1440 - Chapter 29

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 29
“Whether it was one person using multiple methods or several people working together isn’t entirely clear yet, but if a single person performed multiple types of Yangbap, they’d have to be someone with exceptionally high spiritual power. It’d be impossible for an ordinary person.”
So the suggestion was to focus more on the possibility that multiple people were involved.
While the manager worked to calm So-yeon, Yeonsu and Deok-woo searched the house thoroughly. Fortunately, it seemed the only curse object they’d found inside was the pouch they’d just discovered.
Yeonsu fortified the house with talismans he’d made himself. He was especially careful to purify and protect So-yeon’s bedroom where she slept. He arranged thick, pristine salt around all four corners and hung the curtains to let sunlight stream in. It was all meant to channel the sun’s yang energy.
He had to be careful that nothing malevolent would enter a room filled with yang energy. Yeonsu explained the precautions to So-yeon.
“For the next two or three days, don’t open any windows or doors. Don’t ventilate the room, and only open the front door briefly when you need to come and go—then close it right away.”
Normally he would have advised the opposite, but So-yeon’s situation was different. Yeonsu instructed her to keep the curtains open so the sun could come in, then gathered his things.
“…Is that enough?”
At So-yeon’s anxious question, Yeonsu shook his head bitterly.
“Don’t bring anything new into the house—clothes, anything. And don’t let anyone visit.”
The manager seemed to choke up a little at that, but So-yeon patted his shoulder to stop him. Yeonsu continued regardless of the manager’s reaction.
“We’re buying time. Temporarily, while I work to find the source of the curse.”
Yeonsu gave both So-yeon and her manager Junho a Hobu Talisman each—a protective amulet said to ward off calamity—then left the house. Deok-woo, who followed him out, climbed into Yeonsu’s car and asked.
“Think you can find it?”
Yeonsu touched the curse object in his pocket and sighed.
“Hard to say. The residual energy is so faint. So-yeon seems to be in a very anxious state right now. The fact that she’s rattled so badly by such minor Yangbap tells you something.”
“I’ve never seen my sister look so fragile before.”
Deok-woo gazed up at the building, his eyes full of worry.
He wanted nothing more than to go back up, but the truth was he couldn’t do anything more. In spiritual power and its application, Yeonsu was far superior to him.
If Yeonsu said there was nothing more to do, then there was nothing more to do.
“We should probably check the Theater too. If you’re with me, can we get into places like the waiting room?”
At Yeonsu’s question, Deok-woo let out a relieved breath.
“If you need it, I’ll do whatever it takes. Let’s find a way in.”
He pulled out his phone and checked the Theater’s schedule. He didn’t forget to contact the manager to arrange some pretext for getting into the Theater.
Yeonsu looked up at So-yeon’s apartment for a moment, then turned the car around. It seemed like another one of those cases where he’d have to run around in every direction.
28
Once at the Theater, Yeonsu uncovered curse objects hidden in the waiting room and near the stage. They too were buried deep enough that they would have been nearly impossible to find, but they couldn’t escape the eyes of someone who could read spiritual aura.
The curse object found near the stage in particular radiated strong malice. While the Yangbap might have been performed by a single person, the malice embedded in this curse was beyond what one or two people’s resentment could achieve.
Where on earth had she earned such intense, collective hatred?
Puzzling over this, Yeonsu had just returned to the Annex when a man, sensing his presence, opened the door himself for the first time and stepped outside.
He walked out lightly, pleased that Yeonsu had returned, but his expression hardened the moment he saw Yeonsu’s face. He’d immediately sensed the malevolent energy surrounding Yeonsu.
Alarmed, the man rushed over without hesitation and pulled Yeonsu into an embrace. It was Yeonsu who was flustered by the man suddenly clinging to him.
“Ah—!”
His face flushing, Yeonsu held his arms awkwardly at his sides as he looked down at the man. Regardless of Yeonsu’s confusion, the man used both hands to brush urgently at Yeonsu’s body, touching his bare wrists, the backs of his hands, his face—trying to wipe away whatever contamination clung to him.
Only then did Yeonsu understand why the man had embraced him. He laughed awkwardly and slowly peeled himself away.
“That’s… not what you think it is.”
Even as Yeonsu spoke, the man didn’t remove his hands from Yeonsu’s cheeks. His eyes, cradling Yeonsu’s face and looking up at him, seemed scrunched as if scolding him for lying.
“Ha.”
With his face held by the man, Yeonsu reached into his shirt and pulled out the curse object. The moment its sinister aura flared into the open, the man’s eyes finally left Yeonsu and fixed on the object.
Seeing the dark, malevolent energy pour from the curse object, the man slowly released Yeonsu’s cheeks.
“It’s coming from that. I’m fine.”
With his explanation, Yeonsu tossed the pouch into a brass bowl.
The man thought it was a relief. Yet apart from that thought, something didn’t quite make sense.
He’d been told that Baek Yeonsu was the second son of this household, that he’d returned to inherit the family’s work—but every time Yeonsu came back after finishing a task, there was no trace of that worn, depleted energy about him.
Of course, he didn’t wish for Yeonsu to come back bearing such spiritual scars. So it was a relief, but…
The man exhaled in relief and let his arms fall. The tension drained from his startled body. Yeonsu, watching him, smiled gently as if to reassure him.
“Were you very worried? You startled me with that sudden embrace.”
As Yeonsu spoke of being held in the man’s arms, his cheeks flushed—and the man, feeling as though he’d done something terrible, felt heat bloom in his own cheeks as well.
The man pretended not to notice and drew Yeonsu’s hand toward him, opening his palm. Then, with his finger, he traced a character across it—slowly, deliberately.
Prohibition.
As one who had received divine blessing, he must not do things that would anger his Body Guardian Deities.
No matter that no spiritual contamination clung to him—this was the Baek Family’s work. The man’s heart grew heavy with the thought that Yeonsu was taking on the family’s filthy deeds.
Just looking at Yin-eum and Yeon-hyeong, one could gauge the magnitude of backlash curses and accumulated resentments they bore. Even though his own body rarely showed outward wounds, when he saw them weeping with such open sores, he could imagine just how vile the spiritual contamination they carried truly was.
He wished Yeonsu would never have to experience such things. And if he did, then he wanted—desperately—to be the one to purify him. Even if the pain transferred to him, even if he suffered, it was far better for him to bear it than for Yeonsu to endure it. He could be healed.
Meanwhile, Yeonsu, despite the character having no small number of strokes, managed to read it—and internally marveled that the man could write Chinese characters.
He wasn’t simple-minded.
Relief mingled with a deep ache. A man capable of expressing his will with such precision, yet confined to this narrow Annex room, spending countless unmeasurable hours alone.
“The sky was overcast today and the moon wasn’t visible. What were you doing in here?”
As Yeonsu asked this, he didn’t pull his hand away—instead drawing closer. The man, who had been trying to point at something in the room, froze. Then he stepped toward Yeonsu and leaned his face close to Yeonsu’s shoulder.
“……?”
As the man drew closer, Yeonsu’s face flushed again, and he froze, unsure what to do. The man, oblivious to his discomfort, inhaled deeply—sniff, sniff—testing the air.
The scent of freshly laundered cloth. That warm, sun-dried fragrance of fabric was no different from Yeonsu’s usual scent. But mingled with it was something sweeter—the smell of fruit.
“……?”
Sniff, sniff. After breathing in again, he realized it was the kind of fragrance that Yeon-hyeong used, or the young hired hands who came by occasionally—a fragrance pouch, the sort people filled with aromatic materials and carried as a substitute for perfume in times before bottled scent existed. And he understood then that it was a fragrance favored by women.
The man took a step back. He had approached suddenly, then withdrawn just as quickly, and Yeonsu tilted his head, trying to meet his gaze. But the man bowed his head deeply, refusing to let their eyes meet.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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