Requiem of Subdued Souls

Little bits of memory began to flow as if they were weaving something in Seol Young’s mind.

And he followed the flow of it.

“I only realized it later… when my hyungs went back after the first time we met, it seemed like they had already told Teacher about me, and he was surprised and worried about a child living alone.”

Seol Young’s voice was the only thing that could be heard.

“But the identity of the Ghost Demon King who was fighting the Blue Dragon Troops was the same child, and thinking he couldn’t just sit by and watch, Teacher went to the mountain.”

“And that is how you two met?”

“Yes. But…”

Suddenly, the next words didn’t continue.

Zaha asked,

“What?”

“I don’t remember.”

What had gone smoothly until then was blocked, and the flow of time vanished again.

Seol Young tried to hold onto that part, but nothing worked.

What should he do now?

At that thought, he pulled out Blue Rainbow.

“Because Teacher gave this to me…!”

Looking at it, he tried to think about his teacher but nothing…

Looking at Blue Rainbow didn’t bring back his memories. When and where his teacher gave it to him, what he said…

“I don’t remember anything after that. All the memories related to Teacher seem to have vanished.”

Seol Young was shocked.

“What do I do now? I barely managed to get a clue, and I lost it again.”

“Um?”

Zaha jumped up and drew his sword.

“Then how about we do this?”

Dozens of sword shadows appeared from the walls, and they began to merge into one. And the next moment, the shining tip of the sword was aiming straight at Seol Young’s neck.

“Was your teacher like this when you first met?”

Seol Young wasn’t sure.

“How did you know?”

“It happened to me.”

The voice of Zaha came from afar.

Seol Young’s thoughts had already gone back to the past.

There was a buzzing noise and the smell of alcohol, and someone tore a sack right in front of his eyes. What poured out…

… was white rice.

“I am sure.”

The people in front of him giggled. From the outside, they looked like normal people, but they were demonic beings.

“This is what I paid for.”

“Right. Even if you were given the title of Ghost Demon King, your safety cannot be guaranteed after escaping from the burning library of Blue Dragon troops. Because Euljae ran wild then.”

“If we hadn’t appeared and lured them in by pretending to be your men, all your demons and ghosts would have been ruined.”

And then they all smiled.

“Shut up!”

Seol Young said it coldly.

The inn was crowded with many kids, and Seol Young wouldn’t stand out in that crowd.

But nothing good would happen from sitting still for a long time.

“Anyway, with this, the calculation is over.”

“Hmm.”

The demonic beings still looked at Seol Young as if they were sorry for something.

“I heard there was a pretty high bounty on you.”

“…”

Seol Young just stared at them.

The moment he got up and turned, a black shadow got up and attacked his feet. Seol Young avoided it without looking back and immediately used a spell to strike them back.

“Euk. I told you to be careful.”

The demonic beings immediately surrendered. But they still wanted to get something.

The spiritual power that allows one to use anything. They wanted to take it for themselves.

‘There is no hesitation.’

Seol Young left them and walked away, and as he was about to leave, someone was glancing at him from the entrance.

It was a middle-aged man in gray clothes with a bottle of alcohol but no snacks.

He was ready to pass by him, but he heard a voice,

“No matter how much I didn’t want to listen, I couldn’t help it. Are you the kid who destroyed the Blue Dragon Troops?”

Seol Young went still.

The conversation he had with the demonic beings wasn’t normal. It was because they spoke using their spiritual power, so humans shouldn’t understand them, or at least the normal ones.

‘A person with spiritual power?’

Seol Young looked at him.

His eyes were wide, and his jaw was strong. It was hard to see with his baggy clothes, but his shoulders seemed wide, and his fit body made him look like a tiger.

‘Is he a hunter?’

Seol Young decided to ignore him and continue walking, but,

“Let’s see if that is a bluff or not!”

And the man drew his sword.

A number of sword shadows shone under the light of the sun, and they spun around before merging into one.

In the next moment, his eyes flashed.

The sharp blade aimed straight for Seol Young’s neck.

“Ack!”

The people around them were so scared that they ran away.

“We met for the first time today, and we have no grudge against each other, so why are you trying to kill me?!”

Seol Young was angry as he fanned his hand.

Wind God Attack.

In an instant, a powerful whirlwind swept things away, making everything spin.

But the sword of the middle-aged man didn’t budge even the slightest. And it continued to aim for Seol Young’s head.

Seol Young had to move right away, and a stone statue behind him was split in half.

‘How can he be this strong?’

This middle-aged man was the strongest Seol Young had met until now. Even with sorcery, he might lose.

‘I decided not to use the Red Bone Attack…’

Then there was just one way.

Seol Young evaded the attacks and led the middle-aged man to the kitchen as he pretended to run away. He hid where the strong spices were stored and took a bunch of them in his hand.

“Take this!”

When he threw them at the middle-aged man, the man hesitated a bit and was confused, thinking it was poison or something, and Seol Young ran away.

However…

“You! Do you think you will be safe after doing that to me!”

He grabbed Seol Young right away by the ear.

Seol Young screamed.

“Let me go!”

He tried to pull himself out, but the body attacks he learned from the grave ghosts didn’t work. And the middle-aged man knocked Seol Young to the ground like a tiger trapping its prey and pressed him down like he was hugging him.

What happened?

As if caught by a real tiger, Seol Young felt drained and lost. He struggled and resisted.

“Leave! Let me go! If you don’t, I will kill you!”

The middle-aged man turned Seol Young over, not caring, and when he hit a certain spot, his hand went numb.

“…?”

Seol Young was shocked, and it was the time when he still couldn’t do any spells without moving his hands.

“What are you doing?”

“Now, I told you to be careful with your mouth. I don’t remember what it is called.”

When the man pressed somewhere again, this time, his tongue went numb, and no sound would come out.

“I will not release it, so don’t waste your strength.”

And the man smiled.

“I am a busy person. But I need you to come with me somewhere.”

He slung Seol Young over his shoulder and walked to where his horse was. He put Seol Young in front of him and immediately whipped his horse.

“Let’s go!”

They left like that. It was shocking.

‘How can a human be kidnapped in broad daylight like this! And to think I’m the Ghost Demon King!’

They moved for a while. They crossed the mountain, then the water, and then they arrived at a small village.

They got down, and he was placed in a corner. The man touched his shoulder, and his tongue could finally move.

“You!”

Seol Young was so angry that he began to curse right away, but the man just smiled, listening to the harsh curses from this child.

“You can write a novel with those curses!”

Rather, he seemed to take an interest in them.

Seeing that, Seol Young felt weak. Nothing worked.

“Are you tired now?”

The middle-aged man opened something from the backpack placed on the horse. It had rice balls in it.

“Now, since you cannot use your hands. Open your mouth.”

Seol Young glared at him.

“I’d rather die than eat what you give me!”

“Why so? It has no poison in it. And it’s much faster to stab you to death. But of course, it doesn’t have poison pills because they are expensive.”

The man took out the rice balls and bit into them.

“I will be away for a long time, so you need to eat when I ask you to.”

And he pushed the rice ball close to Seol Young’s mouth.

However, he opened his mouth wide this time and bit his hand. The wound was deep enough for blood to gush out, but the man just smiled.

“Now, let’s try again.”

His hand came again, and Seol Young was ready to do that again. But instead of a hand, a large lump of rice landed. He wasn’t sure how it happened, but there was rice in his mouth.

“Eup….” 𝒷ℯ𝓭𝓷ℴ𝓋𝓮𝓵.𝒸ℴ𝓶

He tried to spit it out, but his mouth was blocked, so he had to chew and swallow it.

“Right! You eat well!”

The man smiled.

“There is no such thing as a beast. No matter how brave they are, they are humans, so there is no way they can stand against you.”

Seol Young couldn’t tell who he was talking about. And what was this fight about?

When he had eaten six rice balls after being forced, he felt an odd sensation from the outside. This old man seemed strong.

Both inside and outside. And the middle-aged man also felt it and looked outside.

“They are the ones who are coming after me.”

Seol Young said.

“I am always being followed. So you better leave me here. They won’t let you go.”

“I know.”

The middle-aged man’s eyes turned cold, and he picked up Seol Young as he began to walk outside.

It wasn’t long before there was a bang. As he looked back, the place they were just in was in flames.

“Such foul hands.”

He mumbled.

The horse began to run again, and this time they headed to a very distant place.

Seol Young’s mind turned foggy. He had fallen asleep before he knew it, and when he came to his senses, he was being carried by the man on his back.

He couldn’t figure out where they were.

However, he couldn’t feel anyone pursuing him. For the first time since that fateful day, the things that had been following him vanished.

The middle-aged man put him down on a rock in a dark forest.

“Listen now. The reason I brought you this far was to give you a choice.”

He looked at Seol Young and said,

“If you want to forget the past and go the right way, I will take the responsibility of settling the grudges you brought onto yourself.”

Seol Young didn’t say anything.

Whether he was listening or not, the man still spoke.

And the man continued,

“I know you aren’t a bad child. Since weak things that have nothing to rely on follow you, you didn’t have any other choice but to protect them. Wasn’t that why you borrowed its power?”

“….”

“But that is like walking into the mouth of the devil. It has been following after you for a long time. To get what it’s after.”

The man sighed.

“At this rate, there is no way out. Because the power that thing uses… isn’t just any evil force.”

Seol Young asked,

“Then?”

“That… is.”

Teacher said.

Seol Young followed it.

“…”

At that moment, he was shocked.

Baek San’s form in front of him vanished. And the flashback shattered, and everything was back to reality.

“…?”

Zaha was staring at him with a puzzled face, and Seol Young asked,

“What did I just say now?”

“Causality.”

Zaha answered.

“The power is causality.”

In his memory, his teacher certainly said so.

But now he couldn’t figure out what it was.

‘What does that mean?’