Chapter 02
“They say handsome men are always full of themselves. Your stubborn personality fits that perfectly.”
“Yes. And as you can see, that handsome man is very busy right now. Please stamp the witness statement and go home.”
Annoyed, Bari picked up the witness statement tossed in front of her and played with it in her hands.
“Well. I don’t think I can stamp it that easily.”
“The case has to be closed before they can hold the funeral. Someone died, and you still plan to keep joking around like this?”
“Joking? I’ve always been sincere with you, Kang Hae-an.”
The expressions on Hae-an and Bari’s faces froze instantly as they looked at each other.
“My ex-husband is the gatekeeper of the underworld, Mujangseung. And you, Kang Hae-an, are his reincarnation.”
Hae-an felt irritation rising at Bari’s one-sided nonsense, but he forced himself to calmly ask back.
“So, you’re really Princess Bari?”
“Yep.”
“And that face belongs to a grandmother who’s 999 years old?”
“Yep. Though I understand it’s hard to believe since I currently look like a very young and beautiful woman.”
Instead of answering, Hae-an simply shook his head and stood up from his seat.
To put it simply, it was the feeling of, ‘You don’t avoid shit because you’re scared of it. You avoid it because it’s filthy.’
“I’m not done talking yet. Where are you going?”
Bari stubbornly chased after him and spread both arms to block the police station entrance.
Finally losing his patience, Hae-an exploded with the irritation he had barely been holding back.
“I have no intention of reacting to every bit of nonsense from a fake shaman with no credibility. Move.”
“What? Fake?”
“Yes, fake. Professionally speaking, a habitual religious scammer. Satisfied?”
“Hey!”
Bari suddenly raised her voice, causing everyone inside the police station to turn their heads in shock.
“I’ve told you countless times already.”
Bari glared fiercely at Hae-an’s stiff face and spoke with a wronged expression.
“Kang Hae-an. I’m the one who killed you in our past life.”
About a thousand years ago.
After Princess Bari angered the Jade Emperor and was stripped of her human life, forced forever into the world of gods, she learned one painful truth.
Humans who commit murder will inevitably face the wrath of furious gods.
“So in this life, I…”
And thus, the cruelest punishment heaven gave her was—
“I have to remarry the ex-husband I killed.”
The reunion with Mujangseung, the husband Princess Bari had killed with her own hands.
Even though the sun stood high in the sky, the front yard of the shaman house called [Just a Fortune House] was covered in deep shadows.
Vines twisted over the roof of the old traditional house, which gave off both an elegant and eerie atmosphere. Sunlight only touched the place briefly in the early morning, making it feel completely separated from the world.
The goblin Haetae, Lee Deok-jae, who handled all the chores for the shaman Kim Bari, carefully tended several mysterious plants filled with spiritual energy.
“Looks like the spirit of rain clouds passed by.”
The medicinal herbs that had been wilting until yesterday were blooming energetically again. Seeing raindrops form and fall from the fresh leaves, Deok-jae smiled and turned around.
Always dressed in a neat black suit with polished shoes, Deok-jae looked like a handsome man in his thirties. Having chosen modern suits over the scholar robes of Joseon in order to adapt to rapidly changing modern society, he carried a unique dignity about him.
“Elder Deok-jae. I’m here.”
As Deok-jae turned around, he met the eyes of an old woman entering through the front gate.
The face of the elderly woman, now nearly ninety years old, overlapped in his mind with the image of the little girl she once was.
Smiling bitterly, Deok-jae spoke.
“Bari and I have remained the same all this time, yet you, Jeom-rye, have already endured the harsh storms of time.”
“Oh my, I’ve spent eighty years serving you two. How could I not grow old? Aging is a gift heaven gives humans.”
The wrinkles on the old woman’s face folded gently as she smiled with the wisdom of someone who understood the world well.
“Seeing you and Bari unnie unable to age or die freely made my bones ache from realizing just how terrible that heavenly punishment truly is.”
Deok-jae smiled along with her.
Then Jeom-rye looked around and asked,
“Huh? Soon the customers coming for fortune readings will flood in, so where did unnie wander off to now?”
“The police station. She went early this morning for witness questioning.”
Of course, both of them knew the questioning was only an excuse.
The real reason Bari visited the police station was to meet Kang Hae-an, the reincarnation of her ex-husband Mujangseung.
Since it was not a pleasant topic to discuss, both quietly pretended not to know.
“Ah… because of that young man who died a few days ago?”
“Yes. Thank goodness we installed CCTV cameras in the inner building. Otherwise, our entire shrine might’ve been accused of being some murderous cult.”
Having guided countless souls whose spirits had already died while their bodies still moved, they were fairly used to misunderstandings like this.
Jeom-rye shrugged as if it were no big deal and entered the shrine building.
Since Bari, the owner of the shrine, was absent, she planned to clean the messy prayer hall.
“Good heavens! Is this a shrine or a pigsty?”
Jeom-rye’s jaw dropped in shock.
She had expected it to be messy, but the prayer hall was such a disaster that it perfectly resembled its owner.
Inside the shrine, filled with strange fragrances, old medicinal herbs and shaman tools were scattered everywhere. Ritual tools, talismans, and countless ancient documents lay in complete disorder. The place felt as though time and space themselves had become twisted.
Following Jeom-rye into the shrine, Deok-jae picked up a pair of jade rings placed on the altar.
These rings were not simple ritual tools. They were sacred objects containing Kim Bari’s spiritual power.
“To think they tied Kim Bari’s fate to these jade rings… The Jade Emperor truly went too far.”
“Why even bring up that nasty old man? It’ll only make your chest explode with frustration.”
Deok-jae laughed quietly at Jeom-rye’s scolding.
“Well, perhaps that cruel Jade Emperor is receiving his own punishment too.”
“Huh? What punishment?”
“The resentment, anger, and disbelief of humans asking where gods even exist.”
After speaking, Deok-jae gently touched the jade rings and closed his eyes.
Soon, blurry memories appeared before him.
The life story of Princess Bari, abandoned tragically long ago by the king of Ogu Kingdom and Lady Gildae, began unfolding before his eyes.
‘These jade rings are my promise and my token of love to you, Princess Bari.’
Princess Bari, the devoted daughter who entered the underworld in place of her dying father.
There, she endured nine years of labor hell under the harsh demands of the underworld gatekeeper Mujangseung. Then she was tricked by him into a marriage she never wanted and even endured giving birth to seven sons.
The story of the husband and wife bound together as human and god was somewhat similar to the well-known legend of Princess Bari.
…but their ending was far too tragic to be called a happy one.
“They say that damned ex-husband Mujangseung killed Bari unnie’s entire family.”
Jeom-rye stopped mopping the floor and muttered coldly.
“Yes. And Princess Bari drove a sickle handle into her husband Mujangseung’s heart and killed him.”
Deep regret and sorrow filled Deok-jae’s eyes as he returned from the memories.
Mujangseung loved his wife Princess Bari too much.
And because of that obsession, he slaughtered the family who mistreated and looked down on her. Wanting to keep his beloved wife beside him forever, he bound the human Bari Princess to the underworld and even took away her chance to save her father.
And so, though they loved each other, the two never realized it until the very end, and their relationship collapsed into terrible ruin.
The god of the underworld murdered by his human wife.
And the human woman who dared to kill a god.
That was the miserable end of Mujangseung and Princess Bari.
“Remarrying the ex-husband who was once your mortal enemy…”
Deok-jae’s worries deepened.
Even if he had lost all memories of the past, the fate forcing Kim Bari to reconnect with Kang Hae-an, the reincarnation of Mujangseung, was truly cruel and pitiful.
“Forget remarriage. This is obviously another ridiculous trick! That rotten Jade Emperor just wants to torment unnie no matter what!”
Jeom-rye angrily threw down the rag she had been using to clean the floor.
Trying to comfort her, Deok-jae gently patted her shoulder before opening the large shrine window wide.
“That’s why…”
Standing with his hands behind his back, Deok-jae slowly closed his eyes.
“I can only hope that the human Kang Hae-an opens his closed heart and cooperates.”
Only then could Princess Bari finally end this dreadful immortal life and peacefully pass on.
First it was nonsense about being her husband, and now she was talking about remarriage.
Hae-an was so dumbfounded he nearly lost the ability to speak.
“Why are you all staring like that? Never seen a wife asking her dead ex-husband to remarry before?”
Thanks to Kim Bari’s shocking words, people all around the police station began whispering among themselves.
Desperate to somehow calm this embarrassing situation, Hae-an suddenly grabbed Bari by the wrist.
“Hey, Kang Hae-an! You were cursing me in your head just now, weren’t you? Thinking I’m a hopeless woman and wondering what kind of crazy person I am. Right?”
“If you know that, then please shut your mouth.”
Dragging the stubborn Bari along, Hae-an opened the door to the staff break room.
The junior detectives who had just finished lunch froze while holding vending machine coffees, but Hae-an ignored them completely and glared sharply.
Only then did the younger detectives notice Bari being dragged behind him.
“Ah, then should we… leave?”
“Do I really have to say it out loud for you to understand?”
“Yes! Sorry, senior!”
The younger detectives immediately rushed out of the room.
Hae-an turned around with a stiff face. Bari dusted off the wrist he had grabbed and openly showed her displeasure.
“This is physical violence, you know. Is it okay for a police officer to treat civilians like this?”
At that moment, Hae-an stepped right in front of Bari and bent down until their eyes met exactly.
“Even if your mouth is crooked, you should still speak properly.”
Frowning, Hae-an let out a mocking scoff.
“You’re not a civilian. You’re a stalker.”
The moment the sculpted face of the man turned ice cold, an even colder voice quietly echoed.
“I don’t think you still understand the situation, so listen carefully.”
Hae-an’s large hand slammed against the wall beside Bari’s head.
“I’m this close to charging you with stalking an active police officer. So—!”
Bari’s reddish eyes reflected Hae-an’s furious expression.
“Stop getting on my nerves.”
At that moment, the memory of his first meeting with Kim Bari — a memory he never wanted to recall again — flashed through Kang Hae-an’s mind like a passing light.
