Requiem of Subdued Souls

Chapter 82: Flute Of Foreboding (2)

Zaha turned his gaze to Euljae. The guy looked like he was in a dream.

Seo Jun was back.

As soon as he realized it, his face turned pale.

“High Governor! How did this even happen? I, I, I….”

“Yes, I understand. Seo Jun-rang appeared at the lake in Mount Danseok. Hearing the distress signal, he appeared there on his own two feet.”

“I-It cannot be…!”

“According to Seol Young-rang, Seo Jun-rang is different from normal evil spirits because he is an entity. And we need to calm him down from this state first.”

“Yes, yes.”

The Blue Dragon troops all put their hands forward, and their hands began to glow in white.

The pure spiritual qi of their troops headed right for the middle. It was directed around Seo Jun’s body, which was entangled in chains.

But nothing happened.

“Kwaaak!”

Seo Jun screamed louder and struggled. Seol Young keenly observed them.

The spiritual qi of the Blue Dragon troops didn’t even enter Seo Jun’s body and was scattered in vain.

‘It isn’t absorbing it.’

Even though he wasn’t human, he definitely existed, but that means that the qi in his body completely changed.

Zaha asked,

“Is there any other way?”

“Yes.”

Seo Geom took out the flute.

As he blew into the flute, a soft melody played. It was something that Seol Young heard for the first time.

When he looked at Zaha, he mouthed,

“One Wave Moves A Thousand Ways.”

“Ah.”

Was it the famous song?

It was known to be the most sacred of the sacred songs.

It was known to calm the mind. It softens the temper of the evil spirits and exterminates the evilness within their hearts.

In theory, it should definitely work, but even that had no effect. Its usage seemed to be the problem, not the music.

‘Crudity.’

Even Seol Young, who didn’t know the song, felt that the melody was quite rough. It was different from when the guy played a melody in their competition at the temple. The music he was playing now was uneven and shaky.

“Stop.”

Zaha interrupted.

“Come to think of it, the only way Seo Jun-rang can be suppressed is with Seo Geom-rang’s flute, but no matter how much you blow on it, it seems to be useless.”

“I am sorry.”

“It is alright. Even if Seo Jun-rang had become like this, he was a member of the family, so it might be uncomfortable. It would be right for an outsider to step in. Seol Young, try it.”

“Yes.”

Seol Young stood in front of Seo Jun, who was tied up.

“KUAK!”

The guy screamed, and Seol Young threw a talisman at him, who ran away.

But what is this now?

All of them fell.

‘As I thought.’

Seol Young wasn’t too shocked at this.

A huge guardian deity appeared with his top naked on the training ground, and the deity gripped Seo Jun’s shoulder with his hands.

“Euhhh!”

Seo Jun wriggled to resist.

But the guardian deity didn’t budge. It held him harder.

“….”

The Hwarang troops and everyone present watched the scene without blinking. In their eyes, it seemed like Seol Young was just standing there.

But that wasn’t true.

‘It is stronger than before.’

Now Seol Young was applying spiritual power to Seo Jun’s body through the guardian deity. The proof was that the hands of the deity were glowing blue.

However, Seo Jun didn’t seem to be weakening. His strength seemed to be closer to physical strength.

Zaha looked at him from the other side. His brows twitched slightly.

‘He is being stubborn.’

It was that kind of gaze.

‘Put your head down and do something. With the protection of the Great Mother, you don’t have to worry about the aftermath, even if you use your strength. Wouldn’t it be better if you took over?’

He was thinking that, but Zaha wouldn’t step forward, so Seol Young shook his head.

‘I need to do this on my own…’

He steadfastly infused spiritual power without changing his facial expression. Memories of the lake came rushing to him.

Applying the technique that Sabiso used, he made a thin line with spiritual energy in the air and used talismans.

It worked.

Seo Jun’s body, which was standing straight, finally became limp, and the light in his eyes vanished. Even his long, outstretched nails retracted.

Seol Young managed to do it.

“Phew…”

All the Hwarangs who were nervous could relax now. Everyone sighed.

“This should have bought me some time.”

Euljae put shackles on Seo Jun’s limbs and turned to Seo Geom.

“Let us go out and talk.”

Everyone turned around.

Then, Seol Young said,

“Wait.”

“…?”

Everyone turned around.

Seol Young picked up the talisman that fell to the ground on his first attempt.

“It is quite strange.”

Zaha asked.

“What is?”

“These talismans should appease the spirits of the dead. However, as you saw, none of them touched Seo Jun-rang’s body. What could this mean?”

“You used the wrong talisman?”

“True. In other words, Seo Jun-rang wasn’t killed by an evil spirit.”

The faces of all members of the Blue Dragon troops hardened.

Seol Young continued,

“Not just that. The attitude of the Hwarangs of the Blue Dragons towards Seo Jun-rang was quite strange. It seems like there is something hidden about his death. This means you were covering something up.”

Everyone went stiffer at this. They couldn’t intervene because Seol Young was talking with the High Governor.

“Seol Young-rang, what do you mean by that?”

Zaha asked.

“At the time, I received a report from the Blue Dragon troops as follows ‘Six Hwarangs from each troop, including Seo Jun-rang, had lost their lives after being killed by the God of Cataclysm outside the capital.’ And is Seol Young-rang now claiming that it is not true?”

“I do not know about that case, so how can I talk about that? However, something is quite odd here, so please investigate it.”

“However, there is no way you are trying to say that it is the Blue Dragon troops who had concealed the identity…”

As if that weren’t the case, Zaha looked at them.

All of them were pale. In the next moment, all those below the level of Seo Geom bent down, and Euljae too.

Then they stepped back from Zaha.

“Is this true?”

“High Governor!”

Euljae spoke in a trembling voice.

“No. It may seem like a coverup of the truth, but how could we have dared to do that? We just couldn’t tell the High Governor at that time about the death of…”

“What do you mean? How did he die? Was it not because of an evil spirit?”

“That…”

Euljae was unable to speak, so Seo Geom said,

“My hyung killed the five Hwarangs who worked with him.”

“What?”

Zaha was surprised, and Seol Young was too.

He thought that there was a story behind it, but he never imagined such a thing would happen.

“When we found him, it was already over.”

Seo Geom spoke calmly.

“The sight was horrid. And it was obvious that Hyung was the one who stabbed the five Hwarangs with his sword. Some of the corpses even showed signs that Hyung used his skills on them.”

“…”

“Everyone was shocked by it.”

Euljae continued from there.

“I thought there must have been something that had happened there. So several of us wanted to visit you and discuss it…. At the same time, something bad happened to you, and we were not in a hurry….”

He said.

Not good? What happened?

Seol Young was nervous.

But Euljae didn’t continue talking about it.

“That was why we didn’t tell you, and after that, we tried to reveal the truth, but there were too many evil spirits running around, and it just skipped my mind… After I finally came to my senses, you told us you were leaving the capital…”

His tone hardened.

“It’s not that we did that on purpose, but please consider the circumstances and understand why we had to do it. We had no intention of lying to the High Governor. We will gladly admit the sins we committed.”

“…”

Zaha said nothing.

He looked at Euljae, who had his head down, and said,

“Euljae, that is enough. I was just surprised since it was my first time hearing it, but what do you plan to do right now? It was also my fault that I left too abruptly in the first place.”

“No, High Governor.”

“But even though it is clear that Seo Jun-rang killed Hwarangs from the other troops, no one was charged with murder. Everyone hid it until now.”

“That…”

“I get it.”

“Yes, High Governor.”

Euljae nodded.

“As you guessed it, looking at the situation at the time, several troops came to this conclusion: Seo Jun-rang was said to have turned into a Disfigured Spirit.”

A Disfigured Spirit.

Seol Young looked at Euljae. That was something he hadn’t heard in such a long time.

It referred to the soul of a person being transformed.

It was rare for people to go through it. At least, it was only common for people who had frequent encounters with evil spirits.

He heard that eight years ago when the God of Cataclysm was running rampant, there were many Hwarangs who had lost their lives. And so, did they feel it? Or did they think that the unknown energy was from Seo Jun?

“A Disfigured Spirit happens when a soul becomes tampered with, so anything committed after that will not be charged as a sin. No wonder many didn’t want him to be charged with the crime.”

Zaha nodded.

“That is understandable. But I haven’t come up with a solution. And if he returned like that from a state of decay, what should be done?”

“I don’t know. I have never seen a Disfigured Spirit either.”

Seol Young thought for a moment.

“Anyway, we need to find out why Seo Jun-rang came back and solve it. I think everyone agrees with it.”

And then he looked around.

“You would agree that it would be difficult to let him escape. In fact, Seo Jun-rang is not a living person, but he can freely move. Just like how he first appeared.”

Everyone sighed.

“He thinks he is a living person and chooses not to leave a certain place, so it is better to act carefully around him and not trigger him. And we need to work on that.”

Seol Young thought as he drew a talisman in the air and attached it to Seo Jun’s body, which was unconscious.

And then he drew a small version of the same talisman and put it on his wrist.

“With this, when he wakes up, I will notice it right away.”

Seol Young asked,

“I’d like to look up some old records. Can I use the library?”

“…”

All the people present turned to Seol Young and just stared at him.

The fact that Seo Jun, their eldest, had ended up like this was a huge scar for the troops. And just because the problem was hidden doesn’t mean no wrong was committed.

So they had to reveal with their own mouths what they had erased from their memories for the past eight years.

And they had to do it in front of Seol Young, whom the troops had hated in the past.

‘I pretended so haughtily to him.’

They knew Seol Young would laugh in their faces.

But he didn’t.

Without another word, he only thought of helping them out.

‘Rather unexpected.’

Everyone was so lost that they didn’t answer.

“May I use the library?”

“Ah, of course.”

Euljae answered first.

“Then…”

Seol Young began to walk away.

“Me too.”

Zaha followed.

“Hey, Seol Young-rang! Do you even know where the library is? Ah, I get it, since you broke it down…”

And then they continued to talk.

Seo Geom just looked at their backs and turned around.

“Uncle, go to the prison and prepare it.”

And he ordered the other Hwarangs.

“Make sure to do the seal right.”

“Yes!”

The Hwarangs ran.

After a while, the door of the Blue Dragons’ base was firmly shut.