Two days ago, Lee Serin woke up from sleep due to a strange feeling. It felt like the fine hairs on her body were sensing something alien and standing on end, or as if an organ related to her instincts had detected a threat and awakened her. Despite sleeping with the door closed, it was also like the peculiar unease felt from a breeze coming in from somewhere.
At that moment, Lee Serin sprang out of bed, and a demon whispered in her ear.
[An occult ritual is being performed.]
The demon, shaped like a red camel, carried her and moved silently. Its hooves sank deeply into the ground as if treading lightly on desert sand, leaving no trace or sound.
Where they arrived was…
[Isn’t this the room where your brother, who is so fond of insects, stays?]
“Don’t say it like that… It’s weird…”
In front of the room of her brother, Park Jinseong, who, despite not being related by blood, had a peculiar relationship with her, living together as family until adulthood due to special circumstances.
[Then how should I say it? Like your older sister would? If it were your sister, she might have described it as a non-blood-related, registry-free cohabitation mate.]
“That’s even weirder…”
Lee Serin and the demon bickered at the door without any tension. The camel teased her relentlessly with a broad smile stretching to its ears, while Lee Serin, though glancing sidelong at its mischief, accepted the demon’s words.
[Haha, I’m only repeating what your older sister said, and yet you complain only to me.]
“She’s not my older sister. She’s my younger sibling…”
[Since she stepped into the world first, isn’t she your older sister?]
“I yielded in the womb. Out of my sisterly generosity…”
[Haha, I don’t understand why twins always go back and forth about who’s older or younger. Whether demon or human, twins always insist on being the firstborn… Even a fallen angel I know struggled desperately to stand above his older brother.]
The camel, silently laughing, lifted its hoof to point at the doorknob.
[Now, my contractor. You, who were born after peering into the past to determine the order of birth. For you, who can’t contain your curiosity, there’s a secret right in front of you.]
“I, I couldn’t help being curious…”
[I’m not blaming you. The very reason humans are endearing is because of their curiosity to uncover secrets, probing here and there. As I, too, enjoy finding secrets, I find such behavior lovely.]
“Uh, yeah. People want to know secrets… It’s normal…”
Gulp.
Lee Serin unconsciously reached for the doorknob but hesitated.
“Still… Peeking at my brother’s secret feels a bit… a bit hesitant…”
Though she was curious and had to resolve her questions, the idea of secretly peeking into Jinseong’s room, with whom she had an awkward relationship, brought a strange sense of guilt. Despite thinking that family members seeing each other’s rooms shouldn’t matter, the thought of not being blood-related made her feel like voyeurism was a crime.
Especially since this year, they’d see each other less after she moved out.
[That’s why you must look now. Who knows what ritual is being performed? If you don’t see it now…]
“Uh, I might not get to see it in the future?”
[Exactly. He might not perform the ritual again, and even if another chance comes, it might be a different ritual. If your brother significantly improves his skills as a sorcerer, he might prepare against being watched.]
“But still…”
[And if you move out, even more so. Would your brother, now a stranger, come back to this mansion to perform rituals? He’ll likely perform them in his own house, and do you think you can see them then?]
In the end, Lee Serin couldn’t resist the demon’s whispers.
No, she naturally grabbed the doorknob as if she never intended to resist.
She pretended to give in, tossing aside the guilt rising in a corner of her heart, and, giving herself over to curiosity, gently opened the door.
With the demon’s power to conceal their presence, the door opened without a sound. As the gap widened just enough to glimpse inside the room, Lee Serin and the demon brought their eyes to the opening and peered inside.
‘Ugh!’
But the moment she brought her face closer to peek, Lee Serin almost let out an unbearable groan.
‘What is this smell?’
It smelled like meat cooking, or perhaps burning hair. There was also the scent of long-decayed meat, a sour aroma, and a stench like sewage. It was an intense smell that felt like needles and knives were scraping the mucous membranes inside her nose.
[Oh, what kind of activity produces such a smell? It’s worse than the cauldron of a witch intoxicated by ergot fungus.]
‘The smell is overwhelming. But… why couldn’t we smell this from outside?’
[…Hmm.]
Lee Serin, suffering from the stench and holding her nose, grumbled complaints. But the demon behind her, as if sensing something, scrutinized the room with slightly fiercer eyes.
The room was filled with white smoke, as if something had been burned, spreading like fog and making it impossible to see even a few steps ahead. They could only guess that the black shadow waving its arms inside was Jinseong. The shadow danced around the room, expanding and contracting with the flickering candle flames on the floor, its arms writhing through the smoke like tentacles.
[The snake of shadows, I see the snake of shadows.]
The demon, sensing something unusual, used the power of clairvoyance, placing its effect over its and Lee Serin’s eyes.
‘Huh?’
The moment the clairvoyance was activated, Lee Serin clapped her hand over her mouth in shock.
‘What is all that?’
What she saw was a platform.
It was made of rotten wood, so decayed it seemed it might emit a foul odor. Covered in humus like a carpet, it held crudely made clay vessels, arranged as if for a ritual. These clay vessels, cracked and seemingly ready to crumble at any moment, contained various objects, each evoking disgust.
‘Heads… there are heads.’
Heads.
Heads of all sorts of creatures were there.
Snake heads.
Fish heads.
Piles of insect heads like a mountain.
Even the head of a deer, dried up and seemingly long dead.
All these heads were placed on the platform, their eyes rolling towards Jinseong.
“Behold, wretched beings whose lives ended and were buried in sin. Here, the inside and outside are reversed, making your ego unbearably heavy. Follow the path of life you once held. The traces of life that clung to you will guide you; come here and pursue your ego according to it.”
Jinseong, receiving the stares of numerous heads, was suffused with an eerie aura. He held a small cylinder in one hand, shaking it, and in the other, he shook a tiny bell the size of a fingernail.
Ding-a-ling.
[Contagion Magic? No, it’s much more primitive than that…]
The demon tilted its head as it watched.
Ding-a-ling.
“Come, follow life into the cave. Take your rest. Insects can fly even without wings, and snakes can sprout even without becoming dragons. Even without legs, they can kick the ground and swim in the air without water. Come, cross the sea of fragrance, don the winged garment of smoke, and come here.”
Jinseong’s ritual was nearing its climax.
The white smoke rising from the candles wriggled like snakes and moved to the platform, wrapping around the heads placed in the clay bowls as if a celestial maiden were donning her feathered robe. The heads, as if grasped by an invisible hand, began to float into the air, and as if they were one entity, they all turned towards the cylinder and flew towards it at great speed.
Thud.
Thud.
As if throwing a ball into a cylinder, the numerous heads with rolling eyes began to fill the cylinder. Snake heads, insect heads, snake heads, insect heads, fish heads…
Finally, when it was the turn of the deer head, its bone fragments started to crumble like sand and, like a swarm of insects, fiercely flapped their way into the cylinder, completely filling it.
Clack.
The cylinder closed its lid by itself, and a blue eye-shaped mark appeared on its surface, making Jinseong smile.
Puff.
As if acknowledging the end of the ritual, the candles in the room simultaneously went out, ceasing to emit smoke, and the smoke that had filled the room was drawn into Jinseong’s nose and mouth. The platform, like ice melting under a strong summer sun, turned into a dark liquid shape and spread out, seeping into the walls of the room.
The room became clean as if nothing had happened.
“Phew.”
A small sigh.
A satisfied smile.
Jinseong stood smiling in the center of the room.
[We should leave.]
‘Huh?’
[The ritual is over, so we might get caught if we linger.]
‘Okay.’
[Hmm, I thought it was some kind of ritual these people perform, but it was incredibly primitive…. What should we call this magic… my curiosity is piqued….]
Lee Serin and the demon quietly closed the door and returned to her room.
[My contractor, it’s late, you should sleep.]
‘Yeah…. Since I’m already up, can’t I stay up a little longer?’
[No, if you don’t sleep properly during your growth period, you won’t grow well. Proper growth is essential for human beauty to blossom, so you must sleep.]
‘Alright….’
The demon nagged Lee Serin to sleep as soon as they entered the room, and only after watching her fall asleep did it turn its gaze to the window.
[Hmm, it was a truly peculiar ritual. It’s not from this peninsula. Nor is it from my homeland….]
The camel-shaped demon licked its nose with its tongue, pondering over the ritual.
Then suddenly, a thought struck the demon.
At the moment when the smoke moved like a snake.
When numerous heads flew into the cylinder.
It felt as if it had met eyes with Jinseong.
Such was the thought that came to mind.
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