Chapter 19: Suspicious Bodyguards (4)
The entities served by shamans were not strictly gods.
They were spirits or something that read heavenly signs.
Those entities briefly came out through the shaman’s body or delivered messages.
In short, they were no different from the gumiho Elders who could not descend into the mortal world and thus manifested their abilities through the shaman.
Their purposes varied.
Some had a heart to rescue pitiful souls, others out of boredom, and some because they were tied by blood and could not help it.
However, they could not disturb the natural order, so at most they blocked misfortune and vaguely told the future.
Those spirits never showed their form to the shaman who lent them a body. Or rather, they were not able to show it.
Because the vessel of a human could not handle them.
But I could see them. And I heard them. Their voices.
And so I came to know all of this. I didn’t necessarily try to know, though.
“That’s how it was.”
“How fascinating. I had thought they were just pests possessed by wandering ghosts spouting nonsense with pathetic divine power.”
“If you say it like that, what are those who guard the mountain?”
“Hmph, guard? They gathered themselves thinking it might lessen their karma a bit. That raccoon dog didn’t chase them off just because it had a pliant personality. These ones were filtered through and through, but other shaman wretches weren’t even of a breed worth dealing with!”
“There you go again.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand.
After all, I had heard that many shamans had deceived innocent people for many years and even taken innocent lives.
It was a matter of experience.
The difference between someone like the gumiho Elder, whom I had seen and experienced directly, and me, who vaguely thought, “So such things existed.”
But that wasn’t their fault.
“Anyway, these beings didn’t seem to be particularly at fault. Nor did the spirits that dwelled in them. Their fate was just like that. Isn’t that so, Elder?”
“Well, it is so, but, ahem.”
“Please don’t worry too much about what the Elder says. You’re simply upset. Becoming a shaman wasn’t your fault.”
(I appreciate that you understood it that way.)
“I feel the same. Leaving Shinan and not being able to live an ordinary life wasn’t my fault either.”
“Hmph! I wonder who I’m even talking to.”
My words seemed casual but sincere, and the Heavenly Goddess Haedong’s eyes blurred.
And the small memories buried in time gently floated like grass stirred by the wind.
The smell of antiseptic tickled my nose repeatedly, doctors and nurses hurried about, and my mother’s pale face lay motionless.
“On February 19, 1993, at 1:48 PM, Ms. Yoon Seon‑ok passed away.”
—drip. drip.
“It’s because of that woman! She ruined our family! What? God’s calling? That crazy woman spoke nonsense and caused my sister’s death!”
A middle‑aged woman, who seemed to be hitting a child old enough to have just entered school, now grabbed the child by the collar.
The child, whose collar was gripped by that resolute woman, was lifted up weakly in that way.
Her malnourished face, from skipping so many meals, had lips cracked by countless slaps and swollen areas where she was hit.
“Die! You die instead! Your sister comes back to life and you die in her place!”
“Oh my, guardian, why are you doing this to the child! Someone please come and stop this! Sir! This is child abuse!”
The doctor who had solemnly delivered the death announcement urgently called for a man, but the man sitting on the floor showed no sign of getting up.
And the woman clutching the child’s collar raised her voice even more harshly.
“What kind of crazy woman predicted the date of her own mother’s death! Is that a daughter? You ghostlike woman! I looked into it! The day you were born your father died and I found out you were a daughter who devours people!”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry……”
The child opened her blood‑smeared lips softly and repeated “I’m sorry.”
The sorrow, regret, and grief that should have come upon the deceased’s final moments were replaced by anger with nowhere to go.
And the one enduring the turbulent anger and begging for forgiveness was none other than the person who should be the saddest in that moment—the deceased’s daughter.
The child, whose protective family support had vanished, was not even given the right to grieve her mother’s death.
In the consciousness blurring from strangulation, the last image she saw, ironically, was her mother’s face sleeping peacefully—which offered her a consolatory, if bleak, solace.
‘It’s my fault. My mother died because of me. If I hadn’t said that, she would still be alive.’
The vivid memory dragged the young girl further into the abyss.
Like a deep water with not a single ray of light.
Breathing became impossible, and her body floating in the air felt as heavy as drowning.
Yet the girl did not struggle.
‘If I die like this, can I follow my mother?’
Having eaten and drunk nothing, she released everything and closed her eyes.
At that moment, when even the sharp pain in her chest seemed about to dull,
—clink.
(The tea is getting cold. Please drink.)
‘Tea?’
The hand that had been strangling her had disappeared.
And in her returning sight, there was indeed tea placed before her.
It was a delicious‑looking tea she had never tasted before, with a floating egg yolk.
Only then did the girl realize she hadn’t eaten anything until now.
Without realizing it, a teacup ended up in my parched hand.
—slurp.
The fragrant scent of cinnamon erased the smell of alcohol in the hospital.
A sip of warm tea brought warmth to my cold body.
And time, which had stopped in front of my mother’s corpse, began to move again for the girl.
I didn’t know why a long-forgotten memory brushed past my mind just from Jinseong’s indifferent words.
But by now, it didn’t matter anymore.
‘It’s warm…….’
What the Heavenly Goddess Haedong faced after coming out of the old memory was tea.
Ssanghwa tea with a savory scent that I normally never even considered buying.
Whether it was her younger self or her current self who drank it unknowingly, the tea was already half gone.
And just like the half-emptied tea, the pain from that day felt a little dulled somehow.
‘Yeah, it was more than 20 years ago. I don’t even have time to make money, and here I am being pitiful. Damn it.’
“Hey, what’s wrong? Thinking about those old times again?”
“Yeah.”
Startled by Haedong’s indifferent answer, the monk-agent quickly grabbed his outerwear.
“Damn, of all times, now? Let’s get out of here.”
“Go where?”
“Where else! To the hospital before you start yelling and throwing a fit again… huh? You seem okay?”
“Took you long enough to notice.”
“Are you really okay?”
“I said I’m fine. Stop fussing and sit still.”
The monk’s sudden movements had already drawn a fair amount of attention.
But since the atmosphere was quite awkward, soon only the sound of sipping tea and the firewood crackling in the stove filled the café again.
Then, in the quiet, a small whisper reached her ears.
(Seems like you received a nice gift.)
‘Yes, Heavenly Deity, I’ve received a tonic with excellent medicinal effects.’
“What now? Why are you smiling again? Mania, right? See? I told you, you need to go to the hospital!”
“Shut that mouth of yours.”
Even though the pain was healed, thanks to the monk’s every single irritating word, the calm in her heart kept boiling over again and again.
When the teacups they were served started emptying, I glanced at my phone and noticed it was well past midnight.
It was time to start sending the guests home.
“Are you finally planning to send those folks off?”
“You’re included too, Elder. It’s already past midnight.”
“Why me?”
“Business hours ended long ago. Surely you’re not planning to sleep here, are you?”
“You impudent thing. After sitting here watching over you late into the night, that’s all you’ve got to say? Tsk. I never planned to sleep in this shabby place anyway!”
Thankfully, he took the veiled eviction notice well.
And the other shamans also took the hint and began placing their empty teacups on trays.
“Sending them off is one thing, but it’s about time you handed it over.”
“Handed what over?”
“Why do you think those folks came all the way here?”
“Weren’t they sent by Sani to protect the Divine Tree?”
“That’s what you think. They also came hoping to receive a divine object while they’re at it. Can’t you see those who didn’t get one from the raccoon dog standing there like puppies needing to poop? You, who’ve opened your divine eye, didn’t notice that? Tsk tsk.”
I had been busy clearing the teacups and hadn’t noticed until now. The shamans who had finished their tea were hovering awkwardly nearby.
“So, they came to receive divine objects to protect the Divine Tree.”
Judging by how they all avoided my gaze and scratched their heads sheepishly, I was right.
Just like nothing in the world comes free, these people had a hidden reason for running here looking half-dead.
But I didn’t particularly dislike people like them.
At least they had a sense of decency.
They didn’t brazenly demand compensation for protecting the Divine Tree, and they simply drank the tea I gave them while watching for the right time.
Even if I had said, ‘It’s closing time,’ and let them go, they would have left awkwardly, wearing those same uncomfortable expressions.
Of course, putting aside my personal sentiments, there was a problem.
“But I don’t have any divine objects. I don’t even have the power to make them.”
“What? But you’re the one who protects the Divine Tree, how can that be……?”
“It’s not because I have extraordinary divine power that I’m guarding the tree.”
Everyone looked confused. Everyone except for one being—one divine beast.
“Snrk snrk snrk.”
“Elder, please stop laughing and help me out here. These people look troubled.”
“You yourself said you lack divine power and can’t make divine objects. That’s the truth, so what am I supposed to do? For the record, I can’t help you either. Creating divine objects isn’t something even the raccoon dog, who protects the Divine Tree, can do easily.”
His mischievous eyes made it clear he had no intention of telling me.
Feeling lost, I turned to look out the window, my gaze drifting into the distance.
“Ah.”
“Tch, boring. You figured it out already?”
“Yes, the answer was surprisingly close.”
“Snrk snrk, then go ahead and hand it out.”
Now that I thought about it, it wasn’t that I had no method at all.
I had once successfully created a divine object filled with spiritual energy myself. The problem was, I had eaten it all.
The gumiho Elder was already excited at the thought of me handing out lettuce leaves as divine objects.
That kind of divine object, shabby and likely to wilt, which I might have to reissue repeatedly, I’d rather decline. Isn’t the reissue process far too frequent?
I needed another method.
Something I could distribute fairly to everyone, and a method not much different from that lettuce.
As I gulped dryly, lost in thought, one of the waiting shamans cautiously approached and politely handed me a card.
“Um, by the way, do you accept cards for payment?”
“No, it was just hospitality. No need to pay…”
Ah, I found it. That magical machine that sprouts leaves when you rub it.
“Wait a second. I’ll take your payment. Only those without divine objects, please bring your cards.”
“You’re not seriously going to…?”
Yes, Elder. I absolutely am.