The Strange Beast's Trail
Year 6 of King Jungjong’s Reign, 1511 (Sinmi Year)
Veritable Records of Jungjong, Volume 13, 5th Month, 20th Day — First Entry
Discussing the Results of the Hunt for the Strange Beast
Park Ryeok Bo-guk Daebu Lee Ju-mae, of the senior first rank, addressed the king.
“Seven force masters and five Taoist masters, twelve people in total, pursued the black dog. Yet we failed to locate it.”
The king asked Lee Ju-mae,
“I do not doubt your abilities, but tell me how such a thing is possible.”
Lee Ju-mae replied,
“Its speed was far beyond what any human foot could match. I beg Your Majesty to permit us to continue the pursuit.”
The king granted permission.
“Huuuaaaaahhh~”
I let out a long, lazy yawn while sprawled across the hotel bed.
…I’m so bored.
Bored to the point that all the tension has completely collapsed. If Lee Ha-neul had at least left me a phone, it might have been a little less dull. Phone? Yeah right. She just tossed me a single dog chew and left. I’d already finished gnawing on that ages ago.
The only thing left for me to do was roll around on the bed and watch TV.
I’d cackled my head off watching variety shows, gotten thoroughly annoyed during a dating program, and eventually drifted into a drama—where I ended up witnessing something rather shocking.
The drama’s title was My Wife Is a Nine-Tailed Fox.
The female lead was a nine-tailed gumiho. Her hobby was supposedly sucking the life energy out of human men. Whether it was because of censorship or something else, they never actually showed her doing it.
By chance, the female lead spotted the male protagonist walking down the street. She bared her sharp fangs and began to seduce him, swaying her hips seductively. The actress wasn’t exactly blessed with a voluptuous figure, so the whole thing looked strangely comical.
As the directing made clear, the male lead did not fall for her temptation. Shocked that her charm had no effect, the female lead then struggled desperately to win him over anyway…
…It was pretty much that kind of romantic comedy.
Who the hell wrote this script? There’s zero historical accuracy.
If they’d bothered to ask me for advice, I could have at least given them proper gumiho lore. First of all, the body is all wrong. A nine-tailed fox shouldn’t look like a flat stick figure. Just look at me—
“…”
Even with seven tails out, Hojun keeps calling me “watermelon tits.” If I ever reach nine tails, I’m pretty sure my chest will be bigger than my head.
And a man who can resist a gumiho’s seduction? Unless that male lead is secretly a five-hundred-year-old spiritual beast in human form, or a descendant of Hong Gil-dong and Jeon Woo-chi, that’s also a massive historical error. Even my seven-tailed charm is enough to make people willingly lick my feet. Nine tails? It would be on another level entirely. It’s no coincidence that Dalki, the ancient Chinese nine-tailed fox, brought down the Shang Dynasty.
Finally… a love story between a human and a yokai?
…In this day and age, are they really allowed to air something like this? I bet a lot of viewers are going to complain about how uncomfortable it makes them.
Wondering whether other dramas also featured yokai as main characters, I pressed the OTT button and checked the drama list. That’s when I realized that yokai-themed dramas were mainstream culture in this world. It felt like “yokai fantasy” had completely replaced regular fantasy. There were that many.
The fact that production companies kept using yokai as material and viewers casually consumed those stories was proof that this world was at peace. If people were actually suffering because of yokai, they never would have turned them into entertainment like this.
Unfortunately, that peace had begun to crack—whether because I was born, or because signs of the goblin’s resurrection were appearing. From my conversation with Sangun, I could already guess what was coming.
In the future, far more people would die. Powerful demonic energy would suddenly surge all across the country. Which was exactly why I felt even more certain that I had to prove my humanity to everyone during this meeting.
Sniff. Sniff sniff. Sniff sniff sniff.
…Huh? Something smells weird…
Is that sewage rising up? In a hotel room that costs five hundred thousand won a night? That can’t be right.
The source of the smell was coming from outside the window. I stuck my head right out the window.
“Sniff, sniff sniff, sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff.”
I took another deep whiff. It was confusing. It smelled like sewage, but also like cigarette smoke. Either way, it wasn’t a pleasant scent at all.
There was still time before they called me to the meeting, so I focused my instincts on tracking down the source of the smell.
Sniff sniff. Sniff sniff sniff. Sniff sniff sniff sniff.
No matter how much I smelled it… it didn’t seem like a human scent.
It felt like… a yokai.
Which was more important—the meeting, or exterminating the yokai that had just appeared right in front of me?
The answer was obvious. I squeezed my body through the window.
“Nnggggghhh…”
No. I tried to go out, but… my butt and breasts were stuck tight. I couldn’t get through. Guess I’ll just take the elevator down like a normal person…
The meeting dragged on without progress. The official goal of this conference was to prepare countermeasures against “powerful yokai.” But from the start, the very phrase “preparing countermeasures against powerful yokai” was a massive contradiction.
Any yokai ranked level two or higher was classified as a calamity. Calamities could not be stopped by human strength, so no matter what proposals were made or what causes were identified, no consensus could be reached.
It wasn’t that the nationwide Yokai Hunter Offices were neglecting their duties or suffering from safety complacency. The people who worked there were devoted individuals who willingly sacrificed themselves to protect citizens from yokai. Their response system itself had no problems.
Measure demonic energy. Classify the level. If it’s level four or below, exterminate it in-house. If it’s level three or higher, request support from force masters or Taoist masters. Honestly, it was already an excellent system. There was nothing more that needed to be touched.
However, the times were forcing a drastic change upon them. With clear abnormal signs occurring one after another, whether right or wrong, whether they liked it or not, they had no choice but to come up with some kind of countermeasure.
“How about assigning one force master or Taoist master to each office?”
“Think about what happened in Jangsan. Even with three force masters and one Taoist master, it still ended up like that…”
“What if we simply increase the overall personnel in the Yokai Hunter Offices…”
“Numbers won’t solve anything. It will only create more victims.”
All sorts of opinions flew back and forth. Yet none of them were particularly useful. Baek Nam-hoon let out a deep sigh.
Glancing discreetly, he looked at Lee Han-ul, the director of the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office. Lee Ha-neul, who had been sweating cold bullets, was quietly organizing her documents as if she had made up her mind about something.
Baek Nam-hoon thought, I don’t think I need to pressure him any further.
A moment later, when Lee Han-ul raised his hand, Baek Nam-hoon spoke.
“Quiet.”
The moment he opened his mouth, the meeting room—which had been as noisy as a marketplace—fell completely silent. It was a clear display of Baek Nam-hoon’s power and authority.
“Director Lee Han-ul, you may speak.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Lee Han-ul pushed his chair back and stood up. Hojun watched with a bored expression, while Lee Ha-neul looked visibly tense.
“There is something I would like to tell everyone.”
“…”
“It concerns the mysterious helper.”
The words he spoke were quite shocking, so the meeting room grew noisy again. However, Baek Nam-hoon remained calm and asked Lee Han-ul,
“Director of the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office, Lee Han-ul. Do you know the identity of this mysterious helper?”
“…Yes.”
The room buzzed again.
“Then this mysterious helper, could it be…”
Baek Nam-hoon’s eyes flashed sharply as he pressed further.
“Is it a yokai?”
That was the trigger. The moment Baek Nam-hoon finished speaking, sighs erupted from all over the room. Some people slammed their tables and shouted “That’s ridiculous!” Others insisted that Lee Han-ul should be arrested immediately.
But Lee Han-ul had already anticipated this reaction. Although cold sweat was running down his face from nerves, he did not panic. He opened his mouth.
“No. It is not a yokai.”
“Then…”
“It is a spiritual beast.”
“…!”
Those who knew what a spiritual beast was—including Baek Nam-hoon—were visibly shocked by Lee Han-ul’s answer. Those who didn’t know what it meant simply looked confused.
Lee Han-ul continued his explanation. The one who had exterminated the blue-flamed nine-tailed fox wasn’t Lee Ha-neul, but the spiritual beast named Miho. The one who had eliminated the Joma-gu was also Miho. Even the formless shadow had been dealt with by the spiritual beast Miho.
It was quite a shocking truth. On top of that, Lee Han-ul revealed that the Jirisan Yokai Hunter Office had formed an alliance with the spiritual beast Miho.
It was a straightforward, detailed explanation with not a single lie. However, even if it was a spiritual beast rather than a yokai, accepting such a thing wasn’t easy. Most people could not accept Lee Han-ul’s explanation.
But Baek Nam-hoon accepted it. Having reached the pinnacle of force mastery, he knew very well what spiritual beasts were and just how friendly they were toward humans.
After calming the room, Baek Nam-hoon asked Lee Han-ul,
“Where is this spiritual beast named Miho right now?”
“She is in her hotel room.”
“Can you bring her here?”
“Of course. She came to Seoul of her own free will.”
“…Then please bring her. I promise we will treat her with the utmost respect.”
“Th-thank you!”
Relieved by Baek Nam-hoon’s positive response, Lee Han-ul rushed out of the room and sprinted toward the hotel.
But when he got there…
“…”
She was gone.
That damn lewd fox bitch…!