The King of Steel
Se-ah let out a deep sigh. It wasn’t often that the always bright and energetic Jeong Se-a sighed like this. So why was she sighing on a golden weekend like this?
Was it because her part-time job at the cafe had turned out different from what she originally intended? No, that wasn’t it. Although things hadn’t gone exactly as she wanted, Se-a had actually grown to like the cafe job quite a bit and felt rather satisfied. There were so many new things to learn—brewing coffee, making drinks, and more—and Se-a, who loved the joy of learning, found it genuinely fun. Plus, the owner was kind, so she thought the part-time work was far more manageable than she’d expected.
Then was it simply because the job was tiring? Well, that was partly true. Ever since Se-a started working weekends at Cafe Idea, the place had seen a huge surge in weekend customers. Quite a few were her friends, but many more were complete strangers. The owner had even commented that the number of male customers had skyrocketed since she started. With more customers came heavier workloads, so yes, it was exhausting. But that wasn’t the root cause of her sigh.
The real reason Se-a was letting out such a heavy sigh sat at that table over there. A group of familiar faces had gathered. There was her best friend Se-hwan, along with Seol-hwa and San, who helped him with his exorcism work. That part was fine. She’d seen that sight before, and it wasn’t enough to make her sigh now.
‘But….’
However…
‘Who the hell is that woman?!?!’
Today there was one extra person. Long black hair and reddish-brown eyes that carried an even stronger Eastern charm than Seol-hwa or San. Maybe it was the black hair, but she also gave off a purer, more innocent impression than the other two.
It was an old story now, but Se-hwan had once said something like this. When Se-a was talking about an idol she was into lately and the conversation turned to appearance compliments, he’d said:
After that, Se-a had deliberately grown her hair out for a long time and refused to even look at hair dye. It lasted well beyond “a while”—pretty much throughout all of high school, actually.
Anyway, to Se-a’s eyes, the woman who had appeared this time matched that image almost perfectly. That was why she kept sighing even though it didn’t suit her at all. It was already nerve-wracking enough that women kept appearing around Se-hwan… and every single one of them was a beauty she couldn’t compete with, even with her own confidence in her looks.
‘God, if you really exist, isn’t this a bit much…? Why do you keep testing me like this?’
Se-a was sighing over her increasingly difficult situation when—
“Tired?”
“…Yeah, it’s tough… Huh? No, I’m fine!”
At some point Se-hwan had walked up to the counter. He looked at her for a moment, then smiled lightly.
“It suits you. Now I get why there are so many customers.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Way better than me. The owner must be thrilled.”
The compliment instantly lifted Se-a’s sunken mood. Before she knew it, she was grinning like an idiot. Seeing her like that, Se-hwan said,
“How starved for compliments were you? You’re smiling so wide.”
“…It’s because I’ve been working hard.”
“Yeah, thanks for working in my place.”
“If you know that, then do better.”
The words slipped out before Se-a could stop herself. She realized what she’d said a beat too late and quickly covered her mouth in shock.
“Ah, no, I was just kidding.”
“Want me to buy you dinner?”
“Huh?”
“If you hadn’t taken this spot, I wouldn’t have been able to quit so quickly. So yeah, you’re suffering on my behalf.”
Se-a was slightly surprised. Meanwhile, Se-hwan had already finished calculating the time and continued,
“Are you free tomorrow evening? I don’t have a shift here on Monday.”
“I-I’m free… Yeah, I’ve got plenty of time!!”
She actually had plans with friends tomorrow, but that didn’t matter. If she explained the situation, her friends would probably tell her not to come.
“Alright. Think about what you want to eat. Oh, and one iced Americano and one hot latte.”
“Ah, okay. What size?”
“Regular for both.”
After placing the order, Se-hwan returned to his table. The table he went back to was drawing every eye in the cafe. Three stunning women who would attract attention even individually, with one guy sitting right in the middle—it was impossible not to draw stares and envy.
But strangely, Se-a no longer felt bad about the sight. The unpleasant feeling from earlier had completely vanished. She was even humming a little tune as she made the coffee.
“It’s been a while since we had plans…”
Mondays were usually the worst, but today Se-a felt differently. She was so looking forward to tomorrow evening that she actually wished Monday would hurry up and arrive.
Even though I knew Jeong Se-a worked here, coming to Cafe Idea wasn’t my idea. Baek Seol-hwa and Jang San were the ones who suggested we come.
“So, have you thought about where you’ll stay?”
At Seol-hwa’s question, Ha Ye-ryeong answered simply.
“For now, I’ll probably stay at San’s place. I just need to find somewhere within a month.”
“You don’t have to stay there forever.”
“That’s right. Just as you said, Se-hwan.”
Ha Ye-ryeong continued, “I only need to submerge myself periodically. I won’t be becoming a dragon anymore.”
“…But are you really okay with that?”
“Weren’t you the one who suggested it, Se-hwan? Getting cold feet now?”
“Losing your life’s purpose… The sense of loss would be no joke.”
It was the same for humans. There were people who took their own lives after losing their goals or purpose in life. Those things were incredibly important for any living being. For an imugi whose entire purpose was to become a dragon, it would be even more so. She might be fine now, but I worried she might fall into depression later.
When I said as much, Ha Ye-ryeong took a sip of her coffee and smiled softly.
“You’re kind, Se-hwan.”
“I just said what was obvious.”
“But there’s no proper way for me to become a dragon anymore. To do so, I’d have to settle in one place and wait another thousand years… Finding a suitable location outside my original territory is difficult. And you know a legend is required, right?”
“Yeah.”
One of the reasons it was so hard for an imugi to become a dragon was that the people around the area had to be aware of the imugi’s existence. Since dragons were recognized as divine beings that granted human wishes, both humans and the imugi itself had to desire it for ascension to occur.
That was also why corrupted imugi appeared so often. Once legends about their existence spread among humans, they faced constant interference. Just look at how Ye-ryeong had fallen into becoming a yeongno—her legend had weakened and curses had spread, turning her into that.
“There probably aren’t enough people who would believe in me, either.”
“I’m not too familiar with this, but roughly how many people do you need?”
“At least enough for a small town to recognize my existence.”
By old standards, that meant a province, prefecture, county, or district. Even taking the smallest district, that would be around twenty thousand people or fewer…
“…So how many exactly?”
“At least three thousand? That’s the absolute minimum.”
“That many people were aware of your existence?”
“Whether they believe it’s true or false doesn’t matter. They just need to know that ‘there’s a story about an imugi living in the pond.’”
“Hmm.”
That was quite a peculiar condition. Maybe because it involved becoming a divine dragon, the requirements were incredibly strict.
That was when Seol-hwa spoke up.
“There’s an old story like that, right? An imugi became a dragon after someone called it one. If people recognize Ye-ryeong as a dragon, wouldn’t that make her one?”
I knew the story she meant. But if it were that easy, every imugi would have become a dragon long ago.
“That’s the story of an imugi that had already lived its full thousand years and gathered enough spiritual energy in its yeouiju.”
“Ah…”
“Exactly. I’ve only lived about five hundred years. Since I left Hwangji Pond, the spiritual energy I gathered will keep dissipating… It’ll probably be faster to just start over.”
Ha Ye-ryeong let out a small, bitter laugh as she said it. A thousand years was by no means short for a spiritual beast. In fact, it was incredibly long. After a thousand years, imugi ascend as dragons, and other creatures undergo similar transformations. A nine-tailed fox that hunts normally for a thousand years becomes a white-faced golden-furred fox. A turtle becomes a spiritual tortoise. A phoenix that cultivates for a thousand years and attains enlightenment becomes a vermilion bird. There were countless legends about becoming a higher being after a millennium.
Which meant a thousand years was an extraordinarily long time even for yokai. Asking Ha Ye-ryeong to start that entire process over from the beginning was incredibly cruel. I knew it was a path she had chosen herself, but if there was any way I could help her, I wanted to.
‘…This basically means there’s no real solution.’
While Seol-hwa, San, and I were all steeped in sympathy, Ha Ye-ryeong suddenly spoke.
“Oh, right. I contacted Jujak last night.”
“Huh?”
Jujak… That would be the King of Steel?
“Yeah. I even posted my statement on the gallery.”
Seol-hwa spoke as if she had already seen the gallery. It seemed she had honestly explained the whole situation.
“How did people react?”
“To Jujak? Or to my statement?”
“Both, actually.”
“The statement itself… Since it ended with me stepping down, there wasn’t much of a reaction. I also told them through Jujak that the yokai I consumed had crossed over from another land.”
“I see.”
“That’s why the gallery atmosphere is pretty bad right now.”
Jang San suddenly shoved her phone screen toward us.
“…It really is a total mess.”
Ha Ye-ryeong let out a dry laugh.
“I was actually thinking of hiding where that maegu came from, but… Jujak told me to just say it.”
“Hmm.”
So he could control the gallery’s mood that easily? Or did he think this information needed to be shared with everyone? Either way…
“He really doesn’t hold back, this Jujak guy.”
“That’s just how he is. Maybe it’s only natural.”
“Is Jujak… a yokai too?”
“Mm, yes.”
Ha Ye-ryeong nodded, then added something as if she shouldn’t really be saying it.
“He might be the strongest yokai in this land.”
“…What?”
A Great Yokai? An unpleasant memory surfaced. The scar I got in high school started to throb. When I frowned slightly, Ha Ye-ryeong must have misunderstood because she quickly said,
“I’m sorry, Se-hwan. That probably wasn’t pleasant to hear. From a human’s perspective, a yokai like that would be nothing but trouble…”
“…No, it’s not because of that.”
It was awkward to bring up how badly I’d been injured before, so I kept my mouth shut. The three of them looked puzzled, but thankfully they didn’t press the issue.
Instead, Jang San asked Ha Ye-ryeong,
“So what did Jujak say about this situation? He basically set you up to go on a rampage. He’ll probably do the same to other yokai, so we need to prepare.”
“Actually, Jujak… um.”
Ha Ye-ryeong suddenly became very careful with her words. She glanced at me, Seol-hwa, and San one by one, then dropped the information casually.
“He wants to meet. He said he’d like to hear the story directly from those involved. He asked me to bring all three of you.”
“…What?”
“Especially you, Se-hwan. He’s very curious about your story.”
“You told him about me?”
“I had to. I needed to explain how I suddenly returned to being an imugi.”
That… was true. Aside from sacred beasts or divine spirits, only an exorcist could restore a corrupted spiritual beast.
“Where is he?”
“Not too far from here. He’s in Changwon.”
“Changwon?”
Closer than I thought. The intercity bus from Busan to Changwon only took about an hour.
“Then shouldn’t we go today? You have school tomorrow anyway, Yoo Se-hwan.”
“School? You go to school, Se-hwan?”
“I’m in college.”
“An exorcist going to college? Don’t most exorcists start working full-time as soon as they become adults?”
“You know a lot about exorcists.”
I didn’t deny what Ha Ye-ryeong said. Normally, exorcists began their true work upon reaching adulthood. That was why I had started learning from my parents at nineteen.
“But you still go to school?”
“I do. I’m not an exorcist.”
“…Huh?”
Ha Ye-ryeong tilted her head, looking genuinely confused.
“You handle shikigami, you’re skilled with talismans, and you can even perform rituals… and you’re saying you’re not an exorcist?”
“I know how to do those things, but I don’t work as one.”
When I told her I wasn’t an exorcist, Ha Ye-ryeong looked at me with mild fascination. But instead of prying further, she simply nodded quietly.
“You must have your own circumstances.”
“…Anyway, today would be best. I’ll be busy again starting tomorrow.”
“Is it okay to just show up like this?” Seol-hwa asked. “Shouldn’t we at least let him know we’re coming?”
“It should be fine. He said we could come anytime.”
“But our timing might not match.”
“That probably won’t happen.”
“Huh?”
Did he have that much free time? Was he a rich NEET like Seol-hwa?
‘Wait a second…’
Come to think of it, I thought I’d seen something on the gallery before about Jujak being a corporate slave. Wouldn’t that mean the opposite?
“Doesn’t Jujak have a job…? Doesn’t he work at a company?”
“Yeah, he does. But his position isn’t tied to regular hours.”
“…Huh?”
What kind of company employee wasn’t bound by time?
“…Ah.”
I finally caught on, and it seemed Seol-hwa and San had realized it much earlier. Jujak, the King of Steel, was…
“…The chairman?”
It looked like he ran the company himself. When I asked if he was the chairman, Ha Ye-ryeong laughed lightly and waved her hand.
“It’s not big enough to call him chairman.”
“What kind of company is it?”
“IT. But now… it’s a unique company that runs the Ghost Gallery as a side business.”
“…He’s the one who created the Ghost Gallery?”
“Yes. He created it, runs it, and even made it usable for ghosts who can’t use regular phones. Technology has improved lately, so ghosts can now use not only the Ghost Gallery but also KakaoTalk.”
She must have been referring to those status windows that ghosts could see. So it wasn’t the King of Hell starting the Fifth Industrial Revolution in the afterlife—it was one yokai.
“Then we’re heading to Changwon right away, Se-hwan?”
“Yeah. Let’s meet him today and get it over with.”
I quickly finished the rest of my Americano, put the cup on a tray, and headed to the counter to return it. Jeong Se-a looked at me for a moment and asked,
“Se-hwan, you’re going to Changwon?”
She must have overheard. Was I talking too loud?
“Yeah, looks like it.”
“You’re… not staying overnight, right…?”
What was this about?
“I have school tomorrow. Why would I stay over? It’s not like I’m going there to play.”
“Ah.”
Jeong Se-a let out what sounded like a sigh of relief, then spoke to me with a much brighter expression.
“I can’t help with what you do… but I’ll cheer you on. And always be careful. You can’t get hurt like before.”
…This girl really knew how to hit where it hurt. But I knew she was saying it out of worry. That was just the kind of friend she was.
“Thanks. The coffee was great.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“But you’ll need to improve your skills. It tastes pretty different from this hyung’s coffee.”
“Ha, Yoo Se-hwan, I’m only in my second week. Get ready to be caught up to soon. The owner said if I stay one more month I’ll catch up to you.”
That much?
“The owner sure likes to exaggerate.”
“Just wait. We’ll compare tastes in a month.”
“A direct challenge? Fine. I’ll teach you a lesson. What kind of one-month newbie cafe part-timer thinks she can take on me?”
Coffee was made by machines according to set standards, but there was still skill involved. Following the exact specs gave a standard taste, but adjusting the amount of beans slightly could completely change the flavor. Our cafe wasn’t a strict chain that required exact measurements, so modifications based on experience were perfectly fine. Of course the total amount of coffee had to stay the same.
Even so, I had been working at Idea for nearly six months. There was no way a one-month rookie could catch up to me. Yet Jeong Se-a smiled with full confidence.
“Don’t you remember losing to me in one-on-one basketball after just one month?”
“That was a sport. You have crazy athletic reflexes. How am I supposed to beat an animal?”
“An animal?!”
“But this isn’t a sport, is it? Making good coffee isn’t done with athletic ability.”
“Yoo Se-hwan, you’re going to regret being so cocky.”
Both Se-a and I had quite the competitive streak in these areas. That was why we used to make so many bets. The one-on-one basketball match that had come up earlier was a perfect example.
“Want to make a bet then?”
“A bet?”
“You seem pretty confident. We used to bet on everything, remember?”
“Hmm.”
As expected, Se-a didn’t look like she would refuse. She put on a confident expression and said,
“What’s the reward?”
“Each of us grants the other one wish.”
“…Anything?”
“Well, as long as it’s not too difficult for the other person. We always kept it within reason, right?”
Se-a seemed to think for a moment. But I already knew the hesitation wouldn’t last long. Sure enough, she smiled brightly and accepted my proposal.
“Okay. Exactly one month from now. Since we’re granting each other a wish, don’t regret it later, Se-hwan.”
“You’re the one who’s going to regret it.”
“We’ll see~? No one knows how it’ll turn out!”
Se-a wore a very confident smile. It seemed the cafe part-time job suited her personality. I had been a little worried when she suddenly started working, but it looked like that worry was unnecessary.
…Well, that social butterfly could probably do well anywhere she was thrown.
“Yoo Se-hwan, let’s go!”
“Ah, right.”
“Be careful!”
“…This is the place?”
“Yes, it is.”
We left the cafe and headed straight to the intercity bus terminal, took the bus to Changwon, and arrived here. After getting off at the stop on Changwon-daero and walking for a few minutes, Ha Ye-ryeong told us we had arrived.
“This is the company Jujak runs.”
“…It’s pretty big. Is the entire building the headquarters?”
“Yes, it should be.”
…He really did seem more like a chairman than a boss.
“Shouldn’t we let them know we’re here?”
“Yeah, just a moment. I sent a message earlier… Ah, here it is.”
Ha Ye-ryeong checked her phone for a moment, then nodded as if permission had been granted.
“He says to come in. He’ll send a secretary down, so we just need to follow her.”
A secretary… He really was a chairman.
As Ha Ye-ryeong had said, a woman in a sharp suit soon walked out of the company building.
“Lady Ha Ye-ryeong, welcome. And these must be the guests who came with you.”
Her attire was one thing, but her highly intellectual appearance made the title of secretary suit her perfectly.
“Yes, it’s been a while, Miss Yoo Jeong.”
“The chairman asked me to escort you. Please follow me.”
The person who came to greet us was Secretary Han Yoo-jeong. I learned her title and name from the name tag proudly displayed on the left side of her suit jacket. By the way, she was in a suit while we were dressed way too casually. I was just wearing a thin spring t-shirt and simple jeans. If I had known we were coming to a big company, I should have dressed at least a little…
“…Hey, Yoo Se-hwan.”
“What?”
“That person is human.”
“…Oh.”
Now that she mentioned it, that was true. Even though she was the secretary to a yokai chairman, Han Yoo-jeong was an ordinary person with no unusual traits whatsoever.
‘Does she not know the chairman is a yokai?’
It was possible. Or maybe she knew and still chose to work for him. In the past I would have thought the latter was impossible, but after hearing Jang San’s story, I no longer thought that way. I had come to understand that humans would join hands with yokai if there was mutual benefit. Working as the secretary to the chairman of a company this size would probably come with a huge salary… so maybe she could overlook the fact that he was a yokai?
With a ding, the elevator arrived. We went all the way up to the ninth floor. Looking at the elevator buttons, the building had eleven floors, so it wasn’t the top floor, but it was still quite high up.
“This is it.”
“Can we just go in?”
“Yes. The chairman said he would like to speak with the guests privately, so I will wait outside.”
“I see.”
When Han Yoo-jeong opened the door, we saw a massive man standing with his back to us, looking out the large glass windows that surrounded the entire chairman’s office.
…Were those shoulders the Pacific Ocean? His build was enormous, and his upper body formed a perfect inverted triangle. However, his hair and beard couldn’t hide the passage of time—they had turned pure white, as if covered in frost.
“Hmm.”
He turned toward us. Seeing us, he smiled pleasantly and greeted us with a cheerful laugh.
“Haha, come in, everyone! I’m absolutely delighted that you’ve taken the trouble to visit.”
“I brought them like you asked.”
“Thank you, Ye-ryeong. It was good to ask you.”
“You’re… the King of Steel?”
At my question, he answered in a bright voice.
“I’m late with my introduction. I am Kim Kang-cheol, the developer and administrator of the Ghost Gallery, and the user of the old nickname ‘King of Steel.’”
…So that was why his username was King of Steel. His name was literally Kang-cheol.
“…Wait. Kang-cheol?”
“Oh, sharp as expected from an exorcist. Do you know who I am?”
“……”
King of Steel. Name: Kim Kang-cheol. At first glance it might have seemed like a simple play on words from his name, but knowing he wasn’t an ordinary person but a yokai, a different thought came to mind first. At the same time, I recalled what Ha Ye-ryeong had said earlier.
‘He might be the strongest yokai in this land.’
A yokai deeply connected to the word “steel” and strong enough to earn high praise from an imugi.
“…Steel?”
“Your insight is impressive.”
“The real Steel?”
“That is correct.”
……I think we might have come to the wrong place.
Steel was a bona fide “evil yokai.” He was an imugi who had been only days away from completing a thousand years of training to ascend, only to be corrupted by humans and fall while consumed by resentment. Naturally, he harbored deep hatred and loathing toward humans… and he had caused immense harm to them. Killing and devouring people was nothing unusual for him.
‘I do have a few talismans, but…’
Steel was different from other yokai. With a single breath he could set vegetation ablaze, and his yoki carried heat intense enough to dry up mountains and rivers. If that guy exhaled even once with his yoki, I would definitely die. The other three might survive a little longer thanks to their yeong-gi and spiritual energy, but…
‘I came to an incredibly dangerous place without thinking at all…’
When I tensed up, Kim Kang-cheol lightly waved his hand and said,
“Please don’t misunderstand, exorcist. I have absolutely no intention of harming you. On the contrary, I would prefer to have a pleasant conversation and send you on your way.”
At Kim Kang-cheol’s words, I relaxed a little. It wasn’t that I blindly believed him—I had thought it through and made my judgment.
“…If you had intended to kill me from the start, I would already be dead.”
Since he had more than enough power to do so, if he had called me here to kill me, I would have died the moment I stepped into the chairman’s office. When I pointed that out, Kim Kang-cheol nodded.
“Correct. If I wanted to kill you, why would I still be chatting casually like this?”
“…Alright, I understand.”
It seemed I wouldn’t need to summon that thing after all. That was a relief.
“Then tell us why you called us here.”
“Of course. First, everyone please take a seat comfortably.”
“Wait, can I ask one thing before we talk?”
At that moment, Baek Seol-hwa tilted her head and asked. What was with the sudden pause? She could have asked while we were talking. Why now of all times…
“Go ahead and ask.”
“Kim Kang-cheol? Is that your real name?”
“It is. Is the name a bit unusual? I know it is, but there was no need to choose a complicated one.”
“Ah… then…”
Seol-hwa still wore a puzzled expression. It seemed she wasn’t only curious about the name.
“Why do you look like that? Did you choose an appearance that matches your name?”
……Huh?