Chapter 446

The audience, who had been immersed in the rapidly changing stories on the stage, flinched at the loud noise and then sighed.

Is this how it ends?

They wondered, when a yellow light came on.

A blue light came on. A red light came on.

Right on the audience seats.

As red, blue, and yellow lights intertwined in front of their eyes, Evan Block and Rachel Hill looked around with a slightly surprised expression. 

They didn’t know that some of the lights were facing the audience seats, since they were not used in other plays.

There was also music that pierced their ears.

It was a frantic sound that made them doubt if it could be called music. 

It thumped their hearts with a loud bang, and it made them shiver with its sharp tones.

Now.

The audience could tell that the spaceship was crashing.

If only the chairs and the floor were shaking, they might have thought that the Mirhol itself was falling. 

It was a dizzying and noisy scene.

Fortunately for the audience, but unfortunately for the characters, that frantic time was not very long.

Kwaaang!!

With another loud sound, the lights and noises that had been shining and disturbing the audience seats disappeared at once.

In the meantime, as their ears became deafened by the change, Evan Block thought he heard a faint sound of water.

Silence hung over the Mirhol.

It sounded even more silent after being noisy.

‘…Is it over?’

At that moment,

The curtain, which they didn’t know when it had gone down, went up again and light came on the stage.

Hoo-hoo- hoo-hoo-

The audience blinked at the sudden sound of an owl. Then they stared at the scenery behind the raised curtain without blinking.

A moment ago, the screen that had been the monitor of the spaceship showed trees, grass, rocks, and a dark sky with a moon.

It looked like a mountain somewhere.

Then two men in rough-looking hanbok appeared from the right side of the stage. 

They wore straw hats with cotton balls and carried loads on their backs. 

They seemed to be,

‘…Peddlers?’

“Ah, let’s rest there for a bit!”

“Geez! It’s so far!”

The two peddlers, who seemed to be walking hard, found a set in the center of the stage that looked like a

‘…Tavern?’

and rejoiced.

The scenery changed 180 degrees all of a sudden, and the audience looked at the stage with bewildered eyes without understanding.

The tavern shaped like a Γ had a room on the left and a kitchen and an outhouse on the back.

The tavern owner came out of the kitchen. She wiped her wet hands on her apron quickly. 

It looked familiar.

“Oh my, how did you come at this late hour?”

“I’m going to the market over there tomorrow. There’s something good there.”

“Me too. There’s a master in the upper village who ordered some goods and he’s been nagging me so much that it’s this time.”

“Master? Eww. That bastard is really nasty.”

The two peddlers shuddered as if they had suffered from the same master.

Meanwhile, the music changed to a cheerful rhythm of traditional instruments.

The audience gave up trying to understand and just accepted it. Some of them relaxed their tense shoulders and let out a long sigh from their mouths.

“Here’s a bowl of makgeolli each and two bowls of rice soup!”

“Let’s eat quickly and leave.”

The tavern owner was surprised.

“No, you’re not going to sleep and just leave?”

“Didn’t we say we’re busy? If we want to move according to schedule, we’re already late even if we leave now.”

One peddler said and the other nodded repeatedly.

“Oh no. No way. No way!”

The tavern owner shook her hands as if she was worried.

The peddlers frowned at her for not bringing them food but stopping them.

“What’s wrong?”

“These days, there’s a tiger coming out of that mountain behind us. A tiger!”

The eyes of the two peddlers widened.

“Several people have already died!”

Hwanhwan.

There was nothing worse for peddlers who crossed mountains after mountains than that news.

“Oh no. We’re doomed!”

“…Do you have any rooms?”

The peddlers gave up quickly and asked her. 

The tavern owner smiled inwardly and led them to the room.

A little to the left from the center of the stage, where they could be seen clearly from the audience seats, there was a room where two peddlers sat down and unpacked their luggage.

“But where are you coming from?”

“We came from the seaside. There are some good dried fish there. Do you have anything good?”

“Oh. That’s good.”

The two peddlers exchanged their goods.

“Do you have any interesting stories?”

One of the peddlers, who was lying on the floor waiting for the food, asked the other one, who was tidying up the remaining luggage.

“A few months ago, they said the Dragon King appeared in the sea ahead.”

“The Dragon King?”

“The water surged up to the shore, and a huge splash of water rose up with a loud roar. They said it was undoubtedly the Dragon King’s anger, so they offered sacrifices. I ate well and came back!”

The other peddler’s eyes sparkled at his story, recalling the sound of water he had heard in the midst of the chaos.

The peddler who was tidying up the luggage got up from his seat.

“Then I’ll go to the outhouse.”

“On your way, stop by the kitchen and bring some makgeolli first.”

Looking at the audience seats, the peddler who was lying on his side waved his hand.

The other peddler left the room and headed to the outhouse. In the meantime, the tavern owner came out of the kitchen with a tray and stood in front of the door.

“Hey, open the door for me.”

“Oh…”

The peddler got up with a start and opened the door. 

The tavern owner entered the room and put down the tray with makgeolli and some snacks on the floor.

“The rice soup needs to be boiled a bit more, so wait for it.”

“Boil it well.”

The tavern owner left the room and the peddler poured makgeolli into a large bowl. 

Then he drank it down.

Bang!

“No!”

He slammed down the bowl and shouted at the audience seats.

“That damn tiger keeps coming out!”

He pointed his finger at the lower left audience seat.

“It comes out from here!”

Flash!

A bright light shone on the aisle between the audience seats. 

The audience was startled by the sudden spotlight, but only for a moment. 

They laughed at what followed.

“It comes out from there!”

Flash!

A light shone on the lower right audience seat. The students sitting in front of them turned their heads following the light and laughed.

“It comes out from there too!”

A light shone on the upper right audience seat.

It was like an interactive movie. The families also laughed at the light that brightly illuminated the aisle between their seats.

“It comes out from there too!”

A light shone on the upper left audience seat.

Everyone turned their heads with a smile on their faces to that side.

Evan Block and Rachel Hill, Kim Jong-ho and Lee Ji-seok, and other actors too.

The directors and writers who were admiring Seo-jun’s fun directing too.

And,

They froze.

Something white was standing under the spotlight that brightly illuminated the aisle between their seats. It looked down and slowly lifted its head.

‘That damn tiger has no place where it doesn’t come out!’

The voice of the peddler saying that passed by their ears.

It didn’t register in their minds.

Their eyes were captivated by the white strands that fluttered softly.

Between his long white hair, they saw his pale skin without a trace of blood, his red lips, and his yellow eyes. 

He looked gloomy or emotionless.

The audience stared at him without blinking.

The audience who had been looking at only the stage also turned their heads to see why everyone had stopped and why there were no more lines from the peddler. 

Then they froze too.

The heads of actors and directors sitting in their seats moved slowly following ‘that thing’ that came down from above. His long white hair fluttered like a fantasy with every step he took.

Thump.

A drum beat that made their hearts uneasy.

Even though there was no wind in the room, his white coat swayed like waves every time he moved.

No.

He looked white under the spotlight, but when they looked closely, there were red spots here and there on his lower part.

Like a tiger’s stripes.

They saw something out of place between his loosely worn coat.

Black pants and jacket, white shirt, and black shoes. They all realized who he was as they saw them.

In a heavy silence,

Only thumps of drums followed his footsteps were heard.

No one breathed lightly or blinked lightly.

This being captured this large space and these many people with just his appearance alone.

His long arms swung lightly and every step he took seemed unnatural.

It was not like a human’s walk. It was heavy but silent. It was like a broken robot or a beast ready to hunt.

It felt like there was a real beast next to him. But he also caught their eyes so they couldn’t turn their heads away.

His yellow beast eyes looked around at the audience seats. His long white hair and white coat fluttered like clouds.

He felt like he had become one of the inanimate objects that made up the mountain, like a tree or a rock, under that emotionless gaze.

It was coming down from the audience seats to the stage.

Slowly, but without hesitation, it walked down.

The dark audience seats, the spotlight that followed it alone.

The shabby cloak that was loosely draped over it. The black suit that showed underneath. The long hair that fluttered. The pale face and yellow eyes that peeked through.

Everyone held their breath and turned not only their heads but their bodies away, watching it come down from the mountain.

It opened its mouth.

-Krukgeukseu

It muttered softly, like the sound of the wind.

It was rough. Like the cry of a beast.

-Krukgeukseu

-Krukgeukseu… this…

For the first time, a word that the audience could understand came out between the cries.

-This.

-This. Bo.

It was cut off, like a broken machine sound.

-This. Bo. Si.

But it was strange.

-Thisbo. Si. O.

The rough voice that sounded like a tiger’s roar became smoother and thinner as it descended the stairs.

-Thisbo. Si. O.

Like a woman’s voice.

-Thisbo. Si. O.

Now, a complete woman’s voice was flowing out.

Some of the audience thought they had heard this voice somewhere before,

When it got on the stage.

Only then did the audience’s view widen.

Their eyes, which had been fixed on the white cloak and the silver hair, moved to the floor of the stage, the back room that was the background of the stage, the kitchen, and the room in the center of the stage with a fortune teller.

Even though they were on the same stage, even though they were emitting such a presence, the fortune teller seemed to be unaware of it at all.

Really,

As if a thick wall was blocking them.

In the seats where actors and directors were full, admiration quietly flowed out.

It moved its steps to the front of the room.

The fortune teller drank makgeolli.

“Ah, it doesn’t do anything for my liver!”

The pronunciation didn’t sound like he was drunk.

It stood silently in front of the door.

And opened its mouth.

“Thisbo. Si. O.”

His hair stood on end.

“Please open this door.”

It was Jumo’s voice.

“Oh my. Is it time for dinner?”

The fortune teller got up from his seat with a happy expression and opened the door.

A white thing stood in front of his eyes like a pillar.

“No, what are you…!”

It pounced on him. He fell back. The stage turned pitch black.

Thud! Thud!

The sound of something hitting each other echoed eerily and then subsided.

When the audience couldn’t breathe and looked at the dark stage,

Flash!

The light came on in the back room. The fortune teller came out of the back room and headed to the kitchen.

“Jumo. Is there any makgeolli?”

“I gave you some earlier. Wait a little longer for gukbap.”

Jumo, who peeked out his neck from the kitchen, answered his question.

At that moment when some of them thought they had heard exactly the same voice and tone as what had come out of its mouth,

It raised its head without any blood in its face and looked at the audience seats. It was yellow eyes without any sign of life, as if it was not a living creature.

“We call it by taking its name from this mountain behind us,”

Flash!

The light came into the room.

It was red light.

The audience flinched reflexively and pulled their bodies back.

Because of the red light, it looked like the white hair and cloak were stained with blood. 

Underneath the blanket, his arms and legs were visible. 

On the wall, there were marks as if they had been scratched by something sharp.

“Since we live in Jangsan,”

MOEB-436, no, Jangsanbeom looked at them with emotionless eyes.

“Jangsanbeom.”

…!

The audience unconsciously opened their mouths wide and looked at MOEB-436, no, Jangsanbeom.

 

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