As True as a Dream Chapter 118

He knew he could no longer cover the sky with his palm.

 

But he didn’t know where to start, or how to say it, so he pursed his dry lips.

 

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

 

After a long silence, Hae-Joo spoke again, frustrated.

 

“Or do you think I don’t need to know, that I’ll just find out when the time is right, like the Guishan Dao? Are you even sick? How long have you been deceiving me? Why?”

 

After a pause, as if the more she spoke, the more doubtful she became, Hae-Joo added with a broken face.

 

“…Because of the Guishan Dao? You were just trying to use me?”

 

“Can you believe that?”

 

Yi Ho struggled to speak at Hae-Joo’s ridiculous speculation.

 

“Can I believe everything you say, even the things that don’t make sense to human common sense?”

 

Yi Ho’s heart grew colder at Hae-Joo’s attitude.

 

All the warmth that had enveloped him up until now had vanished, and he felt as if he had been thrown out into the bitter cold.

 

Before, it hadn’t mattered to him whether it was cold or hot, but now this feeling was unbearably unfamiliar and bitter.

 

“What’s that….”

 

“What if I’m not… human?”

 

Hae-Joo blushed at his words.

 

“You were before. There are no demons in the world, that’s a myth for children.”

 

“Before…?”

 

Hae-Joo muttered in disbelief, then remembered the conversation they’d had in passing in Gongju City.

 

“…Are you saying that the boss is some kind of demon?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Hae-Joo responded with the kind of genuine amusement that comes from hearing something out of the blue.

 

She looked as if she had just heard a joke, but Yi Ho just nodded.

 

Hae-Joo’s face slowly hardened as she realized he wasn’t joking.

 

“…And what are you, boss?”

 

“Gumiho. A fox youkai.”

 

Looking up at him without blinking, Hae-Joo pursed her lips and finally spoke aloud.

 

“You’re…joking, right?”

 

Yi Ho walked toward Hae-Joo.

 

With each step, his black eyes slowly changed color until they lit up with a golden glow.

 

When he stood with only one step to go and looked down, Hae-Joo’s hazel irises widened in surprise.

 

Yi Ho stretched out the palm of his hand that had gripped the beam earlier and held it out to Hae-Joo.

 

The scorch marks on his arms were already quite visible in the bright moonlight.

 

His golden eyes fluttered open, and a heavy pressure settled over Hae-Joo.

 

He groaned in pain, and Yi Ho’s foot came into view.

 

Ears perched on top of his head, five fluffy tails swaying behind his hips…

 

Hae-Joo took a couple steps back, a reflexive gulp of air, and stared at Yi Ho in horror.

 

Then Yi Ho’s face sank heavily, and a self-help smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

 

“As you can see, this is me.”

 

Hae-Joo’s eyelashes fluttered as she alternated between his face and the fox shadow at his feet.

 

Biting her lower lip tightly as if the situation were overwhelming, Hae-Joo tilted her head in confusion.

 

“Hae-Joo.”

 

Yi Ho called out to Hae-Joo, feeling as if she had been pulled away from him.

 

But at the sound of her name, Hae-Joo looked up and stammered.

 

“…I need time to think…think…I need time to think…I need to go…for today.”

 

Holding one hand out in front of her to stop him from walking away, Hae-Joo turned sharply and strode across the grassy yard.

 

Yi Ho tried to follow her, surprised by her sudden behavior.

 

But another stabbing pain at the base of his chest and a rush of blood made him drop to one knee.

 

He let out a cough that had been stifled many times before this night.

 

“Kuck, kuck, kolok, kolok, kolok!”

 

Blood poured out of Yi Ho’s mouth in an unparalleled amount.

 

With his hands gripping the ground and his head bowed, Yi Ho coughed up a steady stream of blood, then collapsed onto the grassy yard, his body shaking from the heat and pain that raced through his body.

 

It was an explosion of power he hadn’t used in a long time. Despite the pain, his mind was filled with images of Hae-Joo turning around and leaving him behind.

 

He hadn’t wanted to tell her what he was in the first place for fear it would end up like this.

 

And now that it had happened, it hurt more than he’d ever imagined, and he felt lost and scared of losing her forever.

 

YI Ho wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

 

He wanted to get up and chase after her and catch her.

 

But he couldn’t lift a finger, as if all his strength had been drained from him.

 

A laugh escaped his lips in self-pity.

 

His white eyes were red and bloodshot.

 

It’s ugly.

 

He can’t even get himself up.

 

Yi Ho’s golden eyes turned black as if the light had gone out.

 

He closed them, and the world went black.

 

***

 

Associate Professor of Medicine, Imperial University of Jingsheng.

 

The hospital room was as silent and grim as a mouse’s death.

 

Mao Saito, who had just undergone surgery and had been moved from the recovery room to the hospital room, was in poor condition.

 

Inside the room, Sgt. Sasaki of the Jongno Police Station stared stoically at the man in his mid-thirties whom he had hastily hired to take care of Mao.

 

“[What the hell happened…]”

 

It was three or four hours ago.

 

Sasaki had just gotten off duty at the police station when an urgent report came in.

 

An unknown assailant had invaded Governor Saito’s residence, and the soldiers guarding it had been wiped out.

 

There was more.

 

Mao Saito, who was supposed to accompany Governor Saito on a patrol, had been found shot in the garden of the residence.

 

Sobered by the report, Sasaki waited for Saito Mao’s surgery to finish on behalf of the now absent Governor Saito.

 

He had spent more than two decades as a soldier under Governor Jiro Saito since he was a teenager.

 

He owed his current position as a courtier to Saito, so he could not neglect the governor’s work.

 

After watching for a while as the staff carefully opened Mao’s quilt and gave it to him, Lord Sasaki grimaced in frustration.

 

According to the police deputy who discovered the scene, they still had no clue as to what had happened in the garden of the residence that night or who was there.

 

He visited the neighboring Japanese houses and asked them if they had seen or heard anything, but they all shook their heads and said they didn’t know.

 

“[Damn it! What a disgrace to the Japanese Empire, what a bunch of bums!]”

 

Not surprisingly, Sasaki, who had been sleeping on this floor for a long time, did not believe the testimony of his Japanese neighbors.

 

They are all afraid of being caught up in the noise and hassle.

 

They did not even know how to report to the Governor-General when he came to visit.

 

That Mao Saito was the treasure of Governor Saito was no secret to anyone who knew him.

 

However, Mao Saito was attacked at the Governor’s residence, and her life was in danger.

 

For now, the only clue to what happened was from the mouth of a soldier who was found barely breathing at the scene.

 

That is, of course, if he survived the attack.

 

Then it happened.

 

Heavy footsteps sounded outside the hospital room.

 

Just as Sasaki was wondering at the familiarity of the steady, regular steps, the door to the hospital room swung open without warning.

 

“[…Your Excellency, what are you doing here…!]”

 

The door swung open and in walked Governor Saito, his face the color of lead.

 

He walked straight to the bed, and the user standing at the foot of the bed quietly retreated to the corner of the room with his head down.

 

Then, as a heavy silence circled the room, Governor Saito asked in an icy voice:

 

“[…Who is it?]”

 

Feeling the stifling intimidation from Governor Saito’s back, Sasaki lowered his head and cautiously replied.

 

“[I’m finding out now. The soldiers currently guarding the residence are all dead except for one… and the method was very neat and precise. They were all killed with a single blow. I’m guessing it’s hard to do unless you’re a highly trained soldier.]”

 

Sasaki’s voice grew quieter and quieter as he went on to say that the soldiers had been stabbed to death with bayonets, the weapon of the Japanese army.

 

“[And one of the soldiers who was still alive at the scene of the massacre is now in surgery, and if he lives, there will be questions to ask.]”

 

Saito clenched his blood-red fists tightly as he waited for the next order of business from Sasaki.

 

He realized in hindsight that Mao had returned to Gyeongju after suddenly disappearing in a fit of boredom, and he hurried back to Gyeongju, remembering his daughter’s recent whereabouts.

 

Upon entering the city, he was informed that Mao had been wounded and was not sure if she would survive.

 

Without even stopping to find out what was going on, he turned his car around and headed to the hospital where Mao was being taken.