The era of mythology when the voice of God clearly reached the Korean Peninsula. The time when the sacred tigers were not even treated as mythical beings. The time when the Black Tortoise Clan didn’t exist. The Tiger Clan and the Bear Clan had to work together to face an alien enemy that was neither human nor beast.
The ones who identified the presence of the enemy were the Tiger Clan and the Bear Clan. The two asked God for His mercy and soon, there was a voice.
[I will give new power to those who eat mugwort and garlic without seeing sunlight for 100 days.]
Along with the voice, mugwort and garlic came down from the sky through Shindansu.
(*Shindansu – expressed as the world center or cosmic center ‘tree of life, which is on the earth and marks the sacred point connecting heaven and earth.)
Seeing this, the leader of the Tiger Clan, Eun Ho, realized that there were at most two warriors who could receive power from God.
In consultation with the leader of the Bear Clan, they decided to select one person to receive power from each tribe. For this reason, Eun Ho summoned a warrior suitable for the power that God would give and delivered the words he had heard.
“I have to survive 100 days eating only mugwort and garlic without seeing sunlight? I’m not doing that. I’m already strong without the power God will give.”
Hwang Ho, who had no patience, shook his head.
“I agree with Hwang Ho.”
Baek Ho also spoke in arrogance.
“I want the power that God will give us. But I don’t want to be away from the godman for 100 days. I couldn’t even meet him often these days because of his brother.]
After long contemplation, Cheong Ho answered.
“I just don’t want to.”
Jeok Ho answered without much thought.
None of the four were willing to receive power, so Eun Ho talked to one tiger, whom he had in mind beforehand.
“Jeok Ho, you hid into Fengbo and Usa’s house a couple of days ago, right? I know that you’re the one who put powder on their face.”
(*Fengbo – the deity of wind / *Usa – the deity of rain)
“How did you know!”
“And I know that you hid Unsa’s favorite teacup.”
(*Unsa – the deity of cloud)
Eun Ho was much weaker compared to other warriors, but he knew how to control them. And Jeok Ho was no exception.
“It’s just 100 days. If I tell everything I know to those three, they’ll put dark clouds over your head for 200 days and pour rain and wind. Won’t the former be better than the latter?”
Jeok Ho complained but soon he was convinced by Eun Ho.
Someone had to pass the test of God, and those who could receive divine power were about 4 warriors representing the Tiger Clan. However, Baek Ho and Hwang Ho already had the power to match their arrogance, and Cheong Ho, who had countless disciples, had no thought of leaving the godman’s side.
“Okay. But you should pretend not to know of the pranks I did and will do to those three.”
“I will think about it. I don’t mind you bothering capricious Fengbo and Usa, but I don’t want gracious Unsa to suffer from your prank.”
Eun Ho always speaks in a soft tone and calls a spade a spade.
With Eun Ho, Jeok Ho headed to the place that appeared like the realm of God. In a marvelous landscape full of wonders, Jeok Ho faced his fate.
“Ungnyeo from the Bear Clan greets Eun Ho and Jeok Ho.”
(*Ungnyeo – a female bear from the Bear Clan)
The fate that Jeok Ho faced was the exceptional intellectual of the Bear Clan, Ungnyeo.
The leader of the Bear Clan highly appreciated Ungnyeo’s talent, that he even declared that she will be the only one who can have the name ‘Ungnyeo’.
‘Never knew that there’s such a beautiful and noble being in Korean Peninsula!’
Jeok Ho fell in love with Ungnyeo at the first sight. Inside the dark cave where the sunlight didn’t reach, Jeok Ho passionately showed his love towards her.
“It’s hard to love a man who speaks in a rough tone like you.”
Jeok Ho immediately changed his tone.
Recalling Eun Ho’s soft tone, the polite words used by Fengbo, Usa, and Unsa, and the round voice of the godman, Jeok Ho changed himself.
One day, he heard someone signing from outside the cave.
The people of the tribe often used to spread recent stories of God and the godman in rhymes and rhythms.
[The godman asked God to grant unsparing power and mercy to the warrior who endures 100 days of the ordeal!]
From their singing, Jeok Ho also heard the lyrics that the godman showed interest towards Ungnyeo, which made his heart plummet. The beautiful, gentle godman had no wife and Ungnyeo was not Jeok Ho’s partner. Jeok Ho asked in anxiousness.
“Ungnyeo, what do you think about the godman?”
“I have no thoughts about him.”
Ungnyeo answered. She then added,
“But I do have thoughts about you.”
Jeok Ho found out that Ungnyeo had been wearing red cloth, which was the color that represents Jeok Ho, when God, who respected the godman’s request, opened the cave in 37 days instead of the promised 100 days.
After that, Jeok Ho and Ungnyeo received power from God and stood at the front line.
The two promised that they would be together after defeating their enemy, but the Bear Clan dared to stand the side of the enemy against God, and the promise made between the two couldn’t be achieved.
After a long war, the Tiger Clan brought peace to the Korean Peninsula by defeating all enemies and conquering the Bear Clan. God descended from the open sky to congratulate the Tiger Clan. When God asked the sacred tigers their wishes, they answered.
“I want the ability to go anywhere I want.”
“I want the ability to exist anywhere I want.”
“I want to be with the godman.”
Baek Ho, Hwang Ho, Cheong Ho, and Jeok Ho spoke of their wishes.
“I want the Bear Clan to be forgiven.”
God granted the wishes of the three tigers immediately, but he pondered for a long time over Jeok Ho’s wish.
“My wish is the same as Jeok Ho.”
Eun Ho came forward and lowered his head.
After long contemplation, God accepted his wish and made a declaration to the Tiger Clan and the Bear Clan below the open sky.
[Your stories will remain as myths in this land. Your body and soul will neither be that of humans and beasts and will be reborn as beings called the Black Tortoise Clan. I will gladly give my power into the true name you will attain.]
After God disappeared, Ungnyeo reunited with Joek Ho as the Black Tortoise Clan, wearing a red wedding dress. God said that it was difficult for those who became the Black Tortoise Clan to have children. But luckily, Ungnyeo was able to bear a child.
But the hard-earned happiness scattered like dust.
Jeok Ho had few left to protect.
And those few left were under threat.
“Zhu Ganglie, are you listening?”
“Of course, I’m listening!”
At Zhu Ganglie’s bedroom in the base of the Pig Clan,
Jeok Ho, who hid by using his invisibility skill, couldn’t believe what he just heard. He desperately hoped that he misheard it, but that hope scattered apart when someone on the other side of the screen repeated his words.
“You must kill Kim Shin-rok at Eungwang High.”
“I understood that very well, but… currently, there are not many of our people in Eungwang High, so even if we kill the teacher, there is no manpower to replace them.”
“Regardless of that, we need to kill him. It will be difficult to corrupt Jeok Ho and Ungnyeo’s son anyway.”
Jeok Ho stared at the screen that Zhu Ganglie was watching.
The only thing that could be seen beyond the blurry screen, where the voice modulated by the machine sound was heard, was a long finger.
Jeok Ho trembled in a sense of helplessness. Kim Shin-rok became the target of evil for being his son.
* * *
‘The darkness’ started making his move and Zhu Ganglie recovered.
They are targetting Kim Shin-rok.
We don’t know the reason yet.
It was clear that he was not aimed for being the first-grade class teacher and Ji-Ik Association advisor.
‘Then why is he the target?’
The darkness always targeted certain people tenaciously.
As if to hide his intentions, the darkness had someone else carrying out his plan. As a person who already played this whole game, there was something that kept getting on my mind.
Why is he trying to corrupt or kill a character?
There was a benefit of killing or corrupting a character, but considering the ultimate goal of the darkness, it seemed only a trivial benefit.
‘An example of a character who also had been targeted in the past is Sawol Saeum.’
Sawol Saeum, who was rescued by Joo Soo-hyuk.
Her Gwanglim is activated only in a special condition, and it was Joo Soo-hyuk who met that condition.
And as soon as the scene of Sawol Saeum using Gwanglim was exposed to the media, the darkness ordered Na Bi-ryeong to kill Sawol Saeum.
He killed Sawol Saeum to cut down Eungwang High’s power and brought chaos to Joo Soo-hyuk’s party. But was it really necessary for Na Bi-ryeong to step in?
Na Bi-ryeong spoke as if she was throwing a hint.
[It happened because that kid was being too nice. There was someone who thought she would be ruined or corrupted after a few years of harassment, but she didn’t change.]
It sounded as if they would’ve left her alive if she became corrupted.
‘If they can’t be corrupted, they must be killed’ was what she said, and Kim Shin-rok was one of the targets.
Hearing Jeok Ho’s report, Hwang Jiho spoke to him.
“Jeok Ho, you’re not allowed to go to the Pig Clan’s base from now on.”
“B, but….!”
“The being beyond the screen sees me even when I used the invisibility skill that I’ve strengthened. You can’t stand him with your current distracted mindset. You were very lucky since you only saw him through the screen.
Hwang Jiho, raised his hand as if to stop Jeok Ho who was trying to refute.
“If you don’t listen to me, your junior will be punished.”
“….Okay.”
“Instead, I will give you other options. You can either wait at the mansion, or you can guard your kid.”
If given such options, wouldn’t he obviously choose to guard Kim Shin-rok? But unlike what I expected, Jeok Ho closed his eyes for a moment and began to think.
“That kid doesn’t go outside God’s realm unless there’s a school event.”
“Yes, because he’s busy.”
“Then, I will wait at the mansion…. Since my child finds it uncomfortable being with me.”
It seemed like the relationship between the two was more twisted than I thought.
“But if he does go outside God’s realm, please let me follow him.”
“I will think about it.”
Jeok Ho widened his eyes for a moment, then he dropped his head.
‘I’m sure he will follow Kim Shin-rok if he goes outside the Eungwang area no matter what.’
When Jeok Ho took his seat, Hwang Jiho turned to me.
“Jo Eui-shin, you predicted that ‘he’ will take the student retreat as the opportunity for an attack. Did you also predict that Kim Shin-rok will become the target?”
I didn’t know that.
Because by around this time, Kim Shin-rok was already dead for over half a year in the game.
“No, what is happening now is very different from ‘what I already knew.’”
“….. ’what you already knew.’”
Hwang Jiho repeated my words.
As I listened to that calm voice, so many things were getting mixed up in my head. I needed to reorganize my thoughts according to the changed circumstances and new information.
“We’ll have a lot of things to talk about today.”
Hwang Jiho spoke as he looked at my face.
On that day, I couldn’t get to sleep and had a long conversation with Hwang Jiho, Baek Ho, and Jeok Ho.
When the sun was up, dozens of holograms on the drawing-room table were filled with maps and outlines.
“It’s good to have breakfast with you, Eui-shin oppa!”
“I would’ve visited your room if I knew that you were having a sleepover…”
Well, I didn’t sleep. I stayed.
I smiled awkwardly. Then, I emptied all of the endive rolls and the green gram beef porridge made with finely ground rice flour and mung beans.
“I will return to my dorm now, and get changed to my uniform.”
“I have several uniforms, though.”
“But the size is different.”
“There’s one that fits you.”
‘Hwang Jiho can adjust his age, so his height. Does he have school uniforms of all sizes to match that?’
“No thanks, I need my backpack too.”
As I was stepping out of the door, I felt empty.
After discussing with the Tiger Clan, I begged and comforted Olmu, who was hiding in his house in the living room. Still, Olmu didn’t forgive me.
Does he hate the elixir from the Deer Clan that much?
Thinking of it again, I understood Olmu.
I also had resentment towards that damn dude, Hwang Jiho, when I had to swallow the swamp of hell before.
In the end, I had to leave Hwang Myeong-ho’s mansion without seeing Olmu.
‘This is where I used to walk with Olmu…!’
When I changed into my uniform in the dorm,
Dingdong.
There was a message from my disciple, Yeom Jun-yeol.
But his message was different from usual.
[Yeom Jun-yeol] Hello, teacher.
[Yeom Jun-yeol] I’m sorry.
[Yeom Jun-yeol] (Link)
Yeom Jun-yeol attached a link.
There were two links attached.
One was about the result of the chess match with Cheon Dong-ha from yesterday.
The other was the ranking of the final exam that’s been corrected.
Public rankings from 1st to 10th from each grade.
Among them, Yeom Jun-yeol ranked 2nd in the second grade.
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For those who found the first half of the story a little confusing. If not, please skip this:)
The Tiger Clan and the Bear Clan around 5,000 years ago, had the appearance of animals. But after Jeok Ho and Ungnyeo passed the test given by God, all of them became the Black Tortoise Clan. The members of the Black Tortoise Clan have the appearance of humans while possessing divine power. Jeok Ho, Baek Ho, Hwang Ho, and Eun Ho still belong to their original clan(the Tiger Clan), but they all fall under the Black Tortoise Clan.
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