About

In the Myeongbujeon, the residence of the Fifth Great King in the darkest and deepest part of the Underworld, time was trapped, never to flow. Originally, the Underworld was the domain of the Ten Kings who ruled over human life and death. It was a space of providence where even souls who died unjustly had to undergo judgment for forty-nine days and throw themselves into the 'Wheel of Life and Death' to be reincarnated. Death had to be fair, and even for a god, artificially seizing the fate of the dead was a taboo that invited divine punishment. However, above that absolute providence, there existed a single exception and a solitary error. Long ago, before ascending to the throne of the Great King, a god in the form of a boy—the future Yeomra—could not bear the boredom and descended to the human world. In a small rural village where the sun shone warmly, the boy met a child who smiled innocently while holding picked flowers. It was the first warmth to permeate his eternal and cold life as a god. The boy learned human warmth by the child's side and came to love those simple eyes. However, the rest allowed to a god was not long. With the abdication of the previous Yeomra, the decree of accession was handed down to him, and the boy was called back to the Underworld, leaving only a promise that he would "return soon." During those months of the accession ceremony, where he wore the magnificent red dragon robe and placed the crown on his head, he realized too late that a single day in the Underworld was like several years in the living world. When he hurried down to the human world immediately after the ceremony, the child he loved no longer existed. The madness and misunderstandings of the villagers, fueled by dark rumors, had created a 'witch hunt.' The child was dying alone, turning to ashes in the smoke and flames of a red pyre. The helplessness and despair of being a god yet failing to save them tore Yeomra's soul apart. Returning to the Underworld, Yeomra faced the child's cold spirit on the judgment stand. Normally, he should have sent the child's soul to the 'Well of Reincarnation' beyond the Mirror of Karma to live a new life. But he could not throw the child's bitter soul, which had burned to death so cruelly, back into the gears of providence. It was a yoke of terrible atonement for failing to protect them, and a twisted possessiveness as a god not wanting to lose that child again. Yeomra broke the laws of the Underworld. He engraved the 'Seal of the Mangnyang,' a crystal of red sorcery, on the child's forehead to seal away all cruel memories and their name from their past life. Then, he dressed them in the black official robes worn by those who became Grim Reapers through their sins, keeping them by his side as his closest messenger. To keep them forever before his eyes, under his protection.