Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Episode 8: The Grand Opening Is Pandemonium (2)

“Let’s see. The president’s approval rating is 67%. So if there’s no lame-duck period, there are two years and four months left in the term... Thirty million a month makes a total of eight hundred forty million!”

Eight hundred forty million won.

That was the money I would receive in exchange for opening the coffeehouse.

I could set the business hours however I pleased, and at most, the only customers would be the two or three who had come today.

It was an absurd deal.

Then again, if we were talking about absurd things, a high-ranking National Intelligence Service official and monsters coming here to drink coffee was even stranger.

But the moment I gained a net income of thirty million won a month, all these incomprehensible supernatural events transformed into trials that could be overcome.

If I added a little more to what I had already saved, I would have exactly one billion won.

If I could get a good enough loan, owning a newly built apartment in Seoul would no longer be just a dream.

-Swipe swipe.

『Seocho Postar Complex 2, Building 202, Sale Price: 1.38 Billion Won

Bangbae Artshop Complex 1, Building 109, Sale Price: 1.43 Billion Won

Bangbae Artshop Complex 2, Building 215, Sale Price: 1.36 Billion Won

...

Seonghyeon Shindo Apartments, Building 115, Sale Price: 1.25 Billion Won [♥]』

Feeling restless for no particular reason, I scrolled through the listings on the real estate app I had installed and even tapped a few apartments whose prices barely fell within range to add them to my favorites.

People said one billion won was nothing these days, but how many people my age owned an apartment in Seoul?

Of course, I had not even received the first month’s payment yet, so it was still a distant plan.

Right, this wasn’t the time for that.

The thought of a large sum of money coming in had distracted me for a moment.

A contract was a contract, so I needed to start preparing immediately to open the coffeehouse starting tomorrow.

If I wanted to officially register the business and obtain a health certificate along with all sorts of permits and certificates, I had no time to sit around leisurely like this.

I could not illegally operate for customers who might come again tomorrow.

I quickly grabbed my car keys and wallet, poured some strongly brewed coffee into a thermos in case I became sleepy, and headed into town.

How long had I been driving?

-Flutter, flutter.

Fully bloomed cherry blossom petals began falling one by one onto the car.

What was this? Abnormal weather?

Cherry blossoms in early autumn. And it wasn’t only cherry blossoms. Cosmos flowers, roses, forsythias, and unknown wildflowers.

Every street tree, vine-covered wall, and patch of land containing even a little soil was covered in flowers in full bloom.

That was not the only strange thing. The road I had been driving along amid the scenery had changed as well.

Before I even noticed, the smoothly paved asphalt had transformed into a dirt road and then into a field where grass grew up to my knees.

-Screech.

I had no choice but to stop the car.

Even when I realized something was wrong and turned around to look behind me, all I could see was a field not much different from the one in front of me.

Until only a few days ago, I would have been at a complete loss over something like this, nervously stamping my feet, but in that short time I had received far too powerful a vaccination against such things.

Hadn’t I already met a nine-tailed fox and a talking raccoon dog?

A car suddenly ending up somewhere strange while driving was not all that surprising anymore.

Nor was the kindly looking old woman who had somehow approached me.

“Was the road here difficult?”

“No. It was a comfortable road scattered with flower petals.”

“That’s good.”

The natural wrinkles fitting her age deepened as the old woman smiled brightly.

Only then did I vaguely realize where this place was.

“This must be the Celestial Realm.”

“Oh? Then do you know who I am as well?”

“I heard that Goddess Mago opened my eyes. I assume you are Goddess Mago.”

“It seems I chose well. You are remarkably perceptive.”

“It’s nothing so impressive. That’s simply the only story I was told.”

“Hoho, you are even modest.”

Now that I had received confirmation of where I was, it finally began to feel real.

For some reason, I had driven an old compact car all the way into the Celestial Realm.

“So, what do you think now that you are here?”

“I’m not sure. It feels quiet and cozy. Though it also seems like it might be a little boring.”

“That is because this is where dull Taoists come, hoho.”

It was a rude answer, but it felt wrong to lie in front of a god, so I simply gave my honest impression.

That was what I had seen and felt.

Down in the fields Goddess Mago pointed toward, simple thatched cottages could be seen here and there.

Golden rice paddies waving in the breeze, ox carts, and fields growing vegetables whose names I did not know made it look exactly like some rural village.

The tranquil atmosphere was warm enough to make me temporarily forget my busy life in the mortal world, but conversely, spending more than half a day here without the internet or a phone seemed like it would be torture.

Even my grandmother’s house, which I occasionally visited as a child, had at least had a television.

“By the way, if you don’t mind, would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Coffee?”

“I happened to bring a cup with me.”

Feeling uncomfortable after being unnecessarily honest, I searched for a way to change the subject and happened to notice the thermos sitting in the cup holder.

-Pour.

A cup of steaming coffee quickly filled the thermos lid.

“So this is the coffee Geum liked. Come, sit. It’s all right.”

“Thank you.”

“What is there to thank me for?”

After accepting the coffee, Goddess Mago swept a hand across the ground, and the wild grass bent down in a direction suitable for sitting.

“So, you must have many things you want to say to me?”

“Is that why you called me here?”

“Called you? Hoho. I merely waited because I thought you would come. The reason you came to the Celestial Realm was not because of me, but because of that, wasn’t it?”

“Ah.”

A faint light was leaking from inside the pocket Goddess Mago pointed toward.

More precisely, it was coming from the leaf inside the wallet in my pocket.

A coincidence piled upon another coincidence.

There had been no divine arrangement behind it.

Choosing the leaf from among the miscellaneous objects the raccoon dog had offered as payment for the coffee had been my own decision.

This time, Goddess Mago was right.

“Were you resentful? That you had lived according to a god’s wishes?”

“There was a time when I resented it without really resenting it. It didn’t necessarily have to be me.”

Seeing things that others could not was both a blessing and a curse.

Cruelly, those fragments of the future had almost never shown me the moments I wanted to see.

It was like accidentally turning past the end of a book and seeing the ending when you never wanted to.

But Goddess Mago’s answer to my half-complaining lament was different.

“You are wrong about that. It had to be you.”

“My vessel is not that great.”

“Every child whose eyes I opened said the same thing. But child, listen carefully. You are the most special among them. I have opened the eyes of countless children, but you are the first whose threads of fate were free enough to come all the way to me and personally offer me something to drink.”

“Yes, I know. And I no longer resent it. Even Goddess Mago cannot make everything happen exactly as she wishes, so it would be greedy of me to insist on living exactly as I please.”

“How do you know that?”

“Didn’t you say that even after bringing everyone all the way to the Celestial Realm, they just spend their time farming because it’s so boring?”

“Hohoho, you are right. You truly are wise.”

She was no different.

Not even Goddess Mago, a being beyond the heavens themselves.

Perhaps that was why she looked more like a kindly old grandmother than some magnificent deity.

She was simply an ordinary grandmother who happily drank a cup of coffee when offered one.

The kind who might tell you a slightly long story about her life.

That insignificant fact comforted me.

Because it made me think, ‘Perhaps things like the natural order and destiny are merely illusions created by everyone’s wishes becoming tangled together.’

_____________

At the same time, the sedan rushing toward Jinseong’s coffeehouse was nothing short of a battlefield.

“That’s the coffeehouse!”

“Damn it! We’re in a hurry, so just stop in front of the coffeehouse!”

-Screeeeech.

There was a spacious parking lot after only one right turn, so Baek Mahyeon had slowed down and turned on the signal, only for the nine-tailed fox to scold him.

The three of them—or rather, the two people and one raccoon dog—scrambled out of the car and practically sprinted toward the coffeehouse.

But the door would not open.

The lights were even off inside the coffeehouse, and there was no sign of anyone being there.

“It looks like he stepped out for a while.”

“His car isn’t outside either.”

“Let’s go in first. He might have left the Divine Tree leaf behind.”

-Whoosh. Jingle.

“Hurry inside.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the nine-tailed fox vanished and then opened the locked door from inside the coffeehouse to let the other two in.

“But is it really all right to enter without permission like this? The coffeehouse owner will be upset if he finds out.”

“Quiet! This is no time to worry about that! We have to find it quickly!”

-Clatter. Clatter.

The three of them split up and began searching every corner of the ownerless coffeehouse.

The cupboards, the counter, even the master bedroom on the second floor.

To anyone watching, they would have looked exactly like thieves who had come to steal something, but in reality, all of them were desperately struggling to save Jinseong, the owner of the coffeehouse.

Though the nine-tailed fox appeared to be the only one who actually knew why.

“Did you find it?”

“No, I don’t see it over here.”

“It’s not here either.”

“Keep looking! Search more!”

“But what exactly is this Divine Tree leaf that has you so worried?”

The Elder had lived for an unfathomable length of time that Baek Mahyeon could not even imagine.

Wasn’t he normally the kind of person who would instead scold Baek Mahyeon over most things by saying, ‘Why are you making such a fuss over something so trivial? Even five hundred years ago...’?

Yet now that very Elder was sweating profusely alongside him while desperately searching for something.

Regardless of how urgent the situation was, Baek Mahyeon could not help becoming curious.

If it was truly that serious, then it was something the nation itself needed to know about.

“The Divine Tree is exactly what its name implies, a tree through which gods descend from Heaven. The Westerners seem to call such things World Trees or whatever, but even if you travel all the way to the Central Plains, the Divine Tree on Mount Gyeryong is the only one still fully alive. That is why this fellow guards it.”

“Ahem! It is an extremely important duty.”

“Then why, while performing that extremely important duty, did you tear off a perfectly good leaf and give it to that fellow!”

“I don’t have money like the nine-tailed fox. So I gave it to him instead as payment for the coffee...”

“Good grief, do you even hear yourself?! A Divine Tree leaf literally contains divine power. If a human carries something like that around, do you think supernatural beings seeking to ascend to the Divine Realm will simply leave him alone? His life could be in danger!”

“Is the coffeehouse owner going to die? He can’t! Waaaaah!”

“Damn it! My head is already complicated enough, so stop clinging to me!”

Hearing that Jinseong might die, the raccoon dog burst into loud sobs and grabbed the nine-tailed fox by the leg of his pants, shaking him.

“Surely it won’t come to that?”

“I don’t know. There are insane serpent spirits that have spent more than a thousand years doing nothing but praying because they want to ascend. Who knows what they might do if they catch a human who smells of the Divine Realm?”

“I’ll immediately send out our personnel to find him.”

“We don’t have time to stand around here either. Let’s go out and search for him ourselves. Good grief, what kind of mess is this under the moonlight?”

They had absolutely no idea.

They did not know that with that single leaf, a major incident had already occurred in which a human had suddenly gone all the way to the Divine Realm.

And he had even driven there in a beat-up old car, to a place others could reach only after abandoning even the smallest attachment to the mortal world and attaining enlightenment.