Chapter 37

At some point, Hong Yeom-rang, who handed them warm freshly boiled pork and millet rice cakes, had become a little important to them.

It was the first time so many humans had entered searching for someone, but more than that, everyone was swallowing their saliva in regret at the thought they might not get to eat pork and millet cakes anymore.

The previous sacrifices had been dragged in from collapsing households where they foraged mountain greens themselves, let alone pork, so the goblins had never been able to satisfy any selfish appetite.

– We told Mr. Kim before Hisa. Mr. Kim, Mr. Kim, don’t forget our promise.

“Pig bastards.”

Humans or goblins, they all knew where to attach themselves.

Everyone but Hisa was worldly.

At Hong Yeom-rang’s sharp words, the goblins answered at once.

– Oink oink.

Hong Yeom-rang found it irritating how they acted close to him just because they had exchanged words a few times.

Hisa, who had gone ahead, had crouched down doing something.

Then she suddenly turned and ran back.

She held out both palms full of chestnuts for him to see.

The problem was she had opened the burrs and pricked her hands all over, blood dotting her fingers.

“Let’s roast chestnuts, roast chestnuts. Yeom-rang, you’ll eat them.”

To begin with, Hong Yeom-rang could have lived on dried meat or dried fruit the goblins left behind.

He wasn’t especially greedy for food.

And yet Hisa kept gathering things in the forest for him to eat.

“I only brought this much because the squirrels need some too.”

About ten plump chestnuts.

As if her stinging fingers didn’t hurt, Hisa said it excitedly.

A crooked remark nearly slipped out, but Hong Yeom-rang bit down on it.

He had been like that ever since meeting the old woman at the medicinal spring.

No matter how Hisa stood in front of him, she was too small to do much.

And yet what she had said to the old woman while blocking him kept returning to him.

“Granny, he’s my sacrifice. I didn’t bring him here to have you say things like that to him.”

What do you know about me to say that.

He had nearly said it then, and closed his mouth.

And now too.

What sense did it make.

The one he had treated as a monster was now taking his side.

And it was strange how satisfying he found that.

“Fine. Go roast them or whatever.”

That same scent as his drifted from Hisa.

The wind had been blowing against them since she walked over, carrying it.

Her little head sat below his eyes.

She was looking down at the chestnuts with satisfaction, not knowing where his gaze had gone.

Hong Yeom-rang opened his mouth.

And bit the crown of Hisa’s head.

“Ah!”

As his fangs dug into the top of her head, Hisa cried out.

Like the day they first met, she jumped in shock.

Hong Yeom-rang grabbed her wrist out of habit.

All he felt in his mouth and on his tongue was the stiff texture of hair.

Unlike when Hisa ate his hair, it didn’t melt.

Giving up on eating, Hong Yeom-rang lifted his lips away.

“Why did you bite me!”

As if wronged, Hisa threw down the chestnuts and rubbed the top of her head, shouting.

“If it’s something you can eat, I thought maybe I could eat it too.”

She had approached him defenseless, yet now leapt back two steps and frowned.

The feeling had been very strange.

As if lightning had struck the tips of her hair.

Only the damp breath and the sensation of a tongue licking over her head remained.

At that feeling, below her earlobe tingled, and a chill ran over her nape and down her back.

In Hong Yeom-rang’s eyes, goosebumps rising from beneath Hisa’s ear down her nape were visible.

Just enough raised to make him want to scratch at them with his nails.

He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together.

If he didn’t, he felt he really might scratch at that nape.

“…You can’t eat me because y-you have too much yang energy. I can’t eat you. You’re really strange.”

“Strange?”

Hong Yeom-rang furrowed one brow hard.

His head tilted.

Now the truly strange one who ate hair was calling him strange.

Ever since he grew bigger than anyone and taller than boys his age, no one had dared call him a child.

“Hey, did you just call me a child?”

Like a stubborn child plopping down after letting go of his mother’s hand, Hong Yeom-rang dropped right there, spreading both knees wide like a rogue.

Resting his arms carelessly on them, he asked.

Hisa hesitated instead of answering.

He pushed back his still damp hair and smiled coolly.

That little chestnut.

He swallowed the words.

Remembering how helpless she had been getting beaten by the old woman’s staff.

If she was a monster, she could at least use magic to dodge.

As it was, she knew less than a human in some ways.

“Y-you tried to eat me. That’s strange.”

“I let myself be eaten every day. Me trying it once and only leaving spit is strange?”

“Normal people don’t think like you, Yeom-rang.”

“I’m not a normal person.”

“W-why would you try to eat a monster?”

Hisa even stuttered in disbelief.

Because she ate him, he thought he could eat her too.

Hong Yeom-rang crooked his finger.

The hair he had swept back had already fallen into place again.

With his upper body exposed, just as he had once done before, he only crooked a finger.

As if if she didn’t come, he’d rise right now and pounce on her and swallow her whole.

“If you’re a monster, act like one. You stood there getting hit by that old woman’s staff and only the back of my hand got scraped. Miss, don’t go around calling yourself a monster. It’ll offend monsters who hear it.”

Hisa was dumbfounded at his shamelessness.

He called her monster to her face, then told her not to go around saying she was one.

With his legs spread and arms draped over his knees, he looked even more threatening.

The grand muscles and bones of the man made even the smallest movement stand out.

“Come here.”

Then he picked up one of the fallen chestnuts.

Chestnut blossom scent.

It was surely a chestnut fallen from the tree Hisa said smelled like chestnut blossoms.

Crunch. Crunch.

He sank his fangs in and chewed the raw chestnut.

Astringent, yet ripe enough to leave a sweet aftertaste.

It tasted just like Hisa.

As he crunched through the bitter chestnut, he never took his eyes off her.

“I cleaned up the dining table so nicely. Our lady should eat.”

I smell just like you right now.

He swallowed those words along with the chestnut.

After taking a bite of Hisa’s head like a nipping beast, Hong Yeom-rang soothed his idle mouth with an innocent chestnut.

His eyes had narrowed like a snake’s.

He watched Hisa.

Tiptoeing, she crept closer.

“Do I still smell?”

That wicked lewd scent.

Did she still smell like the scent from when he buried his nose where she slept and rubbed his cock there like a beast in rut.

As she came close, he asked.

With only a movement of his fingers, he tugged at the top she wore just above his knees.

Hisa’s arms wound around his neck on their own.

He pulled her waist in at once and settled his backside fully to the ground.

With both legs, he tangled around her as if trapping her completely.

Unaware of any of it, she lightly pressed her lips beneath his earlobe.

Like a young beast that knew nothing but food.

A small weak creature that knew only the moment its mother filled its belly.

Hisa had already eaten away the hair beneath his ear, so now he felt her breath above his earlobe.

“…No…”

Hisa’s answer came slowly.

As if melting and savoring precious nourishment in her mouth.

Gulp.

His throat bobbed hard.

Hong Yeom-rang didn’t let go of the body trying to pull away.

Hisa’s knees were pressed so close against the inner groin of his thighs that there was barely any space between them.

“Miss.”

He called to Hisa, who still couldn’t get out of his arms.

Deliberately he turned his head slightly and breathed sticky warm breath over her cheek and the tip of her ear pressed into his left shoulder.

Hisa’s body trembled.

“You really do like it when I call you miss.”

Hong Yeom-rang said it with a low laugh.

There was no one in the world but Hisa who liked him even when he spoke mockingly.

But from the moment Hisa asked him to call her miss, Hong Yeom-rang had stopped mocking her.

By the time he realized it, it was too late.

When was the last time he could even sneer when she smiled so softly at him calling her miss.

“It’s uncomfortable.”

Goosebumps rose again.

Hisa said it while twitching her shoulders.

When he intentionally bound her up with all his strength, moving was difficult.

“It’s fine. I’m comfortable.”

At that completely selfish answer, the strength drained from her body.

Thinking she only had to bear the discomfort alone, Hisa gave up trying to escape his arms.

She simply stayed still and waited.

Lowering the hand that had been around his neck, she patted his bare back with her palm until soft smacking sounds came.

Maybe because he had given her his jeogori, his body had gone cold.