Chapter 141: Standing Alone (3)

Ella silently grasped the paper placed in her hand, and Jinseong, seeing this, left for his room as if satisfied. Finally, when his footsteps faded and he disappeared, Anastasiya was released from her confinement as Ella straightened her posture.

"Sis-ter!"

"Eek!"

Anastasiya burst out and clung to Ella's waist. Then, puffing her cheeks slightly, she began to complain in a sulky voice.

"Why did you erase this work of art~ Art should be preserved, why did you do that! Do you perhaps want to be Khan? Have you decided to erase humanity's brilliant civilization!"

"What's Khan now, eek! Don't touch strange places!"

After playing with Ella until her anger subsided, Anastasiya sneakily snatched the paper from her hand. Then, unfolding it and looking at it, she said to Ella with an incredibly brazen attitude as if saying 'I'm still angry, but since it's preserved, I'll stop here':

"Okay. I'll forgive you for defying your sister."

Ella was about to flare up at those words but sighed instead, seeing Anastasiya's tiny figure. Then, with an extremely tired face, she casually replied "Okay" and went into the room with her, heading straight for the bed and lying down.

And just as she was about to fall asleep, a question flashed through her mind.

"By the way, where did you get that pattern?"

"From a dream~"

Anastasiya smiled brightly at Ella's question.

"A dream? From that place last time...?"

"Yes. That place where this sister and I played happily together~"

Anastasiya answered briefly like that. Then she jumped onto the bed where Ella was lying, using her stomach as a pillow, and continued speaking.

"You remember the movie theater we went to together? Do you remember?"

"Ah, that strange..."

"If you turn left there, you can ride a platypus taxi, you know? If you take that for two stops, there's a house that looks like a crayon, and they sell pictures there~ And there was a picture I'd never seen before! That picture was!"

She spread out the paper she was holding and showed it to Ella.

"This one!"

And hearing this, Ella thought for a moment and then burst out in anger.

"Then this isn't art! Isn't it just something you copied?"

"Oh no! It's art! Dreams are inspiration, and inspiration is art!"

"It's not like you're the only one in that dream world! If there are other people too, isn't this just stealing someone else's dream?"

"They don't come in complete forms anyway~ What I did was just excavate and bring them to light."

Ella sat up abruptly and shouted at Anastasiya.

"This isn't excavation, it's grave robbing! Grave robbing!"

"Grave robbing! How dare you insult your sister like this!"

"At this rate, you'll be going around the world, digging up ruins and stealing artifacts!"

Ella seized the opportunity and lectured Anastasiya.

She went on about how even if it's a dream, one shouldn't infringe on intellectual property rights, that such things could be subject to copyright so they should be used carefully, that one shouldn't graffiti other people's houses, that no matter how cool something looks, it could have some meaning so one should investigate carefully for any bad meanings before doing it, especially if it's not some ruins but the house of someone you feel indebted to or are friendly with, you should consider it even more carefully.

Ella endlessly spouted obvious stories that could appear in an elementary school textbook, and Anastasiya initially responded well saying she understood, but later she kept yawning as if bored. She rolled her eyes around looking for opportunities to escape during the lecture, and wriggled her fingers trying to escape from Ella's grasp holding her hand.

"...No matter how good it looks, you should think two or three times before acting. That's what it means to be a lady. Do you understand?"

But in the end, Anastasiya couldn't escape until Ella's lecture was over.

She had to listen to everything Ella said while her hand was held, and she couldn't refuse Ella's threat to ask Agnes for etiquette education, and she was forced to accept Ella's terribly unpleasant proposal to study Korean etiquette together.

It was a tragedy.

*                     *                     *

"Hmm."

The first thing Jinseong did when he returned to his room was to remove the gold clinging to his body.

He poured the gold moving like a living creature from inside his clothes onto the floor and directed it all towards the bed. Then the gold spilled on the floor moved with a sloshing motion and seeped into various parts of the bed, settling in place by coating the bed frame and the underside of the mattress as if it had always been that way.

When the gold disappeared, Jinseong threw off his clothes and headed towards the wall naked.

Where he was heading, there was a full-length mirror covered with cloth, and the mirror had no decorations at all.

He slightly lifted the cloth and examined his body.

"Hmm."

Jinseong's body was colored in various hues.

Skin color and red were mixed here and there, and only his face was intact.

Let's see.

He lightly stroked the reddened skin with his finger, then he felt a stinging sensation along with a burning heat, and could feel that it was on the verge of festering and producing pus.

First-degree burns, known as sunburn or solar burns, had occurred in various parts of his body.

It was the price of sorcery.

But Jinseong carefully examined the reddened parts as if this level was nothing.

Thanks to the yang energy settled in my body, it ended with just this much. Not bad.

Satisfied that it ended with just this much of a price, he walked to the window, cut off a leaf from a well-growing aloe plant, and rubbed it on the reddened parts.

And when he thought he had applied aloe thoroughly, he picked up a couple of dried salamander tails from the drawer and started chewing them. Then, after swinging the sharp side of the aloe in the air a few times like a blade, he muttered.

"Like attracts like. The shiny part is like mucus, the differently colored part is like scales, and the sharp part at the fingertips is like claws. Only the tail is missing, but this is due to external factors. It truly resembles the form of a salamander, so its nature will also become similar."

Jinseong chewed the salamander tails naked for a long time, a very long time, as if chewing gum. Then his skin, which had turned red from mild burns, returned to its original color, and the wounds caused by using teleportation began to wriggle and heal. And the aloe applied to his body seemed to increase in quantity, thoroughly soaking his entire body.

He checked in the full-length mirror again to confirm that his body was completely healed, then covered the mirror again and started washing his body thoroughly. However, for some reason, the fishy-smelling aloe mucus didn't want to wash off his body, and it was only after washing for a long time that he could be freed from the stickiness and slipperiness.

"Whew."

After cleansing his body, Jinseong took out his smartphone and made a video call.

After a short while, with a click sound, a woman's face appeared.

[ Yes, Divine Lord. ]

It was Rise.

"Yes. I called about the cursed objects."

[ Is that so? ]

Rise smiled, seemingly happy that Jinseong had called.

[ I just finished praying and was taking a round of the shrine. Do you need anything more? I'll go to the sacred storehouse and show you through the smartphone. ]

Behind Rise, the nighttime shrine could be seen.

The shrine, enveloped in darkness, was exuding an eerie atmosphere, and the slightly choppy video due to the distance was creating an atmosphere as if a ghost might jump out at any moment. And at the end of that choppiness, a head began to slowly rise up behind Rise.

The head was showing holes that were gaping from decay, staring straight at the smartphone camera, and as if trying to bewitch the person watching the video, it was spewing disgusting worms from every hole in its face. It was so hideous and bizarre that it seemed like the smell of rotting decay could be sensed even through the video.

Jinseong, seeing this terrible sight, said to Rise:

"It seems you've become friends with the Saetani as well."

[ Yes. It's not very scary anymore. ]

Rise lightly chopped the head of the Saetani peeking out from behind her with the side of her hand, and complained with a slightly troubled expression.

[ But it's too mischievous... That's what I don't like a bit. ]

"It can't be helped since it's a ghost made from a child. However, it will be of great help, so if you prepare some snacks or toys and beings to play with it, you should be able to handle it without much trouble."

[ Yes. ]

Rise smiled with her eyes at Jinseong's words.

It was such a pretty eye smile that one might think this is exactly how a fox would smile when bewitching a person.

[ Narumi is playing with the Saetani instead of me right now. ]

Jinseong recalled Narumi, whom he had placed under Rise.

"Come to think of it, yes. Since you shouldn't check the cursed objects yourself, we should use that child. How is she doing?"

[ Ah, she's sick in bed right now. Her eyes got some burst blood vessels and she caught a cold. So I gave her eye drops and told her to stay warm in a room with purified salt placed in each corner... ]

"Hmm. You did well. Yes, so there's no one to look at the cursed objects, right?"

[ Don't worry. If I go in... ]

"No, that won't do. How could putting you into avoidable pain be related to happiness? I said I would make you happy. So it's better not to even think about such things."

Jinseong lightly reproached Rise, who was saying she would go herself, and gently stroked his chin. Then he quietly closed his eyes, opened them, and said to Rise:

"Yes. Ryosuke, Ryosuke. This works out well. Call that Ryosuke fellow and have him check the storehouse."

Rise's eyes widened at those words.

[ That traitor? ]

"Yes."

[ Will that traitor do such a thing...? ]

Jinseong smiled coldly at her question.

"If his heart has changed, he will come to do it; if he's weighing between me and the Onmyoji, he will come to do it to show loyalty; and even if he has completely betrayed and sided with the Onmyoji, he will come to do it."

Jinseong recalled the picture he had seen in the book.

The picture drawn on white paper that seemed like it would come alive.

A picture that came alive.

Paper that came alive.

That was precisely the shikigami used by Onmyoji.

"Either way, he has his uses."