Chapter 68
***
Kwon Ji-eun did not believe in shamans.
Of course, that was only natural.
They were nothing more than frauds who dazzled people with absurd nonsense.
She became interested in shamans—in other words, the occult—at a fortune-telling shop she visited with the woman who would become her mother-in-law.
"You have the Water over Thunder hexagram, Zhun (水雷屯)."
She had no idea what that meant.
When she asked what it meant, she was told that she was destined to be injured.
She was healthy, with all four limbs intact, and living a normal life, so she wondered what kind of bullshit this was.
And a few days later.
She got into a traffic accident.
She had been driving when some crazy bastard hit her from behind.
It was astonishing.
She had thought it was all nonsense, but she really did end up hospitalized for several days.
Her mother-in-law, having seen this, said that the shaman was truly gifted and cautiously suggested that she should keep a talisman with her.
But she did not believe it.
However, her mother-in-law went to the shaman's place alone and heard another prediction.
That her husband was destined to suffer.
Surely not, she thought.
But a few days after that prophecy, she heard that her husband had suffered because of a difficult complainant.
That was when it began.
That was when Kwon Ji-eun started believing in the occult.
She searched the internet for stories related to fortune-telling, and in the process, it was only natural that she came across Kang Noah.
"Yeonhwa Bodhisattva said that... Noah hyung is a complete fraud, so I shouldn't trust him."
"Hmm."
"And... she said that if we want to have a child, we have to perform a gut ritual."
"A gut ritual?!"
Her husband, Jo Woon-seong, was flustered.
It was the first he had heard of it.
"I'm sorry. Mother told me to keep it a secret..."
"No... Ah. Why does Mom have to be like that?"
"But this is a family where children are precious. You're also the only son for three generations..."
Both her mother-in-law and father-in-law were quietly worried that they had not yet had a grandchild.
Of course, they did not pressure them.
They were both good people, after all.
Still, it was only natural that they were worried and wanted their son and daughter-in-law to be happy somehow.
"So..."
"So, did you decide to perform the gut ritual?"
"Mm-hm. No, we're going to meet her next week. We're going to get a consultation then..."
Looking dejected, Kwon Ji-eun looked at Kang Noah.
Her husband's younger brother, whom he had met at the gym.
She was curious what he, a fortune-teller who was literally right every time, would say.
"But... hyung, will I really have a child?"
"Yes."
Kang Noah answered categorically.
"You'll conceive without performing a gut ritual."
"....Really?"
Flustered, she hemmed and hawed before cautiously opening her mouth.
"The woman I met with my mother-in-law, Yeonhwa Bodhisattva, said that I have no luck with children."
"You do have luck with children. However..."
Kang Noah looked at Jo Woon-seong.
Her husband flinched when his gaze landed on him.
She had a feeling she could guess what he was about to say.
"The future I see requires effort from both of you."
"...Ah."
"In other words, if you want to have a child, you'll both have to make an effort, right?"
Effort.
She knew what that meant without needing to hear anything more.
Kwon Ji-eun gently took her husband's hand.
She could feel it stiffen.
Her fertile period began the next day, too.
"There is no future for those who make no effort."
So work hard.
After all, when pregnancy was not happening, people said to make up for it through sheer numbers.
'I'll have eel, oysters, and roasted garlic for dinner tonight...'
Kwon Ji-eun's eyes grew exceedingly suggestive as she looked at her husband, and Jo Woon-seong was afraid.
It was summer.
"Ah. And..."
Kang Noah lightly clapped his hands.
"Would I be able to meet that shaman too?"
***
Yeonhwa Bodhisattva lived in Huam-dong, Yongsan.
Apparently, she lived in a shabby neighborhood that had not even been redeveloped.
"Yeonhwa Bodhisattva is a truly wonderful person."
The grandmother walking beside me—Woon-seong hyung's mother, Mrs. Joo Yeo-min—spoke carefully in a gentle tone.
I recalled how Woon-seong hyung had introduced Mrs. Joo Yeo-min to me yesterday.
He had not even come to the gym for several days after our last meeting.
He had become quite gaunt, and I was worried about whether he was all right.
Still, it was true that having a child required that much effort, so I had told him to eat plenty of oysters.
"Even though she makes quite a lot from divination fees, she lives in a place like this. She must be very frugal, too."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. So I hope you won't be too rude."
Mother knew me well.
Perhaps because she frequently went to have her fortune told, it was not particularly strange that she knew about me, a rising newcomer.
"By the way, Noah, which god do you serve?"
"Oh, I don't really serve any god."
If I had to name one, I suppose I could say that I served the God Changseop.
The great Director who normalizes Dunsa. I believe. Loyalty, loyalty.
"Really? How fascinating. Perhaps after meeting Yeonhwa Bodhisattva this time, you may come to serve your own god."
Mother told me in a gentle tone that she had heard many stories about people meeting an excellent shaman and receiving instruction from them.
Whether that would actually happen was another question.
"Here we are."
Following Mother's directions, we climbed one hill after another and arrived at a shabby-looking little villa building.
Apparently, Yeonhwa Bodhisattva lived on the first floor.
When we arrived in front of the villa, she lightly straightened her clothes.
She was really putting a lot of effort into this.
"Bodhisattva, I'm here."
Once she was ready, Mother knocked on the door and called out.
After a moment, the door opened, and a middle-aged woman with permed hair appeared.
"Mm, welcome. But... who is that boy?"
"Haha. Let's just say he's a guest who came after being introduced."
She tilted her head.
But that was all.
"Bodhisattva is waiting inside."
"Yes."
The curly-haired woman pointed toward the master bedroom.
It seemed she was something like a shaman's spiritual daughter.
The people I had seen at Haewol the shaman's place before seemed more genuine.
The closed door opened.
A solemn atmosphere filled the room.
A shrine had been set up inside with a folding screen, and a woman wearing splendid shamanic robes sat within it.
The moment I saw her, I could see it.
"Why are you so late!! Misfortune is gripping your son and daughter-in-law by the throats!! Don't you want to see a grandchild?!"
She started scolding us the moment we arrived.
The woman's eyes, which had been creating an atmosphere of fear, landed on me.
"What's with that little brat?"
"My name is Kang Noah."
"Kang Noah? Who's that?"
She did not recognize me.
Still, since she worked in the same industry, I had thought she would at least do some market research.
She glared at me before shaking her head.
"What an unlucky bastard. Such an unlucky bastard. You're fated to trip and fall in the street, and destined to be rejected by every woman you meet."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. You suffered a loss recently, didn't you?"
A loss.
There had been something that was an enormous gain, though.
I simply remained silent.
"What loss are you referring to?"
"You must have suffered a financial loss."
Financial loss.
It was such an ambiguous statement.
Even if you lost a single thousand won while out and about, that would still count as a financial loss.
"And you must have had a new encounter as well."
Even the lady beside me was a new encounter.
I smiled at her as she said something anyone could say, doing so naturally while creating an atmosphere of fear.
"Yes."
"...You insolent brat, speaking informally to an adult..!! Where did you learn such manners!! Don't you have parents?!"
Oh. How amazing.
She got that one right.
I held out a card to the shaman, who was huffing angrily.
Her expression hardened when she saw it.
"...What's this?"
"Turn it over."
"Ha!! Joo Yeo-min!! Do you know what you're doing right now!! How dare you bring this bastard to a place where a god is enshrined?!"
"Oh, my goodness, Bodhisattva. It's not like that..."
"Not confident?"
"Hmph!! As if I lack confidence!!"
People tended to get angry when they had nothing left to say.
Yeonhwa Bodhisattva snorted and turned over the card, attacking the easy target, Mrs. Joo Yeo-min, in my place.
The card was the upright Hermit.
When she saw it, a smile appeared at the corner of Yeonhwa's mouth.
"I've used tarot cards a few times in my youth. The Hermit refers to a sage who guides people spiritually as a spiritual leader..."
"Jang Mi-sook."
".....!!!"
Yeonhwa Bodhisattva.
No, Jang Mi-sook's expression hardened.
"You live quite an interesting life."
"...What, what are you?"
"Did your master teach you that? Divination is not about shaking people's hearts, but understanding them and advising them toward a better path, isn't that what she told you?"
-Crash!!
The woman with the stiff expression took a step backward.
Even though there was nowhere for her to retreat.
"You've committed so many sins. You started out as the president of a small company, didn't you? When things came true just as you blabbed, you thought you were something, didn't you?"
Jang Mi-sook's face was growing paler and paler.
"But you failed the next time, didn't you? Right. Because you have no spiritual power. Because you weren't a real fortune-teller or shaman to begin with."
"You, you, you... what, what are you... What are you..."
Silence.
The only sound in the shrine was Jang Mi-sook's terrified voice.
"So you hired people."
That's right.
Jang Mi-sook had been frightened by her predictions failing to come true.
She was not a fortune-teller or a shaman to begin with. She had merely studied for several months under a shaman who was considered talented in the neighborhood.
She was nothing more than a fraud.
But she had been happy.
She had enjoyed watching company presidents move according to her words.
She had enjoyed people calling her spiritually gifted.
But there was no way her predictions could truly come true.
So she had thought of this.
A prediction did not come true?
Then why not make it come true?
She secretly hired people.
Then, after predicting someone's misfortune, she made that misfortune happen.
If she predicted that someone would be injured, she hired people to hurt them.
If she predicted a loss, she hired people to steal that person's belongings.
If she predicted that a husband or lover was having an affair, she secretly assigned someone to make the target suspicious.
Her dazzling eloquence and behind-the-scenes schemes.
With those alone, it could not have been difficult to make people believe in Jang Mi-sook.
And in reality, she had succeeded.
"It must have been nice. Of course, sometimes things failed even when you hired people, but you succeeded often, and the gains must have been substantial. Isn't that right?"
"......"
Her face had gone white, and she could barely breathe.
I stared at her and smiled leisurely.
"The General Cheonhyang you believe in didn't tell you about your future? Well, of course not. There was no such thing in the first place."
"....Ah, aaaaaah...!!"
"You've amassed quite a lot of wealth illegally."
She had accumulated considerable wealth while pretending to be a fake shaman and practicing fake divination.
"The money and gold bars piled up in the safe in this building's basement, for one, and the apartment you bought under your lover's name."
"....N-no. No, that's..."
"The ledger is in the safe hidden beneath that shrine. With that, proving your crimes should be easy."
"Huaaagh! N-no...!!"
"No, wait. I could also tell Assemblyman Yoo Jeong-su about this. He trusted you quite a bit, so he'll feel betrayed. Once this comes to light, won't he try to chew you up alive??"
Trembling, she crawled over and grabbed her phone.
It was obvious who she was calling.
"Trying to call Jo Man-tae? Do you think the gangsters operating under the name Yeonju Personnel Office can help you?"
"....Huaaagh...!!"
"Go ahead. But..."
I smiled and picked up my phone.
Kang In-jeong, who had been on the phone since earlier, spoke calmly from the other end.
-Mr. Kang. I've sent the guys in. Prosecutor Yang will be moving with them as well.
"I have someone to call too, you see."
The moment I saw her, I had viewed her past and future and secretly made a call.
I had not said much, but she had heard everything, so she would move as best she could.
"I'll tell you your future."
I rose from my seat and spoke leisurely.
"A place has been prepared for you in prison. And the older sister in that cell will torment you terribly."