“Shh.”
Agent Choi put a finger to his lips, squinting as he watched.
“She’s heading toward the abandoned houses. Hm.”
He put away the cleaver and quickly straightened his clothes.
“Let’s follow her. Her destination is a little unusual… Did you say she’s a reporter?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s a great job for going undercover…”
A chilling deduction.
‘The Assistant Manager can’t get found out.’
I didn’t want to make things harder for her, or drag Agent Choi any deeper into Director Ho’s grasp.That would be a total disaster.
“Um.”
After exchanging a few words with Agent Bronze, Agent Choi turned to look at me. He seemed to study me for a moment, then said,
“Grapes… you can go outside and rest if you want.”
I can’t.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to go with you.”
“Sure. Let’s go together.”
“……”
Did he notice?
Even if he didn’t, his kindness made my stomach twist a bit.
Anyway, I hurried after the agents as they moved.
And before long.
We found Assistant Manager Eun Haje half-removed some of the wooden planks covering the well and was looking inside.
“…It’s not here.”
She muttered.
“Ms. Civilian? Are you looking for something right now?”
Assistant Manager Eun Haje, who had been staring down the well, looked up at us with a slightly exasperated expression.
“Now you’re acting like normal public servants… Seriously. Aren’t you guys, you know, like in the comics? That sort of thing?”
“Comics…”
“Well if we’re going to play the part, why not go for 007? Haha, our dear agent here really likes that comparison, you know!”
“…Ha.”
Agent Choi grinned and patted Agent Bronze on the back, then put a finger to his lips.
Agent Bronze closed his eyes tightly. Agent…
Watching this, Assistant Manager Eun Haje just shrugged.
“Anyway, don’t worry. I don’t plan to tell anyone about this.”
“Thank you!”
But I saw the agents exchange covert glances.
Most likely, before long, agents from the Disaster Management Bureau’s Vermilion-Bird Unit would sweep into this village to ‘clean up’. In the process, they would probably carry out a large-scale, harmless memory erasure on the population…
I could only hope that Assistant Manager Eun Haje got out before then.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
Meanwhile, the agents got down to business.
“So, why were you looking at that well?”
“Well, I heard there’s a strange legend about this place. Something about it being connected to somewhere mysterious.”
Assistant Manager Eun Haje took out a cigarette from her pocket, but quickly put it back as she spoke.
“I’d heard rumors that weird things happen during this village’s festival, so I came to check it out…”
She tapped the well with her finger.
“Well. Doesn’t seem like there’s anything particularly odd.”
“Aha.”
Agent Choi nodded, as if he meant to help with her investigation, and pulled out a light source from his coat.
A lantern inhabited by a dokkaebi.
The red, flickering light brightened the shadows of the well for a moment.
“Here, let me shine a light for you!”
“…Do you really have to use that?”
“Yes, yes.”
Agent Choi replied with a smile.
“And you know, this lantern can also sense danger!”
“Aha.”
“See? The color changes, right? When it flickers this red—”
“And when it flickers?”
“It means there’s something non-human nearby.”
“……”
“……”
“Who are you?”
Silence.
“The one who guided us earlier was definitely human, but you… You’re not human, are you?”
“……”
The thing in the shape of Assistant Manager Eun Haje lifted its head.
That faint, gentle smile on her face.
“You’re quick on the uptake.”
“……!”
“Hello, agent! We’ve met before, haven’t we?”
“Agent Choi!”
Agent Bronze hastily moved to defend, but Agent Choi held him back with a gesture.
Even so, the being in the shape of Assistant Manager Eun Haje spoke with a gentle, kind expression she would never normally wear.
“Ah. What I asked this person to do was definitely something else, but it seemed like she was heading somewhere strange. So I’m assisting her personally.”
Director Ho.
Whether he was disguised or merely controlling her, it was him.
Director Ho, wearing Assistant Manager Eun Haje’s appearance, was standing in front of us.
“By any chance, do you have something to say to me?”
No.
‘He’s trying to provoke us!’
We must not talk to Director Ho any further here. Agent Bronze was present.
‘Agent Choi might break the binding right here…!’
Even if not, it could drag in Agent Bronze. Or Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
Again. It was all happening again.
‘No.’
I clenched my teeth, searching for a chance to cut in. Just as I was about to force my way into the conversation—
“Well, that’s perfect. This’ll be even easier. …As long as we know who it is.”
Agent Choi raised his cleaver and pointed.
…At me.
“…?!”
“Grapes-ie.”
“Agent Choi, what are you—”
Chalang, chalang.
“It’s been hard, hasn’t it?”
“……”
“It’ll be alright now.”
Chalang, chalang.
“Your binding.”
“……?!”
What was he suddenly saying, and at a time like this……
……
‘…Wait.’
I realized.
Right. Agent Choi really couldn’t speak of last night’s events to anyone, because of the binding.
That I was a spy.
That I planned to leak information from the Disaster Management Bureau.
Even the fact that he himself was bound by a supernatural restriction.
‘All of that is forbidden.’
But.
“I thought about it… and realized there’s something I can do.”
The restriction on talking about me was an exception.
The fact that ‘one of our agents is under a supernatural binding imposed by a supernatural being’ is not one of the prohibited topics.
He could attempt to break that binding for me as much as he wanted.
“…!”
“I had a hell of a time finding the right person at Seoraksan.”
Agent Choi looked up at the sky.
“Welcome.”
So it’s you
Fox spirit
You accursed thing
The back of my hand began to burn.
[goblin note]
Short background on the fox spirit 호귀(狐鬼):
There are many animal spirits that appear in East Asian folklore, and the fox spirit is a recurring image in many stories. Among the many tales that it appears in, it is acknowledged as a beast with high intelligence and is an antagonist to hunters and farmers with its cunning intellect. But on the flipside, it is also recognized as a helpful spirit (and a god of abundance in some regions) for eating mice that cause harm to agriculture and harvests.
Apart from this, the fox spirit is also depicted as a shape-shifting entity, taking on various forms with different meanings, powers and characteristics. (Sources: en.namu.wiki/w/여우%20설화, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_spirit)
Additionally, the Gumiho 구미호 or nine-tailed fox is one of the most known iterations of the fox spirit in ancient folklore. (Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumiho)
[p.s.]
Arguably, however, 호귀 could also be interpreted as a tiger spirit/demon (虎鬼) from the Joseon era. The author didn’t provide any hanja, so take what you will.
Both 호귀 (fox/tiger) and 호랑 (tiger) have ‘Ho’ as the first syllable so… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
[p.p.s.]
Damn I’ve been reading on the web version of KKP all this time and only recently realized that author-nim used different fonts here and there… I’ll do my best to adopt those features in my translation moving forward, and I’ll also try to review past chapters and tweak them too. But we’re at chapter 200 now so it may take a bit of time ^^;;
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