Spider Web 1
“Lady Dang…”
“Lady Namgung…”
Just as Noona had told me beforehand, they weren’t all that close—each addressing the other by family name alone. Yet friendship had nothing to do with what happened the moment the two women stood side by side facing each other. For a second I thought I might go blind.
Their halos overlapped until it felt as if my eyeballs would burn right out of my skull, and that beauty washed over my vision like cool water. My eyes were living large today.
Or maybe they’re just getting overworked?
If Noona was a cool, unapproachable ice queen beauty, then the young lady standing before us—Namgang Seol—was a spring flower still wet with morning dew, full of life and fluttering charm. Seeing them face each other was like looking at a single perfect painting.
But that’s just a matter of taste. Noona doesn’t fall short in the slightest.
And when I set the two of them side by side for comparison, the very first thought that hit me was that Noona was absolutely not second place. It wasn’t because I held the title of her fiancé. Purely objective judgment: the claim that this young lady was the greatest beauty of the Central Plains and Noona ranked beneath her was something I could never accept.
So I was already thinking the rankings needed a serious adjustment when their greetings continued.
“I heard the story from Eun. That you brought a spiritual medicine… Thanks to you, I can hold a sword again for a while. I don’t know how to thank you enough…”
“Not at all. I’m simply glad it helped.”
The conversation was stiff and distant—nothing like the worried expression Noona had worn when she spoke of Namgang Seol before we met.
Why do both of them give off the vibe of people who don’t have a single friend?
Even I, just watching, felt awkward. Namgung Eun, Seol’s younger sister, seemed to feel the same; she shook her head back and forth.
In the middle of that, Namgang Seol turned her gaze toward me.
“And who is that over there?”
“Ah, this is my fiancé, Wi So-ryong. So-ryong, greet her. This is Lady Namgang Seol of the Namgung Family.”
“It is an honor to meet you. I am Wi So-ryong.”
“My, so you have a fiancé now? A pleasure to meet you, Young Hero Wi. I am Namgang Seol of the Namgung Family.”
“Yes, I’m glad to make your acquaintance.”
“Yes.”
“?”
Does she have no intention of continuing the conversation?
Normally after introductions you’d get the usual polite fluff—Was the journey tiring coming from so far? Though we’ve only just met, you look quite impressive—something, anything. Instead the dialogue just died after that single “Yes.”
Unable to watch any longer, Namgung Eun stepped in with an awkward voice.
“C-congratulations, both of you. Ah, when am I ever going to get a fiancé? We haven’t seen each other in so long—let’s not stand around like this. How about some tea while we talk? I’m curious about so many things. Please tell me both of your stories.”
“I was just getting thirsty, actually. That sounds good, young lady.”
“Ah, see? I knew that was the right suggestion. Then I’ll have the maids prepare tea and some light refreshments. Ahaha…”
Namgung Eun and I exchanged looks that clearly said You’re working hard, too.
After the brief round of greetings, Namgung Eun had people bring simple tea and snacks, and we settled into conversation at the pavilion. Once the story of how Noona and I met—the kind of tale women always love—came to an end, the topic naturally shifted to Lady Namgang Seol herself.
Her younger sister spoke with an expression of pure incomprehension.
“But I really don’t understand it. If it wasn’t Unnie, what exactly did people see? And how would anyone know about a mole in such a private place on Unnie’s body?”
In my previous life I’d been completely obsessed with escape rooms and mystery collabs—they used to call me “Sherlock Fabre”—so I carefully asked a question.
A locked-room mystery like this was exactly the sort of case Sherlock Fabre loved.
“Well… this is a delicate thing to ask, but have you ever washed yourself alone at night in a pond or river or somewhere similar?”
Until now she had been quiet, but the moment I posed the question, three pairs of eyes locked onto me. Namgang Seol’s voice came first.
“You’re thinking someone might have peeped, is that it?”
“Yes. More or less…”
Then Namgung Eun joined in.
“And then they spread the fact that they peeped in order to slander Unnie?”
“That’s usually the most likely explanation.”
“But everyone currently being held in the reception hall was born and raised in the village at the foot of the mountain. None of them would ever badmouth or defame our Namgung Family. That village is basically one family with us.”
“And I have never washed myself outside the house.”
So no one peeped at Namgang Seol’s body, and there aren’t even people who would do such a thing?
The one tiny crack I’d thought might exist had been slammed shut. The deduction couldn’t move forward. Everyone wore the same baffled look—until Noona’s voice cut in, sounding as if she already knew the answer.
“In a situation like this, isn’t there one possibility that’s the most likely of all?”
“The most likely?”
“What could that be?”
Namgang Seol and Namgung Eun both turned to Noona with faces that demanded an explanation. Noona smiled, then spoke in a voice brimming with confidence, almost proudly.
“A ghost.”
“Eh?”
Noona, what are you doing! That’s embarrassing!
Dragons I could somehow accept, but she was suddenly bringing up ghosts. I started seriously worrying that Noona might be getting a little too deep into Eastern fantasy, superstition, and spiritual nonsense. Plenty of seniors in my previous life had warned that the most dangerous thing was a spouse who fell into religion or superstition—it could wreck not just a marriage but an entire household.
Then that thought lasted only a second.
Wait… hang on.
I still had the mother of the little Wukongs inside my robes, and she had already appeared once in a dream after dying. So this wasn’t completely impossible after all. In that dream she had borrowed Noona’s appearance. Looking at it that way, the idea that she might have taken Namgang Seol’s form was actually understandable.
Is Noona a genius?
“It really has to be that, doesn’t it?”
“In this situation, that really is the only thing left.”
“A ghost sounds scary… but I kind of want to see one once.”
Namgang Seol and Namgung Eun both nodded along, agreeing that Noona was right. I asked Namgang Seol another question.
“Then have you recently come into possession of any object, or touched something unusual? Did you perhaps consume the inner core of a spiritual beast?”
From experience, that was the most probable line of inquiry. The mother of the little Wukongs had been able to borrow Noona’s form after Noona ate an inner core; some kind of contact seemed necessary.
Namgang Seol thought carefully, then shook her head.
“I only ever touch the same things and use the same things. Nothing like that comes to mind.”
“Is that so?”
Then what could it be?
The deduction hit another wall. Just then Namgang Seol’s voice rose as if something had suddenly occurred to her.
“Ah! There is one thing I touched recently, and one incident that comes to mind!”
“What is it!?”
“Unnie, you remembered something?”
Interest instantly gathered on her. Under everyone’s eyes, Namgang Seol answered.
“I recently touched an acorn. Ah! And a tree branch as well!”
The expectation that had shot up at the words “I remembered something” instantly collapsed.
Don’t tell me… is Namgang Seol praised as the greatest beauty of the Central Plains because of airhead charm?
If that were true, Noona’s ranking adjustment was going to be impossible. An intelligent Noona versus an airheaded beauty Namgang Seol—Noona would lose for sure. That vacant cuteness was a high-score position that triggered every man’s protective instinct.
I was still struggling with how to respond when she finally offered the first genuinely suspicious detail of the entire conversation.
“Ah! And when I was training alone at night, I felt someone’s presence. I went to check, but there was nothing there!”
“You felt someone’s presence, Unnie?”
“Yes. I clearly felt a presence, went over, and no one was there. At first I thought it was you following me. So I just assumed I’d become too sensitive and didn’t pay it much mind afterward. But thinking back, it happened every single time I trained. The feeling that someone was watching me. Yes. That’s exactly what it was.”
“That certainly does sound suspicious.”
Right then the outside grew noisy. A maid rushed in and reported to Namgang Seol.
“Young Miss! I have something to tell you…”
“Does it have to do with the commotion outside?”
“Yes, Young Miss.”
The maid whispered something into Namgang Seol’s ear. The moment the report finished, Namgang Seol slapped the pavilion floor with a sharp sound and shot to her feet.
—Tak!
“What is it, Unnie?”
“What happened, Lady Namgung?”
“After a few quiet days, another villager has gone missing. The warriors have already left the estate to help search for the missing person.”
“Really!?”
The story the maid delivered was that the disappearances—which had stopped around the time Namgang Seol was locked in closed-door training—had started again. Namgang Seol stroked the peony-shaped lizard abuse-and-murder scar stamped on the back of her hand, then shouted with a face full of rage.
“Looks like I’ll have to catch that ghost myself and repay the grudge of the chastity that was thrown to the ground on my land! The grudge of this Water Palace Master!”
Namgung Eun nearly jumped out of her skin. After all, Unnie had already snuck out once and gotten a proper taste of how bad things could get—yet here she was implying she would sneak out again.
“Unnie, what exactly are you planning!? If you go out alone again in secret and get caught, it’ll be a real disaster!”
Namgang Seol smiled as she answered.
“This time we’ll all go together, so it’ll be fine.”
“All of us?”
Namgung Eun blinked at the words “all of us.” For the first time since meeting us, Namgang Seol smiled—looking straight at Noona and me.
“Will the two of you help me?”
I had planned to quietly turn around and go home, yet somehow it felt like we were about to get dragged into an incident. Noona and I exchanged panicked glances. Namgang Seol pulled something from her sash and held it out.
“What’s this?”
What she offered looked similar to a traditional norigae ornament. It was a norigae made of blue and red knots, and in answer to our question she explained.
“It’s a norigae made of knots. The decoration in the center is carved from ice jade. It can also be split in half like this. I don’t know why you’re looking for ice jade, but if you need something easy to carry around, this wouldn’t be bad either.
It could even serve as a token of affection between the two of you. How about it? If you help me, I’ll give you this.”
Honestly, the pearl the size of a billiard ball I’d exchanged with the Namgung Family Head wasn’t bad, but when it came to portability it left something to be desired. If I was going to carry the little lizards around, a norigae was far more convenient.
So I answered Namgang Seol. A woman’s chastity was her honor and her life; reclaiming it was only right.
“It is absolutely not because I covet that ice jade. This is a matter concerning a woman’s chastity, so of course we must help. Wouldn’t you agree, Lady Hwa-eun?”
I was a philanthropist by nature, after all. And the grudge of a lizard that had been abused by a ghost and ground up in a mortar—shouldn’t this Fabre be the one to settle that score?
A crescent moon half-hidden by clouds; a truly pitch-dark night. Thankfully I had learned how to enhance my eyesight—without that, we would have been in for a rough time.
Namgang Seol led us in a completely different direction from the one the warriors had taken for their search. From behind came Namgung Eun’s whining voice as she trailed after us.
“Unnie, if I get caught this time I’m definitely locked in the closed-door chamber. No, ‘definitely’ doesn’t cover it—I’ll be in there for at least half a year.
Young Hero Wi, we were supposed to stop Unnie together, but how could you fall head over heels for ice jade like that! I thought we had something in common and you’d help me rein her in!”
“I already told you, young lady. It’s not because I covet the ice jade. It’s because of Lady Namgang Seol’s precious chastity…”
“Ah! I don’t care! What am I supposed to do…”
The reason Namgung Eun was whining so much was not only that she had failed to stop her sister and was now tagging along; she had also stolen the sword that had belonged to Namgang Seol’s grandfather—the one displayed in one wing of the Family Head’s hall—and brought it out with them.
It was said to be a sword imbued with the energy of Pasa Hyeonjeong—Dispelling Evil and Revealing the Righteous. Perfect for catching ghosts, which was why Namgang Seol had ordered her to take it. And that wasn’t all. She was also the one who had buttered up the warriors on duty and made them keep their mouths shut. If they got caught, she would almost certainly be scolded even more severely than Namgang Seol.
Apparently she was the type who simply couldn’t refuse when her older sister asked for something. The kind who whined the whole way yet still did everything that was asked of her.
“Eun-ah, we have guests. Don’t act rashly.”
“How is this not acting rashly already!?”
“Eun, at this rate every ghost is going to run away.”
“Haa…”
Under the scolding of both Noona and Namgang Seol, Namgung Eun finally clamped her mouth shut. Soon we arrived at a small eastern hill carpeted with fallen petals. Namgang Seol led us to the boundary where the hill met the forest below.
Beyond the dark tree line, where you could barely see an inch in front of your face.
“Here?”
“Yes. It was definitely around here.”
“Whether it’s a ghost or something else, there might be traces. Let’s search the area carefully first.”
“Understood.”
We still had no idea what we were dealing with, but we decided to look for signs first. We were scanning the surroundings and the ground for any possible trace when the air around us began to grow hazy. Before long a dense fog rolled in.
And then the fog thickened until it was opaque. I looked around in alarm, but none of my companions were visible.
“Lady Hwa-eun? Lady Namgang Seol? Lady Namgung Eun?”
I called the other three by name. No answer.
Did we all get separated in the fog?
It might be dangerous; I needed to gather everyone again. Just as I carefully took a step, I felt resistance around my ankle. I bent down, took hold of whatever had caught me, and saw a thin, elastic strand of thread.
When I gently pulled, a long thread stretching deep into the forest came into view.
“This is…?”
And then I knew exactly what the thread was. I had seen it countless times in my previous life.
This is a spiderweb, isn’t it?
It was thicker than ordinary spider silk, but there was no mistaking it. If the thread was this thick, just how big was the spider that had spun it?
That was when it happened.
—Kyaaak!
A scream rang out from deeper in the forest.