Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 60⟩
Was he acting too cold-heartedly?
Yu Dan thought while walking.
In fact, as he was already going, he couldn’t not take them with him. The problem was that this fox yokai’s hobby was tormenting humans. Even when working, he took his time to diligently harass him, so how serious would it be when he was playing? He was worried about it.
But he might have been worried for no reason. He was sick today, so would he have the space of mind to harass others? In addition, when he thought about it, he was always stuck in the study, solving the supernatural, so was there really nothing to worry about? Thanks to him, his own life was saved a few times, so it bothered him even more.
You have to take a day of rest sometimes, right? Even foxes need breaks. Yu Dan drew on the compassion from the deepest depths of his heart. Okay. Let’s be generous. He nodded a few times.
“But what are we going to ride today?”
Chaeu smiled widely and asked.
“Bus.”
“Why bus? I thought we’ll take the subway.”
Baek Ran mumbled. Because he glanced at him with the gaze saying ‘Aren’t you a fool?’ and face full of disqualification, the generous heart, that was so diligently drawn up to console him, plummeted.
“Don’t argue. Today you have to follow my words unconditionally.”
“But I thought we’re going to take the subway.”
“No. We won’t take the subway. Today we will make you completely adjust to the harmful rays, so we’re doing this. We will expose you to them as much as possible, so you don’t suffer from heat again. I take no objections.”
“How with just today…”
“Cheonho-nim, let’s just do as he says today.”
Chaeu said hastily. Baek Ran turned his head away with an apathetic face.
“I didn’t suffer from just heat…”
He didn’t hear the rest of the words.
Anyway, Yu Dan took the dragging his feet fox yokai and two wild ginseng yokai and walked to the closest box stop. The bus in the correct direction came the moment he arrived. The start was good.
“Four people.”
After he took out his communication card and entered inside, the twins were thrilled.
“No. One person.”
“Right. One person, one animal and two roots.”
“Be quiet. Someone may listen. Wait. Where are you going? You should sit here.”
He sat down the fox yokai, who was trying to sit down in the deepest corner, in the most sunny spot.
“You guys come here too, don’t run around.”
“Sorry, Cheonho-nim. You have to raise your resistance.”
“Please just endure for a little bit.”
The fox made a very sour face again. He wanted to say something, but he swallowed it, and instead asked:
“How many stops to the museum?”
He almost laughed because of that clear sign of anticipation.
“Now that I think about it, I’m curious. You have so many antiques piled up, so why do you want to go to the museum? I thought you have many treasures.”
“You have no idea, eh? The one treasure of someone else is much more attractive than the hundred of one’s own.”
“Coupled with today’s disguise, you sound really like a criminal? I’d hate to draw a red line, so can you be careful?”
“Please don’t worry. I like treasures, but the real attraction of the museum is something else.”
“What is that?”
“That I’m going to watch it alone.”
“Ah, is that so? Please look to Your heart’s content, sir. Don’t cover the sunlight and put down your hand.”
“Please put it down.”
“Put it down, Cheonho-nim.”
The twins hastily helped.
The fox, who claimed to suffer from heat, grumbled a little about something, but because it was three against one, he couldn’t help and put down his hand.
Up until this moment, things were going according to the plan. Thanks to perfectly controlling the three yokai, the ancient organisms got shot with plenty of harmful sunlight, while the bus was stuck. They smoothly arrived at the National Central Museum.
“This is the museum? It’s amazing!”
“It’s really big!”
The twins were sincerely surprised. Did they not look for a single photo to enjoy the sightseeing?
“There is a pond and a pavilion here. The pavilion was built to commemorate the hundredth anniversary.”
Baek Ran looked at him as if it was very unexpected.
“Do You perhaps often visit this museum?”
“No. This my first time.”
“Then how do you know it?”
“Can’t I investigate somehow if I’m with three yokai? I roughly looked into it at home.”
“Is that an unexpected guide constitution? I saw some kind of building over there, what is it?”
“I don’t know. I got annoyed after just checking the entrance and gave up.”
“So no constitution at all, eh?”
“Anyway, we will eat lunch right now.”
The twins, who were looking around, looked at him in surprise.
“Why? Are we not going to go around the museum first and when our legs start to hurt, spread a blanket on the lawn and eat lunch?”
“We’re doing none of it. I made predictions based on my experience so far and for ninety percent something will soon happen, and we will mindlessly run around, and be unable to eat lunch. To prevent this, I decided we will eat beforehand, before it starts.”
“I’m not even a bit hungry, but…”
Chaeseol tilted her head, but she slowly took out their lunchboxes. It was such a flawless gimbap lunchbox, that it was hard to believe was packed by yokai, and one was even for Yu Dan. But before they could eat the first gimbap, Baek Ran abruptly stood up.
“Are we going?”
“Cheonho-nim, you’re not eating?”
At Chaeseol’s inquiry, Baek Ran showed the empty box. No matter how one looked, it was a trick. But then he will just be hungry alone, right?
“Wait just five minutes.”
Yu Dan and the twins hastily ate without a word and stood up.
“It’s different from the lunch we imagined. Rather than a picnic, it feels like we’re soldiers eating battle rations on the battlefield.”
“So it’s good, right? Isn’t it more marvelous because it’s different from our imagination? And gimbap was marvelous too. In no way I expected to eat lunch in the morning.”
He took the whispering twins and headed to the entrance.
Because it was so wide, it felt quiet, but looking closely there were a lot of people. Chaeseol looked at the burly security guard standing at the entrance and noticeably tensed up.
“The things to come came at last. What should we do?”
“What are you nervous about? There is no way he will recognize you as yokai.”
At that time, the security guard glanced in their direction. Because of a fierce glint caught at that angle, even Yu Dan flinched.
“Please calm down. All security guards’ eyes look like this. He is probably thinking about his lunch.”
Baek Ran said, but he actually didn’t take a step from behind Yu Dan. The twins were the same. The three only moved following Yu Dan’s movements. It probably looked very strange, but opportunely they got into the gap between the entering Chinese group of visitors, so they somehow got through. No, he thought they got through, but Chaeseol wasn’t there.
“Noona!”
“Where did she go?”
Looking back, Chaeseol was alone left behind, frozen. She just blinked with a pale face.
“That fool…”
Yu Dan came out, took Chaeseol and entered. The wild ginseng girl at last took a deep breath. She discovered an information board and regained her energy.
“Look at this! ‘Usage of flashlights and tripods is prohibited. Please don’t touch. Drinks prohibited. Usage of cellphones prohibited’, there is even ‘smoking ban’, but no ‘yokai entrance prohibited’! I was worried for no reason!”
“If you were the employee, would you write ‘yokai entrance prohibited’?”
“No.”
Anyway, one crisis was overcome. Yu Dan walked, while looking around.
The central hall of the museum was fully opened all the way to the top. When he raised his head, he saw the exhibition halls of the second and third floor. The glossy corridor, stretching into a pitch black end, was full of visitors. In awe, Chaeu took out an antique camera and took pictures of everything.
“It’s amazing. It’s such a big place full of relics? But what is Your homework?”
“Admire relics, decide which one was the most impressive and write an appreciation essay.”
Yu Dan went into the very first exhibition hall. He pointed at the lump of stone he saw the moment he entered.
“Wow, this one is the most impressive.”
“Are You joking? Please be honest.”
The fox yokai judged him right away.
“What? I really think it’s amazing… um…”
“You don’t know what it is, eh?”
“It’s a ‘hand ax’, right? This will do. I’ll listen from where is it and how to use it from the party involved.”
“Party involved? Don’t You see that explanation? It’s from paleolithic era. It’s as little as 70 or 80 thousand years and as much as 300 thousands years ago.”
Seeing how pointedly he retorted, it seemed his state certainly got better.
“Cheonho-nim! Look at this! This is a canoe from the neolithic era!”
“Wow! There are skulls! Those are bones of the deceased from the paleolithic era.”
The twins waved around in excitement and wandered around. As his gaze was stolen by the ancient knife, they kicked up a fuss about a necklace of stringed jade, shouting ‘pretty!’, ‘It had to be expensive!’.
Suddenly the hand ax looked boring.
“Something else will have to do.”
Yu Dan continued walking, while examining the exhibition items. A carved ancient circular bronze mirror caught his eyes. It was similar to the cheval mirror that caused a big trouble not a long time ago.
Were they from a similar era?
He turned his head, and saw other bronze wares behind the glass. They very much resembled the items he saw while rampaging through the second floor warehouse, possessed by geureumae. Yu Dan read their descriptions one after another. Pots, cauldrons, alcohol bottle, kettles, etc.
“Was it just a gathering of kitchen utensils?”
He kept walking around, when his gaze stopped in one place. Golden decoration exhibited on the black background. With their gorgeous and elaborate craftwork in the flame motif, they somehow seemed to be cousins of Baek Ran’s golden dagger. The name read ‘Goguryeo golden decorations’.
Opportunely, Baek Ran, was looking around, so he walked up to him and asked.
“Were you born in Goguryeo?”
“No.”
Baek Ran’s expression instantly became bad. He asked without thinking, but it seemed that it was a very rude question.
“Should I not ask about it?”
“Please think about it. If You went to a foreign country and heard a question are You Chinese or Japanese, would You feel good?”
“No, well, I don’t think I would be this angry. So where are you from?”
“Silla.”
Baek Ran said sharply like a knife.
He was angry because he got the country wrong. Thinking about it, he heard that Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla were in a fierce war. But wasn’t it already over thousands of years ago? Was he still holding grudges?
“Then do you want to quickly go see the Silla room?”
“No. I don’t have particularly good memories.”
What? Yu Dan was confused. He got angry because he got the country wrong, but when asked if he misses it, he got even more angry. Was that a so-called love-hate relationship?
They passed through the Goguryeo, Baekje, Gaya, and got to the Silla. From a glance, Silla room had numerous golden relics.
“Silla was the country of gold.”
A mom sat the children down and explained.
The country of gold? It matched with Cheon-ho very well. The actual Cheon-ho looked around the relics with a sour face. But seeing earthenware with the image of a horse rider, his expression changed.
“That really brings back the old times.”
Yu Dan suddenly came back to his senses.
“Be quiet.”
Baek Ran didn’t hear him.
“I also had something like this.”
He looked at a quiver with an image of dokkaebi and plastered himself to the glass.
“But I like mine much more than this one. Because it was personally given to me by the king. He said it was Seorabeol’s treasure[1].”
He went back over a thousand years and was boasting. The children, who were taking notes, glanced at him. But it seemed they just let it in one ear and out the other. That was probably natural. Because it was too unthinkable.
The twins sewed their mouths and looked in other direction.
“Let’s just pretend we don’t know him. Pretend we aren’t together.”
The three hastily left the Silla room. As if she thought of something, Chaeseol took out a bill out of her pocket and handed it to Chaeu. She had a very regretful face.
“Did you make a bet?”
“Yes. Noona thought that Chaeho-nim will hate the Silla room, and I thought that He will like it a lot.”
“It’s really strange. I expected he wouldn’t even glance at it after talking to him. Didn’t he throw out all items from the Silla period?”
“No. We heard it when we were cleaning together in old times, he didn’t throw it out, but lost it.”
The twins talked about Cheonho-nim this, Cheonho-nim that, in excruciating detail. Looking at them, he suddenly had a thought.
“Thinking about it, you have said that you owe your life to that fox yokai? What is the story behind it?”
“Uum. It’s a bit long to speak about. We will tell you when we have time.”
Chaeseol smiled enigmatically. It was awkward to dig any deeper, so he shut his mouth.
They sat down on the stone chairs and waited for a while, but Baek Ran didn’t come out. They slowly became bored.
“Can’t we just give up on him and pick him up when it’s time to go home.”
“Pick up? I think we will have to bring a spatula to detach Him.”
“What will we do if he will have to continue to live here. I don’t want to live in the museum.”
They chatted of this and that, when the fox yokai suddenly came out. The three were surprised.
“As expected, you were chased out by the employee, eh?”
“No. It wasn’t particularly fun, so I immediately came out. And I’m going to see other things.”
Baek Ran headed in the direction of an escalator alone. The three quickly stood up and followed. The twins whispered behind him.
“Hey, but taking us into the account, did we see Joseon? Why don’t I remember?”
“We didn’t see it, noona. We just forcibly ended on Silla.”
The first floor was crowded, but when they went up to the second floor, the people swiftly decreased. The moment they entered the donation hall, the old smell pricked his nose. The smell of old furniture compressed hundred of times, with the musty smell of very old wood and sickly sweet.
“It really smells in here!”
The twins ran in front of the pottery. It was full of white and blue porcelain.
“Aren’t there uncle-ssi relatives among them?”
“He may recognize them, so we should take pictures and show them to him.”
Chaeu diligently pressed the shutter, while asking his noona.
“But where did Cheonho-nim go?”
“Over there. He is looking at something in front of the exhibition stand.”
“Isn’t it a book? He is reading the unfolded parts!”
“You can’t! Unnie said he absolutely can’t do books!”
Yu Dan walked, leaving that noise behind. As there were no other visitors, he was okay to leave the yokai together. It was time to genuinely do his homework. He moved in his tracks, while glancing at ornaments and furniture.
The occasionally seen people disappeared without a trace. It felt as if he rented the whole museum. He only heard whispers of voices from somewhere.
“Looking closely, it’s a rare item.”
“Amazing. I can’t guess its price.”
“It’s the first time I see another real thing.”
“Is it surely a genuine thing?”
“Indeed. That eye is certainly a Heavenly Eye.”
Yu Dan stopped in his tracks in surprise.
*~*~*
[1] Seorabeol — another name for Silla
Translator’s note: They’re cute.
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