183 – The Quiet Cat #2

183 – The Quiet Cat #2

Not long ago, I witnessed Yu Yeoreum lift a massive boulder with her bare hands.

Well, I say boulder, but frankly, it was the size of a small mountain.

How much did it weigh?

I couldn’t say for sure, but it must have been incredibly heavy.

The important thing is that Yu Yeoreum’s strength is on that level.

And now, Yu Yeoreum, being carried away in the mouth of a giant cat without even a chance to resist.

This was, without a doubt, a crisis.

Just how strong was this massive feline to be able to carry off Yu Yeoreum like that!

And why was it carrying her off in the first place?

Many questions swirled in my mind, but the important thing was to follow it.

So, I ran with all my might, chasing after the cat.

*Pat-pat-pat-pat-*!

The cat leaped across treacherous cliffs and rocks as if it were child’s play – though thankfully my legs were just as sturdy as the beast’s.

It was astounding, really.

To think, a mere cat, however gigantic, possessed a speed capable of outstripping me?

Eventually, we arrived at what appeared to be a temple.

A temple nestled amongst the rocks and cliffs, reaching so high on the mountain peak that it kissed the clouds.

Could such a temple even exist here?

*Swish-*

I unfurled the map, drawn two hundred years ago, before the world’s demise, and compared it to this vicinity.

A temple unlisted, unmarked.

Focusing the power of “Emotion,” I gazed upon the temple, and words materialized.

“Serpent’s Temple.”

“A temple said to be built by a colossal serpent, seeking to amass virtuous deeds for its ascension to the heavens. Also known as the Temple of Fate.”

Serpent’s Temple?

A curious place, indeed.

The gigantic cat was perched atop the main hall’s roof beam within the temple.

Yu Yeoreum lay sprawled in the temple courtyard.

“Yu Yeoreum, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. It wasn’t a particularly strong bite. It was actually… fun.”

For some reason, a faint smile played on Yu Yeoreum’s lips.

As if being bitten by that colossal cat had felt like riding some extreme thrill ride.

“Yu Yeoreum, what do you think? Is that thing the master of this mountain? Do we have to defeat it to get this ‘Giant Mushroom’ thing?”

At my question, Yu Yeoreum lifted her head, gazing at the white-furred cat.

*Whoosh-*

A wind, arriving from nowhere, tickled the cat’s long fur and whiskers, and the cat, seeming drowsy, settled down on the roof beam, resting on its belly and closing its eyes.

“I don’t think it’s the ‘master of the mountain’.”

“How do you know that?”

“Its fur is clean. Stray cats usually have matted, scruffy fur. Spiky and unkempt. But its fur is clean. It clearly looks like someone’s pet.”

Yu Yeoreum’s perspective was certainly unique.

Come to think of it, its fur did look fluffy and pristine, like a house cat’s.

Even Ing-ing, when he wanders outside, his cloud-like body often gets dirty, as if his fluff has attracted soot.

Yu Yeoreum’s pet chipmunk, Keong-keong, now that he’s a house chipmunk, also has perfectly fluffy fur.

Anyway, that enormous cat is someone’s pet?

Who on earth would keep such a gigantic cat?

“…Is someone there?”

*Screeeeeech-*

Just then, someone opened a door from deep within the Daeungjeon Hall and emerged.

A woman, her head covered in a white veil like a bride. Judging by her voice, she was likely in her late thirties or forties.

Could she be a nun from this temple?

Her attire certainly suggested so, draped in the robes of a Buddhist monk.

“Living in a temple like this, she probably isn’t ordinary, is she?”

*Thump-*

I nudged Yoo Yeoreum’s side, subtly raising my guard.

At that moment, the nun of the temple gave a soft chuckle.

“You don’t need to be so wary. I am just an ordinary person.”

Just in case, I scanned the woman with my senses.

But the statement she made, that she was an ordinary person, rang true.

The woman before me wasn’t even an Awakened.

Truly an ordinary person.

A mysterious place not even on the map, a giant cat, and an ordinary nun.

As I pondered this strange combination, Yoo Yeoreum asked.

“Are you the owner of that cat, Reverend?”

“Where does ownership reside in life? One’s own life belongs wholly to oneself. That cat is a friend I met recently. But more to the point, who are you guests?”

Someone who doesn’t recognize my face.

That was rather peculiar.

Perhaps because she’s a Buddhist who has left the secular world?

“I am Ha Namjin. This is Yoo Yeoreum.”

“I see. Judging by your voices, you seem to be young students… I wonder what缘緣 brought you to this temple.”

We are clearly young people at first glance.

Soon, Yoo Yeoreum nudged my side with a *thump-*

“She must be blind. Like Kkeongkkeong, the blind chipmunk.”

Yoo Yeoreum was raising a blind chipmunk.

Perhaps that was why, she seemed to have discerned that the nun’s eyes, hidden behind the white veil, were sightless.

A blind nun.

It didn’t seem like there was anyone else in this temple other than her.

How he managed to live alone all this time, I wonder.

“The students, too, must surely have someone they desperately wish to see. This temple is a place for such souls… Come inside. The fog will thicken soon.”

As the monk said, the fog soon deepened, obscuring everything just inches ahead.

So fierce was the mist that even my ‘Senses’ couldn’t penetrate it, and even Yoo Yeoreum’s ‘Light’ struggled to pierce through.

Ultimately, we were left with no choice but to spend the night at the temple perched atop this high mountain.

“For me, being without sight, fog matters little. But for young students to descend the mountain, it will likely have to wait until morning. I’ll lend you a room, so rest there for today.”

The monk extended his hospitality.

I couldn’t help but think there would surely be some price for this kindness.

“Then, is there anything we can help you with?” I asked, and the monk smiled faintly, like wind rustling through blades of grass.

“It wasn’t done in expectation of help. If you truly wish to aid me, perhaps you could offer a bit of company. Spending so long cultivating here in the mountains… one begins to long for people.”

Indeed.

I, too, was an expert in loneliness.

I didn’t know how long this monk had been on this mountain, but…

Living alone would be a solitary affair.

Especially with his eyes gone, he must feel as though he were submerged in the darkness of the entire world.

And so, we came to stay the night at the temple.

The remarkable thing was that this monk had never been to the moon.

“…Lunar migration? Annihilation? That’s the first I’ve heard of it. Surely, the students aren’t weaving tales to tease an old man? Though it doesn’t sound like a fabrication.”

He’d never migrated to the moon and spent nearly 200 years in this temple?

I couldn’t fathom how that was possible.

As I continued to be surprised by so many things, Yoo Yeoreum, unable to contain her curiosity, asked,

“What do you mean when you say this temple is a place for people who have someone they wish to see?”

“That is because… this temple stands at the boundary between heaven and earth. Long ago, when an enormous serpent built this temple, it sought to be closer to the sky, and so built it in such a place…”

I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

But Yoo Yeoreum seemed to understand this obscure, fairytale-like tale.

“Are you saying this temple touches Heaven?”

“One could say so. It is said that those who stay at this temple sometimes hear the voices of those who departed this world long ago, beyond that misty veil.”

A temple where one can meet the dead.

What utter foolishness.

Isn’t the world over when you die?

That’s why we scrabble to live, even in a world ruined.

Soon, the monk chuckled.

“I think it’s a foolish tale, too. And whatever calls to people from beyond that fog, these last few days, is a very wicked thing. So you mustn’t lend your ear to any sound you hear.”

Having warned us, the monk stretched his palm into the air.

As if to sense the energy of the wind.

“I heard you came to the mountains to find something called a ‘Giant Mushroom.’ I don’t know what that is, but to get mushrooms growing in the mountains, you’ll have to avoid the ‘Mountain Lord’ and move quietly at dawn.”

# # #

“Jin-ah, look at this.”

Yoo Yeo-reum stroked the chin of an enormous cat, again and again.

The colossal cat, in turn, emitted a strange, rumbling purr.

“This cat… I feel like I’ve met it somewhere before.”

“Really?”

I had that feeling, too.

It seemed quite gentle.

So, I reached out to stroke the cat’s head, but it smacked my hand away with its paw.

“Hiss!”

“Scratch that about being gentle.”

What a sassy cat!

Anyway, these were curious experiences.

And so, Yoo Yeo-reum and I ended up staying in a room at the temple, along with the cat.

Peeking out the window, all I could see was a thick, swirling fog; nothing at all.

“Do you think it’s really true, that this temple is connected to paradise?”

It was just then.

—Hanam-jjin! I can’t see anything! Hanam-jjin! Where are you!

Someone’s voice calling my name.

From beyond that hazy fog.

The tone and way of speaking… it’s identical to Bbangdaengi’s.

“Baek Yeo-ul?”

Even Yoo Yeo-reum looked puzzled.

But, I didn’t believe Bbangdaengi would have followed us all the way to this temple.

Something was mimicking the sound of buttocks slapping.

For the past two hundred years, I’d battled every hallucination and auditory delusion solitude could conjure.

Illusions that vanished like the wind when embraced.

And yet, I’d fall for them, knowing full well.

“─Hanamjinnie!”

“─Hey! Hanamjin! You answer when we call!”

“─The Fox-Noui’s here too!”

Not only buttocks, but also mimicking Seo Gaeul and Fox-Noui’s voices?

Quite the talent.

“─Yeoreum-ah.”

Then, like a small breeze, someone whispered Yu Yeoreum’s name.

Yu Yeoreum was visibly shaken.

“That voice…”

“You know it?”

“I don’t. But…it evokes a feeling of longing.”

Yu Yeoreum placed a hand over her chest.

As if her heart rate had quickened.

“─Yeoreum-ah, my daughter, whom I never held after giving birth. It’s your mother. It’s me. I’m sorry I couldn’t come to see you. I’m sorry I left you at the orphanage…”

“……!”

Yu Yeoreum looked utterly bewildered.

Was that the voice of Yu Yeoreum’s biological mother?

Of course, it was likely a fabrication.

But, Yu Yeoreum seemed bothered by it.

“I know it’s fake. But, since it can mimic Baek Yeoul’s voice, maybe that voice is somewhat real too? Maybe it knows my mother.”

Yu Yeoreum moved as if she were about to step into the mist.

Then, the giant cat, curled up and sleeping, rumbled like a tiger.

“Haaack!”

“See, even he’s telling you not to go.”

“But…”

“You mustn’t go out there!”

Then, the monk, kettle steaming in hand, rushed into the room and urgently grabbed Yoo Yeoreum’s arm.

As if to stop Yoo Yeoreum from leaving.

“That sound…it’s the ‘Mountain Lord’ who’s been appearing lately! If you follow it, you might get eaten! It’s a monster that imitates people. And it imitates the voice you yearn for most deeply in your heart…”

A terrifying creature, indeed.

Come to think of it, wasn’t the reason the giant mushrooms were hard to pick because the Mountain Lord guarded the mountain?

Well then, all I have to do is take that thing down.

“Everyone, just wait here.”

*Whoosh!*

I charged out into the mist with energy.

After all, I’m ‘Immortal’, so I wouldn’t be hurt by anything ordinary.

“Jin-ah, be careful.”

But Yoo Yeoreum rushed into the fog with me.

Was she interested in a monster that imitated her birth mother’s voice?

Yoo Yeoreum shook her head at my unspoken question.

“Because you’re here, I’m here too. You’ve been alone for so long. From now on, I have to be with you. That’s what family is, isn’t it? Enduring even the most terrible places together.”

Quite touching.

Right at that moment, something writhed and lunged out of the fog.

*Whoosh!*

Just as I thought it was difficult to react to the swift movement…

“Mom, watch out!”

In an instant, something shot out from the cliff and slammed into whatever was writhing in the mist with its whole body.

It was a huge cat.

It nimbly sprang and clamped its jaws around the dark shape.

*–Shhhkk!*

A flickering black shadow writhed violently between its sharp teeth.

*Shwaaa–!*

Yoo Yeoreum unleashed a burst of light that scattered the mist, and the black shape’s true form was vaguely revealed.

It was an extremely thick and long centipede, covered in rows of disgusting legs.

Hundreds, no, thousands of legs writhed and clawed at the air.

At this size, it’s less a centipede, more a dragon.

Could that monster, by any chance, be mimicking human voices, hidden within the mist?

More importantly…

“Didn’t that cat just… speak like a person?”

Clearly, it said, “Mom, danger”—or something like that.

At least, that’s what it sounded like to me.

To my question, the cat responded:

“…Meow.”

Suspicious, isn’t it?