After Chairman Jang and his party left, a pleasant laugh echoed in the previously quiet room.
"Hahaha..."
While Paehyeon temporarily left to guide Chairman Jang's party to the exit, the Leader, who had been left alone in the room, was lying face down on the table, laughing out loud. When Paehyeon returned after seeing the guests off, he noticed the man chuckling on the table and smiled faintly as if he understood the situation.
"Did you enjoy it that much?"
Paehyeon knew the Leader's personality well. He had a somewhat twisted nature and often acted mischievously. When a client displeased him, his mischievousness would reach its peak, and he would take pleasure in finding fault and thoroughly trampling on their dignity. It seemed that he enjoyed watching those who likely had never bowed their heads in their entire lives squirm in discomfort.
"Did you see his face earlier?"
The Leader covered his mouth with his large hand, laughing as if he found it utterly amusing. He had laughed so much that his cheeks were sore. Chairman Jang wasn't very good at controlling his expressions. The memory of his face turning red and blue, as if he might storm out at any moment, kept making him laugh like a person with air trapped in his lungs.
"He raises his nose high, but you really pushed him hard today."
Paehyeon expressed his concern indirectly, wondering if the Leader might be creating unnecessary trouble.
"I'm not sure if the payment will be properly made on the scheduled date. 'm worried he might cancel the request out of offense."
But the Leader shook his head without hesitation.
"No, that won't happen."
From the start, this was a person who sought the help of a shaman instead of Naryecheong. Now, it's too late for him to turn to Naryecheong, so the only option left was to seek another shaman.
However, unless they are a fake shaman who merely imitates by hosting a heoju (miscellaneous ghost or spirit that possesses someone), a true shaman walking the path of a disciple, like Master Yeohye did, would never accept such a request.
"In the end, it's always the one in need who loses."
Even if Chairman Jang was offended, he would only suffer by withdrawing the request.
Yoon Taehee had organized the spirits into a group called
"Byeoksadan" and started taking on cases secretly, away from the eyes of Naryecheong, six years ago.
Yoon Taehee had realized early on that there were those who neither Naryecheong nor shamans would help, and for several years now, he had been addressing the requests of these outcasts under the name of Byeoksadan.
"Oh, I need to feed Dduddu."
The Leader, who had been lounging on a chair, suddenly got up and walked over to the wall. He opened the window with the latticework and paper covering the wooden frame.
With a clattering sound, the window opened, and a cool breeze swept in.
He stretched his upper body out of the window, searching for something, and then whistled. From somewhere, a furry ball rolled in and climbed up onto the Leader's shoulder.
He looked at the furball perched on his shoulder.
"Dduddu."
The furball, called Dduddu, was actually a squirrel. The Leader, with the squirrel on him, went back to the table. He picked up a black plastic bag that had been set aside and emptied it onto the table.
Hazelnuts, which he had collected from the mountainside, rolled out. Leader picked up a plump-looking hazelnut and brought it close to the squirrel's face.
"Yum-yum."
The squirrel glanced at the hazelnut but then suddenly started to pretend to rub its face. The Leader tried to offer the hazelnut again, but the squirrel grabbed it and threw it away.
"..."
He stared at Dduddu in disbelief. As he watched the hazelnut roll on the floor, he turned to look at Paehyeon. At that moment, the squirrel suddenly bit his finger hard. "Ouch," He exclaimed, grimacing as he quickly pulled his hand back.
"Are you upset? Why?"
The Leader asked in confusion, while Paehyeon narrowed his eyes at the squirrel.
"It seems to be sulking because it was tiring to wait after you were away for nearly a month."
Dduddu was a squirrel that the Leader had personally found and brought back. About a year ago. he had found it Lying injured
possibly bitten by a snake, and took it back to the pavilion to care for it. Fortunately, after a few days of care, it quickly regained its strength. Though he thought it would leave once it recovered, the squirrel had become attached and would always return to the pavilion after wandering the mountains.
The squirrel was very fond of the Leader, but whenever something upset it, it would bite his hand.
"It's grown quite arrogant after all the pampering."
Paehyeon wanted nothing more than to sweep the insolent furball out with a broom and chase it away, but since the Leader adored the squirrel, he kept quiet and waited for the right moment. The Leader was extremely cold-hearted towards humans but very gentle with non-human creatures.
"Are you sulking?"
Even now, despite being bitten, the Leader showed no signs of anger and gently stroked the small head of the squirrel as if coaxing it.
"..."
Paehyeon was a ghost, but he sometimes found such a side of the Leader curious. He was human, but he didn't seem like one. He was more invested in beings that were not human, and sometimes, he even felt more like a ghost, like Paehyeon himself, than a human.
Humans, who lived finite lives, were naturally prone to impatience, hesitation, and failure. From a ghost's perspective, humans were fragile beings. But the Leader, his young master, was different.
This was the conclusion Paehyeon had reached after watching him for the past 10 years.
***
The past 10 years for Yoon Taehee had been a time of waiting, a period of "neither flying nor singing." Like a bird that neither flies nor sings while waiting for the right moment, Yoon Taehee spent a motionless period of time
Sometimes Paehyeon wondered if his young master could foresee his future with such clarity. Yoon Taehee knew exactly what he had to do and what he was capable of, and he achieved everything he set his mind to with precision.
It all began when he joined Naryecheong and rose to the top position. Yoon Taehee declared that he would become a central figure in Naryecheong, and he truly did. Throwing himself into the forefront without hesitation, he became "Chief Yoon" just two years after joining, reaching the heart of the enemy's headquarters.
The day after his promotion to chief, Yoon Taehee immediately called the spirits together. Recognizing that the time had finally come, the spirits bowed their heads and paid their respects to the human standing before them.
It was the moment when the forces of the spirits opposing Naryecheong emerged in this world.
Yoon Taehee had already completed the groundwork for dismantling Naryecheong long ago. The core of his strategy was a diversionary tactic: Making noise in the east and attacking in the west. The key was to disperse Naryecheong's forces. Facing it head-on was deemed a reckless move. To catch a tiger, you needed bait, and the bait Yoon Taehee had meticulously planned for a long time was
"Byeoksadan."
Byeoksadan was the culmination of Yoon Taehee's efforts, the blueprint itself.
By moving Byeoksadan to attack Naryecheong, the war would begin with Byeoksadan's preemptive strike, drawing all of Naryecheong's attention. Chaos would ensue as the spirits and the exorcists clashed. Taking advantage of this turmoil, Yoon Taehee planned to charge towards Naryecheong's chief as the "leader of Byeoksadan" from within. The one who had come a long way back, with a face devoid of smiles, would point a sword at the scholar's neck.
After forming the Byeoksadan, Yoon Taehee's double life as "Chief Yoon" and "Leader" began.
The first step in his strategy was to make Naryecheong aware of Byeoksadan's presence. The mere existence of a force of spirits would be enough to trouble them, but that alone was not enough.
To truly provoke them, Byeoksadan needed to become a more effective bait.
Thus, the Leader came up with a surefire way to provoke Naryecheong: to mimic the work that they did, solving people's requests under the name of Byeoksadan.
However, they couldn't accept just any client. It was too dangerous to reveal themselves recklessly to the general public. If information about Leader's identity or Byeoksadan leaked out, it would only be a matter of time before they were caught. If the main office learned of this, the entire plan would collapse.
It was time to find a reliable lure to connect with trustworthy clients.
After much deliberation, the Leader decided to bring in Master Yeohye, the most reputable shaman who stood in opposition to Naryecheong. He judged that if they could place a prominent figure like the Master at the forefront of Byeoksadan, it could cause significant confusion for Naryecheong in the future.
Thus, he secretly investigated the shaman's daily life. He could have visited the Master's shrine directly, but it was too risky. He had to move without the main office noticing.
Over several months, he carefully observed Master Yeohye's movements and finally discovered that she closed the shrine doors twice a month and took a bus a few stops away to visit the Hwamun Market.