INV 56

Kwon Yihyeon received the fishing rod with a very reluctant expression.

Because of the advice from his seniors that all the humans who saw ghosts in this area were cases where they met with misfortune while coming to fish, and thus he should disguise himself as a fisherman, he was currently in a state of being forced into a foolish outfit—a red vest and boots like those of a fisherman, forcibly crammed over his hanbok ritual robes.

Judging by their disappointed expressions, it seemed the seniors had wanted to see Kwon Yihyeon looking ugly, but Kwon Yihyeon’s face had the ability to pull off anything he wore as fashion. Furthermore, he even possessed the brass neck to handle a runway right in the middle of a fashion show even if he were dressed in haute couture at a fish market.

As a result…

“Ah, damn. Is the spot no good? Why is it that not even one can be caught properly? Huh?”

“…”

Kwon Yihyeon became a method-acting fisherman.

After thirty minutes had passed, although it wasn’t what he had expected, he even succeeded in fishing.

“Oh, oh my! This one is as big as my forearm! The spot was good, it was good!”

“…”

“I’ve gotta take a picture. I’ve gone and caught a raw fish as big as my forearm in a snap. Hmm?”

A great ‘big catch’ had been caught, enough to make the watching Gwak Deukcheon feel a sense of deprivation instinctively…

“No, we’re stuck between the bushes fighting with gnats, and that brat is over there enjoying himself all alone… and besides, what’s with his way of speaking?!”

Although the age range of his words had become higher due to the fact that all the fishing fanatics around Kwon Yihyeon were middle-aged men, it was enough to make the vengeful spirit of the lake let its guard down.

Soon, the vengeful spirit poked its head out, parting the lake.

He thought he would see bloated skin, but he was wrong. The vengeful spirit had the face of a girl. Her pale expression, weary of life, was steeped in emotions so heavy that her appearance and age could not be reconciled at all, but at least her exterior was young. She seemed to be maintaining an appearance similar to the days when she was alive.

She had not yet become a vengeful ghost or an evil spirit.

‘Even so, there is nothing I can do…’

Kwon Yihyeon, deciding to be faithful to his role as bait, began cleaning the fish while pretending not to see the vengeful spirit.

Once it came to the shore, the seniors would finish off the vengeful spirit by delivering a flying kick or a punch. Kwon Yihyeon’s role was to be perceived as a human easy enough for the vengeful spirit to approach. That was all. Therefore, Kwon Yihyeon would absolutely not pretend to know the vengeful spirit. Even if that child was too young to die.

He would absolutely not give it a single glance. Just as he was resolving that, Kwon Yihyeon inadvertently shifted his eyes.

Just as telling someone not to think of an elephant makes only an elephant come to mind overwhelmingly.

Because he thought he shouldn’t look, his gaze moved of its own accord.

[Can you see me…?]

Kwon Yihyeon’s eyes met those of the girl who had approached right before his nose before he knew it.

“…!”

He ended up resonating with the grudge lingering in those eyes.

[Can you see why I died?]

Crack.

In an instant, Kwon Yihyeon was dragged down to the bottom of the abyss. The surroundings were pitch black, and the girl’s past was breaking apart and scattering everywhere.

Snap. Cra-cra-crack. Crack!

It was no different from the ‘past flashback’ that Chacha used to show. However, it was more violent.

The girl’s mental images were being branded into his mind.

『A moderate level of resonance is a necessary ability for a shaman because it helps in knowing a ghost’s story and performing a requiem, but if you go beyond the limit and cross the line between the living and the dead, you can conversely be devoured.

Remember. You must not be possessed by the grudge of the deceased.

If you feel pity, remember that it is the portion of the living toward the deceased, and remember for what purpose you yourself stand in this place. To return a lost soul to its proper place. That is our task.

…Do you understand, Chacha?』

For a moment, it felt like he heard a voice he missed so dearly…

‘…What did I hear? I?’

He cannot remember. Kwon Yihyeon feels that he cannot know at all. What is he seeing? What is it that he is seeing? Who is he? What is he?

Just what is this grudge boiling in this chest that it is so hot and vivid?

[It’s a common story.]

When he came to his senses, Kwon Yihyeon had completely resonated with the girl, opening his body and mind wide and accepting the grudge dwelling in that child’s soul with all his might. Kwon Yihyeon felt as if he might die at any moment because that child’s grudge was terribly heavy, but even while harboring such poison, the girl’s voice was extremely calm.

The girl was calmly telling an all-too-common story.

[An alcoholic father. He always beat us and didn’t care whether it was his parents or his children; he was crazy for gambling and crazy for women, and then he finally ran away because he couldn’t pay the private loan sharks?]

It was merely as acrid as gray ash that was so utterly spent it could no longer be stimulated…

Every time the girl threw out a word, Kwon Yihyeon curled his body and covered his ears despite himself. He squeezed his eyes shut. Still, the passage he had opened once did not close. In a gap he did not understand himself, Kwon Yihyeon had pitied the vengeful spirit so terribly that he had given his consent for her to approach, and the aftermath was pouring down endlessly. Even when he closed his eyes, that child’s past continued to be seen under his eyelids. It continued, continued to be seen. Someone’s pain, a grudge. A wailing…

[Those gangster bastards said it. If it comes to it, the family has to die instead.]

“…Stop it, don’t show me. Don’t tell me. Don’t speak. I am incompetent. Powerless. I can’t do anything for you. So please just stop…”

[I had one younger sibling. Five years younger than me, so I don’t know if they would even remember me now. They were four years old then.]

“…Shut up!”

[No matter how much I screamed and screamed not to touch the child, it didn’t work at all, and I was dragged away. My sibling. My grudge pierces through the base and burns the lava; I can’t go like this, I can’t go. I tried to hang onto one guy and die with him… but that guy crushed my head with a stone on the riverbed.]

The next moment, Kwon Yihyeon felt disgusted with himself for telling the girl to shut up and dry-heaved.

‘If I died unfairly and had to suffer even this kind of treatment, I might go crazy.’

Why do people blather on without knowing when to shut up? Why can’t he even listen to the final ghostly wail of the deceased that could be burst out to no one? Does he intend to press down and deny the grudge, the pain, the suffering until the end? Then just who will listen to the grudge of the deceased? Just who will accept that crying?

If it cannot be accepted by anyone, then just with what must we endure?

[Crushed me, and built a pagoda with stones on top because they were afraid I’d float up, really. So I can’t float. Even though that guy floated. I hoped that guy would pass by the lakeshore just once, but that guy doesn’t come. I’m holding out just to catch and kill that guy, but that guy doesn’t come.]

With what does a person.

[What about my sibling? What could have happened to my sibling. Why was I unable to move? My sibling. My lovely sibling. Suyeong-i. I can’t see you now. My sibling. My sibling…]

Just with what can one comfort death…?

[…It’s a common story.]

The girl’s voice returns to the beginning once again. Like a broken cassette tape. Since I drowned, they called me an aquatic ghost; since I was nailed to the spot, an earth-bound spirit; a vengeful soul that cannot leave the place of death, they said. When I strike up a conversation because I want someone to hear my story, everyone screams and runs away. Aquatic ghost. Earth-bound spirit. A person’s life is this light when put into words. What must be done so as not to be light? To call others in a way that is not light. What must a person do so as not to treat someone’s life neglectfully?

Sounds that cut off like a broken cassette tape.

[It’s a common story. It’s a common story. It’s a common story.]

Those words were so terrible that Kwon Yihyeon could not come to his senses at all…

“Get a grip, you punk!”

Rumble, boom!

The next moment, Kwon Yihyeon squeezes his eyes shut at the lightning that struck before his eyes. His vision was entirely filled with pure white light. Subsequently, an explosion loud enough to burst eardrums tore through the mountains and rivers. K-boom! He staggered, unable to steady his body, but the next moment the nape of his neck was pulled back. He tried to keep his balance and endure so as not to be dragged away just like that, but he was kicked in the ankle. Kwon Yihyeon fell face down on the ground. His eyes stung, so tears still fell. Still, he tried to crawl along on all fours. There was a place he had to go. That is, the girl he had to save…

“Where are you going?”

A disinterested voice. A low voice with anger underlying it is laid down indifferently in his ear. He tries to move forward, but the foot trampling his back does not permit it. Kwon Yihyeon clutches the pebbles of the lakeshore. If he crushes and breaks Gwak Deukcheon’s ankle with this, he will be able to go to the girl. The moment he thought that, he could tell something was strange. Why am I trying to go to a girl whose name I don’t even know?

Why am I so certain that I must go even if it means breaking Gwak Deukcheon’s ankle?

In that instant, snap, the sound of a finger snap cutting through the moment.

Before the fingers could rub together a second time, his possessed spirit returned all at once.

“Team Leader…!”