Free Web Novel* * *
Seoryeong busily worked her spoon, as if she meant to leave not a single grain of food on the table. No matter how much she ate, she still seemed hungry; her cheeks kept puffing out as she chewed nonstop.
Watching Seoryeong shove rice into her mouth like she was going to war with it, Myungdo let out a sigh.
“Please eat slowly.”
“Uh-huh, got it.”
Despite the curt reply that clearly meant mind your own business, Myungdo silently poured water and handed it to her. Seoryeong gulped down the water he offered, then grabbed a whole clump of bulgogi and stuffed it into her mouth.
“There are a few things I’d like to ask.”
At Myungdo’s polite request, Seoryeong jerked her chin vaguely. It was an insolent gesture, as if she would only answer whatever pleased her.
Between the two of them, the hilt of the blade was always in Seoryeong’s hand.
“How did you know there was someone there?”
At his question, Seoryeong answered as if it were nothing special.
“I just... know. You know how, when the wind blows, you know which way it’s blowing? Or when it rains, you know why it’s raining? It’s like that... I just feel it.”
At her reply, Myungdo asked his second question.
“Then... couldn’t you have stopped it? With your divine power.”
A faint sense of guilt weighed down his voice. As if recalling the sight of a child shriveled to skin and bone, Myungdo hadn’t taken a single spoonful of the soup in front of him.
Seoryeong dragged that soup bowl over to herself.
“See this on my arm? What do you think this is.”
“Yes. You’re wearing a Five-Blessings cord and a wooden bracelet.”
“The Five-Blessings cord is correct, but the bracelet isn’t just wood. That’s wrong!”
Seoryeong spoke while chewing up Myungdo’s share of the soup.
“This is a restraint. It seals my divine power. Because of this, I can only use about one-tenth of my power. Even so, it’s better than before. I’d divided my power and stored it in the bracelet Jeongan was wearing.”
At the name Jeongan, a flicker of loneliness crossed Seoryeong’s face—then vanished at once.
As if she had never missed her at all.
“When it broke, a tiny bit came back. Of course, compared to the power I still have sealed up, it’s nothing!”
“Why did you seal your divine power in the first place?”
At that question, Seoryeong set down the spoon she was holding. Her expression turned serious in a way he hadn’t seen until now.
“Why do you think? Someone with power like mine... just my presence alone is enough for others to sense it.”
Seoryeong’s gentle eyes sharpened in an instant, brimming with killing intent.
“Where they are, what they’re doing, whether they’re alive or dead.”
Her mocking voice cut through the chilly night air.
“Well... anyway, as things are now, it’s hard for me to sharply sense Yeomga’s presence. I can’t break the restraint just to hide myself. Still, if I use my mental strength, I can manage to some extent.”
Seoryeong roughly picked up a carrot from the table and chewed on it. Myungdo nodded briefly.
“The one who nearly became a child-ghost talisman earlier has failed even as a curse-spirit, so there should be no more business for us here. Once it’s daylight, I’ll make preparations at once.”
Myungdo’s words were true, to a degree. The child’s body had already been cremated and burned, leaving nothing behind. To command a soul as a curse-spirit, a part of the physical body was required.
As Myungdo rose first from the platform and went to ask the innkeeper for a room, Seoryeong muttered behind him.
“Who decided there’s no more business?” freeweɓnovel.cøm
She lifted her head and looked up at the sky, and darkness pooled in her eyes.
A murky sky without a single star loomed as if it were about to swallow up the Heavenly Vein Land whole.
“This place is already full of malice....”
* * *
IP 85.152, who had been managing the trending posts in real time, noticed a particular thread that caught their eye.
[This is just my guess, but I think Seoryeong almost became Yeomga’s curse-spirit in the past.jpg]
Her obsessive fixation on eating in front of Jeongan, the way she got teary-eyed when she found Saetani, and more than anything, how she understands that child’s position way too well...T_T The way she compulsively stuffs food into her mouth the moment she sees Saetani feels like foreshadowing. I was wondering why she’d risk her life to get revenge on Yeomga, but if Yeomga brought her in as “family” to turn her into a curse-spirit, I’d do the same.
“This is insane....”
IP 85.152 let out an unintentional groan.
Now that they’d seen it framed this way, Seoryeong felt even more pitiful. Comments agreeing with the analysis quickly piled up, and the recommendation count shot up.
Watching the analysis post become a trending thread in an instant, IP 85.152 made a vow.
“I’m gonna analyze the hell out of this too....”
With years of musical-theater fan experience under their belt, there was no way they were going to lose to drama fans when it came to interpretation.
“Hey.”
In the dead of night, Myungdo woke to the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) small hand shaking him. Seoryeong jerked her chin lightly.
“Come out.”
Myungdo raised no questions and obediently followed Seoryeong.
Their footsteps overlapped softly as they exited the inn. Seoryeong’s destination was near the inn, in the back courtyard.
Someone was crouched there.
“Hmm-. Hmmm-.”
A woman was humming softly as she cradled something in her arms, rocking it gently.
“Looks like you love it a lot?”
Seoryeong spoke to her. The woman glanced back and smiled brightly, nodding.
“Even though it’s not your own child.”
She was the stepmother of Janghwa and Hongryeon. At Seoryeong’s words, the woman carefully hugged the bundle of old clothes in her arms even tighter. For a moment, it was as if her sanity had fully returned; her posture held a certain dignity.
“I gave birth with my heart, so they are my children. I don’t mind being pointed at and called a stepmother, but I’m afraid the children might hear. Please don’t say such things.”
“Really? Then... where are those beloved children of yours right now?”
Seoryeong snapped her fingers. Click-.
The moment she did, the woman’s movements as she rocked the bundle of old clothes came to a halt.
Ssssk-. Crawling over on all fours, she clutched at Seoryeong’s waistband, her eyes rolling back as she screamed.
“Janghwa! Hongryeon! Janghwa! Hongryeon!”
The gentle, loving face from just moments ago was gone, replaced by a grimace twisted with pain and despair.
“Where are my children? Huh? Where are my children? Have you seen them? My daughters, where are they? Huh? You’ve seen them, right? You saw them, didn’t you? Huh?”
Seoryeong lifted the stepmother’s chin with her index finger as she desperately searched for her children.
“Want me to find them?”
The woman couldn’t even answer, only sobbing and choking as she cried. She nodded frantically.
Seoryeong pulled the stepmother’s hands away from her leg and pressed a blade against them.
“Quietly... think about that feeling.”
Red blood flowed down along her lifeline. The blood collected in the gourd made a sloshing sound.
Seoryeong bent down and met the stepmother’s gaze.
“When you saw the bodies, wasn’t there something strange? There had to be. Even just one thing. Something different from usual... a sense of wrongness.”
At those words, the stepmother, who had been staring blankly with tears streaming down her face, spoke.
“There was a flower scent.... Very... strong, and heavy....”
Listening to her, Seoryeong tilted her head to the side. Her eyes sharpened, as if she’d caught onto something.
* * *
The next day, from early morning, two men were pounding on the doors of the brothel. Bang bang bang-! The lively sound echoed even beyond the doors.
“Is anyone there-!”
The man calling out with a grin was decked out in expensive items from head to toe. He was a face never before seen in this Heavenly Vein Land.
“Yes, sir.”
Seeing the handsome man, the young girl’s cheeks flushed slightly, and he put on a sly demeanor.
“To be greeted by such a cute girl—seems I’ve come to a good place.”
He reached into his robe, pulled out a few coins, pressed them into the girl’s hand, and said,
“Then call for the most beautiful flower here. I’ll buy this place for the day.”
As the man in the pale violet robe walked in, his garments fluttering elegantly, another man in a dark blue robe followed behind him with a sigh.
“My, my....”
The innocent girl stared in awe, clutching the coins.
The two men were Seoryeong and Myungdo.
* * *
“Is that really true?”
“I’m telling you it is, unni! Geumsun heard it. Apparently, as soon as the market opened today, there were two men who spent an outrageous amount of money at the cloth shop. I think it must be those guests.”
The girl chattered excitedly, her face flushed.
“They have such big hands—everything they pick is top quality! They almost tried to buy up everything in the market, I swear.”
“I see. Well, a guest is a guest... let’s close the brothel doors for today.”
Dressed neatly, Hwayeong walked toward the guests who had arrived so early. Laughter and lively music spilled noisily beyond the doors.
Inside, there was one pale-faced man who looked like nothing but money, and another who carried himself with a heavy presence.
‘Coming to a brothel at daybreak—pathetic fools, no doubt....’
The girl playing the geomungo glanced subtly at Hwayeong. It seemed Hwayeong’s suspicion that they were troublesome customers was right.
Hwayeong sat down beside Seoryeong and lifted a bottle of liquor.
“With such honored guests visiting this deep mountain valley, this Hwayeong will offer you a drink.”
That was when it happened.
Seoryeong flipped the hand holding the cup upside down. Drip-. Clear liquor spilled across the table.
At that slight act of violence, the hands of the girl playing the geomungo paused.
“What I want to drink isn’t this kind of cheap, shoddy liquor.”
Seoryeong, dressed in a pale violet robe, tilted her head playfully.
“Snow-White Flower liquor.”
At those words, Hwayeong’s expression stiffened.
