Subdued Soul Chronicle

His body felt hot.

‘Why is my body flaring up like this?’

Long white hair fluttered in the endless darkness.

Jeok Ryun was right in front of him. As the silver sword gleamed and cut through the space, red lines appeared everywhere.

Everything was cut through the line.

‘Do not come.’

Seol Young tried to get away from her, but he couldn’t. Right now, the two of them felt too connected by the red line that was drawn on Seol Young’s neck.

A deafening cry rang, and the air shuddered. It felt as if his neck would be cut open at any moment.

“Do not come!”

Seol Young struggled despite not being conscious, and it was then…

“Seol Young-rang! Get yourself together!”

Zaha shook him awake.

“Now is not the time for you to sleep! Your head has fallen off!”

The moment he pulled the blanket off, a round head tumbled from the covers. And it rolled on the ground with a thudding sound.

Seol Young was shocked.

Did that actually happen?

“My head!”

He screamed as he got up.

“…”

The blinding sunlight hit him, and the light shone in his eyes.

Did he wake up from a dream?

He reached his hand out, and he could feel something round and soft.

Huk!

Seol Young’s heart skipped a beat.

“My head…”

His blurred vision turned clearer.

It was, of course, not his head, which he was scared about, thinking that it was his.

And the sound of regular breathing could be heard.

It was a baby dragon with small horns that was curled up and asleep. Then he could feel warm heat through his hands.

‘It was senior Oni.’

Seol Young sighed.

And it wasn’t just Oni. Zaha was asleep in the chair across from him, with his hands on the armrest and his head tilted.

Both of them were in deep sleep, so did they stay up late last night?

Seol Young looked around.

The red pillar, the glass beads with a symbol, and the colorful furniture. Then there were the birds in the garden that could be seen through the window that was right next to the bed.

This seemed to be the room on the second floor of the Hwarangs’ place.

Seol Young feared that his head would fall, so he didn’t even move.

“Uh…”

It felt like his head would split open. He could feel the burning heat from the red line that was around his neck. His body felt like it was burning up too.

‘I will have to take a closer look…’

There was a round mirror on the table.

Seol Young stepped on the ground. At that moment, his legs trembled, and he staggered as he fell back onto the bed.

Ah.

The moment that happened, Seol Young grabbed his neck. Jeok Ryun drew a line on his neck. And it seemed like the slightest impact would cut it open.

‘I need to be careful!’

Thud.

His body collapsed onto the bed, making Zaha and Oni open their eyes and look at Seol Young wriggling on the bed.

Zaha asked,

“What are you doing?”

“Just a bit frustrated…”

Seol Young laid down as if nothing had happened.

“How long did I faint for?”

“2 days.”

Zaha answered.

“You fell in front of the tower and were brought here right away.”

He was so full of aura that he showed no signs of fatigue. But his clothes were wrinkled up, so it seemed like Zaha had been sitting in the chair for a long time.

‘I am glad you woke up.’

As if saying that, Oni tapped its tail.

Seol Young felt happy, but it had such a long tail that it kept hitting him in the face, so he had to grab its tail.

“How did Senior Oni come here?”

“Hwa Un-rang sent someone to inform the Governor, so I told them to bring him here. Because this is Ghost Poison.”

There were cases where poison would seep into the wound that a ghost had inflicted and cause a fever, and it was called Ghost Poison.

That was why Zaha brought Oni here to get rid of the poison.

“How did you know I had a fever…”

As he was saying that, Zaha held out a mirror to him.

When he got up and looked, he really couldn’t understand.

His red cheeks were all flushed, and his eyes were wet. It was a face that was suffering from a fever.

What was more, there was a red sword mark on his neck.

‘If Jeok Ryun-rang moves, my head would fall.’

Seol Young felt dizzy. His hands lost strength, so he dropped the mirror.

“We need to go back there…”

“Your fever needs to die down first.”

Zaha said in a stern voice, and he was right.

“Right. But this is not Ghost Poison. We cannot afford to do something like this now. I had been exposed to such things so many times when I was young, so I can handle poisons of any form.”

“Then what is it?”

“Maybe it’s a physical illness?”

“Hwa Un-rang took a look at you, but no.”

The medical skills of the Vermillion Bird Troops were very good. And their Golden Sore Medicine was famous for being effective, so at the time of the past disaster, the Hwarangs would take it.

So if such a person said it wasn’t a physical illness, then it wasn’t.

“We tried many things…”

Zaha raised the energy in his hand.

The energy of the Golden Ring Troops that he normally used, then the energy of the Sun and Moon Troops, and then the ice qi that he tightly pushed…

He had tried all methods.

However, the heat that was tormenting Seol Young didn’t respond to them. In the end, the necklace of the Great Mother had to be taken out, but even that didn’t help.

“If it is not a disease or a trick of the ghost, is it just a mental thing?”

Seol Young laid down on his back.

“We need to leave…”

When he closed his eyes, Jeok Ryun’s memories passed by.

Random thoughts popped into his head.

“A child.”

In an attempt to regain consciousness, Seol Young opened his mouth.

“The child born from Jeok Ryun-rang and Mok Yun-rang. Maybe Hwa Un-rang…”

“No. That wouldn’t have happened. Because she was killed by the army, the child didn’t survive.”

“Right.”

When he closed his eyes, the shape of the Wonhwa Tower came to mind. It was important to break the seal to get clues.

However, appeasing her soul felt important too. Then Seol Young opened his mouth in a daze.

“So Mok Yun-rang…”

“Enough.”

Zaha jumped up.

“Nothing good will come out of talking in such a state. We need to get the heat off your body quickly.”

Right.

“I know.”

Seol Young touched his forehead. It was still burning.

“It is strange. Unless there is an external cause, it usually disappears when one wakes up…”

“It means that you are still unconscious. Do not worry. I will do anything to help you come to your senses.”

Zaha said.

“Then rest now.”

He pulled the pillow from under Seol Young’s body and placed it under his head.

Then he straightened out the crumpled blanket and covered him properly, and he also grabbed Senior Oni, who had crawled down, and put him next to Seol Young.

“Then I will go out for a while.”

“Yes.”

Zaha went right outside.

‘Why is he being this kind?’

Seol Young thought with a dizzy head. Zaha was very serious earlier.

He didn’t even pretend to be his confident self. He didn’t joke, mess around, or ask if Seol Young was being careless.

He was talking with a worried face.

‘It is strange.’

So doubts arose.

However, as soon as he thought of that, it seemed like Zaha had passed out the entire time beside him. By nature, he wasn’t the kind to do that kind of stuff.

It wasn’t because of something else but because of the danger of losing his neck, so he watched him.

‘I should have said something as soon as I got up.’

Something like, ‘Thank you or Sorry for making you do this.’ But he was feeling ill and couldn’t say a thing.

‘I am shameless and don’t even know how to be thankful.’

Seol Young scolded himself. He decided to talk properly when Zaha came back and closed his eyes.

How long was it?

Oni, who was lying down next to him, suddenly got up and began to tap the bed with its tail.

“Senior.”

Seol Young grabbed its tail, and Oni looked out the window.

“What? Is there something there?”

Enduring the dizziness, he barely managed to get up, and when he looked out the window, he saw Zaha walking through the garden, but there was something behind his back.

‘What is that?’

Seol Young hid behind the window and observed him. He glanced behind the shade of a dark tree.

He looked around and looked at what he had brought.

It was a wooden ball.

It was just like the head of a human.

“…?”

Seol Young’s face changed.

He remembered the dream he had before waking up.

-Seol Young-rang! Get up! This isn’t the time for you to be like this! Your head has fallen off!

The thudding sound.

Could it have been a precognitive dream? Was the same thing going to happen now?

Come to think of it, Zaha’s last words before leaving the room,

-Do not worry. I will do anything to get you back to your senses.

Was this what he meant?

Zaha quickly hid the round ball when he heard a rustling sound. For a very brief moment, the corners of his mouth curled.

He was holding back a smile.

“Haa…”

Seol Young was shocked.

He knew about something called shock treatment.

But that was all he knew. He was worried about lying down and scared that his head would fall off.

‘As expected, if there is a chance to make fun of me, he will never let it go.’

Seol Young clenched the blanket in his hand.

He didn’t feel thankful anymore. Instead, he jumped with a strength that didn’t exist.

-Lay down!

As Oni said that, Seol Young shook his head.

“Let’s see that.”

He stumbled his way into the hallway. Here in this place, strange things were used to decorate the place.

And one of them was the perfect thing.

It was a wooden doll wearing an old robe. It was the size of a person, probably for the purpose of displaying the robe.

Soel Young moved toward the doll with feverish hands.

“If I can do it just once, I might as well do it right.”

To make it look real, he undid the black belt of the robe and tied it around the doll’s head like hair.

“Good.”

Seol Young brought that to the bed and put a blanket over his head.

After a while, he could hear some footsteps.

“Seol Young-rang.”

Zaha called out.

But he didn’t answer.

“Seol Young-rang, are you sleeping?”

Zaha came over and pulled down the blanket.

At that moment, the black hair that had been tied up on the head rolled off the blanket.

“Ack!”

Someone screamed loudly from behind.

‘Wait. This voice is…?’

Seol Young jumped up from the other side.

‘No?’

There was a familiar face behind Zaha.

“…!”

Hyo Wol, with a pale face, had collapsed.