The Dragon Palace (1)
Kongji had given me five orbs in all, each one shining a different color. The waters around us seethed with the energy of Water; the wooden ship and its cargo ran thick with Wood; metal ritual vessels and swords carried Metal; and Fire was there too, in the flames consuming everything they touched.
Of the Five Elements, only one was missing from this place. I drew the yellow orb—the one that meant Earth—from among the Five-Colored Orbs and threw it.
The yellow orb landed amidships, and soil began to billow out of it in rolling waves. At first it was no more than a handful of sand slipping through one's fingers, but the volume swelled with every passing moment until a small hill had formed. Then the mound of earth scattered as if it possessed a will of its own, snatching up the people still under the water ghosts' thrall and wrapping them in living soil.
If the victims keep piling up, the water ghosts will only grow stronger.
Whether those people had done wrong or not, I had to keep them alive first.
The water ghosts shrieked at the banquet of earth erupting from the heart of the sea and strained with everything they had to smash the orb. But how could a mass of vengeful spirits, denied even the afterlife, lay a hand on something from the heavens? The orb, which looked like nothing more than a glass bead, would not break.
Meanwhile, I called for Cheong-i.
"Cheong! This is our chance. When I give the signal—"
"Hic. Yeees?"
"...Just how much did you drink? I told you to have a little, not to make a night of it."
"Well, hic. I only had about one jade cup..."
A jade cup wouldn't even fill a soju glass. And the liquor she'd presumably been drinking wasn't particularly strong, either.
...Is Cheong-i just that much of a lightweight?
But that wasn't what mattered right now.
"When that soil comes for you, stay still. Inside the sphere it forms, you'll be able to get out of here safely. I had you drink so the fire in your system would rise, just in case."
"...Get out of here?"
At my words, Cheong-i's eyes—which had gone pleasantly unfocused—sharpened just a little. I nodded.
"Master Nam meant to offer you as a sacrifice, so the water ghosts are likely to come after you. You need to get out of here now."
"...Then what about you, Scholar?"
"I'll get out when the moment's right. Don't worry."
"That's a lie."
"...Hm?"
The look she gave me, her face faintly flushed, was calmer than I'd expected.
"...Are you drunk, or just pretending?"
"I was drunk. Then I sobered up. ...Hic."
Drunk or not drunk? I couldn't tell which she was.
But one thing was certain.
"I'm not leaving you behind, Scholar. You'd better know that!"
"...But—"
"A future wife has to look after her future husband, after all..."
"What did you just say?"
"Hic. Yeees?"
"...Nothing. Then... wait just a little. I'll make us an opening."
I hadn't expected Cheong-i to refuse my plan, but it hardly mattered. I had a second one ready. And if I thought about the original story, this might even be the path that fit.
"H-huuuh! Ghosts!!"
"Aaaaagh!"
They're coming to.
Perhaps it was the heavenly Earth energy suppressing the water ghosts—a few of the people had regained their senses. I shouted to them.
"Weave the unburnt scraps of wood into rafts and get out of here! Pack the soil onto the rafts and pile it along the edges like salt—that's how you'll leave the water ghosts' domain safely!"
"Y-yes, sir!!"
They carried out my instructions perfectly, as if they'd forgotten everything that had happened before they lost consciousness. Meanwhile, I'd already passed word to Cheong-i, who was still swaying on her feet.
Creak. Creak. Creak.
I dipped my sword in oil, set the blade alight, and swung it toward the creature, pulling every eye toward me.
KRA-KOOM!
Dodging the water ghosts' attacks on a burning, sinking ship was no small feat. Time and again I nearly fell into their grasp, and time and again I barely slipped free. Then, at a certain moment, I saw that Cheong-i had carried out my instructions perfectly, and I smiled. I picked up something that had been rolling across the deck, looked at the water ghost now thoroughly enraged at me, and spoke.
"You've had a taste of the orb Heaven sent down. Most of the people have already escaped this place."
Creak. Creak.
"And... I still have four orbs left."
With that, I threw something at the water ghost. While it convulsed, mistaking the object for another of the Five-Colored Orbs, I slipped into the hole Cheong-i had prepared in the soil.
A hole in the ocean? There was one, as it happened. The black hair with which the water ghosts had blanketed the surface. I'd had Cheong-i scatter soil over it to make a gap we could dive through.
"Cheong, hold your breath as long as you can!"
"Yeees! Hup!"
Splash!
While the creature was still fixed on the Five-Colored Orbs, Cheong-i and I kept diving deeper and deeper. As deep as we could go—and when I started to fall behind, Cheong-i helped me along. Then, in the distance, a shriek went up and the hair began to writhe.
It had finally figured it out. What I'd thrown wasn't a Five-Colored Orb at all, but an ordinary piece of glasswork Master Nam had been taking to sell in the Central Plains.
The moment it realized, it came after the two of us. At this rate, we'd be torn apart and absorbed in waters that were, for all intents and purposes, the water ghosts' own domain.
...If we had no other way out, that is.
But just before the creature caught on, I'd found what I'd been searching for.
Even if the original story has changed, there's a reason this place is called Indangsu—and a reason Cheong-i was fated to fall here.
That reason was simple.
There was a path to the Dragon Palace.
RUMMMMMBLE!!
Not far off, a strange current was swirling. And from that current flowed a mystical energy I'd only ever felt from the Five-Colored Orbs.
No matter how warped the original story had become, the things at its heart always remained. I'd believed that, and I'd come into Indangsu with Cheong-i—and at last, I'd found the current that flowed to the Dragon Palace.
But there was a problem.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
"...!!"
In the scramble, Cheong-i had been helping me and hadn't been able to breathe properly. If we could just reach the current, that mystical energy would surely let us breathe. But Cheong-i didn't look like she could make it that far.
Watching her eyes slowly close, I made my decision.
A moment later, I'd evaded the water ghosts and the two of us were in the current. In an instant it wrapped around us and carried us endlessly into the deep, and after a stretch of time I couldn't measure, we finally reached the bottom.
"...Cough, cough!"
"...You're awake?"
"This place... wait. D-did we... die? Is this the afterlife...? Together with you, Scholar...?"
"What kind of nonsense is that? We're alive."
But Cheong-i didn't seem to believe me.
"But I felt it...! My breath ran out completely, and I regretted it—that I wouldn't be able to help you anymore, that I'd leave without doing more for my father...!"
"Which is why I saved you when you ran out of air, and brought you here."
"This is... the bottom of the sea... How?"
"You don't... need to know that."
I turned my head, avoiding her eyes. If I came out with it, she might hold it against me. I changed the subject quickly.
"More importantly, Cheong—brace yourself. The place we've come to is one no ordinary human should ever reach."
"What? What do you mean... wait?"
Cheong-i followed my gaze, then clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. Where our eyes met... a vast traditional palace stood.
It was broader than Gyeongbokgung Palace, and rose dozens of stories high. A structure like that, here in the deep sea, could not possibly be the work of human hands.
"S-Scholar, this is..."
"The Dragon Palace, I'd wager."
"Eek...!"
But something was wrong.
The Dragon Palace I'd imagined was not this dark, this steeped in silence. I'd pictured something magnificent—every manner of sea creature bustling about as the Dragon King's retainers. But in this palace, where even sunlight did not reach, there was nothing that could be called light, and not a single living thing moved.
It was quiet enough to raise the hair on my neck.
Something's off.
"Cheong, don't let go of my hand. The atmosphere here is... strange."
No matter how powerful the water ghosts were, they couldn't have done anything to the Dragon King, guardian of the sea. Still, if something unexpected happened, I intended to use the Five-Colored Orbs or whatever else it took to get us out—so I gripped Cheong-i's hand tight.
If I lost her here, it would be as good as killing her with my own hands.
No gatekeepers in the shape of fish or turtles barred our way with spears. We slipped into the Dragon Palace without a hitch.
And the sight that greeted us left us speechless.
"...This is the Dragon Palace?"
"But it looks so dilapidated... as if no one has tended it in years..."
She was right. It had such a thoroughly sinister air that no one could have been blamed for taking it for a ruin.
Sensing that something was wrong, I was about to leave the palace when—
"Hm? Have humans truly set foot in the Dragon Palace? Unbelievable!"
A voice of wonder rose from one corner of the palace, and someone appeared.
I kept my grip on an orb, wariness intact, and got a clear look at whoever it was.
A being of the heavens.
I knew it the instant I saw him. Robes of a fabric that water could not wet, a cloth never seen on earthly soil; a long beard; a kindly smile. By every measure, he was an immortal stepped straight out of the old tales.
Which only deepened my suspicion.
Where had the Dragon King and his retainers gone—and what was a celestial immortal doing here?