Living with the Dangerous Beast-Chapter 112: Too Insufferable to Ignore

Pausing, Noksu looked back.

“The world is full of swindlers.”

“Y, yes.”

For reasons she couldn’t quite grasp, a chill ran down her spine as she nodded in agreement.

“If even rabbits leave their livers behind, how could fox tails, far more valuable, be left unguarded?”

“That’s true... They are exceptional treasures, indeed.”

Sohwa flicked her tail, now in her fox form. Its glossy white fur gleamed in the sunlight, each strand shimmering like fine jewelry.

This tail alone had ensnared countless victims, too many to count.

But if she had nine tails...

“Every mountain has secret spots where foxes hide their tails during training. Luckily, I found one.”

As her tail swished with satisfaction, Sohwa hesitated.

“Is it right to take someone else’s tail?”

“Finders keepers.”

“Well, that is true....”

“You should worry about returning home instead.”

Noksu added with a hint of sharpness.

“Once you have all nine, your backside gets so heavy it’s hard to walk.”

“That sounds like a hassle. By the way, what color are these abandoned tails?”

“Some are brown, others black.”

“That’s a relief. My body’s white, but my tail is dark. It would have been embarrassing otherwise.”

If even her tail had been white, how ridiculous it would have looked—one snowy tail among eight brown ones.

People would surely suspect she had picked up the others from somewhere.

“Here we are.”

At last, Noksu stopped.

They had reached a deep, uncharted forest, a place even Sohwa had never visited before.

A slender stream flowed through, and towering trees cast shadows where only moss managed to grow.

“This is the spot. Start searching.”

“Thank you.”

Sohwa eagerly began searching but quickly paused.

“It must have been a nightmare for you to meet us. Consider this an unfortunate experience to ward off even worse ones.”

She thought of all Noksu had lost—his cherished fan, his beloved geomungo, his bangsangsi mask, all ruined.

“If I truly become a gumiho, I won’t forget this kindness that you have granted me.”

Noksu smirked, hands behind his back.

“Go ahead. I’ll search as well.”

“All right.”

The deep forest was filled with rare herbs and wild greens, but no fox tails were in sight.

She dug into the ground, checked between rocks, and even looked up into the trees—nothing.

“Over here!”

Noksu called out, and Sohwa quickly lifted her head.

“Did you find one?!”

“Yes.”

Sohwa hurried over, but Noksu remained exactly where he had been standing.

“Are the tails really hidden here? Where are they?”

Startled, Sohwa looked around with wide, saucer-like eyes.

Just then, Noksu, who had been standing with his hands behind his back the whole time, brought one hand forward.

“Here.”

“A tail...!”

But her anticipation was quickly dashed when she saw what Noksu was holding—a simple stalk of green foxtail grass.

Sohwa tilted her head, inspecting the plant with confusion.

“This isn’t a fox tail, is it?”

‘Could it be some kind of magic, turning foxtail grass into an actual tail?’

As Sohwa pondered the possibility, her eyes drifted to Noksu’s hands.

“Wait... teacher, your hands... what happened to....”

His hands, once smooth like polished rice cakes, were now shriveled, wrinkled, and brittle like old parchment.

Clearly the hands of an elderly man.

Startled, Sohwa looked up at him—and leapt back with a gasp.

“Ahh!”

Gone was the youthful, charming fox dandy she had known as Noksu.

In his place stood a grumpy, gnarled old man with lines etched deep into his face, his presence heavy with years of bitterness.

Noksu.

Or rather, Hochun, his true name.

Once a gumiho who had lived for centuries in the northern reaches of Mount Taeryong, Hochun had drifted south, where he was jailed for adultery.

Recently, the destruction of the prison by an abrupt departure of an Imoogi had allowed him to escape.

“Even in a thousand years, I’ve never met a fool of a fox as dimwitted as you.”

He growled as he spoke.

With a flick, he tossed the stalk of foxtail grass to the ground.

Sohwa’s legs were trembling uncontrollably when he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, his grip steady and unrelenting.

“What, pick up tails? Attach them to your backside?”

It was an utterly ridiculous statement.

Even as he said it, the absurdity was clear to his own ears, and the fact that someone believed and followed him made it even more ludicrous.

“Hah, unbelievable.”

Noksu, now Hochun, smirked at Sohwa, who trembled in fear, his laughter laced with rasping breaths as his weakened lungs strained with each chuckle.

Each gasp carried a metallic undertone.

His frail body struggled to stand upright, with skin stretched taut over bones.

Yet his eyes, brimming with greed, gleamed with a disturbing intensity.

His withered body concealed a fierce and unsettling hunger for life, a desire that time had failed to extinguish.

That unnatural contrast was what made the nine-tailed fox so different from ordinary old men. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

Hochun, clearly feeling wronged, said indignantly.

“I intended to leave in peace, but that mountain lord of yours is too insufferable to ignore.”