Silence lingered for a moment.
Was this not rather strange?
“Ghosts··· you mean?”
The real estate office owner carefully asked again.
“Yes. Ghosts. Anything related to them is fine.”
“······Are you here to film a show?”
“I suppose there are people who trick you that way?”
“There are.”
“In that case, don’t worry. I only came to look for a real shop. I heard that the more defects a place has, the cheaper it usually is by comparison.”
“That is··· true, but, um. This is rather bewildering.”
Even in this business, this was an extremely rare case.
Usually, the basic instinct was to avoid such properties because they felt unpleasant.
“If you don’t know any, it’s fine if you introduce me to someone else. They’re like toxic inventory, aren’t they? Wouldn’t it be good to get rid of them quickly?”
The owner seemed to think for a moment, then firmly shook his head.
“No.”
‘Oh.’
This one did not say he “didn’t know.”
That meant, at the very least, such a place existed.
“Could you tell me why?”
“There were several accidents during construction, and although the building was completed, every person who moved in had something bad happen to them. It’s vacant now.”
“Did they die?”
“Half of the people who signed contracts died.”
“Ah, is it because you’re afraid I’ll die too?”
“Yes. That is why I cannot do it.”
The owner cut him off firmly.
There had already been a great deal of talk about whether to demolish it or not.
“It’s all right. I’m a shaman.”
At Noel’s answer, the owner hesitated briefly, then shook his head again.
“Even so, no.”
“Shamans came and went, but it seems they all failed.”
“Do not even ask. Every method imaginable was tried. Even an eminent monk came. Do you know what he said?”
“No.”
“‘An old vengeful spirit lies dormant here, so you must never touch it.’ That is what he said. So no.”
The owner spoke heavily.
What on earth was there for him to act like this?
Noel debated whether to stand up and leave.
He had heard the basic information, after all.
-He is quite upright.
Ashin praised the owner.
-Because he isn’t deceiving us?
When Yeong-hyeon quietly asked, Ashin nodded.
-He values people over wealth. That is worthy of praise. What do you think? May I shake off some of the old dust?
‘She’s generous with her praise.’
Noel held back the urge to snort.
Once one ascended to the position of guardian spirit, did everything look benevolent?
She said he valued people, but Noel thought differently.
If the owner introduced the place and someone happened to die, how would he shoulder that responsibility?
That seemed to be the reason.
Was that really enough to take care of those things that had failed to become curses, which she was calling dust?
‘But going somewhere else again is annoying, too.’
How many places had he already wandered through?
‘Let’s make exactly one offer.’
As Noel prepared to leave, he looked around.
Perhaps because Ashin was there, ghosts had gathered to bask in the warm light.
The moment the word shaman came out, they had started excitedly waving at him, calling out to him, and making a fuss in every possible way.
But that was not what he wanted to know.
-Does any ghost know anything about this real estate office?
Yeong-hyeon asked with perfect timing.
Very good.
-Me!
-I’m a regular here, you see. There are a lot of interesting stories.
-What are you talking about? It’s me. This man here is truly a good man. He even stopped another real estate office from committing fraud, so he has many enemies.
-Of course, of course. He’s one of the few people with a conscience. That’s why he looks firm right now, but he’s actually being very careful.
-Still, because of that conscience, bad rumors have spread, so his situation must be rather difficult.
At the information the ghosts happily prattled out, Noel thought for a moment.
Ashin had seen correctly.
His situation was difficult not only because of rumors, but also because the bad rumors had transformed into things that had failed to become curses and remained here in the office.
Words had power, after all.
‘That rubs me the wrong way.’
Whatever else happened, good people should do well.
Noel let out a slight breath and asked,
“I’ll ask again. Even if I keep pleading, you still won’t allow it, correct?”
“No.”
“I understand. I’ll go somewhere else, then.”
“That place truly will not do. You will die.”
“It’s no use trying to stop me. Someone has to resolve it eventually, after all.”
When Noel rose from his seat, the owner thought for a moment, then let out a long breath.
“I don’t know about these days, but that building owner may be extremely desperate. Because of the sunk costs alone, he’ll probably have the gall to tack more on top.”
“Thank you for the advice.”
“No. Let’s go together. I don’t know if I can do as much as you want, but I’ll at least do what I can.”
The owner stood up.
When Noel stared at him, the owner smiled awkwardly.
“And··· if it gets dangerous, someone has to bring you back, doesn’t he?”
He sounded somewhat grumbling, but there was worry in it.
“Owner.”
“Yes?”
“Business has not been going well lately, has it?”
“Is that not the same elsewhere?”
“It is, but originally, it should not have been bad to this extent.”
Noel looked at Ashin.
“Please shake them off.”
“···Pardon?”
“Ah, I was speaking to my god. She is praising you, you see.”
Along with Noel’s smile, Ashin swung her sword.
A clear light poured out along the sword’s arc.
Seeing the things that had failed to become curses vanish as they touched the gently descending light, Noel wore a satisfied expression.
That power was real.
That must be why the owner also wore a dazed expression.
He must have felt that something had clearly changed.
“When I open my shop later, please come by. I’ll shake off the unclean things for you as a service, like today.”
***
“···This is the place.”
At the owner’s words, Noel first looked around the building.
Though it was set apart, it was still inside the downtown area.
And was that all?
If one walked only a little, a very good commercial district appeared.
It was unexpected.
“It’s in a good location.”
Noel looked at the owner.
He had thought it would be somewhere deserted, outside the city.
“Right? It isn’t that far from the central district either. About fifteen minutes on foot? But because there were so many accidents, it was built differently from the original plan. This was supposed to be the center.”
“By the way, this building must be famous.”
Noel saw several signs in front of the building that read, “No filming – CCTV recording in progress.”
Then he nearly sighed at the chill that enveloped the entire building.
The grudge was deeper than he had expected.
“A haunted spot···? I heard something like that.”
“So that’s why it’s entirely vacant.”
“Ah, one moment. I’ve received a call from the building owner.”
He seemed to mean the owner of the building.
When the real estate owner moved away, only then did Yeong-hyeon open his mouth.
-There really is an evil spirit here, right? It’s very different from last time! How should I put it? It’s sharp. It feels like something very, very sharp is clinging around my neck.
-You have seen it accurately. With a grudge of this degree, it appears to be easily hundreds of years old.
At Ashin’s answer, Yeong-hyeon was horrified.
-H-hundreds of years? That long?
-Yes. Look here.
When Ashin extended a finger, writing appeared in the air.
No Entry.
The words were simple.
-No Entry? What about it···?
“That’s the evil spirit’s power. A power tends to grow stronger the simpler it is. Usually, ‘Die’ is the strongest and most terrifying. That’s why evil spirits are dangerous.”
-Indeed. Whether one wants it or not, when one kills, one’s karma deepens. Power grows according to the depth of that karma.
“Besides, do people live there?”
Noel pointed at the building.
-No. It’s vacant.
At Yeong-hyeon’s answer, Noel looked somewhere and explained,
“That isn’t a place where people live anymore. It’s a place where ghosts live. So the rules that apply there aren’t the rules of the living, but the rules of ghosts.”
-Um···. That means it’s incredibly troublesome, right?
“There is that, but that isn’t the problem.”
An evil spirit of that level could simply be destroyed.
-Then···?
“I said earlier that it’s a place where ghosts live, but there’s exactly one thing left before it becomes a perfect place, isn’t there?”
-···No way, it isn’t that, right?
“It is that. The building owner. Once he dies, it becomes a true ghost domain. Put another way, the building owner is in danger too. At that level, even if he can’t see or touch it, its power seeps in like a shadow.”
Noel turned his head.
A car approached and quickly parked.
“How furious must the evil spirit be that a lowly thing like him dared set foot in its domain?”
This was different from Ashin’s case.
Even after becoming an evil spirit, Ashin had held on to her mind and blocked the erosion from stretching outward.
Was this not the exact opposite?
-Isn’t that extremely dangerous?
“It is dangerous. We aren’t in danger, though.”
Ashin was naturally driving away the erosion that flowed toward them right now.
Was she not a god-grade guardian?
-Then what’s happening to the building owner right now? Is he being tormented?
“No one would have believed what he said, and everyone would have said they did not know any method. Everyone would have parroted that there was no answer.”
Noel looked at the man running toward them.
He was rather young.
But his complexion, expression, and even the color of his face looked as though he had not slept in days.
“He must have suffered countless times, and if he is still alive despite that, then he is likely in a state where he has barely maintained his life through a connection with someone. Isn’t that right, Owner?”
When Noel smiled, the man breathed through his shoulders and staggered.
Right after, someone who might have been an executive assistant ran over and caught him.
He had a fairly large build.
“Boss!”
“I’m··· fine.”
The man extended his hand.
There was a fragrant smell of wood.
He was wearing something on his wrist.
-The one connected to those prayer beads has accumulated much virtue. That man himself has accumulated a little as well.
At Ashin’s words, Noel nodded faintly.
He should have died already, so if he was still alive, that had to be true.
-If you accumulate virtue, does it protect you or something?
When Yeong-hyeon asked, Ashin answered,
-Virtue can offset it. In what people commonly say, it is like Heaven helping him. But that, too, has its limits.
-Why?
-Because there is a limit to the mind of the living. No matter how great one’s virtue may be, it must have been difficult to endure.
She was exactly right.
Noel approached for that man’s sake, put power into his fingertips, and brushed off his shoulders.
His power was not readily visible even to people with spirit sight, let alone ghosts.
He had only brushed off his shoulders, yet the man’s reaction to that small gesture was different.
He looked as though he might burst into tears at any moment.
“You feel much less heavy now, don’t you?”
“······The monk said I would meet my destined connection.”
“Very gifted. Then are those prayer beads on your wrist?”
At Noel’s question, the man rolled up his sleeve.
They were indeed prayer beads.
The man could not see it, but they were being dyed black with erosion.
‘Looks like they blocked the erosion for him.’
Noel made purple fire rise from the tip of his index finger and swept it over the prayer beads.
“Now you can breathe properly, can’t you?”
The man nodded again and again.
Truly, no matter where he went, there had been no improvement, but with this single gesture, he could breathe properly.
“···Sir. Please, save me.”
The grown man clung to Noel.
The executive assistant and the real estate office owner could not continue speaking.
But the man did not care about their gazes.
“Please, please save me. I keep, keep having nightmares, countless times. When I’m alone······.”
“You hear a voice telling you to die, and you’ve seen letters written in blood telling you to leave, haven’t you? You’ve seen dead bodies, and when you look at the window, you meet someone’s gaze. Doors that used to open won’t open properly, the air is let out of your car tires, or you find fingernail marks you cannot explain.”
At Noel’s words, which he recited without even breathing, the man dropped to his knees and clasped his hands in prayer.
“Yes. Yes! It’s all true. All of it. No, more, far more than that has tormented me. I tried to die while dead drunk, but strangely, every time, I came to my senses and could not die.”
-If it’s that bad, couldn’t he just throw this away?
Yeong-hyeon asked while staring blankly at the building.
If it was that painful, could he not have given up the building?
“You tried to hand over the building, but it didn’t go as you wanted, did it?”
Noel asked and answered at the same time.
“···Yes. On every day I went to sign a contract, something bad happened.”
“So you tried to destroy this place, but the equipment wouldn’t work, right?”
“······That’s right. Everything is right.”
The man shook his tightly clasped hands.
He wanted to beg Noel to do something, anything at all.
He was suffering so much he was on the verge of madness, and he wanted to escape it all.
“What is your name?”
“I’m Shin Jang-yul.”
“Mr. Shin Jang-yul. I’d like to run a shop here. Will you give me a low price?”
Helping was helping, but should he not receive what he was owed?
“Then I’ll take care of the evil spirit here for you.”
Noel smiled gently and held out his hand.