept into Team Leader Park's voice.

"Just tell them to turn them into haunted houses!"

"You wouldn't want to see a tiger that escaped from its cage just because you wanted to see a tiger, would you?"

Sion picked up a cup of coffee and handed it to the youngest member.

"Good work."

"Ah…! Thank you. You worked hard too, Team Leader Sion. But what's this material you brought?"

Sion looked down at the documents.

"This is a brief summary of the identities of the students who were taking classes in the classroom at the time the professor was killed."

Team Leader Park took a sip of his coffee and said.

"You think the person who killed the professor is among them?"

"…It's just my speculation. I'm investigating them one by one to verify it."

Sion calmly explained his thoughts.

"Both the first incident, in which a man was murdered, and the second incident, the professor's murder, were carried out in places where there were people watching, even though there were no traces left behind."

"Even if we assume the first incident was an uncontrolled outburst, I thought the second one happened because the person was intoxicated by their newfound power or couldn't control the grimoire. But then the third incident never happened."

"…And things have been quiet ever since. Don't you think it's strange that someone who obtained such powerful abilities would be this cautious?"

Team Leader Park rubbed his chin before answering.

"Maybe he's just a timid or cautious person?"

"If the owner of the grimoire were cautious by nature, that would contradict the second incident. If he wanted to kill someone, he would've quietly killed them somewhere with fewer people instead of doing it in a classroom. He has the ability to do so, too."

"So what's your conclusion?"

"The second incident was also an unexpected outburst of the grimoire's power. After that, the owner began learning to control the grimoire and started trying to conceal himself."

Sion brought his fist to his lips and calmly organized his speculation.

"Perhaps there's a reason the owner of the grimoire is being cautious that we haven't noticed, even though we've already secured the evidence. There might be some accidental piece of evidence among the clues from the two incidents that could reveal their identity."

At those words, Team Leader Park nodded, while the youngest female member's eyes lit up.

"We don't have any other solid leads right now, so if we catch something, that's great."

"I-I'll work even harder, too!"

Sion gave a faint smile.

"Thank you."

He took a sip of coffee and began reading through the names written in the documents.

Kim Gisu, Kim Seona, Kim Yohan….

Could the owner of the grimoire really be one of them?

If so, what was he doing right now, and how much had he coveted the knowledge within the grimoire? How much had he grown?

The reason he was being cautious… Was it not only because of the evidence, but because he had anticipated the existence of the Special Response Division as well?

Sion quietly continued reading through the documents with a calm gaze.

***

Yohan arrived home after satisfactorily buying groceries with the money he had earned from his security part-time job that day.

Perhaps the payment for being startled by ghosts was included in his wages. For a day's work, it wasn't bad.

If anything, his body felt stiff from sitting in a chair for so long, rather than from dealing with the ghost.

It had also been annoying that, when the work was over, Cheolmin kept asking him things like whether anything strange had happened or whether he'd seen anything unusual.

People naturally wanted a story they could accept as reasonable.

Even if he told someone who had already been tormented by a ghost that he hadn't seen anything, they probably wouldn't believe him.

Seeing the prayer beads around Cheolmin's wrist, he had made up a story about how a Buddhist monk had once told him, when he was young, that he had exceptionally good energy and strong yang energy.

Naturally, it was a lie. He had never even been near a Buddhist temple.

Anyway, after putting away the groceries and feeding Grizzly, I ate a simple meal while thinking about my plans for the future.

…Should I just become an exorcist?

The effect of the holy water made from salt water was much better than I'd expected.

Of all the things I could do right now, this might be the easiest way to make money.

I could just go to a building rumored to be haunted, swing around some holy water, and spray droplets everywhere. That would be it.

The only thing worrying me was…

The existence of the Secret Government Organization that might be tracking me.

They didn't seem to have investigated me yet, but if they investigated me later…

It would be suspicious for someone who had lived an ordinary life until now to suddenly start working as an exorcist after the professor murder case.

".............."

I covered my forehead with my hand and sighed.

Having my actions restricted was more annoying than I'd expected.

A secret government organization I'd never seen before, one that managed Supernatural Phenomenon cases.

…I'm really shadowboxing the hell out of them.

I gathered my thoughts.

No. If I came to know about their existence, that would mean they'd appeared in front of me.

And that would mean they considered me a suspect.

At least for now, I still had some breathing room.

I needed to learn more magic while I had the chance.

I took a short nap to relieve my fatigue, woke up, and opened the grimoire.

The next thing I'd planned to make after holy water was incense.

Magical incense used as an aid when casting spells. Apparently, it was used when driving away or summoning spirits.

"Let's see. The ingredients I need first are… dried aloe, nutmeg, benzoin, musk?"

Musk? I felt like I'd heard that word before… What exactly was it again?

Help me, Google!

I searched the internet and was shocked.

Musk — A fragrance extracted from the musk gland near the reproductive organs of the musk deer. Like ambergris and civet, it is one of the representative animal-derived fragrances.

Of course, I wasn't shocked because it was extracted from musk deer. I was shocked because of the price.

Two grams of powder costs… 330,000 won?

I knew that 330,000 won wasn't particularly expensive in itself.

But considering the state of my wallet, it was definitely expensive.

"............."

Of course, I could afford it, but with rent, Grizzly's food expenses, and everything else, it was giving me a headache.

I felt a little guilty about having called the holy water nothing more than water with salt mixed into it.

It really was an incredibly cost-effective magical liquid.

But what could I do? In the end, I had to buy it.

Unless I planned to save money to use as fare for the journey to the Underworld, if I intended to keep learning magic, then buying it was the right choice.