The Korea Tourism Organization’s promotional activities were decided to be filming a vlog-style video with the backdrop of a palace in Seoul.
It was for creating an external image of ‘a country that preserves cultural heritage’ and for tourism promotion purposes.
My outfit for the filming was Hanbok.
I was relieved that it didn’t go as far as wearing an Ikseongwan or a Gonryongpo.
However, luxurious accessories, including buttons and Norigae, were attached.
It was burdensome.
“Lee Young, you look really good in that. You’d look great in a Hanbok pictorial.”
“Haven’t I done a pictorial before? I wore Hanbok and Gat before…”
“Yeah. You wore it in self-produced content, but you haven’t done an official pictorial. You look so good in it, you should be a Hanbok model.”
I got into the car, listening to the CEO, who was driving instead of Kim Woo-jin, who was absent due to NIS work today.
Baekmung was in the passenger seat. It’s the same as not being able to move in doll form, so wouldn’t it be better to just be in the ring?
As soon as I got out of the car, Yoon Dae-han greeted me.
As the CEO drove away to park the car, Yoon Dae-han whispered.
“It’s not good for too many people to know, so I’ll be mainly in charge from now on.”
“Yes, I like traveling with someone I know.”
“Thank you. But what about that doll?”
“It’s a doll that fans like. Depending on the atmosphere, we can take pictures with the doll too.”
“It looks like a lion mask, a uniquely shaped doll.”
{Hmm. He doesn’t seem special, but he has good eyes, like last time.}
‘Lion mask?’
While I was trying to remember what a lion mask looked like, a stranger appeared in front of me.
“I’m Kim Ju-chan, who will be giving the Changdeokgung Palace tour today.”
The man named Kim Ju-chan bent his upper body almost 45 degrees.
“You don’t have to do that much.”
Yoon Dae-han stopped Kim Ju-chan, conscious of the surrounding eyes.
“I greet everyone like this. Don’t worry.”
So, I also bent my waist and bowed, and Kim Ju-chan’s shadow at my feet flickered.
What is it, something’s strange.
{It’s a Demon. It’s hiding in that person’s shadow.}
“Hello. Please take good care of me today.”
Then, can this person suddenly attack me?
{He can do worse. We must eliminate the Demon beforehand.}
“I had you come out even though it’s not a tour day.”
Since it wasn’t a tour day, Changdeokgung Palace was quiet.
Only the video crew was busily moving around.
“No, I volunteered because it’s a meaningful event. And it’s not easy to see you.”
“Please speak comfortably. I’m much younger than you.”
“Yes, I will be comfortable. Then, where do you start filming?”
{Its spiritual power is weak, perhaps because there are no Figurines. I shouldn’t have materialized.}
Tell me about it.
It would be difficult for the doll to disappear in this crowded place.
I moved my feet, wondering if there was a secluded place.
“Can I take a look around before filming?”
I held Baekmung in my hand behind my back and walked ahead.
Kim Ju-chan followed behind.
The hem of the Hanbok fluttered here and there in the cold wind.
I hadn’t even taken ten steps, avoiding the filming crew, when a quiet place appeared.
“As you know, Changdeokgung Palace is the best-preserved palace in its original form. That’s why it was designated as a World Heritage Site.”
“But I heard that all the Figurines here have been lost.”
“Yes, I heard they are being rebuilt, but they won’t be as effective as before.”
“Pardon?”
I turned to look at Kim Ju-chan.
I felt a chill running through my body.
“What effect do the Figurines have?”
Kim Ju-chan opened his mouth and smiled.
“Jaga!”
At the same time as Baekmung shouted, I imagined the shape of the sword, and as Baekmung entered the ring, radiance erupted from the ring.
When the radiance disappeared, I had a sword in my hand.
“Song Yiyoung!”
I heard Yoon Dae-han calling from behind, but I had no time to look back because Kim Ju-chan took out a small knife from his jacket pocket.
{Cut the shadow.}
I couldn’t understand what Baekmung was saying.
The shadow is attached to the ground, how can I cut it?
“Cut it?”
Kim Ju-chan’s shadow was stretched out long.
It was almost noon, so the shadow should be short, but it was strangely long.
I swung the Four Evil Beheading Sword at the long shadow.
– Clang
I heard the sound of the sword blade hitting the ground, but I didn’t know if that was it.
Kim Ju-chan swung the knife at my face. Kim Ju-chan’s eyes were unfocused, like someone who was intoxicated by something.
{You have to cut the part of the shadow where the Demon is hiding.}
I looked at Kim Ju-chan’s long shadow again.
Was there a particularly dark part, or a flickering part, or something different?
But the shadow wasn’t flickering like before.
‘Is it hiding?’
Baekmung was also focused, so he was silent.
Then, I felt a gaze from the right.
Is it Yoon Dae-han? What should I explain?
“What’s going on?”
But Yoon Dae-han’s voice came from behind. Then who’s next to me?
“This person is in a similar state to that person. The chef.”
“Yes? I’ll contact Oh Sang-hoon of the police… no, the NIS right away. But why the Four Evil Beheading Sword…?”
I still couldn’t take my eyes off the shadow.
So I could tell right away when Kim Ju-chan’s shadow moved.
Swish
I slightly turned my body to the side and avoided Kim Ju-chan’s small knife.
And as I looked at the shadow again, I saw a particularly dark part.
{I think that’s it!}
At the same time as Baekmung’s shout, I swung the sword at the particularly dark part of Kim Ju-chan’s shadow.
{Chop!}
I felt a foreign sensation different from when I was cutting through the air. I really felt that there was such a thing as a Demon.
Thud
Kim Ju-chan fell to the floor like a kite with a cut string.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine.”
“What about the Four Evil Beheading Sword? I heard it hit the floor earlier, is there a scratch or something…”
Yoon Dae-han changed his words when I widened my eyes.
“No, that’s not the important thing.”
I listened to Yoon Dae-han talking to Oh Sang-hoon and looked at the side where I felt the gaze earlier.
The trees in the palace swayed in the wind. Who was it?
{Was someone there?}
Didn’t Baekmung feel it either?
“But how did you do it?”
Yoon Dae-han asked, looking at the Four Evil Beheading Sword that was still in my hand.
How much should I tell him?
Well, he saw the sword coming out of my shoulder and the sword turning into a ring, so he’ll believe that there are ghosts.
“There is a ghost that harms people. It seems to be hiding in the shadows and controlling people.”
“Pardon?”
{Jaga, how did you find the Demon?}
‘You told me to look closely.’
“A ghost possesses people and attacks them? No, such nonsense…”
I silently held up the Four Evil Beheading Sword in front of Yoon Dae-han’s eyes.
Then I turned the sword back into a ring.
It was an example that there couldn’t be anything more strange than this.
Yoon Dae-han’s expression gradually turned pale.
I understand. I went through that process too.
“Then, are the incident at the press conference and Kim Ju-chan’s actions all the work of ghosts?”
“I think so.”
“Then, is the disappearance of the Figurines also related?”
“I think there is a connection.”
“Which department should handle this? The police? The prosecution? The NIS? If it’s folklore, is it the Cultural Heritage Administration…”
Leaving Yoon Dae-han, who was now muttering to himself, I looked at Kim Ju-chan, who was lying on the floor.
“Is the NIS coming? It’s still cold, so he shouldn’t be lying on the floor.”
“We’ll hand it over to the NIS first and come up with a plan.”
It’s going to be a long meeting.
More than that, I was curious about the gaze I felt earlier.
I took a step towards where I felt the gaze.
“I don’t know what you saw, but it could be dangerous.”
Baekmung, who had come out of the ring, spoke in the form of a doll.
“What was that ‘Chop!’ you shouted earlier? Was it like ‘Go!’, something like that.”
“While eliminating the Demon, I unconsciously…”
I calmed down the rising corners of my mouth, looking at the quiet Baekmung.
Then the phone rang. It was Yoon Dae-han.
– “Where are you? Let’s move together.”
I looked at where I was going.
It doesn’t seem far.
But I couldn’t keep people waiting, so I turned back.
*Â *Â Â *
The meeting on which department would handle this did not last long.
This was because a series of knife attacks were reported on the social affairs page.
A total of four knife attacks had occurred in a week, but they were separate incidents, not a serial crime by one person.
The perpetrators and victims were all different and had never seen each other before.
The perpetrators took kitchen knives from their homes and went to shopping districts with many people and swung the knives.
The locations were all different: Sajik-dong, Sogong-dong, Hoehyeon-dong, and Huam-dong.
When the arrested perpetrators were questioned, they all showed similar reactions.
“It’s too noisy! Why are you making so much noise and making my life difficult… I was so angry that I couldn’t stand it!”
Almost all of them said, ‘I was angry because it was noisy.’
Hearing this, the victims seemed like neighbors or family members, but the perpetrators walked more than a block from their homes with kitchen knives and swung them.
It didn’t make sense.
The police, unable to find a clear motive for the crime, sent them to the prosecution with only on-site evidence, and the lawyers claimed their mental abnormality.
And the fifth incident occurred in Yongsan-dong.
This time, a perpetrator who took a knife used in a restaurant attacked a Ministry of National Defense official who was leaving work.
The knife used to cut frozen meat was blocked by the official’s neck bone, but it cut the carotid artery. The Ministry of National Defense official died from excessive bleeding.
In the so-called ‘no-questions-asked crimes’ that occurred continuously, people tried to find commonalities among the perpetrators.
* * *
“If the knife attack perpetrators were all controlled by ghost-like beings like Kim Ju-chan, can the police handle it? And if this becomes known to the world…”
“Will people believe it?”
“Some people will believe it, but most will not and will doubt the government’s judgment.”
“There could be political chaos.”
“But we can’t just leave it alone and let more victims come out.”
Yoon Dae-han and Oh Sang-hoon nodded as if agreeing with my words.
“How about creating a task force centered around Song Yiyoung?”
“A task force, what, a ghost task force?”
“Whatever the name, if Song Yiyoung eliminates the ghosts with the Four Evil Beheading Sword, there will be no victims or perpetrators, so there is no better ending than this.”
“I will assist.”
Oh Sang-hoon frowned at Kim Woo-jin’s words.
“Just because it’s the NIS doesn’t mean ghosts will give way, so will Kim Woo-jin, who was in the overseas division, be helpful?”
Even if they are from the same NIS, they are not all close.
Oh Sang-hoon didn’t seem to like Kim Woo-jin very much.
“I know that the HC Group is helping the NIS and the government in many ways, but we must keep the line.”
Kim Woo-jin was silent for a few seconds at Oh Sang-hoon’s pointed words before continuing.
“There is a Four Evil Beheading Sword that has been passed down as a family heirloom.”
“Huh!”
“A Four Evil Beheading Sword? Has it never been revealed in the country? You should have at least told us it existed.”
Kim Woo-jin lowered his head at Yoon Dae-han’s words.
“I’m sorry. My grandfather is keeping it, so I can’t see it without the permission of the elders. I’m thinking of explaining the situation and requesting permission.”