An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 107

“The ghost… that appeared after I finished solving question 16, I naturally thought it was a ghost like Chun Chan-young who escaped from this place, but I didn’t realize it was Koo Young-chun…”

 

Seo Jun finished telling the whole story, her voice trailing off in disbelief.

 

“I was completely fooled…”

 

“…….”

 

“I knew I had been tricked, but I couldn’t help but come back here. I was impatient. I wanted to get at least one more piece of information, because if I didn’t move, I’d go crazy.”

 

It was a self-help murmur.

 

I didn’t dare comment. I’d never heard anything so profound before.

 

Seo Jun opened her mouth again to see if she had anything else to say.

 

“When I chose the mission in April, I used an illusion spell to make it look like an exorcism instead of a reconnaissance mission at the Rapid Transit Station. I can change a few simple letters.”

 

This is a good thing now.

 

“Seo Jun, did you hear that Koo Young-chun’s soul didn’t have a core?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Do you remember the bug incident?”

 

“School?”

 

“Yes. The day we piled up the dead bugs and burned them. It’s the same situation now as it was then.”

 

“I know.”

 

***

 

 

On the day of the mission when Yin Charang was injured, Seo Jun, in a fit of rage, was about to stab the puppet with a dagger through the link at the corner of its mouth when the puppet’s spirit vanished exquisitely.

 

The spirit in the puppet, like Koo’s soul, had been separated from its core.

 

The “someone” who held the core had destroyed the ghost’s core at the right time.

 

I don’t know if they thought it was better to get rid of it than to let the soul come out of the puppet, or if they just thought it was unimportant and threw it away.

 

It was clear that this mysterious person, the master of this dimension, had all the souls of people like Koo Young-chun in his hands and was shaking them.

 

“No matter how many times I “summon” my friend with the talisman, I still can’t bring out his soul completely.”

 

“Right, right. Chan-young’s core is in the hands of the master of this space.”

 

The only way to save Chun Chan-young was to enter that space and retrieve the core herself.

 

Realizing this, Seo Jun’s face showed a frustration I had never seen before.

 

She had just climbed over a wall, and now a higher wall appeared in front of her.

 

I paused, wondering if I should ask if she really had to climb this wall.

 

“Anyway, I’m really… really sorry for you. I don’t know what else to say. I’m sorry.”

 

“Well, actually, I didn’t really lose anything.”

 

Since I said I would be taken advantage of, I wasn’t taken advantage of after I said that.

 

In fact, it was embarrassing to receive such an apology. It wasn’t really an apology for being deceived, because I wasn’t innocent either.

 

“Again, this isn’t an apology, this isn’t a plea for sympathy, this isn’t about me wanting something from you. You can just call me a crazy bastard and walk away.”

 

When she saw that I was leaning towards sympathy, Seo Jun added, “I’m not saying this because I really want you to leave.”

 

I could tell that she didn’t really want me to leave.

 

Seo Jun seemed to think that my disappointment, being fed up with her and turning my back on her was my punishment for the lies she had told. 

 

Only after she pays what she thinks is the ‘price’ will she feel better.

 

“That’s enough, just be quiet.”

 

“…Yes.”

 

“Just curse and leave.” Easier said than done.

 

I’m never out of it.

 

That’s not to say that I’ll pretend for some abstract reason of loyalty or friendship, but that even if I wanted to leave now, I couldn’t. 

 

Because it wasn’t just Seo Jun anymore.

 

For some reason, the owner of this space has his eye on me.

 

It’s too late to pretend that I haven’t noticed the attempts to make my mark on him. 

 

I don’t know when, but I have become deeply intertwined with this damned space. 

 

It’s become my business without me even realizing it.

 

So there was no way I was going to leave this game. 

 

“Hey, back off.”

 

“Hey, I told you to shut up.”

 

“No, you’re on the phone.”

 

“Oh? Yeah… It’s Yeo Seon-yeo, right?”

 

As soon as I picked up the phone, Seon-yeo screamed.

 

─Where the hell are you?! 

 

“I’m with Seo Jun.”

 

─Ah, and where are you?

 

“In the bathroom.”

 

─Come on, they’re leaving soon.

 

“Uh, okay. I’ll be right there.”

 

─Oh, the other kids took the back seat. Ugh!

 

“That’s okay, we can sit anywhere. They’re all going to sleep anyway.”

 

─Mrs. Yin doesn’t seem well. Anyway, hurry up.

 

And then the call ended.

 

I thought it would take us a while to leave because of the point extortion case at Branch 6. 

 

I don’t know if it was because the case was wrapped up quickly, or if there was a lot of demand from the other branches to let them go home without tying up unrelated people.

 

My money’s on the latter.

 

“I’ll go first.”

 

Seo Jun walked ahead of me after listening to the conversation. I didn’t like her look for some reason.

 

“What’s first? Come with me. Sit next to me on the bus.”

 

“Will you stay with me like this?”

 

“Yes. I’m not leaving. I’m not cutting ties. I’m going to stay here and bother you for the rest of my life.”

 

“…You are so weird.”

 

“I’m going to sit next to you on the bus and ask you to open the window, then close it, then open it halfway, then turn on the air conditioning, then turn it down, then turn it off, then turn it back on in about 30 seconds, then wake you up when you’re about to fall asleep, and then, what else? Anyway, brace yourself.”

 

“Heh…”

 

“It’s your karma. Suck it up.”

 

“Yeah. I’ll take it.” Seo Jun accepted and walked on in silence.

 

If I knew Seo Jun, she’d enter this space at some point.

 

Even if I knew that the Sphere Puppets would come in with knives drawn, ready to kill me, and even if I knew that if I made a mistake, I might never get out.

 

Because she firmly believes that she has to do it for her dead friend.

 

Well, it’s the only belief and goal Seo Jun has had for almost four years, so it won’t change easily.

 

The problem is that it’s a sense of purpose that’s been fueled by both obligation and guilt. It’s hard to risk your life for something you’ve been force-fed.

 

So when Seo Jun enters this space, I will follow her no matter what.

 

I will follow her and prevent her from dying. The master of this room will not cut off my lifeline.

 

“Hey, Seo Jun, I don’t want you to die. I really do.”

 

After a long moment of silence, Seo Jun muttered in an inaudible voice.

 

“…me too.”

 

It was harder to be ready to die and not even get the chance to die, than to be ready to die and have to go to your own death.

 

* * *

 

 

The bus carrying students from the 4th Branch Training Center arrived at the gate around 4 a.m.

 

” Freaking crazy…”

 

“What time is the first train?”

 

“It shouldn’t be until half past five.”

 

“Oh, I always say dropping them off near the training center at that time of night is an X factor.”

 

“So you’re going to go door to door and drop them off?”

 

“Yes. Please.”

 

When the students got off the bus, still groggy from sleep, they wandered the streets complaining of their exhaustion. 

 

“Hwang Hanju, didn’t you say your dad would pick you up?”

 

“I think he left his son and decided to sleep. He hasn’t disappeared since earlier.”

 

“Then come with me in my mother’s car.”

 

“Oh, really? Thank you, Seon-yeo!”

 

“Say thank you to my mom.”

 

After the students whose parents had come to pick them up, such as Hwang Hanju and Yeo Seon-yeo, went home first, about a dozen students remained. 

 

Five or six of them took a taxi, while the rest looked for a place to pass the time until the first train.

 

One thing that has gotten better as the grades have gone up is that I don’t mind “staying behind” anymore. Half the time my family doesn’t pick me up.

 

“Where are you going Yin Charang?”

 

I can ask the first question.

 

“Me? I’m going to the park.”

 

It looked like he was going to spend some time in a nearby park.

 

“You look so sad all of a sudden. Do you want me to go with you?”

 

“What? No, thank you. You don’t know, but there are a few people in the park at this time of day. There are early morning exercisers and old people playing Go.”

 

“Oh, it’s a hidden hotspot.”

 

“Well, the other day the old guys let me join them on the board.”

 

“Did you win?”

 

“No. We played six games and I lost all six games like shit and got robbed of three thousand won.”

 

“Five hundred won per game?”

 

“He let me play three games, but then he said I was so bad that it wasn’t any fun, so he charged me a thousand won a game. I brought a lot of cash with me today, just in case.”

 

“You’re so funny.”

 

Yin Charang disappeared toward the park with a lightness of step that belied the fact that he had stayed up all night to take the test.

 

“Hey, Seo Jun, did you say he got first place?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“He must be in great shape.”

 

Somehow I managed to stay awake on the bus. No wonder, I was on a dopamine high.

 

I wasn’t sleepy, but my eyelids were still heavy and I kept yawning, probably from falling asleep, waking up, and falling asleep again on the bus. 

 

“Wow, my body isn’t waking up yet. My eyes are still asleep, but my brain is.”

 

Seo Jun looked tired too. But it was more mental fatigue than physical.

 

“Seo Jun, what are you going to do?”

 

“Um…, there’s a 24-hour study cafe near me, and I’m going to get some sleep there.”

 

“Take me with you.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Seo Jun led me to a neat study cafe on the top floor of a nearby building. 

 

I couldn’t believe there was a study cafe in this building, since the rest of the floors were filled with karaoke bars, pool halls, and computer stores.

 

“Wow, is this the Tower of Trials I’ve heard so much about?”

 

There were about five people in the room. Three of them looked like middle school students and two looked like college students. 

 

We could choose our seats wherever we felt comfortable.

 

I thought it would be a little weird if we were the only ones sleeping on the desks while everyone else was studying, but three of the five people were fast asleep and the other two were nodding off.

 

I was relieved to realize that no one would judge me if I nodded off in my sleep.

 

Seo Jun sat down at a desk in the corner and flopped down.

 

I sat in my window seat and stared out the window. It was dusk, and the sky showed signs of brightening.

 

I leaned my head against the cabinet to the right of my desk, but I didn’t close my eyes, even though I was so tired. 

 

So much had happened in eight hours. 

 

My head was throbbing at the thought of recounting it all, so I asked myself only fragmentary questions.

 

‘Does the owner of that space have a hobby of collecting souls…?’

 

As if the dozens of possessed spherical jointed dolls weren’t enough, he also had Eom Jingyu and Koo Young-chun kidnap the souls of high school students and eventually acquire their souls as well.

 

What kind of place is this space ruled by such a man?

 

The reddish sunset sky in the mirror seemed to flicker in front of her eyes.