“What? You should’ve said so sooner, too.”
Noel raised the corner of his mouth.
-It gets a little hazy when you’ve been dead a long time, you see.
The ghost answered slyly.
-···Excuse me. Then would gold work, too? I have several pieces of 24K gold.
A woman wearing glasses asked cautiously.
-No, it is miserable enough that I died because I had no money, and now I have to go through this even after dying?! From what I hear, you are a shaman, are you not? I saw on television that shamans serve as bridges between the living and the dead. You should not be doing this!
-Hey. If you do not have money, stay quiet. Our shaman already hurt his head, so stop making him dizzy.
The ghosts bickered among themselves.
‘···Wow.’
Noel’s eyes sparkled.
This place was paradise.
The damn ghosts were docile, and while they might threaten him, they would not do so to the point of endangering his life.
What could the likes of them do even if they attacked?
-Just hear me out! Don’t you feel sorry for me? Is asking you to just listen really that wrong?! If you do not, I’ll curse you······.
Noel extended a finger.
One ghost that had been running its mouth carelessly stopped speaking at once.
Black smoke rippled around its neck.
-···Kahaaak.
The ghost groaned in pain.
“Do I look like a dog to you because I’m staying quiet? Crossing the line would be a problem, wouldn’t it?”
Noel looked at the ghost and smiled coldly.
As if this was the first or second time he had been tormented by ghosts.
They must have thought they could not feel pain because they were dead.
But necromancy was different.
Because they were dead, he could make them suffer even more.
Noel released his power.
The chattering ghosts fell silent in an instant.
“My head is ringing, so all of you go back for now. I’ll call you later. You too, mister. Stay quiet.”
-Fiery. I like it. I’ve always liked men with a temper. Even better when his power is solid!
The bald-headed middle-aged man laughed loudly.
‘Very nice.’
He knew his place, and he knew the line between being moderately noisy and moderately pushy.
He knew how to keep that line.
As Noel watched the ghosts withdraw, he understood one thing for certain.
This was that kind of place.
Was it not the paradise he had always dreamed of?
He no longer had to be hunted.
He no longer had to be anxious.
‘···I don’t have to hide anymore.’
Noel let out a long breath of relief and stroked his casted arm.
However, one thing he truly wished could be here with him was missing.
‘······Mother, was it you?’
Was it his mother’s power that had sent him here?
Or had his older brother and sister done it?
‘Is Father··· safe?’
Thoughts suddenly came flooding in.
-Hey, Noel.
At Yeong-hyeon’s voice, Noel turned his head.
“What?”
-Are you okay?
“Shouldn’t you be asking about something else?”
How he used this power.
What that power was.
-Well. The fact that someone else is inside my dead body already feels so unbelievable that it does not seem real.
Yeong-hyeon lay down just like that.
He glanced over at Noel.
Was he not a foreigner? The world was vast, so perhaps it was not impossible for someone to have one strange power or another.
-More than that, I’m more surprised that death doesn’t end everything. Life was that painful, so why does it keep going even after death?
Noel lay down.
“Because of lingering attachment.”
-···I see. So this is lingering attachment.
“So what do you want to ask me?”
At Noel’s words, Yeong-hyeon smiled brightly.
-I want to··· find my family.
“For that much, you can just go to the police station.”
-No.
Yeong-hyeon shook his head.
He lowered himself slightly, as if trying to meet Noel’s eye level.
He fidgeted with the bed he could not even touch.
-···My family all died in an accident. I was there, too, but I was the only one who survived.
Yeong-hyeon’s eyes turned downward.
-I guess we were too excited··· because it was a family trip. We could not avoid a truck whose brakes had failed.
“So they died?”
At Noel’s calm question, Yeong-hyeon nodded as if holding back tears.
-My relatives held the family funeral in my place while I was unconscious. When I was discharged and came home, no one was there. I could not··· endure that silence.
It was clearly a familiar place, yet it had become a place he did not know at all.
Nowhere could he hear their voices.
Even when he opened the door, he saw no one.
“Of course you couldn’t endure it. How could anyone endure that?”
Perhaps Yeong-hyeon was both the luckiest and the most unfortunate person.
Even seeing them off one by one would make a person’s whole heart collapse, so what difference was there between losing them all at once and having one’s heart torn out while still alive?
-My mom and dad, my older brother, and me. We were a family of four. I’m sure··· they could not go to a good place and are still looking for me there.
“I understand what you mean. I’ll look for them as soon as I’m discharged.”
At Noel’s answer, Yeong-hyeon smiled brightly.
-Thank you! Thank you so much, Noel!
“Just make sure you prepare the money.”
-Of course. There is the insurance money. Back then, I was angry, thinking, what is this worthless money worth? But now it has become so precious.
Even though Yeong-hyeon was older than Noel, he smiled like a fool.
Perhaps he had always been that kind of person.
Noel nodded moderately, then abruptly raised his upper body.
-Where are you going?
“The bathroom. Why? Do you need to go, too?”
Noel strode away, then came back out at a ghost’s words that “someone went in.”
Just as he was about to go to another bathroom, someone called out to him.
“Excuse me, young man···?”
“Yes?”
“···I heard you were a shaman?”
“I am. What about it?”
He had enough tact to be conscious of the gazes around him.
Since he could not talk to himself, whenever he saw people looking at him strangely, he simply said he was a “shaman.”
They showed all sorts of reactions, from chilled faces to curious looks, but either way, they would not approach him any further.
That was quite convenient.
“···No, I was wondering if you also did things like fortune readings.”
Noel had to think for a moment about what those words meant.
‘Ah.’
She meant a divine reading, where a shaman supposedly read various things through the god they served.
‘I don’t have anything like that.’
He was a necromancer, not a real shaman.
There was no god he served, nor even a god he believed in.
“That isn’t my specialty. Are you all right with that?”
Noel asked back simply out of curiosity.
Would she really give him money for this?
‘It would be nice if she did.’
Noel looked at the woman riding on the middle-aged woman’s back, her face hacked to pieces.
When she grinned, he felt malice.
But that malice was not aimed at the middle-aged woman.
It seemed to stretch out in every direction.
-···She looks a little scary.
Yeong-hyeon whispered quietly.
And this from someone whose own head had been smashed open.
When the woman glared at him, Yeong-hyeon covered his mouth.
“It’s fine. I just have a few things I want to ask.”
The middle-aged woman smiled weakly and led him to a nearby sofa.
***
The middle-aged woman was a patient like him, and the smell of disinfectant clung heavily to her.
When Noel looked into her eyes, he knew she was standing on the boundary between life and death.
Judging by how her body seemed fine except for her wrists, it was probably a mental issue.
“Did you make someone resent you? I can see a ghost whose face was hacked to pieces.”
At Noel’s words, the middle-aged woman suddenly covered her mouth.
Her hands trembled, and her face had turned deathly pale.
“Hacked··· to pieces?”
“Yes. I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but she’s riding on your back right now.”
“···What, what does she look like?”
‘She really believes me?’
Noel thought lightly and told her, one by one, what the woman with the hacked-up face looked like.
“She has a bracelet on her hand. There’s a dolphin charm on the bracelet, and she has piercings in her ears. And there’s a heart-shaped tattoo on the inside of her finger? Was she someone you knew?”
“······What, what do I do? What do I do, my daughter? She’s my daughter···.”
The middle-aged woman immediately covered her face with both hands and sobbed.
The bandages wrapped around her wrists came into view.
“She was your daughter? Then why is she clinging to you?”
At Noel’s question, the woman grinned.
-They said they would kill my mom. I have to protect Mom. Mom can’t die like I did. Never. Absolutely not.
‘That’s protecting her?’
So the malice had been stretching in every direction, not toward the middle-aged woman.
Well, she probably would not become an evil spirit.
“Your daughter says she’s protecting you. Is this what you wanted to know?”
“My daughter is··· protecting me?”
“Yes.”
The middle-aged woman sobbed again.
“Don’t cry. Is this what you wanted to know?”
“No. I want to··· find my daughter. Where she is······.”
The middle-aged woman stopped speaking, closed her lips, and shed tears.
“I just··· want to know. I only want to get my child back.”
So that was why she had asked him.
If she had been unable to find her dead daughter’s body, would she not want to grasp at anything?
-Noel. You have to··· you absolutely have to find her.
Yeong-hyeon emphasized it to Noel.
Noel wanted to tell him he was noisy.
“That’s what she says. Tell me where your body is.”
Noel looked at the woman.
-···I don’t want to.
The woman turned her head away.
“Why?”
-Because I don’t. Because I don’t want to say it. What do you think I look like by now? I’ll be swollen beyond recognition, with bugs crawling all over me, won’t I? How could I show her that? Mom will be··· even sadder than she is now.
“It seems your mother is about to make a bad choice. Are you waiting so you can go together?”
-Do you think I want to watch because I like it? There’s nothing I can do!
“You have a chance now. If you miss this, you’ll regret it. You won’t find anyone else who can see you and talk to you as clearly as I can.”
-Mom··· won’t be able to endure it. She’s holding on because she says she’ll find me. If she finds me, she’ll follow me!
The woman hugged the middle-aged woman tightly, afraid she might lose her.
“That isn’t something the dead should be thinking about. It’s arrogant. Besides, you know she might follow you soon even if you don’t say anything.”
At Noel’s words, the middle-aged woman flinched.
The woman, who had been about to say that was a lie, also stared at the middle-aged woman.
-···Mom? Mom, what’s wrong? Mom···. Don’t do that. Why are you doing this? Huh···?
“Was the culprit caught?”
“······No.”
The middle-aged woman shook her head.
Her voice and gaze showed that she had lost hope.
In that case, there was a way.
“Do you want to catch him?”
“···Can he be caught?”
At the word culprit, hope began to sprout in the middle-aged woman’s eyes.
“My words can’t become evidence. You know that, right?”
“I know.”
The middle-aged woman became far steadier than before.
Noel looked at the woman.
“Now tell me.”
-But··· that bastard will kill Mom, too. He will!
“Why? Is he a shaman, too?”
Noel sneered.
What nonsense was she spouting?
“So he can understand what you say?”
The woman shut her mouth.
“You’re dead. Accept that.”
How long was she going to keep the situation before her death stuck inside her head?
She was a ghost.
“You just have to tell me something. I’m telling you I’ll help.”
-···I’m at his house.
“Whose house?”
-That bastard’s··· house. I’m in his refrigerator. Cut up and frozen.
The woman buried her head deep into the middle-aged woman’s shoulder and trembled.
-···Noel? This is, um. It will be very hard for the lady to accept.
Yeong-hyeon spoke carefully.
Would she not faint?
“Still, what has to be done has to be done.”
Noel looked straight at the middle-aged woman.
“Ma’am.”
“······Yes.”
“Don’t faint.”
“···I won’t.”
“And don’t scream.”
At Noel’s repeated warnings, the middle-aged woman looked at him anxiously.
“Ah, before that, give it to me.”
Noel reached out his hand.
Thinking about it, he had been naive.
He did not even have a shop; what if she just ran off?
-···Hey! You crazy bastard!
The woman shouted.
“Don’t shout. Isn’t it strange for there to be no payment?”
Noel raised the corner of his mouth.
-Do you think I’ll sit by and watch while you squeeze money out of my mom?
The woman’s gaze turned fierce, and her hair began to whip about.
It seemed she had quite a grudge.
It was almost surprising that she had not become an evil spirit.
“You’d better not do that. If you don’t like it, then forget it. I can stop, too.”
When Noel shrugged, Yeong-hyeon gestured at the woman to calm down.
-It’s really better if you don’t attack him. He’s strong.
“S-sir. Sir. Please!”
The middle-aged woman urgently grabbed Noel’s hand.
Her desperation was visible in her eyes.
“What I just said wasn’t directed at you, ma’am, so please calm down.”
“I’ll give it to you. I meant to give it to you from the start. I’ll transfer it to your account right away.”
The middle-aged woman’s hands were trembling.
“······.”
Noel looked at Yeong-hyeon.
He did not know about things like that.
He did not even have a cell phone right now.
-Bada Bank. xxxxx-xxxx-xxx
“Bada Bank.”
Noel recited the disgustingly long string of numbers.
“How much should I give you?”
When the middle-aged woman asked, Noel looked at Yeong-hyeon.
-···Uh. 200,000 won?
“That’s all? I got 1,000,000 won earlier.”
-That was a lot.
“Was it?”
-Are you trying to rip the pillars out of our house, too?
The woman spoke in horror, and Noel narrowed his eyes.
“Do you really think that? From what I can see, this is worth more than any other deal.”
-···Mom already had a lot of money taken by frauds while looking for me. Because of me······.
The woman grew tearful.
“Fine. I’ll keep it clean and take 200,000 won.”
Noel compromised.
Right now, the very fact that he could receive money for this kind of work felt simply good.
“···200,000 won?”
Only?
The middle-aged woman began to see Noel differently.
“Yes. Please send it.”
“······Thank you.”
The middle-aged woman held back the tears that surged up and began making the bank transfer.
How many times had her desperation been used against her?
But even knowing it, she had no choice but to be deceived.
It was about her child, after all.
This time was different.
No, it had to be different.
“Here, I sent it.”
The middle-aged woman showed him her cell phone.
-It’s been deposited.
At Yeong-hyeon’s words, Noel looked at the woman.
He heard the address, and when he told the middle-aged woman that address, she began typing it into her cell phone with violently trembling hands.
“······An apartment?”
The middle-aged woman asked in a suppressed voice.
Why?
Why the word apartment?
“Yes.”
“My daughter is in an apartment?”
“That’s right.”
“Where··· is she?”
Had she felt the unease?
The trembling in her eyes was blatant.
“Inside the refrigerator.”
“······.”
When the middle-aged woman’s eyes rolled upward, Noel jumped in surprise and reached out.
But she did not collapse.
She endured it while gripping her thigh tightly.
She did not shed tears, either.
She only bit her lip and endured.
Because she had gained another reason to endure.
“···Thank you.”
With emotions too heavy to be contained by the word hatred filling her eyes, the middle-aged woman lowered and raised her head.
Noel quietly told her,
“The culprit can be caught.”
He had given her the location.
The method was now the middle-aged woman’s part.
Noel turned around.
As he slowly walked back to the hospital room, someone brushed past his side.
Noel glanced over, then raised the corner of his mouth.
“Yeong-hyeon.”
-What?
“There are things like that here, too.”
-Things like what?
“A guide to death.”
-···A grim reaper?
“How would I know what they call it?”
-Did you just see one? Just now?
With interest, Yeong-hyeon turned his head this way and that.
“Who knows? It just came to mind.”
***
“Mister.”
As Noel changed clothes to prepare for discharge, he looked at the bald-headed middle-aged man.
-Yeah.
“It’s your turn now. What can I help you with?”
Noel smiled very gently.
Shaman.
This was extremely profitable.
The nurses and patients had shown interest, so he had told them about their recent worries and what they needed to be careful of based on the ghosts’ words, and snacks had piled up.
They even gave him food.
Whether it was sham employment or whatever, how could he let go of a sweetness he had tasted once?