As True as a Dream Chapter 67

Hongo had heard the rumors.

 

A gumiho, a creature admired and worshiped even by the youkai, had a child with a human.

 

But forty years ago, during the Imjin War, the Gumiho was killed in battle.

 

After that, the unleashed demons began to hunt the child who was said to have the blood of the Gumiho.

 

Even if a child is born in a human body, it is still the child of a gumiho.

 

Their desire to kill the gumiho’s child would make them stronger youkai themselves.

 

But it’s this child?

 

Hongo took a closer look at the child whose color was not that of a horse.

 

Just when he thought that there wasn’t much special about the child, except for its enchanting and mesmerizing face, which was eye-catching even though it was still a child.

 

The shadow at the child’s feet caught Hongo’s eye.

 

Five tails waving in the air and pointed ears on its head.

 

If it were a Gumiho, it would have nine tails…?

 

At that moment, the youkai that had surrounded the child quickly scurried away, leaving a shadow behind, and the child fixed the axe in his hand and ran after them.

 

The figure of Yi Ho that Hongo saw that night was like a red plum blossom swirling wildly on a high snowy mountain.

 

With each swing of his axe, red blood drifted in the wind and fell onto the white snow.

 

Hongo was spellbound.

 

The child he’d thought of as a demigod, the one he’d thought of as a joke, had cut down four demonic beasts in a matter of moments, beasts that Hongo wouldn’t have been able to defeat even if he’d woken up dead.

 

Blood dripped from the tip of his axe.

 

The glittering golden eyes of the beautiful and powerful Gumiho sent shivers down his spine.

 

A Gumiho child is a Gumiho child, no matter how half, Hongo realized.

 

And he realized then, as he does now, that his decision to follow Yi Ho was the best thing he ever did in his seven hundred years of life.

 

Because by following him, he had become a youkai who had managed to survive in this land of Joseon, where his ship had been turned upside down again and again.

 

“Sir, here is today’s newspaper.”

 

When the staff came in, they placed several copies of each newspaper in Jingsheng in front of the dazed Hongo.

 

When Hongo regained his senses, he turned around and scanned the headlines.

 

“The western ghost attack, has it stopped?”

 

“Twelve bodies found in the wilderness outside the city, what happened to them?”

 

“A rash of disappearances! The castle’s poor security is keeping the citizens on edge!”

 

Those were disturbing words to read.

 

He realized how restless Gyeongseong had been lately.

 

It occurred to him that when he mentioned Gyeongseong’s malice to Yi Ho the other day, Yi Ho had been silent for a while, and he realized that he hadn’t reported it until now.

 

*Click, click, click!*

 

Hongo, who had been flipping through the newspapers with a determined look on his face, turned to the window.

 

A crow was sitting there, pecking at the glass with its beak.

 

*Squawk, squawk, squawk!*

 

The crow squawked at him as their eyes met, and as he listened, Hongo’s face became thoughtful and he jumped up from his seat.

 

He left the office and went straight to Yi Ho’s house.

 

 

Hongo, who had kept his mouth shut the whole time, turned to the crows circling above his head as he entered Yi Ho’s lawn and said, “The sun is in the middle of the sky, who would cross the wall without going crazy? Are you sure it’s a servant from Governor Saito’s residence?”

 

In Jingsheng, Song Yue is the golden toad everyone is looking at.

 

The fox was away from home for a while, and some thief might sneak in, so he had to keep a close watch.

 

So he released crows to watch Yi Ho’s house day and night.

 

One of the crows that flew into his office earlier reported that a madman had scaled the high wall surrounding the house.

 

The madman had fallen from the wall and broken his leg when the ravens guarding the perimeter attacked him, and he had been talking such nonsense when the ravens disguised as men tried to drag him out of Yi Ho’s territory.

 

He’s a man from Governor Saito’s residence, and he shouldn’t be treated like this!

 

As Hongo stepped onto Yi Ho’s lawn, he saw a man leaning under the wall, clinging to a grotesquely crooked leg.

 

Surrounded by a hundred crows, his face was white and he looked like he was about to faint.

 

“[You’re from Governor Saito’s residence?]”

 

Hongo asked, and the man nodded frantically, his pupils dilated with fear.

 

“[Ma-Mao…! Lady Mao wants me to know the whereabouts of President Song Yue…!]”

 

At the mention of Lady Mao, Hongo frowned.

 

If it’s Mao, then she’s Governor Saito’s daughter.

 

However, he knew that Yi Ho had once sent her a hagiography as a birthday present and that she had been suffering from boils ever since.

 

She’s suffering from that horrible boil and still pursuing Yi Ho?

 

What kind of crazy obsession is this?

 

Hongo realized that Yi Ho must have stepped on some solid shit this time.

 

“[Is your young lady cured of her boil?]”

 

“[Yes, thanks to Dr. Yamato, she’ll be cured soon! The young lady who’s recovered is the one who asked for you, so I just came to hear the news! Let me go now, if I don’t go back, Miss Mao will find me, and then this place won’t be peaceful either, on good terms…!]”

 

Hongo waved his hand, not wanting to hear any more whining.

 

Then a crow disguised as a man roughly tied a black cloth over the man’s mouth.

 

“Watch.”

 

Hongo turned and walked straight into the house, heading for the study.

 

As the man had said, if he didn’t send him back, things would get out of hand.

 

But he couldn’t send him back unharmed.

 

What he knew about the crow and Miss Mao’s boils would be reported to the governor, and he couldn’t let that happen.

 

Although he was too scared to realize it, Mao’s boils were something Hongo had taken special notice of.

 

The fact that Governor Saito’s daughter had boils had not escaped him.

 

It would not be strange for anyone to hear about it.

 

That’s why he thought about using the precious artifact in Yi Ho’s secret chamber.

 

It would be enough to incapacitate him and send him back.

 

‘Should I give him moss to turn him into an idiot or mushroom cotton to turn him into a madman? What else was there in the secret room?’

 

Hongo opened the door to the secret chamber, wondering what he could use to make Yi Ho say nice things about him.

 

But when he saw the glass cabinet inside, his heart immediately stiffened.

 

The moon jar containing the seaweed was shattered, and the seaweed that was supposed to be inside was blackened and dead, as if it had been burned.

 

“What the…!”

 

Hongo’s face was blackened and he didn’t know what to do, so he immediately went outside and whistled with his lips to attract the crows.

 

“Besides the guy with the broken leg outside, who else broke into the secret room?”

 

The crows looked at each other in confusion and scratched their heads.

 

After a moment’s pause, Hongo stumbled back into the chamber.

 

They don’t call it the secret room for nothing.

 

Whatever happened here was too soundproof to be heard by the crows that guarded the outside of the house.

 

Hongo calmed his nerves and went back to the cabinet and opened the door.

 

He looked at the ruined moon jar and the sea crystal, and then at the other valuables.

 

Everything else was intact, as if it had never been touched.

 

The crows hadn’t seen anyone break in, and the door to the chamber was intact.

 

So what had happened to the Hae Seol?

 

After pondering for a while, Hongo’s complexion gradually became worse than before.

 

He took a small amount of moss from one of the display cases and left the room.

 

“Feed it this and throw it as far away from here as possible.”

 

After giving the moss to a crow disguised as a man, Hongo returned to his study, took out a piece of paper, and quickly scribbled a letter to Yi Ho.

 

After folding the letter several times into an oblong shape, he summoned a crow and tied it to his ankle.

 

“Find your master and give him this.”

 

The crow flew straight out of the study window.

 

At the same time, Hae-Joo and Yi Ho arrived in town.

 

Hae-Joo looked up at the sign that read “Tempo” with a puzzled look on her face.

 

A Japanese restaurant had been built where the Jiao’am Inn once stood.

 

According to the people in the nearby shops, the inn had been destroyed by fire six years ago.

 

“What are you going to do now?”

 

Hae-Joo looked up from the Japanese cooking jade with a twitch of her eyebrows and turned to Yi Ho beside her.

 

He raised his eyebrows in an imperious manner, as if he wanted to see how well she was doing.

 

Hae-Joo raised her eyebrows in return.

 

“I’m a little embarrassed, but it doesn’t matter, we’re looking for someone who worked at the Jiao’am Inn, not the Jiao’am Inn. Follow me.”