Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 078
Chapter Title: Evil Ghost Baek Dong-su (7)
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‘An evil god..., I can’t bring myself to believe it. Whatever she wants from me can’t be anything good. Better keep my distance.’
Hiding his distrust of Emel, he replied.
“Fine! Give me the power first, and I’ll test it out. Then I’ll decide whether to cooperate with you.”
Emel gave Dong-su a strange smile at his words.
“Good. You’re a wise one. The contract is made. I’ll give you the power first. But in three days, that power will vanish.”
She emphasized the three-day condition.
“If you want to keep the power, just swear your loyalty to me from anywhere. Then I’ll come and maintain it for you. Simple, right? Use it as much as you want for whatever you desire. Don’t forget: three days.”
Emel placed her hand briefly on Dong-su’s chest, then turned and walked away.
“If I swear loyalty to you, what happens to me? Do you take my soul or something?”
“Souls of the already dead are useless. Once you swear loyalty to an evil god, the grim reapers will eventually catch you and lock you away in Avici Hell. Don’t worry. If you swear loyalty, I’ll give you enough power to crush those reaper lackeys.”
Click-clack.
A breeze blew in the direction Emel was walking.
Dong-su watched her retreating figure and muttered softly.
“Hallucination... three days...”
* * *
It was late at night when Dong-jin arrived at Na-rae’s officetel.
Byung-su, looking exhausted, had come along, and behind him was a cute girl with short hair.
“Oh my! How cute. Who’s this young lady?”
Na-rae asked Dong-jin as she opened the door.
She jokingly took Da-hee, who looked younger than her age, for a middle schooler.
Da-hee ignored Na-rae’s words and looked around the officetel.
“Wow! What’s with all these ghosts that have passed through this house? Four of them, even.”
Na-rae pointed at Da-hee and asked Dong-jin.
“Who is she? What does she mean she sees something?”
Da-hee really seemed to be peering into every corner.
She was reading energies that even Na-rae, who had received qi from Emel, couldn’t sense well.
Dong-jin shrugged awkwardly and said.
“She’s not a kid. She’ll be helpful.”
Da-hee, who had been scanning the officetel interior, approached Na-rae and spoke.
“Three non-humans. One former human. Of the non-humans, two are chuk-gwi. One unknown! It’s rare to have this kind of lineup, and in such a small place too. Good thing you’re safe anyway.”
Na-rae looked back and forth between Byung-su and Dong-jin.
“She actually sees something? I’m already scared enough—why bring this on?”
Byung-su calmed Na-rae down and sat her on the sofa.
“Reporter Eun, relax and sit here. Let’s hear the details. We need to know what happened.”
Na-rae and Da-hee sat on the sofa, while Byung-su and Dong-jin sat on the floor to listen.
It was a fairly long story, but not scattered.
Byung-su and Da-hee’s expressions hardened after hearing it all.
Na-rae had some idea about the two chuk-gwi that appeared when she was under the scissors spell.
“It wasn’t scissors. Your body stiffened from the qi suppression.”
Da-hee explained simply.
Even Da-hee, who had explained the chuk-gwi’s actions, couldn’t identify the male soul that had smoked in Na-rae’s room.
Sometimes souls returned to their own homes unaware they were dead.
But there was no case of one abandoning its nearby home for no reason and coming to a stranger’s house.
And what was even harder to understand...
Was another energy that was neither human nor from the dead.
In truth, Byung-su’s group had thought everything happening to Na-rae was connected to the knife from the mountain lodge.
So the male soul and the unidentified energy were completely unexpected.
“If we line up the photos in chronological order...”
Byung-su began.
“When Reporter Eun was under the scissors spell, it matched the vibe of those monster women who attacked you before. So, chuk-gwi, right?”
“Exactly!”
Da-hee chimed in.
“But the problem is, chuk-gwi usually can’t enter if the door’s closed, yet they did. They’re not ordinary ones. And they even spoke human words clearly.”
Byung-su looked at Na-rae, and she nodded in agreement.
“The monster women definitely came inside, but you couldn’t see them. Instead, the guy from the sixth floor who died in a traffic accident sat on this sofa and smoked?”
“Yes.”
“And the next day, you drank with your boyfriend, Detective Yoon Il-han, fell asleep first, but he kept drinking alone until a woman named Ran came in and drank with him?”
Na-rae chimed in again.
“Right. But Il-han’s just a friend.”
“Got it. Just a friend. Anyway, nothing after that?”
Na-rae nodded and chimed in once more.
“Right!”
“Chuk-gwi are persistent and don’t give up easily. The smoking man probably blocked them, but they would’ve come back for you, Reporter Eun. The fact they didn’t means it’s probably related to that woman named Ran.”
Da-hee agreed with Byung-su and continued.
“The chuk-gwi that came for you, sis, suppressed your body with qi and passed through a closed door—they’re no pushovers. If they gave up, that Ran woman’s no ordinary person either.”
“...”
“Maybe Baekho oppa or Yi-hwa auntie would know her identity? Anyway, good that this Ran woman doesn’t seem to mean you harm.”
After hearing Da-hee, Dong-jin curiously asked Byung-su.
“Team leader, they’re not the cat spirits trapped in the Chungnam mountain lodge, right? Then are they like the ones we saw in my one-room before?”
It was a question he hadn’t gotten around to asking amid the chaos.
“I think they’re similar to the ones targeting Reporter Park. But those were sealed by Da-hee. They couldn’t even open doors. These ones are seriously dangerous.”
“But chuk-gwi are animal spirits, so why do they all look like that?”
“Well, usually they take their original animal forms from life, but sometimes they appear human. But ones all looking so similar like that? First time I’ve heard. Feels like someone made them.”
Byung-su spoke uncertainly, and Da-hee picked up.
“Someone definitely made them or got involved. Emel sent chuk-gwi after Reporter Park, so she must’ve sent them after Reporter Eun too. Since she failed before, she made stronger ones this time.”
Dong-jin interrupted Da-hee.
“Da-hee, you’re probably right, but she’s a ghoul—can she even do that?”
“Yi-hwa auntie said ghouls in India act like evil gods, commanding beasts and using sorcery.”
Na-rae grew more and more frightened the more she heard.
“Anyway, that Ran woman is probably Rosen’s sister. She’s after the knife too, but seems less dangerous than Emel, so... just give her the knife.”
“We have to meet her first. Da-hee can remove the evil qi, and now I can hold that knife in my right hand, so let’s protect you and wait.”
Byung-su, who had received qi from the dokkaebi elder and confined Emel’s qi to only his left arm, reassured Na-rae.
He seemed quite confident.
Only then did Na-rae, finally seeing Byung-su and Dong-jin after so long, ask about their whereabouts.
“By the way, what have you two been up to? No office, no contact?”
“Ah, sorry. I was tracking Sang-in and Emel with the motel owner. Reporter Park was staying at Da-hee’s place, suppressing the knife’s evil qi. Should’ve contacted you, but feared NIS and Emel targeting you too. Let’s move spots first.”
Na-rae’s eyes lit up when Byung-su explained how he’d gone to the dokkaebi elder, received qi, and managed to confine Emel’s qi to his left arm.
“Wow! Me too! Me too! I need to find that dokkaebi grandpa. These pests keep swarming—I can’t live like this. Waaah!”
“Yeah, the dokkaebi elder gave this to you for protection anyway.”
Byung-su placed a small fan in Na-rae’s tearful hand.
When Na-rae opened it, a gray wolf was drawn as if alive.
“A wolf? What’s this?”
“Yeah, the dokkaebi elder said it’s one he sealed a hundred years ago on Jiri Mountain—a German wolf. Said it’s fierce.”
“German wolf? But why this?”
“Open the fan and call its name three times. It’ll react, then make it swear loyalty and flap the fan until it comes out.”
“It’s not dangerous?”
“That’s why you make it swear loyalty first.”
“How do you put it back in the fan?”
“You can’t. Even the dokkaebi elder sealed it with grim reapers.”
“Then it really is dangerous.”
“I think so too, but try using it when things get really bad. Its name’s Schrecken.”
Na-rae, scared stiff, snapped the fan shut.
“Why do only weird things keep latching onto me? Waaah!”
* * *
Nosehair Gang boss Kim Hyung-il was in a great mood.
The thorn in his side, Ma-gwi faction enforcer and evil ghost Dong-su, was dead, and boss Ma-gwi Bang Il-seok was hovering between life and death. Nothing could be more delightful.
At this rate, taking over Tehran-ro from the Ma-gwi faction would be a breeze.
It was the happiest day imaginable.
With plenty of busy times ahead, he’d made time to take his bodyguard-cum-driver Woo-song for some night fishing at a quiet reservoir in Chungbuk.
Though edging into early summer, the breeze was still cool and refreshing.
Kim Hyung-il was simply overjoyed.
“Who’d have thought the evil ghost would die in a car crash, and Ma-gwi get crushed under a truck? Good things come to those who wait. Should we expand into the gambling dens this time?”
“Sounds good, hyungnim. But didn’t you set up those two—Ma-gwi and the evil ghost?”
Woo-song asked, glancing at Kim Hyung-il in the rearview mirror.
“Me? No way. Never ordered anything like that. How would I know where Dong-su lives, or that Bang Il-seok was heading for dog meat right after Dong-su’s funeral?”
“You didn’t know where the evil ghost lived, hyungnim? The loan shark Agwi gang kids were blabbing he lived in Gwanga with some blind woman. You didn’t hear?”
When Woo-song countered, Kim Hyung-il cut it off sharply.
“No, not me! Anyway, it wasn’t me. Someone took out Ma-gwi and the evil ghost for me—nothing but grateful. Hahaha. Tell Manager Kim to block our kids from visiting Jang-gu. Don’t want the cops getting suspicious. Hahaha.”
Jang-gu was the Nosehair Gang maknae who’d hit Dong-su with the car.
Woo-song thought maybe Jang-gu hadn’t done it on Kim Hyung-il’s orders, since he was blocking prison visits.
Kim Hyung-il’s chest swelled with joy thinking of the Ma-gwi faction’s two heads gone.
He rolled down the window and looked outside, and the car next to them was perfectly synced too.
The car hugging close beside them was a rare sight these days.
The view through the open window of the neighboring car was shocking.