NTH 97

Meoru flinched. If it knew he was a fake, why had it come here?

‘I’m a fake? How absurd.’

‘The real Crown Prince is a weak coward and lacks the temperament to retort as boldly as you. The moment my voice was heard, he should have pissed himself and trembled in fear.’

‘If you know that, then why are you wasting your time here instead of going to find the real one?’

‘That shaman punk cast a barrier to prevent the real one from being found and disguised you as the Crown Prince. Originally, we could have found him by scent, but right now, the Crown Prince’s scent emanates too strongly from you. Because of that, we cannot detect the scent elsewhere.’

‘That’s great. While you’re at it, you can just piss off to the underworld for good. Don’t forget to take your friends outside with you.’

‘Don’t be like that, and listen. The truth is, I am different from the other guys outside. I mean that I have no interest in possessing a human body. I just want to achieve nirvana.’

‘Nirvana, you say…?’

‘Yes. Unlike the other guys who have existed from the beginning as nothing but wicked, resentful spirits, it is because I was originally human.’

To think that the owner of this voice was originally human. That might be the very reason why only his voice sounded so clear compared to the other voices, which felt like a hazy fog.

‘I was wrongfully killed a long time ago. My heart is filled with resentment, so I have been unable to achieve nirvana and am wandering this mortal realm. If I can just resolve my grudge, I want to leave this place and rest peacefully in the Yellow Springs.’

‘How can your grudge be resolved? Are you asking me to take revenge on the people who killed you?’

Meoru asked, not yet letting go of his suspicion. The voice answered calmly.

‘Unfortunately, those bastards have already grown old and croaked. However, my corpse is in a place not far from here.’

‘A corpse, you say?’

‘That’s right. The flesh has already rotted away, and only the bones remain. If you just bury them properly in a sunny place, I think I will finally be able to achieve nirvana.’

‘Even if you achieve nirvana, the rest of them will keep coming for me, won’t they? And if you leave this mortal realm, you’ll have no way to set me and Sonyeong free, will you?’

‘Don’t worry about that. I have a good idea.’

‘What is it.’

‘Do you know that the Crown Prince has a half-brother? The one the king adores far more than the Crown Prince.’

‘Yes. I’ve heard of him.’

Meoru recalled a conversation he had with Sonyeong before.

「Does Her Majesty the Empress have only one son?」

「Yes. On top of that, His Majesty the King conspicuously dotes on the Prince, who is the son of the royal concubine, Consort Yeon, so Her Majesty the Empress was always anxious that the position of Crown Prince might be taken by that side.」

‘You are far away, so you might not know, but the atmosphere in the royal palace is as if they have already given up on the sickly Crown Prince. His half-brother is expected to be invested as the Crown Prince soon.’

‘So?’

‘If you help me achieve nirvana, I will persuade the other guys to possess that brother’s body instead. If they are going to possess a human anyway, entering the one who will become king in the future will be a much more tempting proposition.’

‘That’s strange. The reason you guys can cling to the Crown Prince is because he’s a special kid born under the star of the Great Misfortune or something, isn’t it? How can you enter his brother, who is a perfectly normal human?’

‘Of course, the child of the Great Misfortune is weak and lacks yang energy, making him easy to possess. However, it is not entirely impossible to enter an ordinary person. You must know that there are occasionally possessed people in every village.’

‘Hmm. Still, I find it hard to believe for some reason.’

‘Then I will tell you a more tempting story. What do you think is the biggest reason we have been unable to possess the Crown Prince’s body all this time?’

‘That would obviously be Sonyeong. Because Sonyeong, with his strong spiritual power, was blocking you all.’

‘That’s right. So, if you help me, I will persuade the other ghosts to possess the brother instead of the Crown Prince. We will completely let go of the Crown Prince. Then the Crown Prince will safely pass his twentieth year, and that shaman punk will have completed his greatest duty. What will you do then?’

‘I’ll leave with Sonyeong. We’ve promised to get married.’

‘That’s it exactly. If you and that shaman punk you love so dearly leave for a faraway place, at that moment, there will be no one in the palace to protect the brother. Even if the Crown Prince, freed from the curse of the Great Misfortune, belatedly tries to become king, it will be too late by then. Do you understand now?’

‘Yes. I know what you mean.’

‘Do you perhaps feel guilty about a ghost possessing the brother?’

Perhaps this voice was just an illusion created by Meoru’s dream. If that were the case, who would believe it if a mere commoner claimed that a member of the royal bloodline had lost his mind because of a promise made with a ghost?

And what about the Grand Tutor? Had he not tried to sacrifice Meoru and Sonyeong without a moment’s hesitation to protect the Crown Prince? The Crown Prince, who knew all of that yet did not even think of fighting for himself and only hid away, felt just as cowardly.

Thinking of them, Meoru felt no guilt at all about the Crown Prince’s half-brother becoming a new target.

‘No, not at all.’

‘Then, I ask that you find my remains first. Don’t worry. I am not going to enter your body. You are a human with too much yang energy, so a being from the underworld like me cannot even touch your body.’

Meoru decided to trust the ghost’s words for now. Even if this voice failed to persuade the other ghosts, it would just be the same situation as before, so there was nothing to lose right away. And the act of properly burying the remains of someone who died unjustly in a sunny place did not feel particularly distasteful. If anything, it was a deed worthy of receiving blessings.

‘Where are your remains?’

As Meoru asked, having made up his mind, the voice answered.

‘Ironically, they are on this mountain. That is why I have been unable to leave this vicinity and have been constantly lingering around. I will tell you the location, so you just need to go there.’

The inside of the temple was as clear to Meoru as the palm of his hand. It was all the more reassuring that he did not have to go far. Meoru got up from his spot, covered Sonyeong with a blanket, then opened the paper-screened door and went outside.

‘Now, where should I go?’

When Meoru asked, the voice answered.

‘There is something you must do first before you go to dig up my remains.’

‘What is it.’

‘It is to erase the seals engraved on your head and forehead.’

‘The ones Sonyeong engraved? Why do I have to erase them?’

Meoru said sharply, suspicious.

‘It is so that I can continue to talk with you. That seal is meant to induce the illusion that you are the Crown Prince, but it also has the power to prevent beings from the underworld from approaching you.’

‘In that case, shouldn’t I definitely not erase them?’

‘The shaman melted away three years of his own lifespan to engrave those seals.’

‘Th-three years? How could that be…’

‘I am not an ordinary wicked spirit but a soul that was originally human, so I was able to get a little closer to you. But because of that seal, my strength is now failing. If you don’t erase it quickly, I will not be able to come back until after the full moon.’

‘But…’

Meoru hesitated, feeling that he should not rashly erase the seals that Sonyeong had made at the cost of such a sacrifice. Then, the voice spoke again.

‘If you erase it right now, two years of lifespan will be returned to the shaman. This is because the Hour of the Ox and the Hour of the Tiger have not yet passed.’

Hearing those words, Meoru’s eyes widened. If he could return even a little of Sonyeong’s lifespan, there was no reason to refuse.

Meoru immediately ran to the bathing room, which was enclosed by a bamboo fence. The water he had bathed in was still in the bath tub. He hurriedly washed his hair and erased the seal engraved on his forehead. Picking up a dry cloth and wiping the water from his face and hair, Meoru asked.

‘Is it done now?’

‘It has become much easier to approach you than before.’

‘Then guide me to the place where your bones are.’

‘We must go up the mountain.’

Guided by the voice, Meoru went up the mountain. It was the moonless night of the new moon, so the surroundings were pitch dark, and he barely managed to walk with the help of a paper lantern. But the further he went, the more familiar the path felt.

‘Are you really sure this is the place?’

Meoru asked, standing at the place they finally arrived. It was the very cave where Sonyeong’s shrine was located.

‘That is right.’

‘This is a shrine that Sonyeong considers important, isn’t it?’

‘It has been well over a hundred years since I died. Whatever the shaman has made since then is none of my concern.’

‘Are your bones really in here?’

‘That’s right. You just have to go into the deepest part of the cave and dig up what is buried underneath.’

Meoru began to doubt whether he should continue to trust this ghost. However, if there were no bones, it would mean his words were a lie, so it seemed he had to dig first.

‘Alright. Let’s go in.’

‘Wait. I cannot enter the cave.’

‘Why?’

‘This place, due to its topography, has too much yang energy, so a being of the shade cannot approach it. I will wait outside.’

He remembered hearing a similar story from Sonyeong. Meoru nodded his head and said.

‘Alright. I’ll bring them out as soon as I dig up the bones. You can go look for a burial spot where you’d like to be buried.’

Meoru went into the deepest part of the cave. The shrine was a place all too familiar to Meoru.

Meoru did not know what kind of life the ghost outside had lived. But if he had died and been left neglected in such a gloomy place where even the sun did not shine, it was understandable that he had not been able to achieve nirvana for a hundred years.

Meoru rolled up the straw mat, which was his and Sonyeong’s nest, and moved it to a corner. He moved the altar that blocked the cave wall and dug into the ground with a shovel he had brought from the temple. Since it was winter, the earth was frozen, making the digging difficult. Fat beads of sweat rolled down Meoru’s forehead.

After digging for some time, something hard touched the tip of the shovel. Meoru cleared the dirt around it and took it out. It was a jar about the size of a human head.

‘Did he mean an urn, not the bones themselves?’

Meoru could not remember exactly what he had heard earlier. But he would know if he opened the jar. Meoru broke the seal made of twisted clay and opened the jar’s lid.

Swoosh!

Something transparent and whitish shot out of the jar like an arrow. Before Meoru could do anything, it burrowed into his mouth.

“Aaaargh!”

Meoru let out a scream and collapsed onto the floor with a thud.

How much time had passed? Meoru opened his closed eyes. He staggered up, planted his feet on the ground, and straightened his body.

A chill spread throughout his body, as if cold blood were spreading from a frozen heart. Meoru, no, the Parasitic Soul, stared with cold eyes at the jar that had sealed his true form for a hundred years. He stomped on it mercilessly. The jar soon shattered into pieces, its original form completely unrecognizable.

He snorted and came out of the cave.

The pitch-black sky of the new moon was filled with clouds. No white breath billowed from Meoru’s exhale. Even so, the Parasitic Soul inhaled the air until his lungs were full. It was the human breath he had craved for so long.

Like a child taking his first steps, he took each step very carefully. The first few times, he only stumbled. But he soon got used to it and was able to walk faster and faster.

“Ha… haha, ahahahahaha!”

He laughed loudly like a madman for a long while, then ran as nimbly as a wildcat. Along the way, his skin was scratched by tree branches and he tripped over a stone. Even the stinging sensation from his scraped skin was overwhelming.

He went down to the temple. The Crown Prince’s guards, who were patrolling the temple, saw Meoru approaching and raised their guard.

“Who goes there!”

As Meoru got closer, one of them recognized him and said.