Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Strange Forces and Turbulent Spirits (3)

‘Oh no! The children!?’

I quickly entered the cave and pulled out the buried children.

Thanks to them not being vegetables or anything and being buried in softly packed earth like a field, digging them out was not difficult, and none of them had any health issues, so by the time the sun rose they woke up groggily.

“Waaah! Where is this!”

“Mom! Dad! I want to see you!”

“Everyone be quiet! I know the way, so just follow behind me!”

If I had been alone it would have been a quick return, but with many people it took some time.

Since they were all children, I had to take periodic rests, searched for fruits and mountain greens for meals, and spent time soothing the children who cried and made a fuss, so by the time we arrived at the village the sun had set.

“Aigoo! Children!”

“Where on earth have you been!”

“Is your body all right!? No painful places!?”

Naturally the village was in an uproar.

When the disappeared children returned, the parents embraced their children and shed tears profusely.

“Uheungheung! Shin-ah!”

“...I’m back.”

I was the same.

It was an unfamiliar sensation I had never felt in my previous life, so it was a little awkward, but not bad.

“What!? I took you?”

“Yeah! Mom took me!”

In the subsequent questioning of circumstances, the village was overturned once more.

The children remembered the moment they were kidnapped, and along with the news that an existence in the form of their parents had come, the fact that they had forgotten the children was shared by everyone, so the conclusion naturally settled.

“It was a ghost’s doing!”

“It was a yokai’s doing!”

“Ahem! This kind of act is clearly a ghost’s doing!”

“What are you saying! Using all sorts of bizarre powers is yokai more than ghosts!”

If the existence that kidnaps children and erases memories to make parents forget their children is human, that would be even more frightening.

“Strange forces and turbulent spirits do not exist! How can you speak such vain words!”

“Then, Schoolmaster, how do you think this situation came about?”

“In my view, there is clearly a problem with the well. A poisonous beast fell in or minerals leaked in, causing memory problems, and as the poison drained the memories were recovered.”

“What about the children?”

“In the children’s case, because their bodies are small they even saw hallucinations!”

“Does that make sense?”

“It is far more reasonable than the doing of ghosts or yokai!”

The schoolmaster tried to smash prejudice with logic, but no one listened.

‘Let’s keep what happened a secret.’

Things are already chaotic—no need to make the problem bigger for nothing.

“Son! Let’s eat meat! You were bewitched by a ghost, so we need to replenish yang energy!”

“Where did the meat come from? And where did the money come from?”

“Hehe! I promised to split firewood for a month at Old Man Kim’s and received the wages in advance!”

Well, there doesn’t seem to be any bigger problems.

In reality, as time passed people gradually diluted their fear of the ghost incident and returned to daily life.

“Oppa! Mom says to come eat!”

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

“Hehe! Shin oppa! Let’s go play in the mountains today! The weather is really nice!”

“...It’s early winter now? Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m cold! So hold my hand!”

The children who had their life force sucked by the ghost also quickly regained their vitality.

“Your vitality is so strong it’s a problem.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Keep being that lively from now on.”

“Hehe! Okay!”

Then one day, the village chief went out to the capital city.

I heard from the villagers that he went to invite a shaman or Daoist, and my ears perked up.

‘A perfect opportunity to ask about ghosts.’

In the yard I swung the peach tree branch I had picked up last time and sank into thought.

-Those ones also could not exterminate us and fled!?

The ghost’s last words implied that there was a group that came to catch it.

From the look of the thing being fine, it seems they failed, but I want to know what level the thing was.

-The rising of the sun and moon is the principle of the world! Our existence is the same, so we never disappear!

Are there many existences like that thing that humans cannot kill.

-Ah, aah!

-How can you kill us!?

-We are existences that do not die!?

Is it possible for something like me to kill a ghost.

It is a given that I killed the thing because I am special, but I want a definite answer from someone in the industry.

‘If there are many things like that in the world, and only I can kill them...’

Wouldn’t it be right to use this power for the world?

“Ha, this meddlesomeness of mine.”

The desire to rush out of the village right now is boiling.

Even though nothing is certain yet, my heart is already excited.

‘I almost suffered a setback once because I hadn’t even tempered my strength? Let’s just train.’

If it were my previous life I would have rushed out long ago.

“Kkeueung! My waist!”

“Why did you overdo it like this. Someone with weak strength too.”

“A promise must be kept. Just half a month more and it’s over.”

“I’ll go. Father, just rest at home.”

“Ahem! The father made the promise! Do I look like a bad father who shifts promises onto his child!”

Still, he has changed.

I lightly tapped Father’s waist.

“Hieek!”

“Is a father who worries his child a good father? You know I’m strong. It’s nothing special, so I’ll go.”

Before heading to Old Man Kim’s, I asked Father.

“Father, how much did you say you bought the martial arts manuals for?”

“Huh? Two silver nyang each?”

“You said you asked a gambling acquaintance—who was it?”

“There’s a Wang in the neighboring village—why?”

“No reason.”

It’s a bit late, but I should repay the kindness.

“I was thinking of giving a thank-you greeting soon.”

* * *

A month had passed since the ghost incident ended.

Naturally nothing special happened, and people’s hearts had also relaxed.

“Did you hear the news about Wang from the neighboring village?”

“That friend who likes gambling?”

“After gambling, on the way home he was attacked by a ghost. A ghost wearing a net bag flew up, beat him soundly, and disappeared? The witness said it hopped over walls and disappeared, so it was definitely a ghost!”

“See, ghosts really exist!”

There was one minor rumor circulating, but it was a story that could be ignored.

I thought it would end like this, but the village chief brought a shaman from the capital.

‘So that’s a shaman.’

The appearance in colorful clothes holding a ritual blade was a typical shaman.

“Gal! You wicked ghost! What mischief are you trying to do this time, peeking from there!”

The appearance of performing a blade dance was also a typical shaman.

“I have driven away the evil spirit! I need to receive the value of the rice grains offered in ritual and the talismans used to exterminate it.”

“Uh, how much is it?”

“Ten gold nyang.”

“This is crazy.”

The appearance of scamming is no different from my previous life.

‘Ten gold nyang would let our village live idly for ten years.’

After that, many Daoists and shamans came, but they were all the same.

“It is an evil spirit stronger than imagined! If only I had the Heavenly Dragon Sword I could catch it! One gold nyang!”

“As a ritualist I will offer a ceremony to heaven. Offer me ten rolls of silk and three gold nyang.”

“If you give me just two gold nyang I will show you my ultimate talisman!”

Typical scammers, so I couldn’t even laugh.

‘I wanted to see a real shaman or Daoist, but at this rate there is no way to confirm.’

Fortunately the scammers were driven out by the villagers uniting.

“Hmm, I came after looking at the heavenly secrets, and it is not too late yet.”

And one day, another Daoist appeared in the village.

An old man with a white Daoist robe fluttering and stroking a white beard that reached his solar plexus tapped the ground with a staff made of old withered wood, and that appearance truly looked like a Daoist.

“Hey, Village Chief! I told you to stop calling!”

“I didn’t call!”

“No one called me. Only the heavenly secrets led me.”

At the visit of an outsider, people gathered.

The old man calmly swung the staff in the air and drew people’s attention.

“An evil spirit once visited and caused problems, but it seems to have left now.”

“Did you appear to say that?”

The old man introduced himself.

“I am Daoist Mu Gyeong. I looked at the heavenly secrets and came to drive away the lingering misfortune remaining in this village.”

“You said you read the heavenly secrets? Whatever falsehood you intend to mock us with, please return.”

The schoolmaster stepped forward politely first.

Then the Daoist opened his mouth, and it was the first time I saw the schoolmaster look surprised.

“Cheon Juhyeon, thirty-eight years old, father’s name is Cheon Jihun, mother’s name is So Hwaryung, passed the civil service exam at twenty and rose to an official post, but due to poor health returned to the countryside, and thereafter has been teaching children.”

It was not only the schoolmaster he got right.

He matched the names of everyone whose eyes he met and saw through their lives, and even saw through Father’s life.

“Lee Juhwang, twenty-six years old, born as a farmer’s child, married the most beautiful woman in the village and had a child who resembles his wife. He lost his wife early and is raising the child alone, and enjoys gambling as a hobby.”

“Hieek! H-how do you know me so well!?”

I feel some strange energy.

Flowing internal energy into my eyes and concentrating on eye force, the hidden existence sitting on the Daoist’s staff was revealed.

『Lee Jageom, forty-two years old, child born after a peddler father visited the village and married.』

“Lee Jageom, forty-two years old, you were born after a peddler father visited the village and married, correct?”

A crow with three eyes and three legs is sitting on the staff.

No, since the faint energy flowing from the staff binds all its legs like chains, is it more accurate to say it is captured?

『In childhood he liked the child next door, but when that child left the village with family he has not thought of marriage until now.』

“Did you like the child next door so much in childhood? Is that why you gave up on marriage?”

“What!? You were still thinking of that kid!?”

The information the crow provided was everyone’s lives and hidden secrets.

For a moment our eyes met as if in passing.

The thing closed its mouth and casually turned its gaze elsewhere.

“H-how on earth did you know!?”

“I merely read the heavenly secrets. And according to the heavenly secrets, this village was already troubled by an evil spirit once?”

The Daoist lightly shook the staff.

The crow skillfully recited the information.

『This village was attacked 45 days ago by an Earth-grade strange force and turbulent spirit, the Child-Luring Ghost. However, for an unknown reason the Child-Luring Ghost was extinguished. Examining with this seat’s eyes, one answer is presented.』

“The ghost that attacked you all is a thing called the Child-Luring Ghost. Fortunately it only played a nasty prank and left quickly, but the fact that it came is a sign that misfortune has settled on this land.”

The crow’s eyes turned toward me again.

Then it looked around the village once and opened its mouth.

『There is a Heaven-grade strange force and turbulent spirit here.』