ROA 9

Jin Gwang-min’s mouth gaped open with a shocked face. Though it had always been difficult to match the Vice Leader’s temperament, this was the first time he’d caused an incident close to such outrageous behavior.

“You know the first condition of Purification is ‘to see accurately,’ right? The doll in the library probably just happened to be picked up when the curse was fading. Sometimes curses naturally dissipate over time.”

“B-but the senior purification specialist clearly said purification power dwelled in the doll…!”

“Who? They must have gone senile, bring them here. I’ll confirm it together.”

“…You know they won’t come if the Vice Leader looks for them.”

When he tilted his head saying to bring the senior, Jin Gwang-min had no choice but to step back. If he conveyed this to the senior, he’d obviously just get scolded instead.

Now Do Seon-hwa stepped forward instead.

“Maybe his spiritual sight just hasn’t opened yet but he has tremendous potential!”

“Well. If he held high purification power, ghosts would have been drawn to him long ago.”

At Cheon Ijae’s indifferent words, Do Seon-hwa sighed.

Right, purification was directly connected to the purity of the soul. The clearer and purer the soul, the stronger the purification power, and such souls were especially coveted by evil spirits out of jealousy.

She immediately turned to Shim Seo-woo with shining eyes.

“Benefactor! Haven’t ghosts ever chased you until now? Or you felt strange signs at home! When sleeping you’re most vulnerable, so they would have approached targeting your dreams!”

At the questions asking if he’d heard suspicious sounds at home or had nightmares, Shim Seo-woo only blinked bewilderedly.

In fact, experiences that could be called ‘seeing strange things’ weren’t even that many, and there was only one answer he could give to Do Seon-hwa’s desperate question.

“No. I’ve never seen anything like that at home…”

Shim Seo-woo didn’t even have nightmares often. Especially since he started living alone at nineteen, he had never had a bad night’s sleep.

If there was a dream he remembered, it was only that one he’d been repeatedly having for several years…

‘Live outside.’

While mulling over the voice from the dream that suddenly came to mind, Do Seon-hwa and Jin Gwang-min seemed to fall into great shock and swayed. But Cheon Ijae smirked as if he’d expected this.

“See. You call that having spiritual sight opened?”

“But he said he saw strange things at school recently…!”

“They probably just happened to see a few times. In summer ghost energy strengthens so ordinary people easily witness ghosts, plus when you’re tired you see lots of hallucinations anyway.”

“…That’s, true…”

Jin Gwang-min was discouraged. During exam period, sleep deprivation and stress overlapped to create the perfect state for witnessing hallucinations. A fourth-year college student would have the added burden of graduation pressure.

Do Seon-hwa held the doll with a confused face. The doll that had clearly been black with curse stains mottled all over had been washed this white…

Soon Do Seon-hwa exclaimed ah!

“Right, let’s just confirm it directly! Instead of arguing among ourselves here, we just need to see with our eyes whether the benefactor’s purification power is real!”

They said they witnessed it at the library, but since they didn’t see exactly from the beginning, they were uncertain. Honestly, was it really possible to remove a curse just by touching it a few times, it was also confusing. Because there had never been a purification specialist of that level in Heun’s history.

Jin Gwang-min also nodded excitedly.

“Oh, good! I’ll contact the purification team right now and ask them to give us some materials—”

“I said I don’t want to receive purification, so why do you keep ignoring that…”

At Cheon Ijae’s low murmur, Jin Gwang-min froze mid-way through taking out his phone, and Do Seon-hwa also flinched and hunched her shoulders. The silence that suddenly arrived seemed to pull the tension in the space taut.

No, precisely from the moment he fiddled with his ring.

Shim Seo-woo became puzzled. Come to think of it, earlier too when Cheon Ijae extended his index finger at him, the two had been startled…

Do Seon-hwa barely shook her head and shouted.

“Purification is to keep the Vice Leader from hurting, you know? How long can you endure by just bearing it? You’re getting increasingly afflicted with misfortune!”

“R-right! Recently the evil spirits have gotten ‘that’ so their offensives are becoming serious, and we need to prepare too! If you’re badly stained by misfortune by mistake, you might lose your reason…!”

Jin Gwang-min quickly agreed and raised his voice, but somehow his voice trembled toward the end. His complexion even turned pale as if just hypothesizing was frightening, and it seemed he wasn’t simply worried about the case of collapsing from misfortune but feared something beyond that.

Do Seon-hwa also rode the momentum and shouted.

“Right! The elders are all watching the Vice Leader’s condition—!”

“Haha, you think they’re worried about me?”

Snap, Cheon Ijae cut off Do Seon-hwa’s shout while tilting his head crookedly. While he laughed with small shoulder shrugs as if he’d heard something very funny, the two couldn’t say anything.

Soon he muttered lowly.

“And you two keep saying it’s for my sake since earlier…”

The rings stuck abundantly on the fingers sweeping back the jet-black hair that had flowed forward glinted gloomily. His pale fingers, so pale that his blood vessels were visible, felt strangely out of place.

“To be blunt, you just wish there were more leashes to tie me down?”

The eyes quietly looking down at the two were chilly.

“Are you scared to be around me?”

“……”

“Because I might turn at any moment.”

At the coldly poured questions, the office atmosphere became precariously tense in an instant, as if walking on thin ice.

Shim Seo-woo looked at the three puzzledly while organizing the situation in his head. In fact, since Cheon Ijae entered this place, the conversation seemed to pick up rapidly, so he was just picking up bits of information. Having no knowledge whatsoever about spiritual ability users made it difficult to understand properly, but he roughly pieced it together.

Probably since Cheon Ijae, the organization’s successor, frequently got afflicted with misfortune while hunting evil spirits, Do Seon-hwa and Jin Gwang-min who followed him had worked hard to find purification specialists. He didn’t know what ‘that’ was, but it was a situation where the evil spirits’ offensives were strengthening so they had to be careful, and the elders were also keeping an eye on him.

However, the reason the organization watched Cheon Ijae wasn’t simply because they treasured him as the successor, but felt like they were watching him as a person requiring caution.

Above all, the expression ‘leash’…

Shim Seo-woo’s gaze went to the black cord positioned at Cheon Ijae’s neck. Following that, as his eyes went in turn to his earrings, rings, and bracelets, the silence continued heavily.

Eventually Do Seon-hwa barely shook her head.

“What are you talking about? Why would I be scared of you?”

“R-ri-right. Me too…!”

“Gwang-min, first calm your voice down.”

Pointing to the table telling him to drink water, Do Seon-hwa smacked her lips. Just as the tension making it difficult to move rashly was about to settle heavily again.

Ring-ring-ring—

“Ah.”

Shim Seo-woo’s phone rang. With the face of someone completely detached from the serious conversation unfolding right in front of him, he calmly took out his phone. It was a call from Park Dong-ju.

— Hey, Shim Seo-woo! Where are you? You said you were going for a walk, why haven’t you come back yet?

“I came outside school for a moment…”

— What? The exam is starting soon!

“…Ah.”

Belatedly, Shim Seo-woo checked the time and sighed. Before he knew it, the afternoon exam time was approaching, and it seemed he’d arrive just barely if he left right now.

Thanks to Park Dong-ju’s loud shout, the others must have heard the situation too, as the atmosphere broke weakly. Do Seon-hwa and Jin Gwang-min gasped, hiek, in surprise, and Cheon Ijae chuckled as if absurd.

“You really tried to recruit that kind of human?”

“His soul is clear, not clouded by distracting thoughts!”

“Doesn’t that sound a bit like an insult, Gwang-min…”

Jin Gwang-min shouted as if wanting to package it nicely, but Do Seon-hwa shook her head. Restraining him saying it was a statement with room for misinterpretation, she first led Shim Seo-woo outside.

Going outside the building together, Do Seon-hwa apologized.

“I’m sorry for showing you such an uncomfortable sight, Benefactor. The Vice Leader was being fierce, so it must have been scary.”

“No, not really…”

Shim Seo-woo answered calmly. He’d only observed the conversation between the three as a third party, and Cheon Ijae’s attitude didn’t feel threatening at all. Stories about Heun and evil spirits, spiritual ability users, etc. still approached him without a sense of reality…

Also, perhaps there was influence from hearing his concern when he first met Cheon Ijae last night.

‘It’s dangerous to come to a place like this alone late at night.’

Well, then he told him not to come to such places if he was in his right mind, so he wasn’t very kind then either.

Anyway, when Shim Seo-woo shook his head conveying it was fine, Do Seon-hwa quietly admired, and Jin Gwang-min who came out together was also amazed.

“Normally just seeing the Vice Leader gives people goosebumps…”

He muttered saying he’d felt it since seeing him at school but he was truly extraordinary. Was it possible because he had the courage to give double thumbs up even after seeing a ghost?