I spent three days in bed.
The day after driving off the bandits, Yoon-seul opened her eyes, but her body wouldn't obey her. Every time she moved even one finger, she felt as if her bones were creaking. They weren't actually making a sound. That was just how it felt. Like she'd forced open the lid of a cracked jar, her entire body was protesting.
Roen brought her rice porridge. Yoon-seul tried to lift the spoon while lying down, but her arm trembled, and she spilled the porridge all over the blanket.
"...Ah."
Roen sighed and pulled off the blanket. Yoon-seul gave him an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Roen."
"Enough. Stay still."
Roen scooped up the porridge himself and fed her. As Yoon-seul opened her mouth, her eyes grew hot. Back in Korea, no one had ever taken care of her this much, even when she was sick. Her family loved her, but whenever she got sick from working as a shaman, they never knew what to do. They always told her to go to the hospital. This wasn't something a hospital could cure.
Roen was different. He didn't ask why. He simply cooked porridge, changed her blankets, and brought her water.
On the third day, Yoon-seul finally managed to sit up. The village was visible through the window. The men were repairing the fence the bandits had broken. Children were running around. It was peaceful.
Yoon-seul watched the scene for a long time.
She had to leave.
She packed her things. It wasn't much to call luggage. One set of clothes Roen had given her. A few pieces of dried bread the villagers had gathered for her. One canteen. That was everything.
People had gathered in the village square. Word had apparently spread that Yoon-seul was leaving.
The village chief came out, leaning on his cane. When he saw Yoon-seul, he bowed his head. He was the same chief who had only half-believed the bandit prophecy.
"You saved our village. Thank you."
Yoon-seul waved her hands.
"No, I owe you all a lot, too."
A child ran up and grabbed Yoon-seul's leg. It was the same child who had been crying when the bandits came. Yoon-seul crouched down and stroked the child's head.
"I'll come visit again, okay?"
It might have been a lie. She didn't know where the road would lead once she set out to find her ritual implements. But she couldn't say that to a child.
Roen was the last to see her off.
He stood in front of Yoon-seul without saying anything for a long while. Then he pulled something out from inside his shirt. It was an old leather pouch. Coins clinked inside.
"It isn't much. But I can't send you off empty-handed."
"Mr. Roen, this is..."
"Take it."
Yoon-seul's eyes reddened. She knew she shouldn't accept it. She knew how poor this village was. But when she looked into Roen's eyes, she couldn't refuse.
"...Thank you."
Yoon-seul hugged the leather pouch to her chest. Roen patted her shoulder once.
"Travel safely. And..."
Roen paused for a moment.
"Go east. Don't go west."
"Why?"
"There's a dragon nest to the west."
Yoon-seul stopped in her tracks.
"...Excuse me?"
"Do you know why this village is so isolated? A dragon has made its nest in the western mountain range. Because of that, everyone left. The only ones remaining are those of us with nowhere else to go."
Yoon-seul stared blankly to the west. A mountain range rose beyond the forest. The forest she'd entered to meet the Spirit King. There was a dragon beyond it.
"...I lived next to that for a month?"
"The dragon has never come down as far as the village. But monsters swarm near the mountain range. They're creatures drawn there by the dragon's magic."
Yoon-seul stared at Roen with her mouth hanging open. Roen remained calm. To him, this was simply everyday life.
"Walk east for half a day, and you'll reach the main road. From there, head north, and you'll find the nearest city."
"...Thank you, Mr. Roen. Really."
Yoon-seul bowed deeply from the waist, giving him the full formal bow she'd learned in Korea. Roen didn't know what it meant, but he understood that it was a weighty gesture of thanks.
She left the village.
She walked east, just as Roen had instructed. It was a forest path. Thanks to the Spirit King's blessing, branches moved aside, and stones avoided her feet. She was barefoot, but it didn't hurt.
After she'd been walking for about an hour, she felt it.
Bloodlust.
The Spirit King's blessing trembled. Nature was warning her. To the left. Beyond the bushes. Something was there.
Yoon-seul stopped and held her breath.
The bushes shook. Then something emerged.
It was a wolf. No, not a wolf. It was twice the size of one. Its eyes were red. Black drool dripped from its mouth. A demon beast—a creature corrupted by the dragon's magic.
There wasn't just one. Two more emerged from behind it. Three in all. They surrounded Yoon-seul.
Yoon-seul's heart began to race.
'Kallen.'
Kallen reacted inside her. But her vessel hadn't recovered yet. The vessel that had cracked while fighting the bandits three days ago. If she possessed Kallen now, the vessel might break.
She didn't have a sword, either.
She'd returned the old sword she'd borrowed from the village. Yoon-seul had nothing in her hands now. Just some dried bread and a pouch of coins.
One demon beast growled and took a step toward her.
Yoon-seul backed away. Her back hit a tree. She was trapped.
'What do I do?'
Her mind raced. She couldn't possess Kallen. She had no sword. She couldn't run. The three beasts had blocked her in from three sides.
Then the grass at her feet wrapped around her ankle. Gently. The Spirit King's blessing. Nature was trying to protect her. But grass blades couldn't stop demon beasts.
The demon beasts pounced.
The first one lunged at her, baring its teeth. Yoon-seul instinctively rolled to the side. Its teeth tore into the tree bark—the spot where she'd been standing.
The second came from the side. Its claws grazed Yoon-seul's arm. Her clothes tore, and blood began to seep out.
"Ngh—"
Yoon-seul gritted her teeth. The third one was coming. Straight at her.
At that moment, Yoon-seul's mouth opened. She hadn't made a conscious decision. Her body moved first. A shaman's instinct. It was what her teacher had taught her to do when she encountered wild animals in Korea.
"Back off."
Her voice sounded different. Her eyes hadn't changed like they did during a prophecy. But there was weight in her voice. The Spirit King's blessing spread through it. The command carried nature's authority.
The third demon beast hesitated. Its red eyes shook. It was torn between its instinct corrupted by magic and nature's authority.
But only for a moment. The magic won. The demon beast bared its teeth again.
Yoon-seul clutched her bleeding arm and pressed her back against the tree. The three beasts were closing in again. This time, it looked like they would attack all at once.
'...I'm seriously going to die.'
That was when it happened.
The wind changed. It blew from above, pressing down. A wind that bore down on the entire forest. Every leaf was forced downward at once. The three demon beasts flattened themselves against the ground simultaneously. Their growls cut off. Their tails curled between their legs.
Fear.
The demon beasts were terrified. They weren't afraid of Yoon-seul. They were afraid of something else.
Yoon-seul felt it, too. Above her head. A massive presence. An overwhelming force unlike the Spirit King's. If the Spirit King was the sea, this was a typhoon.
She looked up.
A shadow passed across the sky beyond the treetops. Enormous wings. Sunlight shattered across scales. It was a dragon—the dragon in the mountain range west of the village. Whether it was out hunting or patrolling, it circled once over the forest, then flew west.
The demon beasts fled. Tails tucked between their legs, they vanished into the bushes.
Yoon-seul sank down against the tree. The strength left her legs. Her heart was pounding up into her throat. Blood streamed from her arm and dripped from her fingertips.
"...Whew."
She laughed because the whole thing was absurd.
She'd spent a month in a village next to a dragon's nest. She'd wandered barefoot through a forest crawling with monsters. She'd gone deep into the forest alone to meet the Spirit King. It was a miracle she hadn't died back then.
"If Mr. Roen had told me sooner..."
She grumbled, but Roen probably hadn't known, either. If he'd known she went into the forest every day, he would've stopped her.
Yoon-seul wrapped her torn sleeve around the wound on her arm. The bleeding wouldn't stop. It was deep. The Spirit King's blessing trembled faintly around the wound. It wasn't healing her. It was only slowing the bleeding a little.
She stood up. She staggered. But she walked.
East. Toward the main road. Toward the city.
The world had never been easy to begin with. She hadn't realized it while she was inside the village. Outside was different. There were dragons, demon beasts, and Yoon-seul was barefoot and empty-handed.
She desperately needed her ritual implements.
With a bell, she could call minor ghosts and set them up as scouts. With a fan, she could raise the wind and drive away demon beasts. With a divine blade, she could fight without Kallen.
Now she had nothing.
Yoon-seul walked on, gripping branches with her bloodstained hand. The sun was sinking. She still couldn't see the main road Roen had mentioned.
'He said half a day.'
Her legs felt heavy. It was because of the blood loss. Her field of vision was slowly narrowing.
Then Kallen moved inside her. It wasn't possession. From within the vessel, Kallen was pointing her in a direction. Right. The sound of water.
Yoon-seul walked in the direction Kallen indicated. When she pushed through the bushes, she found a small stream. She scooped up water to drink and washed her wound. When the cold water touched it, her teeth chattered.
She sat by the stream and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting. She was alone. For the first time since coming to another world, she truly felt alone. In the village, she'd had Roen. She'd had the villagers. Now there was no one.
"...Mom."
The word that slipped from her mouth startled Yoon-seul herself. Her family, left behind in Korea. The chaebol heiress. Her mother had always called her that—My pretty daughter.
She felt like she might cry. But she held it back. Crying would drain her strength. That's what her teacher had said. Shamans could cry, but they shouldn't cry on the road. Tears shed on the road called ghosts.
Sniffling, Yoon-seul got to her feet.
She walked.
The sun set. The moon rose. The forest grew dark. Thanks to the Spirit King's blessing, branches moved aside to let the moonlight through. She could barely see the ground beneath her feet. She was grateful for even that.
How long had she been walking? Something appeared between the trees. A wide road. The dirt had been packed hard. There were wagon-wheel tracks.
The main road.
Yoon-seul stood on it, looking back and forth between south and north. Roen had said there was a city to the north.
She looked north. There was only darkness. She couldn't see how far the road continued.
Yoon-seul sank down beneath a tree beside the road. She had no strength left to walk. The wound in her arm throbbed. She was hungry. She took out the dried bread and bit into it. It was hard. Her jaw hurt.
She looked up at the sky while chewing. Stars poured across it. They were stars she'd never seen in Korea. The night sky of another world.
"...It's beautiful."
The words slipped out to no one in particular. Her arm was covered in blood, her stomach was empty, she was alone, and the road ahead stretched endlessly. But the stars were beautiful.
Yoon-seul leaned her back against the tree and closed her eyes. It was dangerous to fall asleep. Demon beasts might come again. But her body wouldn't obey her anymore.
Just before her consciousness faded, she felt that Kallen was awake inside her. He wasn't sleeping. He was watching their surroundings, as if standing guard.
Yoon-seul smiled faintly.
'...Thank you, Mr. Kallen. I'm just going to close my eyes for a little while.'
Kallen didn't answer. But she felt a small warmth inside the vessel. Whether it meant she was okay or that she should grow, Yoon-seul decided to take it as the latter.
Her eyes closed.
Beneath a tree beside the main road, a barefoot woman with a bloodstained arm fell asleep. A few coins rested in her pouch. Dried bread lay against her chest. Inside her body was the soul of a dead knight.
It was her first night setting out into the world.