Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Episode 20: Suspicious Bodyguards (5)

“Are you really planning to give them this?”

“Isn’t there no other alternative?”

“They must have been expecting quite a lot too.”

“It’s a hundred times better than lettuce.”

“Even so...”

I didn’t want to do this either.

But no matter how much I thought about it, this was the final alternative.

And so I connected a long power strip and internet cable, took the POS terminal out through the window, and buried it halfway into the ground.

The principle was the same as the wrap vegetables we ate before.

Instead of seeds buried in the ground, I planned to rub the POS terminal and grow wraps... no, receipts.

Receipts filled with divine power.

“I’ll print it.”

(Payment completed.)

-Bzzzzzt.

【RECEIPT】

[Store Name] Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse

[Business No.] 3341-249-9-601091

[Address] 21-8 Dangsan-ro, Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province

[Representative] Kim Jinseong

[Sale Date] 2024-11-08 00:21:48

==========================

Item Name Unit Price Quantity Amount

--------------------------

Ssanghwa Tea 5,000 1 5,000

--------------------------

Total Amount 5,000

When I swiped the card, a short receipt came out.

It was the first receipt I had printed since opening the business. It was a moment that made it sink in all over again that I really was running a coffeehouse.

And just as expected, it was brimming with divine power.

To think the first receipt from our coffeehouse would be used for something like this...

“This came out roughly on par with the sacred object San gave.”

“Heh heh, indeed. Including the fact that it is an utterly unimpressive object.”

“I don’t care. We made one, didn’t we? I’m glad we don’t have to send them away empty-handed. Here you are.”

“Thank you! Truly, thank you!”

The reason they kept bowing their heads as though they had just received a winning lottery ticket was not hard to understand.

Carrying a sacred object increased one’s divine power by that amount. There was one condition, however: the permission of the one who bestowed the sacred object was required.

That was also why I deliberately charged the card belonging to the shaman who would receive it.

It was my own little mechanism for acknowledging ownership. It would be a stretch to call it a fair transaction, but they had paid for it.

“Now, that’s everything, right? And by the way, you don’t have to come separately to guard the Divine Tree. It makes me uncomfortable too.”

“Would it really be all right to...”

-Snap.

A splendid fan made of peacock feathers opened in front of the shaman who had cautiously started speaking.

It was the Haedong Divine Maiden’s fan.

“It is only right that those of us who have received sacred objects do so.”

“No. Unlike Mount Gyeryong, the Divine Tree here can take care of itself well enough. The Elder is here too.”

I did not want the burden.

I appreciated the sentiment of wanting to protect it, but hadn’t I already seen with my own eyes the enormous divine power Ria could release?

Half-baked threats would obviously collapse before they could even come near, just like these people had.

But the Haedong Divine Maiden, who had stepped forward, showed no sign of moving.

“If having us nearby is uncomfortable, we will set up a small altar at a distance and offer prayers. Would that be acceptable?”

The compromise she offered was even more burdensome.

I said you don’t need to come!

“Permit it. These people already keep their altars set up inside their cars anyway. There will be no reason for them to stand out, nor will they be out in the cold performing sword dances. They came here to lessen their karma, so allowing them that much will ease their minds.”

“How do you lie every time without even blinking?”

“Heh heh heh. Isn’t it entertaining to watch?”

They did not look like they intended to perform only some formal ritual.

Especially the Haedong Divine Maiden standing in front of me. I could almost see determination in her eyes. The determination to set out a pig’s head and begin a noisy shamanic ritual at any moment.

“If you insist, then come as customers.”

“Customers?”

“One way or another, your goal is to guard the Divine Tree, isn’t it? When I’m not here, the Elder will be, so there’s no need for you to come specially. Just stop by for coffee from time to time. Not too often. I don’t want rituals or shamanic ceremonies.”

“It would be more dangerous when you’re alone. You said you have no divine power, so we should...”

“It isn’t dangerous. Anyone capable of harming me would have to be at least around the Elder’s or San’s level.”

“Tsk, that is true. There are probably very few beings in this world capable of harming this fellow or the Divine Tree.”

“You heard him, right? If anything urgent happens, I’ll ask you separately. This should be enough, shouldn’t it? Anything more would become a nuisance to me as well.”

“If you put it that strongly, we will obey. And if you ever call, we will come running at once.”

I probably would not have any reason to call them, but if this was enough to make them leave, I could make that promise a hundred times over.

And so the crowded coffeehouse was finally able to close.

『Ssanghwa Tea (5,000) × 20

Total Sales: 100,000 Won』

After earning a pretty decent amount of sales.

_____________

Late that night, the shamans who had left the coffeehouse were walking back toward the cars they had parked far away.

“Tsk, this is kind of ambiguous.”

The dharma master muttered as he turned the faintly glowing blue receipt this way and that.

“What now?”

“Isn’t this worse than the acorn we got from the Mountain God? No matter how sacred it is, it’s still a receipt.”

“You happily snatched it up earlier, and now you’re complaining? Seriously, fake monk bastard, you really change your attitude between entering and leaving the toilet.”

“No, it’s good! It just doesn’t look impressive.”

“There are people who scatter rice while holding soju bottles, and you’re complaining from a full stomach. If it bothers you that much, just tuck it between your talismans.”

“Oh! That works! Damn, either way, I’ll finally get to properly glimpse heavenly secrets too! If the two of us rotate, we’ll rake in money by the sackful. We can upgrade to a bigger car too. No, wait. Won’t it take some time before word spreads that our divine power got stronger?”

“You’re that happy?”

“Of course! And he said we don’t need to come often. If I spend the time I would’ve wasted sitting around chanting sutras going to rituals instead, do you know how much money that is? The numbers don’t even add up.”

“No need to calculate.”

“As expected of our Money-Ghost Maiden! You already did the math back at the coffeehouse, didn’t you? We could probably pull in at least a hundred million won a month, right?”

“No. We won’t earn a single won for a while.”

“What? Why!”

“We should have received only the sacred object, but we received something more precious instead. Unless you want to pile up karma and reincarnate as a dog or pig, we need to start moving diligently from tomorrow.”

“He told us not to perform rituals and shamanic ceremonies!”

“He only said not to do those.”

“What are you talking about? If shamans don’t perform rites or ceremonies, how are we supposed to lessen our karma? Hey, are you listening?”

She was not listening.

Judging by the faint smile on the Haedong Divine Maiden’s face as she headed toward the car, karma already seemed to be the furthest thing from her mind.

‘He is such a compassionate person. To think he gave us so much and then pushed us away because he worried we might suffer.’

Cheonryong Divine Maiden, counted among the most renowned spiritually gifted shamans in Korea, thus continued filling herself with respect for Jinseong entirely of her own accord.

She had correctly guessed that he was compassionate, but never even imagined that he had sent them away simply because they were genuinely bothersome.

_______________

After the unexpected commotion of shamans flooding in passed, the coffeehouse returned to everyday life.

The only difference from before was that my workplace was no longer an office building nearly fifty minutes away by car, but a desk only a few steps from my bed.

At first, worried that switching to remote work might interfere with my duties, I even volunteered to work overtime, but surprisingly, remote work suited my job fairly well.

Most of what I did involved wrestling with documents, so I rarely needed to meet anyone through video calls and suffer through awkward conversations.

Of course, conversations unrelated to work were an exception.

(Manager Kim, can’t you pick up the camera and show us around your house?)

“Pardon?”

(If you just carry it around once like this, that should do it.)

(There you go again. Stop bothering Jinseong during work hours.)

(I’m curious. He didn’t even have a housewarming party. And since it’s an old building, there are probably lots of places I could help fix up. I used to live in a house too.)

“The entire interior was renovated, so inside it’s basically new.”

(That’s because Manager Kim doesn’t know. With a house, what matters is the plumbing and wiring. They make the outside look fine, then because you can’t see inside, they leave thirty- or forty-year-old stuff untouched.)

(It’s Jinseong we’re talking about. He’ll take care of it himself. Let’s just go home already. Jinseong, good work today!)

(Hey, hey, you can’t just end it like...)

The screen turned off before I could even say goodbye.

6:00 p.m., a departure so sharp it could cut like a knife.

Normally, the end of the year was a hectic season for every department without exception. But lately, because we had several major projects running for more than two years, our Strategic Planning Office was in an unusual off-season, making an exact-on-time departure possible.

All right, shall I get up too?

After putting on my coat and trudging down to the first floor, I found Ria and San deeply absorbed in playing with the sleeping nine-tailed fox Elder’s tail.

“Elder, wake up.”

“Hm? You’re already finished?”

“Not already. It’s evening. I asked you to look after Ria, so when exactly did you fall asleep?”

“Who was sleeping! I played with her all this time and only closed my eyes for a moment. But if your work is finished, why not make dinner? Why have you come down bundled up like that?”

“I need to go out for a bit.”

“You still have to eat! There’s a lunchbox left!”

“If I eat first, I’ll be pressed for time.”

Just as San said, there was an expensive lunchbox that Director Baek had left behind warming beside the stove.

He had been considerate of the fact that after work I would also have to prepare dinner for the extra mouths in the house.

But there was something more important than dinner.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“To the supermarket. Ria has to come too, so go upstairs and hurry back wearing something warm.”

“Okay!”

“Are we going to buy pork cutlet? If so, we must hurry!”

“Sorry, but San should wait here for a little while.”

“Huh?”

His face clearly demanded an explanation.

“It’s my first time going far with Ria, so someone has to keep an eye on the Divine Tree.”

“Waaah! I want to go too, I want to go too! The nine-tailed fox can stay!”

“Hmph, how do you plan to go there when you cannot even properly transform?”

“I went last time!”

“You went inside a box.”

No matter how I thought about it, taking San to a public place was reckless. The magic he insisted was a transformation art amounted to nothing more than a raccoon dog wearing pants.

I felt bad, but there was nothing I could do.

Only after forcibly peeling San off my leg several times did I finally manage to get into the car.

-Bang bang.

“San is behind us!”

On the rear camera, San appeared pitifully pounding on the trunk with his face covered in tears and snot.

“I feel sorry for him...”

“It can’t be helped. If we bring back something tasty, he’ll probably calm down.”

“When I look closely, you do have a rather coldhearted side.”

“You know exactly what would happen if we took him along.”

“Heh heh. But why are you going to the supermarket? In this day and age, you can order things online and receive them in a day.”

“It still isn’t the same as seeing something yourself before buying it.”

“What are you going to buy?”

“Ria’s house.”

“House?”

“Yes.”

These days, there is nothing a supermarket doesn’t sell.

Even houses.