Even My Life Is Yours Chapter 81

As Jang Daeho gestured with his chin, the men who were holding Hongyo let go. At that exact moment, Hongyo sprang up from her feet and ran toward the forest. Though she had heard countless times during the event preparations that it was a forest she must never enter, nothing came to mind at that moment. Only the thought that she had to find the ornament Gamyoung had given her as a gift filled her mind.

Hongyo pushed through the taboo rope blocking the entrance that she had just sealed. Looking at Hongyo’s retreating figure as she turned into a dot and vanished in an instant, Jang Daeho’s expression looked highly amused. But Yeoryeong was different. Approaching Jang Daeho with a deathly pale face, Yeoryeong spoke.

“Are you insane? You said you were only going to scare him!”

At that, Jang Daeho pulled up the corner of his mouth crookedly as he looked at Yeoryeong.

“If I were truly just going to scare him, I wouldn’t have told you to find out what that bastard cherishes so much. But what on earth is that thing that makes him so desperate? To me, it just looked like an ordinary ornament. Is it some kind of family heirloom?”

He then spoke to the white-faced Yeoryeong.

“For a smart guy, your ability to learn always falls short in situations like this. That’s why you’re still living like this.”

At those words, Yeoryeong clenched his fists. However, he couldn’t lay a finger on the man in front of him. As if he found the sight of him clenching his fists in spiteful anger amusing, Jang Daeho chuckled.

“Are you going to hit me? If you don’t like me, why don’t you take a swing?”

As he thrust his body forward while saying that, it seemed as if he was practically begging Yeoryeong to lift his fist at any moment. But Yeoryeong merely glared, as he always did. On his flushed face, not a trace of his usual sly expression could be found. Jang Daeho mocked Yeoryeong as he watched him.

“Look at that. You kick away the opportunity even when it’s given to you. That’s why you can’t escape from our family. Because you listen so well.”

He then suddenly leaned his head toward Yeoryeong. A voice laced with an unpleasant breath whispered into Yeoryeong’s ear.

“If you’re his friend, try to learn a thing or two from that bastard. He’s so entertaining that it made me want to come back sooner, you know? If you want to escape your plight too, you should at least do that much, Yeoryeong.”

Yeoryeong couldn’t bring himself to offer any reply to those words. Jang Daeho tapped his cheek with his index finger. Even in the face of an attitude that looked down on him boundlessly, Yeoryeong could only widen his eyes in fury. Jang Daeho stared at Yeoryeong, then soon shifted his gaze back to the forest as if he had lost interest. It was then that Yeoryeong opened his mouth.

“Do you even know what kind of forest that is before causing this trouble?”

Jang Daeho merely rolled his eyes to look at Yeoryeong.

“It’s a forest where ordinary people like us can never come out once they enter. They say even if they do come out, they go mad. What on earth have you done?”

It was a voice that sounded almost on the verge of crying. Jang Daeho stared intently at Yeoryeong. Whether he was gripped by fear or felt a sense of guilt only now, his uncharacteristically weak appearance wasn’t very pleasant to look at. Well, he was originally of this nature, anyway. Jang Daeho spoke.

“So?”

“What?”

“Do you actually believe in ghost stories like that in the first place? If you’re that worried, why don’t you go in and drag him out yourself?”

Yeoryeong stared at the forest. On the outside, it looked like a perfectly ordinary forest, but beyond the entrance, it felt as if something hiding its body was opening its pitch-black maw wide. Jang Daeho grinned as he saw Yeoryeong, who couldn’t bring himself to head toward the forest.

He then passed Yeoryeong and mounted his horse. Soon, those following Jang Daeho mounted their horses as well. Yeoryeong watched them grow distant, then stared back at the forest. Shortly after, he too hurriedly mounted his horse. The front of the Forest of Vanishing Shadows, from which everyone had departed, was merely quiet as if nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Hongyo was wandering the entire forest. Contrary to how it looked from the outside, because of the enormously large and tall trees, not even a single ray of sunlight could enter properly during the day, so the night went without saying. Amidst that, Hongyo frantically searched the trees. However, the arrow shot by Jang Daeho was nowhere to be seen. In the first place, searching the forest made no sense at all. Yet, she couldn’t just give up like this. Hongyo roamed the forest mindlessly. The more she did, the deeper she was entering than from the entrance.

It was a strange forest. She clearly thought she hadn’t strayed far from the entrance, but before she knew it, the entrance wasn’t even visible. She was even confused about the direction from which she had come. Considering how many years she had spent running around all sorts of mountains searching for game, it made no sense to lose her direction in a forest like this. However, no matter where she looked around, there were only trees that looked identical. Furthermore, even wild birds, which ought to be present in a forest, were nowhere to be seen. At the very least, there weren’t even birds or insects staying for a brief moment.

No matter where she looked, it was the exact same scenery. If she could hear at least the sound of water, she could just follow the waterway out, but the forest—where only tall, large trees and damp vines existed—didn’t even make the sound of water. No, let alone water, not even a breeze blew. It felt as though it had swallowed even the sounds from the outside, as if she were the only living thing in this massive forest. The sound of her footsteps walking blindly and her rough breaths exhaled occasionally were everything.

Upon realizing that fact, a sudden chill rushed over her. The forest, where all sides were deathly quiet, felt as though even time itself had stopped. Hongyo moved her steps while holding her breath. Rather than the fear that something might pop out, she would rather have seen a wild beast. She couldn’t tell where on earth the path had begun. As the same scenery appeared before her eyes no matter how much she walked, her body was now trembling slightly.

Stepping on a tree branch, Hongyo looked down at her feet, startled by the rustling sound. Then, on the ground that was damper than other places, the traces of someone passing through were imprinted. The footprints of Kyungrak and Mohyun were leading somewhere. Hongyo ran along that path. And when she reached its end, Hongyo forced strength into her legs that almost collapsed without her realizing it.

She couldn’t have imagined that such a palace would exist in the middle of a forest. It was a palace where the traces of time were felt, as if it had been in that place since ancient times. She felt overwhelmed by its massive size, which she could never have envisioned being built in a forest like this.

“Hall of the Returning Hour….”

Even so, the characters written on the plaque were as vivid as if they had been written yesterday, as though the ink hadn’t even dried. Staring at that unrealistic sight, Hongyo headed toward the palace without realizing it. As if drawn by something other than her own will, the gaze of Hongyo heading toward the Hall of the Returning Hour was by now devoid of focus, as if she were possessed by something rather than being afraid.

The old wooden palace made a creaking sound at the mere step of entering. A bleak and cold energy enveloped her body. Although it couldn’t have been even one shijin since Kyungrak had departed, not a single trace of human entry or exit could be seen. The inside of the palace was as grand and complicated as it looked from the outside. In particular, the hallway that bent in several directions was like a labyrinth. However, Hongyo was heading somewhere as if she had known this path from the very beginning.

While that point was confusing, it also felt exactly as though something was calling her. As if replying to that calling, Hongyo quickened her steps. The hallway, where not a single speck of light entered, was cold, dark, and bizarre, but there was no hesitation in her steps heading somewhere.

And when she finally stood before a certain door, Hongyo felt instinctively that this room had called her. Except for the fact that the door was attached entirely to the wall surface, it was no different from the rooms she had passed by. However, there was clearly an existence beyond the thin paper sliding door. It wasn’t that a shadow was visible or a voice could be heard, but someone was definitely inside.

Hongyo reached out her hand toward the doorknob as if bewitched. Subsequently, with the sound of the door sliding open, Hongyo was momentarily choked up. The dragon patterns engraved on all sides looked as though they would pop out and writhe at any moment. At the end of the intertwined patterns, a single old altar resided. Although the face of the dragon engraved upon it was a drawing, it was vividly intense to an incomparable degree. A fear that could not be described in words rushed over her. Hongyo took a step back.

‘I must not stay here any longer.’

When hunting for a long time, the survival instinct seen in beasts on the verge of death was signaling danger with all its might.

As if doused with cold water, her mind snapped alert and her vision cleared as though a fog had lifted. Simultaneously, Hongyo realized where she was right now. Despite being an old building where human footsteps had ceased, it was excessively clean and tidy. In the stillness that seemed to have swallowed even her own breath beyond being merely quiet, it felt as if she had gone deaf. The air, which had grown heavier and damper than before, pressed down on her.

Hongyo turned her head and looked at the hallway she had passed through. Though the sun shouldn’t have set yet, the hallway, dark as midnight, looked like a path that extended infinitely to its end. It was then that a certain presence was felt inside the room. Although its form was indistinct, something possessing a bleak energy cold enough to feel a chill was right within her reach. In the first place, this was a location where she must never set foot.

The moment she realized that fact, Hongyo turned her body and dashed away. Like the forest where every direction looked identical, a hallway of similar appearance unfolded endlessly. She didn’t know with what mind she had escaped that place, but when she came to her senses, she was in the forest once again. Simultaneously, a pressure she hadn’t felt until just a moment ago bore down on her head.

Her knees buckled on their own. It was a pressure she couldn’t withstand without lowering her body. However, if she stayed here, she would be trapped and die. It was an instinct identical to that of a beast facing death. Hongyo desperately raised her knees. She then took steps forward, one by one. The further away she got from that dreadful palace, the pressure pushing her down also faded gradually, but a sense of exhaustion that made her want to collapse and rest right here wrapped around her entire body.

Her steps slowed down, and even her eyelids grew progressively heavy. Even if it was spring, it was chilly at night. However, her entire body trembled violently at a coldness that made no sense to be attributed to just that. In her vision, which had begun to blink away little by little, only trees of identical appearance were still filled. Even those trees began to distort in shape, and soon the branches swayed as if dancing. Simultaneously, as a bright red flame spread through the forest, the flames leaped here and there. The branches that swayed back and forth soon assumed human forms like goblins and danced.

Everything surrounding her appeared in bizarre shapes. She couldn’t distinguish whether it was reality, a dream, or some other place she didn’t know. In the forest where not a single breath of wind blew, a whispering voice brushed past her ear like a breath of wind.

“Wh…o….”

However, as if mixed into the wind, only syllables were heard sparsely. Hongyo couldn’t even tell if what she was hearing was a real voice. She merely hoped for this moment to pass and tried hard to force open her eyes that were closing more and more. But no matter how much she walked and walked, she returned to the Hall of the Returning Hour. Even when she desperately tried to escape that place by practically crawling, when she raised her head, she was in front of the Hall of the Returning Hour again. Hongyo could no longer distinguish whether what she was seeing was an illusion or reality. As if trapped in an infinite cycle, no matter how hard she tried to run away from the Hall of the Returning Hour, when she opened her eyes, that massive palace was visible.

“Ha, haha….”

Her self-mocking laughter was filled with nothing but despair. They said it was a forest where even shadows vanished inside because not even a handful of sunlight was allowed in. Hongyo could understand that meaning only now. It wasn’t a place where only shadows vanished, but where even one’s existence was erased. No, in the first place, this was an infinite space with neither an entrance nor an exit. The only thing an intruder could do was pray that whatever existed in that room earlier would grant mercy and let them out.

In the end, Hongyo, whose legs gave out, collapsed flat on the floor. Her vision spun, and subsequently, the cold dirt floor touched her cheek. Even the voice that seemed to be searching for her faded away, and her vision blinked out. If she stayed like this, she would die. However, because she had grown listless as if all the muscles in her body had gone slack, Hongyo wanted to close her eyes just like this.

“Yeo Hongyo!”

It was then. From somewhere, a voice calling her name was heard. She thought it was an auditory hallucination like before, but that sound grew clearer and clearer as time went on. Unlike the spine-chilling whisper, the desperate voice that sounded as if it were vomiting blood belonged to a human. Hongyo squeezed out her final bit of strength with all her might.

“Here….”

However, that was her limit. As if her throat had stuck together, her words failed to be uttered and scattered. Her eyelids descended slowly. It was around the time when only the thought of wanting to sleep like this filled her mind. In her vision, where nothing but the dirt floor and the base of a large tree could be seen, the tip of someone’s foot appeared. Simultaneously, her vision spun once more, and her body was hauled halfway up.

“Pull yourself together, Yeo Hongyo! Open your eyes!”

Hongyo barely opened her eyes at that voice. Then, in front of her eyes was Gamyoung with a frantic face. A blue light was flowing out around him.

‘Is this an illusion too?’

Yet, even an illusion was fine. Hongyo let her head fall onto Gamyoung’s shoulder just like that. Tears flowed down her dry cheek.