Chapter 15 — The Sorcerer And The Great-Mouth Ruins (2)

As tends to be the case with men who have something to hide, the cathedral’s basement was extraordinarily vast.

The space had been worked over with safeguards plainly distinct from Aeshin’s sorcery, and it ran deeper than it had any right to from the outside.
Its wards were excessive past all reason.
And it brimmed with a force unlike yokai force, unlike spiritual power, and unlike, of course, the divine power a mudang channels.
It brimmed with holy power.

“State licensing… you wouldn’t have it, of course.”
“Haha. You do not disappoint as Father Lucas’s partner; quite the amusing thing to say. This way, if you please.”

For a man of the lofty rank of Cardinal, the deference he showed Shin Hweein was remarkable.
And not merely a Cardinal, but the standing representative of the Catholic Church in Aeshin, a sorcery-state. A man who could sit across from the heads of the Three Capital Houses and speak to them as equals.
More remarkable still was the easy grace with which he had let the question slide right past him.

Father Lucas has no nondisclosure pact with him on this matter. Surely it isn’t that he doesn’t mind word leaking out… No, that can’t be it. If he has roughly grasped my present situation, then the cathedral holds half of my life in its hand. Perhaps he reckons that revealing this much does no harm.

Even so, with the future in mind, it would be wise to seal the man’s lips.

Thinking it over, Hweein glanced sideways and found Father Lucas’s eyes shining.

“A basement complex. Does it not set the heart racing? Hoho, but beneath the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, something far more astonishing lies sleeping…”
“Father Lucas, I beg of you. Do not say it.”

The Basilica of Saint Peter was famously built atop the tomb of the first Pope, Peter himself.
But whatever Father Lucas was about to say would no doubt be something far more terrible than that piece of common knowledge.

Astonishingly, the Cardinal appeared not to know it either; he turned with a look of pure curiosity and put the question to the priest.

“Father Lucas, I find myself curious.”
“Hahaha. It is a secret kept even from a Cardinal, Your Eminence. If you wish to know, the next conclave is your opportunity.”

A conclave being the election by which a new Pope is chosen, the priest was, in plainer terms, telling him to get himself elected Pope and find out for himself.

How on earth did Father Lucas come to know a secret of that magnitude.

Was the office of exorcist priest truly a station of such weight.

No. Among awakened operatives active on the world stage, he is without doubt counted among the foremost elite. It is only that, watching Father Lucas, one tends to forget the fact…

Before the priest could notice the direction of Shin Hweein’s gaze, the three of them arrived at a room suited to conversation.

“Might we speak of business first? I would have preferred to show you to your quarters before anything else, but unfortunately my next appointment is rather pressing.”
“I have no objection to hearing the matter from someone else, if you prefer.”
“No, no. That would not do. You are a guest I personally requested be brought here.”

He was no ordinary man, this Cardinal.

Clicking his tongue inwardly in admiration, Shin Hweein took his seat, accepted the tea the Cardinal himself had brewed, and marveled all over again.
If even an act this polished was put-on, that was impressive enough. And if the man carried himself this way as a matter of course, that was more frightening still.

…Perhaps it is shameful of me to leave everything in Moa’s hands.

However much Geum Moa might rage at him for it, ought he to insist on trying his own hand at these matters?

He was earnestly weighing the question when Geum Moa, standing in attendance at his back and apparently sensing his thoughts, surreptitiously pinched his back where no one could see.

— While I am the one serving you, do not even think of lifting so much as a finger, young master.
— What in the world is this obsession of yours with service?

Perhaps a spell had been laid on Shin Hweein’s very daily existence, to keep it going.

Or perhaps it was she who was laying some such sorcery on him…

In any case, one thing was now clear. Even a Cardinal could not detect Geum Moa’s covert movements or her mind-speech.

“Then let me speak of the work I would ask of you, Sorcerer Shin Hae. To be honest, this incident has not taken place in Seoul… would you be willing to travel outside the city?”
“That presents no obstacle.”

Sorcerers as a rule strongly prefer not to stray far from their territory of activity.
Especially when that territory is one’s birthplace, for there are blessings and sorceries bestowed only so long as one stands upon one’s native soil, as was true for Shin Hweein himself.

A representative example would be the Eight Pure-Blood Houses, who wield their fullest strength only in their home regions. And despite having been formally severed from his house, Shin Hweein still partook of the Shin House protection.

Strictly speaking, since the protection runs through my bloodline, I need only set foot on Aeshin soil; the Capital itself isn’t required. But those who live within the main estate must wear blessings far richer than mine.

A representative example: the Pagoda-Tree God’s blessing, which Shin Hweein could call upon only through a talisman, would be in effect at all times for those dwelling beneath the pagoda tree of the main estate.
And not the Pagoda-Tree God’s blessing alone. Over hundreds of years, the gathered presence of spirits strengthened within the House’s domain would be guarding them.

To put it the other way around: when those who stepped outside the family’s domain, outside the Capital, grew weaker, Shin Hweein remained unaffected. But outsiders would scarcely know this.

The Cardinal’s having asked him about it in advance must have been on account of that.

He has guessed at my identity.

That much, he was prepared to accept.

The Specter Realm Gate that Myeongdong Cathedral had charge of.
It was not on the scale of the Nine Great Specter Gates, but it was a gate of considerable size all the same, and given how long it had been kept hidden from discovery, surely thorough measures had been laid in advance to keep just anyone from passing through.

Yet despite being told of coordinates that were managed in secret, Shin Hweein had opened the gate with ease, without even any particular preparation.
To suspect that he bore a Gatekeeper’s Brand was only natural.

“Then I shall tell you. Outside Seoul, yes, but not far. Suwon, in Gyeonggi Province.”
“Suwon… I have heard the diocese there is second in scale only to the Archdiocese of Seoul.”

And, he might have added, it was also the seat of power for Baek House, one of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses.

“Oh, just so. You know it well. Have you perhaps had an interest in Christianity from earlier on?”

He could hardly answer that as a child he had simply been schooled on every faction in Aeshin too powerful to overlook, so he gave a vague, mumbling reply. At that, the Cardinal heaved a deep sigh.

“It would be all very well if this touched the Suwon Diocese alone, but of all places the incident has broken out at a military base…”
“Then the Military Ordinariate?”
“Just so. You really do know your subject. The two of them are at each other’s throats over it as we speak.”

The Military Ordinariate was the diocese that oversaw the chapels established within each military base for the soldiers serving there.
It had no defined geographical territory, and could thus overlap with any number of other dioceses’ jurisdictions.

“But what sort of incident is this, that it should provoke a clash between dioceses? If it occurred within a chapel inside a military base, surely it could simply be left to the Military Ordinariate.”

And what, exactly, was the Cardinal’s intent in laying this before Shin Hweein.

A military base. The likelihood was low, but it was not unthinkable that Yun Jinseong might already know something of the affair.

Most incidents of any ordinary scale ought to be resolvable by the priests’ own strength.

“The Military Ordinariate is not large in scale. Above all, its members are scattered across the country, which makes it difficult to mass force quickly. When an incident is of large scale, they cannot meet it with their own strength alone, which is to say this one. And yet they obstinately insist on settling the matter among themselves, refusing the Suwon Diocese’s involvement, and so it has at last come up to me.”
“I should like to hear the heart of the matter now. What exactly is this incident that has broken out?”
“Ruins.”

Shin Hweein found himself pressing a hand to his forehead before he knew it.

He had had a feeling it would be something like this.

If danger were the only consideration, there would be no jackals snapping from every direction to claim the work.
It was because a tempting morsel sat baited in the trap that the pack came circling.

The Cardinal, noticing his sigh, gave a wry smile and laid out the situation.

“It seems they were carrying out relocation work on a chapel inside the base when they came upon it. A vast hole opened in the floor all at once, and a golden light could be glimpsed from beyond. The laborers at the site flung themselves in as though entranced, and never came back. For now they have erected screens and the like to keep anyone from approaching, but the golden light is reportedly growing fiercer.”
“The base must have been informed.”
“They have managed to keep it hidden so far, by all accounts.”

Shin Hweein cast the Cardinal a reproachful look, but the man only shrugged, as if to say there was no use blaming him.

“I am of much the same mind myself. But if the Spell Army should become involved as well, the situation will only grow more tangled. Once that happens, Baek House too will catch wind of it. The standoff over the ruins will only drag on, and any prospect of a swift resolution will be lost.”
“To put it in order, then… the Military Ordinariate lacks the strength to deal with the ruins. The Suwon Diocese wishes to be involved, but is being refused by the Military Ordinariate. The base itself is not yet aware, but if the matter is not resolved quickly the light will leak through and be discovered, at which point the Spell Army, and of course Baek House, will be free to interfere…”
“Just so. For your reference, it was only this very evening that someone from the Suwon Diocese, in a fine fury, came to me directly to tell me of all this.”

Shin Hweein put the question to him plainly.

“I take it you mean to dispatch myself and Father Lucas there. What exactly do you wish us to do? And how do you intend to handle the dispute between the Suwon Diocese and the Military Ordinariate?”
“From the two of you I ask but two things. The collapse of the ruins, and the rescue of the laborers who have fallen into them.”

The Cardinal’s voice, as he stated his aim, was cool.

Hearing in it the authority befitting the head of a great religion and the sanctity befitting a priest, both at once, Shin Hweein quietly smiled.

He had never imagined the rescue of the laborers would be part of it.

“As for my thoughts on the dispute between the two dioceses… frankly, it is no concern of mine. I do not think anything truly great will emerge from those ruins. And even if it should, what emerges must belong to the honest and the upright, not to the avaricious. So the Scriptures teach.”
“A true word, Your Eminence. To think first of the workmen trapped in the ruins is what ought to come; to be left snarling at one another over the contents of the ruin, and still call oneself a priest of God?”
“Haha. Father Lucas and I are of one mind. I, too, have no desire to help camels through the eye of a needle.”

At Father Lucas and the Cardinal’s easy agreement, Geum Moa, as ever, slipped in with a barbed remark.

— Well. The workers will have died long ago anyway. Golden light leaking out of the place means the ruin is deliberately drawing people in. Drawing people in means it wants to drink their life-force, or their flesh and blood…
— Let us go there in person and confirm that for ourselves.

Sighing as he answered Geum Moa’s venomous mind-speech, Shin Hweein turned to the Cardinal.

“I will take the matter on. The Cardinal cares nothing for whatever spoils might come out of the ruins, only that the affair be brought to an end swiftly. That is correct, is it not?”
“Precisely. I shall not lay a finger on whatever you, Sorcerer Shin Hae, may obtain from the ruins. And of course neither the Suwon Diocese nor the Military Ordinariate will be permitted to interfere with what the two of you do.”

As if he had been waiting for the moment, the Cardinal slipped his own handwritten warrant into an envelope and handed it across.

After confirming that the warrant carried, intact, the same aura he felt from the priest before him, Hweein passed it to Father Lucas beside him, who in turn gave it a firm, approving nod.

“With Father Lucas and Sister Barbara, and Sorcerer Shin Hae besides, I have no doubt the three of you will see it done.”
“Until I have faced the ruins myself I cannot give you a firm answer, but we shall do our utmost.”
“Haha, no need to be in too great a hurry, mind.”

Once the matter had been laid out so smoothly, the Cardinal, looking satisfied, asked for a handshake; then he instructed Father Lucas on Shin Hweein’s lodging arrangements and asked him to see them settled.

“Then I shall take my leave. I shall pray that you both return safely.”
“There is something I would briefly ask.”

The Cardinal was crossing himself and about to turn away when Shin Hweein called him back.

When the Cardinal looked round with a faintly puzzled expression, Shin Hweein asked him directly.

“It is possible that the information has already leaked. Should we come into conflict with the Spell Army or Baek House, how do you wish us to proceed?”
“As I said before. What matters to us is not treasure but people. So long as the ruins can be settled quickly, it makes no difference who else inserts themselves…”

In that instant, the Cardinal’s gaze sharpened.

“…But should any try to bar you from entering the ruins, or to keep you from moving freely within them, you, Sorcerer Shin Hae, need show them no mercy. The aftermath I shall answer for, every bit of it.”
“Those words put me at ease. Trust the matter to us.”

The Cardinal exchanged a smile with Shin Hweein and this time, at last, turned and went.

Father Lucas, watching him go, let out an admiring “Oh—”.

“His Eminence seems quite taken with you, Brother Shin Hae.”
“All the same, I have no intention of converting.”
“Hahaha. You would make a fine exorcist priest, I think, Brother. A pity, all the same.”

Shin Hweein gave a wry smile and asked Father Lucas to show him to his quarters.

The lodging he was led to was fine enough to bear comparison with the hotel he had been staying in until now; unfortunately, he could not sleep deeply in it.

For at dawn the very next day, word came that Baek House had broken through the ruins.