187 – Nymphs and Clichés #1
Chirp-!
Zizzy-bee-!
Lee Jin-A’s house was particularly noisy with birds chirping, possibly because there were mountains nearby.
At this point, it would be more accurate to say that the birds were barking instead of chirping.
A cool autumn morning.
Inoi shouted.
“The master of the house should hurry out…! The master of the house should hurry out…! Come see what this Inoi has discovered…!”
I was someone who preferred to sleep deeply without interruption.
Waking up in the middle of sleep and then falling back asleep would leave me feeling oddly heavy when I fully woke up in the morning.
Maybe that’s why I felt particularly heavy this morning when I woke up.
“Inoi, what’s going on?”
Inoi was a nymph who loved to make a fuss.
Since nymphs had a level of empathy and sensitivity far beyond that of humans, it was common for them to make a racket when they encountered something extraordinary.
What did they discover this morning?
Did they find a rainbow against a clear sky like last time?
Or did Bang Bang’s stocks rise significantly overnight?
With that feeling, I dragged my tired body to the living room, where Inoi was tugging at my arm eagerly.
“Hurry up and come…! This Inoi was very surprised…!”
“What’s going on?”
Inoi led me to Lee Jin-A’s new kitchen.
As we approached the new kitchen, I saw various ramen bags and fruit peels scattered messily on the floor, with Hirae sitting in the middle, munching away on a carrot.
“What’s all this? Hirae, did you rob Lee Jin-A’s fridge?”
It seemed she had opened the refrigerator and devoured all the food within during the night.
Seeing the empty drink bottles and missing fruits, Lee Jin-A rubbed her sleepy eyes, looking slightly shocked.
“What is this? How hungry were you? Wasn’t last night’s jajangmyeon and sweet and sour pork enough?”
“I don’t know! I was just really hungry!”
Despite saying that, Hirae didn’t stop eating the carrot.
How desperate must she have been to munch on raw carrots?
Even though she was my little sister, there were times when she acted strangely.
Actually, thinking back, it might not have been just sometimes.
“Hyuck…!”
Bbarurur-.
Just then, Barbar trembled.
What was that about?
“Barbar, what’s wrong?”
“This feeling isn’t good…! It’s a sensation that something ominous is crawling on my back…! And that ominous thing has eight legs…!”
—Hiooong…!
I detached the Bang Bang that was stuck to Barbar’s back.
Though Bang Bang had eight legs, it preferred to ride on people’s backs and move around rather than walk.
It was similar to how people prefer to ride in cars rather than walking.
Anyway.
Hirae had apparently opened the refrigerator and devoured its contents because she was too hungry.
I felt a little bad and embarrassed that my sister had made a mess of someone else’s fridge.
“Lee Jin-A, I’ll compensate you for what Hirae ate without permission.”
“Forget it. If you’re hungry, it’s understandable. More importantly… was that there originally?”
Swoosh-.
Lee Jin-A’s eyes were drawn to the threshold of the kitchen and the ceiling.
I hadn’t noticed yesterday, but now I could see traces of something square on the kitchen ceiling.
It looked like soot, and its size was about the size of my palm.
“It looks like the remnants of a talisman.”
As Lee Jin-A said, I noticed that there were traces of talismans affixed above the doorframe of the house and at the entrance to the second floor.
There were also signs showing that someone had ripped off the talismans, which were written in red ink on yellow paper.
—
# # #
On the second day of Lee Jin-A’s move.
We had finished unpacking and arranging the furniture, along with cleaning.
It had been a busy day, and the process of filling the empty new house was more rewarding than I expected, so time flew by, and before I knew it, it was lunchtime.
Lunchtime.
“Oppa, should we order gratin and pasta for lunch?”
Pasta?
What pasta?
Didn’t Lee Jin-A say, “Since everyone helped with the move, I’ll cook for you all,”?
When I mentioned this fact, my sister Hirae frowned.
“What do you mean? Didn’t you say that we should order delivery for lunch just now?”
“I said that?”
That was news to me.
I had been cleaning and dusting with Kkungkkungi, Ahn Ahn, and Bang Bang all day long on this second floor.
“I never said that.”
“No way! You said so while I was cleaning the kitchen! We should order delivery for lunch! Inoi, Coris, you heard it too, right?”
Coris and Inoi shook their heads.
It seemed they hadn’t heard at all.
“Hirae, did you eat something strange?”
Did she get a bit strange after the vacation ended?
It was customary for first-week students to be a bit odd.
However, Hirae argued back, saying, “No! Oppa said so! I clearly heard your voice!”
—Grrr…
At that moment.
Kkungkkungi, who had been running around in the large space on the first floor, made a threatening warning sound.
This kind of sound usually meant Kkungkkungi was bored, but what could possibly make a dog that’s been playing all day feel bored?
I went downstairs to check on Kkungkkungi and found myself in a storage room that still hadn’t been organized.
“Kkungkkungi, what’s wrong? Bored?”
—Grrr…!
Pashush, pashush-!
In the less organized room, Kkungkkungi was digging at the floor like a puppy searching for a buried bone.
As a result, the old carpet that had been laid on the floor was torn apart before we even arrived.
“Is this real? Kkungkkungi! How bored were you? Wait a minute─.”
For a moment, I was puzzled by Kkungkkungi’s actions.
I cleared away the carpet that lay on the floor.
Then I saw something that looked like a square-shaped wooden board nailed down.
“Is this a door? A door leading to the basement? Hey! Lee Jin-A! Come here!”
I called out to Lee Jin-A.
I hadn’t heard about there being a basement while moving our things and doing various tasks yesterday.
“What is this? A basement? I don’t think the real estate agent mentioned anything about a basement. This is interesting. Should we open it? I wonder what’s inside. If it’s a basement, it might be useful as storage!”
Lee Jin-A seemed pleased with the unexpected discovery of a basement.
However, it seemed that the basement door was tightly locked from the other side for some reason.
Of course, Lee Jin-A, being an Awakened with enough strength to surprise me at times, simply broke the lock with her strength.
With a crack-.
The basement door ultimately broke.
With a strong push, a staircase covered in dust, as if it had been neglected for ages, appeared.
“Ugh, what’s that smell?”
Lee Jin-A pinched her nose.
Inoi stepped up beside her, raising her hand.
“This feels quite thrilling, like we’re going on an adventure…! This Inoi wants to quickly see what’s down in the basement…!”
“I, Coris, couldn’t care less, but I wish we could eat lunch quickly…! But if we’re together, it’s fun even if we’re starving…!”
As afternoon drifted past lunchtime a bit.
We all decided to go down to the basement together.
However, Hirae, shivering, showed unusual signs of rejection.
“I-I don’t want to go. I won’t go down.”
Why was she reacting like that?
Could she feel any bad energy emanating from the basement?
“There must be lots of cockroaches!”
That was a valid point.
Of course, with Kkungkkungi, Bang Bang, and Ahn A around, the cockroaches wouldn’t have a chance to cause trouble in the house.
With that feeling, we creaked into the basement.
The basement was about the same width as the first floor.
Various boiler systems were operating in the dark corners, and there were cobwebs everywhere, along with a few dead cockroaches.
There were also mice that had died.
“Is it because we’re near the mountains? There are so many rats. And what about crows…?”
There were bodies of rats and crows.
Was this why the smell had been so horrible when I opened the basement door? I felt so while shining my flashlight ahead when suddenly I was startled.
“What is this?”
Should I say it looked like a shrine?
Gruesome and bizarre statues of gods and small dolls were piled on a table, half-burnt candles, and soot left behind.
“Doesn’t this look a bit like the shrine we saw in that gang’s bunker before?”
It reminded me of the shrine that Illinois had crashed while yelling, “There’s no god stronger than Zeus…!”
“Maybe. It does look similar. But aren’t all these things a bit similar in general?”
Scratching her head, Lee Jin-A said.
I noticed there were traces of incense burned, but I couldn’t confirm this properly because Hirae, who was left behind on the ground floor, screamed loudly.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Hey! What’s wrong?”
I rushed towards Hirae.
Then Hirae shouted.
“A cockroach came out!”
Ssssss-.
Pointing with her finger, in front of her was indeed a shiny black cockroach, about the size of my thumb!
Had it emerged from the basement!?
—Bang Bang…!
Just then, Bang Bang reached out its front limbs toward the cockroach.
As a result, something like spider silk shot out from Bang Bang’s hands, swiftly wrapping around the cockroach.
It was incredibly clean work.
Anyway.
The exploration of the basement ended there.
“Hey, could you spit some water for me?”
I asked the nymphs if they could use the “Nymph Magic, Water Spout” to clean the basement.
The nymphs nodded at me and opened their mouths to spray water.
Puuuuuu-!
With the powerful stream of water, the dirt in the basement was washed away in no time.
With a crack-.
However, while we were cleaning, the statues and dolls, along with the incense and candles, were swept away and crumbled!
“Is this real? Is something like a curse happening to us?”
I felt a sense of foreboding creeping over me. I did believe in superstitions and folk remedies to some extent.
The reason I had once drunk the water burned with talismans was because of such beliefs.
The sight of the shrine collapsing before my eyes felt very ominous, similar to the feeling of a honey ant clinging to my back.
—Zzzi…!
However, the nymphs seemed completely unbothered.
“None of the gods are stronger than our nymph god, Zeus…!”
“I, Coris, think so too…!”
Nymphs weren’t afraid at all.
Soon, Barbar, who was watching this scene, also wagged her tail from side to side.
“This esteemed imp comrade, Barbar, has served the Demon King…! The Demon King is the devil of devils…! No curse can harm Barbar…!”
Hiss-.
Barbar seemed to take a deep breath and then shouted.
“Imp Magic, Fire Spewing Divine Art…!”
Wheeuuw-.
I was startled by the flames spewing from Barbar’s mouth.
“Barbar, you! Are you planning to burn down the whole house?!”
This truly seemed like the will of the continuing fire.
Such an intense flames!
“Muhuh, it’s better for you to not come any closer…! If you don’t want to be reduced to ashes, that is…! The flame-spewing Barbar cannot be stopped by anyone…!”
Crackle, crackle-.
The statues and dolls burned, leaving behind grotesque soot before eventually turning to black ashes.
And that evening—
A problem erupted.
“Aruru, garuru, aruru…!”
“Hiyuck…! Cori, Hirae is running around the ceiling upside down…!”
“What on earth is going on? I, Coris, don’t know…! It seems we’re making strange beast sounds…!”
