Subdued Soul Chronicle

What appeared through the crumbled soil was a human skull.

And there wasn’t just one. Clumps of sand and mud fell with the other skulls there. And it wasn’t an earthen wall. It was a wall made of countless skeletons lined up.

However, that wasn’t why Seol Young was shocked.

From the time he started to walk, he had witnessed many skeletons in the tombs around him. He even played with them.

So there was no way Seol Young, who grew up like that, was puzzled by a skeleton wall. The problem was that the skull in front of him was horrid to look at.

‘What is this?’

Seol Young looked at the skull he had found. The facial part with the eyes, nose, and mouth looked fine, but the back of the head was oddly large.

It seemed its hair had blown up, and the skull had stretched back. The size of the head was two or three times greater than that of a normal person.

“What monster was this?”

“Monster?”

In the middle of their serious conversation, Zaha laughed.

“Seol Young-rang, you should study.”

“Uh?”

“Well, I, too, had only heard about it, and this is my first time seeing this too. This is called Narrow Headed. It is a custom in Gaya. They say that when they are young, and their bones are soft, their heads are pressed with stone or trees so they would be deformed.”

“Just why?”

“Each person says a different thing. Some say it is a symbol of handsome men and women, and some say it is a status symbol. In any case, it must mean that they were different from normal people.”

Was that so?

Only then did Seol Young understand what the skull was.

“People of Gaya.”

Carefully tearing down the earthen wall, he noticed more skeletons. There were a couple more Narrow Heads, but most of them were normal.

Judging by their exposed parts, there seemed to be more than a hundred skeletons piled up.

“According to Miss Jung Myung, Mita’s tomb was actually elsewhere, and they relocated it here to prevent her from resurrecting….”

Seol Young said that while brushing the dust off his hand.

“Were the skeletons also moved?”

“It seems like it.”

Zaha nodded his head.

“Looking at the mixed skulls, they have to be old Gaya people.”

“I have never seen so many skeletons being buried together. In the tombs of the great officials I saw, there were at most ten or twelve at the highest….”

Seol Young once again estimated the size of the wall with his eyes.

“Isn’t this like a Great King level?”

“You mean Mita was a King?”

“If we look at its size alone, it might tilt to that side. But we need to find out more about this.”

Seol Young reached out to take a Narrow Headed skull, but his hand went right through the skull.

“That is strange. I could touch them earlier.”

The skeleton’s wide eye sockets were staring at Seol Young. A hole was pierced inside the cave. It was the same hole in this tomb that they had entered.

Seol Young stared at it in fascination.

At that time, something appeared in front of his eyes.

“….?”

Seol Young looked at it in surprise.

He looked at it, and it turned out to be an alcohol bottle. Zaha sneaked up from behind and pushed Seol Young.

“Thank you for bringing me back to my senses….”

Seol Young was shocked.

“Did you decide to become drunk when you came to this world? Why are you carrying this bottle everywhere you go?”

“Why? It is for drinking. So that I can get drunk anytime I want to and anywhere.”

“Lies.”

Seol Young moved to snatch the bottle.

“As I thought, this isn’t normal alcohol. Isn’t this a drink that only exists in this world?”

“As expected, you notice things quickly.”

Zaha quickly dodged, opened its cap, and poured it all onto the ground, making Seol Young shocked.

“Are you throwing it away because you don’t want it to be taken?”

“I didn’t throw it away.”

Zaha said.

“Actually, this is divine alcohol. It was a drink of the priests in ancient times whenever they meditated so they could obtain some form of heavenly teachings or revelations.”

“Uh?”

Seol Young was surprised when he learned the true nature of this alcohol.

“Wait. Doesn’t the word meditation also mean hallucination? Not alcohol, but medicine for dreaming. Somehow, the thought of losing consciousness quickly and saying they are weak in…”

His words stopped there because something shocking happened.

The moment Zaha raised his left hand and reached for the odd skull.

He was able to pull out the skeleton that he couldn’t pull out earlier.

Then he smiled and handed the skull over to him.

“Now, a gift.”

Seol Young was speechless and received the round eyed skull. Did the alcohol that drove people into a dream-like state affect the spirits of the tomb?

As he laid the skull down on the soaked ground, a cloud of smoke rose.

And it turned into an old Gaya man.

It was a person who wore decorations on his head and loose clothes. While watching the two together, he pretended to run like he was being chased. Then he fell, staggered, and tried to hide.

And at some point, his body was dragged away. He was roughly hit, and painful sounds of death could be heard.

And then he vanished.

“This cannot…”

Seol Young looked at Zaha.

“Try something else then.”

“Sure.”

Zaha stretched out his hand against the skeleton wall.

But what was this?

It didn’t work again as Zaha’s hand passed through the skull. It was the same when he used his demonic qi, too.

He lowered his hand with a sad face.

“It might be an occasional success.”

“Is this fine? What is this?”

Seol Young looked at the hole where the skull had been removed.

When he looked over there with his blue qi, he saw a huge stone chamber at the end of the passage.

“We are almost there. The ashes need to be buried there. There will be a passage that can lead us back to the other world.”

All they had to do was tear down the wall.

However, even when they stabbed it with a sword or a righteous weapon, it just passed through the wall. And even a talisman was powerless.

At that time, Zaha who had been examining the skull said,

“What are those letters inside there?”

“Letters?”

The two put the Dead Slayer sword above their heads and looked into the skull. Among the letters that were hard to recognize, there were a few clearly visible letters.

‘Native land.’

That meant old land.

They didn’t know what it was referring to, but it seemed important.

“I found something crucial.”

Zaha handed the skull to Seol Young.

“I need to meet Jin Rim. If we tell him this name along with the clues, I am sure he can get some answers for us.”

“Then let’s go.”

After bowing to the skull, Seol Young took out a clean piece of paper and wrapped it well with that.

And then he followed Zaha out.

When they passed the iron troops, he thought about it and collected the iron powder. After placing it in a bottle and sealing it, he went out of the tomb.

“Miss Jung Myung.”

They called for the shaman as they found something important, but there was no answer. They couldn’t see her around, nor the wooden spirits.

There was only a small tree goblin hiding in the corner, and when he saw them, he gestured,

“The shrine maiden left in a hurry?”

“Did something happen?”

The two looked at each other.

Jung Myung couldn’t be doing that?

He wondered and turned his head, but then stopped at the same time. Several shadows were lingering around the entrance to the trail that led their way.

They were soldiers in blue.

They were Seo Geom and the Blue Dragon troops. They gathered at the entrance of the trail and thought as they mumbled,

“Someone surely used demonic qi in here.”

Seo Geom spoke loudly.

Overlapping his arrogant face was the horrible image they had seen in the hallucinations.

“….”

Seol Young thought it was strange, but there was no time for that.

The voices of Hwarangs could be heard.

“Head-rang, the Sura Flames should be used.”

“Is that so?”

A flame moved from Seo Geom’s half-dragon sword, and it felt like it had the force to burn everything down.

Seo Geom used that to break the illusion around the tomb.

“This. Why is he forcing it down?”

Zaha went out of the area that was covered by the illusion, and Seol Young also followed.

“….!”

Seo Geom, who was about to stab the air, backed out in shock as he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw two people suddenly appearing from among the bushes.

“Governor? Why are you coming out of there? No, even your Aide too?”

“I was looking for something around here, so I was investigating that with the Governor.”

Seol Young answered.

“But we came out after hearing the noises around….”

Seeing that, the Hwarangs looked up and down. Seo Geom was shocked.

“I apologize. I didn’t know that. I will leave right now so I won’t disturb your work.”

And he rushed back with the Hwarangs, but then he suddenly turned around, as if he had remembered something.

“Right, Governor. What about the meeting today? We will have to make a decision about it.”

“Tell them to do it on their own.”

Zaha, who just said that, corrected himself right away.

“No, follow the traditions. It will not be a problem.”

“Alright. I will pass that on to the other side.”

Then Seo Geom bowed his head.

The forms of the Blue Dragon troops quickly disappeared over the mountain road.

Zaha shook his head.

“What the hell is Seo Geom-rang in this world? Is he here with his brother? To try and start the Sura Flames right away.”

“We almost got into trouble.”

Seol Young gestured to the wooden spirit, who was hiding in the corner.

“Go and inform the Miss that we made them return.”

The spirit nodded and disappeared. The two went down Mount Toham on that path. When they arrived at the Moon Palace it was already dark.

The Sun and Moon Troops were standing outside the hall.

“Official Jin Rim came here as soon as he finished his duty and has been waiting for you.”

“Okay. I understand.”

And the two went inside.

Jin Rim was dressed in official clothes and sitting near the desk.

‘I am no longer a Hwarang, so why am I here?’

That was what his expression said, but when he saw Zaha he bowed,

“Governor! You are here?”

He was the embodiment of manners and sincerity. Normally, he would have joked about that, but since they were in a hurry, Zaha skipped it and asked,

“Did you find out what I asked for?”

“No. I didn’t. Governor, this riddle is too difficult.”

Jin Rim shook his head.

“All we could do was narrow down a few candidates based on the common things you had informed me of. First, the owner of the tomb was from a small nation that people know as the Great Gaya.”

He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it.

“We have never been able to figure out what special iron powder was used to paralyze a body. But anyway, it isn’t the Ice Flame ice powder that we know of. So we used an elimination method to take them down one by one with the remaining nations.”

The names of several nations that could do it were written on the paper.

And one of them caught their attention.

‘Native land.’

They were the same words that were written in the long skull and Seol Young pointed to that with his hand and asked Jin Rim,

“Is this the name of a nation?”

“Ah, that.”

Jin Rim shrugged.

“It is a bit vague, but I just put it down.”

Zaha asked,

“How is it vague?”

“As you might know, during the conquest of the Gaya nations, they could be classified into two. There were nations that surrendered, got accepted as official nations, and were given the right treatment. But there were also those who resisted and got suppressed until the end.”

Jin Rim explained slowly.

“At the end of that, a group that was worshipping the Goddess of Mt. Gaya appeared. They insisted on restoring their native land, regaining their old regions, and building a kingdom of native land for themselves, and a priest took the position as King.”

“Was the king a woman?”

At Zaha’s question, Jin Rim shook his head.

“All that is known is that the new nations played the role of leaders of the small nation alliance and fought. Various small nations formed the Holy Kingdom and fought against our nation.”

There was silence, and Seol Young asked,

“So what happened to this Holy Kingdom?”

“Unlike the other small Gaya nations, these people weren’t given the chance to choose their destiny. In order to not break the alliance, the nation had to collapse, so they were attacked and subdued at first.”

There was silence. This was a familiar story to them.

It was just like how the God of Cataclysm killed the Hwarangs, when it woke up after eight years, and just like how Seol Young was put in danger.¹

“….”

When Seol Young and Zaha were lost in thought and didn’t say a thing, Jin Rim looked at them.

“Shall I learn more about it?”

“It would be nice if you would.”

Zaha took out a bottle of iron powder and handed it to Jin Rim.

“You go and find Woo Hyun, and ask him to find out about this. Quickly.”

“Yes.”

Jin Rim got up and left. Silence fell when the door closed.

“Is this karma?”

He groaned while resting his chin.

“To think that a nation that was so small that we had to find out so hard about will be shaking Silla hundreds of years later… But we didn’t even participate in the war. Isn’t it unfair for such descendants to be asked to pay for it?”

“For now, do not think about that. Because going back is the most important thing.”

Seol Young spoke.

“Thanks to Jin Rim, we could catch the thread of the issue. The tomb is a place filled with the resentment of the King and the people who had lost their nation. No wonder the wall couldn’t be broken. We need to do it with sincerity.”

“And bring them peace.”

“Yes, that’s it.”

Seol Young nodded.

“But there is one problem. There are too many spirits. I don’t know if it is possible to appease hundreds of spirits at once. Couldn’t it be that if we rush into it, we will get pushed out?”

“If that is the problem, there is a way. I never thought I’d say this, but….”

With a stiff face, Zaha said,

“I also have to learn to appease their souls.”

1. TL/N: Like how unforeseen things keep happening. ️