The True Body Deity
“How...? We watched all the way to the last person getting off the boat...”
Kang-to asked.
“I get terrible motion sickness, so I was a little late. The crew told me everyone had arrived and to come ashore.”
“Are you all right now?”
“I was a bit dizzy when I stepped on land, but the moment I met the person known as the shaman among shamans, my head cleared right up.”
“And who are you?”
Sol-bi squeezed herself between them. There was a hard edge to her eyes; she seemed to be sizing up Aegibosal with open suspicion.
“I just introduced myself as Aegibosal. What’s your name?”
“What kind of name is Aegibosal? You should say your real name. Dad, I’m right, aren’t I?”
Sol-bi looked to Kang-to for agreement.
“Sol-bi. This lady is...”
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Yoon Chae-rin, you are Sol-bi?”
“What exactly are you to my dad?”
She wasn’t satisfied with just a name.
“Your dad’s shamanic senior? But in terms of skill, your dad’s the senior?”
“Mhm, miss, aren’t you bad at studying?”
As if she’d been waiting for it, Sol-bi snapped right back.
“Sol-bi.”
“It’s fine. Your daughter is wonderfully bold. Well, if she’s the daughter of the one who receives gongsu from the Nine Heavens Maiden, she ought to be this much.”
“Let’s go upstairs.”
Kang-to pointed toward the lighthouse.
“Isn’t the guesthouse over there?”
Sol-bi kept needling her.
“The guesthouse is full.”
“Then are you sleeping at our house?”
“Probably?”
“With Dad?”
“My, you’re crossing a line there.”
Chae-rin gasped.
“Lee Sol-bi, that’s enough.”
Only after Kang-to warned her did Sol-bi finally clamp her mouth shut. Her lips puckered and twisted of their own accord, and Kang-to had to stifle a laugh at how adorable she looked.
“This way.”
As Kang-to led the way, Chae-rin followed. Sol-bi trailed a couple of steps behind, glaring daggers.
Meow.
The cat, Tchalchi, called after her, but Sol-bi didn’t even look back.
“Your shrine is amazing.”
Once they had climbed up to the lighthouse, Chae-rin let out an admiring sigh.
“You’ve really gone far beyond the usual idea of shamanism here.”
“I’m just a country bumpkin from a small island village, so I don’t know much.”
“That’s not what Lady Gyeongsin said, though. She said you were born into a three-generation lineage and had spiritual eyes that could see a thousand li. She also said that during your initiation, you almost died because a deity so strong descended that it overwhelmed you.”
“She was being generous.”
“Still, this is the kind of place that opens your chest the moment you step inside. A lighthouse shrine—I never even dreamed of something like this.”
“Actually, my grandfather used to be the lighthouse keeper. Then, when the lighthouse was shut down, my mother bought it. So you could say it was my mother’s foresight, not mine.”
“That’s what I mean by a three-generation lineage. I did a little studying on the way here, and I heard your grandmother was called the Shaman of the West Sea. She was the best shaman along the west coast, wasn’t she?”
“That’s what I’ve been told.”
“Come to think of it, I’d like to receive the heoju gut as soon as possible.”
“Is something wrong with your body?”
“That’s the problem. I can receive a response really quickly, but in the end the gongsu turns out wrong. Even I can tell that isn’t the right one, but my body deity keeps dragging me down the wrong road.”
“Looking at your spiritual energy, the day after tomorrow should be good. How does that sound?”
“Hmm... more than anything, your daughter is a problem, isn’t she?”
Chae-rin’s gaze shifted toward the entrance. Sol-bi, who had been sneaking peeks from the side, jerked and hid herself. In truth, her clumsy spying had been obvious from the start.
“Sol-bi, you can come in.”
At Kang-to’s call, she came running at once and plastered herself to his side like a human adhesive patch.
“Lee Sol-bi, I’m not a bad person.”
Chae-rin smiled gently, but Sol-bi shot back immediately.
“Teacher Park Hee-ra from my Star Class said never to trust the first person you meet.”
“You saw me just now, and now you’ve seen me again, so I’m not the first person anymore, right? And if you think about it, your dad would count as my teacher too. So shouldn’t you not think badly of a teacher’s student?”
“Huh?”
Sol-bi, who’d been turned against the ropes, looked up at Kang-to.
“Aegibosal has a point.”
“Tch, what do you mean, ‘aegi’...? You’re bigger than I am...”
Sol-bi’s expression softened a little. The fact that Kang-to was called a teacher seemed to comfort her.
“Sol-bi, the tide’s gone out, so let’s go gather conchs.”
Hong-seo’s voice floated over from beyond the beach roses.
“Okay. Wait for me.”
Sol-bi reacted like a bullet. She’d taken a few steps before apparently remembering something, turned back, grabbed a small hand hoe, and then stuck out her tongue in a mocking meong.
“Don’t get too close to my dad.”
With that warning, she darted off into the cluster of children.
“Sol-bi really is something else.”
Chae-rin laughed.
“Sometimes she seems more grown-up than I am.”
“I’m jealous of how she protects her dad.”
“Ah, your room is the one on the right. My mother used to use it, but it’s been newly remodeled, so it should be fine. If it’s uncomfortable, though, you can take a room at the guesthouse if one opens up.”
“I don’t mind the room itself, but... could I go gather conchs with Sol-bi too?”
“Of course. If we catch a lot, we’ll eat them for dinner.”
Kang-to pulled out a pair of gloves.
“Sol-bi, that woman’s coming back.”
When Tae-hee whispered from beside the rocks, Sol-bi sprang upright.
“Teacher Sol-bi, could you teach me how to gather conchs?”
Chae-rin made her opening move.
“What do you mean, teacher?”
“If you teach me something I don’t know, that makes you a teacher. So is there some other kind of teacher? How do you catch conchs?”
“......”
“Sol-bi, show her. You’re good at this, aren’t you?”
Kang-to tossed in a quiet assist.
“You just have to look carefully around the rocks.”
“Then please show me a demonstration, Teacher Sol-bi.”
Chae-rin was relentless. At last, Sol-bi gave in and set out on the conch hunt. Luckily, she spotted a medium-sized one almost immediately.
“Now that I think about it, Lee Sol-bi, you’re basically the national team captain of conch catching. You’re amazing.”
With that praise, Chae-rin showered Sol-bi with even more encouragement. Praise could make a whale dance; how much more so a little girl like Sol-bi? Before long, puffed up with pride, Sol-bi was pulling Chae-rin by the hand and racing along the coast.
“Lee Sol-bi, is your dad some kind of outcast?”
When Kang-to grumbled in mock complaint,
“Dad does fine on his own, doesn’t he?”
a far too obvious rebuke came flying back.
“Can’t you do that too?”
“There’s one right here, too, you know?”
“Found a giant conch.”
Before they knew it, the situation had completely reversed. Sol-bi and Chae-rin had become a perfect little duo, sweeping the shoreline together. Their chemistry as a brand-new pair showed up just as clearly while they prepared dinner, and thanks to them, Kang-to got to sit down and have his meal brought to him.
“Sis, ahh.”
Sol-bi was lavishly generous with her servings.
Her betrayal didn’t stop at dinner; it carried straight through to bedtime.
“Dad, can I sleep with that sister?”
Her shyness had vanished completely.
“I’m scared if Dad sleeps alone.”
“But this is her first time on the island, isn’t it? What if a ghost comes out?”
“That sister can handle at least a little ghost-chasing.”
“Then it’s okay?”
“Do you want to sleep with that sister?”
“She smells nice.”
“Fine. Go ahead.”
“Yay, this is awesome.”
Sol-bi hugged her pillow and sprinted away from Kang-to at full speed.
Two days later, in the quiet afternoon, he sat face-to-face with Aegibosal Chae-rin.
Shamanic initiation.
That is, for those who become shamans without inheriting the role, there is a common thread: the illness known as shamanic affliction.
Kang-to had gone through it too.
Shamanic affliction falls into two categories: cases where a deity descends, and cases where resentment from ancestral spirits takes root. First, you have to sort out which is which. Then the shaman conducting the rite needs exceptional ability. In medical terms, it was a matter requiring precise diagnosis. For example, if the afflicted person’s body deity was of a higher rank than the body deity of the shaman conducting the ritual, then the rite would be nothing but empty noise. The shaman simply wouldn’t be able to tell what kind of spirit had come.
Once shamanic affliction appeared, the sufferer had to choose one of two paths. Either accept the divine descent and become a shaman, or live the rest of one’s life in pain.
The spirit that had chosen its target never backed down. If that target died by suicide or illness, it would move on to the family or descendants. That persistence continued until the divine descent was accepted. Of course, there were exceptions even in that world of descent. For example, if an expert of five thousand or above belonging to the heavenly realm stepped in, it became possible.
But high-level gods had little interest in the human world. In that sense, the Nine Heavens Maiden and the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord who had descended upon Kang-to were exceptions among exceptions.
Indang.
As Kang-to focused on the Indang of Aegibosal, spiritual traces began to gather around it. The battery of fate did not light up. She had not come to have her destiny read; she had come for the heoju gut.
Swish.
He scattered a handful of rice. Then he shook the Chilseokgu, and—
Jjallarang-jarang.
A bell sound clearer than empty-minded serenity began linking heaven and earth, and even the human world.
The Chinese character for shaman, mu, carries meaning inside itself. The upper and lower horizontal strokes symbolize heaven and earth. The vertical line in the middle marks the boundary between spirit and flesh. The left-hand person represents the living, and the right-hand person the dead. Combined, it means connecting human beings and gods across all heaven and earth.
That power depends on the body deity. A shaman’s level is determined by which deity they receive gongsu from and perform rites for.
Chae-rin, who possessed remarkable intuition.
What deity was her body deity?
Jjararang.
As the Chilseokgu rang out once more, Kang-to’s vibration began to accelerate.
It was a resonance.
Rising from a low, slow tone to a fast, high one, it merged completely with the tremor of the spirit realm. Then the false spirits gathered around Aegibosal began to reveal themselves.
“Aegibosal.”
He spoke in a quick vibration, but in a low voice.
“Yes.”
“The warrior spirits hanging on your shrine are standing beside them.”
“......”
“The first is the Mountain Spirit Lord, and the second is the Immortal Grandmother. Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
Chae-rin answered. With her eyes closed as well, she was barely following Kang-to’s resonance at a high frequency.
“Next I see the Dragon Spirit Lord, the Dragon Spirit General, the District Blessing Lord, and the Seven Stars Lord.”
“Correct.”
“And after that, I can see all sorts of lesser gods and wandering spirits. Lord of Openings, Medicine Lord, Earth God... child ghosts, drowned brides, lonely dead, taejagwi, hungry ghosts...”
“......”
“Which of them do you think is your body deity?”
“I think it’s the Mountain Spirit Lord.”
“Wrong.”
“Then... the Immortal Grandmother?”
Chae-rin asked. The Immortal Grandmother was, after all, among the highest-ranked of ancestral spirits.
“That’s wrong too.”
“Then... the Dragon Spirit Lord?”
“No.”
“......”
“I’m afraid all the gods appearing as your body deity, Aegibosal, are nothing but false spirits.”
“What? Even the Mountain Spirit Lord and the Dragon Spirit Lord?”
“Yes.”
“Then my body deity is...?”
“I’ll find your real body deity.”
Jjarararararang.
Kang-to’s Chilseokgu poured out the vibration of a god. The false spirits began to panic. The vibration from the Chilseokgu rose higher and higher, until at last it was tuned to the same frequency as the Nine Heavens Maiden’s rank, and the false spirits began to tremble with fear.
The Nine Heavens Maiden.
A supreme deity of the celestial realm at level 9,000. The mountain and ancestral gods crowding around Aegibosal could hardly even be called the same kind of beings, and the false spirits collapsed at the mere sign of such majesty.
“O-bong, Nine Heavens Maiden, ggeup-gyeo-yul-ryeong.”
As the Chilseokgu’s ringing reached its peak, it became almost a silence. Into that silence, Kang-to’s incantation flowed. Then Jeonghae Shinjang, carrying the stern command of the Nine Heavens Maiden, descended. The deities of the six jing host were the Maiden’s messengers. The false spirits around Aegibosal were at the three- to four-thousand level, so they knew better than to challenge them, but they also knew their names.
Jeonghae Shinjang were messengers of All or Nothing. If they knelt, they lived; if a false spirit resisted, it was killed without further discussion.
“Hwoooor...”
Overwhelmed by that majesty, the false spirits one by one left Aegibosal’s side.
Hwoong.
The cleanup was over in an instant. As the blade of annihilation sliced through the empty air, even the impurities clinging to the false spirits vanished. Then, into the purified space, a true deity descended.
“Open your eyes. Your real body deity has arrived, so you should welcome them.”
At Kang-to’s words, Chae-rin opened her eyes.
“......?”
Blue waves rippled through her gaze at once. The deity who had descended into her was none other than the Dragon Emperor Great Deity.
“Ah... you truly are my body deity?”
Chae-rin’s voice trembled.
The Dragon Emperor Great Deity was a heavenly god at level 7,000. He was no match for Kang-to’s Nine Heavens Maiden, but compared to the trash spirits that had been hovering around Aegibosal until now, he was beyond comparison. A proper heavenly god—more than that, not a mere five or six thousand, but a supreme being of seven thousand.
“How...?”
Chae-rin bowed her head. Something unbelievable, something she had never dared to dream of, had just happened.
The reason was the shaman who had presided over the initiation. He, too, was a shaman who served a body deity of the four-thousand level. Because he lacked the ability to properly discern the swarming false spirits during the initiation, he had let them in and seated them as if they were the body deity.
Only then did the fever and pain that had inhabited Chae-rin’s limbs begin to vanish. It felt as though the clouds packed inside her body were finally clearing away.
“Ah... Beopsa Kang-to, how can I ever repay this kindness...”
Aegibosal expressed her gratitude with the utmost reverence.
Jjararang.
Kang-to’s Chilseokgu gave off one more clear resonance.
It was a blessing sent toward Yoon Chae-rin, Aegibosal, who had suffered from receiving the wrong false spirits.
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