The Bride of the Water God chapter 76

The Bride of the Water God chapter 76 (하백의 신부 제76회) appeared in the October 1, 2009 issue of Wink Magazine. Spoilers follow in this summary. If you don’t want to know, don’t read. Also in this issue were the color pages which normally get bundled into the volumes.

As the preview showed, Soah-in-ghost-form is wondering what could have possibly happened. This is still in the “past” and in water country and at the end of the last chapter, Nakbin is shown lying dead on the floor and flames are everywhere. Hooye is telling child-form-Habaek-with-long-hair-and-now-huge-clothes that it’s dangerous there and they must leave immediately. Habaek knocks Hooye’s hand out of the way and is asking why he’s being like that. Hooye asks Habaek if he still doesn’t know — that Nakbin had orders from the emperor to kill him and that was her reason from the start for associating with him. Habaek says, “I’ve known.” And then he says to the lifeless Nakbin, “You had but to ask and I would have given you —  my life and anything else. This curse was unnecessary… you only had to ask me to die…” There’s a flashback now  (..within this reliving of the past..yes, I know..) to just before that scene. Nakbin is embracing a child-Habaek-with-long-hair-and-huge-clothes. She says, “Shall I tell you a secret, Habaek?” She continues, saying the spell she has placed on him is to make him weak during the day. So that way he would be of no use to the god of the sun, Yeom Jae, in the war that’s going on. And that way he’d be of no interest to the emperor. And that she’s tired of it all: of being used like this because of him. And so that is why…. (the bubble tails off and in the next panel shows her holding a knife with her left hand, cupping his face with her right hand, but the knife point is pointing ..sort of.. towards her but not really at her torso. It is hard to explain in writing, sorry. The bubble in this panel says, “Good bye.” On the next page is a panel of fire and that flashback-within-these-memories-of-the-past has ended because he is cradling her bloodied body. He tells Hooye he will not be going and tells Hooye for him to go alone. Hooye yells that he can’t do that: in his weakened state, even he(Habaek) would perish in the flames. Hooye then asks him, “Do you know what I have abandoned/thrown away because of you? My sister who allied herself with the emperor to save my life….  I cannot simply leave you, whom she gave up her life for, to die like this!” They are interrupted with the appearance of Tae-eul-jin-in. He says, “This is quite the tear-jerker.” Hooye at this point does not know who Tae-eul-jin-in is and yells, “And who are you?!” Tae-eul-jin-in simply say she’s the one who told Nakbin how to place the curse on Habaek. And also he came to say how to undo the curse. Soah-in-spirit-form hears this and thinks to herself, “There’s a way to undo the curse? Habaek can be free from the curse?” And Hooye says, “And just how would that work?” Tae-eul-jin-in says there is only one condition for undoing the curse: and that is the one who placed the curse has to be the one who undoes it. Hooye says, “What kind of nonsense is that! She already died! So what you are basically saying is it’s impossible!” Tae-eul-jin-in says, “And isn’t half of her human? When gods die, their bodies and spirits are taken to [the Heavens..whatever..], but humans are different from gods: they are repeatedly reborn. Habaek’s bride will be reborn amongst the humans later. And that reincarnated woman will come back some time in the future to water country. And if that happens, Habaek can meet the one he loved again and be released from the curse. In response to this, Soah-in-spirit-form is holding her spirit hands over her mouth, again, since she’s shocked at this revelation. That is, she thinks, “So, was the reason for the annual offering of a bride to Habaek was to wait for the rebirth of Nakbin? It’s an event that could take however many hundreds or thousands of years… yet, just for the sake of one person, [in that manner] ….” Then spirit-Soah looks at her spirit-hands and notices she’s fading. She’s wondering if her time there is coming to an end. She is highly displeased with that possibility (obviously) and says she still hasn’t found out how to release Habaek from the curse yet! Her last bubble says, “I don’t want to go! I can’t go! Not like this-!!” End of chapter.

As a side note: I think the author is losing track of details in her story. Nakbin had placed the curse on him before her death so she did see him in his child form before she died. Yet, when Nakbin sees him at the imperial palace (after Soah gets whisked away to the lunar palace but before she sees the past), she says she had always been wondering how he looked like as a child. So, that’s one inconsistency. *shrug*