Chapter 7
Two days ago, Lee Serin had woken up from sleep due to a strange feeling. The feeling was like all the hair on her body detecting something alien and rising, or as if organs related to instinct had detected a threat and awakened. It was also like the strange sense of discomfort one felt from a gentle breeze coming from somewhere despite having closed the door before sleeping.
At that moment, Lee Serin opened her eyes wide and got out of bed, and the demon whispered in her ear.
[Some kind of ritual is being performed.]
The demon, in the form of a red camel, carried her and moved silently. Like treading lightly on desert sand, the demon's hooves sank into the ground but left no trace or sound.
And where they arrived was...
[Isn't this the room where your bug-loving brother stays?]
Don't say it like that... It's weird...
It was in front of the room of her brother, or rather, the man with whom she had a strange relationship of living as family until adulthood despite having no blood relation, due to special circumstances. Park Jinseong's room.
[Then how should I say it? Should I speak like your sister? If it were your sister, yes. She would probably express it as something like 'non-blood-related cohabiting housemate not on the family register'.]
That sounds even weirder when you say it like that...
The demon and Lee Serin bickered in front of the door without any tension. The camel, with its silver hooves deeply embedded in the floor, grinned widely and continued to tease Lee Serin, while Lee Serin glanced at it slightly but went along with all the demon's words.
[Hahaha, I just repeated what your sister said, but you're only complaining to me.]
She's not my older sister. She's my younger sister...
[Didn't she set foot in the world first, making her the older sister?]
I yielded in the womb. Out of the generosity of an older sister...
[Haha, I don't understand how these twins always go back and forth between upper and lower. Whether demon or human, once they're twins, they all claim to be the firstborn... Even that fallen angel I know tried his hardest to stand in line above his older brother.]
The camel laughed silently and lifted its foot to point at the doorknob.
[Now, my contractor. My adorable contractor who looked into the past to determine the order of birth. Here before your eyes is a secret for you who can't resist curiosity.]
I-I couldn't help being curious...
[I'm not criticizing. Isn't the lovable thing about humans how they poke around here and there out of curiosity to uncover secrets? I too find such behavior endearing, as finding secrets is my hobby.]
Uh, yeah. It's normal for people to want to know if there's a secret... This is normal...
Gulp.
Lee Serin unconsciously reached for the doorknob but then hesitated.
But... I'm a bit hesitant about seeing Oppa's secret...
No matter how curious she was and how much she needed to solve mysteries to feel satisfied, for some reason, the idea of secretly peeking into Jinseong's room, with whom she had an awkward relationship, gave her a strange sense of guilt. While thinking that it might be okay for family members to look into each other's rooms, the thought that it might be a crime to voyeur on a complete stranger since they weren't blood-related also swirled in her mind.
Especially considering that after this year, they would live independently and see each other less often, this feeling intensified.
[That's why you should look now. I don't know what kind of ritual it is, but if you don't see it now and let it pass...]
W-who knows... When, when I’ll get to see it?
[That's right. He might not perform rituals in the future, and even if another chance comes by coincidence later, it's likely to be a different ritual. Moreover, if your brother significantly improves his skills as a sorcerer, he might prepare against someone peeking.]
B-but...
[And it becomes even more so after independence. Do you think your brother, now a stranger, would come to this mansion to perform rituals? He will surely perform rituals in his own place, do you think you'll be able to see that?]
In the end, Lee Serin couldn't resist the demon's whispers.
No, as if she never intended to resist in the first place, she naturally grabbed the doorknob.
She pretended to give in, throwing away the guilt rising in a corner of her heart, and slightly opened the door, giving in to curiosity.
With the demon's power concealing their presence, the door opened without a sound, and when the gap widened just enough to see the scene inside the room, Lee Serin and the demon put their eyes to it and looked inside.
Ugh!
But the moment she brought her face close to peek, Lee Serin almost let out an unbearable groan.
What is this smell?
It smelled like grilling meat, or like burning hair. There was also the scent of long-decayed meat, and a sour smell mixed with the stench of sewage. It was an intense smell that felt like it was slicing the mucous membranes in her nose with needles and knives.
[Huh, what on earth is he doing to create such a smell? It's a far worse smell than the cauldron of a witch intoxicated with ergot.]
The smell is too strong. But... Why didn't this smell come out outside?
[...Hmm.]
Lee Serin, suffering from the stench and holding her nose, grumbled complaints. But the demon behind her, as if noticing something, looked into the room with slightly fiercer eyes.
The room was filled with white smoke like fog, as if something had been burned, making it impossible to see even right in front of them. They could only guess that the black shadow waving its arms inside might be Jinseong. The black shadow danced in the room, elongating and shrinking as it swayed back and forth in the candlelight on the floor, and the waving arms writhed like tentacles, circling in the smoke.
[I see the snake of shadows, the snake of shadows.]
The demon, realizing something was amiss, invoked the power of clairvoyance and cast it over his and Lee Serin's eyes.
Huh?
And the moment the power of clairvoyance was used, Lee Serin covered her mouth in surprise.
What, what is all that?
What entered her eyes was an altar.
On top of the thing made of rotten wood that seemed like it might even emit a stench, leaf mold was spread like a carpet, and on top of that, crudely made clay bowls were placed as if performing a ritual. Various objects filled the cracked clay bowls that might crumble at any moment, all of which evoked disgust.
Heads... There are heads.
Heads.
The heads of all kinds of creatures were there.
Snake heads.
Fish heads.
Insect heads piled like mountains.
Even the head of a water deer that looked like it had been dead and dried up for a long time.
All sorts of heads were on the altar, rolling their eyeballs towards Jinseong.
"Behold, you pitiful things that have ended your lives and been buried in karma. Here, the inside and outside have been reversed, and the self has become infinitely heavy, so follow the path of life you were in charge of. The traces that were attached to your lives when you were alive are the paths you will follow, so come here and pursue your self by following them."
Jinseong's appearance, receiving the gaze of numerous heads, could only be described as being shrouded in a ghostly aura. Jinseong held a small cylinder in one hand and shook it, and in the other hand, he held and shook a bell the size of his index fingernail.
Ding-a-ling.
[Contagios Magic? No, something much more primitive...]
The demon tilted its head, looking at it.
Ding-a-ling.
"Come, follow life into the cave. Take rest. Insects can fly even without wings growing, and snakes can sprout without becoming dragons. You can kick off the ground even without legs and swim through the air even without water. Come, cross the sea of fragrance, don the winged robe of smoke, and come here."
Jinseong's ritual finally reached its climax.
The white smoke rising from the candles writhed like snakes and moved to the altar, and like a fairy really donning a winged robe, it enveloped the heads placed in the clay bowls. And the heads began to float in the air as if someone had grasped them, then simultaneously turned their heads towards the cylinder and flew at high speed as if they had become individual entities.
Whoosh
Whoooosh
As if throwing a ball into the cylinder by hand, numerous heads rolling their eyeballs began to fill the cylinder. Snake heads, insect heads, snake heads, insect heads, fish heads...
When it came to the turn of the water deer's head, the bone fragments of the water deer began to crumble like sand, and then, as if they were a swarm of insects, they flapped their wings fiercely and completely filled the cylinder.
Click.
As the cylinder closed its lid by itself and a bluish eye-shaped form appeared on the surface of the cylinder, Jinseong smiled.
Hiss...
And all the candles in the room went out at once and stopped emitting smoke as if knowing that the ritual had ended. The smoke that had filled the room was sucked into Jinseong's nose and mouth. The altar transformed into a dark liquid form, as if melting under strong summer sunlight, and then, as if possessing will, it spread out in all directions and melted into the walls of the room.
Thus, the room became clean as if nothing had happened.
"Phew."
A small sigh.
A satisfied smile.
Jinseong was smiling in the center of the room.
[Let's retreat.]
Uh, okay?
[The ritual has ended, so we might be discovered if we're not careful.]
Okay.
[Hmm, I thought it would be like the rituals these peninsula humans perform, but it was truly a primitive form... What should this magic be called... It arouses my curiosity...]
Lee Serin and the demon closed the slightly opened door again and silently returned to her room.
[My contractor, it's late, so you should go to sleep quickly.]
Yeah... But since I'm already awake at this hour, can't I just stay up a little longer before sleeping?
[No, you cannot. If you don't sleep properly during your growth period, you won't grow properly. Growth, when done properly, is when human beauty can be said to bloom, so you should go to sleep soon.]
Okay...
As soon as they entered the room, the demon urged Lee Serin to sleep, and only after seeing Lee Serin fall asleep did it take its eyes off her and turn towards the window.
[Hmm, it was truly a peculiar magic. It's not from this peninsula. Nor is it from my homeland...]
The demon in the form of a camel stuck out its tongue and licked its nose, continuously ruminating on that ritual.
And then, suddenly, truly out of the blue, a certain thought occurred to the demon's mind.
At that moment when the smoke moved like a snake.
At that very moment when numerous heads flew through the air and burrowed into the cylinder.
The thought that it might have made eye contact with Jinseong.
That kind of thought.