The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 33

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 33

The event had concluded without incident. Yet Hee-seo sensed it instinctively—something lingered unfinished.
Under the pretense of seeing off guests as the host, Je-eon and his entourage remained in the building well past midnight. Hee-seo found herself trapped there as well, unable to leave.
Han Do-yoon’s and Je-eon’s secretaries escorted the last visitors out. The hall fell silent in moments. Hee-seo watched Je-eon from the shadows.
Je-eon sat in a chair, wine glass in hand. Moonlight cascaded through the enormous glass window, now bare of curtains and screens. The moonlit sea beyond became a luminous stage, casting its glow upon him.
Hee-seo checked her watch. The hour was approaching—the Axis Hour, when spirits’ activity surged to its most volatile peak.
“Hee-seo.”
Je-eon called to her. He had somehow ascended to the stage, his gaze fixed on her. The man standing against the backdrop of that rippling foreign sea seemed too unreal to be true.
“Come to me.”
And he summoned her. Hee-seo surveyed the Banquet Hall, grown even quieter than before.
Only the pianist and Han Do-yoon remained. After steadying her breath, Hee-seo removed her high heels. Then, barefoot, she climbed the stage and stood before Je-eon.
“Were your feet aching?”
“High heels always do that. Even ones worth hundreds of millions of won—they only cause women suffering.”
“I’m sorry. I chose them because they looked good with the dress.”
Taking off the shoes she’d worn all evening wasn’t solely about the pain. But Hee-seo didn’t say so openly.
“You don’t need to apologize. It’s just irritating, nothing more.”
“You really do draw clear lines, don’t you?”
Je-eon smiled bitterly, like someone who’d been refused. Even at that smile, Hee-seo forced her mind not to be swayed by what her eyes beheld.
The most dangerous moment was upon her. Show even the slightest opening, and the thing inside Kim Je-eon would destroy her. What mattered most was a heart that wouldn’t waver, no matter what came.
Yet Kim Je-eon always exceeded her expectations.
“……What are you doing?”
“I was worried I might step on your feet.”
“What?”
“I’d like to dance with you. Just one song. One song is enough. Will you permit me?”
Kim Je-eon removed his shoes, matching her bare feet. Then he approached and extended his hand.
Hee-seo tried not to show surprise. But refusing his hand would make her panic obvious to anyone watching. She had no choice—she took the tips of his fingers.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not well-mannered. I’m terribly clumsy—I might actually break your shinbone.”
“Break my shinbone, not just my toes? That sounds like quite the impressive skill.”
Suppressing a laugh, Je-eon gently wrapped her in his arms. His large hand steadied her waist while his other clasped hers.
In an instant—far too quickly—they grew close. Though Hee-seo was not short, Je-eon’s height was such that she found herself nearly cradled against him.
“Most dances have the man leading, so don’t worry.”
“That’s what worries me.”
“Your worrying worries me, Hee-seo.”
The moment Je-eon finished speaking, the faint notes of piano drifted through the hall. Only then did Hee-seo understand why the pianist had remained.
It had been Kim Je-eon’s scheme from the start. She tried to mask her reaction, but her jaw tightened involuntarily.
“You don’t believe a word I say, do you?”
Hee-seo moved slowly as Je-eon led, her movements closer to a gentle sway across the stage than an actual dance—sadly, no chance to scuff his shinbone after all.
“Do you know what those who work with spirits learn first?”
“I’m not sure. Exorcism rituals? Chanting incantations and drawing talismans?”
“No. That comes second. The first thing is……”
The piano grew gradually faster. With each movement Hee-seo made around Je-eon as their center, the hair that slipped from her face rippled gently like the waves beyond the window.
The moonlight was bright enough to ache. Hee-seo closed and opened her eyes.
“Resistance to Illusion.”
“Ah.”
“Not trusting what your eyes see. A heart that doesn’t waver. It’s practically an unspoken rule among those who practice Spirit Guidance—whether shamans, priests, or monks.”
“Is that so? Then you’ve been doing wonderfully all this time.”
Je-eon’s large hand rubbed gently at her waist.
Hee-seo wore a thin jacket over the dress, cut to conceal her figure as much as possible. That Je-eon had chosen both pieces was something Chief Jo had let slip.
Je-eon whispered to her in a voice so soft it seemed worn thin.
“You’ve never been enchanted by me once, Hee-seo.”
“……”
“If anything, I……”
Je-eon’s lips trembled as if he meant to speak. But like someone hiding a vast secret beneath his tongue, he couldn’t continue easily. He seemed tormented by not being able to speak, and at the same time, speaking seemed to cause him pain.
Hee-seo watched his troubled face and furrowed her brow.
“You what, to me?”
“……I. Hee-seo. You.”
“Yes. What am I to you? Tell me. Were you thinking of disposing of me quickly?”
Unable to hold back any longer, Hee-seo pressed him. At that, Je-eon’s dark eyes glimmered. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, speaking in an aggrieved tone.
“No. Hee-seo, I told you clearly that wouldn’t happen. I—”
“Stop lying. If not you, then who? If not you, then who would—!”
“Sir, sir, come out of there!”
It was the moment Hee-seo was about to press him further. Han Do-yoon, standing in the doorway, rushed toward them with urgent gestures, pointing frantically. A chill so profound it made the hair on one’s neck stand on end washed over the room. Hee-seo reflexively shoved Je-eon off the stage. But instead of stumbling away easily, Je-eon caught her and tumbled down with her.
Crackle-crack! Splinter-snap! Shatter-shriek!
“Ahhh!”
“Sir, sir, this way, come out quickly!”
A sickening sound of rupture followed.
The pianist shrieked and scrambled frantically beneath the piano. Han Do-yoon, his face pale with fear, crouched low and moved toward Je-eon.
Hee-seo pulled out the Sambuljeon she’d hidden in her jacket pocket and quickly scanned the surroundings. Her gaze then froze, pinned to the massive glass wall.
“…What…what is this?”
Even for one who had dealt with countless spirits, the sight before her eyes was unprecedented.
The thick glass designed to withstand Dubai’s sandstorms and gales was fracturing. More disturbing still was the crimson fire rising from the center of the rupture.
Hee-seo recognized at once that it was not actual flame.
‘Soul Fire.’
Spirits manifest in various forms. Possession of the living body was most common, and what people usually mistook for Goblin Fire was in fact Soul Fire—one form of spiritual manifestation among many.
It was something even those without Spiritual Sight could perceive with their own eyes. As Hee-seo fixed her gaze on the fire clinging to the window, Je-eon grasped her shoulder and pulled her up.
“Hee-seo, get up quickly. We have to get out!”
“What?”
“Before it shatters!”
Je-eon spoke with unmistakable urgency. Then he lifted her as effortlessly as a sheet of paper. Since he had never used force with her even once until now, Hee-seo felt a moment of confusion.
‘You orchestrated this. That Soul Fire—you summoned it.’
One spirit calling forth another was commonplace. It was the same principle as a Shaman channeling multiple deities into a single body. Hee-seo naturally assumed the Soul Fire wavering beyond the window was Je-eon’s doing.
“Let me go! What is this? What are you scheming?!”
“Hee-seo, there’s no time for this. Hurry!”
“Sir, sir, please! Get out quickly!”
Hee-seo roughly pushed Je-eon away. Meanwhile, Han Do-yoon kept calling desperately to Je-eon.
Now the Soul Fire swelled larger and larger, becoming as luminous as a small sun. A fire that grew without any fuel source was terror incarnate.
“Hee-seo, just trust me this once. This has nothing to do with me. Let’s get out of here first, and then we can talk!”
“How could I trust you? You—some nameless thing that inhabits another’s body. How could I possibly—!”

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