The Connecting Point
While Hoeyeon was cooling off alone, Arang's fox ears perked up from around the wall.
"Hoeyeon, that was amazing!"
"Hmm? The match earlier? Thanks."
"Gayul was stronger than I expected, too!"
"Well, of course she is."
Hoeyeon smiled and stroked Arang's head.
"Uwaaah… but what did you mean by what you said to Gayul at the end?"
"…Gayul is strangely bad at understanding her own feelings."
"Is Gayul a dummy?"
"No? She's actually really smart. But even smart people have things they don't know, and when you're not sure, putting it into words can help."
"Uuung… that's hard."
"It's okay."
Once you return to your original form, you'll understand everything too.
While Hoeyeon was thinking, Arang — who had been lost in thought with her arms crossed — spoke up.
"I don't really get it, but I know one thing."
"What?"
"I like Hoeyeon too!"
Arang said it with a bright, sunny smile. Hoeyeon couldn't help but smile along.
"Thank you."
Moments that would mortify Arang once she returned to her original form kept piling up. Hoeyeon figured she'd better brace herself for a rough stretch when that day came.
"Uuu! Hoeyeon doesn't believe me! I hate you!"
"No, no — sorry, sorry."
"If you're sorry, show some sincerity! Hug me!"
"Where did you learn to say things like that?"
When she comes back, she'll be so embarrassed she'll dig a hole and crawl into it. A fox den?
"Hurry up and hug me!"
"…You brought this on yourself. This isn't my fault."
Wondering where she'd even put the food if Arang really did dig a den, Hoeyeon lifted her up — and little Arang squealed with delight.
And the next moment—
"Uwaaah!?!"
"Keong!?!?!"
A tremendous crash rang through the room.
"Senior Sister?!"
Startled, Yujeong peeked in to find Hoeyeon pinned flat on the floor.
And sitting on top of her was Arang — restored to her original form.
"Ow, ow, ow…"
Hoeyeon lifted her head and flinched.
Arang was right in front of her eyes. Pure white hair, matching fluffy fox ears and fox tail, golden eyes. Arang, returned to her true self.
"Uh, uwaaah…"
Hoeyeon's gaze had nowhere to go.
"Mmm… Forgive me. This humble one—Hiiik!?!?!?!??!"
Realizing why Hoeyeon was reacting that way, Arang let out a shrill scream and clutched her own body.
"What is all this racket—"
Gayul, drawn by the noise, took in the situation and her words cut off cold.
Hoeyeon squeezed her eyes shut.
"I-I apologize for keeping you waiting."
She was forcing herself to sound composed, but Arang's voice trembled with sheer embarrassment.
It wasn't simply because she had exposed her skin.
Had she been naked, Arang would have boldly displayed her body without shame.
Her body had returned — but her clothes had not. She was stuffed into old children's clothes that no longer fit in the slightest.
The fabric was so short her entire belly was bare, and the underside of her chest was equally exposed. The cloth of the top, which had never been able to contain her in the first place, had split open on both sides.
With the sides torn away, the line running from her underarms along the curve of her breasts and beneath them was fully visible — and her lower half was no better.
Even the upper part of her tailbone beneath her fox tail showed, and her hips and thighs strained against the fabric as if about to burst free.
It was a more mortifying outfit than being naked.
Gayul and Yujeong hastily stared at the wall. Hoeyeon turned her head with her eyes still shut.
"J-just a little longer — p-please wait for me."
Carefully, trying only to keep the already-tearing fabric from ripping any further, Arang slowly rose to her feet.
Riiip…
Slap!
But no matter how carefully Arang tried, there was simply no state in which those clothes would not tear.
To the ears of the three who weren't looking came the sound of Arang's flesh tearing through cloth — and the sound of her hands quickly striking her body as she tried to catch the falling fabric.
No one could say a word. Silence.
The sound of someone swallowing.
When Arang took another slow step upward, again came riiip… the sound of fabric tearing—
Snap — the sound of it tearing clean off.
Slap! The sound of her hands lunging to catch the cloth.
The fluttering whisper of fabric falling.
And then—
Thud-thud-thud! The sound of outright running.
Riiip! Snap! The sound of every last scrap of cloth tearing away.
The creak of a door opening — and bang! of a door slamming shut.
"…"
Hoeyeon's heart was pounding.
When she opened her eyes, her gaze met Gayul's and Yujeong's — and all three awkwardly looked away.
On Hoeyeon's stomach as she sat up lay a scrap of cloth.
A piece that had fallen from Arang's body.
When she picked it up, it was still warm with body heat.
Arang, having changed into her original clothes, opened the door and came out, walking back up the corridor as she gathered the scattered scraps.
"…"
Without a word, Hoeyeon held out the scrap in her hand.
"…"
Arang took it, went back into the room, and emerged again empty-handed.
"…………I kept you all waiting. You have my thanks."
"What for? It's the same as you all waiting for me."
"Right — it goes both ways."
"I had a great time being around people again after so long!"
Everyone talked and laughed as if nothing had happened.
All of their movements were unnatural — but they forced it through.
Yujeong guessed there was something the three of them needed to discuss alone, and climbed the mountain by herself to give them space.
Carrying simple food in one hand as she ascended, Yujeong recalled the moment she had reunited with Hoeyeon.
The expression on her senior sister's face as she carried the unconscious Gayul had not merely been grim.
It had been terrifying.
Even without a sword, Yujeong alone could turn most bandits upside down.
But when she saw Hoeyeon's face that day, Yujeong realized the person before her possessed a power that could overwhelm her — and she felt fear.
And she felt joy.
"Heave-ho…"
At Yujeong's destination — a sunlit spot halfway up the mountain — there was a grave.
"It's been a while, Mom, Dad."
Placing the food before it, Yujeong spoke toward the grave.
"I'm sorry I haven't come lately — I've been busy. I got to meet people and spend time with them again after so long. Hoeyeon, my senior sister — I've told you about her a lot before, right? The one I said I could never surpass when I was learning the sword."
Plopping down onto the fallen leaves, Yujeong went on.
"Come to think of it, I heard about it. About the Ain."
Yujeong smiled — with bitterness, with regret, and with longing.
"You could have told me… Was it that hard to say?"
The girl who lived alone in a place set apart from the village spoke quietly.
"That Mom was an Ain."
And Yujeong hugged her knees and closed her eyes.
A peaceful autumn breeze gently swept through her hair.
Though much later than originally planned, Hoeyeon, Gayul, and Arang sat together and began their discussion.
"This location is Oreung Township of Cheongju Prefecture in Baeksan County of Sang — so if we set the capital, Hyeonun, here, this would be the point."
From Gayul's fingertips, holding charcoal instead of a brush, a map of the realm flowed smoothly onto the paper.
"I shall mark the border of the region commonly called the Wasteland with a dotted line. Our destination, Geumdo, lies deep beyond where the nearest water — the Seomja River — ends. This region here."
"Far even from water. Are there no other rivers nearby? Mountains or lakes?"
"Mountains, rivers, and lakes alike all lie farther off than this."
As she spoke, Gayul's fingertips drew line after line across the paper without the slightest hesitation.
"Yusaha, Mount Hyeong, Mount Somun, Lake Changmyeong, the Hoe River…"
"How do you remember all of that?"
"I spent a long time memorizing it from childhood. Not a particularly pleasant memory."
Gayul wiped away her bitter smile and resumed.
"In that case, this humble one thinks we should proceed this way…"
Hoeyeon tried to follow Gayul and Arang's discussion over the map, but she could not keep pace with Gayul — who carried a map inside her head — nor with Arang, who if not quite that, had traveled the realm extensively on her own two feet.
As Hoeyeon studied the map, another map she had seen long ago suddenly overlapped in her mind.
Hmm?
Hoeyeon looked at the map Gayul had drawn once more.
Strange. She had seen this before… something…
A long, long time ago.
When she was little, in her grandfather's study… in some book…
Hoeyeon's eyes, narrowed as she groped through the past, were on the verge of grasping something.
"KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"
A massive roar thundered from the direction of the mountain.
Sitting before her parents' grave, Yujeong was dozing off.
Perhaps because of the place, her parents appeared in her dream.
Her father had been an ordinary farmer, smiling with a plow slung over his shoulder.
Her mother had been an ordinary farmer's wife, smiling with a hat pressed down on her head.
Yujeong's mother had always covered her forehead with thick cloth or a hat — even indoors.
As a child, she had once tried to pull off her mother's hat outside as a prank. That day, Yujeong received the biggest scolding of her life. She hadn't understood then, but she did now.
Her parents hadn't merely been punishing a mistake. They had been terribly afraid.
"…Huh? Did I fall asleep?"
When something made a sound and Yujeong opened her eyes, a monster stood before her.
"Uh?"
It was a monster that looked like a wolf with two heads side by side.
Standing on four legs, it was taller than Yujeong on two, and something like black mist seeped from its body.
Had the dream turned into a nightmare?
Between the two wolf heads, a human upper body jutted out. One of its two arms pointed straight at Yujeong, while the other swung wildly about.
All six eyes were a murky, venomous green.
For reality, it was far too vile and repulsive a monster.
But for a nightmare, everything else about reality was far too vivid.
The monster roared.