Inside the van, I demanded an explanation.

"Tell me what you know."

The man in the driver's seat spoke haltingly, his voice trembling.

"The ch-chairman! The dinner gathering... He t-told us to bring her."

"..."

I'd expected as much, to some extent. This Chairman Kim whom Sua had mentioned had done all this to force her to attend his dinner gathering.

As the man continued, I learned that it wasn't a proper dinner, either. They cooked human corpses and ate the flesh as part of some ritual.

'Table of the Great Ones, my ass... It's a cannibal party.'

Chairman Kim. I'd figured he wasn't a decent human being, but he was completely out of his fucking mind.

... And he was in the same line of work as me. A magician.

His subordinate hadn't explicitly called him a magician, but from the shit he did, he had to be.

'Is he recruiting collaborators by dangling the promise of a longer life through magical rituals?'

A thought crossed my mind.

A grimoire that sought eternal youth and immortality through cannibalism. Kim Miryeo, the cannibal magician who had eaten people while possessing a copy of <Cultes des Goules>.

Had Chairman Kim been her backer? Her teacher? Or family?

I turned to the van window, where my face was faintly reflected in the darkness.

... Well, it didn't matter. Neither did the fact that Chairman Kim was a magician. Useful information, but not what mattered.

After [The Sixth Pentacle of Mars] had blocked the impact, Chairman Kim's goons must have cut me on a shard of broken glass while moving me around so roughly. The cut on my forehead opened, and blood trickled down.

"..."

Right. What mattered was that I was pissed off. That my life had been threatened.

I thought it over for a moment.

Whatever their reason, they'd tried to kill me and failed.

If they discovered I was alive while cleaning up their mess later, would they just let it slide? Of course not.

They'd try to kill me again to shut me up, using all their power and money.

'Which means...'

I took out a handkerchief and pressed it lightly against the wound on my forehead, reciting an incantation.

"Bone to bone, blood to blood, joint to joint."

"In the Lord's name, I command you. Join together."

When I removed the handkerchief, the bleeding had stopped.

It was only a stopgap. I'd need to apply medicine and treat it properly later.

SCREECH!

The van stopped, and Chairman Kim's subordinate spoke from the driver's seat in a shaking voice.

"As you instructed... We've a-arrived... at the d-dinner venue."

Through the van window, I could see a fucking enormous building.

Its dark coloring made it unpleasant to look at, though perhaps the night made it feel even worse.

I narrowed my eyes at the building where that absurd gathering, the 'Table of the Great Ones,' would be taking place.

'Which means... while they still haven't realized I exist.'

To protect my peaceful life, I'd kill Chairman Kim's entire faction, conveniently gathered in one place.

And...

'Mister!'

"..."

... Right. I'd agreed to be her magic teacher for a week.

I didn't know how well it would go, but if I could rescue Sua, I'd do that too. I'd accepted the job, so I'd do my part.

As I put my hand on the door handle, Chairman Kim's subordinate spoke in a trembling voice.

"N-now—let me l-live—"

"..."

I said nothing. I opened the van door and stepped out.

You can't promise something you can't do.

CRUNCH! SPLATTER!

"Grrr..."

Growling, Grizzly squeezed the man's head until it burst, then followed his master.

I slipped away from the van. The two guards stationed outside the building frowned at the man emerging from their vehicle in a white coat stained with red paint—or was it?

"... What the hell?"

"He's not on the guest list, is he?"

The two guards approached to stop the unwelcome visitor—

"Huh? Wh-aaaah?"

—and Grizzly grabbed them by the heads. They stumbled backward as he dragged them into the building.

... Killing them outside would attract attention, after all.

CRUNCH!

The two guards' heads burst just as I entered the lobby.

Chairman Kim's other men, sitting on the lobby sofas, sprang to their feet in shock at the sight.

"... What?"

Grizzly immediately swung his arm, tearing heads and upper bodies from the rest of their bodies and killing them.

"Haaa..."

In an instant, the invisible predator stained the luxurious lobby with blood and flesh.

Well, for a building that regularly hosted cannibal parties, it was an appropriate renovation.

"Ah, aaaah..."

The sole surviving subordinate collapsed onto the floor.

My footsteps echoed as I approached the man I'd deliberately left alive. Looking down at him, I asked,

"Where's the dinner gathering?"

"W-well..."

Feeling even greater terror than when he'd personally witnessed Chairman Kim devouring people in a monstrous form, the subordinate opened his trembling mouth.

* * *

Sua blankly recalled the past.

She didn't know exactly when or how her mother had died.

What she remembered was...

["Hah... Hah...!"]

Her father's ragged breathing as he ran with her clutched tightly in his arms. A house burning in the darkness, reflected in her young eyes.

["Aaaaaaah!"]

... The screams ringing in her ears of a woman she thought was her mother.

Some time later, Namgung Su's back as he turned away, and his shouted words: ["It's because of you."]

After that, Dad... Namgung Su never looked at her.

All she ever saw was his back.

'It's my fault again.'

Sua's eyes darkened.

Her head had been numb ever since Yohan... mister had been hit by the car.

'He didn't need to get involved. ... He died because of me.'

The Table of the Great Ones.

The dinner gathering with that ridiculous name was already underway.

Perhaps they wanted to imitate a medieval nobleman's banquet. The room was dark, dimly lit only by candles. Like guests at a masquerade, the attendees wore masks covering the upper halves of their faces, and they laughed as they watched Sua being dragged in.

"Heh heh..."

"Ha ha..."

People dressed as waiters forced Sua into a seat at the white-clothed table, where a nameplate read [Namgung Sua].

Her downcast eyes wavered.

"...!"

... The sight before her instantly filled her with disgust.

A woman in a dress held a woman's severed head, drinking the blood that flowed from the cut neck.

People in luxurious clothes crowded around a corpse with its belly slit open, burying their faces inside and ravenously feeding on its contents like animals.

"Urgh—"

A waiter set a steak of unknown origin in front of Sua. All the repulsive gazes around her fixed on her, as though urging her to eat.

... But Sua clenched her teeth.

She was scared, terrified, but she wouldn't eat. She'd rather die than join these people.

"..."

Besides, she didn't particularly want to keep living. She didn't want to be a burden anymore.

Then, suddenly—

CREAK!

At the sound of the door opening, Sua reflexively raised her head.

"... Huh?"

Her eyes widened at the person entering the room, and her voice came out dazed.

"M-mister? ... How?"

A man in a white coat marked here and there with red entered, paying no heed to the room's grotesque atmosphere. He walked calmly across it, his footsteps echoing.

The attendees, who had been so relaxed until now, were flustered by the unexpected intruder.

I reached the table where Sua sat and looked at the steak in front of her.

Sua was bewildered.

"Mister?!"

I picked up the utensils, cut off a suitable piece, put it in my mouth, and chewed.

Then I spat the half-chewed meat into the waiter's face.

"Ptooey."

It tasted like shit. I rinsed my mouth with the water in the glass and said,

"It reeks of gamey meat."

Well, that was only natural, really.

Basically, the animals people enjoyed eating—chickens, cattle, pigs, and so on—were herbivores.

It varied from one animal to another, but they said the more carnivorous an animal was, the tougher and gamier its meat became.

Humans, who stuffed themselves with every kind of unhealthy shit, couldn't really taste good to begin with.

Even so...

"You could at least use plenty of sauce, like you do to cover the gaminess of lamb."

I looked at the masked attendees.

These people really were exactly that. They weren't eating food.

They were feeding on the pathetic sense of superiority they got from eating people, for reasons I couldn't even begin to understand.

Of course, some of them might be eating it for the magical effects.

Either way.

"I stayed quiet because I thought this was something Chairman Kim had arranged. What is this?"

"Get him out of here!"

Ignoring the attendees as they gradually recovered their senses, I looked at Sua.

"If you still want to be my assistant, close your eyes."

"What? O-okay."

Bewildered though she was, Sua immediately closed her eyes without another word.

"..."

I'd noticed this before, but she was surprisingly perceptive.

Well, honestly, closing her eyes wouldn't change anything... It was quite literally just covering her eyes and pretending she couldn't see.

The door closed again.

THUD!

"Grrr..."

With a low growl, Grizzly killed and devoured the attendees, who had now become food themselves.

"Huh? Ah, aaaaaah—!"

The meal began as the food's screams filled the room.

CRACK! RIP! CRUNCH!

Watching the slaughter and the flying scraps of flesh, I thought.

For now, I'd killed all of Chairman Kim's collaborators here...

The problem was that I still had to kill Chairman Kim, whom I hadn't met yet, along with everyone on his side in the building, to keep them quiet.

Having Grizzly hunt them down and kill them one by one would take time.

And after all this commotion, Chairman Kim's men armed with guns would soon show up.

... As I was thinking this, <The Lesser Key of Solomon> summoned itself into my hand. Its pages rustled as it opened to a particular page.

It was a page about Solomon's seventy-two demons.

A sigh escaped me.

"Haa..."

I'd sworn never to summon them... but this was a situation where I had no choice.

I inspected the sprawled corpses wearing expensive-looking rings, watches, and jewelry.

Blood, flesh, precious metals, and so on.

At least all the materials for the summoning were here.