Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Accident? What accident?”

Taehee silently propped his chin on his hand and abruptly turned his gaze out the window. His neat fingertips tapped the table as if tracing a memory.

“It was an incident where a Naja from the Talisman Unit tried to steal a wooden tag.”

It had happened more than thirty years ago. Among the Naja, it was a famous anecdote.

“Once, there was a Naja from the Talisman Unit assigned to guard the registry room door. But that Naja did not get along well with colleagues. Maybe there was a personal grudge. Maybe the Naja wanted to curse them. In any case, the thought must have been to first undo the contract that forbade harming fellow Naja.”

Since the person had been a guard, sneaking into the registry room itself would have been easy. However, the moment that Naja from the Talisman Unit touched the wooden tag with their own name on it, the wooden tag instantly burst into flame, and at the same time, flames erupted from the Naja’s body. A terrible scream rang out. Other Naja rushed in to see what had happened, but the scene was so gruesome they could hardly bear to open their eyes.

Jaegyeom, who had been listening, frowned and asked,

“So what happened? Did that person die?”

Taehee was silent for a moment, then nodded with sunken eyes.

“...Yes. Dead.”

“Then what’s guarding the registry room now?”

“A stone statue.”

A stone statue? Jaegyeom looked puzzled.

“After that accident, the Talisman Unit must have learned not to trust people. So instead of a person, they set up a stone statue, and inside that statue lives a trustworthy watchman. It’s a white tiger the clerk created herself with a spell.”

One of Jaegyeom’s eyebrows rose crookedly.

“You’re saying that white tiger protects the registry room?”

“Yes. It’s a very loyal fellow.”

If a person were guarding it, breaking through would have been much easier. Most people could be dealt with somehow, whether through coaxing or trickery. But that method would not work on the white tiger. Since it had been created through a spell, it moved only according to command. It carried out its purpose without error.

“There’s a spell on the white tiger. If anyone other than the registry room clerk tries to enter that place, it bites them to death immediately. Sometimes, if you’re unlucky, even just passing in front of it makes it recognize you as an intruder and leap out of the statue to attack.”

After listening to Taehee, Jaegyeom said flatly,

“Then it’s probably one of two things. Either get rid of the person who cast the spell, or get rid of the statue.”

Across the table, Taehee stared at Jaegyeom with a weary look. It was a reaction similar to the one he had shown when Jaegyeom brought up the wooden tag earlier. Jaegyeom said with a sour expression,

“I can figure out that much.”

Well, how many years had he lived....

Jaegyeom’s point was accurate this time too. Since it was not a real tiger, no matter how many times one attacked it, it would not disappear. The way to deal with the troublesome tiger was to defeat the spellcaster. If the caster fell unconscious, the spell would naturally come undone. Another method was to get rid of the main body the spell had been cast on. Since the tiger was said to appear from within the stone statue, the main body was most likely the stone statue.

The boy, who usually wore a bored expression dulled by time, sometimes took on a different look, like a razor-edged blade. Each time, Taehee felt a dizzying blow strike some corner of his heart.

“Where in the world did he come from...?”

Taehee muttered without realizing it.

“What?”

“...What we’re aiming for is the stone statue. It’s the main body of the spell.”

Taehee, who had paused for a moment, continued as if nothing had happened.

“The caster is Ms. Okrye, the registry room clerk.... Attacking a fellow Naja is a violation of the contract, so the burden is too heavy. You’d have to pay a price like last time. And above all, it would be the same as admitting you were plotting rebellion.”

This time, Jaegyeom accepted his words without wavering.

“But that’s the same if you destroy the statue. If the main body is damaged, the person who cast the spell will know. She’ll notice there’s an intruder, so what are you going to do then?”

Jaegyeom knew this field better than anyone. Naturally, given how many years he had lived. Taehee opened his mouth, clenching and unclenching his hand.

“That’s right. In the end, Ms. Okrye, the spellcaster, will know an intruder has entered the registry room. The moment she senses the main body has been broken, she’ll immediately run to the registry room, won’t she?”

Taehee added with a playful smile.

“But what can we do? It isn’t within running distance at all.”

“...What are you talking about?”

“Ms. Okrye isn’t at the Office of Narye right now. And she won’t be for the next two months.”

So there was no clerk? Jaegyeom drew his brows together.

“Where is she?”

“Ms. Okrye is seventy-nine this year.”

“She’s seventy-nine?” Jaegyeom echoed in disbelief.

“She turns eighty the day after tomorrow. But that’s not what matters.”

When she was young, Okrye became a nun and practiced the Buddhist path. However, because she indulged in drink and entertainment, she was expelled from the temple where she had lived. So Okrye, who had returned to the secular world, entered the Office of Narye. Ms. Okrye had an eccentric personality and was stubborn, so she did not get along easily with others. In particular, her behavior was so odd that even within the Office of Narye, she was treated as an eccentric.

Whenever someone called Okrye “grandmother,” she flew into a rage. “You brat! I’m not even married, so why would I be a grandmother!” she would shout, beating the person with her cane. Day or night, she always wore black sunglasses, and she wore a thick scarf regardless of the season. Yet she was so faithful to the teachings of Buddha that she went around reciting Buddhist scriptures to herself, making people shudder.

“Ms. Okrye is very obsessed with the number nine.”

It was said that when the number nine came around, the year brought bad luck and misfortune, so whenever a nine appeared, Ms. Okrye would take refuge in a hermitage in the mountains for three months, from the fourth to the seventh month of the lunar calendar. It was a period of seclusion. This year was no different.

“So by now, Ms. Okrye must be somewhere deep in a mountain valley. Even if she notices the statue has been broken, she won’t be able to come in person. Instead, she’ll contact headquarters and inform them of the situation. When the people who receive the call come running to the registry room...”

A faint flush rose on Taehee’s cheeks.

“Unfortunately, the culprit will have already escaped the scene at leisure, won’t he?”

Destroy the statue and remove the watchman. It would take at least [N O V E L I G H T] a few minutes for the other Naja to arrive after receiving the call, and in that time, he would break into the registry room and steal the wooden tag.

If they discovered that an intruder had entered the room, headquarters would first check the wooden tag with Taehee’s name on it, but in the place where the wooden tag with his name had disappeared, a fake wooden tag would be left behind.

This was Taehee’s plan to get his name back.

Even if the wooden tag fell into someone’s hands, the contract would not be broken immediately. If that happened, just as with the stone statue, Okrye, the caster, would notice. Taehee planned to break the contract at the very last moment before invading the Office of Narye. By the time headquarters realized the traitor’s identity, it would be too late.

The war would already have begun by then.

“It goes without saying, but if the wooden tag is stolen, headquarters will be in an uproar. A large-scale search will begin to find the intruder. If someone can remove Okrye’s stone statue, that means the person is strong enough to do it. Most of the people working in the Exorcism Unit will probably become the first suspects, including you and me.”

Taehee paused for a moment and met Jaegyeom’s eyes.

“So I want you to hide your strength appropriately on the outside, even in front of your teammates. It would be strange if a mere probationary Naja were stronger than the team’s chief.”

Jaegyeom quietly nodded at Taehee’s request.

“And to avoid suspicion later, it’s better to build trust now. I’m pretending to be loyal to the Office of Narye and to sacrifice myself for it. So for the time being, please focus on resolving cases and producing results as a member of the Exorcism Unit. The date for taking the wooden tag hasn’t been decided, but it will be after the end of June.”

Jaegyeom stared silently at the face before him. The eyes, which had suddenly lost their smile, looked cold and sharp. He seemed utterly absorbed in discussing the plans ahead. Since when had Taehee been gathering all this information, and how much effort had he poured into building his tower to this point?

The image of Taehee leisurely reading a book in the library that day came to Jaegyeom’s mind. Taehee had said he read the same book over and over again. Then what on earth had he been looking for as he stared at sentences he had already read countless times? Had he really been reading a book then? The fact that Taehee was sitting there, that he was reading a book—all of it had been one of the puzzle pieces meant to destroy the Office of Narye.

“You...”

After a while, Jaegyeom suddenly opened his mouth.

“So you’ve been waiting ten years?”

For the registry room clerk to leave when the number nine came around again.

“Yes.”

Taehee propped his chin on his hand and calmly looked at the boy before him. Receiving that gaze, Jaegyeom felt a strange pounding spread through his heart like ripples. The ten years of waiting Taehee had endured—he was at the end of them. He held Taehee’s ten years in his hands.

Jaegyeom felt dizzy.