MB Ch 4 part 1

Wani… was the sewer of the heavenly realm.

The good and the bad of the world were equally mixed. Just because it was the heavenly realm did not mean only the good resided there. Bodily waste and trash, the dirty and the distorted… All of it was thrown into Wani. From the moment the world and the underworld were created, the waste piled on and on in the swamp. That place was Wani.

Mujang came from there. The reason why Mujang and his sister Muyi were thrown into Wani was because Muyi had been born with a deformity.

Everything must be perfect and beautiful in the heavenly realm, so a deformity was unacceptable. The midwife who delivered the child let out a scream and almost dropped the baby. Mujang’s mother reacted the same way when she saw the child. From the moment she was born, Muyi had never tasted her mother’s breast. Unable to endure this any longer, Mujang stepped forward. If he hadn’t brought her to the udder of a cow and fed her, Muyi would have died within days of her birth.

Muyi lived her days imprisoned in a small room. No one in heaven wanted to acknowledge that child’s birth. Mujang could not understand why the people of the heavenly realm whispered and murmured just because of her deformed half. Compared to the strangely malformed and melted half of Muyi’s face, the other half was unbelievably adorable and beautiful.

“Orabeoni.”

Muyi’s characteristically soft and low voice called out to him.

The small room wasn’t even one pyeong¹. No one opened the door to the room except when it was mealtime, but Muyi did not complain. She only waited for him to return and drew countless drawings inside the room. She would draw mountains and hills she had never seen before, oceans and rivers. The drawings were overflowing with flowers and birds. Mujang’s requests to let Muyi out for a little while were always ignored.

However, one day, Mujang could not endure it any longer and secretly bundled her up and let her out of the room. Evading their parents’ eyes, Mujang showed Muyi the heavenly realm outside. The indescribably wide, blue sky, brilliantly colored flowers of all types, the cool, clear breeze, and the shaking trees…

Mujang would never be able to forget the child’s eyes when she saw everything for the first time. The eyes filled with wonder and joy, sadness and pain…

And because of that day, Mui was chased out of the heavenly realm and into Wani.

And Mujang followed her there. Muyi was supposed to have been thrown out of the heavenly realm due to the way she was born, but Mujang could not let her go alone. Muyi lived in the dirty, sickening mud of Wani for seven hundred years.

One day, upon having returned from searching for food, Mujang found that a strange silence had settled over the old, rundown house in Wani. A peculiar hunch caused Mujang to put down his things and run inside. The room was filled with the smell of blood.

“Muyi!”

He roared as he raced towards Muyi’s shabby bedroom. The floor was already covered in blood. Muyi’s wrist was halfway cut, and blood was spurting out. The child merely watched the blood with a blank look on her face. She had wounded her own face as well, and it was also covered in blood. The child raised the knife and moved to finish cutting off her wrist.

“Muyi!”

Mujang roared and snatched the knife away. However, Muyi stubbornly defied him and pushed him away.

“Enough! Enough already! I’m going to end it all now!”

Her cries swallowed them whole. Muyi’s blood spurted onto Mujang. Mujang finally slapped Muyi’s cheek as she writhed in pain.

“Get a hold of yourself!”

“Get a hold of what?! What do you know, Orabeoni?”

Muyi was burning with rage, and she did not seem like the Muyi he knew. The child who had always been bright. The child who did not waver. This was not that child.

“There is a way!”

“What way? Where is it? I’m a monster! Can’t you tell just by looking at me?”

“You are not a monster! Idiot!”

Mujang shouted out as he grabbed both of her arms.

“You are not a monster.”

Mujang said it again as if to assure her.

“You are definitely not a monster.”

Muyi remained still as she glared at him. Tears trickled down her cheeks.

“A face is not what makes a monster. The heart is what makes a monster. You are not a monster. They are the ones who are monsters.”

Mujang raised his hand and gestured to the heavenly realm.

“Doing something like this to someone who did nothing wrong is what makes them monsters. Muyi, get a hold of yourself.”

“Orabeoni, you should get a hold of yourself.”

Muyi laughed bitterly. Tears continued to run down her cheeks.

“How am I not a monster?”

“How are you not a monster? You took care of the people in Wani. You saved the children who lived beyond the hill. And what about Grandma Imae? If it hadn’t been for your loving care, she would be dead by now.”

Mujang spoke as he frantically stopped the bleeding.

“How is a child like that a monster? You are not a monster, Muyi.”

“I am a monster.”

“No, you’re not, you idiot.”

“I said I’m a monster.”

“Get a grip!”

The tears continued to fall. He thought she was enduring things quite well during the time they were here, but it had all burst out now.

“Have you heard of the yaksu on Mount Dongdae?”

“What is that?”

“It’s the life-giving water of the gods. They say that it can heal anything if one drinks it.”

“And a monster like me can become a person?”

“I said you aren’t a monster. I will get you that yaksu no matter what.”

“I can’t even leave Wani, Orabeoni.”

“But I can leave. Do you understand?”

Mujang gritted his teeth and wrapped his hands around Muyi’s face.

“Just trust in your older brother. I will do whatever it takes to find the yaksu for you. And then we will return to the heavenly realm. Understand? You and me. We’ll go back and live for all those idiots to see. Understand?”

Tears filled Muyi’s eyes once again.

“I said, do you understand?”

He yelled out once more. He wrapped his little sister into a tight embrace. He told her he’d keep his promise no matter what. He told her he’d do whatever he could to bring her the yaksu. That he would make everything right. He promised her again and again.

* * *

And what did I do?

The hazy dawn was approaching. Mujang was as stiff as a stone statue as he gazed at the woman lying on his bed. Her small body was bitten and sucked throughout the night and was now covered in red marks. His seed was overflowing from between her thighs and continued to drip out.

Something he did to have a child.

Something he did to receive the yaksu.

So this was something he did for Muyi. Nothing more, nothing less. This is something Bari did for her father. Nothing more, nothing less. The same.

However…

He was disgusted. What he did. How he acted in order to have a child with this human woman. He could not forgive himself. However, he could think of no other way. No, it was already too late.

Having told himself this was nothing more than copulation, he took her and took her again all night. An insane, crazy guy would have done better than this. Mujang could not endure the self-loathing and exited the room.

* * *

How much time had passed? What happened?

Bari barely managed to open her eyes and stared at the ceiling. A hazy light illuminated the ceiling. It wasn’t the usual dark ceiling of her room. It was carved with beautiful, intricate patterns.

Where am I?

Her throat was sore. She didn’t think any sound could leave her swollen, stinging throat. No, it wasn’t just her neck. It was her whole body. Especially her lower half. It didn’t feel like it belonged to her.

Fragments of memories of what had occurred last night came over her, and Bari let out a moan as she looked to her side. She was the only one on the bed. She saw the haphazardly crumpled blanket. There was another blanket that was covering Bari’s body. There was no sign of Mujang.

Thank goodness.

Bari thought as she chewed on her lips. Thinking about what happened last night, she could not bear to see his face right now. This was all because she had drunk too much of that damned nuptial wine. She felt like her head was going to shatter. No, her entire body didn’t feel like it belonged to her. She recalled the way Mujang looked as he gazed down at her with the moon at his back. She felt like she was losing her mind.

“My goodness…”

Bari groaned and turned to her side as she covered her face with one hand. Between her fingers, her cheeks and neck turned red as if it were on fire. What was that? My goodness, we have to do something like that? That explicitly? As she thought about how their bodies had tangled together like beasts, Bari let out another groan.

“Bari.”

Suddenly, Bari heard a voice call out to her, and she quickly lowered her hand. Ran approached the bed. Startled, Bari hurriedly covered her body with the blanket, but there was no way Ran did not know what had occurred. The child’s blue eyes were filled with tears.

“Ran, what’s wrong?”

“The Master… The Master… to you…”

Ran looked up at her with a terrified expression on his face.

“Are you okay? The Master did strange things to you.”

“Ran! Th-That’s okay. It’s nothing.”

Bari didn’t know what to do. How could she possibly explain this to a young child like Ran? She was overcome with shock at the realization that Ran might have seen what she and Mujang had done last night.

“But…”

“It’s really nothing. Th-The Master and I had something important we needed to take care of.”

“Something important?”

“Yes, something important. So you must never come to this room from now on.”

“Why not?”

Ran’s eyes trembled in confusion.

“Th-That is…”

Bari chose her words with much difficulty.

“This is something the Master and I discussed beforehand. You must never come to this room. If he knows that you are near, he will get very angry. You know how he gets, right? He’s scary.”

With tears dangling from his eyes, Ran eventually nodded.

“Where is the Master?”

At Bari’s question, Ran answered angrily in a curt voice.

“I don’t know. He went out in the middle of the night.”

“He went out? To where?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t want to know.”

Ran had already been terrified of Mujang, but with what happened last night, it seemed that Mujang had finally won Ran’s hatred as well. Bari let out a sigh and entreated Ran once more, asking him to never come to this room again. If Mujang wasn’t here, she wanted to go to her room and wash up. It felt like her limbs had been detached and then reattached.

She barely managed to sit up and lowered her legs from the bed. It felt like her body had been skewered. Her face flushed once again when she recalled how Mujang’s staff had crudely pierced into her. And that wasn’t all. He released a sticky fluid inside her body. At first, she was shocked because she thought it was urine.

How could he urinate inside her body?! However, the smell was not something familiar. A somewhat fishy smell. And she also recalled a slick fluid trickling down her leg.

As soon as Mujang entered her body, he released this fluid. Then he moved his body frantically all over again. Feeling like her body was being ripped apart, Bari could only cry out in pain. She really thought she was going to die.

He took it out and thrust it back in over and over again. She couldn’t breathe as he pressed down on her with his large body. He held her hands captive as he pushed into her, making her body slide towards the bottom of the bed. And she received his seed once, twice… seven times?

She didn’t know. Either way, he had spilled a lot inside her because even now, she strangely felt like her lower half was filled to the brim. With shaking legs, Bari barely managed to stand up. But before she could take a step, a white fluid escaped from between her legs and began to trickle down her thigh. Startled, Bari frantically wrapped her body with the blanket and exited through the door.

A pale light illuminated the corridor. She walked through the corridor and returned to her room. When she saw the bathtub filled with flowing, warm water, she let out a sigh of relief. She cautiously lowered her body into the water, and a moan escaped her lips. Ran continued to circle her with a worried expression on his face.

After that, Mujang did not return for several days.

It’s not like this is the first time he’s done this. Despite this thought, Bari couldn’t help but feel nervous. It felt like something was wrong. It felt like she did something wrong. Why? To calm her troubled heart, Bari put all her focus and attention onto something else.

Compared to the ruins of the old house, she liked this new house a lot better. And unlike the old house, this place seemed to have a lot more light. The suffocating gray fog was also nowhere to be seen. It was a bit dimly lit indoors, but there was sunlight outside that let the flowers and trees grow. However…

“Ah.”

Bari dropped the flower in shock. A flower with feather-like petals was growing on the tip of the silk tree branch. It looked so beautiful that Bari could not resist picking it. As soon as it came off of the branch, the flower crumbled like dust. Just a moment ago, the bloom was bright and full of color. But now it had disappeared without a trace.

“What is this?”

Bari raised her head and looked around. The trembling leaves were a soft green. The lavender flowers were blooming on the tips of the branches. They all looked strange. Bari suspiciously picked another flower. As expected, the flower turned into dust once again.

She wasn’t sure why her heart was sinking. Why did she feel so bleak? Everything her eye could see, all the things she could sense so clearly… She knew that her five senses were fooling her. 

Just like this marriage. They were merely closing their eyes and humming, choosing to ignore the truth.

Bari lightly bit down on her lip. She had wanted to plant some crops in hopes that they’d grow. Just like her fading memories, she realized that these crops may not be able to grow on this land. What a foolish delusion.

Bari looked down at the ground with dark eyes before heading inside. There was no sign of anyone else inside this beautiful house. It was full of flowers, but there was no sound of birds or small insects. Everything was perfect as if it had been staged, but it was not the truth. She could not find any life here.

Lies…

Bari felt like she was living in a fantasy castle. The faraway gray silhouette of Mount Dongdae looked like a dark painting as it gazed back at her.

I’m lonely.

A sudden chill swept through her, and Bari bit her lips. It was a loneliness she hadn’t felt since she entered the underworld. At first, her stubborn resolve to find Mount Dongdae took over her. And when she arrived here, Ran and that damned master had always been by her side.

“Ran.”

She tried calling out to Ran, but for some reason, that little rascal never approached her anymore. She recalled the way Ran’s eyes trembled with anxiety after her first night with Mujang. Now that her only friend no longer drew near, Bari felt strange. She hadn’t seen Ran in the past three days.

“Ran!”

Bari came out to the garden again and screamed out Ran’s name. Her surroundings were silent, almost as if they could swallow up the echo of her voice. Only Mount Dongdae endured, almost as if it were in a deep sleep. Bari bit her lips. Suddenly, she felt like she was left all alone in this place. She went through with a ridiculous wedding, and she had held her first night with Mujang, but now he was nowhere to be seen.

Where did he go? When was he coming back? Couldn’t he tell her these sorts of things now? After spending a night like the one they did, couldn’t he show his face? Weren’t they a married couple now? But wasn’t this all just a facade? What about the yaksu?

The intense loneliness transformed into intense dread. It slashed at her heart and began to strangle it. The unbearable loneliness and dread caused Bari to go back inside the house and helplessly wander.

“It’s okay.”

Bari stroked her shoulders with both hands as she whispered to herself.

“It’s okay, Bari.”

But it wasn’t okay at all. She wanted to run away. But where would she run to?

“Ran!”

Bari shouted out again. But there was no trace of the blue goblin.

“M-Mujang-nim!”

She didn’t want to call for him, but she ended up calling his name.

“Mujang-nim!”

She raised her voice again. But the thick fog swallowed up her cry as it hovered in the air.

“What are you doing?”

Bari’s eyes slowly filled with tears. She wanted to cry out and weep. No, she wanted to run somewhere. But where would she go? Was she ultimately left all alone in this house?

“Everyone, where did you go? Isn’t this too cruel?”

Complaints began to flow out of her mouth. She mumbled as tears continued to trickle down. She wanted to go back. But what would change if she did go back? They were not waiting for her. They were waiting for the ‘yaksu’ that she was supposed to bring!

Bari impulsively climbed up the railing and stepped onto the roof. The roof was made of sturdy tiles and was blanketed by a cold, ashen mist. Despite the slippery tiles, Bari climbed up and reached the highest point, panting from the exertion. From here, she felt like she could see everything.

If she could just find the ghostly blue glow of Ran’s goblin fire in the darkness… Or perhaps she could catch the sight of Mujang returning to the house!

Haa…

As she let out a ragged breath, the white mist flew into the dark void surrounding her. Except for the yellow lights of the house, everything around her was engulfed in a silence as deep as a tomb. The moon appeared faint, and there was no trace of a star. Neither Ran’s blue goblin fire nor Mujang’s shadow could be seen.

“Raaan!”

Bari called out for Ran once more.

“Mujang-nim!”

She called out over and over again, but there was no response. Feeling deeply disappointed, Bari sat down and buried her head in her arms as she began to sob. She had no idea what she was doing here. She couldn’t understand why she was feeling this way. What was going to happen? Why did she have to suffer like this alone? Why was she alone…

“What are you doing here?”

Suddenly, she heard a low voice. Completely shocked, Bari lifted her head. Mujang was standing on the other side of the roof. Underneath the blue moonlight, he had a blank look on his face as if nothing had happened.

“M-Mujang-nim!”

“Why are you crying over here?”

Even though he was the one who had left the house, he was asking her in a voice that sounded like he was scolding her.

“No, so this is…”

She needed to answer him, but her eyes continued to water like a fool. However, when she looked at his face, rather than feeling joy, she felt overwhelmed with anger. Where had he gone? Why didn’t he answer her when she called out to him?! Where did the two of them go after abandoning her here like this?!

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know, but you’re crying up here on the roof?”

“I didn’t cry.”

“Even though your tears are still dripping down your cheeks?”

“I said I didn’t cry!”

Bari continued to insist in an angry voice. Then she burst to her feet and moved to climb down from the roof. Even though she was glad to see that Mujang had returned, she wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

“Careful…!”

Just as the warning left Mujang’s mouth, Bari’s foot slipped on one of the tiles. Aagh! Bari cried out as her body slid down the roof.

What do I do?!

Goosebumps rose all over her body. Her body slid past the eaves of the roof and began to fall to the ground. I’m going to get hurt! Bari squeezed her eyes shut, but in the next moment, Mujang was holding her in his arms.

The terror of crashing to the ground was replaced by the sensation of being in his arms.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Mujang clicked his tongue as he scolded her. Bari’s face was pale as she tightened her arms around his neck.

“It’s not like you’re a complete fool. Why did you climb up to the roof and…”

Suddenly, Mujang stopped speaking. This was because Bari’s arms were squeezing around his neck. As she hung onto him with all her might, her entire body trembled as she sobbed. Mujang froze with her in his arms and spoke in a stiff voice.

“Don’t cry.”

But Bari’s sobs did not stop. Her heart had been troubled for days, and she had endured it all alone. Therefore, the tears continued to fall.

“Such a fool…”

Mujang murmured. He held her in his embrace and carried her back inside the house. As the blue moonlight settled over the garden, it reminded Bari of their wedding night. She sniffled and buried her face into Mujang’s shoulder.

The warmth emanating from his shoulder onto her cheek felt awkward, but Bari’s heart throbbed. His embrace and the manly scent that was all his… She didn’t hate any of it. On the contrary, she felt like they were comforting her, so she felt like continuing her tantrum.

“Where did Ran go?”

Mujang entered the room with her in his arms.

“…I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Bari murmured back in a small voice.

“Tsk, he was stuck to you like glue not that long ago, and now…”

Mujang spoke in a low voice as he lowered her onto the bed. Bari pushed her head down and did not look up at him. The sun must have been setting because the red sunlight shone through the window and cast a shadow on the floor.

Bari knew that Mujang was currently looking at her, but she couldn’t bring herself to lift her head. If their eyes met, it would make things more awkward. Mujang continued to gaze at her before grabbing the washcloth next to him and handing it to her.

“Clean up. Your face looks like a frog’s.”

“What did you say?”

A frog?! Wasn’t that too harsh?

She lifted her sulky face and glared at him.

“If you could only see yourself right now, you’d be completely embarrassed…”

But she continued to shake her head in disagreement.

Ha! Unbelievable!