In a brief moment, I struggled to find a way to rephrase the fact that the Demon had used my maternal grandmother as bait to lure me out.
“And what’s with telling me not to let anyone, including the bodyguards, into the house?”
It would be safer for her to know and prepare in advance than to remain ignorant.
“Grandmother, this Sacred object.”
I transformed the ring into the Four Evil Beheading Sword and placed it in front of her.
“It’s not just called the Four Evil Beheading Sword; it’s a real sword that can eliminate Demons.”
I recounted the story of the random stabbing incident from the news, the chef who attacked me at the production presentation, and the bodyguard who had been possessed by a Demon.
“A distant ancestor created this and imbued it with the power to eliminate Demons, in preparation for times like these.”
I was trying to soften the story as much as possible, telling it like a fairy tale, but my grandmother seemed quite surprised.
She alternated between looking at me and the sword, clenching and unclenching her fists.
Seeing that made me happy, and I took both of her hands in mine.
“I do this with my hands when I’m nervous too… I guess I take after you, Grandmother.”
“Oh? I did that. Yes, you certainly do.”
My grandmother, who had been caressing my hands, looked at the sword and asked again.
“Does it have to be you?”
I didn’t know how to answer, so I just smiled.
“What if you encounter a Demon you can’t handle alone?”
I could answer this question.
“The National Intelligence Service will provide assistance. And there’s a Mystical Creature that was sealed together with the Sacred object.”
“Mystical Creature? I had no idea, even with the Spell inscribed on my back.”
Ah, would she be shocked if she knew that the thing inscribed on her back was a massive being, whether a beast or a monster?
{It must have been a large Sorcery to inscribe on a young lady’s back. You must have suffered quite a bit.}
I definitely shouldn’t show her Baek Mungi’s true form.
“When a Demon appears, that Mystical Creature empowers the sword.”
“So that’s why the sword is a Sacred object.”
“I guess so.”
I hope this is enough information for her.
{Because you have carried the Spell for a long time, you don’t have to worry about being possessed by a Demon.}
I had been worried that my grandmother might be possessed after seeing the NIS agent possessed, but Baek Mungi’s words reassured me.
“Grandmother, you have a Spell on your body that wards off Sacred objects, so you don’t have to worry about being possessed by a Demon. So, you just need to be careful of the people around you.”
“I can just stay home and not meet anyone, but what about you, with a job that involves dealing with people? You’re surrounded by people all the time.”
Baek Mungi is by my side, so I won’t be in danger, but is there no way to prevent the people around me from being possessed by Demons?
Representative Director, our CAKE members, and even Creams…. I need to find a way.
* * *
The video had ended, but the conference room was filled with silence.
When Kim Woo-jin subdued and brought in one of the agents who had been assigned to the security team, they had thought it was just an individual’s misconduct.
But after watching the video taken by the action camera, they were speechless.
“Fucking hell.”
It was the first words that broke the silence.
“Don’t use vulgar language during a meeting. This is a company.”
“Is this… like in movies or dramas? Do people really get possessed by ghosts?”
“Is this even possible?”
“There’s video evidence, and our agent is a witness, so we can’t just dismiss it…”
“Seriously, a Korean ghost story in the 21st century…”
“What about the agent we captured?”
Kim Woo-jin, with a dark expression, played another video.
In the video, the captured agent, Lee Seong-jin, was tied to a chair with his arms behind his back, and talismans were stuck to his eyes.
As Kim Woo-jin removed the talismans, the agent’s eyes snapped open, and he began to laugh out loud.
– “Hehehe, ahahahaha.”
As the laughter subsided, he raised his hands onto the table. The handcuffs that had been binding his hands were now lying on the floor.
Surprised, Kim Woo-jin quickly drew his gun and aimed it.
“I didn’t expect there to be someone using talismans. Since you went to the trouble of capturing me, I should at least have some fun, right?”
The door burst open, and other agents with guns entered the interrogation room.
But he didn’t even look at the other agents and asked Kim Woo-jin.
– “By the way, what’s that guy’s deal? Oh, there were two of them using talismans? It doesn’t seem like just a wandering spirit.”
“What are you?”
As soon as Kim Woo-jin asked him, the agents surrounding him chimed in.
“Hey, Lee Seong-jin, what’s wrong with you? Snap out of it!”
– “Sir, please come to your senses!”
But only strange words came out of his mouth.
– “…Well, whatever, at least there was some gain.”
He muttered to himself and shouted, looking at the people around him.
– “Don’t just aim, shoot, you morons.”
But the agents just surrounded him, aiming their guns.
“Humans don’t understand this. If you try to protect something, you’ll lose it. Hehehe.”
“Re-cuff that bastard!”
As he slowly rose from the chair, the agents’ guns followed him.
In the blink of an eye, the hand of the agent who had gone behind him to re-cuff him was grabbed.
– “Agh!”
“Hey, Lee Seong…”
Bang!
His head exploded, and blood and fragments flew everywhere.
“I, I didn’t pull the trigger.”
The agent whose hand had been grabbed said, trembling.
* * *
As the video ended, the conference room was filled with sighs.
In particular, Oh Sanghoon, as the person in charge of this matter, sighed even more deeply.
“Lee Seong-jin, you said? Which division is he from?”
“The VIP Protection Team.”
“Get me his performance review from last year. How are we supposed to handle this, seriously.”
An NIS agent became a threat to the person he was supposed to protect and was arrested, and an accident occurred in which he died within the agency.
Oh Sanghoon and the heads of each team who had gathered in the conference room could only sigh deeply.
“So, is that ghost gone now?”
“It’s just a guess, but it seems to be moving from one person’s body to another. That’s why it seems to have eliminated the captured host without hesitation.”
“What’s the method of dealing with it?”
“We’ve found a way to deal with it when it’s only in shadow form, but we haven’t found a way to deal with a Demon in human form yet.”
“Song Yiyoung is doing that?”
“If a celebrity is running around doing that, won’t rumors spread quickly?”
“So, those sightings were all about this.”
“Should we order the deletion of the sightings that have been posted?”
“Are you going to earn your salary by just commenting again?”
It was surprising that a non-scientific entity called a ghost actually existed.
But the fact that an agent possessed by that ghost attacked the VIP he was supposed to protect made the people gathered in the conference room very sensitive.
Perhaps that’s why sharp words were exchanged.
“The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has addressed the issue as part of filming a promotional video.”
Kim Woo-jin’s words settled the issue of public opinion on the internet for the time being.
But the future was the problem.
“If these incidents continue to occur in the future, wouldn’t it be better for us to take that sword and deal with it ourselves?”
Kim Woo-jin also thought that it would be better for the NIS to take the lead for Song Yiyoung’s safety.
But.
“As you saw in the video earlier, I almost got attacked too. The most powerful force for eliminating Demons comes when Song Yiyoung uses that sword.”
“Why? Because Song Yiyoung is a descendant of the Royal Family?”
“Song Yiyoung isn’t the only descendant of the Royal Family, is she?”
It was the question he expected to be asked.
It was also a question that Kim Woo-jin was curious about.
So, Kim Woo-jin shared his thoughts.
“I think she has a special power, even among the descendants.”
Kim Woo-jin’s words silenced the conference room again.
The youngest member among the gathered team leaders spoke up after a long time.
“Should I get some coffee?”
“Yeah. Looks like we won’t be going home today.”
The idea that people possessed by Demons were committing evil deeds was even harder to believe than the existence of aliens and UFOS.
* * *
With aliens, it’s possible to make a reasonable inference that there are life forms similar to humans somewhere in the vast universe.
But how can we prove the existence of Demons, which are invisible and control human bodies?
However, after hearing Kim Woo-jin’s report along with the interrogation room video, the Director of the NIS succeeded in obtaining full authority from the President to investigate this matter.
“The President’s approval rating has dropped a lot. In this situation, if the reason for the damage to the UNESCO-listed cultural heritage is ghosts… no, let’s call them Demons.
If it becomes known that it’s because of Demons and that those Demons possess people, it will be a huge risk for the President. He could even be impeached for believing in superstition.”
I was in a conference room at the NIS, listening to Kim Woo-jin and a few others explain how the Director of the NIS had obtained full authority over this matter.
Due to the NIS agent incident, Oh Sanghoon stepped down from this matter, and the Director of the NIS decided to take direct action.
“In the old days, even in Joseon, if there was a drought because it didn’t rain, they would hold rain rituals and eat less food, blaming it on the lack of virtue of the king. It’s not a dynasty or an empire now, but power is concentrated in the President.
Given the political structure of our country, if this fact becomes known, the President’s approval rating will only fall further. If the public starts to believe that the country is doomed, the next president will come from the opposition party. Before that, the lame duck period could come quickly.”
It seemed that the President’s appointee, the President’s man, had persuaded the President with these arguments.
“Moreover, we can no longer tolerate those formless things coming into the NIS and wreaking havoc.”
The Director of the NIS was very displeased with the incident that had to be closed as a suicide by a agent within the agency.
“Our NIS can’t fail to catch the ghosts that even the Marines catch. We’re planning to create a dedicated team. In fact, we were thinking of borrowing the sword that Song Yiyoung has, but we heard that that sword is a bit different from other Four Evil Beheading Swords.”
The eyes of the Director of the NIS and others turned to me and were fixed on me. It was a subtle pressure to tell them what was different.
Should I tell them about Baek Mungi’s existence?
{Do as you wish, Jaga.}
Wouldn’t it be better to keep a trump card?
So, I decided not to talk about Baek Mungi.
“The Spell on my shoulder turned into a sword, and I had a contract… or something like that. It seems like re-contracting with someone else
isn’t possible, so it seems like other people can’t use the power of this sword.”
“In the video, it looked like a large monster was entering the sword, is that it?”
Ah, it was all captured on video. What secrets?
“Yes, when that spiritual power is combined, it definitely becomes stronger.”
{Jaga, shall I reveal myself?}
Ah, the conference room is too small, so please bear with it.
“Kim Woo-jin’s sword is also effective in exorcising Demons?”
“Yes, the sword reacts when there are Demons nearby.”
“Then would other Four Evil Beheading Swords be effective?”
The Director of the NIS asked the others gathered.
He seemed to think of the Four Evil Beheading Sword as a new weapon, and his voice was strangely excited.
“There have been no separate reports from the museum.”
“Would the museum allow us to use them in actual combat? There aren’t many of them.”
“Didn’t a professor who studies cultural properties make hundreds of them a few years ago?”
“After Song Yiyoung’s Four Evil Beheading Sword was revealed, that professor gave an interview, saying that he made the Four Evil Beheading Sword in 2022.”
“Good. Let’s find out if we can get them. We also need manpower to support Song Yiyoung and Kim Woo-jin. If the Four Evil Beheading Sword made in modern times is also effective, a dedicated team should be assigned to handle it perfectly.”
One of the agents raised his hand and said.
“If we can’t get the Four Evil Beheading Sword, I think we should consider making a Three Evil Sword.”