LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 75
Jinseong chuckled softly at the sight of Iarin, who had quickly fallen asleep like a beast that simply buries its head.
“Um, um…? Oppa…?”
But Iserin, unable to laugh like Jinseong, fidgeted nervously as she spoke to him.
“Um, uh, are you not going to check on Ella…?”
Her question held many implications.
What was the reason for making Iarin fall asleep when she was trying to check on Ella?
It would be easier to share stories with Iarin present, so why had he done this?
Was Ella being used as bait to secure their safety?
If that was the case, then why mention that Ella could be in danger?
The question was filled with doubts about Jinseong’s actions.
Jinseong smiled at her inquiry.
Then, he picked up Iarin’s smartphone, which was charging, and tossed it to Iserin while saying, “Unlock the password.”
“Eh…?”
“Don’t you know? The password.”
Iserin took the smartphone in a daze and unlocked it. Jinseong placed it on his outstretched hand and took several pictures of the sleeping Iarin, then sent those pictures directly to Ella.
“Huh?”
He then proceeded to call Ella.
* * *
Loneliness felt like the cold air.
It sharpens and hardens fur like glass, freezing the skin layer by layer, digging deep into the bones. The cold was so intense that moving the body would turn it into a wind that gradually sliced through the skin, piercing every pore with a needle-like ache that stung both body and mind.
As I breathed in that pain, the jagged air, glass-like, swept through my lungs and vanished, leaving only the emptiness of the cold air, which had disappeared without a trace, void of any warmth. That sensation of emptiness in my lungs after the pain was a hauntingly lonely feeling that could hardly be called pleasant, even in a mere phrase.
Ella was experiencing that chilling coldness in a dark, empty house.
She was feeling the cold that seeped into her heart, not her body.
There is a saying that deficiency comes not from ignorance but from awareness.
If she had been alone from the beginning, she wouldn’t have known, but already having grown close to Iarin and accustomed to human warmth, the spacious house and loneliness that once felt so natural when she first arrived for her study abroad now felt abnormal and began to hurt her.
‘It was noisy yesterday…’
What she recalled was the visit from Iarin’s group the day before.
The noisy but always friendly Iarin.
The timid and kind Iserin.
And Jinseong, the brother she met for the first time yesterday.
She pictured Jinseong, who had spoken to her gently.
In a perfectly fitted suit and towering above her in height.
With a sweet and kind face that matched his tone.
He was a man who looked normal and handsome, unlike the “eccentric” shaman everyone talked about.
‘He looked just like a Korean from a drama.’
But despite his appealing appearance, she had a nagging doubt.
‘Why is his last name different?’
It was that Jinseong had a different surname than Iarin and Iserin.
The two sisters had the surname “I,” while Jinseong had the surname “Park.”
‘Could there be a secret about his birth?’
She recalled the Korean dramas she had watched while in Germany.
And began to imagine stories about Jinseong.
Did the surname change after a couple divorced, and then they got back together under that condition?
Or was it that a girlfriend left while pregnant, and they found out and brought her back later?
Or maybe he was a child born from a concubine, thus having to take a different surname?
She spread her wings of imagination with Jinseong as her subject.
And as her imagination continued, she was about to use Iarin as a subject too when—
Meow!
“Hik!”
The alert tone she had set for Iarin rang out. As she was just thinking about the secrets surrounding Iarin’s background, she was startled. It felt as if Iarin had read her mind and sent a message that perfectly timed it.
She steadied her fluttering heart and checked her smartphone.
And….
“Huh?”
Seeing the picture of the sleeping Iarin, she couldn’t help but be puzzled.
‘A photo of her sleeping?’
Why was a sleeping picture sent?
How could a picture be taken of someone sleeping in the first place?
Who took the photo?
Was it Iarin who sent this?
Who would take a picture of someone using their phone and send it?
So, did Iarin indeed send this picture?
In a brief moment, countless questions and unresolved thoughts passed through her mind.
And these questions were soon resolved.
♪~♬♩~
A call came through.
The jazz music she liked from a drama filled the silence in her dark house, and on the smartphone, the name ‘Iarin Li’ was displayed prominently.
“Hello? Frau Li?”
Ella picked up the call lightning-fast, demanding to know why she received such a photo, what sort of prank this was, and she intended to say this to Iarin.
[Ah, is this Frau Winter?]
However, instead of a vibrant female voice, a soft yet heavy male voice came through the phone, and she lost her words for a moment. Instead of inquiring as she normally would, her voice turned to surprise as she asked back.
“Wh-who is this?”
[This is Park Jinseong, the brother of Iarin. We met yesterday.]
“Oh… right.”
Why on earth was Iarin’s brother calling her phone?
Especially right after sending such a bizarre photo.
“What’s… the matter?”
[Ah. Well… *sigh.]*
Ella felt a surge of anxiety at Jinseong’s heavy voice.
Yes.
Anxiety.
It sparked in her mind, pricking her heart, making her feel sharp pangs of worry.
[Did you see the photo?]
“Y-yeah? Y-yes… the photo of Frau Li sleeping…”
[What that actually is….]
Jinseong’s voice trailed, extending the suspense.
Then, gathering strength, he dropped a shocking statement on her like a hammer hitting her head.
[Iarin is currently asleep due to a curse.]
It was a statement that cleared her mind of all other thoughts and painted it white.
“W-what? Th-the, curse? Sle-sleeping… r-right?”
Unintelligible words kept spilling from her mouth, failing to take any coherent shape.
Then, after a fleeting moment, as her awareness came back, she could barely push coherent words from her lips.
“I’ll be there right away, so wait for me!”
The first thing that came out was that.
* * *
“F-Frau Li! Where’s Frau Li?!”
Ella burst through the door as if she would break it down, shouting.
In her other hand was a broom, overheated and smoking. It seemed she hadn’t had time to change and was still in her negligee, made of silk, for it appeared to cling tightly to her form, as if the light would expose it with a shine.
Seeing that, Jinseong threw a thin blanket from the bed over Ella’s shoulders and wrapped her up before guiding her to where Iarin was.
“Frau Li!”
Ella sat down on the bed beside Iarin, who was sleeping in a peculiar pose, as if relieved, and took a long sigh after checking that Iarin was alright.
Once Ella seemed a bit calmed down, Jinseong sat across from her and spoke.
“Frau Winter. You seem quite startled.”
“Y-yeah… I was just so surprised…”
As she answered Jinseong, she suddenly felt the soft sensation of the blanket wrapped around her.
Then she became aware of her attire and how she had rushed over.
“Ah!”
Ella instinctively wrapped the blanket around her body to hide her negligee, her face flushed as she looked at Jinseong.
“Th-thank you for the blanket….”
“Don’t mention it.”
He smiled at her, trying to soothe her.
“You can rest easy. Fortunately, she’s just sleeping due to the effects of the curse; she hasn’t suffered any injuries or curses.”
“Is th-that so?”
Thank goodness.
Ella released the tension from her body at Jinseong’s reassuring words.
Then, she shot a glare at the sleeping Iarin, as if to express her displeasure for startling her so, but the sight of Iarin sleeping peacefully dissolved any annoyance as sincere relief filled her thoughts instead.
“I was worried about getting caught by a malicious shaman. So it’s a relief nothing happened to her.”
Malicious shaman?
Ella’s eyes widened at the word that burst from Jinseong’s mouth.
“A malicious shaman? Could it be… the diviner….”
What came to her mind was the diviner who had tried to trick her recently.
Jinseong nodded.
“Yes. That should be the person you’re thinking of, the one who was doing business between the hotel and Frau Winter’s house.”
“Th-that strange person….”
“*sigh* He pretended to be an ordinary diviner, but he was truly wicked. If I hadn’t come to Russia, it could have been disastrous.”
“Disastrous…?”
He picked up a piece of paper and handed it to Ella.
“Huh? This….”
On the paper was a bizarre symbol.
It was the same drawing she had seen every time she passed by.
“It really was strange! It’s some sort of symbol of an evil group, right?”
“Hmm.”
“I thought he was suspicious from the start! My instincts were right!”
“You thought he was suspicious from the beginning?”
“Yes. He said payment could be made later, and used strange symbols that weren’t typically used by diviners. It was obviously sketchy! But Frau Li was just friendly with him….”
As Ella gazed at the symbol on the paper, her annoyance flared again, and she couldn’t help but vent her grievances.
Jinseong quietly observed her.
However, there was a flickering flame within his eyes, just barely visible.
‘Heh, was that so.’
His sight lingered upon the hidden part of her body beneath the blanket.
To be precise, he had noticed another humanity’s trace within her heart.
A trace so faint it wouldn’t even be noted as a fetus, but simply a shadow of one.
Yet that minute soul sleeping within her was chillingly similar to the spirit of a woman he had once known.
It caused Jinseong to only sigh faintly.