As True as a Dream Chapter 168

When Ban Yi Ho tracked Man Insa to the site, Man Insa was holding the severed head of a Japanese soldier.

Seeing Yi Ho had followed him, Man Insa let out a hollow laugh.

 

“The more I think about it, the less it makes sense. How are you even standing here?”

“Who knows? I suppose I have my reasons.”

Chuckling, Man Insa tossed the head aside, bared his bloodstained teeth in a grin, and laughed.

“You look like you’re hanging on by a thread. You really want to do this with me?”

 

Instead of answering, Yi Ho raised his sword and moved.

Just then, several gunshots rang out abruptly from behind.

Yi Ho immediately twisted his body.

Bullets whizzed past him, ricocheting in all directions.

A harsh voice shouted from somewhere:

[Kill them! Kill them all! Open fire!]

“Tch!”

Yi Ho clicked his tongue softly at the sound of urgent military boots rushing toward them.

Turning his back on Man Insa for a moment, Yi Ho charged at the Japanese soldiers aiming their rifles at him.

In his current state, if he carelessly took a bullet, he’d die pathetically without even taking down Man Insa.

 

Hadn’t he promised Hae-Joo?

 

That he would definitely kill that snake.

So, he had to clear away the irritants first.

It would only take a moment.

 

Inside his dantian, the bead burned even more fiercely.

Yi Ho swung his sword and in one breath took the lives of five soldiers aiming at him.

Just then, a sharp blade flew toward his neck from directly behind.

Yi Ho tried to evade, but couldn’t completely avoid the blade that grazed his neck.

Fine. If he gave flesh, the opponent would give bone.

Yi Ho immediately swung his sword, and his blade sank into Man Insa’s waist.

“Guhk!”

Man Insa instantly flung his body, tearing out the throat of one of the soldiers swarming into the garden with brute force.

Hot blood poured over Man Insa, and a stunned silence fell among the hesitant Japanese soldiers.

Amid that silence, Yi Ho took their lives as well.

 

Then, Man Insa’s dagger flew in again.

The scene was chaos.

The swarming Japanese soldiers, the blood-drenched Man Insa, and Yi Ho, covered in wounds, tangled together, attacking and killing repeatedly.

And atop this mountain of corpses and sea of blood, only Yi Ho and Man Insa remained.

No—Man Insa had just been struck by Yi Ho’s sword, smashing through the study door and crashing inside.

Man Insa’s waist was nearly severed, the flesh on his face slashed.

His left leg hung half-severed, his eyes bloodshot and dark red.

“…Heh heh heh, this is insane. What are you?”

“A hybrid fox.”

 

It was then.

*KABOOM!*

 

Part of the study suddenly exploded as if a drum had burst.

Yi Ho covered his face and stepped back. It wasn’t a massive explosion, but it was enough to catch his breath.

He thrust his sword through the dust raised by the blast toward where Man Insa had been pinned.

But Man Insa wasn’t where he thought he’d pierced.

When Yi Ho turned his head, Man Insa, who had been flung and rolled to where Yi Ho stood moments ago, was grinning.

Struggling to stand, Man Insa gave a chilling smile toward Yi Ho for some reason, then opened his mouth wide.

The next moment, Yi Ho’s eyebrow twitched.

A snake’s tail emerged from the child’s gaping mouth, as if trying to shed its skin.

But the snake ultimately failed to shed.

A long sword had pierced through Man Insa’s throat. Wide-eyed, Man Insa looked back.

Yi Ho also looked.

Governor-General Saito was looking down at Man Insa with a ruthless, emotionless face.

“Grr…!”

Man Insa gaped his mouth, but Saito simply tilted his sword, making Man Insa collapse.

Then, with an impassive face, he removed the eyepatch over Man Insa’s right eye.

Next, he used the dagger clutched in Man Insa’s hand to gouge out his right eye.

A dark red glowing stone fell out from Man Insa’s right eye.

“Grrr…!”

[“I told you to hand over the Bloodstone first.”]

Just as Saito muttered coldly and was about to peer at the dark red stone—

 

*Bang-! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

 

Rough gunshots rang out consecutively from somewhere, and Governor-General Saito’s head was pierced as he stared insanely at the stone in his hand.

 

Not just his head.

From his shoulder to the tree behind him, to Saito’s chest—his surroundings became a target.

Yi Ho was momentarily dazed, then turned his head.

In the intact inner study, Hae-Joo stood with her arms stiffly extended, aiming the gun.

“…Yeon Hae-Joo.”

Hae-Joo, who seemed unable to believe she had fired the gun, snapped out of her trance, her eyes lighting up.

She looked down at her hands.

No more soldiers were swarming into the garden, and Saito had been completely focused on the Bloodstone, leaving him defenseless.

This was the chance.

If not now, there would never be another opportunity.

Hae-Joo hurriedly aimed the gun she had taken from Governor-General Saito’s secret chest hidden in the back and fired, holding her breath as she had practiced.

She just hadn’t expected it to pierce Saito’s head so instantly.

 

Watching Saito’s body, pierced by bullets, collapse like a sandcastle, Hae-Joo’s lips trembled.

Taking Saito’s life seemed like a feat she could never achieve even if she devoted her entire life.

Yet, in just a moment, it was accomplished so effortlessly it felt like a dream.

Many faces flashed through Hae-Joo’s mind.

Eun-sil’s family and the people of that neighborhood, the always-smiling Hongo, Young-ji and Min-byeong who infiltrated the residence together, and So-hwa and Teacher Kim who commanded the operation…

Because of that shameless and vicious monster, so many people had to leave this world.

That’s why it felt even more unreal.

Hae-Joo alternated looking at the fallen Governor-General Saito and her own hands.

‘He’s dead. Really? Just like that?’

‘Was killing Governor-General Saito this simple?’

As she turned the thoughts spinning in her head over and over, Hae-Joo let out a hollow laugh.

Right.

It was simple.

 

Just as they took Koreans’ lives like trampling grass.

Although no life in the world is worthless, death could still come this easily.

Even for the great general of the Japanese Empire and Governor-General of Korea, Saito Jiro.

Because in the end, he was human.

No matter how much he acted worse than beasts, no matter how more ghostly than ghosts, in the end, he was human…!

“He’s dead… Really…”

 

As Hae-Joo muttered, Yi Ho, who had been standing to the side, suddenly moved and hurried to her side.

Only then did Hae-Joo snap back to reality and look at Yi Ho.

His condition was indescribable.

Through his tattered clothes, his wound-covered body was visible.

“Boss…!”

Yi Ho extended a hand as if telling her to stay still, while focusing somewhere else.

Hae-Joo also followed his gaze.

Then, without realizing it, she took two steps back.

A black snake was slowly crawling toward her across the dirt floor.

Under Yi Ho’s guidance, Hae-Joo took another step back.

‘Is this Man Insa?’

 

Hae-Joo glanced at the child lying collapsed with a sword through its neck, then looked back at the snake.

The snake had already gotten closer.

“Why…!”

Hae-Joo, pulled by Yi Ho’s hand, sidestepped clumsily, and the snake passed where she had been standing and headed toward an old scroll lying on the floor behind her.

“Guishan Dao…?”

 

It was the original copy of Guishan Dao she had dropped on the floor in the chaos.

The snake, seeming weakened and unsteady, thrust its head into the center of the rolled-up painting.

As if merging into the painting, it disappeared into the coiled scroll.

Hae-Joo couldn’t believe her eyes and stared down at the painting.

“Don’t tell me…?”

Before she could say more, Yi Ho bent down, picked up the painting, and unrolled it.

Hae-Joo’s eyes widened.

When she had unrolled the painting in the study earlier, there had been no “snake.”

But now, unrolled again, a snake was in the center.

“This…!”

“Burn it.”

“What?”

Yi Ho spoke in a low voice and handed her the painting.

“If you want to ensure it never appears in this world again.”

After his brief words, Yi Ho gestured toward part of the study that was still burning fiercely.

Hae-Joo stared resentfully at the painting in her hand, then resolutely stepped toward the flames.

Without hesitation, she threw the painting into the fire.

‘Would this really make that snake perish forever?’

As she swallowed her doubts and turned around, a tearing scream seemed to come from somewhere.

Startled, Hae-Joo frantically looked around, then suddenly cast her gaze toward the burning painting.

Inside the half-unrolled painting, the snake was twisting in agony, its mouth wide open.

“Ah…”

‘How is something like this even possible?’