Honbul: Flame of the Soul Chapter 318

“What do you an? ...Taehee! Taehee?”

The call was cut off one-sidedly, and Jeongju’s face stiffened in shock.

“Jeongju, what’s wrong?”

“What... what is this all of a sudden...”

For the past few days, Jaegyeom had not co ho, nor had he been in contact. Jeongju had spent those days on pins and needles, wondering if sothing had happened to him. So when Yoon Taehee called, the relief lasted only an instant. Deathly pale, Jeongju hurriedly called him back. But in that brief span of ti, Yoon Taehee’s phone had already been turned off. He tried calling Jaegyeom as well, but the call would not connect.

Just then, san ca over and asked, “Are you all right?” Looking at the small san and Yoo Namsaeng sprawled on the floor, Jeongju was suddenly seized by fear at the thought of what might happen if these children were placed in danger.

What on earth was going on?

It may beco very dangerous from now on. But after today, everything will be over. Still, just in case, if you have sowhere to take shelter, go hide there. Jaegyeom would want that too.

As Jeongju blankly turned Yoon Taehee’s words over in his mind, he went into the room and brought out a large suitcase. The Fox Gate... should he open the Fox Gate and take refuge there? Jeongju muttered to himself in a daze as he started putting things into the bag. It would be best if he could at least get in touch with Jaegyeom, but if he could not, hiding inside the Fox Gate was the safest choice. As Jeongju packed with a dark, hardened expression, san ran over.

“Jeongju, where are you going?”

“I’m going to open the Fox Gate! Hurry and get ready!”

“Huh? Wh-why?”

“They said... a war is going to break out at the Office of Narye.”

“What? Th-then what about my lord?”

“He said Jaegyeom told us to take shelter.”

“J-just us?”

“Yes.”

san’s mouth fell open, and he blinked blankly. Yoo Namsaeng looked around in bewildernt, trying to understand the situation. Jeongju was the only one moving in a flurry after quickly realizing that sothing was badly wrong. He opened drawers and hurriedly packed. Just then, san clung to Jeongju’s arm and whimpered.

“Wh-what if my lord is in danger?”

“...What?”

“What if he gets badly hurt...?”

“B-but Jaegyeom said...”

“What if he ans to part with us like this?”

What did that...

Just as Jeongju stopped and looked down at san.

“Oh!”

Yoo Namsaeng suddenly cried out and opened his mouth.

“A letter! There’s a letter!”

The shout ca out of nowhere. Startled, Jeongju looked at Yoo Namsaeng.

“What? What are you talking about now, all of a sudden?”

Sothing had flashed through Yoo Namsaeng’s mind.

Could it be a will?

So ti ago, Jaegyeom had sat at the dining °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° table and written a letter. He had told Yoo Namsaeng where he had hidden it and said to read it if sothing happened to him. It was sowhere Yoo Namsaeng could never reach alone.

“There’s a letter my master wrote! There’s a letter!”

“What? A letter?”

Jeongju and san looked at each other, eyes wide. They both sensed this was no ordinary matter. Jaegyeom was the type to leave without a word if he ant to leave, not the type to leave sothing like a letter behind.

“Where? Where is it?”

Yoo Namsaeng flailed little webbed feet in a panic and led the way.

“Th-this way! Co this way!”

Their faces ashen, Jeongju and san followed Yoo Namsaeng.

Waddle, waddle...

“Hey, you little turtle! Walk faster. I’m going to die of frustration!”

“Ooong... how am I supposed to walk any faster than this...”

It was a true turtle’s pace. Unable to watch any longer, san stamped his feet, then swept Yoo Namsaeng up in his arms. Like a conductor directing an orchestra, Yoo Namsaeng pointed out the location.

“There... that wardrobe! The third drawer!”

The three mbers of the family placed the letter on the floor and put their heads together.

At the very top of the letter, written large like a title, was the word . The slightly crooked handwriting had mistakes in spelling and spacing here and there.

san swallowed and peered down at the letter. It was the first letter san had ever received in his life. In the past, he would not have been able to read it because he had not known how. Thinking how fortunate it was that he had started learning the alphabet, san began to read the characters slowly, haltingly.

There’s sothing I haven’t been able to tell you

If I just say it you’ll forget later

I want you to rember it for sure so I’m writing it down on paper like this

Thank you for being with until now

And I’m sorry I have to leave first

You don’t have to wait for anymore

san listen to Jeongju eat a lot don’t walk around barefoot and be happy

Jeongju always be careful of cars do everything you want to do and live happily

Namsaeng you can keep living here live a long long happy life with san and Jeongju

And please take good care of Taehee because Taehee is very precious to

Thank you for letting live this long

Goodbye and be well

...

...

...

It was a short ssage, but each and every character carried the feeling of having been written with great care.

“Goodbye...?”

san lifted his head, his face ashen.

“Hey, enough already.”

The sky was dark and overcast. The rainy season continued.

“What exactly is so sad?”

Jaegyeom was still in the abyss. Amid the unending rain, the boy who had been holding an umbrella for days on end flopped down on the ground with an exhausted look and asked. It was not comfort. It was not ant to say it was all right. For the boy, the question ca from pure curiosity.

“I don’t understand why you’re so sad. You wanted to kill Myojeong back then. Besides, Myojeong was bound to die anyway, and even if you hadn’t killed him, he would have died regardless. You know there was no other way at the ti. So why are you so sad?”

There had certainly been a ti when he had wished for Myojeong’s happiness.

Even if they had to part, he had hoped Myojeong would build a completely happy family. He had thought Myojeong would surely be a good father. At one point, he had even coveted that place for himself.

But Myojeong had lost the lover he cherished and buried his own child in the ground with his own hands.

“I am a sinner against both Myojeong and Taehee.”

He had neither the confidence nor the right to remain by Yoon Taehee’s side.

He understood well enough what that child had been thinking when he used the black bird. He had said he would never deceive him or hide anything again... but as expected, people did not change. And yet, Jaegyeom did not want to bla Yoon Taehee now. Because if it were true, if it had been him, he too would have wanted Yoon Taehee to forget.

But the boy asked as if he truly did not understand.

“Why are you a sinner?”

Jaegyeom buried his face in his knees and said nothing.

“......”

He was the one who had taken Yoon Taehee’s father away. He was the one who had betrayed Myojeong. And despite all that, he was the one who had fallen for that child. Jaegyeom did not want to forgive himself for it.

“You saw everything, so you should know.”

“I know. I saw.”

The boy crouched in front of Jaegyeom and continued.

“But is that all you saw?”

You were originally supposed to die at Myojeong’s hands.

Perhaps from the very mont you first caught Myojeong’s eye. But Myojeong did not kill you. No, he could not kill you. At first, it might have been re pity or compassion.

Whatever that feeling was, what matters is that Myojeong hesitated for a single fleeting mont. And that one paltry mont of hesitation changed Myojeong’s life.

Myojeong was born with the blood of a Bangsangsi, his purpose determined from birth. A Bangsangsi is the servant of the holand, the chariot of the holand, the ssenger of the holand. If there is a flow the holand desires, Myojeong must carry that flow out. That was why, until then, Myojeong’s life had never once been his own.

But the problem was that Myojeong was not a vessel fit to beco a god.

Because Myojeong was far too human. He was an all-too-ordinary human who could not help pouring his heart into things that were small, young, and weak. As a Bangsangsi should, Myojeong ought to have lived his whole life as an empty chariot. But Myojeong ended up filling the inside of himself that was supposed to remain empty. He ca to know the emotion called love. He did not avoid it, even though he knew he should have. That was Myojeong’s choice.

So it is not your sin.

Jaegyeom, who had been quietly listening to the boy, muttered.

“So what are you trying to say?”

“Myojeong simply defied fate on his own.”

“By eting Hwirim and having a child?”

“No. That isn’t all.”

“...What?”

“He loved you, didn’t he?”

The boy spat the words out in an indifferent tone.

“......”

Without realizing it, Jaegyeom lifted his head.

He looked at the boy before him.

For a long ti. A very long ti. Blankly...

Then, at a certain mont, the boy, still wearing a listless expression, seed to glance up at the sky. After that, he folded the umbrella he had been holding over Jaegyeom. He swung the umbrella around, scattering the water from it.

The rainy season that had seed as if it would never end was over.

At so point, the rain had stopped.

Rainwater had gathered at his feet, forming a puddle. In the clear puddle, he could see the blue sky and clouds drifting past. Jaegyeom, who had been staring at the puddle as though looking into a mirror, suddenly t his own reflection in the water. As his gaze t his own, Jaegyeom looked into his pupils.

Inside them was the mory of his childhood. Myojeong’s gaze was there, looking at him. He rembered Myojeong’s eyes looking up at him when he had been perched precariously in a tree. Down below, those unwavering, upright eyes had waited for him quietly. He had not known how much Myojeong had agonized during that brief span of ti.

He rembered the firm arms that caught him, the warmth, the gentle smile, when he had finally leaped into those arms after agonizing and agonizing for so long. He rembered the hand that had served him rice, the sensation of a blanket being pulled up to his chin. He rembered the embrace that would carefully pick him up when he fell asleep in the colder part of the room and lay him down in the warr part.

Precious child. Will you co with ?

“That’s right.”

The weather is cold. Let’s go ho.

“That’s right...”

Every mont flashed before his eyes.

“Myojeong... loved very much.”

Gyeom, it is truly good that you were born.

“Myojeong, very, very much...”

Your lack of fortune in parents is a blessing to .

“He loved very much...”

Jaegyeom smiled faintly. He smiled without realizing it, blankly repeating the words. Then, at a certain mont, his voice began to tremble, and his chin quivered. The smile that had spread across his face turned into tears.

“Myojeong loved very much...”

Beneath the blue sky, Jaegyeom cried for a long ti.