Chapter 25 — The Sorcerer, The Priest, And The Nun (1)

As they cleared the arrivals gate at Incheon Airport, Yun Jubaek turned to Shin Hweein one last time to make sure.

“You really aren’t coming along? His Majesty will want you at court too, no doubt.”
“Princess Mirye’s coming-of-age ceremony is just around the corner. I’ll pay my respects then. To tell the truth, the attention I’m already getting is too much.”
“Some folks would kill for a single audience, and here you are…. Aloof to the bone, the whole Shin family. Well, I’m off. We’ll pick a date within a few days.”

At the mention of the date, Yun Jubaek raised a hand and pantomimed, none too gracefully, the tossing back of a wineglass, then waved and went on his way.

Shin Hweein shook his head and turned to the priest.

“Let us be off as well. The Cardinal will be waiting.”
“…Yes, let us.”

But the priest’s face, as he answered, was anything but clear, which was unlike him.

The man was peering down at his phone screen.
Catching it, Shin Hweein remarked in a teasing tone.

“Have you been thrown over by some woman you fancied?”
“Hahaha, I’d almost rather it were that…. But I’m a priest, you know. My love and my faith both run a single road, and that road is the Lord’s.”

With a wry smile, Father Lucas closed the phone and shrugged.

“I’m not the man I used to be, either. Having met Brother, I’ve grown a great deal. …Have I not?”
“It is hardly any use to look uneasy and turn to me with that question at the eleventh hour.”
“I believe in the me that Brother believes in. Let us go. I shall not retreat.”
“…Very well. I have no idea what this is about, but I shall watch your back.”

His vigor restored, Father Lucas made his way back with Shin Hweein to Myeongdong Cathedral.
It was only when he saw the car halted in front of the cathedral, and the people standing before it, that Shin Hweein understood why the priest had pulled such an unhappy face at his phone.

“Lucas! It’s been forever, didn’t you miss me?”
“…It’s been a while, Sister Cyriaca.”

A young nun in the same habit as Sister Barbara had appeared, and she bore down on Father Lucas with every air of meaning to fling her arms around him, her eyes gleaming.
The priest, of all people, answered in a sour voice and ducked behind Shin Hweein’s back to hide.

The fact that she wore the very same garb as Sister Barbara made her identity easy enough to guess.
But as Shin Hweein tried to dodge the nun’s smoldering gaze, he glared instead at the priest using him for a shield.

“I said I would watch your back. I do not recall saying I would hide you behind it.”
“Oh my…. And who might you be?”
“Aeshin’s Rank-Two sorcerer, Shin Hae. Father Lucas’s cooperative partner.”

She carried on as though she had only just noticed him, though they had been standing there together from the start.
Having answered her, Shin Hweein caught sight of someone climbing out of the car a beat later, and inclined his head in acknowledgement.

He had, of course, been sensing the spiritual power that radiated off the man, and had marked his presence well in advance.

“Good day. I am told you were looking for me, some time back.”
“That’s right. So we meet at last.”

The man, decked out in a suit as though he were one of the gentlemen of the Western Land of Black-Arts, made a dignified bow and introduced himself.

“Shin Jain, at your service. As it happens, our surnames are the same.”

The thought had already crossed his mind that, having been driven off in that fashion once before, they would come knocking again before long.

What was more, in the time since, Shin Hweein had become connected with the Royal House and made something of a name for himself as Shin Hae.

This time he had even been dispatched to Gyeongdo “officially,” no less, alongside Yun Jubaek.
So for Shin Jain to turn up watching for his return was not, in itself, much of a surprise.

That he had come with an exorcist nun in tow, one who by the looks of it was acquainted with Father Lucas, was, to be frank, a touch more startling.

If he had brought her along to secure some sort of connection with the cathedral, on the reasoning that he would never be let in alone, then it was quite a piece of devotion.

“It is an honor that you should think so, but this is merely my professional name.”
“Ah, of course it would be. And yet most do take it from their real name, don’t they…. Forgive me. From living abroad, I find I often forget Aeshin’s manners.”

To ask after a sorcerer’s true name was something close to taboo.

To be sure, the persons of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses had names that were well known in any case, and the family sorceries that guarded them were powerful in proportion, so they tended to speak their names without much hesitation.
Ordinary practitioners, though, kept their true names tightly under wraps as a rule.

And this held even in foreign lands.
One had only to look at the priests and nuns of the Vatican concealing their names to see that his excuse held no water at all.

Shin Hweein, thinking to himself that Shin Jain already suspected his identity, replied without batting an eye.

“Is that so. If you mean to settle in Aeshin, you would do well not to lean on that excuse going forward.”
“Ha. My ears are burning. I shall bear it in mind. My true identity, after all, is not a gentleman of the Western Land of Black-Arts but a son of the Shin family.”

The words seemed almost to probe him.

And is not the figure you wear, likewise, only a false identity?

Shin Hweein did not deign to reply.

Off to the side, the priest was glaring at him, demanding with his eyes why he insisted on making an enemy at every turn.
But a look like that, leveled at him by the very man who had ducked behind his back, neither stung nor itched.

What was more, where the Shin family was concerned, he had no intention of bowing his head, even were it to cost him that head.

“If you have no further business, we shall take our leave. I have a report to make to the Cardinal. Father, let us go.”
“Ah, yes! Right behind you!”
“Wait — Lucas—”
“Master Shin Hae, a moment.”

Before Sister Cyriaca could step forward, Shin Jain called Shin Hweein to a halt.

“There is a commission I should like to entrust to you. Could you spare me some time afterward?”
“Of course. Wait for us outside, then.”

He gave a nod and went into the cathedral with the priest to meet the Cardinal.

He could get the fuller account from him.

“The target, it would seem, is Master Shin Hae.”

So saying, Cardinal Mose Oh Unwon wore a troubled expression.

“Reckoning I would not simply let them through, they brought in outside help from the very start. I scarcely imagined they could get a word in with the Vatican, yet through their connections they’ve called in an exorcist nun and are asking the cathedral for help.”
“And by ‘help’ you mean?”
“They say they would like the two of you to aid them in searching for one Shin Hweein, the third son of the Shin House’s head, who went missing at his coming-of-age ceremony.”
“Are they still trotting out that pretext? When I was within easy reach, they couldn’t be bothered to show their faces.”

Shin Hweein let out a soundless laugh and removed his mask.

The thought came to him that perhaps the day he parted from this mask was nearer at hand than even he had imagined.
…Then again, going by what Leon had said, he was to keep it on as a matter of course in daily life.

“You knew my true name, of course, Cardinal.”
“Well, with the sort of people who come and go here, it was hard not to, truth be told.”

The Cardinal nodded honestly and let out a low chuckle.

“Have you made up your mind, then, to reveal your true identity?”
“Not yet. But I do find myself thinking it may come out sooner than I had reckoned. In any case, let us accept their request.”
“But to search for something that isn’t there….”
“They have, of course, prepared a separate trap.”

Calling to mind Shin Jain, who would still be waiting outside, Shin Hweein replied calmly.

“That trap, all the same, will be laid only within the limits of their ability. The head of the house will not be helping them. …Which is to say, for the present me, it is nothing greatly to fear.”
“Ha, indeed. It has not been long since you reached Rank-Two, and already First-Rank is just around the corner.”
“I should be glad of it.”
“Hmm… one moment.”

While the two of them were rounding off their conversation, Father Lucas cut in.

“If Brother has resolved to step forward, might I bow out this time?”
“What? No, the whole reason Sister Cyriaca has come is to draw out the sorcerer Shin Hweein — or rather, Master Shin Hae — through Father Lucas, surely? So long as Master Shin Hae is willing, this is a fine chance to form a connection with the Shin House.”
“Cardinal, even so, is there no way I might bow out? Has the cathedral nothing more pressing?”

At the gravity in Father Lucas’s voice as he hunted for a way out, Shin Hweein and the Cardinal met each other’s eyes.

“This has come through with the Vatican’s sanction. Father Lucas, you cannot bow out. What in the world is going on? You aren’t a man who runs from work handed to him.”

— KWAAANG!

At that very instant, with no shred of decorum, the office door slammed open and Sister Barbara stormed in.

“Cyriaca, that bitch! That goddamn woman, to Lucas she—!”
“Sister Barbara.”
“Ah.”

Under Cardinal Mose Oh Unwon’s stern gaze, Sister Barbara lost all wind from her sails and raised both arms above her head, as though to admit she was in the wrong.

So in the West, too, this was how one was made to stand in penance.
Shin Hweein was still marveling at it when, undaunted, she carried on with her piece.

“She’s the one who tormented Lucas the most, Cardinal. Whipped him! With a whip!”
“That… is certainly cause for fury. But seeing as she still works as an exorcist nun, there must be a reason for it, mustn’t there?”
“She’s surely the Pope’s secret love-child… I’m sorry.”

Sister Barbara hoisted her arms higher still.

Even Father Lucas, who until now had seemed wary of Sister Cyriaca, was glowering at Sister Barbara.
From that, Shin Hweein could readily guess how outrageous her slip of the tongue must have been.

“I understand that you’re angry, but calm yourself. And before you sleep tonight, you will offer up a hundred decades of the rosary¹ as your penance.”
“A hundred decades?!”
“Is that understood?”
“Yes….”
“…Make it thirty decades.”

The Cardinal heaved a sigh at the sight of the deflated Sister Barbara, then turned his gaze to Father Lucas.

“There seems to be something you find hard to put into words. If so, I shall try refusing on your behalf. To tell the truth, I was uneasy at the thought of pushing Master Shin Hae into a trap with my own hands.”
“…No, Cardinal.”

The priest, who had been gazing at the nun, suddenly set his face with resolve and shook his head.

“I will take it on. Whatever may have happened in the past, I am at present an exorcist priest recognized by the Vatican. There is no reason for me to avoid her.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. What is more, in rank I stand above her as well.”

Quite unlike the man he had been until Sister Barbara burst in, Father Lucas now nodded with a dependable note in his voice.
Shin Hweein and the Cardinal met each other’s eyes once more.

So he didn’t want to show weakness in front of his little sister, then.

A small laugh escaped the Cardinal, and he clapped the priest on the shoulder as he spoke.

“You have my prayers. St. Joseph too will surely be at Father Lucas’s side.”
“I’d have done better without that particular blessing.”

St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, was also the patron saint of families.

Sister Barbara, though, must have had little interest in patron saints; she only cocked her head at the exchange between the priest and the Cardinal.

It was just then that Shin Hweein’s phone rang.

“Pay me no mind. Go ahead and take it.”
“No, I shall step outside to answer….”

The Cardinal’s manner stayed thoroughly unfussy, so Shin Hweein shook his head and was rising to his feet.
Then he checked the caller’s name, and his face turned hard.

“Princess Mirye….”
“Hah, this fellow even gets private calls from the princess now. Carrying on like that, taking up with anyone in skirts, you’ll get a knife in the ribs one day, you know?”
“Sister, keep those arms of yours properly up. …I shall step out to take this.”

Throwing a glare at Sister Barbara, who still could not bring herself to speak kindly where he was concerned, Shin Hweein stepped out of the room and answered the call.

“This is Shin Hae speaking.”

— What sort of person announces their own name on a mobile phone…? Shin Hae? Ah, right — that’s the name you go by now.

“It is my professional name. There is no need for you to remember it.”

— That name doesn’t carry with anyone, you know. The rumor’s reached even Gyeongbokgung that the two Shin brothers are moving against you on suspicion. And, going so far as to borrow foreign hands, you stormed into Myeongdong Cathedral, did you? Truly the conduct of a man who’d snub even the Royal House. The two of you brothers really are alike.

Was this woman, perhaps, simply telephoning to scold him?

He replied calmly, even as he wondered with some curiosity what sort of expression the princess on the other end of the line must be wearing.

“It is a trifling matter. Do not trouble yourself over it.”

— No, of course it’s no business of mine whether you brawl and scrap with your brothers, or even tear each other to pieces — but I’d rather it didn’t ruin my coming-of-age ceremony.

“The Princess’s coming-of-age ceremony is ten days from now. By then it will all be cleanly resolved, so you need not worry.”

— …So you hadn’t forgotten, after all.

“Of course not.”

— No, that’s not what’s important right now. Well, it is important, but my point is, I cannot trust you. The relations are bad, are they not. What if you come to blows and someone gets hurt? It isn’t your body I’m worried about — what I’m saying is, it would be inconvenient if my coming-of-age ceremony goes wrong on its account.

“Are you fretting once again over a thing that has not happened?”

— Yes. I’m worried, so there’s nothing for it.

Having said this flatly, the princess gave a snort and added,

— So go and refuse them outright. If they’re so set on working with you, tell them to take it up after my coming-of-age ceremony. For a man who held his head high before His Majesty himself, that much oughtn’t be hard to say, surely?

“With my identity concealed, I am but one Rank-Two sorcerer, no more.”

— If you’ve a complaint, tell them to take it up not with you but with the Royal House. In any case, I’m to enter the palace from a few days hence for the coming-of-age preparations — what work could there be? I’m hanging up. I’ll call again.

And with that, the call really did end.

Shin Hweein gazed at the phone screen a moment, then muttered to himself.

“Could it be that she’s worried for me, and not for herself.”
“But of course. Truly, every which way, little chits whose hair is barely dry come after the young master…!”

Geum Moa materialized as if it were the most natural thing in the world, cursing Princess Mirye.

Shin Hweein shook his head.

“By your reading, Moa, I would have to be the world’s foremost lecher, bewitching every woman I meet.”
“It’s not the young master’s fault. The blame lies with these girls who don’t know their place and come flocking…!”
“Princess Mirye merely worries to excess. She knows to worry not only for herself but for others as well. Is she not, then, the makings of a fine sovereign?”

Having ordered Geum Moa to stand by, he stepped back into the room.
There he saw the clergy, who until that moment had had their ears pricked toward the door, straighten up as one.

That even the Cardinal was no exception sent a faint shock through him as Shin Hweein opened his mouth.

“…Seeing as you all seem to have heard, I shall be plain. Princess Mirye is set to be busy with preparations for her coming-of-age ceremony, and bids me take no other work until then but stand by.”
“Brother…!”

After all his confident insistence on accepting the commission, Father Lucas now clung to him as though looking upon his savior.

Watching Sister Barbara’s eyes narrow at the sight of Father Lucas, Shin Hweein heaved a sigh.

Big brother and little sister both, they had a long way still to go before they could be called adults.