While tracking the footprints with Jo Sena.
I noticed the footprints climbed up the wall and led all the way to the ceiling.
I kept a calm demeanor, subtly lifting only my eyes, as if I hadn’t noticed anything at all.
If I tried to explain what I saw at that moment, it might take several pages.
But I had neither the time nor the nerve for that.
My only thought was that I needed to hide Jo Sena behind me.
“Three!”
“You son of a—!”
At the urgent countdown, Jo Sena tumbled backward behind me with a thud.
That was probably a good thing.
Shhhh-.
Because right where she’d been standing, a long strand like a piece of seaweed descended and tried to wrap around her.
If I’d been even a little slower, she would’ve been caught by that thing.
I don’t even want to imagine what would’ve happened after that.
“Ah, what is that!”
Jo Sena, who had landed on her rear and was now staring at the ceiling, turned even paler.
Between her shattering breaths, I could see strands of hair spread across the ceiling like a spiderweb.
And within that hair.
A woman was smiling so wide that her mouth stretched all the way to her ears.
My eyes met its.
I saw it.
And it saw me.
As those eyeballs rolled around wildly, I felt all the blood drain from my face.
The only reason I didn’t turn and run right then was because I had a sliver of faith in the cooking foil clothes and the holy water.
Let’s do this.
Let’s just do this.
“Kihihihihihihi!”
Swoooosh-.
The long hair stretched in every direction lunged at me—
—or so I thought, but instead it wrapped around the neck of Jo Sena, who was awkwardly getting to her feet.
“Guh-eok, eugh!”
In an instant, Jo Sena was dangling in the air, thrashing.
She clawed at the hair wrapped around her neck with her hands, her eyes rolling wildly, and her legs, exposed beneath her dress, kicked back and forth like someone swimming.
Her high heels slipped off, and yellow urine streamed down her thighs.
I guess this is what a person looks like when they’re being hanged.
“Kuh-guhk, g-geu-guhk-guhk-eugk!”
Overwhelmed by the spectacle I’d never witnessed before, I froze for a second.
Whisk-.
Then something moved quickly past my side.
It was Boribori.
Boribori had rushed to Jo Sena’s wildly kicking feet and grabbed hold of her leg.
“Lestes! Lestes!”
Boribori screamed out words I couldn’t understand at the top of her little lungs, gripping Jo Sena’s ankle with those tiny hands and desperately pushing upward.
The little thing’s whole body trembled, and her face was flushed red as if her veins might burst.
That snapped me back to my senses.
“Noona!”
I ran over too, grabbing her legs and lifting them high.
That should make it a little easier for her to breathe.
Crack, crackle-.
But the hair wrapped around her neck kept tightening, making unsettling sounds. At this rate, her neck bones would snap.
Once that thought hit me, I realized holding her legs wasn’t going to accomplish much.
So I drew an opening magic circle on the cap of the water bottle I’d taken out earlier and opened that door.
“Die! You ugly bitch!”
The liquid inside the water bottle.
My specially made holy water.
Praying it would work, I splashed the entire contents onto the woman hanging from the ceiling.
Hsssss, hssss-.
The droplets flew through the air, wobbling.
As soon as they made contact, the situation changed in an instant.
“━━───!!!”
From the mouth of the woman who’d been grinning ear to ear burst a shocking, tearing scream.
It resonated like multiple animals and people were all trapped inside a single cave, shouting at once.
Probably a scream.
It let out that scream and dropped to the floor with a thud.
Shhhhhhh-.
As that pitch-black mass of hair lost its strength, Jo Sena also fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Ugh, sh…cough!”
“Noona, are you okay?”
“I…I pissed myself…”
“Given that you’re joking, I guess you’re fine.”
Jo Sena grimaced as she rubbed her neck.
She fixed her sunglasses, then pulled a spray from her handbag and spritzed her neck.
After a brief sharp smell, Jo Sena spoke in a much steadier voice.
“Cough, that stuff in the bottle… was that holy water? Ugh, the smell’s strong, but the effect’s good. What did you say your name was again?”
“Ha Yuseong.”
“Ha Yuseong, honestly…, cough, I’ll admit you helped. But you know what? You’re not cut out to make a living as a magician in this line of work.”
“Why are you badmouthing me right after admitting I helped?”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have saved you if you’d been the one attacked.”
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
As I frowned hard, Noona Jo Sena kept clearing her throat with an “ah—” and spoke.
“It’s not just me. That Choi Janggun, and probably Yu Gain too, would’ve done the same. The fewer people there are, the bigger the cut each person gets. That’s how magicians are.”
Her expression and tone were serious enough that she didn’t seem to be joking.
Shhhh-.
Jo Sena started spraying the stuff around the woman lying face-down on the floor too.
“I’m going to make a barrier around that girl now. If we finish before Choi Janggun or Yu Gain gets here, our contribution will be bigger, so we’ll get paid more.”
Whoosh!
She pulled out a few candles and lit them.
She also poured the holy water she’d brought separately into a circle on the ground.
# # #
The long-haired woman didn’t move at all inside the bizarre barrier we’d set up.
She just lay there face-down.
Jo Sena tied her wrists and ankles with rope.
Whether it was payback for nearly being choked to death, she tied those knots extra tight.
“If it were a twilight grade anomaly, the spray I used should’ve been enough to exorcise it. This one’s probably harmony tier. And the spirit inside that girl… doesn’t seem to be just one.”
“What if it’s not just one?”
“Multiple spirits are inside her. Even if you spent your whole life deliberately wandering through haunted houses and abandoned houses, it’d be hard to end up like that. What the hell has she been doing?”
Jo Sena seemed completely fed up, letting out a heavy sigh.
“Hah, I’m an alchemy class magician, so I can’t exorcise a harmony tier anomaly with my current gear. We need to bring that male shaman or Gain.”
Alchemy class.
Another term I didn’t know.
“I’ll go get Gain. You stay here and keep watch quietly. If anything inside her talks to you, don’t answer, no matter what. Got it?”
“You’re going alone? Are you sure that’s okay?”
“Just answer me. Do you understand or not?”
“Yes, I’ll be careful.”
Jo Sena lit a cigarette and blew out a puff of smoke.
The smoke transformed into butterflies and fluttered off somewhere, and Noona Jo Sena followed after them, her heels clicking against the floor.
Once she was out of sight.
Shhhhk-.
The woman lying face-down inside the candle barrier sat up.
Then she touched the back of her head and let out a groan.
“Ugh, my head. Where the hell is this…”
As she brushed her hair back with bony hands, the face of a slightly gaunt woman was revealed.
Early twenties. Dark circles under her eyes and rough skin, but her face itself was that of a beauty.
“Wh-who are you? Where is this… a basement? Ugh, it’s cold!”
She looked at me with eyes wide as a deer’s, acting like an ordinary woman.
“Why is my body… tied up? Untie me! Please untie me! Daddy! Mommy! Someone help me! Hey, is anyone there!?”
“……”
“Who are you, anyway? Who are you to do this to me! Please just untie me! S-save me, please…”
Tears streaming down her face, she really did look wronged and terrified.
Like a young lady who’d been kidnapped.
If this had been me a few days ago, I might’ve been fooled.
“Urrrrr…”
Boribori was staring at the woman, her tail standing straight up.
She even wrinkled her nose like an angry beast and growled.
So I decided to ignore her.
Then the woman, who’d been crying for a while, suddenly started wailing as if she were furious.
“What business do you have with me to treat me like this! Don’t you dare mess with me! I’ll kill you!”
Crying, then screaming.
Begging in a thin voice, then getting angry in a thick one.
Her behavior was so erratic that chills ran down my spine.
Just then, Jo Sena reappeared.
Next to her, President Kim Manchun was gasping for breath.
“Damn it, that shaman and Gain are nowhere to be found! Looks like we’ll have to do this ourselves!”
“Ye…Yeonseo!”
President Kim Manchun’s eyes went wide as marbles.
And in front of him, his daughter Yeonseo was screaming.
“Dad! Dad, save me! It’s tied too tight, it hurts! And it’s f-f-f-freezing here! Dad, I’m scared! What is this! Dad, save me! Cough, cough, achoo!”
Seeing Yeonseo wailing and coughing in that pitiful voice reminded me of my little sister, who was often sick when we were kids, and it made me uneasy.
And what about her father, Kim Manchun?
Kim Manchun grabbed my shoulder with a face that looked like he was about to burst into tears at any moment.
“This is the first time in months that Yeonseo has recognized me! So shouldn’t we untie her now!? She’ll catch a cold at this rate!”
“Absolutely not, President Kim.”
Noona Jo Sena said firmly, handing Kim Manchun a candle.
“I brought you here to form a triangle formation. Stand over here. Whatever you do, don’t break the triangle.”
“…A triangle?”
“You’ve heard of the trinity and the Bermuda Triangle, right? In the study of magic, a triangle is a solid frame. But, if even one vertex disappears…”
Jo Sena fell silent.
But her silence and the omission seemed to say more than any lengthy explanation.
She held out a branch to me.
“This is a peach tree branch. I think that bastard Choi Janggun dropped it.”
“Why are you giving this to me?”
“You could see the spirits’ footprints, right? You probably have a high aptitude for the spirit medium class. And since you could make holy water, you’ve probably got aptitude for the alchemy and ritual classes too.”
“So?”
“Exorcism magic is most effective when performed by the spirit medium and ritual classes. Since that shaman and Yu Gain aren’t here, you have to do it.”
What exactly am I supposed to do with this peach tree branch?
But I wasn’t completely green either.
After Boribori started appearing to me, I’d watched a few movies about exorcism.
And I did have a ‘secret weapon’ that I’d brought along with the holy water bottle and cooking foil.
If I used that, maybe I could pull this off somehow.
“Noona, I have one condition. Do you have some kind of cloth? Use it to cover your and the president’s eyes. You absolutely must not open them.”
My secret weapon was something I really didn’t want other people to see.
Especially magicians like Jo Sena—I wanted to keep it a secret from them.
“…What? You want me to cover my eyes?”
President Kim Manchun made a tearful face, looking back and forth between me and his daughter.
Then, as if he saw the determination on my face, he took a towel from Noona Jo Sena.
He must have been grasping at straws to save his daughter.
“…Yuseong, what are you planning? Is this going to work?”
Noona Jo Sena also covered her eyes and asked me in a subtle voice.
I could feel the distrust in her voice.
When everyone had their eyes covered.
I pulled my secret weapon out of my pants pocket.
And the moment Yeonseo saw it, her hair stood on end and she screamed.
“Ah, Dad! This man is touching my chest! Aaah! Dad, this man is—!”
Yeonseo shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“Aaah! You perverted bastard! Dad! Dad, save me! This man is touching my butt! Aaaaaaah!”
So that’s how she’s playing it, huh?
Even the president was so flustered his whole body was trembling.
“Y-Yeonseo! Hey! What are you doing to my daughter—!”
The president’s hand went to the cloth covering his face.
I hurriedly grabbed President Kim’s hand.
“Don’t! Don’t open your eyes, no matter what!”
I didn’t expect that woman to pull that kind of stunt, so I was a bit flustered too.
But that just confirmed one thing.
That thing—no, those things—were afraid of my ‘secret weapon.’
A pack of sticky notes that cost 2,000 won.
With magic circles drawn densely on every single page.
And the one hour I spent making them!
Rip-.
I peeled off one opening magic circle and stuck it onto Yeonseo’s forehead.
“You filthy ghosts.”
“Uh-guk!”
The woman’s eyes flew open, her black pupils rolling back.
“Come out of that poor woman’s body!”
