episode_0086
by fnovelpiaWhen it comes to magic of yokai, it is similar to the black magic used by wizards.
As evil as it is, it has a fatal weakness: the moment it is cast, it leaves a mark that cannot be erased unless it is divine magic.
Of course, if a group curse was cast using a wide-ranging spell, it would be difficult to pinpoint the starting point, but that wasn’t the case in this case.
There was an easy starting point.
Bailan, the number of deer that died before the curse became rampant.
According to Seira’s information, the palace medical school will be managing the body without incinerating it. They said it was because he was the first person to die from the curse and there was a lot to check.
So Lin went to Wangseong Medical School. Karami wasn’t brought along.
Being with him would limit your actions, and unlike Lin, with his fragile body, there was a high chance that the curse would spread.
Lin was anxious about being separated from Karami, but it was something she couldn’t help.
Lin infiltrated the royal medical school and discovered a room with particularly tight security. Guards wearing armor were standing guard.
But infiltration is nothing to Rin. Rin has practiced disguise and stealth more diligently than any other magic.
A disguise to suit Karami’s taste. A hiding technique to spy on Karami, who doesn’t wash together after growing up.
I am confident that I am better at these two things than anyone else in the world.
-Ugh.
The gumiho, who read Rin’s dirty thoughts, let out a sigh that welled up from the depths of her heart. Even though gumihos are optimized for captivating people, they are still called gumiho.
If it’s a process of sucking up energy, then I don’t understand. The fact that it’s just to please a single human’s heart is just complicated.
Lin, who had been looking down from the ceiling, landed lightly. The guard glared at the outsider who had fallen from the sky and stuck his spear out.
“What the hell are you!”
“Be quiet. Lin’s ears hurt.”
“Yes, I understand!”
When Lin gave the order, the guards lowered their spears in response like swords. The soldiers’ eyes were dazzling.
It was Lin’s fascination.
I was confident in both disguise and hiding, but nothing beats illusion to enter a secret room.
“Open the door.”
The guard, who was picking up his armor, opened the door with a key.
“I’m waiting.”
“Yep.”
After getting past the guards without much trouble, Lynn was able to find the isolated body of Baylan.
As previously reported, the body was black as if it had decayed. It was a sign of a curse. There were also traces of the witchcraft that had not disappeared, and a very small amount of magical power remained.
It’s such a small amount that an ordinary person wouldn’t notice it, but if you’re a fellow monster and have the nine-tailed fox’s Ilyeongan, it’s not difficult to read the traces.
Lin examined Bailan with a single glance.
The rising fragments of destiny. The number of fragments of Bailan was incomparably smaller than that of Karami, and could be counted with the eyes.
No matter how much the nine-tailed fox twisted fate, it had no effect on the dead.
Lin looked into the black-tinted shards among the debris scattered in the air.
Then, the process that pushed Bailon to the fate of death, the trajectory of fate, was revealed.
close.
An encounter with a rat in a strange state.
At that moment, Bailan’s fate became uncertain.
-Hey, he’s not infected, he’s been cursed.
Found the host.
The next move has been decided.
***
The city’s clock tower.
Lin stood on the sharp tip.
Standing at the highest point of the city, looking down on the ground.
Based on the information just now, I had to find the Rat-Man, but he wasn’t easy to find. The curse that had spread throughout the city was like a spider web, interfering with it.
Even though the nine-tailed fox’s Ilyeongan could capture only what it wanted, Rin was still not good at using it. So the nine-tailed fox had no choice but to give it some additional advice.
Lin moved her fingers. She made two fox hands, attaching her middle and ring fingers to her thumbs.
The little finger of the left hand and the index finger of the right hand.
Cross your left index finger and right little finger together. Then, release the remaining fingers to create a hole in the center.
Fox window.
Looking at the world through the fox window.
Then, what Lin was looking for began to appear outside the hole. The fateful trajectory of contact between Baylon and the Rat. Lin could see something like a red thread connecting the two.
The thread headed down to the city.
Lin found her way straight into the basement.
In the underground, there was a home for beastmen such as rat beastmen and mole beastmen. Although not as large as above ground, the underground was also large enough.
But the moment I entered the underground tunnel, I no longer needed to use my eyesight. There was a putrid smell that made me wrinkle my nose.
Lin followed the scent and found the rat man he had seen in Bailan’s fate.
She, the host, had long ago been abandoned by her own kind and was literally rotting away in a pile of dirt. Her body was in a state where it would not have been strange if she had died, but she did not die.
The reason the monk had taken special measures was to spread the curse even a little more. Even now, ominous auras were spreading in all directions.
Lin, who had blocked the cursed energy with her magical powers, closely checked the condition of the rat man.
“Can you save me if you remove the curse?”
-Your body is rotting, so there’s no way you can live by lifting the curse. Why, do you want to save me?
“Because it happened because of Lin.”
The gumiho snorted.
-Should I thank you for saving her life? Of course not. Rather, it would be better if she didn’t blame me for what happened.
Lin has also experienced it. He remembers saving an adventurer in danger and then getting blamed for it instead.
As Rin was lost in thought, the nine-tailed fox began to tell stories into Rin’s head.
-Since ancient times, the nine-tailed fox has been born with the qualities of a king. He is the king of monsters who only looks up without having to look down or to the sides.
“No need to look back?”
-Because a king always stands alone. In order to reign, you must forget how to stand by someone’s side or how to sacrifice for others. You just have to climb up and look down on the world.
The nine-tailed fox that entered Rin’s body was able to see many things inside her.
solitude.
distrust.
Those two things took up most of her.
I don’t know if it was because she was influenced by the gumiho, or because Rin lived that kind of life. Whatever it was, Rin was very similar to the gumiho.
If you dig into that part, it’s also about raising Rin as a nine-tailed fox similar to herself──
“What are you talking about? Lin has an owner.”
-huh?
“And there is Seira, although not as much as the owner. Don’t think of Rin as the same as you.
-… … .
Lin didn’t even flinch at the gumiho’s sweet whispers. The gumiho raised her eyebrows slightly at the unexpected reaction.
Is it because I’m a gumiho that I have a high immunity to charm?
That may be true, but the gumiho felt something else flowing out from inside Rin.
An overwhelming sense of trust that cannot be broken by any sweet words. A firm belief that one will never be betrayed by one’s master.
In front of that iron fortress, the nine-tailed fox’s temptation was nothing more than a breath of wind.
-I see~ Sorry. I was mistaken. Lin had a wonderful master~
“Okay, I know.”
It seemed that Lin couldn’t be shaken by normal methods. In that case, all that was needed was to change the strategy.
-Then, shall we quickly catch the traitor and go be praised by our wonderful master?
“The owner told me to come back when I found the clue?”
-You have to sneak up and catch them to gain their favor. It’s called a surprise gift.
Lin was thinking deeply.
That sounds plausible.
It’s an opportunity to show how much you’ve grown.
“Okay.”
Lin nods.
Check out the trajectory of the Rat Man’s fate.
A monk who had been strayed from his precepts and encountered them on the streets at night. When he used sorcery with his stone-holding hand, the fate of the rat-man was instantly tinged with darkness, just like in the case of Bailan.
Lin was soon able to pinpoint the location of the apostate monk.
It wasn’t far away.
***
The underground water of Vestia.
The monk knelt down and slowly extended his hand into the water. From his fingertips submerged in the water, a black haze slowly spread out like a living organism.
The once white and transparent groundwater began to become cloudy.
The curse spread by dotting the area with rats was effective. Not only did it spread throughout Vestia, but it also spread to other cities and kingdoms without the knowledge of those in the dormant period.
But that wasn’t enough. Their quick response prevented them from penetrating deep, so another method was needed.
Unlike monsters who can survive on water alone, living things cannot survive without water, so he intended to pollute the water. If this were to happen, it would flow all the way to the royal palace of Bestia.
If you absorb the energy of the incapacitated people, and even the power of the nine-tailed fox… you will more than be able to evolve into a higher-level entity.
The satisfied smile of the monk was reflected in the pitch-black underground water.
Crackle, crackle.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps walking through the wet underground waterway was heard. The monk turned his head and looked at a fox girl approaching from the darkness.
Pink hair tied to the sides. Odd eyes, one golden and the other blue, are the unmistakable marks of a nine-tailed fox.
But when he saw the six tails waving, the monk’s mouth twitched slightly. He lowered his head to hide his face.
“I am nothing more than a speck of floating dust. I consider it an honor to dare to stand before you, the Ghost King and the Nine-Tailed Fox.”
“Why do you speak like that?”
-A mere mortal welcomed the King of Monsters, so that’s how it should be. Your surroundings are strange.
To the eyes of the monk who could neither see nor feel the nine-tailed fox, Rin appeared to be talking to herself. She continued speaking without paying attention.
“I wanted to come see you in person, but I didn’t know you would come to me in person like this.”
“I didn’t know you’d come here spreading such evil spirits. You’re just advertising to tell people to come.”
Finding the renegade monk was like eating porridge.
There was no need to chase the trajectory of fate.
Because the rat Suin was directly hit by the curse of the monk who broke the precepts, the evil power was concentrated in him. The same stench of energy was leaking out from the underground water pipe.
“However, Your Majesty… From what I can see with my limited eyes, it doesn’t seem like you have the full form of a nine-tailed fox yet.”
“You can tell just by looking at it, right?”
“The majesty of the Six-Tailed Fox alone has brought you here, which is enough to scare a small creature like me… But I am worried that you have come here in an imperfect state, which is a bit too much.”
To put it simply, it meant that a mere six-tailed fox came looking for her without even understanding the subject. She was so intoxicated by the glorious past that she seemed vaguely like she was a nine-tailed fox.
But it was perfect because it was close to the original purpose of the monk who broke the precepts. The monk who broke the precepts struck down the rusted stone.
Dingle, dingle~!
The rings and bells on the stone slab clashed, sending metallic sounds all around. The amulets placed throughout the underground waterway began to emit an ominous purple light all at once.
Threads that cover the space as if they are tightly woven. Threads that wriggle like snakes flow along the walls and ceiling, spreading a huge curtain that surrounds the underground water pipes.
A barrier from which neither escape nor intervention is possible.
The monk chanted softly.
“The net of heaven and earth.”
Lin, who was looking around the curtain that had suddenly surrounded her in all directions, asked.
“What is Cheonrajimang?”
-Oh, that’s right. It means a garbage net that is absolutely pierced and can’t catch even a single ant.
It was visible in the eyes of the nine-tailed fox who spoke like that.
What will happen to Cheonrajimang?
-Okay, let’s stop worrying about that kind of crap and continue with class. We have a suitable opponent.
The gumiho placed a hand on Rin’s shoulder and curled the corners of her mouth.
That sight seemed to be a proxy battle on Rin’s behalf, like the Ghost King.
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