Summon Your Spirit
"Boss, what kind of person is this, that you would—"
Lee Seokmin turned toward Song Seongjae and asked, careful and low.
Song Seongjae looked back at him with frigid eyes. Lee Seokmin knew that look — the one Song wore whenever he'd made a mistake, the look of a man quietly writing out a kill list.
"Attorney Lee."
At the chill in Song Seongjae's voice, Lee's body went rigid. And before long, he found himself arriving, step by step, at a single possibility.
Don't tell me... he's caught on...? No. There's no way.
Should he run? Or should he press harder and demand to know what this was about? Sweat was already beading in Lee Seokmin's palms.
"Attorney Lee. What are you standing there blanking out for? Sit down and take the meeting."
Song Seongjae said it with perfect composure. Lee shut his mouth and decided, for the moment, to watch how things played out.
Lee gestured toward the young man standing tall and silent. The man followed him into the reception room, that arrogant smile never once leaving his face.
Why...?
The air was thick enough to choke on. Unable to bring himself to speak first, Lee Seokmin studied the man seated across the table from him and stole glances at Song Seongjae, who stood behind him.
"...Please, speak freely. What brings you to me?"
Lee Seokmin prided himself on having handled countless shameless people in his time, criminals included, but this man's eyes were something he simply could not read. They seemed fathomlessly deep one moment and bottomlessly shallow the next. He couldn't tell whether the man was studying his face or dissecting his thoughts and his soul down to the last piece.
"I'm curious whether this is something the law can actually punish."
"Tell me as much as you like. Legal disputes have a way of springing from far more trivial things than people expect."
The man gave a light nod and carried on. Lee Seokmin decided to put everything else out of his head and focus on the conversation.
"Someone broke into my precious safe."
"That's already well within criminal territory. Please, go on. If something was stolen, you'll want the police, not me—"
Lee Seokmin rubbed his hands together beneath the table. The man gave a hollow laugh and shook his head.
"No. Nothing was taken. Instead, whoever it was left something behind inside."
"Ah, then it would be a matter of unlawful entry, or—"
The man dug into his pocket and set something down on the table with a heavy thunk.
"This poor centipede was sitting inside my safe."
Lee Seokmin's face drained white. His eyes locked onto the jet-black centipede furiously tapping at the glass. That— why on earth was that here?
"Nothing to say for yourself?"
Without a second thought, Lee kicked back his chair and shot to his feet.
Bang! It was a start worthy of a track athlete.
"Young Master!"
The instant Song Seongjae's sharp voice rang out, I shot my foot forward and hooked Lee Seokmin's leg, toppling him mid-stride.
CRASH! Lee Seokmin rolled across the floor in a graceless tangle, and Song Seongjae moved fast, shutting the reception room door and blocking the way.
"H-hii—!!"
I walked toward Lee Seokmin as he flailed on the floor. He was looking back and forth between me and Song, his face unmistakably terror-stricken.
"Stop thrashing around. You're not getting out of here anyway."
"Wh-who the hell are you?! How do you even know Song Seongjae?!"
I flicked an eyebrow toward Song Seongjae, and he gave a small nod before crouching down to look Lee in the eye.
"You can ask your questions here, Attorney Lee. I'd say I have considerably more to wonder about than you do. Who put you up to this? Or did you do it yourself?"
Lee Seokmin glared at him, teeth grinding. So this was do-or-die, was it? He staggered up off the floor and started jabbing a finger.
"...You think I'd tell you that? You've always been the one sitting in the big chair giving orders, so of course you wouldn't know. What the people underneath you are actually thinking."
Song Seongjae, who had been watching him, let out a sigh.
"I don't believe I asked about that, Attorney Lee. You seem awfully eager to advertise your stupidity even in a situation like this."
"That shitty attitude of yours!! That's exactly why people turn their backs on you!!"
Lee Seokmin spat the words out in a fury, and I frowned. What a set of lungs on the man.
"You should answer while I'm still asking nicely, Attorney Lee."
"Or what? You plan to swing those wobbly fists of yours at me?"
Aigoo. What a mess, what a mess.
It was more than I could stand to keep watching with my eyes open. Deciding to put a swift end to Lee Seokmin's little farce, I walked over to him.
"Hey."
I placed my left hand on his shoulder.
"Get off me!! Who even are you?!"
Lee twisted his body, trying to shake my hand loose, but it would take more than that to make me let go. I tightened my grip,
Crunch.
...and a strange sound came from Lee Seokmin's shoulder. Had I suddenly gotten stronger, or was this guy just a weakling?
"Urgh?!"
"Calm down. Take a nice, deep breath."
Without missing a beat, I spread the mottled shadow. The moment the still-defiant Lee Seokmin inhaled it, the focus drained right out of his eyes. For a while now, the man would be no different from a wax doll.
Before long, visions began to surface through the shadow.
Just as I thought. It's coming through blurred and broken.
A few images flickered past, but nothing showed clearly enough to tell me where Lee Seokmin had done this, or with whom. Which meant a being under another god's protection had gotten involved.
Same as before.
I'd suspected it from the moment I took this case, but it was becoming harder and harder to deny that this incident and CEO Kim Yeongsik's were connected. There was no way that humans capable of commanding a malicious spirit that powerful and handling exacting sorcery like Gu poison would simply pop up two at a time out of nowhere.
I had a feeling that once this case was wrapped up, I'd be running into them face to face. Maybe I ought to make the first move before then.
But if I push too hard... that won't do.
Part of me wanted to drive the shadow in deeper and wring out everything it held, but if I did, Lee Seokmin would die or end up a complete wreck. I had no choice but to call off the probe.
One thing was certain, though: unlike CEO Kim Yeongsik before him, this man hadn't committed the act on anyone's orders. He had, for all practical purposes, walked into the shit pit on his own two feet. What an idiot.
"...Young Master? That man's gone suddenly quiet..."
Song Seongjae, abruptly restored to his usual self, asked me hesitantly.
Shrugging, I shoved the dazed Lee Seokmin over onto the sofa. He flopped face-down like a paper doll.
"He'll come around in about five minutes. There's nothing to worry about."
"I thought you had used some strange trick."
Well, I had used a strange trick, but that was beside the point.
"...Then, now that we have this man in hand, is it finished?"
"We have to take the head. This isn't going to end in one go."
I said it while dusting off my left hand.
"It won't end in one go?"
"That Gu jar. Someone put far more work into it than I expected. Smashing that one alone won't settle anything."
The brief scene the vision had shown me. All those jars, lined up like so many cigarettes stubbed out in an ashtray.
The insects that survived the Gu poison, sealed away again in a single jar.
Another Gu, brewed from gathered Gu. Mass-produce curses that way, and no amount of jar-smashing would ever purge them completely. I couldn't help but give a hollow laugh at such a creatively wicked idea.
"...I've learned something today, you lunatic."
I paid my respects to the nameless shaman. To commit an act like that knowing full well the curse would come circling back on them. Or no — was it precisely because they knew it would all come back that they made it that much more vicious?
"Then in the end, we'll have to go to whoever made the jars..."
"And every last curse comes undone. It'll be a hassle, though."
It wasn't as if you could charge the thing with a crime and lock it in a cell. In the end, I would have to go look the bastard in the face myself.
"Urgh..."
Just then, a groan drifted up from the sofa. Lee Seokmin was regaining consciousness and pushing himself upright. His tie hung in ruins, his suit jacket crumpled beyond saving. He looked for all the world like an office worker staggering out of a company drinking party.
"Hiiiik!! Kheeeek!!"
And the moment Lee Seokmin laid eyes on my face, he convulsed and toppled off the sofa.
"I was wrong!! Please spare me!! I'm sorry!!"
I hadn't exactly shown him anything, so apparently something had happened while my shadow was inside him.
"Feeling talkative now?"
"I'll talk!!! I'll tell you everything!!"
Drool trailing from the corner of his mouth, Lee Seokmin nodded his head like a man possessed.
"Bop-sa Lee Su... I went to a man called Bop-sa Lee Su, someone an acquaintance introduced me to!! He... he helped me. Please, please, get that thing off me..."
Lee Seokmin stared at my left hand with terror-filled eyes.
"Lead the way."
"Miracle Meditation Center... Now there's a unique name."
Following Lee Seokmin's directions, we arrived at a meditation center squatting in a corner of Seongdong-gu. So this was where they hung out a respectable sign and peddled their nonsense. Trembling all over, Lee got out of the car first, and Song Seongjae and I followed at a leisurely pace.
The door leading down to the basement was shut fast, but light blazed beyond it. Tilting my head, I urged Lee Seokmin on.
"What are you doing? Aren't you going in?"
"Ah, he's probably in the middle of a session with the clients. Bop-sa Lee Su is always here."
I gave a hollow laugh.
"Open it."
"But when the master is meditating—"
Why were there always people who balked at the very thing they were going to end up doing anyway? Realizing how threadbare his excuse sounded, Lee Seokmin quietly opened the door.
And at the revolting stench that cut against the cheerful lighting of the stairway down, my brow knotted hard.
"The stench of rot is practically humming. He must have done an impressive amount of filthy work down here."
No wonder he kept his shrine in a basement. Waving my hand back and forth, I followed Lee Seokmin down.
"A rotting smell...?"
Song Seongjae's puzzled voice came from behind me.
"Better off not knowing."
Song Seongjae looked as though he were weighing the matter, then followed me down the stairs.
"...Breathe in deep... and focus on your dantian..."
An old man's voice drifted through the door. Lee Seokmin carefully placed his hand on the handle and opened the door to the meditation center.
Creeeak. The voice cut off dead.
The first thing I saw was the countless jars lined along the walls. Seated before them was an old man who looked to be in his seventies, a gaunt white beard spilling down his chest. And on the floor at the center of the room, three or four people sat with their eyes closed, legs folded beneath them.
"That's Bop-sa Lee Su?"
At my question, Lee Seokmin nodded slowly.
"...Yes."
Bop-sa Lee Su, eyes still shut, slowly turned his head toward us. Curious to see what reaction he would show, I decided to wait in silence.
"I told you that no client is to enter while I am in meditation."
The bop-sa's mouth opened.
"And yet here you come, trailing such strange tails behind you."
Then Bop-sa Lee Su opened his eyes and looked back and forth between me and Song Seongjae. Slowly, the wrinkles across his forehead began to deepen.
"B-but Master Lee Su, I—"
"Begone!! Will you not remove yourselves from this shrine at once!! Otherwise, I shall summon the venerable spirit enshrined here to this very place and have it punish the lot of you!!"
"Go ahead. Summon it."
The bop-sa, mid-bellow, choked as if his words had snagged on something, and stared at me in bewilderment.
"...What?"
"What's the matter, gone hard of hearing in your old age?"
I stepped into the meditation center, a hollow laugh on my lips.
"Go on, then. Summon your spirit."