---

“Hmm. It seems you’re doing better than I imagined, which is quite reassuring.”

An incomprehensible situation.

Indeed, it was tough to wrap my head around it.

But Jinseong entered the room without hesitation, as if he had no intention of taking the time to explain things to the Great Witch. He dropped his briefcase and carelessly hung his jacket anywhere, making himself at home, as if the borrowed room belonged to him.

Then, he pulled a chair to face the Great Witch, sat down casually, and spoke.

“Well, it looks like you’ve had breakfast, but are you planning to rest at the hotel today?”

His tone was so calm and ordinary.

Anyone could easily mistake him for someone traveling with Odilia.

“How did you…?”

But Odilia had come to America alone.

She had left her family and company with just a message saying, “I’m going on a business trip.” Only two people knew she was here—her close aide and her precious disciple, Agnes…

So, how…?

How was Park Jinseong here?

And how did he get into this room?

Odilia looked at Jinseong, filled with all sorts of doubts.

In response to those questions, Jinseong replied…

“Hahaha. Fate is indeed a strange thing. We crossed paths by chance, and I realized something bad was happening, so how could I not come? That’s all there is to my visit.”

…It was a rather ambiguous answer.

Nevertheless, the Great Witch understood.

In her view, Jinseong was both a Shaman and a Prophet; a Prophet and also a Shaman.

He was someone who had seen his own future and read his own past… a being living in a distorted sense of time, moving back and forth between points on a one-way road. Therefore, to her, his words felt like he had come because of a “prediction.”

Perhaps he had read it in an omen.

Yet, whether it was a prophecy or an omen, to the Great Witch, it read as: “I’ve come to help you because I have the power to know your troubles.”

Thus, the Great Witch could grasp why Jinseong sought her out.

…Though not entirely, just partially.

“Could there be a major issue…?”

She asked Jinseong cautiously.

Her shoulders slumped, and her expression turned wary.

Her usual confident demeanor seemed entirely absent.

Like a child being taken to the dentist, facing the results of an examination.

Or perhaps similar to a puppy sensing the existence of a veterinary clinic in its owner’s arms.

Odilia’s face was filled with anxiety, and her expression darkened with the thought that what she was currently experiencing might be a colossal calamity she couldn’t handle alone.

She had entirely forgotten that she was wearing a nightgown, which had loosened because she had been rolling around on the bed. As she sat up abruptly, she felt the silk sliding down her body and quickly adjusted, sitting back down on the bed.

Then she looked at Jinseong with anxious eyes.

What could be so serious that he would come to her in America?

Wishing that his words would provide some excellent solution to ease her anxiety.

“Let’s see… where….”

But instead of immediately providing the answer she wanted, Jinseong studied her face intently.

“The shadow on your face is worry, indicating that things aren’t going well. Your body doesn’t carry any misfortune or defilement, nor has it been affected by any evil energy. However, there’s a sticky sentiment clinging to you like a thread, indicating that obsession and attachment are linked to someone, thick and heavy, layered and aged with time….”

“….”

“If used as material for magic, it could even serve as a living spirit. But I’ve never seen anything like this before; why is it so filled with heavy delusion? This signifies not just a lingering echo, but a direct encounter with someone… and thus is sufficient to cause this distress. Yes, indeed….”

Jinseong gazed at the Great Witch’s face and shoulders, with flames dancing in his eyes.

Then he came to a conclusion.

“…You’ve gotten entangled with a bad connection, haven’t you?”

Naturally, upon hearing this conclusion, the Great Witch was taken aback.

No, more than just surprised.

Her eyes widened like a rabbit’s, and her body moved toward Jinseong.

“A bad connection?!”

“Indeed. An ancient one at that.”

Jinseong asserted firmly.

A bad connection, he said.

That she was suffering because of some long-standing grievance.

However, after making that statement, Jinseong tilted his head in confusion.

“Hmm. But this feels a bit odd…?”

Something didn’t add up.

There was something puzzling about it….

As he murmured to himself, Jinseong took out a pencil case from his pocket.

It was about the thickness of two fingers, made from quite luxurious materials, gleaming with polish.

When Jinseong opened the top of the pencil case, the contents were revealed.

Inside were… very thin and elongated pen refills.

“What’s that…?”

“That’s a counting stick.”

A counting stick.

It refers to the wooden rods used in the East to calculate numbers.

In China, it’s called “算木” (suanmu) or simply “算” (suan).

“This was used not only for counting but also as a tool for games… and was employed for divination as well.”

It had been widely used not only in China but also in Korea and Japan until the abacus became popular.

What he held was a slightly different interpretation of the traditional counting sticks.

The pencil case replaced the counting stick, and the refills were a substitute.

“Is that okay?”

“Certainly.”

You can both count and draw omens with them.

No matter the materials used, as long as the essence is adhered to.

Just like how a stone knife and a metal knife are fundamentally the same because they both cut.

Or how a wooden hoe and a metal hoe serve the same purpose in farming despite their material differences.

The counting stick and pencil case he held were merely just that.

Jinseong shook the pencil case slowly.

Then, he began to draw an omen by pulling out one of the sticks, which appeared quite similar to an ancient method of divination but felt slightly different.

It was simplified and varied, not quite resemblance to the methods used during the Spring and Autumn periods, and though it seemed somewhat sloppy, it had a haphazard continuity.

It was well-organized enough not simply to be considered a personal modification… but at the same time was unique enough not to resemble any of the known methods of divination with counting sticks.

It was truly an intriguing method of divination.

However, that strangeness was only possible because it remained unknown.

This divination technique had vanished from history.

The “Literary Inquisition.”

During the times of the Emperor, speaking or writing wrongly could lead to severe consequences.

And in such cases, one could lose not just oneself but also their clan, and everything written would be burned, completely forgotten in history.

The divination method Jinseong had obtained had also disappeared for similar reasons.

However, he wasn’t entirely devoid of luck, as a book detailing this divination was discovered among the ruins. Moreover, with substantial investment from the Chinese Government, even the damaged sections were restored, making it a far better fate than other lost texts that had completely vanished during the Literary Inquisition.

Additionally, instead of being gathering dust in research, he fortuitously encountered it during a period of unrest, allowing him to read it.

So it could be said that this divination had a rather unfortunate destiny.

However, the interpretation of the omen was vague, and it lacked sufficient insight into the future.

As such, despite the consistent cost, it was not frequently utilized….

“It’s useful enough for figuring out trivial matters.”

Given the current situation, it was quite applicable.

“Let’s see. The waterways are distorted, and the mountains seem twisted? It’s a gradual misalignment due to the passage of time, and that distortion has increasingly worsened, no longer in accordance with the natural order. Yet, even that distortion is part of the principles of the world. Still, the shapes that move and flow are like hot energy and cold energy separating at the boundary while moving to connect… Hmm. This is quite something.”

Jinseong observed the omen, tilting his head before showing intrigue as if he had learned something new. Then, he looked at Odilia, whose eyes were fixed on him, waiting for him to share what he had read.

‘He didn’t spew baseless information while being tortured, so what he said at that time must have been true…’

In the past.

Odilia mentioned numerous pieces of information.

And among those was information regarding the Great Witch entwined in a long-standing bad connection.

She claimed to be extremely jealous, viewing her as a thorn in her side.

Once friends, their relationship had deteriorated to the point they could not coexist beneath the same sky. The disasters and dangers she faced were undoubtedly connected to that woman’s influence.

But…

‘This omen indicates… how puzzling.’

What he had gleaned from the omen told a different story than what Odilia had expressed.

‘Why does this relate so much to love or affection in the theme of the omen?’

The sensation it radiated felt precisely like that of love divination.

Yet, he couldn’t exactly claim it was related to romantic feelings either…

To put it in another way, it felt like distorted affection or twisted friendship.

Distorted affection, twisted friendship.

“Right. This isn’t a level of animosity that makes it impossible to coexist under the same sky… it is a manageable negative connection, not too severe.”

Instead of straightforwardly stating the omen, Jinseong offered a more sensible interpretation.

Then, reaching into thin air, he pulled Odilia’s handbag toward him.

Squeak.

He opened the bag and pulled out her wallet, extracting a few dollars.

“I’ll only take a fair price for my services. This amount is fitting.”

Jinseong naturally pocketed the dollars and spoke.

“Now that that’s settled regarding the payment for the divination… Great Witch, please follow me for a moment.”

 

---