Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“By the authority of the Namer, I command you. Listen to no one’s words but your master’s.”

The rampage stopped.

The red mist coiling around the child’s body scattered all at once. As if crushed beneath something, the child collapsed to the floor with a thud. Myojeong, who had been down on one knee, stared for a long time at the child lying there as if dead. Unable to leave, he branded the sight of the child into his eyes, until at some point, he staggered to his feet. Then Myojeong turned his back on the old thatched house swallowed by flames and began to walk.

Myojeong walked slowly into the darkness.

Behind him, he could hear the roof caving in as the rafters and pillars gave way, but he did not look back. Ash and stray sparks drifted through the air, but his vision was too blurred to see them clearly.

How long had he walked like that?

Myojeong, who had been staring straight ahead, came to an abrupt stop. When he came back to himself, he was deep in a dark, overgrown mountain. Standing there blankly, Myojeong tilted his head back and looked up at the sky.

A vast night sky.

A full moon without a single flaw gazed down at Myojeong.

Hoo, hoo...

Somewhere, an owl hooted.

It sounded like an auditory hallucination. It felt as though everything that had just happened had been a lie. A dream. Myojeong lifted his limp hand. Cold moonlight stained his blood-soaked palm.

Only then did the corners of Myojeong’s eyes begin to tremble.

This was an unforgivable sin.

“......”

The moonlight that night was unbearably sorrowful.

When the child woke and came to his senses, he would realize he was different from other people. He would learn that, overnight, he had gained a body that could neither die nor age, and he would loathe and resent him. Myojeong knew that he had been the only person the orphaned child, left utterly alone, had to depend on.

Do not become a foolish human.

Do not live as I did.

Myojeong covered both eyes and sank to his knees.

“Ah, ahh...”

He felt as if he finally understood what those words had meant.

The first thing Myojeong did was track Suhyang’s whereabouts.

He wandered from place to place for days in pursuit of her, but her location remained unknown. Only after half a month was he finally able to find a trace of her. It would have been easier if he could have summoned Bima, but he had left everything behind in the burned house, so that was impossible. The things in the storehouse would have survived the fire, so the child would be able to make good use of them later.

“It has been a long time.”

Suhyang, whom he was seeing again after several years, greeted Myojeong as if nothing were amiss. Without offering any greeting in return, Myojeong sat formally across from her. Suhyang offered him tea, but Myojeong did not drink it. Instead, he swept a light gaze over the room.

The force brushing against his skin was ominous. All kinds of spells had been laid over this space.

She must have known he would come and waited for him.

In the past, taking the mask back from Suhyang would not have been difficult. But over the years, Myojeong had grown far weaker. It did not interfere with daily life, but for some time now, he had occasionally coughed up blood. He had shared his life force with the child until the boy grew from the height of his waist to his chest, and repeated rites had stripped away much of his power.

“Return what you took from my child.”

Myojeong went straight to the point.

Suhyang did not bat an eye as she lifted her teacup. She neither denied it nor confirmed it. She merely drank her tea, perfectly unruffled. Myojeong steadied his breathing and focused on the force filling the room. He had placed a seal on the mother-of-pearl box where the mask was kept. If Suhyang had broken that seal, he should have been able to sense the mask’s presence.

But he could not feel the force of the Four Golden Eyes.

He could not tell whether it had been stored somewhere else, or whether it was somewhere in this room with the seal still intact. For now, he had to grasp Suhyang’s true intentions.

“I will ask nothing else.”

Myojeong straightened his back and spoke in a cool voice.

“That is not something you may possess, Suhyang.”

Suhyang, who had been idly touching her teacup, gave a faint smile.

“The teachings of the ancient sages say that if one’s lord walks the wrong path, it is the duty of a subject to remonstrate again and again with a sincere heart. And if the lord still refuses to listen, then the crooked principles must be corrected. The master has neglected his duty and shaken the very foundation. What will you do if I say that makes him unqualified?”

Myojeong’s expression turned cold.

He had not expected Suhyang to meekly return the mask simply because he asked. But when he did not know where the mask was, he could not use force against her carelessly.

“What is it you truly hope to gain by doing this?”

“It is only right to bring down an ignorant ruler. Myojeong, you are unqualified to be the incarnation. Since you abandoned your duty and mission, I intend to set the incarnation’s seat right again.”

Myojeong narrowed his eyes.

Suhyang still seemed to know nothing.

“Not everyone who possesses the mask can become the incarnation.”

Myojeong spoke, slowly lifting his gaze.

“If you covet what you should not have, you will have to pay the price.”

Just as Myojeong was staring intently at Suhyang’s face—

“Are kings, marquises, generals, and ministers born from a different seed?”

Suhyang brought the teacup to her lips and spoke.

“I do not believe my ambition is wrong. It may not be right now, but much later, when the world has changed, perhaps what I am thinking now will no longer be wrong.”

“You truly believe that?”

At Suhyang’s words, just as Myojeong let out an involuntary smirk—

“I will return that child to his original place.”

“Even if you took him from my arms, that child will never be in your grasp.”

“Can you be so sure?”

“Because that child is a green frog...”

Myojeong murmured with a quiet smile.

“If there is any absolute providence in this world, it is that nothing remains eternal and unchanged. But that child always does what he is told not to do, and never meekly does what others push him to do. From now on, he will belong to no one and live his own life.”

“...What do you mean by that?”

“Do you believe there is anything eternal and unchanging, Suhyang?” 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

It was then.

A voice came from outside.

“My lord.”

The one who interrupted their conversation was one of the subordinates serving Suhyang.

He entered with an urgent expression, glanced between Myojeong and Suhyang, then bowed his head with a troubled look. He hesitated, wary of Myojeong seated across from her. At that, Suhyang glanced briefly at Myojeong, then gave the subordinate a look telling him to speak.

The subordinate opened his mouth.

“There were signs of a rebellion in Pyeongan Province, and the government forces are said to have attacked the area.”

Pyeongan Province was where Hwirim’s residence was.

Sensing at once that something was wrong, Myojeong shot up from his seat and left. According to what Hwirim had told him before, there should have been at least half a month left until the uprising. But the government forces had moved before then.

The moment he heard the news, his mind went blank, as white as a sheet of paper.

He had to confirm Hwirim’s safety at once.

Like a madman, Myojeong wandered everywhere, searching for Hwirim’s whereabouts. According to rumor, there had been a traitor among the rebel forces who leaked word of the uprising to the government, and the government forces had lain in wait and ambushed the area in advance, leading to a great battle.

“What? Is that really true?”

“That’s what I’m telling you. They say every last person who joined the rebellion was beheaded.”

“Good heavens. Then what happened to the women and children?”

“Hmm, I heard they didn’t kill them. They sent them off as slaves.”

Everywhere he went, people were talking only of the rebellion.

No. It cannot be.

They said the women and children were spared, so she had to be alive. Myojeong was desperate. After hearing that the women and children had been sent away as slaves, he asked around in every direction, but no matter how much he searched, no one knew Hwirim.

She was not someone who would be defeated so easily, so perhaps she had escaped beforehand and kept herself safe.

If so, she might already have fled and gone into hiding somewhere. They had promised to marry, so Hwirim would surely keep that promise.

After wandering for days, Myojeong decided to go to the detached villa where Hwirim had once stayed. It was a place she had once mentioned in passing. She had said she had chosen it as a place to live later, and that it was pleasant to stay there because there was a wide lake nearby and a quiet mountain slope behind it.

When he arrived at the abandoned villa, Myojeong sat formally on the wooden porch.

One day passed, then two.

Myojeong neither slept nor ate. He only waited for Hwirim to return. After several days had passed that way, Myojeong, who [N O V E L I G H T] had been sitting on the porch, lifted his head.

He had felt a presence.

The moment he turned his head toward it, Myojeong’s eyes widened.

“......”

The face before him was not the one he had longed so desperately to see.

But it was somewhat familiar. He had definitely seen it before. It was Iwol, the woman who had said she was looking after Hwirim.

Iwol stood there in a disheveled state, clutching a bundle to her chest.

When her eyes met Myojeong’s, Iwol’s face crumpled. She moved her lips, unable to speak for a long while. Then she staggered a few steps closer to Myojeong before collapsing where she stood.

Iwol was crying silently, unable even to make a sound.

Wondering what had happened, Myojeong hurried over to her.

“What brings you here...”

Myojeong, who had been about to help Iwol up, froze.

Because Iwol had suddenly held out the swaddling cloth in her arms.

Inside the carefully wrapped bundle, a tiny newborn baby was sleeping.