Ch.88088 – Confucian Ghost 1

# 088 – Confucian Ghost # 1

Kwon Oseong, the chairman of Oseong Group.

He came to the mansion.

He was furious when he saw his son Kwon Suho, who had transformed into a dog.

“What the hell is going on here! My only son has become like this! Chairman! How do you plan to take responsibility for what happened to my son!”

It felt strange watching Chairman Kwon Oseong—a man I’d only seen in news and MeTube videos—shouting wildly at the Chairman. Hong Miri frowned as if she was displeased.

“Chairman Kwon. Mind your words. What do you mean the Chairman should take responsibility?”

“My son ended up like this while sleeping in this mansion, so of course someone must take responsibility! There’s something wrong with this mansion! Something similar happened here 5 years ago too! I told you then! The land this mansion sits on is cursed! Building a house in such a place full of negative energy! There’s a limit to stupidity!”

“5 years ago…”

Just as Hong Miri seemed to fall into thought for a moment—

Kwon Oseong looked at Kwon Suho, who was still growling despite being tied up, and spoke with apparent rage.

“It’s that demon wandering around this mansion, isn’t it! Why did you leave such a creature unchecked, causing this disaster! You should have caught and killed that inhuman thing long ago! I’ll do it myself!”

Shing-!

Kwon Oseong drew a sword from his waist.

It was real.

A real sword.

A Japanese katana.

“Gasp!”

“Kyaak!”

The housekeepers screamed at the chilling murderous intent and blade of this crazed chaebol.

The only ones who remained calm in this situation were the terrifying housekeeper lady and Cheon Daegon.

Chairman Cheon Daegon spoke.

“Watch your words, you shaman bastard.”

“Chairman! Even in this dire situation, you’re still protecting your flesh and blood! He’s no longer your family member! Just wait and see. I won’t stand by quietly anymore.”

Kwon Oseong, the king of Oseong, grabbed his son’s nape with his rough hand and dragged him outside the mansion. It was a chaotic morning as if a storm had passed through.

I felt fear watching Kwon Suho, who had killed and eaten so many dogs, become a dog himself.

I must absolutely avoid accumulating two quirks.

# # #

I ended up meeting the Chairman alone.

Originally, the meeting was about the problem Kwon Suho caused, but since Kwon Suho had completely lost his mind, I wondered if the meeting was even necessary.

Cheon Daegon was smoking in the Chairman’s office at the mansion.

I called it a cigarette, but it was thicker than what I was used to seeing, shaped like a sausage.

“Ha Yeongwon. I heard from Miri that you possess quite an extraordinary talent.”

“Pardon? Well, I…”

Swish-.

The Chairman handed something to me as I sat in the chair in front of his desk.

It was a photograph.

It looked like it was taken a very long time ago, showing a young man in a suit.

“Tell me what you feel when you look at this photo.”

What I feel.

That it’s an old photo.

That a man is standing in a suit.

And that his face resembled the “Self-Portrait” painting I had often seen.

“Is this perhaps you when you were young, Chairman? And is this your wife beside you?”

It was a photo of a young man and woman standing together, facing forward.

Judging by the somewhat solemn feeling, I thought it might be from a wedding or similar occasion.

However, the Chairman shook his head at my words.

“This isn’t a photo of me. It’s of my brother. My twin. That’s why I’ve kept Miri by my side for so long. I had a twin brother. Looking at Miri reminds me of that.”

Cheon Daegon had a twin?

This was the first I’d heard of it.

“The reason I established the school foundation and began nurturing talent was also because of this twin brother. Ha Yeongwon. Remember this man’s face well. You might meet him somewhere someday.”

That was the end of Cheon Daegon’s story.

I decided to leave the mansion now.

Honestly, it wasn’t a place I wanted to stay long.

Kwon Oseong had called this mansion a cursed place full of negative energy.

I don’t know if that’s true, but it really was an unpleasant place.

“Hey. Get in.”

I was relieved when Hong Miri offered to drive me home.

As I was about to get into the car, Yu Dahui, holding a cat, came out to the garden to see me off.

“Leaving?”

“…Yeah.”

I felt awkward seeing Yu Dahui.

Of course, Yu Dahui seemed well aware of this fact.

“You’ve been avoiding me lately. Honestly, it hurts. You’re one of my few friends.”

“……”

“Summer vacation is coming soon. I was thinking of going to a villa near a pond, and I wanted to ask if you’d like to come along.”

There’s a villa near a pond?

Rich people really are different.

Soon, Yu Dahui smiled with a slightly mischievous expression.

“By the way, they say there’s a water ghost in that pond. Creepy, right? Yeongwon, you like that kind of stuff. Feng shui, ghost stories. You also like haunted mountain cabins.”

…Shit, I hate that stuff.

I’ve never liked it. I’m allergic to ghosts.

But apparently in Yu Dahui’s mind, I was branded as someone who liked feng shui and ghost stories.

So inviting me to a pond with a water ghost was for my sake.

This was Yu Dahui’s way of extending an olive branch.

Like saying—let’s be on good terms again.

In truth, Yu Dahui had never once accused me of being “the kidnapper’s son! An accomplice!”

I was just unilaterally avoiding her.

After much deliberation, I decided to admit that I had been unmanly in many ways.

“I’m going to meet Jeongseok and Yang Juhui now. Want to come along?”

“Sure! Baekseol, be good and watch the house.”

Yu Dahui casually put the white cat down in the garden and got into the car.

Vroom-.

After driving for a while, the car stopped at the “Yeongji Foundation Human Resources Development Center.”

This was where Hong Miri’s office was located.

Familiar people were standing in front of the office.

Yang Juhui, Jeongseok, and Bong Jiyeon.

They must have arrived earlier by taxi since I had contacted them in advance.

“Kids, let’s go upstairs.”

At Hong Miri’s suggestion, we all went up to the third floor.

The third-floor office.

A fairly spacious area with a desk and chairs sitting in the middle.

The kids awkwardly sat in those chairs and looked at my face.

“Ha Yeongwon, explain what’s going on. And why did you ask us to come here?”

Jeongseok, who could be considered our vice-captain, asked me.

I told Jeongseok.

“Hong Miri will be helping us from now on, acting as a spy from the Chairman’s side. She’s also letting us use the third floor of the Human Resources Development Center. In other words, this is our secret base.”

“Wow, a secret base! Vacation’s coming up, so we should decorate this place! Put a TV here and stock up on snacks!”

Yu Dahui clapped her hands together, clearly delighted.

Something I’ve noticed lately is that contrary to my vague impression of her as an extremely cold, rude, and aloof cat-like girl, Yu Dahui had an innocent side.

According to my brain’s theory, there are two types of rich girls: one type grows up like a princess, haughty and arrogant, while the other grows up pampered and naive about the ways of the world.

Yu Dahui seemed to be the latter.

And Yang Juhui was the former, despite not even being from a wealthy family.

“Hey! Forget about that! We all almost died last night, didn’t we!”

“……”

Right.

I understood why Yang Juhui was angry.

What I wanted to say was…

“And you! Why are you being friendly with Yu Dahui again! Weren’t you two fighting and awkward with each other? Why are you sitting next to each other! And why do you smell like the same shampoo! Why!”

Yang Juhui growled like a bulldog unexpectedly hit with a fly swatter.

Her eyes were bloodshot, and she had a ghostly, ominous aura.

It was because of the quirk.

“You all died last night. So now each of you has a quirk. Yang Juhui, yours is a quirk that intensifies jealousy, and Jeongseok, yours is… the Golden Arrow quirk that makes you obsessed with love.”

“Golden Arrow? You mean Cupid’s golden arrow? You’re saying I have a quirk now? I feel completely normal! Is this what having a quirk feels like? What about Bong Jiyeon? Does she have a quirk too?”

Jeongseok’s eyes blazed as he looked at Bong Jiyeon, as if they might shoot flames.

It was because of the quirk.

Or… was he always like this?

Bong Jiyeon said:

“Lies. You’re all lying, right? Why did you call me here!”

Bong Jiyeon looked disoriented.

Her trembling appearance resembled a cat or dog that had been abandoned multiple times and could no longer trust people.

Huff… I exhaled briefly and then told everyone the truth about what had happened last night.

“…The corridor opened last night?”

Even Yu Dahui, who had just been talking about decorating the secret base, became serious.

It was always Yu Dahui who got pulled into the corridor regardless of her will. She must have been surprised that she wasn’t included in this random matching.

“The problem is that it costs 100 points to remove each quirk. I only have 280 points left now. This means I’ll have to remove one of your three quirks later.”

It’s best to remove quirks immediately.

I vividly experienced today with Kwon Suho what happens when two quirks accumulate.

Jeongseok asked:

“You said when two quirks pile up, the ghost and person switch places. Even your status window can’t cure that. And once switched… can they never return?”

Jeongseok’s question was perfectly reasonable.

Despite suffering from a quirk, Jeongseok’s thinking remained rational.

As I struggled to answer, Hong Miri spoke:

“The switch is different from simple possession. Even if you exorcise the ghost, the original owner of the body has disappeared somewhere, so the body becomes empty and dies. Well, continued switching leads to death either way. The dead soul consumes the living body, causing it to rot while still alive.”

Switching ultimately meant death.

I started to feel genuinely scared.

“Is it absolutely impossible to return to normal?”

“It might be possible if there’s a spiritual practitioner skilled enough to expel the evil spirit that’s taken root in the body and retrieve the original owner’s soul that’s wandering the afterlife. You’d need to bring in a living Buddha.”

In other words, reversing the switch was impossible.

That’s when Yang Juhui spoke:

“Teacher, this is all well and good, but aren’t you getting too close to a student? When a teacher and student get that close, it creates bad rumors at school.”

Yang Juhui was different from her usual self.

Somehow today she was full of irritation.

“And there are too many women here! The smell of perfume is so strong I can’t breathe!”