Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 33 - Gudiao (4)
Chapter 33 – Gudiao (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Aah!”
“M-Madamm!”
The maidservants screamed in pain.
The veins in their faces swelled, looking as though they would burst at any moment.
“You bitch!”
Guard Ho Aeng, even angrier, tried to launch her body forward.
Then the First Madam, Madam Seok, hurriedly shouted,
“Ho Aeng! Stop!”
“Yes?”
At that cry, Ho Aeng was forced to stop after only three steps.
She glared with resentful eyes at the occult practitioner New Moon, who was chanting a spell.
She had grasped her mistress’s weakness perfectly.
Madam Seok cherished the maidservants and the guard she had brought from her maiden home as much as her own eldest son.
That was because they were people with whom she shared the nostalgia of her homeland.
But if one let oneself be manipulated in this way, it only gave the other side room to dig in deeper.
“Mad…”
-Raise.
Madam Seok lifted her hand with a face gone cold.
It meant not to interfere.
Madam Seok glared at the occult practitioner New Moon as if she meant to kill her and said,
“Occult Practitioner New Moon. If you do not stop this at once, I promise you this. I will erase you and Ghost Shadow Pavilion from this world, even if I must mobilize all of my connections and power.”
Those words were sincere.
Something that should never have been touched had been touched.
It was not enough that she had dared to betray her, now she was tormenting her people?
At such fury from Madam Seok, the occult practitioner New Moon did not show it outwardly, but she could not hide her bitterness.
In the end, it had turned out exactly as Mok Gyeong-un wanted.
[You said you would do anything. Then you can do at least that much, right?]
[……….]
This was the first time she had seen someone so cunning.
She had thought he was just an ignorant, immature seventeen-year-old young master who knew nothing of the world, but he was a little devil.
To think he would come up with a move like this.
Now the First Madam had come to hate both her and Ghost Shadow Pavilion.
No, from the standpoint of Ghost Shadow Pavilion, a long-standing client had effectively turned into an enemy.
‘Haah.’
She let out a deep sigh.
Ghost Shadow Pavilion was not what she should have been worrying about.
What would happen to her when this fact became known?
Just to save a single shikigami, she had broken several rules of Ghost Shadow Pavilion, so it would not be strange if she were expelled, banished, or forced to pay an even greater price.
‘Is it time for me to leave?’
-Clench!
Biting her lip hard, New Moon stopped chanting the spell.
Then she shouted to Madam Seok,
“If you try to chase me and harm me, you will lose those two maidservants.”
‘That bitch dares!’
Madam Seok’s fury rose to the very top of her head, but she barely restrained it.
Because she had seen with her own eyes that occult arts possessed a strange power capable of threatening a person’s life even from far away, she could not easily ignore New Moon’s threat.
-Flinch!
Madam Seok looked somewhere and frowned.
That was because she could hear many presences within the manor gathering toward Hyehwa Hall.
They were probably the outer-court guards.
Madam Seok, who had been glaring at New Moon, finally made up her mind.
“……..Leave before I change my mind. Quickly.”
At those words, New Moon let out a small breath of relief.
“Hoo.”
The method she had used was called the Six-Person Male and Female Servant Ritual Method, an occult art that could directly harm or control people.
Normally, it required part of the target’s body, the time of their birth, six offerings, and two talismans.
Only when all of that was prepared could one carry out a kill or anything else.
What she had just done had merely been a temporary performance by borrowing the power of several special talismans and a special vessel called Encircling Stillness.
-Crack!
Because the Encircling Stillness in her bosom had broken, she could no longer cast the art either.
In the end, it had been a kind of gamble.
‘I have to go quickly.’
If she did not hurry, she might be discovered.
* * *
-Creeeak!
Carefully opening the door of the medicine hall, the occult practitioner New Moon came inside.
To her, Mok Gyeong-un, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, raised a hand and said casually,
“Did you do it well?”
“……..Yes. I did as you told me.”
At those words, Mok Gyeong-un asked again,
“That is what she says. Is it certain?”
“Yes, Young Master. I confirmed it.”
At the voice coming from behind her, the occult practitioner New Moon frowned slightly and turned her head.
The one who had answered behind her was none other than Guard Gochan.
‘As expected, he posted someone.’
New Moon clicked her tongue inwardly.
Still, she was not especially bothered.
For Gudiao’s sake, she had done exactly as instructed.
Looking at Gudiao in Mok Gyeong-un’s right hand, panting for breath with a body shrunk down to skin and bone, New Moon said,
“Now please keep your promise.”
“Fine. A promise is a promise.”
Even at those words, New Moon did not relax her tension.
Though younger than her, there was no predicting which way this man would jump.
That was why she could not let her guard down.
Gripping Gudiao by the throat, Mok Gyeong-un walked toward her.
“Ah. There is one thing I want to ask.”
She flinched.
Surely he was not about to say his mind had changed or something like that?
Though suspicion rose in her, she said, trying not to show it,
“…….What is it?”
“In that group you said you belong to, Ghost Shadow Pavilion, are there others besides you who handle demons and monsters like this, or vengeful spirits like the demon monk here, as shikigami?”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, New Moon looked toward the demon monk, that Yellow Spirit.
No matter how she looked at it, that soul clearly was a vengeful spirit belonging to the realm of strange phenomena.
She truly could not understand it.
Vengeful spirits were, to begin with, beings that remained in this world through a single resentful obsession.
That was why, with that obsession and hatred to harm others, they could not be controlled as shikigami.
No, they could not become shikigami in the first place.
‘They are simply targets for exorcism.’
Just how was that man controlling a Yellow Spirit as a shikigami?
She could not understand it at all.
What was more, he was not even an occult practitioner.
“Do you not want to speak?”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s urging, she jumped and quickly answered,
“No. In Ghost Shadow Pavilion, including me, there are three occult practitioners who can handle shikigami.”
‘Though now it will be two.’
Not only had she broken the Pavilion rules, she had also created an enemy in the form of the First Madam of Yeon Mok Sword Manor, so there was no way for her to remain there.
In the worst case, they might try to kill her or place a curse on her.
In any case, that was not what mattered now.
“There are not that many.”
“……Within Ghost Shadow Pavilion, no.”
“Within Ghost Shadow Pavilion? Then are there other groups of occult practitioners as well?”
At those words, New Moon blamed herself inwardly.
She had said something she did not need to say.
Since she would have to belong somewhere else once she left Ghost Shadow Pavilion, it had been a mistake.
So she glossed over it vaguely.
“Just as there are many sects in the martial world besides Yeon Mok Sword Manor, the same is true of groups of occult practitioners.”
“Well, that is true enough.”
“Are there no more questions?”
“Could I know what kinds of demons and monsters the other two occult practitioners handle?”
“………”
New Moon sincerely clicked her tongue inwardly.
This man clearly had not dropped his guard against Ghost Shadow Pavilion.
Not only had he driven a wedge between that woman, the First Madam who wanted him dead, and Ghost Shadow Pavilion, he was also apparently preparing for what might come.
She glanced at Gudiao, who was looking at her pitifully from Mok Gyeong-un’s grasp.
After thinking it over, she finally opened her mouth.
“An occult practitioner named Go, who served the Pavilion Master for a long time, handles as his shikigami Gudiao, the monster beast of Mount Nogosan.”
“What kind of power does that demon and monster possess?”
“I do not know exactly. But I remember its appearance. It has a body like an eagle and strangely shaped horns.”
“You are not pretending not to know when you do know, are you?”
“……..A shikigami is no different from a secret art to an occult practitioner, so most of us conceal what kind of power it has.”
That was true.
Even among occult practitioners, the unspoken rule was that one neither revealed nor asked about one another’s occult arts or shikigami.
That was their own tacit rule.
Mok Gyeong-un nodded and asked,
“And the other one?”
“The Pavilion Master himself. I do not know what kind of demon and monster the Pavilion Master possesses either.”
“You do not know?”
“Yes. But there is a high chance he possesses at least a top-tier demon and monster as a shikigami.”
‘At the very least, he is one of the Pavilion Masters among the Sixty-Four Pavilions of the Square and Circle.’
The Sixty-Four Pavilions of the Square and Circle.
These were sixty-four groups of occult practitioners located throughout the Central Plains.
The leaders of those places, the Pavilion Masters, were occult practitioners with considerable fame in the hidden world.
Though they did not rank among the so-called Gods of the Six Directions, who stood at the summit, it was said they at least sat around the middle, so their skill would be formidable.
“Do demons and monsters also have ranks? Like vengeful spirits?”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, New Moon nodded.
“Yes.”
“Then if something is top-tier, what level would it be?”
“Demons and monsters can be divided into the ranks of ferocious beast, monster beast, demon beast, devil beast, spirit beast, and divine beast.”
Gudiao, New Moon’s shikigami, was indeed described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as a ferocious beast.
In truth, among demons and monsters, ferocious beasts belonged to the comparatively mild side and could be said to avoid humans.
But once they reached the level of monster beasts, some of them did eat humans.
That was why, starting from monster beasts, it became extremely difficult to subdue them as shikigami or handle them.
“Hmm. Then that Pavilion Master must handle a spirit beast or a divine beast.”
At those words, New Moon shook her head.
“No, no. That is not it.”
“It is not?”
“No. Spirit beasts and divine beasts are moving calamities themselves, so no matter how outstanding the occult practitioner, making one into a shikigami is almost impossible.”
Spirit beasts and divine beasts were beings called calamities, or legends.
Even she had never actually seen such beings.
She had only encountered records of them in old texts or in the Classic of Mountains and Seas while studying occult arts.
‘When you consider that, the Gods of the Six Directions really are astonishing.’
The so-called Gods of the Six Directions, the summit of occult practitioners.
They were the six occult practitioners who had received the title of god.
Among them, she had heard that two had subdued spirit beasts as shikigami.
Out of the countless occult practitioners, only two had reached that domain, so the title of god suited them.
“Then it must be a demon beast or devil beast.”
“It is probably so.”
Even if it was not a spirit beast or above, a demon beast or devil beast was still worthy of being called top-tier among demons and monsters.
They were beings that had gained great notoriety in an entire region, or whose demonic power was anything but ordinary.
Mok Gyeong-un’s lips twitched as he muttered softly,
“If possible, I would prefer it to be a devil beast.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah… it is nothing.”
New Moon furrowed her brow.
What had this man just said?
While she was wondering that, Mok Gyeong-un handed Gudiao over to her and said,
“Here. You may go now.”
“………”
With trembling eyes, she received Gudiao, who was panting for breath.
* * *
After New Moon left, Guard Gochan said anxiously,
“Young Master… is it really alright to let her go like that?”
“I promised to let her go.”
At those words, Gochan grumbled inwardly.
‘Since when had he been merciful?’
Still, he did not show it on his face.
One could say he had grown quite used to it by now.
“Will it truly be fine? I am merely worried, since that female occult practitioner may hold a grudge and try to take revenge…”
“It is fine.”
“Are you not worried?”
There was always the possibility.
Nothing was visible to his own eyes, but from what he had roughly heard, it sounded as though Mok Gyeong-un had threatened the female occult practitioner with something precious to her.
So it was possible that she might bear resentment over it.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un smiled strangely and said,
“What Guard Gochan says is not wrong, but she probably will not be able to do that. Probably.”
“………”
At those words, Gochan was puzzled.
He did not know what he was trusting to be like this.
* * *
-Tremble.
-The occult practitioner New Moon cradled Gudiao, who was panting for breath.
Her heart ached terribly.
There had been years spent together with this child, and Gudiao had been her one and only friend and family.
Yet now it was nearly dying.
If she did not somehow refill or restore its energy, she might lose Gudiao.
-Gnash!
Her chest ached so much that it turned into anger.
-She had been acknowledged as an outstanding talent, to the point of receiving the title of Skill at a young age.
Yet she had suffered such humiliation.
The occult practitioner New Moon turned her head and looked toward the medicine hall where Mok Gyeong-un remained.
‘…For now I retreat like this, but before long…’
-It seems you are making a vow of revenge, sentient being.
-Shiver!
-Startled, New Moon hurriedly tried to pull away at the voice coming from behind.
-But then someone wrapped both arms around her head.
-Sssk!
‘Damn…’
-She did not know what to do.
The coldness she felt from behind chilled her spine.
Even Gudiao, whom she was holding, was trembling like a leaf.
Not because it had grown weak, but because it was truly afraid.
‘Th-this feeling…’
She could not possibly forget this sensation.
That existence that had repelled her reverse kill and damaged her white eye. Cold sweat had already begun to bead across New Moon’s forehead.
And those beads of sweat ran down along her cheek.
-Drip.
‘Impossible.’
-Now that this existence had come into direct contact with her, she felt as though she knew for certain.
This was absolutely not some mere Green Spirit.
‘How can something like this…’
It was impossible to believe.
To think someone could control such an evil and skin-crawling existence?
-Sting!
“Haaak!”
-Her white eye, reacting to the strange phenomenon, burst with pain as if it were being torn apart, and bloody tears flowed from it.
She could no longer see anything at all through her white eye.
-Sssslither.
With her black eye, someone could be seen looking down at her upside down.
-‘!!!!!!!’
A beautiful face.
And in contrast to it, blood-colored eyes steeped in madness.
The instant she met that gaze, she could no longer breathe.
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