Chapter 134: Rumors (2)

The existence of a dokkaebi was beneficial.

But that did not mean it was an absolutely beneficial existence in every respect.

Like how, this time, she had ended up giving the exact same information to both Ha-min and Su-myeon.

If she tried to help just anyone without any restrictions, it could easily create troublesome situations.

On top of that, a dokkaebi had no personal standard for good and evil to begin with.

Even if she did, it would clearly be different from that of humans.

If she truly was a dokkaebi who had lived for a thousand years, just as she claimed, then that much made sense.

In ten years, even mountains and rivers changed, and the rules of the human world changed as well.

Ryang would never adapt to those.

“So, at the very least... I think we need to establish some rules that apply among us.”

Su-myeon agreed with Ju-hee, but saying it was easy.

“But with her personality, even if we forcibly make rules for her, I doubt she’ll listen.”

At Su-myeon’s words, Ju-hee nodded as well.

If he had to describe it, Ryang had the kind of rebellious streak you would expect from a difficult teenager.

How were they supposed to make rules for someone like that?

As Su-myeon thought that far, someone came to mind, and he rose from his seat.

“There is someone who might be able to give us some advice.”

***

Du-pal was a little nervous because Ju-hee and Su-myeon had suddenly called him over with grave expressions on their faces.

The disgusting underground space that had once contained an entrance into a ghost story.

Now, in the mysterious place that had become filled with the fresh scent of grass and earth, a stiff Du-pal asked,

“...What is it? Is there some kind of problem...?”

“There’s something we wanted to ask you about and discuss.”

After Ju-hee opened the conversation, Su-myeon explained.

“It’s about Ryang. The dokkaebi. We want some way to handle her a little better. She’s definitely been helpful, so we’ll probably keep needing her help.”

“But as things are, Ryang does whatever she wants too much.”

As Du-pal listened to Su-myeon and Ju-hee, he understood what they were worried about.

Indeed, every time he went to see Geon-su, Ryang, who was always lazing around in the infirmary, had an odd side to her.

Sometimes she threw tantrums like a five-year-old and fought with Cheshire and Mu-yeon over trivial things, then out of nowhere she would become touchy like a teenager and start sulking....

“If I suddenly try to establish some kind of rules just among us....”

“She’ll probably just get annoyed. Is that it?”

Exactly.

When Su-myeon nodded, Du-pal also fell into thought for a moment.

He was, after all, raising a teenage son himself.

“Still, my son is pretty mild-mannered, so I don’t think I’ll be much help....”

At those words from Du-pal, Ju-hee and Su-myeon’s expressions turned strange.

Su-myeon could still vividly remember Geon-su shoving him away inside the Infinite School Grounds.

Is this man serious right now?

Seeing the looks on their faces, Du-pal waved his hands.

“Fine. Fine, I get it. Good grief. It’s not like I have some brilliant solution either....”

After thinking for a moment, Du-pal said,

“She bragged that she made all this herself, right?”

By ‘all this,’ he meant the underground garden where they were standing and the small, low thatched house built inside it.

It was like a set constructed to perfectly imitate Su-myeon’s grandfather’s house as he remembered it.

“How about throwing her a housewarming party?”

“A housewarming...?”

In Du-pal’s view, if they wanted to properly win Ryang over, the first thing they needed to do was put her in an excellent mood.

“If you really want to think of her like an actual teenager, then literally acknowledging her existence and properly praising what she accomplished is important.”

Of course, you don’t have to make it too obvious. Just showing that what she did means something to us too should be enough.

Su-myeon was honestly a little surprised by Du-pal’s answer.

So a real guardian really is a guardian...?

Ju-hee also nodded at the unexpectedly convincing reasoning.

“And judging by how she keeps camping out in the infirmary saying she’s lonely, she’s starved for affection. Stop only asking her questions all the time and actually play with the kid once in a while.”

Su-myeon, who had been nodding along at Du-pal’s words, furrowed his brow.

“Me? Why me...?”

“If you think about it, aren’t you the one who brought her here, Chief Han? You’ve got to take responsibility for that.”

Su-myeon wanted to repeat the exact same thing one more time.

Me?

“Anyway, it does sound reasonable. Ryang would probably like it, at least.”

Whoever ended up taking responsibility aside.

Ju-hee agreed with Du-pal’s opinion, saying it was not a bad idea.

Since the subject had already come up, and they had no time to spare.

They hurriedly decided to put the plan into action that very evening.

“Anyway, you’ve settled into a new place now. How about we all have a housewarming together? We can invite everyone. We’ll have a feast!”

And judging from how pretty and pleasant the underground space had become.

“It looks like a perfect place for everyone to gather.”

When Ju-hee presented it plausibly to Ryang, the dokkaebi immediately flushed and nodded.

“What a splendid idea! For mortals to come up with such a commendable thought, I shall personally grace thy gathering!”

At the very least, it seemed they had succeeded in putting her in a good enough mood to coax her.

***

The feast had been arranged in a hurry, but it turned out surprisingly proper.

The food Ji-hoon and Mi-ae had bought in heaps from the market filled the underground space.

The sight of assorted pancakes, buckwheat jelly, and bowls of makgeolli covering the table already had Ryang grinning from ear to ear.

“This counts as overtime pay too, right?”

“......Yes, I’ll count it.”

“Great.”

At Mi-ae’s words, Su-myeon answered with a slightly weary feeling.

Anyway, there was nothing to lose by keeping the dokkaebi happy.

When he asked Mi-ae to cooperate as well, she readily went along with it.

“I wasn’t sure what you’re supposed to bring to a dokkaebi’s housewarming, so I just brought something ordinary.”

“......? What in the world is this?”

“...It’s a robot vacuum.”

Even Hyeon-seok had made time that evening to come to the housewarming.

But a robot vacuum for that tiny house...?

Hyeon-seok had brought it because he had been told it was a housewarming, but once he actually saw how extremely small the house was, he looked somewhat flustered.

Ryang, however, could not have cared less. Her eyes sparkled at the sight of the fascinating machine, and she looked delighted.

“Oho... thou art most proper in thy manners. Come, let us at least shake hands!”

As Hyeon-seok ended up shaking hands with Ryang almost by accident, Sa-rin casually added,

“Be careful for a while. There’ll be a situation where a large amount of money changes hands, and if you’re lucky, you’ll gain just as much.”

At Sa-rin’s words, Hyeon-seok frowned slightly.

Before he could ask what she meant.

“This is Baek Sa-rin. She’s a shaman. A shaman.”

At Ju-hee’s explanation, Hyeon-seok understood about half of it and nodded.

“Dokkaebi are also gods of wealth.”

Ghost stories, dokkaebi, and now shamans.

At this point, arguing about what he believed and did not believe would have been ridiculous.

It was easier just to accept it. Thinking that, Hyeon-seok looked at the hand with which he had shaken hands with the ‘god of wealth.’

“It’s really nice to have an official gathering to welcome you like this.”

“If you think about it, haven’t all of us here received Lady Ryang’s help, directly or indirectly? Please, have a drink.”

Jae-hak and Young-cheol had also been given a heads-up by Su-myeon in advance.

They carefully chose things that would please Ryang to hear and filled her cup to the brim, and as expected, Ryang accepted the drink in high spirits.

“Indeed! Well now~ Mortals are bound to need an existence such as I sooner or later.”

Ha ha ha!

Watching Ryang laugh, Cheshire, who was chewing on a green-onion pancake off to one side, shook his head.

“Do we really have to go this far...?”

Su-myeon nodded firmly at his question.

The help they had received from the dokkaebi thus far had not been insignificant.

And Su-myeon wanted to keep receiving a great deal of that help in the future.

As much as possible, and only in ways that benefited him absolutely.

“Cooperate a little. If we’re being technical, this became more difficult because of someone.”

If they were really going to get technical.

Couldn’t it be said that it was Cheshire’s fault Bell had gotten upset and raised the prices of the items?

At Su-myeon’s words, Cheshire looked dumbfounded, but quietly sat there with only his lips pushed out in a pout.

“I’m always grateful. Thanks to you, my little brother has someone to keep him from getting bored even inside the Governance.”

At Hwi-yeon’s words, Mu-yeon barked vigorously once as well.

Even though one after another, everyone was acting so obviously as though they were trying to flatter her.

Ryang seemed not to notice anything strange at all and burst into even louder laughter.

“A-hah-hah!”

Maybe dokkaebi did not get drunk, because even after accepting cup after cup of makgeolli from everyone, her complexion had not changed in the slightest.

Ryang continued listening to everyone thank her, smiling with a perfectly normal face.

“Ah, goodness. This is why I can never leave the side of mortals. Without me around, even this whole Seoul would become a complete mess.”

How long has it even been since you escaped from a ghost story and came to Seoul...?

The words rose all the way to the tip of Su-myeon’s tongue, but he went along with her instead.

“That’s more or less true. A few people here probably wouldn’t even be sitting here if it weren’t for Ryang’s advice.”

Su-myeon gestured toward Geon-su, who was talking with Ha-min, as he spoke.

At least this part was true.

It was also exactly why Su-myeon was going this far, putting on a whole show to coax and placate Ryang.

Because next time, the people in that position might be his own parents.

Just then, Ha-min and Geon-su, who happened to meet his gaze, smiled and came over.

“But Lady Ryang, did you really make all of this yourself?”

“It’s amazing.... They said there used to be nothing here at all?”

At Ha-min and Geon-su’s words, Ryang rubbed the tip of her nose and spoke boastfully.

Given the emotional sensitivity of teenagers, no one had told them in detail what kinds of things had emerged from this place or what had happened here.

But even this underground garden alone was quite an achievement.

“This much is nothing at all.”

Ha-min was still somewhat watching Su-myeon’s mood because he had acted on his own.

But Su-myeon had already decided to understand it for what it was and move on.

Most importantly, none of them had been hurt, and Ha-min had not caused the operation to fail either.

That said, Su-myeon did not want him doing reckless things like that in the future.

So he did not go out of his way to tell him it was fine.

“That’s enough. From now on, if there’s something you want to ask, ask me first instead.”

I need to know what you’re planning to do before I can respond to it.

At Su-myeon’s words, Ha-min nodded as well.

Whether he had truly understood could be set aside for now.

The teenage troublemaker they needed to placate today was not Ha-min.

“It is true that we have received a great deal of help thanks to you.”

Han-su also stepped forward, poured Ryang a cup of makgeolli, and offered his thanks.

“I hope we can continue relying on you.”

After even the taciturn Han-su thanked her.

Ryang was now in an unmistakably good mood no matter who looked at her.

She seemed genuinely happy to see so many people gathered in the place she had made, eating and drinking together.

Watching her, Su-myeon carefully opened his mouth.

“But there’s one thing I’d like to ask you.”

When Su-myeon asked in a slightly serious tone, Ryang, who had been grinning, casually said,

“Is it about this person thou callest thy grandfather?”

At the dokkaebi’s question, Su-myeon was slightly taken aback.

He had planned to ask about that someday too, but it was not what he intended to ask now.

Before Su-myeon could answer, the already excited Ryang began rambling on as she pleased.

“I had been pondering it myself, in truth. How old wert thou when thou went to thy grandfather’s house?”

“That was....”

.......

“.......”

How old had he been?

For a moment, nothing came to Su-myeon’s mind, and he stopped speaking.

“When I was little.......”

Right. When I was little.......

Probably before I started elementary school?

No, was it just after I started?

The cicadas had been deafening, and he would go out with a single insect net to catch them, only to fall asleep beneath the shade instead....

“Even so, if thou wert old enough to remember it, would that not make it roughly fifteen years ago?”

Why can’t I remember exactly?

He could vaguely recall memories of that place, but he could not remember the exact period when they had happened.

At Ryang’s next question, Su-myeon swallowed his confusion and nodded.

It was probably around then.

“But why are you asking...?”

“Thou art human, art thou not?”