Chapter 79 – Praying For Rain (27)

While going back, they deliberately took a different route.

They were just passing by anyway so was there something they could do?

Maybe there was someone in trouble? Did something strange happen again?

So they walked slowly and listened to the rumors.

Then, when passing by the Dodong region, a story caught their ears.

“… I was talking about a ghost in front of a mirror…”

A woman was speaking.

“Mirror?”

Zaha asked.

“A ghost story?”

Seol Young asked him back, and the two of them approached the women who were talking and asked,

“What are you talking about?”

They listened to the woman tell them the story.

A murder occurred in a rich house in this area, and it became a haunted house. People went inside and stole some household items and some other things, but none of them touched the only mirror that was there.

That mirror was the problem.

If one entered that house in the middle of the night and talked about ghosts in front of the mirror, a real ghost would appear.

As word spread, many people became curious and secretly visited the place. Then, it was said that one or two people had passed out after seeing the ghost.

“For such a thing to happen…”

Then, they had to visit as Hwarangs and investigate it.

In addition, a haunted house meant free lodging, so they decided to stay there that day, and no one questioned them.

The house, which was once wealthy, was now full of negative energy. A mirror was placed in the middle of the hall, which was now full of spider webs.

It was so full of scratches that it couldn’t even play its role as a mirror, and it was leaning against a piece of wood.

“I’ve set up a seat for us here.”

The two sat in front of the mirror.

They put a cloth there, along with a bundle of talismans, a rope, and many more items for summoning the ghost.

Seol Young spoke to the mirror first.

“Once upon a time, a certain rich family was possessed by a ghost. The parents didn’t know what to do, so they put the child into a sack, tied the child up, and locked the child in the storage room.”

Three days later, they went inside the storage room, thinking the child would be dead, but the bag wriggled. Seven days later, the bag continued to wriggle.

Twenty days later, they wanted to see the child dead, but the bag was still wriggling.

“The parents didn’t know what to do, so they abandoned the house, and they said the sack was still wriggling in the warehouse even then.”

Seol Young finished his story.

Zaha asked,

“Is that all?”

“That is it.”

“That is not scary at all. Besides, it feels like it was copied from a ghost magazine, right? The things that happen in the capital are the scary ones.”

“Then do it yourself.”

“A man promised to meet the woman he liked in front of a stone shrine, but no matter how long he waited, she never went. He thought that she liked another guy and tried to forget her, but he couldn’t stand it because the woman’s beauty shone in his eyes. Eventually, the man went to a shaman and asked him to cast a spell. A spell to make the woman go to him on her own feet.”

And that night, he heard the sound of water dripping next to his futon. When the man opened his eyes, he saw a wet, swollen woman standing there.

“As it turned out, the woman had drowned while she was on her way to him on the promised day. The man was scared and tried to cancel the spell he had cast, but he couldn’t stop what was activated. The woman visited him every night. Each time, her appearance became more rotten.”

“Is that the end?”

“No. This is the last part that completes this story, ‘Where doesn’t the sound of dripping water come from?”

Silence fell.

Seol Young evaluated it coldly.

“That doesn’t complete it. You just made the story even more pitiful.”

“Then what is not a pathetic story? Seol Young-rang, who is so well versed in ghost stories, you talk again then. This time, both were female ghost stories, so it would be nice to change the mood to a male ghost story.”

And so the stories about the ghost of a young master, one of an incense burner, and a ghost that wandered around the city hall of Sorabeol were told one after another.

But nothing happened.

After taking turns again, they talked, but nothing happened.

“…It doesn’t seem to be showing up?”

Seol Young began to check the energy around the place.

“Was it that insignificant?”

Zaha went to the window and peered out. Through the round window, one could see the garden. And among the overgrown weeds, there was a willow tree with its long hair hanging down.

“I’d be more afraid of the garden.”

Zaha sat by the window.

“It’s because we keep talking nonsense.”

“Then let’s talk about something really scary.”

“A really scary story?”

Zaha thought for a second.

“I didn’t see it myself, but I did hear about it…”

Eventually, he opened his mouth.

“The beginning of such stories is always ordinary. A day when nothing special seems to happen.”

“That day was the first day for the rookies’ training, and it was going to be canceled due to the rain, but then the rain stopped, and the sun rose, so they continued.”

Seol Young listened without saying anything.

“Throughout the day, the training went fine, and in the evening, because of the training, they prepared a night trip. Among those, they prepared a special item for the trip. A wooden doll will be tied up in a small house, halfway up the mountain, and they will have to rescue it.”

“…”

“A senior Hwarang went to demonstrate what to do, and they heard a scream from inside. The rookies were surprised, but they remembered what would happen on the initiation day, the day they were told about and trained for. And if they jumped in and it turned out to be a trick, they would be ridiculed all their lives, so they just waited.”

“….”

“The screaming stopped, and then they went in. As soon as they opened the door, instead of the wooden doll, they saw their senior tied up and dead. His body was grotesquely twisted in the most horrific ways.”

“…”

“No one could explain who did it or why it was done. There was no sign of someone breaking in. That person died alone in that way, and not long after, the same thing happened. Another Hwarang died in the same empty spot.”

“…”

“And it was called the ‘Puppet Murder Case’ because their bodies were twisted like puppets and killed. In the end, after much suffering, they sought my help, and I found out what the cause was and got rid of it. No, I thought I solved it at that time.”

“…”

“I didn’t know at the time that it wasn’t a solution but just the beginning. I don’t know how many times I thought of that rainy dawn after that. Would it have changed if I had known in advance? How different would things have been?”

Silence passed.

He looked at the garden in the dark, and the willow’s hair was swaying to and fro.

“The ghost isn’t coming, even though I told a scary story…”

“…”

Seol Young said nothing about the story and said,

“It must have run away.”

There was a flint in the corner of the room that someone had thrown away. It might still work, so he rubbed it. Then it was so quiet that he looked out the window.

Zaha had his eyes closed. His head was tilted to the side, where the window frame was.

“Sleeping?”

There was no answer. Upon closer inspection, his breathing was slow and regular.

A dead person breathing like that. It was strange every time, though…

Aside from that, it seemed like the new Great Mother was taking good care of him.

Since the two energies within his body weren’t fighting, he seemed to be at peace. For him to suddenly fall into sleep meant that his body and mind were at ease.

Little by little, the heavy burden he carried must have been released.

“…”

On a closer look, doesn’t Zaha seem like a dead man?

If Seol Young had met him when Zaha was alive, maybe he would have never understood the man.

But maybe it was because Seol Young had always tried to understand the minds of the dead, so he felt like he could understand Zaha.

Seol Young sat there thinking that, but no ghost appeared.

‘As expected, it must have run away.’

Seol Young turned the mirror upside down. He removed the cloth, the rope, and the talisman, and he made sure to purify the place so that the ghost would never return.

Then he quietly went out and closed the door.

He wandered around the haunted house alone and looked around. He saw the head of a wooden doll with its paint peeling off and a silk shoe with only one pair lying around. He went from room to room to get a closer look.

‘Lucky.’

A bed.

Seol Young climbed up and closed the door as he fell asleep.

Nothing special happened in Dodong.

They walked without stopping and reached the border of the kingdom in the evening when the sun was about to go down, and they mingled with the people who were hurrying to go inside.

And when they arrived at the capital, it struck them.

Seol Young mumbled,

“What happened to the Blue Dragon True Troops?”

“I am sure they have all headed back.”

Zaha answered as if it were obvious, and then his gaze stopped.

Every house along the road had a full yard. There were bowls placed outside.

What?

Seol Young, realizing that it was strange, went there and saw a family that was having a late dinner outside, so he asked them.

“Has it still not rained?”

“Yes, it hasn’t.”

“But was the demonic beast on Mount Danseok caught?”

“Well. We didn’t receive any information that it had been caught. We only know that the Hwarangs went there to catch…”

Zaha, who heard that, frowned.

“They haven’t caught it yet?”

The Blue Dragon True Troops were known to have the power of a dragon, which meant they were skilled in fighting in water, and even their leader was with them.

And while the two of them went to Apryang and returned, there wasn’t any news of them?

It was weird.

“Maybe we should head there.”

Zaha said.

The two immediately headed back there. As soon as they reached the border of the mountain, they halted.

A sharp whisper could be heard.

It was the sound of a Hwarang requesting help.

Seol Young immediately felt something.

“It is strange. I didn’t hear anything when we were outside the mountain…”

And the two hurriedly ran towards the mountain.