“Jae-shin!”
Myeong Jae-shin turned around at the sound of a familiar voice.
Her only brother's distorted face appeared clearly in her eyes.
Would the devil who came up from purgatory be like that?
His soul was stained with pitch black and thick darkness.
Looking at the greed, obsession, and regret shining in his black eyes, Jae-shin took a step closer to the cliff that she could not see even an inch in front of her.
"Jae-shin! Please!"
A desperate voice wrapped around her ankles.
Jae-shin calmly looked at her family, who had once been her everything and only.
The boy who smiled shyly while holding his hand and giving her a pretty wild flower is no longer there.
The man in front of her was so used to the life she was enjoying.
Jae-shin shook her head silently, looking at his hand waving in the air to catch himself as he tilted.
'Give up now.'
Shr smiled at the hands that had held and confined her for an excruciatingly long time.
There was no longer any need to be angry, no need to stay up all night in agony, no need to struggle in sadness and hate the other person.
She smiled contentedly, closing her eyes with a peaceful face.
'I am free now.'
Finally, I was free.
***
Jae-shin's fate was decided from the moment he was born.
The child, which came out of its mother's womb with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, swallowed her mother's life instead of living and breathing.
The moment the heat rose in her body as she performed the exorcism, the face of the godmother who was waving the maid's ceremonial sword was filled with anger.
'The child has a passion.'
After that day, Jae-shin could no longer be an ordinary child.
It has become a valuable ward of evil that can bring good luck to the body instead of bad luck.
After receiving a ritual at the age of one, the small shrine in Seonsan became her only home and world.
The laypeople who stayed by her side and served her closely guarded her side so that she could not go outside the golden rope surrounding the shrine.
Although they were reluctant to see Jae-shin, they expected the blessings she would bring.
Please accept their good fortune and hope that she returns it as something auspicious.
She grew up among those who did not see her as human.
To them, Jae-shin was a precious child, but at the same time, she was also a terrible and fearful monster.
Her brother was the only person who treated her like a human being.
Jae-shin vividly remembered her first meeting with him.
Her brother, whom she first met when she was five years old, would hold her hand and walk along the veranda with her with a pure smile on his face.
"One day I'll get you out of here."
You shouldn't think of achieving something through such foolish actions and at someone else's sacrifice.
Her brother who made that promise was trustworthy.
As a young girl, she was hungry for affection, so she was seduced by the sweet words of the boy in front of her.
It was blind, and there was no right or wrong to that extent. When she was seven years old, she got hit for the first time.
It was painful to face the misfortune that would fall on the sister and the fear of the world that he had to go through, but it was for the sake of her beloved family.
His younger brother was so frightened that he shed tears as he watched his sister writhing her whole body in pain. He shouted at him to stop and even begged for forgiveness from his father, who had caught him, saying he had done something wrong. However, the innocence of childhood slowly faded away at some point.
Her brother's life was truly smooth as he graduated from middle school, and high school, entered a prestigious university, and even got a job at a great company.
The moment has come when he takes it for granted that his family's business is booming and his life is as splendid as a highway. He was no longer a boy who pitied his sister's sacrifice toward evil.
Because of her sacrifice, he wanted to go to a higher place.
'People's hearts are very cunning and change easily.'
For her, who had wanted to see the outside world for a long time, her brother's betrayal was the loss of her last hope. There are things that even shamans who are only used to ward off evil without a priest to teach them the art of properly appeasing spirits can know. The size of the greed contained in human eyes and the size of innocence that disappears in inverse proportion to it.
Looking at his cloudy eyes, Jae-shin asked,
"When are you going to take me outside?"
Her brother smiled and answered.
'Soon.'
An unclean body with turbidity gushing out from all over the body. That was the last time.
Early that morning, Jae-shin sent a compliment to the kitchen with the excuse that Taenghwa's food had spread.
Chan's mother hurriedly went down the mountain perhaps because she was worried that she might get caught.
After ignoring the others, Jae-shin cut the golden cord of the shrine with a bronze knife prepared in advance and came out.
Her feet were damp from the cold dew of dawn.
The bitter smell of grass and the sounds of bugs screeching were mixed with the sounds of people shouting in the distance.
Jae-shin ran away and reached the very top of Seonsan Mountain. And she said goodbye to her brother, the innocent boy from her childhood who had already disappeared. She did not miss the only moment that could decide her own life.
The sound of her heart beating, which had started to hurt as soon as she left the gold string, rang in her ears with a slow beat.
It was a moment of liberation from both God and people.
***
"Miss!"
When she opened my eyes, her whole body felt extremely heavy and painful.
Jae-shin slowly opened his eyes and felt puzzled by her 'failed' plan. If she survived falling off that cliff, her life would have been very long and blessed. The moment Jae-shin sighed and lifted her heavy eyelids, she lost her words upon seeing the unfamiliar ceiling.
She turned her head and looked around and saw a room that was quite old but still neatly organized in its own way.
Where are the paintings of famous Kings and bodhisattvas that should have filled the shrine?
She looked blankly at the little girl who was crying and holding her. Red hair, blue eyes. Her freckled little lamb was crying, looking at her with concern and sadness on her spotted face.
"You've finally opened your eyes, Young Lady. Are you okay? Doesn't your heart hurt?"
Her whole body felt heavy like wet cotton. She endured the numb pain and looked around where she lay.
It was a space of a type she had never seen before. There were no sliding doors covered with window paper, no yellow wallpaper, and no paintings.
The soft bedding was harder and thicker than a cotton blanket.
'It's a unique place.'
A dark hallway was visible through the open door. In the yard outside the window, the grass was overgrown due to lack of maintenance.
'There is no gold line.'
Her heart sank at the unfamiliar scenery.
"This place..."
"It's already been a day and a half since you lost your mind. This time, I really want you to..."
Jae-shin was dazed even as the girl next to her took out a white handkerchief and wiped her eyes. A place where there is no incense burner for ancestral rites, no altar, no flower that is supposed to be in a shrine, and no gold rope to bind the Gods.
The blue-eyed sheepish girl in unfamiliar clothing was treating her in a friendly manner as if she knew her.
Jae-shin turned his head and made eye contact with the girl full of worry.
"What day is today?"
A childish voice that she had never heard before came out of her throat.
"According to the Vavilova Empire calendar, it is September 6, 332."
Vavilova. It was an unfamiliar name. The term imperial calendar and the numbers that go with it are all new to her. Jae-shin, who jumped off a cliff on a spring day in April, accepted the situation resolutely even though it was September. Instead of screaming and panicking, she just shook her head.
"I see."
"Miss, are you really okay?"
"I'm thirsty."
Lukewarm water in a heavily used wooden cup was placed in front of Jae-shin. The girl helped Jae-shin get up so she could drink water and held the cup for her.
It was a skillful touch as if she had not been waited on for a day or two.
"The lady suffered so much, but I couldn't do anything."
The girl had tears in her eyes. The tears in her blue eyes felt very foreign.
"Did you?"
"You had a fever all day, was complaining that your chest was hurting and was shaking your whole body. I brought a therapist, but all they said was that there was no solution..."
The girl, who stopped speaking as if remembering that moment, shed tears again.
Jae-shin was deep in thought while listening to her words.
She has a fever, her heart hurts, she talks nonsense and listens to nonsense.
Having the whole body twisted was an unavoidable pain to those who had to accept it.
Jae-shin, who had suffered for decades by receiving divine blessings and misfortune, realized that the owner of this 'body' had received divine blessings.
If she did not have a godmother and had not received a ritual, it would have been right for her to have run away and lost her life.
Despite this, she is breathing just fine, and aside from the pain in her body, isn't she able to move around quite freely?
Jae-shin gently comforted the girl who could not stop her tears from flowing.
"Stop crying. I'm okay now."
The cool outside wind came through the open door and tickled Jae-shin's face.
Although her body was heavy and painful, Jae-shin strangely realized that the spirit that had been struggling to suppress her escape had calmed down.
The soul power of the body has disappeared and the body owner has not left. So why?
Where is this strange place? How did she get here?
The day Jae-shin fell was her fifteenth birthday.
The long fingers became chubby and short again, and the voice became younger.
She could see that she had a body that was not much different from the young girl who was holding her.
'Have I turned to this child?'
If the soul entered this body upon death, where is the 'real owner' of the body who will serve it?
Jae-shin gave up her thoughts and reached out her hand, and after several attempts, opened the small window next to her.
"There's a cold wind coming, Lady."
"Leave it alone. It's because I want to feel the cold wind."
The girl cried at Jae-shin's words.
It was clear that the weak owner was worried that the cold wind might make her sick again.
"At least you are free from them."
The eyes of the adults in the family, full of greed, looked at them with deep eyes.
And her brother's cloudy eyes. One of the things that was tied up was gone, so there was no doubt, that it was a leftover business.
"What are you talking about, Lady?"
The room is neat, but she can feel it being damp and old. None of them were better than the shrine where Jae-shin was imprisoned.
Jae-shin smiled brightly as she looked at the cracked wall. The girl had a scared look on her face as if the Young Lady she was serving was crazy.
"Isn't the weather nice today?"
Jae-shin said.
At least it was the most normal thing to come out of her mouth, so the little girl quickly nodded.
It was a bright sunny and moderately cold afternoon.
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