A Dark Fantasy Spy

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The corpse is familiar. To be precise, I’ve grown accustomed to it.

That summer when I was just deployed to the African continent. The air conditioner had broken down, so my superior and I escaped to the terrace to avoid the heat.

The water pipe that I took a puff from at my senior’s suggestion tasted fruity. The unfamiliar toxicity made me cough. Just then, when my senior was chuckling, a gunshot rang out from somewhere.

That day, I witnessed a corpse for the first time.

It was a headless corpse. The large hole in the front windshield suggested that a pellet had hit it from a shotgun. The deceased’s uniform testified to their identity.

It’s the same now.

A police officer in uniform is sitting in the driver’s seat, head blown off. The mangled face is barely recognizable, with only the lower jaw loosely hanging above a gaping neck.

The gory display of exposed, bright red gums and teeth covered in vines is horrifying.

“……”

This was far too different from the corpses I’d grown familiar with.

—

Episode 17 – The Tree that Drinks Blood

—

Lucia washed her blood-soaked hands and looked around, rotating her wrists.

“How do you feel?”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

She stopped twisting her wrists and glanced down at the ground.

“This is the first time I’ve taken someone’s life with my own hands.”

Drowning in a mix of guilt and discomfort, Lucia let her hands drop. She held back her words by answering briefly.

Francesca straightened her back and crossed her arms lightly.

“There’s no need to be gloomy. They’re already dead, after all.”

“…Still.”

Lucia opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by Francesca.

While some might see her as a mere bureaucrat who can only wield a pen, Francesca is actually an administrator of the Magic Tower Secretariat. Her experiences gained from the Magic Tower and Patali have been more than enough to mold a person into a realist.

“Do you think ‘this’ looks like a person to the Saint?”

The blunt question hung in the air as Francesca pointed at the headless corpse, drawing everyone’s gaze to it.

At first glance, the corpse looked ordinary. However, upon closer inspection, its extraordinary condition became evident.

Vine-like tendrils climbed up the esophagus and onto its tongue. White strands covering the tongue split to burrow into molars. They hugged the gums and met at the front teeth.

At a glance, it resembled braces or perhaps it looked like someone who had eaten a mountain of salad. It was all the more chilling and terrifying.

The plant emerging from inside a human body shocked everyone.

With only the lower jaw remaining, the portion where the tendril climbed up the esophagus was glaringly exposed, making it so no one dared to touch the corpse.

Francesca’s voice, dry as if devoid of emotion, mingled with the horror before us, giving off a faintly cynical vibe.

In the subdued atmosphere, Francesca continued.

“This isn’t a human.”

“……”

“It’s a victim that has turned into a monster.”

She declared the police officer as a ‘human turned monster,’ drawing a firm line.

It was both a suggestion to stop feeling guilt and a declaration of reality.

“……”

Lucia, who had been standing gloomily, weakly nodded. Francesca gestured as if it were enough that she understood.

I tapped Lucia’s shoulder and offered a brief consolation.

“It’s not your fault, so don’t be too downhearted.”

“…Yes.”

How could it be her fault that the police officer ended up like that? Thus, his death was not her fault either.

Leaving Lucia with a faint smile, I walked toward the police car. There, Camila and Francesca were investigating the police officer who had turned into a monster.

“How are you feeling? Is your stomach any better?”

Resting her hand atop the police car’s roof, Camila nodded in response.

“I’m feeling a bit better.”

“You don’t look happy, though. You’re still feeling nauseous, aren’t you?”

“Actually, just a little….”

After the officer transformed, she began to complain of an unknown nausea. At first, everyone thought it was just motion sickness, but it was more than that.

A magic user with developed senses is sensitive to environmental changes. Camila could wield considerable magic power, making her much more sensitive than an average magic user. Thus, she felt a similar malaise when demons appeared or when black magic barriers arose.

I recommended rest to the pale Camila.

“Are you sure it’s okay? It might be dangerous.”

“What’s dangerous? It’s just a corpse with half its head blown off.”

“But still… what if it gets up like a zombie and attacks….”

“You’ve watched too many horror movies. Enough with the talk; go rest. Leave this to us.”

Though Camila, immersed in creature films, protested, she didn’t resist. She headed back to the car to rest quietly.

Having sent Camila away, I approached Francesca. She was calmly gazing at the monster that had once been a police officer.

“Have you learned anything? If there’s anything that stands out, please share.”

“Unfortunately, I have no answers to provide.”

The Magic Tower is a place where authorities of magic gather.

Since the time of the Independence War, it has governed magicians, now considered a spiritual home for them, maintaining its central position in magical society. No government institution could match the Magic Tower when it comes to magic.

However, even Francesca, who had closely assisted the tower’s leaders and elders, seemed utterly baffled on this occasion.

She frowned in thought, then began to speak.

“There are many creatures that can parasitize humans, but I’ve never heard of one that’s a plant.”

“So, what is this then?”

“Well… it might be the nasty hobby of some wicked magician?”

She alluded to a necromancer’s doing.

“A necromancer, you say? Do you think a banished one is involved?”

“Yes.”

She assured that the skills of a banished one were not involved. I asked for her reasoning.

“Why not?”

Francesca, seeming to ponder it, began explaining the differences between a banished magician and a necromancer.

“It’s a well-known fact that banished magicians are the primary targets of investigation agencies. They’re spread out so much that whenever a problem occurs, it’s nonstop news coverage. However, unlike those who cause minor issues, the incidents caused by necromancers are on a whole different scale.”

Francesca glanced at the corpse. More precisely, at the plants growing from it.

“They have nothing to lose, and their seeds belong to a completely different category. So they would have no hesitation in committing such acts.”

“You seem oddly certain. Do you have any grounds for that….”

“The summoning of a demon in the North was also the work of necromancers. Led by my subordinate, Martinez.”

I fell silent.

Francesca concluded with a sense of indifference.

“So, if you ask for my opinion, I have no choice but to say that a necromancer is behind this. Of course, I can’t assert that for sure, but at the moment, there’s nothing else that comes to mind.”

It was a rational speculation based on experience and data.

However, as she said, there was insufficient evidence to firmly conclude that it was a necromancer’s doing.

A plant that parasitizes humans, and a tree that devours people.

What commonality could these two have?

The tree that devours people could be related to cultists, so it was possible that it was their doing. While Francesca continued to examine the dead officer for new clues, I sought out Lucia.

“Francesca said this seems like the work of a necromancer; what do you think?”

“A necromancer…. That’s certainly a valid point, but I didn’t find any magical traces.”

Lucia, who had personally dealt with the monster officer, leaned towards a different hypothesis rather than the necromancer’s.

She presented her reasoning based on the sudden transformation of the officer into a monster.

“Typically, rapidly changing a human’s body goes against the natural order. Like how divinity and magic heal wounds.”

In their natural state, divinity and magic possess the same properties as the elements that make up the world.

While they harbor infinite possibilities, merely having divinity or magic alone cannot create something.

Just having hydrogen and oxygen doesn’t mean water is made. You have to chemically combine the two elements to create water.

“Simply pouring divinity wouldn’t make the wounds disappear. Just like how a magician has to channel magic through a circuit, a priest also must go through a similar process for healing.”

“…Then the sudden growth of the plant, too?”

“Yes.”

Lucia nodded as if she fully grasped it.

“If this was the work of a magician, traces of it would remain on the corpse. Magic invariably leaves tiny hints behind when cast.”

“Magic residue. I’m aware of that. Did you find any traces of magic on the corpse?”

Though divinity and magic follow different paths, both a priest with keen perception and a magician can sense the manifestations of magic and divinity merely from the traces left in the air.

That’s how ancient magicians survived on the run from inquisitors. It’s also the reason inquisitors could hunt magicians. Modern investigation agencies use similar methods to capture wayward magicians and throw them into jail.

However, no such traces showed up on the corpse.

“When I examined the officer, I didn’t discover anything.”

It was likely something other than magic. Lucia added that thought.

Opposing claims arose. It was time for verification. Though I wasn’t an expert in investigations like Clevenz, I had a discerning eye for people.

I called Francesca over and had the two meet. After closely examining the corpse, she engaged in various discussions with Lucia, ultimately adding that Lucia’s opinion was valid.

“As the Saint said, I couldn’t find a speck of magic residue. I’m not an expert in plants, but since this is a plant I’ve never seen before… it could be a dangerous magical plant that hasn’t been discovered yet.”

“I’ll have to report this to the Holy See. Al-Yabd should also be informed.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to collect samples from the plant?”

“I’ll try, but don’t hold your breath. We might have to destroy it right away; it could be too dangerous.”

That’s not an issue. We have Camila. If the flames can burn even demons, what could a plant do?

Francesca, pulling tools from the luggage, began taking samples. Lucia, unable to sit still, followed her.

The problem was with the federal government soldiers.

Those guys seemed spooked by the plant and didn’t even dare to approach the police car. Officers and soldiers were huddled in a truck, standing by with their weapons while keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings.

In the midst of the Saint and the administrator stepping forward, I questioned what kind of nonsense this was. They confidently babbled that they were ‘on standby for security.’

While their intentions were good, shouldn’t they do their job properly?

We were investigating in front, and yet they quietly withdrew to the back, making their vigilance pointless. Their idea of security was ridiculous.

Though they showed signs of wanting to bolt at the slightest hint of danger, even those guys couldn’t refuse my request for assistance.

The soldiers, sulking around the truck, hesitated when told they needed to collect samples, then begrudgingly followed two people as if being led to a slaughterhouse.

And there was good news.

Camila’s condition had improved considerably. Perhaps the rest helped; her complexion had brightened compared to before.

I offered her a bottle of water, and she gulped it down in one go.

“Ah…!”

“You look a bit better. Are you feeling more alive?”

“No… I still feel like I’m dying.”

She shook her head but seemed to be feeling nauseous again. She hurriedly paused what she was doing and finished responding.

Hmm. Could it be that she was still feeling motion sickness due to being on an empty stomach?

I knew her developed senses caused her nausea. But perhaps being hungry contributed to it too. Wondering if a sweet snack might ease her stomach, I suggested chocolate, which she eagerly accepted without hesitation.

“Thank you!”

“Eat it slowly. You might throw up.”

I broke off a piece of chocolate into Camila’s palm while checking back toward the police car.

Federal government soldiers were surrounding the police car. Perhaps more fearful of the corpse inside than any external threat, their guns were aimed not outside but toward the driver’s seat.

—

Regardless of that, Francesca and Lucia calmly pulled out the corpse.

With the head blown off from a punch, the passenger and back seats were drenched in blood.

The two extracting the corpse from the now-crime-scene police car seemed like criminals who could stir up a ruckus with their beauty, not their charges.

“……”

Watching the police officer’s body being covered with a waterproof sheet, I muttered to myself about what that plant could be.

It wasn’t something I expected an answer to. However, a reply came.

From behind.

“It’s a precious sprout gathering energy to become a Divine Tree.”

From where the voice came, an old man stood. He was holding a staff.

He looked so natural and at ease that it almost felt like he had originally been here.

—

At first, I mistook him for a priest.

While I knew everyone that came from the Holy See, I hadn’t recognized anyone from Al-Yabd, so I thought perhaps it was someone who had been in the back of the car earlier.

About two seconds passed, and I reflexively grabbed the firearm resting in the driver’s seat.

That old man was not someone from Al-Yabd.

I hadn’t seen such a face when I had confirmed visually before departure.

—

“I came running as soon as the sprout began to bloom. Who would have thought I would meet such dignitaries….”

Camila, who had been glancing sideways, suddenly turned pale. Her face had turned so dark it was almost black.

Only after checking her out of the corner of my eye did I gain certainty.

I squeezed the trigger.

At that moment, the old man spoke.

“When the wanderer visits, you should treat him with utmost sincerity.”

I wasn’t expecting any rotten greetings from the possessed person I once dealt with.

However, there was an unsettling aura in his words.

“Extend your hospitality and fulfill your duties as a host. The Mother of All has cared for you with kindness and generosity, so the joy of the guest shall honor you. That is the teaching of our prophet recorded in the Ah-Sujudah.”

Just as I pulled the trigger and flames flashed—

The old man’s staff hit the ground.

“It’s only right to treat a guest with due respect.”

Life begins to sprout between the soil. Greedily, it burgeons. Life breaks through gravel, sand, and the gaps in the pavement, growing larger through translucent green stems, then shifting to deep green before rapidly turning to dark brown.

The sharpness of life grazes my skin. Branches covered in thorns leave long wounds along my side, aiming at the back of Lucia’s head.

—

-WHAAM-!!

—

A blaze shot in from the left, incinerating the branches.

The trigger I couldn’t pull got pulled all the way back. My extended finger aimed at the target.

With a booming shot and a cheerful blaze, the old man was engulfed in flames.