Mulan was certainly no wizard, and in theory, his current appointment was not dangerous at all. It was a perfectly legitimate position in which to coast along and collect a salary, clearly a favor from Queen Nisheriel. Nor was there anything improper about it. Given Mulan's own record, he would have been well suited to the post even if he had not belonged to Black Castle.
After all, Mulan was still studying at Black Castle. It might provide room and board, but it would not give him any extra money. At least he no longer had to worry about money for the time being, which was also why he had agreed to take Handel on as his personal attendant after observing him.
Yes, Handel now served entirely under Mulan. His pay consisted of two parts: a base salary provided by the imperial government and wages paid by Mulan. Had Mulan not been free of financial worries, he might have found a reason to turn Handel down.
Of course, the position was only safe in theory. Judging by what he had sensed from several police officers upon arriving today, they had encountered some trouble. For ordinary people who knew nothing about it, that sort of trouble was genuinely dangerous. They needed a warning.
The office had been tidied up by then. Mulan sat down and tried resting his feet on the corner of the desk, finding it rather comfortable. Handel, whose desk and chair stood beside the door, seemed even more excited than Mulan as he inspected everything on his desk.
"Handel."
"Yes, sir!"
Mulan looked at Handel, who had abruptly turned serious.
"No need to be nervous. You can relax a little. Do you remember the police officers I asked you to take note of when we came in?"
"I should be able to recognize all of them."
"Good. Go tell the inspector to have those officers come to my office. Now."
"Yes, I'll go right away!"
Handel was brimming with enthusiasm. As soon as he received the order, he left and strode toward the inspector's office. Soon afterward, with the inspector personally accompanying him, he went around the Police Station looking for the people he had noted earlier.
About ten minutes later, everyone who was still at the Police Station had been brought to the office at the end of the third floor. After some internal debate, the inspector decided to come along as well.
Inside Mulan's office, four police officers and one detective stood in a row, all terribly nervous. Their eyes kept flicking toward the inspector beside them.
They had only just heard that one of those legendary wizards might have arrived at the Police Station, and now they had already been summoned here.
Mulan stood behind the desk, one hand resting on its edge and the other pressing down on the Book of Abundance, regarding the five officers before him with a grave expression.
The five men's tension and unease had reached a certain point, and the inspector finally could not hold back.
"Mr. Jonester, what exactly did you summon them for?"
Mulan turned his gaze toward the inspector.
"Inspector Dawson, are you sure you want to hear this with them? There may be some danger involved."
"They've all served under me for years. I want to hear what they've done wrong."
Once Dawson saw everyone who had been summoned, he realized Mr. Jonester had not chosen them at random. They all belonged to the same team, so they must have done something.
Before any of the officers could defend themselves against Dawson's words, Mulan cleared things up for them.
"Done wrong? No, no. They haven't been involved in any crime. I merely noticed that they might be in a somewhat precarious situation, so I called them here specifically to give them a warning."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he was not looking to cause trouble for them.
"You all seem to have relaxed at once?"
Mulan smiled and slowly sat down, considering how to phrase his words for the right effect. As he thought, he opened the Book of Abundance and spoke quietly in a calm voice devoid of emotion.
"As you should all know by now, I come from Black Castle. I have seen things that ordinary people find difficult to comprehend and deeply terrifying..."
Mulan looked at the book, then slowly raised his head, shifting his gaze from the pages back to the five officers. With the mental focus and enhancement provided by reading the Book of Abundance, he could see more clearly. The gloom clinging to the five men resembled a thin mist, swirling indistinctly around them, with an occasional wisp dispersing.
Beyond that, Mulan also seemed to see fluctuations in the five officers' mental states. Their tension and fear seeped faintly from their skin like a chill, and he continued speaking.
"Things even more terrifying than you imagine."
Noticing their unease, Mulan nevertheless maintained his serious expression.
"Have any cases you've investigated or matters you've handled recently involved something beyond the normal, something you're still digging into? Officers, believe me, it has already begun to affect you personally. If you keep going, it will pose an ever greater threat to your safety."
Simply put, these ordinary people had begun to approach the otherworld. They were still at a relatively safe distance, but its influence should already have become apparent.
"You've been having nightmares lately, haven't you?"
Mulan raised his voice slightly, and all five officers broke out in goosebumps.
"Master wizard, we have all been having nightmares!"
"But that matter..." "Master wizard, what should we do?"
All five spoke almost at once. Mulan quickly raised a hand to stop the clamor.
"I'm no wizard. Please mind what you call me. At present, I'm a colleague of yours-a Special Police Officer."
Special police, for short! Mulan added inwardly.
"Then what should we do? Last night, I dreamed there was a terrifying shadow clinging outside my window, staring at me. Every time I woke with a start, I looked toward the window."
The detective could not help speaking again.
"First, tell me what you encountered."
The police officers all looked toward the detective, who nodded and began his account.
"That day, we received a report of deliberate assaults in Print District. People were frequently attacked without provocation, sometimes even bitten. We took some men over to investigate and staked the place out. Then we discovered that one household had a sick man whose symptoms were rather frightening..."
It was a textbook tale of supernatural trouble and attracting something sinister. Once Mulan had heard it, he had a fair idea of what was going on.
"Well? Master wizard-uh, Mr. Jonester, what should we do?"
The detective asked nervously, while Mulan had already begun to smile.
"Leave this case to me. Don't concern yourselves with it anymore, and don't go looking up information about ghosts and monsters on your own."
As he spoke, Mulan stepped out from behind the desk and picked up the cane resting at one corner. He swept it lightly across the five men before him. The faint gloom surrounding them was sliced apart and absorbed into the cane.
"Mr. Jonester, may I ask what you just did?"
The officers were still somewhat nervous, but Mulan answered them with a smile.
"It's all right now. I hope you sleep well tonight. You may go."
The officers exchanged looks, then turned toward the inspector.
"Mr. Jonester said everything is all right. Didn't you hear him? Well, I won't disturb you any longer either. I'll take my leave."
The inspector was the first to make his escape, and the officers hurried after him.
In fact, even without Mulan's instructions, the officers had already stopped dealing with that household. They had, however, suspected that the problem was more than an illness and looked into matters involving ghosts and monsters.
Mulan, however, would not ignore it. For ordinary police officers, this was a nasty mess, but for him, it was something that could genuinely be called a case. He believed Nisheriel would not want him to spend his days doing nothing, and he was not that sort of person himself.
"Mr. Jonester, are we going out?"
"Yes. Let's take a look."
Mulan took his cane and slipped the book neatly into his coat pocket, then immediately left the office with Handel. They departed the Police Station under the awed gazes of everyone inside. They already knew the household's address, but as soon as Mulan stepped outside, he headed in the opposite direction.
Handel asked no questions and simply followed in silence. After crossing four or five streets, they reached the magnificent Digo Royal Grand Cathedral.
"Dong... dong... dong..."
The bells marking ten in the morning rang out just then, lending the surrounding streets a sense of sanctity.
"Mr. Jonester, aren't we going straight to that household?"
"There's no hurry. We're here to find a friend. Exorcism is something best left to a professional, of course."
As he spoke, Mulan looked up at the entire cathedral. It was far grander than any cathedral in Valentine and felt more sacred as well. Merely standing there, it inevitably drew the eyes of every passerby, and there were many clergy inside.
Moreover, Owen had told Mulan that Priest Evan was recuperating here. In fact, his recovery had lasted only two days, after which he had begun receiving advanced training as a clergyman of exceptional promise and talent.
Though benches lined both sides of the Royal Great Cathedral's hall, the central aisle was exceptionally broad. Both the hall's floor space and its ceiling height were immense. Mulan even felt that the royal palace could not possibly contain a hall larger than this.
Apart from the Holy Light Statue in the center, an enormous patterned glass window soaring behind it shone with golden light. Huge metal pipes were visible on either side, presumably parts of a pipe organ. Majestic and sacred-those were Mulan's most immediate impressions. He also believed that on important occasions, the deliberately cultivated sense of sanctity would be even stronger.
Mulan had not come to pray, nor was he merely sightseeing. Now that he belonged to Black Castle and had connections to both the royal family and the Police Station, he naturally found someone to contact Evan for him in no time. Delighted to hear that his good friend had come, Evan hurried to the cathedral hall and spotted that familiar figure standing beside Handel.
"Mulan! You really came to Digo?"
Evan's smile was radiant. He reached out for a handshake, but Mulan stepped forward and pulled him into a bear hug.
"How are you? I heard you were affected."
"I recovered ages ago. That crisis made me realize that to fight demons, I need more than devotion to God. I need greater power as well. To that end, I..."
"As long as you're better. Just in time to help me with something-consider it intensive training!"
Evan showed no displeasure at being interrupted.
"What is it?"
"Probably possession by an evil spirit. We'll see when we get there. If you're free, let's leave now. Oh, right, this is Handel, my assistant, more or less. Handel, this is Priest Evan."
Only then did Handel step forward with proper courtesy and bow slightly to Evan.
"Priest Evan, I'm also a devout believer in God!"
Evan gave a faint smile and merely nodded.
"Hello, Mr. Handel. May the holy light protect you!"
Mulan pursed his lips. These two had started putting on airs.
"All right, enough pleasantries. If you're free, let's head over now. Do you need to bring holy water?"
Evan raised the book in his hand.
"It's only possession by an evil spirit. The Book of the Holy Temple will be enough. It may only have been a few days, but I've made progress!"