Episode 110
“I’m here.”
One day passed, Sunday afternoon.
For some reason, Cheongju-hwa, who I met again, was dressed neatly rather than in active clothes, but her appearance was somehow fresh and I looked at her for a long time.
“Is that such a big deal? I don’t wear those clothes every day, am I?”
“sorry. It just suits you.”
“… It’s also cliché to talk about it.”
Cheongjuhwa grunted, but it didn’t seem that bad.
On the way from the academy to the destination like last time, Cheongju-hwa asked me about Cheongjong if he was interested.
“You mean he hates his family a lot too?”
“Exactly, you don’t like the way the current family is losing its former meaning.”
“What is that? I also like Cheongil-nim from the old story.”
At Cheongjuhwa’s words, I was silent for a moment and remembered what happened in the maze of eternity I had just entered.
‘The future must have turned quite a bit, but the yangban is going to be okay.’
Except for the Black Forest we cleared, the remaining three areas.
And at the end of one of them, the southern part of the Guilty Labyrinth, Cheong-Il would still be in a long sleep.
‘… Maybe it’s because of me that I can’t come out forever, right?’
There are still many years left until the 4th series, the time when Qing-Il first appeared in the original, but on the other hand, I am worried about what kind of typhoon the current change will turn into and affect Qing-Il.
In the first place, he too was in a situation where he could not get out of the labyrinth on his own.
‘If it doesn’t work, I have no choice but to take it out myself.’
Either way, that’s for later. I put my thoughts aside and gave Cheongju-hwa a brief explanation of Cheongjong.
“I don’t know if you knew your father or not. You’ll still have a face.”
“does not matter. Because there is no such thing as a bad person who hates Qingdaoyul.”
“… … .”
As I have felt since the last time, the goal of Cheongju-hwa’s feelings toward Cheongdo-yul is considerable.
There was no such thing as the biggest acquaintance of the first part of the series for nothing.
After getting off the bus and walking for a while, we finally arrived at the residence of Cheongjong we had seen before.
“… It’s more awesome than I thought. Do you do any scrap metal business?”
Cheongju painting was startled by the procession of various parts from the yard, but this is a hobby of Cheongjong, so there is nothing we can do about it.
thud.
kuung. thud.
“Senior Cheongjong, are you there?”
Fortunately, the timing didn’t go wrong, as I purposely arrived on time in the evening when Cheongjong was waking up.
“… you’re finally here You crazy kid.”
Chongjong, who met face to face, led us into the house, holding back his laughter.
Druck.
“Yeah, so did you really succeed in getting the blue dragon out?”
“Yes. You are still with us.”
“Hey, you’re so terrific. You must be really talented.”
Cheongjong nodded in admiration, then turned his gaze to Cheongjuhwa, who was standing next to him.
“Yes, you are the daughter of that Cheongsaun?”
“yes. It’s the first time I’ve met Cheongjong-nim here.”
“Chuckle. no this guy What is the first page? I don’t know how many times I’ve seen you crawling.”
At those words, Cheongju-hwa tilted his head, and Cheongjong recalled the past as if missing him.
“The blue-eyed guy was really stubborn. No matter how hard I tried, I never overturned what I set.”
“Do you know Daddy?”
“Aldamada, I taught him how to catch crayfish by hand by the river as a child. Ttt, if you think about it, from then on, you could see his honesty right away.”
After hearing the situation, Cheongjong satisfactorily nodded his head and began to tap Cheongjuhwa and me on the shoulder.
“okay. No matter how much they tease each other, this is the correct role. Sweetheart, you did a great job.”
Nevertheless, Cheongjong immediately issued a serious warning.
“be careful. The current family situation is really dire. It was like a volcano on the verge of erupting.”
“You mean that serious?”
“Yeah, Qingdaoyul was humiliated by the other elders, and then the faucet completely turned around. Knowing that you stole the blue dragon, now you will try to get it back, even with dirty tricks.”
At those words, Cheongju-hwa let out a soft complaint.
“Chi, when did you not do anything dirty? I used to be that kind of guy.”
“It’s not wrong either, but at least the previous one was oriented towards the preservation of the family. However, the guy now has forgotten even that simple reason. He must have harbored more dangerous ideas than ever before.”
There was nothing wrong with what Cheongjong said. It is almost as if he wrote it after seeing the appearance of Cheongdo-yul in the original story.
However, what I wanted to hear today was not about Qingdao-yul, so I slowly changed the topic and asked Cheongjong about Myeong-yul.
“Cheongjong, do you have any acquaintance with Myeongyul?”
“Reputation? Are you talking about the old man who was the top exorcist?”
“Yes. This is Myeong-yul, who is called one of the heroes of the Baekgwi Nights incident.”
In the midst of anticipation and tension, Cheongjong’s answer was fortunately positive.
“Know. After we retired, we didn’t have much interaction with each other, but we had a lot of things to do with each other during the Baekgwi Nights.”
If so, it can be said that it is practically perfect in terms of timing.
I frowned and posed a question to Cheongjong.
“I would like to hear the story of Myeong-yul at the time. It is absolutely necessary.”
“It seems that something is going on again, but I would like to limit the scope a bit… … .”
“Do you have any information about Myeong-yul-nim’s past tangle or bad relationship with someone?”
“I know roughly what kind of story you want.”
After looking back on his memories for a while, Jong-jong began to recite episodes about Myeong-ryul without interruption.
It was so vivid and accurate that it was doubtful whether it had been recorded somewhere else.
“Therefore, he made a name for himself among the dignitaries of his time. From then on, I often had to take on special missions alone.”
“Does it feel like an executive officer at headquarters?”
“It’s similar, but a little different. At that time, the executive branch was still there. I know that Myeong-yul often appeared in more dangerous scenes than that.”
He seemed to know what it felt like. It felt as if the secret that Myeong-yul was hiding was also related to the events of that time.
“To be honest, I don’t know much about what happened since then. If that was the case, it wouldn’t have been a special mission. However, I do remember the incident around the time he decided to retire.”
“… What is it?”
At my urging, Cheongjong, on rare occasions, pondered for a while before speaking out.
“… Ew, from now on, it’s a confidential matter, but it doesn’t matter if you’re retired anyway.”
After that, what Cheongjong spit out was one of the secrets of the Baekgwi-yahaeng incident that I knew.
“At the time of the Baekgwi Nights incident, it was not only the powerful monsters who tormented us.”
“… So what else was there?”
Cheongjong nodded his head at Cheongjuhwa’s question.
“On rare occasions, this unknown space or structure would appear. And there were cases where high-ranking youkai lurked, or there were cases where something incomprehensible was hidden.”
“I mean, what Myeong-yul went through was one of them.”
“That’s right. A fearful forbidden spirit that existed in the temple suddenly appeared. Its retrieval was Myeong-yul’s last mission.”
The feeling came. If there was anything in Myeong-yul’s past, it was clear that the event was related.
Cheongjong’s words did not end there.
“In the process, I lost many colleagues, and I heard that some of them were stained with alcohol and had to be killed by Myung-yul’s hand. That must have been no shock.”
So Myung-yul retired, and after that, he immersed himself in witchcraft research for many people, bringing in disciples and teaching children.
That was all he knew.
“It was very helpful. thank you.”
“Well, take good care of his beautiful daughter.”
To be honest, I didn’t expect that much, but Cheongjong contained more information than I thought.
After chatting satisfactorily, Cheongju-hwa and I were walking down the street at night to organize the words we each heard.
‘I think that’s actually enough for the estimate.’
Obviously, the subject of the last mission was Prohibition (禁呪), which must have little to do with the current situation.
As I was walking, thinking about my future plans, Cheongju-hwa, who had been looking at me the whole time, could not bear it and started talking to me.
“But, doesn’t it take a long time for us to walk to the academy?”
“… … .”
“Tell me honestly. Didn’t you count the time to cut off the car?”
“sorry.”
In the end, I had no choice but to calm the situation by raising my voice and putting it in Cheongju-hwa’s arms.
And it took us two and a half hours to get back to the academy.
***
After gathering this much information, all that was left was a plan and action.
After thinking about it, I went to Arietta and asked if any of the people I had close contact with Myeong-yul were active during the Baekgwi-yahaeng incident.
“yes. I have. My name is Uncle Heo Woong-jung, and I still come here often.”
He said that he was a junior of the former Myeong-yul, and that they were doing various things together.
‘It must be worth a visit.’
It was evident that the ghost was looking back one by one of the people related to the past.
Rather than the Myeongryul at the center of it, there was a high probability that he would aim for others first.
Just as I was about to go looking for Heo Woong-jeong, an unexpected saboteur caught up with me. It was Arietta.
“… Junior, you are suspicious these days.”
“It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to worry about it.”
“I asked my grandmother in case she didn’t know, but she told me not to take it seriously and stick with it more than I am now.”
No, this old man is real.
It’s like sticking around, but isn’t it difficult to be active in related work?
‘… But if you think about it, it doesn’t really matter, doesn’t it?’
This time, I’m not going to ask Myeong-yul directly, I’m just meeting the acquaintance.
Rather, it seemed not a bad idea to put it next to it and prevent any unexpected accidents.
In the end, I took Arietta and headed to the residence of the small and medium-sized witchcraft family that Heo Woong-jeong was staying.
And even before going inside, he was stopped by a series of hordes with a fairly strong momentum.
“Stop. You cannot enter this place without identification.”
A group made up of talented people who are roughly level 40 or more.
It was the executioners of the Exorcism Headquarters who were chasing ghosts.