The Return of the Calamity God

The strange sensation of scraping at his nerves was there, but it wasn’t too strange.

It was natural, as he was an ordinary human.

He occasionally saw ghosts, but that was all, so he didn’t know whether to be happy or sad.

Then, amidst the people waiting for family, relatives, and friends, a well-dressed man quickly walked towards them.

Theodore turned his head following the movement.

“Mr. Theodore Gunther? Mr. Lee Seon Crosby?”

“Mr. Kang Hae-soo.”

Lee Seon smiled at the person in charge of guiding them during their stay in Korea. Kang Hae-soo briefly smiled back.

“I’ve often greeted you over the phone, but it’s strange because it’s the first time meeting you in person.”

Lee Seon spoke in Korean and offered a handshake.

“I’m Lee Seon Crosby. Please call me Lee Seon. My Korean name is also Lee Seon.”

After the greeting with Lee Seon, it was Theodore’s turn. Theodore also held out his hand.

“Gunther.”

“Yes. Welcome to Korea, Mr. Gunther. Please feel free to call me Kang or Hae-soo.”

After the brief introductions were over with a handshake, Kang Hae-soo led the way, avoiding the surge of incoming people.

“By the way, both of you are fluent in Korean.”

Theodore laughed lightly.

“Just enough not to starve to death.”

“That’s all you need. By the way, I don’t know if the Korean weather will be okay for you two during your stay.”

Lee Seon opened his mouth, feeling a slight humidity even inside the wide building, even though the air conditioning was blowing.

“Is it ‘Jangma’ in Korea now?”

Kang Hae-soo smiled.

“Yes. For a short period of one or two weeks, or a long period of a month. It’s a season where the rain continues endlessly.

It’s not as much as Southeast Asia, but Korea is also very humid in the summer. There are also many typhoons.”

“We may be walking under the clouds all year this year.”

Lee Seon answered, watching Theodore’s complexion.

It was natural to be concerned about his boss, who had been quiet since earlier.

“Teddy?”

Theodore slowly took a breath and exhaled.

He casually raised the corners of his lips as he looked at the black eyes staring at him.

“I’m fine. I’m fine. The flight seems to have been a bit long.”

“Because of the time difference.”

Kang Hae-soo smiled.

“I’ll hurry to the accommodation. The car is in the underground parking lot. Let’s go to that elevator.”

Lee Seon, who had been staring at the back of Kang Hae-soo’s head as he walked ahead, looked at Theodore again and opened his mouth.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes.”

Theodore said that and showed his palm.

He didn’t know what it was, but he felt less pressure.

If the pressure he felt as soon as he arrived on land was about 10, it was now fluctuating between 5 and 6.

“Still, it’s better to hurry. Before this body gives up saying it can’t take it anymore.”

Lee Seon nodded.

“If things go according to plan, that’s how it will be. But if you think it’s going to be dangerous, I’d be even more grateful if you could pay off my bank loan at once before you go.”

“You’re going to be gasping for breath from debt and become a ghost after you die, so I’ll make sure to do that.”

Theodore scoffed at the land of his homeland that didn’t welcome him and got on the elevator going down to the basement.

“Boss?”

The automatic door that opened and closed from time to time opened again.

The number of ghosts following the people through the gap was countless.

The ghosts, who were stomping on other people’s heads, grabbing their shoulders with their claws, and flapping like birds perched on a roost, screamed like crows when they discovered this side and ran away.

Horang turned his body and stared at the man disappearing in the distance.

The man, who was wearing a white shirt under a black suit and had a tie neatly tied, had gray-mixed blue eyes that indifferently scanned his surroundings under white-tinged blonde hair woven with silver thread.

A angular jawline, a high nose, and deep eye sockets.

His frame was something that anyone could see wasn’t Korean, but the contents were different.

Jeha turned his neck following Horang’s gaze.

“The guest we came to pick up isn’t that guy who just passed by, is he?”

“Caw!”

Jeha, who glanced at the ghosts who were running away every time the man took a step, revealed his unease.

He hadn’t grasped it exactly, but that was a dangerous existence. Especially for an old ghost like him.

Horang’s lips twitched.

“No.”

Horang’s gaze was cold as he thought of the man who had turned his feet away with him in front of him.

“Really?”

Jeha asked back, mixing in a sigh. Horang glared at the suspicion contained in the short words.

“Why? What?”

“I haven’t said anything yet.”

Horang frowned and habitually waved his hand in the air to take out his pipe, but stopped.

He shoved his empty hand into his pocket. Then, he clenched his fist tightly, digging his nails into his palm.

For now, that was a problem that could be dealt with after he had left here. It was annoying, but it wasn’t an urgent matter.

Jeha, watching Horang’s ferocious momentum, pointed his chin at the existence that had just set foot on this land from afar.

“Then… what about that?”

“…I’m thinking about it.”

Yes. He was thinking about it.

Horang closed the mouth that had said that.

“Boss.”

Jeha frowned as he chased the fading energy.

“I’m asking just in case. Is it really okay to just let that pass?”

Horang’s eyebrows twitched.

“Or? Are you going to go after him now?”

“No!”

Jeha shrugged his shoulders with a smiling face.

“It’s not that I’m going to do anything, I was just wondering if it’s okay to release something that looks so dangerous without even putting a caution label on it.

That’s like releasing a great white shark into a summer wave pool.”

I’m living with my mind slightly off, but I’m not crazy, Jeha mumbled.

Horang laughed briefly.

The laughter didn’t last long. His eyes, where emotions were turbidly intertwined and nothing could be read, turned to the sky.

“After all, he can’t be fully accepted into this land without my permission, and if I leave him alone, he’ll die on his own, so if it becomes a problem, I’ll deal with it then.”

“I guess so.”

Jeha turned his head again, as if he understood. The arrival hall that was still spewing out people and ghosts came into view.

“By the way, it doesn’t look like our ‘guest’ is coming.”

Horang shrugged his shoulders.

“I guess they’re not.”

He put an end to the promise that had no end in sight.

“It looks like they’re never coming.”

His feet moved away without any regrets.

“Let’s go together.”

Jeha hurriedly chased after him. Horang moved towards the parking lot.

“Here it is.”

The car stopped on an alley where there was no one to be found.

Theodore checked the scenery outside the window and briefly sighed.

Green leaves stretched out over the high fence that didn’t allow a view inside, and fluttered in the wind.

“As you requested, it’s a house that was obtained as close as possible to your destination, how does it look?”

“It’s quieter than I thought.”

Kang Hae-soo laughed at Lee Seon’s impression.

“It’s because the houses on both sides are empty. There won’t be much noise while you’re staying here.”

Kang Hae-soo said that and opened the garage door below the wall.

Next to the wide parking lot that seemed to be able to fit four or five cars, there was a door.

He got out of the car and put his card key on the keypad next to the door. There was an elevator inside the iron gate with the lock released.

“You need this card key to enter and exit the garage, and the security team is monitoring it with the camera you see above, so the entrance of outsiders is blocked. The same goes for the front and back gates.

All the necessary maintenance has been done so that you don’t feel any inconvenience during your stay.”

When they took the elevator up to the upper floor, a living room with a view of a wide lawn immediately appeared.

Theodore stood in front of the bay window with a view of the outside scenery. He saw a mountain peak.

“Is that Baegaksan?”

Lee Seon asked, and Kang Hae-soo nodded.

“Yes.”

His gaze briefly scanned his client, Theodore.

“The Baegak you asked us to find. If it’s Baegak under Samgaksan, then it’s Bugaksan.”

Theodore put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the mountain.

The pressure that had been constantly weighing on him seemed to have weakened a little more.

It was similar to what had happened at the airport earlier.

He regretted that he should have grabbed it and checked it, but that thought didn’t last long.

“I checked and there’s a mountain climbing area that was closed and recently opened.

Are there any traces of a Sanshin Shrine there?”

Kang Hae-soo’s eyebrows twitched at Lee Seon’s question.

A voice filled with embarrassment followed.

“That’s… As I told you on the phone, there are few records of the exact location of the Sanshin Shrine that enshrines Baegak, that is, Bugak Sanshin.

I’ve also asked historians, but there are only records that it has always been at the top of Bugaksan since the founding of Joseon, but there are also rumors that it was moved to the middle of the mountain.”

He tilted his head.

“So, I’ve searched everywhere I could reach to find that Sanshin Shrine that Gunther’s great-grandfather saw at the time, but there are no results.

So, would you like to visit the Bohyun Sanshin Shrine, which I told you was one of the candidates?”

Kang Hae-soo smiled as he mentioned the shrine in Pyeongchang-dong that enshrined the Bohyun Peak Sanshin of Bukhansan.

“It’s definitely not there.”

At the firm tone, he sighed as if he expected it and shrugged his shoulders.

“I guess so.”

Kang Hae-soo, who sighed briefly, looked at Theodore with a helpless expression.

“Then there’s no other way but the last method I told you about.”

Lee Seon nodded.

“The place you said the client had to be on Korean soil?”

“…I heard that they refuse to contact us, is there a way to meet them?”

Kang Hae-soo shrugged his shoulders at Theodore’s question.

“No. There’s no other way but to go to the lawyer’s office connected to that broker and confront them directly.

I’ve been grabbing them by the collar and shaking them for a few days, so I hope they’ll give me a different answer today.”