Chapter 21

– Hisa, Hisa.

– Hisa, Hisa.

The goblins trailed after her, calling her name in soft voices. Hisa was always kind and gentle, yet now she didn’t respond to them at all. The corners of her lips, which used to lift even at the smallest thing, didn’t move no matter how much the goblins teased her.

As she headed deep into the mountain, toward a place no one in the mountain deity’s domain had ever reached, the goblins gradually fell away.

She shut her mouth, closed her ears, and refused to see anything.

It was always like that whenever Hisa came here. The goblins didn’t try to follow. They never stepped into a sacred place that wasn’t permitted to them.

That place belonged only to Hisa.

The moment she stepped past a certain boundary, the mountain’s lush greenery vanished.

How long must time pass for trees to become like this?

She had thought that the first time she came here. The trees had aged so much they had turned completely white. Even the grass beneath her bare feet was pale, dazzlingly white.

Neither sunlight nor moonlight reached this place.

If she stayed here long enough, she would forget how time even passed.

Between the white, spear-like trees, the entrance to a hidden cave appeared. As if returning to a mother’s embrace, Hisa quickened her steps.

Someone was already standing at the entrance.

Long white hair, bleached pale, hung in disarray. His gray eyes, still hazy with sleep, stared blankly into the air. Though he stood with his hands behind his back like an old man, he was a boy slightly smaller than Hisa. Wearing white cotton clothes, he scratched his cheek absentmindedly.

Even his nails were white.

The boy slowly turned his head and met Hisa’s eyes.

“You look like you haven’t even had a bowl of thin gruel.”

He blinked his sleepy eyes as he spoke.

“…I’ll eat later tonight.”

For the first time, words slipped from Hisa’s lips, despite how she had ignored the goblins.

Hong Yeom-rang said he would give her hair morning and night.

“Want mine instead?”

Even his eyelashes were white. His gray eyes still hadn’t fully woken. The boy smiled faintly, as if testing her.

He always knew when she was coming. Whenever Hisa entered this place, he would wake from a suffocating sleep.

Hisa always felt a little sorry, but the boy didn’t mind.

That sleep was suffocating, so he welcomed her visits.

At his offer, Hisa stepped closer. Then she raised her hand and measured his height against her own.

“You’ve grown a bit. It’s fine. There’s nothing to eat from something so small anyway.”

The boy’s brow furrowed.

The words “something so small” scraped at his nerves.

“Then why come to someone so small?”

Their eye levels were almost the same now. After another year, he would likely grow taller than her.

“I was wondering if I did something wrong.”

A white bird that had been perched on a branch fluttered down and landed on his shoulder. Annoyed, he flicked it away.

The boy knew everything happening in the mountain without even trying. He looked at her lazily.

“Something wrong?”

His voice turned sharp. The air itself grew heavier depending on his mood.

Even so, Hisa didn’t flinch.

“You brought me 180-year-old wild ginseng. What could you have done wrong?”

“You didn’t eat it, so I planted it back.”

“You pulled it out of someone else’s ginseng field and fed it to a human? And not just any human, but one overflowing with vitality?”

Even though she said he hadn’t eaten it, the boy still looked angry.

Everyone seemed to be angry at Hisa.

“Baek-ah, are you mad too?”

“This time I thought you finally brought a proper sacrifice instead of those useless ones. But look at you.”

At his words, Hisa spread her arms and looked down at herself. The yellow robe was still bright, not too torn by branches yet.

Baek-ah sighed.

She didn’t understand him at all. Instead, she looked like she was proudly showing off the fine clothes.

“…It’s pretty, right…?”

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re doing this on purpose just to annoy me. Like right now.”

Baek-ah narrowed his eyes.

He knew exactly why the man she chose as a sacrifice was angry. But he had no intention of explaining it.

“…Everyone’s mad at me…”

Hisa’s eyes drooped softly like a puppy’s. Baek-ah’s pale hand brushed lightly over her face.

“Eat mine. Looks like your sacrifice doesn’t want you.”

He flicked his long white hair toward her like bait.

Like a snake luring prey, he spoke slowly, as if he had all the time in the world.

“I’m the only one who can satisfy your hunger anyway.”

Baek-ah smiled brightly.

“No.”

“That’s a shame.”

When had she figured it out?

When he was younger, Hisa had survived by eating his hair. But at some point, she stopped. Even though she was always starving, she chose to accept sacrifices instead.

She didn’t come here as often anymore.

And most of all, she no longer looked hungry when she saw him.

Baek-ah knew it was because of the new sacrifice.

“You’re not growing. You need to grow faster, Baek-ah.”

See? She noticed.

Baek-ah clicked his tongue.

The more she consumed his vitality, the slower he grew. But he didn’t mind. Even if his growth slowed, there was nothing urgent for him.

But Hisa had noticed and stopped taking his vitality.

“If I grow up quickly, are you going to leave me?”

Hisa looked at him quietly.

“When you can fully rule this mountain, I’ll leave.”

“I saved you, Hisa.”

Sometimes Baek-ah deliberately said things like that.

So she wouldn’t forget the debt she owed him.

He never resented her for slowing his growth. He never told her to stop taking his vitality. She had figured it out on her own.

“It’s fun watching you care about humans.”

How long would Hisa continue to care for them?

Even as her memories faded, she still checked on her ginseng fields and handed out the treasures the goblins gathered to humans. Living in this mountain, she acted like the mountain deity itself, protecting people.

“I’ll let you live like this forever. So don’t leave.”

Baek-ah wrapped his arms around her waist. He buried his pale face into her neck and rubbed against her gently like a young beast.

She smelled nice.

His keen sense of smell was how he always found her. The goblins’ scented pouches used to mask her scent, which annoyed him, but now there was nothing to block it.

“I’ll become a real monster if I keep living like this.”

Hisa said it with a light laugh.

The moment she surpassed a human lifespan, maybe she already had.

Hong Yeom-rang had made that clear to her. Accepting sacrifices wasn’t something a messenger of the mountain deity should do. That was something monsters did.

“Are his words bothering you?”

Baek-ah whispered against her neck.

She couldn’t let herself be swayed. Her arms wrapped around his back, gently stroking his neck.

“No. He just tells the truth. So it’s fine.”

If she admitted it bothered her, Baek-ah might do something dangerous.

She had learned that much from being with him so long.

Though born as the mountain deity, he delayed fulfilling that duty. If he could delay it longer, he wouldn’t hesitate to harm humans.

Just like she wasn’t human, Baek-ah, despite his boyish form, wasn’t human either.

Hisa held the young beast softly and soothed him.

They were each other’s safest place.

Since they were very young, her embrace had been his only comfort. With just a little pat from her, his eyes began to droop again.

He shouldn’t fall asleep. If he did, she would disappear again.

“Sleep more. That way you’ll grow.”

“…I’ve grown enough… already.”

Normally he would have fallen asleep by now. But Baek-ah was bothered by that sacrifice who had unsettled her.

That reckless man, who didn’t know his place, kept stabbing at her with his words.

Until now, Baek-ah had liked him. All humans were like that, and he had been waiting for Hisa to grow disgusted with him.

He thought she came here because of him, because there was nowhere else to go.

But looking at her now, that wasn’t it.

As he closed his eyes under her familiar touch, the thought made the young mountain deity deeply uneasy.