Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 11 - Strange Phenomenon (4)
Chapter 11 – Strange Phenomenon (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Try doing the thing you just mentioned.”
“W-what do you mean right now……”
“You said you could control the strange phenomenon and get from the Manor Lord’s mouth what you wanted.”
Occult practitioner Myo-shin was dumbfounded for a moment.
Judging from the atmosphere, he had naturally thought he would be told to save the Manor Lord.
But he had never imagined such words would come out instead.
‘Ha!’
Bodyguard Gochan was just as dumbfounded.
He had thought that, to avoid turning against the First Madam, they would tell the occult practitioner to save the Manor Lord somehow, but to think he would make the same demand as the First Madam.
Gochan stepped closer to Mok Gyeong-un and whispered,
“Young Master. What in the world are you planning to do?”
“You heard him.”
“Pardon?”
“He says he can hear from the Manor Lord’s own mouth what the First Madam wants.”
At those words, Bodyguard Gochan frowned and opened and closed his mouth.
He was not asking because he did not know that.
“No, Young Master. What are you going to do after finding that out now?”
At that question, Mok Gyeong-un gave a faint snort.
Then he asked in return.
“What are you going to do after knowing?”
At being asked back like that, Bodyguard Gochan was momentarily rendered speechless.
The meaning of that question was simple.
It meant not to object to or question what he was doing.
‘Crazy bastard. What in the world are you trying to do?’
What was he planning to do after stealing what the First Madam was aiming for?
Bodyguard Gochan, who had been troubled, tried to say something, but then shut his mouth.
In any case, he was not the sort to listen to his opinion.
Still, he was worried that things would get tangled up and some trouble would break out.
Regardless, Mok Gyeong-un urged the occult practitioner on.
“Hurry and do it.”
“……..A-all right.”
He hesitated briefly, but occult practitioner Myo-shin had no choice.
If he refused to do it here, there was no telling what this young master, overflowing with murderous aura, would do to him.
Myo-shin pulled something out from the carrying case set in a corner.
It was a wooden doll, smaller than a fist.
Because he had suddenly brought out a doll carved from wood, Mok Gyeong-un asked in puzzlement,
“What are you trying to do with that?”
“This wooden doll will serve as the medium.”
“A medium?”
“……If the Manor Lord directly makes contact with the strange phenomenon again in this state, then rather than exorcism, even his life may be placed in danger.”
That was the truth.
Once a strange phenomenon or ritual impurity had separated from the flesh,
if one made contact with it again, a dangerous situation could arise.
For an occult practitioner who knew strange phenomena well, it was something one should absolutely never do.
“I see. All right.”
Mok Gyeong-un’s reaction was utterly indifferent.
At that attitude of his, occult practitioner Myo-shin clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘These people of this house truly do not care at all whether the Manor Lord lives or dies. More importantly, if this fails, it will be a disaster.’
With tense eyes, Myo-shin looked at the Manor Lord’s severed arm lying on the floor.
He had suppressed the strange phenomenon with the talisman, but fundamentally that thing was impurity derived from killer aura, in other words, a curse.
If he made even the slightest mistake, not only the Manor Lord, but occult practitioner Myo-shin himself could end up in danger.
‘Damn it.’
Swallowing dryly, Myo-shin soon pulled out a talisman.
And he attached it to his own chest.
[Seven Stars Descending Talisman]
On the talisman were three sevens, and another three inside a border, and another three inside that border.
The Seven Stars Descending Talisman.
This was a talisman that received the protection of the Seven Stars.
It was to prevent killer aura from splashing onto him while he performed occult arts.
-Ssk, ssk!
Then he dipped red ink and wrote out another talisman himself.
Substitute, connect.
Those words were written there together with strange patterns.
With a tense face, Myo-shin attached the talisman marked Substitute to the wooden doll, then wrapped red thread around its head several times.
Next, he attached the talisman marked Connect to the sleeping Manor Lord’s head, and brought over the other end of the red thread wrapped around the wooden doll’s head and wound it around the Manor Lord’s head in the same way.
‘They are connected. Lastly, the Six-Person Wandering Soul Talisman.’
Myo-shin pulled out a talisman longer than any he had used so far.
This was called the Six-Person Wandering Soul Talisman, a talisman used for the sorcery of making a wooden doll, breathing a soul into it, and controlling it at will.
“It may be dangerous, so please step back.”
At those words, Mok Gyeong-un and Bodyguard Gochan retreated to the end of the room.
Then Myo-shin drew a hand seal with his left hand, held the talisman in his right, and recited the Wandering Soul Incantation.
“Puppet transformation, heaven and earth overturn, go forth like a child over the sea, body enters six needles, what I command, gods and ghosts cannot fathom, swift by decree.”
At first, nothing changed.
But when Myo-shin turned the hand drawing the seal toward the Manor Lord,
-Tremble, tremble!
the Manor Lord’s body strangely began to convulse.
In that state, Myo-shin slowly turned the hand seal toward the wooden doll.
Then,
-Woooooo!
the writing on the talisman marked Substitute attached to the wooden doll darkened, and it began to emit a strange aura.
It felt as if the wooden doll had come alive.
‘Creepy.’
Watching this, Bodyguard Gochan grimaced terribly.
He had been through all sorts of things, but matters related to strange phenomena and occult arts were nothing but unsettling.
What in the world was he trying to do?
He was watching in tension.
-Tap!
Occult practitioner Myo-shin grabbed the wooden doll and carefully moved it toward the arm infested by the strange phenomenon.
Then he set the wooden doll directly in front of the arm.
At once the Manor Lord’s severed arm, to which the Suppress talisman had been attached, began to react.
Though it was suppressed by the talisman, the veins writhed and looked ready to bulge out as they had before.
At that moment,
-Pak!
Myo-shin removed the talisman marked Suppress.
The instant he did, grotesque veins bulged out from the Manor Lord’s severed right arm, and soon it moved as if alive and seized the wooden doll.
-Crunch!
“Huk!”
The moment it seized the wooden doll, a groan flowed out from the Manor Lord’s mouth.
“Huh?”
It was a bizarre thing.
The severed arm had only seized the wooden doll, yet the Manor Lord reacted.
-Craaack!
“Gnnnn.”
As strength went into the hand gripping the wooden doll, the Manor Lord let out a pained groan as though he himself felt the pain.
‘T-this is going to become a disaster, isn’t it?’
Bodyguard Gochan looked at Mok Gyeong-un.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un was watching it without taking his eyes off it, his face expressionless.
It was surprising enough that he could see something like this and remain unaffected.
-Creeeeping!
At that moment, something sinister from the Manor Lord’s severed right arm flowed into the wooden doll.
“…..body enters six needles, what I command, gods and ghosts cannot fathom, swift by decree.”
‘It worked.’
Occult practitioner Myo-shin, who had been chanting, showed relief in his eyes.
Fortunately, the strange phenomenon had accepted the wooden doll as a medium for the Manor Lord.
This was a kind of trickery.
If the strange phenomenon had not accepted the wooden doll as the Manor Lord, it would have run wild and disaster would have broken out.
But fortunately, the trick had worked.
However,
-Crack! Crack!
small cracks appeared in the wooden doll, into which the strange phenomenon had completely moved.
‘!?’
Seeing this, the eyes of occult practitioner Myo-shin shook.
The wooden doll had been made from refined willow wood, so it was extremely sturdy against evil force.
Yet if cracks appeared the moment the strange phenomenon entered it, that meant……
‘……..The killer aura is too strong.’
Myo-shin swallowed dryly.
He had thought that, though it had been interrupted midway, it had already come out of the body it had possessed, and that in the course of exorcism its strength had weakened to some extent.
But it had completely defied that expectation.
‘This……’
Thinking about it, that made sense.
This was no ordinary person, but a strange phenomenon that had possessed a martial artist who cultivated qi and had even threatened his life, so it could be said to be of a different class than ordinary impurities.
‘It is dangerous.’
For a moment, occult practitioner Myo-shin’s lips went dry.
This strange phenomenon, strong with killer aura, did not seem like something that could be controlled.
If he forced it here, the wooden doll might break and the strange phenomenon that had been suppressed might be released.
“Young Master, I think……”
Occult practitioner Myo-shin could not finish what he was saying.
Because his eyes had met Mok Gyeong-un’s.
-Flinch!
No matter how he thought about it, it was bizarre beyond measure.
How could a living human possess eyes like those of the dead?
It was chilling just to look at them.
-Ssk!
At that moment he saw Mok Gyeong-un idly stroking the sharp blade of the sword.
Seeing this, Myo-shin shut his mouth.
This mad young master seemed like the sort who would never believe his words unless he saw it with his own eyes.
No, anyone would be like that.
‘Ah!’
At that moment, a clever idea suddenly came to occult practitioner Myo-shin.
In this situation, it was nothing less than a means of self-preservation, enough to make him wonder why he had not thought of it earlier.
Myo-shin said,
“Young Master, I will control the strange phenomenon. But it seems quite important. Is it all right for that person to hear it as well?”
The person Myo-shin indicated with a tilt of his head was none other than Bodyguard Gochan.
“What? Ah……”
For a moment Gochan wondered what he meant, but then understood.
What they were about to hear from the Manor Lord’s mouth was the location of the secret manual and the Manor Lord’s seal.
So he was asking whether it was all right for a subordinate to hear it too.
“I will step outside for a moment.”
Though he was not truly just a subordinate, Gochan thought it better to avoid making Mok Gyeong-un uncomfortable and get out of the way on his own.
Mok Gyeong-un seemed to have intended that too, and nodded lightly.
-Rattle!
When Gochan stepped outside the door on his own, Myo-shin recited the Wandering Soul Incantation again.
“Puppet transformation, heaven and earth overturn, go forth like a child over the sea, body enters six needles, what I command, gods and ghosts cannot fathom, swift by decree!”
-Tremble, tremble, tremble!
“Gnnnnnn!”
The wooden doll shook violently, and a groan of pain flowed out from the Manor Lord’s mouth.
-Crack!
Another crack appeared in the wooden doll.
As expected, it could not endure.
Even though he knew that, Myo-shin paid it no heed and, forming a tiger-finger seal with one hand, said,
“Swift by decree. Wandering soul, answer the summons!”
“Gnnnn…..wh…….who…….is…….ca……..ll…..ing…..me?”
A hoarse voice flowed from the mouth of the suffering Manor Lord.
The voice echoed strangely, as if it were a sound coming from the other world.
-Crack!
A line of fracture spread across the chest of the wooden doll.
Sweat began to bead on Myo-shin’s forehead as he watched.
“Swift by decree. Wandering soul, answer the question!”
“Wh……..at…….is…….it…….you……wish……to……say……?”
“Swift by decree. Answer where the Manor Lord’s secret manual and seal are!”
-Tremble, tremble, tremble!
At that question, convulsions ran through the Manor Lord’s head just as they did through the wooden doll.
It shook violently, and his eyelids were moving on their own.
-Crack! Crack!
At the same time, cracks spread to the eyes and neck of the wooden doll.
It looked as if it would shatter at any moment.
At that moment, the Manor Lord opened his mouth.
“The……me……di……cine…….hall…….basement…….jeong………stone………door…….inside……….”
‘Medicine hall……basement jeong….stone door?’
That was certainly what it sounded like.
It was just as he was about to continue speaking and say something more.
-Craaash!
At that instant, the wooden doll caved in and shattered into a grotesque shape.
Then some hideous undulating thing tried to run along the red thread toward the connected Manor Lord.
At this, Myo-shin hurriedly shouted.
“Young Master! You have to cut the thread!”
‘The thread?’
He realized at once that something had gone wrong as the wooden doll broke apart.
Mok Gyeong-un hurriedly brought the sword down toward the thread along which the undulating thing was flowing.
-Slash!
With exquisite timing, the thread was cut, and the hideous undulating thing lost its way.
‘Did it work?’
It was just as he thought perhaps it had been blocked.
-Woooooong!
At that moment, the undulating thing surged up the sword at tremendous speed.
Realizing this, Mok Gyeong-un tried to release his hand from the hilt.
But unlike the red thread, which had been tangled long and intricately like a maze, the length of the sword was short in the extreme.
-Pak!
A cold sensation flowing in through his hand.
That sensation rode up his arm and rapidly burrowed into his body.
His body jolted, and Mok Gyeong-un shook as if struck by lightning.
‘It worked!’
Seeing this, the corners of occult practitioner Myo-shin’s mouth lifted.
It had gone exactly as intended.
From the start, the wooden doll could not endure the strange phenomenon packed full of killer aura.
That was why he had guessed that in the middle of performing the Six-Person Wandering Soul Method, it would eventually break free from suppression.
And so Myo-shin had deliberately caused the strange phenomenon to move over to Mok Gyeong-un.
And it had succeeded.
-Pak!
Occult practitioner Myo-shin pulled out from his bosom a talisman marked Suppress and stuck it to the forehead of Mok Gyeong-un, who was convulsing.
‘It is killing two birds with one stone.’
From the Manor Lord’s mouth, at least roughly, the location of the secret manual and seal had come out.
And besides that, he had shifted the strange phenomenon onto this bastard.
Strange phenomena, too, had a kind of will, and they learned.
It had already gone through exorcism and had even endured the Six-Person Wandering Soul Method, so now there was no longer any way to separate it through occult arts.
‘It is unfortunate, but this happened because you forced me into it.’
If one tried to forcibly pull the strange phenomenon out, the possessed person might lose his life or become crippled.
But either way, it did not matter.
He was only in a position where he had to fulfill the First Madam’s commission.
* * *
His vision brightened.
Jeong looked around at his surroundings.
At the same time he heard the sound of water babbling and birds chirping.
This refreshing spring was a place he always came to every morning to draw water.
‘What is this?’
It felt as if something had happened just a moment ago.
Yet he did not know what it was.
For an instant it seemed as if he had dreamed, or perhaps only blanked out for a while.
‘This is unpleasant.’
It felt as if he had forgotten something, but he could not remember it.
Jeong, who had been sitting on a rock and thinking, finally rose from his seat.
Then he hoisted the water carrier he had set down.
‘I should hurry.’
If he was late, Grandfather would scold him.
Jeong ran up the steep mountain path with the water carrier on his shoulders.
This mountain path, which he ran every day, was so familiar he could have walked it with his eyes closed.
-Slosh, slosh!
The water in the buckets hanging from the carrier swayed.
Even so, not a drop spilled outside.
Because he had always followed Grandfather’s scolding not to spill the water, at some point he had reached the point of not spilling even a single drop.
Thus Jeong ran.
By the time he had run for a long while and was about to reach the mountaintop,
‘!?’
Jeong frowned.
There, he saw black smoke.
The place where the smoke was rising was where the house was.
Seeing that, Jeong threw aside the water carrier and ran toward the place like a madman.
Soon he arrived there.
-Fwoooosh!
Scorching heat washed over him.
The house was burning fiercely.
Jeong’s face hardened terribly.
After hurriedly looking around, Jeong ran to the back of the burning house.
There was a small vegetable garden behind the house.
That was because the medicinal herbs that could be cultivated were grown there directly.
Normally, Grandfather would wake early in the morning and be pulling herbs there in the garden.
‘Please…..please….’
Jeong, who had run to the garden, stopped in his tracks.
Something stained with blood came into view in his eyes, which had grown wide as if about to burst.
Things that should have been inside the body were strewn across the garden.
-Crunch!
Jeong ground his teeth.
Then he followed the place where the blood and pieces trailed.
Looking down below the hill, Jeong shouted.
“Grandfather!”
Grandfather was there.
It was a horrifying sight, with only the upper body remaining, the lower part torn away.
Even in that state, it seemed breath still barely lingered, and he could see Grandfather’s face lifting itself with difficulty.
The moment he saw that, it felt as if his reason would fly away.
Beside him stood someone.
It was a being with black pupils without whites and a pale face.
Jeong was not recognizing him at all.
‘Is that what you desire most?’
Jeong felt pain.
The being with black pupils, who had been watching him, flicked a finger.
-Snap!
At that moment, a strange thing happened.
The enraged Jeong could not hide his bewilderment.
‘What….is this?’
The image of Grandfather below the hill had vanished without a trace.
As he turned his head, wondering where it had gone, the burning house stood there as usual, as though nothing had happened.
Even the ruined garden was perfectly fine.
And in that garden, he could see Grandfather pounding at his back while picking medicinal herbs.
“Grandfather?”
At that, Grandfather turned his head and said,
“If you’re here, why are you just standing there blankly instead of helping?”
The moment he heard Grandfather’s voice, his chest tightened.
He did not know what had happened just now, but he felt he now understood how precious Grandfather was.
He would never lose Grandfather again.
Because he was the only reason he, who should have died, was able to go on living.
There was someone with black pupils watching Jeong from behind.
He could not hide his satisfaction.
‘Yes. Stay with your grandfather forever. Never lose what is precious to you again….’
It was right then.
Jeong, who had been trembling with emotion, suddenly whipped his head around.
‘!?’
The being with black pupils frowned.
Jeong was staring straight at him with vicious eyes like those of a dead man.
That was impossible.
There was no way the bastard could recognize him….
-Thrust!
At that moment, Jeong’s two fingers plunged into the black-pupiled being.
‘Kuaaaaaaak!’
Jeong’s fingers gouged straight into his eye and tore it out.
The being with black pupils, whose eye had suddenly been torn out, writhed in pain.
To him, Jeong said in a cold voice,
“I don’t know what you are, but you’re extremely irritating. Playing games with my dead grandfather, of all things.”
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