We Do Business In Full Auto [EN]: Chapter 2

002

Black Magic (2)

‘Kitty Kindergarten’ sits awkwardly between a wealthy neighborhood and a shantytown, a building that feels like a precise dividing line between poverty and wealth.

Kitty seems incredibly popular with the children; the place is decorated with the character, from Kitty sculptures to drawings and a huge sign.

I’d been loitering around for about 30 minutes.

I think I circled the kindergarten about five times, enough for someone to get the wrong idea.

This morning, I was deep in thought.

Yesterday, I brushed off Sujeong’s words, but as soon as I saw the book, I had a strong feeling it was something special.

The book lying at the crossroads was extraordinary at first glance.

Opening it, there was an eerie aura, like a ghost might pop out at any moment, and I felt goosebumps, as if cursed by an evil spirit.

Strangely, when I asked my wife, she didn’t feel any aura at all. But my wife knew about this book.

There was a very sinister old man among the lonely elderly in the neighborhood, and I’d felt that kind of energy from him for a long time.

He was an old man with a strange aura, like he’d kidnap a child and do terrible things.

However, the old man had a good reputation in the neighborhood.

Unlike a typical lonely old man, he was neat and acted like a gentleman. Perhaps because of that, he had good relationships with the people in the neighborhood and always carried candy to give to the children, making him popular with them.

Everyone else thought so, but I didn’t.

It felt like he had killed about 100 people, and vengeful spirits who couldn’t leave this world were clinging to him. It wasn’t visible, but because of that feeling, I had strongly warned Sujeong.

But without my knowing, Sujeong had been frequently visiting that sinister old man’s house. My wife explained that she went there to see the cat he was raising. She apologized for not telling me in advance.

After the old man died, Sujeong received a book as his keepsake. It was written that way in his will, or so I heard.

Anyway, I felt an indescribable energy from that book – a nasty feeling several times greater than the sinister energy that emanated from the old man. But on the other hand, I also felt like I always had that kind of energy. This gave me an unbearable feeling of discomfort.

Sujeong comes out of the kindergarten.

Several children surrounded her, their posture as respectful as if they were serving a princess. And when Sujeong stepped forward, the children bowed 90 degrees. It’s like she’s some kind of gang boss?

Sujeong, who had been acting so haughty, finds me and runs over to hug me. The arrogance disappears, and only a cute appearance remains.

“Daddy~!”

“Oh, Sujeong!”

It feels good to have my daughter hug me tightly.

She resembles her mother, giving off an exotic vibe, and when she becomes an adult, she’ll grow up to be so beautiful that she’ll capture the hearts of many men.

This platinum blonde hair must be a kind of mutant gene. Lisa’s hair is dark blonde.

“Hehe, did you find the book?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“It’s written all over your face, Daddy. I deliberately put it on the desk for you to find~!”

“…….”

Sujeong made me feel like I was on a rollercoaster with that smiling face.

So, she knew I would rummage through the crossroads today and deliberately rolled it up and left it there.

Sujeong’s explanation continues.

“Daddy, to learn black magic, it’s important to feel the black magic energy. Most people can’t feel it, so I experimented. But since you came here after finding it, Sujeong deduced that you felt the black magic energy emanating from the black magic book.”

It’s amazing.

Did she really think all this through?

I didn’t know what to say, and my eyes wandered.

“So, have you thought about it?”

I put Sujeong down.

Except when she’s being cute, it still feels like I’m talking to an adult. If this is Sujeong’s charm, then it’s her charm. She sometimes does things that give me goosebumps, though.

“Shall we talk about it then?”

“Daddy, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world.”

“Well… that’s true.”

“I really want to eat pizza for the first time in a while! But Sujeong is nice, so I’ll consider Daddy’s wallet and get a 2,000 won [approximately $1.50 USD] slice of pizza. Is that okay!?”

“Uh… okay.”

It’s an offer I can’t refuse.

My daughter and I bought a slice of pizza and headed to the park.

A park where children are playing.

Children around the age of six or seven are playing in the dirt with innocent faces. Then, if something goes wrong, it turns into a fight.

Even if it turns into a fight, it’s just pushing, not picking up a nearby rock and threatening. I guess that’s what children are like.

I glance at Sujeong. I almost had a prejudice, but the moment I saw my daughter, that thought melted away.

My daughter in child mode, not adult mode, was in front of me.

Looking at it this way, she doesn’t seem any different from the children playing like that. Why does she look so good when she eats!

However…….

I want to eat pizza too. I desperately want to eat it, but I can’t bring myself to take my daughter’s snack.

“Want a bite?”

“R, really?”

“Hehe, I ate it all?”

“Keueung.”

Why do I live getting beaten by Sujeong every day?

Still, this must be happiness.

Sujeong, who sucked her fingers, said with a serious face.

“If Daddy felt the black magic energy emanating from that place, it means you can accept it into your body. But it will be painful until you get used to that feeling.”

“Does that really mean black magic exists?”

“Want to hold my hand?”

I held out my hand.

Sujeong held my hand and concentrated for a moment.

Swish!

“Heok!”

A cold feeling that cannot be expressed in words is transmitted.

It was like chugging about 1 liter [approximately 34 ounces] of cold water and feeling a tingling sensation throughout my body.

“Do you feel it?”

“What are you…….”

“Actually, I only learned the basics. It was difficult for Sujeong to interpret ancient runes [symbols used in magic or writing]. I’m studying the commentaries left by my teacher… no, my grandfather, but it’s too difficult.”

“Was that strange writing runes?”

“Yeah!”

I couldn’t say, ‘I can’t understand it at all.’

The thick book was combined with the commentary, and no matter how much I tried to read and understand it, I couldn’t understand it at all.

It wasn’t in the realm of humans. It seemed like it wasn’t this world’s technology.

“Shall we go today, just for the sake of it?”

“Where are you talking about?”

“To the cemetery~!”

“Ha, geez. How can you say let’s go to the cemetery so innocently?”

I was worried for a moment.

Do I have to go to the cemetery to learn black magic?

There was a cemetery behind Mangwon-dong [a district in Seoul] where I live. That’s why the land value is cheap, and I can live in Seoul even in a shantytown.

“If I can raise something called the Undead…….”

“Daddy! It might be possible for our house to rise again. Sujeong can use black magic to some extent, so shouldn’t we work together as a family?”

“Sujeong.”

“Hehe. I’m a member of our family too, right?”

I ruffled Sujeong’s hair.

I couldn’t help but love my daughter, who was wriggling in my arms.

10 PM.

Our family barely managed to sneak out of the house, and all sorts of excuses had to be added to this.

My wife couldn’t have liked the idea of going out with a young daughter at night. But there’s no other way. If this is the way to raise the family, I can take a scolding.

In the end, we make the excuse of taking a walk and climb to the cemetery.

Even while climbing to the cemetery, one side of my heart was heavy. Is it really normal for a young daughter to worry about the house going bankrupt because the head of the family is incompetent?

Sujeong understood my heart.

“You don’t have to feel sorry, Daddy. Isn’t that how life is? I know there was a time when our house was doing really well. So there are times when it collapses.”

“You don’t have to comfort Daddy.”

“Sujeong isn’t too young either, so you don’t have to blame yourself. I haven’t even finished the basics of black magic, but I can lead Daddy to the path of a black magician. I’m not worried because I believe you’ll work hard after that. Unfortunately, my talent isn’t as good as Daddy’s. It took me three months to learn.”

“What? You’ve been going up and down the cemetery for three months!?”

“Yeah! Secretly when Mom and Dad are sleeping. Hehehe.”

“Hehe.”

It was Sujeong’s secret, not a secret.

So, she was sacrificing her sleep and going to the cemetery alone to train. I couldn’t help but be moved.

How can a 7-year-old child train alone in a cemetery?

When we arrived at the cemetery, Sujeong stretched out her arms and took a deep breath.

“Hehe, there are a lot of earthbound spirits [ghosts tied to a specific location] today too. Seeing the vengeful spirits and evil spirits wandering around, I think I can absorb a lot of black magic energy.”

“……Can you see that?”

“Did Sujeong forget to say one thing? If you absorb black magic energy into your heart, your spiritual eye will open. In other words, you can see ghosts, but it’s only scary at first, and then it’s not scary at all.”

“Your spiritual eye opens!?”

“You can go down from here if you’re scared.”

I shook my head.

My daughter wasn’t scared at all, so I couldn’t back down as a father. If I back down here, I’ll only walk the path of deterioration.

“Daddy, sit here cross-legged.”

“Like this?”

“Yeah. I’ll pass on what I learned from Grandpa.”

My daughter was playing the role of a teacher, but there was no other way. It would take me several years to decipher those strange runes. If time passes like this, the debtors will come in, and I might even lose the uninhabited island as it is.

So I have to make money before that.

“According to Grandpa…….”

There are two ways to use black magic energy in black magic.

The easiest way is to make a contract with a higher-ranking demon. It is a method of summoning demons through magic circles and rituals by gathering various treasures.

However, when summoning a demon and making a contract, you must always put your soul up as collateral.

What happens if you put your soul up as collateral?

When humans die, they don’t just disappear as if a light goes out. They remain in the form of a soul and wander the earth, go to the afterlife, or swim in the universe.

In the case of swimming in the universe, the form becomes faint and eventually disappears, but when it is caught by a powerful force, it must suffer eternal pain.

There weren’t that many powerful monsters in this world that I had to put my soul up as collateral to a demon, and I didn’t want to suffer that much.

The second way is to collect black magic energy.

Create a band around the heart to store black magic energy. This is similar to the form of mana.

However, white magic collects pure mana in the atmosphere, while black magic absorbs energy from yin [the passive, dark, or feminine principle] and evil, or despair.

In modern society, there is no war, and if you sit like that at a funeral, you will be called crazy, so the best way was to use the cemetery like this.

“……The best way to absorb black magic energy is mental strength. Black magic energy can be controlled with mental strength. You have to accept it with your whole body and guide it to your heart. Then it rotates in accordance with the heart’s pulsation. When it accumulates like that, a circle is created.”

I close my eyes and feel the black magic energy.

Goosebumps pop up.

Swish. Swish.

Vengeful spirits are felt.

The despair they have, the screams full of evil, created an energy, and it was absorbed into my heart.

Various evil energies came in and mixed together, and eventually created a band around the heart.

“Heok!”

And I opened my eyes.

The gloom was felt to the point where a person with a weak heart would die of a heart attack if they were in this place.

When I opened my eyes, my spiritual eye opened.

Sujeong revealed surprise unlike usual. It’s not a serious look, but a daughter with a fully relaxed feeling.

“Wow! Daddy’s the best! As expected, Daddy was chosen as the agent of the Demon God! Hooray for our Daddy!”