Chapter 25 — The Sorcerer, The Priest, And The Nun (4)

Yun Juna no longer came to the cathedral.

No doubt her talk with Shin Hweein had taught her that no real meeting of minds could ever pass between them.

For his part, the fact that she had set about befriending him for no better reason than that her uncle had told her to had weighed on him, and the principles of family and self at the root of her thinking had struck him as the exact opposite of his own.
So it was true enough that her visits had been uncomfortable.

Even so, when he actually sat down to his workouts, the loss of someone who had always been there at his side was a thing he could not help feeling.

“Perhaps I shall give it up.”

— That you can’t do.

To the words he had muttered to himself as he set down the barbell, Flame-tail answered in a tone of unrelenting gravity.

— You’ve a long way to go yet. Once a man starts a thing, he sees it through to the end!

“All the same, Flame-tail, has not enough muscle settled on me by now that you might at last grant me the title of a fairly proper person?”

— I said you’ve a long way to go!

Shin Hweein stood before the mirrors fitted along the inside of the workout room and looked himself over.
The gaze with which Flame-tail joined him in inspecting his reflection was the very picture of cool detachment.

— As you are now, even without the mask, dress you up in halfway-decent women’s clothes and you’d pass for a woman. Are you really content with that?

“Henceforth, as I dissolve the curses, I shall improve…”

— And just how many curses do you still have ahead of you? Sure as anything you’ll be putting on the Ushi-gozen mask again, and after that you’ll have to dissolve the curses laid on the organs that are critical to your health, and after that your legs will need mending, won’t they?

“…Yes. Let us work out.”

— Wise choice.

Unable to muster any rebuttal, Shin Hweein silently resumed his workout.
Thanks to Yun Juna, who had stuck close to him as a personal trainer for over a week, pestering him all the while, he already knew exactly which exercises he ought to be doing.

Yet, as the saying went, one notices what is missing more than what was once there.
Where she had been at his side to make the workouts easy, doing it alone now was hard in so many ways, and he could not help thinking of her.

“Indeed, it would be better to have a spotter. Leon…”

— He says he hates it here because of all the mirrors. Shall I help you out?

“You are out of the question.”
“Shall I help you, young master?”
“Moa, you go outside.”

In the end, Shin Hweein finished his workout with Eulha’s help.
Owing to all he had been through in Hwa-guk, the Ushi-gozen mask among it, and to the heightened latent potential of his body after drinking the Purple Mist Wine that bore the Yun House’s energy in particular, he could now feel a far more vivid transformation than before.

“Then now…”

His workout finished and himself washed, Shin Hweein, changed into a clean suit, closed his eyes for a long moment, opened them again, and murmured in a voice tinged with resolve.

“Shall we go to the family graveyard.”

“Will you truly be all right without me along?”
“Yes.”

Geum Moa said she was confident she could keep from being spotted by Shin Yuhyeon this time, and offered to come, but Shin Hweein refused.
After the Purple Mist Wine, his own confidence in stealth and transformation had grown another notch, and he was sure he could slip there and back unseen on his own.
But the greater part of it was that he would meet his father again today, and he did not want Geum Moa to see him in that state.

“Do not follow me in secret. Flame-tail is on watch.”

— Eh? But I was meaning to come along.

“I have Arong and Neuldam, so it will be fine.”
“Master, what about me?!”

“These creatures of mine…”

In the end, Shin Hweein herded Geum Moa, Flame-tail, Leon, and Eulha into one room and ordered them to keep watch on one another.

“You four have had your share of clashes by now, have you not? Take this chance to talk it out and resolve things properly.”
“In other words, take this chance to give a firm education to the ones who keep climbing on top of me whenever they get the slightest opening, and put the pecking order straight. Yes?”

— Every other time, you talk a great game about the Three-Year Pact and slip out the back, but when it suits you, your tongue runs smooth as a stream.

“Master, if anything happens, call me at once. I shall be there faster than anyone.”
“And I wanted to see the Confucian Dragon too… Ah, the bird, you’ve got to keep it up in the sky the whole time!”
“Very well. My thanks.”

Perhaps because they were, after all, men like himself and so understood Shin Hweein’s mind, Leon and Eulha put up less resistance.
After passing both a final entrusting nod, Shin Hweein heaved a sigh and stepped out of the cathedral.

At that moment something struck him.

“To set out into the city alone… is, perhaps, a first.”

— Kkyu?

— Krrr-rumble…

“No. That is, yes. You two were there. Forgive me.”

That to be alone in the true sense of the word might, from here on, be impossible to him: well, what was there to be done, this too was the fate of a sorcerer who handled shikigami.
Stroking the sullen Neuldam and Arong each once, Shin Hweein cast his stealth-art the moment passersby grew sparse, concealed himself, and hurried on his way.

A blue bird suspended high in the sky abruptly came into his eye.
For a moment he wondered whether Shin Jain might have set some piece of mischief near the cathedral as well, but even so, that would be a flagrant disregard for the Aeshin Catholic Church, and more to the point, Shin Hweein himself had pointed out the mistake to him directly.
For him to do something of the same sort again would put one in serious doubt of Shin Jain’s intelligence.

‘It would have been wiser not to let him know of his own slip-up, but I simply could not let it pass.’

What Shin Jain had done after that, he had no way of knowing.
If it was true that he had feelings for Ham Seoyeon, then surely he would have sought her out one way or another to make his excuses…

If there had been any such thing, Ham Seoyeon would surely have said something to Shin Hweein about it, and yet the message that came this morning held only a question about when they could meet, and not a word concerning Shin Jain.

’…One could say I lobbed a bomb at her. Ought I to apologize ahead of time?’

No, she was not so narrow-hearted as that.
If anything, she might even thank Shin Hweein for giving Shin Jain a piece of his mind in her stead.

“Yes. Surely it will be so.”

— Kkyu?

“No, it is nothing.”

Quickening his step, Shin Hweein gave a slight shake of his head.
In any case, it would be wise to think up an excuse by the day he was to meet Ham Seoyeon…

“Butler.”

On the mountain path leading up to the family graveyard, near the entrance, he saw the butler standing in wait for him.
Since the man plainly seemed to be waiting, Shin Hweein dropped his stealth-art ahead of time and revealed himself, at which the butler, visibly startled, greeted him.

“Just now… that was the young master?”
“Yes. I have grown a little more accustomed to it.”
“Indeed. Every time I meet you, you show me some new astonishment. I keep up my own training as steadily as ever, I assure you, but…”
“Hmph. I have only grown more skilled at hiding myself.”

If Shin Hweein had meant to attack the butler, the man would have noticed and struck back.
That said, if Shin Hweein were to train his physical capacity further and refine his swordsmanship, then by methods other than sorcery a surprise attack might yet be possible…

‘No, the butler is not someone I am to make an enemy of. What good can come of thinking such things.’

It would, to be sure, be a fine method to spring on those who took him for nothing but a sorcerer.
But to entertain, from the outset, the thought of striking first at someone who was not even hostile to him: that, in itself, was not normal.
The thought that his life had grown, of late, rather too steeped in blood drew a sigh out of him.

“Let us go.”
“As you wish.”

The butler asked nothing further, only bowed his head and led the way.

Naturally there came back to him the time he had ascended the graveyard under Geum Moa’s guidance.
Back then he had been unable to understand a single one of Geum Moa’s footfalls, a single one of her actions, yet to his own surprise he could now grasp far more than he had then.
On that occasion Geum Moa had been far busier, having to evade the Shin House’s surveillance as she climbed in secret; now, the head of the house knowing about it, things took rather less effort by comparison.

“Can you, perhaps, see it?”
“Yes.”
“Would you care to try?”
“Yes.”

Receiving the butler’s deference, Shin Hweein traded places with him and stepped to the lead.
He looked up at the sky once, then turned his eyes downward and gazed at the ground.
The talent he had wrested from the Seo House exploded all at once within his mind, expanding his thought in an instant, and he laid bare the sorceries of the Shin House hidden within this mountain.

“Hmm.”

At last he raised his head and looked at the path they were now to take.
As he had thought, he could not manage it as Geum Moa did; to ascend this mountain without the Shin House’s permission would be impossible.
But to take the butler’s role in his stead, that much…

“This way will do.”
“Just so.”

Hesitant though he was, he made out the exact path and planted his staff forward.

“Why must even those who have been granted permission climb this mountain with such difficulty?”
“Let me put it the other way around. To one who has not at least this much ability, the right to ascend the mountain alone is not granted.”
“Was that so. Then I have only just now reached the starting line.”
“Ah, no. That is not the case.”

Marvelling as Shin Hweein found his way and pressed onward with growing skill as time wore on, the butler spoke.

“You are mistaken. Those who climb to the family graveyard alone, without a guide, are perhaps only the head of the house himself, or thereabouts. The paths are so intricate that not even the Elders find their way alone. Even I am only following the route the head of the house has taught me.”
“…”

Made unpleasant by these words, Shin Hweein frowned and looked back over his shoulder, and sure enough, the butler was beaming with pride.

“Few in the Shin House have ever been born with a gift for array-craft, yet in this too the youngest young master is exceptional. As one would expect. He takes after the head of the house.”
“This… is not something I was born with.”

Unable to bring himself to say that he had stolen it from another by means of the Indulgence, Shin Hweein answered only that much.
The butler, deciding that this made it the more remarkable, kept piling on his admiration, and so Shin Hweein resolved then and there that henceforth he would not enter into deep conversation with the man.

“Now you take the lead, Butler.”
“Forgive me. Having traded the lead with the young master partway through, the map in my head has unfortunately become rather jumbled. It is the most embarrassing thing for a butler to admit, but I shall have to ask the young master to guide me onward.”

Old men were not to be taken lightly.
Truly, they were not to be taken lightly.

Grinding his teeth inwardly, Shin Hweein took the lead.
Vexingly enough, this hands-on lesson in array-craft was of considerable help to him as well; by the time they reached the family graveyard, his understanding of space and of array-craft had deepened by another step entirely.

“…You have come.”

Of course, the head of the Shin House, Shin Yuhyeon, was waiting there.
His face was covered with a black mask, just as Shin Hweein himself usually wore a white one, and Shin Hweein could see at a glance that the sorcery laid upon that mask was a step beyond what was on his own.
As it happened to be a category of sorcery he had some experience in himself, he could tell at once.
It was a powerful sorcery, one that hid one’s presence and erased one’s very existence.

But why?
In the family graveyard, of all places.

“Are you, of late, taking up the calling of a Lord-of-the-Beams?”
“Young master.”
“Butler, well done. Stand watch out there against any intruders.”

The butler, riled at his father being treated as a thief, opened his mouth, but Shin Yuhyeon himself cut him off.

“As you command.”
“And…”

When the butler closed his mouth, bowed his head, and withdrew accordingly, Shin Yuhyeon at last removed his mask and turned his gaze upon Shin Hweein.
Judging it appropriate to do the same, Shin Hweein undid the stealth-art and transformation he had kept up all this while, and revealed himself.

“Hweein, come here.”
“…”

Did that mean he was being called as a son today?
A flare of resistance rose first, but he pressed it down and held it in.
If he was going to push back, he should not have come in the first place.

When he drew near, Shin Yuhyeon explained in a calm voice.

“From this moment, you shall meet Yuryong. He is a spirit-beast who guards the Shin family graveyard, and dwells, in ordinary times, on the far side of the graveyard itself. As he must, even at ordinary times, take in the mountain’s spirit-energies steadily, he cannot be called out for long. Given your present level…”

Shin Yuhyeon broke off and examined Shin Hweein; the faintest trace of surprise showed on his face.

“Igak (two quarter-hours)… a little under, perhaps. You will be able to keep him present for about that long.”
“I shall bear it in mind.”

At Shin Hweein’s reply, Shin Yuhyeon nodded, then lightly stamped his foot in the center of the graveyard.
In that instant his spiritual power and the spirit-energy coursing throughout the graveyard resonated, generating a new force, a thing which, at first glance, looked rather like the Seo House’s array-craft, yet was a far more fundamental working than that.
Unlike the Specter Realm or an Other Realm, it was not a domain wholly cut off from the present world; sorcerer’s spiritual power and yokai’s yokai force mingled together, and a new space was born in the seam between the present world and the Specter Realm, a harmony the Seo House, with their habit of tormenting yokai to wring yokai aura out of them, would not so much as dare contemplate.

‘But this feels like something I have known somewhere before… I cannot place it. What I can be certain of is only that it is not an Other Realm. An Other Realm could not be so naturally interwoven with the present world.’

— Hahaha…

Around them, mist bearing an auspicious aura gathered; the temperature dropped by degrees, and a low laughter rang out from somewhere.
Soon, with the soft sound of beating wings, a great bird descended slowly and alighted before father and son.

A great bird’s body and feathered wings, a long-stretched neck and the benevolent face of a man, a courtly cap set upon it.
Without a doubt, this was Manse the Human-Faced Bird-Beast.

“…So, not membrane-wings, then.”

Shin Hweein let the words slip without thinking, and then caught himself.
The dispute between the Daoist Sacred Bird and the Confucian Dragon had, over the course of several years, set the Shin House and the Royal House at odds, and here he was, bringing it up so lightly.
But to his surprise, the human-headed bird-beast turned his gaze upon him and replied.

— When I lent my strength to the young master before, they were indeed membrane-wings. Quite so. These days, in keeping with the will of the one who calls me, my form changes rather freely.

“Hm? Lent your strength?”

— Just so.

It seemed Shin Yuhyeon had not known either, for he voiced his puzzlement at the human-headed bird-beast’s words.
Meanwhile Shin Hweein, realizing for the first time that calling upon its strength in a dream had been no mere working possible only within a dream, fell speechless and stood with his mouth half-open.
To think that the human-headed bird-beast bound to the family had truly lent him its strength!

— And so there is no need to worry whether the young master shall pass my test. If there is to be any testing, then I must be the one to receive it from him.

“And yet I never saw him once… you say you borrowed Yuryong’s power.”

— Seeing as the blood of the Shin House flows in him so thickly, what is there for an old man like you to be so astonished about?

“No. Quite so. It is not astonishing. It is only natural.”

— Just so. It is only natural.

A handsome man and a single bird with a man’s face nodding to one another as they looked each other in the face: it made, in its own way, a picture.
Shin Hweein, simply overwhelmed by the limpid energy radiating from Manse, could only stand still where he was.

— But henceforth, too, you must beware of women. How is it that, in such things as well, father and son are exactly alike?

“…”

He had hoped he would say nothing of the circumstances under which his strength had been borrowed.
The moment Shin Hweein heard Yuryong’s words, he turned his head aside to escape his father’s gaze, which had at once come pouring down upon him, and replied.

“There is no need to worry on that count. I cannot perform the office of a man besides.”

“What did you say.”

Unintentionally, he had astonished Shin Yuhyeon once again.

“A curse?”
“Of course it is a curse.”

— Whoever they are, an exceedingly wise person. Until the strength is in you to take all the women on at once, keep the cap firmly on.

Father and son turned their faces in unison toward the human-headed bird-beast.
With a face of unrelenting severity, he was fixing his gaze on Shin Hweein.

— That a fate steeped in blood is closing in on you, you seem perfectly well aware. But do you suppose that only the sorts who want to kill the young master will be drawing near? In the life of any man, if you split it in two, half is living and half is dying. The fate you are about to face, half of it is of that other kind. Bear that in mind.

“A loathsome fate.”

Shin Hweein murmured in earnest.

— Such is the fate of one who rules. In any case, having today met the young master face to face, henceforth all you need do is call upon me and I shall come running to you, anywhere, anytime. Yuryong or Confucian Dragon, it makes no difference to me.

The moment the human-headed bird-beast, no, Yuryong, said this, Shin Hweein felt a thread of fated bond rise between himself and the other.
The connection that had been there before, even if only faintly, was made firm in this very instant; from now on he would be able to call upon him without any great burden.

— I shall be off, then. Old man, do not push yourself too hard. Those things, in any case, shall never be able to lay their bodies down in this tomb.

“…My thanks.”

Having taken his leave, Yuryong beat his wings and ascended slowly into the sky.
At some moment his presence vanished, and the mist too dispersed, and father and son were able to return to the graveyard of the present world.

“…”

“…”

An awkward silence hung between the two.
Shin Hweein wanted desperately to ask his father about the last words Yuryong had left behind, but they seemed so much graver than he had imagined that he could not bring himself to broach the matter rashly.
But Shin Yuhyeon was a man who, even in such an atmosphere, could say what he meant to say without hesitation.

“I shall find a way to dissolve the curse.”
“Did you not hear what Yuryong said?”
“Better a little leaking than to keep it shut up tight.”
“…”

The trouble being, of course, that a little was not likely to be all of it…