Living with the Dangerous Beast-Chapter 8: Karma

Sohwa’s eyes, as round as marbles, wavered helplessly. There was actually a tiger in this little mountain?

‘No way. That can’t be!’

When Sohwa shook her head with a pale face, the monk shot her a stern look, telling her not to reveal anything.

“There is a cherry tree in front of your guest room, right?”

“How do you know about that?”

“Dig well under that tree. You need to quickly realize what that wretched creature you’ve been dragging around behind you really is.”

The monk’s stern gaze fell on Dohwi’s broad back.

‘A wretched creature?’

Did he just refer to Dohwi as a ‘wretched’ creature? Does that mean Dohwi is actually a TIGER?

“Karma... It’s karma... A dreadful karma has clung to you.”

The monk whispered quietly. Despite her frustration, the rising suspicion filled Sohwa with a chilling fear.

* * *

“What’s wrong, Sohwa? What did that monk say to you?”

“....”

“Your face looks pale as a ghost. Hmm?”

Demanding to know what nonsense the monk had spouted, Dohwi urged her, but Sohwa, lost in thought since leaving Ogyeam, didn’t respond.

‘He wants to devour me... Without leaving a single bone... Waiting for the perfect moment....’

Her steps were weak and unsteady. Dohwi, hugging her small shoulders, leaned down.

“Let me guess... Did he say that there’s a tiger living in this mountain?”

Startled by the sudden low voice whispering into her ear, Sohwa flinched.

Immediately, she saw Dohwi’s red lips.

Those plump, red lips, curling slyly, mesmerized her.

“There are no such beasts here, Sohwa. At least none that would appear before you.”

Looking up at Dohwi, Sohwa involuntarily swallowed dryly.

Strangely, his words were reassuring, yet she wanted to ask, ‘How do you know?’

“If anything happens, you can just transform into a fox. The tiger will think you’re just a small ball of fur and pass by.”

“....”

Even if he couldn’t revere her as a savior, Dohwi’s words, belittling her as a mere ball of fur, irked Sohwa. ƒreewebɳovel.com

‘Damn this boy... How ungrateful could he be....’

“Hmph.”

Sohwa snorted and turned her head away, while Dohwi, oblivious to her sour mood, blamed the monk.

“That’s why I told you not to see him.”

“....”

“You can’t trust what that phony monk says.”

“Don’t call Monk ‘phony,’ Dohwi.”

As she tried to reprimand him gently, Dohwi stopped walking.

“Don’t you remember what you saw before?”

Dohwi’s voice became ominously low.

Remembering the past, Sohwa drew a frightened breath.

“Seven years ago, in the cave at the bottom of the hill... Think about it.”

Sohwa’s clear eyes wavered helplessly.

It was a daunting memory that she had tried desperately throughout the years to erase from her system.

“You saw it with your own eyes.”

“....”

“It was in the shape of a huge serpent, right?”

As she tried to shake her head and block her ears, Dohwi tightened his grip on her hand as he pulled her with great force.

Pulling her so hard, Sohwa was dragged into the arms of Dohwi, leaving a slight skidmark on the ground.

After he pulled Sohwa’s face right next to his own, Dohwi whispered in a gentle, yet intimidating tone.

“You screamed in terror, remember?”

Frowning as if the horrid memory was right before his eyes, he spoke.

“The scales hanging on that pale skin were so creepy and gruesome....”

In his disgusted voice, Sohwa gasped.

She was trembling so much her teeth began to clatter.

That incident had happened unexpectedly, it was something that many would call a freak accident.

It was seven years ago. Back then, Sohwa often sought the monk at Ogyeam for advice. But the monk was often absent from the hermitage. If she visited the hermitage three times, chances were that the monk was there barely once.

One day, Dohwi mentioned that he had seen the monk praying in the cave near the foot of the mountain. Sohwa had also seen the monk coming out of that cave a few times.

‘I shouldn’t have been there....’

That day, Sohwa wanted to discuss the future of Mount Yeehwang with the monk, fulfilling her duty as the mountain’s guardian.

「Monk! Monk! That pesky raccoon keeps stealing the wild berries! If this continues, the berry seeds I planted will all dry up!」

But the monk wasn’t there. The cave was enormous and deep, making Sohwa a bit scared, but she ventured in, holding Dohwi’s hand tightly.

「Maybe the monk is deep inside the cave, Sohwa. Let’s go further in.」

「Monk...? Are you there?」

As they stepped further in, they saw ‘it.’

「Eek! Wh-what is that?」

Seeing the grotesque-looking creature with pale white skin, Sohwa nearly fainted and fell flat on her face.

「Oh, please spare me! D-Don’t eat me, sir!」

At first, she thought it was a serpent.

Its size was so immense that it filled the entire cave.

「If you’re going to eat someone, just eat me! Spare the little one, PLEASE, I BEG YOU!」

Sohwa begged, clasping her hands, while Dohwi laughed and spoke in a bright, laughing tone.

「It’s okay, Sohwa. This is just the shed skin of an old serpent.」

Having no knowledge of serpents shedding their skin, Sohwa naturally didn’t know what a ‘shed skin’ was.

Dohwi explained that an ancient serpent sheds their skin off once every few hundred years to grow even bigger.

Despite not knowing what kind of creature he was, Dohwi had lots of random knowledge and often pretended to play the role of a teacher.