Chapter 219

The instant his neck was severed, Lee Yeon-woo knew by intuition.

'Even if it is not the heart, at a shock of this order the hotel system will force the mode to run.'

General Manager Mode.

The Lee Yeon-woo in that state did not endure.

To the Lee Yeon-woo with the mode running, the most important thing was the hotel game. The next most important was nothing but his own mood. A General Manager without the brake called 'maturity' that the human Lee Yeon-woo had built up.

Would that self, then, tolerate Lee Yeon-ho's discourtesy?

"……."

The odds were high that it would not.

'Well — this person wronged me first.'

To endure this 'discourtesy' merely on the grounds that he was the father who had adopted him, too much had piled up inside him of late. And above all, Lee Yeon-ho, right now.

Right now….

***

"The Fox Den."

Looking down at the child, Lee Yeon-ho went on.

"I've heard of it. Even a breed like me with no interest at all in the Gaps knows the Foundation, and the Fox Den was one of its few branches in this country. A hell they made without meaning to, they say."

"……."

"They said it was a Labyrinth that makes you lose your way, but coming here myself it's nothing of the sort. Even at a glance it's a cunning trap. Bewitch them into entering, remove the exit so they can't leave, and farm people inside it…."

His dry gaze went to the flesh of the 'Fox God,' dissolving into blood.

"Eking out its life."

That gaze came back to the child.

"You'll be a resident living inside the 'Fox Den.'"

"……."

"Yes — a small and lowly mage like you never knows what she'll be swept into for uttering words not permitted in here, so it's a wise silence. With that clever head, why did you call the 'Fox God'?"

Why?

"Could you not smell the blood?"

Countless blood mages were hibernating in this Labyrinth. Lee Yeon-ho murmured low.

"It's the first time I've seen a Dokkaebi keeping this many vampires in its own nest. In which case this fellow would have been a vampire as well — and whatever scheme it meant to work, gathering up this many."

"……."

"Hey."

Still staring at the child, the man called out to the Dokkaebi. Its flesh had soaked into this ground a good while ago; not even its shape was visible to the eye.

But Lee Yeon-ho knew that he had become the trigger of a 'beginning.'

"Will you keep pretending to sleep?"

"Hardly."

As though the whole forest were whispering, a composed timbre rang out in the darkness.

"I did a little deliberating."

"I'm curious what sort of deliberating. Could you let me hear it?"

"I thought perhaps we might grow a little closer. It seemed it would be a shame in a number of ways if I lost my temper here."

"You seem to have misunderstood."

Lee Yeon-ho swung his blade through the air. Just before the blood beaded on the edge scattered and reached the child,

"……."

"……."

in an instant, without sound or presence, a pitch-black coat hem billowed up. It was a bulwark that blocked the flying droplets perfectly, as though swallowing them whole.

A thing done before anyone knew. The Dokkaebi, which had not even had substance, had already set the child at its side and wrapped her in its hem.

"Ah…."

The faint exclamation the child let out inside the coat rang softly.

The shape of it: fingertips gone blue had swept the coat's hem around and pushed the child inside. Lee Yeon-ho's gaze fixed on the Dokkaebi holding the child.

"I know you're a good child, but."

A complexion pale as a water ghost's; fingertips gone blue.

"I'm sorry."

"A lie."

"You're right. I hate Dokkaebi."

"That is unfortunate."

The smile hung beneath the neatly swept-back hair was grotesque, like a taxidermied beast. It was an alien shape in which not a mote of a living creature's vitality could be found.

"What's your name now, child."

Lee Yeon-ho guessed without waiting for an answer.

"The Devil?"

The iris was radiance, the pupil was darkness. It was the exact inverse of the sun caged in shadow from before.

"Do you know your eyes have changed?"

"Please do call me General Manager."

"You look like a slightly different being than a moment ago. General Manager — that would be your name."

"I am simply grateful you see me as a different being from that wretched thing."

"Unfortunate indeed."

Lee Yeon-ho went on in an unfeeling tone.

"You really are too dangerous a being."

A hyeopdo — a polearm with a straight, keen single edge called a micheomdo for its likeness to an eyebrow, set at the end of a red haft. Lee Yeon-ho spun the enormous weapon in his grip with practiced ease and said,

"'The headsman has come.'"

"Dear me."

"'Let us dance a round of the sword.'"

It was the same moment those words ended.

As though it had been there all along, a red robe of unbleached cloth — a ghost-robe — wound itself over his shoulders. At the same time the blade of the hyeopdo in his hand stained a dark red.

DRIP — blood fell to the ground.

"Understand me."

What remains is only a husk.

"The things called headsmen have all had their neok go out of them…."

He swung the executioner's blade.

***

Neok.

: A pure native Korean word meaning the soul or spirit believed to dwell within a person's body, keeping the body alive and governing the mind.

***

The blade Lee Yeon-ho thrust out was blocked by a transparent wall.

"……."

"Do you know this?"

A surge —

an alien fragrance infiltrated the night fog that filled the surroundings.

It was a scent that could never arise naturally in a deep mountain like this. A terribly sweet, heavy poppy scent that paralyzes the brain and drags the soul down into the abyss.

"You really are an indolent man."

RRRRIP—!!

At its center, the 'Fox God's' back swelled grotesquely.

"Excuse me a moment."

"Huh? Uh, whoa—!!"

SHRRRK—!!

The sound of skin tearing rang through heaven and earth.

"Hup,"

Before the burst droplets of blood could even scatter into the fog, enormous snow-white wings beat out behind his back and revealed their majesty.

The neatly kept black hair bleached in an instant to a white so bright it seemed it would blind, streaming in every direction, and a vivid red seeped into the golden irises.

A color like a sun stained with blood,

"……."

"Are you afraid of heights?"

"…Ah…."

and those vast wings were dazzlingly beautiful.

'They said the Fox God has no tail — surely, then….'

With one arm he gathered the child at his breast still more firmly. The child trembled, her breath stopped by the caliber of a transcendent being, but she realized that the arm supporting her, at least, was perfectly still.

Watching that, still in the posture of driving his hyeopdo forward, Lee Yeon-ho said,

"You're rather fond of her."

"I cherish young things."

"Is that so?"

TICK, tick-tick.

Cracks began to run through the transparent wall barring the air.

"You seem to differ from me in opinion."

"Naturally you would."

CRACK—!!!

When the barrier shattered,

"Hold on tight."

"Ngh…!"

FWUMP—!!

The enormous wings beat.

"Hwaaaah…!"

There was no physical recoil, no sound of kicking off the earth.

The Fox God flew straight upward, lightly and smoothly, as though mocking the law of gravity. The higher he climbed toward the center of the sky, the more the space surrounding him began to churn.

From a place as high as the clouds, the Fox God called to the child.

"Dear me, little one."

"Hgk, hk…!"

"What are you afraid of?"

The false night sky above their heads opened its 'eyes' and woke.

"When I am going to protect you."

"G-God. Fox God…."

"If you are truly frightened, look at the stars."

"Hkk…."

TING—

The Golden Bell rang.

And at the same time, the celestial bodies that had been at a standstill began to revolve to his conducting. Tens of thousands of stars spun like a kaleidoscope, spewing flashes of blue and violet.

When he let go, the Golden Bell that had appeared out of the air vanished into it.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

The Fox God laughed thinly.

"Haha…."

The mass created by the whole sky revolving pressed heavily down on the atmosphere below.

"You had better not open your mouth."

"Hup…!"

"It would be a problem if you bit your tongue."

At the apex of the sky, where the crushed fog scattered as though screaming, a white god holding a child, white hair streaming, was looking down at Lee Yeon-ho.

***

The General Manager, having seized command of the Fox Den's sky, snapped his fingers.

"I heard from Cha Do-hyeon the actor that you can crack 'our' skulls open even with a statute book."

"That fellow talked out of turn."

"So I found myself wanting to know."

SNAP—!

"Exactly how you would fight."

With a momentary sonic crack, the madly revolving celestial bodies locked together like a puzzle. What poured toward the ground along an orbit perfectly straight as if ruled was a waterfall of light.

"And so, precisely what sort of person you are."

"Dear me."

"I became curious."

KA-BOOOOOM—!

Superheated starlight flashing white.

"My regrets, Prosecutor Lee Yeon-ho."

Stars of an extreme heat that seemed they would burn even the oxygen composing the atmosphere struck the earth directly. It was a blow on a cosmic scale, as though it would vaporize the entire rugged mountain range whole.

"Haa…."

Left alone on the ground, Lee Yeon-ho watched the pouring light and let out a slow sigh.

"You've a talent for making work troublesome."

"One of my strengths, that — going the long way round on purpose."

"Is that so."

Lee Yeon-ho angled up the enormous hyeopdo he had been dragging along the ground. With a dull cracking of bones locking into place, his body drew taut like a bowstring.

"That's surprising."

SHWAAAK—!!

The instant the hyeopdo split the air,

"I'm not a man with all that much drive, you see."

A livid crescent moon drawn by the heavy iron blade came flying. Along the path the edge had grazed, the atmosphere was literally cut into segments. An absolute severance of space.

Along Lee Yeon-ho's blade-path, an invisible, formless guillotine had been erected.

"Why go out of your way to drag it out."

"There are people whom that suits."

"You and I really don't seem to match."

KA-BLAAAM—!!

"Seeing as I keep having to repeat myself."

The superheated beams pouring down like a waterfall were blocked by that 'wall' of space. The energy, having lost its path, bent in all directions and set off diffuse reflection.

"I'm not the talkative sort, originally."

"You do look it."

"That's cold."

The refracted shafts of light struck the surrounding rock faces and stone peaks, and with an ear-splitting roar the vast cliffs exploded and came down. Red flame and rock fragments scattered into the night fog.

"You really do seem to know me well."

Even in that melee, Lee Yeon-ho's unfeeling eyes were tracking the General Manager's breast precisely. Precisely, the coordinates of the small child held there.

"If you want to protect her, hold her well. I'll be more careless than you know."

"That does not seem a thing to say with pride."

"Facing a Dokkaebi your size, I haven't the leisure to think that far."

"How modest."

"You should call it odious."

SLASH—!!

"It isn't as though I'm doing terribly well."

When Lee Yeon-ho swung the hyeopdo to attempt a counter, the line of sharp killing intent the tip drew slipped past the child's form with uncanny precision.

The only one struck was the General Manager.

"Isn't that right."

"For that, you are rather generous."

CRRRUNCH—!!

The deeply gouged body restores itself.

"Too worn out, it seems, to hold pity or a sense of justice."

"It's more a question of enthusiasm."

It was simply that there was no need to go out of his way to take the child's life.

"I don't want to increase my burden by taking the life of a child who may or may not be guilty."

"Is that because this child is not dangerous?"

"Even were she a sinner, she's far too weak for me to bother stepping in."

Haa,

a deep sigh comes out.

"To kill what will die on its own if left alone, and make my heart heavy. What a stupid thing that would be."

That was exactly as far as it went.

Whether fragments of cliff fell on the child's head or the aftermath of an explosion burned her, Lee Yeon-ho had not the slightest intention of stopping his blade. The shards of heat-beam flying in every direction were outside his calculation.

"If she's caught up and dies, it can't be helped."

"You are not a good adult."

"Were you expecting one?"

"A little."

The General Manager's cheerfully laughing face came into Lee Yeon-ho's view.

"The food I received that day was quite good, you see."

"Aha."

CRASH! BOOM—!

As the exchanges piled up, the sky's balance began to break.

"The buckwheat jelly salad?"

Lee Yeon-ho had no intention of staying bound to the earth.

Each time the hyeopdo split the air and the shafts of light twisted, the stars embroidering the night sky burst apart in every direction like broken incandescent bulbs. Blue and violet stardust scattered like a nebula.

"Is it because you're a Dokkaebi?"

"I am not sure."

"I understand."

House-sized boulders rose into the air, caught up in reverse gravity. Lee Yeon-ho took those heavy masses of stone for stepping-stones and leapt. Off one rock, and to the next.

"There's a great deal you don't know."

"Regrettably…."

The figure driving up into the air was more belligerent than any monster standing on the earth. Watching that Lee Yeon-ho, the General Manager curves his eyes deep.

"It seems I have not been born very long."

It was not a lie, yet it sounded like a joke.

"I trust you will make allowances."

"That isn't my job."

"Do you hate Dokkaebi so very much?"

His fingertips, white hair streaming, drew a long line through the air. SHRAAAK—! Space tore like a sheet of paper, and shadow flowed out of the gap.

"Enough to make me this angry?"

And out of the dense darkness beyond, where nothing further could be seen, two grotesque silhouettes the size of rugged mountain peaks revealed themselves. Looking closely, they were two pitch-black monster foxes.

『■■■■■■■—!!』

『■■■■■■■■!!!』

A ferocious majesty far beyond human common sense.

Set into hides black as jet, seeming to drink in the light on every side, were dozens of golden eyes glinting in the starlight of the false sky.

"I could still accept an apology, if you made one now."

"You're rather broad-minded."

The fox's countless eyes rolled each in a different direction, doggedly tracking the line of Lee Yeon-ho's ascent through the air. When the foxes opened their mouths, black saliva dripped down.

"Angry, and yet knowing how to hold back."

"Did I not say that is both my strength and my weakness?"

When the General Manager scattered a hand through the air, stars rose beneath the foxes' feet like stepping-stones.

"Going the long way round."

"I think I understand now."

"Ahaha!"

The monsters began to move.

"You really are a funny man…!"

KA-BLAM—!!

An enormous forepaw of a fox stamped down on a floating star. In that moment, instead of the star crumbling, an explosive propulsion like a supernova was generated. An acceleration outside all normal bounds.

『■■■■■■—!!』

『■■■■■!!!』

Each time they trod on a star, the dozens of golden eyes embedded in the foxes' bodies blinked madly, and blue interstellar matter sparked like flame between the jet-black fur.

『■■■■■■■■—!!!』

Two streaks of black lightning came flying, tearing space from every side. Golden eyes grotesquely embedded and blazing bright, the foxes bared their sharp teeth and rushed at Lee Yeon-ho all at once.

"That sort of thing,"

BOOM—!

Lee Yeon-ho drove the haft of the hyeopdo down at a fox.

"It's been a long while since I heard it."

He was not treading on an area. It was a mad temperament that made the very mass and speed of the onrushing monster into a new axis for his own leap.

"My wife used to say that sort of thing sometimes when we were courting."

"Dear me. That is not an especially pleasant thing to hear."

"Why."

Momentarily treading on a monster's head and twisting his direction, Lee Yeon-ho spun half a turn in midair.

"I'm enjoying myself well enough."

CLAAANG—!!

A single slash with his weight behind it.

"Isn't that right."

"Another lie."

"I keep being found out…."

A streak of livid blade-light was drawn across the fox's surface. The next moment, one house-sized black fox was cleanly cut in two without so much as a scream, spraying blood in every direction.

"You really do know me well after all."

"Why is that, I wonder?"

"That was what I wanted to ask."

Lee Yeon-ho absorbed the recoil of the fox's corpse crumbling entirely and accelerated once more. A black silhouette that closed in a single stroke to the very face of the white-haired General Manager at the sky's apex.

"If you truly are connected to my wife,"

CRRRRRUNCH—!!!

The blade cut through the Dokkaebi's form and passed on.

"the story would be somewhat different."

"Hmm. In what way?"

"Sadder than this, I suppose."

"You truly have no will to converse with me."

The Dokkaebi laughed happily.

"Every last thing from one to ten is a lie."

A red line gouging deep from chest to flank. The air where stars had glittered stained blood-colored in an instant, and the vivid rupture of skin tearing rang through the Fox Den.

But the human domain reached exactly that far.

"A grown-up shouldn't frighten a child."

"This is rather surprising."

The General Manager did not fall.

"You're no simple Dokkaebi."

"To realize it only now."

"Haa…."

"I am greatly disappointed, Prosecutor."

Halted firmly in midair as though it had entirely lost gravity, the Dokkaebi looked quietly down at Lee Yeon-ho with still eyes of gold and red, as though it did not so much as register pain.

And then those pale fingers press between the torn wound at his chest.

"I've really run into a bad one."

"Would you care to look?"

RIP! SHRRRK—!!

"At what is inside here?"

With a rupturing sound grotesque beyond compare, he spread his own torn body wider. As though the flesh pouring out blood had been nothing but wrapping paper to hide what was contained within.

In the abyss inside that parted skin, in the jet-black darkness, a calamity raised its head.

"I hope you enjoy the viewing."

"It isn't especially enjoyable."

OOOOOOOH—!!

"Who would be pleased to see a thing like this."

A thought-mass of agony and despair and screaming, as though several thousand humans had been kneaded together and compressed, gushed out like a fountain.

It was a mass of human faces — countless human countenances wailing with grotesquely twisted expressions. Lee Yeon-ho went on.

"The most revolting Gu Poison I've ever seen."

"That's harsh. You'll wound me."

"Sure I will."

And between those grotesque faces, dozens of dark red arms sprouted, writhing repulsively like a centipede's legs.

"I still can't tell what sort of thing you are."

A beast of thought grown fat on human despair, bursting forth with pure white wings for a halo.

"Why raise a Gu Poison of this size inside your body?"

"These friends are rather prone to loneliness."

The General Manager was no mere Dokkaebi wielding black magic. He was a being off the standard scale, hiding a divinity of terror this hideous and this overwhelming inside that beautiful hide.

"Aaaah, aaaaaah...!!"

"Aagh! Aaagh!! Aaaaaagh!!"

"Aaaaaaaaaagh—!!!"

The maws of the human faces shrieked curses all at once. Dozens of dark red arms tore the air together and stretched toward Lee Yeon-ho.

Lee Yeon-ho swung the hyeopdo without a single moment's anguish.

"My ears hurt a bit…."

"You're the one who made me angry."

"You've a lot of friends."

CLANG! CLANG! CRRRUNCH—!

Each time the blade crushed flesh and shattered bone, the noise echoed like thunder.

"……."

"……."

His ears hurt, and his eyes hurt too.

"…You…."

In that moment Lee Yeon-ho could truly tell.

"You're angry."

"What a madman."

The Dokkaebi's face twists.

"I am not your grave."

"That's unfortunate."

That the outcome of this fight had been decided a good while ago, neither of them failed to know.

***

….

….

To endure this 'discourtesy' merely on the grounds that he was the father who had adopted him, too much had piled up inside him of late. And above all, Lee Yeon-ho, right now.

Right now….

'has come looking for a place to die.'

There was no way Lee Yeon-ho did not know the danger of the being called 'Lee Yeon-woo.'

He was an indolent man, but in judgment and in information he was outstanding. Paradoxically, Lee Yeon-ho was the type of person who, precisely because he knew so much, made the stupid choice instead.

And a man like that had abruptly struck off 'Lee Yeon-woo's' head. The meaning was clear.

'Using me as the pretext, now, really….'

You mean to die?

'While hoping that I would kill you?'

In that fleeting instant as his head fell, Lee Yeon-woo felt his heart made of blood drop to the floor with a thud. How could you do this to me. When I never once gave you up.

Without exchanging a single proper word with me, how could you do this.

"……."

Lee Yeon-woo had not the faintest intention of laying out the board as he wished.

'…Subdue him, and talk.'

To that judgment, the 'General Manager' who presently awoke likewise gladly assented.

That was all there was to it.

***

"……."

The place where the defeated Lee Yeon-ho opened his eyes was a certain luxurious room.

"Are you awake?"

"Haa…."

And this thing calls itself a Dokkaebi.