Chapter 83: The Gumiho Hunt (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 83: The Gumiho Hunt (1)
We had defeated the Ghost Bear. Rin had obtained the gumiho’s power and become a six-tailed fox. Our business in White Cloud Valley was completely finished. All that was left was to go back.
After deciding the fate of the fox elder.
“What should we do, Master? He seems useless now. Should I kill him?”
Rin uttered the chilling words as naturally as breathing. She extended her claws, ready to kill him the moment I gave the order.
The elder, too, seemed resigned to his fate, calmly awaiting his imminent death, but I had other ideas.
“Let’s keep him alive.”
“Why?”
The elder looked up in surprise.
Don't worry. I'm not doing this for you.
“When Rin becomes a gumiho, he needs to experience firsthand just how foolish his choices were, don’t you think?”
The best way to drive a person mad is to make them regret their past self to death.
A choice made by no one but himself.
The worst possible outcome, brought about by his own hand.
My intention was to let him slowly wither away, staring blankly at an irreversible past. Besides, after all the time he spent tormenting Rin, just killing him would be far too anticlimactic.
“Okay. I understand. I’ll do as you say, Master,” Rin replied with a nod.
The elder’s head drooped listlessly.
“Yaaawn…”
Rin stretched her arms wide and let out a huge yawn. Her slow blinks revealed just how tired she was. It was understandable. She’d fought the Ghost Bear and then endured a trial.
She must have been exhausted, both physically and mentally.
“Want to rest?”
“Yeah. Just for a little…”
Rin leaped toward me, did a somersault in mid-air, and transformed into a small fox. She landed gently in my hand before wriggling into my clothes.
I heard it’s more comfortable to be small. Is it because a smaller body consumes less energy? Well, I suppose being small is certainly more convenient than being a giant.
I patted the spot on my stomach where Rin had settled deep inside my clothes.
“We’ll be on our way now. You’re free to live in the fox den or leave White Cloud Valley, but you must stay alive until Rin becomes a gumiho.”
As I left, I didn’t forget to offer a blessing for the elder’s future.
*
-Wow. A talking horse?
We were back in Vestia.
The gumiho stared at the city with wonder.
“Horses are supposed to talk, you know.”
-Back in my day, horses couldn’t talk.
An era when beastkin were mere beasts.
Only a very small number possessed the intelligence to be classified as beastkin rather than animals.
The Fox Clan was a prime example, and besides them, you could say there were none, save for the turtle beastkin, who were renowned for their wisdom.
But now, even the dog beastkin passing by could talk, and so could the cow beastkin. Literally everyone and their dog could talk.
“It’s distracting. Stop wriggling around and stay inside.”
-So fussy.
Since she could see everything through Rin’s eyes without having to come out, the gumiho obediently withdrew her spirit form.
As the gumiho watched the changed world with fascination, a question suddenly occurred to her.
-Why are you hiding your tails?
It was because Rin, a six-tailed fox, was walking around with only one tail showing. Karami answered in Rin’s stead.
“Because if people find out a gumiho has appeared, it’ll cause all sorts of trouble.”
-Really? Back in my day, when I appeared, everyone—human and yokai alike—would prostrate themselves and bow their heads.
“And that’s why Rin is living like this now.”
The gumiho tilted her head, not quite understanding. The next thing she noticed was the anxious gazes of the people.
“It’s that pink fox again.”
“I hadn’t seen her recently, so I thought she’d left. Guess not.”
“But she’s gotten a lot bigger than when I first saw her. Do they normally grow this fast?”
The people were wary of Rin. As if witnessing a miracle, they parted to the left and right like the sea. Rin was used to this reaction, but it was foreign to the gumiho.
-Why are they acting like that?
“Pink foxes are known to bring misfortune. They’re avoiding Rin.”
-And you just let them? Mere beasts are looking at a fox spirit like she’s a plague? If it were me, I’d have torn them apart alive on the spot.
“That’s why Rin lives like this. Besides, you were sealed before you could become a full-fledged fox spirit, weren’t you?”
-I was one step away, you know. If I hadn’t been betrayed, I would have won.
“I’m sure you would have.”
Karami humored her.
“Seira, we’re home~”
Having returned to the city, the two of them stopped by their house first. Seira appeared, wiping her wet hands on her apron as if she’d been doing the dishes.
“You were gone for quite a while this time. Did anything… Sigh.”
The moment she saw the now six-tailed Rin, Seira let out a deep sigh. This had happened so many times that she was too tired to even question it anymore.
She just accepted it.
“You’ve grown up so much again. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call you a proper young lady now.”
“Right? Rin’s gotten super pretty, hasn’t she?”
“Yes. She could get married soon.”
She was taller, and having lost her baby fat, her jawline had slimmed. Shedding her girlish youth, Rin now exuded the fresh air of a young woman.
Males were foolish creatures who would risk death to cling to a pretty female, so it was possible they might forget she was a pink fox and start courting her.
“But Rin is going to marry Master. Right, Master?”
“Slaves can’t marry their masters.”
“Huh? R-Really?”
“Marriage is for equals. That’s why I told you, being a slave is not a good thing. What is a good thing?”
“Liberation!”
“That’s right. Let’s do our best to achieve your liberation. We’re almost there.”
As Karami stroked her head, Rin giggled happily.
“What will you do now? Are you going to rest?”
“No. I have to go to the Celestial Pavilion. There’s something I need to show her.”
*
Ever since the gumiho had left the shrine and taken residence in Rin’s body, her perpetually playful expression changed for the first time.
-This place….
It was the Celestial Pavilion.
The closer they got, the tighter the gumiho’s lips became, until her expression vanished completely. The energy emanating from within the Celestial Pavilion resonated with her soul.
The group entered the Celestial Pavilion. Their visits had become such a normal occurrence that the staff greeted them with smiles.
Karami and Rin returned the greetings and walked naturally toward the leader’s private room, a restricted area.
The room, once hidden like a maze, now had its door waiting for them right at the top of the stairs, as if urging them to enter quickly. This was Yuhwa’s doing.
Opening the door revealed the sky.
A fox was attending to her duties atop the clouds.
The gumiho’s eyes widened.
-The Celestial Fox…?
“So you’ve brought the gumiho here after all.”
Yuhwa sighed, a complicated mix of emotions in her voice. Of course, with her Heavenly Eye, she could see the gumiho’s spirit form.
-Why is the Celestial Fox here?
“She’s Rin’s magic teacher. The Celestial Fox is the only one who can teach Rin magic.”
-The Celestial Fox teaching a gumiho magic? Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no way Heaven’s dog would do that.
Once upon a time, a pure white fox with blue eyes was born into the Fox Clan. The other foxes called her the White Fox.
The White Fox had an unparalleled talent for magic that no one could match, and she was wiser than any other fox; her premonitions became prophecies.
Heaven took notice of her and extended a hand, which the White Fox took, ascending to the celestial realm.
The White Fox became the Celestial Fox and, granted the Heavenly Eye, served as Heaven’s messenger, ensuring the world flowed smoothly like the clouds.
From the Celestial Fox’s perspective, it was the ultimate success, but to the Fox Clan, she was a traitor to her kind. If not for her, the world would now be under the rule of foxes.
“I understand how you feel. Not even Heaven could have known that a day would come when I would help a gumiho.”
-Don’t lie! You may be able to fool these dullards, but you can’t fool my eyes!
“That’s right. Your eyes cannot be fooled. So do not try to fool your own eyes, child.”
The gumiho knew better than anyone what that meant.
Yuhwa’s power as the Celestial Fox had weakened considerably. Even this space they were in was unstable.
Her power was fading because she, holding the title of Celestial Fox, had helped a gumiho. It was just as a god’s divine power weakens when their followers lose faith.
-Why…?
Why would the Celestial Fox help a gumiho?
You didn’t do that in the past, did you?
Back then, I had no one by my side.
“You could say it’s because she found a good master.”
Yuhwa let out a dry laugh at Karami’s sudden self-praise, while Rin clung tightly to her master, not forgetting to take a good sniff even then.
Only the gumiho, like a stranger in a world of her own, couldn’t join in.
-…What is this?
Frowning, the gumiho was overcome with an unpleasant sensation. She vanished back inside Rin as if fleeing.
Yuhwa narrowed her Heavenly Eye, gazing intently at the gumiho cowering inside Rin.
It must be complicated for her.
So much had changed from the past.
She must be deeply unsettled.
There were times when Yuhwa, too, still found it hard to believe. The only thing different from the past was the addition of a single human, yet the situation had changed so drastically.
Perhaps, just as he said, he might even be able to free the gumiho from the Mandate of Heaven, but…
“…”
Yuhwa looked up at the sky. An ominous energy was gathering over Vestia, where the gumiho now resided.
Now that the gumiho had finally grown her sixth tail, Heaven would no longer stand by and watch.
A storm was coming.
*
Deep in a forest, atop a sheer cliff.
In a gloomy space where even the moonlight barely penetrated, stood a shrine.
Fox statues were placed in symmetry, and black and white fox fires drifted about. This was the Lunar Shrine. A lone figure strolled through the shrine with unhurried steps.
She wore Eastern-style robes of black and white. She had a black tail, and her eyes were covered by a blindfold.
She was of the Fox Clan.
She was a yokai.
One of the three yokai foxes in the world: Heukbi, the Dark Fox. The fox who reverses fate. A small light glittered in her dark fox orb.
“So, this moment has come again.”
The Mandate of Heaven, obtained through a deal with the sky.
It was time to hunt the gumiho.