The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 81

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

Episode 81

Hee-seo asked without expectation, knowing Kim Jong-hyeop wouldn’t answer easily. It was the question that had always confused her since she learned of the connection between Kim Je-eon and Je-seon.
“What if Kim Je-eon learned your true identity, learned the full picture of this fake marriage? Haven’t you ever considered that he might come clean to me first? He could have coaxed me into cooperation if he wanted to survive.”
But contrary to her thoughts, Kim Jong-hyeop chose laughter over silence. The old man who had raged until now suddenly shook with quiet chuckles. Then, as if sharing something utterly amusing with his young granddaughter, his face filled with a smile, he leaned in and whispered to her.
“That fool Kim Je-eon, try to save himself by sweet-talking you? Does he even have such ability? You know far too little! That boy wouldn’t dare attempt such a thing. How could he, after forgetting the grace of being raised? Who took in that filthy bloodline? Who gave him a name and let him live like a human being? He should offer his own body and repay my daughter’s life!”
The old man’s anger was nowhere to be found. In that moment, Hee-seo felt her insides twist almost unbearably.
How could anyone be so arrogant? That Kim Je-eon didn’t run away, that he would surrender his own body as though it were the obvious choice—the old man’s attitude left her utterly speechless.
“That boy is alive now only because of my daughter! So he must prove his worth. That fool would probably accept it without resistance even if he knew I sent you. As he should. It’s only natural! I kept it secret only to prevent unforeseen misfortune. That wretch cannot escape my grasp. How dare he even think of it.”
She swallowed back the curses rising in her throat, and heat crept up the back of her neck. Kim Jong-hyeop seemed never to have truly considered Je-eon’s resistance even once.
Even as he disparaged and belittled Kim Je-eon, his belief in the boy’s obedience showed not a single flaw.
How twisted must a person become to be this selfish?
Undisguised revulsion flickered across Hee-seo’s face, yet Kim Jong-hyeop remained utterly confident.
“…You’re awfully certain about that. Everyone has a survival instinct.”
Hee-seo barely steadied her voice. Yet despite her effort, it wavered at the end. She knew in her mind that she couldn’t lose her composure before Kim Jong-hyeop, but rage was eating through her reason.
“Survival instinct? Ha! What use would such a thing be to livestock kept in a house? If that wretch wants to live, what then? Should I concern myself with that too? The only thing that matters to me is saving Je-seon!”
From his answer, she understood clearly how Kim Jong-hyeop had viewed Kim Je-eon all this time.
And the realization that she’d nearly been swayed by Kim Jong-hyeop in her single-minded quest to find her parents tormented her all the more.
If she hadn’t noticed that it was Kim Je-seon who was parasitizing Kim Je-eon’s body, what would have happened? The thought alone sent ice water through her veins.
‘He grew up never treated as human.’
Only now did Hee-seo begin to understand why Je-eon couldn’t covet his own life.
Je-eon had been raised with his desires for life itself severed. He had been nothing but a vessel to stand in Je-seon’s place.
‘…How could anyone do such a thing.’
If she could, she wanted to seize the old man by the collar right then and scream.
It wasn’t the child’s fault to be born of a parent’s denial, so why could he be so cruel to the newborn babe? She wanted to cry out, demanding what grudge he held against this blood he had given life to.
‘It’s not the Snake’s Curse that’s afflicted you—you yourself are a curse incarnate.’
She couldn’t know the Snake’s Curse that surrounded the Kim Clan, but one thing was certain: Kim Jong-hyeop was a being far more terrible than any curse.
He felt no guilt in harming others for his purpose. On the contrary, he considered it natural. His ignorance, refusing to recognize himself as guilty even before guilt itself, shamed Hee-seo instead.
Hee-seo clenched her fist hard enough to leave nail marks and murmured in a small voice.
“I’d dearly love to bring Je-seon back to life and present her before your very eyes.”
If she revived Je-seon, whom he cherished like his own life, only to snatch her away before his eyes, would he finally regret even a fraction of his sins?
Hee-seo wanted to repay Kim Jong-hyeop with the same suffering Je-eon had endured.
She yearned to see him too stripped of all hope and desire, to watch him lose his will to live as Je-eon had.
“That’s right. So stop your foolishness and help save Je-seon. Then you’ll see your parents again, won’t you?”
But Hee-seo had an objective she could not forget.
To find her parents, who had transferred Je-seon’s spirit into Kim Je-eon’s body and then vanished. She could not place that above Je-eon’s revenge. She had to find her parents and learn what reason drove them to take Kim Jong-hyeop’s hand.
Hee-seo closed her eyes lightly and suppressed her emotions. Her heart, which had been racing frantically with anger, found its rhythm again. After drawing a long, quiet breath, she opened her eyes and faced him.
“I need Mother’s Shamanic Tools. When her spirit transferred Je-seon into that body, there would have been tools used in the ritual. Help me find them. Without them, I have no way forward.”
It was a lie thought up to buy time.
Je-seon had certainly said that Hee-seo’s mother Wol-cheon had transferred her into Je-eon’s body. If Je-seon had lied, Kim Jong-hyeop would deny it immediately—
“What…? What nonsense is this? I know you’re a half-wit who hasn’t even experienced Spirit Descent. Yet you’re quite good at Exorcism, are you not? That’s why you came to this house hoping to find your parents. So what’s this about things being difficult now? Your mother had no such excuses! She was certain she could save Je-seon, no matter what!”
Kim Jong-hyeop’s face twisted at once as he demanded an answer. He didn’t even seem to have time to check how Hee-seo knew of Wol-cheon’s Sorcery, or when she had learned of it.
At his reaction, Hee-seo felt something inside her shatter once more, like a small stone breaking apart.
‘So Mother really did do it.’
What shattered was a thread of hope—hope and trust in her parents that Wol-cheon hadn’t committed such acts willingly, that perhaps she’d been forced or coerced, compelled by circumstances beyond her control. That last, hollow hope.
Hee-seo could no longer deny that her parents were the very people who had tormented Je-eon.
Then all the more could she not grant Kim Jong-hyeop’s wishes.
Hee-seo answered him with an expressionless face. She had ample reason to refute him.
“I can still drive out spirits now. But if I perform an Exorcism in this state…”
Hee-seo met the old man’s gaze, dark and unwavering. The old man, stripped of all remaining secrets, appeared only ugly and weak. Quietly, she posed her question back to him.
“Who do you think will be driven out of that body?”
“…What did you say?”
At Hee-seo’s words, Kim Jong-hyeop’s face went deathly pale.
A spirit? Who was a spirit? He wanted to deny it violently. Yet he too knew Je-seon’s condition better than anyone.
In the past, Wol-cheon’s Sorcery had made it possible to transfer Je-seon’s spirit into Je-eon’s body, but that was all it had done. Je-seon had never fully possessed the body, which meant Je-eon had been enjoying what should have belonged to Je-seon instead.
But if Je-seon were to disappear…?
Kim Jong-hyeop’s voice rose, touched by sudden fear.
“Expelled? You’re saying Je-seon will be expelled? Is that what you’re telling me?!”
“Yes. Well, it’s fortunate we found out now, isn’t it? If I’d actually believed your lies and performed an Exorcism in good faith, your only grandson could have vanished from this world entirely. Don’t you think you should be grateful?”
“That’s not—”
“Exactly. It would’ve been better if you’d just been honest with me from the start.”
The vertigo of imagining what might have been made Kim Jong-hyeop clutch his forehead and sink deeper into the sofa.
Hee-seo was right. If she’d recklessly driven out the spirit clinging to Je-eon’s body, the chances of Je-seon—the actual resident of that form—being expelled were far higher.
But for Kim Jong-hyeop, who knew nothing of Possession and Exorcism, this was information he couldn’t have grasped until now. He’d harbored only a twisted faith that what Wol-cheon had failed to complete, her daughter could finish.
Confronted with the fact that his own actions had nearly caused Je-seon to disappear, Kim Jong-hyeop found himself unable to speak.
“So what am I supposed to do? What comes next? How do we fix this?”

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