The Return of the Calamity God

The darker Theodore’s shadow became, the lighter the darkness within the mansion grew.

It was as if a drape of black silk had been drawn back.

From all over, where the veil had vanished, murmuring sounds arose.

“Retreat from our Queen’s land! You barbaric intruder!”

“Begone, cursed one!”

“It’s been a hundred years already! If you’ve killed all the Gunthers, then get lost!”

Fairies with small bodies and pointed ears, fluttering wings like dragonflies or butterflies, raised their fists.

“Go back! Go back! Go! Back!”

Theodore’s eyebrows twitched as he watched the house fairies, their foreheads practically branded with the word “struggle,” waving their arms as if about to throw Molotov cocktails.

“Still as brazen as ever, for a bunch of thieves.”

“Thieves? Who are you calling a thief? Calamity!”

“You put on a human mask, and your conscience disappeared too!”

The soft, moss-like fur behind the fairies’ ears trembled with anger.

The blue eyes watching them also grew chilly, filled with coldness.

“If you’re not thieves, then don’t hide what’s mine. I’ve finished all my business on this land, so just return my things, and I’ll leave.”

The fairies’ faces contorted at Theodore’s words.

Only the master of the mansion could reclaim items entrusted to the house fairies.

Since the last remaining true Gunther had died, the only contractor’s blood left in this house was the shell standing before them.

To avoid their interference, the fairies quickly exchanged words regarding the Calamity’s proposal, who was hiding within the Gunther family’s bloodline.

“Are you serious?”

“I promise.”

“His eyes look like he’s lying!”

“He babbled like that 30 years ago before wearing a human mask! Don’t be fooled! He’s up to something!”

“Killing you might be faster.”

As Theodore raised his hand, the fairies frantically flapped their wings.

“If you break your promise, you’ll truly incur the Queen’s wrath, Calamity.”

The fairies, who threatened him, cautioning him about the existence backing them, carefully moved away from Theodore.

At the same time, the creaky, old mansion, boasting of its age, fell silent as if it had swallowed all sound.

Theodore paid close attention.

After a long while, the sound he had been waiting for reached his ears.

It was a resonance like bending a thin sheet of metal with all your might and then releasing it. It sounded like a whining, or like clanging, colliding sounds.

Theodore raised his head.

The metallic wail was coming from upstairs.

He ascended the stairs of the central hall, heading towards the attic.

The door to the attic, where the junk his ancestors had used for generations lay covered in dust, opened.

Even though it was called an attic, the space was tall enough that even Theodore, who was well over six feet, didn’t have to bend to enter.

It was filled with furniture covered in cloths that had lost their original color and old boxes with strange patterns of unknown origin.

Creak.

From deep inside the shaded area, a wailing sound like fingernails scraping against metal rang out.

Theodore strode forward without regard for the rising dust.

He reached out and rummaged through the area where the metallic wail was coming from.

Cutting through swirling dust and cobwebs, pushing aside dozens of boxes, he finally saw an old case on the inside.

A country far, far away in the East.

A box that had been polished to a lustrous shine, never knowing it would be stolen by a blue-eyed con man in a chaotic era and brought across continents and seas to this place.

A bat-shaped metal plate was attached to the paulownia wood panel, where a lock would be fastened, but it was nowhere to be seen, only the box remained.

Theodore reached out.

Pulling both sides, he lifted the lid, and the metallic wailing became clearer.

Green rust was visible inside the wooden box.

The blade was dulled and damaged, but he could still recognize it at once.

He pulled out what lay side by side.

Lying on thick cotton cloth was a Daesingeom. It was a form where the hilt was one with the blade, with old, dirty cloth resembling bird’s feathers tattered and hanging.

It was no ordinary sword.

It was more of a vessel for summoning a god than an item meant to be used in its made form.

Theodore, seeing the paired set of swords, picked them up without hesitation.

Rust powder fell away in a crumble.

However, it did not wail as it had before. Holding the sword that had stopped wailing as if it had never done so, Theodore stood up.

At his feet, his shadow danced as if possessed.

” ‘Cast off the winter clothes of regret in the warmth of spring. The bird of time cannot fly for long…’ “

“If you’re going to recite that at the funeral, a wail would be better than the Rubaiyat, wouldn’t it?”

The humming voice abruptly stopped.

The secretary, who had been choosing a funeral dirge to use at the funeral, narrowed his eyes.

“It’s not like I’m the one doing the wailing, so stop talking nonsense. By the way, did you already find it?”

“I’ve finally found them.”

Theodore held up the sword he was holding.

“How gruesome.”

The secretary spat out a short remark. At those words, Theodore smiled nonchalantly.

It was a sword that was more likely to crumble and break than cut anything.

The secretary was naturally afraid of the pair of swords that, if the blade were touched, would cause tetanus rather than bleeding.

Theodore gently placed the swords on the glass table.

As if dissatisfied with leaving his hand, the sword cried out again, shaking its body, but soon calmed down.

Theodore flicked off the rust on his palm that remained like time.

“I didn’t think it would take this long when I came here.”

The secretary raised his head and looked around the mansion.

“Even though you’ve killed off all the bloodlines tied to this mansion.”

Theodore laughed and tilted his head.

“You’re saying the same thing as those gnats. Besides, I haven’t killed everyone. There’s still one life left. Here.”

He pointed to himself.

The secretary laughed briefly, as if he had heard a funny joke, then quickly hardened his expression.

“It would be difficult if you were to commit suicide to settle the last remaining grudge.

I still have a loan from the bank, so it would be very troublesome for me if I became unemployed.”

“It’s even more surprising that you still have debts even though you take so much money from me.”

The secretary calmly retorted at Theodore’s reproach.

“The cost of keeping an adopted foreigner alive, who became an orphan again after only a year, cannot be paid off so easily.

And London house prices aren’t cheap.”

The secretary paused for a moment before parting his lips.

“Anyway, now that you’ve retrieved the Daesingeom, all that’s left is to really leave for Korea.”

“I’m returning.”

The secretary shrugged at Theodore’s words.

“I don’t know. I don’t have much emotion for it, even though it’s where I was born.”

The secretary thought of his home country, which he had never set foot in since he was a baby.

All that remained of Korea for him was the name Lee Seon and the Korean language skills he had somehow become interested in and learned.

There were also some inherited physical traits of an Asian, but that wasn’t something all Koreans had, so it wasn’t a commonality.

Unless all Koreans weren’t human.

Lee Seon, unlike himself, who had no longing, asked his boss, who still longed for his home country even though his bloodline had changed.

“Do you have any regrets about this place?”

All the material wealth and human relationships he had gained as a human were in this land.

It was a pity to abandon it and leave.

Theodore closed his eyes.

“I’ve been harassed by fairies protesting for me to get out of this land for over a hundred years, there’s no way I’d have something like that.

Besides, the food here is getting worse and worse.”

Lee Seon let out a hollow laugh.

However, he agreed.

Even after eating it for over 30 years, he couldn’t get used to the oily potatoes, fish, and canned beans.

“Speaking of which, any contact from Korea?”

Theodore’s eyes narrowed as he asked the question. Lee Seon glanced at the tablet on the table and opened his mouth.

“I’m still contacting the real estate agent who knows about the Sanshin Shrine, but I’m not getting a good answer.

They won’t give me any other answer other than saying that the client must set foot on Korean soil.”

Lee Seon sighed at Theodore’s silence.

“Is it necessary to find that Sanshin Shrine?”

“I have to find it. Even if you’re just a shell, if you enter without the Sanshin’s permission, it’s illegal immigration.”

“…You came in illegally a hundred years ago, but you’ve been doing fine until now.”

“I’m a descendant of an enemy family, but since I wore the blood of this land, I’m clinging to the ground in this incomplete form. If I go into that land, this body will be useless.”

“If it’s useless…”

Theodore laughed.

“I’ll die.”

“I’ll ask again, but you’re not going there to die, are you?”

“No.”

It was just a journey to find what he had left behind.

“Boss.”

Fingers that had already devoured 30 bags of potato chips while rolling on the sofa paused.

Jeha, who had checked the message on his phone screen, tilted his head.

Lying on the floor inside the office with all four limbs stretched out, he called to Horang, his eyes rolling back in his head while still lying down.

“…What?”

Sleepiness was evident in the voice, but Jeha still read the message that had come from the human lawyer in charge of the office’s affairs.

“Someone looking for a Sanshin Shrine contacted us again?”

“If they’re going to do a gut, tell them to go to Inwangsan.”

Jeha spoke again at the perfunctory reply.

“They’re looking for the Baegaksan Sanshin Shrine, why are you sending them to Inwangsan?

That mountain has been empty for ages. And you gave that answer yesterday.”

“They said the client can’t be in Korea, right?”

“We kept saying that, and then the client contacted us saying they’ll be coming to Korea soon. The day before yesterday.”

The long, thick tail sweeping the floor hit the floor with a thud.

A grumbling mixed with annoyance leaked out from around Horang’s neck.

Red eyes blinked a few times before disappearing under the eyelids.

“Then just tell them to get lost.”

“Yes.”

Jeha quickly relayed Horang’s answer.

The human lawyer immediately read the message and replied that he understood.

Jeha returned to his previous position and put a snack in his mouth.