At Lee Seokjin’s hollow muttering, the exorcist flinched. The exorcist had a scrawny build, and his face—clearly neglected—was covered in a thick, unkempt beard. Strands of gray were scattered throughout his shaggy hair.
He looked curious about who Immortal Iri was, but lacking the courage to ask outright, he only kept sneaking glances. Lee Seokjin shoved the exorcist aside with his right hand.
“Have the left arm ready by tomorrow.”
“Uh… y-yeah. O-okay… Berimos.”
Berimos, inhabiting Lee Seokjin’s body, struggled to steady himself as he stood, then kicked the enormous snake filling the shrine.
“Feeling a little more clear-headed now?”
–Ghhh, ghrrrk……
“Ha, fuck.”
Berimos staggered as he left the shrine.
Maninsa was an Evil God who had lived for over a thousand years. A being once at the center of terrifying legends—yet now reduced to trembling in fear like that……
It was pathetic, but also understandable.
Because his own hands were shaking with fear as well.
He had come to check on the CCTV tracking, only to witness an exorcist trembling violently while speaking to something in empty air.
–Immortal Iri…!
Maninsa, who had been possessing Lee Ah-jin, let out a deep sigh. Having grasped what had happened, Berimos immediately ordered Maninsa to retrieve the familiar.
But…
The retrieval failed, and instead, their location was exposed.
The moment the space tore open diagonally, Maninsa hastily slipped out of Lee Ah-jin’s body and hid in a corner of the shrine. The terrifying form—over 100 meters long, with a body diameter of 10 meters—was nowhere to be seen. It had shrunk down to the size of a tiny minnow.
Berimos caught Lee Ah-jin’s collapsing body and stared at the slanted rift in space. If he lowered his head, it felt as though he might see what lay beyond… yet he couldn’t bring himself to look.
He was simply too afraid.
Just as he was about to order the exorcist to close that bizarre space—
A white arm shot straight out from within it.
Clad in a neat white modified hanbok top, the arm was enormous—like that of a giant. The hand seized Berimos’s forearm and yanked it cleanly away.
Blood erupted like a fountain. The exorcist screamed and hurried to stop the bleeding, while Berimos let out a groan filled with agony.
Then a voice rang out.
‘You have spread chaos among the innocent. You have driven yokai and Yeongmul to suffocate and perish under agonizing curses, and you deceived dokkaebi to steal a dokkaebi club. As the price for your sins, I will take your arm and your familiar.’
‘Do not ever again sow chaos in the world through curses. Next time, I will take your head.’
It was a thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth, booming like thunder and lightning. It didn’t feel like the voice was speaking to his ears—it felt as though his skull had been split open and the words were being spoken directly into his brain.
Recalling that grave warning, Berimos shuddered violently. With his body’s weight thrown off balance, he kept listing to one side.
“Damn it….”
Maninsa had mentioned Immortal Iri several times.
A sage who ruled the Middle Realm. In the world of yokai, there was no one who didn’t know him. A being one naturally came to know simply by being born.
And yet, for some reason, Berimos did not know who Immortal Iri was.
“For now, we need to rest. You’ve spread curses too frequently in too short a time. And with a plan like this, humans will die—there’s no way he would stay idle.”
“Who is this ‘he’ you speak of?”
“Who else but Immortal Iri.”
“Didn’t they say he doesn’t intervene in children’s squabbles?”
“Once humans start dying, it’s no longer a children’s squabble. You fool.”
When Berimos planned his third curse, Maninsa had tried to dissuade him by invoking Immortal Iri’s name. But Berimos had only heard the name and reputation—he had no idea how powerful the Immortal truly was.
“Are you afraid, Maninsa?”
“Berimos. Your opponent is a primordial Immortal.”
“I do not know him, so I have nothing to fear. What will you do? Stop here? Or press forward?”
The cunning Evil God coaxed Maninsa, and in the end, they forced the plan through.
Berimos ground his teeth.
“Immortal Iri…….”
He stared up at the pitch-black night sky, repeating the name of the one who stood in the way of his plans.
The omnipotent Immortal Iri.
It had been a terrifying sight, and even now his hands were still trembling—but deep in his chest, a thrill coiled and lingered. After two years, he had finally drawn out a figure of that magnitude.
He was certain now: his goal was not far off.
“Next time we meet, I’ll tear that bastard’s arm right off….”
But until then, caution was necessary. For now, he had to lower his tail. Sometimes, to move forward, one must step back. For the time being, silence……
Berimos curled the corner of his mouth upward. The next moment, his body collapsed. At the heavy thud, the exorcist rushed over.
“Ugh…….”
Lee Seokjin, who had been unconscious, groaned as he struggled to push himself up. The exorcist hurried to support him.
“Ah… Han-su hyung? When did I even get here…?”
Lee Seokjin looked up at Han-su with a dazed expression.
“Y-you’re back to normal.”
“Ah. I did it again….”
Guilt washed over Lee Seokjin’s face. Soon, he would realize that his left arm was gone.
Han-su pulled Lee Seokjin into an embrace. As always, he swallowed his tears.
In the pitch-black night sky, only the moonlight watched over them.
9) The Day of Harvest
[Lee Seokjin ‘Winter Night’, casting confirmed → Filming begins May 2]
[Lee Seokjin vs. Lee Hee-jae… Rival showdown in electronics commercial]
[Actor Lee Seokjin to personally sing ‘Winter Night’ OST]
Dojin turned off his phone screen. No matter how much he searched, there was no news about popular actor Lee Seokjin losing his left arm. Dojin had expected that they would use sorcery to create an arm. However, such an arm would rot away after several dozen hours, meaning a new one had to be made every day. That would make ordinary life quite inconvenient… yet ten days had already passed, and it seemed he was holding up just fine.
“Seriously, how attention-hungry can Evil Gods get? He can’t give up acting even if it kills him.”
Vengeful spirits and Evil Gods loved attention, which was why they often latched onto celebrities with high public exposure.
Had Lee Seokjin been an ordinary actor who changed after an Evil God attached itself to him? Or had he become an actor because of the Evil God?
In truth, if he wanted to know the full story, he easily could. Dojin even knew Lee Seokjin’s home address and phone number.
But he was holding himself back, remembering the Immortal’s words—that he had paid the price, issued a warning, and should now let go.
“Building virtue is this exhausting. Do you have any idea how hard this is?”
Kki-woong?
“Must be nice for you. All you have to do is go kki-woong.”
Kki-woong.
The Dark One tilted its head and went back to what it had been doing—trying to grab the shadow of Dojin’s fingers reflected on the console box. Sometimes it succeeded, but the moment Dojin applied a little strength, it slipped free again.
He had once taken the Dark One to a haunt where stray spirits lived, but it got so frightened that it just clung to his finger and cried, so they came straight back. When Iri looked at him with a face that clearly said, ‘Why is that child still here?’, Dojin had defended himself confidently.
‘He’s too young and weak. All the stray spirits there were huge—about my size. Looked like they’d swallow him whole.’
‘……’
‘He needs some training before I let him go. Look—he’s still frozen solid, won’t even let go of my finger.’
Even after that, Dojin never actually trained him. He just kept playing this shadow-grabbing game. Teasing the young stray spirit by letting it almost catch him, Dojin lifted his head.
Iri was coming out of the rental shop. Dojin quickly got out of the car and opened the back door.
“Please get in, Master.”
“Thanks.”
Iri climbed into the back seat, and Dojin immediately took the wheel.
[(☆▽☆)]
As if it had been waiting, the Dragon Horse set off at once.
They planned to leave the shop vacant from afternoon until evening, traveling across the country.
It was called ‘The Day of Harvest’—the day they went around collecting newly naturally formed curios from the past five years. In short, it was fieldwork and a business trip, but from Dojin’s perspective, it was an outdoor date.
“You said there were three places to stop by, right?”
“Yeah. Bucheon, Goesan, and Muju.”
“Three new curios, huh. Guess that means we’ll be even busier.”
“We don’t know if we’ll collect all three yet. Five years ago, three were formed too, but I only took one.”
“Why? Do you have some kind of strict personal criteria?”
“I don’t know if I’d call it strict.”
As soon as he sat down, Iri held out a finger to the Dark One, who was kki-woong-ing its way over the back seat with visible effort.
Lately, the Dark One had been shamelessly trying to curry favor with Iri. An instinctive fondness and attachment toward Immortal Iri—and… the realization that he ranked highest in the rental shop’s hierarchy.
“Curios with weak durability sometimes get damaged during testing… and useless or dangerous types, I just destroy them on the spot.”
“Dangerous types—like weapons, right? Things like the ‘Peach Tree Branch’.”
Iri’s Curio Rental Shop held 721 curios, but only six were classified as weapons. One of them was the ‘Peach Tree Branch’—just touching an ordinary stray spirit with it was enough to make it shrivel up. If it were used on the Dark One, the Dark One would vanish instantly. Even Dojin had never tried using it.
“That’s right. The ones formed this time don’t seem to be weapons, but one of them gives me a bad feeling… I’ll have to test it in person before deciding.”
“I hope all three get rejected. Less work for us.”
“Dojin. The more work there is, the more chances you get to build virtue.”
Iri was right. In fact, during just four months of working at the rental shop, Dojin had accumulated several times more virtue than he had in the nineteen years he’d lived before. The busier he was, the more money he made. In moments like this, it felt no different from the human world at all.
