The Raven's Mortal Bride

1. The Red Moon and the Raven

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Hi!

Welcome to my book!

This is a Korean historical fiction about fantasy, adventure and romance.

Hope you enjoy it!

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The Moon turns red twice every year.

Once during summer, and once during winter.

"The spirits are angry."

"The dead are sending a message."

"A sign of catastrophe."

"It's the sign of death!"

"A bad omen!"

"Evil Spirits are around."

The people of HuinGuk believed many different reasons why the moon turned red, but there was never any proven reason.

There was only one constant. Whenever the moon turned red, People died.

Every single time.

Sometimes a whole family. Sometimes just a single person.

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On this particular night, a sour-faced officer stood in the cold, waiting for his men to finish examining the four bodies before them. He sighed, as his eyes seemed to move of their own volition to the smallest figure among them.

She was a child!

Surely, no older than ten!

Her sightless eyes seemed to stare straight at him. She lay ram-rod straight on her back, except for her neck and head which faced his direction. What was once a white sleeping hanbok was now drenched in blood and dirt.

"Hurry it up!" He snapped at them. Not because he was impatient, but because he knew there was no use!

Every Time this happened, they would investigate, but never find anything. It was as if the victims suddenly became rigid and died on their own, while bleeding out of their mouths and noses!

As if that wasn't strange enough, the King would order the investigation stopped, and would even attempt to punish any official that tried to investigate.

"It's sad, isn't it?" One of the men asked. "And it's always commoners, always in the outskirts. Probably why the King doesn't care!"

The man looked away.

He had a daughter who was about the dead girl's age. If investigating was useless, he would like to give the dead some dignity at least, and bury them quickly.

"Lord Yang. It's the same as the others." His Deputy had run up to him. "The bodies belong to a rice farmer, his wife, their daughter and a visiting uncle."

"And nobody heard or saw anything?" He asked glumly.

"No." His Deputy replied with a bow. "Should we release them to their neighbors? I hear there's no other family, so a neighbor offered to oversee a small funeral."

"Yes. Release them. The King will not let us investigate properly. No use letting them rot away in the Shadow Palace."

"Understood." He bowed and went away.

Lord Yang, Second Chief Investigator of the Shadow Palace, took one final look at the girl.

He got on his horse and rode away.