Be the Sacrifice Chapter 10

—This sacrifice this time is handsome. Really handsome. Extremely, extremely. What a fine figure. A truly fine figure.

 

Whether it’s a dokkaebi’s eyes or human eyes, there doesn’t seem to be much difference.

 

A tall, strikingly handsome appearance looks the same even in the eyes of lesser creatures, it seems.

 

—Lord Kim has lost. No chance with that face. No chance at all. Hee-sa keeps looking at the face. Keeps staring a lot.

 

“Mirang, please… don’t say anything to Kim either.”

 

If a whole crowd of dokkaebi came here and started bickering noisily, the forest would definitely become chaotic, and there’s a chance the sensitive Hong Yeomrang might notice the disturbance. 

 

Worse, given Kim’s personality, he might even pick a fight with Hong Yeomrang using the bet as an excuse, even though he would inevitably lose.

 

Dokkaebi never knows moderation.

 

Mirang nodded, but since dokkaebi are the type who get heated up showing off, it was obvious the secret wouldn’t last long.

 

She had to find the incense pouch without clashing with Hong Yeomrang, and she also had to secretly pluck some of his hair. 

 

The more Hee-sa thought about it, the darker the future seemed, and she kept letting out heavy sighs.

 

The sky after the rain had cleared beautifully.

 

By contrast, Hong Yeomrang’s mood was far from clear. He had already circled the same area of the mountain dozens upon dozens of times.

 

The forest hiding Heesa wasn’t just a feeling; it was reality. 

 

Wherever he went, as if it had no intention of letting him leave this place, he always ended up back in front of the cave. 

 

Even when he waited two more days, followed behind a servant who had come up carrying necessary food and supplies, somehow the servant would vanish like smoke, and he would find himself standing in front of the cave again.

 

Just in case, he even went to the separate cave farther up where his father was said to have hired people to offer more earnest prayers, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of any human presence.

 

Only the sacrifices were permitted to enter this place.

 

Had all the previous sacrifices never even dreamed of leaving, and therefore never realized this? 

 

Hong Yeomrang licked the inside of his cheek with his tongue, sinking deep into thought.

 

“So this is how it’s going to be.”

 

Hee-sa had been watching Hong Yeomrang from atop a tree as he circled, trying to leave this place for the past two days. 

 

The exact reason he couldn’t exit the forest was the dokkaebi. 

 

And because Hong Yeomrang had firmly taken root in Mirang’s heart, the forest kept deceiving him.

 

Even so, she couldn’t just let him go down.

 

If Hong Yeomrang returned to the village after only a few days like this, from then on every misfortune that befell the village would be blamed on him.

 

There is no life without misfortune. 

 

If someone in a household falls ill, or if the crops don’t grow well, it would all be pinned on the sacrifice’s wrongdoing. The “what if” suspicion would spread like wildfire and eventually take firm root in everyone’s minds.

 

Heesa’s eyes drooped sadly.

 

She had only needed human yang energy for exactly one hundred days each year. 

 

And when she sent them back, she gave them the wealth they needed. She could not prevent famine, disasters, or epidemics. 

 

People simply believed whatever they wanted to believe. 

 

They had believed that because they offered a sacrifice, the village remained at peace. Heesa had lived off that belief until now.

 

Hong Yeomrang, who had been lost in thought for a moment in front of the cave, soon went inside. Whether he had given up or not, he didn’t come out for a long while. 

 

Perhaps he was finally catching up on the sleep he’d missed after staying awake for nearly two days.

 

“…Has he finally given up?”

 

Even after he entered the cave, Heesa stayed on the tree for quite a long time before swallowing dryly.

 

Should I go in now? He must be asleep by this point. 

 

After running around the forest in such a frenzy, any ordinary human would be exhausted enough to collapse into sleep. But Hong Yeomrang didn’t seem like an ordinary person. 

 

Already past the time when she should have taken yang energy, Heesa, starving from not having fed, clutched her lower abdomen and curled her body inward.

 

No wonder they call her a monster; she has nothing to say in her defense.

 

Unable to eat when she needed to, Heesa, feeling utterly depressed, sniffled.

 

Just a little longer. Wait a bit more.

 

“Why are you doing that over there?”

 

Why do that? Why not just yell or get angry—why rub down there and disturb her like this? 

 

Heesa was afraid of running into Hong Yeomrang again, not knowing where he might suddenly charge out from. 

 

Yet at the same time, she had no confidence that she could secretly steal and eat the essence of yang energy, his hair, little by little, for a full hundred days without being caught.

 

Although he had gone into the cave in broad daylight, it was only after the sun set and the night grew deep that Heesa finally moved.

 

As if being pushed toward the place of her death, she entered the cave even more cautiously than usual, quietly, killing every possible sound and trace of her presence.

 

“You’re finally crawling in.”

 

Just like the first day, a lantern brightly lit the inside of the cave.

 

The man she had thought must be asleep from exhaustion was sitting cross-legged right in front of that lantern, staring straight at the entrance. 

 

When Heesa saw Hong Yeomrang, her lips parted on their own.

 

“Isn’t it… Are our body, hair, and skin received from our parents?”

 

“Oh, even a monster knows the Classic of Filial Piety.”

 

He had been wondering when she would show up, and only after nightfall did she finally creep in. 

 

Hong Yeomrang greeted Heesa with a smile, praising her remarkable patience. But that smile was far from refreshing. 

 

With his hair cut short below the ears, he gazed at her through narrowed eyes.

 

The hem of his durumagi, dragged who-knows-where, had already lost its original color and hung in tatters. Though he had barely managed to close the front, his chest was still exposed almost to the sternum.

 

He hadn’t been able to leave the forest, nor had he caught even a glimpse of Heesa’s shadow. 

 

Thanks to that, Hong Yeomrang had more than enough—far more than enough—time to think.

 

“Monster. What are you going to do now that your food supply has run out?”

 

Hong Yeomrang grabbed a handful of his own hair and shook it lightly, letting it flutter.

 

A vulgar smile played around his lips, like a hunter luring a beast with bait.

 

Heesa was genuinely horrified. 

 

Baksu had indeed grumbled about his temper, his temper, but she never dreamed in a million years that he would cut off all his hair just because she had plucked and eaten a little of it.

 

“Come closer. If you want to eat.”

 

He said, shaking the long hair he had cut and tied with a silk cord.

 

Saliva pooled in Heesa’s mouth. To her—who was neither fully alive nor dead—yang energy was necessary. 

 

If she could fill her need for just one hundred days a year, she could endure the remaining days. 

 

The sun always shines directly above a person’s head. Yang energy flows from the head throughout the entire body. 

 

The purest essence of that yang energy was in the hair.

 

The first thing Heesa did was check where the sword he had brought was.

 

The sword that was always within arm’s reach was, unusually, placed quite far away today.

 

“Should I just burn it like this?”

 

He brought the hair close to the lamp.

 

“No!”

 

She swallowed hard. Hong Yeomrang’s hair was beautiful. 

 

And because it held more abundant yang energy than anyone else’s, saliva gathered under her tongue, which already knew its taste. 

 

This time, as if entranced, she approached him. 

 

No longer hiding her presence, she walked, dragging the hem of her durumagi across the floor.

 

“Sit. If you’re going to eat, you should be polite. Are you planning to make me look up at you?”

 

Thud—

 

Instead of sitting properly on the mat, she slammed both knees straight onto the bare rock and knelt. Hong Yeomrang’s brow twitched.

 

A distance just barely out of reach if he stretched his hand from there.

 

Exactly far enough that she could bolt away like an arrow at any moment. Seeing her maintain that precise distance, he let out a scoff.

 

As if to show off, Hong Yeomrang twisted his cut hair into a coil with his other hand.

 

Heesa’s eyes, fixed on the glossy, silky strands of hair, were filled with hunger and starvation. She watched only the movements of his fingers. 

 

Just as he had once watched only the movements of her fingers.

 

For some reason, his stomach twisted with irritation.

 

The sight of her kneeling exactly as he had told her, sitting there staring only at the hair, grated on him terribly.

 

It almost felt as though she was looking at his face only because the hair was attached to it—so completely indifferent was she to everything else about him right now.

 

“How much do you want?”

 

“Just a little. A very little.”

 

Heesa answered quickly. 

 

At that, the spot on his side where she had yanked out his hair a few days ago began to ache again. 

 

Remembering how she had deftly plucked it, popped it into her mouth, and vanished made fresh anger surge up inside him.

 

“Come closer. Come here and take as much as you need.”

 

“If you just toss me a little, I’ll take it.”

 

This was really—

 

Hong Yeomrang’s gaze turned fierce.

 

Even under that blade-like stare, Heesa smiled as if melting sweetly. 

 

It was practically a declaration of war, I won’t fall for your little tricks. 

 

Patience—what it was, whether he truly needed to learn it—even though his master had said it was a virtue necessary even for a soldier, Hong Yeomrang had never managed to master it. 

 

Yet for the first time, he realized that what he was doing right now was precisely that, patience.

 

The patience not to immediately seize her by the nape, force her down in front of him, and make her pay.