Treasure Hunt - 1

"Tachibana was an onmyoji?"

Moon Sung-il tilted his head.

"You said Tachibana was the one who shipped the plundered goods Kato Kiyomasa had taken back to Japan, didn't you?"

"I did."

"Then why on earth would he need an onmyoji? If the goal was to carry the looted treasures off safely, I'd think it would make more sense to attach another skilled general to the escort."

"No! An onmyoji would have been absolutely essential."

I laid the documents on Kato Kiyomasa on the table.

"This is a list of the Korean cultural artifacts Kato Kiyomasa plundered. He carted off potters and printing craftsmen, everything."

I pointed to the very bottom of the list.

"He even took the stone tablets erected in front of graves."

I showed him photographs of the stele that had drifted into Japan. When he confirmed it, Moon Sung-il's face twisted.

"I knew the marauders desecrated the royal tombs and robbed the graves of nobles, but... I never knew Kato stole even the memorial tablets."

"What matters is that this particular stele belonged to Yi Jiran."

Yi Jiran had been a Jurchen general who was so awed by Yi Seong-gye's martial prowess that he became his subordinate, and he later helped Yi Seong-gye found the Joseon dynasty.

He became a founding meritorious official and lived out his life as a Joseon man.

Yet when his lifespan ran its course, his remains were cremated according to Jurchen funerary rites, and his ashes were scattered across the open field. With no grave left behind, his descendants raised a stele in his memory. And it was that very stone that Kato had smuggled off to Japan.

"Kato must have been terrified that Yi Jiran's vengeful spirit would curse him for stealing the stele."

"So he had an onmyoji purify the plundered goods before transporting them home?"

"Exactly."

I nodded and went on.

"There's another reason Kato kept an onmyoji around. He also wanted to hide the stolen treasure."

"You're saying an onmyoji could conceal treasure with sorcery?"

"He'd have cast a barrier around the hiding place so no eye could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ever find it."

Up to that point, Moon Sung-il had followed everything I said with ease, but here he showed a flicker of incomprehension.

"I've heard of barriers being cast around shrines to protect the sacred and repel the wicked, but... hiding an entire location with a barrier is a bit much for me."

"You think such a thing is impossible?"

"It's the sort of thing that belongs in fantasy novels, haha. Of course, coming from you, Mr. Kim, I suppose anything might be possible..."

Moon Sung-il let the sentence trail off. He didn't trust my claim, plain and simple.

Well, to be fair, Moon Sung-il was an exceedingly rational, pragmatic man. What could I do about that?

I'll just have to show him.

I turned toward Abe and gave the order.

"Abe, hide my kitchen."

"M-Mr. Kim? What exactly are you looking at right now, and who are you talking to...?"

Trembling in terror, Moon Sung-il scooted even closer to my side.

I blinked slowly, as if to reassure him, and spoke.

"There's a Japanese shaman spirit sitting right beside me—one who can cast barriers just like Tachibana and hide a place from sight. He won't do any harm. He knows perfectly well that if he tried, I'd annihilate him."

"Annihilate... him? A ghost?"

"Yes."

"Gahk!"

Moon Sung-il, who had been pressed right up against me, slid smoothly off and relocated to the neighboring seat. Apparently, I had frightened him too now.

"N-no wonder my spine's been prickling all evening. But however did you come to have a Japanese shaman spirit with you...? So you can communicate not only with domestic spirits but foreign ones as well?"

"Yes."

"Good heavens, is there anything you can't do?"

Managing a vast network of connections? Or warming up to strangers instantly, striking up friendships the moment you meet? No, I couldn't do any of that.

Anyway.

"Abe, go ahead."

No. 1 had climbed up onto the sink and had been glaring at Abe for a while now. The two of them had never quite settled who ranked above whom.

Well, they can sort that out themselves later.

I spoke to Abe.

"That's plenty. Just hide the one sink."

Abe began to chant. The mournful, familiar melody spread through the air.

"Mr. Moon, look toward the sink where the cat is sitting. You should see what appears to be that space simply vanishing."

"A sh-ghost capable of... doing something like that...?"

"Now, watch. The space is disappearing and... hm?"

The moment Abe tried to raise the barrier, No. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠1 shoved at it with his front paws, trying to tear it apart. As a result, the space warped, and No. 1 was left sliced clean in half, vertically.

"WAAAH! The cat... half of him just vanished!"

"The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠space was supposed to disappear. He's an evil spirit, that's why."

"Pardon? AAAAAH!"

Moon Sung-il wrapped his arms around himself, eyes darting everywhere as though every single thing in this house terrified him.

"Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen."

"R-right, of course. Yes, that's how it should be. The barrier—yes! I understand that much now. So we just take the shaman sp-spirit along and dispel it, yes?"

"There's something we have to do before that."

There was a reason I had talked at such length with Moon Sung-il, all the way through the Kato Kiyomasa story.

It was because I needed to say this.

"The only spirit who can dispel that barrier—the Japanese shaman Abe—must first make right a wrong he committed while he was alive."

I rose slowly to my feet and held Moon Sung-il's gaze as I spoke.

"Abe once hid an entire village with a barrier, and because of that, a young life was lost. It left behind a grievance of terrible depth."

"A-a grievance! That won't do at all. Vengeful spirits take revenge, you know."

"It was dozens of times more potent than the resentment Lady Wolhyeong carried."

Remembering the monstrous form Yongsoo had taken as an evil spirit, the pain I'd forgotten stabbed through my heart all over again. Thinking of the child trembling in terror in that pitch-black basement, starving to death, made my eyes grow damp.

"Please, Mr. Moon—take up the grievance of this child. Do that, and I will dispel the barrier hiding the gold Kato plundered."

I will find that gold if it's the last thing I do.

If only to stick a giant firework under Kato's nose.

"Shall we split the proceeds fifty-fifty, as we did with the Bihwarok? On one condition—this time, I'll do the navigating."

By the time I finished speaking, Abe had completed the barrier around the sink where No. 1 sat. When No. 1 and the sink both vanished, smooth as silk, as though the space itself had been erased, Moon Sung-il swallowed dryly.

"...Who was it that killed the child? What was the child's name? Are the parents still living?"

Moon Sung-il had taken the bait.

I let out a breath of relief and opened my mouth with deliberate calm.

"Would you care for another cup of coffee?"

Didn't I tell you? Sleep was well and truly off the table tonight.

Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! They stole a stele raised to honor a great general?

No. 1 was a spirit born from Yeon Chumo's longsword.

Which is why the news that marauders had stolen the stele of Yi Jiran—a commander whose name still rang out as a master general—genuinely enraged him. Yi Jiran was Jurchen; Yeon Chumo was Mohe. The two tribes hadn't even been on good terms.

Say, if we find the gold those raiders hid away, would I get a lump too?

"What would an evil spirit do with gold?"

I was on my way to Ju Mandeok's greenhouse in Ugok 3-ri. No. 1 occupied the passenger seat, and Abe sat in the back.

If you know anyone else who drives around with an evil spirit and a Japanese shaman ghost in the car, come find me. That would be me, in case you're wondering.

When we find the gold, I want a statue made in my possessed body. Can't I have that?

"If you and Abe don't fight, I'll consider it. So the two of you had better work this out together—make absolutely sure you bring back Joo Changnam's hair. Ju Mandeok's body too."

Got it.

Before I knew it, Ju Mandeok's greenhouse came into view. I stopped the car at a reasonable distance.

"You go past that greenhouse to reach the farmhouse. Since that's where Abe used to live, he'll guide you."

I turned to Abe in the back seat.

"Abe, you know the way well—lead them. The faster we finish this, the faster we get home."

Yes, my lord.

Abe glided through the car door and walked toward the greenhouse.

No. 1, hurry and follow him.

Yeah.

No. 1 left his possessed body and trailed after Abe. They looked like a pairing that could never possibly mesh—yet watching from behind, it was precisely the opposite.

It's like watching a Japanese anime.

When Joo Changnam won his second term in the National Assembly, he set his sights on the Gangwon Province governorship.

The trouble was, the sitting governor at the time was a former three-term assemblyman. Seeing no path to the party's nomination if he simply sat still, Joo Changnam gambled recklessly.

And that gamble was the seed of his ruin.

Together with Jeong Hyeon-taek, who had won the highway civil engineering contract, he resolved to build a theme park in Yeongcheon County. He would build "Tourism Yeongcheon," stack up achievements under his own name—and, naturally, he'd buy up land near the park site and make a fortune besides.

But when Jeong Hyeon-taek took the investments and then threw up his hands declaring the venture unprofitable, Joo Changnam lost both his money and his reputation.

According to Abe's account, Joo Changnam had clutched the back of his neck and collapsed on the spot.

From that point on, his fortunes visibly declined—and so Ju Mandeok could only pray his birth father would hurry up and die already. That way, a little more of the inheritance would fall to him, he figured.

Then Joo Changnam began recovering. And now, declaring he would become a three-term assemblyman, he started borrowing money left and right.

That was when Ju Mandeok asked Abe to make what they call a curse doll.

At the time, Abe himself was desperate to cut ties with Joo Changnam and return to Japan. But Joo Changnam, wielding the crimes Abe had helped him commit all those years as leverage against him, had bled him for money instead.

And when it looked as though Abe might betray him, Joo Changnam laid a trap and plotted his murder.

A capable onmyoji who could hide an entire village behind a barrier was not a man you could kill so easily. So Joo Changnam paid our own Korean mudang to strike Abe down.

Struck down by that blade, Abe died—and when he awoke, years had passed.

He came within a hair's breadth of his spirit dissolving entirely.

Abe searched for him, hungry for vengeance, but all he learned was that Joo Changnam was dead. He could never find the man's spirit.

He couldn't tell whether the man had passed on to the underworld or, laden with sins, was hiding himself away somewhere. So Abe latched onto Ju Mandeok—just in case Joo Changnam's soul ever came sniffing around for an offering of memorial food.

There he is, coming now.

No. 1, possessing Ju Mandeok's body, emerged from the greenhouse together with Abe. In No. 1's hand dangled a doll made of gardening gloves.

"He says Joo Changnam's hair is inside."

"Good teamwork, apparently? They were fast."

Ugh, don't say such horrifying things. I have zero intention of getting chummy with that thing.

I asked whether they'd worked well together—not whether they'd become friends, did I?

I smirked and told No. 1,

"Go wreck the greenhouse's irrigation system first. And make sure your face is nice and visible to the CCTV."

We needed to recreate the evidence of how Ju Mandeok had smashed the irrigation system himself, then threatened his laborers into paying damages. That way he couldn't pin the frame-up on Bang Jeongsoo.

And stopping there would be no fun at all.

I looked Ju Mandeok up and down as I continued.

"Then make him run around the neighborhood in nothing but his underwear and a trench coat. I'll have the police called to haul him in."

"So that means once it's done, I can devour that spirit—whether it's Joo Changnam's or Ju Mandeok's—right?"

"Of course. I have a fair idea of where Joo Changnam actually is."

Abe's eyes flew wide open, and he asked me,

You know where he is?

"Yeah. I think so. So let's finish up here quickly and go catch Joo Changnam."

Just let me lay eyes on him. I'll pour out every curse I know, every last one!

At those words, No. 1 smacked his lips.

Delicious! Nothing I like better than eating an anguished evil spirit.

No. 1 seemed determined to find Joo Changnam and eat him, and fast.

"Can I smash the irrigation system and do the naked show at the same time?"

"By all means! Do everything you want."

Finally, some fun!

No. 1 flung off the trench coat and sprinted toward Ju Mandeok's greenhouse with a wild whoop.

"KYAAAH! What—what is wrong with him?!"

"I think the madam has lost her mind, sir."

The foreign laborers working in the neighboring greenhouses recoiled in horror and pulled out their phones.

Someone would report it to the police without any help from me, wouldn't they?

I tucked the curse doll into a plastic bag and set it on the passenger seat. Thanks to the strands of Joo Changnam's hair sealed inside, the whole world was about to be turned on its head before long.

Yongsoo, I'll keep my promise. Just hold on a little longer.