Free Web NovelSeeing the old man’s face covered in ash, Seoryeong burst out laughing.
“Ahahaha! Normally, I would’ve secretly summoned the stableman and split this household’s hidden treasure fifty-fifty with him, tsk.... But the moment I saw your daughter-in-law, a halo was blazing behind her like mad.”
Dudung—! Tak! One final drumbeat rang out, and the music subsided. The con was over.
“Eh, damn it! It’s better to curry favor with the woman who’ll become the mother of a truly great figure than to chase money. That’s why I came all this way to give you special advice.”
Seoryeong knocked—bang!—on the treasure chest.
“Do you even know how much this would be if you split it in half? I’m not a greedy person, so I gave it all to you. Do you even realize that?”
“Oh my. Of course I do. Thank you, truly, thank you!”
Anyone who truly had no greed wouldn’t be wearing rings on all ten fingers. Grumbling, Seoryeong shouted,
“Bring the flower shoes!!!”
* * *
Before long, Episode 1 of Strange Tales was nearing its end.
After squeezing the old man dry of his wealth, Seoryeong—now dressed in shimmering silk—spoke as she was seen off.
“May I receive a send-off from the lady of the house? I wish to take in a little more of her fine virtuous energy.”
The Seoryeong who had spoken rudely like a thug earlier now observed proper etiquette with impeccable courtesy.
Looking proudly at the daughter-in-law who had finally been acknowledged before everyone, the old man laughed and shouted for her not to dawdle and get going. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
The two walked together down a sparsely traveled road.
“My lord, the flower shoes don’t seem to fit your feet and may be uncomfortable. If you don’t mind, please stay a few days. A large market will open soon, and I will present you with new shoes that fit your feet perfectly.”
“No need! What would I expect from a backwater like this. And I’m not the one who’ll be wearing those shoes anyway, so it’s fine. They’ll fit that person perfectly. She doesn’t seem to know what’s good even when she sees it, but what can you do.”
Despite going on and on about new shoes, what Seoryeong was actually wearing were ordinary straw sandals.
“If it weren’t for me, she’d be walking around in torn, beggar-like shoes. Damn it—she’ll scold me again, saying I didn’t even buy them at the market....”
What Seoryeong wanted wasn’t flower shoes for herself, but flower shoes for Jeongan.
“M-my lord. Thank you, truly.”
Though Seoryeong had returned to her earlier insolent manner, the lady bowed politely in thanks.
She was a strange and arrogant person—but to her, she was nothing short of a savior.
“There’s nothing to thank me for.”
Yet when Seoryeong turned back, she looked at the lady with an oddly chilling gaze. It was impossible to read her.
The lady, meeting that gaze, found her own steps coming to a halt. There was an overwhelming pressure to it.
“The part about you having a child—that was a lie.”
What followed was enough to drive the lady to despair. It was as if she were being told everything had been a scam.
But... why? As the lady stood there blankly, Seoryeong continued.
“I kept my word when I said I’d save your life.”
The low voice stabbed into her ears like a blade.
“You’ve already passed one brush with death. Do you still not realize it?”
With a cold tone that froze the lady in place, Seoryeong spoke on.
“That path you take every day to meet the Buddha is especially treacherous—yet didn’t the man you call your husband keep insisting you go alone? Saying that bringing servants would dilute your sincerity before the Buddha.”
Seoryeong went on, her face utterly devoid of mirth.
“That man is planning to take a concubine soon. She’ll be fiercely jealous and greedy, and a gentle woman like you will look like a thorn in her eye. With the servants siding with you and treating you like the lady of the house, she’ll want to cut off your breath in one stroke.”
The Seoryeong who mercilessly carved into the lady’s heart bore no resemblance to the boy who had smiled playfully earlier.
Her gaze, as if it pierced through all things in the world, was razor-sharp.
“Your husband, too, has been itching to drive you out of the house the moment he decided you were useless. Do you think there was any way for you to survive?”
It was Seoryeong who had barely held the lady back at the crossroads of life and death.
Before the woman who had collapsed to the ground, Seoryeong stood like a savior.
“From now on, remember every word I say. Convert the household assets into things that are easy to carry and valuable. Sell the silk and buy gold rings.”
Placing one hand on her knee, Seoryeong straightened up. In the lady’s eyes, that small, slender body looked immense—like a god of salvation.
“That house has exhausted its luck. Soon, nothing will be left.”
Backlit by the burning sun, Seoryeong glowed like fire, as if she possessed some uncanny power.
“Even if you have no child luck, your people luck is more than enviable—you’ll live well. When you leave the house, take good care of the maids who were around you earlier. Like blood kin.”
Seoryeong took the lady’s palm and, with a blade, traced along her lifeline. Bright red blood was collected into a gourd.
The desire the lady held at that moment flowed directly into the gourd.
Anger toward her husband, resentment toward her father-in-law, yet also the sense of responsibility to care for the servants like family; the reassurance that she had never been wrong; hope for the life ahead—blood carrying all of it trickled into the gourd.
* * *
Under a warm sky slowly edging toward sunset, Jeongan wrote her final letter with a calm expression.
The letter was excessively short.
Despite the time they had spent together.
Hoo—.
Even blowing on the paper once to dry the ink, she looked far too serene to be someone standing on the brink of death.
As if she had known this moment would come.
Careful not to make even a rustling sound, Jeongan folded the paper neatly and placed it on the small wooden tray table.
Clatter—.
She then stepped out of the old cabin. An unknown wind rustled the leaves wildly.
Jeongan closed her eyes briefly and breathed. Then she slowly moved to the back of the cabin.
There stood a bowl of purified water she had prepared.
Though the sky was so clear, ripples trembled across the surface inside the white bowl, as if something were dripping into it from above.
The trees surrounding the cabin felt ominous. Jeongan slowly opened her mouth and murmured,
“Under the clear heavens, with the four seas formless....”
Whooo—. The leaves that had been crashing madly into one another gradually fell silent.
“I send your baleful fate upon the wind, to scatter.”
Jeongan stood alone in the frame. A nun so small and pitiful.
Her fragile body strained to block something invisible.
“Under white clouds and heavenly light, in the silent night without form, I return your evil thoughts to nothingness, leaving not even a shadow.”
From far away came the clear sound of wind chimes.
“With heavenly fire I burn it, with earthly water I wash it away, with spirit wind I rend it, and return it to the void—cough!”
Chanting the incantation—burning with heaven’s fire, cleansing with earth’s water, splitting with eternal wind, returning it to emptiness—Jeongan coughed up blood.
Dark crimson blood streamed from between her lips.
Even so, her gentle, quiet voice never faltered.
“Malice without form—cough!—wicked thoughts without substance!”
She spoke each word as if pressing strength into it. The Jeongan who had stood so upright suddenly collapsed to her knees.
Her old but clean gray monastic robes were stained with dirt. Clear liquid pooled in Jeongan’s panting eyes.
The sky dyed itself in a tender crimson.
Clink—clink—clink....
Unlike the opening, the sound of bells was not threatening. Wind chimes mingled with the bell tones, as if announcing peace.
Clink! Clinkclinkclinkclink!
Then, with the sudden frenzy of bells, the screen slid to a new scene. In a space without a single ray of light, steeped in gloom, Yeomga sat.
Pounding the desk energetically with both hands, Yeomga hurled her curse.
“Spirits and monsters! A hundred ghosts in my retinue, sealed in the chest of seven calamities, burn the blood sigil and incense!”
Her eyes stared into empty space.
As if gazing at something unseen.
Even as she cast her curse, Yeomga beat the desk mercilessly, as if to smash it apart.
Clinkclinkclinkclink!!!
With the bells ringing madly, the scene shifted to Seoryeong running along the mountain path.
With the face of a child frantic to give Jeongan the flower shoes, Seoryeong knew nothing.
“Eight trigrams—protect the body, four directions—seal—cough! Hrk—!”
Jeongan, rolling on the ground, wanted to protect everything in this world,
“Gods turn away, souls and spirits lose their path home!”
While Yeomga, pounding the desk, wanted to destroy everything in this world.
Clinkclinkclink!
In Seoryeong’s world, running alone along the blue mountain path, there was only Jeongan.
“Heaven’s punishment does not reach! Heeheehee! Earth’s protection does not hold!”
With heaven’s punishment unable to reach, earth’s protection failing, the gods turning their backs, Yeomga’s curse—having lost its way home forever—sliced sharply through the world.
“Ten thousand evils shall not invade—huh... urk.... no blade shall wound....”
With that final incantation—declaring that all wickedness would fail to encroach, that blades would merely graze—
“Cough.... hhh... uh....”
Jeongan’s life came to an end.
Leaving behind Seoryeong, clutching the straps of her bundle with both hands, running without rest. Leaving Seoryeong who was coming to her. Leaving behind the Seoryeong for whom Jeongan was the entire world.
The crimson sky darkened.
The blazing sun disappeared into the distance, parting from Jeongan.
—....
With the final clear ring of the cloud-board bell, the nun breathed her last, eyes unable to close.
“Heeheeheehee! Heeheeheehee!”
Yeomga pounded the desk like a madwoman. Laughing with pure delight, she collapsed onto it, scraping her nails viciously across the surface.
Kreeeek—kreeeek—.
A sound sharp enough to scratch the world itself, just like the nail ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) sound that had opened Strange Tales.
“Heeheeheek....”
As Yeomga slowly raised her head, her gaze pierced straight through the screen, as if to dominate it.
No longer human.
She was a vengeful ghost.
Episode 1 of Strange Tales ended.
