Chapter 16
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Chapter 16: The Mask
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No matter how excellent a system or how magnificent a law may be, if it is not constantly examined and maintained, it is bound to rust and become useless.
By the time his father collapsed, the last task they had shared had long since become a mere formality, devoid of any real substance.
"Do you know anything more about Geum-jil or Geum-ju?"
At the sound of Yeon So-hyeon’s voice, which had grown somewhat cold, the mask artisan bowed his head even lower.
"What could someone like me possibly know? I’ve only heard rumors, and they would only serve to clutter your ears, my lord."
"I see."
Yeon So-hyeon nodded and rose from his seat.
At that, the mask artisan hurriedly stood up to stop him.
"You are leaving just like this? So that we might repay you someday, could you at least tell us your honorable name..."
His wife chimed in as well.
"We may be ignorant folk, but we are not so shameless as to let our benefactor leave without a word."
The children, not fully understanding the situation, joined in as well.
"My lord!"
"My lord!"
Yeon So-hyeon sighed at the renewed chaos of this family.
Just then, his eyes caught a white mask stuck haphazardly in a corner of the room, which was in a state of total disarray.
"Then I will take this."
As he reached out his hand, the mask was drawn toward him and caught in his palm.
The mask artisan and his wife’s eyes widened at the strange sight, and the children clapped.
"Let us consider all debts and grievances settled with this."
The mask artisan wore a somewhat bitter expression.
"…Actually, I did not make that mask."
Yeon So-hyeon nodded.
"I suspected as much."
That mask was entirely different from the others scattered about the space.
"That mask is the final work of my late father, and it is..."
"If it is a family heirloom, I will not take it."
The mask artisan waved his hands hurriedly.
"No, that is not what I meant. I was merely curious as to why you would specifically want that mask..."
It was a reasonable question.
The mask had no eye holes and no nose holes.
The surface was rough, as it had not been properly finished, and the paint job felt incomplete.
To anyone’s eyes, it was nothing more than an unfinished or substandard piece of work.
"My father, who had lost his mind in his final years, was making that until the very moment he drew his last breath. He was not in his right mind. That is why I left it here in such a mess."
The mask artisan scratched his head.
"Besides, I heard from a wandering monk recently that the mask was an ominous object, so I was just about to destroy it."
Even at those words, Yeon So-hyeon slowly turned the mask in his hand and smiled.
"What meaning do you think your father imbued into this mask?"
The luster of the mask, reflecting the candlelight in Yeon So-hyeon’s hand, looked all the more ominous.
The mask artisan shuddered and shook his head.
"It is an object made by a madman. What thoughts could he have had?"
"Is that so?"
Yeon So-hyeon’s white teeth were revealed.
"Pardon? What do you mean...?"
"Did some misfortune not befall your father before he lost his sanity?"
At that question, the couple’s eyes widened.
"How did you know...? No, that is not important."
The mask artisan spoke with a darkened complexion.
"In truth, I had an older brother. He was a brother with talent far superior to mine. But one day, he was framed for an absurd crime and thrown into prison."
As his voice trembled, his wife reached out and held his hand tightly.
"My father was a fairly well-known artisan, and he had connections with the inspector of Luoyang at the time. So, my father went to see that inspector."
Tears streamed down from his swollen, bruised eyes.
"...It was an inspector who had clearly understood my brother’s situation and promised his acquittal."
The children, finding their father’s weeping pitiful, approached and hugged him.
He continued to speak while holding the children.
"But what returned was my brother’s cold corpse. His lower body had been beaten into a pulp from the heavy caning."
His body began to tremble.
"I even heard that it was the inspector himself who carried out the execution."
His wife handed him a cup of water.
He emptied the water in one gulp.
"…Later, when I found out the circumstances, it was truly absurd."
He roughly wiped the water that had spilled down his chin with his sleeve.
"It is said that a high-ranking official from the Imperial Court who was visiting Luoyang and a Luoyang official who were usually on bad terms made a wager."
Yeon So-hyeon’s eyes narrowed.
"The two bet on the value of the precious items they possessed, and it is said that one of them submitted my father’s masterpiece."
"…And then?"
A sneer formed on the mask artisan’s lips.
"I do not know. But someone must have won. And the loser was angry."
And so, his brother died as someone’s target for venting their anger.
"From that day on, my father went to the government office every single day. My father..."
The mask artisan’s voice gradually faded from Yeon So-hyeon’s ears.
Instead, the mask in his hand whispered, showing him the story.
Or perhaps, the *Darkness-Suppressing Heaven-Shaking Classic* was reading the story contained within the mask.
In Yeon So-hyeon’s vision, he saw the old artisan protesting at the main gate of the government office.
At first, the guards were merely troubled.
But a day passed, then two, and the old artisan’s footsteps never ceased.
From above, a thunderous order came down to the guards.
Gradually, the guards standing at the main gate became cruel.
Meanwhile, rumors about the old man shouting in front of the government office every day spread through the streets of Luoyang, and soon, they reached the ears of the inspector.
*‘That insolent old man is trying to block my path!’*
The old artisan, who had lived a life of integrity before heaven, shouted at the inspector.
*‘Are you not afraid of heaven! Heaven knows your sins, and the earth knows them too!’*
The inspector had the old artisan seized and subjected to horrific torture.
The charge was that he had fabricated facts that did not exist and dared to tarnish the honor of an official.
The old artisan fortunately survived and returned, but he lost his mind thereafter and died before long due to the aftereffects of the torture.
"…That is how my father passed away."
The father was weeping, the mother was weeping, and the children were weeping.
So-hyeon tilted his head.
"And yet, you still do not know the meaning contained in this mask?"
After pondering for a long time, the mask artisan bowed his head and pleaded with Yeon So-hyeon.
"It is a work that is practically my father’s legacy. Please, teach me, for I am too dull to understand even that."
A low laugh escaped Yeon So-hyeon’s lips.
The laughter grew louder and louder, ringing through the room.
It sounded like a mockery, and yet it also sounded like a sob.
The mask artisan felt that the laughter was similar to the laughter of his father when he had lost his mind.
The laughter that used to erupt from the room like a seizure, like a scream!
Yeon So-hyeon saw it.
The inspector had crushed both of the old artisan’s hands.
He had inflicted the most cruel punishment so that the man who had spent his whole life making masks would never be able to make one again.
The old artisan, who was carried back by the neighborhood youths, had gone mad.
His hair was disheveled, and he drooled from his mouth.
He would ramble on about things no one could understand, smear feces on the walls of his workshop, and even crawl around the neighborhood naked.
Then, one day, he locked himself in his workshop.
He carved the mask while singing a mournful tune.
It was only natural that the mask would be clumsy.
He had carved the mask with his toes, replacing his lost arms.
His two feet became covered in blood from the clumsy knife work.
But he did not stop.
He drank the rainwater leaking through the holes in the ceiling, having long since ceased to eat grain.
What kept him tethered to this world as he was dying was a hatred for the world and a rage filled with pain.
And the moment the mask was completed, he breathed his last.
Thus, a ghost-object was born.
It was not that the eye holes could not be carved.
It was that they were not carved.
So-hyeon’s laughter, which had been going on for a while, subsided.
He opened his eyes and slowly looked around the room.
The room, plunged into pitch-black darkness, was no better than a ruin.
The household goods were all smashed to pieces, and the floor was splattered with fresh blood.
The mask artisan and his family, who had been there just a moment ago, were nowhere to be seen.
It could not have been otherwise.
Yeon So-hyeon pushed open the dangling door and walked slowly into the courtyard.
There lay the wife’s cold, lifeless body, clutching her children tightly.
The blood that had pooled from their ruthless slaughter reflected the faint moonlight on the floor.
Yeon So-hyeon approached slowly and brushed back the children’s hair, which was covered in a white frost.
The children’s mouths had all been torn, their tongues hanging long, draped over their mother’s shoulders.
He laid the body of the mask artisan, which he had carried with him, down beside them.
The man had already been beaten so severely that he had breathed his last long ago.
It was by following the man’s grief-stricken soul that Yeon So-hyeon had been led to this place.
While the man was being assaulted, the wife had suffered a cruel fate, and when the children rushed in to resist, the perpetrators had killed them in a fit of rage.
A father dead with his limbs twisted, a mother dead from strangulation while hemorrhaging blood, and children dead with their mouths torn open.
The family had met again in death.
Yeon So-hyeon slowly put on the mask.
Then, he looked up at the empty air.
Why had the old artisan crafted a mask without even eye holes?
Yeon So-hyeon answered.
“...I cannot bear to open my eyes and look upon this world.”
Something glimmered as it flowed from beneath the mask.
***
“Have you heard the name of a person called Geum-ju, known as the daughter of Geum-jil?”
At Yeon So-hyeon’s words, Jeong-ah retraced her memories.
“...Now that you mention it, I believe I read that name in my sister’s letter some time ago.”
Yeon So-hyeon nodded slowly.
“Your sister is an information broker?”
“Yes, Master.”
Yeon So-hyeon closed the book he had been holding.
“It must have been a long time since you last saw her.”
A lonely light flickered in Jeong-ah’s eyes.
“Yes, a very long time...”
Yeon So-hyeon smiled faintly at her.
“Let us go to meet your sister tomorrow.”
Jeong-ah’s eyes widened in shock.
“Are you serious?!”
“I am.”
Jeong-ah was overcome with joy, unable to contain her excitement.
“We may not be able to stay long, but we should be able to remain for half a day, so feel free to unburden your heart and catch up.”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
Yeon So-hyeon waved his hand at her as she bowed repeatedly, then pulled a small jar from his robes.
“What is that?”
Without answering, Yeon So-hyeon opened the sealed lid of the jar.
Inside, a very modest amount of tea leaves revealed themselves.
Jeong-ah examined them and said.
“...It appears to be a nameless, low-quality tea leaf. The storage condition is also a mess.”
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head at her words.
“No. These tea leaves are very precious.”
“...Is that so?”
The smile on his lips looked somewhat sorrowful.
“They are a precious gift received in exchange for a kindness I could not even properly bestow...”
The two of them brewed and drank tea using leaves that were not even enough for a single person’s portion.
For some reason, the tea felt exceptionally warm.
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