The Entrusted Land

The yellow Jeep sped along the Olympic Expressway, past Banpo Bridge, heading towards its destination.

‘You don’t have any plans, do you?’

At that single question, Iseon, who had been swept into the car and driven across the Han River, busily rolled his eyes, scanning outside.

–There’s no Oh Chun-bong, next is…

“Won Su-ha.”

Iseon called out names from an unfamiliar document, one by one, while on the phone with Jeha.

–Not here.

Horang, frowning, changed lanes to find an exit.

“How many left?”

“Ten people left.”

At Theodore’s words from the passenger seat, Horang waved his hand in the air as if urging him to continue checking.

Iseon called out the name on the next line with his finger.

“Park Hak-su.”

What they were currently looking at were the names of people who had passed through the land registered under Kim Yeoryeong, as provided by Attorney Hyun.

<Turn left in a moment.>

Horang slowly moved, confirming the navigation’s announcement.

“Not there?”

At his urging, Jeha let out a grumbling sound from the other end of the line.

–Uh… well, huh? Hold on a sec. I found it. Park Hak-su. But why is it showing up here?

At Jeha’s bewildered voice, Horang tilted his head and turned the car into the narrow alley.

–Boss.

“Why?”

–A sales record from 60 years ago under Park Hak-su’s name just came up in our ledger.

I don’t know if it’s the same person, but should I send you a copy anyway?

“Send it.”

–Understood. I’ll send it right away.

Horang slowly entered the alley, confirmed the studio apartment building towering behind the visible shops, and parked the car.

Theodore observed their final stop.

He didn’t know exactly where they were, but seeing “Daehan University” written as they entered the alley, it was clearly nearby.

“Why did we come here?”

To his question, Horang casually replied as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

“To look at the land.”

“Land?”

Horang nodded.

As he stepped out of the car, Theodore and Iseon followed.

Horang stomped on the ground a couple of times, as if marking it with his footprints, then tilted his head from side to side, stretching his neck muscles.

Meanwhile, Theodore looked around the street where the scenery he knew had been completely erased, replaced by unfamiliar buildings.

He knew the place name Heukseok-dong, but a century had wiped away everything he knew.

“Let’s go.”

Horang called, breaking his reverie.

Theodore smiled faintly at the beckoning gesture and moved his feet.

Horang walked straight along the path in front of the studio apartment building.

A main gate was visible further down the path.

Following the alley, he reached the innermost part of a triangular plot with clipped corners, which led to a long, narrow entrance.

“A pouch-shaped plot of land with a total area of 52.3㎡, a 49-year-old detached house in a Type 2 residential area. That’s right.”

Horang clicked his tongue, comparing the information provided by Attorney Hyun with the land before him.

The detached house, not adjacent to the road, clearly looked unmanaged, as if no one lived there.

“It’s a rift.”

Theodore sighed, looking at the house Horang was referring to.

“Yes.”

Horang replied briefly, then opened the gate of the house, which was no different from a gloomy haunted house due to its gwi-gi.

The firmly closed gate swung wide open at his mere gesture.

As the gate opened, the pungent, dusty smell dissipated, as if a transparent cover had been lifted.

Horang lowered his hand and then raised it.

Following his gesture, a long smoking pipe appeared in the air, swaying languidly.

Horang held the mouthpiece to his lips and ignited the tobacco.

Theodore watched Horang’s long, narrow eyes close and open, then lowered his gaze to the ground.

It felt like stepping onto underworld soil.

Sometimes there were places like this.

Places that looked ordinary on the surface but were like entrances to completely different worlds.

Some called them paths, others called them rifts. Judging by the aura, it seemed to be a place connected to the underworld, and he wondered how anyone had managed to build a house and live here.

Most humans wouldn’t be able to withstand the underworld’s aura.

Even now, Iseon, standing behind them, trembled, his hands shaking from the aura rising from the ground.

“Why did you check those who passed through this land?”

Horang tilted his head.

“To repair The Underworld Hall, we need to change the location of the entrance to the underworld.

For a short time, we need land imbued with the underworld’s aura, and it takes about a hundred years for that aura to stabilize.

So, whenever such a place appears, we entrust it to a human guest who can handle this aura.

This was also such an entrusted piece of land.”

Theodore’s eyes narrowed.

“Was the guest who bought the land Park Hak-su?”

“Yes. That was the name.”

Theodore’s gaze again turned to the dust-covered, crumbling building.

“Strange.”

“Right?”

“…What’s strange?”

Iseon, who had been enduring, teeth clattering, also looked ahead but couldn’t understand at all.

At his cautious question, Horang shrugged as if greatly amused.

“Land sold through my hands doesn’t change owners without my permission.”
It couldn’t change.

Especially when land was transferred to a living human, not some other entity, it was because there was a reason for that person to stay on that land, so a place was designated for them.

Furthermore, it was a place designated by a Mountain God, so if it had been defied and the land passed into another person’s name, it meant things had gotten incredibly complicated while he wasn’t looking.
Iseon blinked.

There were several more names after Park Hak-su who had passed through this land.

Nine people, in fact, before it was transferred to Kim Yeoryeong, whom Theodore was looking for.

For whatever reason, the fact that the owner of a land that shouldn’t have changed owners kept changing didn’t sound good at all.

“Our guest can’t even find her home, I wonder where she’s wandering around…”

Horang exhaled a long puff of smoke.

The black smoke from his lips was absorbed into the ground.

***

Kim Hwa-in raised the bell high.

The bell, swung downward, rang out loudly. Meanwhile, the chill deepened.

It was an unreasonable occurrence on a scorching day after the rainy season.

Following her misty breath, she thawed her frozen lips, and a warm breath escaped.

Thump-thump, thump, thump.

A chanting flowed out in a voice that swayed with her footsteps.

“Cheongjo neun ballyeong cheonsangsinjang daejangsin jihasinjang daejangsin songbangsinjang daejangsin sahhaesinjjang daejangsin. (Please help issue orders, heavenly divine general, earthly divine general, five directions divine general, four seas divine general.)”

Kim Hwa-in recited the Okchugyeong incantation, which summons the gods who oversee all creation to expel ghosts, and opened her eyes wide.

“Gapjin-sinjang daejangsin. Gap…o-sinjang…daejangsin.”

A man in a worn military uniform glared at Kim Hwa-in with bloodshot eyes.

‘You!’

Even as she continued to recite the scripture, the spirit, clearly a vengeful ghost, did not budge.

The ghost, with its distorted face, moved closer and closer.

The ghost’s face, sliding closer, was now right in front of her nose.

Ice formed on Kim Hwa-in’s cheek as if frost had settled there.

“Gahk!”

Kim Hwa-in coughed.

Just as a tongue sticks to ice and won’t detach, it was useless to swing her arm to try and shake off the spirit.

‘How could you do that!’

Kim Hwa-in stared intently at where the ghost should be, then finally managed to move her arm.

Without knowing what was happening, Goh Beom-woo stamped his feet and rushed into the shindang, spurred by the mist rising within the house.

The chill rushed towards him.

The vengeful ghost left Kim Hwa-in and blocked the doorway, but Goh Beom-woo passed through, shivering but otherwise unaffected.

Kim Hwa-in gasped, struggling for breath, and chased after the chill that had left her. Her bright red lips curled into a smirk.

Goh Beom-woo quickly went to the altar, snatched something from it, and held it out to Kim Hwa-in.

The ghost quickly rushed forward, seizing and crushing Kim Hwa-in’s windpipe again, but it was too late.

Kim Hwa-in, just as her vision grew dim, swung her arm, striking the jegum wrapped around her hand.

Chaeng—!

“Honey!”

Goh Beom-woo caught Kim Hwa-in’s body as she fell backward, as if flung away.

Without a moment to recover, Kim Hwa-in vigorously moved her arm.

The jegum rang again.

The shuddering chill felt weakened.

Kim Hwa-in’s eye corners curved upwards, as if to meet her mouth.

Chaeng!

A shadow rose.

The shadow, as if formed from coalesced black mist, took on a shape and suddenly shot up. Kim Hwa-in tightly gripped the cloth tied to the end of the jegum.

As the chill receded, as if the ghost was trying to flee, the shadow pursued it.

Kim Hwa-in watched the shadow she had summoned attempt to devour the vengeful ghost.

Thwack!

The shadow instantly pounced, crushing the vengeful ghost, and then everything disappeared.

“It’s over?”

Goh Beom-woo looked around, bewildered by the air that had grown warm again.

Only after confirming that her exhales no longer misted did Kim Hwa-in flop down, losing all strength.

“What in the world was all that?”

Goh Beom-woo repeatedly swallowed dryly, looking at the clear handprints on Kim Hwa-in’s neck.
Kim Hwa-in’s eyes flashed.

“Go to the hospital before the yeoksal comes back.”

Goh Beom-woo nodded.

“Okay. Don’t worry. I’ll go right now.”

Goh Beom-woo sat his wife down and then scurried to the kitchen. Grabbing the chicken box from the table, he immediately left the house.

As the sound of the car faded, Kim Hwa-in lay in the suddenly quiet house, looking up at the ceiling.

Her tightly constricted neck felt overwhelmingly stifled. Kim Hwa-in recalled the moment the yeoksal struck.

“It was a young voice, wasn’t it?”

Kim Hwa-in wondered if the person she had just sent a sal to kill was related to a man of that age, but it was impossible to know.

After pondering for a while, Kim Hwa-in eventually smiled.

“Anyway, what does it matter to me whether it’s a yeoksal or not?”

From now on, all the sal that returned would go to Kim Yeoryeong at the hospital.