Surviving as a Sorcerer in Seoul - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Cursed Wardrobe (2)

TL: DDTL

“……So. Why do you want to know?”

“Whoa. Just personal curiosity. Don’t look at me like that, it’s scary. If we’re doing introductions, my name’s Bi-do.”

The man raised both hands and took a step back.

Introducing himself as Bi-do and shrugging his shoulders like that, he came off as pretty slick.

But the eyes behind his sunglasses were scanning me without pause.

Based on my limited experience with Heo Do.

I had my own method for situations like this.

“……”

Just shut up and stare. The so-called death glare.

Might seem like it wouldn’t actually work.

But it was surprisingly effective.

“Haha. Not even worth a word, huh? Fine. I’ll just show my worth through skill, then.”

See. Works like a charm.

I let out an inward sigh of relief.

This damn sorcery world.

I can’t quite figure it out.

After meeting Heo Do, I’d pegged Sorcerers as soft, laid-back middle-aged guys.

But looking at this Bi-do character, that clearly wasn’t the case either.

Or was this one just especially weird?

I stole a glance at the others.

The young woman decked out in luxury brands was filing her nails with a haughty look.

And one old Monk, walking along in silence with his hands pressed together in prayer.

Yeah, Bi-do was the weird one.

Everyone else was dignified, but this bastard reeked of sleaze.

“Here it is.”

Heo Do stopped in front of a door at the end of the second-floor hallway.

The ominous energy leaking through the crack was enough to make everyone flinch.

Even Bi-do adjusted his sunglasses, his expression shifting.

Creeeak.

As Heo Do opened the door,

a single wardrobe stood alone in the middle of an isolated room.

The claim about collecting antique furniture hadn’t been a lie.

Just from the look of it, it was an expensive mother-of-pearl wardrobe that belonged in a museum.

Ornate mother-of-pearl inlay was embroidered across black lacquer, and the patterns were bizarrely twisted.

“Ugh…….”

The woman decked out in luxury brands clutched her nose and scrunched her face.

“The smell…….”

The others had much the same reaction.

The Monk furrowed his brow and rolled his Prayer Beads, and Bi-do flared his nostrils.

At first I thought it was the incense burning near the wardrobe, but looking closer, that wasn’t it.

It was just ordinary sandalwood.

Me, on the other hand?

‘……Besides the wardrobe stinking a bit, I got nothing.’

Old rotten wood mixed with a little mold.

That wasn’t bad enough to warrant their kind of reaction, was it?

But what could I do.

They were reacting like that.

I just kept my mouth shut and watched, like always.

“Amitabha Buddha… A Cursed Object of considerable resentment, indeed. The stench of a Resentful Ghost fills the air.”

“With a stink this strong, it’s definitely a Rank 4 Cursed Object. Upper tier among Rank 4s, at that.”

The Monk and the woman nodded along in agreement with each other.

Heo Do rapped his fist against the wardrobe with a solid thunk and added,

“I think we should take shifts watching the wardrobe. We don’t know when the Demon might burst out.”

“Shifts? What the hell are you talking about? Is this a joke?”

A shrill voice erupted immediately.

Let me revise. This woman didn’t seem sane either.

“Do you have any idea how bad pulling an all-nighter is for your skin? I’ve got a dermatology appointment next week.”

She snapped irritably and pulled something from inside her clothes. A handful of petals filled her palm.

Dried, pale pink cherry blossom petals.

“Blossoms Opening Across Ten Thousand Li, Barrier Guardian.”

The woman chanted the incantation and scattered the petals into the air.

Fwoosh!

The petals shot upward and spread in a circle around the wardrobe.

Soon, pale pink beams of light connected with each other.

They settled around the wardrobe in a shape resembling a pentagram.

Dusting off her hands, the woman planted them on her hips and lifted her chin.

“There. Should hold off the Demon as a first line of defense if it comes out. I added an alarm function too, so if it trips, just come up then.”

“Haha. Truly befitting of So-hwa-nim, the rising Barrier sorcerer. Beautiful and powerful.”

Heo Do clapped and praised her.

“This Humble Monk shall lend a hand as well.”

The Monk quietly raised his Prayer Beads.

Click-clack, click-clack.

The beads ground against each other, letting out a dull friction sound.

His lips parted, and he began reciting a Buddhist Chant.

“Om amogha vairocana mahamudra mani padma jvala pravarttaya hum…….”

It was the Mantra of Radiant Light.

As power filled the Monk’s voice,

the light rays carved around the petals began to deepen.

The faded pink turned into a vivid crimson, and the Barrier visibly hardened another layer.

Watching this, Heo Do let out a small sound of admiration and gave a thumbs up.

“Indeed. Word-Spirit Art worthy of Hye-gwang-nim of Tuseung Buddhism. The Barrier has grown much sturdier.”

Next, Heo Do glanced at me.

“…….”

What. What’s he expecting? I don’t have anything like that.

All I had were a few Talismans drawn with chicken blood and a smelly field jacket.

Not exactly the kind of thing I could pull out here for show.

I just silently kept glaring at the wardrobe.

Heo Do shrugged slightly and then spoke up.

“Well then. Shall we head back down?”

Wait.

He didn’t so much as glance at Bi-do, this guy.

As if he’d expected it, Bi-do was yawning wide and grinning to himself.

“Ahh~ boring. Something needs to pop out soon so I can get in some blade work.”

He patted his waist. Something sharp seemed to be hidden inside his jacket.

So this bastard was in charge of close combat?

Anyway, roughly laying out the party composition,

that woman was the Barrier-casting mage.

The Monk was the buff support, and Bi-do was the melee DPS.

So me?

‘……The bomber?’

I was carrying Karmic Fire Talismans and Extinguishing Light Talismans.

I guess that made me the ranged AoE DPS. A pretty well-balanced party, actually.

* * *

And so, Heo Do ran through the introductions and the night passed.

Everyone seemed to have gone into a spare room to sleep.

Honestly, I couldn’t sleep well.

Does it make any sense to sleep soundly with a Rank 4 Cursed Object on the floor right above?

But since they all calmly went into their rooms,

I reluctantly went into one too, not wanting to look like a chicken.

Of course, I locked the door tight and slept with my field jacket still on.

After tossing and turning, morning broke.

I came down to the first-floor living room feeling relatively refreshed, when,

‘Hm?’

my eyes went wide.

There was a feast laid out on the wide marble dining table.

Steaming white rice, beef and seaweed soup, braised short ribs, japchae, assorted namul side dishes, even grilled fish.

A thirty-dish spread for breakfast?

It was basically a royal banquet.

Just like Heo Do mentioned, the housekeeper Aunt stopped by now and then.

He wasn’t wrong.

Her skills were no joke.

Glancing around, I saw no one was paying the spread any mind.

So-hwa was sitting in a corner of the living room sofa, elegantly crossing her legs and filing her nails.

Full makeup this early in the morning.

Monk Hye-gwang sat in the chair opposite the table, stroking his Moktak and staring off into space.

Meditating, maybe?

And Bi-do,

“Ah, so bored~.”

was muttering that while flashily rolling a small knife between his fingers.

If he slices off a finger doing that, does it qualify for workers’ comp?

Anyway.

Was everyone the type to skip breakfast?

Or did tension kill their appetite?

Well, nothing I can do.

Leftovers would all end up in the food waste bin.

With African refugees dying because they can’t get a single proper meal, there was no way I could let this precious food go to waste.

I quietly pulled out a dining chair and sat down.

First, a spoonful of the seaweed soup.

“…..”

The broth was incredible. Generous with the beef, rich and hearty.

I got down to the serious eating.

Tore off a short rib, slurped up some japchae, piled on some kimchi and ate with gusto.

Smacking sounds echoed through the living room.

“…….”

I felt a prickly stare.

Looking up, So-hwa was watching me with visible disgust. Her eyes seemed to say, ‘You can actually eat in a situation like this?’

Monk Hye-gwang also looked at me and murmured softly.

“Amitabha Buddha. To dine calmly despite the stench of the Cursed Object pouring down from the second floor. Truly a person of extraordinary stomach and nerve.”

“……?”

I paused mid-chew.

Stench?

Ah, that smell from yesterday they were talking about.

I sniffed discreetly. All I could smell were the short ribs.

“Heh. Baek-gi. You’re something else, aren’t you?”

Bi-do looked at me and adjusted his sunglasses.

“My guts are turning over right now, and here you are wolfing it down. Figures, you’ve got something up your sleeve, don’t you?”

“…….”

Nope.

I’m just eating because I’m hungry.

Fuck. Who knew his delusional disease would spread to someone else.

In any case, I finished the meal.

Since everyone was hanging out in the living room, I settled into a corner too.

Not much to do.

I considered playing a game on my phone,

but messing with a game while a Rank 4 Cursed Object sat upstairs might look a little too nonchalant, so I dropped the idea.

At times like this, logging into [Principles of Sorcery] to kill time was probably the better move. I couldn’t just sit on alert and stare into space forever.

‘Wonder what’s trending right now.’

Sure enough, true to a community packed with every kind of person, the boards were ablaze today too.

|Author| Tongue-Flicker

[Title]

BREAKING) Supernatural Management Bureau raids Night Market.

[Content]

Night Market entrance got sealed off in the early hours today.

Bureau agents swarming the place, brutal baggage inspections.

Rumor is some crazy bastard got caught trying to sell a National Treasure-grade Spectral Object or whatever.

Trade’s probably blocked for a while. Peace out.

└ [Beautiful Female College Student]: Ah fuck, I was supposed to go buy Nephrite today.

└ [SoltKIM]: Wanna kill ’em all. Heh.

|Author| Antiquer

[Title]

Since the Night Market’s blocked, anyone down for a direct trade?

[Content]

Rank 2 Spectral Object imported straight from Japan. Warring-States-era samurai soul inside a jar.

Anyone who wants to trade discreetly out of the Bureau’s sight, drop me a Private Message.

└ [Brother Damae]: How’d you even get your hands on that? Share the method.

|Author| Pickled-Radish Bunch

[Title]

Bureau bastards, got nothing to do? Why the hell are they wrecking the poor Night Market with this bullshit?

[Content]

They’re the ones who failed to manage things and let a National Treasure-grade Spectral Object loose, so why take it out on us? Without the Night Market, where are small-time Sorcerers like us supposed to source materials?

This is all a scheme to collude with the big firms and monopolize the market.

└ [Youngest Son of a Shaman House]: Here we go, another one of these bastards. Why’s he always blaming other people for his own shitty life?

└ [Pickled-Radish Bunch]: Gold Spoon bastard hit a nerve? Weren’t you the son of a concubine anyway?

└ [Youngest Son of a Shaman House]: A. Pol. O. Gize. Just four syllables. [TL Note: “사과해라” (apologize) is exactly four syllables in Korean; the spaced-out writing mimics the original.]

└ [Pickled-Radish Bunch]: Just. Go. A. Way.

‘Night Market? What’s this now.’

I ran a search.

Skimming through it for a bit, it seemed to be a kind of exchange between Sorcerers.

The location wasn’t posted directly.

Apparently, it got passed around by word of mouth among them.

In any case, the bottom line was that this was the black market used by Sorcerers.

‘Gotta check it out sometime.’

Way better than combing through open markets for chicken blood.

Ah, now that I thought about it, one problem.

Where the hell do I find it?

While I was staring at my phone, So-hwa spoke up first.

“Excuse me. Monk Hye-gwang.”

“Yes. So-hwa, Young Lady. Please, speak.”

“Would you happen to have any spare Nephrite on hand? I’ll pay you well. I need to repair a Barrier Stone urgently, but I just ran out of materials.”

“Hoho. Unfortunately, it has been a long while since I left the temple. I have nothing suitable to offer. All I carry are these Prayer Beads.”

Monk Hye-gwang lifted the worn Prayer Beads wrapped around his wrist and shook his head.

I had no idea what Nephrite was, but So-hwa clearly looked disappointed.

“Ugh. So annoying. The Night Market’s blocked, apparently. And now it’s hard to find decent materials. Nothing ever works out because of those Bureau bastards.”

“Amitabha Buddha. Still, it shall not last long. The Supernatural Management Bureau may merely be putting on a show. Do not trouble yourself too much.”

“You have some kind of intel?”

So-hwa’s eyes gleamed.

Quietly listening to their conversation, I almost flinched in surprise.

Had someone peeked at my phone?

How was the topic turning like that with such perfect timing?

Fortunately, my suspicion was just paranoia.

I remembered once again that they got their information through [Principles of Sorcery] too.

“Not intel so much as the flow of things. The Bureau knows they cannot eliminate the Night Market entirely. Block the shadow trade and it only burrows into deeper shadows.”

“True. Block all the mouse holes, the mouse burrows through the wall. So if I just tough it out for a few days, will it open back up?”

“Most likely. This crackdown is probably just a show of force because of the National Treasure-grade Spectral Object.”

“Ugh, that crazy bastard. Of all things to try selling, a National Treasure-grade Spectral Object? Balls of steel. How the hell did he even get it?”

And so the conversation started flowing. This time, So-hwa spoke to Bi-do.

“Bi-do. You’ve got your fair share of info in this field, don’t you? I heard your family is a big deal. Any idea when the Night Market opens back up?”

“…….”

Bi-do, meanwhile, was sprawled diagonally across the sofa, staring at the ceiling.

He didn’t even respond to So-hwa’s words, just kept spinning the knife between his fingers.

“Hey. Are you ignoring me?”

So-hwa called out, irritation in her voice.

Only then did Bi-do turn his head to look at her. Behind his sunglasses, contempt radiated from his gaze.

“Don’t talk to me. Materialistic Girl.”

“……What?”

“Your perfume stinks more fucking god-awful than the Cursed Object. My nose is about to rot.”

“Wh, what?!”

So-hwa shot to her feet.

Killing intent burst from her eyes.

They say when a woman holds a grudge, frost falls even in midsummer. The air in the living room froze over in an instant.

Vwoong–

A faint pale-pink aura gathered at her fingertips.

As if responding to that energy, the furniture in the living room began to tremble. The teacups on the table rattled.

I just sat quietly.

‘Why are these two at it again.’

Even meeting that savage glare head-on, Bi-do stayed sprawled out on the sofa and straightened his grip on the knife.

“What? Wanna throw down right here? Fine by me.”

He grinned and added,

“I just hate when nobodies try to talk to me. If you’re pissed about it, come at me.”

It looked like a full-on brawl was about to break out.

At this rate, we’d team-kill each other before we ever caught the Demon.

Fortunately, Monk Hye-gwang’s intervention brought the quarrel to a halt.

“Amitabha Buddha! Cease at once!”

Hye-gwang struck his Moktak against the floor with a sharp thud. A weighty ripple spread outward through the living room in a circle.

“To draw blades on one another before a great undertaking, is this not the conduct of beasts? Surely those possessed of reason ought to show restraint. The Demon itself would mock us.”

“……Hmph!”

In the end, it was So-hwa who backed down first.

She whirled around with a huff.

“Insufferable bastard.”

Then, with the click-clack of her heels, she vanished up the staircase to the second floor.

Even after she disappeared, Bi-do let out a wide yawn and went back to toying with the knife in his palm.

“Ah~ so boring.”

Then our eyes met, and wasn’t he flashing that grin at me.

‘Ah. That antisocial bastard.’

Worried he’d read a broken gaze as me chickening out, I held it steady.

The thought kept coming back to me.

I need to keep as much distance from this guy as humanly possible.

* * *

“Ah, thirsty.”

I woke up mid-sleep.

My stomach felt all bloated.

I must have packed it in a little too hard at lunch and dinner.

But it couldn’t be helped.

Those people barely touched their food.

Bi-do and So-hwa wouldn’t even look at each other.

The atmosphere was so frosty that Monk Hye-gwang didn’t lay a hand on his meal either.

Wasn’t he hungry?

Anyway.

How was I supposed to watch all that food go to waste. I handled it all.

Thanks to that, my stomach was currently in overload mode.

Parched, I pulled myself up.

Had to go downstairs and steal a bottle of water. There was Evian in the fridge. Gonna crack one of those open.

Scratching my messy hair, I opened the door.

Creeeak.

As I was about to step into the dark hallway,

Scritch, scritch, scritch.

some strange sound reached my ears.

The kind of sound I’d describe as insects crawling over dry fallen leaves.

“……?”

I paused for a moment and looked out into the second-floor hallway. My eyes, adjusted to the dark, caught something.

“Huh?”

For an instant, I hesitated.

The hallway was moving. No, something filling the hallway was writhing.

Without exaggeration, spiders the size of medium dogs were packed in tight.

Floor, walls, ceiling. Spider territory, no exceptions.

Eight legs coated in bushy black hair moved without pause, crawling over and clambering past each other.

Grotesque red spots were embedded on their backs, and hundreds of pupils glinted red in the darkness.

A sight that would make even Fabre turn and run screaming.

“Crazy…….”

What the hell are these spider bastards?

Spotting me, they all turned their heads in unison.

“Kieeeek!”

“Kieeeek!”

“Kiaaaaah!”

The spider swarm stirred with skin-crawling metallic shrieks.

Reflexively, I shoved my hand into my pocket.

In a moment like this, something to defend myself was a must.

What came back out in my grip was the Extinguishing Light Talisman.

My new item.

“Illuminate.”

I thrust out the Talisman with a brief shout.

Fwaaaaash!

A brilliant white beam burst out from my grip.

So bright it felt like broad daylight for a split second.

The surprising part was that looking at that light with my naked eyes did nothing to me. Normally my eyes should’ve been fried.

Ssssssssss!

The spiders touched by the light began melting without even a chance to scream. Like butter dropped onto a hot frying pan.

The black forms turned mushy and, in an instant, evaporated in a burst of white smoke.

Kwaaaang!

Where the light had swept through, ash drifted like snow.

“……Ha.”

I was surprised at my own power.

This is stronger than I thought?

Doors flew open all at once at the sudden racket, and people came bursting out.

“What’s going on?!”

“Is it the Demon?!”

So-hwa, Hye-gwang. And finally Bi-do.

“The hell?”

They stood gaping at the smoke hanging thick in the hallway and the ash drifting through it.

“Wh, what is all this?”

So-hwa stammered as she stared at the spider remains scattered across the floor.

“Th, the Barrier was laid down flawlessly……. How did the Demons even get in? The alarm didn’t even sound.”

Her face had gone pale. She seemed unable to accept that her Barrier had been breached.

“That is not what matters now!”

Monk Hye-gwang rolled his Prayer Beads and shouted urgently.

“Judging by the traces, these are Lowest-rank Demons, poison spiders. Which means a higher-ranked Demon controlling them must surely have appeared! We must identify the main body first!”

Amid all the commotion.

Even in the middle of this, wasn’t Bi-do grinning as his gaze flicked between the drifting ash and me.

“I knew it……!”

A headache set in on its own.

You, knock it off already.

Wipe that Columbus-discovering-the-New-World look off your face. You bastard.

****

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