Chapter 6 — The Sorcerer Qualification Exam (1)

Half a day after parting from Ham Seoyeon, Shin Hweein was still lodging in the hotel suite Father Lucas had insisted on covering, his standing offer accepted.

He sat facing the great heap of study guides piled before him.

“Phew. This much ought to do.”
“Truly, is all of this required? However flush with funds we’ve come to be, this strikes me as wasteful.”

Shin Hweein voiced the complaint with a weary face.

Geum Moa, the very one who had hauled the guides in, only let out a small snort.
She flipped one of the books open without a word, held it up, and showed him the page.

Shin Hweein looked over the past-exam questions for the Rank Four Sorcerer Qualification listed inside, and his face eased into relief as he nodded.

So this is the level expected of a sorcerer just stepping into the field for the first time.

The sorcerer ranking system differed somewhat from the rankings affixed to yokai.

Yokai ran from the top down, Special-Grade, Rank One, Rank Two, on down to Rank Ten.
It was a fairly wide spread, and within that range there were further subdivisions and supplementary tiers layered in besides.

Sorcerers likewise began at Special-Grade, but their lowest tier was Rank Five.
Even so, a Rank Five sorcerer could not be deployed to the field alone; most were assigned to administrative or auxiliary duties.

It went without saying that one could not handle a yokai of the same numerical grade as oneself.
The prevailing rule of thumb, accepted as settled, was that a sorcerer should be able to manage yokai whose grade ran three numbers higher than their own.

So how, then, were yokai of Rank Two or above dealt with?
Either they were entrusted to one of the few Special-Grade or Rank One sorcerers of truly exceptional caliber, or, failing that, there was no choice but to mobilize sorcerers in great numbers and overwhelm the creature by force.
Fortunately, the appearance of a Rank Two yokai was tantamount to a national disaster, and not a thing one saw lightly.

“These are all extremely easy. Every one of them is something I learned from you, and from Mother.”
“Certainly some of the multiple-choice questions might be. Then how about this one. The short-answer essay here. How would you answer it?”
“Let me see…. A three-member Rank Four sorcerer party is dropped through the gate of a Rank Seven medium-sized Specter Realm and falls within. The party is composed of a Warrior, a Buddhist monk, and a sorcerer. Describe the actions they ought to prioritize, and the formation in which they should fight….”

A Warrior, in Aeshin and indeed worldwide, was the most commonly found type of esper to fall under the goeryeok-nansin category, those whose innate physical strength was prodigious.

Their grades varied widely too.
The most powerful Rank One Warriors in Aeshin could, by all accounts, hurl a high-rise building with one hand, a feat so far beyond Shin Hweein, who until obtaining the Indulgence had not dared lift anything heavier than his staff, that he could not so much as imagine it.

“However, a Warrior whose only strength is sheer physical force tends to be weak against spirit-class opponents. In a Specter Realm, where one cannot know what lies ahead, it would be unwise to set such a one at the front. A virtuous Buddhist monk, on the other hand, can drive off most low spirits by the recitation of the Buddha-Dharma alone, so it is only natural to pair the two together.”
“Mm-hm. And then?”
“This is… well, perhaps once an actual engagement begins it won’t matter, but for the present moment the burden falling on the sorcerer is considerable. The Buddhist monk and the Warrior should be held back; the sorcerer must first use sorcery to scout the surroundings and secure safety. If there are shikigami, using them as sentinels would be better still. Well, then. How is that?”

Quite pleased with the answer he had produced on his own, Shin Hweein looked up with shining eyes.
To which Geum Moa, with a contemptuous little snort, replied:

“Zero out of ten.”
“What?!”

Shin Hweein looked as though such a thing had never once crossed his mind.

Geum Moa shook her head and explained.

“Young master, honestly. It’s written right there at the very start. ‘A Rank Seven medium-sized Specter Realm’s gate.’ You do know that ‘Rank Seven, medium-sized’ means there’s a high probability of multiple Rank Seven yokai appearing inside, yes? Three Rank Four sorcerers, at best, are not going to survive going up against not just one or two but a pack of Rank Seven yokai.”
“…I see.”
“Just because you, young master, walked into a Specter Realm through the Ember-Blood Gate on your very first try, please don’t go assuming every sorcerer pulls that kind of insane stunt. That was an ordeal, a proper ordeal!”

Realizing afresh just how unreasonable a demand his stepmother had laid upon him, Shin Hweein gave a bitter smile.

For a man as helpless as himself, holding out even thirty minutes past the Ember-Blood Gate would have been sheer luck.
And on top of that, she had demanded he take a Rank Seven yokai as his shikigami.

Suppressing the surge of rage that threatened to leap up, just as it had when he had faced Shin Myeongin, he spoke.

“You are right. My senses had been numbed.”
“Furthermore. The phrasing, dropped into the Specter Realm. That means they didn’t enter by their own will. Which is to say, it’s a situation where the immediate priority is to flee. So the very first thing to do is find the exit. As for the formation… at the front, the Warrior, who has the toughest hide. In the middle, the Buddhist monk. At the rear, the sorcerer, who can respond flexibly in many directions. That’s the answer.”
“Hold a moment. How is a Warrior to find the way? Surely the sorcerer should be put forward. Moreover, should spirits descend upon them….”
“Hee-hee, young master. There are two errors in what you just said.”

Geum Moa raised two fingers, then folded the first one down as she spoke.

“First. There is no rule that says the sorcerer who casts the wayfinding art has to be the one at the front. Once the way is found, the sorcerer can simply call out directions to the Warrior. And if spirits do attack, the sorcerer can throw a barrier over the Warrior. Young master, I think you need to brush up on the fundamentals of group action.”
“Ngh. Indeed.”

When it became plain that he had been trying to judge the question by the meager Specter Realm experience he himself had accrued, Shin Hweein pressed a hand to his forehead and groaned.

What he dreaded most was that Geum Moa still had one finger raised.

“And, young master. This one is the more important point.”
“Realizing one’s own foolishness is more painful than I had supposed. Pray, go easy on me.”
“Most Rank Four sorcerers cannot cast wayfinding sorcery at all. Information-handling sorcery is trickier than one might think.”
“….”

At that, Shin Hweein went briefly blank, blinked once or twice, and then read the question over again with careful attention.

“A Warrior, a Buddhist monk, a sorcerer…. Tell me. Is this sorcerer perhaps a member of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses?”
“No such mention here.”
“Then… how do these people, who cannot even find the way, survive in a Specter Realm?”
“For the most part, you assume they’re dead. If, by some miracle, they happen across a naturally formed exit, they might come back alive. Maybe?”
“How dreadful that is to hear….”
“What’s dreadful is the level of your common sense, young master.”

Geum Moa sighed, opened the study guide to its very first page, and set it down before his eyes.

“Now that you’ve come back to reality, sit still and study. Young master, you have yet to properly grasp the fact that you were born the son of a great house, that you inherited overflowing talent and an exceptionally useful family-line unique sorcery. The general common sense of the sorcerer profession has to be hammered into you to set you straight.”
“Ah, well. But at long last I’ve gotten my hands on quality cinnabar mirror-stone and yellow-toad paper. If I do not perform the water-strain (the straining of raw materials through water to remove impurities) starting now, I won’t make the deadline by the Hour of the Rat (11 p.m. to 1 a.m.)….”
“Talismans can be done on a separately chosen auspicious day, when the time comes. The other sorcery practice can wait too. Ah. But do keep up the seon meditation, morning and evening. That girl’s spiritual power hasn’t quite fully dissolved in yet.”

At Geum Moa’s firm tone, Shin Hweein let his head droop.

After at long last taking his first step as a sorcerer, what he had wanted now was to craft talismans by his own hand, to drill his family’s unique sorcery.

“But what if I focus on the written portion alone and then fall on my face at the practical?”
“Even a mutt could pass the practical with its eyes closed, so please don’t worry yourself. Well then. While you’re hard at studying, I’ll step out for a little while.”
“Stepping out is no matter, but why specifically?”
“Aigoo, if I stay beside you, your eyes are just going to keep wandering over to me, aren’t they. Young master does dote on me terribly.”
“…there is a great deal I’d like to take issue with there, but very well. Go enjoy your free time. Take this and buy yourself as much of the Western pastries as you like.”

With those words Shin Hweein held out a card, but Geum Moa only smiled bashfully and withdrew without taking it.

“No, no. I just feel like a little walk, that’s all. I’m curious about the hotel rooftop here too. I’ll take my time.”
“Then do not be too late returning. I would like to have dinner together.”
“Hee-hee. Of course.”

Shin Hweein smiled and followed Geum Moa’s shadow with his eyes as she shut the suite door behind her.
Once her presence had completely faded, he murmured under his breath:

“If only she and Flame-tail wouldn’t quarrel again.”

— Krrgh?

“Oh dear, Neuldam, have you woken? I’d like to play with you too, but I’m rather busy just now.”

— Khngh!

“Hoh. So you mean to guard me, do you. Well, well, what a fine little fellow. As it happens I’ve just brought back some treats. Would you care to try some?”

— Krrrgh!

In the very thick of its growth phase, Neuldam, given over in equal measure to sleeping and to gluttony, locked onto the jerky Shin Hweein had laid out on the table and pounced on it the instant it laid eyes on the stuff.

Stroking the back of the little marten kit as it gnawed away earnestly at the jerky, Shin Hweein turned his gaze to the window.

The curtains were drawn without the slightest gap, though it was still mid-afternoon and sunlight streamed in outside.

Nothing should have been visible.
And yet, to his eyes, it almost seemed he could make out the ill-omened malice creeping toward him from somewhere beyond.

“I hope it’s only excessive worry on my part… but it costs nothing to be prepared.”

Nodding faintly to himself, Shin Hweein turned his eyes back to the study guides.

He could roughly guess what Geum Moa had been thinking when she bought him this great mass of reference books, but there was one thing even she did not know.
Once Shin Hweein grasped the underlying principle, one volume or twenty made no difference to him.

He took up a pen and threw himself at the books.

Three days. Two, if at all possible. He meant to be done with the lot.

His head was, for the moment, in good shape.
He could only pray his frail back would hold out until then.

“Tch.”

— Hah.

The rooftop of the hotel where Shin Hweein was staying.

With its pool, its lavish fountain, and its bar, it grew thronged with people at night, but for the moment it was fairly quiet.

The only ones who had bothered to come up at this hour were a couple, deliberately braving the cold wind near the observation deck to enjoy themselves.

…and, a little ways off from them, a beautiful blonde woman, and a black-furred dog.

— So you came up to ambush me while that brat’s not looking, did you?

“If I’d wanted you dead, mutt, I could have killed you right under the young master’s eyes without him noticing a thing.”

— How terrifying. Better tell him to be careful you don’t suck his liver dry, then.

Even as the two traded words, they did not look at one another.
Their gazes ran instead across the Seoul cityscape below.

From a distance the scene would have looked like a beautiful blonde lady enjoying a late-afternoon view from a hotel observation deck with her little dog.
In fact, only the most savage exchanges were passing between them.

“Are you up here on the young master’s orders? With that tiny little body of yours, can you even see anything from up here?”

— You only hunt enemies with your eyes, then? Fortunately, I don’t.

“Even if you spotted one, what could you do but bark? What’s there to be so proud of? Or do you plan on setting the city on fire while you’re at it?”

— If you were the enemy, I’d be glad to show you what else I could do, you foul-tempered perverted bitch.

Even as they snarled at one another, the two never paused in their scan of the city.

Then, of a sudden, Flame-tail let out a sigh.

— You said you had no intention of guarding him with your own strength. So why are you out here doing this now? I truly don’t understand. Is your mind coming and going?

“Did your brain shrink along with your body? Or were you slow-witted to start with? Mutt, you are taking the young master’s and my Three-Year Pact far too lightly. I am attending him as the handmaid Geum Moa whom the young master knew before he ever entered the Specter Realm. Within the bounds of that persona’s abilities, I’m doing my very best.”

— So you mean to play at the same kind of amusements those Western lizards do? In the end it’s all deception, all pretense. Things like you are what disgust me most. I don’t know how many such masks you keep stacked one over another, but he too is in the end nothing more than one of the many men you’ve toyed wi—

“You. Mind your tongue.”

Geum Moa’s chilly voice settled like a winter frost around Flame-tail’s neck.

She had not, in fact, attacked him directly.
And yet for a single instant Flame-tail saw the vision of his own neck flying clean off, and his mouth closed on instinct.

“Having nine tails doesn’t mean a girl is throwing herself at every man she sees. The young master is the only one I have. Understood? From the dim and distant past to now, and from here on as well….”

— For a girl who claims that, the trail of debauchery starts with your very name. Even I, who never left the Specter Realm, recall having heard your name.

“You fool. Don’t you know that in this trade, impersonation is the very first lesson? They believe that by borrowing the name of some mighty being, they themselves grow mighty. In the end, that belief became its own kind of curse and choked their necks shut….”

— Hah. So your influence and your authority swelled on the back of it, is that what you’re saying? Amusing tale. Unless you mean to use that strength to protect him, it makes no difference either way, mind.

When the flame-hound dismissed her explanation thus and went back to his watch, Geum Moa turned her head, glanced sidelong at him, and tossed out:

“Mutt. You’ve grown awfully fond of the young master, haven’t you?”

— Don’t talk nonsense. I merely intend to deliver him to the one I serve with all four limbs intact. Thanks to you, I’ve now confirmed there’s business between those two that needs settling. And, don’t call me ‘mutt’!

“But it’s not only that, is it? When you took that great hit from the young master’s Flame-Made-Flesh, your heart and his ran along the same line for an instant, didn’t they. You felt something then, didn’t you?”

— ….

Flame-tail had been firing back retort for retort against every word until now.
When he fell silent for the first time at this, a grin crept up the corner of Geum Moa’s mouth.

“Honestly, I was terribly envious of that…. Even I can’t read the young master’s heart, and out of nowhere a thing like you—”

— Hah.

But the instant before she could press Flame-tail further, the two of them turned their heads in unison toward the same direction.

“To think they’d really come this soon. And while the sun’s still up, at that….”

— I heard there are ones that walk by day too. But it doesn’t matter. They’ll be weak to fire all the same!

“Hold. I’ll go.”

— What?

When Flame-tail moved to leap off the rooftop in an instant, Geum Moa restrained him and lifted herself lightly into the air.

“It might be a feint. Keep on the alert and guard the young master.”

— Tch…. Don’t go leaking information our way to them.

“I am the young master’s loyal handmaid. To engineer a crisis for the young master in that way, in order to end the Three-Year Pact, would be a breach of contract…. Rest easy and wait!”

Concealing her own form, Geum Moa flung herself into the air, repeating short spatial leaps through nothing until in a single moment she touched down on a quiet alley in Zone 2, several kilometers off.

A single bat had been hiding within the shadows there.
The instant it started up in surprise at her arrival and beat its wings wide, a flame-shot loosed from Geum Moa’s outstretched hand sent those wings up in a spectacular blaze.

“Hee-hee. And where do you think you’re escaping to?”
“What grievance do you have, that you’d attack me?!”

The bat in midair shifted into the shape of a man wrapped in a black overcoat, and landed.

He wore the look of one struck by lightning from a clear sky, indignant and aggrieved.
And yet his eyes were scanning Geum Moa for an opening, while on one of his hands droplets of blood were already swirling.

“You don’t go enumerating grievances against every cockroach you see before swatting it. You. You’re a Korean, aren’t you? Bending the knee to a Western mosquito, aren’t you ashamed?”
“Set against what that one has promised me, things like country are nothing. Nothing at all!”

The droplets of blood the man flung out each transformed into sharp spears and bore down on Geum Moa.

Seeing her fail to evade and take every one of them clean, the man relaxed inwardly and began to form a second volley of blood-spears.
And at that very moment, it was he who buckled to his knees, vomiting up a great mouthful of blood, more precious than life itself.

“Kuh!”

Directly after, the illusion of a Geum Moa pierced through by blood-spears crumbled away.
In its place stood the Geum Moa that had appeared at the outset, untouched.

“So you can’t even alter the properties of your own blood. No resistance to curses either…. As I thought. Bottom-rung.”

To be felled so cleanly by so simple a sorcery, cast using the very blood he had so courteously delivered to her hand.
Upon the palm of an unscratched Geum Moa, the blood-spears he had loosed reformed themselves into droplets and gathered together.

“How…?”
“A curse, naturally. A so-called vampire, who handles blood, not to know that…. That’s why you go down this easily.”
“Kahaak!”

When Geum Moa thrust her hand into the bead of blood spinning on her palm like a marble and stirred it about, the man erupted bleeding from every part of his body and collapsed to the ground.

She kicked the body out of the alley and into the open, where the sunlight struck it and cleanly burned the vampire’s corpse away.

Shielding the droplet of blood in her hand from the sun, Geum Moa sighed.

“Obviously no Day Walker (a high-rank vampire who can move about even by day). Just a disposable pawn turned loose any old way. Seems they’re taking Seoul awfully lightly…. Hm?”

The next instant, sensing killing intent sweeping in from behind, Geum Moa moved her body lightly aside.

Feeling the droplets of blood resting on her palm tug as though pulled toward that direction, a smile curled at her lips.

“If I keep dealing with them in one spot, perhaps they’ll all gather for me here?”
“No need for that. You’ll be dying right here!”

An unnatural shadow stretched out, covering completely the entire stretch of alley over which sunlight had been falling only moments ago.

Dodging the swift swipe of the vampire’s claws, Geum Moa pressed her foot firmly down upon his shadow.

The vampire lost his grip on her and dispersed into mist.
The instant he did, he surged up out of the shadow again, extending a blade of blood toward her throat.

“Dieeeee…ehh?!”
“Got you.”

But before the blade could touch her body, the motion stopped dead.

Geum Moa was still standing on his shadow.

“It can’t be. Over just that?”
“Yes. Over just that.”

Shadow-stepping.

A simple piece of sorcery developed out of an Aeshin traditional children’s game, but few sorceries so vividly conveyed the level of a practitioner.
Especially to those who handled the power of yin.

“Higher-grade than the last one, I see. Obviously not Korean, either…. Ah. That small fry I just killed. You’re the one who took him as a thrall, aren’t you?”
“Kgh…. You’ll regret coming into this alley alone!”

It seemed the enemy had the ability to manipulate shadow, for the darkness around them was growing steadily denser.
The resistance she felt under her foot was growing in proportion.

This one was smaller in build than the earlier man, but in caliber overwhelmingly above him.
Rank Seven at the very least, perhaps even brushing close to Rank Six?
And considering it was now daytime, when vampires could not properly bring their strength to bear, his real power was something even greater than this.

— Flap, flap

— Whrr-rr

From here and there, bats… no, lowest-rung vampires, were converging.

It couldn’t have been all that long since the Vampire Lord first dispatched vampires to Korea, and yet for someone who was no more than a deputy’s underling to have produced so many thralls in the interim, their contagious power was truly something to be feared.

“For the crime of obstructing his work, you shall serve as his thralls and repay him for the rest of your lives.”
“Kill her!”
“Just one bite, save one for me…!”

When she saw the bats hurling themselves at her from every side, a smile rose at the corner of Geum Moa’s mouth.

Tossing aside the droplets of blood that no longer served any purpose, she raised her hand and tapped a single point in empty air, and from that point a ring of flame sprang into being.
In an instant it expanded outward and blanketed the entire alley.

“Wh-what?!”

The higher vampire had been trying to seize the opening to slip out of the shadow-step.
At the sight of those many bats, every one of them turning to ash and scattering on the wind, even he flinched.

Far from breaking free, with the flame she had conjured now devouring even the local darkness, his movements were growing yet more constrained.

“This level at least, Rank Two at the lowest…. You. What are you?!”
“That’s something for you illegal aliens who tried so rudely to occupy the Capital’s back alleys to explain.”

Vampires, through blood-bound thrall-ties, stretched in long unbroken chains from top to bottom; the connections among them were exceedingly firm.
When a subordinate vampire was struck down, those above could easily perceive it, and information traveled between them in an instant.

Which was to say: should Geum Moa carelessly let any information slip, then not only this fellow but the deputy the Vampire Lord had sent, and even, eventually, the Lord himself, would come to know of it.

But conversely, if I can obtain their blood and refine it properly, I can also trace it back to the superior who took this one as his thrall.

That was why Geum Moa had tried to retain some of the blood of the first vampire she had fought.

If she killed the man before her and obtained his blood, then she could of course track down his master in turn.

Whether the level directly above this fellow was the Lord’s deputy, or whether one more step still lay between them, she did not know.
But she meant, at the least, to track them as far as she could.

Whether or not to handle that quarry herself in advance would depend on accurately gauging the opponent’s caliber, and calculating whether it lay within what “the handmaid Geum Moa” could deal with.

Flame-tail would surely loathe this sort of “calculation” of hers, but it was her promise to Shin Hweein, and there was no help for it.

“…Tch. Thanks to that wretched mutt, my mood’s gone strange for no reason. Let’s finish this quickly.”
“Wait. We have no intention of stirring up trouble in the Capital either. We’ve only come to find one person—”

— Bang.

An ill-omened gunshot pierced through what darkness remained in the alley and scattered it.

The vampire, freed from the shadow-step, ran a hand over the area of his chest with an expression of disbelief.
Then, rotten blood spilling down from the corner of his mouth, he murmured:

“Consecrated… silver bullet….”
“Ah. Fuck.”

Watching the vampire crumble in place into ash and scatter, Geum Moa sighed.

A consecrated silver bullet capable of annihilating a vampire of that caliber in a single shot would, the moment it struck the heart, render the entire body’s blood sorcerously useless.
It was precisely because Geum Moa knew this that she had not even tried to draw the blood out of him before he died.

“The vampire’s handled, and as for the other party… ah, she’s in the file. A demon, but the vassal of a partner. We were told not to touch her, weren’t we?”

The voice belonging to the one who had taken down a fairly high-ranked vampire in a single shot was, surprisingly, husky.

She emerged slowly from behind the cloud of ash that had been the vampire.

In her mouth she held an e-cigarette, venting smoke with a faint peeeee— sound.
In one hand she held a hefty, glittering silver-finished pistol, beyond any doubt blessed by an authority in the Vatican, its muzzle leveled at this side.

But more decisive in giving away her identity than any of that was the loose-fitting habit, which covered her body completely and concealed every contour save for the line of her waist.
To top it off, the veil that hid her hair from view.

“If you aren’t going to fight, mind lowering that muzzle, Sister?”
“Pardon me. The big sis is so pretty, I was struck dumb for a moment there.”

The nun slurred out her excuse around the e-cigarette in her mouth and slid the pistol back into the holster at her hip.

Geum Moa watched her in silence.
Then, as the nun came striding directly toward her, she asked:

“In manga and such, the nuns who fight with guns are all of them in habits cut with slits up the side and outfits that hug the body, but you look terribly stiff.”
“Those are perverts and ruffians in nun costumes. I’m a real nun. Believe it or not, this is a sacred relic, so it’s incredibly easy to move in. Ah, pleased to make your acquaintance. I’m Sister Barbara, assisting Father Lucas. Dispatched from the Exorcist Sisterhood.”

Whoof— she puffed out cigarette smoke and finished her introduction, then extended a hand.

“By the way, big sis, got any money on you? I forgot to switch over to Korean cash. If you could take me along to a bar while you’re at it, even better.”
“You are sure you’re not a ruffian, right?”