Requiem of Subdued Souls

Zaun replied,

“Yes.”

“But the dead don’t have any memories in this one.”

Seol Young clearly expressed his doubts. Seeing that memory, it seemed to be true that it was an item of the dead.

But it was strange.

Death is the most intense thing a soul goes through. The thoughts they would hold at that moment would radiate so many emotions that they would be clearly engraved into their keepsakes.

However, the ring didn’t have such memories. The memory of the moment of despair.

‘What am I seeing?’

He was puzzled.

Unlike Seol Young, Zaun didn’t seem that shocked.

“No memory of death…”

She mumbled.

“Right.”

As if she were convinced, she nodded her head.

“The ring doesn’t hold such a special memory. So it is obvious that it was difficult for you to read it. But I heard you are an excellent person who can thoroughly read things, even from decades ago. So I thought that you could read even the faintest memories….”

Zaun’s words conveyed a sense of longing. Even though she didn’t say it out loud, she was practically begging him to do it.

“I understand.”

Seol Young tried again, but it was still the same.

He only saw memories that weren’t that important, and then they were cut off. It was as if it were cut off in the middle.

It meant that the deceased suddenly died while living a normal life.

‘But….’

Even so, there should have been a faint pain or at least the feeling of being out of breath.

However, there was none of that here. It was as if the soul vanished without another trace…

‘Wait…’

Then Seol Young suddenly realized it.

He had heard of one such case before.

He looked down at the ring.

‘A man with a deformed spirit.’

The sound of cicadas pierced his ears. There was no wind, but the trees were swaying slowly, and the darker the greenery looked, the darker the darkness looked.

What Zaun wanted.

He seemed to know what it was now.

Seol Young placed his fingers on the ring and closed his eyes.

The everyday memories. There had to be something about the things that should have been normal…

In order to read all of them, his spiritual power had to be strong.

It was a very delicate job.

The memories were faint. Just by injecting his spiritual power, the memories could appear or vanish.

Seol Young concentrated and grabbed the ring.

“They seem to be thinking about some kind of construction in a house. I don’t know how to look… Second? Is it a child? The face of the child is red, and the child seems to have a fever. They seem to be worried about the child…”

He couldn’t see the other side.

However, he could feel that Zaun was intensely watching him and holding her breath.

“And…”

Seol Young found the most intense thoughts among them.

“I think it is the Lady. She was called by the Empress Dowager and entered the palace…. Would you have returned home by now? He is moving respectfully yet also carefully, but is looking forward to seeing you… It is that feeling.”

He conveyed what he felt and opened his eyes, and Zaun seemed to be completely shocked.

“I see.”

She mumbled blankly.

“I was thinking…”

Her body was here, but not her mind. It seemed like she was lost in thought. It was as if she would drift away like a soul.

“…”

Zaun sat like that for a long time, until she came back to her senses, and then she asked Seol Young,

“Do you know the owner of that ring?”

Seol Young cautiously said,

“Isn’t it the Lady’s husband who died…”

“…”

“At that time, I didn’t know that he was a Hwarang, and that he had passed away.”

“Right.”

Zaun had a calm face.

“And he died in the hands of my younger brother, not by someone else.”

Seol Young just looked at her.

“It was unavoidable since he was a Deformed Spirit. At that moment, that person vanished and turned into a monster that was very different from what I remembered. On the contrary, it was a situation where my husband could have killed my younger brother or innocent people, so I shouldn’t be holding any grudges.”

“I understand.”

Zaun said,

“I always kept a distance from my husband, to the point where my brother was closer to him. I didn’t even know that I liked him. Because even I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know?”

“I just thought it was one of those arranged marriages for us. And I realized it only after his death that I was going insane…”

“You resented your brother?”

“I begged him.”

“…”

“It was a mistake.”

Zaun mumbled.

“Since he was the only person I could rely on, I wanted to hold hands with him and grieve together. Then I thought I could bear it for a while. So, for the first time in my life, I cried and begged. I said that it was hard and that I would collapse…”

“…”

“I didn’t realize how cruel my actions were. I didn’t know that showing him that I was struggling so much was like digging into his wounds. He always pretended to be okay.”

“…”

“At that time, I didn’t think he was human. Seeing him not showing any emotions, regardless of whether his surroundings collapsed or not, all my love for him turned into hatred. In the end, I lost my reasoning and cursed him.”

“…”

“My younger brother lost his reason, and I finally found out that he had nightmares every day, that he kept hearing voices of the dead, and that he was suffering from hallucinations and illusions. I panicked and tried to fix it, but it was already too late. The child poured out the same hatred and resentment back at me. We knew very well what to say to crush the other one cruelly.”

“….”

“The things I said were…. right… not good. But we wouldn’t have been able to get back to where we were after what he said. On that day, we ended our relationship.”

Zaun looked cynical now, and then she turned to him,

“Did that satisfy your curiosity?”

Seol Young was silent for a moment.

“… Yes.”

She looked away again. Then she looked down at the ring on the table.

After a while, she reached out and brought it back to where she had gotten it.

“Then, see you later at the festival, Seol Young-rang.”

Seol Young nodded instead of answering and got up to leave.

When he returned, there was a holiday atmosphere.

People who usually hide in their houses could be seen walking busily. Gifts kept coming in.

Even couples were busy. Normally, they would move very awkwardly together, but now, they all didn’t seem to care.

“You are here?”

A lady ran up to him and greeted him warmly. 𝒷𝓮𝒹𝓃ℴ𝓿𝓮𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂

It was hard to read her expression the first time he met her, but now he could clearly see that her face was softening.

“Did you come to greet me for the holiday? Oh my…”

The woman had a cute smile. The silk cloth brought by Seol Young was relatively cute compared to other gifts.

“I went to Baek Eon-rang, and he helped me.”

Seol Young felt drained of his energy when he helped Baek Eon, but now that feeling has vanished after he looked at her.

“Sure. It should be. But you see, our master is going to the Silver Bamboo Hall after such a long time.”

“He is going out. Then take this….”

“No. Here. It isn’t somewhere else. It is an area that isn’t used often, but he said he wanted to clean it himself to see how the wind would blow near it. After eight years.”

She guided Seol Young, and they moved inside. And then they stopped by a building surrounded by a garden.

“Here.”

As soon as they entered, the sound of the zither could be heard.

Zaha was sitting on the ground and playing it, looking at the yard. The surroundings were dizzy.

When he found something interesting while cleaning, he seemed to have thrown away the thought of cleaning and fell in love with the instrument. It was typical of him.

He held the wood in one hand and pressed on the string with the other, looking quite lost.

‘Then.’

The lady winked at him and stepped back while Seol Young stepped inside.

He didn’t want to go in, but he had come all this way, so he stood and listened to him play for a while.

An image came to his mind.

It seemed that a transparent energy was surging, then it dispersed and formed again. The thoughts in his head felt light, and he felt refreshed.

Soon, the song was over.

“You deserve to curse at me for the way I played the pipa.”

Seol Young said as he approached him.

“The title?”

“Wind Lightning….”

It referred to the sound of the wind hitting the forest and shooting out with lightning speed.

He put down the instrument.

“When I was cleaning this place, I checked it once because it was something I used in the past. What is that now?”

Zaha pointed to the box wrapped in cloth.

Seol Young said,

“Because it will be a holiday soon, Baek Eon-rang prepared this. I think he made some precious pills and medicines.”

“Share it with the White Tiger Troops, then. You, people, will always run short with that.”

“Still, this is a holiday gift.”

Seol Young set it on the ground.

“Then, thank you.”

He bowed his head.

After a lot of things happened, his attitude seemed brighter than in the morning, and he almost playfully greeted him.

Zaha didn’t respond much…

“The smell of incense.”

He said that with a slight frown.

Ah.

Seol Young realized it too late.

Earlier, at the place where he offered incense and burned the spirit sealing plaques and talismans, his sleeves seemed to have picked up the scent.

Some demonic beings were known to be sensitive to smell. Therefore, it was taboo for hunters to have the smell of incense on their bodies.

“Did you go to a temple?”

“Yes.”

Seol Young untied the cloth on his wrist. While holding his sleeve and shaking it to get rid of the smell, he said,

“I came back from the Banyam Hermitage.”

He didn’t want to hide the fact that he had met up with Zaun, so he mentioned it.

But there was no response.

Did he not hear him?

When he looked at him, Zaha’s gaze was stuck on his sleeve.

It looked like he saw something odd.

TL/N: Korean traditional music instrument