Battle Above, Battle Below
Though she trembled at Arang's words, the female gatekeeper leveled her spear at her.
"I-if you think you can, then try it!"
"Oh-ho? You truly mean to challenge me?"
Arang's smile twisted into a sneer.
A puppy barking at a tiger was merely amusing. But a puppy that flinched at the tiger's growl, then barked again anyway — that was something to mock with open contempt.
"…?"
No matter how long she waited, however, Arang did not move. She simply stood there with one hand raised, frozen in that same scornful pose.
"Come to your senses. We've already lost."
"What!? We haven't even—"
She spun toward the male gatekeeper at his words, but he only pointed silently down the stairs that led into the underground city.
Tail swaying with proud leisure, Arang was already clicking her way down the stone steps far below — and she had even taken one of the lanterns as if it belonged to her.
"Th-then—"
When the woman looked forward again, there was nothing there. It felt as though a fox had bewitched her.
"Lady Arang was already a master of illusion and transformation when she left this place. You know that as well as I do."
"That's exactly why…!!"
The woman swallowed her bitterness and drove the tip of her spear into the ground.
"Someone like that… someone of her stature… why did she leave…?"
"Truly. Not a single thing has changed."
As the stone corridor of the stairway ended, the space opened wide, and the entire city spread out below. The same vista that had greeted her when she left this place reflected in Arang's golden eyes.
Countless stone stairways descending ever deeper. Crimson lanterns hanging from walls and streets — some floating free — casting their soft glow. Somewhere, the sound of someone plucking a stringed instrument.
The underground city of the Hoin, where day and night did not exist. A place whose atmosphere was always gentle, where voices never rose above a murmur. Judged by scenery alone, it was beautiful enough that, were it known to the outside world, it would rank among the great wonders of the realm without question.
"And yet in the end, it is nothing more than a vast fox den."
As Arang clicked her way downward, fox ears pricked up here and there.
"It's Lady Arang…"
"That really is Lady Arang, isn't it…?"
Whispers. Soft whispers.
In a city of stone, a raised voice carried far too easily into fox ears. Arang did not spare a glance for those who murmured about her. That was her generosity.
Curiosity cannot be helped. I can hardly fault them for staring.
"Her chest got bigger, right?"
"And she's got this… sensual air about her…"
Arang shot them a sidelong glare, and the two girls scrambled to hide beneath the railing. Two pairs of fox ears they had failed to tuck away trembled violently.
On impulse, Arang lifted her own tail and gave it a light sniff.
Seems clean enough…
That morning she had been in a state more shameful and wretched than mere nakedness, but she had scrubbed herself thoroughly…
I thought I caught a trace of Hoeyeon's scent, but that must be my imagination. The one who scattered the most of it last night was—
"Ahem."
She gave her tail a firm shake to either side, then continued down the stone stairs.
The Elder's residence was the largest building in the entire city. As Arang crossed the stone garden, several attendants stepped into her path.
"Lady Arang…"
"Lady Arang, at present—"
A few tried to bar her way, but she brushed past them and threw open the main doors with full authority.
"Who would bar this one from entering the house of her birth?"
KRA-KA-KA-KA-KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The instant the doors opened, five daggers, six arrows, and two spears came flying at Arang. She dodged or struck down every last one of them and strolled unhurriedly into the residence.
"Hear me! You old fool who has outlived his time! Come forth!!"
KRAAAAAASH!!!!!!
A massive stone slab dropped from the ceiling. Arang swung her fist upward and shattered it to pieces.
"With this rotten bastard still glaring at me with those wide-open eyes, how could this one possibly rest in peace?"
An aged Hoin leaning on a staff walked out from the inner chambers.
"Worry not. I shall ask only what I came to ask, and then of my own accord leave this den—"
Arang's words cut off as the Elder, still approaching with his staff, suddenly drew a blade from within it and swung.
It was a sword that had been practiced and tempered with some care. But compared to the two blades Arang had witnessed of late, it was less than a child's game.
"—and be on my way."
She stepped past the strike with casual ease and continued walking inward.
"Is the Elder's study still where it was? Of course it is. Nothing in this place ever changes."
"…Damn you."
The Elder sheathed the blade back into his staff and addressed the attendants trembling in the distance.
"She is a guest, for now. Bring tea."
"How long is this going to take?"
Waiting for Arang in the shade of a tree, Hoeyeon yawned. The air was cool, and the sunlight was just right.
"!!"
In the next instant, every trace of drowsiness vanished. Before she had even turned her head, her hand was already on her sword.
"Perhaps you would care to receive salvation together?"
Outwardly, it was a woman in green robes. Black hair, black eyes, and an elegant smile. But the scent of something that was not human, merely playing at being one, hung thick in the air.
"Salvation, is it."
Even if it had been their first encounter, Gayul — who had already faced such things more than once — did not miss the wrongness of it.
"And where, precisely, is this salvation to be found?"
"Ahaha."
At Gayul's probing words, the woman in green bowed deeply at the waist.
"Indeed. First, the readiness to listen… that posture… open the heart, hear the words, engrave them within… and revere…"
She suddenly straightened again and placed one hand over her heart.
"I am called Sarye. Sarye."
"Your name, is it? How is it written?"
"It means one who serves the serpent."
"Serpents, serpents… You lot, every last one of you, do love your snakes."
"The serpent is eternity. The sacred form of the Holy One who drives death from us and leads us unto eternity is also that of a serpent… biting its own tail, cycling endlessly…"
The woman suddenly shuddered from head to toe.
"Ugh…"
Yujeong, who had let out a sound of pure revulsion, already had her hand on her sword as well.
"…And yet it would seem you have little interest in receiving salvation. Sarye is saddened."
"What did you come here for?"
When Hoeyeon asked, the one who had named herself Sarye clapped her hands together.
"Ah, yes, yes… Even if salvation holds no interest for you, have you by chance seen it? A dagger of about this length, bearing a sacred form that radiates holy power at a mere glance."
Hoeyeon gripped her sword in silence.
The tea the Elder served Arang was neither counterfeit nor poisoned. Since he had offered it as a guest's due, she took a sip as a guest's due. Then Arang opened her mouth.
"Of late, Hoin have grown even scarcer beyond the city."
"I have issued no such command."
"Anyone can see what thoughts you hold. There is no way that fails to have an effect."
"I say again: I have commanded nothing and forbidden nothing. Each does as they will."
To lead with the dagger simply because the dagger was the main business would be dull, inefficient, and would leave no room for the other things she had wanted to say while she was here.
"Do you intend to remain cut off from the outside world forevermore?"
At Arang's question, the Elder brought his teacup to his lips and was silent for a moment.
"I hear you have wandered the outside a great deal."
"Just so."
"What of it was so worthwhile?"
"What of it…"
Arang thought back over the past several years.
Joyful things. Sorrowful things. Landscapes so beautiful they set the soul ablaze, and sights so foul they seemed to rot. Kindnesses received, betrayals suffered, people helped, punishments dealt.
Hoeyeon.
Meeting one she loved, and who loved her in return.
Gayul and Yujeong.
Meeting those she could trust.
A smile rose unbidden to Arang's lips.
"Everything."
The good and the bad alike — everything.
Arang answered with a smile, and before the Elder could speak, she layered her own words over his.
"It was not the outside world that killed Mother, Grandmother."
"Not only do you refuse salvation, you dare obstruct me in my service of the sacred will… That sin shall be repaid — with death! A most terrible death…"
Hoeyeon regarded the enraged Sarye for a long moment, then slid the half-drawn blade back into its scabbard with a click.
"…Huh?"
"Eh… Eonni!?"
"Th-that's right, death is! The most terrible! You too—"
"Hey, Yujeong."
Hoeyeon completely ignored Sarye, who was starting to rant about something or other. She pointed at her roughly with one finger and spoke to Yujeong.
"That thing. You take it."
"…Pardon?"
Yujeong tilted her head. That thing? Me? By myself?
"What on earth… Ah. I see. As expected, one who has experience in teaching sees far more broadly."
Gayul, who had been preparing for combat, arrived at her own conclusion entirely on her own and released the mana she had been gathering. Then she sat down in the tree's shade alongside Hoeyeon.
"G-Gayul too!? Don't just decide things between the two of you — fight with me!! Or at least explain!"
"So basically—"
"No, wait a moment. Yujeong!"
Cutting Hoeyeon off, Gayul called out to Yujeong.
"If you fight that thing alone without hearing the reason and win, I shall consider last night's matter fully forgiven."
"How does this have anything to do with last night!?"
"Yujeong, I am not asking anything grand of you. Why would I do something so cruel?"
Gayul spoke with perfect composure, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"I simply wish to soothe my temper by watching you suffer."
"She's a demon! This person was a demon all along!!"
"Is it not rather quite human of me?"
She said it with such confidence and self-assurance that even Yujeong — the very party being made to suffer — nearly found herself nodding along. Is that so?
The next instant.
"Wah!?"
Yujeong leapt aside in a hurry. Green mucus splattered across the spot where she had just been standing, and the grass there blackened and withered to nothing.
"…I have heard quite enough. Treating Sarye — Sarye, who has received the grace of the Incarnation — as some mere thing…! Blasphemy! Blasphemy!!!!"
"Hiiiiiieek!!"
Snakes writhed free from within the green robes. Not separate serpents — they grew from her shoulders and knees as though limbs had sprouted, joined seamlessly to her body.
"Yes! Fear Sarye! Trem—"
"GROSS!!!!!!!!"
"So. Will you do it alone, or won't you?"
"Aaargh!!"
Yujeong adjusted her grip on her sword properly. Grossness aside, this was an opponent she was not certain she could defeat alone.
"Therefore, Sarye—"
Sarye tried to cry out again, but—
"Fine! I'll do it alone, okay!? I will!!"
"I shall take that as acceptance. Ah — Hoeyeon, do not misunderstand. You will not be let off so lightly."
"…Go easy on me."
Not one of the three paid any attention to the rest.