Chapter 028. What Kind of Operation Is That?
“Why does everyone look so gloomy on such a nice day?”
As always, Mikael, who had absolutely no sense of tact, managed to get on their nerves.
No, at this point, it almost seemed like he was deliberately trying to provoke them.
“Sigh... It’s nothing.”
Sia answered while comforting the crying Heesong.
Then she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be Mikael’s assistant and became depressed herself.
“Hmm, what’s everyone so upset about? I’m happy. I managed to pocket a whopping 253,125,000 won.”
This annoying bastard even recited the amount down to the thousands.
Mikael wasn’t satisfied with merely poking at a sore spot. He was practically digging into the wound.
Heesong finally snapped.
Crack.
“That wasn’t even your money! Ugh... Do you have any idea how hard I worked to save that?!”
Grinding her teeth, Heesong remembered all the painstaking effort she had gone through to gather that money.
There was the money she had gotten by stabbing Jungon in the back.
The money she had squeezed out of priests under the excuse of treatment fees.
And even her little money-lending business, where she had sharply raised the interest rate whenever someone failed to repay her on time.
“Judging by what you did to me, it sounds like dirty money anyway. Why are you acting so proud?”
Mikael’s sharp remark struck right where it hurt.
Heesong trembled with rage.
“I earned some of it by working honestly too!”
Her frustration still hadn’t faded, and her tear ducts burned so badly that it almost felt like she was crying blood.
Heesong bit down hard on her lips.
It was true that some of the money had been squeezed out of other people.
But she had also earned a proper income by crafting equipment and performing purification.
“Haa... Unnie, calm down too. And Mikael-nim, please stop! We didn’t gather here for this, remember?”
Seeing that the conversation would never end if she allowed it to continue, Sia hurriedly changed the subject.
They had gathered here in the first place to hear the plan.
“So, what exactly are you planning to do?”
Once Sia calmed things down and brought up the main topic, Mikael finally stopped joking around.
They had come here to hunt a demon, not trade insults.
So Mikael answered without making a fuss.
“Nothing complicated. She’s your friend’s little sister, right? You were willing to spend every last coin you saved even though you love money that much. You at least know where she lives, don’t you?”
“...Of course?”
Sia blinked at the painfully obvious question.
“Then what else is there to talk about? We break down the door and charge in.”
For a moment, an image of an American special forces raid flashed through Sia’s mind.
Wondering if she had heard him wrong, she asked again.
“So... you’re saying we should break into the house?”
“What’s wrong with that? We’re hunting a demon. This much is fine, isn’t it?”
Sia desperately didn’t want to accept something like this as an actual operation.
The moment she did, she felt like she wouldn’t be able to handle the emotional storm raging inside her.
“How is that an operation?!”
“Of course it’s an operation. It’s a surprise attack! A surprise attack!”
Thud.
Was this really what she had been waiting since morning to hear?
Overwhelmed by emptiness, Sia’s legs gave out.
She collapsed to the floor, huge tears rolling down her cheeks.
“W-Wait! Then how are we supposed to get the demon out?!”
Sia wasn’t the only one who found the plan ridiculous.
Heesong, who had been quietly listening until now, hurriedly joined in.
Why had she handed Mikael all that money in the first place?
Wasn’t it so they could safely remove the demon?
“Oh, that? I wasn’t completely sure either, but after listening to your story, I figured it out.”
The smile disappeared from Mikael’s face.
Then he spoke the proper name that had come to mind.
“Glasya Labolas’s Mirror.”
“Glasya Labolas? What the hell is that?”
Heesong looked confused at the unfamiliar name.
“Is that a demon’s name? I’ve never even heard of it at school...”
Apparently, even Sia had never heard about this demon despite attending a Catholic school.
“That makes sense. If that butcher bastard’s name becomes widely known, it could cause a massacre.”
“A-A massacre?!”
The scale of the situation kept growing.
Sia grabbed her forehead as a headache began to throb.
Glasya Labolas.
One of the 72 demons belonging to the faction of Envy.
He enjoyed creating paintings and works of art, which had earned him the title Demon of Colors.
At first glance, it sounded like a beautiful title.
However, Glasya Labolas possessed another side.
“He uses his works to deceive people and make them carry out massacres. That’s why he’s also called the King of Butchers.”
Of course, even Mikael had only seen him directly a few times.
Rather than revealing himself personally, Glasya Labolas mostly focused on spreading his works throughout the human world.
People who became captivated by art unlike anything they had ever seen would grow jealous of the work’s owner.
Eventually, they would kill each other.
Because of that, the Catholic Church confiscated every one of his works whenever they found one.
Even then, too many people kept searching for them, so eventually his very name became taboo.
That was why Sia had never heard the name Glasya Labolas even at a Catholic school.
“Then can’t people just avoid looking at the artwork?”
Sia thought she had discovered a weakness in Glasya Labolas’s method.
However, Mikael looked at her as though she was being naive.
“Aren’t you underestimating both human desire and a demon’s cunning? His works only reach out to the people who need them most.”
Who desired such artwork the most?
Normally, one might think of wealthy people, art hoarders, or collectors.
But Glasya Labolas was different.
“People who want to lose themselves in an illusion.”
The works of Glasya Labolas always appeared before people who rejected reality.
People who believed themselves to be the most miserable person in the world.
Then the artwork offered them an illusion.
The weaker someone’s heart was, the easier it was to dig into the cracks.
“In simple terms, they’re easy to use and throw away. Well, I suppose that’s true for most demons.”
After hearing the explanation, Heesong’s shoulders sank.
According to Mikael, the situation was far more serious than she had imagined.
And her own optimism had only made things worse.
Mikael looked at the dejected Heesong and asked,
“Let me ask you one thing. What were you planning to make that required you to invest two hundred million won?”
Two hundred million won was an enormous amount to spend on a personal item.
Naturally, Mikael was curious.
“...A cross.”
Heesong hesitated for a moment before answering.
Sia tilted her head.
“An exorcism ritual can’t save someone who has already turned into a demon...”
Sia immediately pointed out the biggest problem.
Once a demon had already taken control of someone, purification was the only remaining option.
However, as a member of the Exorcism Association herself, Heesong had naturally considered that.
“It wasn’t going to be an ordinary cross. I was planning to melt down a holy relic and combine it with the cross.”
“What? You can do that?”
Even Mikael, despite how long he had lived, had never considered something like that.
He didn’t know what holy relic she intended to use, but it certainly wouldn’t have been as simple as Heesong made it sound.
A holy relic’s history was one of the most important things about it.
If its original form was damaged, there was a high chance that it would lose its power.
“But can you even buy a holy relic for two hundred million won? It’s not something you can simply purchase just because you have money.”
“I have another way of getting the holy relic itself. The money was needed to melt it down.”
Thinking about all the money Mikael had taken from her, Heesong gave a bitter smile.
“Not that it’s possible anymore. Haha...”
Snap!
Remembering the conversation he had with Sia in the car, Mikael snapped his fingers.
“You can purify objects too, right?”
He remembered hearing that Heesong could purify cursed objects.
She didn’t understand why Mikael was suddenly asking, but Heesong answered without hesitation.
