Requiem of Subdued Souls

Chapter 136: Harp Case (21)

A huge dark hole.

Something that could only be expressed like a void appeared in the air. It grew in an instant, trying to swallow Seol Young.

“…?”

He was ready to attack if needed. But if he moved too hastily, he would provoke this thing he had brought out. So he gave it a chance to realize what it was.

With that thought, he brought out the spiritual qi within him and looked at the black hole. And the hole stopped.

And then it began to get smaller and smaller.

“I see.”

Zaha’s voice came from beyond the darkness.

“It is the Dragon Born Nine Sons!”

Dragon Born Nine Sons? A dragon with nine kids?

Seol Young only realized it then.

This dark hole was in something’s mouth. The darkness began to get smaller and smaller, and then there was the sound of a mouth closing.

With that, a small thing appeared at his feet. Its body was covered in black scales, and it had blue eyes on its big head.

It was a small baby dragon.

“It must be Do Cheol, the fifth child.”

Zaha said.

This was a different Do Cheol from the Do Cheol monk they knew. This one means to be greedy.

According to the legend, there were nine kinds of strange divine beasts that were said to have been born from a dragon.

The fifth of them was Do Cheol, and it loved to eat and swallow anything.

Seol Young finally understood it.

“Onso-rang made a tool that borrowed the power of Do Cheol, so he wanted it to swallow the Gu poison.”

At that moment, the baby dragon slumped to the ground. Like a human baby, it stretched its legs forward and sat on its hips, and it blinked when their eyes met.

Where did the thing that was about to swallow everything go? The final weapon had such an innocent look.

“Such a young thing.”

Seol Young reached out his hand, and Zaha said,

“Young? This dragon is born with your spiritual qi, and in terms of ranks, it is higher than you. Seol Young-rang, hurry up and bow to your senior.”

“…?”

What now?

It was a thing, not a person. Wasn’t that thing, which is made of qi, on the list of names of the Hwarangs?

Seol Young thought Zaha’s words were a bunch of nonsense.

But looking at the eyes of the young dragon, it seemed like it was also asking for a bow. Could it be because Seol Young’s energy felt weaker?

He seemed to be looking at Seol Young like a trainee who had just started yesterday.

Seol Young was being pressured by its intense gaze and had no choice but to bow.

“Hwarang Seol Young greets you, senior.”

The young dragon’s face didn’t change, and it was like its expression said,

‘This is how it works.’

Zaha said,

“Give a name to your senior.”

Seol Young thought for a moment and said,

“Senior Onso made it, so it will be called Oni.”

Oni meant to be perfect without lacking anything, and he thought it was a short, nice name.

“Senior Oni.”

When Seol Young called it that, the baby dragon crawled and began to move. It sniffed Seol Young’s scent and climbed up to him.

Seol Young went stiff.

“What is it now?”

“I think it is trying to find the Gu poison in your body.”

And Zaha was right.

The baby dragon reached all the way to his head and then went down and sniffed him again. Then it sat on the ground and tapped its tail twice.

It seemed like there was nothing wrong.

“Just in case, it seems like the Red Blood Disease has been removed.”

Zaha looked at the sleeping dragon.

“It would be better to put it back in its home. We have to give it as much food as it moves.”

Thinking of that huge mouth scared him. Seol Young turned the gem of the ring, and the baby dragon vanished.

“It is fortunate that Red Blood Disease vanished without leaving any side effects…”

Seol Young thought about it again.

“How could it be?”

“My guess is…”

Zaha said that, as he was also lost in thought.

“I think the Devil Lair Lord made it himself.”

“Him? But why?”

“What did he want at the time? What did he do to you? For what reason? You need to think about it.”

Zaha said.

“Through your memories, at first glance, the power he had seemed great. And it seemed like he wielded the strongest power and could manipulate time and the Gu poison. But something was unstable. It seemed like the time had come for him to think about the future. That means his heir.”

“His successor?”

“Yes. Succession is an important thing. When you die, everything you’ve made vanishes. He wouldn’t have felt comfortable when he realized that. And among the elders, no one had the talent he could pass on the position to.”

Zaha continued to state his assumptions.

“Then he found you and thought he had finally found the best person. He must have been greedy to make you his successor, so he passed on the ability to use poison.”

“…”

Seol Young listened.

“The problem was that you were not obedient at all. He finally found a candidate, but you were so stubborn and hard to train, so what should he do? First, he managed to catch the other guy who was trying to help you and then took your family hostage…”

Glancing at Seol Young, Zaha said,

“If I were him, I would have just released you right away. Even the tomb spirits.”

“Just release us?”

Seol Young asked like he couldn’t believe it.

“Why?”

“Because it doesn’t matter. I can catch you anytime if I put my mind to it. Just showing that to you is important.”

“…”

“Think. If your family got hurt in that situation and you were forced to be under him, would you have accepted it? No. Rather, you would only rebel more.”

“…”

“But what if I came out as tolerant and let you all go? That would be the right choice. That is how I can isolate you in the right manner.”

“How…?”

“The tomb spirits would be scared of being taken hostage again, so they would have taken the chance and cut off their ties with you. In addition, you got separated from the White Tiger Troops, and the fight with the Blue Dragon Troops would have gotten worse.”

“…”

“At that point, the other troops would be pushed to step forward. You will be alone and have to deal with many Hwarangs. No matter how talented you are, you will be cornered, and then the guy who has been waiting will extend his hand again. It is so obvious.”

Zaha said.

What he said was all close to and matched with what had happened. Even though he couldn’t remember it, he could guess it went that way.

The God of Cataclysm awakened a tenacious evil spirit.

“Devil Lair.”

Seol Young mumbled.

“The power of the Devil Lair Lord comes from the lair. If it had been resurrected this time, there has to be a cave somewhere.”

“Lair…”

Zaha nodded.

“First, we need to look for a clue. And I will inform everyone about it tomorrow.”

They decided to talk about it in detail at the meeting tomorrow, and the investigation would move from there.

Seol Young looked around the basement one last time.

‘I will use this well.’

He bowed to his deceased seniors and left that place.

On the next day, the heads of the Hwarang troops gathered.

When Seol Young entered, everyone except Zaha and Baek Eon were puzzled.

Jin Rim, the Governor, said,

“I called him because he is going to give us an important report.”

He looked around and got straight to the point.

“Recently, during the ancestral ritual, the top of the harp box broke on its own after showing another auspicious sign. It is officially known like that, but according to Seol Young-rang, that isn’t the truth. Another supernatural calamity happened, and Hyo Wol-rang’s life was in danger.”

Mu Won of the Black Tortoise Troops, Seo Geom of the Blue Dragons, and Hwa Un of the Vermillion Birds were all surprised.

“Hyo Wol-rang?”

“Right.”

Jin Rim turned to Seol Young, who stepped forward and bowed to them.

“There was a powerful evil spirit dwelling inside the harp box, and it will show up again. If my guess is right, I think it might appear with something else this time.”

Everyone looked at him. Each of them seemed to have different thoughts, but not a single person spoke.

Jin Rim spoke again,

“It is autumn, and it is the time when the Hwarangs would train. All the troops should dispatch the Hwarangs and trainees to find out if there is anything strange related to this, as Seol Young-rang said. We need to respond quickly so that no civilians are harmed.”

Zaha added.

“As much as possible, do not inform the others about this.”

“Yes.”

All the heads of the troops responded.

As soon as the meeting was over, each of them was dispatched to various places for training. With that, they diligently gathered information.

And so they finally obtained some information.

At the Taehwa River.

The largest trading port in Silla was located there, and the Blue Dragon Troops caught a rumor.

They brought a witness to the palace, so Seol Young and Zaha immediately went there.

The witness was a military officer working in Gyebyun-seong.

While patrolling as usual, he noticed something strange in the waters.

“My feet hurt a bit when I was walking, so I took off my shoes to brush them, thinking a crab got inside them. Then, when I stood back up, the light was bright on the beach, which had been empty until just then. Suddenly, a magnificent floating market appeared.”

There used to be a market there.

In addition to selling exotic goods, it also served as an entertainment venue. Crowds of people came in and went out.

Then one day, a big fire broke out, and the people were unable to escape and burned to death. The once amazing market had vanished.

But…

Suddenly, the burned market reappeared in its place.

The people who had died inside were selling goods and entertaining guests.

People who didn’t know the story were attracted to the market and went inside, but they never came back.

All kinds of strange ghosts and beasts gathered inside.

It slowly got called the Ghost City.

Jin Rim told Zaha,

“This ghost incident. This was a case that was settled by the Hwarangs a long time ago. It is said that the ghosts had been taken down, and the cursed place had been cleansed. But then they appeared again. Everything is the same as the records from the past, but there is one difference….”

And then he looked at the military officer.

“Show him that.”

“Yes.”

The officer took out a crumpled piece of cloth from his chest.

“There was a strange flag hanging in the city. I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed to have some meaning, so I drew it.”

He unfolded the cloth, and it was a snake trying to bite its tail in a circle.

Seol Young looked at Zaha, and their eyes met.

“…”

As expected, that guy reappeared, and he was calling them to go there.