Chapter 41 : Saint (3)

Late at night. Russian Orthodox Church, Seoul branch.

Bishop Nikolai was listening to a report on the progress of the order to bring the saint.

“Failure to secure the saint?”

“Yes, all the execution priests except me were killed.”

“…What do you mean? They all died?”

“T-There was some monster-like woman…”

Struggling to explain what happened, Kiril, who barely survived, described the ordeal.

After hearing the whole story, Nikolai’s expression darkened.

‘Did one person do all this?’

When he first heard that they failed to secure the saint, he assumed an external group had intervened.

After all, the execution priests of the Orthodox Church were elite professionals.

Murderers and kidnappers by trade, they were killing machines forged through countless training and real-life battles.

But all of them were defeated by just one person. A woman.

This was no ordinary matter.

“Was it the South Korean government?”

“No, it was a German woman.”

“Pathetic.”

Nikolai’s mind raced.

To take on 8 execution priests at once, only a top-tier awakened individual specialized in close combat could have done it.

An A-grade or higher.

And she was a foreign awakened individual.

The first thing that came to mind was the Catholic Church.

It wasn’t only the Russian Orthodox Church that moved to secure the saint.

‘Is she a Paladin?’

Paladins. The protectors of the Vatican, composed of top-tier awakened individuals.

If it was a woman, it would be the holy knight, Rubenca.

‘I have to report this to Moscow.’

If Rubenca came to South Korea, this situation had gone beyond Nikolai’s control.

She was an S-rank awakened individual, one of the pride of the Western Church.

“First, get rid of the bodies. Before the South Korean government notices.”

“Would it be troublesome if the South Korean government found out?”

“Of course! Do you not know that—”

Nikolai, who was about to raise his voice, suddenly shut up in surprise.

His expression stiffened as he stared at Kirill.

Kiril, feeling confused, turned around, his heart sinking.

In front of the open door stood the woman from the nightmare he had seen the day before.

“Mon-monster…”

Seeing Kiril terrified, Nikolai realized that the woman was the one who had killed all the execution priests.

He quietly pressed the bell under his desk.

It was a signal to summon the elite priests of the Orthodox Church stationed in the lobby.

However, no matter how much he waited after pressing the bell, there was only silence, and not a single priest appeared.

‘Wait.’

How did this woman get in here?

Suddenly, a chilling thought passed through Nikolai’s mind, and he felt a cold shiver.

“If it’s the people outside, I just put them to sleep for a while.”

The woman spoke as she leisurely sat on the sofa.

Only then did Nikolai realize how eerily calm the woman seemed.

There were no signs of battle, just a peaceful demeanor.

He had a feeling that this could be his last moment, and it made Nikolai’s heart heavy.

When people are asked to name the most famous serial killer in history, most would think of ‘Jack the Ripper.’

The ghost of death who shook Victorian England.

People refer to Jack the Ripper as ‘the unsolved case’ and associate it with an abstract sense of fear.

This tendency was especially strong in England, where the events took place, and Japan, where the media sensationalized it.

The fear from the unknown.

That type of fear turned Jack the Ripper into a symbol, a ‘legend.’

As a result, Vanessa’s abilities had grown stronger than before.

This world was one where even the relics of deceased heroes held power.

Of course, Vanessa, like Jeanne, had seen a significant decrease in her magical power compared to her prime.

Her magical energy was proportional to the summoner, Choi Jeosun’s, magical energy.

However, as an assassin, Vanessa wasn’t greatly affected by the amount of magic she had.

She was skilled at using just enough magic to achieve maximum efficiency.

Despite being summoned, she was an ‘irregular’ who had become stronger than her prime, and even more lethal in close combat.

However, even though she had become stronger than before, Vanessa did not place blind faith in her abilities.

She could easily kill Nikolai and the entire Seoul Orthodox Church, but she chose not to.

Killing alone wasn’t the solution, as she knew very well.

Murder was a ‘low tactic.’

The structure of the Russian Orthodox Church was more extensive than she had anticipated.

Killing these men would likely only lead to new figures being sent in to target Jeanne.

So, Vanessa chose not to kill Nikolai.

Instead, she decided to ‘negotiate.’

In her own way.

“…What do you want?”

“Could you give me the information of those involved in this matter?”

“If you promise not to kill me, I will give it to you.”

“I won’t kill you.”

“Hah, then do as you please. To be honest, I didn’t want to do this either.”

Nikolai emphasized that he had no choice and handed over the list to Vanessa.

Since the individuals on the list had already cleaned their identities, there was no way the connection to the Orthodox Church would be discovered.

But Vanessa did not accept the list Nikolai offered.

“Not to me.”

“?”

If not to her, then to whom?

Confused, Nikolai looked at Vanessa, who smiled sweetly and said,

“To the South Korean government.”

“!!”

“Of course, the affiliations must be identified first.”

At the absurd request, Nikolai’s face turned pale.

If he handed over the Orthodox Church’s list to the South Korean government, their activities in South Korea would be completely halted.

The South Korean government would learn that all the bodies found in Yeoksam-dong belonged to the Orthodox Church.

Then, the opportunity to target the saint would be gone.

Vanessa even suggested that the bodies in Yeoksam-dong should not be cleaned up.

At the absurd suggestion, Nikolai shook his head.

“…Miss, you must be mistaken, but I don’t have that kind of authority.”

“You will.”

“Hah, that’s impossible…”

Creak.

In an instant, Kiril’s ‘head’ fell from behind Vanessa.

Thud, roll.

The head rolled to a stop at Nikolai’s feet.

Boom.

Kirill’s body collapsed.

Frozen, Nikolai stared at Vanessa, who had taken out a pair of scissors and smiled brightly.

“There are many people I can negotiate with.”

“…”

Nikolai’s mouth shut.

Those words meant that she would kill him and negotiate with the next person who would take his place.

If the negotiation failed, she would move on to the next person, and the next…

Swish, swish.

The eerie sound of clippers forced Nikolai’s choice.

The next day, we moved into a new house.

Since it was a residence managed by the Dawn Constellation, we could move in immediately.

With all appliances such as a TV, washing machine, refrigerator, and air conditioner fully equipped, all we had to do was bring ourselves.

“Wow, having a nice house really is the best.”

I was amazed by the park view shining through the wide window.

This must be why people strive to live in good houses.

Just looking at the five rooms and a living room as big as a playground made me feel rich.

“Congratulations, Jeosun.”

“Congratulations, Eungong.”

“What are you talking about? This is a house for all of us. We should all be congratulated together.”

Hearing my words, Jeanne and Vanessa also smiled.

“It’s nice that it’s so spacious.”

“This is my first time having a room of my own.”

Both of them seemed satisfied.

This is exactly why people need to earn money.

With that in mind, I decided to start a new ‘side job.’

[Holmes & Watson]

Jeanne, who was watching me use my laptop, asked.

“Is this a detective agency?”

“That’s right.”

I decided to bring Sherlock Holmes’ detective agency, which was once at 221B Baker Street in London, onto the internet.

‘Conan’s Fountain Pen’ was an all-purpose tool that made this possible.

Naturally, my clientele was ‘hunters.’

In modern times, incidents and accidents caused by awakened individuals were endless.

‘I should register on the black market.’

The black market was a membership-based open market where extensive transactions between hunters took place.

The membership fee alone was a hefty 3 million won, but since anonymous activity was allowed, it was a popular place.

After creating an ID, I immediately set up the [Holmes & Watson] agency.

With the unique concept of solving any mystery—

“I hope it goes well.”

“Of course, it will. This is Conan’s deduction, after all.”

As Jeanne and I were chatting, an alarm went off.

Beep!

Beep!

Not just once, but twice.

“Jeosun, you’re popular.”

“Seems like it.”

Is it because there are so many incidents?

Curious, I clicked on the notifications.

[My dog disappeared while on a walk. Please, help me find him. ㅠㅠ]

[Someone keeps leaving food for stray cats in front of my house every night. I’d be grateful if you could find the culprit. The address is…]

“…….”

“It’s just the beginning.”

“I guess so?”

“…Yeah.”

Thanks to Jeanne’s reassurance, I held back the urge to shut down the agency before it even started.

‘You can’t expect to hit the jackpot on the first try.’

If I start with small cases, bigger ones will come.

The places where a lost dog might be…

Conan’s Fountain Pen moved swiftly.

After quickly handling the requests, I searched for the next gate to clear.

To increase my slots, I needed to clear higher-tier gates.

But not all high-tier gates were the same.

The status window mentioned that the higher the difficulty of the gate, the higher the chance of obtaining a slot as a reward.

So, I looked for a gate that was more difficult than a B-rank gate.

One with high difficulty but relatively low risk.

‘A special gate would be perfect for this.’

Special gates required specific conditions to be met before entry.

Naturally, since there were conditions, they were more difficult to clear but had relatively lower risks.

There were quite a few special gates scattered across Korea.

Among them, I searched for a ‘dark attribute’ gate that would be easy for us to clear.

As long as Jeanne was with us, dark-attribute gates would be a piece of cake.

However, dark-attribute gates were managed by the ‘Church,’ so not just anyone could enter.

The Church didn’t want people recklessly entering and dying inside.

Of course, that had nothing to do with me.

“Archbishop Ambrosio, may I enter the Gonjiam Gate?”

—If Lady Jeanne is accompanying you, you are welcome anytime.

After all, the head of the Gangnam Archdiocese was on our side.

However, Archbishop Ambrosio suddenly brought up something strange.

—Has the Russian Orthodox Church contacted you? Any threats to your safety…?

“The Orthodox Church? No, nothing like that has happened. Why do you ask?”

—I hear that things are quite chaotic within the Orthodox Church lately. We don’t know the details, but we were concerned that they might target the Saint.

“No such thing has happened.”

—Is that so? That’s a relief.

Ending my call with the archbishop after saying I would visit tomorrow, I thought about the Orthodox Church.

‘The world is getting more and more dangerous.’

Even around our shop, police cars had been swarming lately.

Gangnam residential area.

Police cars were blocking the roads.

In the basement of a house, eight unidentified corpses had been discovered.

Estimated to have died three days ago, the bodies were found after a resident of the house reported a suspiciously strong smell of blood.

“The cuts are clean. What kind of weapon was used?”

“A knife, most likely. This was done by a professional killer. Their skill is no joke.”

The corpses had either been pierced neatly through the heart or had their throats cleanly severed.

The investigation team, specializing in awakened crimes, was chilled by the suspect’s skill.

Even if someone planned it, pulling this off would be incredibly difficult.

Just then, a team member who had gone outside came down to the basement.

“Captain!”

“What is it? Did you check their identities?”

“Yes, they tried to erase their records, but they are affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church.”

“Are you sure?”

“We found call records showing contact with the Orthodox Church. It seems to be a crime targeting awakened individuals.”

“What? Those bastards.”

The furious captain gave an order.

“Cut off all Russian Orthodox Church routes in Korea immediately. Report the moment anyone comes through!”

“Yes, sir.”

“These guys dared to target Korean awakened ones?”

The investigation captain glared at the corpses.

But just who had killed them?