As True as a Dream – Chapter 56

Author: Dakku-san

People only know that the various fireplaces in the thatched west room were fancy things her father bought for her to cultivate her education.

Some people criticized her for living in such a rural area, but she remembers her father just laughing.

That’s how he kept his past a secret.

“What’s so serious? Eat something.”

Hae-joo’s eyebrows knitted together and she glanced at the acorn rice cakes on her plate before turning away.

It was Yi Ho.

Suddenly, her head cleared, and her eyes brightened.

She had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she had forgotten for a moment that she had such a great person to talk to!

‘Why grumble to herself?’

Besides, she suspected that Yi Ho’s attitude was questionable.

‘Why would a man who didn’t give a damn about anyone else’s business have so many questions about the state of the village? Did he notice something…?’

Hae-Joo popped the acorn rice cake Yi Ho had given her into her mouth and swallowed quickly before grabbing his wrist.

“Do you want to go to the bathroom?”

“What?”

Hae-Joo stood up and grabbed Yi Ho’s wrist.

“Please come with me, I’m scared.”

Her abruptness shattered the heavy atmosphere in the great hall.

Yi Ho looked at her strangely for a moment and then, not knowing what to think, obediently followed her to her feet.

“Hey, how old are you that you can’t even go to the bathroom by yourself?”

Uncle Jige asked incredulously, but Hae-Joo was already carrying Yi Ho down the stairs.

“Hae-Joo! You have to take him somewhere else! How can you take someone who will be your husband to the bathroom? Don’t you know how embarrassing that is? My God, what are you going to do with him? When your father finds out, he’ll be crying on the ground, he’ll be crying!”

When Hae-Joo heard Uncle Jige yelling from behind, her face turned blue with unnecessary worry.

“I’m not really going to the bathroom! I’m taking my fiance to the bathroom!”

What an excuse!

“…I’m not going to the bathroom.” Hae-Joo added just in case Yi Ho really thought that.

Then she heard Yi Ho laughing as they walked.

“You’re killing me, Hae-Joo!”

Hae-Joo pushed open the screen door and went around the fence to the back of the thatch and under a large pine tree.

There was no road leading there, and it was getting dark, so it was unlikely that anyone would come by.

“What did you want to talk about that you had to use the toilet as an excuse?”

Yi Ho asked in a playful voice before Hae-Joo could say anything.

He spat out the words in a hurry, but on second thought, they sounded hot.

‘Of all the excuses, the toilet!’

Thank God it was dark.

Otherwise, Yi Ho would have been able to see all of her blushing.

But she didn’t know that.

For Yi Ho, everything visible to the eye is no different than day or night.

Hae-Joo didn’t want to bring the toilet into this conversation anymore, so she quickly got to the point.

“…Enough about the toilet. What do you think about it, boss? About the story you heard from my uncle earlier.”

“What do you think?”

Hae-Joo paused for a moment, unsure of where to start and how to say it, and then said it as concisely and decisively as possible.

“It’s strange, from top to bottom. Not long after I got a high fever, people started dying, and I got better after the killing stopped. The timing is so exquisite, isn’t it?”

“And?”

“My father’s behavior is strange, too. I mean, I know I was a child, but did he really have to keep me in the dark until I was this age? If he was worried about me being afraid, he could have told me when I was a little older, but he didn’t.”

“I see.”

“And I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but…”

Hae-Joo didn’t notice it, but there was a small ripple in the eyes of Yi Ho, who was facing her.

“The night I had a high fever was the night I first saw the Guishan Dao my father brought, and I didn’t see it after I got better, and he said he got rid of it, so if you’re forcing me to find a common thread… the Guishan Dao appeared and disappeared around the time I was sick.”

Even as she spoke, Hae-Joo’s thoughts were disorganized, and she began to drift.

Her head wouldn’t turn, so she decided to move her body.

“There is so much I don’t understand, and most of all… why was it this time of year? Why did people die like that? It’s so scary, and I don’t think it has anything to do with my fever.”

Murmuring to herself, Hae-Joo immediately denied it.

‘What can a 12-year-old girl do when she’s bedridden with a high fever?’

“It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not like the painting can do anything about it…”

Hae-Joo blushed and denied what she had just said.

But Yi Ho didn’t seem to think so.

“Why do you think the painting can’t do anything?”

Hae-Joo, who had been pacing as if to express her frustration, stopped and looked at Yi Ho.

“How much do you know about the Guishan Dao painting?”

Hae-Joo felt a strange uneasiness at Yi Ho’s casual question.

His tone made it sound as if the painting could do something.

“…What?”

Preoccupied with the elusive sensation, Hae-Joo soon realized the reason for the discomfort.

It was the way he had reacted to the disfigurement.

Before, she just assumed that he had realized something, but that was not the case.

He’s a man who doesn’t care about other people’s business or his surroundings.

And the only thing she knows of Ban Yi Ho that deserves this level of attention is the Guishan Dao.

‘Guishan Dao… Is there really something in that painting?’

“…Boss, do you think this has something to do with Guishan Dao?”

Even without an answer, Yi Ho’s eyebrows raised in realization as she smiled.

While she was still racking her brain, this man had already come to a conclusion.

“But how… it’s just a painting, it’s absurd, why would you think that?”

“Because they’re dead. Twenty-one of them.”

“What…?”

Yi Ho’s answer to her suspicion was simple.

But all she could think was that his words were puzzling.

And before she could think any further, Yi Ho walked towards her.

He stopped with one step and looked into her confused eyes.

“Eight years ago, you saw the real Guishan Dao. Whether it was only a painting or not, you know better than me. I’ve never seen the real thing.”

With a puzzled look on her face, Hae-Joo remembered the day Yangbu brought the painting to her.

The terrifying flesh and ferocity that poured out of the painting the moment the cover was unfolded!

The black snake coiling at the bottom of the mountain and the indescribable eeriness that came from it…

It was as if at any moment the snake in the painting would tear through the paper and come out, devouring her head first.

The horror and fear of that moment is vivid to this day.

“Has there ever been another painting like Guishan Dao in your life?”

There certainly wasn’t.

It seemed to have a mind of its own.

It was so ominous, dark, and frightening.

She also remembered Uncle Jige’s words about it being ominous.

“Boss, this painting… what is it?”

If there really was something to this painting, and if it had the power to hurt people, she hoped Yi Ho would have an answer.

“It’s just an old image now, but in the old days, the Guishan Dao was considered an ominous calamity, and anyone who got caught in it would surely die. It’s just a question of whether you die less or more. Some people say, “The snake in the painting is going around killing people.”“

‘The snake in the picture… kills people? How?’

Hae-Joo looked at Yi Ho with a mixed expression.

It wasn’t that she doubted him.

But her common sense told her that this whole story was just an imaginary story from a fairy tale book, not reality.

But Yi Ho didn’t look at her.

He looked into the distance, a faint smile on his face.

Hae-Joo turned to follow him, confused.

The large shadow standing at the edge of the fence took small steps back, as if startled by something.

“Uncle?”

Narrowing her eyes, she realized it was Uncle Jige staring at her.

“Uncle, what are you doing there?”

“How…?”