RPPL C19

Belatedly, the government slaves began to put out the fire in the storehouse. Bipa and Muyun sat on the rubble of the collapsed inner quarters and watched.

“Why aren’t those people questioning us?”

Muyun asked. Bipa, who had been staring blankly with his chin in his hand, answered.

“Curiosity is a luxury you can only afford when you have the time. When the immediate problem is too big, it’s bound to blind you. After they clear the storehouse, they’ll wonder how to rebuild this collapsed government office, and after that, they’ll be afraid of what kind of Gammu will come next. As that goes on, things that are incomprehensible to the mind and unbelievable even when seen will naturally fade away like a dream. Someday, they’ll wonder if such a thing ever really happened.”

“……”

“So, Muyun. I hope you have many things you’re curious about. I hope you take everything in with your good eyes, without hiding anything. Of course, it would be nice if you could only see good things, but….”

After saying that, Bipa, as if realizing his mistake, quickly added.

“But that doesn’t mean I can answer everything, so consider your master’s dignity and ask in moderation. Got it?”

Muyun was too dumbfounded to answer.

❀࿐

It took a long time for the fire to be completely extinguished. In the meantime, the fog had also lifted. It seemed the strangely thick fog had been created by the Goeigong. As morning came, the true face of the village was revealed. It was a beautiful place.

However, Muyun’s eyes only saw the storehouse where the fire had been put out. Meanwhile, Bipa, not minding that the giant centipede’s head and corpse were right below, was lying on his side, fast asleep.

Muyun went to the ruins of the storehouse and rummaged through the ashes. After searching for a long time, he was able to find what he was looking for. The bell was not the least bit soiled by the ash, nor was it even slightly singed; it was in its original state.

Muyun, clutching the bell tightly, returned and woke Bipa.

“Master.”

“Mmm….”

“Let’s go back now.”

As Bipa groggily woke up, he looked back and forth between Muyun’s face and the bell he was holding out to him. Muyun had known that this was the very reason Bipa had been waiting without leaving the spot.

Bipa put the bell in his pocket and hugged Muyun tightly. Due to their posture, it looked as if Bipa was burying his face in Muyun’s chest.

“As smart and loyal as a dog.”

It was a compliment, but a strange one. Muyun twisted his body to pull away.

“Sorry. I’m so awkward that I can’t even give a proper compliment.”

Making a shameless excuse, Bipa rolled the bell once in his hand and got up. His collar was covered in dust.

It was the same for Muyun, but he, paying no mind to his own appearance, grabbed Bipa, who was about to leave, and dusted off his clothes.

Bipa smiled lightly and leaned his body against Muyun. His body was stiff from sleeping in an uncomfortable place. Because his taller master had leaned on him unexpectedly, Muyun lost his balance and staggered. At that, Bipa asked, “Are your legs weak from fear?” In the end, Bipa was Bipa.

Before returning to the house where they were staying, Bipa walked around the collapsed inner quarters once. Then he saw the low-ranking official rummaging through the rubble. It was definitely the same person who had shouted at Muyun and Bipa.

When Bipa lightly tapped the man’s shoulder, he screamed in terror.

“Aaaah!”

“That’s a bigger reaction than when you saw the centipede monster.”

Bipa grumbled and then slapped the cheek of the man who was about to lose his mind. Then he asked.

“That wall over there wasn’t built that long ago.”

“Heok. Heok.”

“Well… Sir. You have to answer.”

Bipa smiled awkwardly, his words trailing off. The eyes of the official, who couldn’t grasp the situation, glazed over a little. Muyun kicked the official’s shin.

“This little brat!”

The official was about to fly into a rage, but when Muyun glared with his one eye, he remembered what happened last night and shrank back. Then he mumbled a confession.

“There’s a cave up in that mountain, we broke down its entrance to build it. Why. Is something wrong? Huh?”

“The village people must have tried to stop you.”

“The old folks did. But without a wall, there’s no dignity. If there’s no line to draw a boundary, those lowlifes are bound to run wild with insolence….”

“So you destroyed the cave the old folks warned you about….”

“Even when they tried to stop us, it wasn’t for any particular reason. They just spread false rumors because we collected the grain tax a little early….”

“They didn’t tell you the reason.”

“Of course, they did say something about bringing on disaster… they said they had offered rites and tributes….”

Bipa got a vague sense of it. The official’s face was filled with greed. Greed was caked on his cheeks, under his chin, and in his eyes. Bipa grabbed his chin and turned it this way and that. There was a blue bruise under his ear.

“The tribute, you ate it, didn’t you?”

The official, who had been staring blankly at Bipa’s strangely smiling, crinkled eyes, unknowingly nodded at his question.

“Muyun. Look closely. How many people died because of greed.”

Bipa clicked his tongue and flicked the hand that had held the official’s chin in the air. Muyun untied the cloth covering one of his eyes and wiped the hand with it. Bipa’s eyes widened at the child’s surprisingly thoughtful action.

“I don’t understand. Then shouldn’t the harm have been done only to this bastard and the Gammu who committed the wrong?”

The official, startled first by the fact that both of the boy’s eyes were perfectly fine, and then again by the boy glaring at him and calling him ‘this bastard,’ was so full of anger that he could only open and close his mouth. Paying him no mind, Bipa answered Muyun’s question.

“Since they grew up eating the water and crops from the same place, they would have had the same smell. And the Goeigong, that centipede monster, would have kept eating until its anger was appeased. Wondering who it had to eat to release this anger, when it would ever end….”

Bipa’s words trailed off. The face Muyun looked up at was staring at a distant place. Bipa, who finally gave a bitter smile, changed the subject.

“Anyway, shall we go to the house of that child who died yesterday? I’m hungry… I don’t know about a meat dish today, but I think we can at least have some bone broth.”

Bipa stretched. Muyun wondered what kind of meat dish they could possibly have at the funeral house of a dead child. Besides, wasn’t the monster’s head still left in the rubble?

But since Bipa had left it, Muyun didn’t think he needed to dispose of it further or get to the root of the problem. He would simply follow him.

The two disappeared as suddenly and silently as they had appeared. Even though he knew they were not ghosts or illusions, the official couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been somehow bewitched. It felt strange.

He shivered to shake off the unsettling feeling and went back to rummaging through the rubble to find the Gammu’s box of valuables.

As he ducked his head low and dug through the debris, something under a thick rafter flashed its eyes. The giant centipede’s head, half of its face crushed, gathered its last strength and lunged at the official.

The official, who had greedily lingered in the ruins until the end, thus ended his life with his jaw pierced by the centipede’s fang. In that moment, what he held in his hand was ash, only ash.

❀࿐

Muyun and Bipa entered through the main gate, making it seem pointless that they had snuck out. According to Bipa, it was because one needed to take credit for good deeds.

Ahn Gyeomho and the servant looked bewildered at being told to go to the government office. However, upon seeing the ash caked on Muyun and Bipa’s clothes, they ran towards the government office as if they had a premonition.

The two were exhausted and headed to their room. They fell asleep leaning against each other before even washing up.

In the meantime, the dazed-looking villagers gathered at the government office. They clicked their tongues, looking around at the collapsed inner quarters and the pile of ashes that was once the storehouse, then rushed headlong when they discovered the scorched rice.

Surprisingly, despite the fire disaster, the grains were edible. It was thanks to the centipede’s thick shell shielding them from the fire.

It was as they were each leaving, gathering the scorched grains in the hems of their clothes. Someone glared at the wall with wide eyes.

“That damn wall!”

During the farming season, they couldn’t concentrate on their fieldwork because they were quarrying stone from the cave the elders had so strongly warned against, and during the harvest season, they were building that damn wall with those stones. Yet the exploitation was the same as last year.

Someone who had been grinding their teeth picked up a piece of rubble from the inner quarters that had flown this far and threw it at the wall. That was the start, and people began to pick up whatever they could find and throw it.

The wall they had worked so hard to build teetered and swayed after a few volleys of stones, and then soon collapsed with a roar. No one paid any attention to the wall. They didn’t even feel it was a loss.

Just empty and hollow. Still, it felt liberating. Each of them chewed on the scorched grains, savoring the savory taste for a long time.