As True as a Dream – Chapter 76

Author: Dakku-san

“I’ll make the move myself, Master Hongo, but I want you to collect all the articles from all the newspapers that have been distributed in Jingsheng Province in the past two months… no, three months.”

“…Eh?”

Hongo, who had been debating whether or not to have the crows guard the governor’s residence, narrowed his eyes at Yi Ho’s sudden words.

“All the articles that have been distributed in the past three months, why are you looking for them?”

“I think there are ten thousand articles in Jingcheng.”

Yi Ho said in a tired voice as he sat down at the desk in his study.

Hongo opened his eyes wide and stared at him, wondering if he had heard right.

“Is it true that you have changed your greeting to an honorific? No, how? All of a sudden?”

Yi Ho swallowed hard at Hongo’s somewhat stunned reaction and then briefly told Hongo what had happened in Sogok Village.

“…Blood…ah…!”

After hearing everything he said, he thought that Hongo was rummaging through his brain, but he soon gasped.

“Some of the recent cases of malevolence that I told my master about… there was a considerable amount of blood… and they were western ghosts… ah… why didn’t I think of that…!”

Hongo muttered as he pounded his right fist on his left palm.

“To think that it was right in front of me and I didn’t know it…! Now all I have to do is search the Jingsheng grounds to find Man Insa, and if I find Man Insa, I can cure my master’s illness…! Should I release the crow?”

“Is it that easy?”

Yi Ho splashed cold water on Hongo, whose red face turned even redder with excitement.

“If it were that easy, I would have known by now. As I said, collect the articles first. I need to know how everyone has moved in the past so I can predict how they will move in the future.”

“All right, I’ll get them right away.”

Hongo, his face brightening, turned around and was about to leave the study in a hurry when he suddenly stood up.

“Master, I don’t know if you saw it outside, but the servants of the governor’s residence are watching around the Song Yue Pavilion. I believe they were sent by Saito Mao.”

“Hmm. If the Governor sent them, they would have been soldiers from the Governor’s Department, not those flimsy servants.”

Yi Ho lowered his eyes and replied in a nonchalant tone.

He had noticed the stares of his clumsy pursuers at the entrance to Song Yue.

Some had turned white at the sight of him and scurried away.

Probably to tell Mao Saito that he was back.

“They didn’t do anything too radical or out of line, so I left them alone. I didn’t want to draw too much attention to them since I made a fool of them yesterday and sent them away.”

“Yes. Ignore them, but if they do anything to harm Song Yue, I won’t be lenient with them. Don’t turn Song Yue’s curse into a joke.”

“If something happens, who do you want me to use?”

Yi Ho thought briefly about the precious items in the chamber and replied.

“…Samchung.”

Like the Hae-Seol, the Samchung is a monstrous creature that parasitizes the human body, preventing them from sleeping and controlling their sexuality.

It doesn’t kill them, but it makes them suffer so much that they want to die.

How would you live if you had an abnormal appetite, sex drive, or sleep drive for four days, five days, a week, ten days?

“I see.”

Hongo soon went into a secret room and came out with a hexagonal, fist-sized box containing three worms.

He was about to leave the study when he remembered something else and came back to Yi Ho’s side.

Yi Ho raised an eyebrow, wondering what else.

“By the way… how was your trip?”

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ve never spent so much time with a human before, and I was wondering if there was anything that made you uncomfortable or bothered you. Did something… happen with her?”

Yi Ho found Hongo’s concern amusing, but he couldn’t help but remember several incidents with Hae-Joo.

A small smile spread over his eyes.

“Nothing happened.”

“Nothing?” Hongo asked, not sure what to make of Yi Ho’s answer.

“Do I have to have something or do you want me to have something?”

Yi Ho hid the smile on his face, narrowed his eyes, and furrowed his brow.

Hongo, who had been carefully studying his complexion, shuddered and narrowed her eyes.

“No, it’s not… it’s not like that…”

Seeing the disappointment on Hongo’s face at not getting the answer he wanted, Yi Ho spoke again, this time briefly.

“The newspaper.”

“Ah! Yes, yes, I’ll pick it up as soon as I can.”

Yi Ho shook his head at Hong’o, who dutifully turned around only after seeing his true colors.

Yi Ho had known that the Red Crow enjoyed gathering information about others’ weaknesses while running the Song Yue Pavilion, but he hadn’t expected him to be so eager to search for his own “information”.

He doesn’t know if it’s just an instinct for what he’s immersed himself in, or if he’s just getting clumsy with age.

It’s getting ugly.

Yi Ho soon left the study and went to his bedroom.

He dug through his suitcase, which he’d thrown on the side of his bed, and pulled out two pieces of paper, folded in half, and sat down on his bed to unfold them.

They were two portraits of him that Hae-Joo had drawn.

One she had painted on the way down to Gongju, and the other he had commissioned Hae-Joo to paint on the way back to Gyeongseong.

The second portrait was more heartfelt and detailed than the first, perhaps because it was paid for.

The jade etchings were the countless tiny flowers that adorned his hair.

When Hae-Joo painted this, he remembered Hae-Joo’s serious yet clear eyes, which were lost in him.

When he criticized her for putting flowers in his hair that weren’t there, she narrowed her eyes and defended the flowers with a red card.

“What is this flower?”

“Boss, you look so good with flowers. You know, you’re a flower yourself. Your face is like a flower.”

“Flowers in my hair. Don’t you think I’m crazy?”

Hae-Joo seemed to sting at his joking remark, but he wondered if it was because of her mood.

“What are you talking about? I’m offended when you say that. Look, it’s like spring, it’s nice and bright, it’s fun to look at.”

“Do you think so? Do you think it’s like spring? Is that why you like it?”

“Yes?”

“I like it, but you said you’d hold back. Didn’t you say that in the courtyard of your house in Sogok Village?”

This was the first time Yi Ho had been called pleasant, bright, and pleasant to look at.

Though he’d heard plenty of words like disgusting, shameful, dirty, sneaky, cruel, and unappreciated.

He felt an unfamiliar, strange tingle in the pit of his stomach as he wondered if he was that dazzling to this woman.

He could be that dazzling to someone else.

It was so strange, shedding an eventful light on an otherwise dark and gloomy corner.

“Did I? In Sogok Village? I don’t remember.”

“If you don’t remember the conversation, does that mean there was no bet, no-kissing rule?”

He grinned, and Hae-Joo, who was blushing, glared at him.

“Boss, don’t keep flirting with me without trying to fall for me, or I won’t fall for it.”

Yi Ho smiled as he remembered Hae Joo’s childish stubbornness, how she buried her head in her notebook and never once looked at him.

‘Yes, don’t look.’

It allowed him to stare at Hae-Joo’s round forehead and crown, her thin shoulders and small hands, more calloused than they looked, with ease, relaxation, and blatant abandon.

As he rested his chin on his hands, his gaze followed her so intently that even her hands turned red.

He doesn’t know why those little moments stuck in his head.

So satisfying.

Yi Ho suddenly lifted his eyes from the paper portrait and scanned the empty room.

After a week of being glued to her, this time without Hae-Joo in sight felt somewhat empty.

“Did she get home okay?”

Yi Ho muttered absent-mindedly, unaware of the desolation in his tone.

* * *

The next day.

Sitting on the porch railing, reading one of the articles Hongo had collected, Yi Ho frowned and looked up at the sky as the sun hit the ground.

Then he looked at the wanquan (wrist watch) on his wrist.

It was past 1:06 PM.