Chapter 33

“I’m the one who chose for you to come.”

She didn’t yield a single word.

Hisa smiled quietly as she heard Hong Yeom-rang speak.

Whether she did or not, he roughly grabbed the yellow robe floating in the water and wrapped it around her body.

It was frustrating that she still didn’t realize what she had been showing.

“You insolent thing!”

Just then, with a booming shout, the tip of a cane flew in and aimed right for Hisa’s head.

Even Hong Yeom-rang hadn’t sensed anyone approaching.

In an instant Hisa slipped from his arms and ducked under the water.

Smack!

The cane struck Hong Yeom-rang on the head instead.

Before he could even knock it away, the cane flew back to its owner.

An old woman stood among the mossy rocks.

Who knew when she’d arrived.

Leaning on the very cane that hit him, she frowned deeply in displeasure.

“You brat! Get out at once! I told you not to enter my medicinal spring!”

Ignoring Hong Yeom-rang completely, the old woman shouted again.

Hisa peeked her head out of the water.

Then she looked once at Hong Yeom-rang’s forehead, the place hit in her stead, and gently rubbed it with her wet hand.

“What is this.”

He narrowed his eyes and spoke.

As if the old woman’s shouting hurt her ears, Hisa hunched her shoulders like a child being scolded.

Only Hong Yeom-rang found the old woman strange.

The old woman kept hounding only Hisa.

The cane kept flying toward her without pause.

It was clearly a cane that should reach only the old woman’s waist, yet it stretched two or three times longer.

It bonked Hisa’s head over and over, then snapped back to normal length.

“Ow! Ah! Ah!”

“This is a monster too?”

“Monster? M-monster? Insolent wretch!”

The old woman, who had ignored Hong Yeom-rang completely, flew into a rage at the word monster and sent the cane at him.

He caught the tip in midair just before it struck his face.

The cane stuck to his palm.

Immense force bore down on him.

“A monster indeed.”

No old woman should have this kind of strength.

Having reached that neat conclusion, Hong Yeom-rang yanked the cane.

“Oh-ho!”

Then began a pure tug of war.

The old woman trying not to lose the cane.

Hong Yeom-rang trying to seize it.

She kept shouting, “Insolent boy! Insolent boy!”

But he didn’t let go.

His left shoulder, which had been healing, began aching again.

Hong Yeom-rang had gripped the cane with both hands.

Meanwhile the old woman still held it one-handed.

Stupid.

He hadn’t brought his sword.

“Go get my sword.”

He said to Hisa.

“She owns this medicinal spring. Bow first. This is Granny Yaksa, and Granny, this is… ah!”

Just as Hisa tried introducing them, the old woman suddenly pulled back the cane.

It slipped from his grasp.

Then immediately darted back to smack Hisa’s head again.

She let out a small cry.

“I told you never to show your face here again!”

“It’s fine. I don’t come this way much. This is the far edge of the spring. Granny doesn’t usually come here. We just got unlucky today.”

Even while the old woman shouted at her, Hisa smiled and said that to Hong Yeom-rang.

The cane flew again.

Before it hit her head, his hand covered the top of her small head.

“Oh?”

A welt rose across the back of his hand like he’d been whipped.

Still Hong Yeom-rang didn’t move it.

His mind was full only of how to drag that old woman in with her strange tricks.

He measured the distance.

Too much yang energy for a human.

Far too fierce an aura.

The expression vanished from Granny Yaksa’s face.

“So you’re the one who dared draw the blood of a sacred being.”

“Rang got hurt too. Look here.”

“After drawing sacred blood, if your arms and legs are still intact, then you were punished too lightly.”

Hisa pointed at Hong Yeom-rang’s shoulder.

Granny Yaksa ignored it.

“Sacred being? I don’t know anything about that.”

Hong Yeom-rang tilted his head.

He rolled his aching shoulder and raised one angry lip corner.

“You brought another one just like you. Insolent little wretches!”

The cane struck both their heads faster than the eye could follow.

Hong Yeom-rang still shielded Hisa’s head one-handed.

Slowly he moved his feet in the water.

Guiding Hisa closer toward the rocks.

“You who are not even human! Not even human! I told you never to appear before me until you died!”

Granny Yaksa kept thumping Hisa’s head as if deeply offended.

Thanks to that, a dark bruise bloomed across Hong Yeom-rang’s hand.

She hit hard enough to scold.

Not kill.

Like an adult punishing a child.

There was no killing intent.

But Hong Yeom-rang disliked seeing Hisa being scolded.

His hand felt over the rocks.

And when the cane focused entirely on Hisa, he put force into his arm and hurled the stone in his hand at the old woman.

“Aigo! Aigo! A young brute abuses a weak old woman!”

The stone didn’t even hit.

The old woman had dropped to the ground and burst into loud wailing.

Cunning old thing.

Not a tear in sight, but her cries were enormous.

Wondering what she’d do next, Hong Yeom-rang picked up a bigger stone.

“Yeom-rang, don’t.”

All the hwandan the goblins made belonged to Granny Yaksa.

Hong Yeom-rang didn’t remember eating any.

But if he harmed her, she’d never stop screaming about it.

So Hisa stopped him.

She knew Granny disliked that Hisa used this side of the spring.

And yet of all days she appeared today.

“Throw it then, boy. I’ll strip every bit of my hwandan out of your body!”

Maybe the older one lived, the better memory became.

As if mocking Hisa’s worry, Granny brought it up herself.

“What?”

“The inhuman strength you have is all because of hwandan made by this very body. It wasn’t made for mere humans. Now get down and bow at once!”

“Granny, if he bows down in here he’ll drown.”

Hisa quietly objected.

This was the medicinal spring.

Without understanding why, Hong Yeom-rang’s mood sank.

Had Hisa fed him hwandan while he was unconscious?

Then maybe that was why his shoulder pain faded so quickly.

“You insolent thing, don’t open your mouth!”

Granny flared up at Hisa again.

Hong Yeom-rang realized something subtle.

He had been the disrespectful one.

Yet the old woman was much angrier at Hisa.

And as if being scolded were natural, Hisa only smiled timidly.

As though trying to prove you can’t spit at a smiling face.

“How can something not human still wander the living world!”

Unable to bear the sight of creatures like this, Granny Yaksa wailed.

Hong Yeom-rang casually tossed the stone meant for her into the air and caught it again.

Then asked,

“Is Granny human? Doesn’t seem so.”

He hit the mark.

He couldn’t overpower her.

Had no proper weapon.

Hisa looked troubled.

It had been fine when he called her a monster.

But hearing it from Granny’s mouth made him dislike it intensely.

This place was full of things that weren’t human.

Yet only Hisa was branded like a sinner.

“Granny is a god.”

Hisa explained gently.

Not a monster.

Not the young mountain deity from yesterday.

Now a god.

“Oh, now it’s a god? This mountain really runs a fine little world.”

He’d reacted the same way when he saw Baek-ah.

Even when Hisa quietly said the other was a god, he stayed indifferent.

So what.

How many nonhuman beings had he seen by now.

Even if the Jade Emperor himself appeared, he felt he’d just accept it.

Everyone in these mountains lived quite cozily.

But why was this old woman, old enough to know better, acting like this toward Hisa.

Hong Yeom-rang simply hated it.

It felt similar to when the white tiger claimed Hisa belonged to him.

“Judging by that head of yours, you’re an ungrateful bastard who knows nothing of your parents’ grace!”

Granny Yaksa’s attention finally shifted from Hisa to Hong Yeom-rang.

His tone had done it.

She pointed sternly at his head and shouted.

“You shouldn’t point fingers at someone with no respect for rank. You’ve lived long enough to know that, Granny.”

As the cane shot toward his face again, longer than before, Hong Yeom-rang threw his full body weight down on it.

The old woman had expected him to yank as before.

She faltered.

The cane plunged down into the water.

He seized the moment and lifted his knee to his navel.

Then stomped hard on the bent part of the cane.

Crack.

He felt it split under his foot.

Hong Yeom-rang smiled in satisfaction.