Honbul: Flame of the Soul

It was a night when the full moon shone bright.

After walking the winding, dark mountain path with the clear moonlight for company, Myojeong arrived at the old thatched house. The boy was asleep. He had hurried, wanting to return and see him even a moment sooner, but he did not want to wake the child while he slept so peacefully. It would not be too late to talk tomorrow, after the sun rose. Suppressing his presence so he would make no sound, Myojeong quietly closed the paper-paned door.

But at some point, the boy, whom he had thought was sound asleep, spoke.

“Myojeong, you’re back?”

The boy’s voice drifted out of the darkness. It was calm, yet it seemed damp with tears. Feeling something was strange, Myojeong checked the boy’s face, and his expression hardened at once.

The boy was a mess.

Sensing that something had happened, Myojeong’s face stiffened.

“Gyeom, what happened to your face?”

Had he gotten into a fight outside, or had he been caught up in something bad during the few days Myojeong had been away from home? The look on the boy’s face was grave. When Myojeong asked what had happened, the boy could not bring himself to speak for a long time. Myojeong pressed him for an answer.

But the words that came from the boy’s mouth were entirely unexpected.

“Myojeong, you were a Naja...”

In that moment, Myojeong doubted his own ears.

“And... you have a lover... and you killed my parents...”

It felt as though his breath had stopped. Myojeong stared blankly at the boy’s tear-stained face. Then the boy, who had been looking down, slowly raised his head. Tears were brimming in his eyes.

“Is it true?”

The boy was proud. The number of times he had shown tears could be counted on one hand. But now, he wore a pitiful expression, as if he might burst into tears at any moment. Myojeong felt a chilling sensation, as though part of his heart were being carved away.

The important thing was, how on earth had he learned all this?

“I met Suhyang.”

At the name that came from the boy’s lips, Myojeong’s eyes slowly widened.

How could Suhyang...

Suddenly, an ominous premonition shot through him. At the thought that flashed like lightning, Myojeong sprang to his feet. He took out all the items he had stored inside the wall and rummaged through them. But the most important and absolutely indispensable item among Myojeong’s possessions was nowhere to be found.

The mother-of-pearl box that had held the wooden mask with the Four Golden Eyes was gone.

It felt as if all the blood drained from his body in an instant.

“Tell me. Did you really deceive me?”

Myojeong slowly raised his head with a dazed expression.

The boy Myojeong knew was no longer here. The child who had once come only to his waist had grown so much that he now reached Myojeong’s shoulder. The boy had become a sharp-edged young man.

As he stared vacantly into the boy’s eyes, Myojeong suddenly realized that he was still within fate’s enormous grasp. Perhaps this was punishment for trying to escape that grasp.

“Is it true that you killed my parents?”

The boy forced the words out with difficulty.

“Did you really keep me with you because you meant to kill me?”

The question struck him like a dagger. Myojeong’s eyes shook violently. The truth from the boy’s lips clawed painfully at Myojeong’s heart. He nearly denied it by reflex, but in the end, Myojeong could not answer. No, he was unable to.

Everything Suhyang had told him was true.

He had been a Naja, he had killed the boy’s parents with his own hands, and he had a lover named Hwirim.

He could have explained why it had to be that way, and how he had come to this point. He could have said that the boy had originally been born to become a vessel for the god of calamity. That his birth itself had gone wrong, and that in truth, he should have been killed long ago. That Myojeong had tried to save him, but had failed to seal the god properly and had ended up breaking him...

He had to tell the truth, even now.

‘Your parents must have loved you. From the time you were in the womb, they must have stroked your mother’s belly and waited eagerly for you to be born, saying, “Hurry and come out.” How could they not love a child like you? Gyeom, you did so well. You were born so well.’

But all of that was for your sake...

Myojeong’s lips moved as if to say something, but then he clamped them shut.

No. Whatever he said would only be an excuse. The boy had sometimes been curious about his parents, and about Myojeong. Nearly ten years had passed while Myojeong pretended not to know. During that time, he had fed and washed the boy, pouring affection into him, but strictly speaking, that too had been for Myojeong’s own sake.

He had kept the boy by his side to ease his guilt, to fill his loneliness and emptiness, because he wanted to be needed by someone. Not for the boy’s sake, but for his own. He had deceived him all this time because he was afraid the boy would turn his back on him if he told the truth, and yet he had still wanted to be forgiven.

That was the truth.

‘Myojeong, will you not try to twist fate?’

Twisting fate.

One very small deviation could transform a life. And at the end of that transformation, Myojeong was in an endless fall.

So he could blame no one. It was his own fault for lacking courage despite having several chances. It was because he had hesitated, wavered, and been afraid.

“So you did meet Suhyang.”

There had been no news for years, and perhaps he had let himself feel relieved, thinking their connection had simply ended. Even if Suhyang were to approach him again, he had never imagined the purpose would be the wooden mask with the Four Golden Eyes. He had thought Suhyang would try to harm the boy, or target Myojeong himself, but the possibility of aiming for the Bangsangsi mask had never occurred to him.

That oversight was the problem.

Myojeong recalled the conversation he had had with Suhyang.

“If the Office of Narye disappears, would that not also be providence?”

“Yes. If it is Myojeong’s Office of Narye, then it would be.”

Only now did he seem to understand what those words had meant.

“Haha...”

Myojeong let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

“This wretched creature has finally ruined everything...”

The wooden mask with the Four Golden Eyes was probably in Suhyang’s hands.

First, he had to remain calm. Myojeong slowly closed his eyes. If Suhyang’s plan was to reestablish the Office of Narye using the wooden mask with the Four Golden Eyes as justification, then Suhyang might approach the boy again. Suhyang could be plotting to use the god of calamity, just as the Naja of the past had done.

Catching his breath, Myojeong lowered his head and clutched his forehead.

He had to get the wooden mask with the Four Golden Eyes back.

But what if he could not?

Suddenly, Myojeong’s precariously wavering eyes became chillingly calm. As important as retrieving the wooden mask with the Four Golden Eyes was the boy’s safety. At this rate, Suhyang would try to lure the boy out and use him, or attempt to draw out the god of calamity. Even if things went wrong, Suhyang must not be allowed to break the god of calamity’s seal, and the boy must not become a puppet dancing on Suhyang’s strings. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

To ensure that...

When he had placed the double seal on the god of calamity before, he had called its name and subjugated it. If he used that in reverse, he might be able to protect the boy.

“Yes, you are right. It is all true.”

Myojeong, who had been silent all this time, coldly pushed the young man away.

“I killed your parents.”

Myojeong threw a sword toward the boy.

“I will give you a chance. Will you run?”

If he deliberately provoked him, the boy would surely face him head-on. Myojeong thought so because he had been by the boy’s side for so long and knew his character well. The young man had an upright heart. He sometimes had a reckless sort of mettle, and a kind of fortitude that would not back down even when placed at a disadvantage.

And just as Myojeong had expected, the young man wiped away his tears and picked up the sword.

Myojeong was in a much weaker state than before, as the price for sharing his life force with the young man. Even so, he could easily knock the young man’s sword away. There was lingering affection and hesitation in the young man’s blade. Even if a human being was betrayed right before his eyes, he could not cast aside his heart and instantly discard affection built over long years.

What stood before Myojeong’s eyes was not some vessel for the god of calamity.

It was a wounded young boy, an all-too-ordinary human being.

Myojeong drove the blade into the young man’s side.

“If not for me, your life would have ended long ago.”

The young man collapsed to the floor like a wounded beast, letting out a groan.

“Gyeom, remember this.”

“......”

“You went wrong because you met me.”

“......”

“Do you understand?”

“......”

“My pitiful disciple, I pray that you defy your fate.”

After finishing his words, Myojeong bent down and looked at the young man. The light in the young man’s eyes had dimmed, and his consciousness was gradually fading. It was clear he would soon lose his mind.

Myojeong straightened. He turned his back. One step, two steps, three steps... He moved several paces away from the young man.

Then, sensing the god of calamity’s energy, Myojeong stopped in his tracks.

Behind him, the god of calamity’s energy was running wild. With its body in peril, the god of calamity had awakened. Red spiritual force began to surge, and its rampage began.

Myojeong turned around.

The boy’s hair was standing on end. The boy, who had lost consciousness and collapsed, now had the appearance of a ghost, the whites of his eyes showing in his unconscious state.

Myojeong approached him.

“Be seated.”

The god of calamity, which had been squirming to rise, flinched as if bound by something, then collapsed to the floor as though crushed by a boulder. After calling its name once, Myojeong stroked the young man’s head.

“By the authority of the one who named you...”

Myojeong squeezed his eyes shut and continued in a trembling voice.

“You shall listen to no one’s words but your master’s.”