Along the Lifespan Cord
Here was the strange truth about these living souls: although they still lived, a lifespan cord remained attached to them—and, paradoxically, precisely because they were "living humans," they could not see their own cord.
Humans can only see their lifespan cord after they've become one of the dead. Just like how Ru-hwa saw hers only after she died.
It only made sense, really. If the living could see their own cords, the world would descend into chaos.
In any case, these living souls couldn't see their cords because they weren't among the dead—and because they couldn't see their cords, they ended up unable to return to the world of the living despite being perfectly alive, becoming lost children of the underworld.
I, on the other hand, am a special case—my cord snaps clean off entirely.
In the past, fainting hadn't severed my cord. So long as someone treated my body, I could find my own way back from the underworld.
These days, though, whenever I fell into the Samdocheon, my cord snapped right through.
At that point, you'd have to call me dead, honestly.
If I were an ordinary human—or even a goddess, so long as my father weren't King Yama—I would have become one of the dead the very first time my cord snapped.
But I was King Yama's only daughter, and that was the reason I kept coming back to life even then.
Every single time, Father would wander the demon realm beyond Yeomraguk searching for the severed end of my lifespan cord and reattach it himself.
And then he would come collect me from the banks of the Samdocheon.
The reason it takes him longer and longer…… is that every time the cord snaps and gets rejoined, it grows thinner and weaker. Harder to find, harder to mend.
The day Father's power can no longer reattach my cord will be the day I truly die.
Perhaps next time?
……Well, either way, I should still have plenty of time. I'm not moving my original body around, so I'll hold out longer yet.
Sitting beside the Consort, I beckoned to Seol Deunghwa.
"Come here and try. Use the method I taught you."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Seol Deunghwa sat down carefully beside me, took out her jar of jingmyeonjusa—the vermilion pigment used for talismans—and drew a seal on both her palms.
Then, cupping one palm around her eye like a telescope, she peered at the Consort.
"……I can see it!"
"Can you see the cord clearly? Point it out."
"Yes, the cord is plain as day. It leads off this way."
"That's right. You've practiced hard."
"The writing on the cord is still too blurred to read, though……"
"You'd need at least a minor possession to see that far. For your purposes, this is more than enough."
I had taught Seol Deunghwa two things: a method of self-harm that delivered a shock enough to send the soul flying to the underworld while leaving no lingering damage to the body, and a way to see the lifespan cord.
With those, after she took her revenge on the Emperor, she could play dead and then revive herself.
"When you wake up in the underworld later, forget the jingmyeonjusa. Dip your fingers in the waters of the Samdocheon to draw your seal instead."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Now then, let's prepare to go fetch the Consort."
I handed Seol Deunghwa a golden cord I'd brought from the treasury in advance—a rope that would serve as a warding barrier to keep out intruders.
It would be so nice if I could lay a barrier myself.
I knew better than anyone that I couldn't use my divine power freely, which was why I had no choice but to rely on tools like this.
While Seol Deunghwa hung the golden cord around the corners of the folding screen and ringed the area, I took out the Octal Bell Wand.
Unlike Seol Deunghwa, I didn't need any elaborate method—I could simply see the lifespan cord, and as Princess Cheonmyeong I had the authority. All I had to do was enter the underworld, find the Consort, and bring her out.
The question was how to get in.
I have to enter in my physical body to exercise my authority as Princess Cheonmyeong, so the self-harm method is out.
The technique I'd taught Seol Deunghwa was one I'd invented long ago, back in my careless childhood days, when I hated being in pain and would rather retreat to the less painful underworld instead.
Back then, I'd thought that was acceptable.
It was only after I realized I was driving nails into my parents' hearts that I swore never to use it again, no matter how hard things got.
So it has to be the gate of the underworld after all.
Opening the gate near the Consort would make it easy to follow her lifespan cord to wherever her living soul lingered.
It would have been far more convenient to bring the Consort somewhere a gate was already open—but Father would never permit that.
Well, I've prepared everything anyway.
That was exactly why I'd cleared the maids out of the hall, set up the folding screen, and laid down the barrier of golden cord.
I'd chosen the last night of the lunar month, too—when the ambient yin energy runs deep, an opened gate to the underworld leaves less of a trace.
It would be so much easier with Ansi's help. She can open a passage as simply as the reapers do.
The only catch was that her passage fits exactly one person.
Phoenixes are divine beasts that can pass freely between Heaven, the mortal world, and the underworld.
But they can only travel alone—which was why I'd already sent her ahead to the underworld.
If I needed to search for the Consort within the realm, flying with Ansi would be far faster.
I arranged the materials Seol Deunghwa and I had gathered on the floor and drew the seal with the jingmyeonjusa.
This really is a tedious business. If I could just use my divine power, a single incantation would do the trick.
Truthfully, there was a far simpler way to reach the underworld.
Forget the seals and the ritual—you just pick one of the bells on the Octal Bell Wand and shake it. Done.
Four of those bells are connected to the underworld!
The problem was that I was currently a runaway.
Slipping things out of the Bandowon or the Sangra Palace treasury was fine—no one stood guard over them day and night—but the other bells weren't like that.
The bell leading straight to Yeomra Palace where Father lives is obviously out. The one linked to my private palace in the underworld would get me caught by the fairies. And the remaining two are awkward to use right now for their own reasons.
Nothing for it, I suppose.
I drew the seal that gathered yin energy, arranged objects thick with yin or tied to death according to the formation, then carefully poured water into the center.
Instead of spreading wide, the water pooled in a round, still circle at the heart of the seal. Then, as the pooled water darkened to black, the seal began to glow faintly.
"There it is."
"If I step into that water, will it really be the Samdocheon?"
"Yes."
With an expression caught between wonder and fear, Seol Deunghwa gazed at the gate to the underworld.
I set my shoes aside and slipped on the Vermilion Bird Robe from the Octal Bell Wand.
It was the one I'd worn at my wedding—water wouldn't soak into it, and it held its own warmth, making it perfect for entering a river.
"I'll be off."
"Return safely, Your Highness."
"Don't worry about me—worry about yourself. Nothing will likely happen, but if anything does, do exactly as we agreed."
"Yes. And please be careful yourself, Princess."
Leaving Seol Deunghwa's farewell behind me, I set my foot into the water pooled at the center of the seal.
There was no bottom where a bottom should be. As my legs slid in, I felt the current of the river itself.
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and plunged straight into the water.
The cold, breath-stealing river wrapped around my body with terrible familiarity.
When I opened my eyes, I was under black water.
Still, thanks to the Vermilion Bird Robe, it's not so cold.
The trailing hem was a nuisance, but the robe pushed the water aside, which actually made swimming easier.
And it's definitely easier to swim in this body.
Before, it had been exhausting even as a soul with dulled senses, but now, in this healthy body, swimming came easily.
There it is…… the lifespan cord.
The gate I'd entered through lay within the Samdocheon itself and was faint enough that it barely showed—but the Consort's cord glowed white, unmistakably bright.
Following the pale cord, I swam upward toward the surface.
"Hoo……"
I lifted only my head above the water and took a small breath.
Normally I could come and go with my head held high, since I was coming home—but now I had to be careful. If a reaper caught me here, of all places, that would be a disaster.
A ferry.
In the distance, a few ferryboats were crossing the river. They were far away; I didn't think I'd been spotted.
Careful, careful……
The Consort's lifespan cord led, unexpectedly, not into the demon realm but toward Yeomraguk.
A living soul shouldn't have been able to enter Yeomraguk—was she wandering somewhere near its borders?
I sat down on a sandbar along the riverbank to rest a moment.
Ansi promised to come, so I'll wait for her.
Ansi was a divine beast bound to me, so she could roughly sense my location wherever I went.
It was thanks to that that she always found me, even when I abruptly died and dropped into the Samdocheon.
As I sat catching my breath, a whole swarm of ferryboats suddenly appeared on the far side of the Samdocheon.
Ugh, the reapers are swarming in all at once again. When is the underworld's traffic jam ever going to clear?
If that many came this way, they'd notice me here too.
Silver hair that stands out on its own, plus a flashy Vermilion Bird Robe on top of it…… No, this won't do.
I rose quietly and moved along the direction the lifespan cord ran.
Wait—this cord is headed somewhere strange, isn't it?
It ought to have started curving by now, but somehow the cord ran dead straight.
If I followed it this way, straight on, it led to Yeomra Palace—where Father was.
Oh, don't tell me she's behind Yeomraguk? That's a long way.
It seemed I'd have to go around along the realm's outer wall.
There's no way I can walk that. I'll have to fly with Ansi.
Letting out a long sigh, I hid myself among the tall red reeds growing along the sandbar.
I'll follow the wall for now, then find a good hiding spot and wait for Ansi.
As I crept along, parting the reeds, strangely jutting rocks came into view. A perfect place to hide.
I'll just slip in between those.
But when I squeezed through a gap in the rocks, I found a most unexpected fellow guest.
"Waaugh! Who—"
"Kyaaak!"
Goodness, that startled me!
When I calmed down and looked again—it was a reaper of the underworld.
Empty liquor bottles lay strewn all around him, so he'd apparently been sneaking off somewhere hidden to drink and shirk his duties.
Lucky me. There's nothing for it—I'll just have to pretend to be a baby shaman who wandered into the underworld alive.
Looking at the reaper's ruddy, bleary face, he seemed well into his cups. If I played it right, I could probably fool my way past him.
But why did his face look so familiar?
"What's a living human doing in a place like—wait a moment."
The reaper, who had been raking me up and down with narrowed eyes, suddenly jabbed a finger at me.
"You! It's you! Hic—the little brat with the lifespan cord from back then! Do you have any idea how much hell I went through because of you! Hic!"
Between the fury in his shouting and the hiccups bursting through his drunkenness, memory finally came flooding back.
That's him—the one who tried to strike Ru-hwa and got caught by me instead!
Of all the reapers in all the underworld, to run into him again—while wearing Ru-hwa's body, no less!