Requiem of Subdued Souls

However, the twins vanished right away.

They tried to shine the place with Zaha’s sword, but nothing happened.

“Who is controlling it? The eight spirits shouldn’t be together anymore.”

After Seol Young drew a light and checked it, he carefully reaped the light.

“There is an evil force right within this space. Until we dispel all of these ghost stories, we will have to follow the rules.”

“Good. Let’s go to the next one quickly.”

A long hallway stretched out in front of them. As they were quickly walking, a bell rang.

Tring, tring, tring.

At that moment, a scroll began to glow.

Seol Young took it out and opened it.

‘Second. Corridor of the Old Palace.’

The second ghost story was quite short.

“There are no bells in the palace. If you hear a bell ringing when walking down the hallway, then stop right away. Take six steps back, sit down, and cover your ears.”

The two walked back.

One, two, three, four, five, and six.

They stopped right there.

“Then.”

Seol Young threw his hands into the air, and then they immediately lowered themselves.

Wheik!

Something sharp and huge came flying. And in an instant, it attacked them and got swept away.

A blade passed by him in the air. Had he stood still, his whole body would have been torn apart.

“It looked like an old man…?”

“Uh? An old man?”

Zaha threw his sword instead of answering.

His sword flew at the same speed and stabbed it. It was skewered and nailed to the ceiling.

Then a terrible scream rang out.

Seolyoung quickly approached it and looked up.

They didn’t know what it was, but its whole body was covered in a white beard. It had several arms that were as sharp as teeth and were odd.

“What is that?”

Zaha was a bit confused.

“Not an old man?”

“We will know if we kill it.”

Seol Young immediately threw talismans at the ceiling, and they exploded.

When he projected it, it turned out to be someone who was once an insider.

“His name was Juk Man, a eunuch whose hands were cut off after striking the King with a bell stick.”

“What….”

In this way, the story of the second ghost was revealed, and Zaha took his sword back.

This time, there were two.

Seol Young took out the plaque from the dolls’ clothes.

“Three of the twelve.”

At that moment, they heard footsteps running behind them, and the two of them looked back and saw the skirts of the twins disappearing around the corner.

“Wait!”

Seol Young and Zaha ran behind them.

But again, they accidentally missed them. They stared at the spot where the Princesses had disappeared.

“It seems closer than before. Is there something about it?”

“Probably.”

Seol Young looked around.

“Where did they go?” 𝑏𝑒𝘥𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝑛𝘦𝑡

“I think they went there.”

Zaha pointed to the door.

Drrrrrr.

When they opened the door and went inside, vegetables and grains were piled up in a mess.

There were several kitchens in the palace—the place where snacks were made, the place where tea was made, and the place where alcohol was stored.

Among them, the place they were currently in was where the dishes were made.

“What about this place?”

“Hmm.”

Seol Young took out the scroll that was glowing.

‘Third. Palace Diner Room.’

And then he read the story out loud.

“If you enter a cold room and try to leave, but the door closes by itself, do not try to open it and just turn around. The scales in that place will be tipped to one side.”

There was a scale too huge to even place a pig on it, and it seemed to be talking about that.

“If you look right under the kitchen knife storage, there is a red drawer. Take the pendulum out of there and set it on the weight. The door will open again when the scales are properly balanced. Do not look back, and calmly walk out.”

At that moment.

There was a rumbling sound. They looked back and saw that the door was closed.

They turned back and looked at the scale again. One of its weight plates, which was balanced earlier, is now tilted.

Seol Young immediately threw his talisman.

Plack!

The weight plates shook violently with a loud noise, and the lumps on the plate were revealed.

“This one is rather strong.”

Zaha also swung his sword with a disgusted look on his face.

The lumps on the plates were wriggling and trying to merge with each other. And then, when hit by his sword, it shattered. They were hit with a talisman again and were burned down as they disappeared without a trace.

“His name was Eon Gagi, a court noble who was sentenced to five rounds in a cold room for stealing food….”

Seol Young said that while suppressing his rumbling stomach. The moment the evil spirit’s history was revealed, a doll fell onto the weight plate.

And then, they retrieved the fourth plaque and went outside.

As they went out into the hallway, they heard the twins running. The sounds got louder and then smaller, but they didn’t vanish now.

“It seems we are following well.”

.

“Nice. Let’s go find the next one.”

The setting of the fourth ghost story was the Cold Palace. The courtiers seemed to call it the West Palace.

“When you go to the West Palace, you should always bring a bowl of water with you.”

After reading until then, Seol Young brought water in a bowl.

“First, put the water bowl on the table. While cleaning, you should keep checking the image reflected in the bowl. If the image is different from the real one….’

“If the painting on the ceiling is of a pine forest, but what is reflected in the bowl are paintings of flowers and birds.”

“Then never look up. If you do, do not panic and calmly untie the cloth hanging around your neck.”

Seol Young, who had been reading the ghost story until then, tilted his head.

“Cloth?”

At that moment, his neck jerked up.

“It isn’t cloth.”

Normal clothes didn’t have nails and teeth. And this was smooth and bouncy hair.

Even normal hairs didn’t have nails and teeth…

‘I don’t know what this is.’

Seol Young calmed himself, burned the thing around his neck, and was released.

According to the past, a concubine was hanged from a pole. In this story, he safely gathered two plaques.

Seol Young summarized the results.

“It’s the fourth ghost story, and we have six plaques. We are halfway down.”

His wrist continued to hurt. It seemed like the wound was constantly being rubbed. But on the contrary, he could feel the advantage of the space gradually shifting to their side.

“It will end soon.”

Following the images of the princess, they found the fifth ghost story.

Fifth. Infirmary.

If you find a black bag with the Chinese character ‘MU’ written on it among the other various medical pouches, hang it between the licorice and linguine. If you hear a voice from inside it, be sure to answer ‘Polygonum is Polygonum’ to any question.

This phrase was actually from the Book of Songs, and it was all about filial piety.

The two of them defeated the ghost of the Crown Prince and obtained a plaque. And then, they arrived at the sixth location, the torture chamber.

Various instruments of torture were laid out in rows. On one wall, coffins were propped up for those who died during torture.

No matter which tool they looked at, they were dripping in blood or had flesh stuck to them.

“Sixth. Torture chamber.”

Seol Young opened the scroll and read it.

“When cleaning the wooden chairs in the torture chamber, make sure to push every chair once.”

The wooden chairs being referred to were the torture chairs. They had handcuffs bound to them.

“If one of the chairs doesn’t move, quickly bring a cloth, specifically a skirt, over it and shout ‘Wang Ming!’ Then go out when the cloth starts to turn red.”

They approached the chairs and pushed them one by one. Indeed, there was one chair that didn’t move.

Seol Young could hear Zaha taking out his sword.

“How do I break it?”

“Not yet?”

Seol Young pointed at the pouch holding the scroll.

“It looks like there is one more.”

Right.

Before they knew it, another scroll was shining, so Zaha lowered his sword.

“Maybe this torture chamber holds many stories, so there must be two rules.”

“I will read it.”

Seoil Young took the scroll out and opened it.

“If the wind blows or if a coffin falls without anyone touching it, never look inside it and get out. There are no coffins in this chamber.”

That was when a coffin collapsed.

“…”

The two looked at each other.

“If it is a coffin, then I should do it.”

Zaha immediately changed the target and began to break the coffin.

Seol Young took the chair.

Both resisted.

However, after being split, burned, and beaten down with their energy, the history behind the ghost story was revealed.

“The chair was inhabited by the ghost of Nam Ji, the eunuch, who was a notorious torturer. A chair is just a chair. It seems like a mysterious phenomenon created by the negative energy that filled the torture chamber.”

They acquired three dolls in this room, and Seol Young retrieved three plaques.

With this, a total of ten plaques were collected, and only one ghost story remained.

“The eighth one must have something to do with the kids being buried alive.”

“This is really the end.”

The two quickly ran down the hallway, but then Zaha stopped.

“Wait.”

“Why?”

He looked around with alert eyes.

“Don’t you think something is strange?”

“What is?”

“Don’t you feel empty? Like something is missing?”

Something was missing?

Seol Young pondered it and then realized it.

“Right. At first, when we broke out of the ghost stories, we could see the Princesses….”

They looked around.

“Where are they?”

“That’s it. So far, we have been following them closely as we quickly resolved the stories. Then, while solving two ghost stories at the same time, did we end up overtaking the Princesses?”

“That means….”

“That is where it happened.”

The two looked back at the torture chamber and rushed back again, but there was no more chamber present.

Amid the flickering lights were the torture instruments and an eerie stillness.

They looked around once, and large jars of water used for torture were there.

Only one of them had its lid closed, so they went and opened it.

“Euk!”

The sound of choking could be heard, and a child in fancy clothes looked at them with a pale face.

It was the twin sister of Princess Ajin.

It was Princess Ara.