It's Not a Threat
Who on earth threatens someone like this?
A real threat involves grabbing the opponent by the scruff of their neck so tightly they can't even breathe, moving only when you have absolute leverage.
"First, I have a question."
At Noel's question, Hae-in's eyes narrowed slightly.
"...Go ahead and ask."
"A couple of guests must have booked a session here. Their names are Lee Sang-won and Hwang Ju-ho. Why don't you check your list?"
Lee Sang-won was the man Hwang Ju-ho had tried to scam through a business deal.
And Hwang Ju-ho was a descendant of the family blessed by the Mountain God.
At Noel's words, Hae-in immediately grabbed her phone to check the reservation list.
She flinched in surprise.
Both of their names were clearly written there.
"There. Now you know exactly why I've come to find you, right?"
Hae-in's pupils trembled at Noel's remark.
Knowing why he came meant he also knew the exact reason behind it.
"Was it delicious?"
At Noel's sudden, probing question, Hae-in squeezed her eyes shut.
She knew the moment of reckoning had finally arrived.
"Just how much did they line your pockets with?"
Noel asked with a playful, teasing smirk.
"I didn't... do it on purpose."
"I'm sure you didn't."
"...You said you knew my true identity."
"Ah, so the other party was too big to be bought off with hush money?"
According to what Kkamang-i had gathered, this Hae-in woman usually settled things with bribes whenever her scams were exposed.
"He used to be a journalist! He threatened to expose everything!"
"So you decided to ruin a man's life instead? Knowing full well he would lose all his life savings and retirement fund just two years before his retirement?"
"..."
Hae-in bit her lip.
"Hey, don't look so glum. This isn't a threat. I'm just stating the facts. I honestly don't know how you managed to backstab people all this time with such a weak heart."
Noel continued to beam brightly.
Hae-in's eyes narrowed even further.
If this wasn't a threat, what on earth was?
She realized that neither money nor anything else would work on a person like him.
It was simply over.
"...Sigh."
Hae-in let out a long, heavy sigh.
It seemed this was the end of the line.
She had held on stubbornly for so long.
Divine energy? What a joke.
She had scraped together absolutely nothing to climb to this position, but she really should have just given up back then.
The day she always knew would come had simply arrived.
"Do you... need evidence?"
Hae-in openly displayed her irritation.
What was the point of hiding anything now that it was all over?
"She has surrendered. It seems you have kicked away her final pillar of support," Asin murmured, clicking her tongue.
Did I do it on purpose?
It was just a coincidence that everything aligned so perfectly.
To be honest, Hae-in probably knew better than anyone that a day like this would eventually come.
But now was not the time for such idle thoughts.
Noel quickly held out his hand.
"I'd love that. Hand it over. I absolutely adore quick responses like this."
"What else do you need?"
"Wow, you're willing to help me with something else? Well, I won't say no to that."
Noel immediately held up two fingers.
"...Ha."
Hae-in was utterly flabbergasted by his sheer shamelessness.
"First, give me the evidence."
It's not like I owed him this, Hae-in thought.
Hae-in scrolled through her phone screen with her thumb before thrusting it toward him.
"Here. Take a picture of it. Go on!"
On the screen, instructions were clearly laid out, detailing how certain reservations were to be kept secret and exactly what script she was supposed to feed them.
Click.
"Yes, yes. This is excellent."
"Are we done? Now leave. I'm going to... send the remaining clients away and close down the shop."
"A wise decision. Clinging to that ghost would only eat away at your life. After all, that thing is no god."
It is no god.
At those cruel words, Hae-in bit her lip.
"You already knew, didn't you? You never had any divine connection or spiritual power to begin with."
"...Just go."
"I will, but since you offered to help me with two things, let's get right to it."
"...What?"
"I have another matter to resolve. The target seems to blindly believe in another shaman, so I figured it might be a bit tricky to handle alone. This works out perfectly."
And best of all, it wouldn't cost him a single penny.
That was the part Noel loved the most.
"...Excuse me?"
Hae-in's eyes widened.
She stared at him, wondering what kind of nonsense he was spouting now.
"You know what happens when someone blindly believes in shamanism, don't you?"
"Of course I do."
"Which is why I need a shill. And you, Seo Hae-in, are perfect for the job. Think of it as doing a good deed before you close up shop."
"But why on earth should I—"
"Once words leave your mouth, they're set in stone. Unless you can somehow swallow them back down? You can't, right? Then you have to keep your promise. And remember, I told you I haven't even threatened you yet."
"Ha...!"
She was utterly speechless.
Hae-in narrowed her eyes and shot him a sharp glare.
"Fine. Yes. I can't take back my words. What's the second thing? Just so you know, I don't have any money to give you, and I'm not doing any more dirty work."
"It's nothing like that. I'm still a rookie in this industry, so I just need you to answer my questions whenever I have them. Simple, right?"
Noel thrust his phone in front of her face.
Sigh.
Hae-in let out another scoff of disbelief, but her fingers moved to type in her phone number.
"I'll wait until you clear out the shop. How many minutes do you need?"
Noel stretched his legs out and swung them back and forth.
...Is he out of his mind?
"Don't curse at me with your eyes. I can exorcise that ghost clinging to you for a very reasonable price, so contact me later if you're interested."
At Noel's offer, Hae-in opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it and simply walked out.
It seemed she was truly going to dismiss her clients.
How did someone with that personality manage to pull off scams all this time?
As if reading Noel's mind, Asin voiced the exact same thought in agreement.
"It is indeed a marvel how one with such a temperament managed to go about swindling others."
Noel nodded in agreement, then turned his gaze to the ghost cowering in the corner.
"Consider yourself lucky today. Otherwise, you would've been sliced to pieces."
"Heavenly Maiden Bodhisattva."
Because of the shop's name, he had assumed the ghost would be female, but it was actually a man.
What an absurd setup.
"...Shaman-nim."
"Polite all of a sudden? And I haven't even hit you yet. Why? Do you miss playing god? Leave while I'm still speaking nicely."
"It is not that... Please, help me!"
"Why should I? Did you enjoy playing god that much?"
"No, that is not it. Hae-in is a real... a real, genuine shaman."
Huh?
Noel scratched his ear.
That fraudulent shaman?
"Hae-in comes from a true shamanic lineage. Her grandmother was a shaman."
Ah. They say shamanic gifts run in the blood, often skipping a generation.
Noel had learned this bit of trivia from watching online videos.
Usually, if a grandmother was a shaman, there was a high probability that her granddaughter would inherit the calling.
"To prevent that inheritance, her grandmother committed an act that should never have been done," the ghost said, prostrating himself.
Asin listened to the ghost's confession with a grave expression.
"And what was that act?"
"While serving her own deity, she begged another god... to sever the lineage."
"...Ah."
As Asin let out a heavy sigh, Noel couldn't help but ask.
"What's wrong? Is there a problem with that?"
"It is a betrayal of the deity one serves. It is no different from exposing the family's private affairs to an outsider. Such an act could bring a curse upon the entire lineage. A deity's curse is terribly cruel... Why would she do such a thing?"
Asin spoke with a deep frown.
She looked genuinely appalled.
Which meant the curse was truly that dreadful.
He's not asking me to stop a divine curse, is he?
Noel raised an eyebrow.
"So, what happened? Did she succeed?" Asin pressed the ghost.
"I do not know. I only know that the other deity took pity on her and shrouded Hae-in's eyes. So that she could never perceive the god her family had served for generations."
"To force her to abandon the path of a shaman, another deity diminished the child's spiritual sight. Then what of you? How is it that you occupy the seat of her god?"
Asin's questioning gaze turned back to the ghost.
If another deity had intervened, why would they allow a mere low-grade spirit to be enshrined as a god?
"That deity said a substitute was needed to fill the vacant seat of worship. Someone who was not an evil spirit, yet possessed heavy sins... a wretched soul."
The ghost hesitated for a moment as he spoke.
It was because of his own past transgressions.
"So, you are saying you are intentionally defiling her, so that her family's deity would never dare approach her?"
The vessel that served a deity had to remain pure.
What god would wish to descend upon a defiled vessel?
They had clearly exploited that very nature.
"Yes. I have only done as that deity commanded."
"And? You're not about to ask me some ridiculous favor like blocking a divine curse, are you?"
Noel couldn't hold back any longer.
Even if it were possible, why on earth should he do it?
"No, it is not that."
"Then what?"
"I wish for you to tell Hae-in the truth."
"To someone who is about to leave this industry for good?"
Wouldn't it be better to just keep quiet?
"I may have deceived Hae-in, but now, I truly wish for her happiness. Hae-in sincerely wants to be a shaman."
"Why...? What's so great about this life?"
Noel couldn't understand it.
If he could rid himself of this wretched power, he would have done so long ago.
Whether it was shamanism or necromancy, it was never a path to a happy life.
"I do not know either. I do not understand why Hae-in's grandmother went so far as to shoulder all that karma just to beg that deity to sever the lineage. But... I suspect the god her family served was not a benevolent one."
"If it's not a benevolent god, don't you realize how contradictory it is to tell her the truth?"
"...I know. I know it all too well. But I can no longer bear to watch Hae-in cross lines she should never cross, all because of me."
The ghost's voice grew thick with emotion.
Far from becoming a good shaman, she couldn't even become a proper shaman at all.
And that was why Hae-in had fallen so low.
"I thought about it countless times... If she could just cast me aside and receive that deity—the one I serve—instead..."
"I understand your heart, but unless the deity her family once served relinquishes its claim, such a thing is nigh impossible," Asin pointed out the harsh reality.
Deities manifested through shamans to look upon the mortal world.
They used the shaman's mouth to guide humans onto the right path.
What an immense amount of spiritual merit that accumulated.
It was not something a deity would easily give up.
"It's pretty hilarious, honestly. Deciding all of this behind her back."
Noel pointed out the most crucial flaw.
Hae-in's spiritual sight had been forcibly sealed, and perhaps as a consequence, she couldn't even hear the voice of this ghost.
Her grandmother betraying the family deity.
Another deity shrouding Hae-in's eyes.
Preventing the family deity from reaching Hae-in.
They all claimed it was for Hae-in's own sake, but her own will was nowhere to be found in any of it.
In a way, she was nothing more than a victim caught in the crossfire.
"I can tell Seo Hae-in the truth. But the choice isn't yours to make. It's not up to the deity you serve, and it's certainly not up to Hae-in's grandmother either. No matter what, don't overstep your bounds. Do you still want me to tell her?"
"...Yes. I do not wish to deceive her any longer."
"Fine. That dilemma isn't mine to worry about either. But you'll have to help me out later."
"Of course. I will do everything in my power to assist you."
Noel turned his head at the sound of the door opening.
Hae-in walked back in, huffing with irritation.
"Let's go. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible."
"I'll tell you an interesting story on the way."
"I'm only helping you with two things."
Hae-in refused to be swayed any further.
She drew a firm line.
"I heard your grandmother was a shaman, Seo Hae-in-ssi."
"...How did you know that?"
"Suddenly got your interest, didn't I?"
Noel stood up from his seat.
Looking at Hae-in, who was practically begging for answers, Noel pointed toward the exit.
"I'll tell you on the way. Now, let's go to work."
With a bright smile, Noel strolled out of the shop.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The woman habitually patted her inner pocket.
The talisman was there.
She had been told she must keep it on her person for several years to avoid the curse.
...I need this. I can't lose it.
Otherwise, she might be plagued once again by those horrific nightmares and auditory hallucinations that made her skin crawl just thinking about them.
And it wasn't just the voices.
She could still feel the bone-chilling sensation of something grabbing her ankles.
...I'm sorry, Teacher Arin.
Glancing down at her ankles out of lingering habit, the woman headed toward the bus stop.
At the bus stop, which should have been quiet now that the students had all left, two people were sitting.
Were they siblings?
Her eyes were drawn strangely to the younger one.
Just as she was about to pull out her wireless earbuds to ignore them, a voice pierced through the air.
"You have a talisman on you."
Had she misheard?
The woman stared blankly at the boy.
"It's going to be dangerous if you don't throw that away."
Noel kindly warned Arin's colleague.
He wasn't just bluffing.
He had come here with Hae-in, only to stumble upon something truly shocking.
That talisman was never meant to protect her in the first place.
In fact, it was something that should never have been used.