“Why are you out here instead of sleeping?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Hwirim. What are you doing out here?”

The two of them looked at each other in silence, then, as though on cue, both let out a soft laugh.

“I’m glad you seem to be doing well.”

Myojeong brushed a hand against his cheek. As Hwirim had seen, the two of them appeared to be getting along very well. The child was quite attached to Myojeong, and Myojeong, too, seemed to have given the child a great deal of his heart.

“So what do you plan to do from now on?”

After a moment of silence, Myojeong glanced toward the room where the child was sleeping and lowered his voice.

“I’m thinking of performing the sealing one more time.”

Hwirim, who had been nodding in understanding, suddenly gave a faint smile.

“Why are you smiling?”

“It’s just that I can see how fond you’ve grown of the child, Myojeong.”

At Hwirim’s words, Myojeong’s expression darkened subtly.

“......”

It was true that he had grown very fond of the child. But if someone asked whether this was truly for the child’s sake, he did not have the confidence to nod readily. Perhaps keeping the child by his side stemmed from his own loneliness. Myojeong knew that the child had never been given a choice. The guilt of knowing that, and of using it to his own advantage anyway, often reared its head.

“To be honest, I don’t know what is what anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“What the right thing to do for the child is...”

Myojeong’s words trailed off as he gazed at the distant moonlight.

“Sometimes I wonder if all of this is just my greed and selfishness.”

“I think you are allowed to be a little greedy, Myojeong.”

At Hwirim’s words, Myojeong paused and looked at him.

“Everyone has desires. Then again, among the three of us, you were always the only one without any greed, Myojeong. Suhyang had desires, he simply did not show them. I am greedy too.”

Hwirim gave a crooked smirk and patted Myojeong on the back.

“If you have no desires, what fun is there in living?”

Myojeong could not help but chuckle. Hwirim had a frank personality and a habit of speaking as though nothing were a big deal, and that always lightened the mood. He had been that way since they were young. Truly a consistent person.

“Myojeong.”

Just then, Hwirim, who had been smiling all along, spoke with a serious expression.

“Do you have any intention of telling Jaegyeom the whole truth?”

Tell him the whole truth?

If so, from where to where?

That his parents abandoned him. That he should never have been born. That his parents did not love him and did not even give him a name, so his life had been wrong from the very beginning. That it was his parents’ fault he became the vessel of the god of calamity. That Myojeong was a Naja just like his parents, and that he had taken him in with the intention of killing him.

“Haha...”

It was absurd. Myojeong scowled and let out a hollow laugh.

“How could I possibly tell him that...”

Myojeong did not have the courage to tell the child the truth.

“But you genuinely care for the child now, don’t you?”

Just then, Hwirim, who had been studying Myojeong’s face, added,

“That must be why you went so far as to give him the name Jaegyeom yourself.”

Myojeong lowered his head and muttered weakly.

“That is merely a name I gave him to suppress the god of calamity.”

“Even so, the child probably knows your true feelings better than anyone.”

Hwirim continued, his voice cautious but firm.

“Myojeong, you truly want to become family with the child, don’t you? But if you do not confess the truth, you can never become family. How about asking for forgiveness and telling him everything? He is a straightforward child. I am sure he will understand. It will be confusing and difficult at first, but later, he will come to accept it.”

At last, Myojeong’s face twisted in anguish.

“......”

Hwirim was the person who knew Myojeong best. But that was not the only problem. Even though Myojeong had told him about his circumstances, Hwirim did not know everything about him. In some ways, just like the child, Hwirim did not know what sort of person Myojeong truly was.

“I...”

Myojeong started to speak, then fell silent for a long time. Hwirim, however, did not press him. He simply waited quietly for Myojeong to continue. After a long while, Myojeong’s lips moved with great difficulty.

“I will not live long anyway.”

“...What do you mean?”

At the unexpected words, Hwirim looked startled.

“Are you ill?”

“It was decided from the moment I was born.”

Myojeong slowly began to tell his story.

About the fate bestowed upon him, and the curse of the Bangsangsi. He added that he knew at what age he would die, how his life would unfold, and that he had already seen his entire future long ago. Hwirim listened to Myojeong in silence.

And when Myojeong had confessed everything, Hwirim became angry.

“Why did you not tell me until now?”

Hwirim let out an incredulous sigh and pressed a hand to his forehead.

“Was that also why you told me you liked me but did not hold on to me? Why you turned your back? Yes, I see it now. Do you know what? When you abolished the Office of Narye and came to me first, I thought you were going to ask me to go with you. But all you said was that you were going to find the child, and then you vanished in a flash.”

Hwirim glared at Myojeong, his eyes fierce.

“How absurd. I completely misjudged you...”

Hwirim spun around, turning his back on him.

Myojeong was flustered. He could not understand why Hwirim was so angry. Thinking he must have done something wrong, he gently caught Hwirim by the shoulder to stop him and apologize.

“Are you angry? If I made you angry, I am sorr—”

“I know why the Bangsangsi gave you such a curse.”

Myojeong stopped mid-apology.

“You seem to be under some grand delusion, but you are not a god. You are a cowardly, petty, weak-willed human being. Dying at thirty-three? Knowing your entire future? Dying early is not the curse. Accepting it as a curse and living your whole life in resignation—that is the real curse.”

Hwirim had dropped into rough, informal speech, glaring at Myojeong with tears welling in his eyes.

“Listen carefully.”

After a brief pause, Hwirim raised his index finger and pointed it straight at Myojeong’s face.

“The moment you started thinking that way, you had already lost to the world.”

Leaving those words behind, Hwirim turned and went back into his room.

“......”

Left alone beneath the bright moonlight, Myojeong stood dazed for a long time.

The next day, at daybreak, Hwirim left the thatched house without once looking back.

Myojeong tried to stop him several times, but Hwirim truly pushed him away. He was so cold and frosty that it was difficult to get even a single word in. After seeing Hwirim off in a daze, Myojeong sank into thought.

The moment you started thinking that way, you had already lost to the world.

The most urgent task before him was sealing the god of calamity.

Hwirim’s sharp words kept echoing in his mind. If the sealing that would make the god of calamity’s soul immutable could be performed successfully and without issue, Myojeong decided he would tell the child everything then. He would ask forgiveness for the past and reveal the whole truth, so that the child could choose his own life.

At last, his mind was made up.

One deep night, Myojeong put the child to sleep with a medicinal tonic. He went to another room, affixed talismans, and began preparing for the sealing ritual. It was the Eight-Gate Golden-Chain Formation. By the time the preparations were complete, the room was hung with a net of paper, and on the floor lay an enormous formation drawn in beast’s blood.

Myojeong poured his own blood into a large dish placed at the center of the formation.

The child, having drunk the tonic and gone to bed, was sleeping so deeply that he would not have noticed even if someone carried him away. Myojeong held the sleeping child in his arms and carefully laid him down in the center of the room prepared for the ritual.

Myojeong had originally given the child the name Jaegyeom. It meant to clamp down on calamity, a name meant to help suppress the god of calamity. Even without the authority of the Bangsangsi mask, a name itself held power. Just as, in the human world, the mere act of calling a name invoked the power of words.

The first thing he had to do was make the god of calamity submit. He had to wear the mask and learn the god of calamity’s true name—or, in the unlikely event that it had no name, give it a new one and issue a command.

Myojeong knelt before the door. He opened the mother-of-pearl box and put on the Bangsangsi mask. The touch of the mask against his skin was cool. Myojeong slowly blinked a few times, then stared at the child.

At some point, Myojeong’s eyes, fixed on the child, widened.

“......”

The true name of the god of calamity, as read through the mask, was the same as the name he had given the child.

This was unexpected. Because their souls were bound as one, the god of calamity had come to possess the same true name.

It should still be fine.

His surprise lasted only a moment. Now that he had learned the true name, Myojeong tried to calm himself and took a deep breath.

“By the Iron Net Mirror, the Golden-Chain Formation is unfurled. This is the Eight-Gate Formation, which the caller proclaims to capture and imprison the evil god. By closing the eight gates, the sinner shall be bound. One of those gates is the Gate of Shock, another the Gate of Rest, another...”

A fierce wind blew from somewhere. The paper net hanging in the room began to flutter violently, then started to bind the sleeping child’s limbs. The room shook as if all four walls were about to collapse.

Myojeong continued chanting the spell.

“Next, the authority to name proclaims: a name is given to the sinner to shackle him. Every stroke that forms his name is a lock and an iron net. The sinner is brought forth, and his true name is bound here. With that name, a clamp is placed upon calamity. Calamity, Jae. Clamp, Gyeom.”

Having finished the sealing ritual that would deeply suppress the god of calamity, Myojeong looked down at the child, who was sleeping soundly.

Only one final step remained.

Myojeong called the god of calamity’s name three times and issued his commands.

You shall remain as you are.

You shall be forever immutable.

You shall not move from this place.