Requiem of Subdued Souls

Chapter 44 – Lion Dance (12)

A thin stream of blue smoke rose from the yard of a small, old house. Just like the cloud that a maiden of heaven rode. It was sky-high above the roof.

“This soul loved to carve wood. He saw Buddha’s face on the lifeless piece of wood and carved it out so that the others can see it.”

Seol Young used the power of Heavenly Rebirth.

“Since the good soul has met an evil spirit and is about to die, Buddha, please hold his hand so as to not let him wander through the darkness. Please guide him to a good place.”

Next to him, monk Do Cheol prayed with a rosary in hand.

“Amitabha, please lead the family to be reborn in the land of paradise…”

In Buddhism, this ritual was called Heavenly Homage.

Even though the name was different, the end result was the same. It was to appease the souls of the dead and hope they would be reborn.

Zaha followed them.

He didn’t say much but just stood to the side and watched this. He had a serious face.

Seol Young continued to observe his expression as he listened to the prayer.

‘Perhaps…’

Eventually, the ritual was finished, and the monk had red eyes as he entered his friend’s house, and once the prayer ended, he teared up.

“The three of us got along very well in the temple. Do In and I didn’t have parents, but Do Jeon said that he had a good mother…. He didn’t know how much I envied him.”

Even when her son’s old friend said that, the old mother didn’t respond. She didn’t have a frustrated or regretful look on her face. She was just dazed.

Her sons spoke bitterly.

“She will probably never return to normal. After burying my brother, she seemed to have let go of her mind.”

The old mother just sat blankly.

Her hand twitched, and her five fingers hit the floor hard. Zaha looked at her and asked,

“Are you doing this because your energy is declining?”

“It isn’t like that. She is just trying to hold on.”

“Like when she caught Seol Young-rang on the street?”

“No. It is what we…”

The sons hesitated a little.

“It seems like she is trying to hold onto our brother.”

Her skinny hand, which was like a tree stump, started groping the floor.

“…”

Seol Young looked over the old woman’s shoulder and at the house. A small room caught his eye. It was the room of the dead man.

And he went inside.

The room had already been cleaned, but when he looked around the room, it seemed like he had found something.

So he laid on the ground and looked at it. There was a small piece of wood in the dark room, and Seol Young recognized it.

It was the piece of wood he had held in his hand, and pondered about what it was as he projected the memory of the dead.

He brought it out and put it in the old woman’s hand.

“This is the wood that your son was carving before he died.”

The old woman immediately clenched it. She looked like a baby holding a toy. A dead person would never come back, and that block of wood would never have the face of Buddha.

‘But this is better than empty hands.’

It wasn’t known if it was an illusion, but the wrinkles on her face seemed to ease up a little. In the midst of the silence, everything changed.

The ritual to appease the soul ended.

They left the house first, leaving Do Cheol to talk more about his childhood with the dead monk.

Seol Young asked while walking,

“Why did you follow me? There was no way I would die during the ritual.”

“I was just there to watch.”

Zaha said. It seemed that he had come without much thought. But why would a person who has been corrupted by sorcery bother to watch a Heavenly Homage? Why would he be attracted to that?

Seol Young said after looking at him,

“I tend to skip things that benefit me most of the time… and this is strange.”

“What?”

“Once is just a mistake, a coincidence, a whim… anyway. But this time, I cannot deny it. Thanks for lending me Sa Daham’s sword, which helped me win, and that was clearly a calculated help.”

“…?”

“Of course, I was the one who took down the soul of the monk and then made the evil spirit possess a lion mask. It was me who learned Sa Daham’s sword technique and fought hard to win.”

“…”

“But when I felt frustrated, you showed me Sa Daham’s sword and hinted that I turned things around. Not just that, you went to the forest in advance and put something in the lion mask. Wasn’t that why the evil spirit couldn’t escape even when he tried to?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Well, that isn’t important.”

Seol Young said.

“This time was no accident. It was intentional, right? Then why? I thought that when you returned to the palace and saw the Hwarangs you taught in the past, a bit of your humanity returned.”

“…”

“If that is the case…”

Seol Young went closer to him.

“Open up right now and speak. I haven’t heard of anyone dealing with demonic things ever coming back to the righteous path, but there might be a way with your skills and the Governor’s knowledge. Maybe it isn’t too late.”

Zaha stared at Seol Young.

The next moment, he burst into laughter.

“Look here, Seol Young-rang. You pretend to have lived a rough life, but you are a young master in the capital, right?”

Seol Young’s face hardened.

“What do you mean?”

“Your thoughts are running wild.”

He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a round object the size of his palm.

“You know what this is?”

“Heaven and Earth.”

A small plaque with a line in the middle and letters written on it. A tool to detect ghosts.

“Now, here.”

He placed the object in Seol Young’s hand. And the needle in the center spun around, pointing to Zaha. It moved back and forth in the direction of Great Evil and Great Chaos.

This meant that the person held evil intent—evil intent to harm someone.

Seol Young was speechless.

“I don’t know what you thought about when you came to these conclusions… calm down, Seol Young-rang. The visible and actual truths are always different. Isn’t that a known fact? My plan is going well.”

He had a relaxed tone, as if it was just small talk.

However, Zaha’s eyes were filled with dark energy. Something more distinct than what the Heaven and Earth plaque showed.

Besides, he felt the same aura from that female spirit…

‘As expected, he is a disgrace.’

Without any hesitation, he immediately took out the mask and tried to unleash its power.

But then….

“Oh? You haven’t left yet?”

Do Cheol appeared from the other side.

“Good. Have this. Seol Young-rang’s thing.”

“My thing?”

“Yes. Yesterday while sewing the mask, I discovered that it was caught in…”

Gold glittered in Do Cheol’s hands. In an instant, he turned it over, and it was Zaha’s thing.

Maybe it was the suspicious technique he used and put inside the lion mask, and now he is caught.

“That…”

In an instant, Zaha’s expression changed, but he then returned to his laidback attitude again.

“It is mine.”

He reached out, but Seol Young was quicker. He snatched it out of Do Cheol’s hands, and for a moment, he was shocked.

‘What is this?’

It wasn’t unfamiliar.

It felt all too familiar, and a certain emotion spread through him.

Sadness.

It was sadness and sorrow. It was the kind that made him want to cry.

‘What?’

He had his eyes closed, but the moment he opened them, tears filled his eyes, and Do Cheol was surprised.

“Hwarang Seol Young!”

Even Seol Young himself was surprised.

‘I am missing something important here.’

The golden thread in his hand vanished as Zaha took it back without even touching it.

“Seol Young-rang?”

“Are you a child? Are you crying because you didn’t get to take someone’s stuff?”

“My eyes just hurt…”

Seol Young made an excuse. Even as a child, he had never cried in front of others.

But it wasn’t like he was ashamed or anything. He only thought that he was missing something very important here.

“Then… here.”

He gave Seol Young a coin to buy what he wanted and then turned away quickly.

“When one looks into the spirit world, the eyes tire quickly. I am surprised to learn that Hwarang Seol Young is crying because of sadness.”

Do Cheol said.

Seol Young lowered his head and asked in a low voice,

“Monk. What was the thing you found in the lion mask?”

“Uh? Wasn’t that a piece of gold coin?”

“No. The High Governor gave this to me to make fun of me. This is not what the monk brought, so think carefully.”

Do Cheol’s face went blank.

“Is that so? Come to think of it, it seemed like a thing bigger than… it is strange…. I surely saw something, but I cannot remember what it is.”

No matter how dumb the monk was, his reaction seemed to indicate that he had forgotten about it and that there were some great secrets.

He felt like he already knew what it was but also didn’t.

Seol Young was lost in thought.

He was back to square one.

‘I am missing a very important thing right now.’

What was it?

He couldn’t realize what it was.