After a while, Jaegyeom got up and walked across the living room where household items were messy. It had been a long time since he had such clear goals about what to do. He was used to a life where he had nothing he needed to do or nothing he wanted to do.
But not today.
Jaegyeom went up to the attic on the second floor. Opening a mother-of-pearl box, which contained old objects that had long been useless, old and faded objects were entangled in Jaegyeom’s hands. He finally found what he was looking for and came out to the yard without hesitation.
Standing in the yard, Jaegyeom calmly looked down at the object in his hand. It was a horse requisition tablet made of copper. It was very old, the hand-stained and rusted tablet showed traces of the past years.
Jaegyeom used his feet to dig up the soil in the yard. Then he buried the palm-sized tablet in the spot and covered it with soil again. When he bit his index finger hard, blood gushed out. Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt at all. There was no time to be in pain.
Jaegyeom reached out his hand exactly to the location where the tablet was buried. Blood trickled from his fingers and dripped through the air. As it soaked into the soil, the color deepened. After watching the scene for a while, Jaegyeom took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
“The mane of the pegasus (飛馬), cease wandering and heed the call.”
As soon as he finished his words, a rumbling, thunderous sound began to echo from under the ground. His feet vibrated violently, as if an earthquake had struck. It seemed that the place where the tablet was buried was completely sunk, and then something broke through the soil and popped out.
Hiiing~, the heavy neighing of the horse shook the earth. A beautiful mane flew in front of his eyes. The pegasus leaped lightly through the air and stopped in front of Jaegyeom with a dignified appearance.
“It’s been a long time.”
Jaegyeom greeted it. The pegasus flicked its tail wildly from side to side and gave several purrs, purrs, and whinnies. Jaegyeom silently waited for it to finish.
Before long, the horse began to speak human language.
“Whoa, look who it is!”
The pegasus walked around the yard with a happy expression.
“Lord, how long has it been?”
“I was afraid you didn’t remember, but I’m glad.”
“Since there was no word from you at all, I thought you had achieved what you wanted so much. But seeing you again today like this, you’ve been unable to be relieved of your life?”
Jaegyeom raised the corner of his mouth slightly.
“Yes. Well, that’s how it is.”
“That’s too bad. But you’re still as fine as ever.”
“You haven’t changed at all either. You’re the same.”
“Why did you throw away your scholar’s robe and put on such strange clothes?”
The pegasus, who was familiar with Jaegyeom in his old clothes, nudged Jaegyeom in his school uniform as if he was curious. He and the pegasus had met in the past, through the man.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Meeting again after a very long time, he was unfamiliar. Jaegyeom wordlessly reached out and touched the pegasus’s mane. The blood on his hands clung to its soft mane.
“P’w rbggs ab rjs atlr jr rbbc jr P mjiifv sbe joafg j ibcu alwf…”
Ktf qfujrer gbiifv lar tbbnfr jcv ugecafv.
“Ktfgf lr jikjsr bcis bcf gfjrbc kts atf ibgv rffxr wf bea.”
“Zfrjcl lr ubcf.”
“Ds Zfrjcl, sbe wfjc atf ilaaif ybs ktb jikjsr mtjrfv joafg atf ibgv?”
“Yeah, that’s right. We need to find Mesani. Take me.”
“I cannot recklessly give the reins to someone who is not even my master.”
It was something Jaegyeom had heard dozens or hundreds of times. The pegasus shook its head. Jaegyeom knew what it meant by that. In other words, it was asking him to become his master. It seemed it hadn’t given up yet.
“I’ve always told you I have no intention of becoming your master.”
Jaegyeom, as always, refused the pegasus’s request. It was used to his rejection. Its refusal to give him the reins was just a moment of grumpiness. Looking back on the past, it had never turned down Jaegyeom’s request.
“Instead, if you do me a favor…”
“Are you going to do the same deal again?”
“Yes. Your nightmare. I’ll live it.”
The pegasus was a spirit horse that could run through the air even without wings. In exchange for its special powers, he suffered a fatal flaw: nightmares that haunted it every night. Because of this, the pegasus always suffered from insomnia, and rarely slept comfortably. So its eyes were always terribly bloodshot.
Therefore, it normally engaged in ‘dream business’ with ghosts, including intelligent ghosts. A rarity among humans, Jaegyeom was one of his customers. Every time Jaegyeom received the pegasus’s help, he bought a few days of nightmares in return.
The pegasus, who sold its nightmares, had a comfortable night’s sleep during that time, but the more difficult and difficult the request was, the longer the nightmares would last instead. Jaegyeom had had nightmares on behalf of it for up to a month.
“I have no reason to refuse. Is it okay with you?”
“It’s alright. Say as much as you want.”
“You look pretty desperate. Will you do whatever I want?”
“I don’t care if it’s ten days, a year or ten years.”
“Forget it, I’m just trying it. You might as well give me the liver of a flea. Tracking isn’t difficult, so I’ll go with three days.”
Jaegyeom was sincere, but the pegasus showed its disapproval by kicking its back hoof in the soft soil.
“Alright. Thanks.”
Jaegyeom went to the front door and picked up a pair of Mesani’s shoes that were rolling around in the shoe rack. As he came out into the yard, holding the shoe in one hand, the pegasus bent its legs and lowered its body. Jaegyeom jumped onto its back without a moment of hesitation.
“Here, you just have to find the energy and follow it.”
“Okay, just leave it to me.”
The pegasus circled the yard and warmed up.
“By the way, who the hell is the one who dared to touch the lord’s ginseng child?”
Jaegyeom, who had been silent, murmured lowly.
“I don’t know, I don’t care.”
The pegasus burst out in a neigh as if laughing.
“Too bad, whoever it is.”
It kicked the ground with all her might and soared into the sky
***
‘We just need to go to the nearby mountain, child.’
Lee Youngshin immediately exited the highway with the intention of taking the ginseng child, whose energy was weakened, to the mountain to receive energy. While he was rushing, he saw a slope towards the road guardrail. He immediately stopped the car on the side of the road and opened the passenger side door.
‘Child, the mountain here looks a bit low, but how about it?’
Fortunately, the boy nodded his head.
‘I think it will be alright if I go further in…’
The child said helplessly. Lee Youngshin immediately nodded in agreement. Well, this was a shallow bank facing a road where cars were rushing past. Of course, they had to enter the thick and lush mountains to receive the spirit of the mountain. Lee Youngshin lifted up the sick child and carried him up the mountain.
The mountain was quite steep for a low mountain. He carried the child on his back as light as a bird’s feather through the grass and branches. After going quite far in, they came to a flat area surrounded by thick trees. The surroundings were lush with vegetation and there were no people, so the energy was quite clear. It was an appropriate place to take a break.
Lee Youngshin carefully put the boy down. Then, he took one of his strings from his hipsack and tied it around his wrist like a bracelet, making it impossible for him to move further than a certain distance from him. It was because he had to make sure that the child would not run away or disappear from this place.
After carefully tying the knot on the string, Lee Youngshin said in a nonchalant tone.
‘Well, just in case… I’m afraid you’ll get lost.’
The child looked down and looked at the string tied around his wrist for a moment, then raised his head and stared at Lee Youngshin. For some reason, his expression was subtle, making Lee Youngshin a little nervous. Was it too unnatural? Fortunately, the child found a seat not far away and stood up straight.
‘… I- I like this place.’
The child closed his eyes and began to catch his breath. It was as if he was meditating. Lee Youngshin sat on a nearby tree stump and looked with interest at the wild ginseng boy he had only heard of.
Ten minutes passed like that. The child seemed to have completely melted into the landscape. Suddenly, all the presence and energy surrounding him had disappeared. He thought it would only take a moment. Lee Youngshin glanced at the child, wondering how long he was going to take. The boy still had his eyes closed and concentrating without moving. Lee Youngshin, who took out his phone and checked the time, spoke in a small voice.
‘… Um, child?’
But there was no reply from him. Could it be that he didn’t hear him calling it softly? After hesitating for a moment, Lee Youngshin got up from his seat and strode closer to the child.
‘Hey, how are you feeling right now?’
‘…’
‘Um, hey, ch- child?’
‘…’
Lee Youngshin’s face hardened slightly at the reaction that didn’t come back. He wondered if he had fallen asleep while standing. Suddenly, an ominous sensation ran through his body. He couldn’t afford to lose any more time. Nervous, Lee Youngshin stretched out his hand as if possessed towards the small body that stood like a statue.
It was the moment when his hand touched his body,
‘Uh… ?’
Lee Youngshin stepped back, startled as if he had been set on fire. Then, with a stiff face, he stared alternately, once at his hand and once at the child. The sensation was strange. Even when he was on his back earlier, his body was warm and soft. But now it was cold, very hard, without any warmth.
‘Ch- Child? Child!’
Embarrassed, Lee Youngshin stretched out both of his hands and grabbed his shoulder. He tried to shake his shoulder as if waking up a sleeping person, but his small body did not budge. Lee Youngshin’s face went white. How did this happen! It was unbelievably heavy. The child was like a statue, stuck to the spot like a nail.
Lee Youngshin had several possibilities in mind before bringing the child. He thought he was going to run away, or maybe he might resist with an aggressive attitude. However, this was a situation that completely exceeded expectations.
There was no running away, no resistance, and not even the slightest movement.
So Lee Youngshin did all sorts of things. He frantically fumbled all over his body, whimpering, pushing away, and pulling with all my might. It was useless even if he gnashed his teeth to pick him up. Even when he put my lips to his ears and screamed loudly, the cold child did not open his eyes even once.
‘Huff huff, what the, what the hell is this…’
Lee Youngshin, who fought a meaningless struggle as if wrestling with a rock, eventually collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. Sweat flowed like rain. He couldn’t understand what had happened. Only one thing was certain.
He might not be able to take the child back like this!
As his mind drifted to that point, Lee Youngshin was seized with mad tenacity. How did he get here? He couldn’t just walk away. He couldn’t think of a way to solve this difficulty on his own. He was in dire need of help in many ways.
The first person who came to my mind like a savior was Yoon Taehee. He was within an hour or two of the place, and he was one of the few people in the chief position who could definitely help Lee Youngshin.
‘Okay, I’ll be there.’
Yoon Taehee, whom he barely managed to reach, asked him to tell him where he was. It was a huge relief. Lee Youngshin had no doubt that Yoon Taehee would do whatever it took. Completely exhausted from the stress, he sat down on a tree stump again.
Thank you! Help is coming!
Waaa I feel that Jaegyeom will be angry to Yoon Taehee again
Yep. this lee guy is bad teammate lol.
I feel so uncomfortable with the emotional manipulation that Yoon uses, not to mantion Mesani’s abduction
I’m curious to see how will it turn into romance but right now I just feel helpless and sorry for Kim
I think I’d look into every way to kill myself too
Cause being used as a threat to someone you cherish is one of the most horrible things ever
Yeah, same. These exorcists are so morally grey wth
it’s gonna be one hell of a ride 😀
Aghhrrr! 😬😰