Epilogue – Soap Is Still Soap, Even Covered in Mud
The Muddy Water Nymph Moralis was trembling like a leaf.
It was because she'd been trailing a woman in a bird-beak mask through the dark, cramped basement of some abandoned building, one shadowy corridor after another.
The place was a derelict husk, utterly devoid of human presence, and Moralis was so terrified that she couldn't hold her tongue any longer.
"Wh-what exactly does this Moralis have to do to deserve this, I wonder…?!"
"……"
In that uncanny silence, Moralis found herself recalling the stories she'd heard back when she was still a ditch water nymph. The tale of the Nymph Hunter.
Nymphs had a habit of scolding their troublemakers—nymphs like Moralis herself—with warnings like, "Nymphs who keep up such wicked tricks will be snatched away by the dreadful Nymph Hunter…!"
Moralis had always assumed the story was a fabrication, invented purely to keep young nymphs in line.
But watching the woman open a bag bristling with gleaming syringes, Moralis was forced to accept reality so completely that tears prickled at the corners of her eyes.
The Nymph Hunter really did exist…!
Moralis was an exile of a nymph—cast out after one prank too many, one act of mischief too far, all because she couldn't stand the boredom of the forest.
But right now, she missed her home forest terribly. The ditch water. The babbling brook. The birdsong.
"Hiiieeek…!"
Ouch!
A sharp needle sank into Moralis's arm and drew blood with a slow, steady pull.
Scared and stinging, Moralis shed a few tears and swore to herself that if she could just get through this one ordeal, she would live an honest life from now on.
And that was the exact moment it happened.
"Your health looks perfectly fine."
So said Yu Ari, the doctor in the bird-beak mask.
Ari had carefully cross-referenced Moralis's blood sample against those she'd collected from nymphs like Coris, Oinoi, and Illinoi.
Moralis's health showed no particular problems. Nothing special about it at all, really.
"The Korean government will be taking responsibility for your welfare, Moralis. And I'm the supervisor and attending physician assigned to you."
The Korean government had taken a keen interest in Moralis after discovering she was the one who had supplied Ma Wangjun with the Whispering Coins.
Now that the value of the Whispering Coins was known to every nation on Earth, they'd offered her a plea deal: cooperation on various matters in exchange for having her colorful criminal record wiped clean.
So I've been saddled with a pain-in-the-neck job nobody asked for.
Ari couldn't quite understand why she had to be the one supervising and caretaking Moralis, and it left her feeling a bit weary.
Among the black operatives, she simply had the most hands-on experience with nymphs—which was how she'd suddenly found herself promoted to babysitter and warden combined.
"Muhehehe, so even this Moralis is a capable nymph, I see…! Then hurry up and fetch the finest candies and a cake absolutely dripping with honey for this Moralis…!"
Moralis's confidence was ballooning by the second.
A mud water nymph who'd just learned that people couldn't touch a hair on her head was bound to get full of herself in record time.
Shhk—.
Instead of candy and cake, Ari pressed a phone into Moralis's hands.
"This is your device. The passcode is your codename: Nymph. From now on, this thing never leaves your body. It also tracks your location, you see. If anything happens, call immediately."
Ari gave Moralis a quick walkthrough of how to operate the phone as well.
Grrrooowwl—.
Just then, Moralis's stomach let out a monstrous growl.
Half a day had already passed since she'd been hauled from the island to the mainland, and she hadn't eaten a single thing.
"……"
But Moralis said nothing about being hungry.
This Moralis does not get hungry…! I shall bide my time, exploit this woman to make my escape, and one day return to the streams of my homeland…!
Moralis had once been a companion ditch water nymph in service of a small stream goddess.
But when a drought and a deep cold settled in year after year, the stream dried up, the goddess lost her strength and vanished, and Moralis had been wandering the world ever since.
Scratching out a living in the cracks of human society—stealing this, pilfering that, fencing stolen goods—Moralis had learned a hard truth.
Any weakness you let the world see becomes a weakness.
The people who approached her acting all kind and gentle were usually just scheming to use Moralis to line their own pockets, and the moment they sniffed out her vulnerabilities, they pounced on them with relish.
This strange doctor will be exactly the same…! In fact, this Moralis will simply find her weakness first and use HER however I please…! Muhehehe…!
So Moris put on an air of perfect composure, as if nothing in the world could faze her.
Ari watched her in silence for a moment—then took Moralis by the hand and started walking somewhere.
"Hyaaah—! Don't grab my hand without permission…! The only one allowed to hold this Moralis's hand is the goddess…!"
"I'm telling you not to run."
Creeeeak—.
At last, a basement room door swung open.
Inside, clothes lay strewn everywhere across a floor whose original color was anyone's guess, while cosmetics and instant ramen cups cluttered every surface in cheerful disarray.
"Sit wherever."
"This is the filthiest place this Moralis has ever seen…!"
Moralis was a mud water nymph whose heart had grown blackened with grime from years of misdeeds—and even by her standards, this room was impressively filthy.
"I've been too busy to clean."
Ari kicked her scattered clothes carelessly out of the way, yanked open a drawer, pulled out whatever ingredients she could find, and got to cooking.
"Eat up. Oinoi and Coris both loved it, so it should suit a nymph's palate too."
It was simple kimchi fried rice.
Moralis narrowed her eyes and slowly, slowly lifted her spoon—with all the wariness of a wild raccoon or a feral cat.
She scooped up a single spoonful and rolled it around her mouth.
"It's delicious…!"
Moralis was genuinely astonished.
How could something that looked thrown together on a whim taste this good?
"Cooking is my specialty. My senses are the finest in all of Korea, and besides, I've been fending for myself, cooking for one, since way back. Homemade beats cup ramen for your health, too."
Ari's mind drifted back to her lean middle school days.
The years she'd worked every odd job imaginable just to scrape together money—
Remembering that oddly innocent era of her girlhood, she nodded off without meaning to.
"……"
Ari woke roughly twenty minutes later.
Exhausted from pulling all-nighters for days on end, she'd feared that Moralis might have bolted while her eyes were closed—and when she looked around, she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"What the—?"
Ari's personal workshop had been cleaned and organized beyond recognition, and her laundry was washed, dried, and neatly folded—all the way to the dryer's last load.
"Muhehehe, this Moralis originally dreamed of becoming a soapy water nymph, you see…! Laundry and cleaning are my specialties…! Is there anything to be surprised about…!"
The room smelled fresh and crisp, and the laundry gave off a fragrant scent.
Ari found herself honestly impressed by this side of the troublemaking nymph she'd never anticipated.
"By the way, all of Ha Ildo's photos are filed away in this box…! And as an aside, that man seems to have quite a number of women gunning for him in every possible way…. Jun-Kore, your position is weak, I must say…!"
"Excuse me?"
"But this Moralis absolutely LOVES messy, mudslinging battles of romance…! I shall help you and turn this fight into an even greater catastrophe…! First things first—you must become a true 'Kore'…!"
"Kore…?"
Moralis had dreamed of becoming a soapy water nymph, but at heart she was a nymph who adored a good squabble.
"Your current state is neither soapy water nor muddy water—an in-between, lukewarm mess…! Shedding this half-baked Jun-Kore status is your most urgent task…! And this Moralis shall teach you…! The Kore Secret Techniques, passed down through the generations of mud water nymphs…!"
The mudslinging war between Moralis and Ari was only just beginning.
"It is unbearably hot…! If this Coris stays like this any longer, the heat will boil her over into a Boiling Water Nymph, it surely will…! Turn on the air conditioner at once, it must…!"
Coris was fuming.
Because the air conditioner at the house they'd arrived at was broken.
"Sorry, the AC's busted!"
"What? The air conditioner broke while I was away visiting paradise itself?"
Lee Jina's face scrunched up hard at her mother's explanation.
Summer might have been winding down, but with the freak weather these days, September—sometimes even October—could still leave you drenched in sweat.
And now, on top of everything, the air conditioner was broken, and Coris was on the verge of transforming into a Boiling Water Nymph.
A Boiling Water Coris became viciously violent and overwhelmingly powerful, so Lee Jina couldn't help feeling nervous on multiple fronts.
"Guaaagh…! This Coris has finally boiled over into a Boiling Water Nymph, it has…! No one can stop a Boiling Water Nymph, it is known…. And this Coris is FURIOUS at the half-hearted behavior of Jun-Kore Jina, it is…!"
Poof—.
Coris's sky-blue hair bled red, like autumn maple leaves.
It meant Coris had already completed her transformation into a Boiling Water Nymph.
"If Jun-Kore Jina wishes to claim the master of this house, she must act hotter and fiercer, it must be said…! A kiss on the cheek alone will never seize him, it will not…!"
The Boiling Water Nymph Coris was brutally direct.
Her patience for everything had evaporated, and her once-frozen brain now ran as brilliantly as an overclocked, overheated CPU.
It felt as though all the energy she'd conserved while living as an Ice Water Nymph had detonated all at once.
"In the contest to strip the traveler of his cloak, it was not the cool north wind that won, but the blazing sun, it was…! The cool-headed delinquent is a relic of a bygone age, it is…! Become a hot-blooded delinquent now, you must…!"
Like Antarctica after its glaciers melted into lush greenery, the mind of the Boiling Water Nymph Coris was spinning at full throttle.
And through her eyes, Lee Jina was neither cool nor hot—merely lukewarm.
"The Jun-Kore Lee Jina of this very moment is neither ice water nor boiling water but a tepid nothing, she is…! This is precisely why she will remain a Jun-Kore forever, this Coris knows it well, she does…!"
Coris's scathing critique made the world swim before Lee Jina's eyes.
She had no idea what the nymph was talking about, but Coris was clearly, magnificently furious.
"This Coris believes the time has come to pass down to Jina the Boiling Water Kore Secret Techniques, handed down through the generations of Boiling Water Nymphs, she does…! Master them safely, and you may yet become a true hot-blooded Kore, you may…!"
Mmmm—mmm—mmm—.
She'd thought summer was ending, but there were still cicadas out there, crying their hearts out.
Feeling a bead of sweat trickle down between her breasts in the muggy air, Lee Jina closed her eyes against the dizzying swirl of it all.