The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 37

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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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Episode 37

Somyeong Seonnyeo had never admitted it, but Hui-seo had known for a long time that she took pleasure whenever Hui-seo was hurt.
At what felt like a cutting remark, Somyeong Seonnyeo’s face darkened and she gently cupped Hui-seo’s cheek in her palm.
“Don’t say such things. That’s not what I meant at all.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“What I’m saying is… well, you see.”
Somyeong Seonnyeo twisted her carefully lipsticked mouth into a smile and lowered her voice. Then she leaned close and whispered softly into Hui-seo’s ear.
“Finding a good man and marrying well—it’s such a relief that you don’t seem to take after your mother in that regard. Don’t you agree?”
“…….”
“You know better than anyone how much your mother suffered because of your father. Your father—yes, he was a handsome man, I’ll grant you that, but what else? Did he have anything? Did he have education? What good is a man with just a pretty face? All it gets you is sordid gossip with the neighborhood women. How much your mother agonized over that. Isn’t that right?”
Hui-seo gave a hollow laugh at Somyeong Seonnyeo’s words, delivered with the enthusiasm of someone recounting an amusing old story.
Did this woman really still think Hui-seo would fall for such childish manipulation?
Yet Somyeong Seonnyeo pressed on, still playing the role of a caring aunt.
“Whenever I saw your mother suffering beside me, my heart ached so much. The saying that a daughter inherits her mother’s fate wasn’t made up for nothing—didn’t I tell you countless times while raising you? Never be seduced by a man with a handsome face.”
It was something Hui-seo had heard until the words stuck in her ears, growing up alongside Hae-jung under Somyeong Seonnyeo’s roof. She could no longer hold back and pressed her further.
“A handsome man can’t use his looks without consequences, a rich man will squander his wealth, an educated man will do corrupt things behind the scenes… was there ever a man I could actually meet?”
Hui-seo’s first romance had come later than most.
Of course, before she met Choi Jin-wook at university and began dating him, there had been men who approached her.
But most of them had backed away from Hui-seo’s side, unable to withstand Somyeong Seonnyeo’s interference, and the rest disappeared because they failed to win Hui-seo’s heart. Choi Jin-wook alone had been the one man who came closest to her.
To Hui-seo’s sharp question, Somyeong Seonnyeo answered without blinking, as if nothing were amiss.
“There you go, resenting me again. This is why they say you shouldn’t raise a person with black hair. Tsk. Didn’t I speak clearly enough? Not a single one of those men you liked had a pure heart. Was I supposed to let my goddaughter be with trash like that?”
“So Choi Jin-wook had a pure heart?”
Hui-seo was beyond exasperation—anger didn’t even come. She twisted her lips into a bitter smile.
Hui-seo had only been able to date Choi Jin-wook because Somyeong Seonnyeo had given her permission at the time.
“You said it yourself back then. That he’d become someone great. That he had a broad heart and abundant virtue, so I should keep him by my side. I was so foolish. I believed every word of it.”
“…… Why are you suddenly bringing him up?”
“When we spoke last time, you said the Regimental General Spirit told you that Choi Jin-wook made a poor first impression. So when I saw your face, I wanted to ask once. You didn’t answer me back then. Did you really dislike Choi Jin-wook from the very beginning?”
“That’s… I never said such a thing.”
Caught off guard, Somyeong Seonnyeo’s expression shifted entirely, and she glared at Hui-seo.
It was a look Hui-seo knew well. Whenever Somyeong Seonnyeo was at a disadvantage, she would play dumb like this.
In the past, Hui-seo would have simply ignored her, not wanting to become the same kind of person as Somyeong Seonnyeo. But today, anger boiled up in her with unusual intensity.
“If you’re going to lie, at least think first. Please. The Regimental General Spirit you forced on me—I barely managed to accept her after graduating college, remember? Don’t you remember that?”
Despite the anger surging within her, Hui-seo’s voice came out cold as frost.
“After accepting the Regimental General Spirit, you never once achieved proper spiritual manifestation, so you went wild with all manner of misconduct. You couldn’t properly wield the Spirit Blade, so even other Body Guardian Spirits turned against you. Do you really not remember that?”
When a shaman accepts a Regimental General Spirit, it is customary for her to wield the Spirit Blade and walk across knife blades. It was the same principle as when a Child Spirit descended into Hae-jung’s body, seeking sweets and behaving like a small child.
But thanks to Somyeong Seonnyeo trekking through famous sacred mountains performing devotions, the Regimental General Spirit that finally descended into her body did not grant her easy spiritual possession.
“I know why you cling so desperately to accepting the Regimental General Spirit. You’ve always wanted to become like our mother. You wanted to accept your patron deity as a Regimental General Spirit and be called a Master Shaman. Isn’t that right?”
“You! What are you saying! When did I ever say I wanted to become like your mother!”
Somyeong Seonnyeo’s face flushed crimson as she raised her voice.
At that moment, the door behind Hui-seo opened. In an instant, Somyeong Seonnyeo’s expression completely transformed, and she bowed her head meekly.
“If you want to fight, it would be better for your health to do it after my grandson wakes up.”
Kim Jong-hyeop shot Somyeong Seonnyeo a cold glare, then left without even acknowledging Hui-seo’s presence.
“Hui-seo, you. Stay right here.”
Somyeong Seonnyeo whispered hurriedly and hurried after Kim Jong-hyeop on quick, mincing steps. Watching her try desperately to strike up a conversation with him, Hui-seo exhaled a low sigh.

The examination results for Je-eon, whom they had waited for almost all night, yielded no meaningful findings.
So as soon as morning broke, the hospital room was prepared for a shamanic ritual. It was none other than Somyeong Seonnyeo who had arranged it.
Familiar faces came and went through the hospital room from dawn onward, transporting the objects needed for the ritual. Among them was Hae-jung.
Hae-jung couldn’t bring herself to speak to Hui-seo, too busy gauging Somyeong Seonnyeo’s mood. It seemed she had been sternly scolded by Somyeong Seonnyeo because of Hui-seo.
Preparing the ritual altar consumed the entire morning. Though the hospital room was larger than most household living rooms, once they set up the altar starting with the pig’s head, arranged the offerings, and a handful of musicians and others entered, the space filled completely.
Hui-seo stood to one side of the room, observing Somyeong Seonnyeo, who had dressed herself in elaborate shamanic ritual robes.
‘How in the world did Kim Jong-hyeop bring this woman here?’
Judging by the way Hae-jung kept her lips sealed, Somyeong Seonnyeo must have learned of Hui-seo’s whereabouts through her. But even so, how had Somyeong Seonnyeo come to meet Kim Jong-hyeop?
‘She’s not the kind of person you’d run into at the Neighborhood Senior Center…….’
As Hui-seo’s thoughts deepened, the shamanic ritual began.
The crash of the gong and the beat of the drum filled the hospital room with clamorous sound. Somyeong Seonnyeo selected the gleaming Spirit General’s Blade from among the shamanic instruments laid out before her.
Hui-seo, watching the scene unfold, swallowed back a bitter laugh.
A Mudang’s shamanic instruments varied depending on the Patron Deity that descended upon her body. Somyeong Seonnyeo’s signature instrument—she who was both the spirit-sister of the Master Shaman and Hui-seo’s mother—was the Spirit General’s Blade.
To wield the Spirit General’s Blade properly, the Regimental General Spirit had to descend upon the Mudang’s body with powerful force, meaning the Spiritual Possession had to be complete—only then could one handle such a sacred instrument.
And why Somyeong Seonnyeo had specifically chosen the Spirit General’s Blade was easy enough to guess.
‘She coveted everything my mother possessed.’
The true face of Somyeong Seonnyeo, who had always worn a mask of affection at Wol-cheon’s side, revealed itself only after Wol-cheon disappeared.
Her envy and jealousy toward Wol-cheon had been far greater than anyone imagined.
When Hui-seo learned that Somyeong Seonnyeo had been the hidden hand behind the sordid rumors that had plagued her parents’ marriage—a couple so devoted they’d had to move again and again to escape the whispers—she could no longer bear it. She fled from beneath that shadow.
Even in the moment of flight, there was no regret. Only remorse for Hae-jung, left alone to face it all.
‘She’s nearly exhausted her Spiritual Power—what in the world is that woman thinking?’
To match Wol-cheon, who had once served a Regimental General Spirit as her Patron Deity, Somyeong Seonnyeo had taken an enormous risk and managed, with great difficulty, to invite a Regimental General Spirit of her own.
But the spirit had not readily lent her its strength, and the more it refused, the more Somyeong Seonnyeo made one wrong choice after another.
‘A woman who can’t perform Spiritual Divination or read Divination Readings properly, and she’s conducting a Shamanic Ritual.’
The gods’ fickleness is more terrible than any mortal’s. Somyeong Seonnyeo’s Spiritual Power running dry had been inevitable for a long time now—it was merely a matter of when.
And yet she would hold a Shamanic Ritual to wake Je-eon? It made no sense whatsoever. She was bound to incur Spiritual Contamination, and yet Somyeong Seonnyeo appeared utterly confident.

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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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