I Got an Omnipotent Angel - Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Itaewon Club (3)

TL/ED – Miso

(Recommended BGM: Siloam)

“Oh Lo~rd! Unto Thee! I shall give tha~nks! Siloa~m, that Thou hast granted un~to me~e~e!!”

The hymn rang out, bright and pleasant.

A hymn, in a club of all places.

It hardly suited the setting, but when the one footing the bill says to do it, what’s there to do?

Come on, show yourself.

A demon would hardly find it easy to sing a hymn.

If even one of them is the slightest bit off-key, the fire and brimstone of God shall rain down!

And so I sent the hymn once around the room, one voice at a time.

For the most part, they sang badly.

Since it was their first time with the hymn, the off-key notes were the rule, and everyone had the air of finding this whole thing absurd.

But a few among them.

There were some who sang the hymn like they knew it well.

“You sing it nicely. Have you sung hymns before?”

“Yes, I’ve gone to church since I was little.”

“Oh… is there anyone else here who goes to church?”

At that, the hostesses who had sung well raised their hands.

“I’ve got cradle faith. I’ve been going to church since I was a kid, oppa~”

“Me too!”

“Get out.”

“”???””

I had just told the hostesses who’d raised their hands to leave.

“How dare girls who go to church work in a place like this! Out, this instant!”

“…….”

At my furious command, three of the ten got up and walked out.

-Crazy psycho bastard.

The hostesses left slinging curses.

Good. That’s three weeded out.

I looked at the ones who remained and asked.

“Anyone else here got a religion?”

“…….”

“…….”

Hmm, a pity. If there’d been any Buddhists, I’d have thrown them out too.

Now that they’d watched the Christians get tossed, no one would be quick to admit to a faith.

The whole reason I’d had them sing a hymn in the first place was to pick out the Christians.

Christians, Protestant and Catholic combined, made up about 30% of the entire population of South Korea.

Which meant that, by the odds, three out of every ten were Christian.

If I could weed out three, I could narrow the field by a meaningful margin.

This was what I’d meant when I said I would vet their convictions.

At first I’d even considered just having them all drink holy water straight off, and whoever keeled over from it was the succubus!

But that left far too much to chance.

Holy water was, at its core, salt water.

Anyone who drank it would spit it out at once and give the whole game away.

That way I’d only weed out one or two.

Getting three to fall out just from a little singing meant the goal was met.

And even with the three women gone, the foul stench hadn’t lessened one bit.

The three had also crossed the ‘trap’ I’d set after the women came in, without any trouble.

Which meant the three who’d just left were pure humans.

“Come now, come now! Ease up, hyeongnim. Let’s party till we’re wrecked!”

Ga Ga-ram livened up the mood just enough and started putting in his moves.

Right, now I had to sort through these seven again.

How do I sift them this time?

“Oppa~ don’t be like that, let’s drink something nice and have fun~ hm?”

“Shall we?”

A hostess pressing a drink on me.

She had some nerve, considering she’d just watched me drive people out.

This must be what they call professional spirit.

I drank the liquor she poured and scanned my surroundings.

The barely-there outfits so typical of working girls made me deeply uncomfortable.

The AC’s cranked up full blast; how are they not freezing in those?

In any case, we drank and sang and made merry.

Unlike me, all stiff and awkward, both Ga Ga-ram and Shaman Wollyeong were having a fine time.

No, seriously, Shaman, what has gotten into…….

“Oh my, seems you know how to party, sis. Were you a bit of a hell-raiser back in your day?”

“I was the queen of Gukbin-gwan, you little brat.”

“???”

Am I the only one falling behind the times here?

Is this the spirit of the age for young folks?

Anyway, how do I weed the succubus out of this lot?

Two or more of these seven are succubi.

Just as I know there are succubi among them.

And the succubi know I’m an exorcist.

***

The succubus Seonmi had gone past incredulity into outright suspicion at this madman lining everyone up to sing hymns in a club.

‘What the? Is this bastard an exorcist?’

True, they’d been hunting a bit too openly around here lately.

A few exorcists had come looking for her.

But those had only ended up as prey for the succubi, or as their lackeys.

After all, the authority of Asmodeus that they wielded held absolute dominance in a place like this.

Seonmi traded a glance with Jessica.

The protocol, when a suspected exorcist showed up, was for one of them to slip outside and fetch the colleagues stationed at the club.

“Just a sec, I’ll run to the restroom.”

Jessica rose from her seat and started for the restroom. But then…….

‘What? What’s wrong with her?’

Jessica, who had meant to go out and summon their colleagues, stopped dead in front of the door.

Exactly like a cockroach halting at the edge of a zone sprayed with insecticide.

Then, trembling all over, wasn’t she turning right back around?

‘What?! What’s the matter?’

‘A, a barrier…….’

A barrier?

She’d spoken as if in a whisper, but that was unmistakably what she’d said.

But what of it?

They were succubi. Lesser demons, true, but kin to a great demon all the same.

No run-of-the-mill barrier or talisman could stop a succubus.

‘It’s holy oil. And a horribly powerful one at that…….’

‘……!’

At those words, Seonmi fixed her gaze on the man she’d suspected of being an exorcist.

“…….”

Their eyes met.

The man gave a slow smirk.

This bastard… don’t tell me he’s locked us in?

I’d written him off as a lunatic obsessed with hymns, and the whole time he’d sealed the one and only exit with a holy-oil barrier!

But it seemed he still couldn’t be certain which of them was a succubus.

The hymn-singing earlier must have been to filter out the Christians.

In that case, those other two were most likely exorcists as well.

Three exorcists. Two succubi.

The odds were against them. If they were found out, a fight would be unavoidable.

“Come on, come on~ everyone drink your fill. The drinks are all on me.”

“Really? Oppa, you’ve got deep pockets!”

“Then we’re really ordering everything~?”

The hostesses ordered one round after another.

What’s his game? Either way, this was to the succubi’s advantage.

Because if the drinks kept flowing, he’d end up sodden with sleep.

They could force him under, but that was a last resort.

Just get him to fall asleep, and the victory was theirs.

“Perfect! How about a drinking contest?”

Hiding their true intent, the two of them resolved to drink hard and put their target to sleep.

Even a bit of drink-induced drowsiness would open a path.

And so, playing at false smiles, they drank on and on––

“Ngh… oppa, I need the restroom a sec.”

“Ugh, I’d better go too.”

How many bottles had they knocked back by now?

Here and there, the hostesses began getting up for the restroom.

Only then did the two succubi realize.

‘These bastards! Don’t tell me!’

‘He’s whittling down the suspects through the restroom?!’

Because of the barrier drawn in holy oil, the succubi could not leave.

A human, on the other hand, could walk out without any trouble.

In other words, anyone who got up to use the restroom was human; anyone who didn’t was a succubus.

They’d walked right into a trap.

‘The longer this drags on, the sooner we’re exposed. We have to settle this now!’

The pool of suspects was steadily shrinking.

Now it was only a matter of time before the succubi were laid bare.

Seonmi traded a look with Jessica, then drew a packet of white powder from her bosom.

It was a drug that got passed around the club.

He can hold his liquor, it seems, but narcotics would drop him in one shot.

She slipped it in secretly, keeping the bottle hidden from the other women.

“Oppa~ here, have a glass from me~”

“Oh, hyeongnim. Go on, take a glass.”

“Shall I?”

Yohan calmly took up the glass Seonmi held out.

In that instant, Seonmi smiled a smile of triumph.

Got him.

Gulp, gulp.

Watching the liquor slide down Yohan’s throat, the succubi smiled in triumph.

It wasn’t a lethal dose, but it was enough to knock a man out cold in one go.

The standard trick for getting leverage on rich pushovers.

Once the drug took hold and he was under, the rest would be easy––

‘What the? Why’s he still fine?’

Even after downing the drugged glass in one shot, Yohan was perfectly fine.

There was no way the two of them could have known.

Right at that moment, Yohan had a Poison-Warding Bead, the anti-vampire kind, held in his mouth.

A Poison-Warding Bead that warded off even a vampire’s bite, the very pinnacle of infection.

There was no chance it would fail to soak up something as trivial as alcohol or drugs.

And then.

“Gack!”

Jessica, seated beside her, suddenly clutched at her throat.

She thrashed as though a thorn had lodged in her throat, and then tears and snot came pouring out of her.

“Kyaaaah!”

“What’s happening!”

People shot to their feet in alarm.

Only Seonmi was left dumbfounded, unable to make sense of the situation.

‘Poison isn’t supposed to work on demons like us?!’

And yet Jessica was writhing in agony. No, she was thrashing as though she might die at any second.

“All of you! Hurry, get out and call an ambulance!”

“Y-yes, yes yes!”

The women rushed out in a flustered stampede. But Seonmi could not leave.

It was because the holy-oil barrier stood in her way.

Ga Ga-ram brushed past Seonmi, who couldn’t get out, and shut the door.

Click!

The door locked from the inside, and only four of them were left in the sealed room.

Jessica was melting away, horribly.

Truly, horribly so… without so much as a shape left behind.

As deaths went, it was the worst kind imaginable.

“Shaman Gari… this stuff is really holy water?”

“The Shaman is no ordinary person, after all.”

Phew, the operation was a success.

Yohan felt a wave of relief that his plan had come off.

Spraying holy oil across the door to form a barrier had been Yohan’s idea.

Anyone who couldn’t cross the sole exit traced in holy oil was a succubus.

In fact, about three of them hadn’t gone to the restroom, and he still couldn’t tell which were human.

For all he knew, all three might be succubi.

So he’d kept plying them with drink.

Because they still had a second plan in reserve.

「Shaman Gari, you brought the holy water, right? How about we slip it into their drinks and see what happens?」

「That’s a good idea, but how?」

「I happen to be pretty handy.」

In the thick of the singing and drinking, Ga Ga-ram had secretly spiked the drinks with holy water.

And then he’d fed it, one after another, to the remaining suspects.

The result came at once.

Vwiiiing~!

The succubus’s soul was drawn into the brass ring.

Sure enough, the dead woman had been a succubus.

Because anything that dissolved from sipping a little holy water, which was nothing but salt water to begin with, could be no human.

“So there were two succubi.”

“The hounds of evil never walk alone.”

The three of them closed in around the remaining succubus.

“You cowardly humans… ganging up on a woman.”

“No, what kind of insane nonsense is that? You want us doing ladies-first in a situation like this?”

“Bullshit fit for a demon.”

Seonmi had opened her mouth when she needn’t have, and got smacked down for it.

But she was not about to admit defeat yet.

“If you men want to fight dirty, then I’ve got my own methods. Do you really think there were only the ‘two’ of us?”

In that instant, the succubus spewed out wicked mana.

Yohan hurriedly flung holy water, but, luckily, she blocked it with her arm.

“Ngghh!”

Her arm felt as though it were burning away.

Mercifully, it wasn’t enough to melt her the way Jessica had melted a moment before.

That was because Seonmi was a demon of no small rank, and because the holy water hadn’t been poured straight into her innards.

“You got careless! The moment you faced me, a high-tier succubus, your defeat was already sealed!”

In that instant, the sight of all four of them went dark.

Ga Ga-ram and Shaman Wollyeong went down first, and then Yohan collapsed, clutching the Rosary in his bosom.

And Seonmi, too, seemed to lose consciousness and crumpled to the floor.

Presently, the succubus’s field of vision changed.

A hill garden carpeted in blue-green foliage.

A free, peaceful, secluded world.

“Ha! No surprise from one of God’s lapdogs, even his dream world is a bore.”

Yes. This was inside a dream.

As a high-ranking kin of Asmodeus, Seonmi could force everyone around her to sink into a dream.

It was not a magic without risk.

For one, it drained an enormous amount of mana, and it carried the drawback that she herself could not move while the spell was being cast.

But a dream was a succubus’s domain.

Here, they were god-like beings who could mold the world as they pleased.

“Nothing’s quite as much of a thrill as corrupting a dog that serves God.”

In dreams like this, the succubi had long corrupted people and made them into their own hounds.

That was why they favored clubs and red-light districts, where dissolute targets were easy to find and approach.

By planting a fierce loyalty toward themselves in the unconscious mind, they would seize control of society.

And to do that, she first had to take command of the unconscious.

“The deep layer… what is this? I can’t descend? Has a mere exorcist really got an inner mind this solid?”

If so, she would have to become someone more familiar to him and get him to surrender his consciousness of his own accord.

Casting about for a suitable candidate, Seonmi thought of the beauty who’d been sitting beside him.

Someone he’d bring along to a place like this had to be a treasured comrade, or else a lover.

Wearing that woman’s form, Seonmi came face to face with Yohan in the dream garden.

“Shaman Wollyeong?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s me, Shaman Wollyeong.”

With Shaman Wollyeong’s face, Seonmi wore a sultry smile and stepped closer to Yohan.

“Shaman?”

“I want to get to know you better. You know what I mean, don’t you?”

Seonmi slid the front of her dress a touch off her chest, luring him in.

Men, for all their pretending otherwise, every last one of them caves.

But when Seonmi’s expectant gaze lifted, she found herself looking at a frowning Yohan.

“What… is it?”

“Sorry, but Grandm… no. You’re just not my type.”

Grandm…? What?

Why is he so unshakeable? He’s not budging in the slightest.

The woman called Shaman Wollyeong was a striking beauty.

Surely there wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t crumble when a woman like this bared a little and beckoned?

Ah!

So he swings that way?

Realizing she’d read him wrong, Seonmi hurriedly shifted her form.

Into Ga Ga-ram’s form.

A finely honed body, and as she drew down a zipper––

“Hyeongnim~ let’s have a steamy night together, you and me––”

“Aaagh! Fuck OFF!!”

THWACK!

Struck by the fist he swung in a convulsive fit, Seonmi went sprawling to the floor.

However thoroughly a succubus might command the dream, its true master was the dreamer himself.

The force of it played out according to his own will, in proportion to how strong that will was.

And this was a will of the utmost strength.

‘So he’s not into that either?!’

What the — then don’t tell me he’s into, what, animals?

A so-called Christian, with a taste that blasphemous!

“Grrgh! You wretched human! Fine, then, I’ll corrupt you no matter what!”

I’ll put every last preference under the sun to the test.

Whatever the case, this was a dream. In this world where mind linked to mind, she was untouchable!

A succubus led people astray within dreams.

Yohan was well aware of this, too.

To face a succubus inside a dream.

【Po.】

Just what he’d been hoping for.