Requiem of Subdued Souls

Chapter 75: Praying For Rain (23)

Seol Young and Jung Myung ran toward Zaha.

“Mr. Spirit, are you alright?”

“He seems fine…”

Seol Young shook Zaha with a confused face.

“Get up!”

But there was no response. It seemed that he had completely lost consciousness.

“What did you do?”

“Mirror.”

Jung Myung replied.

“I think looking at Sabiso’s things is like looking into a strange mirror. He used it just now, right? And that smoke was like a mirror, which…”

She stopped talking, and her gaze was fixed in the air.

Seol Young looked in the same direction.

The seventh flag was raised in the sky.

“The heavens have answered the prayer!”

The villagers cheered, and Sabiso spoke.

“The wish has come true! Water will overflow on this dry land!”

“NO!”

Jung Myung stood up. At that moment, the ground shook. There was a powerful earthquake that shook everything.

At the same time, water burst right from the middle of the altar.

They didn’t have time to do anything. In addition, they were in the middle of it this time. Seol Young was caught by the current and was out of breath.

‘I hate…’

He didn’t even have time to look at the other people as his body was pushed into the violent whirlpool.

He was swept away like a fallen leaf, and at some point, he inhaled heavily.

“…!”

The sun was shining down on him, and he got up feeling dizzy.

“I will kill you!”

Zaha stood up from behind. He was still in the mindset of attacking Sabiso.

Right now, his body was fine, and it was fortunate…

“Wait.”

Seol Young blocked him.

“Answer me first. What was it?”

“Mirror.”

“I know that.”

Looking at him, Seol Young could feel that Zaha was trying to avoid talking about it. So Seol Young was confused.

“I am not asking about that. I was asking what those strange voices of resentment were. ‘Will you kill me again?’ and all of that.”

Zaha’s face changed.

The light in his eyes sharpened, and it became opaque, as if a curtain had been drawn behind his pupils. Other people might step back, but Seol Young knew what it meant, Zaha was being defensive.

So he didn’t even blink.

“Illusion? Hallucination? Projection? It doesn’t seem like that…”

“…”

“You almost caught the guy but failed at the last minute. Shouldn’t we make the right move next time?”

“The right move?”

Zaha got up and sat on a rock.

“The voices… the voices of the people I killed.”

“For real?”

Seol Young showed an expression of disbelief.

“I’ve heard many times about what you did during your time as the Governor, but I never heard anything about you killing civilians. Besides, you would have been punished….”

“Well, it is true that they died because of me.”

“How?”

“Because I didn’t handle it properly. That evilness.”

Zaha reluctantly brought up the story.

“I wonder if that God of Cataclysm also has an effect on Yokais ^n1[TL/N: Yokais are beings that look like humans]… There was a time when strange things kept appearing.”

Seol Young just listened to him.

“A demonic beast appeared on the beachside. It tried to catch people and drag them into the water, so I ran and cut off its head…”

Zaha frowned.

“I still don’t understand what happened that day. I think it had two heads. One was in the water, and I couldn’t see the other one.”

“…”

“There was a disagreement between the two heads, so they were fighting, but I cut off one of them, so I ended up helping him instead. The other head popped out right then and swallowed the people. And as things went wrong, people were coughing out water, and everyone drowned.”

Was he done? Zaha glanced to one side.

“Well, it happened because I kept thinking about it. It wasn’t the first time I thought of those people. When the water began to come up at the lake…”

“Did you see them there?”

Seol Young remembered.

“Even when I reached out to save the people who had fallen into the water, their faces overlapped.”

“It all just sounds like I am weak.”

Zaha stopped talking.

“Sabiso got away once, but I know what he will do.”

“So you will not be taken down again?”

“Well, I won’t turn a blind eye to the mistake I made, and a person can have dozens of faces.”

Zaha jumped up as he said that.

“This is not the time to think back. And we need to find her.”

Come to think of it, the maiden must have started making her move again.

“…”

Seol Young looked at Zaha’s back and thought for a moment.

‘… Should we try it?’

With a plan in mind, he hurriedly headed for the shrine.

Sure enough, the place was empty, and just like the conversation they had, she had gone to steal the bead. Still, Jung Myung must be moving carefully, so they were able to spot her and catch up with her.

“Maiden!”

Jung Myung was shocked to be caught on her way to steal the bead.

“Who?”

Seol Young answered.

“We are here to help.”

Taking advantage of what happened before, he didn’t surprise her this time and spoke naturally about the whole story, and they were able to break into the rain ritual right away.

“Insolent brats! How dare you monsters disturb the sacred altar!”

Sabiso summoned the ghost soldiers. And this time, Seol Young stepped forward.

“Let’s change this time.”

He entrusted Zaha to the ghost soldiers and attacked Sabiso with his own hands.

‘The mirror will not work on me.’

The Blue Rainbow sword was shining.

But then Sabiso disappeared. He escaped by using a disguise.

“Where is he?”

“There!”

Jung Myung shouted. The guy was in front of Zaha.

Changing the plan didn’t help. Sabiso aimed for Zaha from the start, but Seol Young didn’t care.

“You should have disappeared a long time ago!”

Black smoke rose from the mirror, and this time, it seemed blurry for Seol Young’s eyes too.

There was a huge beast, and there were people caught by its numerous legs.

They asked him in a voice full of resentment,

[Are you going to kill me again?]

[Will you kill us again with that sword?]

Zaha raised his sword as he looked at the beast. At that moment,

‘If I had known in advance, I wouldn’t have made that mistake.’

A clear voice was heard.

‘But I did make the mistake, and that changes nothing here. So look at what I have done. I will regret it for the rest of my life and pay the price for it.’

It was Zaha’s voice.

“No…”

Jung Myung mumbled blankly. Before she knew it, she was holding the plaque of the Tree Spirit God against her chest.

“You cannot think like that.”

Numerous shadows rose at Zaha’s voice, and in the blink of an eye, they hit him.

“Die!”

Sabiso’s dagger came out of the darkness. Seol Young threw his sword to block it, and he attacked Sabiso, who was wielding a long sword.

At that time….

“Look over there! The flag is raised!”

The villagers cheered.

“Our wish has come true!”

Sabiso exclaimed.

“Water will overflow on this dry land!”

At the same time, the land shook.

‘Another fail.’

Seol Young inhaled calmly, not panicking.

But to no avail.

A strong current swept over him. He could not resist, was swept away, and lost consciousness.

The sunlight stung his eyes.

He jumped and turned to see that Zaha was awake.

“Why did his method change again?”

He burst into anger.

“Let’s go. We can try again. As many times as we…”

“No.”

Seol Young shook his head.

“I don’t think this is right.”

As long as one was bound to the past, one would inevitably have a gap in his heart. And despite their strength, their emotions would falter, which was enough to take a man down.

What was the reason?

It was because, right now, Zaha was one with his sword.

But…

Zaha’s sword was not aimed at the enemy but at himself.

It was a situation where Sabiso decided to target Zaha alone, so repeating it a hundred times wouldn’t make any difference.

They couldn’t get out of this place.

“Then what do we do?”

Zaha asked.

A thought appeared in his head. He knew it wasn’t right, so he was thinking of other ways.

He couldn’t stand it. Everything was going wrong because of his guilt.

‘What can I really do?’

Well, this was surely not the right way.

As Seol Young was about to speak, they heard a rustle from behind, making them turn.

Someone appeared through the bushes.

A sky blue skirt and a white jacket, and a five-colored belt worn at the waist.

Jung Myung.

“Ah.”

She was surprised and hid behind a tree.

“Someone was really here…”

She nodded her head.

“I didn’t think it would happen. I just came to check….”

She mumbled something.

“Hmm. Excuse me. I am the shaman of this village. I am not a good one, but the moment I woke up today, I felt a strong urge that I had to come and visit this place. And when I came here, it seemed like someone needed my help.”

Jung Myung said that and looked at the two.

“Do you need my help?”

Although her expression was timid, her eyes were shining with sincerity.

Right.

Something was changing.

In the endless repetition, another small flow was created.

Seeing that she went to them, Seol Young had an idea.

‘It should be fine, right?’