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Chaine could not withstand the pressure Lee Jae-soon was putting on her.

Even a person of great courage would find it hard to cope with the immense madness; it wouldn’t be easy for just one single celebrity.

Chaine had no choice but to describe in a trembling voice the things she had seen on Hwangjang Mountain in painstaking detail. No, going beyond just explaining, she even sketched a rough drawing on the paper Lee Jae-soon handed her and used the photo he showed to depict the situation from back then.

How long did such explanations go on?

“Hahaha. Thank you for your cooperation, Chaine. No, Kim Seon-mi. Hehe.”

Lee Jae-soon was able to feel satisfaction.

“Thanks to Kim Seon-mi’s help, the article will become more detailed.”

Seemingly in a good mood, he praised her by noting her real name, and with a satisfied smile still on his face, he opened the door and vanished. Since he left without closing the door, the sound of him moving away from the car could still be heard, and oddly, it felt like a small set of footsteps followed behind the sound of one person walking.

As if a ghost was following him, mimicking Lee Jae-soon’s movements.

Once the footsteps completely disappeared, Chaine overcame her fear and was able to open the door to look outside.

“Hi… Hiiik….”

When she opened the door, what she saw was pitch-black darkness.

And in that darkness lay her manager, sprawled out.

Approaching the manager to check on his condition, there were no visible wounds. Moreover, as if to prove he was still alive, his body moved slightly with every breath he took, indicating he was at least still breathing.

It appeared as if he had taken some drug and fainted; his body was limp, and even when Chaine approached and shook him, he did not respond. Just in case, Chaine lifted his eyelids to find that his eyeballs were rolled back.

As she was about to call 119 to report the incident, a thought suddenly struck her.

‘The shoes said there are those who would throw filth at a woman. Be cowardly and filthy like monkeys hurling dung from trees, and those will get dirtied with harmful and verbally abusive information! No matter how much you wash, the bad smell won’t easily go away, so beware!’

‘It’s not the boss! Not the director either! Not even the team leader! But wait, isn’t it strange? There’s only one option left? That woman must know what I mean! Ha-ha-ha!’

They would throw filth.

But it wasn’t the boss, nor the director, nor the team leader.

‘Filth….’

She recalled her agency, which operated half like a punk.

If it were them, they would have more than enough ability to smear her with filth and would do so without batting an eye. Celebrities who protested against unfair contracts and filed lawsuits after facing bullying and verbal abuse often suffered from scandals or dirt related to their past, and they had no idea where the dirt came from.

‘It couldn’t be just the words of a madman….’

She remembered Lee Jae-soon, who seemed crazy.

He undoubtedly appeared insane, but considering that he introduced himself as a ‘journalist’…

The information he first presented to her as a deal could actually be true.

Gulp.

Chaine gulped due to her tension.

‘Not the boss….’

Neither the director.

They had no reason to smear her with filth.

At the very least, they were punks, but only punks who cared solely for money.

As long as they didn’t cause any trouble that would affect the company and brought in money, they wouldn’t hold onto any lingering feelings for her. They would regard her as just an object, just like they did normally, saying, ‘Right. This will pay back what we invested. We used her well. She’s getting old, and it seems hard to keep using her. Let’s just cleanly pass her on to someone else.’

Right.

So they weren’t the ones.

Then what about the team leader?

Those who operated under punks were wicked, savage, and had a thug-like demeanor.

But at the very least, they knew how to thoroughly follow their superior’s orders and would never do anything to lower someone’s value as a product, sharing their superior’s vision and insights. Therefore, they would absolutely comply with the will of a boss or director who wanted to let her go, and instead of seeking revenge, they would work to not stir up any commotion.

So the team leader wasn’t it either.

So then.

So then what remained…?

Gulp.

Chaine searched her collapsed manager’s body and successfully found his smartphone.

When she turned on the manager’s smartphone, a message popped up asking her to enter the password.

‘The password is, let’s see… the former girlfriend’s birthday….’

Just as a manager learns about a celebrity, a celebrity always learns about their manager.

She easily figured out the password and was able to browse the contents on her manager’s smartphone without any trouble.

“Ha….”

And she found out.

That Lee Jae-soon’s words were not a lie.

* * *

She had obtained detail.

Detail enough for an article.

“Excellent. Truly excellent.”

Lee Jae-soon looked at the article he had personally written with a satisfied smile.

That smile resembled an artist basking in the glory of their work, akin to a terrorist unable to hide their anticipation for what was to come, or a crazy person unable to contain their excitement.

Lee Jae-soon.

He smiled.

“Those guys’ pronunciations… they were distinctly Japanese. They were Japanese….”

What swam in his mind was the perfect article he had written.

And the damn guys who had kidnapped, tortured, and lynched him last time.

Those guys whose faces he didn’t really know and whose physiques he vaguely remembered.

But he distinctly remembered their voices.

That voice, with its traits evident when a Japanese person speaks Korean.

“You guys must pay the price. The price….”

What they had done was an act that was absolutely unforgivable.

It wasn’t just the torture and assault; the most unforgivable act was destroying the divine object.

Shoes.

The shoes made by a chatterbox’s tongue.

They had brought him all kinds of information and were supposed to lead him to success; he could not forgive those who shattered that divine object.

They had to pay the price.

Those who destroyed the treasure meant to lead him down the road to success.

They must be made to undergo the ritual once more and paid back with terrifying fear and enormous costs for what they did!

“Heh.”

They had to pay the price.

The price that would relieve his heart.

The same price he had paid once again while performing the ritual…

No, an even larger price.

‘Right. The price… the price….’

Lee Jae-soon paid the enormous price.

He conducted the ritual strictly following the precautions, and as a consequence… as a consequence….

‘What was it that I gave up…?’

His memory wasn’t clear.

But then again, that could be understandable.

It wasn’t like he went into a shop to pay for an item; he had carried out a suspicious ritual alone in a dark wilderness. A bizarre-looking fairy had popped out, and he had to deal with that.

In such circumstances, it was reasonable that his memory could be a bit hazy.

Fear can freeze your thoughts.

But he could assure himself.

That he performed the ritual according to the method given by that mysterious shaman.

He did his utmost to avoid violating the precautions listed there.

No, there was no need for assurance.

The very fact that Lee Jae-soon was now perfectly fine was proof of that.

If his method had been wrong, he wouldn’t have returned safely.

He could have lost a part of his body, ended up in horrible conditions unable to escape that wilderness, or worst-case scenario, lost his life.

That fairy, who treated him kindly as a distant descendant, had enough power to inflict such consequences.

So he had executed the ritual perfectly.

There was no issue with the ritual, and he had managed to create the divine object without a hitch.

Not just any ‘weak power’ divine object but a divine object that possessed even more powerful strength.

But what was said at that time?

What had the fairy said…?

[ Tap tap, tip tap. Distant descendant. It appears you have inherited fairy blood. ]

Lee Jae-soon chuckled at the fairy’s words from back then.

‘Hehe, right. Since we met for the second time, we must have become more familiar. Yeah….’

He cautiously lifted the fairy doll that he had placed next to his laptop with his left hand.

Then, he sent the article he wrote to the editor-in-chief and closed his laptop.

He then asked the fairy.

“Ancestor. Ancestor. Will the editor-in-chief approve this article?”

Then the fairy answered him.

“Oh, descendant always drenched in alcohol! You can’t even think straight without drinking! Do you think the editor will approve such an article? Do you think the boss would permit it? No way! No matter how exclusive the scoop, there’s no way they’d approve this! Under the editor’s discretion, this article will lose its life and be pushed to the corner!”

The fairy sang a pessimistic future.

Therefore, Lee Jae-soon asked again.

“Then tell me the editor-in-chief’s weakness.”

At that question, the fairy laughed.

It laughed as though it was a living being, not just a doll, and it expressed the functions of the divine object faithfully.

So, Lee Jae-soon was able to receive an answer.

* * *

“Rituals require a price.”

“However, this time the cause is connected to me.”

“The price forthcoming to you won’t be that great.”

“However, from then on, it will solely depend on your choices.”

“You must not forget that you need to bear the full weight of that price.”

…

…

…

“I wrote what was correct on paper.”

“However, what is not correct may also be written on paper.”

“If there were contradictory items…”

“Good luck.”

 

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