episode_0028

‘Jangsanbeom’s jaw.’

According to his father’s record, Jang San-beom’s vital spot was his chin.

━━Aaaah!!!!

Jang Sanbeom, who had a knife deeply inserted into his chin, let out a scream-like cry. Before I could be counterattacked with my front foot, I quickly let go of the handle of the sword and stepped back. Perhaps the record that the chin was a critical point was true, but Jang San-beom was unable to catch up with me.

It was just struggling and making horrifying cries.

“Jinwoo!”

Sarah approached me.

Sarah looked surprised when she saw me, who had almost had my head bitten off by Jangsan Beom just moments ago.

“You suddenly stopped and surprised me!”

“I didn’t just stop, I was looking at the fur and was briefly captivated! I heard you had a strange dream while standing up?”

“Anyway, I came to my senses before it was too late.”

We took a moment to catch our breath and watched Jang Sanbeom’s actions. Jang Sanbeom, who had a knife stuck in his chin, was wriggling around and wriggling his whole body. It seemed difficult for us to approach as it was running wild.

“What should I do now? They keep running wild?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just wait and see? You can just let it run wild and end it when you get tired of it.”

“It might be safe.”

Sarah and I decided to watch Jangsanbeom. Jang Sanbeom, who was running wild, eventually stopped and fell limp on the floor. I thought it would be okay to finish it quickly.

It was right then.

The ground shook loudly behind us, as if an earthquake had occurred.

━━Crumbling

“Huh?”

I quickly looked back.

The place where the shaking occurred was the gun we had made. Clearly, after the spell was completed, something strange was happening in the quiet Hosikchong. Sarah, who was next to me, looked at the gun with a perplexed expression.

“Why is that shaking… ?”

When I asked, I heard Sarah’s answer.

“Perhaps the seal on the ghosts is being released.”

“Bo, the seal is being broken?”

“Think of the number of souls contained therein. Twenty-year-old young people are trapped in the Hoshikchong. There is no way the seal can be maintained forever.”

“Ah… !”

“Of course there would have been a time limit.”

The hosik gun we made had a time limit. It seemed that the number of spirits was so large that it was impossible to seal it for a long time. Sarah and I broke into a cold sweat as we watched the gun shaking uneasily.

“Why is time running out now?”

“We have to kill them before they come out! It’s Jangsanbeom’s chin! I need to burn my chin quickly!”

The Hosik Chong slowly collapsed.

Soon the seal would be lifted and the ghosts would be liberated.

We clearly injured Jangsanbeom’s jaw and freed the spear demons. The ghosts were no longer slaves to Jang Sanbeom, but free spirits. However, being free never meant that the ghosts were safe. Rather, it was more dangerous.

These are spirits who must have harbored a bitter grudge after dying from a tiger bite.

Will he really try to attain Buddhahood quietly?

Rather, it would be more likely to go crazy and attack people.

“I’ll spray oil first!”

Sarah quickly took out an oil can from a nearby duffel bag. It was oil brought in to burn unclean objects. The unclean object that had to be burned now was Jang Sanbeom’s chin. Sarah quickly ran over and sprinkled oil on Jangsanbeom’s limp head.

━━Boom!

At that moment, the gun exploded with a loud noise. Stones piled up in the shape of a tomb were thrown in all directions. The ghosts that had been sealed in the Hosikchong until now came out of the tomb.

━━Hee hee hee hee hee!!

The laughter of the spear demons echoed from the mountain. Clearly, those spiritualists were not in their right mind. The 20-year-old ghosts came out with deadly intent and came towards Sarah. It wasn’t just the two of us that the ghosts were targeting.

“Huhhh!”

Nam Hong, who was kneeling on the floor and reciting a prayer, screamed.

“Uncle Nam Hong!”

Five spear ghosts clung to Nam Hong.

The ghosts grabbed Namhong’s arms and legs and even strangled him.

“Keueuuuu… !”

If you leave the ghosts alone, Namhong will die.

It wasn’t a leisurely situation to think about things like attaining Buddhahood.

I took out my Zippo lighter and turned it on.

In front of me, Jang Sanbeom was lying on the floor with a knife stuck in his chin.

Without hesitation, I threw the Zippo lighter towards Jang San-beom.

The Zippo lighter, which flew in a parabola, hit Jang San-beom’s head and ignited a fire.

Jang San-beom’s head burned brightly. The pure white fur and hideously distorted face were engulfed in fire. In an instant, the fire spread to their chins, and the rampaging spear demons let out painful screams.

Sarah and I threw rolled up mugwort at the burning Jang Sanbeom. When mugwort, which drives out negativity, was burned and smoked, the ghosts could no longer hold out.

━━Kyaaa!!

In the end, the twenty ghosts were extinguished where they were. It disappeared and was never seen again.

The mountain became quiet. In the surrounding area, only the sound of the corpse of Jangsan Beom being burned to the ground could be heard. Jangsanbeom and Changgui, who had been threatening people, met their end. Sarah and I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Phew… .”

“Phew.”

It felt like waking up from a nightmare.

A sense of relief that I had survived surged in my heart.

The voice of Nam Hong, who almost died but survived, rang out from behind.

“Heo Eok… ! Huh… !”

“Uncle Nam Hong! Are you okay?”

“Trigram, it’s okay!”

There were red marks on Nam Hong’s neck, as if he had been truly strangled. Really, if I had been just a little bit late, something big would have happened. Nam Hong asked us while catching his breath.

“Is it all over now? Is it true that all monsters and ghosts are over?”

“It’s all over. Because they burned Jang Sanbeom, who can be said to be the culprit.”

“Then what about the village people? What happens to those people!”

There were still residents in Mugok Village at the bottom of the mountain who were possessed by ghosts. But there was no need to worry. Sarah, who knows a lot about spiritual phenomena, answered.

“The villagers will come to their senses soon. Since Jang Sanbeom and the ghost are gone, there is no reason to continue to be possessed. Of course, their memories may be lost little by little. Don’t worry, there is no problem with your life.”

The villagers’ spirit will return.

Nam Hong shed tears after hearing Sarah’s words. They were tears of emotion. Although he was a middle-aged man, he was crying in front of students like us. That’s how much Nam Hong wanted to save the villagers.

“Thank you. Guys.”

Nam Hong bowed his head to us and expressed his gratitude. The middle-aged man’s words of gratitude truly contained a long period of time. Nam Hong had been living alone in a village that had been possessed by ghosts for a long time. There was also a man-eating tiger living in the mountain. Now there were no more ghosts or Jangsanbeom.

“You are the benefactors of our village.”

*

It was after taking a short break.

Jinwoo and Sarah recovered the traces of the Jangsanbeom on the mountain.

If the burning body of Jangsan Beom was left alone, a forest fire could break out.

Before it was too late, Jin-woo and Sarah scooped up dirt with a shovel and sprinkled it on Jang San-beom’s body.

After putting out the fire by sprinkling dirt, the charred corpse of Jang Sanbeom was buried deep in the ground. Nam Hong helped bury the body, so it didn’t take long to clean up the scene.

“Sera. I’m tired so let’s sleep first.”

“Yes.”

Although they succeeded in hunting Jangsan Beom, Jinwoo and Sarah still had work to do. The task was to find Jinwoo’s father, who had been seen on Chilryongsan Mountain.

However, while hunting Jangsanbeom during the night, my stamina was low.

It would have been better to sleep overnight and search in the morning.

“You had a hard time.”

“Mister Namhong also had a hard time.”

Jinwoo and Sarah went back to the guesthouse and slept.

The two got up when morning dawned and returned to Chilryong Mountain.

While walking along the road, I ran into the lady of the bed and breakfast and other residents in the village.

However, the residents of Mugok Village no longer attacked the two men.

This was because everyone was slowly coming to their senses.

Today was the last day of the trip.

Sunday morning.

Jinwoo and Sera searched Chilryong Mountain from the morning.

We searched together for a day, but we couldn’t find Jinwoo’s father. In the first place, Chilryongsan Mountain was so large that it was impossible to complete the search in one day. Perhaps Jinwoo’s father could have left for another area in the past few days.

The sun had set and it was time to go home.

Jinwoo and Sarah went to the management office of Chilryongsan Mountain and asked Namhong for a favor.

“If you see the person in the photo here around you. Could you please contact us?”

“This is the person you said you were looking for, right? If you see this person, please contact me immediately.”

“Thank you.”

“I am more thankful! Because I’ll be holding on to you so you can’t go anywhere. As long as I see this person.”

It was time to return home, but the search for Chiryongsan Mountain had not been a failure. Nam Hong promised that he would contact Jin Woo’s father as soon as he saw him. In the first place, Nam Hong was the person who managed Chilryongsan Mountain. It was worth entrusting him with the task of searching the mountain.

And so the three-day, two-night trip came to an end.

Jinwoo and Sarah returned to Seoul by KTX in the late afternoon.

On the way home, the two talked.

“In the end, we couldn’t find your father.”

“Still, I’m satisfied because I confirmed that my father is wandering around the world. We’ll meet again someday.”

I was on my way home by train.

Sera suddenly had a question and spoke to Jinwoo.

“That’s right! When hunting Jangsanbeom. Didn’t you say you had a dream while standing for a moment?”

“That’s right.”

Sera recalled the time when she and Jinwoo hunted Jangsanbeom.

At that time, Jinwoo said that he was fascinated by the pure white fur and had a dream, albeit briefly.

Curious about what kind of dream he had, Sarah asked Jinwoo directly.

“What did you dream about?”

“My dream is taking classes in a classroom. But when I looked closely, I saw that you weren’t there at all. I knew right away that it was a dream because there was no one I needed to be with all the time.”

It turned out that Jinwoo had a dream of taking classes in a classroom.

He said he realized it was a dream because Sarah was not in the seat next to him.

“You’re quick to notice.”

“It can’t be reality without you next to me, right? Of course it must be a dream.”

“Hmm.”

Sarah listened to the contents of the dream and nodded.

“That’s right.”

When she first heard about the dream, Sarah didn’t think much of it.

It was just an interesting story.

However, the more she thought about the story, the more various thoughts began to appear in Sarah’s head.

‘No, wait a minute! He realized it was a dream because I wasn’t next to him… ?’

Another thought occurred to me.

‘There’s no way a situation where I’m not next to you is real?’

Sarah’s head began to spin rapidly. Among the stories I heard from Jinwoo, the parts that particularly stood out to me were connected arbitrarily. It was a story about realizing that it was a dream because Sarah wasn’t there, or that it couldn’t be real.

‘I realized it was a dream because I didn’t have any childhood friends. A world without childhood friends cannot be real. There should always be a childhood friend next to this guy… .’

Thoughts were connected as one.

Actually, Jinwoo sitting next to her didn’t have any thoughts, but his expression didn’t catch Sarah’s eyes at all.

Jinwoo’s breathing in a daze seemed to have a special meaning in Sarah’s eyes.

Sarah drew her own conclusion.

‘Then doesn’t that mean you can’t live without me? It means that I can never live without my childhood friends… .’

For a moment, Sarah’s face felt hot.

Heat appeared in my cheeks, so I quickly lowered my head.

One word passed through Sarah’s head.

Green light.

A sign that a childhood friend is attracted to you.

‘Is this a green light?’