Chapter 79
Translator: TrueDetective
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: 23. The Great Chaos Barbecue Party (3)
As I stared at him with bewildered eyes, the Heavenly Demon spat out his words with a look of utter disdain.
“You don’t think this seat’s name is some kind of convenient talisman whistle, do you?”
As if it wasn’t handy that he came running whenever called.
With every word from the Heavenly Demon, the white fox gripped by the scruff in his hand dangled limply.
…Wait, that’s a real fox?
“De…mon…”
Jaha, who had been staring at us with blank eyes, suddenly snapped out of it and shouted.
“Malamute!”
Are you sane?
“Jaha, not everything white and fluffy is a malamute.”
The Alliance Leader responded warmly to Jaha’s nonsense.
But Jaha was icy cold.
“If that’s not a malamute, then what is it? You’re not seriously saying it’s a fox, are you?”
No… he just couldn’t accept the actual fox right in front of him and was escaping reality.
In contrast, Dang Sacheon peered intently at the fox in the Heavenly Demon’s hand with an intrigued expression and said.
“No matter how you look at it, it’s an Arctic fox.”
The Heavenly Demon lightly furrowed his brow at that.
“What nonsense are you two spouting? This one is a mascot of the North Sea Ice Palace.”
“And what are *you* talking about, Heavenly Demon?”
The fox, dangling from the Heavenly Demon’s hand, let out a long yawn.
The Heavenly Demon casually lifted the fox to meet its eyes and asked offhandedly.
“You’re ‘Garung,’ right?”
When the Heavenly Demon questioned it thus, the fox smiled with narrowed eyes and barked shortly.
“Garung!”
That’s why it’s called Garung—its cry sounds just like that.
The Heavenly Demon’s eyes narrowed too.
“This is the Garung I know. Did the leader summon you too?”
“Garung?”
The fox tilted its head as if it had no idea what he meant.
“I’m asking how you got here.”
When the Heavenly Demon asked again, the fox finally seemed to understand and began explaining busily.
“Garung~ Garung garung! Garrrung!”
“Oh ho, I see, I see.”
It just sounded like garung-ing to me…
Could the Heavenly Demon actually understand it?
The Heavenly Demon kept nodding and then said brightly.
“I haven’t understood a single word.”
Of course.
“There’s no way I could communicate with a beast. Alright, I’ll let you go, so behave yourself.”
The Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue and set the little one down on the floor.
It immediately leaped straight into my arms.
I reflexively caught and held the fox, and Jaha rushed over, covering his own mouth.
“What is this, so cute…! Is this malamute raised by the CEO?”
“It’s not a malamute, Jaha.”
At the Alliance Leader’s correction, Namgung Mu—who had been fidgeting uncomfortably for a while—cautiously spoke up.
“I’ve been wanting to say this, but aren’t you trying to say it’s a Samoyed, not a malamute?”
“Oh?”
Even the Alliance Leader was a bit sloppy.
Dang Sacheon, half-listening to them, said.
“Since it tried to go to Brother Ox earlier too, this fox has good taste.”
Come to think of it, the moment the door opened, it charged straight at me.
But back then, I definitely felt an inexplicable murderous intent.
Now, the fox in my arms was rubbing its head against me with its tail wagging, its demeanor completely opposite from before.
I absentmindedly stroked the fox’s head and asked the Heavenly Demon.
“Do you know this one?”
The Heavenly Demon eyed me stroking the fox with clear displeasure and said.
“That yokai is called Garung… it’s the North Sea Ice Palace Saintess’s pet.”
“Pet ‘beast’?”
“Yes. So don’t get too attached to its cuteness. Its true form is a half-human, half-beast over nine feet tall.”
Half-human, half-beast…?
Over nine feet… huh?
When I looked down, Garung gazed up at me with innocent eyes as if it knew nothing, standing on my chest with its paws and licking my cheek.
Its paw pads were soft, its white fur silky smooth like satin, and it even smelled nutty.
Telling me not to find it cute was going to be tough.
Watching me think that, the Heavenly Demon shook his head with a sigh.
“Garung—you mustn’t eat it.”
Eat…?
“What’s that supposed to mean, Demon Bro!”
Jaha grinned innocently and teased.
“Is it going to eat Brother Ox? What, gonna taste it or something?”
“……”
The Heavenly Demon stared at Jaha impassively for a moment.
Jaha quickly backed away from Garung.
“Bro, be careful. Demon Bro’s dead serious, so it might really be a man-eating fox.”
“Garung?”
Garung adorably cocked its head as if confused, then curled up in my arms and buried its nose into the crook of my elbow.
I reflexively hugged Garung tightly, and the Heavenly Demon tilted his head.
“How peculiar. Garung’s favorite food is monk meat…”
At that mutter, Jaha shuddered and yelled loudly on purpose.
“Ah, don’t say creepy stuff!! This is a malamute! Why would a man-eating fox be in the CEO’s mansion?!”
“It originally lived in the North Sea Ice Palace. I don’t know why it’s here now, though.”
North Sea Ice Palace?
I gestured with my chin toward the interior of the room that Dang Sacheon had flung open.
“What do you make of that room?”
“That room?”
The inside of the room we’d flung open was buried in snow.
As if a pile of snow had suddenly poured out from somewhere.
“Hmm…”
The Heavenly Demon peered intently at the snow pile, then approached as if he’d noticed something and pulled an object out from within.
At a glance, it looked like a short twig, but it had a white feather at the tip.
The Heavenly Demon showed it to me and said.
“It’s an arrow fletching used by the North Sea Ice Palace folks.”
The North Sea Ice Palace Saintess’s pet and an arrow fletching from the North Sea Ice Palace here…?
That meant the overflowing snow pile was likely from the North Sea Ice Palace too.
The Heavenly Demon tucked the fletching into his sleeve.
“It looks like it was dumped here through something.”
At those words, I scanned the room’s walls and found a spot that wasn’t frozen.
About 30 cm wide and vertically long rectangular space…
‘A scroll!’
The scroll that the right and left protectors said was hanging in the CEO’s room—wouldn’t it be exactly that size?
Jaha seemed to think the same, muttering softly.
“That scroll must’ve been hanging there.”
No, wait. If so.
“Brother Ox.”
Dang Sacheon stepped into the room, brushed aside some of the piled snow, and stepped back.
“This seems to be the CEO’s room.”
There was an antique desk in that spot.
And on it, a familiar laptop…
We’d agreed not to come to the CEO’s room, yet here we were, first thing.
The scroll had apparently been removed in advance, as expected.
But considering how the door had been sealed with ice, and Garung bursting out the moment it opened.
‘Did the CEO lock it in here? And lure us to release it?’
But why go to such lengths…
“By the way.”
Dang Sacheon interjected.
“The ominous energy I felt doesn’t seem to be from this little one.”
“Not from this one?”
“I can still feel it from inside the room…”
Dang Sacheon frowned and glared at the spot where the scroll had been.
“Um…”
Then, Namgung Mu timidly raised his hand and spoke.
“I don’t get what everyone’s talking about…”
“Yeah?”
“What do you mean the scroll was hanging here?”
What’s this about now?
Jaha stepped in to explain to Namgung Mu for me.
“No, look. That unfrozen spot looks just like where a scroll would hang, right?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Namgung Mu said with slightly trembling eyes.
“If it’s a scroll… isn’t it right there?”
“What?”
“There’s a scroll hanging in that spot right now.”
I looked where Namgung Mu pointed, but it was still empty.
Just in case, I tried to enter the room and touch it, but right before crossing the threshold, Garung let out a sharp “Kyaaang!” and burrowed deeper into my arms.
I suddenly recalled what the left and right protectors had said.
-There’s a barrier, so we can’t go in.
-Yeah, a barrier. But humans can!
Garung couldn’t enter because it wasn’t human?
It had been able to get out, but going back in wasn’t allowed.
I soothed Garung, handed it to the Heavenly Demon, and only then could I enter the room.
I felt along the wall.
‘Nothing…’
Even touching it with my hand, I felt nothing.
But Namgung Mu reached out and made a motion as if picking something up.
Like lifting a thin sheet of paper…
“Invisible Barrier, Unconscious Veil.”
The Heavenly Demon muttered unpleasantly.
“They’ve cast a spell. It’s made so we can’t even perceive it with our senses.”
“That it’s visible only to Namgung Mu means…”
“Probably, the one who couldn’t perceive this scroll was ‘Namgung Jun.’”
“……!”
They didn’t know Namgung Mu was Namgung Jun, so they didn’t prepare for it.
Namgung Mu had said there was wind from inside the scroll.
Then he suddenly thrust his hand into the invisible scroll!
“Wh-what is that?!”
Jaha yelped in shock.
Namgung Mu’s hand had vanished into thin air.
Dang Sacheon, watching, tried to put his own hand in after Namgung Mu’s, but unlike him, Dang Sacheon’s hand stayed visible.
“I can’t. It feels like the space is completely separated.”
“This…”
Namgung Mu, who seemed to be waving his hand around inside something, said gravely in a low voice.
“It seems connected to somewhere beyond…”
“Beyond where?”
“The martial world.”
Namgung Mu answered firmly, just as the corridor ahead grew noisy.
With the Heavenly Demon—who’d been the doorkeeper—here, the others must have come swarming in.
“Grab the scroll.”
“Ah, y-yes.”
Namgung Mu tried to take the scroll and leave the room but bounced back at the threshold.
Ah, of course. I hadn’t expected zero precautions.
The Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue.
“They’ve made it so it can’t even be taken out.”
CEO… so that’s why you were so confident.
Had the CEO lured us here from the start, hoping to at least try something?
Unable to perceive its existence even when right in front of you.
In Heavenly Demon terms, utterly infuriating.
I pondered briefly and said.
“Let’s hang it back in place.”
“You’re just going to leave it here?”
“The CEO doesn’t know yet that someone among us can see it. He’s arrogant enough to lure us here, so he’ll keep it hanging in this spot. No doubt.”
Better than alerting him that we’d noticed the scroll and prompting him to move it.
Pretending to be fooled by his deception and letting him keep the scroll here was wiser.
Namgung Mu’s existence needed to stay even more secret going forward.
We rehung the scroll in place and exited the room, at which point the Heavenly Demon handed Garung—still in his arms—back to me and asked.
“What will you do with this one?”
Even if I wanted to send it back through the scroll, Garung couldn’t cross the barrier.
I didn’t want to leave it in the CEO’s house, where he’d locked it up to lure us.
But taking it along right away? The bit about Garung liking monk meat nagged at me a little.
I’d learned from the Shaolin Abbot, so as a monk… me?
“I’m warning you ahead of time: Garung is a yokai. Far more cunning than it looks. Even with this seat’s warning, it might harm you where my eyes don’t reach.”
I felt no hostility from Garung, who gazed up at me with soft, innocent eyes, but if the Heavenly Demon cautioned this strongly, I should be careful.
Still.
“I’ll take it with me for now. If it’s a yokai, it’s easier to manage keeping it in sight than letting it loose.”
“Tch. I knew you’d say that. This seat would look like a fool.”
So he’d still come running even if used as a talisman whistle.
“Our original destination was the CEO’s study anyway, so let’s move.”
“Very well.”
As the Heavenly Demon spoke and flicked his sleeve toward the CEO’s room, the snow piles covering it melted and vanished in an instant.
He roughly patched up the flung-open door, crossed the corridor, and we ran into the people milling about inside the mansion.
Zhuge Ryang, spotting us, widened his eyes.
He pointed at Garung in my arms and yelled loudly.
“M-Malamute!”
You too, malamute?!