Hermit Wizard

Heart Fish (5)

I spoke to Parvache as I put down the A4 paper I was holding.

“Based on this, doesn’t it look like a kid? Hmm. This is…”

Several people had witnessed “something” walking through the hallway in an apartment building in Seoul. I checked the CCTV footage afterward, but the only thing recorded in the video was a witness who fainted while alone, causing him to fall.

However, there were too many witnesses for it to be regarded as mere illusions or hallucinations.

Parvache approached the pile of paper I had put down on the floor and used all of its body to turn the pages. The robot, which was skimming the contents, spat out admiration.

[She’s getting better and better. Every time you order something, the quality of the result goes up.]

“She didn’t run into the scene and investigate it herself. I’m sure she would have asked it somewhere. It looks like some journalism notebook.”

Some of the documents contained manuscripts that are assumed to be the first draft of the article. The author prepared a speculative article asking if it was part of a Channel outbreak rather than considering it as an interesting event since it was an era when scary stories are no longer just ghost stories.

However, there was a part where the author bumped against the wall during the logic development. I saw a memo similar to a monologue. It was because of the shape of the eyewitnesses speaking with their mouths. It was strange to say that it was a race from another world, and it was awkward to dismiss it as a trace of a newly appeared wizard.

The object resembled a human girl whose neck had been ripped off.

“Some testimonies say that the jaw was visible, and others say that the neck was gone… But the time of each witness is two days apart.”

[It’s pretty slow.]

“It’s slow to eat, and there is plenty of delicious souls right next to the Mapo Bridge Channel, so I wonder why it flew there.”

[There are many possibilities. if there is the power to interfere with the spiritual beings in the barrier of White Deer…]

“Did they drive out the Heart Fishes with barrier magic even though I can’t?”

[It may not be magic. If there are any beings that can see the soul, maybe some races are born with the ability to block the access of the soul?]

“That’s right.”

[Or maybe it’s because White Deer’s souls are strong and high in quality that is beyond the Heart Fish’s power. Well, I don’t know which one.]

“If the value is moderately high, it’s a good meal, but if it’s too high, it won’t be enough to get their teeth in.”

[There’s no way we can see the soul, so it’s a pointless guess.]

Parvache looked up at me instead of turning the pages.

[Well? It was found just yesterday?]

“According to common sense, if the rumor spreads like this, it’s possible to move away from people’s eyes.”

[But it’s been witnessed for days. Maybe… the host is now in a state of being immobile.]

I guessed the reason.

“Did it lay eggs already?”

[It would be better to visit today.]

I nodded.

***

I moved as soon as the night came. After arriving at the destination, an apartment building, I went up to the 16th floor.

‘…Ah, I’m tired.’

Nowadays, I lived with the change of day and night, and I could only get used to it. However, the fatigue that weighed down on the whole body was not going away at all.

It was the pale complexion I encountered in front of the mirror every day—dark circles under the eyes. Elixir or magic couldn’t solve this human issue.

‘I think it’s this way?’

I walked through the hall. With my detection magic, there was no way to identify the location of the Heart Fish. However, I had something that the Truth-Seeker lent.

Something wriggled in the little pocket in my hand. Then one side rose along.

I kept walking in the convex direction. Passing through the doors lined up in the hallway one by one. And when I stepped in front of the door marked 1608, my pockets slumped.

‘… Here it is.’

The other part of the pocket that was sticking out suddenly changed direction and pointed toward the door. This time, there weren’t one or two pointed parts. It blatantly tried to stretch out like a wave in one direction so that anyone could notice it.

‘Ah, I hate opening the door the most. Look at this. It’s even got a door lock.’

[I can’t help it. There was no lock of this kind in the world I lived in, after all.]

‘Well, expecting the magic to unlock door locks is too much.’

There was also a way to blow the door entirely. However, such a radical measure was still too early. We should proceed as quietly as possible. I hope there would be fewer people flocking until the work is done.

Only after completing the complex process of creating a noise-isolating barrier and a power induction barrier, I applied a limited-range electric shock to the entire door. This was a procedure to disable security sensors and door lock alarms that might be active.

Then, a slight airwave was blown through the gap in the door. The deadbolt on the front door handle that functions has been crushed.

‘We’re coming in.’

[Okay.]

I turned the handle. The front door opened silently inside the barrier. I followed as the pocket guided me and stepped into a room.

A girl was lying on the bed, and an adult woman was lying on a mattress next to it. She must be her mother, right?

The closer I got to the child, the more upset my pockets were.

‘All right, all right.’

I didn’t know if she had passed out or if she had fallen asleep because she was exhausted. I could see that the Heart Fish already laid eggs, and a trace of green mucus was visible on the child’s mouth. She must’ve thrown up little by little after falling asleep.

This was the step of repeatedly fainting and waking up before the eggs hatched.

I reached out to the bed to take action, and then I had to stop.

‘Well, what is it. Is she awake?’

[But I don’t think she… can see us]

The child’s eyes were out of focus at first. In principle, her body’s condition would be fine, but she lacked the absolute power to maintain her will.

But after a short time, the light returned to the girl’s eyes, and her gaze was looking at me accurately.

At first, I thought it was an illusion. I was sure I was wearing invisibility magic right at that moment. It’s not a high-level cover-up, but it couldn’t be seen in the eyes of ordinary people.

However, I quickly realized that it was not an illusion.

“Mom… Mom!”

She trembled softly and managed to make a sound. The kid called the mother sleeping next to her. Even so, she didn’t take her eyes from me—a reaction to seeing a ‘masked man’ who suddenly appeared in the room while sleeping.

‘Of all things, it’s just… coincidental that we get spotted here.”

I looked closely at the girl. At the same time, as she regained consciousness, a gentle sway began around her body.

It was a Mana circuit that was more sensitive than ordinary people’s. Even when it is closed, it fluctuated to open itself in response to the planets’ energy spreading in the atmosphere. That sway was showing resonance.

What’s more, I could see that some of the circuits had already opened by themselves.

[… It’s a wizard’s talent. It’s also very high.]

“Soo-jin? Soo-jin, it’s okay. Mom is here. Everything is okay.”

Her mother woke up to hear the child calling. Even in the dark, I could see her face was very pale.

It seemed that she probably hadn’t slept properly for a while. There was a basin filled with water next to her bed. Lying without a blanket, she soaked the towel in water for a while, and then muttered something like a spell, wiping off the green liquid from her daughter’s mouth.

“It’s okay, Soo-jin. Mom is here. It’s okay.”

As I was looking at the scene, I remembered the childhood memories stored in my laptop, the records.

When I was seven years old and was sick of a high fever, it was said that my mom took care of me by the side all night. The wet towel that my mom put on my forehead was really cool. It was a memory I kept remembering because I could see how much she loved and cared for me.

“Mom… There, there!”

“What do you mean? What do you say is here?”

Unlike her daughter, the mother whose eyes’ Mana circuit wasn’t open didn’t see me. She put her own face on the cheek of her child, then patted her daughter.

“It’s okay… No one is here. It’s just Soo-jin and Mom. Everything is okay, it’s okay, Soo-jin.”

The woman’s voice was soaked in water.

Looking at it, I quietly sent telepathy to Parvache.

‘My mother, too.’

[Hmm?]

‘My mother must’ve been worried about that a lot when I was sick, right? Among the memories I recorded… It was about the time I was seven years old.’

[… that must’ve been the case. However, it was before I was summoned.]

‘Um, but…’

I took one more step toward the bed.

‘Isn’t it natural?’

[What do you mean?]

I responded telepathically.

‘Isn’t it natural to take care of a child when he or she is sick? I don’t understand.’

[What?]

‘I don’t understand my feelings before I lost my memory.’

[…]

Yodmo took my memories before I was seven years old. All of the recorded memories of my thoughts and feelings disappeared as well. The record itself occurred after seven, but everything related to the lost memory disappeared together.

‘Of course, you love and care for your child, right? If your child is sick, you will take care of them if you are a parent, right? But why did I put so much effort to record such a natural event?’

[…]

‘I understand that I tried to describe all the remaining memories. But is that an event that needs to be written along with a whole page? It would have taken me a long time to write that much with my messy writing skills. There was so much to do at the time besides recording memories. I think I wasted my time.’

[… Min-Joon.]

I reached out to the girl. The child’s eyes widened, holding her gaze at me while lying down.

“Mom…!”

Rather than responding to her child’s words, the mother, who had her cheek to cheek, hugged her daughter’s body more tightly instead of turning her head to where her child’s gaze was caught.

I sent my doubts to Parvache.

‘What a pity. Of all things, it sticks to a little child.’

Parents would be worried and heartbroken even if their child is sick, but would it be too much in this situation? What’s more, if she had seen what’s going to happen…

With that in mind, I gathered Mana in my outstretched hand. First of all, I had to make her pass out. It wouldn’t be a sight to behold with her eyes open.

The haze-like smoke from my hands spread through the room. As soon as it touched the skin, it turned into a magical substance that caused paralysis. The woman lost her strength and drooped.

“Mooooom!”

Her child’s face turned whiter. I thought it wasn’t right to let her keep shivering in fear like that, so I tried to stun her as well.

‘Hmm?’

[It doesn’t work.]

Even though the magic that I unleashed touched the girl, she did not lose her mind.

‘What if I use stronger magic here…?’

[I don’t recommend it.]

There were other ways of using magic that could apply directly to the mind, but it was a problem because I wasn’t good at it.

Eventually, leaving the girl intact, I moved her mother, who was drooping by her side, out of her room. Then I closed and sealed the door. The little girl watched me shivered in fear.

That’s why I felt like a bad guy.

“Don’t worry.”

I regretted it right away after saying that. Unless this kid was an idiot, wouldn’t she worry that I told her not to worry in this situation?

It was better for me to get it done quickly than to be lame. I reached out to the girl and gathered Mana again.

I then used it to unseal the pocket.

-Goooooong!

The pocket opened. Something shook like crazy inside, and dozens of bronze tentacles came out of the mouth!

-Whirl!

“Kyaaaah! Kyaaaaaaaaahh!”

In an instant, her body was tied to a bunch of tentacles. The girl couldn’t stand it, causing her to scream.

“Will she listen to me?”

I used the pockets of my hands as a root to convey my will to the stretched tentacles.

‘Hold her mouth shut.’

The tentacles wrapped around the girl’s body and lifted it, but she didn’t budge. As it was, it showed no further movement.

-Wooooong!

On the surface, it stopped moving, but the flow of energy moving underwater is not. I felt an unknown power gushing from this strange creature.

“It’s not Mana.”

Parvache, who shared my senses, affirmed.

[It is power.]

The girl who couldn’t withstand the strong presence flowing from the tentacles fainted. Well, the real event started from that moment.

‘Parvache. You said the way to get rid of Heart Fish is to get rid of the host in an instant before giving it a chance to escape from the host, right?’