Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Enlightenment 2
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...
12th. New moon unrest. The entire city engulfed in darkness.
They seized the chance during the winter solstice night when my attention was scattered. But they overlooked the fact that the endless night bolsters my power as well.
I struggled a bit, but nudged the earth's axis ever so slightly to hasten the dawn. With the solstice no longer a solstice, their power scattered and faded away.
5th. Government officials visited the Ghost Bridge Society. Their arrogance was as infuriating as ever. It's hardly unusual for fools oblivious to their own insignificance—like mere specks of dust—to act that way.
They've finally caught on to what happened that winter solstice night and came demanding answers. What could I possibly tell them? They should count their blessings that I didn't toss the lot of them to Mina as feed.
They kept throwing tantrums about needing to alter the city's residents' memories from that day, so I opened the warehouse and told them to grab whatever they needed. At least they left with some semblance of manners. Lucky them.
19th. The Taebaek Spirit slumbers at Enlightenment Temple.
Pay close attention.
When she came to her senses, it was well past 11 a.m. Mina looked bored out of her mind but was still sitting beside her. Does this girl not have any friends?
"Fun?"
"Hmm..."
It was a loaded question implying what could possibly be entertaining about this after an hour of staring at it. Under normal circumstances, Ibi would have agreed.
She occasionally read novels, but this wasn't even a story. Aside from the occasional snide remark popping up, it was just dry records.
"It's fun. Yeah."
But the events it covered were riveting. Where else could you find logs of such bizarre incidents? Before she knew it, Ibi had finished the entire notebook. Without pause, she grabbed a fresh one.
This one felt thicker than the last. It was more like a scrapbook than a log.
Clippings of strange, unsolved newspaper stories were pasted in, annotated with opinions or notes on their investigative value.
The penned notes carried even more cynicism than the previous book. There were doodled asides, too, like asides born of boredom—claims of knowing the Zodiac Killer's identity or warnings that Seonghwa New City was truly dangerous.
She read about a third of it before closing it. She sat there blankly for a moment, then pulled a blank sheet from the file cabinet. She began scribbling furiously on it with a pen.
"What's that? The love letter from before."
Mina, who'd been watching from the side, spoke up. Sure enough, what Ibi was jotting down from memory was Haewon's letter she'd snuck a peek at not long ago.
Ibi fancied herself an aspiring actress. She might not excel at much, but her memory was trained. Of course, she couldn't recall the lightning-quick read perfectly word-for-word, but she could approximate it pretty well.
"Why are you writing this down?"
"Something's nagging at me, like it's on the tip of my tongue. It's easier to spot connections if I have the whole thing laid out."
Once she'd transcribed the full contents, Ibi reopened the first notebook. She quickly scanned from the beginning, cross-referencing the letter.
Having read it once already, it didn't take long. Her fingertip, hovering near her lips, tapped a corner of the page.
19th. The Taebaek Spirit slumbers at Enlightenment Temple.
Pay close attention.
Her eyes flicked to the matching phrase in the freshly written letter.
So, the lives of the women my lord cherished besides me... I had no choice but to claim them a little early. I gathered them into Taebaek's embrace.
"......"
"Something wrong?"
"Not wrong, exactly, but..."
Ibi tapped the paper with her pen. She turned to Mina and held out the sheets.
"Take a look. Anything ring a bell?"
But Mina, clearly uninterested, only pretended to skim before mumbling a vague reply.
"Watashi wa Nihonjin."
I'll lose if we fight, so I'll hold back.
"At least pretend to look properly. See here? 'Taebaek' shows up in both. There has to be a connection."
"No clue. Taebaek? Isn't that a mountain?"
She didn't seem to be lying, even if she lacked effort. Ibi sighed and began tidying her spot. Crumpling the transcribed letter, she said,
"Aren't you being a little too callous? You might not get it, but this isn't some silly love letter. It's miles from that. It'd be a relief if it was just a dumb prank, but remember Haewon oppa's face? He looked wrecked."
"What does that have to do with me?"
"What?"
Ibi stared in disbelief, but Mina responded with utter nonchalance.
"If stray dogs roaming the streets starve to death or get eaten by predators, would you grieve?"
"What kind of talk is that?"
Ibi didn't grasp the meaning at first, but soon pieced it together and felt absurd. At the same time, she realized she'd misinterpreted Mina's initial reaction to the letter.
Mina hadn't been oblivious to its ominous vibe. She'd simply never cared whether Haewon ended up in hot water.
"You're calling Haewon oppa a stray dog? Like you'd shrug if some psycho girl or deranged ghost devoured him? Wasn't he your friend?"
"Friend? You could see it that way, I suppose."
"What kind of response is that?"
"No, unnie, you're the one who's misunderstanding. I'm a yokai. We're different species from the start. We can mingle with humans, blend in pretty well even, but that doesn't change the fundamental difference."
Ibi was at a loss for words. It struck her that this was the first time she'd heard Mina speak at such length, so coherently.
"You can get close to stray dogs, but you can't grieve every time one dies in an accident, right? Sure, humans might grow fond of them. But it's not fair to call someone cold-blooded just for not mourning them."
"So... you see me that way too? Like a stray dog, just another beast?"
"Feel free to think of me as the beast if that's easier. The point is, we're different. Plenty different. Yokai are closer to the wild than humans, so maybe I'm more beastly after all. Would a stray dog really mourn that deeply if the person who fed it a few times suddenly died?"
"......"
Ibi decided to head out of the warehouse. She packed up her reading materials and stepped into the hallway. Mina followed alongside.
As they descended the ladder, Ibi muttered inwardly,
I don't know about that. I hate it. I've never formed a bond like that with anyone I've shared face-to-face moments and emotions with.
She stepped out of the shop and locked the door. Tomorrow, they wouldn't open—Aerin took three days off once a month, closing shop during that time. Tomorrow was the day.
"Wanna hit karaoke?"
As if those harsh words had never been spoken, Mina asked in an innocent tone. Ibi replied curtly.
"Feel like hanging with a beast? Feels like a trip to the zoo?"
"Nah. Feels like karaoke."
Too exhausted to argue further, Ibi just shot her a glare.
"It's late."
"Not even noon yet."
"It is late."
"Thirty minutes."
"Tired. Next time."
She strode off ahead of the sulking Mina. After a few steps with no pursuit, she glanced back. Mina had already vanished.
"Am I crazy, or is she?"
In situations like this, the world's usually the crazy one.
Early September nights already carried a sharp chill. Woncheon City, true to its small-town nature, felt deserted outside developed areas. Walking the empty night streets, Ibi found her hometown scenery downright spooky—a far cry from her calm composure inside the ghost warehouse moments ago.
Whatever her inner thoughts, she kept her eyes on the road and plodded along until something made her look up. She realized the path to the hills lay right ahead.
It barely qualified as a mountain—just the local "back hill," more like a mound. Folks around here jogged it for exercise. It was familiar to Ibi too.
And atop that hill sat a temple. Ibi recalled the line from Nati's journal.
To her, well-acquainted with the temple on the hill, those three hanja characters leaped out immediately.
Enlightenment Temple: The Taebaek Spirit slumbers there.
Enlightenment Temple.
It was the name of the temple on the hill.
Ibi hesitated. It'd be a lie to say she wasn't tempted to pop in and poke around. But investigate what, exactly?
Taebaek was a common hanja combo. As Mina said, it could mean the mountain, or even a city name. Just because two documents used the same term didn't prove they meant the identical thing. A little farther down this road, she'd even pass apartments named Taebaek.
And even if she visited the temple, what would she ask? Grab a monk and blurt, "What's the Taebaek Spirit?"
"......"
Ibi shook her head. She could just ask Nati—he'd written it, after all. He hadn't shown his face at Flower Mugwort Tea House in ages, but that could mean he was due back soon.
As she passed the hill path entrance and hurried homeward with that thought, a shadow caught her eye.
Just a passerby. Nothing to dwell on. But something about the figure drew her gaze. The silhouette felt familiar.
She'd only glimpsed it between buildings, and with streetlights as the sole illumination, she couldn't make out the face.
"Haewon oppa?"
It looked uncannily like Haewon.