TYMIR Ch 0 (Prologue)

On a winter day when the frost had settled so coldly, a once-tranquil, snow-covered mountain was now filled with dark human figures clinging between the bare trees, all due to a sudden beast hunt.

“Scatter and find him!”

Before long, a man’s roar echoed fiercely. Yoonyi, pushed on by the dozens of shadows chasing him, ran frantically through the mountain. Puffs of white steam continuously billowed from his cold lips. There was no time to look back. From running while looking only forward, his worn-out beoseon socks, without even straw sandals, were now thoroughly soaked, and his feet tingled as if they would fall off.

‘I have to escape.’

With the sole thought of survival, he pushed through the harsh, bladed wind. Fortunately, snowflakes were once again showering down profusely, covering the deep footprints he had left and concealing his small trail.

“The little rat, where on earth did he hide.”

It was the time of year when the nights were slowly growing longer. The sun, which had been brilliantly emitting a red glow until a moment ago, had now tilted beyond the mountain ridges without a trace. As an early darkness swiftly blanketed the mountain, one of the pursuing men spat out a rough curse.

“If you don’t catch that bizarre bastard right now, I will see to it that you all meet a premature end!”

A face like a yaksha, clearly visible even under the torchlight. It was Lord Lee. He nonchalantly approached, his expensive dopo coat fluttering, revealing his murderous intent without restraint.

Terrified of being beaten to a pulp by his menacing aura, the men spread out in all directions and resumed their search for the trail. In the mountain, so quiet you could hear the soft sound of snow piling up, the bobbing torches looked like the goblin fires of the underworld coming to claim him. Petrified, Yoonyi, who had been glancing around, crouched tightly behind a rock at the bottom of a slope.

“My lord. I’ve found the straw sandals the bastard was wearing!”

One of the men, in a triumphant voice, held up a pair of worn-out straw sandals.

“Did I tell you to find his shoes? Find him, I said, find him!”

Lord Lee, who had been staring down at the scene, instead roared and kicked the man squarely in the shin. The dull thud of the kick echoed through the snowy mountain. As the commotion grew louder, Yoonyi clamped a hand over his mouth, afraid that even a single breath might escape, and held his breath like a corpse.

“H-He is a wretch without even shoes in the eleventh month. M-My lord, since the day has grown dark, how about we descend from the mountain for now?”

The man, who had been kicked repeatedly, could not get up and pressed his forehead to the frozen ground like a well-ripened stalk of rice.

“What? Are you daring to give me an order now?”

“Oh, no, my lord! It-It’s just that this mountain…”

His anger still not appeased, Lord Lee’s face twisted savagely. In an instant, he snatched the club held by his servant and lifted it high above his head as if aiming for the moon. At that moment, grrrrr, the sound of thunder suddenly rumbled from the clear sky. At the deafening roar that sounded as if the mountain was splitting apart, everyone looked around with terrified faces.

“A t-tiger, oh my goodness…!”

Once again, a ferocious beast’s roar, so savage it made one’s hair stand on end, echoed through the snowy mountain. One of the men, trembling with fear, saw a pair of gleaming yellow eyes in the deep darkness and began to run for his life down the mountain.

“…Y-You bastard! If a tiger appears, shouldn’t you have said so sooner!”

Lord Lee once again kicked the shoulder of the man who was still unable to get up, a sharp thwack ringing out, before swiftly turning his body. As he departed in a panic, the torches that had adorned the mountain grew more and more distant from view.

All the lights vanished, and a cold lunar energy settled between the densely soaring trees. Only after confirming that everyone had left did Yoonyi finally let out the long breath he had been holding. In that instant, his eyes, imbued with the moonlight, shimmered with a bright yellow light. Then, as if by a lie, his vision, which had melted into the darkness, gradually grew clearer.

Yoonyi barely managed to move his frozen legs. As if his own body had become a sheet of ice, it was not easy to even take a creaking step. Perhaps it should be considered a relief. Having lost all sensation, he could no longer feel the biting cold.

He didn’t even know why he was being chased, but it felt far too unjust to die now. He did not want to surrender his life so readily. Yoonyi clenched his teeth and continuously rubbed his frigid forearms with his cold palms, which felt completely devoid of warmth. In the deep of the night, in the heart of the mountain, he himself did not know where he was going. He simply moved his feet, following the tilt of the moon.

Every time he moved his heavy body, his jeogori jacket was snagged and torn helplessly on the sharp, leafless tree branches. A chill rushed in through the holes torn here and there. As he walked on like this, as if possessed, a pungent smoke was carried on a distant breeze.

Upon his pitch-black pupils, a bright yellow hue once again began to creep in. Following the smoke as his guide, his mind blank, he saw, far off beneath a wall, red flower petals in full, glorious bloom, bathed in the moonlight.