Honbul: Flame of the Soul

A person with something to lose was bound to grow weaker for it. Fear did that. Fear of losing what one possessed.

Jaegyeom had cast aside what he was supposed to protect with his own hands.

Faced with a choice so reckless it surpassed anything he could have imagined, Yoon Taehee was left speechless.

For now, it was only Yoon Taehee.

But more Naja would come for him after this.

They would approach him, and they would try to use him.

The more people who knew his identity, and the secrets surrounding him, the more enemies he would have to face.

Jaegyeom knew that as well as anyone.

From the moment Mesan had been taken, it had already become all or nothing.

I’m the only one who knows you, Yoon Taehee had said.

And with that monopolized knowledge alone, he had seized the upper hand with humiliating ease.

Then I’ll drag you down from there.

I’ll make it so everyone can know me.

I’ll strip all value from the card you’re holding in your hand.

The secret Taehee had clenched so tightly, Jaegyeom had chosen to throw away with his own hands.

The truth was, he had been tempted by Taehee’s offer to use him.

If it was Yoon Taehee—someone already inside that world—then he really might have been able to help.

But that was exactly why Jaegyeom could not do it.

If he had not learned they were trying to spirit Mesan away like this, he might really have taken Taehee at his word and joined hands with him.

If some bastard started lurking in Jeongju’s path, he would deal with it when the time came.

If he could not shake off the swarming pack of rats, then he would kill them one by one.

Cowering over things that had not even happened yet, shrinking himself in fear, did not suit his temperament.

If he could not protect something, then he would throw it away.

And after throwing it away, he would go and take it back again.

Like now.

Yoon Taehee let out a hollow laugh and finally spoke.

“So even if it means making the entire Office of Narye your enemy... you still don’t want to stand on my side?”

He had grasped the point exactly.

Which meant, in other words, that this was a declaration of war.

The boy was saying he would never become a Naja.

At the same time, the shackles that had bound him were gone.

“I wanted you to make the smart choice.”

It was like burning down an entire thatched house just to catch a single bedbug.

Jaegyeom knew this was foolish.

Of course the road ahead would be brutal.

But he had decided not to think beyond this point.

This was the answer he had arrived at, after everything it had taken to get here.

In a low voice, Yoon Taehee said,

“You have no idea what kind of place the Office of Narye really is.”

“I do.”

“No. You don’t.”

Shaking his head, Taehee said it flatly.

“In the end, it’ll be like pouring water into a bottomless jar.”

Jaegyeom answered in a dull, lifeless tone.

“I don’t care. In a tedious, miserable life, having at least one little diversion doesn’t sound so bad.”

Think about it. In a tedious, miserable life, you ought to have at least one suitable diversion.

Yoon Taehee lowered his head, then started laughing soundlessly.

Once it burst out of him, the laughter refused to stop for some reason.

His shoulders trembled faintly as he laughed, and at last he let out a small sigh.

“Why do I...”

With his head still bowed, he moved his lips darkly.

“Why do I keep failing you?”

The murmur that slipped out was so small it could barely be heard.

“Would I feel less wronged if we’d at least had one dinner together?”

After that, silence settled over the mountain.

The atmosphere had turned strange.

Lee Youngshin and the other Naja had no idea what the two of them were even talking about anymore. Even after hearing every word, they could not make sense of it.

They were exchanging glances when Yoon Taehee spoke quietly.

“It wasn’t me.”

“Shut your mouth.”

The stillness before the storm came to an end.

“I’m going to beat every last one of you to death.”

Ghostly force began to seep out around the boy in slow curls.

It was so dense and heavy it could be seen with the naked eye.

A violent wind began to whirl around him.

The Naja’s faces hardened at once.

“W-what is that? That ghostly force...”

“H-how can that be...?”

Grass flattened beneath the gale.

Branches lurched and bent.

Leaves and dust spun chaotically through the air.

The Naja had to brace themselves just to avoid being shoved backward by the raging wind.

There was unmistakable killing intent mixed into the wind made of ghostly force.

Lee Youngshin looked at Yoon Taehee in utter alarm.

His expression demanded an answer.

What the hell happened?

But Taehee gave none.

Without a word, he only lifted the mask and settled it back over his face.

As if he were someone who had sensed what was coming.

“Mesan, don’t move. Stay right there.”

The words came like a whisper in his ear.

Mesan, still sniffling, jerked his head up.

And in that instant, the lord who had been standing over there only moments before was nowhere to be seen.

“M-my lord! Where did you—”

Mesan darted frantic looks around him.

Then a lash of ghostly force, shapeless as an invisible whip, struck through the empty air without warning.

“Ghk!”

Including Lead Naja Shin, three Naja from the Ritual Implements Department screamed and went down in a heap.

It was a blow like being hit by a speeding car.

Several nearby trees snapped apart in an instant.

Lee Youngshin reflexively dropped his posture.

Jaegyeom shot in like an arrow, seized Lead Naja Shin by the jaw with one hand, and hauled him into the air.

Lead Naja Shin, broad-built as he was, kicked wildly and clawed at Jaegyeom’s wrist in a frenzy.

“Ugh... ngh—”

A strangled groan leaked through his pinned mouth.

He poured ghostly force into himself, trying to break the grip, but the boy’s hand did not budge.

Jaegyeom slammed him down hard enough to drive him into the ground, then began to pummel him without mercy.

Lead Naja Shin saw it then—the savage eyes shimmering with madness.

Every time a clipped syllable fell from the boy’s mouth, another fist came down.

And each time, a sickening sound followed.

Things splitting.

Things breaking.

“M-my lord...”

Mesan clapped both hands over his mouth, shaking like an aspen leaf.

“...L-Lead Naja Shin!”

“That lunatic—Shin!”

Lee Youngshin and the other Naja, still reeling from the storm of force, rushed in belatedly.

Without even looking at the ones charging him, Jaegyeom swept a hand through the air.

A terrifying surge of ghostly force blasted them all away at once and slammed them into the dirt.

“That... that’s impossible...”

Lee Youngshin’s face went deathly white. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

This kind of ghostly force was beyond absurd.

He had never seen, never even heard of, a gifted wielding ghostly force like this.

So that flat, unremarkable aura from before had been deliberate.

He had concealed his ghostly force on purpose, waiting for a moment when they would let their guard down.

They had to do something about that force first.

“Lead Naja Park, now!”

Lead Naja Park yanked a rope from the duffel bag.

He rattled off an incantation and dropped the rope to the ground.

It began to move as if alive, burrowing into the earth.

Then, after vanishing beneath the soil, it shot back up under the boy’s feet.

In the blink of an eye, the rope wrapped around his ankles like thick tree roots.

The moment the rope—made to neutralize ghostly force—sealed his power, the raging wind scattered all at once.

Jaegyeom, who had been in the middle of driving another punch into Lead Naja Shin, stopped.

Then something came rolling across the ground and bumped against his feet.

The boy slowly lifted his head.

The instant Lee Youngshin met those chilling eyes, his own gaze faltered.

And in that opening, Lead Naja Park snatched up the limp body of Lead Naja Shin in one swift movement.

Yoon Taehee had made no move to save him.

Nor had he tried to stop Jaegyeom.

With his expression hidden behind the mask, he had retreated some distance away.

And somehow, for all that distance, there was something oddly crestfallen about him.

Then Lee Youngshin squeezed his eyes shut and brought his palms together with a sharp clap.

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

“Youngshin, wait—”

Taehee, belatedly startled, took a step forward.

But Youngshin finished the words in one swift breath.

“Lee Youngshin terminates the Submergence time limit.”

The instant he finished, ghostly force exploded beneath the boy’s feet with a deafening boom.

When the cloud of dirt thinned, Jaegyeom was still there, standing motionless in the center of it.

His school uniform had been torn to rags.

Blood ran from split flesh.

“M-my lord—!”

At the sight of Jaegyeom dripping blood, Mesan wailed.

The boy muttered in a sneering voice.

The metallic smell of blood filled the air.

Though badly wounded, though drenched in blood, he did not look as if he felt pain at all.

If anything, his eyes had turned even whiter and more feverish as he stared straight through the Naja.

“W-what the hell is this...”

Lead Naja Park found himself checking the ground under Jaegyeom’s feet.

Just moments ago, he had looked like nothing more than an ordinary high school student.

It was impossible to believe this was the same person.

Even after taking a direct hit from the chief’s Submergence Cell, he was still standing on his own two feet.

Lee Youngshin stared at the boy in sheer disbelief.

Lead Naja Shin had been badly injured, yes, but they had landed a serious blow of their own.

They had bound his feet and sealed his ghostly force.

He should not have been able to move from that spot anymore.

And yet the sense of danger would not leave.

“Hey, what are you all doing? Get the medicinal water out and treat Lead Naja Shin first. Yoon Taehee, why the hell are you just standing there?”

Lee Youngshin glared at Taehee in frustration.

The Ritual Implements Department was a department for making and researching things.

Combat was far from its specialty.

That was why he had thought there would be no real problem even if a clash broke out.

They had a combat Naja with them, after all—a chief from the Spirit Suppression Unit, no less.

But for some reason, Chief Yoon was not becoming part of their fighting strength at all.

He had been standing there like this was none of his business from the start.

Now and then he raised a hand to sweep the dust out of the air.

Now and then he flicked away the stones and splinters flying toward him.

That was all.

“...I got distracted for a second.”

Yoon Taehee answered with a brief shrug.

Lee Youngshin’s face twisted.

The excuse was absurd, and he did not even bother to make it sound sincere.

His expression hardening, Youngshin asked grimly,

“Don’t tell me you still want to bring him in as your successor. Him?”

Yoon Taehee said nothing.