INV 77

They told me to wait until the mobilization was complete. However, I couldn’t stop my feet from pacing restlessly.

“Grandma is coming.”

Kwon Yihyeon tried his best to remain calm, but he bit his lower lip with a face clearly marked by anxiety.

In truth, Myo Woon had never seen Kwon Yihyeon act like this before. Thus, he was flustered. Normally, Kwon Yihyeon would have noticed Myo Woon’s bewilderment on his own and composed himself.

But right now, such a thing was impossible.

“I’m going crazy myself, so how could I…”

Strictly speaking, Kwon Yihyeon was in a state not much different from a bullied child dreading a parent’s visit to the school.

To Kwon Yihyeon, his grandmother, Kwon Seon-ja, was literally no different from a parent. And right now, he was in a position no different from an outcast at the Afterlife Company. He didn’t want to show his grandmother how he was being kept at a distance by others. He felt that such a thing was a lack of filial piety. More than anything, it was a nuisance.

They said shamans each had their own networks. The Great Mountain would also be on speaking terms with the Underworld or the Celestial Realm.

However, if other beings turned away from the Great Mountain because of Kwon Yihyeon’s existence—because they were protecting him—Kwon Yihyeon felt as if he wouldn’t be able to bear it.

‘Maybe I should have kept a lower profile.’

When he thought he was all alone, there was nothing in the world to be particularly afraid of.

But Kwon Yihyeon had a family. He had left the Great Mountain for his family, and he had joined the company for them, but the moment he thought his past actions might have actually hindered them, he felt a bitter taste rising.

Unfortunately for Kwon Yihyeon, however, the moment to face his grandmother arrived early. Just as he thought he heard whispering in the distance, his grandmother, dressed in red ritual robes and a sleeveless coat with her lips painted dark red, came walking with a dignified stride like a mountain lord, leading the relatives behind her. When the gazes of those around them, who had been glancing sideways at Kwon Yihyeon and Myo Woon, turned toward his grandmother, the relatives, and the shamans of the Great Mountain, Kwon Yihyeon unconsciously lowered his head.

For some reason, a sense of guilt washed over him that he couldn’t endure.

“My child, Yihyeon-ah.”

But his grandmother approached casually, as she always did.

“Is there sin in birth?”

She truly absolved everything casually—or at least, she made it feel that way…

Then she wrapped Kwon Yihyeon in her wide, five-colored sleeves and embraced him.

Leaning into her embrace, Kwon Yihyeon felt that if there was a power that led a small being like a human to reach a greater wonder, it could only be love.

“It’s okay. Have you been well?”

“…And you, Grandma.”

“I have already answered. How were you?”

He knew she wouldn’t have been okay at all. And he himself wasn’t okay at all, either.

However, in the face of the tears tracing his cheeks, these were the only words he could manage.

“I’m okay. Everything is okay now…”

He meant it. Truly, everything had become okay now. At least, that’s how it felt. That was what it was like for the family he chose, and who chose him, to come to his side.

In fact, there was no need to worry at all.

Actually, the procession of the Great Mountain meant that a formidable force had arrived to protect him from hostility.

Kwon Yihyeon was the only one who didn’t know that.

“So you’ve come.”

When Pungbaek walked over and spoke to his grandmother, Kwon Yihyeon grew wary, but no one from the Great Mountain was shaken.

“Yes, I have come.”

To say it again, Kwon Yihyeon didn’t have to worry in the slightest. The status of the Great Shaman Kwon Seon-ja was no empty title.

She was a shaman of the Korean Peninsula who served Dangun, and Dangun was the very first shaman of the Korean Peninsula.

It followed that there was no one, at least on this land, who could disparage her.

⋆˙⟡

Kwon Yihyeon, who had finally learned a part of the truth about the Great Mountain, spoke up with a pale face and a childish tone.

“G-Grandma. Why didn’t you even tell me?”

“When did you ever show an ounce of interest in shamanism?”

“Still, this isn’t right! You should have told me when I first set foot in this world! Who you really were!”

“As if you were in any state to hold a conversation back then.”

He was left speechless. His grandmother was attacking her grandson with nothing but the absolute truth.

“Let’s just say that both you and I were too frantic back then.”

She even had the leisure to take a step back and yield.

Kwon Yihyeon realized once again that he wasn’t in a position to be worried about his grandmother, and he felt momentarily joyful. It meant that for Kwon Yihyeon, there would always be a place to lean.

But even so, just as he was agonizing over whether it was alright for someone like him to lean on her so comfortably—whether such a weak mindset would be a burden.

“Seon-ja. It seems to me your grandson is a bit of a fool.”

“Mr. Pungbaek. I don’t think there’s any need to go out of your way to point out a fact everyone already knows.”

A double-hit from Pungbaek and his grandmother followed.

Kwon Yihyeon suffered a fatal mental blow.

However, the skill trees of the two showed no mercy to the tattered Kwon Yihyeon and continued their onslaught.

“Earlier, when I threw a single question at him, he turned pale. Why is he trying to atone for something that isn’t even his fault?”

“He doesn’t know yet that life is innocent. It is my sin for raising him poorly.”

Critical hits were exploding everywhere. Kwon Yihyeon just wanted to close his eyes tight and faint.

Still, there was something he had to refute, so he blurted it out.

“Grandma, you didn’t raise me poorly. It’s just because I’m stupid.”

“There he goes. This grandson of mine.”

Strangely, Pungbaek began to click his tongue while watching Kwon Yihyeon as if he were even more serious!

‘Why? Why on earth?’

Kwon Yihyeon was simply confused because he truly had no self-awareness. Kwon Yihyeon was still too young to realize that prostrating himself in blame before a guardian who poured out sincere love would only cause them more pain.

Kwon Yihyeon had not experienced an adult’s perspective. Specifically, he had never experienced the position of a guardian.

Though he was an adult responsible for himself, he had never cared for a child as an elder.

So, he was still too immature to realize it.

Knowing this, Pungbaek clicked his tongue.

“You must have a lot of trouble, Seon-ja.”

“I suppose only the days of being fond of him are left in my old age.”

“My, my. That’s just like you, indeed.”

Kwon Yihyeon broke into a cold sweat and suffered under the pressure of the two.

Not that the older relatives stayed quiet, either.

“Yihyeon-ah. Why have you lost so much weight?”

“Is someone starving you?”

“No, no. I’m eating quite well.”

“But why has the boy become so gaunt?”

“Is the company crazy? Are they starving our boy?”

“…You have no intention of listening to me, do you?!”

On the other side, the female cousins were laughing and chatting with Assistant Manager Myo Woon.

“Hello, you must be having a lot of trouble taking our Yihyeon under your wing and teaching him. You are Assistant Manager Myo Woon, right?”

“How… do you know me…”

“How could we not know the Haetae Department, which was personally founded by Reaper Gwak Deukcheon?”

“Of course, we hear about it every day from the elders. After all, Reaper Gwak played a part in helping us settle on Mount Baengnok. We could never forget that kindness even if we wanted to.”

“What?”

Kwon Yihyeon was so startled that he forgot he had half-given up on his relatives’ words and snapped his head up.

But the cousins only raised their fists as if to say, “How dare you interrupt a conversation between unnies?”

‘No, let me ask a question too. Let me.’

Even though he protested with his eyes, his fists were ignored.

At least Assistant Manager Myo Woon helped him regain some sense of stability. With a face as startled as Kwon Yihyeon’s and her ears pricked up, she asked the question on his behalf.

“Is that really true?”

“Yes, it seems Reaper Gwak told us not to mention it, but there’s no reason for that anymore. Now that our Yihyeon is here. Isn’t that right? Ho ho.”

‘So what exactly did the Team Leader do!’

However, the common curiosity of Kwon Yihyeon and Myo Woon was not quenched in time. This was because the cousins and the older relatives turned the topic this way and that, pestering Kwon Yihyeon as if they each had several foxes hidden inside them.

And the people of the Underworld and the Celestial Realm who were watching the scene simply lost their words.

⋆˙⟡

To clarify the sequence of events, it was only after Pungbaek personally checked Kwon Yihyeon’s impression that the permission for the Great Mountain to protect Kwon Yihyeon was properly granted. Of course, that was merely a pretext, and the will of the Great Mountain was already firm.

In the eyes of others who didn’t even know this, it was a staggering development.

To be honest, whether from the Underworld or the Celestial Realm, many had dared to predict that from the moment he became the Jae Angshin’s contractor, Kwon Yihyeon would be like a kite with a broken string—a person left all alone.

But instead, the moment a ‘pretext’ was established, the Great Mountain invaded openly,

“Don’t touch my kid.”

And was nailing down that fact.