Chương 134: S.05 Time to Fly 11(01)

Scene 00. A cracking sound reached her through the grain of her skin. From her whole body, gone rigid, a near-unbearable pain surged up. It was sensation. Across some endless, long stretch of time, she had steeped her body inside a twisted trunk, taking the wood grain into herself. She could not perceive time. Every sense lay crushed beneath the groaning and the breath she could never rest. She felt that what lay crushed was sensation itself. She came to know what it meant to feel.

Now she could only wrestle with the loneliness. It had been a long time. A long time — a stretch whose hardship she could not know, a place where she could not know how hard it had been — crushed beneath an enormous weight, she waited on and on. It was the touch she had so craved, yet before long she could no longer feel even the voice. It had been a hard time for herself, and it would be a hard time for her. At the voice she could no longer hear, her body, turned to wood, could not even shed deep tears.

The dance steps and the melody they had once chanted together rose up in her. The dance steps she had longed to chant together rose up. The voice within the wood that used to rebuke her at such moments had, at some point, settled deep inside her and returned no answer either. Only emptiness filled her. Then, all at once, an old memory rose along the trunk that had packed itself rigidly through her body and bound her fast. It was a short yet long vow her younger self had once spoken. I shall protect you.

At the short sentence that surfaced so vividly, the trunk binding her body began, little by little, to twist. At the end of the creaking of the twisted trunk, a small voice slid out from within the thick, thick wooden pillar — small and mournful. Wait for me. Scene 01_01. The newly brought-in furniture had not yet been fully set in order; it sat scattered about in fair disarray. A small sigh slipped out.

She had hoped the place she would stay in for a while would feel snug, but because her heart could not settle into snugness, she still could not gather her tangled feelings even amid the snugly arranged furnishings. Every household fixture came in a matched pair. There were two rooms, and one bed set in each. It looked like a home two people would share, yet only one person had stepped inside so far. She gently drew closed her finely tailored suit coat.

She touched the boiler controller set in the living room, meaning to warm the chilled house. A fine, fair hand tucked her awkwardly grown-out hair behind her ear and touched the dead boiler controller one dial at a time, setting the power and the temperature. In the middle of the not-so-narrow living room sat a 장기(Jang-gi_Korean chess) board and a Go board, seemingly left behind by the people who had lived there before. It was a cheap, shabby Korean chess board thick with hand-grime.

She crossed the cold floor on stockinged feet and spread open the Go board set in the living room. She hesitated a moment over the Go stones and the chess pieces, then flipped the board over and laid out the Korean chess board. She did not mean to take off her coat until the room warmed. With a familiar motion, she set every red chess piece in place. She let out a small sigh. You lot ought to get ready too, then. Scene 01_02.

Ji-young smoothed down the slightly short tube top that peeked out from beneath her loosely draped 무도복(Mu-do-bok_Combat garment). She had lain flat on her stomach writing with a brush for so long that her clothes had ridden up on their own. Ji-young, who had copied out in large script the same words written in a small notebook, straightened her back at last as if she had transferred every word, tugged her combat garment top back into place, and let out a big sigh first thing.

Ji-young: Ah-ni, but, wait, SSibal, this is fucking bullshit? At Ji-young's sudden curse, So-hui, who had been quietly writing alongside her, opened her eyes wide. It was So-hui's dwelling within the 본청(Bon-cheong_Headquarters). At Ji-young's cursing as she lay writing in the large living room, Si-yeon — who had come down from the second floor and was carefully padding her feet toward Ji-young and So-hui — also stopped in her tracks.

Ji-young: Hey, the sis of yours who's about to get kidnapped and hauled off — you really wanna work her like this?? Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. So-hui: Ah, I thought it was something. Whatever. So-hui, as if it were nothing, lay back down and wrote large letters across the floor just like Ji-young. Ji-young: Eh-eh? Look at this one blowing me off. Si-yeon: If I knew how to write it, I'd have done it myself. Sorry 'bout that.

Ji-young frowned at last and shook her head. Ji-young: Who told you to do it? I'm cursing Jo So-hui for working her own sis to the bone right up to the end. So-hui: Anyone who heard you'd think she's someone I'll never lay eyes on again. Ji-young set the brush in her hand down on the inkstone, sprang up from her seat, and inspected the writing. Along the white 버선(Beoseon_Korean Traditional socks) feet where Ji-young padded about, the writing had been laid down without the smallest gap.

Across the whole of So-hui's broad living room, large sheets of hanji lay packed edge to edge. Every road tied to this affair had been recorded there. Ji-young, moving her white socked feet, drew near Si-yeon with the air of someone about to whine for a back-rub, inspected another passage of writing, then clutched her combat garment top, gathered it up, and thrust the fair, bare skin laid open toward Si-yeon. Ji-young: Pain spray. Si-yeon poked her head up and checked where to aim the aerosol relief.

Spotting the spray she'd set on the not-far kitchen table, Si-yeon carefully tiptoed across the letters Ji-young and So-hui had written, grabbed the can, and came back to Ji-young. She seized the noisily shaken can and sprayed the cold relief liquid onto Ji-young's back. Ji-young shuddered her back as if convulsing and recoiled at the cold touch of the spray. The convulsing lasted only a moment. Ji-young: Oohhh~ oho, that hits the spot.

As Ji-young let out a thick, hearty groan of relief, both So-hui, inspecting the writing, and Si-yeon, spraying the relief, halted their hands. So-hui: Ah, seriously, Si-yeon: Seriously, you really do act like such an old geezer. Scene 01_03. The buildings of the 현교(Hyeon-gyo_The Black Doctrine) main sanctuary were not greatly different from before. The repairs had been finished in a shape almost identical to how it had looked before Hyang-rim's passing.

Jeong-seon's quick steps, padding through the snug and familiar buildings, moved in time with the voice coming through the receiver. As Jeong-seon stepped into the broad hall at the center, Lee Yeon, standing at the entrance, bowed at the waist to receive her. Inside, as many worshippers were gathered as ever before. The 종장(Jong-jang_Steward)s stood before each worshipper, arrayed as if forming teams.

Jeong-seon gathered the skirt of her black 철릭(Cheollik_Traditional coat-dress) and stepped up onto the podium at the front of the hall. At Jeong-seon's appearance, every Steward and worshipper in the hall fell into silence and looked back at her. Jeong-seon: There is something I must convey with urgency, and so I asked that you gather in the hall for a while. Lee Yeon: As for us. Lee Yeon, positioned at the very front among the Stewards, bowed carefully at the waist to Jeong-seon, who had climbed the podium alone.

Lee Yeon: For all time, we follow the Bishop's word. Please, hand down your command. There was no missing the encouragement laced within Lee Yeon's low voice. Jeong-seon: Thank you. Though not long has passed since my mother, the former Bishop, departed this world, word has come that those unsettled ones will move again. Grim tidings have come that they will strike both the Headquarters and the main sanctuary at once — deepening the chaos, exploiting the lives of the mortal world, and shaping foul things from it.

The tense Jeong-seon carefully curled her trembling fist and gathered her emotions on the podium. Jeong-seon: I, just as my mother did, will never lose any of you — no one, ever. I will follow the will of my mother, who sought not to lose even a single worshipper. Lee Yeon: We too will follow the Bishop. Jeong-seon: To no irreverent thing will I ever surrender you. Of course, we alone will not be enough. But hold out to the very end. Not one of you. I will not let a single soul depart before me.

Jeong-seon bowed at the waist and offered a vow-laden greeting to the assembly. The assembly, too, bowed deeply in answer to her greeting. Jeong-seon: Then, I will convey what was agreed upon with the Covenant. Scene 01_04. Ji-young, who had still not properly fastened her 무도복(Mu-do-bok_Combat garment), gazed for a moment at the petals that had burst into bloom. The petals of the purple magnolias filling the edges of the training ground had begun to climb fairly high.

Having gazed blankly for a moment at the purple petals, Ji-young belatedly turned her eyes to the crowd filling the training ground. Behind a deep, calm silence, Ji-young let her clear, ringing voice sound out. Ji-young: I ask this of you. The first words were not a command. They were a plea steeped in deep emotion. Ji-young: Every one of you here is a treasure left behind by the Former The Oldest. I do not want those treasures harmed by my mistake, by my fault. So, I ask you.

Everyone stood politely in their combat garments. They offered not a single answer, yet they kept listening to Ji-young's clear, deeply ringing voice. Ji-young: Please, cherish your lives. At Ji-young's plea, everyone standing there dipped their heads in a light nod, then raised them again. Ji-young: That what is to come will be treacherous, I told the Directors beforehand. So, on this treacherous road, please — never, ever let yourselves be hurt. I-seon: Understood.

At I-seon's calm reply, Ji-young let out a great sigh. Standing on the training-ground podium, Ji-young cleared her voice, unrolled the 두루마리(Durumari_decree), and read out the contents within. Ji-young: The Special Task Forces of the Directorate of Support and the Martial Hall move to the northwest; the regular officers remain at the Headquarters facilities with their Deputies and support the Guard Corps in guarding the Headquarters.

Until all the Directors of each division have returned, conferred with the Seer, and the Seer herself declares the situation ended, I ask that you all serve under emergency footing. Furthermore, the Directorate of Knowledge and the Sanctum Wardens shall each —