Subdued Soul Chronicle

“Seo Geom-rang!”

Baek-Song-Wol hurriedly lifted up Seo Geom.

“You seem to be in an emotional state because of your hyung. How will Seol Young-rang react if you kneel down like that? You should calm down.”

They talked to Seo Geom and sent him away to calm down. And when they returned, they couldn’t find Seol Young, so they tried to look around and found him behind Zaha.

“Ah, you’re hiding there.”

“What?”

Zaha looked puzzled at them.

“Not hiding…”

Seol Young came out.

“He acted like he was bowing to the High Governor or something. When Seo Geom comes to his senses and remembers the fact that he knelt down to me, he might want to come and kill me again…”

It wasn’t a joke or mockery. He was very serious when he said it because he could already imagine it happening.

Baek Eon, Song Ok, and Hyo Wol smiled bitterly at this.

“Well, the person who wanted to cut you to pieces had suddenly changed his attitude, so it is natural to believe that… It seems to me that Seo Geom-rang actually appreciates you.”

Baek Eon said.

Seol Young still had his doubts, but he believed everything that he said.

“You think so?”

With a frown, he looked at the Blue Dragon Troops, who were turning away.

In any case, from Baek Eon’s and the others’ perspectives, Seol Young’s eyes for noticing emotions weren’t so sharp.

‘Through the many twists and turns, that child might have changed his thoughts about others in his own way.’

Baek Eon thought to himself.

‘Well, even though they had to face each other, it suddenly ended without any harsh words being exchanged.’

Bad ties were complicated, so they couldn’t be resolved easily. However, as people live, such days appear.

Even Euljae, who previously spoke about his blood flowing backward just from seeing Seol Young, spoke of similar things before he even realized it.

It would be nice if everyone cleared up their misunderstandings about Seol Young.

Baek Eon smiled.

Song Ok suddenly said from the side,

“But when will you pick up the plaque we ordered?”

“Ah.”

Seol Young’s face brightened. He had totally forgotten about it.

“I will get it. Right now…”

Right then.

“Wait.”

Zaha looked at them with an expression that said he had something to say.

“Right. Your order has arrived, so you will pick it up. It has been a long time since you were gone, so you should be treated well. But before that happens and your hyungs serve you, shouldn’t we talk about the important part?”

Ah.

He also just remembered it.

Hyo Wol asked,

“What is it?”

“Seol Young-rang can’t drink alcohol right now.”

“Uh?”

Everyone was surprised.

“Is that true?”

Song Ok urgently asked.

“…”

Seol Young, however, had a gloomy face.

On the night that Seo Jun went wild and went missing, if he couldn’t master reading the sheet music by morning, he said he would be punished by not drinking for 100 days.

He gritted his teeth and tried to learn, but before he knew it, it was time for the sun to rise.

It was only around the time the sun was in the middle of the sky that he could finally read the sheet without any mistakes.

He was at least lenient in a way, saying that he was just a couple of hours late, so the one hundred days were reduced to fifty.

“…. That happened.”

Seol Young sighed.

‘Right. Now is not the time to be drinking.’

Mount Seondo was also green in the summer.

There, Seol Young received his jade box.

He drank tea in a noble manner in a yard lined up with trees, met the trainees, and saw their faces as he quietly went out.

“You aren’t going to act out or something, right?”

Zaha spoke as if he were curious.

“What do you mean? I am not an alcoholic.”

Seol Young replied.

“Besides, there is something I need to know, so I don’t have time to think of anything else. I don’t think you remember, but…”

“You said there was something you wanted to ask.”

“Right.”

Carrying the jade box, he started talking.

“You’ve told me about the technique called ‘To Die Together’ which lures in the evil spirits and imprisons them inside the body of the caster.”

“Right. And it failed.”

“But it is possible to lure them. That is what matters. It was at that point that I thought of an idea.”

Seol Young said,

“What if we can summon that evil spirit as such? What if we can make it appear at the time and place we want it to? Could we turn the situation to our advantage then?”

“That makes no sense.”

“Then shall we take a look at the book that contains the secret arts and study it?”

“It is a good idea…”

But Zaha had a troubled look on his face.

“The problem is that I don’t have that book.”

“Uh?”

Seol Young doubted his ears.

“What are you saying…”

“Because I didn’t think that I would rise out of the coffin because I failed. I thought that what I had learned shouldn’t fall into the hands of others.”

“Amazing.”

Seol Young was so frustrated that he wanted to cry, but he held it back.

“….”

“You don’t even remember it?”

“All the high-level techniques in that book are like that. You can never remember them.”

Zaha continued.

“It would be better not to think of luring and summoning the God of Cataclysm here. It will also not fall for the same trick again, and we will be the ones in higher danger.”

That was also true.

“Then we are back to square one…”

Seol Young was lost in thought as he continued to walk.

“Anyway, if calling it is possible, we can try the Soul Technique.”

“You mean the spell that calls the soul of the dead? Don’t we need some things to do that?”

“Right. Clothes, hair, parts of the body—anything that the dead has a bond with. But before that, there are things you must do first.”

“What is it?”

“The origin. Where and how did the evil spirit come from? If we don’t know that, we cannot use that technique.”

Seol Young touched the box.

“When you fought it eight years ago, didn’t you get any clues?”

“Nope.”

Zaha shook his head.

“It just popped up every time. And I was too busy responding to it that I didn’t think about investigating it.”

So, would they start from scratch then?

Seol Young thought.

‘Even I have seen that evil spirit a couple of times now…’

When he was out drinking with his hyungs, and after the Sword Dance festival, he returned to his room and fell asleep.

Soon after that, he met it face to face during the case of Miss Do Hwa and her dice, and then he looked into Zaha’s memories.

‘Did he get any clues?’

Seol Young searched through his memory.

The entire appearance of the God of Cataclysm. It had long clothes and hair, a face covered with talismans, a back view for every…

And then he remembered.

“Ah, that…”

Zaha looked at him.

“That? What?”

“That place.”

He finally remembered.

“Right after the Sword Dance festival was the second time I looked at it. I stretched out my hand to catch it, but I felt the demonic qi rise up and woke up from my sleep in surprise… At that time, that evil spirit was walking somewhere.”

“Where was it?”

“A place that looked like a palace with a corridor that seemed to be very long…”

In the pale moonlight, the appearance of a building reflecting a silvery glow was still clear in his memory.

Seol Young put the box down. He explained it by drawing it on the ground with a branch.

Seeing that, Zaha stopped.

“I think I know this place.”

“What? Where is it?”

“Follow me.”

They were going to leave right now?

Seol Young put the box in the storage room and went out right away.

When asked where they were going, he was told they were going to the Moon Palace.

“Palace?”

Seol Young tilted his head.

“I even thought it was the royal palace at first, but no matter how much I looked at it, it wasn’t something I had seen before…”

“Follow me.”

Zaha moved.

They found a small box in front of the training hall. When they opened it, they found a small ball used for football games.

Judging from the fact that the ball was made from silk and had decorations on it, it seemed more like a prize given to a winner than for a competition.

Zaha took out the ball and threw it with all his might in one direction and then he said,

“Let’s go.”

What was this man doing?

Even though he was acting strange, Seol Young still followed him.

In the meantime, he thought they were just passing by a simple garden and followed him. There was another path he wasn’t aware of. Roofs of several palaces were visible beyond the fence.

Seol Young was surprised.

“Were there more palaces on this side too?”

“Shhh.”

And then they found a dark wooden door. It had a strange design engraved on it and was different from what normal palaces had.

An old eunuch was standing there and seemed surprised to see them.

“High Governor? What brought you here?”

“Have you not seen the ball of silk? It fell around here.”

“I did hear something falling…”

“It’s that!”

Zaha stepped forward.

“I need to find my ball.”

The old eunuch had a troubled expression on his face but he couldn’t say no.

“I understand.”

He turned around, and the strange-looking door opened.

Zaha whispered.

“Check it out. It is the same, right?”

Where was this place? What was it?

Seol Young went inside.

And then he stopped.