Geom Ujin raised his head and gazed steadily at Deokchul, then checked the address written on the paper.
“This is my house, all right.”
“Ah, then I’ve come to the right place.”
Deokchul smiled and sat down across from him. He had become the first ordinary person ever to sit alone with the Heavenly Demon, but he had no idea how extraordinary this moment was.
“Your son is Geom Mugeuk, correct?”
From now on, this was Deokchul’s mission. He had to coax and cajole him with kind words, get him to confirm that he was the boy’s parent, and secure his signature as guarantor.
“Your son borrowed money. So, sir, you’ll need to stand surety for him.”
For a moment, silence flowed through the tavern. Jo Chunbae, the customers on the first floor, and even the guards concealed nearby were all sharing in this astonishing moment in history.
The next instant, Geom Ujin burst into loud laughter.
Jo Chunbae, who was downstairs, was startled. It was the first time today he had seen the Cult Leader laugh.
Even Hwi, the personal guard hiding nearby, had not seen the Heavenly Demon laugh so pleasantly in a very long time.
Still with laughter lingering on his face, Geom Ujin said,
“I have never had a son who would make his father stand surety for his debt.”
As if he had expected that reaction, Deokchul rose from his seat, then quietly moved over and sat beside Geom Ujin.
Jo Chunbae, watching, clenched his fist in alarm. The other customers’ hearts pounded at what was about to happen.
Please, let his severed head not roll down to the first floor!
Everyone knew it except the man himself. He alone had no idea how dangerous a moment he was in.
Deokchul poured Geom Ujin a drink and consoled him.
“Everyone says that. But what can you do? He may be a wretch of a son, but you still have to pay it back for him.”
The one great mercy was that he did not pat Geom Ujin on the shoulder.
Don’t touch his body!
Jo Chunbae prayed desperately.
“I’ll be honest with you. If your son can’t pay back the money, people will come looking for you, sir. The people who collect debts are frightening people, so you need to be careful.”
Geom Ujin seemed to be enjoying this situation he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
“There’s no need to worry about me.”
“Then please read this first. Take your time reading it, and then you can sign.”
After placing the document in front of Geom Ujin, Deokchul rose from his seat as if giving him a moment to read.
“Huh?”
The words written on the wall entered his eyes. It was the wall where the Demon Venerables had left their sayings and signatures.
“A lot of famous people have visited.”
Starting with Poison King was here, there were traces of the Golden Great Arhat Art left by the Demon Buddha, and beside it was a line from the Blood Heaven Blade Demon as well.
Hyeolcheon, drank with his disciple and left.
“Ooooh! Even the Blood Heaven Blade Demon left something!”
He looked down at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon doll hanging at his waist. Since he had seen the man in person today and even bought his doll, he felt an odd intimacy, as if someone he truly knew had left those words behind.
Then one signature caught his eye. A hand more powerful than any writing in this place.
Heavenly Demon, Geom Ujin.
Deokchul was so startled that he jumped.
“Oh! The Demon Cult Leader came here too. Waaah! Did you see this?”
Deokchul looked around.
The people on the first floor were staring at him with anxious eyes. When had he ever received this much attention from others? Deokchul felt needlessly nervous and pleased.
“The cook here must be very skilled.”
After saying it loudly toward downstairs, he added in a voice only Geom Ujin could hear,
“Well, real famous eateries are always shabby places like this, aren’t they?”
Then he spoke loudly again toward Jo Chunbae on the first floor.
“A place the Demon Cult Leader visited! You could even change the name of this tavern to The Tavern the Heavenly Demon Visited. If it were me, I’d change it at once!”
Jo Chunbae shook his head with an expression that said, Please, stop!
Then Deokchul flinched and looked back at the wall with the writing on it.
“Huh? Come to think of it, the Demon Cult Leader’s name is Geom Ujin too.”
Deokchul looked once at Geom Ujin, then at the wall.
Jo Chunbae, along with the people on the first floor, waited expectantly.
At last, he’s realizing who the other party is! Hurry up and beg for forgiveness!
Deokchul seemed to be staring at Geom Ujin.
“You must be uncomfortable sharing the same name as the Demon Cult Leader.”
A soundless sigh spread like a wave across the first floor.
Deokchul had not the slightest thought that the man before him might be the Heavenly Demon.
“Now, please sign. You’ll have to do it anyway. What parent can ever beat their child?”
“I have no such son.”
“I’m telling you, if you don’t, your son will be dragged off by frightening people.”
“To do that, they would have to be more frightening than the people written on that wall.”
Of course, Deokchul took it as a joke. The most frightening people in the world were all there, so anyone more frightening could only be seen after death.
“I understand. That’s right. Raise children and they all think they grew up on their own. Now, now, hold this brush. You can sign here. Only after I have a child myself and suffer the same thing will I think, Ah, so this is how my parents felt. Don’t agonize over it, just write your three characters here.”
At that, Geom Ujin signed the document as if he had no choice.
“You did well. This is all for your son’s sake.”
Deokchul, looking down at the document, flinched again.
Jo Chunbae and the customers on the first floor waited in anticipation once more.
Yes, compare it to the writing on the wall! Turn your head! Please!
Was everyone’s wish granted? Deokchul slowly turned and looked at the wall.
His eyes widened. Just when it seemed he had finally realized the Heavenly Demon’s identity,
“It’s not just the name that’s the same, the handwriting is the same too! Wow, how fascinating!”
An “Good grief” escaped Jo Chunbae’s mouth on its own. The customer beside him lost strength in his hand and dropped the chopsticks he had been holding, while the customer beside him clutched his head, sighed, and spilled his drink.
“Surely, your face isn’t similar too, is it?”
In Deokchul’s mind, the very possibility of meeting the Heavenly Demon in a place like this simply did not exist.
“Be careful. At this rate, you might be misunderstood as impersonating the Heavenly Demon.”
Just then, someone entered the tavern.
At his appearance, everyone on the first floor stopped breathing.
The man strode forward and came up to the second floor.
Deokchul, who had glanced that way without thinking, greeted him with a happy bow. He had done it instinctively, thinking the man looked familiar, then started in fright and let out a short scream. He did know him. The man who had come upstairs was none other than the Fist Demon.
The Fist Demon remembered seeing Deokchul earlier beneath the wall of the main headquarters. That was why the look in his eyes was exactly this:
Who are you, and why do you keep appearing before my eyes?
Jo Chunbae and the customers watching were once again engulfed in tension. Now the danger had doubled.
The Fist Demon greeted Geom Ujin respectfully.
“I heard you were here, so I came to see you. I have just returned.”
“Did you have a good trip?”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
At the words Cult Leader, Deokchul blurted without realizing it,
“That man isn’t the Cult Leader, he just resembles him!”
Sighs erupted again from the first floor.
Geom Ujin laughed, and the Fist Demon wore an expression of utter disbelief.
Why, exactly?
Deokchul blinked at the reactions around him, and his expression gradually changed. Thinking about it, there was no way the Fist Demon would fail to recognize the Cult Leader and come to someone who merely resembled him, calling him Cult Leader.
The reaction of the lookalike was the same. Did you have a good trip?
Why would he say something like that? Why else? Because he wasn’t a lookalike, but the real one.
By the time Deokchul’s thoughts reached that point, his face had already gone deathly pale. He let out a low groan and trembled all over like an aspen leaf.
The Fist Demon asked Geom Ujin,
“Who is that man?”
“He came to tell me I must stand surety for my son’s debt.”
The Fist Demon stared at Deokchul with a dumbfounded expression.
“No! Absolutely not! There was some kind of mistake. I was wrong! Please spare me!”
He threw himself flat on the floor. In the moment it was revealed that the other party was the true Heavenly Demon, he achieved the astonishing record of seeing four Demon Venerables and even the Heavenly Demon in a single day.
Then Geom Ujin suddenly asked,
“Why did you not buy my doll?”
Since there was no Cult Leader doll to begin with, he was asking why Deokchul had not bought the Heavenly Demon Soul doll. It was truly the greatest ordeal Deokchul had suffered today. Jo Chunbae and the customers on the first floor grew tense again.
On top of that, even the Fist Demon joined in.
“And my doll?”
Deokchul looked down at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and Demon Buddha dolls tucked at his waist. That enormous blade and golden radiance stood out far too clearly.
Ah! So in the end, today I should have bought the Heavenly Demon Soul doll and the Fist Demon doll!
Was he going to die because of a single moment’s choice? Goat Beard, I won’t forget you even in death.
Deokchul had no idea how to answer. In the end, he said in a crestfallen tone,
“Your dolls were too frightening, so I couldn’t buy them.”
His choice to answer honestly was excellent. Geom Ujin laughed, and the Fist Demon laughed along with him. The reward for making the Heavenly Demon laugh so heartily after such a long time was something he had never imagined.
Geom Ujin took a piece of paper from his robe and flicked it out. It drifted slowly through the air and entered Deokchul’s hand.
Amazingly, it was a note worth one thousand nyang.
“On your way, buy one of my dolls and one of this friend’s dolls.”
So shocked, Deokchul’s eyes went wide. Soundless astonishment spread through the first floor as well.
“You don’t want to?”
“What? No! I’ll buy them! I’ll buy them right away.”
Deokchul, who had wandered in misunderstandings all day long, grasped the other party’s intention accurately at this final moment.
“I’ll quit this work at once, go down to my hometown, and live honestly! With the money you have granted me, I’ll buy land, farm it, and live serving my parents dutifully.”
Having given the correct answer, Deokchul flew through the sky. Not his heart, but his body truly flew.
With one wave of Geom Ujin’s hand, Deokchul floated up and landed lightly on the first floor.
Admiration burst out from the first floor. All day long, he had received only pitying sighs, but at the end, he won everyone’s envy.
Jo Chunbae said with a good-natured smile,
“I’ll have to get your signature too. I think I should leave you here as the luckiest man in the world.”
“Thank you truly for accepting me as a guest. Someday, I will definitely come again!”
With tears brimming in his eyes, Deokchul bowed respectfully toward the second floor, then left the place.
I once worked at a Tongjeonso when I was young. I went out on my first assignment then, you see... He had spent a day no one would ever believe.
Jo Chunbae also looked up at the second floor. Though Deokchul had committed rudeness several times, the Cult Leader had bestowed mercy upon him. Beyond that, he had even opened a new life for him. Jo Chunbae felt sincere respect for the Cult Leader.
And more than anything, he was overjoyed that the Heavenly Demon had laughed loudly today.
Jo Chunbae wrote today’s date on the wall behind the counter, then left a line.
The day the Cult Leader laughed heartily.
In all his life running a tavern, today was a day he would never forget. It was the first time he had ever felt this good.
On the second floor, the conversation continued between the two manliest men in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. Because the Fist Demon was the person Geom Ujin trusted the most, their conversation was comfortable and natural.
“You seem pleased.”
“Would there ever be a day in my life when I become indebted to a creditor?”
“When one is with Mugeuk, one experiences things one could never have imagined. For example, suddenly gaining a foster daughter one never expected.”
The Fist Demon had come to inform the Heavenly Demon of this fact before anyone else.
“I have decided to take Ian, who was Mugeuk’s guard, as my foster daughter.”
Geom Ujin was not easily surprised by most things, but this news surprised him.
Geom Ujin filled the Fist Demon’s cup to the brim.
“Congratulations.”
The Fist Demon emptied the drink in one refreshing gulp.
This time, the Fist Demon filled Geom Ujin’s cup.
“I gained a disciple and gained a daughter as well. In my late years, I have been blessed with much fortune.”
“A daughter is better than a son. Raise a son, and all you get is…”
Geom Ujin’s gaze turned far away, beyond the window.
Even so, today he missed, just a little… the son who would try to make his father stand surety for his debts.
* * *
Geom Mugeuk shut himself in his guest room and devoted himself solely to training in the Sicheon Secret Art.
Now, all his training was done unconditionally within the Sicheon Secret Art. Naturally, he could train for more time. The more time he gained, the more he could train, and the more time he gained again.
As he was training like that, Ju Yang of the Tongjeonso, who had lent him money, came to see him.
“In all my years doing this work, I’ve seen every kind of madman, but you’re the first person to write the Demon Cult Leader’s name as your father.”
When Deokchul left the Tongjeonso, he had reported the result of his first and last investigation as: a madman who wrote the Demon Cult Leader’s name. Naturally, there was no way the Heavenly Demon’s son would have used a King of Hell loan.
“You probably didn’t even meet the Demon Cult Leader, so how can you call it impersonation?”
“You may have been counting on that, but we did meet him.”
“My father?”
“They said he was drinking in a shabby tavern.”
This time, Geom Mugeuk laughed aloud. It was a laugh exactly like the one Geom Ujin had laughed at Pungnyu Tavern.
“Why are you laughing?”
“I laughed because I thought of my father.”
He pictured his father drinking alone at Pungnyu Tavern. When he thought of his father’s back, bearing everything on it, he missed him.
“Will you only come to your senses after you’re dragged to the Demon Cult, flayed, and thrown into a barrel of salt?”
“Do you have the courage to take me to the Demon Cult?”
Ju Yang’s eyes turned fierce.
“You’re treating us like mere louts running some King of Hell loan operation.”
“Are you not?”
A cold sneer formed at the corner of Ju Yang’s mouth.
Things have been dull lately, and now an amusing fellow like this appears.
His head filled with thoughts of how to crush this brat, but Ju Yang did not show those emotions. After all, the greatest pleasure was politely guiding someone into hell.
“I was told to reveal who my father was, so I revealed it. I was told to write an address, so I wrote one.”
Even at his insistence to the end, Ju Yang did not get angry. In any case, what would punish him was the clause written on the promissory note.
“You can be like that in the rashness of youth. I understand. Many people put down false addresses. In exchange, from now on, it is one hundred nyang.”
“One hundred nyang? Didn’t I borrow ten nyang?”
Ju Yang took the promissory note from his robe and showed it to him.
“Look here. Isn’t it written at the bottom of the note? If the address or family relationship is written falsely, the borrower must repay ten times the amount borrowed.”
“The letters are so small I can’t even see them. And the wording is too difficult.”
“Writing proper information on a promissory note is only basic, is it not? In any case, the money you borrowed is now one hundred nyang. Naturally, the interest will also be calculated as if you borrowed one hundred nyang.”
“Why do you keep saying I wrote falsely? I clearly wrote the truth.”
Ju Yang said in a gentle tone,
“What will you do if I bring a real member of the Demon Cult here?”
Clearly, he seemed to have something to rely on.
Asking directly would not get the answer he wanted. So Geom Mugeuk muttered softly, as if talking to himself.
“What member of the Demon Cult would have anything to do with someone who merely gives out King of Hell loans?”