Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Episode 9: The Grand Opening Is Pandemonium (3)

The conversation did not last long.

It was not as if I had prepared some kind of ‘list of questions to ask if I ever meet a god,’ and even if I asked, Goddess Mago had no obligation to answer everything, did she?

The biggest reason the conversation was short was that I did not really have anything I was particularly curious about.

The fairly talkative nine-tailed fox had already told me plenty about this side of the world without me even needing to ask.

By the time sitting in the field and looking at the tranquil countryside scenery started getting boring, I brushed off my rear and stood up, tossing the empty thermos carelessly onto the passenger seat.

“Are you leaving?”

“Yes, I’ve seen enough.”

“How unusual. Even if only as a formality, one might ask whether one could remain here.”

“Wouldn’t that only force you into the awkward position of refusing something impossible?”

“Hoho, I see. You are a considerate child.”

“Then, I’ll be going.”

“Here. I cannot very well send you away empty-handed after only receiving coffee, so take this at least.”

“The coffee was free.”

“Take it anyway.”

When I kept refusing, the small object in Goddess Mago’s hand flicked through the air and landed in mine.

It was a ring. A thin ring made of jade.

“This is too precious to accept as payment for coffee. I already received the coffeehouse cheaply enough as a gift. That is more than sufficient.”

“That is precisely why I am giving it to you. You will need it. It wards off wicked energies. Geum and San will protect you well enough, but even so, should you not at least be able to look after your own life?”

“In that case, I’ll borrow it only until I stop running the coffeehouse.”

“How is it that the receiver keeps adding more conditions than the giver? Hoho. Now go on. This old woman has kept you too long with her fussing.”

After bowing deeply in farewell, I slowly drove off, following the tire tracks pressed into the field from when I had entered.

(Come by from time to time.)

“Pardon? What do you mean...”

-Whoosh.

Before I could even finish asking, ‘How am I supposed to come here again?’ the scenery outside suddenly changed back into the familiar road.

And beside me, the familiar black sedan was driving parallel to my car.

It was the car the nine-tailed fox rode in.

I rolled down the window, waved happily, and asked,

“Where are all of you going in such a hurry?”

“Huh? It’s the coffeehouse owner!”

“You! Where have you been all this time! This won’t do. Turn around at once!”

_______________

The coffeehouse I returned to with one additional burden(?) in tow no longer looked the way it had before.

In less than an hour, something had apparently happened, because all sorts of things were scattered everywhere, leaving the place looking like a scene of utter chaos.

“Did a thief break in or something?”

“Ahem. This is all because of this fellow.”

“Ow ow ow! That hurts!”

Seeing the nine-tailed fox angrily grab both of the raccoon dog’s cheeks and stretch them as far as he could, I finally understood why they had rushed off in such a hurry.

“It was because of this, right?”

I took the leaf out of my wallet and held it up.

“That’s it! You somehow carried that around and still came back without anything happening!”

“Actually, something did happen.”

“What? What happened? Did you encounter another monster?”

“Not a monster. I went to the Celestial Realm and met Goddess Mago.”

“...”

All three of them made extremely entertaining expressions.

Their mouths hung open, and their eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop out.

“Y-You’re joking, right?”

“Is it really that serious?”

“You truly went there?”

“Yes. She said it was thanks to this leaf.”

“Ha! The Celestial Realm is a place even Taoists and divine beasts who have trained all their lives cannot casually enter. That is why I find it so difficult to believe that a human like you went there.”

“It wasn’t anything that remarkable. I only stayed for a little while and came back.”

“That is an earth-shaking event! In all my long life, you are the first human I have ever seen casually visit the Celestial Realm. I almost suspect some strange monster bewitched you and tricked you. Good grief, this is hard to believe.”

“It might be strange to call it a souvenir, but Goddess Mago also gave me this. She said it wards off wicked energies.”

“Huh? This is made of divine stone! Divine stone only exists in the Celestial Realm!”

After seeing the ring, the nine-tailed fox dropped heavily into a chair with a dumbfounded expression.

“So you truly went there, hahaha.”

“This is my first time seeing divine stone!”

Leaving the raccoon dog turning the ring this way and that with its forepaws, I quietly stood up.

“Where are you going? Sit back down and tell us everything that happened in detail!”

“I stood up because I knew you’d say that. I only went there briefly. What more is there to tell? If you’re that curious, I took a few pictures on the phone over there. Just look at those.”

“Pictures?”

“Yes. I asked Goddess Mago for permission and took a few landscape photos. I didn’t think I’d ever go back.”

“You went to the Celestial Realm, and that wasn’t enough, so you took photographs of it?”

“Yes. Though the Celestial Realm is endless, so I obviously didn’t get to see all of it.”

I had actually thought for quite a while before asking, worried it might be disrespectful.

I had only wanted to leave behind a few pictures in case it was somewhere I could never visit again.

I never imagined they would immediately become such a useful escape route(?).

“I want to see!”

“Swipe to the right.”

“Ooooooh! This is the Celestial Realm? It’s incredible! It looks... it looks like... a village from about a thousand years ago!”

“Hey! Don’t look by yourself. Bring that over here!”

Just then, the sound of a motorcycle came from outside, and soon a delivery rider wearing a helmet knocked on the door.

-Knock knock.

“Delivery!”

“Yes, one moment.”

Only then did I finally escape the barrage of annoying questions and return carrying two large bags.

“What is that? It smells good!”

“Jokbal.”

“Jjokbari?”

“No, what are you even talking about? Jokbal. Pig’s feet. Here, go put it on the table. I’ll heat up some instant rice too.”

“Hmph. When did you order this?”

“When we were parking earlier. I figured you probably hadn’t eaten because you were busy turning this place upside down.”

Because everyone had spent the entire morning turning the coffeehouse into a battlefield, they had probably missed mealtime.

I was feeling hungry myself anyway.

The menu was jokbal, the only delivery food that came all the way out to this remote countryside.

Even if I managed to place an order through the app, it was often immediately canceled.

The one saving grace was that the only jokbal place that delivered here actually tasted quite good.

By the time I returned after heating up instant rice in the microwave, the table was covered with such a lavish spread that there was barely room to place chopsticks.

“It’s like a feast day!”

“Hmph, you could have simply served coffee as usual. Why did you buy all this?”

“There are still more documents to process, but technically speaking, today is opening day. I thought we might as well celebrate.”

That was the excuse, at least.

The registration certificate had been approved with only a few clicks online, but it was still a day worth celebrating, wasn’t it?

If you ignored the pile of remaining paperwork and the uproar caused by my little trip to the Celestial Realm.

“Well, if we are being precise, this coffeehouse is opening thanks to us.”

“Elder, to be exact, it is opening thanks to our operational budget.”

“Quiet. There is never only one founding contributor. You and that raccoon dog each laid a foundation stone beneath this shabby coffeehouse as well.”

“That’s right! We are Han Xin and Peng Yue!”

“No, not those two!”

“Then Xun Yu!”

“Someone from Joseon...!”

“Jeong Do-jeon?”

“Enough. Just eat the meat.”

They were all founding contributors, certainly.

Though things had not ended particularly well for any of them after their respective dynasties were founded.

“So, did Old Woman Mago say anything else? There must have been some reason she called you all the way to the Celestial Realm.”

“She didn’t say much. If I had to pick something, she did warn me that I might face some difficulties in the future.”

“Difficulties?”

“Yes. She gave me that ring as well, telling me to protect myself just in case.”

I pointed with my chopsticks at the ring the raccoon dog was fiddling with.

“Hmph. With me and this fellow here, who would dare harm you?”

“There’s always a chance. And the two of you can’t exactly guard me all the time.”

“If it bothers you that much, you can simply stay at the National Intelligence Service with me and this fellow.”

“I suspect she gave me the ring precisely so I wouldn’t have to do that.”

“I see. Divine stone reduces wicked energies to nothing, so anything trying to harm you will likely vanish without a trace. Well, having us beside you would be the most reliable, but divine stone is not far behind.”

“That’s right! With this ring, at the very least, you probably won’t get your head chopped off by monsters!”

“Tsk! Why do you always have to phrase things like that...”

I had already vaguely suspected it.

Living as I had before would probably be difficult from now on.

Just as nothing in the world was free, this coffeehouse I thought I had practically gotten for nothing, and the absurdly large revenue coming in, also came with their own price.

Guests too difficult to handle.

The first had been a nine-tailed fox, and the second had been a raccoon dog.

At this point, thinking there would be no third guest would actually be stranger.

If someone asked whether I was afraid, of course I was.

When even a god handed me solid protective equipment and warned me to be careful, who wouldn’t be frightened?

For a moment, I even felt uneasy as I remembered all the countless supporting characters in horror movies who died pointlessly.

But it was fine.

Aside from the fact that monsters were involved, situations like this had practically been everyday life for me ever since my divine eyes opened.

If anything, things were better now.

At least I knew far more than I had back then.

And there was one more thing.

I no longer had to hide the eyes that had felt like a curse.

At least not from these people.

I liked that fact more than receiving any powerful protective charm.

________________

-Crack.

What was that sound? Did someone come again?

The buzz from the beer I had drunk for the first time in a while with all that meat still had not faded, so I struggled to sit up more than usual.

-Crack. Craaack.

It was not the sound of someone arriving.

The source of the strange noise was the wallet I had left beside my pillow.

Unless I was dreaming, a tree was growing out of my wallet right now!

“What the hell!”

I hurriedly tore out the tree as its roots burrowed into the bedding and threw it out the window.

-Rumble.

As though it had been waiting for that, the tiny sapling began shooting upward into a massive tree.

Along with a deafening roar that shook the ground.

“My god...”

Only then did I understand what Goddess Mago’s words, which had echoed in my mind, had meant.

The massive tree that had suddenly sprouted in my backyard.

And the familiar energy quietly spreading from within it.

A Divine Tree had grown.

A Divine Tree containing enough power to travel to and from the Divine Realm if necessary.

I opened my phone and called the only person I could tell about this.

(Yes, this is Baek Mahyeon.)

“I’m sorry to call so late. Something rather urgent happened. Could all three of you come back here?”

(What happened?)

“A tree grew at my house, and I think it may be the same kind of Divine Tree you said was on Mount Gyeryong.”

(Crash!)

Something fell loudly on the other end of the phone, and then the call abruptly disconnected.

Hanging up without even saying goodbye was certainly rude, but neither I, who had called in the middle of the night, nor Director Baek Mahyeon, who had hung up without saying anything, was in a situation to worry about etiquette.

-Riiing.

“Yes, Kim Jin...”

(I’ll come immediately! Send a picture—no, I’ll call you back on video!)

The turbulent day was not over yet.