The landscape of the clearing, where only vegetation had drooped gloomily, was transformed. Red lanterns hung here and there, and pathways like a traditional market stretched out at length. Ghosts could be seen laying out stalls to buy and sell goods, and even those who crowded together singing were discovered.
There were so many ghosts coming and going along the paths that even just watching from a distance, one could feel how noisy it was. At the feeling of facing the other side of the world, Sim Seowoo blinked his eyes slowly.
They said the talisman from earlier had deployed a spell to enter the ‘ghost path.’ It was one of the standard methods to infiltrate a Guiyeok.
A Guiyeok usually referred to a space like a virtual world created when a specific evil spirit thickly spread ghost energy over an area and declared it their territory, but this place was a case where a Guiyeok naturally formed as ordinary ghosts gathered in droves.
Since it wasn’t a place full of ghost energy, the explanation followed that rather than forcibly tearing open a gap to enter, it was better to disguise oneself as a ghost and stealthily slip in through the ghost path.
“Oh…”
A quiet exclamation leaked from Seowoo’s mouth. He’d seen various wondrous sights since entering Heun, but this village was the most surprising. Enough to now clearly understand why spiritual sight was described as an eye that sees another world.
At that reaction, Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin looked at each other and grinned.
Actually, Seowoo’s reaction was more subdued than the two had expected, but they figured this much was something. Inwardly, they’d wanted to let him know that Heun didn’t only do frightening work all the time. Protecting the world’s balance was, in some ways, having very unique experiences.
Of course, it would be inappropriate to describe entering a village of ghosts as a good thing, but…
“In the past, Heun tried to drive away the ghosts that gathered like that, but they kept getting tangled up so we just left them alone. And when we left them like that, we could actually obtain clues about Hyungsin!”
“We gather information by eavesdropping on the stories ghosts share there, and also by wandering around looking for anything unusual—that’s an ‘investigation’ mission.”
At Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin’s explanations, Seowoo nodded. He finally properly understood the field they needed to investigate.
Initially, ghosts bewitched by Hyungsin’s energy gathered from all over the country and revered the ruins themselves like a sanctuary, then over time naturally formed a village. And since they learned six years ago that Hyungsin had been resurrected again, a festival has been held every day.
It was said to be an event praying that the Hyungsin currently staying at Hoejin Mountain would quickly rise and cause a calamity like in the past, thus blurring the line separating the worlds and allowing the dead to roam more freely.
“Most of the ghosts at this festival site are malevolent spirits, but occasionally one or two evil spirits are mixed in, so you absolutely must not let them find out you’re human. Absolutely!”
At Do Seonhwa’s earnest entreaty, the members of Team 5 also seemed to take note as they pressed down firmly on their robes’ hoods and nodded their heads resolutely.
It was the start of an infiltration investigation.
The closer they got to the village, the more Jin Gwangmin’s eyes sparkled. When he’d spoken to Sim Seowoo earlier, he’d acted familiar as a senior in the field, but actually even he still found entering a ghost festival site fascinating, so his head turned this way and that.
“Oh, it looks like they decorated the streets a bit more this time!”
“Ghosts really do love festivals. It feels like every ghost in this region has gathered.”
Do Seonhwa also scanned the streets with an interested look. Ghosts originally liked noisy drinking and dancing, so one could often find them secretly mixed into human festivals, but the scene of ghosts gathering only among themselves to hold a festival was always novel no matter when you saw it.
Moreover, the current festival seemed to have grown larger than the scale in the information organized by members who’d come on field investigations before. The members of Team 5 also turned their heads busily and conversed.
“Does the festival becoming grand mean Hyungsin’s activity is also drawing near?”
“You could see it that way, but we shouldn’t be afraid of that and instead should take advantage of the gaps in the excited ghosts to gather information.”
Kim Myeongyeon answered calmly. The information obtained from Gwiraechon was quite useful—apparently in the past, they’d grasped the intentions of a Hyeong Akgui planning to rampage in some provincial city through conversations ghosts had here, and managed the situation before major damage occurred.
Seowoo looked around curiously at both the members’ conversation and Gwiraechon’s scenery. He’d thought he’d experienced just about everything in life, but he hadn’t known he’d end up entering a ghost festival site.
Could this be considered traveling in a way?
When the various landscapes discovered on trips he’d taken every vacation suddenly came to mind, he thought it would be fine to describe these streets as an exotic foreign night market. Except that foreign country was distant in a somewhat different sense.
When he accepted it that way, the distance in his heart lessened considerably, and Seowoo’s gaze turned to the stalls. He became curious about what exactly ghosts bought and sold.
Accessories made by stringing together what appeared to be human teeth, bags decorated by sticking things that looked like fingernails closely together, clothes made from suspiciously familiar-looking leather, and so on…
‘Mm, let’s stop looking into this.’
Seowoo came to a plain conclusion and turned his head. He felt an indescribable emotion at the point that the most innocuous item was a ‘ball made from human hair that fell out from stress.’
That was even quite a popular product among the ghosts. An item containing human sorrow, or something. They mocked human woes saying they no longer lost hair now.
As expected, ghosts are ghosts, he thought as he tried to move away, when a hand suddenly popped out from the restaurant storefront right next to him.
[Won’t you try eating this?]
At the end of the skewer held in the black hand, a dark red lump was stuck. It looked like flesh mixed with blood, and a halfhearted energy spread across Seowoo’s face. He’d been inwardly curious about ghosts’ food too, but seeing it made him want to back away.
He silently shook his head in refusal, but for some reason the ghost’s solicitation persistently continued.
[Just take one bite. I worked really hard to make it, you know? I won’t even charge money, so go ahead!]
“I’m fine…”
[Hm? You won’t eat this? Why? Why?]
Even the ghost’s eyes gradually gleamed eerily. The severely bloodshot eyes rolled endlessly toward Sim Seowoo. As if it had witnessed very suspicious behavior, it glared at him and he sighed inwardly. Something seemed to have gone wrong.
He hadn’t taken off his robe and had pressed his hood down firmly, so could it have recognized he was human? How exactly?
[Why? Why? How come? Everyone who sees this rushes to eat it because they want it so badly? Why refuse? Hm?]
The ghost even leaned its upper body forward and tried to come out of the storefront. Just as it approached as if to check Seowoo more closely and he hesitated and stepped back—
*Crunch—*
The skewer that had approached as if to stab Seowoo’s eyes was chewed as if broken. At the same time a large hand grabbed and removed it, Seowoo confirmed the bloody lump at the skewer’s end being eaten and disappearing into the ‘mouth’ of the red spirit body, then immediately turned his head.
Before he knew it, Cheon Yijae had come right behind him.
With his other hand, he wrapped around Seowoo’s shoulder and pulled him close. Leading him almost as if hiding him in his embrace, he stared directly at the storefront’s ghost.
“He’s refusing because you made it like trash.”
[Uh oh…]
“You’re selling this crap as food? Stop pushing it and get lost.”
At the endlessly cold voice, the ghost flinched. As if pressed by the energy felt from Cheon Yijae, with the sense of recognizing he wasn’t a ‘ghost’ they could easily talk back to, it retreated stealthily. Even though the face beyond the veil couldn’t be seen well, its whole body shrank as if facing a beast of prey.
Cheon Yijae, who had stared fixedly at that ghost until it completely withdrew, eventually looked at Sim Seowoo with a hardened face.
“Don’t show gaps to the ghosts.”
The voice warning that this was a place one mustn’t let one’s guard down was rigid. If you leaked even the slightest thread of suspicion, ghosts would immediately latch on and persist.
Seowoo protested in an awkward tone.
“I didn’t really act suspiciously though…”
Honestly, it was unfair. He’d deliberately hardly made any sound, and had referenced how Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin looked around the festival earlier and followed suit. Yet he couldn’t understand at all why this problem had occurred only to him. Should he have at least pretended to accept the food?
Cheon Yijae exhaled a quiet sigh and said,
“Haah, this is because your soul is clear. No matter how much you hide in clothes engraved with concealment spells, ghosts’ interest can’t help but get tangled up. That’s what it means for spiritual sight to open.”
Spiritual sight wasn’t simply a special eye for an individual, but emitted wavelengths that read the other world. In other words, even if Seowoo just quietly looked at ghosts, even if his eyes didn’t meet with the ghosts, the clear energy his soul held was transmitted intact to the other side.
It was similar to noticing someone watching from outside a window. And the larger and clearer that window, the easier it would be to notice.
“This is why your spiritual sight shouldn’t have opened, tsk.”
Cheon Yijae, who muttered quietly, eventually shook his head. As if it was too late to say that now, he instead stood more closely by Seowoo’s side.
“It can’t be helped. If I’m by your side, ghosts won’t approach, so while investigating this place, don’t leave my side.”
His behavior of looking around while firmly instructing was quite natural. At his attitude of surveying as if providing cover, Seowoo blinked his eyes. Actually, he’d been surprised from the moment Yijae approached, so his words now just sounded very strange.
“You’ve been avoiding me all this time, so I thought you didn’t care.”
So unconsciously, his true feelings slipped out. It was a remark that flustered even himself after saying it. Didn’t it seem exactly like questioning the other person’s distancing behavior all this time?
Cheon Yijae’s ash-colored eyes visible through the gap in the veil rolled smoothly to the side. Even though his face was already covered with a veil, like someone who still wanted to hide, he avoided eye contact and answered.
“…If the Purifier gets hurt on a field mission after being forcibly dragged out without even deploying, I’ll get an earful. So I’m just looking after you.”
