This wasn’t simply a matter of stealing someone else’s lifespan or transferring a client’s misfortune to another person. What Gwi Bosal wanted was the transformation and replacement of the destinies these two people possessed.
While there may be plenty of shamans in the world who could twist one’s innate fortune, completely reversing destiny was no exaggeration to say it was like creating a new life entirely.
Gwi Bosal wanted to do exactly that. Like an omnipotent god.
“It’s not that I don’t know what you’re worried about. However… I’d appreciate it if you could understand my conviction in adhering to this path with purpose.”
Having finished speaking, Gwi Bosal calmed the emotions that had unknowingly boiled up.
They were almost there—just one step remained until success, yet they’d failed without even knowing why. Not only that, but Gwi Bosal and his god were now in tatters, unable to even respond properly.
Though he pretended to be calm in front of Museok, his pride was so hurt he couldn’t bear it. The thought that it might be another shaman who had blocked this ritual made his insides boil and his blood surge backward.
He still hadn’t even figured out who or how someone had interfered with his work, but he couldn’t give up like this.
“How could you say such a thing? I will always follow Father’s path.”
Museok bowed deeply again in submission. Gwi Bosal slowly nodded and patted his shoulder.
This failure was due to letting his guard down, not thinking there would be an enemy opposing him. However, now that he knew of the enemy’s existence, he wouldn’t lose again. He was confident he wouldn’t lose.
So please, may his opponent not have withdrawn thinking the matter was finished.
Gwi Bosal’s eyes blazed like flames.
***
“Oh my, oh my. Did my baby come?”
Jieon approached his grandfather, who was lying in bed with both arms spread toward him, and fell into his embrace like a child. Though he was the one who’d had the accident, seeing his grandfather who’d lost more weight than him made his heart ache, as if it was all his fault.
“Grandfather, why did you lose so much weight? Did you miss me that much?”
However, Jieon hid his worried heart and deliberately grumbled in an affectionate tone. He didn’t want to dampen the mood and make his grandfather’s heart heavier for no reason.
“What are you saying something so obvious for? I’ve already cried my eyes out missing my grandson.”
Jieon’s grandfather, Jaemun, burst into hearty laughter and received the joke.
When he’d heard news of his grandson’s accident, his future had truly turned dark. He couldn’t even swallow a spoonful of rice, afraid that something might happen to his grandson whom he cherished so much it wouldn’t hurt to put him in his eyes.
If Jieon had been seriously hurt in the accident, Jaemun surely wouldn’t have survived either. And Jieon knew all too well that his grandfather was someone who could die for him.
With the smile already gone from his face, Jieon spoke.
“Grandfather, you know…”
Then his grandfather immediately cut off his words and glared at him.
“Why are you suddenly getting all serious? If you’re going to say something embarrassing, don’t bother.”
“No, when your grandson is trying to speak seriously for once, is this how you act?”
“This old man already knows you’re grateful and sorry, so there’s no need to tire your mouth talking more.”
Having had everything he wanted to say stolen from him, Jieon clamped his mouth shut. It felt like he might disgracefully shed tears. Not wanting to cry like a child in front of his grandfather, Jieon forced out a scoff.
“I wasn’t even thinking of saying that. Wake up from your dream.”
Even at words that would unavoidably be called rude if others heard them, his grandfather burst into hearty laughter, pleased.
“That aside, did you really just come to see this old man’s face?”
After grandfather and grandson sat facing each other for a while catching up, his grandfather suddenly asked. Jieon shrugged his shoulders.
“Of course. What do you think I came to get?”
“Or I thought maybe you had some worries. I’m saying this because your face looks like it has a lot on your mind.”
At his grandfather’s words that suddenly hit the mark, Jieon’s eyes widened. As befitting the chairman who built the Cheonmyeong Group, even lying in a hospital bed he wasn’t easy to fool.
“What would I have to worry about? I just play around and live off Grandfather’s money every day.”
Jieon answered with a laugh. He didn’t particularly want to worry his grandfather, and he actually hadn’t come to confide anything to him either.
But was it because his grandfather asked if he had worries? Suddenly, one problem that had been stuck in Jieon’s mind like a thorn these days popped out.
“Ah, but Grandfather.”
“Yes?”
“Did you used to go around getting your fortune told and such?”
“Fortune telling?”
“Yeah. I heard a lot of businesspeople do that too. Getting their fortune told and using talismans and stuff.”
Jieon asked lightly, as if it were nothing, as if it just randomly came to mind. No matter what happened, he didn’t want to cause his grandfather greater worry.
At the suddenly appearing random conversation topic, Jaemun’s expression slightly contorted.
“Why are you suddenly asking about that? Did that Yangseon bastard introduce you to a shaman or something?”
But an unexpected answer came out. Jieon hadn’t particularly asked the question with his uncle in mind.
It was just that after hearing Mua’s words and thinking about it, what with Suchan’s mother and his uncle too, he’d thought there were quite a few people around him interested in superstitions, so he’d just asked out of curiosity.
At his grandfather’s more intense reaction than expected, Jieon hurriedly shook his head and made up something.
“No, no. It’s not that, just… because I keep getting sick and having accidents, someone said I should get my bad luck cleansed, so it came to mind.”
“Whoever it is, don’t listen to such nonsense.”
“You know I don’t believe in that stuff, Grandfather. But… does Uncle even know shamans and stuff?”
Jieon asked, pretending to be purely curious. He already knew that Yangseon occasionally went to get his fortune told. There were even times when he’d brought Jieon a small talisman, saying it would block bad luck.
When Jieon received it, he’d just passed it off thinking it was like his uncle’s hobby or something, but seeing his grandfather’s reaction, it seemed more serious than that.
Sure enough, Jaemun immediately clicked his tongue and spoke.
“Bad luck cleansing or whatever, even if that Yangseon bastard suggests doing a Gut or something, don’t pay attention to such things. It’s all useless nonsense. Aigoo, that guy wasn’t originally someone who believed in and went around doing such things…”
“Really? He hasn’t been doing it since way back?”
“Of course not. Would your uncle have been such a thoughtless fellow? It’s all because of his son.”
“Ah…”
Jieon let out a short exclamation. His uncle had exactly one son, a kid who’d been weak since childhood and monopolized his uncle’s worries.
He remembered when he’d visit his uncle’s house as a child, his pale and thin cousin would always look at him with envious eyes as he ran around healthy.
“At first he must have gone looking with a mindset of grasping at straws. But it happened that after that shaman bastard wrote a talisman for Junyeong who was on death’s door, the kid got up.”
“That happened?”
“Yeah. From then on, wouldn’t he believe it even if the shaman said beans could make soybean paste? No matter how much I said it was just a coincidence, it was useless. I felt sorry for him, thinking how much his insides must have boiled over because of Junyeong to be like that, and since that shaman bastard didn’t seem to demand anything excessive, I left it alone… but I didn’t know he’d still be doing that.”
Thinking about it made his insides noisy, so Jaemun clicked his tongue. Jieon recalled Mua’s words while listening to his grandfather’s story.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this happened around you, there’s a high probability that someone close to you is connected to this case, the voice of Shin Mua saying such things rang in his ears.
But Jieon deliberately pushed those words away. If his grandfather’s words were true, his uncle had a reason he couldn’t help but fall for that shaman. That didn’t mean he could be seen as connected to his own matter, and Shin Mua’s words weren’t all correct to begin with.
So this was like that. Just as they say there’s curse-like power in people’s words, it was no different from Shin Mua arbitrarily contaminating his mind.
“I’m curious what kind of shaman it is that completely captivated Uncle’s soul like that.”
Jieon deliberately muttered lightly as if joking. He didn’t want to make his grandfather worry more, and he himself didn’t want to take this problem seriously either.
“Anyway, you absolutely must not let your eyes wander to such things. Shaman is just a nice word for it—they’re con artists with eyes red from trying to leech off others’ money.”
“Of course. Grandfather, do I look like someone who’d believe in that?”
Jieon reassured his grandfather who was warning him with rolling eyes. But even though he tried to act uninterested, he couldn’t help but keep thinking about the shaman his uncle blindly believed in.
Strangely feeling uneasy, it seemed Shin Mua’s madness had been thoroughly transmitted to him.
