1440 - Chapter 18

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 18
In that instant, Duhui’s eyes stung with tears and anger flared in her chest. She resented Yeonhyeong for his dismissive tone—as if the terrifying ordeal she’d endured was nothing worth dwelling on.
But she couldn’t show it. This was their last lifeline. The first Shaman’s House Duhui had visited, and every place they’d tried after that, had all said the same thing—this was beyond their power to handle.
From the moment they’d stepped inside the Shaman’s House, the shaman had been screaming at them to get out. How frightened both Duhui and Sugyun had been.
Duhui was desperate.
“No, please! There’s more. There’s so much more! Please listen to me.”
She wiped her runny nose on her sleeve with rough, jerking motions, struggling to sit up straighter. Her trembling lips parted.
“Not long after Hanwoong died, Jinhyung had an accident too. I don’t even know how he got up to the School Rooftop in the first place. The police are saying it was a suicide attempt, but that’s impossible. He’s not that kind of person. He had so many dreams, so many things he loved, and he was so responsible—he would never do that alone!”
“That friend as well, then…….”
At Yeonsoo’s careful question, Duhui’s voice broke into sobs.
“Ugh, h-huh. No. Hh-he didn’t die……. But he hasn’t regained consciousness. For over a month now.”
Duhui wept bitterly, remembering how even when she’d rushed to the Hospital in shock, they’d refused to let her visit.
According to Jinhyung’s parents, his ankles bore countless marks of self-inflicted wounds. The moment Duhui heard this, she told them what she’d witnessed. Disbelieving though they were, Sugyun also explained to Jinhyung’s parents everything that had happened at the school and Hanwoong’s death.
As Jinhyung’s parents listened to their story, they too realized this was no ordinary matter. From that point on, they made every effort to find someone who could help resolve the problem, and that’s how they discovered the Baek Family.
“Please, help us. I’ll find the money somehow, I promise. Huh-uh, please save us…….”
Duhui clasped her hands together, pleading through her tears. Yet despite her desperate entreaty, both Inan and Yeonhyeong’s expressions remained skeptical.
It was true—they had been dealing with an unusually powerful Vengeful Spirit. But their specialty was not Spirit Release.
In fact, Yeonhyeong was weak in the fundamentals—Soul-calling, the Earthbound Spirit Ritual, the Cleansing Ritual. He’d been trained only in Curse Technique under Inan’s guidance since childhood. Moreover, he was not a direct vessel for Divine Possession Shamanism, so without performing a ritual, he wielded almost no Divine Power.
Beyond that, what troubled him most was the pitiful pittance of the fee itself.
“Tsk.”
Yeonhyeong was clicking his tongue and preparing to refuse when Yeonsoo, pretending not to notice, gently approached his father Inan with a request.
“Father, might I take on this task?”
“You?”
Inan, who had been frowning his disapproval, tilted his head slightly at Yeonsoo’s words. Yeonsoo stepped closer to his father and continued.
“Yes. I haven’t yet proven my Divine Power to you both, so I thought it might not be a bad idea to test whether I’m worthy of joining the Baek Family’s affairs through this case.”
Yeonsoo offered himself for testing. In those words, Inan discerned his submissive attitude, while Yeonhyeong saw the quiet confidence he was subtly revealing. At that, Yeonhyeong’s lips twisted wryly.
“How confident are you, to say such things of your own accord?”
“It’s not so much confidence as it is that I should have shown you both what I could do before carelessly asking to be brought into the family affairs. Please give me the chance to correct my brief-sightedness.”
Yeonsoo spoke with such obsequious courtesy that Inan laughed with satisfaction, rubbing his chin.
He already knew his second son had been born with a strong Divine Spirit. Since earliest childhood, the boy had spoken in Spirit Language and performed Divination. In proportion to that immense power, he suffered from severe Shamanic Illness.
Yet he’d survived into adulthood without being consumed by lesser spirits, and so the neighborhood gossips declared that Yeonsoo was destined to become a Full Shaman. Inan held the same belief.
Yeonsoo had left home for five years of devoted training in preparation for his Initiation Ritual, wandering and practicing. And when he’d returned, Inan had sensed something extraordinary in him—a palpable pressure that even a Hereditary Shaman like himself, one who cannot see spirits directly, could feel distinctly.
If he could harness that power for the Baek Family’s benefit……
Then he might seize something greater than all the wealth and influence they’d accumulated thus far.
Inan had long lamented that his eldest son Yeonhyeong’s abilities fell short of his expectations. Even though Yeonhyeong was born out of wedlock, Inan had not abandoned him to starve but had brought him into the main house and raised him. He had no reason to refuse a return on that investment.
“Very well. Then handle this case yourself, Yeonsoo.”
At those words, Yeonsoo bowed deeply in gratitude, and Duhui lifted her tear-stained face. She watched the two men, elder by age, walk out through the Separate House, her mind swimming.
Was it happening? Had they accepted?
Fresh tears began to flow down her nose.
Yeonsoo did not mock her distress. Instead, he drew a Handkerchief from inside his jacket and offered it to her. The pristine white cloth was almost too fine to wipe one’s nose on. So Duhui clutched it tightly in her hand and, sniffling, asked him quietly.
“You’re… you’re really taking our case?”
At that, Yeonsoo smiled and nodded.
“Once you’ve calmed yourself, we’ll go together.”
***
After giving Duhui a moment to compose herself, Yeonsoo slipped out of the Separate House first. Inan and Yeonhyeong had already returned to the Main House and were nowhere to be seen.
Yeonsoo walked quickly around the perimeter of the Main House. It was a path that allowed one to reach the Separate Building without passing through the Main House’s central hall.
It meant taking a longer route, but Yeonsoo favored this path. As a child, he’d often crept along this same way to slip into the Separate Building.
Just as the Separate Building had no windows facing the Main House, so too did the Main House have no windows overlooking the Separate Building. This meant that so long as he avoided running into anyone at the Main House’s rear door, his comings and goings to the Separate Building could go undetected.
Though in the end, Yang Miju had caught him anyway and beaten him soundly, after which she’d had the door locked.
Recalling those childhood days, Yeonsoo released a quiet breath. His pace quickened.
His Shrine was in the Separate Building, so all the Ritual Implements he needed for today’s work were stored there. So really, he was only going to collect his ritual items—absolutely not hurrying there because he wanted to see that person.
“…….”
Childish.
He laughed inwardly at his own pathetic excuse.
The truth is simple. He was going because he wanted to see him.
He’d set up his Shrine in that dilapidated Separate Building precisely so he wouldn’t have to be apart from him, so why was it difficult now to acknowledge that he wanted to see him?
Yeonsoo’s shoes carried him quietly across the Main House courtyard and came to rest at the Separate Building’s door. Weeds, left deliberately untended, tickled against his knees.
Past midday, autumn sunlight wrapped warmly around the Main House buildings. It reminded Yeonsoo of the autumn day he’d traveled to Hallasan to pray to the Divine.
18
The reeds of autumn gleaming golden as they reflected the brilliant morning sun. Buffeted fiercely by Jeju Island’s relentless autumn winds yet never bending, those beautiful living things—Yeonsoo felt tears might come unbidden as he gazed upon them.
If only we could go see that reed field together someday.
I thought such things while picturing him, forever perched on the veranda gazing at nothing but wildflowers and cats. I wanted to show him beautiful landscapes.
I would have gone mad.
If I had to remain trapped in one place for over a thousand years, I’d surely have lost my mind long ago. But the man—he never spoke of it, and showed no signs of mental disturbance.
He must be fundamentally different from ordinary humans, I thought, and quietly pushed open the door.
A week had passed since the servants stopped coming. The air had grown far cleaner, and Yeonsoo’s breathing came easier. The acrid smell of mugwort and incense from that first day had long since faded.
As I walked carefully across the creaking floorboards, I heard movement from the inner room—the whisper of fabric dragging across the floor, then the subtle shift of someone settling by the door.
I imagined him sitting just beyond the threshold, listening for my footsteps, and couldn’t help but smile. Yeonsoo knocked softly, as if he hadn’t noticed.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————