Chapter 211

Chapter 211

Jin-Seo silently wandered around the museum. Although she was in the same group as Dae-Man and Min-Seo, she had nothing to say to them. Even if she had something to say to them, she wasn’t exactly the type of person to initiate a conversation.

As she quietly walked ahead, she encountered the team consisting of Yu-Hyun, Su-Ryeon, and Ha-Yeon. Su-Ryeon, happily engaged in a chat with Yu-Hyun, noticed Jin-Seo and widened her eyes.

"Oh! What the... Where were you guys? We wanted to ask if you all wanted to move together as one group. We finally found you guys,” she said.

Dae-Man replied to Su-Ryeon's question. "We were just wandering around. We found a lot of interesting things in that direction!”

Jin-Seo glanced at Su-Ryeon and then shifted her gaze toward Yu-Hyun and Ha-Yeon. She was sure that the group had been composed of four people, and yet she could only see three group members. Now that she thought about it, she realized that Sun-Woo was missing. She turned her head in different directions to search for him, but to no avail.

"...Where's Sun-Woo?" Jin-Seo asked Su-Ryeon.

However, Su-Ryeon was absorbed in a conversation with Dae-Man and thus had no attention to spare. Yu-Hyun was standing next to them. He scratched his head and said, "He disappeared briefly after saying that he was going to the toilet.”

"Ah..."

"But Min-Seo, why are you not greeting me?” Yu-Hyun aggressively questioned Min-Seo.

Due to Yu-Hyun’s question, the others failed to hear Jin-Seo's disappointed sigh. Min-Seo had a foul expression plastered onto her face the entire time, and she furrowed one eyebrow and gazed up at Yu-Hyun.

“What? Do I have to greet you every time I don’t see you for a brief moment?”

"Of course you do."

"What a load of bullshit."

"Min-Seo, you’ve been getting on my nerves lately. Do you want a taste of my fist?"

"Ah, you bastard. Did you shove drugs down your throat or something? Why are you constantly picking fights with me?” Min-Seo growled as Yu-Hyun watched her with a smile.

It seemed like Yu-Hyun enjoyed hearing insults from Min-Seo. At times, the duo would engage in a congenial discussion, but at other times, they would exchange a heated conversation.

"Huh?"

At that moment, Su-Ryeon, who had been engrossed in a conversation with Dae-Man, turned her gaze toward Jin-Seo. Su-Ryeon scanned Jin-Seo up and down before abruptly letting out a sigh. Her gaze stopped at the skirt that Jin-Seo was wearing.

"Your skirt is really pretty! It's a bit different from your usual style, isn’t it? You normally wear really short skirts, right?”

"Yeah," Jin-Seo agreed with a nod.

Today, she was wearing an ankle-length skirt. The reason for this was that she had heard that it was not advisable to expose a lot of skin in Islamic countries, and because there was a risk of getting sunburned due to the strong sunlight. As someone who usually wore relatively short clothes for the sake of mobility, it was a change in style for her.

"It suits you really well. You're tall, so anything looks pretty on you."

"No, you’re exaggerating..."

"Hmm, maybe it’s not because of your height? Perhaps everything looks good on you because of your pretty face?”

"..."

Jin-Seo shut her mouth in response to Su-Ryeon's excessive praise.

The two groups that happened to meet each other chatted briefly for a moment before separating and going their own ways. Su-Ryeon suggested going together, but Yu-Hyun pointed out that it would be too crowded if they were to move together, and hence it was decided that they would stay in separate groups.

As if feeling somewhat regretful about separating from Dae-Man, Su-Ryeon continued to pull pranks on him until they parted ways.

It was when they were silently touring the museum once again that the incident occurred. Read latest chapters at novelhall.com

Bang—!

Someone forcefully opened the museum door and entered. It was a sturdy man dressed in black clothes. Behind him, dozens of guards followed closely behind.

"What the... who are those guys? Are they the children of darkness or something?” Min-Seo said with a sarcastic laugh.

* * *

I followed the staff member’s guidance. Along the way, the staff member said a bunch of things to me, but I could not immediately understand what they were saying. Legba interpreted the staff member’s words for me, and I was able to belatedly understand the staff member’s words.

[It's an honor to meet you. I'm glad I can be of help, is what they are saying.]

"Hmm..."

I nodded without replying to Legba. It was because there was no need to respond to what he had said. My nod of agreement was sufficient enough of a response.

The man raised his gun toward the ceiling and fired off a couple of warning shots. Lights and windows shattered, and glass shards rained down onto the floor. The visitors trembled as they covered their ears and crouched down.

The man aimed his gun’s barrel at the head of a staff member who was screaming on the first floor and shouted something. Just like that, one of the staff members was taken hostage.

It was complete chaos.

I lowered my head and glanced down at the first floor. Due to being in an open area, the group composed of Su-Ryeon, Yu-Hyun, and Ha-Yeon were kneeling and trying to take cover.

The group composed of Jin-Seo, Dae-Man, and Min-Seo hid behind a pillar. Jin-Seo had a fairly large wound on her arm. It seemed like she had been stabbed by the glass fragments that had fallen down from the ceiling.

I needed to act immediately. However, the cogs in my brain were not functioning correctly. It was because I hadn’t used the intoxication spell that much recently. I couldn’t determine what I had to do first.

Did I have to prioritize dealing with the men in black, or was it better to just go for the staff right now...

"..."

I put down the bag that I had been carrying. When I opened the bag, Damballa cautiously crawled out. Damballa slowly rotated her head from side to side, as if waiting for my command. I poked out my finger toward her.

"Bite it."

[...Ah, I see.]

Crunch!

Damballa bit my finger. It didn't hurt at all. Blood flowed out from my fingertip. I drew a picture on the floor with that blood. It was the vévé of Sobo and Ogun. The first one to be completed was Sobo's vévé, and a faint purple glow flowed from the pattern. Like lightning, the pattern intermittently emitted intense light.

"Sobo."

Bang—!!

Every single ray of light that existed within the museum completely disappeared. It wasn’t just the museum. The lights emitted by all the buildings in the surrounding area were all extinguished. Nothing could be seen.

I heard the sounds of the men in black shouting among themselves.

Click.

The sound of them loading their guns could be heard.

In that moment, within the darkness, Ogun's vévé was completed.

"Ogun."

As if responding to my words, Ogun's vévé emitted a strong light. The shouts from the men in black grew louder. In response, the screams of the visitors also grew louder. The chaos created by the darkness dominated the museum.

I closed my eyes. Inside the darkness, having one’s eyes open was more or less the same as having them closed, so there was no point in keeping my eyes open.

"Bade."

Instead, I called for Bade. A faint breeze entered through the broken windows. The wind gently enveloped the bodies of everyone in the museum.

I sensed the flow of the wind, and by doing so, I could sense the movements of the people. Bade's wind became my skin and became my sense of touch.

Within the wind, I sensed one of the visitors, crouching and trembling, stand up. One of the men in black aimed their guns at that visitor.

Bang!

"Argaaah, aah, aaaah...!"

Along with the gunshot, silence fell upon the museum. A gut-wrenching scream reverberated and cut through the silence. The scream was not from the visitor, but from the man in black who had pulled the trigger.

[Piles of metal that are too intricate make war meaningless,] Ogun said.

Ogun had detonated the gun at my request.

"I’ll leave it to you, Damballa," I said to Damballa, who was on the floor.

Damballa swiftly moved her body and slithered somewhere. I walked within the pitch-black darkness as I sensed the area with the wind.

Perhaps I had overused the power of the Loa because by the time I reached the first floor, blood started pouring out of my nose. My brain wasn’t really functioning correctly, perhaps because of the excessive bleeding. However, I still wouldn’t use the intoxication spell.

The decisions that I made under the influence of the intoxication spell were not completely according to my own will. I would basically be doing what the intoxication spell told me instead of doing what I wanted to do.

Now, I was going to do what I wanted to do. Within the darkness, I heard the sound of rain and thunder. Intermittent flashes illuminated the people in the museum.