Requiem of Subdued Souls

Chapter 11: Evil Moon (11)

The Immortal Being meant the previous Governor.

Just as the king turned into an Immortal King after stepping down, the Governor turns into an Immortal Being.

In a nutshell, he was the current best individual in the Hwarang.

And not just that.

Eight years ago, when a devil-like God of Destruction appeared in the city and caused strange events to happen along with the deaths of many people, the Hwarangs were finally able to kill it after a fierce struggle.

And it was all done by one person.

Governor Zaha.

Rumor has it that this man was the brightest star in the sky and was born a human. Everyone called him a godly human.

Actually, he was, but the problem came after that.

People expected him to continue leading the Hwarangs or hoped that he would continue to work for the nation.

But he left.

No one could even stop him from leaving. They couldn’t even think of catching him.

-Do not leave!

That was what everyone thought.

But he handed the position down to Jin Rim, who was still young and left.

After that, news broke out.

… that was all Seol Young knew.

He had never seen this person in portraits, but he knew that all the troops had respected him very much, so even Seol Young thought favorably of him.

But that person was this madman?

He felt the back of his head tingling.

He could never connect the final dots. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of it.

‘Is this why he knew nothing about what was happening here?’

If he turned his back on the world for eight years, there was no way he could know…

The mess created by Seol Young, as well as the death of Baek Sang, were also unbeknownst to him.

‘It makes sense now.’

Seol Young remembered what happened at the hermitage.

It felt reasonable for the head monk to simply give him what he asked for. It was because, after eight years, a legendary figure came to them and requested something.

He probably asked for the fact of their meeting to be kept a secret, and that was why they shut the gates and refused visitors.

‘And…’

The mystery of his golden aura was solved now too.

Seol Young’s eyes weren’t wrong. The golden aura looked the same as that of the Golden Ring Troops but a little different.

-Golden Ring Troops? Who would want to do anything with them?

He did say that.

Because there was no such thing as the Golden Ring Troops back then.

At that time, it was called the Sun and Moon Troops.

And the Sun and Moon Troops had their own separate troops, but they were wiped out at that chaotic time.

And it got renamed the ‘Golden Ring.’ The Golden Ring held the same meaning as the sun.

As a result, the puzzle pieces surrounding the man were solved one by one.

‘Is he really the High Governor?’

Contrary to the dissolving suspicion, his chest became increasingly cold.

When he came back here, he thought that with his brothers and the Hwarangs, he could exorcise this person, whom he thought was a devil.

But that turned out to be impossible.

“This cannot… this cannot be!”

Seol Young stared at the man, who was surrounded by several Hwarangs.

Under the honorable disguise of their once supreme leader, he held clear demonic qi.

And yet nobody noticed it.

‘It would be nice if I can prove it right here…’

But that felt impossible now.

And that man knew it too. That was why he looked so confident.

“Eight years have passed. How could you have not changed at all? You are exactly how I remember you. I-I thought I was dreaming for a second!”

“You should have informed us you were coming in advance! At least let us know! You have no idea just how much we have missed…”

“Everyone is going to faint! No one will believe it until they see you for themselves!”

The heads of each troop surrounded him like little boys.

Actually, the person they were concerned about was right here, yet they looked at the other man, and when their excitement was dying down, he sighed.

“Wouldn’t it have been odd? A demonic being is coming…”

At that moment, Seo Geom went stiff like a stone.

He was so excited that he forgot about something for a while.

-As soon as he left the troops, he brought vicious demonic beings into the capital.

He did shout that a couple of moments ago, and everyone heard it.

As Seo Geom’s face turned white, he dropped to his knees.

“What I said then, the demonic… it-it…”

He was speechless.

Several of the Hwarangs looked at Seo Geom and thought.

‘It isn’t Seo Geom-rang’s fault.’

All their gazes turned to one side.

It was none other than Seol Young who spoke of a demonic being coming with him. That was what was written in the letter sent to Baek Eon.

‘Where did things go wrong?’

Baek Eon, Song Ok, and Hyo Wol were heartbroken.

Normally, no one would call a companion with a good relationship a demonic being.

Although the circumstances surrounding this event were unknown to them, it looked like there was some form of conflict between the Immortal Being and Seol Young. And he spoke about fighting this demonic being and being unable to win.

‘It seems like a huge misunderstanding…’

Honestly, this wasn’t something members of their troops would do.

Discipline above all. They are now strangers because Seol Young temporarily left their troops.

But they couldn’t stay still, and Baek Eon immediately decided to save the youngest.

“Let me say a few words on behalf of Seol Young-rang.”

And he calmly added,

“There is one thing you need to know. Seol Young-rang entered the Hwarang troops after you left, sir. And naturally, he has no idea who you are, so everything that happened is unintentional.”

“Baek Eon-rang. What are you saying?”

Someone objected to his words.

“Immortal Being is the supreme leader of the Hwarang troops. If anyone commits rudeness, it will not be tolerated. Those who have become a disgrace to the five troops deserve severe punishment.”

“Right.”

Zaha nodded.

The Hwarangs, who had hated Seol Young for a long time, decided to do this.

‘It is all over now. Finally.’

But what came out of Zaha’s mouth was different.

“You mean, let everyone receive punishment.”

“Uh?”

Everyone was shocked at this.

Zaha looked around. The looks on their faces were all pathetic.

“…”

Not knowing what they did wrong, everyone was intimidated.

Old memories had come back.

How much they wanted to resemble the person in front of them, and how anxious they were to get even one compliment.

The emotions at that time came back, and it made their hearts tingle.

“When I left the Hwarangs…”

Zaha said.

“All of you were just boys in their mid to late teens. Jin Rim didn’t say a word, and Seo Geom had a cloth wrapped around his left hand, wondering what the next fight would be about. Baek Eon had a swollen eye, Hwa Un smelled like alcohol, and Mu Won had bit his lip so hard that blood was flowing.”

It was such a long time ago, and he was listing everything as if it had happened yesterday.

“Everyone was different, but there was an oath which they shared in common, ‘I will never tarnish the honor of the Hwarangs.’”

“Yes, Immortal Being.”

They all bowed their heads.

“Since everyone said that, I believed all of you and left. Even if I thought about many things because you said that, I thought that you people must have been making an effort to follow it. I couldn’t believe that such an oath wouldn’t last for even one year!”

He glanced at Seol Young.

Then everyone realized what he was talking about. Their faces went pale.

“To think that the entire immortal sect and five of its troops got swayed around like toys by just a kid who was thirteen years old!”

“…”

“And do you realize what is more shocking? Many years have passed since then, yet I do not see much change. That child ended up becoming strong enough to interfere with my training.”

No one could say anything.

Each word felt like a stab in their hearts. They wanted to dig a deep hole in the ground and hide.

“I caught him and listened to him, and it was more of a shock. ‘To prove that I am not a moron who will destroy the nation, I will try to solve all the supernatural calamities that are happening and disturbing the world all by myself….’ Are those words true?”

“Yes.”

Many of them answered.

“Seol Young-rang made such a request to the Governor and got permission.”

“Right. He used his head. If he is innocent, he decided that it can be proven that way.”

Zaha added.

“But there is one crucial thing you are missing. Jin Rim is quite an upright person, so he couldn’t see this. But I see it all clearly.”

As everyone stared at him without blinking, he continued.

“Think about it. Seol Young-rang made a proposal by taking the initiative, and he alone goes to the place and solves it, then comes back to report it when it is done. If that is the case, who will know if he hid something? Didn’t you think that could be a problem?”

Seol Young silently looked at this.

He felt something happening. The man who came here and shook everyone, the one intimidating them all and pointing out their weaknesses and reminding them of the old times.

He was laying out the plan he wanted.

And now he had the feeling that the man would say what he intended, which was why he came up with such an introduction.

“It cannot be helped.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I just wanted to live comfortably. What do I do now? As the supreme leader, I should be taking responsibility…”

He spoke as if he hated it.

“I will follow Seol Young-rang and take on the role of his watcher.”

Seol Young doubted his ears.

What was this man doing?

Of course, he thought the man would take his position back and control the weird direction the Hwarangs were heading.

But that didn’t happen.

He seemed to be forcing himself to do something he didn’t want to, but his eyes with golden aura were shining with sly intentions.

And when his eyes met Zaha’s, he blinked.

Seol Young’s heart felt cold.

It seemed like he was stabbed in the wrong place.