Shim Iyul, who had been conflicted between the thought that he should kill the hunter since they were mortal enemies and the temptation to mate with a human, pulled out a dagger from his backpack. And just as he approached the hunter and bent down, the hunter’s eyes flashed open and he swung his fist. Shim Iyul leaped back, dodging the hunter’s fist crackling with spiritual energy.
“Ha, you’ve got some nerve. A yosu daring to come to a hunter’s home on your own. Is suicide your hobby? If that’s the case, you should have just died this morning. So we wouldn’t bother each other.”
The hunter’s complexion was poor as he slowly sat up. Shim Iyul looked at his lips, white and peeling, and smiled faintly.
“You look like you’re in pain?”
The hunter’s breathing was also rough. Every time he exhaled, a phlegm-rattling sound could be heard along with it.
“I’ll pass on your concern.”
“You’re quite presumptuous. We’re not in a relationship where we exchange concerns.”
Shim Iyul twirled the dagger round and round.
“We’re not in a relationship where we exchange friendly conversation either. If you came here wanting to die, just die. Don’t be a nuisance.”
As soon as he finished speaking, bright red spiritual energy blazed threateningly at the tip of the hunter’s fist. Shim Iyul stepped back one more step.
“Unfortunately, longevity is my dream. Besides, you don’t look like you have the strength to kill me?”
“I have enough strength left to kill one fox.”
“I can feel the fire energy blazing from your body—is that the imugi’s curse?”
He’d thought something was strange. The fact that the hunter, who would never easily give up his prey, didn’t chase him all the way to the temple, and the fact that he belatedly noticed that he, a yosu, had entered the house and was strutting about. It seemed it was because he was suffering from the burning heat of fire energy boiling inside his stomach due to the imugi’s curse. It was interesting that the hunter, who had been so imposing, had become like wilted cabbage in just half a day. Shim Iyul looked at the hunter’s haggard face with a bewitching smile. He felt elation from the suffering appearance. The pain in his shoulder where the exorcism bullet had grazed seemed to disappear all at once.
“You’re hastening your death.”
The hunter pulled out a gun from under his pillow and immediately pulled the trigger. Shim Iyul dodged by a hair’s breadth. He almost got hit and died instantly.
“I almost died!”
“I shot to kill.”
Just as the hunter was about to pull the trigger again indifferently—
“I came because I have a proposal.”
Shim Iyul cried out urgently. If it was a hunter weakened by suffering from a curse, he could kill him with his current strength. There had been an opportunity just moments ago. The reason he held back despite feeling instinctive murderous intent toward his mortal enemy was because he had a proposal for the hunter. The reason he came down from the mountain was also to meet the hunter.
“Just die.”
But the hunter had no intention of listening at all.
“Stubborn fool.”
Shim Iyul clicked his tongue and leaped lightly behind the hunter’s back. The hunter also pulled the trigger, but the exorcism bullet cut through the air and hit the wall. He could see that his movements were sluggish because his body wasn’t well.
Shim Iyul, who raised the corners of his mouth in a smile, pointed the dagger at the hunter’s neck. The sharp tip of the dagger pierced the hunter’s skin.
“Do you feel like talking now?”
Shim Iyul narrowed his eyes as he looked at the hunter’s face, mercilessly contorted with humiliation.
***
“……”
“……”
A chilling coldness hung between the two people sitting facing each other across a small tea table. Of course, there were no teacups on the tea table. Shim Iyul scratched the empty tea table with his finger and muttered, “Your hospitality to guests is lacking. Don’t humans treat guests who come to their homes well?” Then the hunter raised the corners of his mouth and deliberately placed his gun on the tea table. Since he was only wearing sweatpants, the muscles of his exposed upper body rippled threateningly. Shim Iyul, who couldn’t miss the meaning that he would shoot if necessary, clicked his tongue and withdrew the finger that had been scratching the tea table.
“What a fierce human.”
“……”
“Shall we exchange names first? That’s what humans usually do.”
“……”
“I’m Shim Iyul. As you know, I’m a Fire Fox.”
Shim Iyul finished his self-introduction quite like a human. But the hunter only tilted his head crookedly as if to see how far he would go. He was a difficult human. Usually humans would quickly show favor toward him even without the pheromones of heat, but as expected of a hunter, far from sending him eyes full of favor, his expression said he wanted to pick up his gun and shoot right away. A face filled with terrible disgust—it had been a while.
‘Not bad.’
Shim Iyul doesn’t trust humans. Because humans are a species that lies, deceives, and betrays. Rather than being bewitched and offering false affection, it was better to openly display hostility like the hunter before his eyes.
Of course, that didn’t mean he liked the hunter. He was human and moreover a hunter, so naturally he was unpleasant and occasionally murderous intent surged, but he was just holding back for now.
“Don’t stink up the place with your rotten smell, and if you have something to say, hurry up and say it then die.”
The hunter crossed his arms. He acted nonchalant, but seeing the cold sweat beading on his forehead, he seemed to be in great pain due to the imugi’s curse.
“The brand on your forehead is a mark that says he’ll definitely come to kill you. The White Fox who branded you will come looking for you soon.”
“……”
“Let me stay by your side until then.”
The hunter uncrossed his arms and let out an empty breath. Then he looked at Shim Iyul as if looking at someone who had lost their mind.
“You’re a crazy fox. A yosu wants to stay by my side, a hunter’s?”
“I’m saying let’s form a time-limited alliance. I have some business with the White Fox.”
For a moment, fierce yokai energy fluctuated from Shim Iyul’s body as he raised the corners of his mouth in a smile. The hunter, who frowned, quickly grabbed his gun. Shim Iyul withdrew his yokai energy and shrugged his shoulders as if he had no intention of attacking.
“As expected, you’d better die now. An alliance between a fox bastard and a hunter—even a passing bug would laugh at that.”
“It would be more profitable for you to form an alliance with me than to kill me.”
“That’s what you think.”
“What?”
“For me, killing you is more profitable. If I kill you, one more yosu will be gone, so this land will become a bit cleaner and safer, which is good, and I’ll receive money from the client who asked me to kill you, so it’s a good thing.”
“A client who asked you to kill me… Is it the man who’s probably wandering in illusions after being bewitched by me right now?”
“It’s that man’s mother. If I kill you, I’ll get money and save a life. Which way do you think the scales will tip?”
“Do you know what kind of human he is?”
“Whatever kind of human he is, it’s none of my business.”
“I suppose so. Simply because he’s the same human, you’ll sympathize with him.”
“……”
Eun Seonmyeong gestured with his chin as if telling him to continue.
“But that man was trash who deserved to die in agony. Because he was a bastard who dragged an unconscious woman to a secluded place to rape her.”
Shim Iyul snorted coldly. That moment when anger had surged up came back to him again. When he sensed a presence and approached, a man filled with lust was mounted on top of an unconscious woman with his lower body exposed, so he pushed yokai energy into the man’s body to make him wander in illusions. He slightly erased the woman’s memory and moved her to a hiking trail where humans usually passed by.
“So I gave him the appropriate divine punishment he deserved.”
Shim Iyul spoke boastfully.
“Whether that bastard is trash not worth associating with, or a bug bastard who should be trampled to death…”
The hunter, who put particular emphasis on “trash” and “bug,” paused for a moment.
“……”
“What does it have to do with you? I don’t know by what right you, who aren’t even human, are being arrogant talking about giving divine punishment. Though I don’t suppose you, a yosu, sympathized with the woman.”
Shim Iyul, who had briefly frowned at the sarcastic tone, snorted and countered the hunter’s words.
“Of course. I simply gave divine punishment because that human was about to do his business near my important place.”
“Important place?”
“That’s right.”
The place where that man dragged the woman happened to be near Shim Iyul’s precious ginseng field. The field was full of ginseng other than the hundred-year ginseng he’d given to Old Man Kang. There were even some over a thousand years old. It was a field that humans must absolutely not covet or know about. He couldn’t forgive him for daring to try to do such filthy things near such an important field.
‘Me, sympathizing with humans.’
What nonsense. Were humans a species worthy of sympathy? They were not.
“How ridiculous for a yosu to talk about divine punishment.”
The hunter’s voice cut through Shim Iyul’s thoughts filled with cold laughter.
“……”
“Is that all you have to say? Then let’s die now.”
When Shim Iyul wrinkled his nose bridge, fine wrinkles formed on both sides of his nose.
“I’ll end that human’s illusion.”
“……”
The hunter aimed his gun with an indifferent expression. The muzzle was pointed precisely at Shim Iyul’s heart.
Shim Iyul moved his buttocks and slyly shifted to the side. When the muzzle followed, he slipped his buttocks to the side again. This time too, the muzzle followed.
“I’ll also remove the White Fox’s curse.”
“……”
“I can’t completely remove the brand. But I can remove the yokai energy that the White Fox poured into your body when he branded you—that is, the curse.”
“Is the curse you mentioned really in my body?”
“The White Fox’s curse is to make those who are ill even more ill. Whether it’s an illness of the body or an illness of the mind.”
The White Fox’s curse digs into illnesses of the human body and mind. If there’s an illness in the body, it makes them sick faster and more severely, and if there’s an illness in the mind, the result is the same. Envy, jealousy, and desire are also illnesses of the mind, so there are no humans without illness. Therefore, there were no humans who could escape the White Fox’s curse.
Most hunters think that White Foxes simply bewitch humans and eat their hearts, but they are far more dangerous and insidious beings. The historical anecdotes that “when a White Fox appears, the country falls to ruin” and “White Foxes instigated national downfall” are not mere anecdotes. The White Fox’s curse digs into the gaps in the king’s mind and instigates national downfall. When the king’s mind becomes ill, the country also becomes ill. The end of an ill country can only be national ruin.
