As True as a Dream – Chapter 171

Author: Dakku-san

“Ah…!”

Hae-Joo’s eyes instantly turned red.

‘Was this what he meant by disappearing?’

As if he had never even existed.

Hae-Joo recalled the image of the stoic boy, who, though not a frequent presence, had sometimes appeared to help her and Yi Ho.

Then she looked down at the Ten Thousand Bloodstone the child had tried to deliver while searching for Yi Ho with his final breaths.

“… Master Hongo… said. No matter what, we must save the Master. That we absolutely had to seize the Bloodstone.”

Hae-Joo turned to look behind her.

The middle-aged man added in a flat, uninflected voice.

“Last night, when we were escaping the residence, he was the only one missing. It seems he found the stone.”

Moisture gathered on her fluttering eyelashes.

Hae-Joo picked up the Bloodstone that had fallen on the floor.

“With this… he’ll live, right?”

“Master Hongo said. With the Bloodstone, there is a possibility he can live. The outcome is unknown.”

Hae-Joo looked at the middle-aged man once, then looked down at the Bloodstone again.

Then she gazed at the spot where the raven had lain just moments before.

“Did Manager Hongo… also pass away like this?”

“Yes.”

Hae-Joo pursed her lips.

Though her heart ached dully, she couldn’t just be swept away by emotion and cry.

Swallowing the sad, stifling feelings welling up inside her chest, Hae-Joo stood and crossed into the room where Yi Ho was.

He still lay unconscious, as if dead.

First, she approached him and checked his breathing.

He was like a candle flame that would go out if blown on.

His breath was so faint it seemed it might break at any moment. Clutching the Bloodstone, Hae-Joo asked the middle-aged man standing by the door.

“What do I do? Do I feed it to him? Put it in his mouth?”

“Yes.”

Hae-Joo looked down at the dark red stone, smaller than a fingernail.

The price of ten thousand lives was contained within this stone.

Thinking of all those countless lives made her hand feel as heavy as lead.

Tears welled in her eyes, and her hands trembled violently.

Her hand felt frozen, refusing to move.

“Would your heart be at ease if I used that? An object stained with so much blood?”

Even at a moment when he seemed about to collapse, he had thought of her feelings.

Of course, it wasn’t pleasant.

Not only was it unsettling, but it also filled her with guilt.

Nevertheless, she dared not use it—no, she had no choice but to use it.

If she didn’t, she would lose Ban Yi Ho, this man, forever.

Even if it was selfish, even if it was a contradiction, even if the guilt tightened around her neck like a noose, this was the only choice she could make.

Hae-Joo looked at Yi Ho’s pallid face.

“I will atone for this sin… for the rest of my life…!”

Biting her trembling lip hard, Hae-Joo forced Yi Ho’s mouth open, placed the stone inside, and closed his lips.

But suddenly, Yi Ho’s face turned pale, then noticeably darkened to a blackish purple.

“Master? Master…!”

Flustered, Hae-Joo pried his mouth open again.

But on Yi Ho’s tongue, there was only a dark red mark, as if branded, and the Bloodstone was nowhere to be seen.

Hae-Joo removed her hand from his mouth and looked at his face.

The dark shadow, starting from his face, spread throughout his entire body like spilling ink.

Hae-Joo’s heart felt like it had stopped.

She hurriedly held her hand under his nose, but could feel no breath.

She pressed her ear to his chest.

The slow heartbeat she had felt before was also gone.

Hae-Joo’s mind went blank.

“Boss! Ban Yi Ho…! Ban Yi Ho, open your eyes…! What’s happening? Why… why is this happening? Do you know why this is happening? Why…! Ah… Boss! No… Ban Yi Ho…!”

Hae-Joo turned to look at the ravens, crying out incoherently, then grabbed Yi Ho’s body and shook him.

“You were alive…. Why aren’t you breathing…. Aah… Do something, please, do something…!”

“There is a possibility he can live with the Bloodstone. The outcome is unknown.”

The raven’s words from moments ago echoed ominously in her mind.

The outcome is unknown.

So, even with the Bloodstone, he could die?

In her confused mind, various thoughts and questions swirled.

The Man Insa could create the Ten Thousand Bloodstone.

But this Bloodstone seemed to hold no lingering attachment.

‘Why? It can heal any wound, can’t it? Then why?’

‘If he possesses it, he can even nourish his body, right?’

‘Then why did the Man Insa give it up so easily…!’

A thought like lightning struck Hae-Joo’s racing mind, and she turned to look at the raven.

“This Bloodstone…! Does it not… work on supernatural beings?”

“The Master is half-human.”

“Because he’s half-human… is that why the outcome is unknown? The Bloodstone might work, or it might not… is that it?”

“Yes. Master Hongo also pinned his hopes on the Bloodstone because the Master is half-human.”

Hae-Joo’s bloodshot eyes wavered.

The hand she had placed over his heart trembled like an aspen leaf.

Tears streamed down her face before she could even process what to do.

“…No, this can’t be…!”

Hae-Joo shook her head and immediately moved closer to Yi Ho, shaking him wildly.

Looking at Yi Ho, his entire body discolored black, her heart felt wrenched, the pain so intense she could barely breathe.

“No… Boss! Ban Yi Ho…! No…! Please…! Don’t leave me alone…! Live for me, live on with me…! Ughhuh! No, no…! Don’t go…. Don’t abandon me…!”

Hae-Joo collapsed over Yi Ho’s motionless heart, powerless to do anything but weep helplessly.

It felt like her heart was being torn apart.

She couldn’t catch her breath.

Without him, she couldn’t go on living.

She didn’t want to live.

For the first time, Hae-Joo had that thought.

The will to live, the hope she had barely clung to, had vanished.

Like this land, dying under Japanese rule, she too would wither and die.

* * *

Yi Ho felt as if he were adrift in an endless, vast ocean.

He needed to open his eyes, but his eyelids wouldn’t budge.

The fox bead that had been burning fiercely in his dantian had already vanished, leaving the space empty.

He was so tired; his entire body felt heavy as lead, and everything felt bothersome.

Well, it had been a full 400 years.

He had lived through those long years, tediously and without rest.

So, perhaps it was time to stop living.

As his body felt like it was slowly sinking underwater, his consciousness also began to fade.

Memories swept over him one after another: his childhood, which he never wanted to revisit; decades spent wandering alone in the mountains; the miserable memories of being constantly pursued and hunted.

Why had he struggled so desperately to live?

Looking back now, it all seemed rather meaningless.

The boredom and weariness added by a changing world and gradually disappearing rivals had made him a mere bystander to the meaninglessly passing time.

Seeing it this way, it seemed there was little difference between living and dying.

‘…Really?’

Yi Ho’s brow twitched.

‘Really no difference?’

It felt like he was forgetting something important.

‘What was it?’

“Boss…!”

A playful voice, a lively laugh, a slender jaw, full lips, hair curled behind ears, eyes that curved into crescents when she looked at him….

Hae-Joo!

Yeon Hae-Joo!

Yi Ho’s mind jolted awake.

He flailed against his heavy body, sinking deeply downward.

The last thing he had seen was Hae-Joo’s anxious face looking at him.

‘What about Hae-Joo?’

He recalled his last memory.

Thinking there was no chance of winning against the soldiers who would soon swarm the Governor-General’s residence, he grabbed Hae-Joo by the waist and fled.

The fox bead burning in his dantian felt like it would soon disappear.

He thought they needed to move to a safe place first, and so he did.

And then?

‘Where was Hae-Joo?’

Yi Ho’s body twitched.

He tried to shake off the sensation that was wrapping around his entire body, pulling him down to the depths.

But then, suddenly, a nauseating and indescribably strange energy swirled through him, starting from his tongue and spreading throughout his body.

Not knowing what it was, he writhed, when suddenly he felt his heart wrench violently.

It was a sensation as if someone were squeezing his heart, trying to burst it.

Yi Ho stiffened his entire body, resisting this unknown force.

The force pummeled everywhere inside his body as if beating him down.

Yi Ho trembled all over from pain he had never experienced before.