BBS (86)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 

〈Chapter 86〉
 

The situation outside was much more serious than before.

The old house looked bluish as if it was submerged in water. Each step felt like they were floating. They were not walking, they had to swim.

They searched through the sarangchae’s[1] servant quarters and all alcoves. The moment they opened the door of the warehouse he entered a moment ago, some things resembling black water snakes pounced from the darkness in the corner, they gathered and swayed like a water current.

“Away!”

When Yu Dan stepped forward, Baek Ran looked at him with a dumbfounded face. He casually swung his spear and the monster pouncing from the corner instantly vanished.

He forgot for a moment. This fox was a yokai that lived for over thousands of years and was extremely powerful. Yu Dan lowered his hand in embarrassment. He spoke quickly, before he could hear something like ‘don’t meddle’.

“Everything is running wild.”

“This house was taken over by a wicked energy. However, this place doesn’t seem to be the origin of it.”

“Right. To begin with, doesn’t this sarangchae look clean?”

“If we go this way, we will find the outer buildings where families of younger dokkaebi live. If we go that way, we will find the haengnangchae[2] where the unmarried live, and if we go that way, we will find the inner house, where the elders and married women live. Where should we go?”

Yu Dan thought deeply.

“Haengnangchae feels suspicious to me, the outer buildings feel suspicious and even the inner house feels suspicious too. What is that? Why is it so confusing?”

“The outer buildings are the closest, let’s start there. But it feels like one very big illusion. You’re now my ward.”

Finally, he heard some nonsense.

“No, I should’ve said a magnifying glass.”

“Stop it. At least treat me as a person.”

“This is public property, so I hope You’re going to treat it carefully, not damage it.”

“Seriously? Why won’t you just take my eye?”

Yu Dan grumbled as he left sarangchae.

After passing through the wide garden, a group of small independent tile-roofed houses appeared. Yu Dan felt anew how big was the Susanchae. It was probably dokkaebi’s sorcery, right? The lumber, stones and even the soil under his feet, nothing seemed ordinary, but there was no time to look around right now. Yu Dan climbed the maru of a side building and pulled the handle of the glass door, opening it.

Thick energy flooded him in an instant.

“How can it…?”

Water flooded his mouth. Baek Ran shook his head, as he mimicked blocking his mouth. He seemed to mean ‘don’t say anything’. When he nodded, his hair swayed in the water.

How could this be?

Every time he breathed out, bubbles rose up. The hanging scrolls on the wall waved gently, and the flower vases and small trinkets bobbed up and down, like they were about to float away at any moment. The leaves of flowers swayed like seaweed.

The eyes of the fox yokai, who took the lead, changed to a dazzling golden. His hair and reticulated pattern on his back shimmered with light. Yu Dan looked up. Through the ripples, there was a dazzling glory of something that was probably the sun.

Nonsense. It couldn’t be, right?

He couldn’t breathe. He has spent too long underwater. As he floundered, Baek Ran grabbed him and pushed a talisman into his hands. At last, he could breathe.

Just one. If you lose it, you’re dead.

After Baek Ran said by waving his hands, he held the spear and took the lead. Cheon-ho’s tails spread out, forming a perfect nine branched pattern. Different water spirits and monsters swarmed around them. Some of them even came to Yu Dan’s side. Baek Ran turned around and waved his hand again.

I’ll deal with the things in front of us.

Yu Dan nodded. It meant ‘I’m going to have a good look around then’.

The light from above their heads spread in all directions. Things like books, brushes and smoking pipes were floating together like fish. It was like a strange sea. Yu Dan followed after Baek Ran, moving carefully while looking around.

When they entered a corridor again, something vague caught his eye on the other side.

What was it?

He tapped Baek Ran. After he pointed out the place to the fox, who looked back, he swimmingly approached and Baek Ran followed.

Strange air bubbles were violently pouring out from the gap in the floor. It was similar to thermal vents in deep sea, which ejected hot water. Something was clearly there.

Baek Ran stretched out his hand into the bubbles, but couldn’t catch it. It just narrowly avoided his fingers. Yu Dan captured the thing that kept trying to escape instead. It felt like grabbing a nape of a yokai, who was causing harm, like always.

Something fell into his hand.

At that moment, they were swept up by a powerful wave.

The strong current rose and mermaids swarmed from all directions like shooting arrows. All of them angry. ‘Let go of that thing’, their ugly faces twisted and teeth flashed like spears, threatening Yu Dan.

Baek Ran’s eyes sharpened. He held up the spear, threatening them in turn. The brilliance of Cheon-ho’s golden light became so strong it could pierce eyes, but the mermaids didn’t retreat even a little.

At that moment, Yu Dan waved his hand.

I don’t think it’s that!

Baek Ran looked at him.

What is this human doing right now?

The fox yokai’s inhuman eyes were filled with such a doubt.

Yu Dan pointed to the mermaids. If you look closely, they weren’t glaring at him, but at the horn in his hand. That was what stimulated them. Like they discovered the dokkaebi tried to light up fire to burn down the mermaids. They hated this thing. Even when they first met, they seemed to be enraged because of it.

After diligently and patiently explaining a few times, as if Baek Ran finally understood, he lightly nodded and stepped back. He held his spear ready just like before, and seemed full of tension like he would attack straight away if a problem arose.

There, there. I won’t harm you.

Without looking away from the mermaids, Yu Dan slowly put the horn away.

The mermaids approached them. One suddenly thrust itself before him. When the terrifying face suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, Yu Dan flinched.

They burst out into giggles. Cloud of water droplets burst fourth, shrouding his vision. Yu Dan felt dizzy. Powerful current stirred and his body was swept up in it, he floundered and then suddenly he was floating in the water.

This was a real sea. Among the enormous seaweed forest sunlight pushed through the surface and softly scattered. Schools of fish slowly moved among them. Thud, thud. Simple beating sound was heard in the distance.

A small mermaid appeared from somewhere. Her scales sparkled like jewels, she was a cute and pretty mermaid. They came one after another, quickly forming a group. Like they wanted to swim together, they softly pushed and pulled Yu Dan. On an impulse, he left his body to the current.

The mermaids swum and played in a warm and soft sea. This place was very comfortable. He didn’t feel the weight of his body at all. This was the first time he felt so cozy. No, was it the first time? Somehow…

He felt like he wanted to abandon everything. But he couldn’t really do so. Even if he wanted to leave everything behind, there were things he couldn’t let go. The small thing in his palm. The thing he took out from the crack in the floor. Yu Dan tightly clenched the hand that tried to pry open, and stared at the mermaids.

“Who are you?”

The mermaids smiled. Air bubbles rose and tickled his face.

“Why are you laughing? Tell me. Who are you really?”

When he tried to catch one, the mermaids scattered. No matter how much he stretched out his hand, he couldn’t catch them.

「We were born in the water. You’re one of us.」

“Me…?”

The embrace of the soft and warm sea seemed to be hugging him. His mind became hazy. This was so comfortable. To the point he never wanted to leave… His consciousness blacked out.

At that moment.

The peaceful sea suddenly was dyed black.

When the water changed, the mermaids’ appearances twisted in horrible ways. In an instant, all of them died and floated lifelessly.

Yu Dan struggled.

It felt like the darkness of the world tried to swallow him for eternity too. However, he couldn’t allow it. If that was the case, it would have already happened a long time ago. He opened his eyes wide and looked around.

He saw a thick pillar in front of him.

Swimming with all his might, he barely grabbed the pillar, escaping from the water.

When he felt the firm ground under his elbows, he finally gasped for held back breath. It was humid, but at least it could be called air, and his lungs worked in full force.

Yu Dan rubbed his eyes and raised his head. Baek Ran was looking down at him.

“How on earth did You get in there?”

“Where am I?”

He hit his head the moment he tried to rise up. He realized that he was under the maru.

“How on earth did I get here?”

“Isn’t that the question I just asked? Don’t hit Your head.”

Unlike his scolding words, the fox’s eyes shined. At last you’ve found something, huh? His eyes were saying.

“Wait a moment.”

Yu Dan crawled out, careful not to bash against maru again. Of course, he was still clenching his right hand. He was clenching it so hard he couldn’t immediately open it.

“Look. I found this.”

“Wait a moment. Don’t open it yet.”

Baek Ran took out a red cloth and wrapped Yu Dan’s tightly clenched fist in it. He waited for a moment, and then carefully unwrapped it.

“Now You can open it.”

Opening his fist, they found a small and cloudy bead in his palm. They felt a very ominous energy from within it. Whatever it was, deeply dark emotions were powerful and condensed.

“Amazing. Even after a turn of clearing, it’s still this bad?”

“What is it?”

“Well.”

Baek Ran closely scrutinized the bead.

“It’s a mermaid bead. Tears of mermaids become pearls. Perhaps it’s a mermaid tear? But it doesn’t look like a pearl. What did You see when the mermaids dragged You in?”

“It was like always when I watch someone die again. They were swimming together in the sea, it felt extremely good. But suddenly the sea changed. When the water changed, the mermaids turned into monsters and died.”

“That’s a mermaid legend.”

“Mermaid legend?”

“Mermaids can only live in the waters they were born in. If they’re put in different water, their pretty looks turn ugly and they die. So in the old times, when a mermaid was caught, they would be let out into the sea right away.”

“There really were mermaids? In our country?”

“There are a few records left. For instance, there is a very detailed record in Ŏu yadam[3] of a story about a sighting of a mermaid by the governor Kim Bing-ryeong of Heupguk-hyeon in Gangwon Province, her face was pretty, her countenance exactly like that of a human, and she was said to shed white tears. In such legends, fishermen mainly catch mermaids by coincidence. Of course, there were some who secretly sold them greedily for money and were beaten with sticks after they turned ugly and passed away.”

“Mermaids turn ugly and die because of water changes…”

Yu Dan tried to work his brain. He abruptly thought of something.

“Didn’t the mermaids, who are harassing us here right now, perhaps die because of environment pollution? Sea is exploited a lot. So they lose their home and they die. The tears they shed when dying are filled with that resentment.”

“How plausible.”

He wasn’t doing it a day or two. Seeing Baek Ran’s expression, Yu Dan soured.

“Where is the serious error again?”

“Rather than a serious error, it’s just full of holes.”

Baek Ran replied.

With that, Yu Dan agreed too.

Whatever it was, he could just let go of it when he wanted to let go, but something bothered him a little. It was like a splinter under his fingernail, it was small but it kept annoying him. There was no way of just ignoring it. That was where the cracks appear. He learned it the painful way after meeting this fox yokai.

“You’re one of us…”

“What did You just say?”

“That was what the mermaids said when I asked them who are they. ‘We were born in the water. You’re one of us too’. But I’m not a mermaid.”

Baek Ran suddenly jerked his head.

“Perhaps they are not mermaids after all?”

“What do you mean? Not mermaids?”

“Don’t You know there is a big different between what You see and what is real? Who first spoke of the ‘mermaids’?”

“The uncle-ssi’s elder. He said that the other dokkaebi saw mermaids.”

“As expected, they’re not mermaids. They only look like mermaids. Show me what You saw a moment ago.”

Before he even finished speaking, Baek Ran swung his spear. Just as something like a tuft of soft hair brushed his forehead, the scenery around them changed.

It was that peaceful sea from a moment ago. Sunlight scattered in the forest of enormous seaweeds. Schools of fish swimming around. And the thud thud. That simple and regular sound.

The fox yokai opened his eyes wide.

“Isn’t that the sound of a heartbeat?”

“Whose?”

“Let go of that bead right now!”

But his hand retracted by itself and didn’t open. Baek Ran grabbed it and tried to forcibly open it, but it was already too late.

「Not you.」

The mermaids’ laughter spread.

「Only you. One of us.」

The sea current swept and coiled around Yu Dan again.

Heartbeat sound…

That’s right. He forgot about that being, he immediately thought the sound was so familiar. It was the mother’s heartbeat. All humans are born and meet for the first time here. In their mothers’ amniotic fluid. He finally realized. As Baek Ran said, they were no mermaids. They were fetuses.

Fetuses were drifting around. Swimming in the warm and cozy sea. Sometimes the small hands and feet wriggle. Sometimes they babble.

And then, suddenly a pitch black energy swept over them.

Diseases. Harmful substances. Unforeseen incidents… The deadly energy they can’t block no matter what they do. It dyed the cozy sea black.

But they weren’t even born yet.

Their small hearts stopped cold before they were born. Their wriggling in pain forms were wrapped in crimson flames.

Were they cremated?

… No.

It wasn’t cremation.

Someone intentionally heated them up to enormous temperatures. Several times, repeatedly. The ashes of bones melted like shedding tears and hardened into beads.

Hot…

He came back to his senses.

Yu Dan looked down at the bead in his palm. He shivered as a chill seized him, and he threw the bead down. Baek Ran hastily picked up the bead that fell to the ground.

“Put it down! That- that’s not a mermaid, it’s a baby corpse!”

“Yes?”

Baek Ran was surprised. He expected this fox to also throw down the bead, but though he hesitated, he didn’t throw it away.
 

*~*~*
 

[1] sarangchae — 상랑채 part of hanok that is the patriarch/men quarters, where they live and entertain their guests.

[2] haengnangchae — 행랑채 long buildings at the both sides of the gate. It was the place where servants usually lived.

[3] Ŏu yadam — 어우야담 written by Yu Mongin, a civil official from Joseon period, it’s a collection of stories and anecdotes.
 

Translator’s note: Sorry, can we come back to Yu Dan trying to protect Baek Ran for a moment. That was cute and hilarious.

 

 

Patron thank you note:

Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Carissa bispinosa’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Al, please accept this Carissa carandas’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Dust, please accept this Carissa macrocarpa’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Maru, please accept this Carissa tetramera’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, kamisonk, please accept this Acokanthera schimperi’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Kasimir Ilmonen, please accept this Beaumontia grandiflora’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Tara Hess, please accept this Wrightia arborea’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Ice, please accept this Vallaris glabra’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Hematite, please accept this Amphineurion marginatum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Deflubs, please accept this Apocynum androsaemifolium’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, TheFloorGuy, please accept this Apocynum venetum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Akemidy, please accept this Apocynum cannabinum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, vicky moch, please accept this Mandevilla sanderi’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Diana-Maria, please accept this Mandevilla boliviensis’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Ch W, please accept this Mandevilla brachysiphon’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, aila ilzyana, please accept this Chonemorpha fragrans’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, MeltedMochi, please accept this Mandevilla rugellosa’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Thank you patron, Kia, please accept this Mandevilla sanderi’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Links to support this translation and access to 8 advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)

> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations

> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator

> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd

Did you see a mistake? 🐞