Grandfather continued as he filled the teacup to the brim.
There had been no mention of it all this time, so Gyohyun had assumed he wasn’t paying attention — but of course, this was his grandfather. He had been listening to everything all along.
Gyohyun gave a mild nod in response.
“Yes. It gave us some trouble.”
Grandfather pushed the teacup toward him with a look of disbelief.
“Is that something to be proud of?”
Gyohyun said nothing and simply lifted the teacup to his lips.
“Good grief.”
Chairman Lee shook his head slowly.
The two of them drank their tea for a while without much conversation. And it was around the time the tea had dropped to about halfway.
“Did you hear about your mother?”
Gyohyun paused mid-motion, the teacup almost at his lips. That matter had already been giving him more than enough of a headache.
His mother had gone ahead on the scheduled date and ordered the shaman to perform the ritual. But the ritual had failed spectacularly.
Because the shaman conducting it had suddenly collapsed in the middle of the ceremony — and died right there.
Gyohyun had heard the news the following day. It was when he woke up in the late afternoon after an unexpectedly restful sleep, feeling more at ease than he had in a long time, and had stepped out to the balcony to light a cigarette. Chief Manager Seo had come to the townhouse.
Before he could even ask what had happened, his phone erupted in noise. When he checked it, there were over twenty missed calls from his mother. The number of text messages was no small thing either.
Gyohyun, please pick up. Mom is so scared.
The message preview visible at the top of the screen made Gyohyun’s brow twitch. Something had clearly happened while he was asleep. Chief Manager Seo explained the situation in a voice pulled tight with tension.
“The shaman your mother hired died during the ritual.”
The hand holding the cigarette stilled.
“Died? The shaman?”
Even Gyohyun, not easily shaken, seemed to stiffen slightly at that. Chief Manager Seo gave a brief account of the chaos that had unfolded at the ritual.
“According to Secretary Lee, everything was going well, but with only the final segment remaining, the shaman suddenly vomited blood and collapsed.”
The ritual his mother had commissioned this time was an ancestral ritual. The belief was that because so many of the Lee family’s dead had died with deep grievances and resentment, their descendants were being driven to mental instability. His mother refused to accept the evil spirit or the Purifier for what they were. She was utterly convinced her husband had died of mental illness — and yet the irony was that she still clung to shamanistic faith.
“And my mother?”
“She is at her residence.”
His neat brow furrowed.
Apparently, the shaman — even as she was vomiting blood — had stared at his mother and screamed.
“It’s cheokmyeong. It’s the energy of cheokmyeong!”
The scene had naturally descended into complete chaos. The shaman’s disciples came running, the musicians called 119 — it was pandemonium. But the shaman never woke again. A person had died, so of course the police had to get involved. They moved quickly to contain it and kept it out of the press, but everyone who had been present at the ritual became a suspect and was questioned. And his mother was among those under investigation.
His temples were already throbbing when he pressed them, and Grandfather continued.
“I’ve blocked the formal summons for now.”
“Yes.”
The shaman’s death was what it was — what mattered now was making sure the fallout didn’t spread any further.
“When is she ever going to grow up.”
Under normal circumstances, even family would be cut off immediately if they brought harm to the household — but with the eldest daughter-in-law, it was never that simple.
Chairman Lee clicked his tongue, recalling the young woman who had married into the family at twenty. Ordinarily, he would have avoided such a rushed marriage — but the circumstances had been urgent. At the time, his son had been unable to find a Purifier well into his thirties, and was wasting away day by day. His temperament had grown sharp and erratic, and he spoke of wanting to die every single day. There had even been a moment when Chairman Lee discovered him attempting to take his own life.
Less concerned about the Purifier issue and more afraid his son would die without leaving any descendants, Chairman Lee had hurriedly selected a suitable family and pushed the marriage through. But that life was never going to be smooth.
Gyohyun’s father had grown even more volatile after the marriage, showing outright aggression.
“Useless boy — couldn’t he have held on just a little longer? What was the rush?”
If he had lasted five more years, he could have passed the evil spirit on to Gyohyun and been free. But instead, his son had taken his own life when Gyohyun was fifteen.
From that point on, his daughter-in-law had thrown herself into shamanistic faith. Chairman Lee hadn’t actively tried to stop her, because he understood her heart. But this time was different. A person had died.
He would do his best to manage it, but fully suppressing the rumors would be difficult.
“Still, we need to redirect attention. Is there a suitable target to sacrifice?”
“I was already planning to put out a piece today.”
Gyohyun answered. A celebrity made the best sacrificial lamb — strong impact, and the easiest to use. Chairman Lee nodded.
His head ached because of his mother, but his condition wasn’t bad, thanks to the decent sleep he’d gotten. He took another sip of tea.
“So why did it give you so much trouble this time?”
“…….”
Gyohyun’s brow creased slightly, then relaxed. Ah, so this is what he actually wanted to get at.
“Did Yoon Hoseong have an ancestral spirit attached to him or something?”
In households that had accumulated great merit over generations, ancestral spirits sometimes ascended and watched over certain descendants. And in such cases, curses tended not to take hold easily.
“Hardly.”
Gyohyun dismissed it immediately.
“There’s no way. He’s an illegitimate child.”
That was precisely why the uncle and his wife were so furious. A bastard with nothing to his name — they had barely managed to make a decent human being out of him, and what did they get in return? Infidelity.
“You’re not ill, are you?”
Though his coloring was murkier than Gyohyun’s, Grandfather’s right side was blue as well. He was worried that something might have gone wrong with his grandson’s body or abilities. And with reason — Gyohyun, too, had yet to find his Purifier.
“For now — it’s still bearable.”
So this is what it feels like to wither, day by day. Every single day was a crisis. He was beginning to think he understood his father — the man who had chosen to end his own life.
“And what is there to worry about, anyway? Even if I can’t hold on and die, there’s always Taeseong hyung.”
Taeseong was his uncle’s son. Chairman Lee had two sons. The eldest of the two was Gyohyun’s father.
Chairman Lee’s white eyebrows twitched.
“Why, you insolent— is that any way to speak to your grandfather?”
And then the scolding began. Gyohyun listened with one ear and let it out the other, his brow furrowing. The headache was starting again. As Gyohyun pressed at his temples, Chairman Lee watched him with a look of concern.
“Tsk tsk — I hear Juhyeong came up empty-handed again this time? He seemed so certain of it too.”
“Well, that’s nothing new.”
Gyohyun kept his words sparse when it came to Siyun. Not that there was any reason to hold off on confirming whether he was a Noble One right away. And yet, strangely, his mouth wouldn’t open.
The process of confirming a Noble One was simple enough in itself. But the consequences were anything but simple. Exposing someone with open Spirit Eyes to a powerful evil aura almost invariably drove them to madness. How many had been broken that way.
Of course, Gyohyun was in no position to be worrying about others right now. He knew full well he had already reached his limit. And yet — why was it? The thought of those clear, sharp eyes going dim gave him pause. Just a little longer, he told himself, and rubbed at his aching brow.
Grandfather shook his head slowly.
“Didn’t I tell you. A Noble One isn’t something you confirm and then realize. The moment you see them, you simply know. Like — ah, this one is mine.“
Still, today was manageable enough. Since when had it been like this? At first, he had put it down to the good sleep — but the moment his head had cleared was precisely….
“Are you even listening to me?”
Grandfather frowned and asked. It was plain to see that his grandson had drifted off somewhere in his own thoughts. But without paying it any mind, Gyohyun reached for the coat he had set aside and spoke.
Footnote:
(Cheokmyeong; a powerful form of spiritual grudge/curse energy, screamed by the shaman as she died)
