Chapter 9 — The Sorcerer Who Masters The Dream (2)

Shin Hweein had only just woken, and the look on his face was a curious one.

Geum Moa took it in, brought him a basin of wash-water and a handkerchief, and spoke.

“Things did not go as you wished, did they? Just as I thought. That you returned at all, unharmed, from facing the queen of the dream-demons is itself a marvel. I shall help you, so quickly now, cast the baku’s spell. That she may never again so much as trifle with the young master—”

“No. The matter itself went tolerably well.”

“Hwaaat?”

Geum Moa’s eyes flew wide.

Shin Hweein fixed on the sensation that had taken root within the dream just past and drew it out to the tip of his finger, that she might see it.

Before long a pale-pink aura bloomed like smoke from the tip of his forefinger, akin to that of the power’s original mistress.
It was the dream-demon’s own, after all, and it carried a certain bewitching cast, so that merely to look on it set the spirit stirring in some strange way.

“It may prove difficult to use where many human eyes are looking on. Wait. Now that I think of it, your disguise-art has the secondary effect of veiling one’s aura. Were that applied to this, then it might somehow…”

“Somehow? Surely you did not use the power of the Indulgence?”

Geum Moa, still unable to believe what she was seeing, threw out so foolish a question, though she herself must have known it was not so.

Shin Hweein showed her the state of the Indulgence, its karma not yet charged enough to manifest any power, and explained.

“Lyl indulged me a great deal, I should say. I had a rough time of it, but somehow I was able to grasp the rudiments.”

“Lyl… That wench bade you call her so?”

“Yes. Her true name, she said she would tell me once I found it out for myself. …Like Attila, she would rather wait for me to come seek her than come to me. It is hardly the way of a yokai.”

That said, if the name she bore in her capacity as queen of the dream-demons was Lyl, then the meaning of it was rather brazen.

For in the ancient tongue used by the descendants of Shem, the eldest son of Noah, LYL served as a root carrying the meaning of night.

That she might shoulder the night alone, and have strength to spare. Was such an ambition not, after all, fitting for a queen of the dream-demons?

…Though perhaps she herself had given it no particular thought, and had merely shortened her own original name.

“You did not go and do anything needless, I hope. Or pledge some pointless promise as the price of learning her power!”

“You truly hate her, don’t you. I gave her nothing. Only the pledge that I should, henceforth, learn dream sorcery from her in dreams.”

“There it is. That blasted thing means to monopolize the young master, even if it must be only in dreams…”

Geum Moa muttered this, grinding her teeth, then came suddenly to herself and asked him.

“If the matter went as you intended, why were you wearing so peculiar a face?”

“I proposed that, having now resolved the strife between us and laid the foundation for an amicable relation, the curse might as well be released.”

“And so that woman flew into a rage and fled, did she?”

As though that alone laid the whole situation bare to her, Geum Moa wore the most pitying expression.
At her words Shin Hweein flinched, and answered ingenuously.

“How is it that you knew that as well?”

“How could it be otherwise? Truly, the moment a man finds he can hold a passable conversation, he straightaway does just that.”

“No, was it not her side that was in the wrong from the very first, in laying the curse? For the sake of mending the relation, then, is it not right to release the curse? Was the request I made so unreasonable?”

“Since when does a woman’s heart move by reason alone? Young master, you ought to have foreseen as much beforehand.”

“…Is that something you can say with such a bold face?”

Until now she had seemed to despise Lyl, yet here she was taking the woman’s side outright.

At the spectacle of her, Shin Hweein heaved a sigh of disbelief, then pulled on the garment she handed him and rose to his feet.

“Had I been able to absolve her curse without using the Indulgence, I could have sought a further increase of spiritual power. But no, things cannot go so easily. Still, henceforth I have only to learn dream sorcery without being plagued by past-life dreams, so if one chooses to call it no trouble, it is no trouble.”

By dream sorcery he meant, of course, his own Shin-Hweein-style interpretation of the dream-demon’s power to manipulate dreams.

But at his words Geum Moa drew up short.

“Wait, this is no time for me to be taking that woman’s side! The reason she refused to let the curse be lifted is so she may meet the young master in dreams every night, with certainty! Charge the Indulgence with karma and absolve her curse at once!”

“Did I not, just this moment, tell you that the priority for absolving that very curse has dropped?”

It was now Shin Hweein’s turn to bestow a pitying expression upon Geum Moa.

“I have obtained the power I sought. We must move at once. Let us go and wake Do Yumi.”

“And here I thought it would take several days at the least, however quick…”

“In several days’ time, that woman will be dead. What then?”

To speak plainly, Shin Hweein bore no particularly warm feeling toward Do Yumi.
But were she to die, would not Father Lucas, charged with her care, and Ham Seoyeon, the godmother who was to perform Do Yumi’s naerimgut, both be shaken by it?

…And above all there was Taeju Doryeong.

If it could be helped, that boy ought not to lose anything more from this point on, Shin Hweein thought.

“Master.”

Just as Shin Hweein finished his preparations to depart and was on the point of donning his mask, a gentleman in a suit stepped forth from his shadow.

“What is it, Leon?”

“I am well aware that, should it come to the worst, my role is to guard Master. But unavoidably, I find I must step away for a brief while. I wish to ask your leave.”

In truth, even up to now Shin Hweein had felt no particular sense of using him as a shield.

His power had been considerably diminished, yet for one who had been a direct thrall of the Vampire Lord to speak so was reassuring all the same.
In all likelihood, though, the case would never arise.

“It is no matter that you absent yourself. But where do you mean to go?”

“To my hideout in Zone 3 of Seoul, of course. It is time to put what should be put in order in order, and to bring back what should be brought back.”

“If you have coveted the goods of innocent commoners, that, too, must be retur—”

“Aha-ha-ha! What a sorry thing to say.”

Leon cut off, most rudely, the …ed to their rightful owner that Shin Hweein had been about to add.
He clenched one hand into a fist, tapped his own chest twice with stately decorum, and spoke in a tone that brooked no such suggestion.

“I, Leon Blade, who style myself a noble of the night, have no taste for the thievish habit of seizing what is another’s. Of course, I should not hesitate to put my skill on display against those for whom plunder is their daily bread and violence their hobby.”

“You have a fluent tongue.”

“You need only trust me and wait. Since I am going to Zone 3 anyway, I shall gather what information I can about that narcolepsy as well.”

Leon winked one eye at Shin Hweein and vanished, as though sucked into a nearby shadow.

A direct thrall of the Lord could naturally be nothing but a daywalker as well, so by concealing his identity he ought to manage the errand without trouble.

But for him to bring up information… could it be that some of the thralls had survived that day, and not died?

The instant Shin Hweein’s eyes began to narrow, Flame-tail came padding up to his feet, brushed his tail back and forth against Shin Hweein’s foot to assert his presence, and spoke.

— That bastard ran off because the thought of going into a cathedral was too much for him. I’m sure of it.

“Flame-tail. So you were there.”

— I’ve been here this whole time, you know? In case that so-called queen of the dream-demons did something to you, I was on standby to come to the rescue at once, you know?

“For that, truly, I thank you. Come hither, Flame-tail.”

— I told you, don’t pick me u—

Shin Hweein gathered Flame-tail, who feigned dislike, into his arms, tickled him without mercy, and opened the door to the suite.

Recalling that the last time, Lt. Colonel Yun, that is, Yun Jubaek, had been waiting outside, he peered out just in case.
As expected, this time the man was not there.

But the thought of that occasion naturally brought something else trailing in its wake.

“Now that I think of it, Moa. I had quite forgotten to ask.”

“Speak.”

“This gift that Lt. General Yun is said to have sent. What is it?”

“It was not Lt. General Yun who sent it.”

“Hm?”

To this Zen-koan of a reply Shin Hweein turned with knitted brow, and Geum Moa, wearing an easy smile, explained.

“It was sent by the man who calls himself the young master’s father.”

“…”

At those words Shin Hweein closed the suite door he had opened and turned back.

First he reached out a hand and adjusted his mask.
This was to make certain it was properly affixed, that it was, even now, covering his face.

In the course of it Flame-tail tumbled to the floor and threw a fit, but just now Shin Hweein had no spare attention to spend on the little fellow.

“So… my father knew, then.”

There had been an uneasy feeling in him, somehow.

Shin Yuhyeon, the sorcerer of greatest renown in all Aeshin.

Though born of the great house famed for its shikigami, he had, by some peculiarity, been blessed with the favor of the stars, and was so well-versed in every sort of sorcery, astrology included, that it was said to be harder to ask of him what he did not know than what he did.

Had his father had no interest in him whatsoever, that would be one thing.
But once he set his mind upon finding him, there was no reason he should fail to do so. So Shin Hweein had thought.

“Most likely he divined by lot where the young master would appear. Hence Lt. General Yun, too, must have twisted the contents of the trial to find the young master.”

“And I, very obligingly, walked right into the snare.”

“He found the young master because he was certain the young master was among the examinees. How could you not have been caught?”

In the end, every one of the things he had been worrying about had come to pass, exactly so.

But perhaps because the Shin House had not at once burst in to seize him, Shin Hweein’s heart was at peace.
If anything, he felt even a small joy in it.

At the thought that his father had not forgotten him, the lingering attachment that remained in him, even after enduring such grievous treatment and being disowned, answered.

“At the least, the worry of being seized at this moment may be set aside. Though of course, should Shin Uin come to know of it, that is another tale entirely.”

So said Geum Moa to Shin Hweein, who had been sighing and chiding himself for his folly.

Shin Hweein shook his head.

“How can I be at ease, or grow comfortable, when I know not my father’s mind? The plan does not change. I shall grow as swiftly as I may and reach First Rank. By that time, even were my identity to come to light, it would be no matter.”

“Hu-fu, those are right words indeed. Ah, then. When shall you open the wine? This evening?”

“The wine? …Surely you do not mean the gift my father sent…”

A faint smile curled at the corner of Shin Hweein’s mouth.

Since the coming-of-age rite he had been living such a busy life, and had passed through so many incidents bound up with his past life, that he had even felt a flicker of unease, a fear that by some imperceptible degree he had come to differ greatly from his former self.

But on receiving the gift his father had sent, the memories of his childhood rose up all at once, and a sense of relief came over him.

He, himself, was here unchanged.
Though many things might change, there was, beyond question, a center within him that did not.

“Yes. And it is wine whose spiritual power is considerable. The medicinal virtue of it will easily outstrip any spiritual elixir to be had on the open market. …Of course, you will drink it with me alone, will you not?”

Great yokai though she was, she could hardly be so importunate over a mere spiritual elixir.
Rather, it seemed she coveted the drinking-party with Shin Hweein himself.
Geum Moa was applying her subtle pressure, but Shin Hweein quietly shook his head.

“I am sorry. I have a prior engagement.”

“What? Don’t tell me that man has used this gift as a pretext to summon the young master out! If that is so, I shall not stand idly by. Be it the head of the Shin House or the strongest sorcerer in Aeshin, should he fall into my hands—”

“It is not father.”

Shin Hweein, having calmed her excitement in a bitter voice, went on in a quietly settled tone.

“When I came of age, I had promised that my first cup of wine I would share with my mother.”

“…That is.”

In a small voice Geum Moa replied that she, too, remembered, and, as though she had no face to offer him, she let her head drop.

Then in a near-dying voice she asked.

“Do you, perchance, resent me? In that lady’s death, it may be that some share of the fault was mine…”

“Resent. Of course I do. How could I not resent? Had my body been a sound one, unburdened with curse, perhaps Mother, too, would not have departed so early.”

“Ugh—”

At the sight of Geum Moa letting her shoulders sink with a wounded look, Shin Hweein laughed softly and added.

“But what is to be done, when I am even fonder of you than that? You said the same of me, so you must well understand?”

“Y-yes.”

Lest, with even the slightest delay, his words should somehow change, Geum Moa nodded desperately and added in haste what came after.

“But, beyond question, I, I am fonder of the young master by far, far more than the young master is fond of me.”

“Then I must ask one slightly cowardly favor of you, who say you are so very fond of me.”

“This once, only, leave it to me without a word. Apart, entirely, from the Three-Year Pact.”

With a single tear poised on her face, she made her declaration.

“For I shall see to it that you may enter the Shin family burial-grounds, where Her Ladyship’s grave lies, and depart again, without a soul the wiser.”

“Yes. Then I shall entrust it to you this once.”

When would be the best time?

Once this present affair was settled, ties with Zone 1 would naturally form, and at that point, choosing an auspicious day and moving would be best.

Pick well a day on which the Shin House was hosting some event of its own, and not a single soul would set foot in the outer pavilion.

“I had forgotten that we were going to Do Yumi. We must make haste, before the doryeong weeps.”

“Tch.”

To judge by her clicking her tongue, she had perhaps wished he would simply let Do Yumi be as things were.
But think on it as he might, that was beyond reason.

He shook his head from side to side, gathered the still-sulking Flame-tail once more into his arms to soothe him, and stepped out of the hotel.

“Do not refuse so. Let us bring her to our House. We are gathering and treating the patients even now. In the near future we can surely have her cured.”

“As I have said any number of times, we are well. It is not that I do not trust you, Lt. Colonel Yun. It is only that there is one to whom I have made a separate request.”

“If you mean that man Shin Hae from the other day, however gifted he may be, he is still but a Third-Rank—”

“Ah, Brother! You have come!”

Drawing near to the Myeongdong Cathedral in Zone 1, he could see Yun Jubaek, who had come accompanied by the Yun House’s servants, locked in a wrangle with Father Lucas.

Whether or not it was because he answered directly to the general, the man was nominally part of a military unit, was he not? Could one truly come and go so freely? Shin Hweein wondered for but a moment.

Then, lightly greeting the two who recognized him, Shin Hweein drew closer and spoke bluntly.

“I have found a method.”

“What?!”

“As I thought! Brother!”

Yun Jubaek and Father Lucas, eyes flying wide at the same instant, raised exclamations of opposite import.

Behind them, Sister Barbara was still glaring at him with displeasure.

Seeing her, Shin Hweein smiled brightly, raised his middle finger to her in greeting, and said:

“Show me to the patient. What I shall do from this moment on, watch you well, and make it known to all the world.”

That a wielder of power had appeared who could heal those fallen into narcolepsy.

That one had appeared who could lay hold of the heaven-defying criminal hiding behind this uproar.