The Fox Spirit's True Colors
The Sword Immortal narrowed his eyes and asked in his usual dignified tone, “Why do you insist on following me?”
“Shouldn’t I go help Mount Hua?”
“If I go, that should be enough. As the spirit of this mountain, shouldn’t you be protecting it?”
“Look around. Does this mountain look like it has anything worth protecting? Even if I emptied a hundred years here, nothing of note would ever happen on this rock.”
He had a point. What was there to guard on this barren mountain of stone? Whether a spirit existed or not, nothing significant would ever occur here.
While thinking that, I noticed the spirit’s visibly excited expression. So those words were nothing but an excuse. You simply want to escape this tedious life on a pile of rocks, don’t you? Having the righteous cause of helping Mount Hua removes any guilt, making it the perfect situation.
Since I understood the desire to run away from where one currently stood better than anyone, I couldn’t bring myself to call him bad for it.
“I will be disappearing and reappearing midway. You understand that, right?”
“I know. You are an outsider, after all.”
The Sword Immortal, this guy, and even the magistrate of Hwaeum all used the word “outsider.” Did it mean players in the game? Well, they couldn’t just throw beings called users into the Murim world without some kind of setting to explain it.
“Even if you disappear, there’s no problem at all! I may not look it, but I am a spirit. I have more than enough power to protect this one body!”
That was probably true. The energy contained within him, even if only for a moment, was enough to pique my curiosity. But that had nothing to do with me. I simply didn’t find the existence of a companion very welcome.
Traveling through the Murim, I had no idea what situations might arise. I didn’t want to leave any possibility of someone holding me back.
Perhaps sensing my reluctance, the spirit hurriedly continued.
“Even if a dangerous moment comes, I can do this!”
The spirit leaped into the air and spun once. Smoke rose, and the form of the young girl vanished, replaced by a scarlet-furred fox with multiple tails.
“I can simply change my appearance and hide!”
When the fox moved its mouth, the young girl’s voice leaked out.
What is this…
I immediately approached the spirit, grabbed its side, and lifted it up. The fox-formed spirit looked at me with those round eyes and tilted its head.
“Why are you doing that?”
It’s too cute!
My earlier statement that I didn’t need a companion is hereby canceled. A creature with soft, fluffy scarlet fur that doesn’t fear me at all! How could anyone tell me to leave something like this behind?
Only after locking eyes with the fox did I realize I had lost my composure. I took a deep breath.
Calm down. It’s just an animal. One that happens to look nice, has soft fur, feels warm, and can communicate. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like I was getting swept up in my own thoughts.
Ah, whatever. Since no one is watching me anyway, isn’t it fine to indulge myself a little?
“May I pet you?”
“Do as you please!”
Even though having someone freely touch one’s body could be unpleasant, the spirit shouted with a bright, welcoming smile.
I carefully stroked the fox’s head. Its vigorously wagging tails began moving even faster.
It seems it wasn’t reluctantly nodding while secretly hating my touch.
I would have to cancel my plan to leave the game. With something this adorable right in front of me, how could I possibly abandon it and walk away? There was still plenty of time before I had to go to language school. For the time being, I would play with this little one.
After spending a delightful time with the spirit who had become a fox, I returned to the language school. The moment I saw Enri, I bragged about what had happened that day. I had found an animal that didn’t get scared even when it saw me. I had petted it to my heart’s content and it was incredibly fun.
Normally, Enri would have responded with an exaggerated reaction to match my joy, but this time she simply rested her chin on her hand and stared at me with dry, emotionless eyes.
“Why are you making that face? …Are you upset?”
Could it be that she was angry because I had arbitrarily ended the broadcast yesterday? Really? No matter how childish Enri could be sometimes, she wouldn’t get upset over something so small.
“Yes, I’m upset. I even gave you money to not go, but turning it off like that is too much, don’t you think?!”
Instead of feeling sorry, my first reaction was pure bewilderment. The person who had told me not to let others control me when I ended the broadcast was now saying something like this.
When I just stared at her blankly, Enri’s cheeks flushed red. It seemed she was aware of how ugly her behavior was.
“But I was really curious about the Hwaryong Muin story!”
“You’ve never played it?”
“No! I’ve never played it! How could I play a game that requires such insane hand control like a Murim game!”
Enri said she had never played the game called Hwaryong Muin. Games related to Murim required both an understanding of Murim and the physical ability to match that understanding, neither of which she possessed. So she had never even dared to try.
“But you can still watch the story, right?”
“If I’m not interested in Murim, why would I watch the story of a Murim game?”
“…Then why are you interested now?”
“You. Because of you.”
Overwhelmed by Enri’s unusually logical argument, I had no idea what to say to stop her from grumbling.
“Then what was the reason for saying ‘let’s just do thirty more minutes’?”
“Because I thought once you entered the prologue, you would at least watch until it ended.”
“...”
“But instead of meeting my expectations, you turned off the broadcast, then stayed up all night playing the game by yourself and having fun? With an animal?”
If Enri had been someone I wasn’t close to, I would have half-listened to her grumbling and let it pass. But she was different. She had already become my acquaintance. I couldn’t treat someone who had helped me so much like that.
“Uh… um. I’m sorry.”
“I was joking. Don’t take it too seriously.”
The moment I offered an apology, Enri smiled brightly as if the anger from a moment ago had been fake. But was it really a joke? I could have sworn there was genuine feeling in that complaint just now. Was my judgment wrong?
When I silently stared at her, Enri cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject.
“So you found an animal you can pet to your heart’s content? That’s great.”
“I’m not sure if I should call it an animal. It’s a spirit pretending to be one.”
“…Pardon?”
When I explained what had happened on the rocky mountain yesterday, Enri’s expression gradually grew worse. What now? Why are you reacting like this again?
“You didn’t just go sightseeing. You met an NPC, progressed an event, and even received a hidden quest?”
“Yes. Why?”
“…Even though I helped you a lot with broadcast preparation, if you learn how to burn through content like this, what am I supposed to do?”
Burn through content? What exactly did I do? Didn’t I leave the story they wanted to see intact? I didn’t think I deserved to be scolded.
When I showed my confusion, Enri didn’t say anything more. She simply gave me a smile that looked almost pitying and said I would understand once I started the broadcast.
Originally, I had planned to ask Enri about Hwaryong Muin. There were a few things I needed to confirm. However, since she had declared she knew nothing, I had no choice but to contact Ha-rin.
I called Ha-rin as soon as language school ended, but she didn’t answer. She was the kind of child who would reply within ten seconds even if I sent a single text. Did something happen?
After sending a text asking her to contact me when she had time, I returned home. The security guard called out to me, saying a lot of packages had arrived.
They had finally come!
In the place the guard guided me to, three enormous boxes were stacked. I knew I had bought a lot, but seeing them in person really made the volume hit differently.
“You’ll have to go back and forth a few times. Shall I help?”
“It’s fine.”
“Don’t overdo it.”
When I lifted all three boxes at once, the guard looked at me with a dazed face.
“You’re really strong.”
“They’re not that heavy.”
“They looked heavy though…”
When I returned home and opened the boxes, the dolls carefully packed inside came into view. Weren’t they all just too cute? Each one looked so good that I couldn’t decide where to place them.
As I assigned positions to them one by one and nodded in satisfaction, I realized there was a massive problem.
There was nowhere to put them. The desk, the top of the dresser—every surface was already full. Even the table I usually used was completely covered. But I couldn’t just leave those adorable creatures on the floor either. How troubling.
I had never felt the need for furniture before, yet here I was, regretting it. I would have to buy a display case. A large one. After all, there was no telling when I might buy more dolls like these.
While I was thinking about it and searching on my smartphone for decent products, a call came from Ha-rin. It seemed she had finally finished what she was doing.
“Hello…”
Ha-rin’s voice was extremely subdued. Had she been asleep until just now?
“What did you call about?”
“I wanted to ask you about Hwaryong Muin.”
“…Ugh. Hwaryong Muin?”
It was strange. Until yesterday, Ha-rin had been strongly urging me to play Hwaryong Muin, yet the moment she heard the word, she reacted with clear disgust.
“Did something happen?”
“A lot happened. Yesterday, you heard the Sword Immortal ask you to become his disciple, right?”
“I did.”
From the perspective of that old man who didn’t know the circumstances, I must have seemed like a genius with astonishing talent, so it was natural he would covet me. If our positions were reversed, I would have told him to learn under me as well. A prodigy who possessed only second-class power yet tried to fight him on equal footing. How could he possibly endure that?
“Because of that, everything exploded.”