Subdued Soul Chronicle

From where the three brothers were standing, Seol Young’s expression wasn’t clear.

So they didn’t know why their youngest was frowning. Instead, they noticed something else.

“What is this?”

Song Ok reached out to something in the hem of Seol Young’s clothes. It was a string.

It had been cut off, leaving only the length of two fingers, and was dangling from his belt.

Seol Young only remembered it when he saw it.

“Ah, this…”

Zaha intercepted his words.

“What is this? Seol Young grabbed me and forcibly tied me up, saying he would not die alone by himself.”

“I never said anything like that.”

Seol Young refuted him by untying the knot.

“I had no choice but to tie it for our safety.”

“The High Governor is just joking, you don’t need to react like this.”

Baek Eon smiled.

“But you had to secure yourselves by tying each other with a string. What was inside?”

“You cannot even look at it now. There is nothing there anymore.”

“I see.”

Bae Eon headed for the hole and then came back.

“Well, according to the Governor, the two of you took the risk to investigate something very important. Did you get what you were looking for?”

Although they didn’t say it out loud, all three of them were looking at them with expectant eyes.

‘Did you find the evidence that can allow you to come back to the White Tiger Troops?’

They were missing for a day, so they thought they had achieved something good.

‘Maybe.’

Seol Young felt the presence of a small piece of bone in his arms.

After being falsely accused of being a coward, it seemed like he was constantly grabbing things in the fog….

They were appearing now.

“Wait and see. First, I need to talk with the Governor.”

Zaha spoke instead.

“We will head to the office first. Baek Eon-rang will bring all the leaders there.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Together, they climbed over the pit.

The Black Tortoise Troops dug up the ground and the tomb where Seool Young had lived completely disappeared.

Only the remains of stone fragments were piled up on one side, revealing that there once was a tomb there.

Zaha looked at that, and said,

“That, Seol Young-rang. What would you do now that your home is broken?”

“It is fine. It is a hundred times better than dying in a grave with a person who doesn’t stop talking.”

While talking to each other, they walked to the Black Tortoise Hwarangs.

Zaha clicked his tongue as he saw them covered in dust.

“You people have been through a lot.”

“No.”

Mu Won shook his head.

“I am just glad that I could be of help. Then go and rest. I will clean up this scene and return.”

Baek Eon approached him.

“Mu Won-rang, the High Governor seemed to plan on working right away again. He has asked for the leaders to gather at the office right away.”

The Hwarangs of the Black Tortoise heard that and said,

“Leader, please go. We will sort this all out.”

“I understand.”

Everyone scattered again.

Seol Young tried to turn around to the Black Tortoise Divine Troops and nodded.

He didn’t expect it, but several of them nodded back, and then an awkward moment passed.

“Then we will all call Seo Geom-rang and Hwa Un-rang.”

Baek-Song-Wol and Mu Won headed for the Blue Dragon Troops, and Seol Young headed for the Moon Palace with Zaha.

“High Governor! Seol Young-rang!”

“Where have you been?!”

As they received the news of their return, the Golden Wheel Troops went straight for the Hwarangs’ office.

“There is one thing I am very curious about right now…”

As soon as Zaha sat down on the chair, he asked Jin Rim questions.

“Do you remember the contents of the dream and the research I asked you?”

“Yes, I do.”

Jin Rim said,

“Isn’t my hobby studying history? I remember every single one of them.”

“Then you must have found and understood it right away. Right? How was it?”

“As I thought, you know my personality well.”

Jin Rim took out a piece of crumpled paper from his chest.

“Well, I was curious about it, so I took some time and looked for it while the Black Tortoise Troops were digging. I wondered if it was true to history. Then these things came out.”

He unfolded the paper.

“This is a record of the small nations in Gaya. And this is the meaning behind the character Goto, which various of their artifacts had.”

Everything matched what Jin Rim had been told in his dream. He looked at Zaha, who said,

“You mean those things actually existed in our history?”

“Yes, High Governor.”

Jin Rim nodded.

“There was a priest from the royal family of Gaya who claimed to be the descendant of the mountain God there, and small nations united and fought around that person. It is said that they were subdued overnight by the attack of the Silla army.”

As expected, the history was there.

Mita was one of the Gaya leaders who fought against Silla until the end.

But her story was buried in the darkness. Even though the ghosts continued to appear with the same name and cause chaos, no one recognized their true identity.

“….”

Seeing the two lost in thought, Jin Rim opened his mouth.

“Actually, it wasn’t a dream. I investigated the matter with the High Governor and Seol Young-rang in the dream, right?”

“We did.”

Zaha smiled wryly.

“It turned out that Jin Rim, the official in the ministry whom we met in the other world, turned out to be this Jin Rim. It seemed that only your soul flew there while you were sleeping.”

“Just how….”

Jin Rim looked confused.

“Where was it? Where were Seo Jun-rang, Woo Hyun, Seol Young-rang’s parents, and Baek San alive?”

“A world without the God of Cataclysm.”

Seol Young answered.

“The High Governor and I were in the archives and taken there. I guess that it was one of the three thousand worlds. But we aren’t entirely sure about that either. The two of us from the other world didn’t cross over here…”

“Stop. My head hurts.”

Zaha said,

“Let’s just think of it as a phantom dream of looking into another universe. Just like the way priests get their revelations.”

“Anyway, I get the feeling that these historical facts that we found are very important to us….”

Jin Rim spoke with a serious face.

“Whose tomb was the tomb that the Black Tortoise Troops brought out today?”

It was a confounding question. There was a brief silence.

Then Jin Rim’s expression changed for a moment.

“No…”

Seol Young could feel it in the silence. The evil spirit that was called the God of Cataclysm.

It struck fear into the world and spread everywhere. It had been kept a secret until now, but it seemed that the time had come for it to be revealed.

Zaha looked at Seol Young.

“Right. It is the tomb of the God of Cataclysm.”

“…”

Jin Rim was at a loss for words. He did expect it, but when he heard it, he still felt shocked.

“You found the grave.”

After saying those words, Jin Rim fell into silence.

Then someone’s light footsteps broke their silence.

“High Governor, all the leaders of the troops have gathered.”

Baek Eon said from the outside.

“Come in.”

Zaha said.

The door opened, and Baek Eon, Seo Geom, Mu Won, and Hwa Un entered.

The leaders greeted the High Governor and the Governor. Then they all sat down. Realizing how unusual the atmosphere was, Seo Geom spoke first,

“High Governor, where have you been for a day? I knew that you would return safely, but I was worried that you had left the kingdom again.”

“What kind of incident happened this time? It seems like you called us to tell us your story.”

Hwa Un also said that while fiddling with his fan. Meanwhile. Mu Won just stayed silent. Because he did the excavation, he knew a little.

But apparently, he didn’t say a word to them on the way here.

Baek Eon was the same. He just kept silent.

Zaha looked around at everyone and said,

“I guess we should talk about it from the start.”

“Yes, High Governor.”

“As everyone knows, there was this ominous revelation that came up while doing the ritual, which spoke about the peace of the kingdom, and supernatural calamities occurred. And there was a revelation that pointed to Seol Young-rang as the evil spirit…”

Wasn’t this too much at the beginning?

Such expressions were evident on the faces of the leaders. However, the words that followed immediately changed their expressions.

“During my investigation, I discovered some important secrets.”

It wasn’t normal for Zaha to speak so seriously, so everyone stared at him without even blinking.

“I thought that if the secret were revealed, it would have been a huge thing that would have a ripple effect not just to the Hwarang troops, but the entire nation would be affected, so I continued the investigation with Seol Young-rang without informing the Governor.”

Zaha continued.

“But now that I have found out some information to some extent, I think the time has come for a decision to be made, so I will reveal it.”

Then he turned to Seol Young.

“Seol Young-rang, speak.”

“Yes.”

Seol Young, who was there, stepped forward and said,

“The God of Cataclysm has resurrected.”

At that moment, everyone’s faces went stiff.

No matter how it was said, shock and dumbfoundedness were registered on their faces.

Weren’t Jin Rim, Baek Eon, Seo Geom, Mu Won, and Hwa Un all there when they experienced the disaster it brought eight years ago?

‘God of Cataclysm…’

With those words, all the nightmares they had buried in their heads resurfaced.

“…”

Everyone was shocked and couldn’t say a thing.

“Back… you mean…”

After a while, Seo Geom looked shocked.

“I am sorry.”

Zaha said,

“I thought we had gotten rid of it eight years ago, but I was wrong. I should have done better.”

Everyone was startled by that.

“What are you saying? Who doesn’t know that the High Governor alone carried the entire burden of it? We were lacking.”

“No. No one was lacking. That evil thing is too vicious. We all did our very best.”

Everyone nodded their heads at the words of Baek Eon and Hwa Un.

They were able to get out of the initial shock faster than expected. Perhaps it was because they had the High Governor to rely on.

“Finally, the cause of the supernatural calamities is now clear.”

Jin Rim said with a stiff face.

“At least Seol Young-rang can clear his name.”

“Not yet.”

Seol Young spoke cautiously.

“The Heavenly Pavilion will say that I made this up. Only when the evil spirit is truly taken down and the flute is restored back to its original state will we be able to clear the false accusations on me completely.”

“Completely clear….”

Jin Rim mumbled.

“Isn’t that impossible?”

Instead of answering that, Seol Young took something out of his chest. It was a bundle of talismans that was tightly wrapped and sealed with a string.

It looked unusual at first sight. All the people gathered there had spiritual power, so they felt it.

Baek Eon asked,

“What is it?”

“A fragment of the God of Cataclysm’s ashes that the High Governor had found.”

A fragment of the ashes of the God of Cataclysm.

There was a reason they felt bad.

Everyone looked at it without blinking.

“I heard that when the God of Cacatlysm appeared eight years ago, there was nothing you didn’t do to stop it. But there was one thing that no one had tried before. Calling the evil spirit with its own ash and holding a peace ritual to soothe the spirits.”

Seol Young said in the silence.

“I want to try that.”