Chương 97: S.05 Time to Fly 05(01)

Scene 01. It was a deep cave. The humiliating cave—where, in the past, I-sim had bowed her head low toward a worthless lump of stone—now held nothing but a cold chill, standing eerily empty without a single sign of presence. No fierce wind blew to bar careless entry, and no dust swirled thick enough to blind the eye. A pair of indifferent crimson 운혜(Unhye_Everyday traditional shoes) stepped into the deep cave. A chill sharper than early spring still lingered.

As she straightened her chest and let out a brief sigh, a long breath streamed out at length between her plump lips. Lifting a large sack woven from 삼베(Sambae_Hemp cloth), she carefully gathered into it the countless piles of human remains lodged across the deep cave walls. These were the remains of the 후보자(Hubo-ja_Candidate)—remains that would never be added to again.

It was a superstitious 주술(Jusul_Incantation/Sorcery) shaped from 갑골(Gap-gol_Oracle Bone), carried down since the dawn of civilization in the distant past—yet to the shamans who had caressed and soothed death, it had become no mere groundless superstition, but a "residue of the obsession that craves life." They would seek out and destroy the being whose measure of longing for life ran largest, grind its remains into 잿가루(Jaet-garu_Grey Ash), and draw upon nothing but the craving to live that had dwelt within.

For instantly quelling even a fatal wound, nothing proved as efficient as the craving for life. By scattering or ingesting the Grey Ash shaped from those remains, they had kept the wounded from losing their lives—drawing solely upon the desire for life of those who, in ages past, had been forced to breathe their last at the hands of their own ancestors. But now, following the will of those who had wished such piles would mount no longer, she had chosen to walk this long and agonizing solitary path.

Her thoughts were the same. She held that the right to recklessly measure, judge, and pass sentence upon death should never be handed to the likes of shamans. As she carried on with her self-mocking brooding, the sack, thickly filled by now, came to feel rather heavy. She set down the sack that held the remains with care. To soothe the cold and the sting, she worked her now-empty hands for a moment, then slipped one into the thick pocket of her 두루마기(Durumagi_Traditional outer coat).

Raising her remaining hand lightly, she flung it forward as if shaking out her wrist. Black ink burst from her empty hand as though surging up, and scattered forward. Striking the empty air where nothing had been, the ink ran down thick and clotting, shaping itself into a form. Tucking even the hand she had flung out into her pocket, she looked down on the form taking shape before her as something trifling, her posture faintly insolent. Hee-jin: Quite a laughable sight you make. The shaped thing said nothing.

It only listened in silence to Hee-jin's mockery ringing through the cave, shaping itself fully into form. Hee-jin: I told you beforehand. The world of the living has the rules of the living. It carries emotions of its own as well. If the very beings who know that best mean to lust after greed like spoiled brats and ruin even the work entrusted to me — well, it's not too late, even now. Pay my words no mind; go right ahead and come swarming this instant, like the neighborhood's rabid dogs, to smash The Key.

That way I'll be rid of even the faintest urge to share my plans with worthless trifles like you. Though fully shaped, the form was no human shape. It glanced like a human at a passing look, yet veiled in deep, deep darkness and ink, its true appearance could not be made out. Hee-jin paid it no heed. Tapping her feet together, she looked down at them. She spared not even a glance toward the trifling form.

Hee-jin: Had I not granted you time that day, The Key and the whore would have marched straight into the world of the dead to slaughter you. It's only because I told him that time, at least, must be given that your dim and useless skulls didn't end up drifting through the world of the dead like a heap of trash. It was honorific speech that held nothing but mockery. There was no comfort, and no respect. At Hee-jin's sneering voice, the shaped form stirred slowly and drew a little closer to her.

Hee-jin did not shrink back in the slightest. Hee-jin: And besides — you've mastered neither the Weeping of Putrefaction nor the Weeping of Contrition. The Negation and the Contrition, well, since I've had my say on those I'll let them pass — but at this rate, just how do you expect to pull your own weight? This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

A bleak presence approached from a place where not a single ray of light entered, yet Hee-jin only smiled the brighter and looked straight at the presence that had drawn near. Hee-jin: Quiet, and still. Just do as I bid. The world of the dead is merely a place you've been "permitted" to exist in; by now you must have learned that you are not its masters. The board I've set is laid only in the world of the living. In the world of the living, at least, you'll have to heed my word.

You must smash The Key while it dwells in the world of the living — to cross into the world of the dead and face The Key once it has settled as the winner's piece would be to offer up your own necks of your own accord. As if she had finished her say, Hee-jin left her sneering smile hanging, drew her hand from her pocket, and hefted the thick sack with force. Hee-jin: I'll take it that you've understood. You. It called, for a moment, to Hee-jin's step as she turned to leave. No voice could be heard.

Only a sharp, chilling energy carried through. To Hee-jin it felt like nothing more than a petty grumble, yet it did halt her departing step for a moment. When will you make me ready. Hee-jin: I am no vessel for the likes of you at your present level. The moment is something I shape and toss to you — not something I hand over because you come lunging at me to demand it. Keep to my plan, gather up your paltry self, and mind your post.

You'll have no thought of wagging your tail, so sit quiet in your corner, stare at your empty rice bowl, and keep drooling. With her back to the place where only a voice had been felt, Hee-jin lifted the weighty sack once more and made to move on. Hoisting it up onto her shoulder and settling it, she scattered her cold voice on toward the presence behind her, beyond her back. Hee-jin: Above all else, I despise it when a plan goes awry.

If you'd rather not follow, if you'd care to seek out someone else, then seek away, as much as you like. But in return — Halting her step for a moment, Hee-jin turned only her head and cast a thin, sidelong glare behind her. Hee-jin: Then you had best be prepared — for I shall become your enemy. Scene 02. Yeon-jin raised herself up. Leaving behind the presence asleep within the bedding, Yeon-jin, who had risen late, stretched without a sound. It was another's dwelling, flooded with afternoon light.

Rising in a room quite unlike the modern apartment interior she'd been staying in, Yeon-jin shot a glance at the presence lying in the bedding, sunk in deep sleep, then stepped out again as though it were nothing. Yeon-jin, who had tried her best to make no sound, drew a cigarette from the sofa table only once she'd come out into the living room, set it between her lips, and lit it. Opening the living room's large window to air the place out, she sent the smoke outside from the window's edge.

Gazing blankly at the late-noon hour, Yeon-jin tirelessly tidied her tangled hair, then, cigarette still in her mouth, wiped the sleep from her eyes. After blowing out long streams of smoke a few times, she tapped off the ash and flicked it beyond the windowsill. Once she'd confirmed the butt that had come to rest atop the ashtray set in the middle of the garden, she blew out the last of the smoke left in her mouth and shut the window with care.

Yeon-jin, who had turned to head for the bathroom, let out a startled cry. Yu-seok, who had somehow come to stand behind her, had drawn out one of Yeon-jin's cigarettes, set it between his lips, and was lighting it. Yu-seok: What are you so startled about? Yeon-jin: How could I not be? I thought you were a ghost. Yu-seok's body stood there sound and whole. He left his bare torso—scars glimpsing through—uncovered, and below wore loose sweatpants.

He looked as though he'd just woken, but he wasn't disheveled to any severe degree. Yu-seok: And if I were a ghost — what, you'd come at me with a knife? Yeon-jin: Ha. As if I would. Yeon-jin was speaking in markedly easy terms. The crisp honorifics had vanished; she picked casual words and cast the air of someone grown quite close to Yu-seok. Yu-seok, for his part, didn't bother to take issue with her manner.

Now that he had surrendered every position, he had no wish to make an issue of Yeon-jin's affectionate way of speaking to him. Cigarette still in hand, he opened the window and let the outside air back in. A cool early-spring wind swept in sharply. Past Yu-seok, who faced the not-so-cutting spring breeze, Yeon-jin—clad in only brief underwear—rubbed her own skin and headed for the bathroom. Only Yeon-jin's head poked back out from inside the bathroom. Yeon-jin: Where was it you said you're going today?

Yu-seok: Why? Yeon-jin: If you're up for it, I thought we might do some shopping. Yu-seok: I'm not quite that free. Yeon-jin: You don't have a single spring outfit, do you? Yu-seok: That's true enough. Yeon-jin: Come on, head out with me if you've got the time. You could use it to get back on your feet anyway. From what I hear, you won't be setting off right away. Somebody who slept for days straight — now that your eyes are open, your body's bound to feel stiff. Yu-seok: How many days did you say I slept?

Yeon-jin: Four. I honestly thought you were a goner. Yu-seok nodded. Yu-seok: The aftereffects are serious. Yeon-jin: Well, you took the Envoy's Legion into a living body, so that's only natural. So — are you going out or not? Yu-seok pinched out the fully burnt-down end of the cigarette with his fingertips, as if folding it shut. Carrying it on 검은 모래(Geomeun-morae_Black Sand), he flicked the casually extinguished butt outside, tossing it down beside the butt Yeon-jin had thrown earlier.

Leaving the door open, Yu-seok rose and stretched, belatedly. As he turned away, a rather bitter smile lingered at the corner of his mouth. Yu-seok: Fine. I'll walk a bit, for once in a while.