Chapter 17
017 – New Wine in New Wineskins
Let’s turn back to about two hours before Choi Jang-gun woke up.
That was when we were cleaning up the basement and treating the injured.
“Yeon-seo still won’t open her eyes! Shouldn’t we take her to the hospital?”
Mr. Kim Man-chun looked distraught as he gazed at Yeon-seo lying on the bed.
It was heartbreaking to see a man with palms as thick as cooking pots shedding tears like a child.
“There’s no need. Mr. Ga-in here burned away the source of the problem along with the entire basement, so she’ll come around soon if we just wait.
Jo Se-na gazed fondly at Yoo Ga-in, who was standing by the bed.
It felt like honey was dripping from her eyes.
Yoo Ga-in only smiled kindly in response.
“You all bought me time while I prepared the ritual, so I was able to pull it off. More importantly, I’m a little tired. Could I borrow a quiet room?”
“Oh, are you going to meditate? I’m a little tired, too. Shall I join you?”
“I prefer to be alone when I meditate.”
Yoo Ga-in left Yeon-seo’s room.
I tossed a teasing remark at Jo Se-na, who was looking after him with a wistful expression.
“You got rejected?”
“It’s fine. Just making an impression on him was a win. More importantly, Mr. Yu-seong, want to work with me from now on?”
Jo Se-na took out a gold-embossed box.
When I looked inside, I saw it was full of business cards.
「Marina Entertainment Director: Jo Se-na」
「010─.」
Her contact number was written there.
Was she trying to recruit me?
The job offer was tempting.
If you’d asked me a few days ago, I probably would’ve accepted on the spot.
But not now.
Now, more than working for someone else, I wanted the freedom to explore what I could do and how far I could go.
Perhaps she read that in my expression, because Jo Se-na put a cigarette between her lips.
“Shit, I’ve never been turned down twice in one day. It’s a blow to my pride. If you don’t want to work for me, how about being my boyfriend instead? I’ll even give you pocket money every time we meet.”
I flinched─!?
A boyfriend who got pocket money.
I thought my ears must be broken.
When I turned red, genuinely flustered, Jo Se-na burst out laughing.
“I’m kidding. Still, you should be really careful around female magicians. More than a few men have become juice magicians and ruined their lives.”
After saying that, Jo Se-na left the room.
I felt like my heart, so neatly laid out for all to see, had been toyed with and tossed around.
To calm my racing heart, I asked Mr. Kim Man-chun a question.
“Sorry, but I’d like to wash up. Could I use your bathroom?”
“Ah… Yes! Of course! It’s over that way! I’d show you myself, but as you can see, my daughter is….”
“It’s all right. My younger sister was sick a lot when she was little, so I understand how you feel.”
I saw warmth—or perhaps a sense of shared experience—in Mr. Kim’s eyes as he looked at me.
I probably had the same look in my eyes.
I headed for the bathroom along the route Mr. Kim had shown me.
Bori-bori pattered along behind me.
Suddenly, I remembered what had happened earlier.
When Jo Se-na had been caught by the ghost’s hair and left dangling─.
Honestly, I’d been so flustered that I couldn’t move.
I’d frozen at the unexpected sight.
But Bori-bori had moved first.
Bori-bori had strained so hard to lift Jo Se-na’s legs that its face turned bright red.
I hadn’t known the little guy for very long, though.
Even so, I’d never seen Bori-bori so flustered before.
Was it because it wanted to save a life?
I hadn’t realized Bori-bori was that kind of person.
There was still so much I didn’t know about Bori-bori.
One thing was certain: Bori-bori had been a big help again today.
“Bori-bori, let’s have beef when we get home. Beef.”
It looked like I’d be getting a lot of money for this job, too.
As I stepped toward Bori-bori, its tail stood straight up.
“Urrrrr…!!!”
Was it wary of me?
No, it was probably because of the holy water and vomit clinging to me.
Honestly, if I had to describe the smell coming off me right now─.
“Uuugh.”
I’d better wash up quickly.
There was just one problem.
Shhhhhhh─.
Scrub, scrub, scrub─.
No matter how hard I scrubbed, the smell wouldn’t come out.
The holy-water smell had disappeared ages ago. The problem was the smell of the vomit Yeon-seo had spewed up.
It was sour and astringent, with a strangely sweet smell, and it wouldn’t come off, as if it had soaked into my body.
Just as I was wondering what to do, Bori-bori grew even more agitated.
“Urrrrr…!”
Bori-bori bit down hard on its own thumb.
“Hey, you’re bleeding.”
I was startled by the sudden bleeding, but I’d changed into a robe by then. Bori-bori came over and began drawing on my chest with its blood.
A hexagram, with a pentagram inside it.
And inside that pentagram, a circle.
“Uh—.”
When I saw it, it felt as if every pore in my body had sprung open, and the back of my head was plunging toward some distant cliff.
The shapes rearranged themselves in my mind, and the meaning they held came vividly alive inside me.
At that moment, my brain was filled with just one word.
Change.
What Bori-bori had just drawn was the magic circle of ‘Change.’
More precisely, it was a magic circle that changed ‘a certain liquid’ into ‘water.’
Just like that, I, Ha Yu-seong, acquired a third spell.
The sour, astringent, strangely sweet vomit on my body had turned into water and washed clean away.
“Mheh-heh.”
Only then did Bori-bori’s tail start swishing gently again.
It seemed Bori-bori had a sensitive nose.
# # #
Let’s return to when Shaman Choi Jang-gun woke up on the sofa─.
About an hour later.
In a sense, we had to face the real fight.
We had to decide how to split the 40 million won in compensation for resolving the case.
At dinner.
Before we began eating at the lavish dining table, Yoo Ga-in spoke up.
“I’m fine without any payment for resolving the case.”
He was just giving up his share of the 40 million won?
That was almost as astonishing as the possessed people and the transformed basement cold-storage room.
Jo Se-na quickly spoke up, too.
“I’ll just take what I spent on materials for this job. One big bill.”
As Jo Se-na said that, her eyes curved like a bow as she looked at Young Master Yoo Ga-in.
She might’ve wanted the money, but it seemed she wanted to score points with Yoo Ga-in even more.
So that left only me and Shaman Choi Jang-gun, huh?
We’d split thirty million between the two of us─.
The corners of my mouth started creeping upward.
Income in the tens of millions of won, at the very least!
With that much, I could pay the bills and still lounge around for a whole year.
I could give my parents some spending money and even buy a suit for my younger sister, who was looking for a job.
“Ha Yu-seong, why don’t we just split it in half?”
Choi Jang-gun asked indifferently.
Jo Se-na clicked her tongue.
“Well, look at you! You didn’t do a single thing this time, yet you’ve got some nerve. This is why people say there’s no point saving magicians.”
“Ahem. I didn’t do anything for you, but I did do something for that young man.”
I sensed a gaze from behind Choi Jang-gun’s sunglasses that shouldn’t have been possible.
It felt like he was looking at the phone tucked against my chest.
「Monkey’s Paw site」. I should use it soon─.
If I didn’t, something terrible would happen─.
That was what Choi Jang-gun had told me.
Honestly, I was still a little bewildered.
Whether I got 15 million or 20 million won, it was such a huge lump sum that either way seemed fine to me.
That was probably because I was a poor, struggling commoner.
As I tried to find the right words, Choi Jang-gun awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
“Fine, I get it! Just give me my original share, one big bill! I really need that much!”
His gesture could only mean one thing.
‘Earn 20 million won in a single day!’
Whatever happened, the thought of such a huge sum made me so happy my brain felt like it was about to fry.
And I’d figured out the ‘Change’ magic circle today, too.
“Hmm?”
As I started eating, something strange happened in my mouth.
The jeyuk-bokkeum I’d casually taken a bite of was unbelievably delicious.
“Sir, how did you make this? I’m not kidding—I’ve never had jeyuk this delicious in my life.”
I asked Mr. Kim in all sincerity.
Couldn’t this get a Michelin star?
Mr. Kim chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
“I’m glad it suited your taste. The meat that had been aging in the basement refrigerator seemed just right, so I tried using it─.”
“…Ugh!”
I barely swallowed it back down before it came up.
He’d used pork that had been possessed and then exorcised?
Seriously?
I guess that’s the kind of frugality it takes to become rich.
Nobody made a big fuss, but we all quietly set down our spoons.
Dinner ended, and it was around ten that night.
Yeon-seo woke up.
As soon as she did, she asked for food and polished off three bowls of white rice with nothing but fresh napa cabbage kimchi.
I asked Yeon-seo, whose complexion had improved quite a bit.
“Ms. Yeon-seo, I don’t know if you remember, but you vomited a lot. It was pretty acidic, as you’d expect, but I could smell toasted bread, chocolate, and espresso beans in it.”
“…Huh? What does that….”
Yeon-seo trembled as if flustered, her face turning red with embarrassment.
Her eyes held a hint of disgust as she watched me describe her vomit, but I ignored it and asked directly.
“Had you been drinking wine? Something very, very expensive?”
The new magic circle Bori-bori had shown me.
It changed only wine into pure water.
I could call it the ‘Wine Transformation’ magic circle.
Yeon-seo fell silent at my question, as if lost in thought, then…
“Oh. Wine… I drank some. I was so sad when I broke up with my boyfriend that I drank a lot. I think there was wine he’d given me as a gift, too. Now that I think about it… I started feeling hazy around then….”
“Wow, Mr. Yu-seong, you know wine? You look like the type who’d drink soju, so that’s surprising.”
Jo Se-na clicked her tongue in admiration.
“So why the wine? Is it connected to this case?”
“…I’m not sure. You said Ms. Yeon-seo’s condition started getting worse after she broke up with her boyfriend, right?”
At that moment, one thought wouldn’t leave my mind.
The strange sweetness of dark chocolate, coffee beans, and blackberries cooked down like jam.
There had also been the toasted smell unique to oak barrels charred on the inside, along with something like dried tobacco leaves.
I knew my memory had improved since becoming a magician, but I was amazed that even those sensations came back so vividly.
“…It must’ve been a Naka Valley auction-exclusive vintage.”
As far as I knew, there were only three bottles of that vintage in Korea.
And I’d tasted it exactly once.
Back when I was still working as a stagiaire at a restaurant.
“Was her boyfriend a sommelier?”