Chapter 7 — An Audience With The Vampires (1)

“Ugh, she really came.”

Myeongdong Cathedral, straddling the border between Zone 0 and Zone 1.
That place stood as the very heart of the Aeshin Korean Catholic Church, and a few hundred meters off from it, in the private room of a café the cathedral itself managed, they were all gathered.

Father Lucas, Do Yumi, Shin Myeongin, Ham Seoyeon.
And, as an extra, a woman bobbing a lollipop in her mouth, her comportment thoroughly unbecoming, yet dressed in a nun’s habit.

Somehow the picture struck him as a woman smoking a cigarette rather than sucking a candy, and just as he marked it odd, sure enough, an electronic cigarette dangled at her chest on a lanyard.

“You are the nun said to be Father Lucas’s subordinate, then.”
“Subordinate? Sub-or-din-ate?! Oi, Lucas!”

True to her appearance, the nun scrunched her face into a glare the moment she heard his words and rounded on Father Lucas.
Father Lucas was not stirred in the slightest. He only laughed, ha ha, and said,

“It is true enough that Sister Barbara has been ordered to assist in my mission, is it not? I used the word subordinate only because there was no time to set out every particular for Brother Shin Hae, so do calm yourself.”
“Grrgh. I’ll get my promotion ahead of you, see if I don’t….”
“Pray, do. I myself want a new partner, one who does not get drunk and miss her flight. Ha ha ha.”
“Khk—!”

They get on well, as one might expect.

He had only listened in on the two for a moment, but to his mind it was unlikely in the extreme that the Vatican would ever separate them.

Shin Hweein nodded at the sight of the pair squabbling and seated himself in the empty place at the table.
Then he cast a glance at Shin Myeongin, who was glowering with great displeasure at this newcomer, Sister Barbara, intruding and flaunting her familiarity with the priest, exchanged only a nod of greeting with Ham Seoyeon at her side, and reached for the papers laid out upon the table.

“Operation to Sweep the Vampires from Zone 3 of the Capital… hm?”

Shin Hweein’s eyes narrowed for an instant as he read the title of the neatly organized report.
Somehow, the matter seemed likely to have a very deep connection to him as well.

Shin Myeongin could have no inkling of that.
She rapped the table, thump, as though she had only been waiting for someone to mention the report at all, and cried,

“That’s right! It’s something I, yours truly, wrung out of my dad, no less than Shin Yuhyeon, the head of the Shin House, by personally negotiating with him!”
“…”

The head of the Shin House, Shin Yuhyeon.
His father’s name.

Shin Hweein shut his eyes tight, then opened them, doing his best to push the thoughts away.
Meanwhile Shin Myeongin’s manner swelled, as though everyone present must focus upon her and offer their praises.

“I’m no expert, but the cathedral folk shudder at the word vampire, don’t they? If the Father pitches in on this one, you can really lord it over the Vatican afterward, can’t you? Right?”
“That, well, hm… yes. It is not exactly wrong.”

Father Lucas answered in a most awkward tone and exchanged a glance with Sister Barbara, who only moments before had been raising her voice in quarrel with him.
Then he stole glances, again and again, at Geum Moa, standing silently behind Shin Hweein.
And she, while concealing her presence from Shin Myeongin and Ham Seoyeon, was nonetheless glaring at the two of them with a look she pretended not to wear.

Ah, so it is, then.

Confirming the curious exchange of glances between the three, Shin Hweein sighed inwardly. So it is, after all.

Over the past few days he had watched Geum Moa slip out at regular intervals, as though she had some appointment with another, and had wondered whether she might be moving about in someone’s company.
It appeared the company was Sister Barbara.

Just as Shin Myeongin had said, the Catholic Church reacted most sensitively to any matter touching upon vampires.
Whenever Sister Barbara had entered Aeshin Korea, her sphere of activity had crossed with theirs, and she too had caught wind of it and had been moving long before now.

Father Lucas?
Looking at Do Yumi’s run-ragged face, it seemed he had his hands full just keeping up with her catechism lessons.

“Ah, but from the report you can see we are not going in alone, so don’t be too afraid. The Yun House… well, they’re a bit not to my taste, but the Yun House, fellow members of the Three Capital Houses, have agreed to lend a hand, even bringing along a unit of military sorcerers.”

Shin Myeongin had failed entirely to notice Geum Moa’s presence, yet she had picked up that the response from the priest’s side was somehow subtle, and she added in a tone meant to set them at ease.
In point of fact, that very remark only made the priest’s face more subtle still, and it was Shin Hweein, perusing the report, who flinched in response instead.
For he felt a strange connection knitting itself together in his head.

The vampire matter Shin Myeongin had brought in was something he had already known of, and that the Yun House would lead a unit of military sorcerers on some operation was also something he had known.
But surely those two were not, here and now, one and the same thing?

“Brother Shin Hae, what say you? In truth I find it unwelcome, this looking as though we were riding on the back of Korean sorcery….”
“Hm? Riding on their back — those are the words of a man rather too well-fed.”

While he was still struggling to gather his own thoughts, Shin Hweein gave a snort at the nonsense the priest was talking.

“Is it your conscience the priest treasures? Or is it the rescue of as many as can possibly be rescued, those who suffer at the hands of vampires?”
“…Ah.”
“It is not as though refusing this matter would conjure some other task into your hands. Then rather than wasting the time on idle scruple, you would do better to set your body in motion.”

When the wavering priest was thus pricked, somewhat sharply, with reality, he came at last to himself and nodded.

“Just so. I had buried myself in my own resolve to take no thought for honor. Whatever the form, whosoever’s strength I borrow, the salvation of the suffering is the most important thing. In my foolishness I have been doubting the Lord, who has prepared this opportunity for me to do good.”
“Eh, Father. The one who brought you this opportunity is me, you know? Or am I invisible?”
“…Of course, I am thankful to you as well, Sister. I gladly accept this work.”

To Shin Myeongin, who came pestering him head-first, Father Lucas offered his thanks with a sweet smile and a face from which no trace of inner torment showed.
The handsome man’s smile worked its effect.
Shin Myeongin’s face, no, her face and neck both, flushed a mottled red, and she nodded over and over.

“Right! It’s all thanks to me, understand? You mustn’t forget. That a woman this capable, this kind, has come to help the Father!”
“As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout…”
“Hmm?”
“Ha ha. It is nothing.”

Shin Hweein did not miss it.
At the very moment the cooperation was sealed, Ham Seoyeon let out a sigh of relief as well.
For her, even simply tightening ties with the Shin House was a gain, and now on top of that another of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses was being brought in, opening that connection too.
Whether it were vampires or werewolves, she had no doubt wanted this work, unconditionally.

“Right then, I’ll go straight over and tell Dad! Ah, Father, do you want to come with me? Aren’t you curious to meet the head of the Shin House?”
“No. He has already taken the trouble to entrust me with so weighty a task. To call on him without prior notice is a touch troubling to me. If time and opportunity allow, perhaps another day.”
“My dad likes me sooo much, you really don’t need to worry about that kind of thing. And once you see our house just once, Father, you just might want to leave the priesthood and rejoin the laity!”
“Ha ha ha.”

Father Lucas only let out a dry laugh.
To Shin Hweein, who sat near him, came the faint sound of the priest murmuring under his breath, Proverbs 12:16….

When the priest would not be drawn in by her wheedling, Shin Myeongin gave up, well, can’t be helped, rose from her seat, and tugged at the hem of Ham Seoyeon’s coat.

“Sis, let’s go home now.”
“Mm. Sorry, Myeongin-ah. I have some business and must stay behind for a little while.”
“What, again? Now that I’m on the same team, can’t you tell me about it?”
“Sorry, it’s a matter unrelated to that… Ah, though it really is not anything to do with the Father.”
“…Really, truly? All right then. I trust Sis, you know?”

Compared to a few days before, there was a touch more childish reliance in Shin Myeongin’s manner toward Ham Seoyeon.
Perhaps placing Father Lucas between the two of them had set off an unexpected chemistry.

“Then I’m going on ahead! And, you. If you do anything funny to Sis, you die. Truly. Ah, and if you’ve any sense, drop out of this operation of your own accord. I’ll let you off if you do.”
“What you mean to let off I cannot guess; but at the least, on that day, I shall not be at your side.”
“Right, glad you understand.”
“Brother—?!”

Having gotten the answer she wanted out of Shin Hweein, Shin Myeongin nodded in great satisfaction and left the room.
The priest’s mouth, however, fell wide open at the exchange.

The moment the door closed, the priest came rushing at him.
When Shin Hweein cast a meaningful glance at Geum Moa, she snapped her fingers and laid down a soundproof barrier.

Up to that moment, Ham Seoyeon had not perceived Geum Moa at all, but the instant the sorcery was performed, her concealment broke and Ham Seoyeon perceived her existence.
Her eyes went round.

“You. Don’t tell me you’ve been here all this…!”
“Hush.”

When Geum Moa placed her index finger to her own lips with that single word, Ham Seoyeon’s mouth shut tight at once.
Geum Moa added with a bright smile,

“I am only the unnamed shikigami of the sorcerer Shin Hae. If you would just understand me as that.”
“Wha, whaaa. Whaaa….! General, General, please calm yourself!”

The one more astounded than Ham Seoyeon, it seemed, was her companion the General… Athena.
But Shin Hweein ignored that commotion and uttered only what he had come to say.

“The supplementary examination for the State Sorcerer Qualification has been settled, but its content, I rather think, is precisely this commission. It is said that a unit of military sorcerers, led by the Yun House examiner, will be joining in.”
“What?”
“A-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Father Lucas’s eyes widened, unable to believe what he heard.
Geum Moa, on the other hand, burst into laughter.

When everyone’s eyes turned to her, her expression flipped sober in an instant.
She snapped her fingers once more and this time conjured a soundproof barrier enclosing only herself and Shin Hweein.

“Young master, surely you do not mean to sit for that examination.”
“To withdraw here would be to wait another year. Moreover, the examiner is already paying me close attention. To pull back now would, I think, be the worse move yet.”

It was as if she had foreseen this very answer of his.
Geum Moa thrust her face up to his as if she had been only waiting, and rattled off her piece.

“Young master, are you a fool? No, you are indeed a fool. Just when an opportunity has come to have the vampires handled by other hands, without your having to suffer, you would walk into that dangerous place yourself? If perchance you wish to break the Three-Year Pact, you needn’t go round and round; only say so, and at once I will…”
“Be calm, Moa-ya. I was only thinking realistically.”

Shin Hweein patted Geum Moa’s hand lightly to soothe her, and said,

“Secret though it is, the fact that a military sorcerer unit is being moved on a grand scale has come to be known by a great many of the examinees, and even an outsider, Shin Myeongin, has gotten hold of the information. Then can it truly be guaranteed that, come the day of the operation, the vampires will not know of it?”
“Young master, you speak as though you mean to make your own presence known on purpose, to keep the lot of them, who may already have caught the scent, from going to ground.”
“Precisely. Only, it must not be at this moment. The information must be released at the right time so that they do not decide to withdraw, but instead steel themselves to clash head-on with the sorcerer unit.”
“A-ha, a-ha-ha… haaah.”

Geum Moa, who had again burst into laughter as if dumbfounded, in the end let her shoulders sag as though she had not even the strength for that.

“What you say, young master, is not entirely wrong. To be sure, the vampires are sharp on intelligence, and there is every chance that, sensing this surprise operation, that fellow who calls himself the deputy of that Lord might pull his foot back. But if they come to know of you, young master… yes, the odds are great that, in the confusion of battle, he himself would come for you.”
“In the end, that is to say, I shall be able to face him for certain in a relatively safe environment.”

But even so, to walk such a path, casting aside the safer one and embracing the danger.
To the sighing Geum Moa, Shin Hweein spoke as if soothing her.

“In truth there is a reason more important than that. That man regards it as a sport, sending his deputy to kill me. If that deputy were slain in some place wholly unrelated to me, would he, in truth, find it satisfactory?”
“…”
“And that self-styled deputy of his, even then, would he, do you suppose, end at a single man?”
“…What you say, young master, is true.”

In the end, Geum Moa accepted his words and nodded.

“Truly the young master sees through all things. To penetrate, just so, the very thoughts of that mosquito-fellow you have not so much as crossed paths with for ever so long.”
“Penetrate, indeed. I only inferred naturally from his words and deeds.”
“No. You did see through. It was so from of old as well.”

As if to say do not make excuses any longer, Geum Moa added with a mischievous smile,

“Truly, young master, you are as you were before.”
“This one who sees only the parts she wishes to see….”

Shin Hweein was shaking his head from side to side when he noticed, all of a sudden, that every person in the room was looking at him and Geum Moa.

Geum Moa let out an ah, snapped her fingers and undid the barrier.
Only then did Ham Seoyeon’s sulky voice come at last to his ears.

“It’s not as if I stayed back here to watch other people doing their courting.”
“Courting? Bodhisattva of Contradiction, your jests are of no mean order.”
“Even so, as befits a shaman, you do have an eye for things.”

When Shin Hweein and Geum Moa, having returned utterly contrary answers, were glaring at each other, the priest cut in this time.

“What words were the two of you exchanging at such length?”
“It was about my supplementary examination. My shikigami is of a worrying disposition.”
“That is right. Then, Brother, your not being with us on the day of the operation…”
“Just so. The examinees’ side will be doing the fighting. Though depending on how the situation unfolds, we may yet be able to aid each other.”

Father Lucas sighed. Of course.

“It troubles me a little, Brother, if you are not to be by my side….”
“Eh, Lucas, you of that taste?”
“No, Sister Barbara. My taste is for one Lord alone, whom I serve and love. It is not that. It is only that the one who can handle that boar, Sister Shin Myeongin, is none but Brother Shin Hae.”
“She was cute, I thought.”
“I had to wonder if Satan tempting the Lord Jesus in the wilderness was something of this sort.”
“Eh, for Satan that’s a touch underwhelming.”
“Um… on that point, I think you may be at ease.”

Ham Seoyeon spoke up.

“With an examiner from the Yun House, and the unit of military sorcerers he leads, that person is sure to be mixed in among them.”
“That person?”
“A direct-line scion of the Yun House. And one who is utterly set on Myeongin-ah. The head of the Shin House perhaps gave this matter to Myeongin-ah thinking it a fine opportunity to throw her and that person together. So on the day, Myeongin-ah herself, in all likelihood, will be too occupied dealing with him to…”
“Is that so!”

While Father Lucas brightened at her words, Shin Hweein, on the contrary, only grew uneasy at the thought that this would lead to a larger problem instead.

“This is no daytime soap opera….”
“Hush.”

Just then Shin Hweein’s phone vibrated.
Sensing already what its contents would be, he opened it to find, sure enough, the date and rendezvous point of the secret operation set out.

The day: three days hence, at early dusk.
The place:… Zone 3, of course.

Shin Hweein shut his eyes, gently, and steeled his resolve.
Three days from now: the moment when, at long last, he would take back into his own hands the fight that he had until then left to others alone.

“Um… but why am I even here? Surely you don’t mean to bring me along, do you?”

When the matter seemed to have been put in order, Do Yumi opened her mouth, cautiously, and spoke.

“I’m still in training, you know. And our young lord doesn’t even properly know how to use his power… um? I’m just here to listen, right? Right?”

And no one, no one at all, gave her an answer.