Chapter 34.2

Chapter 34.2

However, when Ara reached that point, Seok-kyung’s eyes, which had been sharply narrowed, returned to their usual straight, calm state as if nothing had happened.

He seemed about to say something, but instead, he put the ladle down with a sharp motion and turned his back on Ara once again.

“…Everything makes you happy, doesn’t it?”

His low voice lightly chided her, almost as if it were a whisper, faint enough to barely be heard.

“Why? Does it seem too foolish?”

Ara asked in return, not fully catching his words. She was thinking that, if it were him, he’d probably consider it foolish.

Seok-kyung only turned his head to look at her, then clicked his tongue as he focused on something beyond the chair Ara was sitting in.

“No. You just seem like someone haunted by a ghost.”

This time, Ara wouldn’t fall for it.

But then, she quickly glanced behind her, where there was nothing. She lightly patted her back and shoulders as if to shake off something. She even stood up quietly, pretending to go get something and walked toward Seok-kyung’s vicinity.

Seeing this, Seok-kyung’s lips pressed tightly together once more, clearly trying to hold back a smile.

Ara, pretending not to notice, took her spoon out with exaggerated noise, then spun around dramatically.

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t lie? Then why do you keep lying?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t lie.”

“You definitely said that earlier! You said I was haunted by a ghost, that there was one behind me!”

“Yeah. But I never said when the ghost attached itself, or what exactly was behind you.”

“What did you say?”

Ara asked in disbelief, her face frozen in confusion.

Seok-kyung shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly with a cheeky grin.

“It’s true that you were haunted by a ghost in the afternoon. And behind you, there were plenty of things: the table, the chair, and so on.”

“That’s nonsense!”

“I’m really upset now. I can almost understand the feelings of a loyal subject risking his life to give advice to a tyrant.”

Loyal subject? He’s the tyrant himself!

“Wow, it smells like galbijjim!”

Suddenly, the area near the front door became lively, and the voices of Baekseol and others entered the room. It seemed like those who had been out were returning.

“I’ll get you back for this humiliation later.”

Ara gave up on any further verbal sparring and, with a handful of spoons, headed toward the dining table, mentally preparing herself for the future.

“Sure. If you can, go ahead.”

Seok-kyung replied in a calm voice, showing no sign of fear. As he turned around to set the table, a faint smile, one he hadn’t even realized, crept across his face.

Ara stared silently at Seok-kyung’s back from a distance, grumbling to herself.

Who do you think you’re impressing with your looks?

You’re only getting away with it this time because you said you were genuinely worried. I’m being kind just this once…

***

That night, at the farthest edge of Daeyasan, neighboring Soyasan.

The shaded area, where even the pale moonlight barely reached, felt colder than winter despite it being summer. Unlike the lush forest around it, the plants in the shade had all withered, their edges turning yellow or rotting away, giving off a stinking smell of decaying grass.

In the middle of this barren, decaying land, a puddle of stagnant water had formed.

The cold, damp place was considered a cursed ground, one to avoid when choosing land for settlement. Moreover, places where even the light to drive away evil couldn’t reach were always filled with dark, sinister things.

The severed hands of the sagwi (a malevolent spirit) had returned to this place.

The dark aura crawled out from the still water and cloaked itself in sticky mud, like an armor. Despite the twisted joints and some disfigured parts of its body, it still resembled a human form.

“Grurk— grrrrrrk—”

The sagwi let out a strange sound as it kneeled. Black slime dripped from the severed wrist.

From the deepest part of the shadow, a much darker presence began to flicker and form into the shape of a man.

This man, unlike the crude sagwi, had hair and nails that were perfectly human-like, from his head to his fingertips.

Though his skin was pale like that of a corpse and his eyes were murky, he appeared to be a man in his early twenties, dressed in ancient, archaic attire.

Without making a sound, the man crossed the sticky ground and stopped in front of the groaning sagwi. With a disdainful look, he glanced down at the sagwi and spoke slowly.

“Who did this to you?”