Why They Call It Betrayal

Now that the stray ghost had shown itself, it was time to catch it. I began chanting the sacred verse, following Mother's instructions.

A rustle. The wind had changed direction.

It wasn't a violent wind—it was the pre-dawn breeze, blowing in with an almost pleasant ease. And riding that breeze came the stench of rotting corpses.

Three meters tall, give or take?

Its limbs were gaunt, as if skin had been stretched straight over bone, and its torso hung off dozens of ribs, spreading broad and flat from side to side. Its head dangled from an eerily long neck, swaying in a slow, regular rhythm—and in the place where eyes, nose, and mouth should surely have been, there was nothing but a mouth, abnormally, impossibly large.

Creak. Creak. Creak. Creak.

The stigma on my hand throbbed. Whether that was a warning or excitement, even I couldn't tell.

Kraaaaaa.

A bizarre sound leaked from between its gaping jaws. Then the thing slowly stretched out those spindly limbs and tried to flee from me.

Kraaaaaaa!!!!

But the pitch-black shadows welling out of the stigma coiled around the ghost's limbs like tentacles and bound them tight.

It raked frantically at the ground, desperate to tear itself free, but—

"A lowly mongrel, not even fit to be the great one's leavings. Come before me."

There was no slipping the black shadows' bonds. I raised my blade to finish the thing as it was dragged slowly toward me.

And then the ghost jerked its head around, toward where CEO Kim and his wife were standing.

Its creaking mouth opened.

"Kim Yeongsik."

At the ghost's call, the CEO's shoulders flinched. And I realized what this thing was after.

"Don't look back!! And don't you dare answer it!!"

I shouted sharply, and Kim hunched his shoulders down hard. The ghost clawed at the earth with everything it had, straining to advance on him.

"Kim Yeongsik."

The voice calling his name a second time was a pitiful young woman's. Kim's trembling hands drifted toward the cloth covering his eyes.

The moment that cloth came loose, the ghost would claim his body in an instant. I ground my teeth and shouted again.

"Hands down!! You dumb bastard!!"

I swept my left hand through the empty air and shifted the blade to my right. Clatter! The ritual bell hit the dirt with a noisy jangle.

I could tell from the stigma's reaction: that thing was too big to swallow in one gulp.

But being unable to swallow it whole didn't mean I couldn't eat it.

"Kim Yeong—"

I hauled back on the shadows, rough and hard. The ghost's torso, mid-crawl toward Kim, bent the wrong way as it came dragging toward me.

And then the ghost tried something I never saw coming.

"KYAAAAAK!!!"

Fuck.

It was, unmistakably, a young woman's scream—impossible to believe it belonged to that grotesque thing.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Save me!! Yeongsik!!!"

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Cutting clean through the racket of drums and gongs, that icy scream rang out with terrible clarity. And Kim already had his hands on the knot of the cloth.

"That is not the person you remember! Pull that cloth off and you're a dead man, you bastard!!"

I barked the warning, but there was no stopping Kim's fingers from working at the knot. Just as I was weighing whether to send a shadow his way—

Whack!

"Oof!"

...The madam standing beside him had cracked him across the back of the head on pure instinct. Nice.

"Come before me!"

Seizing the opening, I snapped my blade up and brought it down straight into the ghost's skull.

CRUNCH—!!

"Yeongsik... save me!! I—"

Better start by tearing that mouth apart.

CRUNCH—!!

SQUELCH—!!

So that this ghost could never again wear the voice of the dead, I butchered it, thorough and merciless.

The fragments of spirit scattered fast, so I snared them with my shadows and began drawing them into the stigma.

But the moment they touched the stigma, the fragments began to be sucked away somewhere else entirely.

"Urk—!!"

I clutched my throat and dropped where I stood.

Mother, having descended, had begun to dine on those fragments herself.

"Ughhhhk!!!"

Every joint in my body screamed. My eyes burned white-hot, and dead, blackish blood poured in a steady stream from my ears, eyes, nose, and mouth.

This was no longer my body. It was Mother's dining table.

Clang... Clang... Boom... Boom...

The drums and gongs sounded a long way off now.

Gulp. Gulp.

Gulp.

Having finished her meal to her satisfaction, Mother withdrew from my body.

"Hahh... Hahh..."

Once I'd heaved up the last of the blood, the stray ghosts before my eyes had vanished without a trace. I was wiping my mouth and pushing myself up when I spotted something lying where the ghost had disappeared.

...Ha.

Wrapped inside a paper bearing CEO Kim's name and birth details was what could only be his hair. I took it carefully in hand and got to my feet.

The site around us was a complete disaster. I shook myself off and raised my voice.

"That's enough."

The music stopped dead. The performance was over. Some of the people nearby had collapsed outright; the rest were trembling so violently they could barely stay upright.

"Everyone—turn around, remove the cloth, and open your eyes."

For a while, no one moved. Then, starting with the musicians, they began pulling off their blindfolds one by one.

"Good heavens...!"

"What in the world..."

Then they saw the massive claw marks gouged into the construction site floor, and the stain where I had vomited blood, and a low groan ran through the crowd.

"Y-Young Master!!"

The madam turned as well and came running toward me, utterly aghast. I waved her off, stopping her before she could get close.

"A-Are you all right?"

"I've caught the ghost. It'll be fine now."

"How vicious must that thing have been, to do this to you..."

It hadn't exactly been the ghost that got the better of me, but I tactfully kept that to myself. No harm in her thinking I'd earned my fee the hard way.

"So is it finished now?"

"There's still the blessing to perform, but we'll skip it, given the state I'm in. First, bring your husband over here."

I looked over at CEO Kim, huddled in a corner, shaking like a leaf. The madam marched toward him with a thunderous look on her face.

Fair enough, really. A man caught squirming beside his own wife at the sound of another woman's voice wouldn't walk away unscathed, curse or no curse.

"Y-Y-Y-Young Master."

Hauled up in front of me, Kim's eyes were drowning in pure terror. I held the paper out where he could see it.

"Does this ring a bell? Writing your birthdate on a paper like this and signing it—recently?"

Kim took the paper with hands shaking like leaves. The moment he saw his own name written in the corner, his eyes went wide as saucers.

"Th-This is... Back when the Cultural Heritage Administration people came out here, for the approval paperwork... they told me to write down the name and birthdate of the ruins' first discoverer..."

"Who signed off on it?"

At my question, the CEO's head whipped around frantically—and, sure enough, he pointed to the employee sprawled on the ground in his own vomit.

"It was Section Chief Hwang..."

I snorted. Had he really thought he'd never be caught, lying there all brazen?

As I drew closer, I got a clear view of Section Chief Hwang flat on his back, eyes rolled white.

Kim came up beside me and asked, bewildered.

"What happened to him...?"

"Section Chief Hwang, it seems somebody hated you to death."

I answered cryptically, one corner of my mouth curling up.

"Th-That's everything. I just... lost my head over a little money, that's all..."

Hwang stammered, glancing around at the others. Somewhere in the middle of the confession, CEO Kim Yeongsik—who had been trembling uncontrollably—had gone stone cold.

So he hadn't been hated to death after all.

"Section Chief Hwang, how could you...!"

"Hiiik! Sir!! Please, forgive me!!"

Quite the little farce.

I let out a sigh.

Shamans getting tangled up in big business happened all the time, but bringing an actual curse ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into it was anything but common.

I looked down at the paper bearing CEO Kim's name, and the hair wrapped inside it.

Work sorcery over an object steeped in a person's personal information, attach a powerful ghost to it, and let the thing torment them.

This was the handiwork of someone who knew how to command spirits.

A stray ghost's strength grows with every person it devours.

For all I knew, the thing that had latched onto Kim this time had already eaten its way through more than a few.

Just what kind of bastard would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do something like this?

...Well, I had no intention of hunting them down, but this affair might well have put me on their radar. Wouldn't hurt to stay careful.

"Burn this in that flame—with your own hands."

So saying, I handed the paper over to CEO Kim.

Kim gave a heavy nod and fed the paper with his name, and the hair inside it, into the candle flame on the offering table.

He watched the pitch-black smoke curl upward and let out a long breath of relief, while Section Chief Hwang knelt where he was, looking like a man who had lost the whole world.

From here on, this was those two's problem to settle. I lit my cigarette and savored the nicotine beginning to spin sweetly through my skull.

"Section Chief Hwang."

"...Yes, sir."

Kim's voice was frozen solid; Hwang's came out thin as a mosquito's whine. So ten years of shared history could shatter this easily.

"I won't take this to court. Walk out of here on your own two feet."

"...Yes, sir."

The two exchanged a few more words on the spot, and it ended with Section Chief Hwang staggering off the site.

The ritual had definitely begun at dawn, yet somehow the sun was already high overhead. I squinted against the light as it kept ducking behind clouds and reemerging.

"Young Master."

CEO Kim Yeongsik appeared at my side, a cigarette clamped between his lips. Before lighting it, he took the thing out of his mouth and bowed his head to me.

"Thank you... truly."

He looked like a different man from the one who had first walked into my shrine.

"If you're that grateful, then you know how to show proper appreciation, don't you?"

"Haha. Of course."

"Koff, koff!"

And then, seeing the figure stamped into my account, I choked and doubled over coughing.

At my flustered face, CEO Kim Yeongsik laughed heartily, looking thoroughly relieved.

"I figured the right thing was to match whatever those bastards put on the table. This is... quite a fine plot of land, after all. Call 300 million a bargain."

I gave an awkward laugh. Well, I had suffered plenty, so even Mother wouldn't grudge me taking this much.

"But that voice we heard back then... could it be..."

Kim asked, timid. I frowned slightly. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠He was asking about the young woman's voice the ghost had mimicked, no doubt.

"Well, everyone's got someone they loved hard back in their college days, don't they? Not me, mind—I only finished high school. And in your case..."

I sighed. Damn it all. I was hopeless at this kind of talk. How was I supposed to comfort a man who'd lost his lover to an accident?

"You have to let her go too. The ghost read that memory out of you and simply copied her. A strong lingering attachment is a stray ghost's favorite prey."

Which was exactly why that ghost had deserved the beating it got. I went on.

"If your attachment runs too deep, she won't pass on to heaven cleanly either. I'm not telling you not to grieve, but... keep only the good memories of her. That's the kindest thing you can do—let her leave this world with an easy heart."

"Haha... You're right... My wife's going to have my head for this one."

The glare the madam was leveling at him was anything but friendly.

Well, he'd earned it. I decided not to pile on.

Whether a curse fails or succeeds, it always leaves a heavy backlash on the one who cast it.

"KAAAK!!"

A middle-aged man's scream tore through a quiet residential street.

"KRAAAK!!"

Section Chief Hwang clutched at his heart and rolled across the floor, convulsing. In his ears, 'their' voices seemed to slither in once more.

The caster of the curse. The one who had delivered CEO Kim's signature and birthdate into 'their' hands was Section Chief Hwang himself.

With a soft thud, Section Chief Hwang's movements stopped.

As his consciousness guttered out, the last thing Section Chief Hwang understood was that he had been completely, perfectly deceived by 'them'.