Chapter 8 — The Sorcerer Lost In A Dream (4)

“What is the matter with you? Why on earth won’t you pick up your phone? If you can’t take a call, you could at least text and say so… ah.”

Ham Seoyeon came striding into the guest room the instant the door opened, her face heavy with anger, the rebuke already halfway out of her mouth.
Then she caught sight of Shin Hweein pushing himself up from the bed, and she dropped her voice in a hurry.

He had been in no state to manage it himself, yet Geum Moa had somehow already fitted the mask onto his face.
Athena must have read the situation and relayed it across, he thought.

And since Ham Seoyeon already knew his true identity, the mask served no purpose at all. Geum Moa’s thoroughness was, in its way, admirable.
No doubt she had done it out of consideration, to spare Ham Seoyeon any revulsion at the sight of his disfigured face.

“Are you all right? If it’s a bad time, I can come back later.”
“It is well. I am only in the midst of recovering. I am sorry that I could not take your call.”
“No, it’s fine! …When you apologize in a situation like this, it makes me out to be the bad one. I’m the one who should be sorry.”

Realizing Shin Hweein was in no good state, Ham Seoyeon softened her manner, threw a wary glance at Geum Moa, who was glaring daggers at her, and crept further into the bedroom.

“Nice room. Looks like you’ve got money to spare.”
“The Father took it for me. He arranged the means as well.”
“…I thought from the start that Father was a bit suspicious. He isn’t a dangerous man, is he? It’s strange how excessively attached he is to you, too.”
“Nonsense. It is no more than a transaction.”

To words not worth a moment’s thought, Shin Hweein could only shake his head.
He had taken the same misunderstanding from someone else before, and it was entirely the Father’s fault.

“So what is the matter, then? It must be urgent business, if you went so far as to track down my lodgings.”
“Oh, right. The truth is, Do Yumi suddenly collapsed yesterday and won’t wake up. Taeju too… so I panicked.”
“…What did you say?”

At a story that sounded oddly familiar, Shin Hweein’s eyes widened.

A fair while seemed to have passed already since Do Yumi collapsed.
In a voice drained of strength, Ham Seoyeon recounted the whole of it at length.

“I borrowed the General’s strength to try, but it didn’t do a thing. The Cathedral was the same. I was about ready to put on a proper gut (a Korean shamanic ritual), but before that I thought of calling Myeongin, and then the Father said, why not ask you first. …And then you wouldn’t pick up your phone no matter what, so I came all the way here.”
“Ha. To think one who calls herself a spirit-ability-user could be caught in such cheap sorcery…”

At a loss for words, Shin Hweein could only sigh.

Well-honed, she would surely become a powerhouse who lacked for nothing wherever she went.
Yet for want of foundation, she was stumbling through happenings he could not bear to watch with his eyes open.
That Taeju Doryeong, a man of such standing, had also fallen could only be the sorcerer’s doing.

“What is this, you actually know the cause?”
“I know what is happening in the capital. They say cases of narcolepsy are erupting one after another.”
“Narcolepsy…?”

Frowning at the word, Ham Seoyeon punched the new keyword into her phone and at once let out a cry of astonishment.

“It’s really true…! And it’s been going on for days already!”
“Our eyes were fixed on the vampires, which is why we failed to notice. That this is a spiritual matter is certain, but it is neither plague nor curse. That is the extent of what I know. The cause is still beyond me.”
“Mmh, just knowing it isn’t happening to Do Yumi alone is enough. So, um…”

Watching Ham Seoyeon trail off in awkward embarrassment, Shin Hweein understood what she wanted to say, smiled faintly, and got ahead of her.

“Let us go together and look in on Do Yumi’s condition.”
“Ah — really, really, thank you! Oh, but you’re not well. Am I pushing you too hard?”
“This one is lending its help, so it is well.”
“Come to think of it, that on your stomach — that’s a myodusa, isn’t it…? You really do pick none but the rarest yokai for your shikigami. Is it the Shin House’s secret art?”

The myodusa was not Shin Hweein’s thrall but Geum Moa’s, though he decided not to bother correcting her.
In any case, when they went to examine Do Yumi, they would have to borrow the creature’s strength as well.

“Moa. Could you not rouse the van’s driver with the myodusa?”
“No. He simply slept on. Among those struck by this narcolepsy now, some wake before long and some sleep on for days, so if the matter is not soon resolved, it would be no surprise if many deaths followed.”

Just as he had thought.

If the myodusa could have woken the driver, it would have said so. That it had not meant this was a spiritual incident beyond the myodusa’s level.

Hearing this, Ham Seoyeon let her shoulders drop.

“Ugh, I’d gotten my hopes up a little when I saw the myodusa.”
“Do Yumi is, despite all, a spirit-ability-user. One cannot say. Unlike an ordinary person, she may yet answer to the myodusa’s power and recover.”
“I hope so…”

Comforting the disappointed Ham Seoyeon, Shin Hweein added,

“Then step out for a moment.”
“What’s this, so cold all of a sudden. We can leave together.”
“I must change.”
“Ah.”

Ham Seoyeon, an adult only by her clothes and in truth no different from a sheltered young lady of the inner chambers, gave a small cry of understanding and, flushing red, fled the room in a hurry.

Watching her go, Geum Moa ground her teeth, at what fresh grievance no one could say.

“That wench…!”
“What displeases you now?”
“Her manner toward the young master is far too familiar! As though she were treating a close friend!”
“A friend. Is that not a good thing? I have been wanting an ordinary friendship of my own, the kind anyone might have.”

Breaking off his reply to Geum Moa, Shin Hweein suddenly recalled her from the dream, and a wry smile crept to the corner of his mouth.
Until now, even when he dreamed of past-life memories, they mostly evaporated on waking. This time, perhaps because he had recovered his consciousness within the dream itself, a fairly vivid recollection lingered.

The Geum Moa of that dream had been far younger than she was now, and far more obsessive in her attachment.
That side of her, too, had a youthful, guileless quality he had found very endearing…

Yes — this is not good.

Catching himself unwittingly comparing past life and present, Shin Hweein soon shook his head to scatter the thought.
For one who, like himself, scarcely knew the world outside the family, nothing good could come of being swayed by past-life memories.
It seemed, after all, that he had best hasten his reckoning with the queen of the dream-demons as much as he could.

It was then.

“Hmm, that will turn out very differently depending on how Master handles things from here. Right now she does feel like a friend one can lean on, but she already seems to carry no small feeling for Master. If you nudge her even a little, so that she comes to be conscious of you as a man…”
“…”

To Leon, who had suddenly poked his head up out of the shadow Shin Hweein cast on the floor and started to talk, the two of them lowered their gazes blankly.

Springing fully out and landing on the floor in one motion, Leon laughed huhu, swept his bangs aside, and observed,

“Master, you’d forgotten all about me, hadn’t you?”
“I am sorry.”
“It would be best if you simply vanished on the spot.”
“To guard Master against the swarm of perverts, I’m afraid I cannot do that — oh dear.”

Wresting Geum Moa, set on punishing Leon, away from him, Shin Hweein finished washing his face and changing his clothes, then sent Ham Seoyeon a message that something had come up inside after all and she should come back in.

He then took out an injection-syringe he had prepared in advance, knowing he would have much use for it from now on, mixed in a measured portion of water, and added some of his own blood.
The work of drawing his blood and combining it with the syringe had grown startlingly easier than before, even to himself.

“Oh, it resembles his authority. Of course, he could manipulate the blood of others without ever mixing in his own, so he was a great deal more impressive.”
“It is no wonder. I took that authority you speak of from him.”
“…Sorry?”
“What I mean is that your becoming my thrall was by no means a matter of chance.”

Even with the contract dissolved, Attila seemed to remain an object of awe for Leon. He gaped open-mouthed, unable to believe Shin Hweein’s words.
But there was no time just now to explain it all in detail, so Hweein decided to settle the urgent business first.

“Leon, take off your upper garment and show me your back. I shall set a measure in place to keep you from harm should you enter a cathedral.”
“A cathedral?! Then you do find me displeasing after all, and mean to put me to death?”
“I mean to prevent such a thing from happening. Hurry.”
“What is this work that has come up — kyaaah?!”

At that very moment, with impeccable timing, Ham Seoyeon came in, saw Leon’s bared upper body, shrieked, and sank to the floor.

Shin Hweein was still wearing the mask, so his expression stayed hidden, but Geum Moa did not miss the faint sound of laughter leaking out of him.
He looked exactly as though he were teasing a friend and enjoying it, she thought. And then, vexed at her own thought even though it was hers, she gave his upper arm a small, sulky pinch.

It took a little while for Ham Seoyeon to accept that Leon was a vampire, and that Shin Hweein had taken him in as his thrall.

“He’s… not a shikigami, is he?”
“No. It is a slightly different form of contract. He will not bite people as he pleases, so you may rest easy.”
“No — a noble of the night, and to be treated like some mongrel dog…”

Leon grumbled at his shabby treatment, yet at the same time he kept twitching the muscles of his back awkwardly, as though the red tattoo now etched there bothered him.
Bother him or not, the sorcery-formula was already complete and settled in place, so it could not easily be peeled off.

“In the middle of all that chaos, how did you even think of taking on a vampire? If he isn’t a shikigami, it can’t be Shin-House sorcery either.”
“There are fairly complicated reasons. For now, all you need take in is that there is no danger.”
“That’s amazing…”

Without the faintest notion that Leon had once been the master of an Other Realm, Ham Seoyeon merely nodded.

Once Shin Hweein had confirmed that the sorcery-formula manifested properly, he returned Leon to the shadow for the time being and left the guest room with Ham Seoyeon.

It was right then that his eyes met those of a man hovering at the door, torn over whether or not to ring the bell.

“Huh? …Huh? Whuh?!”

The man recognized Ham Seoyeon emerging side by side with Shin Hweein and widened his eyes in shock.
Then, seeing Geum Moa follow them out and lock the guest-room door behind her, his face went outright blank.

Meanwhile, Shin Hweein placed where he had seen this bespectacled, handsome man before.

“Lt. Colonel Yun?”
“Ah, ah. Aah… that is to say… you are the Rank-3 examinee, Shin Hae, are you not?”
“I am.”

To be precise it was Rank-4, but since a Rank-3 certificate would be issued either way, Shin Hweein nodded.

Wearing the face of a man inside a dream, Lt. Colonel Yun let his gaze travel back and forth between Shin Hweein and the two women, and at last, in a daze, held out the bundle in his hand.

“Th-this… I came to deliver your certificate. And along with it, a personal gift from Lt. General Yun.”
“A gift from the Lt. General…”

Shin Hweein took the bundle, drew out the certificate alone, and handed it to Geum Moa.

Geum Moa tucked it away into her bosom and wore an odd expression, perhaps because she had naturally guessed what lay inside the rest of the package, but she did not yet open her mouth.

Meanwhile Shin Hweein addressed Lt. Colonel Yun, who still could not return to reality.

“A reward for the operation?”
“In name, I suppose so. He’s the sort of man who never does this kind of thing, so why… No, was I the only one who didn’t know? Could Uncle have known and sent me on purpose? …A son-in-law arrangement with the Ham House? A fast-track to advancement?”

He seemed to be muttering low so the others wouldn’t hear, but every word reached Shin Hweein’s ears.
And by the way Ham Seoyeon’s face turned bright red beside him, it appeared she had heard as well.

“Mr. Yun Jubaek, I can see you’ve got some misunderstanding, but it isn’t anything like that, all right? We’re just friends, all right?”
“Ah — no, no. I won’t go blabbing it anywhere, so be at ease. From the moment two… no, three of you came out of a hotel room together…”
“…?!”

His words finished, Lt. Colonel Yun, Yun Jubaek, cast Shin Hweein a look that said I envy you to death.

Ham Seoyeon, finally grasping the reason for the misunderstanding, took on the expression of someone who wanted to die of embarrassment.

Shin Hweein shook his head firmly in denial.

“She and I are no more than acquaintances. I happen to have just taken on a case-commission from her.”
“A case-commission… is it? Hmm…”

Yun Jubaek let his gaze drop to the certificate he had only just handed over.

Ham Seoyeon was a Rank-2 mu-gyeok, and Shin Hweein had this very moment qualified as a Rank-3 sorcerer.
Yun Jubaek himself was surely Rank-1, or at the very least a high-tier Rank-2.
Even without his saying so, one could tell what he was thinking.
In point of fact, measured only by the volume of spiritual power he could draw on, or by the number of sorceries he could wield, Shin Hweein was overwhelmingly inferior, not only to Yun Jubaek but to Ham Seoyeon as well, so it was a fair enough thought.

“You’ve finished your business, haven’t you? Then we’ll be on our way.”

Shin Hweein understood the man’s heart, but Ham Seoyeon, who had likewise read Yun Jubaek’s gaze, answered in a tone that could not hide her displeasure and tugged at Shin Hweein’s sleeve.

It was at that moment that Yun Jubaek made his unexpected proposal.

“Don’t be like that. How about you let me in on this case too? It happens I’ve got time to spare before I return to my unit, so it looks like I could be of help.”
“What…?”
“In exchange, if it all works out, just set me up with Myeongin once.”

The instant she heard it, Ham Seoyeon’s face plainly conveyed how very much she disliked the idea. But when she felt Shin Hweein staring at her through the mask, she flinched.

— You do not mean to throw away the chance to build good relations with the Yun House twice over, do you, Bodhisattva of Contradiction?
— Don’t call me Bodhisattva of Contradiction!

After a brief exchange, in the end Ham Seoyeon sighed and nodded.

“All right — but only after I ask the Father first.”