Requiem of Subdued Souls

“What do you mean?”

Baek Eon raised an eyebrow. Anger was evident in his eyes.

“Why are you suddenly saying that? Who said such a thing to you? It doesn’t matter. Why would you even care about such a thing?”

He wanted to hear those words from his hyung. He wanted to be reassured.

So he brought it up.

He felt like he was a child being pampered, but he couldn’t help it. Keeping it himself was too painful.

“No one said that.”

“Then? What happened?”

“Actually…”

Seol Young told him everything.

It was a story that was surprising in each part, and Baek Eon just calmly listened.

“It could just be the evil spirits’ ploy to shake my heart, but… Still, I keep having this feeling that there is something in my heart. In the end, I couldn’t help but think that Teacher died because of me.”

“But…”

Baek Eon went stiff.

“Isn’t that completely far from the truth? Father had spent a lot of energy protecting all of us. Even before he met you, he already mentioned several times that he didn’t think he would be around for long.”

After hearing Baek Eon’s words, his heart calmed down, and Seol Young regained his confidence.

He suddenly missed Song Ok and Hyo Wol very much.

“It would have been nice if they had stayed here too… Tell them I came.”

Then he cried.

“If something happens to hyungs and the kids, I will kill the ones responsible and die too.”

“Why are you saying such things?”

Baek Eon frowned.

“It seems like the holiday atmosphere made me confused?”

“Should I tell you one good news? It hasn’t been made official yet… but judging from how things are going, it seems like the Governor will allow me to do the festival with all of you.”

“Is that true?”

Seol Young jumped up right away.

Weren’t humans such simple beings?

He thought so, but he couldn’t help it. It was something he didn’t expect.

“Right, before that….”

Baek Eon stopped talking and went outside. After a while, he brought a box wrapped in silk cloth.

Seol Young asked him,

“What is that?”

“A gift.”

Baek Eon pushed it to Seol Young.

“I wondered about it, but I couldn’t hold back. With your consistent work investigating every supernatural calamity that is happening, we cannot just skip the festival just so we can see each other, right? So I prepared this. A present for the High Governor.”

“I see.”

Seol Young looked at the gift and frowned.

‘What is this?’

The moment Baek Eon was about to say something,

“But.”

Seol Young asked seriously,

“I have something to investigate, so I think we will meet ten more times before the day of the festival. When is the right time to give him the gift? The third day? The fifth day? The day before the festival? If we meet again after I give him the gift, it will be strange….”

Being polite was difficult. But anyway, he didn’t want to be treated like an idiot.

Seol Young’s face was clearly displaying such thoughts. Baek Eon smiled.

“What should I say? Was that what you were thinking about? You can do it today or at the festival. Or give it to him right now if you want.”

“Yes.”

Seol Young replied calmly and then remembered,

“Zaun-rang and I. The other day, I said I wanted to meet her….”

“Ah, right.”

Baek Eon nodded.

“I told you the story the last time we ran into each other. Zaun-rang was deep in thought, and she didn’t answer right away. But, since you met this time, haven’t you talked?”

“It wasn’t like…”

Seol Young thought and asked,

“Where was the meeting place?”

“The hermitage their family goes to. It is in the Southern Mountains. Zaun-rang visits there on special occasions to pray and give offerings to Buddha.”

“Ah.”

Zaun’s face in pain crossed his mind.

Just as he came to this place after the palace issue was solved, she also must have gone to her safe place.

And Seol Young was sure of it.

‘I need to stop by there.’

Seol Young held the wrapped gift.

“Then I will leave.”

He left after saying goodbye to Baek Eon and the trainees.

A cozy hermitage buried in the mountains.

The pillars in red showed traces of time. Considering the prestige of the family, it was a rather small and simple place that would make one feel uncomfortable.

The greenery was thick under the sky, and the insects were chirping.

Somewhere in the back, a monk was reading sutras and tapping on a wooden table.

Seol Young walked and stopped.

There was a stone Buddha on one side of the hermitage.

Zaun was bowing with her palms together, and the face of the Buddha was weathered by the winds and looked softer. He was smiling, and his eyes were closed.

“….”

Seol Young watched her and pulled something out of his sleeve.

It was a spirit-sealing plaque.

All the twelve plaques were empty because the souls had left, but Seol Young deliberately kept them. He was thinking of asking for help, but he wasn’t sure what to do with them.

And this seemed like a good place.

Seol Young went to the place where the incense offerings were being held. He set the plaques on fire, and they burned along with the twelve items that belonged to the royal family.

The smoke spread.

Zaun didn’t turn her gaze his way. She didn’t tell him to leave, nor did she avoid him.

Seol Young put his palms together and bowed.

‘Please be reborn….’

Listening to the sound of the insects, he thought of the people who were now dead.

When he raised his head, the things that confused his mind had disappeared.

Zaun bowed her head again to match the sound of the wooden table being tapped.

The prayer continued for a long time, and finally, Zaun raised her head.

“…”

She didn’t say anything for a moment, but then she turned her gaze to Seol-young.

Follow me.

Her eyes said that, and he nodded in return. 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡．𝙣𝒆𝙩

He followed her to the back of the hermitage, where the sunlight was shining through thick trees, and in front of a certain room where she stood, the door opened.

It was a small room for the monk who lived there. The trees could be seen through the window.

Seol Young sat down, and Zaun sat on the other side.

Soon after, male and female monks came inside carrying trays. Without a word, they prepared them some tea and left.

Everything was happening so naturally. Even though it shouldn’t, it felt like this was planned beforehand.

The sound of insects, which had stopped for a moment, was heard again.

Zaun listened to the insects and then opened her mouth,

“You must have something to offer.”

Seol Young put his hand on his chest, took out the golden card the Queen had given him, and placed it on the table.

Zaun reached for it and took it. Then the card vanished into her sleeve.

“You made the soul of the Princess of this Kingdom into a living soul and put her inside a doll. Not just that, but you also lured the Queen into the presence of evil spirits.”

So?

Seol Young looked at her with that expression.

“If I hadn’t done that, how could I have saved the Princess?”

“…”

“It is the same with the Queen. I just connected them because I thought I would give them what they wanted. That’s what I do, after all. I connect the dead with the living.”

Zaun was silent.

He said that with the intention of questioning her intentions.

He didn’t say it upfront, but he just told her in a polite way.

Or was he being defensive?

It was as if he had the intention of stabbing someone with words.

“….”

Zaun lowered her shoulders. And she said,

“Just because a person dies, the world doesn’t die with them. Only one person escapes from the vast world….”

“….”

“If you look into the memories of the dead, you might even see living people in them. You will be able to see truth, lies, and secrets. You will know everything, even the things that others do not want to know.”

She mumbled.

“So I hesitated, but…”

“….”

“Nevertheless, I want to know.”

What?

Seol Young asked with his eyes, and she said,

“You said you can look into the memory of a person when they die through their keepsakes, right?”

“Yes.”

Seol Young replied.

Zaun sluggishly raised her hand. She pulled something out of her sleeve and placed it on the table.

Clack.

There was a light metallic sound.

A ring.

It was made of gold and had a pattern engraved on it.

“Have a look at this.”

Zaun just told him that.

Whose was it? What was it? What was their story? Nothing.

Seol Young didn’t ask, either.

“I understand.”

He reached out and picked up the ring. He put it down in front of him and paid respect to the dead.

“I would like to take a look at the memories inside of this. Please allow me.”

He put his fingers on the ring and closed his eyes. He infused his spiritual power into it and started the Memory Projection.

The memories of the dead that remained on that item began to flow.

“…?”

Looking at those memories, he wondered,

‘What?’

He paused the Memory Projection for a moment and opened his eyes.

Zaun looked calm sitting across from him, and Soul Young asked, puzzled,

“Is this really what the deceased had at the time of their death?”