Boy Monster Chapter 78

The full moon was two days away. Jae Eunho, officially detained in Jang Hwonwoo’s room, performed communion every day without fail. To protect the boy, every aspect of the plan had to be perfectly managed. There could be no shortcomings.

Even if the aftereffects of their lovemaking, which had not skipped a single day, remained.

“Hah… This… lecher of all lechers… No matter how firmly I warn him, the moment he takes off his clothes, he transforms….”

Jae Eunho straightened his aching back and maintained a cross-legged position. Not just his back, but his insides also felt stiff and sore. It seemed his body remembered the hot, violent entries more clearly.

Jang Hwonwoo was strangely obsessed with bearing the fruits of their lovemaking inside Jae Eunho. Was it because he was a being he could not connect with as his Yeonri? The force of the large palm that slapped down and squeezed the ‘死’ mark above the curve of his buttocks revealed a desire for connection without hiding it.

The ruthlessness and violent tyranny he occasionally showed during intercourse stemmed from a great, hole-like anxiety inherent in his deep-seated mind. Eunho knew well what that obsession was. It was a struggle to overcome solitude and a desperate desire for life. The whirlwind that started from anxiety and loneliness culminated in a fiery obsession. Every time he was engulfed in a chilling desire for control, Jae Eunho could not refuse its heat and sweetness.

—At this rate, we’re really going to be connected…. Ah… my stomach is so full now….

—Take it all in. Don’t let a single drop spill. No… I’ll block it. You just stay still.

Who on earth was he copulating with? The son of his enemy. A disciple he approached with a purpose and with whom he works. A vast age difference. I, who brainwashed and tamed a man to kill his own father…. Looking at it from the world’s perspective, a sense of shame that made his ears burn red rushed over him again, but the passion for his partner used even that shame as material for ecstasy. The passion hammered a nail hard into Jae Eunho’s heart, preventing Jang Hwonwoo from escaping.

—Your skin smells of a rugged mountain path. Of the earth and the wild.

The untamed, savage scent thoroughly permeated every part of Jae Eunho’s body. The scent of life that his chiseled, large body emitted moment by moment poured onto Eunho as well. The smell of vigor, as strong as sandalwood and intoxicating to the mind. The scent of each other that only those who have shared sweat and ecstasy in their naked bodies can smell. The scent of lovemaking.

As the day of the full moon approached, they shared breath and bodily fluids like melted candle wax fused together by fire. The sticky sounds of their union became the wet, drenched sounds of diving in the waves. He would only end their union when Jae Eunho begged. It felt as if Jang Hwonwoo’s soul, having entered through gasping mucous membranes, skin, and breath, was circulating through every corner of his body.

—Stop. Please, stop.

—Beg me desperately. I can’t believe you… what your body and your mouth are saying is different.

—If this continues, I won’t be able to do anything tomorrow, please. Hngh…!

—Beg more. Beg more and make me stop. Quickly.

—Hwonwoo. …Hwonwoo.

—Beg me more, with dirty words. Beg me with lewd words.

To the extent that he could feel in advance what it would be like if he were truly connected with a Sa Hwelju….

Eunho was certain. Even if their relationship was not one brought together by heaven and earth, they were connected. Jae Eunho could still feel his presence as if it were churning inside his body. It felt as if Jang Hwonwoo, who had left the mansion after receiving the morning prayers of the Hweljus and Yeonris in his officer’s uniform, was right next to him, no, inside him.

Eunho pressed his palms together. Seated in meditation before the <Suwol Gwaneumdo>, with a candle and incense lit, Jae Eunho closed his eyes to the golden light flowing down the altar.

Because I must protect that man and give him happiness and glory.

It had to succeed, no matter what. No failure or exception would be permitted. A desperate hunter hits even the unseen prey.

「Sashimcheon… Manshin… Shaman… State-Protecting Dharma Master… Mansion… Hiroshi… Sa Hwelju…」

While Jang Hwonwoo was preparing to set fire to the electrical room of the Central Telephone Office using his shapeshifting and Hwelju powers, Jae Eunho communed with all related individuals without exception. Without any carelessness or loopholes. The places he paid the most attention to were the Government-General and the military headquarters. He checked if there were any changes to the list of attendees on the day of the experiment, if anyone harbored suspicions, and what precautions needed to be taken in advance. He checked every little thing without missing a single detail.

Although there was nothing he could do about the military ministers and the doctor’s team who had not yet arrived in Gyeongseong, Eunho took every precaution within the reach of his communion ability. The telephone office was fine, and his reliable ally, Prince Uichin, and his subordinates were also safe. Jae Eunho finally moved on to the movements of the previous family head.

The movements of not only the previous family head, who would become a corpse on the day of the experiment, but also of the Manshin were important.

The Manshin was a state shaman who performed national rituals. Known to be possessed by a great spirit familiar to all Joseon people, she could hold rituals all night, with spirits and souls entering and leaving her body several times, yet she would endure with her eyes wide open. When she received the divine energy well, she could even divine when and where a Yeonri would be born. She was the only shaman who knew how to handle the Sa Hwelju sealing talismans, making her an essential figure on the day of the experiment.

To kidnap such a shaman in advance and remove the control talisman attached to Eunho, he had to keep an eye on their every move, but their movements had been unusual since yesterday. Today, too, they had been gathered at the previous family head’s house for a secret meeting since morning.

As Eunho communed with the previous family head’s consciousness, the scene of the room unfolded in his mind. The Manshin shaman was shouting.

—That’s enough, you all just stay put! Experiment, my foot! Does it make any sense to bestow a power given by the heavens upon the body of a mere mortal? Nothing will happen to the Sashimcheon family, so don’t you worry.

It seemed the Manshin had decided to stick with her existing ties to the previous family head instead of Jang Hwonwoo. Seeing her sitting in the secret meeting, shaking her bells and telling them their fortunes, confirmed it.

Why did the Manshin side with the previous family head and not Jang Hwonwoo?

Why on earth.

If the future the Manshin divined was the previous family head’s death, she wouldn’t be sticking around here.

……Don’t tell me, the future the gods revealed is the complete opposite of our victory.

“……”

Eunho shook off the ominous thought that had momentarily gripped him and focused on the communion. He had no intention of betting his fate on something like a divine prophecy, but he needed to know what was on the Manshin’s mind.

The previous family head, sprawled out on a cushion, spoke.

—Jae Eunho, isn’t he possibly filtering out the pills? He must be racking his brain, not wanting to be offered up on the day of the Sa Hwelju experiment!

—I’d have to see him up close to know, but he’s under detention so I can’t see his face at all! It gives me the creeps to think he might be eavesdropping right now.

Hmph, I am eavesdropping on everything you say.

Eunho sneered at them from Jang Hwonwoo’s distant room. The State-Protecting Dharma Master, with numerous prayer bead necklaces around his neck, sneered.

—And you call yourself a Manshin when you don’t even know that?

—You insolent brat, I’ll rip your mouth out! Even the god I serve dares not know about Sa Hwelju and Sa Yeonri. Are you even a Paldo-dochongseop when you don’t know this?

「That’s right, in any case, they are powers of heaven higher than your spirit, so you can’t interfere. That’s why even the greatest shaman of Joseon is in the dark about the Sa Hwelju bloodline and can’t figure out anything about Sa Yeonri Jae Eunho.」

How could this be. Reading the family head’s inner thoughts, Eunho was engulfed in great shock and anger.

Sa Hwelju and Sa Yeonri… powers of heaven.

So Sa Yeonri was also a being that even a god served by a state-recognized shaman dared not touch.

And they had treated such a Jae Eunho like a servant. Fearing that Eunho might realize his own divinity, they had broken him with extreme violence and fear.

A hot rage welled up. He was suddenly grateful that Jang Hwonwoo had looked upon the three of them as if they were insects.

—The powers of heaven and earth borrowing human form are Hwelju and Yeonri, and among them, Sa Hwelju and Sa Yeonri are the beings closest to the heavens. If there is a Maitreya Buddha connecting us to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, it would be them. They are on a different level from us who use magic or spells. Indeed, that Sa Yeonri has an extraordinary grace in his appearance and gaze.

Jae Eunho gritted his teeth at the figures he saw in his mind. This Sa Yeonri is eavesdropping on your thoughts even now. So you lot have been looking down on a Maitreya-like being all this time. Don’t even hope for forgiveness.

The previous family head, stroking his chin with its sparse white beard, continued to air his concerns.

—It’s also absurd that Hwonwoo, that punk, took the position of family head so early. All that pretense with that horse-cock-sized dick of his, I’m worried he might even be impotent! I’ll have to find that Hwonwoo punk’s weakness, drive him out, and stop the Sa Hwelju experiment.

—How many times do I have to tell you that Jang Hwonwoo is not sexually impotent! He’s just trying hard not to get caught by you, but he’s probably swinging that horse-cock of his around with great vigor. The thing hanging between his legs will command as it should, not wasting its shape, and his seed will remain in the Baekdudaegan mountain range for a long, long time. In any case, change that mindset of yours that a man is only a proper man if he sows his seed everywhere and brings back a child from somewhere. He is definitely not the kind of man who will ruin the family as you worry, so stop worrying about that now and just stay put, okay? Stay put.

The Manshin’s words that Jang Hwonwoo was not sexually incompetent were accurate. Because Jang Hwonwoo had dared to seduce ‘Sa Yeonri-nim’ with his body.

—That punk, huh? He’s the type to destroy the world and devour it as his own, not one to be defeated by the world!! You people, stay put! Don’t you dare cook up any foolish schemes!

He, in the end, destroyed, devoured, and made me his own. The nerve.

Eunho shook his reddened face to rid himself of the suggestive thoughts.

On the other hand, the Manshin was also despicable. This Jae Eunho is Sa Yeonri-nim, higher than the god you serve, yet you’ve been speaking informally and glaring at me all this time?

Why? Just to break my spirit?

No, it was more than that; it was hostility. Come to think of it, it was strange. From a certain point, the Manshin had shown a dogged hostility towards Jae Eunho. Even before he first started filtering the pills, the Manshin had been an uncomfortable opponent for Eunho. At some point, she had developed a cold and angry attitude towards him. Why was that?

Thinking he would have to dig for an answer to this if he had the spare capacity, Eunho focused the edge of his ability on the scene.

—I am absolutely, resolutely against the experiment. Pfft, human modification? Bio-experimentation? The Japanese bastards have finally forgotten all morality and are reaching for the heavens. It’s strange how that Jang Hwonwoo fellow is agreeing with them and actively bustling about! He must be after the power of Sa Hwelju.

The previous family head, who was way off the mark, spouted his baseless words, and the State-Protecting Dharma Master and the Manshin gave him a pathetic look. The previous family head then made a somewhat astute point.

—I’m also suspicious of that motion picture hobby that he’s taken up. Isn’t film the perfect device for exchanging codes or secrets?

—Hmm… that has a point.

Yes, if it’s a great secret, then it is a secret. Since Jang Hwonwoo had constantly been filming only Jae Eunho with his camera. It could be evidence that Jang Hwonwoo and Jae Eunho shared emotions beyond their overt relationship. The family head’s intuition, which had at times been chilling, had not yet rusted.

—Should I send someone to secretly steal Jang Hwonwoo’s film?

—How many times do I have to tell you to stay put! I told you to leave it alone! I’m telling you there’s nothing for you to be careful about right now. Even if there are some threatening punks, if you let them struggle, they’ll ruin their own fates.

They’ll ruin their own fates.

Jae Eunho mulled over the Manshin’s words amidst the chaos that struck like lightning.

If you let them struggle, they’ll ruin their own fates.

What does that mean? It was nothing more than a superstition and a fortune, but it was unpleasant. A strong intuition told him that he had to shift into the Manshin’s mind and grasp her inner thoughts. A yellow-golden light flared up from Jae Eunho’s prayer beads.

—Is it really okay to just stay like this? I’m feeling anxious, hey…!

—Yes, you’ll live well if you just stay quiet. Think about how you were kicked out of the family head position for using necromancy without my permission. If you pull another stupid stunt this time, I won’t just stand by!

Jae Eunho, who had moved into the Manshin’s mind, heard her shocking inner thoughts. It was a fact that would have been a huge problem if he had missed it. The Manshin was lying to the previous family head.

「No. I’m sorry, but your life is over. It’s already doomed. Since your fate and the new family head’s fate are both dark, I’m going to quietly run away.」

“……!”

So she was planning to run away! The Manshin had foreseen the previous family head’s death but had kept her mouth shut. Moreover, the content of the prophecy made Jae Eunho’s mouth go dry.

The new family head’s fate is also dark…?

Is it related to the prophecy that they will ruin their own fates?

What on earth does this mean? What on earth. Does it mean the operation will fail?

But she said that Jang Hwonwoo was the type to destroy the world and devour it as his own, not one to be defeated by the world.

Was that a lie too?

A throbbing fear entered Jae Eunho’s heart. Eunho pulled his whitened mind together and focused on the communion.

—I’m telling you, you’re not cursed right now. What kind of curse is this, moving out to a new house! If you stay quiet, your future will unfold, so be quiet. Huh? Just stay quiet, okay?

The Manshin continued to lie to them, telling them to stay quiet, while inwardly looking for a way to escape.

「I see smoke. Very red smoke. The two family heads will meet their end, and a great calamity will strike!」

「If I reveal a heavenly secret, I will be harmed. I must escape quietly and preserve my life.」

「The messenger said the boat to Japan is all arranged. Once I get up from this spot, I must take the children and run away immediately. Stop talking so much, you old man!」

She was planning to run away to Japan this very day… just to save her own skin!

At this point, his ability was starting to run out. Jae Eunho made a quick decision. He had to use his remaining ability to go to Incheon Port and search for the Manshin. Since the Manshin was planning to flee to Incheon Port immediately, he had to go there in advance and kidnap her. Jae Eunho stopped the communion.

When Jae Eunho opened his eyes, his face was filled with murderous intent.

‘You have to remove the power-control talisman attached to Sa Yeonri-nim’s back. Where do you think you’re going, you wench.’

And he also needed to interrogate her to see how much of the shocking prophecy the Manshin had babbled was true and how much was false. Jae Eunho got up from his seat. It was time to move. It was the moment to utilize the eloquence he had honed over the years and the trust he had earned from the people of the mansion. Eunho knocked on the door and called for an attendant. While the footsteps approached, Jae Eunho took a dagger and lightly cut his thigh.

After a moment of excruciating pain, blood flowed freely down his white leg. Eunho smeared the blood on his lips to fake coughing up blood. The attendant who opened the door saw the blood soaking Eunho’s suit trousers between his legs and his shirt, and his eyes widened.

“Sa Yeonri-nim!”

“There is an urgent matter. I’ve never made a request like this, have I?”

“No, Sa Yeonri-nim. Just make your request. Sh-should I call a doctor?”

“No. The Manshin is cursing me. I can’t last an hour like this. We have to catch her right now.”

The attendant did not doubt Jae Eunho, who was spouting lies with a calm face and tone. The attendant’s respect and trust in Jae Eunho quickly turned into loyalty.

“Quietly bring two first-rank Hweljus. Without anyone knowing. There’s no time to report to the family head. I’ll take responsibility, so release me from detention and let’s move out right now. My life and the future of our family are at stake. You must come with me too, so steel your heart.”

The attendant bowed his head and obeyed Jae Eunho’s command. After the attendant disappeared, going down the stairs as if nothing was wrong to call the Hweljus, Jae Eunho quickly poured disinfectant on his wound. He bit down on a bandage with his mouth to stop the bleeding and muttered to himself.

How dare you do this to this Sa Yeonri-nim. Don’t even hope for forgiveness!