The Cycle (3)

One must never

negotiate with terrorists.

Baek defined ‘goblins’ and ‘yokai’ as terrorists.

In fact,

if they accepted the proposal of the terrorist ‘goblins’ and forcibly made Miho manifest her ninth tail,

humanity could have welcomed peace.

Baek did not bother hiding this fact from those gathered.

It was a matter of trust.

Trust is important.

In this situation where they have joined hands with a non-human ‘spiritual being’, trust is more important than ever.

They were not bound by a contract,

nor did they form a superior-subordinate relationship.

The alliance between the spiritual being and humans is a relationship held together solely by trust.

If they needlessly hid facts only for them to be exposed later, it would just create trouble.

Even if,

by some means, they exterminated all the goblins and yokai,

it could give rise to another great evil.

That is what it means to break trust.

Naturally,

people made displeased expressions at Baek’s words.

“I fully understand the Director’s words, but…”

“Even so, joining hands with yokai is…”

“Lord Beast is a being that only appears in legends, his actual existence is doubtful…”

It’s not because they dislike Miho.

The people present here know better than anyone what kind of existence Miho is.

Not all those in high positions lack conscience.

They know how much Miho wants to protect humans,

and they trust her.

It was thanks to this trust in Miho that such a constructive conversation could continue.

If not for that,

by now Baek would have been branded a traitor to humanity and lost his position.

That is the kind of immense impact the words ‘the annihilation of humanity’ carry.

The discussion continued.

Of course, since Baek had put his foot down on ‘not negotiating with goblins’, everyone agreed on that opinion.

Even if it wasn’t Baek, they likely wouldn’t want to negotiate with mere goblins either.

Opinions were divided into two:

Those in favor of joining hands with yokai, and those opposed.

Naturally, all the martial artists who became so to beat yokai opposed it, except for Yi Haneul.

Thanks to Ho-jun taking control of the Taoist Society, the Taoists were in favor.

The heads of the Yokai Extermination Offices remained neutral.

The one who resolved this deadlock in opinions was not Baek, but Yi Haneul.

Crack!

Yi Haneul struck the table with a goblin’s rod.

The table turned to dust and vanished.

Let me repeat that – not shattered into pieces, but turned to dust.

This was the result of combining ‘the power of freedom’ and ‘Martial Force’ – the fruit of her training.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

People began coughing.

Ho-jun gave Yi Haneul an exasperated look, then used Taoism to expel the dust out the window by pressing his forehead.

All eyes

focused on Yi Haneul.

Yi Haneul opened her mouth:

“Sorry, sorry! I tried to strike with moderate force but couldn’t control my strength!”

Sheesh.

Someone let out a sigh.

It was Ho-jun.

Ho-jun thought,

She should have spoken in an authoritative, charismatic tone there.

Has she become strange from hanging around Miho?

Or was she always like this?

“Ahem, uhm. Oh! Uhm. Ah, anyway, may I say just one thing?”

Yi Haneul glanced at Baek for his reaction.

Unlike Ho-jun, Baek, who was properly aware of Yi Haneul’s capabilities, gave a benevolent smile as if proud of his disciple who had turned a table to dust, and nodded.

Yi Haneul

looked around at everyone and said:

“The condition for victory is simple.”

“If we defeat the Goblin King Duergsini, that’s the end of it.”

“But goblins are powerful.”

“Not just powerful, but insanely powerful.”

“I’ve fought them, so I know. Ho-jun knows too, as do the martial artists who were once controlled by goblins.”

Cough cough.

Martial artists who recalled their shameful past let out awkward coughs.

Yi Haneul continued:

“As much as you may not want to admit it,”

“With our strength alone, we absolutely, absolutely cannot defeat the Goblin King.”

“And even if we do defeat him,”

“All lands would already be reduced to ruins by then.”

“To minimize damage,”

“We need Miho.”

“We need Lord Beast.”

“And,”

“We need the power of the yokai ruled by Lord Beast.”

The start was not good, but the end was not bad either.

However, the relationship between humans and yokai was not something that could be easily accepted with just a few words.

One of the martial artists said:

“How can we trust the yokai? They only spout words, there is no proof, is there?”

As if waiting just for those words,

Yi Haneul began rummaging through her bag.

After taking something out, she continued speaking:

“Here is the proof!”

What Yi Haneul took out of her bag was…

No,

not a ‘what’, but a ‘who’.

“Click click.”

A squirrel.

The spiritual power radar did not react.

One of the martial artists who had questioned Yi Haneul spoke in an exasperated tone:

“A squirrel in this serious situation? Have you gone insane, Yi Haneul?”

“Miho’s friend hasn’t gone insane! Click.”

It was not Yi Haneul who answered.

“Wh…What?”

“Just now…”

“What are you looking at, click click.”

It was a squirrel.

Moreover, one faintly exuding a spiritual aura.

---

Crunch crunch.

Crunch crunch.

There is an expression ‘watching while eating popcorn’.

When you go to a movie theater, what do you usually eat?

99 out of 100 times, it’s popcorn.

The culture of eating popcorn while watching movies spread, and the expression ‘eating popcorn’ became a metaphor for watching something unfold.

But

instead of popcorn, I ate something else.

No need to hide it –

It was dog food.

I wasn’t eating dog food crunch crunch while watching a movie, but rather,

something more entertaining than a movie –

A fight.

Oh ho.

The red team struck first.

“Out of my way, you mangy fox! I’ll teach you a lesson myself!”

The blue team did not remain still either.

[If you lay a hand on my goddess Miho, I shall not forgive you!]

One tried to hit me for no reason.

One tried to protect me for no reason.

What better movie could there be than this?

Fun, so fun.

Ah, if Dapoh saw this scene, he would have done a forward roll.

Unfortunately, Dapoh went to Seoul with Yi Haneul.

…He’ll be alright, won’t he?

I just hope he doesn’t say anything stupid there.

And Lord Beast, sending Dapoh as the yokai envoy.

I can’t fathom his thoughts sometimes.

I felt at ease.

Honing techniques?

There’s no need for that.

It would be meaningless anyway.

Once I reached a certain level, honing techniques became meaningless.

To grow stronger from here,

I ultimately have no choice but to fight goblins or yokai and accumulate real combat experience.

Perhaps,

the more I fight, the stronger I become.

Ever since the ‘Blue-Furred Demonic Fox’, I have not taken the spiritual power or strength of those I defeated.

Actually, even with the Blue-Furred one, it wasn’t me taking her power – she voluntarily gave it to me.

Anyway,

without taking any power, my tails keep growing, already at eight tails.

Right now, devising plans is more important than honing techniques.

If Duergsini sends only goblins and yokai to the human world while concealing himself,

I plan to hunt goblins and yokai until I manifest my ninth tail and accumulate strength.

If Duergsini reveals himself along with the goblins and yokai,

I will immediately go for Duergsini himself.

Naturally, the first situation seems far better than the second.

But from the start, this was not a proactive plan, but a reactive situation dependent on Duergsini’s actions.

I felt that simply accumulating strength

may not be the answer.

Don’t forget.

I must ruin Duergsini’s ‘grand scheme’.

To ruin the grand scheme, I thought of a victory plan.

Here,

there is one victory plan and

two draw plans.

The first victory plan:

I

take Duergsini’s head.

This is literally Plan A, the main plan.

The other plans are merely insurance.

Killing Duergsini is ideal.

I’ve decided to no longer dwell on whether I can defeat Duergsini or not.

I am confident nonetheless.

Whether a demigod or a fool,

the fact remains that Duergsini is my prey.

If this victory plan fails for some reason,

I must immediately switch to the draw plans.

The first draw plan:

Seal Duergsini.

I discussed with Lord Beast how to seal Duergsini.

To cut to the conclusion, it is possible.

Possible, but not a solution.

Like all seals, there is uncertainty as to when Duergsini could break free.

It could also lead to worse outcomes.

Rather than this first draw plan, I should aim for the second draw plan.

The second draw plan:

I’m not keen on this either, but what choice is there?

Like Dalgi did,

I too shall

offer my heart to the future and postpone turning the cycle.

…Right.

In truth, this is practically a defeat rather than a draw.

Consider the impact Duergsini had on the human world in the thousands of years after Dalgi’s death.

It was hell.

Now that humans have just become able to live properly, I was born, and Duergsini has revealed himself again.

Well,

this method is still better than having all yokai and spiritual beings perish.

I will die, but

the other yokai will live.