Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 9⟩
“Please stay safe. When You come back…”
Chaeu’s words faded into the distance.
This place was no longer Baek Ran’s study. Dark fog crawled on his skin.
“Don’t let Your eyes wander anywhere.”
In front of him was bright. At some point, the fox’s appearance changed. Just like the previous time when he entered the dark world chased by the misfortune. His hair and ears were dazzling golden. That should be Cheon-ho’s true appearance, right? A shimmering shadow in white clothes made from cunning brilliance, which could bewitch humans.
“I said don’t let Your eyes wander anywhere.”
Hearing the warning again, with difficulty he turned his gaze away and concentrated on the stepping stones under his feet. He knew well he couldn’t turn around and things like that.
“As I said. The rules operating the world in this place are different. It’s dangerous to approach this world with logic. You have to keep a fearful mind, even if it’s just a blade of grass or grain of soil. If You’re not sure, ask Your guts rather than mind.”
“Got it.”
Each time he took a step, it gradually became darker. Soon the darkness turned completely pitch black. He suddenly raised his head at the sound that rang out in the night. At some point, Yu Dan entered a strange forest.
“It’s Mōryō[1] Forest.”
Wherever he looked, there were only trees he saw for the first time in his life. They looked as if their trucks and branches were made out of scorched bones. A bird, sitting on a branch, yelled:
— Fox! Baek….
Baek Ran stretched out his hand, and a dark shadow jumped out of his sleeve and struck the bird. The bird fell down to the ground with a thud.
“It just said a word, and you killed it?”
“I just put it to sleep.”
Baek Ran bowed down and grabbed a bit of green soil from the ground. When scattered in the air, the soil united by itself and drew a strange pattern.
“This way.”
As he followed the fox, a bonfire shimmered in front of them.
Several monsters huddled together, basking in the fire. A bit of a distance from everyone, he saw a being curled up alone. Skinny body was covered by a dirty chimajoegori[2] and she was tightly hugging a white wrapping cloth in her arms.
There was no doubt, that was the Soul Thief.
“Hey, I can go up to here, but…”
Baek Ran’s feet stopped.
“It’s better not to do anything rather than do something incorrectly. Are You really certain of it? Are You really going to pretend to be a monster and mix among them? To rescue the soul of a child you have no relation to? Isn’t it better to go back with me rather than do that?”
Those words felt very sweet.
But when he looked at the bonfire, an unidentifiable feeling surged in him again. The feeling when you look into a deep and dark pond, the mix of an ominous premonition and fear.
However, he shook his head to break free from it.
“I can’t. I didn’t come all the way here to do that. I have to steal that wrapping cloth. Don’t say strange things.”
“Yes.”
The fox stared ahead with no expression on his face.
“As I said before, but the Soul Thief is extremely obsessed with souls. You can’t thoughtlessly ask her to hand it over like You did with others up till now.”
“How do you know about that?”
“Didn’t You tell me? Well, by just looking at that face, I know it. Anyway, You can’t thoughtlessly steal it.”
“I know. Surrender and follow the rules of monsters, right? ‘If the Soul Thief doesn’t hand over the soul wrapping cloth to you with her own hands, even if you steal it, in the end it will return into the Soul Thief’s arms’.”
“Correct. Then I wish You luck. I left the footprints on the road, so when going back, please make sure to step on my footprints. I kindly wish You will keep it in mind.”
“I know. Please stop worrying. I told you to wait and see. You won’t be able to call me a fool again, when I get back the soul and proudly return, so…”
While saying that, he turned around, but…
Baek Ran was already gone.
The hell he suddenly went off to?
He made such a big noise a moment ago, but when he was left alone here, Yu Dan started to truly worry.
Yu Dan hesitantly approached the bonfire.
When he drew closer, the monsters’ profiles gradually revealed themselves clearly. Holding glasses and drinking from one alcohol pot, they looked grotesque, illuminated by the flickering reddish fire.
A stone jangseung[3].
A slender yokai, who looked like a slice of boiled pork pressed from both sides.
A gloomy virgin ghost, whose whole body was torn and scratched by thorns.
A purple-faced old man with a white beard, wearing a dopo[4].
A skull with messy hair.
And the Soul Thief.
Everyone except for the Soul Thief sensed a presence and stared at Yu Dan.
“Yeokkwi came.”
Messy-hair skull said.
“What a strange night. A stone jangseung, hungry ghost, virgin ghost, fake ancestor[5], beheaded ghost, soul thief and even yeokkwi gathered? Really strange night.”
Everyone naturally pulled away and made a space to sit down. As Yu Dan sat down, pretending to be calm, he glanced at the Soul Thief.
A small body with bent shoulders, like that of a child. Under the terribly dirty sleeves and skirt of the cotton chimajeogori, blue skin was revealed. From the disheveled hair, the sparkling eyes of a wild animal stared only at the wrapping cloth.
She indeed seemed extremely attached.
But even so, he had to make her hand it over by herself.
Then there was only one way he could think of.
“Tsk-tsk, what a shame. The soul you did your best to steal is so sick.”
The Soul Thief abruptly raised her head.
He wasn’t confident in acting.
Because he never had a particularly normal conversations with others. Even less times cheating a ghost. Unless it was threatening.
It was good that he caught the Soul Thief’s attention, but what he should say now?
The ghosts had no idea that Yu Dan’s head was exploding from worries. As if it felt highly unusual that the terrifying yeokkwi suddenly threw a word and then fell silent, one or two started to pay attention to them.
“Eh? Look, that soul has an unknown illness.”
Stone jangseung pretended to know.
“Look, Soul Thief. You have to listen closely. There is no ghost who knows more about all kinds of diseases than yeokkwi.”
“I acknowledge that. But I hate yeokkwi. Why did I die? Because the yeokkwi of that very kind spread a plague.”
The virgin ghost said. She glanced towards him with a not so pretty gaze.
“Look, yeokkwi. You should be careful.”
The old man, who was called a fake ancestor, laughed ‘hehe’.
“If a virgin dies, shouldn’t you bury thorns around the coffin so she doesn’t become a virgin ghost? If even those thorns are broken, the world’s worst virgin ghost comes out.”
“Please be quiet, lord-nim. But what kind of evil ghost am I? I just hate looking or touching a moving disease.”
The virgin ghost turned around and lifted the pot to take a sip. Looking closely, the pot was particular. It looked like a person with a jet-black complexion crouched down in the ‘ㄷ’ pose and was made into a bowl.
The moment Yu Dan glanced at it, the pot suddenly grew bigger. The virgin ghost stepped back.
“Don’t play tricks, beheaded.”
She glared at the messy-haired skull and snapped, but the skull retorted.
“I didn’t play any pranks.”
“Don’t lie. You brought that liquor pot.”
While they argued, the Soul Thief glanced at Yu Dan with uneasy eyes. It seemed that she was bothered by his words’ from a moment ago and couldn’t let it go. The two arms clenching the wrapping cloth trembled slightly.
It seemed that he would have to prick her one more time.
“To steal such a soul from all things.”
Yu Dan mumbled as if to himself.
“A boy leaving on the banks of Han River with one noona, eh? He looks healthy, but in fact he is deeply sick. He will disappear in a few days.”
Now the Soul Thief only stared at Yu Dan’s mouth as if to pierce it.
It seemed that he was done. He didn’t trust himself to deceive a monster beyond that. Unexpectedly, he kept in mind that he didn’t have a talent for lying.
“I can exchange him for a different, healthy soul.”
At those words, a clear refusal appeared in the Soul Thief’s two beast-like eyes. Didn’t he say that she would be extremely obsessed with the soul she stole once, and wouldn’t want it to be stolen again? As he recalled those words, he changed his words straight away.
“If you show him to me, I should be able to cure that disease.”
“How a yeokkwi can cure a disease?”
The virgin ghost cut in.
“Isn’t a yeokkwi an expert at spreading diseases? How can you ‘cure disease’? Strange.”
Shit. Was it a mistake?
At those words, the Soul Thief hugged the wrapping cloth tightly and stepped back. It seemed that she became wary again.
How was he going to solve it? He broke into a cold sweat. He was glad that, thanks to the cover of the mask, they didn’t see his panicked expression.
“Aha, I got it!”
Suddenly, the virgin ghost shouted.
“You have secret intentions behind it, eh? What curing! You have to speak straight! In fact, you want to pull out the energy of that unidentifiable disease and take it with you! What a terrible evil! While acting as if you’re helping the Soul Thief, you’re reaping real profits.”
She glared at Yu Dan with a triumphant expression as if she read straight through him. Other ghosts nodded their heads as if at last they understood.
“So that’s how it is. I thought it wasn’t what it sounded like.”
“You may be able to deceive that naive Soul Thief, but it’s impossible with us.”
“A truly shameless yeokkwi, eh?”
It wasn’t their intention, but they helped. The virgin ghosts’ deadly pale face, stained with the blood of the thorns stabs, suddenly looked friendly.
“I don’t know. Do what you like. Because I have nothing to lose here.”
Yu Dan showed his guts once more.
The Soul Thief’s eyes were shaking. She looked between the soul wrapping cloth and Yu Dan and rolled her eyes, it seemed that she fell into a deep worry about what she should do.
“Don’t do that. Just leave that soul in the afterlife and find a new one. If he absorbs that unidentifiable disease, that yeokkwi will get stronger.”
The virgin ghost gave an appropriate push-in again. To let go of the soul she already caught and go find a different soul was not something that the Soul Thief could tolerate at all. It was so good, he wanted to bow to the virgin ghost, who drew a wedge.
As if the Soul Thief at last made up her mind, she wobbly approached him on shaking knees. However, when she stood in front of him, she couldn’t willingly hand over the soul wrapping cloth and hesitated again. It seemed that as a result of her excessive obsession, she hated putting it down even for a moment.
Yu Dan was getting agitated, but he diligently pretended that it was nothing.
“Well, I have nothing to lose here.”
As he turned his gaze, the fake ancestor was taking a sip of alcohol.
“By the way, didn’t you smell a living human from somewhere?”
“Why are you suddenly bringing up humans?”
The virgin ghost criticized.
“There is no way there is a living human here. The moment they cross the border of this world, they would be sucked down to their bone marrow, so no trace would be left.”
At that moment, the liquor pot suddenly grew bigger once again. Fake ancestor yelled:
“Beheaded! Stop playing tricks!”
Messy haired skull jumped.
“I’m truly not playing pranks, sir!”
“Then who is making the liquor pot bigger sometimes? Is that prank fun? Eh? I can’t peacefully drink alcohol, you know?!”
Everyone clamored nosily.
His heart sunk at the mention of the human smell. But luckily, the topic was left alone because of the liquor pot.
The Soul Thief was alone in her anguish, no matter what happened around. And she made her final decision and slowly reached out with the soul wrapping cloth towards him.
At last, the white wrapping cloth was in front of his eyes. Worthy of a soul of a mischievous little rascal, he wriggled a little because of the tight wrapping.
Okay. Let’s bring you home now.
He wanted to quickly stretch his hand out and snatch it, but he patiently endured. His heart was pounding. It felt as if an eternity passed before he touched the wriggling soul wrapping cloth.
“Wait a moment.”
The beheaded ghost, who was listening to everyone argue, suddenly spoke:
“Something is not right. This liquor pot was made to hold the whole Dark Spirit[6]. But the Dark Spirit grows when…”
“When human looks at it!”
The fake ancestor shouted.
“That’s right! There is a human among us, eh!”
At that moment, everything looked as if it was in slow motion.
The monsters jumped from their drinking seats. You? You? Who? They exchanged glances, and then in the instant, their gazes gathered on Yu Dan.
The Soul Thief’s two eyes almost popped out.
At the same time, the soul wrapping cloth landed in his arms. Yu Dan abruptly stood up.
— Human! Human!
The forest yelled with one voice.
He slipped away just a second before the monsters’ arms pounced on him like a snare. The yeokkwi’s mask came off and fell to the ground. Behind him, the terrifying scream of the Soul Thief rang out.
If they caught him, it’d be the end.
Fear put power into his legs. He had never ran so fast in his life before. The cries of monsters gradually became distant.
Yu Dan gasped for breath.
What should he do now? Where should he go?
Right. The fox said he left footsteps, right?
Looking around, he found the footprints, and they indeed looked like the golden light traces on the other side of the forest.
He ran and ran, stepping and following the traces to that side. It wasn’t far from the place where he entered together with Baek Ran. But it seemed that the forest was stretching without an end. In addition, not only the trees were gradually getting bigger and bigger…
Wait a moment.
Yu Dan stopped in his tracks.
Something was not right. When he stood still, it didn’t seem like it was the trees that were growing but his eye-level was getting lower. How could it be? Doubtfully, he looked down.
He saw small hands and feet.
At some point, Yu Dan became a child.
The forest was too big. The world itself was too big. As if urging him to hurry up, the gold traces sparkled, but he couldn’t move any further because of fear.
But he couldn’t end like this.
He had to tightly hold this wrapping cloth and come back. If not, that girl would forever lose her dongsaeng.
Struggling to overcome his fear, he took another step.
As he became a child, his mind was much weaker. It would be better if the fox yokai was at his side. He may be bullied with the word ‘fool’, but wouldn’t it be at least better than being alone?
At some point, numerous people appeared before his eyes.
A person with a broken head. A person charred pitch-black. A person with a cut stomach. A person, whose whole body was covered in granules…
They were all dead people. The procession of the dead, which crossed the border of the world of living and arrived at this precise moment.
Yu Dan froze in place.
At that moment.
*~*~*
[1] Mōryō — here it appears to be used as a term for all kinds of wood and stone spirits. But it could also refer to a corpse-eating spirit.
[2] chimajeogori — a general term referring to the top and skirt of a hanbok worn by women.
[3] jangseung — A pole from wood or stone with a scary face carved on it to scare away monsters and evil.
[4] dopo — an outer garment of hanbok worn by scholars and nobility during the Joseon Dynasty.
[5] fake ancestor — referring to a phantom possessing people and pretending to be a god or ancestor.
[6] Dark Spirit — 어독시니 — a type of yokai symbolizing a fear of darkness. It grows bigger if you look at it, and grows smaller and disappears if you ignore it. 어독 (eodok) means darkness, 시니(sini) is a divine spirit, so it’s sometimes taken for a god, but it doesn’t appear it was ever a worshiped being.
Translator’s note:
And that’s why you shouldn’t drink alcohol before legal age. It will cut you off at the most important moment.
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