Chapter 13 — The Price That Must Not Be Forgotten (4)

Shin Hweein stepped out through a Specter Realm gate set in a little-known alley of Zone 3 of the Capital, and the instant his foot touched the ground, the change struck him afresh.

“While I was in Hwa-guk I was too on edge to notice it… but yes, this Aeshin soil is comfortable, certainly.”
“From the moment a true-born heir of the Shin House is born, blessings of every kind are layered upon him, and on top of those, blessings carried over from a past life. Of course it would feel different, young master.”
“Heh. Why is it you keep skipping over the part about curses carried over from a past life?”
“Because those followed you all the way to Hwa-guk too. In fact, you added one more over there.”

Which was to say the longer he stayed in Hwa-guk, the worse off he was.

Geum Moa fixed him with wide, righteous eyes, as if to ask am I wrong.
Shin Hweein met her gaze with a wry smile and nodded easily.

“Right, right, Moa, you’ve a point, I did see my share of danger. Still, did we not come away with no small harvest? The sorcery for crossing between countries by way of the Specter Realm gates, for one.”
“That part is true, but still…”
“Ah, so just now, that was the same technique? It was so much quicker and steadier I’d quite assumed it was a power you’d commanded all along.”

Leon had slipped through the gate ahead of the group to check the surroundings, and now, just returned, he oiled this in shamelessly.
Shin Hweein could not help but huff out a small laugh.

He’d suspected as much from the moment he watched Makoto handle it, but the Onmyo Bureau’s country-crossing sorcery had a fearsomely good affinity with the Gatekeeper’s Brand.
It was almost as if the spell had been designed from the ground up on the assumption that whoever cast it would already bear the Gatekeeper’s Brand.
If he refined the sorcery to its limit, he half-suspected he might open a Specter Realm gate and, in the same instant, generate a passage that let him step straight through to a gate in another country, on the far side.

Come to think of it, the Onmyo Bureau must be wrestling with this sorcery at considerable cost. The likeliest reason they handed it over so amiably to a sub-contractor’s sub-contractor like Guji Mochizuki is that they did not expect him to learn and command it in any short span of time. But that was where their reckoning went astray.

For although Makoto bore no Gatekeeper’s Brand, he was a shrine custodian who could wield, at least in part, the authority of Hotenshi-no-Kami, the god said to govern the gates of the Specter Realm.

And since, in Shin Hweein’s mind, the radicals were in the end still a faction within the Onmyo Bureau, the thought that Makoto had landed them a solid blow did not sit badly with him at all.

Hm?

He was thinking that, with the busy days ahead, he ought to drill the country-crossing sorcery further, and was checking how much spiritual power the spell had consumed, when he flinched.
Even standing perfectly still, his spiritual power was filling back up at startling speed.

All this time I’d been mistaking the state of my own spiritual power.

For the first time he understood: in Hwa-guk, both the absolute volume of his spiritual power and its recovery rate had been weakened.
He’d thought that even counting what he had taken from the Nine-Headed Dragon, he still had a touch to go before reaching the average for a Rank-2 Sorcerer.
Checking now, he’d passed that benchmark some time ago.

“From the Nine-Headed Dragon, too, I really did obtain a great deal.”
“Compared to how thoroughly that one betrayed us, this is still a light price. We ought to have stripped him of every last patch of his hide.”

If he had to guess at why the Nine-Headed Dragon in particular had had so great a price exacted from it by the Indulgence, the creature had been bound for ages, so its resistance was weak, and it had piled on curses stupidly, with no sense of discrimination, so the damage from the reversal had been correspondingly heavy.
Even so, that in only a month’s time the Indulgence had lifted his spiritual power, his, who a short while ago had not even been able to properly wield sorcery, all the way to the territory of a Rank-2 Sorcerer… on fresh consideration, the power of the Indulgence was terrifying.

The karma stacked upon the Indulgence at present… by re-sealing the Nine-Headed Dragon I gained another considerable share. Next time, surely, I must resolve this disease that grips my body.

Having finished his self-inspection, Shin Hweein let out a whew, lifted his head, and spoke.

“Come, let us return to the lodgings.”
“And, young master, what’s this talk of a ‘reaction paper’? I’m sensing a very ill omen from that word.”
“Do not sense ill omens in ordinary friendly relations.”
“Ah, so it was about that woman after all! No wonder it felt ill-omened to me!”

How was it that the instant he said “friendly relations,” she could work out at once that he meant Ham Seoyeon?
This time he’d exchanged contacts with Makoto as well; Father Lucas kept insisting on some mysterious family-bond claim; and Yun Jubaek, saying they ought to deepen their friendship going forward, had even gone so far as to register him as a friend on the messenger app.

“Grrrk, she’s really dangerous. They’re all dangerous, but that woman is especially dangerous…”
“Compared to a fox-of-flame, anyone would be an improvement. My lord, I’m rooting for you. Should you ever need a pointer on charming a woman, feel free to consult me anytime.”

— What nonsense are you spouting. As if this child were the sort to meet any woman. He’s a brat who’s got a long way to grow yet!

“Ah, I see. This is going to get a little complicated, isn’t it…”
“If it’s too complicated, would you like me to simplify it? I think removing your head from your neck would clear it up.”
“Heh. It’s a relief to see you all getting along so well.”

Shin Hweein ignored the three of them, who had at once raised their voices in protest at the remark, and set his staff in motion.
The night was already growing late; if he meant to finish watching the gut video and prepare his reaction paper, he had to hurry.

“…Haaah.”

To his amazement, it was not only Ham Seoyeon who came calling at his lodgings the next day.

“Big Sis Seoyeon, has something bad happened? You’re sighing a lot today.”
“Hm? Oh, it’s nothing, Myeongin. I’m just a little tired from yesterday’s gut, that’s all.”
“Right—! I really thought, what kind of spectacle is this, gathering a whole crowd of people just to watch a gut — but Big Sis, you really are a fantastic dancer! I was honestly bowled over, you know?”
“Ah, ahaha. Thanks.”

Shin Hweein had been seeing his younger half-sister so often that he was beginning to feel something almost like affection for her, and a sudden realization came to him.
So a younger sister, then, was the sort of creature whose face one grew fonder of through repeated meeting.
If so, then it also explained why he had disliked Shin Myeongin so all this while.

Wait. Then ought I not, from this point forward, avoid meeting this one? She doesn’t seem the kind of fellow I should grow particularly fond of…

Even as he turned the matter over in earnest, Shin Hweein ordered Leon to bring out tea for the two of them.
Thanks to Father Lucas having secured him a good room from the very start, he had at least enough space to receive guests.

“Hmm? This isn’t ordinary tea. How is a Rank-3 Sorcerer drinking tea like this? The more I see of you, the more suspicious you get.”
“Really. There’s a remarkable spiritual aura coming off the tea. And the fragrance is wonderful too… strangely familiar, somehow.”

Each of them received a cup, and their faces softened into smiles at the aroma rising from it.
Shin Hweein shrugged and lifted his own.

For reference, today, from the moment he greeted the two of them, he had used his transformation art to change his face back to the one he’d worn during the vampire-extermination operation.

“It’s tea-leaves I received from the shrine custodian I met yesterday, as thanks for helping him. He said the miko under his charge roasted the leaves herself, with her own spiritual power infused into them.”
“What— he didn’t give me any of that! Isn’t that guy weird? If he’s giving presents, of course he should give them to me — the pretty girl, any way you look at it — so why give them to you? He must be gay!”

The truth, of course, was that Makoto wasn’t bold enough to hand a present directly to a woman; and to begin with, the tea hadn’t come from Makoto at all, but from Mari, who had scraped together every last leaf in the shrine and pressed them into Shin Hweein’s arms.

“There are things only men can know between themselves. If you like them, I’ll set some aside for you.”
“That’s more like it!”
“M-Me too!”

Ham Seoyeon, who had abruptly raised her voice, blushed and ducked her head slightly under the weight of both their gazes.

“Sorry, the tea smells so good I think I got a bit overexcited.”
“I’m glad you like it. I’ll set some aside for you.”
“No, no, I’ve already been getting things from you all along, so taking this too is… ah.”
“…?”

Shin Myeongin tilted her head at the sight of Ham Seoyeon muttering to herself and then snapping her mouth shut, as if she’d caught herself slipping.
Shin Hweein gave a deliberately offhand snort and brushed it off with words it would do no harm for her to overhear.

“Such a fuss over a single private tutoring position. Just take them quietly.”
“Ah, oh, yes. Got it. Thank you.”
“Hmmmm…?”

Shin Myeongin, still wearing a half-convinced look, cocked her head at the two of them, and then suddenly thumped the table.

“You! So, what happened with Yun Juna! Has that woman contacted you since?”
“A text came this morning. Tomorrow, she says, let’s do some exercise.”

The expression on Shin Hweein’s face as he answered was, no doubt, in the process of going rotten.
No matter how he turned it over, he didn’t see how a little exercise was going to do anything for his body now.
But as Yun Juna had said, it was also true that he had never so much as tried it even once; so if he meant to deny her assertion, going along with her at least a few times was the proper course.
That was the only way to uphold his own principles.

“Right, exercise… Why is she helping you with your exercise, exactly?”
“Why else, why else! She’s trying to pull something funny, that’s why!”
“It is not her intent. She told me she received the order from Lt. General Yun Jinseong to approach me.”

The two women, in the same instant, wore expressions of utter incomprehension.

“No, but, pairing her own niece with someone who isn’t even from one of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses, even if she’s a branch-line… okay, look, I’ll admit you’ve got promise. Granting you that much for the sake of argument, why confess it in her own words?”
“Maybe she thought that since the intent’s already transparent, opening up about it would score her points for honesty? Still, it’s a bit strange. She seems the type who’s a little oblivious and says everything she wants to say.”
“Right, the whole ‘I just think being honest is best’ attitude is kind of unsightly. Really she’s just bad at mind-control and at managing her own expression.”

While the women rattled on among themselves, Shin Hweein took a sip of his tea and again marveled at the flavor and fragrance that cleared his chest so refreshingly.

“She says she can’t tell jokes, and she isn’t confident at hiding what she really thinks. So just by meeting with me, plainly and without pretense, she can satisfy the Lieutenant General, and on that account she’d like me to keep her company at exercise. How well someone with my lack of stamina can really keep up at that, I do not know, but…”
“R-right. That’s drier than I’d imagined. So, at that level… hmm.”
“What do you mean dry?! When you exercise together, your skin’s going to be touching all the time — dry, what dry, that’s well past moist and straight into completely soaking. And honestly, for a daughter of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses to shamelessly bare her skin in front of an outside man… that’s outright propositioning marriage!”

Shin Hweein and Ham Seoyeon turned to look at Shin Myeongin at the same time.
A way of thinking so astonishingly old-fashioned that it was like watching the elders of the Shin House themselves.
That struck a chord in Shin Hweein.

“Your words are truly correct. I shall tell her she must wear clothes that bare not even a sliver of skin while exercising. Without that as a precondition, I cannot exercise together with her at all. So I’ll say.”
“R-right! See, our hearts are finally aligning, aren’t they?”
“Hmm? …Hmm-mm?”

This time it was Ham Seoyeon who cocked her head.

“Then yesterday…”

Then, as if it had only just occurred to her, she put the question to him.
It was almost as if she were forcibly steering the topic somewhere else.

“You said you parted with Myeongin yesterday and were left alone with that Hwa-guk shrine official, right? What were you doing after that?”
“We only did a little information-exchange. After all, we just dealt with those so-called radicals from the Onmyo Bureau, so the more I learn about them, the better I can handle them if we end up opposing them again.”

But that hardly accounted for how long it had stretched on, and Ham Seoyeon remembered quite clearly that he had plainly not been in the Specter Realm when she’d phoned him.
The question rose to her face, whereupon Shin Hweein quickly added a supplementary explanation, mind-spoken so only she could hear.

— I cannot speak of it where Shin Myeongin is. Let us sit down, just the two of us, another time, and talk.
— Mm.
— And the reaction paper on the gut, then too.
— That was only a joke! …You actually prepared a reaction paper?
— Indeed. Was it in vain?
— No, no, no, no. I’m looking forward to it. Hugely.

Ham Seoyeon’s expression, which had been clouded all along, brightened noticeably.
And when the faintest smile rose to the corner of Shin Hweein’s mouth as well, Shin Myeongin, left out alone, narrowed her eyes.

“What was that, just now? Felt like some kind of look got passed between you two. Hey, you, I told you not to do anything weird to Big Sis.”
“After I went and gave you good tea, you go on spouting nonsense. Must I lecture you on what ‘friendship between companions’ means before you’ll be satisfied?”
“Ah, that’s right!”

At his words Shin Myeongin’s eyes flew open and she thumped the table once more.
The Confucian Dragon in Shin Hweein’s heart, that part of him so devoted to propriety, was just beginning to stir and open its eyes, when:

“We’re friends now, right? We’ve fought side by side a few times, talked plenty too. Our hearts match up, don’t they?”
“We… friends?”
“Of course! Let’s be friends, all right?”

What was she trying to lead into now, laying down all this groundwork?
That a younger sister would dare make friends of her elder brother was an offense for which a swift knuckle to the head would barely suffice; unhappily, the present situation did not allow him to reveal that fact.
Shin Hweein first emptied his cup to compose himself, then let out a light sigh and said to her:

“It is said that one does not do friendship. One becomes a friend. The judgment is yours. Once you’ve made your judgment, then say what you meant to say.”
“Then we’re friends.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Shin Myeongin cut the matter off, and, paying no heed to the two of them sitting there with their mouths agape, went on.

“My Big Brother says he wants to meet you a bit. Come over to our house.”
“I refuse.”

Fortunately, that he could answer at once.

“Oh, come on! I went and praised you to Big Brother no end, you know. I praised you so much that — maybe, just maybe — your ancestors might have a drop of Eight-Pure-Blood-House blood somewhere in them. Do you have any idea how ridiculous a compliment that is?”

While Shin Hweein, dumbfounded, could not even manage a reply, Ham Seoyeon pressed her aching forehead and, in a calm voice, counseled her.

“Myeongin, do be careful that the words don’t reach the ears of any of the other Eight Pure-Blood House people…”

The Eight Pure-Blood Houses, even their branch lines, managed their bloodlines with the utmost rigor and vetted marriage partners just as rigorously.
One had to live always in places under the eyes of the family, without exception.
Had Shin Hweein himself been formally disowned in the proper sense, he too would have had to live under the family’s surveillance from then on.

Even just looking at the way the family that openly shoved me out to die now goes through the motions of “searching” for me — that’s all the proof of it one needs.

For someone with no record at all to suddenly turn up bearing the blood of the Eight Pure-Blood Houses would mean either that some member of the Houses had done something illicit, or that they had, in secret from the family, kept a separate husband or wife on the side.

“I’m grateful for the compliment, but I have no intention of getting any further entangled with the Eight Pure-Blood Houses.”
“What nonsense is that. Then what about Yun Juna?”
“That one… if I just keep her company a few times, she’ll likely tire of it on her own and fall away by herself…”
“Oh, I don’t know! You’ll get close to the Yun House, but it’s no good with the Shin House?! Meet my Big Brother, meet him, meeeet hiiim!”

He couldn’t very well just smack her one, either.
Could it really be that some grudge still lingered from their first meeting, and she had been lying in wait for the perfect, unexpected moment to stab him in the back of the head like this?
If so, then he could only acknowledge her cunning…!

“My Big Brother’s been getting weirder and weirder lately. I have no idea why he’s burning up so much over the search for my elder brother! Like, since when did he cherish his little brother so dreadfully? Honestly, what a joke.”
“And?”
“I went on praising you a little too much, you see? Said you were a fine talent, that bringing you into the Shin House would be a good thing. And then he said, if you really were a capable sorcerer, perhaps you could be of use in the search for our elder brother…”

This was the worst.
In a single moment every shred of affection he had built up for Shin Myeongin took flight.
Of course, Shin Myeongin hadn’t done this out of any ill will.
If he kept meeting with her, eventually something like this was bound to happen.
But why did it have to be in such a tearing hurry!

— Hehe, you had a presentiment of this too, didn’t you, young master? Your handling was far too soft. Perhaps because you were dealing with your little sister.
— I was going to… I was going to put precautions in place. But I never expected it this quickly.

He had only just barely begun to prepare to qualify as a Rank-2 Sorcerer.
The gap between him and Shin Uin was still immense.
Considering his little mother and the Shin House resources she could mobilize, it was vaster still.

“Really not?”
“Really not. Especially if it’s to charge me with finding the Shin direct heir. Just think for a moment. If I, on the spot, take on a task that the Shin successor himself has fixated on, and then fail, do you truly suppose the responsibility wouldn’t come back to land on me?”
“Well… I’d be working on it with you, so they couldn’t scold you, could they? And anyway, Big Brother’s the one asking the favor. Surely, if he has any decency, he wouldn’t do that.”

The one thing Shin Hweein could state with certainty was this.
Among not only the Shin House, but the Eight Pure-Blood Houses, and the Royal House too, every last person in power had no decency at all.

“Oh.”

Just then Shin Myeongin checked her phone and made a sour-sounding noise.

“Big Brother really must be in a hurry. He’s asking me if I’m meeting with you right now. And saying if I am, he wants to join us.”
“Do not, under any circumstances, answer that we are together.”
“Ugh… got it. Your face is scary.”

Shin Hweein rose from his seat at once, took the jacket Leon draped over his shoulders, and donned a mask.
Picking up his staff and finishing his preparations to leave, he turned back to the two of them and said:

“I’ll be very busy for the time being. You haven’t met me today. From tomorrow on, you won’t be meeting me either. Understood?”
“Ugh, sorry for talking about you without your permission… But do you really have to go that far to avoid him? My Big Brother isn’t a bad person.”
“He and I just don’t quite suit each other. I’m sorry.”
“Oh…”

Shin Hweein patted Shin Myeongin lightly on the shoulder.
The truth was, seeing her so dispirited, he had been about to ruffle her hair, and had only at the last moment come to his senses and redirected his hand.

“Then, my apologies, but let us call it here for today. We’ll talk later.”

— Young master, that man is coming straight to the hotel. The drive on him is fearsome.

In such an urgent moment, he half-wanted to give Geum Moa a knock too, for relaying the situation as though to tease him.
But honestly, her information was an immediate help.

“Shin Myeongin, it would seem your Big Brother is tracking your location.”
“Mm… what?!”
“Step outside and confirm it for yourself. I’ll be in touch later, so wait. Ham Seoyeon, as for you—”
“That bastard’s really crossing the line now—! Treating a grown lady like this!”

At that, Shin Myeongin cursed Shin Uin and bolted from the room.
Watching her go, Shin Hweein gave a small snort and was about to continue speaking to Ham Seoyeon when she abruptly seized his arm.

“Ham Seoyeon, what are you—”
“Where are you off to? I’m coming with you. It’s not as if I’m bound to the Shin House or anything.”
“No— but I’d planned to be in hiding for a while.”
“Sounds fun. Let’s do it, right now.”

Ham Seoyeon, giggling, tightened her grip on his arm.
Just how this had come about he wasn’t sure; but, deciding for now that getting clear of this place was the correct call, Shin Hweein gave her a nod.

“Then I’ll open it.”
“Open? Don’t tell me you—”
“A Specter Realm gate. A single-use one.”

To open a Specter Realm gate carelessly was, by rights, a serious crime.
But a Specter Realm gate that would close the very moment after it was opened ought to be fine.

“My handmaid says often, as a sort of motto, that if you aren’t found out it isn’t a crime.”
“Let’s fire that handmaid, hm? And also, making a fresh Specter Realm gate isn’t a trifling matter—”

Shin Hweein brought his hands together and revealed the Gatekeeper’s Brand.
This time, through his training with the sorcery related to the Specter Realm gates, his understanding of the Gatekeeper’s Brand had deepened too, and he had come to know more thoroughly how to make use of his own brand.

“You— on both of your hands—”
“Among humans, you are the first to learn of it. Keep the secret.”
“…Mm.”

The Specter Realm gate opened with surprising ease.
Leon and the other shikigami threw themselves through first to confirm it was safe.
As the two of them were about to follow, Geum Moa suddenly appeared behind them.

“Ham Seoyeon. I’ll acknowledge you as my enemy.”

And with that incomprehensible declaration, she shoved the two of them through the gate.