Gyuvin froze in his tracks for a long few moments as his brain tried to process everything that was going on at once. The noise outside his door was getting louder and louder by the second, and the fact that he had just woken up ten minutes ago was not giving him any clarity of mind whatsoever.
He stared at the water in the pot again. He didn’t even recall washing his hands in it before he slept last night, but it made no sense for someone else to come into his room, out of all rooms, wash their bloodied hands, and then leave, so quietly that Gyuvin hadn’t woken up. It had to have been him, right?
So what exactly was going on?
Gyuvin deliberated for a moment about whether to open his window and empty the pot of water out onto the grass. Right, he thought, that was the smartest thing to do at the moment. Anyone who walked in now could see the bloodied water and jump to conclusions.
As he lifted the pot to the windowsill, he froze again. Was this considered destroying evidence? If someone, somehow, found out he’d thrown out the water, would it look more like he was trying to cover his own tracks?
He placed the pot back down and laid a cloth over it, reminding himself to deal with it later. Jiwoong and Ricky were already outside when he joined in; it seemed like the whole of the Peak had gathered by the gates, and everyone was whispering furiously amongst themselves. He craned his neck to try and get a glimpse of what everyone else was looking at, but the crowd was so thick he could hardly see a thing.
“Clear a path!”
Han Seungho’s voice rang out from behind them and the crowd parted to the sides immediately. The seniors had arrived; Han Seungho, Lee Eunyoung, Jung Aerin, Ahn Yookyung, and everyone else Gyuvin couldn’t remember the names of. Minwoo was there too, already neatly dressed in his golden robes, a concerned expression darkening his face.
Gyuvin could see what they were all looking at, now that the crowd had scattered. An older man stood at the gates, his clothes stained brown from drying blood, a dead body in his arms.
Han Seungho whispered something to Lee Eunyoung, and she disseminated the instructions to the rest of the seniors. “All cultivators are to clear the area immediately,” she ordered. “We will investigate what has happened. In the meantime, all of you crowding here are just getting in the way.”
Minwoo gently urged them to go to the dining hall to get some breakfast first. Gyuvin reluctantly went, though he couldn’t really find it in him to eat; his stomach was too busy tying itself into knots inside of him for him to even stand the idea of food right now. Hanbin didn’t know the real reason Gyuvin was sick with worry, and he did his best to coax some breakfast into him, without much success.
A sense of impending doom had begun to set in, like a cloud signaling an incoming storm hanging over his head, since the moment he discovered the bloodied water. He didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle just yet, but he was starting to feel like something on the Peak was very wrong. And it either had something to do with him, or it had something to do with someone who wanted him gone.
Gyuvin realized now, belatedly, that he recognised the man standing at the gate. It was Seo Jung’s father, the master of the House of Wisteria. The person who had been murdered was an inhabitant of Raintree Town.
Everything was beginning to make less and less sense. Raintree Town had always been so peaceful that some of its inhabitants had gone their entire lives without ever experiencing anything out of the ordinary. But in the five months they’d been here, there’d been a mysterious case of fierce corpses rising from the graveyard that was to this day unsolved, and now this murder that, since Mr Seo had taken the trouble to bring the dead body all the way up the Peak, he presumed had something to do with demons or some other evil.
None of the others were eating much either. The atmosphere in the dining hall was considerably more solemn than usual, and there was hardly any chatter as they poked at their food. When the signal finally sounded for an assembly, everyone stood almost immediately and headed for the doors. The seniors were gathered at the front of the Assembly Hall when they filed in. Gyuvin had never seen them look this somber, not even when Han Seungho was scolding him heartily.
“Listen well, everyone,” Lee Eunyoung began. “Six bodies were discovered at Raintree Town this morning. We have reason to believe those six people were murdered by a cultivator, or someone who had a moderate grasp of spiritual techniques.”
Murdered by a cultivator?
The blood drained from Gyuvin’s face, and Hanbin squeezed his hand reassuringly.
Jung Aerin brought a little boy, who looked to be about ten years old, out in front of everyone. “This is Kang Gihyun,” she said shortly. “He claims to have witnessed one of the murders last night, and we have administered a truth-extorting elixir to ensure his word can be trusted. He has some information that I believe everyone should hear.”
Gihyun looked a little unsure, but he spoke after a little encouragement from Jung Aerin. “I saw someone last night,” he began hesitantly. “I was playing in the dark, and he didn’t see me. The person was wearing a mask. I couldn’t see his face.”
“Go on,” she said gently. “What else did you see?”
“He didn’t have a weapon with him, but he was drawing with his hands in the air,” he continued. “I remember the beginning of what he drew, but I was so afraid I didn’t dare to look anymore. I didn’t know he was going to kill my brother…”
Someone handed him a blank piece of calligraphy paper and a brush. “Can you draw the strokes you remember seeing?”
Gihyun nodded, and picked up the brush. As he lifted the piece of paper up, the half finished talisman gleaming wet with fresh ink, Hanbin’s fingers tightened around his wrist. Gyuvin squinted at it; something about the talisman looked familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“What is that?” he whispered to Hanbin.
“That’s Soul Erosion,” Hanbin answered softly, his voice tinged with unease. “The first of the ten forbidden talismans.”
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