Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Mountain Lodge Built on Dokkaebi Grounds (4)
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In the middle of talking, he unnecessarily thumped his chest.
He boasted as if he were the guardian deity of the lower village.
"The lower village is safe because of you? Then why didn't you take better care of the upper village?"
Dong-jin snidely remarked, finding the man irritating.
The man didn't budge and kept boasting.
"Hahaha. Good point. I had to guard the bridge at night, so I gave the upper village folks a warning during the day, but they wouldn't listen. So I chased them all away!"
"What? So the upper village got wiped out because of you."
Dong-jin pointed out the absurdity of the man's words.
The man showed no reaction to Dong-jin's comment.
"That's right! In the end, it was because of me. Hahaha, but that's better than dying! Who cares about fridges or jars anyway."
"Dying? Please tell us what happened in the upper village."
Na-rae stopped Dong-jin from interrupting again and asked.
In response to her question, the man blinked his big eyes and said,
"You know that mountain lodge, right? You must've heard about it from the people here."
Na-rae answered his urging.
"Yes, I've heard a bit, but not the details."
"A woman who lived in that lodge came down to the village. Someone had removed the stones piled up to keep her in. She asked to have the door opened, and when they did, she slit the throat of the person who opened it. I guarded the bridge and stopped her from reaching the lower village."
He boasted quite a bit about it being his doing.
"Thanks to you, the upper village got cut off. Truth is, I wanted to help, but she was covered in blood, so I couldn't get close."
His big eyes looked pretty innocent as he spoke frankly.
"I hate blood, you see. Ask the old lady here for the details. I'm no good with words. So, you folks not drinking more booze?"
He chugged a freshly opened can of beer in one go and pointed to the empty cans for Dong-jin.
Looks like the booze had run out.
Dong-jin reluctantly got up and went into the shop to buy more beer.
When he came back out with canned beer and squid, the man was gone.
Instead, Byung-su and a burly man in a neat black suit were sitting on the platform, chatting with Na-rae.
"When did you get here? Did you have a good talk with Editor Kim?"
At Dong-jin's question, Byung-su paused the conversation and grinned.
"Don't ask. She was on my case about getting some real story material. No article to write right away, so I came straight back down. Looks like you guys had a lively drinking party? Reporter Park, first time meeting, right? This is Baekho."
At Byung-su's introduction, Baekho flashed a bright smile and extended his large hand.
"Baekho here. Talisman exorcist. I do possessions and soul pacifications. Nice to meet ya."
At the word "exorcist," Dong-jin suddenly saw Baekho as dependable.
"Great to meet you!"
Yi-hwa, the virgin ghost who always accompanied Baekho, had stayed behind at the meadow garden to check the ghost gate.
"It's getting late tonight, so let's call it here and head back."
At Byung-su's words, Na-rae stood up and said,
"Yeah, me too. See you tomorrow."
As everyone left, Dong-jin felt awkward and gathered the beer before heading to his room.
* * *
"Huh, what's this?"
As Dong-jin stepped out to the shop for breakfast, he spotted a scribbled note and two plant roots covered in dirt.
The roots, with their finger-sized bodies and thin limbs, resembled the wild ginseng he'd seen on TV.
Dong-jin crouched down and picked up the note.
"Hey, sunbae! Isn't this wild ginseng? What's the note say?"
"Hmm... Looks like wild ginseng, just like you said, Eun Reporter. Park Reporter, what does the note say?"
Byung-su and Na-rae, who had appeared out of nowhere, peered over Dong-jin's shoulder at the roots.
[Kim seobang, thanks for the good booze last night!]
Dong-jin read the note to the insistent pair and hoped the roots really were wild ginseng.
They were small, but he was thrilled inside at getting something precious.
"Looks like that Heo-ju you two met yesterday left them."
"Heo-ju?"
Dong-jin asked in confusion, and Byung-su explained.
"Yeah, Heo-ju. The dokkaebi. Eun Reporter knew it too. When he saw Baekho last night, he bolted toward the river over there. I saw him from afar—total yokel vibe, straight-up dokkaebi. Should we call Kim seobang a dokkaebi?"
At the word "dokkaebi," Dong-jin asked in surprise,
"Dokkaebi are real?"
"They exist, sure. You just don't know because they don't usually harm people. They hate blood, human or animal. Heard they hide out for a while. Anyway, the guy you met yesterday is a dokkaebi—neither human nor ghost."
Byung-su and Na-rae had encountered dokkaebi often while covering earth-bound spirit tips in rural villages.
Dokkaebi weren't driven away with rituals; they were usually appeased and sent off with buckwheat jelly, meat, or booze.
Sprinkling blood at the gate didn't summon them since they weren't malevolent gods, so treating them to food and drink was the standard way.
"Kim seobang the dokkaebi loves mooching food off people, so he sneaks into drinking parties. Anyway, Eun Reporter sensed the spiritual energy right away."
Na-rae's spiritual energy detection ability was one of the strange powers she'd gained from Emel.
She couldn't control it well yet, but it was useful enough.
After hearing Byung-su's explanation, Dong-jin was convinced it really was a dokkaebi and inwardly thrilled.
'If a dokkaebi gave it, it has to be wild ginseng!'
The old lady set out breakfast on the platform in front of the shop.
There weren't many side dishes, but the smell of the dried pollock soup was superb.
As she carried out trays of soup with Na-rae, the old lady remarked,
"Where'd you pick up these finger-sized deodeok roots?"
"Grandma, isn't this wild ginseng?"
Dong-jin asked in surprise at her words.
The old lady peered at the roots and tilted her head.
"Wild ginseng in our village? The hills here are so low and pathetic. Wait... Oh my! This looks just like the wild ginseng my old man got in exchange for buying booze. Looks like the real deal!"
* * *
After a satisfying hangover cure with the dried pollock soup, Na-rae spoke to the old lady.
Her curiosity couldn't wait.
"Grandma, I heard your son lived in the upper village. Why did he leave?"
At Na-rae's question, the old lady, who was eating, launched into a long explanation.
Unlike her gruff appearance, she loved to talk.
"Oh, well! He saw someone's head get clean chopped off. He was visiting a neighbor when he saw the man of the house get his throat slit. Got grilled by the police and ended up moving to Seoul. After that, a few more headless folks turned up in the village."
"So that's why people left?"
"No, what really drove folks out was someone smashing all the soy jars around the neighborhood and hauling every fridge into the yards."
"Really?"
"They say the guy crumpled the fridge doors and stuffed 'em back inside. Who could live like that? Everyone left. The village just got wiped out."
Na-rae scooted closer to the old lady, eyes sparkling, and asked more.
"Tell me about the incident your son witnessed, Grandma."
"You bet? Let me clear the table quick and tell ya. Wait just a sec, I'll be right back."
The old lady seemed thrilled by Na-rae's questions.
She must have been craving conversation.
* * *
After clearing the table with Na-rae, the old lady's story began.
Byung-su and the group kept in mind that it was an old tale, so memories might be distorted, as they listened.
"You heard about the lodge from Sung-chul, right?"
Sung-chul must be the name of the lodge caretaker.
Quick-witted Na-rae answered.
"Yes, Grandma."
As soon as Na-rae replied, just as Dong-jin thought, 'Starting with the lodge again?', the old lady dove into the lodge story.
"There was a murder at the lodge. The one where a woman's head got cut off while visiting with friends. Because of that, Byung-chul and his pals got questioned hard, and every man in the upper village was dragged in too."
"Must've been tough."
Na-rae said sweetly.
"Tough, yeah. That's when the village mood turned sour. Everyone was on edge, afraid they'd get pegged as the killer."
The old lady paused and suddenly asked Dong-jin,
"Want me to brew some coffee?"
She meant she wanted coffee.
Dong-jin stood from the platform and replied,
"No need, Grandma. I'll get vending machine coffee."
"Right, vending machine coffee's the best. Hurry and grab it."
The old lady sipped the coffee Dong-jin brought and continued her tale.
* * *
It was right when the investigation into the lodge incident was in full swing.
Cops were coming and going from the village, and our youngest, Kyung-seok, lived in the upper village. Must've been past June.
So... not long after the lodge incident.
Our son Kyung-seok lived next door to Seung-yong's place.
They'd been friends since elementary school...
Seung-yong's wife and Kyung-seok's wife had gone to Seoul for fun that day, I reckon.
The two started boozing hard from the afternoon, they say.
Why do men only drink when the wives are away?
The old lady suddenly asked Dong-jin.
"I, uh, don't have a wife yet, so I wouldn't kno..."
Dong-jin stammered, and the old lady clicked her tongue as if wondering why he was fumbling.
"Tsk tsk, not even married yet. You look almost forty—how'd that happen?"
"Grandma, I'm in my thirties. Mid-thirties, and I'm super baby-faced. Haven't shaved in a bit, but I'm actually really handsome."
Dong-jin felt utterly wronged.
The old lady ignored his feelings and continued.
"Right, baby-faced... Got it. Where was I..."
* * *
Someone called from outside the gate.
Turned out to be Seung-yong's wife's voice.
"Why not come in? Kyung-seok's here having dinner—open the door and come on in!"
Seung-yong figured his wife would nag about the drinking, so he tried to clear the booze.
They were drinking on the porch, so he rushed to move it to the kitchen.
Annoyingly, she was saying to unlock it and let her in.
Buy time to hide the booze while opening the door.
Normally he'd open it, and it would've been fine that day too.
But she kept calling from outside without coming in.
"I've got a ton of stuff in my hands. Hurry and open up. My arms hurt."
Seung-yong, hearing his wife's arms hurt from the load, told Kyung-seok to clear to the kitchen and went to the gate.
Figured the booze was busted anyway, might as well take the scolding.
Meanwhile, Kyung-seok carried the table to the kitchen.
"Why're you back so soon?"
Seung-yong said as he opened the gate.
Kyung-seok, whose own wife was off with Seung-yong's in Seoul, got curious and listened while holding the table.
Thought something must be up since she was back earlier than expected tomorrow.
But the reply was weird.
Na-rae grabbed Dong-jin's hand as he tried to interrupt the old lady's story.
And get this, Seung-yong's wife said,
"I went visiting nearby, but it's dinnertime, so I came home. Hurry and open the door."
She sounded annoyed, so guilt-ridden drunk Seung-yong opened it despite the oddness.
Kyung-seok hurried to the kitchen door with the table.
*thunk, thud, roll roll roll*
Something dropped and rolled, they say.
So our Kyung-seok turned around and saw a woman standing at the gate with a big knife, and Seung-yong headless.
Seung-yong's head rolled down the sloped yard to the faucet, and his body slumped over.
Kyung-seok ditched the table, hopped the wall, and fled home.
