The Scarlet Hawk 1 (MiChaeng)✔️

Prelude

A thousand years ago
Somewhere in the ancient land of Korea

There, in the vast land with an angry howling blizzard in the middle of a vast land of emptiness, a beautiful yet fierce woman clad in red shining armour raced against time as she rode her galloping horse, the mighty stallion bringing her to whatever place she could head to. Her left hand was holding the rope halter of her horse, while in her right was a box, which by the looks of her currently erratic behaviour seemed to be precious. It might seem that the horse was bringing her nowhere, but she was certain she was heading somewhere.

Soon, the horse suddenly stopped itself in a lone land as if stricken by something which terrified it, thrashing around and neighing endlessly as though it saw something the lady did not. Confused, the rider tried to calm her horse down by petting its neck softly, but the animal unexpectedly rose on its hind legs and stood as high as it could, causing the rider to fall on her back with a low grunt.

Before the lady could properly decipher her current position and try to get back to her horse again, the animal had already ran off far away from her, ignoring her repeated calls. The lady groaned in angered annoyance and looked around herself, all alone in this barren wasteland. Her sword ready by her waist, she seemed to be drained from an earlier battle she had, evident from the still freshly-carved scars of blood on her face. She then took out the box and held it on top of her palm, breathing heavily at the mere sight of it.

"This is the place where you were found, and so....this will also be the place where you and I will both cease to exist." she whispered as she took out her sword, the blade gleaming under the glow of the moonlight. The lady took deep breaths with her grip on her sword tightening, and when she was about to land the blade on the mysterious artifact, her attention was caught by the voice of a woman coming from behind her.

"What are you doing in the middle of nowhere, young pretty lady?" the voice spoke, ending in a soft chuckle. The confused lady furrowed her eyebrows and quickly turned back with her sword and the box still in her hand, spotting an old woman with a slightly hunched back, her position supported by a short wooden stick. The lady gave her a cold glare and held her sword tightly, pointing it right towards the elderly.

"I have nothing against you for you to be interfering with what I am about to do, old woman." she scoffed and pointed her weapon towards the elder. "So stay out of this, and run while you still can....," she paused and readied herself, "unless you're intending to make me change my mind."

"What makes you so sure I have any intention of running away from you? What gives you the impression that I seem to feaar you, young child?" the old woman flashed a soft grin, before her left hand which was previously on her back slowly moved in front towards the lady, conveniently but also mysteriously showing a small cup. "Here, have some rice wine to ease you down. When one is filled with anger, they often get lost in their own emotions." she smiled. The young fierce warrior instead scoffed and swatted the cup away with her sword, shattering it and sending the pieces falling onto the ground.

"Enough with your courtesy, dammit! I'm not here for some damn rice wine or an old woman's meaningless words!" she yelled out loud in anger. "I'm here to pay for my sins, to make it up for all the people I've taken their lives away from, do you not know?!" she huffed while her lips were trembling. "Even if I die, I'm willing to take it, if it means destroying this cursed thing once and for all." she gestured towards the box she was holding in her other hand. The old woman suddenly chuckled and looked at her while shaking her head, letting go of her walking stick while the armored lady watched it fall in confusion.

"Are you sure your self-sacrifice would be a payment worth all the souls you have reaped? You may have chosen to 'redeem' yourself and abandon your comrades-now-turned-enemies, but the souls who had died by your blade still yearn for your consequences, consequences you cannot run away from." the elderly woman smirked. Suddenly, the artifact that was on the lady's hand flew to the woman, now in her grasp, much to her anger.

"W-what do you think you're doing, old woman?!" she yelled and charged with her sword, only to be stopped when an unexplainable strong wind halted her from moving forward, holding her in place. She groaned and looked at her with rage in her eyes. "What're you-..what're you doing?! Stop it!" she commanded, squirming around trying to break free. The woman didn't listen, and instead held the artifact as it disappeared into thin air in an instant. "You don't know what you're doing!"

"The artifact's fate is not for you nor me to decide, but I assure you I will keep it safe, even from your grasp." she said sternly and put her hands behind her back as she stood firmly. "Now, if you truly seek redemption for your sins, this....this is your atonement."

"My...atonement?!" the lady grunted while struggling.

"Myoui Mi Na, over your years of service to The Horn, you have instilled terror and pain to countless souls, therefore you are subject to inevitable consequences, and I shall henceforth instill a life of cursed eternity upon your soul." the old woman exclaimed with her voice echoing loud as a cannon to Mi Na's ears. "As part of your atonement, you will be an Inn Keeper, one who houses those who have left the world of the living. I have created a house for the dead.....and a prison for you." she stated and disappeared. "Only then your payment for your sins would be deemed equal." her voice echoed.

The wind had stopped, and Mi Na fell onto the ground on her knees weakly while groaning. Realizing that she was now cursed and bound to this contract, she knew she would suffer an eternity of witnessing both life and death, knowing that she would remain the monster she had always been. She then saw a tree appearing out of nowhere in front of her, widening her eyes upon recognizing it.

"Wha-...what is the meaning of this?!" Mi Na hissed, watching as the tree started shaking.

Not long after, countless wooden planks began appearing as they combined to form the structure of a big wooden mansion right of her, and Mi Na's sword escaped from her grasp, levitating on air before it soon went deep inside the mansion where the mysterious tree lied inside too.

Mi Na groaned and groaned in pain for the voices of the curse were running around in her head, mentally tormenting her for as long as they could. She screamed and screamed, pleading for help to no avail. It wasn't long before the inn had fully presented itself in front of the lady, illuminated under the full moon of the dark night.

The lady knew this curse would haunt her for all of life.

Yeyy I'm back with a new story. After watching Hotel Del Luna, I thought, why not make a MiChaeng fanfic inspired by it? Sure, I don't want it to be exactly the same, otherwise it would be boring. So I took the aspect of having an immortal lady owning a hotel for ghosts who has constantly-changing human managers and combined it with my own plot, creating a different story than the drama.

Enjoy!

(What do you think about the cover? Hihihi)