episode_0022

We took the KTX and took about 3 hours to arrive at Seokjeong Station in Jeollanam-do.

After getting off at the station, we caught a taxi and left for Chiryongsan Mountain.

“Please go to the village near Chilryong Mountain.”

“Okay.”

There was a small village near Chilryong Mountain. It is a place called Mugok Village. We decided to stay there one night and climb the mountain the next day. While taking a taxi, I opened an accommodation app and searched for a guest house in the village.

Mugok Village.

Because it is a fairly small town, there is a possibility that there are no lodging establishments. In that case, you might have to pay a villager to sleep with you. I searched for lodging apps without much expectation. Sarah, who was next to me, spoke to me.

“But where are we going to sleep today?”

“If there is a bed and breakfast in town, you should sleep there. If there is no place to stay, I will just pay the residents and sleep there.”

“Are there any guesthouses operating at a time like this? ? It’s probably not a time when people are traveling.”

“I’m not really looking forward to it either.”

It was the moment I searched through an accommodation app.

Surprisingly, there was only one guesthouse that appeared on the app screen.

“Is there one?”

“There is a bed and breakfast?”

There was indeed a bed and breakfast in the village. Looking at the room picture posted on the app, it was well-decorated like any motel room. I saw that there was a small refrigerator and an old-fashioned computer available for the guests.

“I’ll make a call now.”

I tried calling the guest house. A beep rang for a moment, and soon the owner of the guesthouse received a call.

「This is Mugok B&B.」

“Ah, yes! hello. We are planning to stay at Mugok B&B tonight. Are you sure you are doing business now?

“We are open now. How many people are coming?”

“There are two people. I will stay there for 3 days and 2 nights until Sunday.”

“All right. “We will prepare your room in advance, so please come anytime.”

What came through the phone was the voice of an elderly woman. Although they were using Seoul dialect, there was a bit of a dialectal accent mixed in, perhaps because it was a rural village. I hung up the phone after talking to the owner of the guest house like that.

“Sera, she is currently running a bed and breakfast.”

“Thank goodness. I thought I would have to sleep on the streets again.”

“Is that possible?”

It was fortunate. If the guesthouse wasn’t in operation, I would have had a hard time going to the village at this late hour and finding a place to sleep.

It was around 10 PM when we arrived at Mugok Village by taxi.

After paying and getting out of the taxi, I saw the scenery of Mugok Village.

“It’s a completely rural village.”

A rural landscape with wide rice fields nearby. I saw old houses built sparsely apart. Unlike Seoul, there weren’t many street lights, so it was quite dark. However, even in the dark landscape, the high mountain to the east of the village was clearly visible.

It was Chilryong Mountain. Chilryongsan Mountain, which is 600 meters high, could not help but be visible from the time we were riding a taxi.

As I stood at the entrance to the village and looked at the mountain for a moment, I had a strange feeling.

It felt like something huge in the shape of a mountain was calling to me from afar.

It was a strange feeling that could not be explained logically.

“Jinwoo, stop looking at the mountain and let’s go quickly.”

“Yes.”

Sarah called me and I stopped looking at the mountain.

We went into the village and found a bed and breakfast. Mugok B&B is near the entrance to the village, so it didn’t take long to find the way. In the dark village, a brightly lit hanok-style guesthouse stood out.

We called the owner from the yard of the guesthouse.

“Is the boss there? We contacted you through the accommodation app earlier.”

“Yes.”

Then the boss who was at home came out into the yard.

She was an old woman who was likely to be commonly seen in the countryside.

The lady at the bed and breakfast welcomed us who came late at night.

“Welcome. I received a call and prepared the room in advance. Come inside quickly.”

“Thank you.”

“Um… But are they young students? Could it be that you two came here together?”

The lady who was guiding us into the house immediately looked at us and looked puzzled. Well, I couldn’t help but have doubts because students who were clearly young like me and Sarah came to visit. Because it was a trip with students to a rural village.

“Yes. It’s just the two of us.”

“Is the silver-haired female student there a foreigner?”

“Not a foreigner, but mixed race. He also knows how to speak Korean well. Sera, please say something.”

“Hello.”

Sarah politely greeted the lady at the guest house.

However, the lady at the bed and breakfast did not stop looking at us with suspicion.

“How strange! Why did the students come here?”

“Because we love traveling so much. Sometimes the two of us go on a trip.”

The two of them like to travel, so they came to the country village. We looked around like that, but the lady at the bed and breakfast looked like she was thinking about something when she saw us.

“You came to our village for a trip? If you’re hiking, do you mean climbing Chilryongsan Mountain?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm… No matter how you look at it, it seems like there is a separate purpose… .”

She was an unnecessarily quick-witted woman. In this case, it was necessary to cover it with more elaborate words.

“Actually, we didn’t just go on a trip. There is a separate purpose.”

“I thought so too. Why did you come?”

“My father went missing in Chilryongsan Mountain a while ago. Although he has been missing for quite some time, I came on a trip to find him myself. We are here to look for missing people.”

“Ah… .”

The lady at the guesthouse nodded as if she understood only then. In the past, there were many cases of hikers going missing on Mt. Chilryong. If you claim that you came here in person because your father went missing, you have a pretty believable story.

“You came here to find your missing father? It’s a shame. There are quite a few people like that.”

“Is there anyone else coming to the village besides us?”

“There was. I’m talking about people who come looking for relatives or family members. Everyone couldn’t find it and just went home.”

Now that the word was out, it went well.

I have to ask him if he has ever seen his father.

I took out my phone and showed a photo to the lady at the bed and breakfast.

The photo saved on my phone was none other than my father’s photo.

There was a possibility that the residents of the village had witnessed a spirit who resembled his father.

“Have you ever seen someone like this on Chilryong Mountain? As you can see, he is wearing a leather jacket.”

“Umm… Please stay for a moment.”

The lady at the bed and breakfast took a closer look at my father’s photo and shook her head.

“I’m not sure about the lady. First of all, this is the person who went missing on Chilryongsan Mountain, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then go to Namhong Baek. He is a person who has been the guardian of the mountain for generations in his family. Mr. Namhong knows best in our village what happened at Chilryong Mountain.”

It is said that there is a mountain guardian in Mugok Village who manages Chilryongsan Mountain.

It was a man named Baek Nam-hong. From what I heard, if I wanted to ask about what was happening in Chilryongsan Mountain, it would be quicker to go to the man.

“Where is this person named Baek Nam-hong?”

“There will be a management office near the entrance to the mountain. It’s there.”

It was so late that it was impossible to visit today.

We decided to go to the management office of Chilryongsan Mountain as soon as the sun came up.

*

That night, we unpacked and rested in the guesthouse’s separate building. The bed and breakfast, built in the form of a traditional Korean house, had a separate outbuilding. The method was to have guests stay in a separate building. It was a good thing for us because we were able to spend time comfortably with the lady without having to see each other.

Sarah talked about her impressions of the village.

“It’s a quiet place.”

“Here?”

“No, the whole village is quiet.”

Sarah said while looking at the scenery of the village through the window of the annex. As I listened to Sarah’s words, I also realized that the village was quiet. Usually, when you think of a rural village, you can hear dogs barking or insects crying outside. However, Mugok Village was surprisingly quiet.

“It’s quiet so I’ll sleep well. Let’s go to bed early.”

Sarah and I spread out the blankets and lay down in the separate room.

Before going to bed, I tried running the EMF meter.

When I held the device in my hand and pressed the button, an LED indicator light came on.

“What are you doing when you’re not sleeping? Jinwoo.”

“I’m checking the EMF meter. Since I see only one light coming on, it seems like there is no spirit nearby.”

“Ah… That?”

Sarah stared at the EMF meter I was holding. Although Sarah did not trust foreign psychic equipment, she was not completely unaware of it. Cerra also knew how EMF meters work.

“It works on the principle that magnetic fields and spiritual energy are similar, right? If a lot of lights come on, does it mean that a spirit has appeared?”

“That’s right. If the LED indicator changes to level 4 or 5, there is a high probability that a spirit has appeared nearby.”

EMF meters were unreliable in places where there were a lot of electronic devices around. Because it will pick up the wrong frequencies and magnetic fields. However, it could be put to good use in the rural village we arrived at.

After some time, the inspection of the machine was completed.

To save battery, I turned off the EMF meter.

We turned off the light and went to sleep.

“… … .”

We lay next to each other and continued to sleep. Both Sarah and I have gentle sleeping habits, so we never woke each other up when we slept together. But something happened that night that forced both of us to wake up.

“Students.”

How much time has passed?

Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard from outside the annex.

The voice continued until we woke up.

“Students there.”

I woke up to a voice calling from outside.

When I looked up, I saw that Sarah, who was lying next to me, had woken up and opened her eyes just like me.

“… Are you awake too?”

“Uh.”

When I listened closely, I realized that it was the voice of the lady of the bed and breakfast.

The lady of the bed and breakfast was calling us from outside the annex.

“Are the students sleeping?”

“I woke up.”

When I looked at the time on my phone, it was already 3 am.

I had no idea what on earth was happening to wake up the sleeping guest at this hour.

“Why are you calling me, ma’am?”

When I asked why she was calling me, the lady at the guesthouse said something strange.

“Students said they wanted to go to the mountains, right? Let’s come out now and go to the mountains with the lady.”

“Yes… ? Why do you go to the mountains at night?”

“The lady knows the mountain path well. It’s okay if it’s dark, so let’s go to the mountain quickly. I can get there quickly before the sun rises.”

We had told the lady that we were going to go to the mountains.

But who would be crazy to climb a mountain at 3 in the morning?

The lady at the guest house stood outside the door of the annex and tried to take us to the mountain.

“It’s dangerous to go to the mountain now.”

“No. If you know the mountain path, you can get there quickly. The missing people were all outsiders and did not know their way around. It’s not dangerous if you go with the lady. It’s not dangerous. It’s not dangerous. Mountains are not dangerous.”

The voice of the lady at the bed and breakfast was strange.

I was repeating the same thing over and over like I was crazy.

I looked toward the door, breaking out in a cold sweat.

In the first place, is it really the lady of the bed and breakfast that is standing outside the annex?

There was window paper attached to the door of the outbuilding. A pitch-black silhouette of a person loomed beyond the window paper. Looking closely, I noticed that my height was slightly different from the lady at the bed and breakfast I had seen earlier. But the voice was the same.

“Who are you… ?”

“I’ll say it again, it’s not dangerous to go to the mountains. You say it’s not dangerous, so why are you asking who it is? The lady is alive and well.”

Me and Sarah’s eyes met.

There was no need to ask Sarah what that thing outside the door was.

━━Hold

I held the EMF meter in my hand and pressed the button.

At that moment, all five LED lights turned on.

The EMF meter reached level 5 and alerted us to the danger.