“Don’t play with Huayo. Then at night, the youkai will come, right?”
“Is that true, Huayo?”
“Wang?”
“See? Even Huayo thinks so. Now, let’s go.”
The mother fox takes the little fox that wants to hang out with Huayo back home. Huayo, not knowing what that meant, smiles and waves.
The Hoyo tribe hardly gave Huayo any attention, passing by like a folding screen. But occasionally, there were people who approached Huayo.
“Huayo, could you lure the youkai outside for me? It seems like I need to go hunting.”
“Wang!”
Huayo, delighted that they were talking to her and asking for her help, answered innocently.
As Huayo was about to leave the fox den, she hesitated at the sound of the wind. She had answered without thinking, but it still seemed a bit scary.
She thought about asking anyone to go with her, but the hunting group tilted their heads with smiles. It was as if they didn’t understand why.
“What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”
“Wang…”
“The sun will set soon. If we delay, the youkai will come out more. You need to hurry and come back before then.”
To Huayo, who still couldn’t read the intentions behind people’s expressions, that smile looked only kind. Huayo dashed out of the fox den without a doubt.
Thus, Huayo was a convenient tool for the fox den.
She could be used to scare the children into obeying, and sometimes as bait for the youkai.
She couldn’t even speak or refuse, making her the most convenient tool in the world.
Huayo, assigned to lure, returned that night. After shaking off the youkai, the sun had long set. When she returned to the village, the hunting group had already come back a while ago.
Since the hunt had gone well, it seemed like they were having a meat party, as the village was filled with the smell of meat.
“Oh, you’re back already.”
“Wang!”
“Good job. Here, eat this and rest a bit.”
Huayo was hoping that she could eat some meat, but the man had thrown down a few potatoes with insect bites on them.
Looking at the potatoes rolling on the ground, Huayo blinked and lifted her head, but the man had already turned his back.
Without looking back even once, he returned to his home. Soon after, sounds of laughter and chatter filtered out from a house where light was streaming.
Sitting on the ground in a ‘wait’ position, Huayo uttered, “Wang.”
She bent down and started picking up the potatoes.
Days like this repeated, and Lin, who had been watching Huayo all along, let out a small sigh.
“This is frustrating.”
She had expected something special to happen, but the meaninglessness of the spectacle was endlessly repetitive. It wasn’t that she could intervene either.
Even when trying to leave Baeyun Gorge, she found herself back at the fox den, as if something needed to be resolved there.
If so, what could be resolved in this small fox den? It wasn’t hard to guess. Lin entered the underground.
Following what the elder had done, finding the shrine wasn’t difficult.
When she arrived, the shrine was free of dust. However, a fox she had never seen, yet seemed familiar, was sitting at the altar.
Playing with a golden fox bead as if it were a toy ball was rather irreverent.
But anyone who knew her would not find it irreverent. After all, she was the owner of the bead.
She resembled Lin, yet her body was larger in various aspects. Especially in the chest. There were also nine tails, four more than Lin’s.
Before she was Hongho, before she was Huayo, she was the being known as Gumiho who greeted Lin.
“Hello, little one. Did you come for this? But what will you do? This is mine.”
“Is it necessary to call me little one? You’re Lin.”
“Don’t be mistaken. I’ve never lived cowardly, nor have I ever craved affection. Much less have I ever been weak like you.”
“Then why were you sealed? Was it not because you were weak?”
“…”
The Gumiho closed her mouth.
Lin smiled victoriously.
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have been sealed. Pathetic~”
“Shut up. Before I break the bead.”
“How petty.”
But knowing it could really become troublesome, Lin decided to stop the teasing there.
Lin denied that the Gumiho was a different being from her, but she also denied her own denial. It was not surprising that they communicated so well on first meeting.
They could talk comfortably without any burden. At first, it wasn’t like this for Carami. She was certainly Lin.
Though it wasn’t something she liked.
“Lin, I don’t want to get old like that.”
“If you keep associating with ugly ones, you’ll end up like this.”
“Ugly ones?”
“There are. Those who betrayed me and clung to the heavens.”
The Gumiho looked at the shrine’s walls, but Lin guessed that her gaze was aimed much further than that.
As Lin tried to recall what that was, she quickly put the thought aside. What mattered to Lin now was the fox bead.
“Lin is busy. The master is waiting outside.”
The Gumiho looked at Lin as if she were slime stuck to the ground.
“Why are you looking at me like that? It’s unpleasant.”
“Ha… A Gumiho as a slave? No matter how much time has passed, is this even right? It would be less strange if the world flipped upside down. Should I just take my body and kill you…?”
Lin’s expression twisted ominously at the Gumiho’s mutterings.
“If you do that, you won’t be safe either.”
“Right now, I’m an idea body, so I could only harm myself. That would just hurt you.”
Even if she told the truth, Lin’s expression didn’t soften. She appeared determined, as if she would risk self-harm if necessary.
In contrast, the Gumiho smirked at Lin’s threat. Like she was enjoying Lin’s emotions like a glutton.
“Oops.”
Having enjoyed enough, the Gumiho jumped down from the altar and extended the fox bead to Lin.
Lin, not pleased but still intending to accept it, when the Gumiho suddenly whipped the bead back.
“Ah!”
Lin gasped in dismay as the bead vanished from her fingertips. Just as it was about to hit the ground, it lightly landed on the Gumiho’s tail.
Moving her tail gracefully, she played with the bead as if to flaunt it.
“You…!”
“You really have a lot of expressions. Your face is the same, but you seem like a completely different person.”
The Gumiho laughed at Lin’s sulky expression. Then, she held out the bead again.
Lin, suspicious that she might be playing another trick, cautiously took the bead while alternating her gaze between the bead and the Gumiho.
Oh? She’s giving it to me more readily than I thought?
Before she could finish that thought, the fox bead burst forth with sunlight, distorting the space at the same time.
“What’s going on?”
“We’re going back to the original place.”
“What was the trial about?”
“Something I like. You, I like you a bit.”
For the trial to be about what the Gumiho liked was absurd. But thanks to that, she passed the trial easily, yet Lin felt uneasy.
The Gumiho, seemingly delighted, giggled.
“Let’s go back now. You can take a look at the master’s face, which you’ve been longing for so much.”
Light filled her vision, and soon the space was completely distorted.
*
Paaat!
The light that illuminated the dark shrine exploded for a moment and clung to Lin’s entire body.
It looked as if her whole body was coated in latex. Then the light burst open and shed like a skin.
As the light dimmed, Lin slowly blinked a few times and came to her senses. The familiar smell returned, indicating that she had returned to the shrine of reality.
“Seems like it’s over.”
Behind her were Carami and the elder, both looking the same as when she picked up the bead. Lin felt a sense that quite a bit of time had passed, but the illusion appeared to have not affected reality at all.
“It seems so.”
“Congratulations. You’ve finally become a six-tailed fox.”
At that remark, Lin checked her tail; it had become six. Moreover, it had grown longer, and her body had likewise matured.
More than just her height, especially her feminine curves had become so pronounced that they could be seen through her clothes. She had become one step closer to the Gumiho she had just seen.
Lin checked her chest.
“It’s bigger than before.”
Would becoming a Gumiho mean it would be like that?
It wasn’t a bad thing.
It was just an advantage of being a captivating Gumiho.
Having a powerful weapon that could entice her master would be a welcome addition.
“The fox bead is gone.”
Lin checked her hands. The fox bead she had definitely been holding had vanished. But Lin could tell.
“It’s with Lin.”
The bead had absorbed into Lin’s fox bead. A different energy, not hers, swirled in her dantian.
A warm, sunlight-like energy. And, the shallow shadows of a place where sunlight didn’t reach. She had acquired a fragment of the Gumiho’s power.
-Hmm. This is the master? Not particularly reliable though.
Lin flinched at the voice that suddenly rang in her head. The Gumiho’s spirit, slipping from Lin, coiled around Carami like a serpent.
-Your face isn’t bad; is this energy from the World Tree? Hmm, it’s fascinating, but just about that much. Other aspects are too poor. At this rate, you won’t even be able to maintain your own body.
“Y-You…?”
Lin was startled.
“W-Why are you here? Didn’t you disappear?”
-I received your power. Trying to eat for free? I’m borrowing your body to take a look around the world.
“That wasn’t part of the deal!”
-When making a contract, you’re supposed to consider every little detail, little one. If you have complaints, spit them out.
Though she wished she could do so immediately, her power had already mixed with Lin’s. They were bound to each other now.
The Gumiho knew this well enough that she was saying such things.
“What’s going on?”
“What do you mean? The Gumiho has appeared!”
“The Gumiho has always been here.”
The elder, who said this, was looking at Lin, not the Gumiho. The elder didn’t show any signs of seeing or sensing the Gumiho’s presence.
-You can see me because you received my power. Other people can’t see me.
“I can see her.”
-Huh?
The Gumiho looked surprised and stared at Carami. Their gazes met perfectly, and it was clear that the Gumiho was visible.
-Why can’t you see me?
“I’m Lin’s master. If it’s about Lin, I know everything.”
-…I see. You’re connected by the shackles, so you can see me.
Forget what I said about being terrible.
He’s not a regular man.
But to be fair, being ordinary would have been better for him.
He would help made her realize how foolish it was to take the Gumiho as a slave.
