The Sword's Purpose
The grim reaper took out the remaining missing soul paper and started to write Joong Heon Park’s name. Joong Heon was an evil spirit that had been around for a long time, so it was impossible to win him over even if the grim reaper brought other grim reaper’s with him. He had lived off the people’s evil deeds; the grim reaper hoped that the gods wanted to get rid of him too. The grim reaper handed the written out paper to a junior reaper; he had been stripped from his job so he couldn’t give it up himself.
The junior was in charge of the grim reaper’s job, and he told the grim reaper that Eun Tak’s death card had come down from the heavens again. The grim reaper opened the death card with his own hands. He didn’t want his junior to get in trouble like him; one reaper on probation was enough.
[Eun Tak Ji. Age 20. The year 2017. March 14th. 20:35. Heart-Attack]
It was in a week's time.
This time, there was a high chance that it was because of Joong Heon. The grim reaper had no choice but to go to Duk Hwa’s house to find the Goblin. Hesitating, the grim reaper walked around the front door of the house, waiting for the Goblin to come out, when he stormed out of the house with an angry face.
Even when the grim reaper had told the Goblin, the time of Eun Tak’s death, the Goblin kept staring at the grim reaper with an annoyed face. He knew that the death card would come soon, and he knew that it would have something to do with Joong Heon. The Goblin also knew that the time of the death was useless because of the previous times Eun Tak had a near-death experience.
“Joong Heon keeps appearing in front of my sister. Protect her. For once in your life, protect her, like how she tried to protect you.”
The grim reaper, who had started to walk away, stopped at the Goblin’s words. On the day of Shin’s death, the only thing he could do was move forward. His sister had been protecting him, the foolish king.
“Why did you move forward that day? Why did you walk towards me? You knew that you were going to die.”
“...To say something I had not been able to say before.”
It was unexpected. The grim reaper had not known that the Goblin had tried to move forward to tell him something.
“After receiving the sword, I requested to meet Yeo several times, but the king kept sending back messages for me to go out to war. When I finally met you, I was already certain that I was going to die.”
“What were you trying to tell me?”
The Goblin’s eyes sank a little.
“The late king loved you by not loving you. I was trying to tell you that your half-brother; the late king, your lover; my sister, and me; who protected you and Goryeo, loved you.”
He had thought all his life that he had not been loved by his people, his woman, and himself. That was why he had no hesitation to commit suicide.
“I wanted to tell you that the only thing you had to do was say this one sentence. I wanted you to say that with the sword you gave me with anger and concern, slice Joong Heon’s head. That was the only thing you had to tell me, and I would have finished it all off for you.”
Yeo’s eyes widened.
“I just never imagined that the sword would slice me instead.”
The Goblin muttered the last sentence quietly and coldly.
A thunder struck in the clear sky and for a moment, the blue-fiery sword came into view. At that second, the Goblin remembered something that Joong Heon had told him. He couldn’t kill Joong Heon with the sword of water. The Goblin’s face fell; in the end, he would have to hold the sword in his hands again. The Goblin held the handle of the sword with increasing fury. The grim reaper walked towards him worried.
“What’s wrong? Does it hurt?”
“...I just figured out what my sword was meant to do. The purpose for my sword… It was to kill Joong Heon.”
Thunder struck again, and the fire around the sword burned brightly blue. The Goblin closed his eyes at the answer he had found. Destiny was too cruel. A tear dropped from his eyes.
*
Eun Tak walked out of the chicken shop and saw the students bullying the young boy again. They were teasing the boy, asking if the pizza in his hands had been bought by his grandma’s begging money.
“Don’t insult my grandmother! Blast off!”
“He really must be insane. He’s doing that stupid thing again.”
“That’s not how you ‘blast off.’ Look. This is how you do it. Blast off!”
The students mocked the young boy and pushed him over. The boy fell to the ground, helpless. With tearful eyes, the boy saw Eun Tak walking towards them.
“Hey, you guys!”
“Blast off!”
The young boy used the last of his strength, and tried to blast the students away. This time, the students got blasted backwards into the wall behind them, as if a blast had actually come out of the boy’s hands. The student’s were more shocked than hurt; they quickly ran away, leaving the boy who was looking at his hands with a shocked but joyful face.
Even Eun Tak had no idea what was going on, but soon figured out that the Goblin had been standing behind her. There was a bright smile on his face. Eun Tak gave the Goblin’s a thumbs up and looked at the boy. The young boy was jumping up and down, excited at the events that had just taken place.
“Eun Tak! Did you just see what I did! How did you know that I really could blast them away with my hands? I just blasted them away!”
“When I was around your age, I dreamed of becoming the Goblin’s bride, and I really did become the bride. But it’s a secret, you’re not allowed to tell anyone about that. That blast off is really dangerous, so don’t use it unless you’re in real danger, alright?”
The boy’s eyes twinkled; they were full of hopes and dreams. He nodded happily and ran off to his grandmother. Eun Tak turned around to the Goblin after the young boy left. He had always been amazing, but today he was just the best. There was a warm smile on the man’s face.
“You’re so awesome.”
“If I’m that awesome, let’s go on a holiday.”
It was a sudden suggestion, but Eun Tak nodded enthusiastically.
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