An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 99

The hand holding the blue meteor magic shook.

 

Seo Jun crossed her left hand over her  trembling right. This completed the twenty-third seal. 

 

Meanwhile, the spirit had regained its strength by defacing another portrait, leaving only two faces in the painting.

 

Each of the faces painted on the shrine was a portrait of a god, and each was imbued with a spirit. 

 

The ghost would steal the spirit’s power and restore it.

 

“Wow…”

 

Seo Jun breathed out. Her eyes filled with tears as she concentrated without blinking.

 

Even if the spirits that filled the unbelievers weren’t actual gods, they were still the inhabitants of the “god shell”. It took a lot of power to seal them.

 

‘Stupid… I used my power too quickly.’

 

This didn’t mean that Seo Jun recklessly took on a task that was beyond her abilities. 

 

It was a task that could have been completed in a reasonable amount of time, if not in a dazed state after four days and three nights.

 

Seo Jun’s rank was A⁺ and she knew more about talismans and sigils than most professionals.

 

But the reason she’d exhausted herself to this point was simple.

 

She was impatient.

 

“You’ve done that much already?! How fast are you?”

 

Hwang Hanju, who had been battling the ghost, gaped at the sight of Mushindo, who was so close to completing the seal.

 

“Today, I am finally convinced that you are Korean.”

 

“…….”

 

“No, I’m just kidding. You know that, right? Korean fast fast fast. Hahaha…”

 

When Seo Jun doesn’t react, Hwang Hanju quickly defuses the situation.

 

“I know.”

 

“I’m glad. I thought you were mad… but just out of curiosity, you are Korean, right?”

 

“I’m Jinsoo.”

 

“Have you always had an impatient personality?”

 

“Well?”

 

That was the end of the small talk. The ghost jumped to its feet and resumed its attack.

 

Seo Jun concentrated on the seal again.

 

This wasn’t even a real situation, just part of an intermediate problem, so why was she so impatient?

 

She had a vague idea of what it was, but she couldn’t put it into words. Familiar names popped into his head and raced through his mind.

 

Yin Charang, Baek Iri and Yeo Seon-yeo.

 

Seo Jun took a deep breath.

 

She wonders if this is a compulsion to give back to people who have stood by her no matter what she’s done.

 

Maybe it’s something she wants to say to them in particular.

 

‘Don’t worry. I won’t hurt your best friend Hwang Hanju.’

 

The Seo Jun who hurt them is gone. 

 

‘Look at this. I’m just doing my job. I’m not pissing off the spirits, and I’m not making things difficult on purpose. I don’t act like I’m in it for the thrill, and I don’t act like I’m bloodthirsty.’

 

‘I’m confused, I wonder if I misjudged them. What happened to me?’

 

‘Why would I continue to make him uncomfortable when Yin Charang and Baek Iri, the two people who have been with me the most, are still here?’

 

‘I’m sorry for the way I pushed you all around.’

 

Maybe she wants them to admit that they don’t regret believing in her, that she doesn’t regret believing in them too, even though they hated her for good reason.

 

The less time she spent alone against the ghost, the closer she seemed to come to this confession.

 

‘If not this, then I…’

 

I think she also wanted to affirm herself.

 

“I wanted to be a good friend.”

 

Not a selfish person who uses her friends for her own ends.

 

***

 

The blue meteor magic slid away with a hiss.

 

Seo Jun finished the last stroke of the last glyph and threw the dagger, leaving a shallow cut on the demon’s ankle.

 

“……?!”

 

It was a signal to Hwang Hanju, who had maintained a moderate distance from the ghost.

 

He fought more cautiously than usual because he had to protect Seo Jun, who was too focused on the seal to defend herself, and Seo Jun’s signal to him was that her job was done and he could go on a rampage.

 

The ghost stumbled and limped as it tried to jump off the ground, and Hanju’s tiger took advantage of the moment.

 

Kwang─!

 

The tiger’s front paw stomped down on the ghost. The entire hall trembled as the enormous weight crashed down in an instant.

 

Hanju locked eyes with Seo Jun.

 

“It’s all done, right?”

 

“Yes. Everything is sealed.”

 

Seo Jun confirmed that she had done her job safely, and Hanju snapped his fingers.

 

“Grrrr…”

 

The tiger bit the ghost’s neck.

 

This was the third and final compatibility, as the godlessness was completely sealed.

 

The ghost struggled, unable to regain his strength.

 

“I will bathe your wounds in poison, for death will flow in your blood…”

 

A huge snake slithered out of the tattered neck.

 

The gray-haired human form and the snake that had just appeared each had a core.

 

“Oh, it’s real?! It’s just like you said.”

 

Hanju exclaimed as he looked at Seo Jun.

 

“It really was a snake demon and a human demon fusing together! Dude, you’re amazing. You know it when you see it.”

 

“I learned about it in class last year, I’m sure you were there.”

 

“Ai, how can you remember all this stuff? You have to filter it properly or your head will explode.”

 

Hanju shook his head and pushed the slithering snake towards Seo Jun.

 

He would take care of the gray-haired man, and Seo Jun would take care of the snake.

 

Understanding the implication, Seo Jun nodded slightly and sheathed her dagger.

 

Seeing Seo Jun’s dagger pointed at the snake’s core, Hanju crouched down in front of the white-haired man.

 

❰Skill: ‘Call of the Serpent’ activated❱

 

“Let’s see. Your name is…, Ahn Min-seok?”

 

Using the Call of the Serpent skill, he was able to find out the ghost’s name. 

 

Unless the ghost didn’t have a name, or the ghost was powerful enough to hide its real name from the skill.

 

Soon, three mouths appeared out of nowhere.

 

“Call.”

 

At Hanju’s command, the mouths spoke in turn.

 

“Ahn Min-seok!”

 

The first mouth called out its name mournfully, then vanished like dust. The second mouth followed. It was even more hoarse than the first.

 

“Ahn Min-seok!”

 

At the second call, the gray-haired ghost raised its head as if hypnotized.

 

Its lips formed an eerie curve.

 

It had long been said that one should not answer the call of a spear demon.

 

Tsk-tsk—!

 

The ghost’s core broke in two.

 

“Poisoned with spiced liquor…”

 

The ghost continued to curse even as it disintegrated. Hwang Hanju frowned in boredom.

 

“Finally done. How about you?”

 

“It’s over.”

 

Seo Jun replied curtly, sheathing her dagger.

 

“Anything else?”

 

Hanju looked around solemnly.

 

He’d already lost points once because he didn’t finish a problem properly.

 

After being scolded by Mr. Kang and the director until his ears were pierced with nails, Hwang Hanju always checked like this during the April exam.

 

“Is there anything on the body?”

 

Hanju squints at the body lying in the middle of the shrine.

 

“Nothing. It’s all over.”

 

“Really? If you say so, then it is. Good boy, I believe you!”

 

Seo Jun declared, and Hanju’s face lit up.

 

The two of them declared the problem solving over, and the background around them slowly began to change.

 

The body in the center was the first to disappear, followed by the gourds and other props. 

 

Eventually, the walls, floor, and ceiling of the shrine that had been added to the interior of the caravan were half-erased.

 

“…aaaaaaaaaah!”

 

A soul screamed from the midst of the still-unwiped masses.

 

“……?!”

 

“What was that?!”

 

Wasn’t question 16 over yet?

 

“That can’t be…”

 

Seo Jun shook the thought out of her head.

 

There was more to solve in question 16. It couldn’t be. Seo Jun was a “model student”, as Hwang Hanju would say. 

 

She wasn’t the kind of person who couldn’t tell the difference between solving an intermediate level problem and not solving it.

 

What he had just encountered was not a virtual ghost created by a simulation.

 

It was a real ghost in the real world, jumping into a caravan that hadn’t yet been purged of its simulated space.

 

“Mirror…”

 

Seo Jun fixed her gaze on the spot where the ghost had just appeared.

 

A mirror hung on the wall of the exposed caravan where the unbeliever had disappeared.

 

Judging by the slight twitching of the mirror’s surface, the ghost had come from it.

 

“Why is it coming from that place? Seo Jun, did you just say that these are real ghosts?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Oh, well, do you mind if I catch it? I haven’t earned all my ghost points yet.”

 

“It doesn’t matter, because I’m done.”

 

As soon as Seo Jun replied, Hanju stormed out of the caravan.

 

Seo Jun was the only one left in the caravan, which had returned to its original form.

 

‘Wait, is that…’

 

Seo Jun’s pupils flickered as she rushed to the mirror.

 

Thud. Thump. Thump.

 

Her heart was beating fast. A tingle ran through her body.

 

In disbelief, she squeezed her eyes shut and slowly lifted her trembling eyelids. 

 

Still, the sight in front of her didn’t change.

 

“Why is the door here…”

 

What Seo Jun saw was a vast expanse of otherworldly space.

 

On the surface of the mirror, a door to the other world had been created that Seo Jun had been searching for, even at the cost of her reputation.

 

 

***

 

 

Hwang Hanju stopped shortly after chasing the ghost, sensing that something was wrong.

 

“I don’t see any core, do you?”

 

The ghost that had fled so far away had no core.

 

“No, how can that be?”

 

Since he hadn’t turned off his clairvoyance even once since entering the trial grounds, if the core was still there, Hanju’s eyes should have picked up its location immediately.

 

There was no way that the Mountain Lord’s fierce eyes couldn’t detect a single core.

 

Therefore, if the core was invisible, it didn’t exist at all.

 

❰Skill: ‘Compatibility’ has been activated❱

 

Another black stripe was carved into Hanju’s arm, and the jet-black lines stretched into the air, forming the shape of a tiger that looked like it had been roughly painted with a brush.

 

Hanju waved, and the tiger lunged, tearing at the ghost.

 

“Aaaaaaah!”

 

The ghost screamed and scattered like smoke, disappearing. Without a trace.

 

Hanju repeated the name he had identified with the Call of the Spear Demon skill just before the ghost disappeared before his eyes.

 

“…Koo Young-chun.”

 

It was incomprehensible.

 

He never thought that he would see this name here.

 

“Koo Young-chun!”

 

That was the name of the man who was captured and killed at Banho Mall.