1440 - Chapter 51

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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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Chapter 51
Why Kim Taegon, a physician, had gone to the scene directly with the ambulance crew remained unclear. Yet within the Fire-mirror, Kim Taegon stood vacant-eyed, staring at the Reservoir. Far out on the water, something round like a stone bobbed gently.
“This is the Mansin, Yeonsu, whom I mentioned.”
“Ah, yes… that is… Hmm. Ah-hm….”
“May the deceased find peace.”
Yeonsu bowed with quiet reverence. The family’s weeping deepened. Within their sobs lay disbelief—eyes that couldn’t quite accept it. Such a young person as a Mansin? The doubt was understandable enough.
While O Sanghyung soothed the mourners, Yeonsu stepped into the Mortuary. There stood the Embalmer, his face creased with profound bewilderment.
“This way, please.”
Yeonsu followed where the Embalmer led. There lay Kim Taegon’s body.
……
A corpse frozen with eyes and mouth gaping wide.
Shock. No other word seemed adequate to capture what Kim Taegon’s face expressed.
Kim Taegon lay dead, his countenance twisted with terror so profound it might have triggered convulsions. The pallid, lifeless skin of the corpse, the blue lips, the dull glaze in his eyes—all conspired to make that face grotesque beyond measure.
The Embalmer appeared seasoned. It was the kind of corpse that would send most people screaming in flight, yet he merely exhaled a small, regretful sigh.
“But that’s not all that’s strange.”
The Embalmer attempted to close the deceased’s eyes himself. Yet no matter how much force he applied, pressing down on the eyelids, they would not close. The gaping mouth refused equally.
The Embalmer, who had begun to sigh, quickly caught his breath and explained.
“Rigor mortis should have released by now. In fact, all the other joints in the deceased move freely. But only the eyes and mouth…”
Yeonsu gazed down at Kim Taegon’s face for a moment. Then, closing her eyes tightly, she offered a prayer for the deceased.
The family watched as Yeonsu stood in quiet meditation.
Moments later, Yeonsu opened her eyes and lifted her joined hands from their prayerful position, placing them gently above the corpse’s face. As she drew her hand downward, the eyes that had remained wide and unblinking began to close slowly.
“Oh, oh, Taegon, my Taegon—!”
“Mom… Mom…!”
Kim Taegon’s mother, among the chief mourners, felt her legs give way and she sank to the floor. The renewed wailing of the family had shed some of its earlier dread, replaced now by a fragile relief.
Yeonsu gently closed the deceased’s gaping mouth as well, then offered her condolences once more. The family, witnessing Kim Taegon’s grotesque, rigid visage finally soften into something peaceful, wept openly.
“Thank you, Mansin. Thank you so much.”
Now believing that Yeonsu was indeed a skilled Mudang, the family expressed their gratitude repeatedly. They clung to one another, weeping as Kim Taegon’s remains were returned to the storage vault.
49
Yeonsu turned from that scene and left the Mortuary. She drew the First Chief Mourner—the most resolute-looking among the family—aside for a private word.
“Do you know where the Reservoir is, where Kim Taegon died?”
The First Chief Mourner immediately named the place, adding that it lay in such a remote area that few people ventured there. The family seemed equally uncertain as to why Kim Taegon had been called out with the ambulance crew that day.
“We must go to that place. Kim Taegon’s spirit is not here. This was done by a Water Death Spirit, and his soul is likely bound there.”
She said “likely,” but she knew with absolute certainty.
This suffocating reek of water and rot—it was the signal sent by the deceased’s spirit, buried deep within the Reservoir, calling out for her aid. It was also the Water Death Spirit’s territorial mark.
***
Yeonsu loaded all the implements she would need into O Sanghyung’s large van, and they set out together.
The destination lay just beyond Hongcheon, not far—yet according to the family’s description, it sat deep within the forest, so remote that the vehicle could barely navigate the approach.
The malevolent spiritual energy was so oppressive that upon arrival, both Yeonsu and Sanghyung—who possessed almost no spiritual sensitivity—found themselves shivering in the sudden cold.
Sanghyung, his large frame trembling noticeably, clenched his teeth and muttered.
“Damn it… who the hell fishes in a place like this? This is crazy.”
The patient mentioned in the Fire-mirror—the one Kim Taegon had gone to check on—had fallen into the water while fishing here.
—I figured it’d be nice to fish somewhere quiet since nobody comes here. It was definitely quiet, but there weren’t any bites. Like there wasn’t a living fish in the water at all. … But I still can’t remember why I ended up in the water. The last thing I remember is sitting in my chair, yawning, thinking I should get up and make some ramen. After that, nothing.
Yeonsu retraced the patient’s testimony as she walked toward the water’s edge.
“No wonder there were no bites. The only things alive here are these trees, rooted deeper than the water itself.”
Deep in the forest, yet twisted unnaturally—as if buffeted by sea wind—the trees stood gnarled and deformed. They encircled the dark, murky Reservoir like a protective embrace.
Thump, thump.
The Reservoir’s surface rippled slowly in the breeze. Upon that surface floated a single, round stone.
Thump, thump.
A stone mottled with black and white. Yeonsu turned her gaze away from it and began her preparations for the Nakhgeoti.
She must not look upon it. The moment her eyes engaged with it in curiosity, she would be entranced.
Yeonsu and Sanghyung set up a small altar at the spot where Taegon had last stood. Deokwoo, arriving late, unpacked the Janggu Drum and took her seat.
“You know, if you’re going to keep working with us, maybe you should start learning an instrument.”
Deokwoo, summoned all the way from Seoul to Hongcheon on short notice, bantered playfully with Sanghyung. He responded as though genuinely considering it, arranging the Folding Screen behind the altar.
“All of you—don’t look at the Reservoir. Not once.”
“Got it.”
At Yeonsu’s warning, Deokwoo and Sanghyung bowed their heads to the ground.
Dressed in her Formal Attire with a Hemp Rope Sash tied around her waist and a Ritual Hat upon her head, Yeonsu emerged from behind the van carrying a lidded brass bowl in her hands.
The brass bowl was bound with a long hemp sash. Yeonsu hurled it into the water with a splash.
“Spirit, Taegon. I call upon the spirit of Kim Taegon.”
Yeonsu began her song. Accompanied only by the spare rhythm of Deokwoo’s Janggu Drum, her incantation rose mournfully into the silent, desolate Reservoir.
“Shed the shadow of this life and follow me. Take the hand that calls you and cross the threshold into the spirit realm.”
Yeonsu finished the brief incantation and slowly drew the end of the hemp rope sash she’d been holding. The brass bowl tied to its end emerged from the water. Despite the lid being sealed tight, it spilled forth a belly-full of murky, algae-choked water.
She hadn’t expected it to work on the first attempt. Yeonsu felt no disappointment. She bound the bowl again and hurled it back into the Reservoir. The rice bowl with its white rope sash traced a long arc through the air before plunging into the water with a splash.
The Nakhgeoti continued for some time. How many times she repeated the motion, she couldn’t say. Yeonsu’s throat had grown raw, and Deokwoo’s janggu drum was losing its vigor with each strike. Yet still the bowl came up, spewing nothing but heavy, filthy water.
The light had already faded. The Nakhgeoti that had begun before noon stretched on into the gathering dusk.
“…Young master. What if we return tomorrow? It’s grown far too dark.”
Sanghyung spoke, sensing instinctively the presence of dangerous things gathering in the shadows. Yeonsu nodded in agreement.
It was time to withdraw. In places where malevolent spiritual energy ran so thick, even lifeless things could overcome positive life energy before the midnight hour arrived.
Yeonsu glanced sidelong at the Reservoir. The stone that had been floating seemed somehow closer.
Dangerous. But not yet.
Yeonsu, acting with an uncharacteristic stubbornness, bound the rice bowl to the rope sash fouled with algae and cast it once more into the water.

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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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