Requiem of Subdued Souls

Chapter 116: Piano Case (1)

A powerful aura lit up the room.

“Now, here.”

Zaha raised his sword and swung it at Seol Young’s right hand, which was placed on the desk.

But nothing happened.

He swung with such force that it could have cut off his hand, but it was blocked by an invisible wall. There was no change in the chain marks on his wrist.

After trying all kinds of methods, he finally took off the necklace around him.

Could this have an effect?

He tried moving it closer to the mark, but nothing happened.

“….”

With that, they have tried all methods.

Zaha put down the sword.

“This is absolutely not a coincidence. Some evil spirit has influenced you. All evil spirits attack those who exorcise them. You attack them first, and they will attack you back.”

He spoke with confidence.

Seol Young looked down at his hand, puzzled. It looked pale, and the hair on his hand looked white, but he couldn’t think of anything.

“What do I do?”

“You have to be strong and face it. You have to solve each clue one by one. The first clue is your teacher’s ban.”

“Right… Teacher made sure to ban me from using my skills for some other reason?”

“It’s just what I think.”

Zaha nodded.

“Hasn’t it been painful since you were asked not to use it?”

“It hurts.”

“At that time, the flow of generating spiritual power and using it for sorcery must have formed a natural system within your body. If you forcibly block it, then you will greatly suffer.”

The distant memories passed by.

The smell of medicine. The ceiling that he was staring at as he was in pain. The towel his teacher was putting on his forehead.

But then those memories scattered again.

“That is why I wasn’t sure from the start. No matter how much everyone told you to cut off your hand, don’t the rules of the Hwarangs prohibit that, even though you are a sorcery user?”

“Right. I cited that as a reason and persuaded the Governor to take me in.”

“If you think about it, there is no way your teacher hadn’t thought of that. He would have known that blocking your sorcery powers was serious and would have an effect on you, but there had to be another reason for him to follow through with it. That’s what I thought from the start.”

Zaha said.

“I think your teacher was wary of something. Something reaching out to you.”

“Something reaching out….”

Seol Young looked at the chain marks again, and out of nowhere….

“Ah.”

“Did you remember something?”

“I remember it clearly, then….”

“Then? When was it?”

“The day when monk Do Cheol misunderstood and tried to hand me the piece of the golden chain. Maybe because my mind was so complicated with the case, I dreamt of a nightmare that I haven’t had for a while.”

Seol Young said that without taking his eyes off the chain marks.

“When I was a child, my right hand was chained. It was a seal that bound my spiritual power, so I couldn’t use it. I was stranded there with demons around…”

He raised his head.

“I don’t remember what happened after. I remembered it clearly then, but not now. I cannot even remember what happened before that.”

It was all blurry, as if his memory had been snatched away. His head hurt.

Zaha thought about it.

“Through the Curse of Void, that part of your memory is now currently blank. And it is the one your teacher was wary of. Those two are the same. This time, you reached out, and your own ghost story was revived.”

Seol Young felt more worried.

“Do not tell my hyungs. They might not even know about it. It would only put them at risk.”

Was he still worried about others in the middle of this?

Zaha looked at him like that.

“Do not worry. Because I know that much.”

After saying that, he tapped on the table with his fingertips.

“It is quite a difficult problem this time.”

“Yes…”

“Well, do not rush it. In this case, it will be better to avoid the core of the problem and start from the end, then solve it one after another. Sometimes, things that have nothing to do with each other will suddenly have a connection.”

Seol Young looked at Zaha. When he thought about it, after he died and woke up, the man must have been so confused. He must have gotten pretty good at piecing together fragments of memories.

That was why, even with the new chaotic problem in front of him, Zaha was able to stay calm, and this gave Seol Young confidence.

“Fine. One by one, and step by step.”

“Also, it would be nice to find something that might refresh your memory. It can be an item or a place…”

“Then we better start from there. Where I lived when I was young.”

Zaha nodded his head.

“That is a good start.”

Mount Toham was a sacred mountain at the defensive border of Silla. There were many famous temples and statues of Buddha there, enough to say that the entire mountain was a holy place for Buddhism.

In addition, there was even a shrine to the 4th King of Silla at the summit. It was a windy mountain with amazing spiritual energy.

On the other hand, there were also places where demonic beings could hide.

It was said that there was a well to fetch water there.

Seol Young walked on a narrow path that led there and went deep into the middle of the mountain.

‘How many years has it been?’

It was unclear when he last came here.

But when it came to the house, his body remembered it more than his head. As he walked ahead, his feet stopped on their own, and there was this half-collapsed tomb.

All of the items were gone, leaving just the stone chamber in ruins. It was covered with spiderwebs and fallen leaves.

Seol Young stepped closer to it.

“This is the house I lived in as a child. I haven’t looked at it since I left…”

“Because the Guardian Spirits that you were with disappeared?”

“Yes….”

Seol Young sighed.

The current Guardian Spirits were in a rather vague form and appeared through his thoughts.

“They were also once so clear and alive around the tomb. It sounds strange to say that ghosts were alive and moving, but it really seemed like that to me.”

Seol Young sat on the wall of the collapsed stone chamber.

Those five ghosts seemed to have been buried with a certain high-ranking person from ancient times.

They stayed for a long time and possessed considerable spiritual power, to the extent that they weren’t much different from the living.

“They took me in and raised me. Then after realizing I had spiritual power, they taught me various things.”

Seol Young recalled the past.

“It was interesting. Sorcery was based on words. And they taught me words that I had never used, and learning them allowed me to talk to new people. If I cast a summoning spell, then I could summon ghosts, and if I did something else, I could even kick them out. It was fun to learn at that time….”

And he frowned at that part.

The memories were flooding in.

He also remembered what happened after, but it felt so vague, as if there were holes in the memories. Then, at some point, he fell into a daze, and Seol Young’s shoulders drooped.

“Coming here seems to have been pointless.”

“No. We know one thing. It seems that your knowledge is still there even when your spiritual power is gone.”

Zaha thought for a moment and said,

“If an ordinary person with no spiritual power needs to protect himself or fight a ghost, what method would they use?”

“A talisman. A guardian talisman, a ghost protection talisman.”

“And if you need more protection than written talismans?”

“If you burn and eat the talisman, it will stay in the body for a long time, so the effect is more certain. Or writing it over the body. Even if you don’t understand the technique, it would have an effect.”

“Right.”

Zaha said.

“The song I played is a method of protection. It is a teaching that has disappeared now. But since we have learned some of the rules, we can say that you are safe. Do you get what I mean? It means that only the two of us can recognize it right now.”

Then he raised spiritual qi on his fingers and said,

“If sorcery is a language, then it is putting power into a form….”

He used his qi to crave out letters on the stone, and in an instant, golden letters appeared. Seol Young frowned.

“I cannot read it.”

“It isn’t something that should be read. I just put my will down in strokes. Write this on your left wrist.”

Seol Young did as he was told and imitated the strokes, and the light moved.

“….?”

It was the first time anything responded to him, and this made him happy. All the lights moved.

“What am I supposed to do with this? Purification spell?”

When his spontaneous idea worked out, Zaha was happy.

“Even if you don’t understand the technique, you managed to place it on your body. If you focus your mind and do it, it will calm your mind and help you recover your memories.”

He grinned while saying that, and Seol Young let out a breath at the feeling that he had found some hope.

But….

The sound of a bell?

This was the sound of the Blue Dragons’ bell on Mount Toham. Seol Young was a bit taken aback.

“We need to get out of here quickly.”

“Calm down. You said both Seo Geom-rang and his uncle had already forgotten their old grudge.”

“I know that in my head, but after living this long as enemies….”

And he heard the bell again, which made Seol Young flinch.

Zaha shrugged.

“There is no need to run, but it is right for us to go quickly. Royal Guard Hwarang.”

He smiled and emphasized each word.

Right, tomorrow was the festival.

Not only did he have to recover his memories with the help of this man, but he also had to show his face in the palace. He had to be with the princess.

And…

Seol Young looked down at his wrist.

He would have to act as if his spiritual powers were working so that no one would find him odd in the palace.

This was the first time he had been this tense before heading to the palace.

The front yard of the hall where the King would discuss government affairs.

The soldiers were setting up archery targets for the festival. The twin Princesses held small bows and aimed them here and there, and the Queen watched them in delight.

Seol Young appeared there.

His face was colder than usual. A cold wind blew through his robe, and seeing that he looked colder, those watching him felt frozen.

‘Among the many Hwarangs… why him?’

Everyone clicked their tongues. Even a six-year-old child would be shocked at this. Why would they pick someone who would make them uncomfortable?

This was expected.

“Princess Ajin. The Princess’s Royal Guard Hwarang has arrived.”

She put down the bow, which was regarded as a treasure, and smiled broadly at him.

“You are here!”

She walked over to Seol Young and grabbed his hand.

“…?”

Everyone’s eyes widened.