Chapter 22 — Four Men And Gyeongdo (3)

The following morning.

Shin Hweein had just finished washing his face and was changing into a suit when a knock came at the door.
Anyone who would actually knock before coming in was probably the priest, he reckoned, so he called for whoever it was to come in.
The door cracked open a sliver, and Sister Barbara stuck her head through.

“I’d like a word, just for a moment.”
“This is an unfamiliar way of going about it, coming from you. I’m already fully dressed, so come on in.”
“No. That is… just the two of us.”

At that, Shin Hweein and Geum Moa looked at each other.

Shin Hweein checked Geum Moa first, since she was on the verge of casually summoning her flame, and rose from his seat.

“I’ll be back shortly.”
“Just a moment, young master. Let me speak to the Sister first. Only for a little while.”
“Are you trying to make me an accessory to murder?”

Geum Moa’s habit of keeping watch over other women seemed to be getting steadily worse lately, and Shin Hweein wondered whether he ought to give her a word of caution.
The trouble was Shin Myeongin and Do Yumi.
Their behavior was so flagrant that even Shin Hweein had to admit it was hardly a baseless concern.

…All the same, Sister Barbara was not one of them.

“It will be something to do with the priest. So set aside your pointless worries and wait.”
“Ah.”

The nun wore a struck-to-the-quick expression in Geum Moa’s stead, and at the sight of it Shin Hweein could only let out a snort of laughter.
For if that ill-mannered nun had come to call so politely, it was plainly going to be about Father Lucas, whom she held dearer than herself.

He closed the door at once and stepped out.
Once he had confirmed that Geum Moa was not pressed up against the door with her ear to it, he spoke to the nun.

“There. Now no one else will hear us.”
“That person looks like she’d punch right through a door to listen, no problem.”
“That is why I have raised a barrier as well.”

In truth she would punch right through a barrier and listen all the same, but for now the important thing was to set Sister Barbara at ease.
True enough, at the word barrier she relaxed.
She glanced around her for no particular reason, then said in a low voice.

“I’m not going along this time, you see.”
“You? The nun who lives only for the priest?”
“Don’t call me a fanatic.”

The nun, irritated at his unexpected reaction, suddenly let out a sigh.

“You heard about the baptism from Do Yumi, didn’t you.”
“Yes, I heard.”
“It’s a really important moment, and with both Lucas and me away I feel a bit bad about it. She’d want you there, and you’re not around for it either.”
“I doubt Do Yumi herself would consider it so very important a moment.”
“It is important. It’s the moment she’s reborn, spiritually.”

She did not behave one bit like a nun, yet for all that she was still a religious, or so it seemed.
At the firm conviction in Sister Barbara’s voice, Shin Hweein found himself nodding without thinking.

“In that case, very well. After all, with four men, having a lone woman in the mix would be uncomfortable for her.”
“Why four?”
“One more got added along the way.”
“Along the way?”

The nun tilted her head, baffled, but evidently deciding that wasn’t the important point right now, she went on.

“Normally Lucas and I being apart at all wouldn’t even be on the table…. But this time I’m going to trust you and leave him with you.”
“You. Trust me, you say.”
“You remember the last mission. Honestly, I was scared out of my mind being forced apart from Zer, and yet, all things considered, it went off more smoothly than I’d expected. I think that was probably thanks to you.”
“It will have been a misjudgment. The space was an unusual one.”
“You underestimate Zer. If that bastard really meant to kill, he could pierce right through that kind of illusion and kill anyway.”

At those words Shin Hweein paused.
For now that she said it and he turned it over, a suspicion began to creep up on him.
If he made use of the breath of death he had now come to handle, he might, with very great difficulty, have been able to pierce the Great-Mouth Ghost’s authority as well.

The nun let out a sigh and said.

“I honestly don’t know why, but Zer’s taken a liking to you. I know your past is no ordinary thing, so maybe it’s that. Or maybe that bastard really is just a gay piece of shit who’s taken a fancy to your looks….”
“Don’t say ominous things.”
“Anyway, the point is, you can act as a check on Zer. …Maybe more effectively than I can. There’s someone who’s had to keep this cigarette in her mouth since her mid-teens, all because of him….”

Truly, the more one listened, the more astonishingly excessive her doting on her brother revealed itself to be.

While Shin Hweein silently heard her grievances out, Sister Barbara, as if at last coming back to herself, shook her head from side to side.

“Like you said, this is the first time I’m trying to stand on my own, after being glued to my brother all this while. Maybe Zer’s stabilized enough by now, and I’m just the one making a fuss alone. That’s possible too, isn’t it? So… well, I’d never have dared if you weren’t here, of course.”
“You yourself have had a hard time of it all this while, then.”
“Listen to you. As if you were my brother or something.”

Hahh.

She let out a sigh and added.

“So look after Lucas for me, please. And Zer, too. That bastard is a devil. He may look quiet now, but you never know when he’ll bare his fangs.”
“Indeed. I should be glad to hear your story one day, if I may.”
“Yeah.”

Caught off guard at the words, Sister Barbara hesitated a moment, then glanced at him sidelong and said.

“If you really want to hear it, then… make time for me when you get back.”
“As much as you like.”
“…Right. Then take care, and have a safe trip.”

Suddenly seeming to want a smoke, the nun habitually began moving the electronic cigarette she kept hung around her neck toward her mouth, then caught herself, set it down, and turned away.
Just then, struck by a question, Shin Hweein called her back.

“What is it?”
“When I first met the priest, why was it you weren’t with him? He said you missed the flight because you were laid out from drink, but looking at the way you behave, that doesn’t make sense.”
“We fought.”

The moment she heard that, the nun screwed her face up in a frown and shot back.

“Up to now, those Vatican bastards have kept Lucas locked up like a beast in a cage, tormenting him like an experimental subject, and now they want to slap a tight collar on him and use him as their hunting dog. I can’t stand it, I get so pissed, and yet there’s Lucas, with no idea how to be properly angry himself, saying exorcist priest robes look great, you know and other such bullshit.”
“And so you drowned the anger in drink and passed out.”
“…Yeah, I’m reflecting on it. If you hadn’t been there, I don’t know what would have become of Lucas… so anyway, well, yeah. Thanks for backing Lucas up that time. Right, I’m really going now.”

Having for once offered a candid word of thanks, Sister Barbara walked off rapidly, as if she had embarrassed herself with it.

“A fine younger sister.”
“An impudent fox-of-flame, that’s what she is….”
“How do you figure that. Don’t go trying to expand the ranks of your kind.”

True to expectation, Geum Moa had poked her head right through the barrier with perfect composure.
At her words, Shin Hweein sighed and gave her a sharp word of reproof.

This time, since they were moving not only under royal command but also under a formal commission from the Cardinal, the three men were properly entering Hwa-guk via Incheon International Airport.

A cripple in a plain mask leaning on a staff; a Western priest of dazzling beauty; and, alongside them, Yun Jubaek, direct-line of the Yun House, who had this time become a First-Rank sorcerer and was now under the country’s most concentrated attention and management.

They could not help drawing every eye, and idiots foolish enough to try to capture them on camera kept smashing their phones and lenses in droves.

“Sometimes I think it’d be nice if celebrities trained up their spiritual power, too.”

Yun Jubaek shook his head from side to side as he said it.

Bearing the royal command, they passed through security and immigration in a single pass by way of a separately prepared route, and were now making their way through the duty-free area.

“That, alas, comes down to inborn talent. There’s no help for it. Although there are, in fact, those who train up their spiritual power for the express purpose of evading the paparazzi.”
“I figured there’d be people like that. Oh. They’re selling something decent here.”

Mid-conversation, Yun Jubaek’s eye was caught by a bottle of whisky on display in the duty-free shop, and he bought it on the spot.
It was a single-malt Scotch whisky, aged over thirty years, so even the duty-free price ran into the millions of won.
Yet without the slightest hesitation he purchased it, refused even the wrapping, and tucked it inside his coat.
It was plain that he had some kind of storage sorcerous implement on his person.

“Buy something for yourself too. You as well, Father. We get neither tax going out nor coming back, so when there’s something you like, buying it now is the smart move.”

As he had just demonstrated in plain view, there were any number of ways to conceal an item if it came to that, so on entering or leaving the country no one bothered to search out every item an awakened might be carrying and slap duty on it.
Of course, in exchange for that, awakened running their own private trade became a problem.
But most awakened earned more simply by operating as awakened, so few of them caused trouble over such a trifling thing.

“I still don’t know what makes a good drink.”
“Really? Then, for a start, collect up a decent variety of each kind and try them one at a time later. Buying them here will do the job.”
“…Shall I, then.”

Shin Hweein had at least found Purple Mist Wine very much to his taste, and was beginning to take a slight interest in liquor, so he was easily won over by Yun Jubaek’s coaxing.
In the end he too went round buying every whisky, wine, champagne, tequila, and traditional liquor in sight, each bottle costing tens, or hundreds, of millions of won.
No matter how heavy the load, all he had to do was raise a barrier so that ordinary eyes wouldn’t catch the act, then open his subspace storage and stow the goods inside.

“This is the part of the Shin House I really do envy…. Ah, and Hwa-guk traditional liquors are excellent too, you know. In Gyeongdo I’d bet there are plenty of shops that handle them as a specialty, so let’s drop by one when there’s time.”
“Let’s do that.”
“Brothers, you do realize that while we’re on the mission, this is off-limits.”
“What do you take me for, Father. I, sir, draw a strict line between work and play.”

At those words a certain scene rose unbidden to Shin Hweein’s mind, but he held his tongue.
He would save it for later, when he could put Shin Myeongin right in front of Yun Jubaek and put the claim to the test.

“So. There’s another local helper, you said?”

On the way to the gate, all their shopping done.
At Yun Jubaek’s question Shin Hweein, though hesitant, nodded.

“He’s a Hwa-guk man, but not born in Gyeongdo. He’s the priest in charge of a small countryside shrine, and he sent word that he’d been summoned by the Onmyo Bureau for the same business as us, and was likewise on his way to Gyeongdo this time. That said, he’s not particularly welcome over there either.”
“A man of Hwa-guk who’d choose Aeshin’s shelter over the Onmyo Bureau? There must be quite a story behind him, too.”

Explaining as well why a man attached to a shrine had ended up moving at the Onmyo Bureau’s pleasure, and so building a sympathetic atmosphere around him, Shin Hweein asked whether it would be alright for him to look after the man over there.
To which both of them, naturally, nodded readily.

“You said he’s a bit naive but his abilities are strong, no? A strong ally who’ll never turn on us. That’s more than welcome.”
“If you have judged so on your own observation, Brother, then there’s nothing more for me to add.”
“At any rate, this is shaping up to be a fun one. With the Onmyo Bureau and the Cathedral at odds, here we are, a dream team made of representatives of both.”

To that Shin Hweein did not bother to reply.
To his eye, every one of them, himself included, had some defect or other.
Whether they could cover one another’s missing parts and form a true dream team, or whether they’d end up cheerfully clutching at each other’s trouser-cuffs and tumbling down together, there was no telling.

Even so, if it comes to it I have the new weapon as well. Though what side-effects there’ll be, I cannot say….

Pressing down the worry that rose unbidden, they arrived at the gate and, by way of the special private corridor, boarded the seats secretly prepared for them inside the aircraft.

“First time leaving the country, isn’t it? That part’s the most fun.”
“I am looking forward to it.”

Naturally, he said nothing to Yun Jubaek about the compass sorcery.
It was a technique far too dangerous to spread.
For the time being, it would remain a weapon belonging only to Shin Hweein and Ham Seoyeon.

“Hmm. It’ll take more than an hour. In the meantime just one little drin— no, joking, that’s a joke.”
“Brother, if you’re bored, how about we play a round of baduk together?”

Tuning out the voices of the two men coming from the next seat over, Shin Hweein turned his gaze to the window.
He’d left the country before, but it was his first time on an airplane.
It really was lively enough that he felt a small twinge of regret at the thought of skipping this moment altogether by way of the compass sorcery.
By this, one more experience he had not yet had had been added to his life.

Feeling the airplane lift slowly into the air, he smiled gently at the pressure pressing softly down on him from above.

— Moa. Quit fooling around and get off me.
— When we’re in Hwa-guk I have to pretend I’m not there the whole time. At least for now, I need to keep contact with the young master.
— For someone who has lived so long, you carry on like a child.
— What do you mean, lived long? This year I turn seventeen.

Shin Hweein snorted at the preposterous joke, but Geum Moa held her silence.
And from then on, all the way to Hwa-guk, Geum Moa never corrected what she had said.

Whatever he said could not reach her, and so at length Shin Hweein gave up thinking about it and had to hold her close in silence.

“Ah, Grand-Master—!”

The moment they stepped out of Kansai International Airport’s arrival hall, a man dressed in shrine-custodian garb was waving a placard bearing words of welcome for them as energetically as he could.
In passable Korean it read Legendary Casanova — descended upon Japan!, and on seeing it Shin Hweein quite naturally pretended not to know him and turned the other way.
But unfortunately Mochizuki Makoto had spotted him first and was already striding rapidly over.

“Why are you pretending not to know me, Grand-Master?! I’ve been waiting for you all this time!”
“Spare me the nonsense and hand over that placard for a start.”

Since impersonating a stranger had failed, as the next-best option he wrenched the placard away and burned it on the spot.
But unhappily their party had already seen the thing.

“So your fame has spread even as far as Hwa-guk. Truly….”
“Brother, it’s better to keep these things in moderation.”
“Nonsense.”

Dismissing his companions’ words with a wave, Shin Hweein first drew a wrapped bundle from inside his coat and handed it to Makoto.

“My apologies for the late delivery.”
“It’s fine. Apparently those headquarters bastards were going to send me to the Onmyo Bureau anyway. If only for spite, I really have to make a name for myself.”
“But moving in company with us is going to make your treatment in Hwa-guk worse still.”
“Grand-Master, there’s no future for me if I go on as I have been. Given my temperament, I can’t go rubbing my hands and clinging to fellows who’ve taken against me, either.”

Shaking his head firmly at the man’s perfectly reasonable concern, Makoto tucked the bundle away and said.

“Our shrine is finally starting to come back. If I can just buy a little time, everyone will have no choice but to recognize us in the end. Until then, I’d like to borrow your shadow, Grand-Master.”
“You have grown a fair bit. But stop calling me Grand-Master, would you.”

His shadow was hardly wide enough to warrant that to begin with.
Still, this time around there was Yun Jubaek bearing the royal command and the exorcist priest Father Lucas, so it would be of some help.

At Makoto’s burning gaze, Shin Hweein gave a wry smile, clapped his shoulder, and said.

“Let’s head straight to Gyeongdo.”
“Honestly, I was hoping for a little Osaka sightseeing.”
“Guji.”
“Joking. By the way, that sexy big sis from before, she didn’t come this time, did she?”
“Guji.”
“Joking too….”

The crestfallen expression made it look anything but a joke, but he chose to pretend not to notice.

“Hm? Someone seems to be watching us, doesn’t it?”

While trying to take the measure of Makoto, a man he was meeting for the first time, Father Lucas suddenly looked up and spoke.
Sharing a similar feeling, Shin Hweein had been chalking it up to the usual local hostility toward a conspicuous foreign-looking party.
But Yun Jubaek’s reaction was different.

“Ah, looks like someone’s come to meet us.”
“To meet us?”
“Yes. You weren’t, by any chance, planning on taking the subway or a taxi all the way to Gyeongdo, were you?”

Shin Hweein had not thought deeply about that particular question.
Makoto, this being his first time even in Osaka, let alone Gyeongdo, had spent all morning looking up subways and buses to Gyeongdo, and was now wearing nothing but a vacant expression.

Soon a long black limousine pulled up in front of the airport to receive them, and at the sight of it Makoto turned to Shin Hweein with a face like a cat sailing through outer space.

“So this is what it means to be one of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses.”

Sympathizing in part with what Yun Juna must have felt, Shin Hweein muttered the words under his breath and, leading the stiffly-frozen Makoto along, climbed into the limousine with a sigh.

Gyeongdo was less than an hour’s drive away.