Chapter 9

Chapter 009 — Order of the Golden Bull (1)

Valefor had been certain that there had to be some reason behind Mikael's disappearance.

Now, however, he felt as though he'd been hit in the back of the head.

If Mikael had disappeared on purpose, then modern technology should have been common knowledge to him.

Mikael saw no reason to hide the truth from Valefor, so he answered calmly.

“That’s right. I’ve been asleep since 1770, so I guess it’s been about that long. I woke up yesterday, to be exact.”

Valefor stared blankly at him.

This was the first time he'd heard that Mikael had been asleep.

And that he'd only awakened yesterday.

There hadn't even been any news about it in Hell.

But after seeing that Mikael didn't even know how to use a phone, Valefor could understand.

Still…

“W-Wait! So you're saying you attacked my shop right after waking up yesterday?!”

Why did he have to be Mikael's first target?

Remembering what Mikael had done to his shop, Valefor was about to complain.

Ring, ring, ring—

But the phone kept ringing, ruining the flow of the conversation.

By the time it continued ringing, Valefor's anger had cooled somewhat.

Mikael pulled out the instructions Yohan had given him and started rereading how to use the phone.

Valefor glanced at him.

“Haa…”

“Give it here. I’ll teach you.”

And so, without even answering the call, Valefor spent the next thirty minutes teaching Mikael what he could do with a smartphone.

“Good.”

Mikael nodded confidently.

“I understand it perfectly now.”

Valefor's uneasiness didn't disappear.

Still, he had no choice but to trust Mikael's ability to learn.

Ring, ring, ring—

The phone rang again.

Mikael snorted, mentally prepared himself, and checked the caller's name.

“Yusia?”

He frowned.

“Where have I heard that name before? Who was she again?”

Swipe.

Just as Valefor had taught him, Mikael slid the answer button.

—You finally answered. I heard you've been wandering around since early morning, so I called you.

The fact that someone was keeping track of his movements immediately irritated Mikael.

“Who are you? And what business is it of yours where I go?”

—What? Did you already forget my voice?

It wasn't exactly soft, but it was a familiar, delicate voice.

The moment he heard it properly, Mikael realized who it was.

“Oh.”

“The musclehead's daughter? Was it Sia?”

She was Jungon's daughter—the girl he'd argued with at the cathedral.

—Haa… You're probably the only person in the entire world who calls my father that.

She sighed.

—Ah, that's not the important part. Anyway, I'm glad. I was worried you might not remember me at all.

“So why did you call? If you're going to annoy someone, go bother your father instead.”

Mikael could roughly guess what this was about.

It was probably related to the priest Yohan said he would assign to him yesterday.

But now that Valefor was with him, Mikael didn't need anyone else.

If anything, another person would only become a nuisance.

So he drew the line immediately.

—Uh… are you angry?

Sia sounded flustered by his twisted response.

“You don't have anything else to say, right? I'm hanging up.”

Mikael decided that extending the conversation would only waste time.

He was about to end the call.

—Wait!

There was a brief pause.

—…Haaah. I don't even know anymore. Anyway, I have something to tell you.

Apparently exhausted by Mikael's extreme stubbornness, Sia finally gave up and got straight to the point.

—Didn't the Bishop recently say he'd assign a priest to you?

The Bishop she was talking about was Saint Yohan.

Come to think of it, Yohan had indeed said yesterday that he would assign someone to Mikael.

“So?”

—Starting today, I'll be assisting you. The Bishop already explained the situation to me, so I'll come to you now and help you with things one by one. Where are you currently?

At first, having someone to help him adjust to modern society would've been useful.

But now Mikael had Valefor.

Besides, since Sia had been assigned by Yohan, she would almost certainly double as a monitor.

If someone was watching him, she'd undoubtedly interfere with everything he did.

Hmm. I did tell Yohan that I agreed to it…

Then Mikael suddenly had an idea.

Ah. This should work.

“If you're supposed to assist me, does that mean you'll obey my orders?”

—It's less about obeying orders and more about helping with your requests.

“Same thing.”

Sia found it suspicious how forcefully he was pushing that interpretation.

But she'd already learned firsthand that arguing with Mikael was pointless.

So she decided to play along.

—Haa… Think whatever you want. So?”

“Then I'll give you your first order. Listen carefully.”

Mikael placed his finger over the end-call button.

Then—

“I don't need you, so piss off.”

—Wai—!

Click.

Mikael ended the call without hesitation.

Then he looked at Valefor.

“Let's go.”

As expected.

Valefor stared at him.

He's insane.

Shaking his head at Mikael's outrageous behavior, Valefor released the parking brake and grabbed the steering wheel.

After their long argument, the midsized sedan carrying one priest and one demon finally left the parking lot and entered the road.

Meanwhile, at Myeongdong Cathedral—

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Sia stared at the phone in stunned silence after Mikael abruptly hung up.

Grind.

Her anger slowly rose like a color gradient.

The sound of her teeth grinding filled the area.

“Aaaaaagh! What kind of lunatic is he?!”

Mikael had already seemed unusual when he'd suddenly set Jungon on fire inside the cathedral.

But after speaking to him directly over the phone, Sia finally understood just how awful Mikael's personality really was.

After screaming at the top of her lungs, Sia began searching through her contacts.

“You think I can't find you? Just wait. I'll definitely punch that annoying face of yours at least once.”

Watching Sia suffer because of Mikael from a distance, Jungon felt sorry for her.

As her father, he wanted to tell her to quit.

Unfortunately, inside the Exorcism Association, an order from a Bishop had to be obeyed.

“Haa…”

“Your father is sorry, my daughter.”

What Sia didn't know was that she had become Mikael's handler because of the punishment Yohan had given Jungon.

Shortly after Mikael left, Yohan had disciplined Jungon.

—Zion. You're prepared for the consequences, aren't you?

Jungon had been ready to accept any punishment.

But what Yohan said next had been far more shocking than anything he'd expected.

—Zion certainly made mistakes, but it would also be difficult to say that Father Anastasia performed her mission properly. I'll give her a chance to make up for that.

Yohan continued.

—Effective immediately, Father Anastasia will serve as Apostle Mikael's assistant. Unless there is a special reason, Zion is not to interfere with the Apostle's activities.

In truth, it could hardly even be called a punishment.

But Yohan had specifically designed it to hurt Jungon, knowing what an overprotective father he was.

Even thinking back on that conversation made Jungon's head ache.

Leaving Sia hopping furiously in place behind him, Jungon looked through the documents that had been assigned to him.

His expression darkened.

There have already been quite a few disappearances this month.

The documents Jungon was examining contained a list of missing members of the Exorcism Association.

Recently, an increasing number of priests sent out on assignments had suddenly stopped responding.

It had become a serious topic of concern inside the Association.

Feeling uneasy, Jungon turned his head.

He saw the furious Sia calling someone on her phone.

I just hope that child stays safe…

He was worried about his still-inexperienced daughter.

But she was already a fully ordained priest.

All he could do now was trust her.

Jungon placed the documents inside his clothes and left the cathedral to attend to his own duties.

Around 9:00 AM.

Osan, Gyeonggi Province.

A sedan traveled along a road surrounded by mountains.

It gradually began slowing down, apparently nearing its destination.

“Haagenti really hid this place well.”

It wasn't located in a busy downtown area.

Nor was it near some border region.

It had been built deep inside the mountains.

That meant there was something here Haagenti wanted hidden.

Looking at the isolated surroundings, where one person—or rather, one demon—could disappear without anyone noticing, Valefor became increasingly nervous.

“I'm saying this again. I'm not going inside.”

“…”

Valefor firmly reminded Mikael one last time.

But Mikael, lost in thought, didn't respond.

He simply stared out the window.

How did those creatures end up in Korea?

On the way to Osan, Mikael had found himself troubled by one question.

How had the divine beasts he was looking for ended up in Korea?

When he'd searched on his phone, he'd discovered that France and Korea were extremely far apart.

Traveling between the two countries certainly wasn't easy.

They're divine beasts, so it's not like coming here would've been impossible.

But why Korea?

That was what bothered him.

He could understand divine beasts traveling around the world thanks to their many unusual abilities.

But something about this felt different.

Almost as though they had come to Korea specifically from the very beginning.

There was only one explanation Mikael could think of.

Could it be Helena-nim?

Even in the past, the divine beasts had always been more attached to Helena than to Mikael.

Back then, Helena had almost always been wherever Mikael went, which was why the divine beasts had stayed with him as well.

But the situation was different now.

If, while I was trapped in that long sleep, they followed Helena-nim's reincarnation all the way to Korea…

If Mikael's guess was correct, then the divine beasts could help him search for Helena.

It's only a theory for now.

I'll know once I meet them.

As always, asking directly would be faster than endlessly thinking about it.

Mikael finally finished organizing his thoughts and stretched.

Valefor immediately started pestering him again.

“Mikael! We're almost there. You were listening to what I said, right?”

“No. I wasn't listening. What did you say?”

Valefor's face instantly twisted at Mikael's shameless lack of interest.

Does this bastard need another beating?

But when Mikael glanced toward him, Valefor apparently remembered what had happened in the pub.

He quickly backed down and repeated himself.

“I said I'm not going inside.”

“But that's what we already agreed—”

At that moment, their car passed a large roadside sign bearing the words:

Order of the Golden Bull

Beyond it stood an enormous monastery surrounding a massive plaza with a fountain at its center.

Mikael stopped mid-sentence.

“Uh…”

He stared at the enormous building.

“Actually, I think you need to come inside. There's no way I can search all of that by myself.”

The moment Mikael saw the monastery, he hurriedly changed the agreement they'd made before arriving.

“That's completely different from what you said before we left!”

“I tried to keep my promise.”

Mikael pointed toward the monastery and shrugged.

“But what can I do? That building is practically begging me to bring you along.”

“Crazy bastard!”

Valefor exploded.

“No! Just kill me instead! I'd rather die than be branded a traitor in Hell!”

Valefor rejected the idea outright.

Mikael clicked his tongue.

“Too bad.”

Then he casually added,

“I guess I'll just walk around telling everyone that Valefor ordered me to come here.”

Valefor's entire body began trembling at the shameless threat.

“…You fucking bastard.”

He gritted his teeth.

“If I ever trust you again, I'll bite my own tongue off and kill myself.”

In the end, Valefor surrendered to Mikael's threat.

Together, they walked toward the monastery entrance.

The building had looked enormous from a distance.

Up close, it was downright magnificent.

Other than the wrought-iron fence gate marked with the symbol of a bull, it looked almost exactly like a massive medieval monastery.

“A cult built something this damn huge?”

The monastery had been constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with stone as its main material.

The curved entrance.

The dim arches leading into cloisters.

The intersecting vaulted ceilings.

All of it gave Mikael a strangely familiar impression.

“Le Thoronet Abbey?”

He studied it more carefully.

“No… It's a little different.”

The monastery strongly resembled Le Thoronet Abbey in France, one of the representative examples of Romanesque architecture.

But the quality of the materials looked modern.

There was also no central courtyard, making the overall grounds somewhat smaller.

“Of course it looks familiar.”

Valefor frowned.

“Haagenti is the kind of freak who absolutely hates anything completely new.”

In Valefor's memories, Haagenti truly lived up to his title as the Demon of Transformation.

Rather than creating something completely new, he preferred taking existing things and changing them.

The Golden Bull Monastery before them was essentially a remodeled version of Le Thoronet Abbey.

Mikael glanced at Valefor.

“You know quite a lot.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Are you two close?”

“Close, my ass!”

“Oh?”

Mikael smiled suspiciously.

“So there is something between you two.”

It wasn't simply that Valefor knew a lot about Haagenti.

There was obvious hatred in his voice whenever he spoke about him.

When Mikael gave him a suspicious look, Valefor hurriedly cleared his throat.

“Ahem!”

He avoided Mikael's gaze.

“I-It's because V.F gets all kinds of information! Knowing something like this isn't unusual.”

The excuse was painfully awkward.

He's definitely suspicious.

It's almost like he's hiding some important secret.

Unfortunately, they were already entering enemy territory.

This wasn't the right time to dig into Valefor's secrets.

Clunk!

At that moment, the monastery doors opened.

Several people wearing identical white shirts began walking in and out.

Mikael and Valefor quickly hid themselves and began whispering.

“The thing on their chests is Haagenti's symbol, right?”

Valefor nodded.

Every person wandering around had the image of a bull's skull printed on the chest of their shirt.

It was Haagenti's crest.

Mikael suddenly noticed something.

“What's that?”

At some point, Valefor had slipped a ring onto his index finger.

“A Ring of Concealment. If I'm going inside anyway, I should at least hide my demonic energy.”

“A demonic artifact.”

Mikael stared at it with mild nostalgia.

“Haven't seen one of those in a while.”

A demonic artifact was a general term for an object that had absorbed evil for a long period of time, or something that had been created in Hell and brought into the human world.

When used by demons, such artifacts worked with incredible efficiency.

But if they fell into human hands, their bodies usually couldn't withstand the demonic energy.

For that reason, whenever priests encountered demonic artifacts, purification was their first priority.

Squeak!

Apparently deciding that the ring alone wasn't enough to ease his worries, Valefor transformed into a mouse.

“Squeak.”

“If I have to move around anyway, this form should be safer.”

The demon who'd been insisting moments ago that he absolutely wouldn't enter was now actively preparing for infiltration.

Mikael looked at Valefor with approval.

“Oh.”

“For the first time, you actually seem useful.”

It was technically a compliment.

Though it sounded much more like an insult.

Valefor was about to squeak angrily when—

“Pant… pant…”

A voice that absolutely should not have been there came from behind them.

“Found you, you piece of trash!”

Valefor froze.

“T-That crazy bitch!”

Mikael turned around.

“Hm?”

Sia was standing behind them.

No one knew when she'd arrived.

She was breathing heavily, her eyes bloodshot as she glared directly at Mikael.

“Hmm?”

One of Haagenti's followers standing outside seemed to hear her voice.

He turned his head toward them.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

Mikael immediately covered Sia's mouth and pulled her into hiding.

But—

Step.

Step.

Step.

“Is someone there?”

The follower had already heard them.

And his footsteps were getting closer.