Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Making someone helpless with nothing but a few words—that’s what a threat is. One of the favorite methods of people who are trash to begin with, swindlers by nature who live on dirty little schemes.”

Yoon Taehee’s voice, as he said it, was dizzyingly sweet. It truly was. At that kindly added explanation, Jaegyeom’s cheek twitched. He clenched his teeth.

“Don’t touch me.” 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Yoon Taehee drew gently on Jaegyeom’s tie. In Jaegyeom’s swimming vision, that picture-perfect face came even closer. With those prim, tidy hands of his, the distance between them narrowed helplessly. The lingering trace of cologne began to circle unpleasantly at the tip of his nose.

“Maybe I am a swindler. Maybe I’m trash. Hell, maybe I’m an even worse fucking bastard than that. I don’t care how you see me. Whatever it is, the version of me you see will be the right one. If you see me as a swindler, then I’ll become a swindler. If you see me as trash, then I’ll become trash.”

He whispered it tenderly.

If Jaegyeom had his way, he would have snapped that hand right then and there.

But he couldn’t.

Because now he knew what a real threat looked like.

If he broke this hand, that hand would ruin the life Jeongju had built. It would dig into Jeongju’s past, block the road ahead of him, and use that as leverage to wreck everything Jeongju had spent his life building.

“I intend to become exactly the kind of man your words call for.”

The rude hand that had seized his tie without permission moved instead toward the back of Jaegyeom’s neck. For the briefest instant, warmth touched the hollow near his collarbone and vanished. Those long, straight fingers neatly set his crooked collar right, then withdrew without a trace of reluctance.

“Well? Do I still look like a swindler and a piece of trash to you?”

Yoon Taehee asked it, and Jaegyeom knew that at this moment he was standing at a fork in the road.

If he said yes, Taehee would use a method worthy of that answer—a real threat—and bind him with it.

If he said no, then he would be taking back what he had said about Naja, and after that he would no longer be able to reject Yoon Taehee as cleanly as before.

It was a deft, courteous checkmate.

*****

Lee Youngshin got up at dawn and purified himself with a bath.

He was going to receive a precious ginseng child. Naturally, both body and mind had to be in proper order. His research on ginseng children had been finished long ago. He had drawn up several plans, run through endless simulations, and today was the decisive day.

Early that morning, Lee Youngshin drove to the two-story house and took a deep breath. He had already selected a few ritual implements he might need and packed them in the hip pack strapped around his waist. Tightening it securely, he came to stand in front of the gate and narrowed his eyes.

Something like pale mist was wrapped around the entire house.

An especially cold, heavy presence seeped from the gate, painted orange.

“Just as I thought.”

A barrier had been laid.

So that was it. Nodding to himself, Lee Youngshin stroked his chin. Even after he had succeeded in pinpointing the final location, he had repeatedly ordered the meadow bunting to observe the state of the house’s interior. Every attempt had failed. For some reason, the bird had been unable to approach the wall, and every time he sent one out, it spent the entire day circling the house instead. He had wondered why. It was because of the barrier.

Lee Youngshin opened the zipper on his hip pack and took out a single glove. When he put it on and groped along the gate, the intangible barrier that had looked like mist became palpable under his hand. Feeling its texture, Lee Youngshin’s eyes widened.

He had expected it to be hard, but it was soft.

Soft meant the barrier had been layered over and over.

Normally, a barrier wall was hard as stone. That was easier to construct, and its strength made it efficient. The downside was that once it took force beyond a certain threshold, it shattered easily. That was why a soft barrier was much harder to break. In simple terms, this one was like jelly. A hard biscuit could be crushed with force. Jelly could not.

If he had mistaken it for an ordinary hard barrier and tried to break it with ghostly force, this soft barrier would have absorbed the force, then rebounded it. The intruder would have taken the same amount of damage in return. Using the glove to examine it beforehand had been an excellent decision.

Lee Youngshin’s eyes gleamed with interest.

I see. Had the ginseng child put this barrier up? As expected, he did not disappoint. Lee Youngshin had known a being with such rare power would never be easy prey. If it was truly a ginseng child, then laying down a meticulous barrier like this was entirely possible.

Without the glove, he would not even have been able to touch it directly. He waved his gloved arm around inside the barrier. Even with his arm shoved in all the way, his hand still could not reach the gate. To the eye, the gate was right there in front of him, but the workmanship was genuinely excellent. The Purification Unit specialized in barriers, but even there, not many people would have been capable of setting one like this.

“Yes. This is more like it.”

Humming to himself, Lee Youngshin unzipped the hip pack.

“And if you’re human, you use tools!”

As he answered his own question, he danced his shoulders in place and happily rummaged through the bag. Rope for neutralizing ghostly force, talismans for locking down movement, all kinds of ritual implements were jumbled together inside. From among them, Lee Youngshin took out a small round battery.

“So if I use ghostly force from outside, it just gets thrown right back at me—is that it?”

It looked like an ordinary battery, but instead of electrolyte, it held condensed ghostly force of Lee Youngshin’s own. Inside the Office of Narye, they called it a Submergence Cell.

He transferred the Submergence Cell into his gloved hand. Just as before, he pushed his hand through the soft wall of the barrier and drove the device deep inside.

“Then what happens if I use ghostly force from the inside?”

The chief of the Ritual Implements Department excelled at changing the angle of attack. After planting the Submergence Cell in the barrier, Lee Youngshin pulled his hand back with a cackling laugh. He stripped off the glove and stuffed it into the hip pack, then tilted his head and checked his wristwatch once. Bringing his palms together with a sharp clap, he spoke.

“Earth Dog. New moon, fifth month. Seventh day, Metal Horse.”

In an instant, his face turned solemn.

“Lee Youngshin hereby ends the span of Submergence—the sinking of a thing beyond sight.”

The moment he finished speaking, the Submergence Cell embedded inside shattered. Boom—the condensed ghostly force detonated violently, and the barrier bucked at once.

“That’s right.”

Nodding, Lee Youngshin folded down his fingers.

Three. Two. One.

The moment the third finger folded,

BOOM!

The barrier vomited the absorbed ghostly force back out a second time.

“Wow. Bravo...”

Lee Youngshin applauded in satisfaction. Two impacts, separated by a slight delay, both originating from inside, tore the barrier open. Standing safely outside the whole time, he watched as the large hole made by the Submergence Cell opened wide enough for a person to pass through.

He opened the orange gate and strode in without hesitation.

“Man, it’s huge! Huge!”

He had just zipped the hip pack shut and swept his gaze around the yard when—

“Oh! My lord, is that you?!”

Lee Youngshin’s eyes turned toward the sound. He had sensed a faint human presence from the rear of the yard. The voice was full of unmistakable delight. He heard the rapid patter of running footsteps growing closer, and then a child came darting out from around the corner of the two-story house.

“Why are you so early today? There was a weird sound outside—”

Lee Youngshin, standing there blankly, lowered his head and looked at the child.

“Uh...”

“Ah...”

Their eyes met at about his waist.

“......”

“......”

Silence passed between them.

The child stared up at Lee Youngshin with his mouth open, stunned. Lee Youngshin’s nostrils flared. After hesitating for a moment, he took a step closer.

The frozen child flinched back.

Lee Youngshin took another step.

The child looked thoroughly flustered.

“Um, hello there, young master.”

The child jumped and stammered out a reply.

“Wh-who are you?!”

Lee Youngshin’s face went rigid.

He had overlooked a very important fact.

Only now, at this exact moment, did he finally remember it. The instant it hit him, an overwhelming sense of crisis crashed over him. The young master was so small. He had expected a ginseng child to look like a little kid, yes, but even so—this was too small. The hands, the feet, the head—

Lee Youngshin answered with a face gone paper-white.

“My name is Lee Youngshin...”

“Ah. Uh. O-okay. But...?”

At that reply, Lee Youngshin clapped a hand over his mouth and began to tremble.

“I’m Lee Youngshin, yes. That’s right. I’m Lee Youngshin.”

Standing well away from him, Mesan looked baffled and thoroughly on guard. Still # Nоvеlight # rambling, Lee Youngshin started staggering toward him with his head bowed.

“Young master, I’m really sorry, but...”

What is wrong with this person?!

The frightened child hurried backward.

Then Lee Youngshin suddenly snapped his head up. His face was blazing red, as if he had suffered some profound shock. Mesan sucked in a startled breath, eyes wide.

Still panting, Lee Youngshin let out a booming shout and lunged at Mesan.

“Just let me hug you once!”

Lee Youngshin absolutely adored children.