Chapter 20

“Whiiine…”

“Noona! Noona! Hyung! Is Noona dying? Huh? Is she dying?”

“Grrr!”

Ran smacked Vio—who had transformed into a human—with his paw, telling him to shut his mouth.

Then he paced anxiously around Silia, whining.

Vio was still too small to carry her.

In the middle of the snow-covered field, Silia’s eyelids finally closed.

“Waaah! Noona! Don’t go! Waaah!”

At that moment, Ran’s presence vanished.

Then a fresh breeze seemed to pass by.

A sweet, rich floral fragrance came with it.

Flowers? In the middle of winter?

Thinking that, Silia forced her eyes open.

Then she nearly jumped out of her skin.

Someone was carrying her.

“Shh.”

Silia immediately reached for the dagger hidden on her body.

But she froze.

Silver fur fluttered before her eyes.

No.

It wasn’t fur.

It looked like hair.

In her blurred vision, beautiful silver hair flowed wildly like waves.

A low, calm voice spoke to the tearful Vio.

“Vio. Stop crying and wait in the backyard.”

For a moment, her consciousness faded again.

When she came to, it felt as if her wandering soul had been pulled back into her body.

Someone was laying her down on a bed.

A boy.

A boy standing on the threshold of adulthood, still retaining traces of youthful innocence.

The boy stared directly at Silia with beast-like golden eyes.

Then he said quietly,

“You need to take your clothes off.”

She couldn’t understand what he was saying.

The pain was wringing out her reason.

It felt as though even her organs were twisting from agony.

As she buried her face in the pillow and gasped for breath, a gentle voice reached her ears.

“Silia.”

The boy called her name soothingly.

Then he cut away her clothing.

There was nothing in his hands.

Yet the fabric split in a straight line as though sliced by a blade.

Silia no longer had the strength to resist.

She could only breathe heavily.

Then she noticed it.

His fingernails were as sharp as knife blades.

They were not human nails.

A yokai.

Her sweat-damp eyelashes trembled.

“Ran…?”

“Shh.”

Pulling aside the torn fabric, he gently turned her onto her side.

The skin around her left shoulder was grotesquely shriveled where the burn-like mark remained.

Ran’s eyes narrowed as he examined it.

When he had still been in fox form, he had smelled this scent once before.

At the time, he had been recovering and incapable of thinking clearly.

He had never smelled it again.

But now, seeing it up close, something felt wrong.

With her clothes removed, the scent was much stronger.

“You’ve got something sinister attached to you.”

“It really is you? Ugh… No. Don’t touch it.”

Panting, Silia shook her head.

“It’s a curse. You’ll get hurt if you touch it.”

Ran’s luminous golden eyes turned toward her.

He watched her silently for a moment before looking back at her shoulder.

Silia wanted to see his human face properly.

But her vision was too blurry.

Ran finally showed me his human form…

For some reason, Ran disliked transforming into a human.

This was a side of himself he had finally trusted her enough to reveal.

Yet she couldn’t even see his face clearly.

The thought saddened her.

“You call this a curse? I don’t think so.”

“What?”

“It’s eating you. Very deliciously.”

His expression remained calm.

“Rather than a curse… it’s closer to a yokai.”

A yokai?

Her thoughts spun in confusion.

“It’s feeding on your holy power and your life force. Strange. How is a yokai able to consume holy power?”

“That… ngh…”

The room began spinning.

She even started retching.

Meanwhile, Ran murmured calmly,

“It would be dangerous to remove it recklessly. At the very least, we need to wait until I’ve reached adulthood.”

Silia couldn’t answer.

She had already lost consciousness.

---

At this rate, Silia would not live much longer.

The black presence parasitizing her shoulder had already drained her nearly to her limit.

A noble woman.

One who had never even taken a bite for herself.

Ran stood watching her with narrowed eyes.

A holy knight whose kind heart was as transparent as clear water.

And who, in turn, looked through others just as clearly.

He stared at her for a long time, deep in thought.

Then he slowly approached the bed.

His long silver hair flowed like a river of starlight.

His sharp jaw tilted slightly.

Lowering his head toward Silia’s face—

He opened his mouth.

And pushed the brilliant silver-white orb inside into her mouth.

---

Silia’s eyes snapped open.

The moment she sat up, a horrible wave of dizziness hit her.

She groaned and grabbed her head.

Then a strange voice completely captured her attention.

“If you move suddenly, it’ll be hard on your body.”

She whipped her head around.

A boy was sitting beside the bed with one leg crossed over the other, looking down at her.

“Your body is struggling to accept what’s mine.”

Silia stopped breathing.

She stared at him carefully.

Silver hair more brilliant than moonlight flowed along the line of his delicate jaw.

His fox-like eyes curved upward in a smile.

His lips were strangely red, like ripe cherries.

He was clearly a boy.

Yet somehow he looked like a dangerously beautiful man smiling knowingly.

The heavy, intoxicating aura surrounding him only enhanced that impression.

This feels… mismatched.

Even the smallest gesture seemed meaningful and seductive.

Silia felt strangely unsettled.

This is Ran?

Ran, who used to cry “Kyuu, kyuu” so adorably whenever he saw her.

He had spent all this time in the form of a little fox.

Words weren’t enough to describe how cute he had been.

But the boy before her…

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

No matter how she looked at him—

He was the exact opposite of cute.

Silia was so shocked she couldn’t speak.

Her belief that Ran would grow into an adorable adult fox shattered like trash blowing down a street.

Honestly, it felt unfair.

How could anyone possibly believe this boy and that adorable fox were the same person?

Ran’s tone cooled slightly.

“What? Now that I’m human, do I look enchanting?”

“Ah.”

Only then did Silia realize he was tense.

Not because he felt awkward.

Not because he felt embarrassed.

It was wariness.

Silia’s face gradually hardened.

The scattered puzzle pieces in her mind were coming together.

A breathtakingly beautiful boy.

A gumiho capable of bewitching humans.

A creature whose appearance alone could captivate people.

A young gumiho who was not yet fully grown.

Silia already knew Ran had spent many years being hunted and captured by humans.

Fury boiled inside her.

“Did people hurt you?”

“…What?”

Ran’s eyes widened.

That was not the reaction he had expected.

“Did people do terrible things to you?”

“No. I escaped before they could.”

Ran answered slowly.

“For nineteen years.”

A gumiho who had spent his entire life running.

---

“You must raise this fox spirit yourself.”

“I don’t want to see a heavenly fox become a demon of hell. Listen to me. Understood?”

---

Had that divine maiden known something?

If Silia had known things would turn out this way, she would have asked more questions.

Rubbing her face roughly, she said,

“You’ve grown a lot. You always looked like a baby fox before.”

“This form is still young. It just doesn’t look that way because of my natural allure.”

Ran said it matter-of-factly.

Natural allure…?

Silia looked horrified.

“What allure? You’re still just my cute little fox.”

“For someone saying that, you looked pretty disappointed.”

Ran laughed softly when she couldn’t deny it.

The mischievousness he showed in fox form briefly surfaced.

Only then did Silia smile as well.

“What about Vio?”

“He’s playing in the backyard.”

“And you’ve eaten enough life force?”

“I took care of it myself. Don’t worry.”

Silia’s gaze shifted to his clothes.

“Who gave you those?”

Ran’s youthful face immediately twisted.

“Shula.”

“You should call him Priest Shula.”

Silia swung her legs off the bed as if preparing to stand.

Then she suddenly frowned and grabbed her stomach.

Something felt wrong.

It felt as though something foreign had settled deep inside her.

…This is uncomfortable.

It wasn’t hers.

Something unfamiliar had forced its way into her body.

It felt uncomfortable.

Unnatural.

As if her body might burst.

She doubled over, groaning.

Then a dry, warm hand gently rubbed her stomach.

“Does it hurt?”

Silia shoved his hand away.

“No. Don’t worry about it.”

“How can I not worry?”

Ran looked at her.

“Something that belongs to me is inside you.”

Silia frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“My fox bead. You swallowed it.”

“Fox bead?”

“The orb formed from all the life force I’ve accumulated mixed with my spiritual power. It’s the crystallization of my yokai energy.”

Silia’s face turned pale.

“Why would you give me something like that?”

“Take it back.”

“If I do, you’ll die. You have to keep it.”

“Use honorifics when speaking.”

The last thread of Ran’s patience seemed ready to snap.

“You really never change, whether I’m a fox or a human.”

“Because you’re still Ran.”

Silia answered naturally.

“My lovable fox.”

“…”

“Ugh. This is so uncomfortable.”

Ran stared at her silently.

Then he cleared his throat.

“How exactly does it hurt? Tell me.”

His speech was a mixture of formal and informal language now.

Silia decided to ignore it.

The truth was, she felt awful.

“This fox bead… is it really safe for humans?”

“It’s better than an immortality herb. Better than any medicine. Better than even a dragon pearl. At least for humans.”

“Then why do I feel like this?”

“Does everything ache? Does it feel like your stomach is going to burst?”

“…I think I’m going to throw up.”

“Urgh—”

Clamping a hand over her mouth, Silia bolted toward the bathroom.

Ran hurried after her anxiously.

He didn’t even realize he was doing it.