Chapter 131
Master Jeon Gwang was smiling awkwardly.
And the people around us watched as though they were enjoying themselves.
Under their watchful eyes, Master Jeon Gwang cleared his throat and pulled something from inside his robes.
What is that now?
"It's called cylinder divination."
"Cylinder divination?"
"Yes. You shake a container filled with divination sticks, draw one, and use it to tell fortunes."
"Wow. You know a lot. Are you a fortune-teller, Ms. Yu-na?"
"I just studied it a little. I thought it might help you, Mr. Noah..."
After hearing Han Yu-na's explanation, I looked at Master Jeon Gwang.
With his eyes squeezed shut as he shook the cylinder wildly, he looked oddly similar to a bartender mixing a cocktail.
"O gods of heaven and earth! O mighty General! Descend upon this place and reveal your greatness!!"
He shouted, streams of cold sweat running down his face.
And out came a divination stick.
When I drew one, Master Jeon Gwang examined it with a serious expression.
"Oh ho. You were an orphan."
"Uh, is there anyone who doesn't know I'm an orphan?"
You can find that out just by searching my name online.
Master Jeon Gwang flinched at my answer, then examined the divination stick again.
"...You. Something major is going to happen soon."
"What counts as major depends on the person. Just coming here is a major event, and the things happening to the people I meet are enough to shake the nation."
"...You have trouble with women."
"Isn't that a given for someone as good-looking as me?"
The gazes watching us from around the room were growing sharper.
The sweat dripping from Master Jeon Gwang's face increased as well.
In the end, that was what fortune-telling was like: misleading people with plausible-sounding words.
Master Jeon Gwang hesitated, then exhaled deeply.
"Your qi is extraordinarily strong. That's why I can't casually divine your fate. You really are an incredible person."
Though he forced a smile while praising and fawning over me, I had no intention of letting him off so easily.
"You're finished, right? Then I'll do it."
I held out the card I had taken from inside my robes.
Master Jeon Gwang stared at it as if it were an explosive device, then turned his gaze toward the man.
He seemed to want to stop, but the man merely smiled without saying anything.
"...You'll have a rough time with a hangover tomorrow."
Now that was absurd.
I don't get hangovers.
"How about this instead?"
"What...?"
"I made a considerable profit recently. Would you like to guess how?"
By capturing Allah's Moon, I obtained the bitcoins they possessed.
I had gotten my hands on quite a lot of money, so it could certainly be called a profit.
Could Master Jeon Gwang really guess this?
"I... I suppose you traded stocks."
"Wrong. I acquired some ownerless bitcoins by sheer luck."
"What did you do to get ownerless bitcoins?!"
Master Jeon Gwang looked dumbfounded.
The gazes around us had grown even colder.
"So he's a swindler?"
"Wow. Joo Min-seok said he had a truly amazing shaman under him, and asked us to help because he would read our fortunes..."
Joo Min-seok.
A collateral relative of the Rowen Group, with Master Jeon Gwang under him.
He was smiling, but his tightly clenched fists showed that he was quite angry.
In that case, it was my turn.
I held out the card again.
"Ahem! Since I serve the General, I can't use another person's method of divination."
"Oh. Are you scared?"
"That's..."
"Master Jeon Gwang."
"Y-Young master."
"Turn it over."
His tone was light, but the pressure behind it wasn't.
The old man called Master Jeon Gwang hesitated, then squeezed his eyes shut and turned over the card.
The Lovers, upright.
Well, shall we talk now?"
"Mr. Kim Bok-chul."
".....!!"
A twitch.
Master Jeon Gwang—whose real name was Kim Bok-chul—jerked his shoulders.
"You went to work under Taewoong Bosal, did menial work, and asked to become his disciple... But all you heard was that you lacked spiritual ability and talent, correct?"
"...N-No!!"
"The problem was that you couldn't accept that. So you left Taewoong Bosal and practiced on your own, without proper training. Then you came down from the mountain."
"......."
"Still, you thought it would be all right. You had learned things at Gyeryongsan. Based on that, you worked in various places. Your first stop was... Yes. Cheonan."
"...S-Stop."
"It was Chairman Jin's house in Cheonan. When you heard that his youngest son was possessed and went there, you realized..."
"......."
"There was no ghost in that house. You discovered that the youngest son, supposedly possessed, had been caught stealing his mother's money and was pretending to be possessed."
"......"
Master Jeon Gwang's face grew paler and paler.
Regardless, I kept talking.
"But that was an opportunity for you. So you colluded with the youngest son. Then you received a large divination fee from Chairman Jin and split it with him."
"L-Lie!! I never did that!"
"The youngest son's name was Jin Bok-gyu. He currently works as an executive director at Bokjin Construction, a famous construction company in Cheonan."
"Evidence!! You don't even have any evidence!!"
Master Jeon Gwang, who had been speaking calmly until a moment ago, was violently agitated.
Isn't it natural for one's voice to grow louder when they're panicking?
So I smiled and continued.
"Starting with what happened at Chairman Jin's house, your name gradually became better known. With your dazzling silver tongue and the techniques you learned from your master and in the mountains, you must have built a reputation throughout Cheonan. Then you met other shamans and fortune-tellers."
"......!!"
His shoulders trembled again.
Right.
That was his first crime.
"They didn't take kindly to you suddenly appearing on the scene. And you didn't like them either. So what did you do..."
"........"
"Majin Bosal."
"....N-No."
"You killed her, didn't you?"
".....!!!"
The commotion around us grew louder.
Master Jeon Gwang was trembling violently now.
"N-No. No..."
"There were two reasons. First, because Majin Bosal hated you the most. And the other was..."
"......"
"So you could serve the General who stood behind Majin Bosal. Well, that didn't go as planned."
"...No!!"
"Majin Bosal's body is buried not far from Chunheung Reservoir."
"......!!!"
"And your business card is clutched in her hand."
"Th-That can't be. That can't..."
"We'll know once we investigate."
I picked up my phone.
Then I contacted Prosecutor Gu Nam-cheol and gave him the coordinates of where Majin Bosal was buried near Chunheung Reservoir.
"Now, shall we continue with the rest of the story while they investigate? After killing Majin Bosal, you couldn't stay in Cheonan. You must have been afraid that the other fortune-tellers and shamans in Cheonan might bear a grudge against you."
"......."
With a thud, Master Jeon Gwang's legs gave out, and he sank to the floor.
I turned away from him.
At the end of my gaze stood Joo Min-seok.
"After you came up to Seoul, someone came looking for you. It was Joo Min-seok."
Everyone's gaze turned toward him.
Joo Min-seok was smiling calmly, but I could tell.
A single bead of sweat was running down his forehead.
"Mr. Joo Min-seok wanted to take you on as his subordinate. He wanted to build influence in various places by making a renowned fortune-teller and shaman like you work under him."
And he succeeded.
In any case, Master Jeon Gwang was third-rate as a shaman, but first-rate as a swindler.
Among the wives of chaebol families, there were some who were taken in by his dazzling eloquence.
Through them, Master Jeon Gwang obtained money, while Joo Min-seok gained influence.
"You joined hands with Mr. Joo Min-seok and rose rapidly like that, but... a problem arose."
"Don't say it!! Don't say it!!"
Master Jeon Gwang lunged forward.
Han Yu-na stopped him.
She casually seized his arm, tripped him, and knocked him down.
Wow, Han Yu-na is really strong.
"Aaaagh!!"
"You know Joo Sun-min, don't you?"
Joo Sun-min.
The person in charge of the Rowen Group's finance team.
And.
The person who suddenly disappeared four months ago.
"He found out that you and Mr. Joo Min-seok were embezzling funds from the Rowen Group and using them for yourselves."
"No! No!!"
"Mr. Joo Min-seok must have panicked. If things went wrong, he could end up in prison, never mind competing to be the heir. So, to win points with him and earn his trust..."
I smiled.
And glared at Master Jeon Gwang.
"You killed him."
"Noooooo!!"
"It must have been easy. Joo Sun-min trusted you to some extent, after all. At the very least, he would have thought you weren't capable of something like murder."
But you did.
You casually spiked his drink with cyanide in his car.
Then, to be safe, you stabbed his body several times before burying him near where Majin Bosal had previously been buried.
"And you conspired with Mr. Joo Min-seok to pin the embezzlement committed by the two of you on Joo Sun-min."
"Aaaaaagh!! No!! No!! Liar!! Kang Noah!! How dare you tell such wicked lies when the General is watching over you!! You will suffer divine punishment!!"
I picked up my phone.
I received a video call from an unknown number.
When I answered, a group of people were standing in the mountains.
-Are you Mr. Kang Noah? I'm Prosecutor Gu Min-hyeok of the Cheonan District Prosecutors' Office.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kang Noah."
-My senior contacted me, and we're investigating now... There's one here—a body that's been reduced to a skeleton.
The screen showed the skeleton of a woman wearing an old shaman's outfit.
Some people at the party gagged or reacted in shock when they saw it, but...
That wasn't the important thing.
-Because no one comes here, nobody knew how bad the smell was.
"I see. Oh, and there's another body nearby. Since you're there, could you check that place too?"
-Understood.
He moved to another spot at my direction.
It wasn't long before they began digging there.
-Huh.
There was a body.
"E-Evidence!! You don't even have evidence! You don't have any proper proof that I did it...!!"
"Hahaha."
I laughed at Master Jeon Gwang and said,
"You really think there isn't any?"
"......"
"There's a watch that Joo Sun-min treasured in the secret safe in your house. And in the safe in Mr. Joo Min-seok's master bedroom, there's a ledger Joo Sun-min used to keep."
"...No. No..."
"And the knife you stabbed Joo Sun-min with—you threw it into the reservoir, didn't you?"
This should be enough evidence.
Well, if it isn't, we can just find more.