Honbul: Flame of the Soul

From then on, Myojeong began visiting Hwirim again.

The two met once every season, and most of the time, it was Myojeong who went to see him. Whenever the seasons changed, he would leave home for a while and travel to wherever Hwirim was staying. He usually remained there for about a week. They spent those days at leisure, sometimes fishing as though they had all the time in the world, sometimes playing Go and Korean chess.

There were times, on his way home after spending several days with Hwirim, when he felt terribly empty. The journey there was filled with nothing but anticipation, but the several days he spent returning alone felt unbearably lonely and desolate. Yet when he imagined the child welcoming him home, shouting, “Myojeong! You’re back?” the loneliness in his heart melted away like snow.

One day, a year after he had resumed visiting Hwirim, Myojeong was passing through a village alone.

He still had two more days of travel before he reached home. Myojeong entered the village, intending to rest there for a while. But the moment he arrived, he sensed a presence following him.

Myojeong was often pursued. Sometimes it was a spirit, but more often, it was the presence of a human being. For the first year or two, he had frequently been tailed, but things had quieted down for a while after he learned how to hide the child’s force. Since this pursuer had followed Myojeong’s own force, it had to be someone sent by the elders.

Fortunately, the streets were crowded.

Myojeong pulled his bamboo hat low and quickened his pace. The presence following him quickened in turn. Blending into the crowd, Myojeong shortened his stride and swiftly turned a corner.

He had two choices. Approach and strike first, or vanish amid the confusion.

When he reached a deserted alley, Myojeong pressed himself against the wall and concealed his presence. The tracker was very close. After checking the direction, the pursuer began moving toward the corner where Myojeong was hiding.

Still pressed against the wall, Myojeong seized the tracker in a single fluid motion. He twisted the person’s arm behind their back and choked them. A groan slipped out from under the bamboo hat as the body slammed against the wall with a thud.

Having gotten behind the tracker, Myojeong held the advantage.

“Who are you?”

Without wasting the opportunity, Myojeong brought the edge of his hand to the tracker’s neck.

“...Do you truly not know who I am?”

A faint voice drifted from beneath the bamboo hat. It had been deliberately lowered, so unnaturally that even at first listen it sounded odd. Yet it was familiar. Just as Myojeong furrowed his brow, the person spoke again.

“Well, this is disappointing.”

The “man” slowly raised both hands. Myojeong released spiritual force in warning, telling the person not to try anything foolish, but his captive paid it no heed. With perfect composure, the person lifted the bamboo hat and glanced back at Myojeong.

“I am Suhyang of the Yoon family.”

Suhyang smiled gently.

“...Suhyang?”

The moment their eyes met, surprise spread across Myojeong’s face. Suhyang smiled with a playful look. Although their parting when the Office of Narye fell apart had been unpleasant, seeing a childhood friend with whom he had once shared the joys and sorrows of life appear before him after so many years filled him first and foremost with delight.

“Well, look who it is!”

A welcome pursuer. It was a wholly unexpected and astonishing encounter. The two shook hands and, as if by agreement, shared a brief embrace. It had been several years since he had last seen Suhyang. He had once asked Hwirim about Suhyang’s whereabouts, but Hwirim had said they had long since lost contact and he did not know.

For some reason, Suhyang was completely disguised in men’s clothing. As someone from a noble family who had always observed propriety, Myojeong had no way of knowing what circumstances had led Suhyang to dress as a man, but he could tell that Suhyang had undergone no small number of changes during the years they had been apart.

“Have you been well?”

“Of course. I’ve been very well.”

“I cannot believe how long it has been.”

Suhyang rubbed the nape of the neck and grumbled playfully. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“I should have focused on my training too. To think I would be caught so easily.”

From a young age, Myojeong had been well versed in many fields, while Hwirim had excelled in swordsmanship and secret arts. Suhyang, who had loved inquiring into things, had been absorbed in spells and talismans, always shutting up in the archives to read.

Suhyang said that, while stopping by this village to buy medicinal herbs for a talisman, Myojeong had happened to pass by on the road, and Suhyang had followed him. It was an astonishingly strange coincidence.

The two went to a nearby teahouse and sat facing each other for the first time in a very long while. As they drank tea, they asked after each other and talked about how they had been. Suhyang said that these days, together with other Naja, Suhyang had been traveling from one local government office to another, continuing to drive off ghosts for the common people.

“Myojeong, are you all right?”

As they were chatting pleasantly, Suhyang’s expression suddenly hardened.

“What do you mean?”

Suhyang frowned, then made a wiping gesture with one finger above the upper lip.

“Your nose is bleeding...”

Myojeong followed the gesture and wiped beneath his nose. Indeed, there was blood on his hand. He paused, his face troubled. Suhyang quickly handed him a handkerchief.

“Are you unwell?”

Myojeong quickly masked his expression and shook his head.

“I must have overexerted myself recently. My force is probably just weakened.”

He brushed it off lightly, as though it were nothing, but his eyes subtly darkened.

Myojeong was sharing his life force with the child. The child was growing by using Myojeong as sustenance, and perhaps because of that, Myojeong was slowly weakening. After more than a year, his body felt heavy in the mornings, he slept a little longer, and he tired more easily than before.

He had thought it might be only his imagination, but the effects were appearing little by little, day by day.

Their conversation continued to circle around trivial matters—how this person was doing, what had recently happened there, the small details of daily life. Soon, they ran out of things to say, and silence fell.

After a rather long silence, Suhyang finally came to the point.

“Myojeong.”

Taking a deep breath, Suhyang set down the teacup.

“Let us rebuild the Office of Narye.”

Myojeong, who had been lifting his teacup to his lips, froze. One eyebrow twitched. He had heard from Hwirim before that Suhyang intended to rebuild the Office of Narye.

“That was several years ago.”

“Several years may have passed, but there are still many who have not abandoned their duty as Naja. There was certainly an unfortunate incident before. But if there was conflict, then we need only correct it and move forward in the right direction. Restoring the Office of Narye is surely what everyone desires.”

When Myojeong sipped his tea without answering, Suhyang spoke again.

“Humans need Naja.”

“...Why do you think so?”

“A gifted person is surely born gifted for a mission. Therefore, the gifted must fulfill their duty. If the gifted have a duty, then it must be to correct the disordered laws between ghosts and the living, between this world and the next. The Naja need a Bangsangsi. So please come back, Myojeong.”

Suhyang looked into Myojeong’s eyes and continued.

“Never once in history has a Bangsangsi abandoned the Office of Narye.”

“...It seems you are gravely mistaken, Suhyang.”

Myojeong slowly set down the teacup he had been holding.

“I did not abandon the Office of Narye. The Office of Narye fell apart on its own.”

“If something is broken, can we not simply fix it?”

“Everything that flourishes must also decline. Just as a nation rises and falls, so too does the Office of Narye.”

Myojeong stared into Suhyang’s righteous eyes and added,

“Therefore, I will not return to the Office of Narye.”

His tone was polite, but at the same time, Myojeong was making his refusal perfectly clear. Nevertheless, Suhyang did not back down. A taut atmosphere began forming between them, thin as ice.

“All things fall under heaven’s purview. For anything to exist, there must be heaven’s will. Do you know what has happened to the world since the Office of Narye disappeared? Innocent people are suffering, harmed by ghosts. Heaven created the gifted in order to set that right.”

“If, as you say, all things fall under heaven’s purview, and anything that exists must exist by heaven’s will, then what of the opposite? Would that not also be true of ghosts?”

The instant Myojeong finished speaking, Suhyang’s face hardened.

“...What are you saying right now?”

Suhyang stared intently at Myojeong.

“Have you decided to side with ghosts after all? I never thought you would defend ghosts when hundreds and thousands of people are dying from poor harvests and plagues caused by them.”

“I am not defending them. I am only saying that if you look at it from another perspective, that could also be the case.”

“If that is not taking the ghosts’ side, then what is it?”

Suhyang glared at Myojeong with cold eyes.

“Do not tell me... you have been bewitched after living with that child?”

Myojeong’s hand froze as he lifted his teacup.

He had never mentioned that there was a child. And yet Suhyang seemed to know that he was living with one. Suhyang had acted as though they had met by chance while passing through the village for medicinal herbs needed for a talisman, but in truth, Suhyang must have been tracking his whereabouts from the beginning.

“A child? I do not know what you are talking about...”

Myojeong feigned ignorance, but contempt and disgust were already showing on Suhyang’s face.

“The calamity god that rampaged through the eight provinces suddenly vanished without a trace. It would not die so easily, so if you did not kill it, does that not mean you have been keeping it alive all this time?”