The Ruler of Darkness

Book 1: Chapter 16

Even the most excellent systems and superior laws tend to rust and become useless if not continuously scrutinized and maintained.

The last affair I and my father dealt with together before his fall had long lost its significance.

“Do you know anything more about money laundering or alcohol smuggling?”

At the chilling tone of Yeon So-Hyeon’s voice, the mask artisan lowered his head even more.

“How much more can someone like me understand? All I know is hearsay, it will only confuse you.”

“Understood.”

Yeon So-Hyeon nodded and stood up from his seat.

At this, the mask artisan quickly rose to stop Yeon So-Hyeon.

“Are you leaving just like that? Someday we’ll surely repay you, at least let us show respect to your honor…”

His wife also intervened.

“No matter how ignorant we are, we are not shameless enough to send our benefactor away like this.”

The children, not knowing why, also chimed in.

“Noble sir!”

“Noble sir!”

At the confusion that arose again in this household, Yeon So-Hyeon sighed.

At that moment, he noticed a white mask haphazardly placed in the cluttered corner of the room.

“Then I’ll take this at least.”

As he reached out, the mask was whisked directly into his hand.

At this strange sight, the mask artisan and his wife stared in surprise, while the children clapped their hands.

“Let’s consider all favors settled with this.”

The mask artisan had a somewhat uneasy expression.

“…Actually, that mask was not made by me.”

Yeon So-Hyeon nodded.

“I thought as much.”

The mask was completely different from the others scattered about the room.

“That mask is a posthumous work of my late father, but that…”

“If it’s a family heirloom, I won’t take it.”

The mask artisan hastily waved his hand.

“No, that’s not what I mean. I’m just curious about why you specifically want that mask…”

It was a reasonable question.

That mask had no eye sockets, no nostrils.

The surface was unfinished and rough, and the paint seemed incomplete.

To anyone, it would appear nothing more than an unfinished or subpar piece.

“That mask was something my father, in his senile state, made until his last breath. He wasn’t in his right mind. That’s why it’s been left in such a mess.”

The mask artisan scratched his head.

“Also, I recently heard from a wandering monk that the mask is cursed, so I was about to discard it soon.”

Despite his words, Yeon So-Hyeon slowly examined the mask in his hand, smiling.

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“Do you think your father assigned some meaning into this mask?”

In the candlelight held by Yeon So-Hyeon, the luster of the mask reflecting the light seemed even more ominous.

The mask artisan shivered and shook his head.

“Its a thing made by a madman. What could he have possibly thought?”

“Is that so?”

Yeon So-Hyeon revealed a grin.

“Eh? What do you mean……?”

“Didn’t your father experience any changes before the onset of his madness?”

At his question, the eyes of the couple widened.

“How did you know…? No, that’s not important.”

The mask artisan groaned with a darkened face.

“The truth is, I had a brother. A brother with much more talent than me. But one day, he was falsely accused of an outrageous crime and sent to prison.”

His voice was shaking, so his wife held his hand tightly.

“My father, a well-known craftsman, had a connection with the censor of Luoyang at the time. So, my father went to see him.”

Tears fell freely from his swollen eyes.

“…It was the censor who promised to acknowledge my brother’s situation and pardon him.”

The children, moved by their father’s crying, approached and hugged him.

Holding his children, he continued his story.

“But what came back was my brother’s cold corpse. His lower body was beaten to a pulp.”

His body began to shake.

“I even heard that the censor himself carried out the execution.”

His wife handed him a glass of water.

He drained the glass in one gulp.

“…When I found out about the situation later, it was unbelievable.”

He wiped the spilling water from his mouth roughly with his sleeve.

“There was a bet between a high-ranking official of the imperial family, who was on a tour in Luoyang, and another high-ranking official of Luoyang, with whom he didn’t get along well.”

Yeon So-Hyeon’s eyes narrowed.

“They bet on the value of their own treasures, and one of them brought up my father’s masterpiece.”

“…And then?”

A smirk spread across the mask artisan’s mouth.

“I don’t know. But someone must have won. And the one who lost got angry.”

So his brother became someone’s outlet for anger and ended up dead.

“Since then, my father visited the government office every day. My father…”

Yeon So-Hyeon’s ears gradually lost the sound of the mask artisan’s voice.

Instead, the mask in his hand began to stir, showing him its story.

Or was it the Dark Heavens that was reading the story contained in the mask?

Yeon So-Hyeon saw the image of an old craftsman protesting at the government office’s main gate.

At first, the guards were just annoyed.

But as days passed, the old craftsman’s footsteps didn’t cease.

The order to shun him came from above.

The guards protecting the main gate gradually became more ruthless.

Rumors of an elderly man who shouted indignantly in front of the government office every day gradually spread through the streets of Luoyang and soon reached the ears of the censor.

‘This senile old man dares to block my path!’

The old craftsman who lived his life honestly under the sky shouted at the inspector.

‘Are you not even afraid of Heaven? Heaven knows your sins, and so does the Earth!’

The censor seized the old craftsman and subjected him to severe punishment. The crime was fabricating non-existent facts and daring to tarnish the honor of an official.

Fortunately, the old craftsman survived, but afterward, he developed dementia and soon died from the aftereffects of the punishment.

“……That’s how my father passed away.”

The father was crying, the mother was crying, and their children were crying.

So-Hyeon tilted his head.

“Yet you don’t understand the meaning encapsulated in this mask?”

The mask artisan, who had been contemplating for a while, bowed and asked So-Hyeon.

“This is a work that is as good as a memento of my father. Please teach me, an ignorant person who cannot even understand this.”

A soft laughter leaked from the corner of So-Hyeon’s mouth.

That laughter, gradually growing louder, echoed around the room.

It sounded like scoffing, and also like crying.

The mask artisan felt that the laughter was similar to the sound of laughter from his demented father.

Laughter that used to burst out in the room like a fit, like a scream!

So-Hyeon saw it.

The censor had beaten and shattered both hands of the old craftsman.

To prevent him, who had spent his lifetime making masks, from making masks ever again, he imposed the most cruel punishment. The old craftsman who was carried back by the local youths had lost his mind. 

His hair was disheveled, and saliva dripped from his mouth. He spouted incomprehensible words, smeared feces on the wall of the workshop, took off his clothes, and crawled around the neighborhood.

One day, he locked himself in his workshop.

He sang a sorrowful tune and carved a mask.

It was inevitable that the mask was clumsy.

In place of his lost hands, he carved the mask with his toes.

His feet were soaked with blood from the clumsy handling of the knife.

But he didn’t stop.

Drinking rainwater trickling down through the leaking roof, he had long since given up eating.

What held him, who was dying, in this world was rage filled with hatred and pain towards the world.

And as soon as the mask was completed, he breathed his last.

Thus, a demonic object was born.

It was not that he could not carve the eye sockets.

He did not carve them.

So-Hyeon’s laughter subsided after a long time. He opened his eyes and slowly looked around the room. 

The room enveloped in pitch darkness was no better than a ruin. 

Every household item was broken, and fresh blood stained the floor.

There was no trace of the mask artisan’s family who had just been there.

It had to be that way.

So-Hyeon opened the creaking door and slowly walked into the inner courtyard. There lay the body of his wife, cold from tightly holding their children. The blood that had flowed mercilessly reflected the faint moonlight from the ground.

So-Hyeon slowly approached and brushed the frosty hair of the children. Their mouths were all torn, their tongues hanging long, resting on their mother’s shoulder. He then laid the body of the mask artisan he had carried, next to them.

From the beginning, the man was in a state of having received too many blows and had already run out of breath. So-Hyeon had followed his agitated soul and come here. While he was being assa*ulted, his wife was undergoing a brutal ordeal, and when the children rushed to resist, the beasts inadvertently killed them.

A father who died with his limbs twisted, a mother who died with blood pouring down and her neck strangled, and children who died with their mouths torn open.

Their family met again in death like this.

So-Hyeon slowly put on the mask.

And he looked up into the void.

Why did the old craftsman make a mask without even eye sockets?

So-Hyeon answered.

“..He just couldn’t bear to open his eyes and look at this world.”

Something glistened, trickling down from under the mask.

“Have you heard the name Geumju, the daughter of ‘Geumjil’”

Jung-ah pondered over Yeon So-Hyeon’s words.

“……Come to think of it, I think I read that name in my sister’s letter before.”

Yeon So-Hyeon slowly nodded his head.

“Your sister is an information dealer?”

“Yes, master.”

Yeon So-Hyeon closed the document he had been holding.

“It must have been a long time since you last saw her.”

A sense of loneliness filled Jung-ah’s eyes.

“Yes, quite……”

Yeon So-Hyeon smiled wryly at her.

“Let’s go see your sister tomorrow.”

Jung-ah’s eyes widened.

“Really?!”

“Yes.”

Jung-ah didn’t know what to do, her face flushing with joy.

“Even though you can’t stay overnight, you should be able to visit for about half a day, so feel free to release your longing.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

Yeon So-Hyeon waved at her as she kept bowing in thanks, and pulled out a small jar from his pocket.

“What is that?”

Without answering, Yeon So-Hyeon opened the sealed jar. Inside, a modest amount of tea leaves revealed themselves.

Jung-ah examined it and then said,

“……It seems to be a nameless low-grade tea. The storage conditions are terrible.”

Yeon So-Hyeon shook his head at Jung-ah’s words.

“No, these tea leaves are very precious.”

“……Is that so?”

The smile on his lips looked somewhat desolate.

“A precious gift received as a token of gratitude that I couldn’t properly return…

The two brewed tea with not even enough leaves for one person and drank it.

For some reason, that tea felt unusually warm.