As True as a Dream Chapter 120

Sae screamed and lunged at the snake, but the child was dead, his eyes wide open.

 

Sae opened her mouth but could not make a sound.

 

Only tears fell from her eyes.

 

It was only a moment.

 

She stared helplessly at the child’s pupils in the bright light.

 

The child who had smiled so brightly at her just seconds before had died in the blink of an eye.

 

She cradled him in her arms, her whole body shaking, and looked around for someone to help.

 

Maybe, just maybe.

 

If they get to the hospital soon, he might live.

 

She didn’t know if it was just her imagination that she couldn’t feel his breath under her nose, between her lips.

 

Then it happened.

 

Someone tugged at her hair.

 

When Sae looked down in horror, she saw Kyung-in smiling at her, as if he was having fun.

 

He had grown a couple of years older than he had just a moment ago…!

 

That day, that moment, was the beginning of all her nightmares.

 

The child had been eaten by a snake.

 

The creature, clad in his skin, had always called her “mommy” when she carried her.

 

At first, she felt guilty for not being able to protect her child from being eaten by the monster, and she stayed because she wanted to one day bring back the body to pay her respects.

 

She later learned that it was Jiro Saito, the Governor General of the Imperial Japanese Governorate, who was raising the monster, and was outraged that the Koreans of this land were being treated like fish in a fish farm to feed the monster.

 

She felt that she had to report this information to the headquarters of the independence movement.

 

Once, she tried to go out without the monster to make contact with a secret agent.

 

When she was too scared to leave the main gate of the residence, he stood in the main street of the governor’s residence, spinning around and asking.

 

“Mom, are you going to go? Yes. Go. I’ll see how far I can get. Then I’ll be sure to find you.” 

 

“Giggle, that sounds fun. This is it, isn’t it? A game of tag.”

 

She couldn’t figure out what this creature wanted to do with her.

 

It called her “mom” and Governor Saito “dad,” and it hunted people through the slums of Gyeongseong at dawn, when everyone was asleep as a mouse.

 

The next day, he would pretend to be a child, clinging to her and refusing to let go.

 

The longer this went on, the more insane Sae became.

 

Every time she saw the creature with the face of her son laughing in a grotesque, ghastly way, her heart sank.

 

Every time she saw the monster harm a man and sit in a pool of his blood, she felt like she was dying.

 

For it was all the Koreans who had been fed to the monster by Governor Saito, barely surviving these unfortunate times.

 

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

 

Sae looked down at Kyung-in with a blank stare, her eyes unfocused and lost in the past.

 

“…if I…ask you not to kill…will you?”

 

“No?”

 

Kyung-in grinned, a mischievous grin on his face.

 

Sae stood, barely keeping her knees from buckling, and glared down at him.

 

Governor Saito had authorized indiscriminate killing in order to obtain from the monster what he called the “human blood stone”.

 

Traveling from province to province, Sae saw once again how cruel, strong, and terrifying the creature was.

 

It had only been ten days or so, but every morning, the creature would return, covered in blood and begging her to bathe him.

 

Sae’s breath caught in her throat.

 

She would die.

 

All the Koreans in Gyeongseong will die.

 

My son, Kyung-in, may go down in history as a rare killer for the murder the monster committed with his face.

 

Alas…!

 

The thought was too horrible to contemplate, and Sae let out a muffled scream.

 

“Mom?”

 

Kyung-in blinked as he grabbed Sae’s limp hand.

 

Sae’s mouth dropped open as she stared down at Kyung-in with lifeless eyes.

 

“Huh? What?”

 

Kyung-in asked, his eyes widening.

 

But it seemed he hadn’t intended to hear her thoughts in the first place.

 

He looked up at her, scratched his head, and clapped his hands together.

 

“Mom, what are you thinking about?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Are you thinking about leaving me, or… are you thinking about how you’re going to kill me?”

 

Sae’s eyelashes fluttered as if she could see into his mind.

 

“Kyung-in likes you so much, but why do you keep thinking bad things about me? It’s not funny.”

 

“Kyung…In-ah.”

 

Pouting, Kyung-in stared at her, his eyes cold as if he was looking at a dead animal.

 

“That’s… that’s not right, mom… bad idea…”

 

“Do you want to play a game?”

 

Kyung-in suddenly asked, cutting off Sae’s words and smirking.

 

“If mom gets caught, she’ll die, what do you think?”

 

“Play…catch….”

 

Sae mulled over Kyung-in’s words as if mesmerized.

 

The trick he was talking about would cost her her life.

 

But if she agreed, she might be able to gain some kind of freedom.

 

Freedom…

 

A sudden glint appeared in Sae’s otherwise dull eyes.

 

Her parents had died in prison for financing the rebels.

 

Her husband had fled in the night, abandoning her and Kyung-in for fear of being lynched for his involvement with her family.

 

All she had left was Kyung-in, but even he was gone.

 

Her only reason for living is to tell the rebels about Jiro Saito’s atrocities and to bury her son’s body in a sunny spot.

 

“560 men short.”

 

“Kill him. All. Until the human bloodstone is complete.”

 

She could hear the voices of the Governor and Man Insa talking back and forth, treating her as if she wasn’t even there.

 

560 people…

 

How many thousands had already died in the process.

 

Sae clenched her fist into a crushing ball.

 

There was no point in regretting it.

 

“…Okay. Do it. Sneak.”

 

“Even if mom dies if she is caught?”

 

“Yes. But you… you’re really good at this kind of thing, so… for this to be fun, mom better run far, far away, right?”

 

Sae asked, crouching down in front of him.

 

Kyung-in wiggled his eyebrows, wondering if she was right.

 

“Wouldn’t it be boring if Kyung-In found her… too quickly and the play ended quickly?”

 

“That’s true.”

 

“…So can you give mom some time… a day… or half a day…?”

 

When Kyung-in’s eyes grew cold at the mention of a day, Sae changed the subject.

 

“I’ll go away… far away… so mom can have fun with Kyung-in. How about that?”

 

“Fine. It’ll be fun if I find my mom and kill her.”

 

Kyung-in smirked.

 

Sae felt a chill run down her spine, but she smiled through it.

 

Half a day.

 

She had half a day to somehow get the word out about this horrible monster and Governor Saito’s inhumane and cruel behavior.

 

To anyone…!

 

Then she would seek out her own departed master.

 

For some reason, she remembered the face of the young woman who had scolded her that day for neglecting her child and focusing on her business.

 

‘Do you still criticize me now?’

 

***

 

Meanwhile, back home, Hae-Joo’s face was calm, but her thoughts were all over the place.

 

She didn’t know what she had come home to.

 

With a familiar gesture, she opened the lock and entered the house, stood in front of the sliding door separating the kitchen from her room, and grabbed the handle.

 

The next moment, however, she collapsed to the floor and let out the breath she had been holding all this time.

 

Her eyes were unfocused.

 

From Song Yue Pavilion to Iksunjeong, Hae-Joo walked in silence, her mind dwelling on the fox shadow and golden eyes of Yi Ho.

 

“Gumiho…?”

 

Hae-Joo murmured dreamily as she walked along.

 

“Gumiho. A fox youkai.”

 

His expression, his eyes, and his tone were all sincere.

 

“Gumiho… Gumiho…? Ha…!”

 

To her common knowledge, a gumiho was a fox youkai from the old stories.

 

A vicious, selfish, cruel youkai that eats human liver.

 

Hae-Joo still couldn’t believe what she was facing.

 

No matter how many times she replayed it, it wasn’t a dream.

 

She saw Yi Ho standing over the corpses of Japanese soldiers with a bayonet dripping with blood.

 

The blade in his hand was even pointed at Mao Saito’s chest.

 

As he stared down at Mao Saito, his face was filled with a fierceness, callousness, and cruelty that sent chills down her spine.

 

And his gaze fell sharply on her as she stepped into the garden of the residence.

 

She could still vividly recall the embarrassment, fear, and panic of that moment.

 

Of course, Yi Ho had always been a difficult man for her.

 

Not because of his appearance, but because of his presence, aura, and momentum, which made one respect and awe him, not look down on him.