Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Ponyo... Ponyo, Ponyo...”

Lee Youngshin sang along absentmindedly to the melody that had long since lodged itself in his ears.

The bright, chirpy little song had somehow turned into something pitiful and mournful in his mouth.

By the time he was still waiting for Yoon Taehee, it was already past six in the evening. If he had driven without stopping, they would have reached Seoul long ago by now. Maybe it was because they were deep in the mountains, but the darkness seemed to be falling much earlier.

Youngshin was staring blankly up at the sky, his face hollow, letting out a sigh so deep it felt like it might sink the ground beneath him—

when suddenly his eyes lit up.

He shot to his feet.

Rustle.

A faint sound had come from beyond the brush.

Finally.

He stumbled forward at once, shoving through the undergrowth to greet him as the sound came closer and closer. Youngshin spread both arms, already half in tears.

“Hey! What took you so long? Do you know how long it’s been since I called—”

The sulky words of welcome died on his lips.

His face hardened.

The person emerging from the brush was not the Yoon Taehee he had been pining for.

But the faces were familiar enough.

“Chieeef! Chief Lee!”

“Huff, huff—we made it!”

Four people in black suits appeared before him. Their suits were filthy, as if they had fought their way up the mountain. One of them, standing farther back, huffed as he lowered the huge duffel bag strapped to his back onto the ground.

“Wh-what? How did you all get here?”

The four standing in front of him were Naja from Team 1 of the Ritual Implements Department, the team under Lee Youngshin’s command.

Their unexpected appearance threw him so badly he actually took a step back.

“Heheh, surprised, right? We told you to take us with you. See, Chief? You were so stubborn about going alone. I knew it. I just knew you’d end up suffering like this.”

One of them spoke between breaths, looking absurdly pleased with himself.

“We were following from a distance because we thought you’d kill us if you noticed. But when you didn’t come back down no matter how long we waited at the foot of the mountain, we figured maybe something had happened and came up after you.”

Lee Youngshin had been moving in secret because he was worried headquarters might discover the existence of the ginseng child.

The surprise visit from his team made him glad—

and worried at the same time.

Seeing the look on his face, the others opened their mouths as though they understood exactly what he was thinking.

“Yes, yes, we came up with a cover story before we left, so don’t worry. We shook them clean. There’s no way this gets exposed, so trust us a little, would you? Team 1 is one body, aren’t we? Don’t wound us like that.”

The Naja of Ritual Implements Department Team 1 had banded together and come to share in their superior’s hardship.

Only then did Lee Youngshin finally look moved.

His eyes brimmed with tears as he stared at them.

The Naja of Team 1 were famous for how fiercely close-knit they were. They clung together as a unit. They were nothing like other Naja, who treated a team as nothing more than a team and put loyalty to the Office of Narye first.

Put kindly, they had good teamwork.

Put less kindly, the whole team was a beautifully coordinated disaster.

Team 1 of the Ritual Implements Department could be summed up quite simply in a single sentence:

a gang of invention-mad lunatics.

Whenever they needed materials to make ritual implements, they were supposed to get approval from above first.

Instead, the Team 1 Naja tended to start by revving up a chainsaw.

The story of the usually dignified head of the Ritual Implements Department screaming, You lawless bastards, go die out there! at Team 1 had become the stuff of legend.

The mood of a team usually reflected whoever led it, and Team 1 had inherited their chief’s bizarre combination of eccentricity and incompetence in full.

Nothing else mattered to them.

Not rank.

Not order.

Not discipline.

Only one thing did:

how new, how fun, and how impressive the thing they made could be.

For reference, Team 1’s slogan for this year had been decided as:

Our love forever♡

“Chief, times like this are exactly when we’ve got to stick together. And this isn’t just anything—it’s a precious ginseng child. The ginseng child is going to become our team’s treasure. If we’re all together, we can do it.”

Tears streaming down his face, Lee Youngshin threw himself at them. The others grabbed onto each other too and began wailing in a group. As if by prior arrangement, all five Naja thrust their hands together into the middle.

“Our love! Forever!”

Their thunderous chant rang out through the still mountain.

Startled birds burst up in a flurry and flew off somewhere into the darkening woods.

As if it were a lie that he had not moved once in hours, Mesan quietly opened one eye.

Not a single one of the five noticed.

What are those people...? Why are they all wearing black, and what exactly are they doing right now...?

Fear seized him.

But he only had to hold out a little longer.

Lord Jeongju is coming. He has to be.

Mesan stole nervous glances at the now-increased number of people surrounding him—

when a low voice drifted out from behind a tree on the opposite side.

“You people really are something else.”

Startled, Mesan shut his eye at once.

The Ritual Implements Department Naja were just as shocked. They had all been crying and making a spectacle of themselves, but now all five heads snapped at once toward the source of the voice.

Unlike the Ritual Implements Department Naja, who stood there in black suits with their faces fully exposed, the owner of the voice wore a dark gray suit and a strange traditional mask over his face.

His hands in his pockets, his posture slightly crooked, the man stepped out soundlessly.

The Naja of the Ritual Implements Department, except for Lee Youngshin, all sucked in sharp breaths.

The traditional mask was the emblem of the Spirit Suppression Unit.

“Chief... who is that?”

Lee Youngshin, however, let out a shrill yell and sprang forward in delight.

“Hey, Chief Yoon! How long ago do you think I called you?!”

The faces of the Ritual Implements Department Naja filled with shock.

The mask had told them he belonged to the Spirit Suppression Unit, yes—

but they had never imagined he was Chief Yoon.

Chief Yoon was difficult to encounter even inside headquarters, and his name carried weight.

“I got turned around. It’s an unnamed mountain.”

For someone who claimed he had gotten lost, his suit was spotless.

“C-Chief Yoon, sir, hello!”

The Ritual Implements Department Naja all bent at the waist over one another in their rush to bow.

Watching them, Lee Youngshin wore an expression of utter disbelief.

Look at these little bastards.

He was a chief too, but the treatment was completely different.

The others did not care.

They shoved their direct superior aside without a thought and eagerly began reciting their ranks and names even though nobody had asked. Youngshin poked his lip out in irritation.

“Ritual Implements Department Team 1, Lead Naja Shin Seoyoung—” 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“I’m also a l-lead Naja, Park Suwon—”

Yoon Taehee dipped his head and seemed, for a second, as though he might politely accept the greetings with a proper, “Yes, hello.”

But he lost interest almost immediately.

“Yes, hi.”

“Yep, hello.”

He gave a lazy wave and nodded off mid-greeting as if he were about to fall asleep standing up.

“So headquarters sent backup? Then why did you call me?”

Having finished the brief exchange of names with the Ritual Implements Department Naja, Yoon Taehee turned to Lee Youngshin and spoke in an indifferent tone.

Apparently, because Youngshin had been alone when they were on the phone and was now standing among other Naja, Taehee had gotten the wrong idea.

“They’re not official backup. They snuck here.”

“They snuck here? You didn’t report it to the situation room?”

Taehee asked as though that were the truly baffling part.

“Why would I report it to the situation room?”

The modern Office of Narye was a fully structured state institution, and procedure mattered a great deal.

Strictly speaking, the first thing they should have done was report the matter to the Office situation room.

But the first person to receive word of this matter had been Lee Youngshin, the highest-ranking person within the team.

And in response, he had praised the team member who found the ginseng child until the man’s ears nearly wore out, then ordered absolute secrecy so the information would not leak outside.

“Why not? If you report it properly to headquarters, your team would get a massive incentive. Wouldn’t this be a chance for Team 1 to get promoted too?”

Taehee asked in a voice touched with amusement.

Lee Youngshin shook his head with firm conviction.

“We don’t care about incentives. Who gives a damn about money and promotions? Right now, the only thing my kids care about is what we can make with the little master. If word gets to headquarters, they’ll obviously take him away from us, so why would we hand him over on a silver platter? The little master is mine— no, ours. Right, boys?”

When Youngshin turned to look at them, all four nodded hard.

Truly, they had done full justice to the title lawless bastards.

So mad for invention they had long since thrown loyalty to the dogs, the rowdy delinquents once again renewed their determination.

“You and my team are the only ones who know about the little master. Nobody else does. That’s why I called you. Chief Yoon, help me.”

Lee Youngshin begged again.

Yoon Taehee said nothing outright, neither yes nor no. He merely rubbed the back of his neck.

He had come because he had been called, but...

After a moment of thought, he asked in a voice so flat it hardly seemed interested,

“So where is this little master?”

Youngshin answered with a jerk of his chin.

“Over there.”

“Where?”

“There!”

“I don’t see him...”

The other Naja also followed Taehee’s lead and looked around.

With a face full of impatience, Youngshin lifted a finger and pointed precisely.

“He’s right there! Here!”

Puzzled, Yoon Taehee followed the line of that finger with his gaze.

A short distance away, only a few steps off, a child really was standing there.

Something strange flickered across Taehee’s face for an instant.

...Why hadn’t he seen him?

Taehee tilted his head.

“That’s odd.”

Then he walked slowly toward the child.

The other Naja had been no different. None of them had noticed the presence of the ginseng child either. Those standing farther off now also gathered around the little master. Lee Youngshin proceeded to explain in detail everything that had happened up to this point.

“So, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) in short, he’s gone rigid and won’t budge.”

After hearing the explanation, Yoon Taehee summed it up simply and reached out to brush a hand lightly over the little master.

Just as Youngshin had said, the little master was hard as stone.

The child’s face, eyes closed, looked perfectly peaceful.

“Yeah. Even when I tried forcing him to move with ghostly force, it didn’t work.”

“Chief, just in case, should we all try together?”

The Naja crowded around the little master. It seemed they intended to lift him together by sheer force. Youngshin already knew that no matter how hard he had tried before, the little master had not budged—but now that there were more of them, he decided to join in on the off chance.

All five strained and grunted around that tiny body, pouring ghostly force into the effort.

Only Yoon Taehee did not join them.

He stepped back a few paces and watched with his arms folded, silent and distant.

Every so often he closed his eyes and opened them again.

At other times he lifted a hand to cover part of his vision, then lowered it.

He kept repeating those odd, unreadable motions.

“Move.”

Yoon Taehee, who had been standing wordlessly off to the side, gestured for them to get out of the way.

The Naja, sweating heavily, stepped back.

Taehee approached the little master and sank down onto one knee.

Then he examined the child’s feet where they touched the ground, turning his attention this way and that.

After staring at them for a moment in thought, he rose.

Then he waved a hand over the little master’s closed eyes, as if checking whether he was truly conscious.

“......”

Through the mask, the line of Yoon Taehee’s eyes curved.

“Even a hundred people couldn’t move the little master.”

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lee Youngshin asked blankly.

“Right now, the little master is connected to the mountain.”

Yoon Taehee reached out with one fingertip and touched the little master’s hard cheek.