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Chapter 34
Humans liked to talk.
Especially in front of a child, they relaxed even more and would whisper about anything. Thanks to that, I could hear plenty of interesting stories.
[They say the only son of Wi Jihak suddenly recovered his health. And that he happened to come across a physician who learned medicine in the Western Regions?]
[It’s quite well-known that the Wi family of the Eunrok Trading Company tends to be frail. It’s also widely known that the son is sick, so there must have been plenty of people swarming in, saying they’d try to cure him.]
[Medicine from the West? That’s something human medicine could never solve. How ridiculous. All of this is karma.]
[Karma? You mean the curse exists because of karma?]
I shook my head at the fox’s surprised question.
[Yes. Even so, they say he recovered, which is strange. He shouldn’t have recovered. Fox, do you know anything about this Western medicine?]
[Who knows. The Wi family did grab onto Western medicine like a drowning man clutching at straws, so it became a bit known… but I’ve never actually met one, so I don’t know much.]
I nodded at the fox’s answer.
[No wonder we’re being treated like cold leftovers. Wi Jihak hasn’t shown his nose around here since we arrived.]
[That must mean his goal has been achieved.]
[Who knows… He’ll probably come looking again before long.]
[…Because of that karma thing?]
[Yes. But we’d have to meet him in person to be sure…]
[The chance will come. Even if he seems half out of his mind with worry over his child, Wi Jihak isn’t the type to chase guests away.]
[If he does something like that, I ought to say something.]
[Restrain yourself, Mountain Lord. No human adult is going to obediently listen just because a child speaks sternly.]
Unhappy with the fox’s words, I headed toward the window.
[Jimjo.]
The guy, who was preening his feathers in the form of a black sparrow, swiftly fluttered down to the window frame.
[You called, Mountain Lord?]
[Sorry, but I have a favor to ask of you.]
[There’s nothing to be sorry about! I’ll do anything!]
I gently patted Jimjo’s back at his adorable reply.
[You’ve heard the talk, so you know this already, but it’s hard to believe the story that Wi Jihak’s son recovered. So use your good eyes and sharp ears to check it out. When you find out where he is, come straight to me.]
Jimjo’s eyes sparkled.
[You mean you want me to check on the child, right? Sure!]
[Oh, that kid will probably be in the biggest, most luxurious place with the least foot traffic. Keep that in mind.]
[Hmph. I could find him even without you saying that, Fox!]
[When you get back, I’ll prepare a poisonous herb from here that suits your taste.]
[I’ll observe really carefully and come back!!]
Delighted at my words, Jimjo spread his wings and fluttered up into the sky.
[Then I’ll head out too.]
[All right, go. A little kid wandering around can move without drawing attention more easily anyway.]
With that, I shot the fox lying straight down on the bed a brief glare and started walking.
As befitted the main headquarters of the Eunrok Trading Company, there were many people moving about.
People carrying neatly wrapped bundles in paper, people pushing carts piled with dried medicinal roots, people weighing goods on scales and haggling over the price…
But none of them paid any attention to me.
Of course, I was deliberately hiding my presence. Since everyone else here were adults, a child would normally stand out.
Thinking I should wander quietly through the corners, I moved as stealthily as possible.
If it hadn’t been for the clear purpose of finding the Eunrok Trading Company’s little one, this would’ve been a place I’d love to leisurely look around.
‘I want to grab a few of those and eat them.’
Some of the medicinal herbs looked appetizing, and I unconsciously swallowed.
But endure it. I’m still the Mountain Lord—stealing to eat would be disgraceful.
Suppressing the urge to swipe a few herbs and stuff them into my mouth, I hurried along.
My goal was clear: find the child who supposedly recovered.
‘Children are usually curious and lively.’
A child like that, who had been ill and suddenly became healthy, wouldn’t stay still.
On top of that, this place was full of people and things. A bustling place was exactly where a child would want to poke around.
‘There’s no way they’d let him go outside the trading grounds… right.’
No adult would let a child, who barely recovered from an illness, wander far. So I’d just search hard within the grounds.
I was thinking that as I walked when—
[Mountain Lord, I found him.]
Jimjo landed on my shoulder.
[Where is he?]
[He’s coming this way.]
[Hide yourself quickly.]
Jimjo swiftly flew to a nearby branch. I pretended not to notice and walked toward the direction of the child’s presence. Soon, I faced him.
“Oh?”
There was a thin, pale-faced boy.
He looked to be between ten and thirteen at most. When he saw me, he slowly blinked.
Even to someone like me, who didn’t know much about humans, the boy clearly looked sick.
His skin had a faint bluish tinge, his cheeks were sunken, and his thin arms occasionally peeked out from between his sleeves.
“Oh my, what’s a child doing here…?”
Beside that thin, pale boy stood a human woman whose complexion was just as poor.
She didn’t look particularly strong, but she had half-stepped forward to protect the child.
“Child, who are you?”
When the woman bent slightly and spoke to me, I hesitated briefly, then remembered what Sehwa had said.
“Lady Hyeryeong’s manner of speaking does not ill-suit you.”
“I came here accompanying my uncle. I stepped out for a bit to look around.”
I saw both of them freeze faintly.
“I see. I did hear we had an esteemed guest, but I never thought I would meet you like this.”
The woman responded first. Her somewhat formal tone suggested she was used to handling situations like this.
“There are many kinds of herbs, and many people coming and going. It is a fine place.”
“Thank you for saying so.”
“And this one? He doesn’t look well.”
Pretending to just now notice him, I pointed at the child and asked. The woman answered.
“He is my son. He recently suffered greatly from illness but has just gotten back on his feet.”
“…Ah. I have heard about that from my uncle.”
I stepped closer to the boy, curiosity in my eyes. The child flinched slightly, but he didn’t look away.
In his eyes, there was even more curiosity toward me.
‘As expected, a child. And as I thought… I smell blood.’
The amount of energy I felt from him wasn’t much, and judging by his clearly sickly condition, he hadn’t learned anything like what the Blood Cult teaches that would make him smell like that.
‘They even laid hands on such a fragile child?’
He looked like he’d die if you flicked him.
But humans laying hands on someone this weak wasn’t even surprising anymore.
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I reached out a hand.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Cheong Hyeryeong.”
The boy hesitated briefly and looked at his mother. When she nodded, he mustered up courage and reached out to hold my hand.
“My name is Wi Seogwang… sir.”
“You may speak comfortably.”
To ease his tension, I spoke lightly and let a faint stream of energy flow through my fingertips to check his condition.
‘…What is this?’
I sensed something strange.
I didn’t know human bodies well, but humans were all filled with vibrant life force.
But this boy wasn’t. He was like a candle that could go out at any moment.
‘Then why?’
At this level, feeling pain should’ve been normal.
Pain was the body’s warning signal. A sign that if you kept moving, your body would be irreparably damaged or you’d die.
But he didn’t seem aware of that.
While gently kneading the boy’s fingers, I examined him more carefully.
Then I found the answer to my question.
‘…This energy.’
It was something I had experienced before.
Not exactly the same, but similar to the murky energy that had been injected into my body when I was captured by the Blood Cult.
Much weaker than back then, unrefined even—but the very fact that such energy existed inside a human body was the problem.
If murky energy—even faint—entered such a fragile human body, what followed was obvious.
‘Those damned Blood Cult bastards.’
Realizing what the Blood Cult had done, I ground my teeth.
This was years before I myself had fallen into their hands, yet they had already been spreading their claws throughout the human world.
Making people believe this child had recovered… that illusion wouldn’t last long.
If a human child, thinking he was healed, kept overexerting himself like now…
‘He’ll die.’
Sometime soon. Definitely.
