Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 25⟩
⟨Qingming⟩
The sky beyond the golden letters of the window…
Was a really sky-like color.
Disappointed that his expressive power couldn’t come up with nothing but this, Yu Dan turned away his gaze.
In the space behind the glass wall, a man in an apron was wrapping up a cake.
That day. After the day when he was possessed by misfortune, he always bought cakes in this place. It was pretty good considering that he was in a hurry and entered randomly.
There was nothing to say about the taste of cakes. But if he were to trust the Banwoldang’s yokai’s words, they weren’t just good, they were the best. Anyhow, he didn’t have a delicate palate to nitpick over the taste of the cake. The reason he liked this place was because no word was said.
The owner, sprouting a thick beard, was very reticent. He never asked useless things like ‘Whose birthday is it?’. If they just pointed to the cake they wanted to buy, he would say got it and wrap it up.
Sometimes, when the store door just opened, and he entered, the owner would be making a cake. At those times, no matter if there was a customer or not, he would only come out from the glass box after the cake was completed.
Before, Yu Dan would come out, wander around and then come back, but these days he didn’t go out and just watched. The pretty decorations that came out from those thick and stubby hands were amazing. Was it what a craftsman was like? There was nothing he did sloppily.
Even the ribbons were equally amazing. Even though he surely said that “Such dainty ribbon isn’t necessary[1].”, the owner always tied them. It felt like stubbornly saying ‘Ribbon completes the cake’.
While he watched, the wrapping was completed.
After accepting the box, he was about to leave, but the owner motioned for him to wait. He took out one of the numerous cards safekept in the drawer, and after stamping it, he handed it to him with a small cake as a bonus.
What? Was it already twelve?
What’s more, there is no way that he remembers me, right?
Yu Dan held two cakes and left the store.
He never said anything, but wouldn’t the owner have a strange thought in the back of his head that if he keeps buying like this, he will get diabetes? If he told him that they were in fact eaten by yokai, what would he say?
As he walked, while thinking that, a strange sight entered his vision.
Some kind of ghost? A woman with freely flowing long hair was stepping on the sky and climbing up. Under her toes, white clouds stretched out.
… What?
He tilted his head as he headed to the Banwoldang.
The twins were out at the front yard. While putting their heads together, they plucked petals one after one, while mumbling.
“Comes, not comes, comes, not comes…”
“What are you doing?”
The two turned around and were startled.
“As You can see, we are doing a divination if You’re coming or not.”
“But you came? Strange. The fortune reading said you won’t come.”
“You told me to come!”
“Even so, you could have not come.”
“Or You could have been unable to come.”
“Why is it so complicated? Okay, done. Why did you tell me to come?”
At that Chaeu grinned.
“Because today is Qingming, You know?”
“A what?”
“A day when you do spring plowing.”
Looking at the side, there was Do-ssi holding a hoe.
“If you plow the field during the Qingming, the harvest will be very good. This here is this uncle’s field. Everything that grows in this field is 100% organic.”
“And if weather is bright during the Qingming, you will catch a lot of fish that year. Look at this. Even this year we will eat fish until our stomachs burst, huh?”
Heuk-yo, who sat on the maru[2], spoke. She was hugging a round fishbowl and looking at it with pride.
“What kind of fish is in that bowl?”
“Stupid nonsense. This is my fishing pond.”
The instant she spoke, a few blue fishes jumped out from the fishbowl. Their whole bodies sprayed on the maru.
“What the hell?! Isn’t just one of those fishes much bigger than the fishbowl?”
“It was like this from the beginning. Let’s set spectating for later.”
“Please come in first.”
He was dragged away by the twins.
After entering inside, he was surprised. All kinds of yokai were holding bowls and standing in a long line.
What? Were they doing some food service?
After climbing the upper floor, he found Baek Ran sharing something with the yokai together with the frog jeongseung[3]. Looking how it was taken out from the huge brazier, it was a flame.
“Why are you sharing a flame?”
“This is a new flame of the year.”
The frog jeongseung replied politely.
“During Qingming, the willow wood and elm wood is mixed to make a new fire. As king-nim shares this fire with officials and chiefs from all eight provinces, this is called a Fire Gift. Our yokai instead of the king-nim receives the new flame from Cheonho-nim. Because the fire is very nice, when Qingming comes, everyone lines up like this.”
“That’s why we called you. Why won’t Yu Dan also receive it?”
“It warms the home and chases away wicked small spirits.”
At those words, his ears perked up.
“Really?”
“Ehem. Now that I think about it, in the old days people competed to receive it, but these days I didn’t see them at all.”
“Can I get it too?”
Yu Dan looked at Baek Ran and asked.
“In the first place, You came late, so please wait in the store.”
…. he said that, so it seemed he would give it.
So he sat down in the study corner and observed.
The yokai stepped forward one after one and received the spark. The flame seemed warm and lively. Everyone carefully hugged the bowl as if it was a treasure and stepped aside.
He waited for the moment they were about to pass him and asked:
“Were you a kind yokai? Do you have characters worthy of receiving it?”
“Ye? Ah, ye…”
The yokai broke into a cold sweat and climbed down the stairs. After he did this a few times, Baek Ran said a word:
“Please don’t do that.”
It turned very boring almost immediately.
It was a bad boredom though. Because even though he hated books, the smell of books wasn’t bad. As he tried to catch wind of the scent of time, his head began to turn dark at some point.
He realized that at some point he started to doze off.
But he can’t sleep here…
He tried to wake up, but couldn’t. The frog looked in his direction.
“Human seems sleepy.”
“Because he always lacks sleep. He’s either enduring harassment or is being tormented by dreams.”
“He has a lot of hardships, eh? But he is still so young.”
“Is it young? If You multiply it by seven, he is one hundred nineteen years old.”
“Why multiply by seven?”
“I just wanted to multiply it for some reason.”
“Don’t You usually multiply by seven when calculating a dog’s age?”
“Is that so? I had no idea.”
The sly conversation between the two was very annoying.
However, he was just going to sleep. He couldn’t endure it any longer. He was very sleepy.
He leaned his head against the cool bookshelf and escaped into the world of sleep, but…
He heard a tiny voice calling him from somewhere.
“Hello there, human-nim.”
“Uh?”
Yu Dan opened his eyes, startled.
The fox and frog were still sharing the spark, so they were busy.
“Here. Over here.”
He slowly stood up and looked for the voice.
After turning around the bookshelf, he found another room. All things piled up there were extremely old and different from the things he saw in Do-ssi’s warehouse. There were things that he saw for the first time and couldn’t even categorize as antiques as they were commonly defined.
“Over here, human-nim.”
He heard the voice, but didn’t see anything.
“Where?”
“Lower. Even lower.”
He looked down and at last discovered something.
Stuck between the gap between boxes, a tiny figure suddenly appeared. A long jeogori[4]. Wavy waist belt. A pleated skirt. It was a girl that seemed to jump out from the Three Kingdoms period.
What? Was she some kind of ancient fairy?
He knealt down and examined her in detail.
“Who are you?”
The girl put her hands on her chest in relief.
“Ah, at last someone saw me. I was shouting every year, but no one ever found me. First, please help me to get out from here.”
Yu Dan looked at her suspiciously.
“What if you’re a wicked yokai?”
“No! I’m not! What wicked?! I serve Jacheongbi-nim, who brings good harvest to humans!”
“Jacheongbi? Is it another kind of some evil king?”
“No way, You don’t know? Graceful heavens! How did it happen? This world…”
The girl flopped down. She floundered in despair as if the sky crumbled and the earth split opened.
He closed his right eye and looked at her in detail.
From the beginning, he was just bullying her, but she didn’t seem wicked at all. More than anything else, she was too small to do anything bad.
As expected, she seemed to be a fairy.
He grasped her back, picked her up and took her out.
“Oh! Thank You, human-nim!”
The fairy regained her energy straight away. When taken out, she was even smaller. She looked like an exquisitely crafted doll.
“Were you always this small?”
“No. I got smaller. Originally I was bigger. Much bigger.”
The fairy spread her arms and jumped. Because of her rich expression and distinctive movements, it was very fun to watch.
“Why did you become smaller?”
“I lost my cane. When I descended to the land for the first time, I was too excited, and I guess I left it somewhere. I followed the traces and barely manged to come here, but then somehow ended up trapped in the box gap.”
“If it’s a cane, is it over there?”
“No. It’s not in this room. Long time ago someone took it and left.”
“So you’re asking me to find it right now?”
“It wasn’t exactly what I was thinking, but I would be glad!”
The fairy very naturally jumped on Yu Dan’s palm. They descended to the first floor. There were even more canes there.
“Is there anything special about it?”
“Um… It’s a sacred cane bestowed by Jacheongbi-nim. It’s filled with the clear spirit of the sky, the soft heart of the wind and the rich energy of mature grains.”
“Why is it so vague? Are you trying to write a poem?”
At first, he shouted like this, but then tried to think it over.
Clear spirit of the sky. Heart of the wind. Rich energy of mature grains.
Okay. Doesn’t it mean he should try to feel that energy?
He closed his right eye again.
He made a circle around the first floor, surveying all corners. At some point, a field full of grain flashed before his eyes.
“Here it is!”
After stretching his hand out, he grabbed something hard. As he opened both of his eyes, leaning against the wall, made from a flexible wood was…
“Fly swatter!”
“Yes?”
The fairy was terrified. As she jumped down and touched the cane, her face turned pale.
“My cane! It became a fly swatter here!? Aah, this so wrong! Too murky! It was completely broken catching countless flies for ages! It lost all its supernatural power!”
“Then what should we do?”
“Quickly! It has to receive energy of good land!”
“Good land? Ah, right. Biological farm!”
He took the fairy and ran to the field in the yard.
Do-ssi wasn’t there. There was only a hoe rolling around. He dug in the middle of the garden, buried the fly swatter and waited.
However, nothing happened.
The fairy sunk into despair.
“It became all wrong. Even this land is already polluted. The cane’s supernatural powers cannot return.”
Then she collapsed on the ground and buried her head.
“I can’t go back now.”
“… Okay?”
He didn’t know how he should react.
Yu Dan dug the ground and took out the fly swatter.
“Let’s go to the yokai here and ask. If they used someone else’s cane as a fly swatter, they should do something. So we should ask them.”
“Somehow human-nim also seems sulky.”
“Naturally. I want to see you return.”
The fairy raised her head. He shook off the soil covering her hair and face.
“Does it mean to cheer up?”
“Nothing like that, it means that if I find trash, I want to clean it up.”
“It seems that I’m being treated as trash, but anyhow, I feel better. Perhaps thanks to that, I suddenly remember something. There may be a way.”
“What way?”
“A sacrifice!”
“I’m a bit busy.”
“I don’t mean to offer human-nim as a sacrifice! A good food! When pretty and good food made by someone with great care is set, and I pray, I’ll borrow power of Jacheongbi-nim.”
“Pretty and good food made by someone with great care…?”
Hearing those words, he thought about something immediately.
Yu Dan ran to the kitchen.
He heard the whispering voices from the tea-drinking space. It seemed that everyone quit what they were doing, went somewhere and ate the cake.
The small cake received as a bonus was still there. He was glad he got two. While thanking the bear-like owner for his immaculate service, he took the box and went outside.
“Will this do?”
Seeing a small and pretty strawberry cake, the fairy’s face lit up.
“Wow! I have no idea if it will do!”
“Your expression and words don’t match.”
“Anyhow, I’ll try!”
The fairy put the cake in front of the cane, bent down, and then pressed her forehead to the ground and prayed for a while.
At some point, the cane began to glow.
While the light gradually grew stronger, it spread out in all directions and covered the cane. The whole cane was shining with dazzling light.
Then it came out with a ‘puff’.
The cane turned pitch-black. Yu Dan stared at the fairy.
“That’s all?”
That was ridiculous.
Its appearance didn’t change from before even a bit. The only change was a pair of blue wings sprouting from the back.
“Indeed. It seems to be all.”
Yu Dan scratched his head.
“However it’s fine! Please look here!”
She showed off the flapping wings. Her face was full of joy.
“Even though they’re small, it’s fine. I can flap them more diligently than others. I’ll be able to arrive in heaven today.”
Finishing her words, she suddenly flew up. She didn’t disappear straight away, but made a circle around the Banwoldang.
“Ah, I got indebted to this place in the meantime, huh? That fox-nim… He is still staying here, huh?”
The fairy cupped her two hands towards the floor where the study was and bowed her head.
“Thank You. And You too, human-nim.”
She swiftly flew in his direction and poked him on the forehead. Something hard and pointy.
… A beak?
A blue bird was flying in the sky. Behind the tail of the bird, which cut through the wind and soared high into the sky, a long streak of white clouds was drawn. Observing it seemed as if they were sucked into the blue sky.
Jingle-jingle. He heard the sound of a bell. The blue-like-sky smoke scattered.
“You truly are going to follow.”
He heard the fox yokai’s voice. He seemed to have smirked at the end of those words.
“Huhu. Because there is no way a human can do it.”
“We never know. That eye may find an open way to heaven.”
“Is that so? Well. It can see well things that even we can’t see. I’m glad that thanks to that such ones can return even though they’re really late… But Cheonho-nim isn’t going back?”
“I’ll stay for a little bit longer.”
“’Little bit’ will soon become a hundred years. Don’t You hate this world? Can’t You still let go of Your attachments? Why not return now? Everyone is looking forward to it. But that old man returns alone again, huh?”
He heard a long sigh.
Yu Dan opened his closed eyes.
The conversation partner wasn’t the frog as he expected.
It was a mysterious animal resembling a deer. Its whole body was clear blue, and white beard and fluffy fur fluttered elegantly.
“Who…?”
The instant he asked, it vanished.
Only a lonely old bone fragment was laying on the desk.
“Lies.”
Baek Ran mumbled.
“There is no one waiting or to bring along now.”
He wrapped the bone in a cloth and put in a drawer.
“Everyone knows that you can’t let go of your attachments, right? If they come out like this every Qingming, no matter how deep you bury it.”
He looked in direction of Yu Dan, who said that, with a smile.
“I sometimes hate humans with good ears.”
“Only sometimes? How unexpected.”
“Because usually I hate them very much.”
“So shall be it.”
Yu Dan pushed himself up against the bookshelf and stood up. His clothes were covered in dirt.
“I’m going to get out of your sight. But before that, can I ask something I’m curious about?”
“Anytime.”
“Who was that fairy, who found her cane a moment ago?”
“It wasn’t a fairy. She is a god.”
“God? Really?”
“Yes. Jacheongbi was originally the main character from a shamanistic song of the Jeju Island, she obtained seeds of five grains in heaven and became the god of agriculture. The girl stuck in the box gap was one of the maidens serving Jacheongbi and one of the eight thousand gods staying on this land at one time.”
“A little girl god, huh?”
“That’s right. During Qingming, people light up new fires and distribute them, plow the fields and do fortune-telling about the year’s fishing, while looking at the waves, but… on Jeju Island it’s also a day when the gods of land ascend to heaven. So usually they would do all the work to avoid gathering the gods’ anger. For instance, fixing crumbled graves or things like that.”
Is that so? The day when the gods return to heaven…
“But why return today of all days?”
“Among the days of the year, it’s today when the sky becomes clear.”
At those words, Yu Dan looked above the fox yokai’s head.
The blue sky was visible behind the window sill.
The sky color of the sky was truly bright, so it seemed like a road leading to somewhere. As he quietly gazed up, he seemed to see the gods slowly climbing up, following this road.
Forgetting that he said he would get out, he observed it motionlessly.
After ups and downs, he received a spark from the fox yokai…
It was really nice. The whole house became warm, but the temperature wasn’t too high, and rather a comfortable energy circulated around it. The small spirits swiftly disappeared.
He liked it very much.
A few times every day. He would at it before he went to school, look at it after he returned home, look at it when falling asleep and cherishing it, but the flame merely burned three days and went out. He held a bowl he obtained at the time and went to find it, but was caught by Do-ssi.
“What flame are you looking for when Qingming already passed? More than that, don’t you have something to say about my garden? I worked hard to plow it, so why did you dig it all up?”
Oops…
Do-ssi dragged Yu Dan do the field and gave him a hoe.
Fucked. However, didn’t he bring it upon himself? He sunk down and started digging.
From each place poked with the hoe, a heavy smell of earth arose. It didn’t feel particularly polluted. Was it because he was polluted? With the sunlight scorching his nape, he slowly worked with the hoe.
Heuk-yo, who returned from shopping, saw it. She was startled and ran inside.
“Older brother! Why is this punk playing with dirt in the garden?”
He heard Do-ssi’s voice, replying with something inside.
“What did You say? You gave him a spark?”
Heuk-yo with thumps, she ran in a different direction.
“Why give him a spark? Why did You give it?”
And she lowered her voice.
“Will a human, a housekeeper know to enshrine it in the kitchen? If they don’t do that, won’t it be useless? Yes? Won’t it soon go out, Cheonho-nim?”
“I know.”
“I know.”
“I know.”
The three replied exactly the same.
“However I wanted to call him.” [4]
“I wanted to bring him.”
“I wanted to give it.”
Heuk-yo asked as if dumbfounded.
“Why?”
“Because it’s fun.”
All three replied.
What was that?
Yu Dan, who heard it, frowned.
“Um, is that so? Right. It was fun.”
The serpent yokai understood straight away. Following that, he heard the four’s suppressed laughter.
His blood pressure rose.
Did they think he couldn’t hear them?
Yu Dan threw the hoe and abruptly stood up.
— End of 『 Banwoldang’s Bizarre Story 』 Volume 1
[1] Such dainty ribbon isn’t necessary — He used a polite tone. I repeat, Yu Dan who always uses casual tone to everyone, used a polite tone!
[2] maru — an open floor.
[3] jeongseung — a position of someone equivalent to prime minister during Joseon.
[4] “However I wanted to call him.” — this should be Baek Ran’s sentence, the “I wanted to bring him.” would be Chaesol and “I wanted to give it.” would be Chaeu
Translator’s note:
This the end of volume, so it should be a good moment to give my thanks.
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