KTC | Chapter 5

The guards said it was just an ordinary day. They watched the sea, snacked at the market, and then headed back to a detached pension. But somehow, the kid we thought was asleep completely disappeared in the middle of the night.

Checking the pension’s CCTV, the kid had climbed over the fence while the guard was away. Even when showing symptoms of sleepwalking, he had never moved quite like that before.

It was pouring rain at the time. The sound of the rain completely masked any noise from the child.

At first, I thought it was those with grudges against me who had kidnapped him. So instead of calling the police, I started searching myself. I was determined to find and tear those responsible to shreds.

The day after Jihan disappeared, a national alert spread. Something about a heretical religion called the Unknown Cult kidnapping kids and such… The autopsy of the dead followers revealed congestion shaped like maple leaves, presumed to be from a novel weapon…

I had my doubts. But just in case, I was about to spread people around Jeonan County too. But miraculously, and bizarrely, Jihan came back on his own. A kid who had never taken public transport by himself managed to find his way home to Seoul.

He was wearing different clothes than when he disappeared, and his feet were blistered from walking, but apart from minor scratches, he was unscathed.

When I found dried blood under his fingernails, I was certain. Our Jihan had been kidnapped by those bastards and had miraculously returned.

Jihan didn’t remember anything. I decided to keep that secret for his mental health until I die. And if there were any remnants of those who pushed that lovely child into hell, I vowed to take bloody revenge.

After that incident, Jihan periodically suffered from illnesses like possession by evil spirits. Sometimes, like today, bizarre voices that shouldn’t come from him would burst out.

Each time, I would seek out renowned shamans nationwide for rituals or consult professors of psychiatry to manage somehow. But six months ago, a resurgence of the condition proved impossible to handle.

It wasn’t possession; it was just some of his memories coming back. A special program tracing Kwak Jaepil’s whereabouts seemed to have triggered it.

Since then, he’s been afraid to sleep, so I prescribed him sleep aids. But when he woke, he would be drenched in sweat, screaming in agony.

‘Please kill that bastard, Grandpa. He appears in my dreams every night. His filthy apostles trample and tear apart the children. Grandpa, I think I’m going to die. I can’t breathe.’

If I couldn’t kill that man, I might as well be dead, looking at my grandson begging like that.

I wanted to grant Jihan’s wish, believing it would bring him back to the cheerful, loving boy he was before.

In fact, I had been personally pursuing the cult leader Kwak Jaepil, the one who had so devastated my precious grandson. But he had always managed to escape at the last moment. Finally, I caught his trail in the Philippines. I was overjoyed, thinking I could finally cut off the source of Jihan’s torment.

After securing the scoundrel’s survival, I took Jihan on a trip to the Philippines.

No, Jihan didn’t personally stain his hands with blood. Before we skinned the bastard, I just showed him the miserable state he was in.

…Is that what people call madness? But at least to me, it seemed like the only logical thing to do.”

You’ve heard of ‘hwabyung,’ right? The only way to cure it is to completely destroy whatever is causing your distress. Yes, that was the only solution I could think of.

Jihan, seeing the man crucified and mutilated just as he had tortured the children, was surprisingly undisturbed. Rather, the peace he felt made me more convinced that I had made the right choice.

…Now that you mention it, he did seem like a different person then.

Approaching that filthy cult leader, he reached out his hand. I thought he was going to gouge out his already splitting eyeballs, but he didn’t. He just gently stroked the eyelids and said.

‘You were the root of all evil.’

And just held his gaze for a long while.

He’s the monster that the times have created.

That statement was wrong. It’s precisely those kinds of monsters that build such an era.

But this wasn’t the time for a sermon, and besides, the kind of person in front of me wasn’t the type to actually listen. So I just let it slide.

“Did he say anything else?”

Throughout the story, Choi Seonwoo remained expressionless. A sermon was unnecessary for a crazy old man who didn’t even understand what he had done wrong. It would only be a waste of words.

“No.”

“The symptoms of possession must have appeared more intensely afterward.”

“Was that the cause?”

“The direct cause was that incident, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. The release of sealed memories means that the evil spirits that had once dominated his psyche were also starting to awaken.”

“…Awaken? You mean those evil spirits were still lurking inside Jihan?”

“That’s right. Those evil spirits had retained his shocking memories, sealed deep within his psyche, but they were fully awakened by his encounter with the cult leader. Essentially, the real culprits are now within your grandson. He’s the one who slaughtered the cult followers with his bare hands in the past.”

“…”

“The victims inside the Unknown Church were more than half killed by your grandson. Do you understand how that was possible?”

Choi Seonwoo crossed his arms and asked the question, answering it himself.

“It’s because of the vengeful spirits he carried since he was in the womb.”

Chairman Seo was too stunned to respond. Choi Seonwoo took out a disposable lighter from his pocket.

Click, the flint turned, and a small flame sprouted.

“See, I’ve lit the lighter. Nothing happens.”

The flame vanished quickly.

“But let’s suppose that this was an enclosed space filled with gas.”

Choi Seonwoo lit the lighter again.

“Boom! It would explode, right?”

His calm voice conjured visions of a fiery disaster. Chairman Seo found himself staring at his courtyard as if it had turned into a sea of flames.

“If the evil spirit is this flame, then the vengeful spirits play the role of gas.”

“…I understand completely now.”

The reason Seo Jihan could commit such a miraculous massacre during the Unknown Cult massacre was that he had been carrying these vengeful spirits from the womb. The other children involved in the atrocity couldn’t unleash such power for the same reason.

“My karma has been passed on to Jihan, contaminating him as well.”

“That’s right.”

“Why not me? Why not just kill me and seek revenge?”

“Vengeful spirits aren’t like evil spirits that harm their host directly; they seduce them down the path of corruption, prompting them to commit acts of evil, which eventually invite more evil spirits. But you, fortunately or unfortunately, never dirtied your hands directly. To an evil spirit that thrives on the blood of the living, you’re a useless vessel, and to vengeful spirits, you’re a challenging target. They know that the most painful thing for you would be harming your descendants.”

Chairman Seo’s face hardened with these harsh words.

While he wasn’t a sympathetic figure, the plight of Seo Jihan, born into such a fate, was truly regrettable. Choi Seonwoo’s chest tightened as he noticed the ashtray on the marble table.

“Mind if I smoke a cigarette?”

With Chairman Seo’s nod, Choi Seonwoo pulled out a cigarette pack, took one out, and lit it. The elegant courtyard filled with the acrid smoke.

“You seem deep in thought. Is it something even Priest Choi can’t solve?”

Chairman Seo spoke as Choi Seonwoo snuffed out his cigarette. The look he now gave Choi Seonwoo held no hostility, just that of a grandfather desperate to save his precious grandson.

“It’s a fundamental issue. Even if this exorcism is successful, it will ultimately be futile.”