“But really, why did you come here? Grim Reapers don’t usually just show up at shabby places like this. I swear, I’ve never interfered with human fate to an excessive degree or leaked the Natural Order or anything like that, okay? Please, just let me off this once. Please.”
“Tsk, how can someone who’s been a deity for over a hundred years act so frivolously? I’m not here to take you away, so shut your mouth.”
Shin Mua reprimanded him with the tone of a king scolding a low-ranking official—no, a low-ranking subject. What was even more surprising was that upon hearing his words, the shaman who had been chattering nonstop immediately shut his mouth and fell silent.
Faced with this series of astonishing situations, Jieon didn’t dare—truly didn’t dare—interject and simply looked back and forth between the shaman and Shin Mua.
The sight of the shaman prostrated in the corner, unable to even lift his head, and Shin Mua sitting cross-legged before him was beyond absurd—it was downright bizarre.
“The reason I’ve come to find you today is none other than this: there is something you must help me with.”
Shin Mua’s voice as he spoke was incredibly confident. His tone was closer to a command than a request.
“This is an order from Lord Yeomra, so think carefully. If you help, you will be treated without disappointment.”
The voice that followed was utterly calm, but in truth, Mua was quite pleased inside.
He hadn’t yet recovered enough power to accurately determine what kind of deity possessed this shaman, but as the old saying goes, even a dog of the Afterlife can recite the ledgers after three years. Having worked as a Grim Reaper for a hundred years, Mua could roughly figure out what type of deity this was.
Seeing how terrified he is just from catching a glimpse of a Grim Reaper’s soul, he’s definitely not a traditional deity. This was the luckiest point. Traditional deities were mostly arrogant bastards who didn’t even take Lord Yeomra seriously, so no matter how much you invoked Yeomra’s orders, they would never listen to a mere Grim Reaper’s request.
He probably wasn’t one of those who accomplished great feats in life or established the nation’s spirit either. They too wouldn’t cower in fear before a Grim Reaper without proper form and wouldn’t act this frivolously.
So basically, all the high-nosed ones had been filtered out.
Mua narrowed his eyes and looked at the still-trembling shaman. He had a pretty good idea now. The deity this child served was most likely a former shaman from their human life.
There were those—impossibly rare to find even if you scoured heaven and earth—who were born with exceptionally outstanding spiritual power, made a name for themselves as shamans while alive, and became deities who controlled shamans after death.
They had the Cheonmyeong to connect the Living World and the Afterlife, so even if they reincarnated, they would often become shamans again. Among them, some refused to go to the Afterlife and instead rose to become deities of the Living World on their own.
In a Grim Reaper’s eyes, they were just minor spirits, but these types had what you’d call good spiritual power and knew well how to bewitch humans. That’s why they sometimes became known as being even more efficacious than traditional deities.
Just look at this now. Didn’t he immediately recognize a Grim Reaper who was trapped in a human body and couldn’t even display his power, and tremble in fear?
For Mua, this was great fortune. These types had good abilities but small guts, making them easy to manipulate for his needs.
“Are you willing to help me?”
Mua asked again toward the shaman—no, toward the one speaking through the shaman’s mouth—who couldn’t readily give an answer. He wouldn’t dare refuse. These types trembled at even the shadow of the Afterlife.
Finally, the prostrated shaman opened his mouth.
“Uh, excuse me… Grim Reaper-nim?”
The corners of Mua’s eyes, which had maintained a calm expression until now, twisted slightly. It was because the shaman’s tone and voice had completely changed. The shaman, now speaking in a youthful voice, said:
“I’m really sorry, but…”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Our granny went into hiding.”
Apparently, his guts were excessively small.
***
“You worked hard today.”
Jieon, who had been rolling his stiff shoulders this way and that after the long drive, flinched at Mua’s voice suddenly addressing him. His expression said, What did this bastard eat wrong?
Because the frightened deity had gone into hiding, the two had to leave the shaman’s house without gaining much. But they couldn’t go straight home. Having met the only shaman who noticed Mua’s existence, they had to somehow gain his help.
The two, who ended up staying the night in this area, had no choice but to come to a nearby hotel.
It had a lounge inside and the sleeping room was separate, so it felt a bit odd to say they were sharing a room, but actually opening the door and entering the room together felt strange. Of course, this was only Cheon Jieon’s feeling.
That’s why he had been exaggerating his stretching a bit, but he never expected Mua to thank him. Jieon rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward gesture.
“What are you thanking me for…”
“Still, thanks to you I was able to come all the way here and meet the shaman, wasn’t I? You were a great help.”
“Hmm, well, I guess so.”
Jieon nodded while clearing his throat in embarrassment. His help had certainly been significant.
“But anyway…”
However, that wasn’t what was important right now. Jieon, who had approached the sofa in the lounge and plopped down, started listing out what he’d been curious about.
“What if that shaman—no, should I say the deity the shaman serves? What if they keep not coming out and stay hidden? Can you forcibly drag them out?”
Mua also naturally sat across from Jieon. Although he had recovered a lot, having traveled far while his stamina was still rock bottom, he was tired and his whole body ached.
“From what I can see, they seem to be quite timid, so they won’t be able to keep ignoring me and hiding forever. Today they acted on their own out of panic, but if they think it over carefully, they won’t be able to help but worry about the backlash from the Afterlife later.”
“Do they actually have skills?”
“Right now, I’m in a state where my Grim Reaper abilities are practically sealed. And yet the fact that they recognized I was a Grim Reaper means they have no ordinary spiritual power. They may seem lacking on the surface, but they’re definitely not someone to be taken lightly.”
“Hmm…”
Jieon let out a small hum and briefly turned his gaze to look out the large window on one wall.
Honestly, when that shaman trembled before Shin Mua saying “Grim Reaper-nim” and whatnot, he was truly shocked. Shin Mua’s talk about being a Grim Reaper should obviously be a lie—it should be absurd nonsense—but here was a shaman he’d never met before saying the same thing.
Honestly, he even suspected whether this was an actor Shin Mua had planted in advance. Because otherwise, this situation made no sense.
If all of this had been an elaborately set-up scheme from the beginning, if this very point was the final blow Shin Mua had painstakingly prepared to gain his trust…
He even felt fear at such suspicions.
But this shaman wasn’t someone Shin Mua found—it was someone Suchan had discovered. Even if he hadn’t thoroughly vetted them, Suchan wouldn’t have informed him of someone with no reputation at all.
At the very least, he would have chosen someone with quite a long career and some degree of recognition or reputation. Moreover, Shin Mua didn’t even know who the shaman Suchan had chosen was until he brought him along today.
Even if he had tried to win over the shaman, among the countless shamans across the country, there was absolutely no way he could have known who Suchan would choose. It would be impossible unless the two were in cahoots, and there’s no way Suchan would do that.
Cheon Jieon’s confusion only intensified from here. Then what on earth was that shaman? Why did he look at Shin Mua and tremble so fearfully?
“Were you very surprised?”
Mua, who had been silently watching Jieon, asked. Throughout the entire drive from the shaman’s shrine to the hotel, Jieon had been quiet. It wasn’t simply that he was silent—he also seemed distracted somehow.
Mua understood Cheon Jieon. For someone who was clearly born into a wealthy family and raised preciously, today’s experience could be not just new but in the realm of terror.
“Surprised, what do you mean. I’m just…”
“……”
“I’m just, ugh…”
Failing to organize his dizzy thoughts, Jieon sighed while pressing his forehead with his hand. With each passing day, rather than grasping the situation, he felt like he was falling into even deeper confusion.
“Hey, Shin Mua.”
“Impudent brat. You’re still calling me ‘hey.'”
“You, really, please… If you come clean even now, I’ll forgive everything. Mua. Really, please just tell me honestly. Okay?”
“Haven’t I already honestly told you everything? I even told you that I’m a Grim Reaper of the Afterlife, so what more do you want me to say?”
“Ah, come on! Does that even make sense?!”
Finally, Jieon ended up yelling out loud. It was less from anger and more from frustration. It would be fine if he could just dismiss his words as complete nonsense, but he hated himself for constantly thinking what if? what if? and tilting his head, even while knowing it was absurd.
“I understand that you can’t believe it. Who could easily believe such a story?”
Instead of shouting back and scolding him, Mua answered maturely. The brat with blood not even dried on his head was clearly acting impudently, but honestly, this was relatively mild. Mua knew that too.
