🎶 Lucia - Lunar Cycle

I didn't originally believe in things like superstitions.

My grandmother and my mother were both fortune tellers, but to be honest, I just pretended to pray beside them because I didn't want to get scolded. Carrying water was the extent of my involvement.

Ghosts. Rites. Exorcisms. Divination. Shamans.

I saw them as occupations, but I thought they were someone else's story. How was I supposed to believe in things I couldn't even see? Disbelief is a freedom, after all.

But.

I shouldn't have held onto that damn disbelief. I went to college without much trouble and finished my military service. After that, I was busy enjoying my life recklessly.

Then, exactly at twenty-nine—a number so close to completion yet unfinished. My mother told me to be careful because it was a 'nine-year' and a period of three disasters overlapping, but to me then, it just sounded like her usual over-the-top nagging.

I asked where ghosts were in this world. I asked where God was. That day, as if to spit back all the negativity I held in my heart, I didn't make it past twenty-nine unscathed.

It was the divine wrath of a god, as if to say, 'Let's see how you handle this,' to the man who denied the existence of ghosts.

It hurt. It hurt like hell.

A guy who was perfectly fine drinking and meeting women and doing all sorts of messy things suddenly fell ill overnight like someone possessed. It felt like my whole body was breaking.

But there was something even more fucked up. I started seeing things I wasn't supposed to see. At first, I thought I was going crazy. Then I thought I had a terminal illness.

Still, the survival instinct kicked in before any other thought. Even now, it's a ridiculous situation. A guy who lived with every kind of denial about ghosts suddenly becomes a shaman overnight.

That's the story of when I received the call.

So, am I now an ideal shaman who offers virtuous prayers, reads people's fortunes, and goes around exorcising haunted houses?

As if.

Fine. I admit ghosts exist. I admit gods exist. But that doesn't mean I'm going to live as their servant.

Prayer? I do it. Just enough so I don't die. Throw that 'sincere devotion' stuff to the dogs.

Divination? I'm not interested in other people's lives. Looking into them just makes things complicated, and getting involved is a headache.

Ghosts? Exorcisms? They probably attached themselves to people for a reason. This world is harsh and lonely enough as it is; just tell them to live together for now.

Possession and channeling—giving your body up to a ghost is a disgusting feeling. Besides, if you get caught up with a ghost the wrong way, I'm the only one who ends up getting screwed.

Still, for those who do every unlucky thing possible and then come crawling to me to fix it, I just write a few talismans and send them on their way. That actually pays pretty well.

So, I planned to just keep living like this.

Doing the bare minimum of what needs to be done. Avoiding what the gods tell me to do as much as possible. Pretending not to notice the ghosts.

I thought things were rolling along fine on their own until one day, an outsider barged into my house.

Supposedly someone who worked under my mother. Along with some absurd nonsense about how they're a novice who hasn't even opened their spiritual gate yet, so I should take them in and raise them. Nothing in this life ever goes my way.

What kind of disciple for a guy who can't even take care of himself? They definitely just attached a plausible surveillance camera to me because I'm suspicious.

But the real problem was this outsider.

Despite not even being able to open their own spiritual gate properly, their spirit was excessive—no, it was damn near overflowing. Are they really planning to serve a guy like me as a master?

Fuck, the pressure is killing me. They follow me wherever I go. They interfere with whatever I do. They're doing a great job acting as a surveillance camera rather than a disciple.

I told them not to take customers, and they go and book appointments as they please. I went out for a little escape to blow off some steam, and they actually came to pick me up.

God, they're a total buzzkill.

I can't even throw a proper ritual to get rid of them. How the hell am I supposed to exorcise this one?