NTH 121

“What if those men you call hyung-nim come back and my body hasn’t healed?”

“Then… I will be sure to find a place where you can stay safely, wherever it may be. I’ll take care of you until you’re completely healed, so don’t worry.”

Even though Chaewoo offered his goodwill, the child did not look happy at all. He huddled his small, unclothed body and muttered as if to himself.

“As if I would trust a mere human…”

To say such things after he had gone out of his way to help. Chaewoo was flabbergasted, but he tried to think from the child’s perspective for a moment. The one who shot poison-tipped arrows at him and drove him to a cliff, trying to kill him, was a human, and the one who rescued him, gave him food and water, applied medicine, and washed him clean was also a human. When lumping those on opposite sides together under the single word ‘human,’ it would surely be confusing.

It was the same from Chaewoo’s perspective. Monsters bewitched people to eat their livers or kill them and drive them mad, so it was right to kill them on sight or at least leave them to die. But he just couldn’t bring himself to do that to the fox that had been lying there injured and powerless, and to this tiny child.

“I won’t ask you to trust all humans. Just try to trust only me, only ‘Chaewoo.'”

The child, who had his face buried between his knees, slowly raised his head. Looking at him with sincere eyes, Chaewoo stretched both his arms out to him.

“I will also not think of other monsters and will see only you. You haven’t killed a human yet, nor have you eaten a liver. Right?”

The child just stared at him intently without answering. Chaewoo gently shook the arms he held out toward him.

“It’s really okay, so come here. I will be sure to keep my promise. If I betray you, then you can bring other monsters and have them eat me, whatever it takes.”

The child, without a retort, picked up the cloth that had been used to dry his body and threw it in Chaewoo’s face. When a surprised Chaewoo grabbed it and pulled it down, he saw a white fox with two tails—no, a gumiho—crouched meekly before him.

Chaewoo, smiling with a quiet Sshk, slowly wrapped a bandage around the gumiho’s wound. He vowed that he would catch a plump rat again today and let this fellow feast.

Chaewoo looked after the gumiho for three more days after that. Since he couldn’t keep calling it ‘gumiho’ or ‘fox,’ Chaewoo gave him the name ‘Gu Minho.’ To him who snorted as if to say it was pathetic, Chaewoo bantered, ‘Surnames are only for nobles, so you, a Mister Gu, are now a noble, too.’

When the day for his hyung-nims’ return arrived, Chaewoo moved Gu Minho to a small, abandoned house he had spotted before. The surrounding terrain was steep and the thickets were overgrown, so it was a place untouched by the slash-and-burn farmers. There was a small but fairly intact room there, so he cleared out the cobwebs and wiped away all the dust. He laid out a couple of old blankets so he could rest comfortably, and a decent temporary shelter was prepared.

Even after his hyung-nims returned, Chaewoo secretly frequented the abandoned house to take care of him. He diligently procured and fed him water, boiled beans, and mountain rats, and checked his wounds.

The external injuries were not that severe, but perhaps because the internal damage caused by the poison was lasting longer than expected, Gu Minho was always curled up weakly whenever Chaewoo visited. It was a good thing the arrow had only grazed him; if it had properly lodged in his body, he would have been hurt much more severely. Chaewoo felt sorry for him as he lost more energy with each passing day, so he stayed by his side for as long as possible before returning home.

Then one day, after making the rounds at a few of the farmers’ houses and selling his labor, Chaewoo returned home to find a strange man loitering in front of his house. Seeing the quiver on his back, he seemed to be a hunter.

The slash-and-burn farmers, who had hidden deep in the mountains to avoid paying taxes to the state, were originally highly wary of outsiders. This was because if an outsider who discovered this place went down to the village and reported them, the state would come to catch them in a flash. Chaewoo, tense, stared fixedly at the strange man.

“Who are you?”

At Chaewoo’s voice, the man turned around. He looked to be around twenty years old and was holding a large bow in his hand. A look of pleasure spread across the man’s face when he saw Chaewoo.

“Do you live in this house?”

“I do, but…”

“I am a wandering hunter, and I was so thirsty I was just waiting for someone to come. Excuse me, but may I have some water?”

Although his suspicions had not completely vanished, Chaewoo first filled a gourd dipper with water and handed it to the man.

He must have been truly thirsty because he drank it all in one go without a single break. The man who returned the gourd dipper to Chaewoo bared his teeth and smiled brightly.

“Haaah, I feel like I can live now. Thank you very much.”

“It’s nothing.”

“You look to be about my younger brother’s age, what is your name? I am called Yonggeol.”

“I… am called Chaewoo.”

Yonggeol seemed to have a cheerful and uninhibited personality befitting his profession as a hunter. Chaewoo was still wary of him, so his words and actions did not come out comfortably.

Yonggeol plopped down on a large rock in front of the house.

“You’re anxious that I might report you because I’m an outsider, aren’t you?”

At his words, which were as if he had read his mind, Chaewoo flinched. Seeing his reaction, Yonggeol laughed heartily.

“I may look this way, but as a hunter, I travel the mountains a lot. The circumstances of people who cultivate slash-and-burn fields and live deep in mountains like this are obvious. Those government bastards take everything down to the last grain seed you’ve hidden away, calling it taxes and tributes, so wouldn’t you not even have enough to eat and die?

“…”

“I’m also a man with no roots and nothing to my name, so I know that feeling all too well. I have no intention of reporting you at all, so rest assured.”

Only then did Chaewoo’s stiff expression relax. If he had not heard Yonggeol’s next words, Chaewoo would have been able to treat him much more kindly.

“By the way, have you by any chance seen a creature that looks like a fox around here recently?”

Chaewoo’s insides went cold. Among outsiders, the fact that it was a hunter who carried a bow and arrows made it all the more ominous. He tried to maintain a blank expression and spat out brusquely.

“There are no foxes on this mountain.”

“Not a fox, but a ‘creature that looks like a fox.’ It’s about the size of my forearm, and its fur is white, so it looks bluish-silver when it catches the moonlight. The most peculiar thing is its bushy tail; there isn’t one, but a whole two of them.”

Why is it that bad feelings are never wrong? Chaewoo burst into a forced laugh, as if to mock him.

“Where in the world would such an animal exist? It sounds like a mythical creature from an old tale.”

“That’s because it’s a monster. But it’s not a myth; it really exists. The one I’m looking for seemed to be a young gumiho, maybe a hundred years old, and you have to nip them in the bud when they’re small and weak to avoid great disaster later on.”

“A h-hundred-year-old gumiho… What n-nonsensical talk…”

Stuttering, Chaewoo failed to control his expression properly and bowed his head, pretending to wipe away sweat.

The monster the hunter was looking for was undoubtedly Gu Minho. Perhaps because he was too young for a gumiho, he didn’t seem to have much power to begin with, but now that he was injured by poison, he was in an even more feeble and helpless state. If Yonggeol were to pick a fight with him again, he would surely die.

“Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It might be hard to believe even if you see it, but gumihos do exist. In fact, I almost caught the rascal a few days ago but lost him.”

Chaewoo raised his head. Could Yonggeol have really coated the arrow with poison with his own hands? If he could find out what poison he used, finding an antidote would not be difficult. Weren’t the hyung-nims Chaewoo lived with the self-proclaimed best herbalists, after all?

“That story sounds like it would be really interesting. If you’re not busy, would you tell me the story over some boiled beans? Living in the mountains, life is the same every day, so I’m always hungry for interesting stories.”

“I would love that. I was just getting peckish, so this is perfect.”

Chaewoo and Yonggeol sat side by side on the narrow wooden porch with boiled beans between them.

Yonggeol, who had put down his bow and arrows, wasn’t just thirsty but also very hungry, as he diligently picked up and ate the beans. Chaewoo, who was watching him, hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.

“About that gumiho story from earlier, you said it was small and had two tails instead of nine. Then couldn’t it be another animal that was just born with a deformity, not a monster? Like a dog, or a wolf…”

Yonggeol, who had swallowed a bean, looked at Chaewoo. His eyes shone fiercely.

“No. That was definitely a gumiho.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I saw it with what must have been its mother or father.”

Chaewoo’s eyes widened. Did monsters have parents too? He hadn’t had many conversations with Gu Minho, so he hadn’t heard any mention of parents either. Furthermore, to Chaewoo, monsters were beings that just fell from the sky, sprung from the ground, or suddenly appeared out of thin air, so Yonggeol’s words were all the more unbelievable.

“Really? When, and where?”

Yonggeol’s expression, which had been all smiles until then, darkened. He picked up the thick, sturdy-looking bow he had placed beside him and showed it to Chaewoo.

“This is my father’s bow. My father was a master archer who could shoot a flying bird, but he passed away three years ago.”

“Oh dear, how did that happen…”

“He was discovered trying to shoot the gumiho’s heart, and he was eaten alive by that thing.”

Chaewoo gasped without realizing it. Yonggeol’s black eyes, heavy with a long-held grudge, looked up.

“The dark night of a new moon is when yin energy is strong, so it’s the day ghosts and monsters are most active. My father and I were staying on a mountain to catch a tiger, and my father, who had stepped outside the cave for a moment, happened to see it. A giant gumiho transforming into a beautiful woman.”

“Good heavens.”

“As soon as he confirmed it was a monster, my father immediately drew his bow. But before the arrow could reach the gumiho, that thing appeared right in front of my father’s nose. It took out sharp claws over a handspan long and in an instant, it tore my father’s body, took out his liver, and ate it. My father died on the spot.”

Yonggeol spoke relatively calmly, but Chaewoo was so shocked his whole body froze. Barely regaining his senses, he asked after some hesitation.

“Did you… see that scene yourself?”

Yonggeol, who was silent for a moment while looking off into the distance, nodded his head heavily.

“I was hiding behind the cave wall, so I was far away, but I saw it clearly with these two eyes.”

“Oh my…”

“Perhaps the gumiho noticed my presence, too, because it threw my father’s corpse to the ground and seemed to be glaring into the cave. I was so scared that my whole body was paralyzed as if under a spell, and I couldn’t move or make a sound.”

Goosebumps broke out on Chaewoo’s arms at the shocking story. Yonggeol, letting out a long breath, continued his story.

“I thought, ‘Now I’m going to die for sure,’ and squeezed my eyes shut, but when nothing happened, I cautiously opened them to find the gumiho had transformed into its original form in the meantime. It was bigger than a house, and its nine tails, much longer than my height, were undulating.”

“Good grief…”

“Just then, something that looked like a white puppy with two tails suddenly appeared and started prancing around, circling the big one. What else could it be but a gumiho cub?”

Chaewoo could not remember his own parents’ faces and could not recall a single memory with them, but he could fathom the devastation Yonggeol must have felt at that time. It was a wonder that he could live with his sanity intact until now, carrying the memory of his own flesh and blood, his father, being torn apart and murdered by a gumiho before his very eyes.

“When the little one appeared, the big one quickly snatched it into its mouth, as if worried someone would see, and then whoosh—it disappeared somewhere. After tearing a person to death like that, it’s trying to quickly hide its own precious cub, isn’t it? Well, thanks to that, I barely survived, though.”

Chaewoo could not offer any response to Yonggeol’s words. The ‘little one’ he described must have been Gu Minho.

“After I buried my father in the ground, I lived solely with the single-minded purpose of catching that gumiho.”

Yonggeol’s words continued. Since anyone would have made such a resolve, Chaewoo silently nodded his head.

“From then on, I researched poisons like a madman. Because I had witnessed with my own eyes that you can’t kill a gumiho just by being good with a bow like my father. After countless repetitions of mixing and combining various poisonous herbs, I finally succeeded in creating a deadly poison strong enough to take down a bear in a single shot.”

A deadly poison strong enough to take down a bear in a single shot. What was on the arrow that had grazed Gu Minho’s body could have been exactly that. Chaewoo pretended not to know anything and quietly listened to his story.

“But it was as clear as day that I would never be able to catch a powerful monster that had lived for over several hundred years with just that. I looked into it here and there and learned that the thing called a gumiho has a frighteningly good sense of smell, so it can detect a human’s scent with uncanny accuracy, and its feet are so ridiculously fast that you can’t even see it move. If I rushed in without any preparation, it would only hasten the day I would see my father in the underworld.”

“I see. It somehow seems impossible for a human to catch it.”

“I thought so too, so I fell into a sense of powerlessness for a while. But perhaps things were meant to work out, because I happened to overhear some travelers talking at an inn. They said that at a certain temple, there was a monk with such high spiritual power that he had the incredible ability to exorcise evil spirits and even make monsters perish.”

Yonggeol said he went to the temple right away and, after volunteering for all sorts of menial jobs for over half a year and begging day and night until his hands felt like feet, he finally received some spiritually potent talismans from the monk.

“After getting the talismans, I traveled all over the country and visited all the mountains known for having an unusually frequent amount of fog.”

Chaewoo, who had been admiring Yonggeol’s tremendous obsession for his family’s revenge, tilted his head.