Jieon asked with a surprised face.
“Because of you?”
“Yes. I’ve been constantly pondering since possessing this body. Why this happened. There wouldn’t be any human who would benefit from trapping a Grim Reaper in a human body, so I couldn’t understand why they would perform such a ritual that had no gain and was only dangerous.”
“So, do you know the answer now?”
Jieon urged for an answer. Mua, who glanced at him once with eyes that said impudent brat, continued speaking.
“But looking at the situation now… I wasn’t the objective. The target was you, Cheon Jieon, from the very beginning.”
“But why are you…”
“They’re not deities, so they can’t read every single fate in the world. They probably didn’t know Shin Mua would die that day, at that place. Or they didn’t care about someone like Shin Mua in the first place.”
“Ah…”
“But at that very moment, when they were conducting the ritual, Shin Mua unexpectedly died. And by chance, among the many Grim Reapers, I happened to go collect Shin Mua’s soul.”
As he explained in words, Mua’s thoughts also began to organize more clearly. Cheon Jieon’s accident was clearly orchestrated with high probability. It must have been an intention to weaken the bond between Cheon Jieon’s body and soul for the ritual.
Using curses to weaken Jieon’s mental strength, causing an accident to bring him to the verge of death—all of it was undoubtedly for the ritual.
“Such a large and powerful forbidden ritual is bound to be affected by even the smallest variables. But it wasn’t just some minor spirit—a Grim Reaper was at that place, so things couldn’t have gone properly.”
Only then did Jieon understand what Shin Mua had said about it likely being because of him.
When two waves collide, turbulent waters are inevitable—when a massive energy was about to engulf Cheon Jieon, there was a possibility that an unexpected collision occurred because Mua, a Grim Reaper, appeared.
“And coincidentally…”
Mua paused for a moment and caught his breath. Come to think of it, this was the first time he was revealing his true name to someone in the Living World. The name he received from Yeomra after abandoning everything he had as a human, the name that carried Yeomra’s wish for him to no longer be bound by past anger and karma and start anew from nothing—Mua.
“Since the name I was given in the Afterlife was ‘Mua’… in the chaos, I must have entered the body of ‘Shin Mua,’ whose soul had disappeared.”
Thus, Mua revealed his name for the first time to a mere insignificant human.
***
“He told you not to come to work for a while?”
- Yes, President. He suddenly called this morning and told me not to come to work for a while… He said he’d rest at a hotel for a bit to refresh himself.
At the news coming from the other end of the phone, the man frowned. The person the man was talking to was a housekeeper working at Jieon’s house. She was a minion who had been paid to monitor Cheon Jieon at his house and move according to the man’s will.
And this man who personally introduced the housekeeper to Jieon and received reports from her.
The one who had commissioned Gwi Bosal and tried to steal Jieon’s life by cursing him according to his methods, Cheon Yangseon, pondered while chewing over the housekeeper’s words.
“Resting, he says…”
Looking at the situation alone, it wasn’t particularly strange. Jieon often went to hotels to spend time even normally. Especially after his relationship with Shin Mua rapidly worsened, the frequency had increased.
But what was strange was.
“Did he say he was going alone?”
- Judging by how he said no one would be at home, I think Shin Mua is going with him too.
“Hmm…”
Yangseon knew how much Jieon hated Shin Mua. He had suffered so much trying to stop him from constantly making a fuss about getting divorced. Honestly, he couldn’t say he didn’t understand. He himself was quite troubled by Shin Mua, who acted more selfishly with each passing day.
On the day Jieon had the accident too, according to the original plan, only Cheon Jieon should have been in that car alone. How shocked he had been to hear that Shin Mua had also been in the accident and was lying there.
Anyway, Shin Mua was the type to make people sick of him in many ways. But for the two to suddenly leave the house together—that point was very suspicious.
“Was there anything strange when you talked on the phone?”
- Anything strange…
“Like he seemed to suspect you, or acted awkwardly…”
- No. There was nothing like that. He was exactly the same as usual.
“Hmm… Alright, just rest for now. I’ll call you again.”
- Yes, President.
After ending the call, Yangseon leaned deeply into the sofa and fell into thought. The image of Shin Mua he had encountered last time came to mind. That absurd appearance like a half-madman.
“Maybe their relationship recovered a bit because Shin Mua lost his memory…”
Yangseon muttered. Cheon Jieon was soft-hearted. He couldn’t just pass by people in difficulty, and perhaps because he grew up without parents, he easily opened his heart when someone showed him affection.
Since he was such a guy, he might have pitied Shin Mua, who nearly died after riding in his car and even lost his memory.
“……”
When his thoughts reached that far, Yangseon, whose tongue tip somehow became bitter, got up from his seat and looked out the window. His chest felt stuffy and it seemed like something was blocking below his solar plexus.
Cheon Jieon was his older brother’s son. As his first nephew, he had cherished him especially from childhood, and after his brother’s couple both died, he truly cared for him like his own son. His vow to play the role of father for the rest of his life so his brother could be at peace even in the Afterlife had been sincere.
But look at himself now. Yangseon was using the heart of his nephew who trusted him absolutely, pouring all kinds of curses so he would ultimately meet death. His feelings were indescribably miserable.
Yangseon’s gaze, immersed in bitterness, turned to a small picture frame placed on the desk. Inside that frame was a photo of a boy smiling weakly with a face devoid of any vitality.
My one and only son, my own blood, the most precious treasure that couldn’t be exchanged for anything. The one he wanted to save no matter what he did, and had to save.
So Yangseon thought he really had no choice. In this whole wide world, no matter how much one cherished a nephew, where would there be someone who cherished them more than their own son? For Yangseon, protecting his pitiful and pitiable son was more important.
If there had been another way, he would never have committed such an evil act. How could Yangseon be happy about taking his nephew’s life?
But there was no other way, they said. At least heaven helped so that Jieon and his son’s lifelines were connected by heavenly fortune, making it possible to at least try this method—otherwise, it would be impossible.
Only Cheon Jieon, only that child in the world could take the fate of Yangseon’s short-lived son and give him a fate full of blessings for life.
That was precisely the reason why Yangseon tried so tenaciously to steal Cheon Jieon’s life.
Yangseon’s son, who had been in an incubator since birth, found the very act of continuing life to be a battle. It was no exaggeration to say he grew up almost entirely in the hospital during infancy, and he couldn’t even think about attending kindergarten.
Elementary, middle, and high school were the same. Half the year he couldn’t go to school because he was sick, and the fresh freshman life was all someone else’s story.
If only there had been a clear disease name, he could have done something, but Yangseon’s son didn’t even have a disease name. Since the cause was unknown, treatment was impossible. So what parent could live with a sound mind while watching such a situation?
He had tried everything for his son’s health. If there was a renowned doctor, he had visited everywhere from remote mountain villages to overseas, and he had tried everything from Western medicine to herbal medicine to folk remedies. It was natural that he, wandering aimlessly like that, stepped into the world of shamanism.
And one day, Yangseon met Gwi Bosal like a miracle.
Around that time, Yangseon was also physically and mentally exhausted and on the verge of giving up everything. Just then, his son was facing yet another crisis—he didn’t even know which one anymore—and he had even thought of sending his son off and following him in death if this shaman too said there was nothing more they could do.
But surprisingly, after Gwi Bosal performed a gut, his son’s symptoms improved as if by magic. Color returned to his son’s face that had been no different from a corpse, and he could easily go for walks alone. It was a miracle that occurred just one day after the gut was performed.
But it was too early to feel relieved. Gwi Bosal warned that this gut was merely a temporary measure. He had only filled a moment’s vitality, but couldn’t prevent the predetermined fate of death.
Yangseon knelt before Gwi Bosal and prostrated himself, begging. He pleaded with tears that he would give anything they wanted, begging again and again. Gwi Bosal asked: Then, could he willingly offer another’s life for his son?
“Don’t forgive me…”
Looking at the bright world outside the window, Yangseon muttered. Though his voice seemed immersed in regret, his eyes were shining strangely.
While Yangseon’s son fought death, Cheon Jieon lived healthily and freely. He acted spoiled to his grandfather to his heart’s content, and had many friends around him who liked him.
He attended school and ran on the playground. He ate meals, laughed brightly, and ran to him calling “Father!” and hugged him. The nephew always overflowed with vitality like a blazing sun. The healthy vitality that Yangseon’s son had never had even for a single moment.
After the curse began, the worse Jieon’s health became, the more vitality Yangseon’s son regained. When Jieon collapsed with a nosebleed, his son ate rice instead of porridge and medicine and walked the streets. The sight of his healthy son, seen for the first time in his life, made Yangseon even more unable to stop.
When his son writhed in pain fighting death, Cheon Jieon enjoyed his freedom in good health, so perhaps this was truly fair fate. What Cheon Jieon enjoyed, that child should naturally enjoy too.
So Yangseon still had no intention of stopping. He would receive all of hell’s punishment after death.
