Are MZ Shamans In Trouble In Romance Novels? - Chapter 48

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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48.

Calisia raised her eyebrows as if demanding he answer properly. From the masked men to the sacred rope sealing the village entrance. The scholar was seeing things he shouldn’t be able to see. Regardless of the circumstances, his spiritual sight was open.

“Well, you see…”

“Don’t try to think your way out of this. I can see all the spiritual backlash on you.”

Sacred rope was a kind of barrier used to block or confine something. Spiritual backlash was the punishment received when an unauthorized person violated that boundary. For example, what would happen if you touched a live high-voltage power line with your bare hands? You’d suffer the backlash of ‘electrocution’ or ‘death.’

“Well… I wasn’t trying to deceive you.”

“You also noticed I was a shaman. That’s why you personally brought us here.”

Calisia glanced at the scholar’s fingertips, blackened from the spiritual backlash. The reason she pretended not to know and followed along was to advance the story of the strange tale. The scholar was at least a key figure opening the introduction of the drama.

“Soettong. Did you see how only our soup had meat piled up like a mountain at the tavern earlier? That was all because he had ulterior motives. It wasn’t out of gratitude for saving his life.”

“So you approached us deliberately.”

Ian, who had blocked Calisia’s path, looked over the scholar with hostile eyes.

“I, I didn’t approach you deliberately! This is really true! Please believe me!”

The scholar expressed his grievance, saying it really wasn’t like that.

“…Gosure!”

“…Gosure!”

Just then, the voices of dozens of people echoed from far away.

“This isn’t the time for this! Quickly hide behind there!”

The scholar, who had suddenly turned pale, pulled Calisia and Ian back. Shortly after, people with sacred rope tied around their ankles appeared, dragging their legs. They were carrying baskets filled with barley rice and seasoned vegetables in their arms.

“Move quickly!”

“I won’t forgive anyone who’s being lazy.”

Well-built strong men struck the ground with clubs while intimidating the people. They were the same wooden mask men they had seen on the mountain before.

“Get in! Quickly!”

Under the fierce glares of the strong men, people hurriedly bent their bodies. Soon, the emaciated bodies struggled to press their hands against the ground and crawled under the sacred rope.

“We’re going back!”

After confirming that all the people had entered the village, the men turned away.

“Phew! Just seeing those damn mask faces makes my heart race like this!”

Seeing the men completely disappear, the scholar patted his startled chest. Then he complained endlessly about how his ankle still ached.

“Stop making excuses and continue the story you were telling. We can make your ankle ache plenty too.”

Calisia glared fiercely at the scholar who was just wasting time unnecessarily.

“You remember this guy flying around, right?”

Calisia grabbed Ian’s wrist and shook it for show.

“…Hey! Make a fist.”

She turned her head slightly to the side and whispered in Ian’s ear.

“What did I do so wrong that you’re persecuting me like this! Oh my! What a fate I have!”

“…Hey! Hurry up and make one! Quickly!”

Calisia tapped Ian again and said.

“Ha.”

Ian sighed and roughly clenched his fist.

“Eek! Alright, alright! I understand, so I’ll talk!”

The grumbling scholar shrank his shoulders and declared surrender. The story that followed began from a deep dawn.

“Among my close friends, there’s someone named Lee Gilwon. He travels the eight provinces painting landscapes…”

“A playboy. He’s a playboy.”

Calisia muttered to herself.

“That’s right, a play…! Don’t interrupt me! So it was a night when Gilwon and I had drunk heavily.”

The scholar, who had gotten angry, continued his story. The scholar, whose body and mind were lost to alcohol, set out on the night road saying he would paint an amazing landscape painting. Walking the winding path again and again. What he found that way was Gosire Village. The problem was that it was exactly the hour of the ox, the time of ghosts.

-Mmm… Wh, what is… that. What’s with that rope.

It was already a good time to see strange things when ghostly energy grew strong. Needless to say for a drunk person whose mind was 90% gone. Eventually, the scholar ended up touching the sacred rope and suffered spiritual backlash, causing his spiritual sight to open.

“This is how I came to know about Gosire Village.”

“Then why did you go to the mountain and why did you drag us into this? How did you know I was a shaman in the first place?”

Calisia put her hands on her hips. Not everyone who sees what others cannot see is a shaman. Wasn’t the scholar himself an example of that?

“Well- shamans, you see. They have a habit they’re not even aware of. When they look at something, they roll their eyes upward. You did that when you looked at me on that mountain. You were probably seeing that spiritual backlash.”

“…Ha! Here’s another sharp-eyed gentleman.”

Calisia looked over the scholar with quite an interested expression. She had only thought he was a screw-loose gentleman, but he had some sharp aspects.

“So then. The reason you went to the mountain.”

“Did you see those people with sacred rope tied to their feet earlier? Those are the people of Gosire Village. They’re being worked as laborers in Jacheongbi’s field.”

“I’ve never heard of Jacheongbi using humans to work her fields. If anything, she helped people have good harvests. Isn’t there some mistake?”

Calisia frowned as if asking what nonsense he was talking about. Jacheongbi was a wise and generous deity. Moreover, she was the one who refused even the position of heavenly god and came down to the human world to spread the seeds of five grains. Because she didn’t want there to be starving humans.

“How could I know the mind of a deity? For now, follow me. There’s something I want to show you.”

The scholar, revealing his complicated feelings, led the way toward the village entrance.

“Hurry up… Ugh, ah!”

The scholar, who had been walking quickly, was suddenly pulled backward. It was because Calisia had roughly grabbed his bundle. The scholar, who barely regained his balance, turned his head with an aggrieved expression.

“What are you doing! I almost fell!”

“Listen here, scholar. You may already have spiritual backlash, but we don’t, you know?”

“Ah-.”

The scholar opened his mouth slightly as if he had just realized.

“And having spiritual backlash once isn’t the end of it. Unfortunately, this spiritual backlash works on an accumulation system. It builds up like karma.”

“Then what should we do?”

“We’ll have to use talismans as a temporary measure.”

Calisia swept up her hair as if this had become troublesome.

“Ah-.”

“What do you mean ‘ah’? Don’t just stand there, take out some ink and a brush from your bundle. Since you ended up in this state trying to paint landscapes, you must carry the four treasures of study with you.”

At Calisia’s words, the scholar clapped his hands and pulled out various items from his bundle.

***

The trio, having placed the talismans deep in their clothes, entered Gosire Village. Passing through narrow and bumpy paths, they arrived at fairly wide farmland. If you could call the barren land without a single blade of grass rice and crop fields.

“Gosure!”

“Gosure!”

And around that dead land, the people of Gosire Village were surrounding it in a circle. Throwing all the barley rice and seasoned vegetables from their baskets.

Thud-!

Thud-!

When all the baskets were empty, a terrible stench came from somewhere. People who covered their noses from the painfully nauseating smell scattered in all directions in an instant.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Soon, with footsteps that shook the ground, a group of beasts revealed themselves.

-Grrrrr…!

Bodies so thin that bones protruded but as large as ten people combined. Long thin necks and hard fangs protruding outside their lips. Calisia stretched her head forward.

‘Hungry ghosts?’

The identity of the beasts was hungry ghosts, demons said to symbolize greed.

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