TGHD Ch28

At last, the child disappeared.

“……”

Ryubeom quietly watched the soul vanish into the air like a fleeting sparkle. The lady slowly lowered her hands, which had been hanging in the air, and embraced the jewelry box as if it were the most precious treasure.

[Young master, I have a request.]

“……Young master?”

[Hyojomyeon has many eyes and ears, so of course, I know what others call you.]

So that title spreads like this. When Ryubeom stayed silent, a bit embarrassed, he heard a faint chuckle. The lady’s lips curled into a slight smile. It was the first smile he had seen from her.

[To think I would meet a descendant of the Mountain God…]

“……How did you know I was a tiger?”

[With such a fierce charge, how could I not know?]

She said that Ryubeom, leaping high into the air with golden spiritual energy wrapped around him, was the very embodiment of a tiger. The lady spoke with a gentle laugh. Ryubeom was entirely unaccustomed to this kind of compliment, so he merely wiped the blood trickling down his chin in awkward silence.

‘For such a mighty tiger, I am covered in too much blood right now…’

He was embarrassed, but he felt somewhat proud that another being recognized him as a tiger. He had always heard warnings from his family not to show any deficiencies, so this situation felt very unfamiliar and significant to him.

The lady murmured softly.

[They say if a soul is extinguished as an evil spirit, it cannot gain a chance for reincarnation. There will be no next life…]

“……”

[Thanks to you, the child didn’t leave as an evil spirit.]

Though her voice carried a faint self-deprecation as she admitted she hadn’t understood her child’s heart even as a mother, in the end, she shook her head as if feeling relieved. Then, she asked Ryubeom for a favor…

[Please make me disappear.]

“……That’s…”

[This is a request from me.]

Ryubeom hesitated. He knew he had to perform the exorcism eventually, but now that he was at the end, his emotions were complex. The lady seemed to read Ryubeom’s hesitation and, not wanting to burden him, asked to be allowed to disappear.

[It’s a shame I can’t kill that man… Or perhaps you would dislike such words, as you tried to protect humans, young master.]

The lady glanced outside. Kwon Namil, who had been pulled into the air with them a few minutes ago, had fallen when the hemisphere-shaped barrier disappeared. By some fortune, he was unconscious, caught in the trees.

“…If you had killed him, you truly would have become an evil spirit. I wanted to prevent that.”

Ryubeom replied calmly. He had noticed, given that the strange phenomena at Hyojomyeon had lasted for over ten years, yet there had been no loss of life during that time. To protect the child’s soul, the lady harvested the fear of people but refrained from using rough methods.

She could have harvested fear more quickly by killing people, but she didn’t, and she even suppressed other spirits she absorbed to prevent them from doing anything excessive. Perhaps she refrained because taking a life would have turned her into an evil spirit, and she wanted to remain with the child as rationally as possible… or it might have been her innate nature.

[While I am still the core, you must destroy me before I lose my sanity. That way, you can extinguish all the spirits gathered at Hyojomyeon at once.]

“……”

[I no longer have the strength to release each of them one by one…]

Just because Nakyung had released his lingering attachments and vanished didn’t mean the lady’s resentment was resolved. She still wanted revenge against everything that had wronged Nakyung. However, the reason she had resolved to seek revenge was due to the guilt she felt toward her child… After seeing the glass beads, she felt relieved.

She had tried to remain an evil spirit, thinking that’s what the child wanted, but that wasn’t what Nakyung desired. He wanted her to be happy, so he wanted to show her the glass beads. He wanted to give her that brilliant sparkle.

[Please let the last thing I see be the glass beads.]

At the lady’s earnest plea, Ryubeom hesitated before finally taking a deep breath and reaching out his hand. Since he had sought to understand them, he had to be prepared to see it through to the end.

Soon, golden spiritual energy swirled from Ryubeom’s hand. But the incantation circling his hand bore not the character for ‘destruction’ (滅) but the character for ‘comfort’ (慰).

Ryubeom had limited knowledge of rituals like requiem masses or purification rites. He didn’t have the spiritual energy to cleanse evil spirits and guide them to paradise or heaven. However, he knew that all such acts were ultimately connected.

A heart truly wishing to console another. Hoping their pain diminishes and their sorrow is alleviated.

‘A heart that cares for someone else will become an act that cares for yourself.’

He remembered what his father had once whispered to him. As Ryubeom recalled those words, he infused the incantation with more spiritual energy.

This was the first incantation he learned with his father, their hands clasped together.

[Thank you, young master…]

The lady bowed her head in gratitude. The strings of characters swirling around Ryubeom’s hand grew larger and enveloped her entire body, and finally, her soul began to dissipate. She willingly embraced the moment of her disappearance.

Screech, creak…!

However, eradicating a long-existing grudge wasn’t easy. Moreover, since she was the core of the evil spirits enveloping the Hyojomyeon area, the other spirits began to resist. They struggled to escape the extinction. An energy contrary to Ryubeom’s incantation surged around her.

But she endured somehow, and Ryubeom also poured out even more spiritual energy.

Boom!

The energies clashed, causing an explosion. Ryubeom’s body, already at its limit, couldn’t withstand the aftermath and was thrown outside.

Yet, at the last moment, he saw the lady’s spirit vanish. For a fleeting moment, she seemed to smile.

Ryubeom fell below the building. In his eyes, dazed from exerting so much energy, the garden’s scenery unfolded. As the spirit that had been the center disappeared, the evil spirits also vanished.

Everything scatters, like a shimmer from a certain day.

Feeling a sense of relief, Ryubeom braced himself for the impact of falling to the ground. He didn’t have the strength to brace for a fall, and he vaguely thought that since it was only a second-floor height, it wouldn’t hurt too much.

However, he faintly smelled a cool winter scent.

“Those spirits are ungrateful.”

He found himself lightly caught in someone’s arms. Ryubeom blinked blankly. He was cradled in Yeohwi’s arms. Yeohwi’s jet-black robe fluttered gently.

He had told him to run far away, but had he remained in the garden all along? Come to think of it, Yeohwi had blocked the evil spirits when they rushed at Ryubeom, following his blood scent. His memory was jumbled due to the aftereffects of delving deep into the mother and daughter’s memories. There was just a momentary impression, like an illusion, of a red light spreading widely across the garden.

Normally, Ryubeom would have immediately stepped away from Yeohwi’s embrace, but he didn’t have the strength now. The spell of comfort he used for the first time had drained him of much energy, leaving him utterly exhausted. Furthermore, he was significantly injured from the attack by the lady while leaping into the air. His entire body ached.

Yeohwi gently laid Ryubeom down in the garden, speaking with a tone of regret.

“You helped them even while getting hurt like this, and yet they tried to harm you again until the very end when they disappeared.”

His hands were careful as he wiped Ryubeom’s face with a white cloth. The bracelet Ryubeom wore a few hours ago had shattered, and the bandages wrapped around his arm had decayed. All the few possessions he brought from his family were ruined, but he had no regrets.

Ryubeom grasped Yeohwi’s hand and replied in a fading voice.

“…Don’t be too harsh…”

He didn’t feel any resentment, knowing the lady hadn’t intentionally sent him flying and that she had done her utmost.

And honestly, he thought he would have been fine even if Yeohwi hadn’t saved him. He’d have just lain unconscious for a few days and then gotten up. That’s how Ryubeom usually recovered. His strong constitution was his only advantage.

Yeohwi looked down at him with an incredulous gaze.

“Did you really need to look into their memories and comfort them? Who even knows about your suffering now?”

“I know…”

“……”

“Yesterday, you asked me why I tried so hard to understand them… Why I chose a difficult path when I could have exorcised them with others…”

Ryubeom spoke in a daze.

“I didn’t want to have regrets. I felt that if I let them go without knowing, it would linger in my heart forever…”

“……”

“So I tried to understand. To let them go completely…”

Ryubeom wasn’t in the right mind to reflect on what he was saying. Perhaps it was the most honest truth he had, words too embarrassing to speak to others.

If his cousins or family members had been present, he would never have said such things. In front of them, he was always conscious of his deficiencies first. They would criticize even these feelings as foolish and silly.

Yet, strangely, he found himself speaking to Yeohwi. Had he grown accustomed to his kind and gentle demeanor? Did he think Yeohwi would understand him?

After finishing his words in a half-conscious state, Ryubeom passed out.

“……”

For a fleeting moment, he vaguely sensed that Yeohwi’s gaze was somewhat cold as he lost consciousness.