The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 56

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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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56

Kim Je-eon felt a flutter of unease, yet he didn’t hesitate any longer. He opened the door.
“…….”
But contrary to his suspicion, nothing happened after the entrance door swung open. There had been no one knocking on it in the first place.
“Jo Jae-un?”
Kim Je-eon stepped outside into the Entrance Hall, scanning the surroundings as he called for him. The person who had just knocked—where on earth had he vanished to?
Even if he’d imagined the sound, it would be strange. Hee-seo had heard it too, hadn’t she? The knocking that Jo Jae-un made—they’d both heard it together.
Kim Je-eon ventured into the Courtyard and examined the area, but there was no sign of a car arriving at the parking lot.
In that instant, something spine-chilling swept down his back. The sensation was too dizzying to put into words.
“…….”
The feeling of a predator baring its fangs behind him, marking him as prey. His feet were rooted to the ground, unable to move an inch, and cold sweat broke across his forehead in seconds.
Kim Je-eon realized that the aura making his skin crawl was flowing from the Estate itself.
He had to run. The instinct to survive screamed it. Something incomprehensible was stalking him from behind.
“Hee-seo.”
But Hee-seo was still inside the Estate. She had chased after a sound he couldn’t hear, descending into the basement. Only she could protect herself down there. She always had.
‘I know I’m a burden to you, but still—’
Because he lacked her gift, he couldn’t fight alongside her. He couldn’t lighten her burden or share her suffering.
But there was one thing Kim Je-eon could do.
‘If I can take the wounds that would fall on you, that’s enough.’
He couldn’t stop everything that happened to her, but he had flesh and blood that could be offered in her stead.
His own body—a body he’d never truly considered his own until now. And now Kim Je-eon could offer it to her without hesitation.
He clenched his teeth and slowly turned back toward the Estate.
The familiar form of the mansion where he’d lived his whole life came into view. And above it, that nightmare-like ‘thing’ taking shape.
Kim Je-eon’s eyes burned red as he faced the merciless terror.

***

Waa, waa, wuh, waaah……
The crying was definitely coming from the basement. As Hee-seo descended the stairs, the sound grew louder. She could have completely silenced it by swinging the Sambul Seon, but finding the source came first.
In the corridor that split into two paths, Hee-seo paused. Since it wasn’t a physical sound, tracing its direction was difficult.
As she surveyed both the right and left passages, Hee-seo focused her mind. There was one sure way when lost like this.
She abruptly pulled off her shoe and tossed it into the air. The toe of the fallen shoe pointed down one corridor.
Satisfied, Hee-seo slipped the shoe back on and gripped the Sambul Seon firmly before moving forward. As she walked, the corridor sensors flickered, illuminating her path.
“A baby’s cry like that would mean a Fetal Spirit. But what would a Fetal Spirit be doing in a place like this?”
A Fetal Spirit was the soul of the deceased—a child who had died in its mother’s womb before being born. The spirits of Fetal Spirits and young children were as pure as beasts; most vanished at the moment of death, but occasionally they remained in this world.
‘I didn’t see anyone like that among the staff.’
She’d spent some time mimicking the estate’s mistress, so she’d grown familiar with all the employees who commuted to the Estate. None of them bore the look of someone harboring resentment over a child they couldn’t bring into the world.
“But you can never know what’s in someone’s heart…… Tsk. Little one, where are you? Little one?”
As the old saying went, you might understand the depths of ten fathoms of water, but not a single fathom of the human heart.
Hee-seo walked through the corridor, calling out for the child. If her hunch was right and it was indeed a Fetal Spirit, it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to handle, so her tension eased.
Even after combing through the right corridor, she sensed neither suspicious presence nor any sign of life—only a few cardboard boxes stacked like provisions, nothing else.
Hee-seo began walking toward the opposite passage. According to her memory, at the end of the left corridor stood a room locked with a Padlock. Could the sound be coming from in there?
As she moved quickly down the corridor, the crying continued unabated. The constant wailing was giving her a headache.
“Little one. Baby, where are you? Come with me. We should go somewhere nice. Come on, little one.”
Hee-seo’s voice had softened, uncharacteristically gentle.
Fetal Spirits were among the few ghosts Hee-seo pitied. Unfortunate things abandoned by human greed and obsession.
Hee-seo finally reached the end of the corridor. There stood the room, still locked with the Padlock, greeting her just as before. When she gripped and shook the lock, it held firm, unchanged from last time.
‘Could the sound be coming from inside here?’
Even now, it was hard to pinpoint the direction of the crying. The sound simply echoed uniformly from everywhere in the basement.
Hee-seo pressed her ear to the steel door, trying to sense what lay beyond. But through that barrier, she felt nothing.
“What the hell.”
It could be a Stray Ghost instead. Stray Ghosts took on far more forms than one might imagine. Among those Hee-seo had encountered was one convinced it was Jesus, dangling from a cross. This might be no different.
Hee-seo folded the Sambul Seon and tucked it into her back pocket, then heaved a long sigh. She felt deflated. She shouldn’t have left Kim Je-eon alone upstairs, she thought.
It was then that someone called to her.
“Language.”
“……?”
It was a voice she knew all too well. Hee-seo turned slowly, her expression going blank with shock.
What are you doing here?
“Hae-jeong.”
“Hee-seo.”
“Hae-jeong, how on earth did you get in here?”
Hee-seo’s eyes widened and she rushed forward with quick strides.
Hae-jeong, the stepdaughter of Somyeong Seonnyeo and raised as Hee-seo’s own sister, stood in the Corridor. Bewilderment and relief tangled together, leaving Hee-seo momentarily speechless.
“I came in following Mother. She’s at Chairman Kim’s house right now.”
“What?”
But at Hae-jeong’s cautious admission, Hee-seo’s face darkened at once. Somyeong Seonnyeo was at Kim Jong-hyeop’s Estate?
“Mother is at Chairman Kim’s—at Kim Jong-hyeop’s house? Why?”
“Hee-seo, just listen to me first.”
“No, wait. Why is Mother at that old man’s house? What is she planning?”
Hee-seo pressed Hae-jeong, but the answer was predictable.
Somyeong Seonnyeo had surely stayed by Kim Jong-hyeop’s side under the pretext of driving out the entity that inhabited Kim Je-eon’s body.
The very scenario Hee-seo had dreaded was unfolding before her. She ground her teeth and turned back to Hae-jeong with rising alarm.
“Is Mother scheming something under the guise of Kim Je-eon? That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Hee-seo, just wait—”
“Tell me everything you know, Hae-jeong. Now.”
“Hee-seo.”
“No, never mind. Come with me upstairs. Once we’re up there—”
Hee-seo seized Hae-jeong’s hand and led the way forward. If what Hae-jeong said was true, she needed to consult with Je-eon.
Just as Hee-seo pulled Hae-jeong’s hand, a piercing scream tore through the air and Hae-jeong cried out.
“Hee-seo-ooooo!!!”
Crack, crack! Crack!
With Hae-jeong’s scream, every sensor light erupted in a cacophony of noise and burst apart in a shower of sparks. A violent wind swept through the Corridor as if a tempest had erupted from nowhere. Hee-seo, startled, pulled Hae-jeong toward her and tried to crouch, but instead stumbled backward in shock.
Where Hae-jeong had been standing, only a White Cardigan remained.

***

It was an unexpected commotion in the dead of night. Kim Jong-hyeop rose without bothering to hide his irritation.
His bedtime was earlier than most, and so too was the hour when silence settled over the Estate.
“Tsk…….”
He glanced at the wall clock and saw it was already past two in the morning. With a body as heavy as waterlogged cotton, Kim Jong-hyeop sat propped against the headboard, breathing quietly.
If it was a trivial disturbance, it would settle soon enough. And if not, someone would come knocking at his door.
But events unfolded differently than Kim Jong-hyeop expected. The commotion only grew louder, now audible even beyond his door.
He heard someone shouting and straining, then came a loud crash as something shattered and broke.
“Ahhh!”
Thud, bang!

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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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