Epilogue (2)

Someone once said

The weight of a crown is heavy.

And now,

I completely disagree with that opinion.

Though the ruler’s position was abruptly thrust upon me,

Well,

To be honest, it doesn’t seem that heavy.

Then again, I’ve never seen Lord Beast having a stress-induced episode either, so.

From what I’ve seen, Lord Beast is just a honey-sucker, a honey-sucker.

When I had an audience with Lord Beast, there were times he stood up mid-conversation, but

I’ve never once seen him standing from the start.

“…”

Hmm,

I miss him.

It’s been a while, I want to see his face again.

I wonder if he’s doing well as an immortal.

After Duergsini’s defeat,

Lord Beast ascended.

Not in the sense of ascending joyfully, but he literally ascended to the heavens.

He achieved true ascension.

I don’t know exactly what ‘ascension’ entails,

whether Lord Beast died or is alive,

whether he became a god or an immortal, but

since he had a serene expression when ascending, I don’t think there’s any need for me to worry.

He’ll be fine.

I just want to see his face again after so long.

Lord Beast is the Guardian Beast,

and

I too am the Guardian Beast.

I too, like Lord Beast, have taken the first step on the true path of ascension.

After Duergsini’s defeat, I was given two choices:

It wasn’t an extreme or negative choice like ‘kill humans or kill yokai?’

Fortunately,

it was whether to ascend like Lord Beast,

or refuse ascension and remain in the human world to protect both humans and yokai.

Well,

as can be seen from me taking Lord Beast’s place as ruler of the other world,

I refused ascension.

Why ascend?

Gija’s dying wish was for me to live happily, after all.

Then I should live happily by eating dog food rolled in milk.

What guarantee is there that ascending would make me happier?

As if foreseeing I would refuse ascension, Lord Beast taught me in a short time what a leader is, what a leader must do, and what a leader should refrain from.

I took it to heart.

I may lack ambition, but I’m still a fox capable of self-objectification.

If not me, who else would become the new ruler of the other world?

That’s how I reluctantly ascended to the ruler’s position in the other world, and a year has already passed.

To summarize my impressions from ruling for the past year in one word:

Hmm,

It’s orderly.

My daily life hasn’t changed much from before.

Playing with Dapoh is the same,

Chatting with Yi Haneul is the same,

Bickering with Ho-jun is the same, and

Lounging at the Yokai Extermination Office is the same.

If there’s one thing that changed after becoming the ruler,

it’s that my den moved from the outskirts of the other world to the center…?

No joke, that really seems to be it.

With my ten tails manifested, my very existence exerted a great restraining force.

Even without doing anything and just staying put, the other world kept running.

Of course, I can’t be away for too long either,

as if I leave the other world for an extended period, space-time could distort and the other world might vanish entirely or something.

In any case, the conclusion is:

I’m bored.

I can fully understand now why Lord Beast lay sprawled in the center of the other world all day.

Dapoh is out on patrol outside the other world.

Yi Haneul refuses to enter the other world because of the weird smell.

Ho-jun is busy either chasing women or training.

There are no people or yokai to hang out with.

Ah,

Being a ruler is this lonely, huh?

Before I could voice any complaints,

two uninvited guests arrived at my den.

“Eeing… tchchtchch.”

[Ooooh, as beautiful as starlight embroidered in the sky, the gracious Miho…!]

Here we go again.

Delusional fanboys.

I had thought it would be nice if anyone came by since I was bored, but

these two are a bit…

Since awakening my ten tails,

I try to maintain my ten-tailed state as much as possible, but

it’s a bit different in front of these two geezers.

Poof!

Soon, I retracted my tails to a five-tailed state.

“Kkeung…”

[Kkeung…]

There it is,

The ambiguous reactions of the pervert geezer who likes ripe and plump, and

the pervert geezer who likes flat and unripe.

“Did you come here to tell me something?”

“Not particularly… kkeung.”

[Miho, please, I beg you… Retrieve your majestic ten tails befitting a ruler!]

Majestic ruler, my ass.

You just want to see my ten tails or three tails, don’t you?

The geezers’ perverted antics have only worsened, not improved.

They even carry cameras now to take my pictures.

The first policy I enacted after becoming the new ruler of the other world was

allowing yokai access to the human world.

In fact, yokai are self-sufficient lifeforms within this Jiri Mountain other world.

Past yokai may have had to harm humans in some way to obtain prey, but

the current yokai have me, don’t they?

I’m not even sure what the upper limit of my ten-tailed abilities is.

Well, what use is having strong abilities?

There are no longer any yokai or goblins granted ascension qualifications.

In any case, while yokai are self-sustaining lifeforms, that doesn’t mean they have no need for human assistance at all.

For a better life,

they need humans,

human civilization.

Just look at those two pervert geezers marveling at how wondrous a camera is.

As for Dapoh, he has already adapted so well to the human world that he could just be called a human’s pet or plush toy.

I provided wheelchairs for legless yokai,

Hearing aids for deaf yokai.

They all initially resisted inwardly, but now they’re constantly asking when the next human goods will arrive.

At this rate, I might even have to supply smartphones.

That’s how I conversed with the geezers in their lukewarm reactions while in my five-tailed state, when

Prick.

Swish.

Prickprickprick.

Swishswishswishswish.

Poof!

I manifested my ten tails again.

[Ooooooooh! As expected, Miho’s ten tails suit her best…]

“Shut up.”

No matter how inappropriate my banter with these geezers,

The overwhelming pressure from my ten tails was on another level, so

the geezers closed their mouths at my words.

The Buddhist Kingdom of Decorum could question if I’m being too harsh, but

Given the circumstances, I couldn’t help it either.

Someone,

Someone uninvited,

Seems to have just entered

This other world.

---

“Nyaong.”

“…”

Who are you?

The uninvited visitor to the other world was a black cat.

But it didn’t seem to be an ordinary cat, as

its pupils were vertically split… in other words, it had odd eyes.

A black odd-eyed cat suddenly appearing in the other world?

This is basically

Blatantly advertising ‘I’m suspicious’ far and wide.

What’s more, this cat is not even a yokai.

It’s just a regular cat.

…Which makes it even more suspicious.

Crunch.

“Nyaong.”

Crunch.

“Nyaong.”

Crunch.

“Haaaaaack!”

Geez,

This darn cat is even hissing.

It must have rolled in from getting pampered by humans somewhere, but that won’t work on me.

I much prefer dogs over cats,

because

I’m a dog.

“Haaaack!”

I’m no slouch when it comes to hissing either.

“Kaeng!”

“Haaaaaack!”

“Kaeng!”

“Nyaoooong!”

“Kaengkaeng, meongmeong, walwalwal, kongkongkong, arrrrrrrr…”

“What are you doing?”

“…?”

Strange.

The cat before me had vanished without a trace, and

a suspiciously familiar, handsome Taoist had abruptly appeared instead.

“Mr. Ho-jun…?”

It was Ho-jun.

Ho-jun shamelessly raised his hand in greeting.

“Oh, it’s been a while. By the way, you’re still barking like a dog. Your dog language has improved.”

“What is this about?”

“A new Taoism technique – Animal Transformation Art. I came to test if it works on you too. From your reaction, it seems to work.”

“No… wait a minute. Does that make sense?”

“What does.”

“What do you mean ‘what’? Don’t you see my current state?”

“I see. All I see are melons though, but still, I see. What, you want me to touch them?”

“That’s not it, argh! Ten tails, ten tails! How did you deceive me?”

“With Taoism.”

So,

That’s saying it’s impossible, right?

If I say that, it might sound really unlucky coming from me, but

with the power of my ten tails being nearly omnipotent,

creating life might even be possible, let alone not utilizing it.

Think about it –

With just nine tails, I already had the power to destroy the world, so imagine ten tails.

Yet,

A Taoism technique that can deceive me with my ten tails manifested?

…No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t make sense.

“Why the expression? Is your pride hurt?”

“No, I simply don’t understand.”

“Just understand it simply.”

Soon, Ho-jun

continued with an inauspicious smile:

“It’s because I’m the strongest… no, the strongest Taoist in history that I could deceive you, to that extent.”