“Welcome. This is ‘Fribel,’ here to make you even more beautiful and elegant.”
Eun Seonmyeong lifted his coffee cup while listening to the manager’s booming greeting from outside. The coffee cup—from a brand supposedly used by some European royal family, whether Danish or British—cost a whopping 1.5 million won for a single set. One hundred and fifty thousand won for just a cup and saucer. He still couldn’t tell if it was worth that much. Whether you drank from a bowl, an expensive cup, or a cheap mug, coffee was coffee, wasn’t it?
“And yet.”
The reason he kept such wastefully expensive cups despite thinking them a waste of money was to serve customers like the one sitting before him. To deal with VVIPs—whom he privately called suckers—you needed to maintain a certain level of class.
“Are you saying, ma’am, that your son has been bewitched by a fox?”
The woman sitting across from Eun Seonmyeong, who had been sipping her coffee with refined and elegant gestures, let out a sigh. The woman’s name was Seo Hyeonjeong. She was the wife of Seonjin, a company that barely made it into the top 30 of the business rankings. To be precise, she was the third wife of Seonjin’s chairman, and he’d heard rumors that the son she bore had recently contracted some mysterious illness and was slowly dying. Shamans claiming to be gifted and renowned monks had taken turns crossing that household’s threshold, but there was no news of the son’s condition improving. That’s why Eun Seonmyeong had expected Seo Hyeonjeong to come looking for him sooner or later.
“Yes. The shaman who came to examine the child said he’d been bewitched by a fox, and that the child would only get better if we killed that fox. I’m told that you, Representative Eun, are the only one who can kill a fox?”
As far as Eun Seonmyeong knew, Seo Hyeonjeong’s son was in his mid-twenties. And yet the woman still called her son, who’d been an adult for quite some time, a ‘child.’
“I don’t mean to brag, but… yes, I’m the only one who can exorcise the fox that bewitched your son. You’ve come to the right place.”
“I’ll put up 100 million won.”
Seo Hyeonjeong spoke as soon as Eun Seonmyeong finished.
Eun Seonmyeong carefully set down his coffee cup, worried about scratching the expensive thing, crossed his legs, and rubbed his chin. Then he stared intently at Seo Hyeonjeong, whose arrogant expression seemed to say ‘100 million should be more than enough.’
Eun Seonmyeong’s lips twisted crookedly.
“That’s a problem. I’m not that cheap.”
At Eun Seonmyeong’s words treating 100 million won like chump change, a crack appeared in Seo Hyeonjeong’s brow. The words of the shaman who’d introduced her to Eun Seonmyeong suddenly came to mind.
Money demon.
Hadn’t she said that no ordinary amount of money would be enough to move this man’s heavy ass? Tsk. Clicking her tongue, Seo Hyeonjeong held up two more fingers.
“100 million won as an advance. If the child recovers, I’ll give you an additional 200 million won.”
“I believe I told you I’m not that cheap.”
This time too, Eun Seonmyeong was unimpressed.
“Are you saying 300 million won total isn’t enough?”
“200 million won as an advance. Give me another 300 million when the job is done.”
500 million won wasn’t exactly a trivial amount even for her, having secured her position as a chaebol wife. But thinking of it as the price for her son’s life—her son who’d been wasting away since returning from a trip to Mount Seorak—it wasn’t an amount she couldn’t pay. Seo Hyeonjeong looked at the grinning Eun Seonmyeong with displeasure before reluctantly nodding. However, she couldn’t hand over such a large sum without any safeguards.
“Fine. Let’s do that. But if you can’t save my child, you’d better be prepared.”
Seo Hyeonjeong spoke threateningly while looking around the office. She meant she would ruin his business if he failed the request.
“The Eun family knows no failure.”
Eun Seonmyeong shrugged and smiled.
“Let me take a look at your son first. I’ll visit your home in an hour.”
Seo Hyeonjeong nodded and stood up. Eun Seonmyeong, who stood up following her, continued speaking.
“I’ll take the advance in cash at that time. Fill a bag with 50,000-won bills.”
The woman nodded once more and left the office through the door Eun Seonmyeong held open for her.
Eun Seonmyeong watched the retreating figure walking away with the clicking sound of high heels. True to being a woman who had seduced the Seonjin chairman with her looks alone to claim the inner chambers, Seo Hyeonjeong still maintained a beautiful figure despite approaching fifty. From behind, you’d believe she was in her thirties.
‘Is that why she’s so arrogant?’
Because she was controlling the Seonjin chairman, who’d been famous as a womanizer, with looks and a figure maintained by throwing money at them?
He was debating whether or not to teach a lesson to the woman who’d dared threaten him, saying he’d better be prepared, when a shadow fell across his face.
“A request?”
Eun Seonmyeong, who’d been leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, looked up. He saw a massive man with a burly build who was easily a span taller than him at 188cm. It was Han Seolju, the manager of this jewelry store, Fribel. Of course, being a manager was his side job—his main job was as a retainer of the Eun family.
The Eun family was an exorcist household with a lineage spanning over a thousand years.
In the past, this land wasn’t solely for humans. All sorts of yokai, yosu, ghosts, and other impure and evil things lived mixed together, harming humans. To stand against them and protect humanity, numerous exorcist families emerged, and the one recognized as the best among them was the Eun family.
As time passed, yokai and yosu gradually disappeared, and the remaining ones cleverly hid among humans. Exorcists with less work gradually lost their power and disappeared one by one, but only the Eun family still maintained its lineage. It wouldn’t be wrong to say they were the only surviving exorcist family in existence.
Of course, the Eun family’s lifespan wasn’t long either. There was no direct bloodline besides Eun Seonmyeong, and Eun Seonmyeong had no intention of having children. Considering that the average lifespan of direct male descendants of the Eun family was around forty, they had about ten years left.
“Yeah, a request.”
Eun Seonmyeong, lifting one corner of his mouth in a smile, held up two fingers and then three in succession. It meant a 200 million won advance and 300 million won success fee.
“What kind?”
“A fox. The son of Seonjin’s third wife has apparently been bewitched by a fox.”
“A fox… Could it be the White Fox we lost three years ago?”
At Han Seolju’s words, Eun Seonmyeong clicked his tongue. The White Fox from three years ago was the only blemish on Eun Seonmyeong’s record of a 100% request success rate.
Three years ago, in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, several gruesome corpses were found with their chests split in half, their internal organs clearly visible. The only common feature among the corpses was that their hearts had vanished without a trace.
The case, which the government and police had joined hands to embargo, was turned into an article when one reporter blinded by the scoop exposed it, and society fell into chaos afterward. Citizens were plagued by anxiety and criticized the government and police day after day. The police hastily set up a special investigation headquarters and boasted they would definitely catch the serial killer, but they couldn’t even grasp a single clue. It was natural. The culprit wasn’t human, after all.
The request came to the Eun family after eight more victims appeared. It was a direct order from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Meeting with the commissioner, Eun Seonmyeong announced it was the work of a White Fox and boasted he’d catch it within a week before heading to Sangju, but the result was disastrous. He succeeded in finding the damned White Fox. However, he failed to catch it.
‘It was stronger than I thought. Damn fox bastard.’
Irritation rose on Eun Seonmyeong’s face as he recalled the humiliating memory of returning empty-handed, paying double the deposit according to the contract, and having to bow his head before the police commissioner.
“Tsk…”
One consolation was that he’d managed to lodge an exorcism bullet in that damned White Fox bastard’s belly back then. Exorcism bullets were projectiles made by mixing the ashes created from burning Eun Seonmyeong’s blood, peach tree branches, and talismans together. A type of FX round, they were lethal to yosu, ghosts, and other ominous and evil things.
“If it’s alive, it’s not that bastard from three years ago. If it had been bewitched by a White Fox, he would’ve come back as a corpse without a heart. And that bastard from three years ago took an exorcism bullet I made myself, so it’s probably still hiding in its fox den like a rat pup, recuperating.”
It would need at least five years to fully recover. Eun Seonmyeong twisted his lips.
“It’ll be a Fire Fox.”
Having finished speaking, Eun Seonmyeong went back into the office. Then, carefully closing the door so it couldn’t be seen from outside, he went behind the desk and pushed the wall.
A hidden space was revealed. Eun Seonmyeong carefully looked down at the items neatly arranged in the secret space behind the wall. They were firearms—a shotgun, a Colt Python revolver, a Glock 19, and others. After deliberation, Eun Seonmyeong chose the Glock 19. After putting on a shoulder holster, he inserted the Glock 19. He also took plenty of exorcism bullets.
Each exorcist had different main weapons, and Eun Seonmyeong mainly used pistols. Sometimes he received help from spiritual beings, and he’d roughly use whatever objects were around, but his main weapon was a pistol. Of course, he’d received a firearms possession permit from the government. Even if he didn’t use live ammunition, just possessing firearms was illegal. Despite appearances, he was a diligent taxpayer who paid his taxes transparently and a model citizen.
After putting on a loose-fitting jumper to hide the pistol from view, Eun Seonmyeong restored the wall to its original state. Then he left the office. Han Seolju was still waiting outside the door.
“Are you going right now?”
“First I’ll stop by Seonjin to check on the son’s condition. I also need to find out at least roughly where he was bewitched by the Fire Fox.”
“But… are you okay? The date is…”
At Han Seolju’s cautious question, Eun Seonmyeong calculated the date and his expression twisted. Fuck, a curse slipped out. That day, which came around punctually twice a month like interest payments, was approaching soon.
