The Price of the Forbidden (3)
The god-class spirit stared at Asin, chilled by her menacing words.
His eyes trembled.
As his reason slowly returned, he reached out and deliberately let himself be pricked.
No blood spilled.
Instead, a faint aura of light leaked from the wound.
The god-class spirit gasped softly, then closed his eyes.
He extinguished the rage that had blinded him—the fury born from the betrayal of his most cherished child.
He washed away the humiliation that had festered within him during his confinement by that strange power, despite his status as a god.
He buried the profound self-reproach that pierced his heart—the guilt of knowing what his child was doing but failing to stop her.
His form shrank, growing smaller and smaller, until he stepped through the door and bowed his head to Asin.
“...I am sorry. I was blinded by a terrible betrayal.”
Perhaps he was afraid, but sensing the sincerity in his apology, Asin withdrew her power.
The god-class spirit walked over and stood before Noel.
Noel’s brow was arched.
His expression practically asked, What do you want now?
“I apologize.”
The god-class spirit bowed even lower to Noel than he had to Asin.
Seeing that the spirit looked ready to drop to his knees, Noel’s sharp expression softened slightly.
“Though I was blinded, I uttered words that should never have been spoken. I cannot fathom the depth of the hurt I caused you, but I will continue to apologize until you find it in your heart to forgive me.”
“Oh, really? Then I guess you’ll have to visit often to prove you mean it.”
Noel spoke sarcastically, but the god-class spirit did not raise his head.
Instead, he bowed even lower.
“Indeed. I shall offer my sincerest apologies whenever you wish.”
He’s a god-class spirit, so this must be a massive blow to his pride. But he’s actually apologizing?
Noel let out a long sigh.
When someone humbled themselves to this extent, it was only right to accept it.
As a god-class spirit, he would understand the weight of his words better than anyone.
“I’ll accept your apology, so raise your head.”
“Thank you for... freeing me. You were right. Those were the first words I should have spoken.”
When the god-class spirit raised his head, he wore the face of a kindly old grandfather, which made Noel feel strangely uncomfortable.
Noel toyed with his lower lip.
“Because of that strange power, I could not even utter a plea for help. You are the one who saved me, and I must also express my gratitude to the Mountain God who aided you.”
“You know about that too?”
How did he figure that out?
Noel was secretly surprised.
“I smell the scent of flowers on you. It seems the Mountain God holds you in high regard.”
“He promised to buy me a cell phone. That’s probably why.”
Noel was also planning to buy him a hand-crank generator so he could charge it himself.
He could crank it himself.
“...Is that true?”
“Are you jealous? Since you won’t be bound to anything anymore, why don’t you wander around and take some photos too?”
Noel wondered what kind of reward this god-class spirit would give him.
He asked with a hint of anticipation, but the only response was a sigh.
The god-class spirit turned his gaze toward the shaman.
Sparks of fire crackled at his fingertips, and his body trembled with a sudden surge of anger, but his shoulders quickly slumped.
“...I shall seek you out later. As you said, what is there left to bind me? I plan to wander for a while. If I could not even properly guide my own child, how could I hope to resolve the affairs of others?”
“Did you cherish her deeply?”
Asin asked the god-class spirit gently.
“Of all the many children who have passed through my care over the years, she was the one I loved most. She used to understand the hearts of the sorrowful so deeply.”
“I, too, understand your heart. How devastating it must be.”
“Guardian Deity, thank you. And thank you for opening my eyes to my own foolishness.”
The god-class spirit smiled sincerely.
He turned his head to look at Noel.
“You may go first. It seems I have much to say to her.”
With a wave of the god-class spirit’s hand, the shaman’s lips were unsealed.
However, she still could not stand.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I lost my mind and did something I never should have done!”
Noel scoffed at her desperate pleas.
What was the point of begging for forgiveness now?
“Hey. Earlier, you asked who this person standing next to me was, right?”
Noel said, staring straight at the shaman.
Her eyes shook.
She must have sensed the looming dread.
“He’s a Grim Reaper. Nice to meet him, right?”
At Noel’s introduction, Jinhon waved his hand.
“...W-what?”
The shaman gasped, her breath catching in her throat.
A Grim Reaper.
No matter how skilled or powerful a shaman was, how could anyone escape death?
Glaring at Noel as if she wanted to stab him on the spot, the shaman shrieked in fury.
“You... You brought that here?! How... How?!”
“What kind of nonsense is that? How could I possibly summon a Grim Reaper? Mind your manners in front of such a fair and just official.”
“Indeed. There is no Reaper more just than I. I have even received the ‘Fairness Award’ in the Underworld.”
Jinhon boasted proudly.
Receiving an award was proof enough of his integrity.
“I don’t know why you’re looking for someone else to blame. Heaven is furious at your horrific deeds.”
Noel let out a scoffing laugh and pointed a finger upward.
“No! What did I do wrong? What on earth did I—”
“Your biological child was sick, so you used the children you adopted and swore to protect as scapegoats.”
“...”
The shaman gasped.
“Did you think you wouldn’t get caught? If even I knew, did you really think your god wouldn’t?”
As Noel spoke, the god-class spirit let out a heavy, sorrowful sigh.
Was he grieving because he had known but had been powerless to stop it?
“Your god will inflict the most agonizing divine punishment upon you. He might make it so you cannot even die.”
“...How did you know?”
The god-class spirit was genuinely surprised.
“If she dies, it ends too quickly. That’s not a punishment. There is Hell in the afterlife, but the living world can be quite a hell too, can’t it? It’s only fair to make her experience both.”
As Noel replied, the shaman turned her head in the direction he was looking.
Her god was standing right there.
In other words, Noel’s words were absolute truth.
“...Grandfather. Please don’t abandon me. I... I was wrong.”
The shaman stared at the god-class spirit.
She wanted to beg, but her body refused to move.
“My child... is sick. They said he might die if he doesn’t get his medicine. That’s why... I needed money. A lot of money. So much of it.”
The moment she had heard her child might die, she had felt suffocated.
And it had never stopped.
Even when she breathed, she didn’t feel alive.
She had to do something.
She had crossed the line, knowing full well she shouldn’t.
Her child wasn’t supposed to have this fate.
She had been told he would live a long life.
So why?
The question spun endlessly in her mind.
“...You clearly said he would live a long life. Grandfather, you said so. So why is it different now?”
“He was entirely accurate.”
Noel interjected, and the shaman stared at him with hollow, vacant eyes.
“He would have lived a long life. Right up until someone committed a forbidden act. Why do you think the Grim Reaper is here?”
Noel’s words carried a heavy, ominous weight.
Would the price of committing a forbidden deed fall only upon the perpetrator?
Of course not.
“...Ah.”
A soft gasp escaped her lips as her eyes glazed over.
She tried to deny it, but she was instantly swallowed by an even deeper abyss of despair.
“Aaaaargh!”
The shaman shrieked.
Veins bulged on her neck as she screamed in pure agony, over and over.
Yet, not a single soul looked upon her with pity.
It was nothing but karma.
“Living in horror while bound by a curse must be a truly miserable existence. You won’t be able to die, and the things you dread most will haunt your dreams, constantly flashing before your eyes and whispering in your ears. That is the nature of this curse.”
He wasn’t exactly lying.
Curses did have similar side effects, after all.
Hallucinations and auditory illusions were practically standard features.
But none of that mattered to the shaman right now.
The very actions she had taken to save her child had ended up killing him instead.
What kind of hallucinations and whispers would torment her from now on?
“...Don’t do this. Please, don’t do this.”
“If you want it lifted, bring me fifty million won. I won’t lower the price by a single cent.”
Fifty million won.
The shaman’s eyes trembled.
“Why... why are you doing this to me?! What did I ever do to you?! This is the first time we’ve ever met! The very first time!”
“Then what about you? What did those children do wrong to deserve being thrown into an abyss of despair? Did you ask for their opinion?”
“That was...”
“You didn’t.”
Having her hypocrisy laid bare, the shaman could only tremble, her lips twitching.
“Someone had to set things right, and this time, it just happened to be me. I absolutely despise this kind of behavior.”
The act of casually sacrificing others’ lives for one’s own survival reminded him of the Empire’s Emperor, making him grind his teeth in anger.
That was why he had willingly let himself be swept into the flow of fate this time.
Even if it hadn’t been him, someone else would have eventually come to resolve this.
“You should have stopped when your god warned you. If you hold human lives hostage just to save your own child, you should have known that an even greater price would come back to crush you.”
This shaman had served a respectable god-class spirit and had a good reputation among the local ghosts.
With her vast knowledge, she must have known better than anyone that this was a forbidden act.
“You should have prayed more fervently to your god instead. He would have pitied you and granted what you desired.”
Noel looked down at the weeping shaman as if she were utterly foolish.
“Your assessment is entirely correct. Would I... have merely stood by and watched? That child did not trust me. My ties with her end here.”
The god-class spirit now accepted everything calmly.
He only felt pity for the adopted children now.
“Will you bring the children who were used as scapegoats to me? I know where they are.”
“That’s easy enough.”
When Noel gave him a look of subtle expectation, the god-class spirit stepped forward and tightly grasped Noel’s hand.
Instantly, a torrent of fire swirled around Noel.
Noel stood dazed by the sudden phenomenon.
It was astonishing, but he felt no heat at all.
“It is fine.”
Asin swiftly caught the lunging Kkamangi and stroked its back.
“But fire is dangerous!”
“That fire is harmless.”
“...Is this really okay?”
Noel asked the god-class spirit, feeling a bit dazed.
He had received blessings from the swallow deity Jebi and the Mountain God before, but this felt different.
It was massive.
“Since you saved me, it is only right. It will surely aid you, so please accept it. From this day forth, fire shall never harm you.”
The god-class spirit smiled gently.
Just hearing it, wasn’t it incredible?
It sounded like a permanent blessing.
“What did you see...?”
Noel asked, slightly taken aback.
Had he seen the future?
“Indeed. I owe you a great debt. This is only natural, so do not worry.”
Despite the god-class spirit’s words, Noel was still a bit bewildered.
He hadn’t expected a reward of this magnitude.
He figured that given the spirit’s high rank, he’d get something decent, but...
...Isn’t this a bit too generous?
Then again, it wasn’t as if he had ever received anything from ghosts in his original world.
He had barely received proper compensation from living humans, let alone spirits.
This world is truly bizarre.
Noel hid his confusion.
In his old world, the best-case scenario after completing a request was not getting reported to the authorities and receiving a stale crust of bread.
On the rare, incredibly rare occasions someone actually put money in his hand, he had been profoundly grateful.
“Excuse me. I’m going to step in for a moment!”
Jinhon quickly raised a hand.
As the god-class spirit and Asin nodded, Jinhon rolled up his sleeves slightly.
He approached the shaman and tapped her forehead.
Her eyes went vacant.
Mind manipulation.
It made sense for a guide of the dead to have such a technique for emergencies.
If his guess was correct, it would work on ghosts as well.
Though Jinhon seemed to walk on eggshells around spirits due to some underworld protocol.
“The power used to suppress the god is not yours. Correct?”
Jinhon questioned her to piece together the case.
There was definitely something foreign in that room filled with countless talismans.
“...Yes. That is correct.”
“Where did you obtain it?”
“On my way back from the hospital... I felt a strange energy. It felt like the power of the dead, yet also not. I was drawn to it as if possessed, and it offered to help me.”
“Did you see what they looked like?”
“...I cannot remember. They only told me that if I offered a sacrifice, I could temporarily suppress my god. It was a highly ominous entity.”
“And yet you accepted it?”
“Yes... I needed money. So much of it. I knew... I knew all too well that Grandfather would never allow it.”
Listening to the shaman’s confession, Jinhon clapped his hands together.
Clap.
Clarity returned to the shaman’s eyes.
Unaware of what had just transpired, she fell right back into her despair and screamed.
The sphere from earlier had necromancy mixed into it, but it couldn’t maintain its full power.
Noel thought quietly.
To put it simply, whoever made it was likely unable to utilize their full power, just like him.
But how are they using necromancy?
If they were alive, they could use the power fully, but if they were dead, utilizing it completely was impossible.
Did they forcibly possess someone to control their body?
Was there another soul among the dead who had crossed worlds like him?
As his hypotheses threatened to spiral into endless speculation, he cut off his train of thought.
There were more important matters at hand right now.
“Mr. Grim Reaper. How do you plan to handle this case?”
Noel asked Jinhon.
You had to face things directly to truly understand them.
If the Underworld got involved, wouldn’t things become much easier?
“Interfering with a god is a grave offense, regardless of anything else.”
“Does that mean you can intervene?”
“Yes. We receive a great deal of assistance from various deities and shamans. In truth, they are indispensable when it comes to guiding the deceased. Since we share a symbiotic relationship, disrupting this balance affects the Underworld as well. I intend to report this matter to my superior.”
“And who is your superior?”
Since Jinhon was a team leader, was he referring to a department head?
“King Yeomra. The supreme judge of the Underworld.”
Jinhon uttered the name with solemn gravity.