He wondered at first whether the curse had been wiped away alongside the box simply because Cheon Yijae had destroyed roughly half of it — but the color had changed far too cleanly for that. On top of that, since he had swallowed the box with a malevolent spirit, if anything, the remaining debris should have been even more steeped in spiritual miasma.
Moreover, Sim Seowoo felt a faint headache creep in, and he recognized it as the aftereffect of having used purification power. It was a similar sensation to before — but thankfully, this time his nose did not bleed.
Had he purified both Cheon Yijae’s fingertips and the wooden box in that brief moment their hands touched?
“As expected of the Guiin……!”
Do Seonhwa cried out in an emotional tone, and the Purifiers on the other side also whispered among themselves with stunned expressions.
“He, he, he purified with bare hands……?”
“Is it even possible to purify that quickly?”
The shocking elements were not one or two. Although the sudden summoning of the Jaegui by the Sojunim had drawn everyone’s attention and prevented them from properly witnessing Sim Seowoo purify, it was undeniable that the wooden box had been purified. He had purified without using any of the tools required for purification — and the fact that he had done so in such a brief span of time was genuinely astounding.
On top of that, it was also remarkable that he had managed to use purification power right in front of the Sojunim, who had just drawn out a Jaegui. Most Purifiers would shrink under his presence and be unable to concentrate, wandering aimlessly.
“Hah.”
Cheon Yijae let out a short breath as he looked down at his own hand. A sigh or a scoff — it was hard to tell. Sim Seowoo thought for now that he had swallowed yet another curse word. The way he curled his fist tightly betrayed a deep irritation.
Beside him, Do Seonhwa was so elated she looked ready to bounce off the ground as she called out.
“Cheon Yijae! Sojunim! You saw that, right? Three times is absolutely impossible to chalk up to coincidence! The Guiin clearly has talent! And this time too, purifying with bare hands no less……!”
“Hmm. I still don’t think they’re suited to be brought to the field. Having talent is one thing — they can’t even properly assess danger.”
“Then why are you so dissatisfied with everything?”
“Enough. First, send them to the treatment room. Get that hand seen to.”
But Cheon Yijae’s attitude remained cold. He cut the conversation off firmly and glanced toward Sim Seowoo’s hand. Only then did Do Seonhwa go ah, and in truth, even Sim Seowoo himself — the injured party — had completely forgotten about the wound on his hand.
Cheon Yijae picked up the broken wooden box and said in a cool, detached tone,
“I’ll have to pay a visit to that Elder. I’m quite curious as to how they went about the teaching, you see.”
***
Sim Seowoo received treatment again at the elegant treatment room he had visited before. He said that since the bleeding from his index finger wasn’t particularly deep, there was no real need to come all the way here — a simple bandage would suffice — but Do Seonhwa’s stance was firm.
She argued that since he had come into contact with a cursed object, they needed to examine him carefully in case of any harm done, and also that the box being old meant there was a concern about tetanus. Sim Seowoo found the second reason convincing and complied quietly.
Although he hadn’t expected to end up with a white bandage wrapped around such a small wound, Do Seonhwa examined the injury with meticulous care. She administered the treatment herself.
Soon after, Do Seonhwa let out a heavy sigh and apologized.
“I truly am sorry, Guiin. The Sojunim keeps giving you a hard time, so it must be difficult. And in the end, you’ve even gotten hurt because of it……”
“Ah, it’s fine. This wound is just because I recklessly reached out on my own.”
“The thing is, if I had firmly stopped the Sojunim from entering the training room in the first place, none of this would have happened. And…… now that the Sojunim has gone to find the Elder, the senior Purifiers might end up avoiding any involvement with the Guiin going forward. Aiyuu, why is his personality like that……”
Do Seonhwa grumbled a little. Heun’s Elders did not welcome getting close to Cheon Yijae, and so if he had gone to find them directly like this, there was a high chance they would refuse to have anything to do with matters related to him again. At best, they might simply send over theory books from a distance.
But what was unexpected was that, up until now, Cheon Yijae himself had also tended to avoid meeting with the Elders. Every time they spoke, it ended in a clash, so he had kept his distance from anything that wasn’t critical Heun business — so why had he gone to seek them out this time? Was he that angry about the decision to attach a Purifier to him?
This time, through an Elder Council meeting, a unanimous decision had been reached to bring Sim Seowoo in as the Sojunim’s dedicated Purifier. That is to say, Sim Seowoo had officially become a member of Heun. Do Seonhwa had, of course, anticipated this — but she was inwardly surprised that it had come to a unanimous decision.
Cheon Yijae would have only grasped the full picture today, so his irritation was understandable — but Sim Seowoo’s induction was, in a sense, already a foregone conclusion.
Do Seonhwa murmured to herself.
“Come to think of it, he was saying something about why they gave such a thing as an assignment……”
It was something Cheon Yijae had muttered to himself as he headed up toward the Elders’ space. It seemed he had been irritated along the lines of it’s not just an object with a curse on it — what were they thinking, giving something that also housed a malevolent spirit……
Wouldn’t that be like getting angry that the assignment given to a beginner was too dangerous?
Do Seonhwa chewed on that with an odd expression before suddenly going ah, letting out a sigh, and bowing her head to Sim Seowoo again.
“I promised I would help the Guiin well, and yet I really have no face to show. If the Elders end up refusing to teach going forward, I’ll find another teacher for you somehow, no matter what it takes!”
“There’s really no need to go to that trouble. I’ve already picked up the basics of the theory, and studying on my own is actually more comfortable for me.”
Sim Seowoo shook his head calmly. Over the past few days spent entirely at Heun, he had been reading through the theory books carefully and had more or less memorized the content. He had only gotten through the basics, but Heun’s archive was vast, so he could study there at his own pace.
Furthermore, the senior Purifier who had originally taught him had also emphasized that internalizing the actual feel of using purification was far more important than simply poring over theory books.
In that sense, the purification he had just managed to pull off was both surprising and welcome — and yet it remained puzzling. He still couldn’t grasp how exactly he had done it. In that moment, all he had thought was that the curse was transferring to Cheon Yijae and that he needed to make him drop the box……
Could it be that purification only works when one has a clear motivation like that?
It felt oddly peculiar that purification seemed to activate only in the moments he made contact with Cheon Yijae — that is, when he touched him. At the movie theater, too, he had purified the scar while wiping blood from Cheon Yijae’s hand.
But then again, the time he had brushed off the curse from the doll at the library, Cheon Yijae hadn’t been there — though, admittedly, he had been thinking about Cheon Yijae, whom he had encountered the night before, at that time……
While Sim Seowoo was lost in thought, Do Seonhwa wore an expression of deep emotion. She looked very grateful that he was taking the clash with Cheon Yijae in stride.
But soon, she bowed her head again with a guilty look. The things she felt sorry about regarding Sim Seowoo were not limited to just one.
“I heard that other Purifiers gathered in the training room and said unkind things to the Guiin. They misunderstood and said things like he got in through connections and is living comfortably — they poured out such remarks. I truly am sorry. It was wrong of me to let you hear such things.”
Do Seonhwa apologized sincerely, having belatedly learned about the incident. She explained that Sim Seowoo’s induction had progressed so quickly that there were many internal matters to handle, and she had missed the conversations circulating among the Purifiers.
But Sim Seowoo, upon hearing her apology, simply tilted his head with a puzzled look. From the start, it had been awkward to introduce himself as the Sojunim’s dedicated Purifier given that he hadn’t yet mastered purification techniques, and moreover he felt the Purifiers’ atmosphere was not something Do Seonhwa needed to bear responsibility for — and most importantly,
“Well, I’ve heard things like that in plenty of other places, so I’m used to it. It’s perfectly fine.”
Comments about living comfortably were something he heard regularly at university too. There were quite a few people who whispered behind his back upon seeing juniors giving Sim Seowoo gifts, or professors praising him and seeking him out. They mocked him for living an easy life just because he was somewhat good-looking.
He had been hearing remarks like that for quite a long time, actually.
When he was young, his parents’ business was flourishing, and people saw him as someone who had been born lucky into a wealthy household. When that business collapsed, teachers would feel sorry for him and look after him, and others envied that. And people gravitating toward him because they wanted to be his friend drew jealousy too.
No matter the situation, Sim Seowoo had always been told he was lucky and had it easy. There had been quite a few instances of people fabricating rumors to isolate him as well.
Because of all that, he had naturally come to avoid getting deeply entangled with people. On top of that, his experience of being tormented by his parents who had fallen into the cult had given him the habit of being wary of others.
Getting close only made things exhausting — so keeping an appropriate distance and letting everything wash over him was simply more comfortable.
“It’s not really — no, not at all — I haven’t been hurt by it at all, so please don’t worry on my account. In fact, I had completely forgotten I had even heard such things until you brought it up just now……”
“Um, um……?”
Do Seonhwa looked genuinely startled, eyes going wide. As though she didn’t know what to say in response, her lips twitched — but Sim Seowoo truly was fine.
