Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 63⟩
⟨Qilin Dream⟩
King Taejong Muyeol’s queen, Munmyeong was of Kim surname, sister of Kim Yusin. Before she became a queen, her sister, Bohwi, climbed the peak of Seowon Mountain and urinated, and the whole Seorabeol[1] was flooded. Upon waking up, she told her little sister that story. Munmyeong joked she would buy her sister’s dream, and paid with the silk skirt for it.
Later, while playing with Muyeol a ball game, Kim Yusin deliberately stomped on the hem of his clothes and tore it. As Yusin’s house was close, he brought him there to sew it. After treating him to liquor, Bohwi was called to sew it, but Bohwi declared that such a trivial matter shouldn’t be handled by a noble and refused. At that, Munmyeong came to sew it. Muyeol was enamored by the pretty and cute Munmyeong, and took her as his wife. Soon thereafter, she bore a son called Beommin, who later became King Munmu.
『Collection of Master Seongho’s Teachings 』
A massive iron chunk hurled through the tightly iron door.
Bang! Bang! Bang! It broke down after the third hit. Yu Dan threw down the equipment, looked behind him and gestured. His squad colleagues appeared without making a sound.
It was a classical eastern middle class mansion with a pool. Inside was quiet like a mouse. But according to the information obtained in secret, it was certain that terrorists were hiding here. He didn’t let his guard down, and aiming the sub-machine gun, he silently entered.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out loudly, and terrorists jumped out from both sides. He calmly aimed and pulled the trigger.
“Ack! Ack!”
The bastards spat out blood and collapsed. Then he heard a scream behind him. His colleague was hurt and fell to his knees.
“Are you okay?! Stand up!”
He caught him and supported him to stand up, and then fired another salvo. The bastard, who endured to the last moment, collapsed in the end.
He reloaded the magazine and carefully stepped deeper inside.
On the ceiling, the fan was spinning. In front of the large television, someone was sitting on the leather sofa, changing the channels with the remote control. Yu Dan was surprised.
“There is an ordinary person!”
Then the person turned around.
“It’s an ordinary yokai.”
He at last noticed the fox ears on his head. Yu Dan was even more surprised.
“What are you doing here!?”
Meanwhile, the second battle broke out. The gunshots and ‘Ack! Ack!’ screams rang out frantically, and the fire alarms let out a piercing noise. The fox yokai smiled.
“How fun. Terrorists VS. cops?”
“We’re not the police. We’re a counter-terrorism squad.”
“You have taken the wrong career path. You have talent for a terrorist.”
“Ah, hells! What are you doing in someone else’s dream!? Get out!”
“Don’t You know? The dreams are important.”
The fox yokai grabbed one of his squad colleagues and took off his mask. Yu Dan flinched. He vaguely thought that the colleague was American, but he was Korean, and his face was somewhat familiar.
“Do You know him? Who is he?”
“A kid, who was in the same group as me during the boot camp in the middle school.”
Looking at them now, other force members were also the kids from that time. But he didn’t remember their names, and had only vague impressions of them left.
“That’s not a good memory, and I never saw them after that, so why did they suddenly appear in my dreams?”
“They say that dreams are messages sent by the subconscious. Our everyday experiences immediately disappear into oblivion, but their afterimages continue to remain in the subconscious. This is kind of compensation. Your memory of the messed up boot camp training that wounded your pride is repeated over and over again in Your dreams. As a captain holding a sub-machine gun and competently carrying out an anti-terrorist mission, You boost Your own ego.”
Yu Dan’s face turned red.
“Get out.”
Baek Ran didn’t even pretend to listen and was searching through everything. He dragged out things like dust-like clumps of idle thoughts, embarrassing memories he hid deep inside and the dregs of dim flickering feelings, etc.
“Unexpectedly, there is nothing particular. Should I say it’s somewhat good? There is nothing particular fun… What is that?”
The fox took out an old diary and was about to flip it open, so Yu Dan quickly snatched it.
“I told you to get out! What the hell did you come for?”
“Ehem, that’s right. I almost forgot about my real goal. In fact, there is something I wish You’d help me with.”
“Help?”
Yu Dan thought he heard wrong and asked back.
“You mean there is something I can help with?”
“Do You plan to do it or not?”
“Do what. What is it?”
“You will meet supernatural beings tomorrow. Please remember just one thing. Never sell it.”
“Got it. What’s it?”
Then Baek Ran took out a scroll, unfolded it and showed it. A brilliant light burst out.
“Wow….”
Yu Dan’s eyes grew wide.
A colorful animal with one horn jumped out from the scroll. Its head resembled a dragon and its body resembled a deer.
Following after the sacred animal, the scroll unfolded further. A pung-ak[2] played, and Joseon’s kings, wearing dragon robes, danced joyfully and surrounded Yu Dan. Sejong the Great raised his thumb, and everyone gathered to lift Yu Dan and toss him into the air. His body floated gently. And raised into the sky, higher and higher…
He suddenly opened his eyes at the sound of an alarm.
His head was a mess. Why were all his dreams so shitty?
Yu Dan laid down again. Unintentionally, he fell asleep again, and was startled awake. He looked at the clock and his heart froze.
He shouldn’t have laid down!
That was the real crisis. He roughly washed up, barely put on the uniform and blindly ran out.
That was bad. He was going to definitely be late.
At that moment, his pocket vibrated. What was the problem this time? While running, he took out his phone, looked at the screen and…
‘[School notice] Due to the fire in the trash container, the smoke entered the classrooms, so classes will be postponed one hour…’
His eyes grew big, and his feet stopped at their own.
What? How did it happen? There was no need to hurry from the beginning?
Avoiding being late through a stroke of luck, his heart relaxed. At last, he felt his hunger. But he wasn’t sure it was worth it to go back home.
What should he do?
While he worried, the employees from the hamburger franchise right beside him came out holding trays.
“Hello! Free sampling of our new menu!”
What? Really? When he looked with half-doubt, the employee smiled and handed him freshly made, warm hamburger. Just when he was hungry, he got a free hamburger? What kind of luck was it?
Yu Dan went to school in a good mood.
While he walked the corridor, coughing because of the smoke, someone caught him. That someone was a history teacher-nim.
“Hey, you. The relic appreciation essay you submitted the last time was very well written. So I sent it to the teenage history writing contest, and I received a call it got to the finals. I think it may get the first place.”
“Ye-yees?”
In the first place, it didn’t make any sense that the history teacher knew him, but what on earth was he talking about? By relic appreciation essay, did he mean that hand ax? Was he really serious? That paper he just barely filled up with writing about made-up feelings? What was he thinking sending it to the history writing contest? And what were they thinking to let it pass to the finals? Did anyone read it?
He found his seat in shock.
Strange events continued.
Suddenly they were informed they will do a math quiz, so he roughly filled it up, but surprisingly he got 100 points. He really just wrote random numbers. He couldn’t believe it.
Even when he slept during the class, no one said anything. All kids in front of him, beside him and behind him got caught, but Yu Dan was safe.
The food service menu suddenly changed to chicken for some unknown reason. The auntie said ‘I scooped up too much’, and filled his plate like a mountain, just for him.
When passing through the sports ground, the guard uncle lost a grip on the hose, and everyone was splashed with water, but just him, who actually stood at the front, wasn’t hit by a drop of water.
What? Could such a good luck really be so consistent?
Because the smoke continued instead of subsiding, even the classes ended early. They said that tomorrow may be a school holiday too. He has always only dreamed of such things. It was too good, he couldn’t close his mouth.
When he slowly walked out of the school, he saw a white dog, who ripped out the leash from the owner’s hands and ran out on the road.
“Hey! Are you crazy!?”
He quickly stepped on the leash, and snatched the excited dog. In the very next moment, a bus whooshed past him at an enormous speed.
“Hold that dog please!”
An old man in a fashionable sport cap was running towards him with a tearful face. Seeing Yu Dan hold the dog, he swept a hand over his heart with a scared to death face.
“I thought that bus just now ran him over! You’re truly a kind student! What are you doing? Reward him!”
“Yes, chairman-nim.”
The executive following after him quickly handed him a white envelope.
“This is!”
Embarrassed, he chased after them, but in the instant they boarded an ultra-luxurious sedan with the eagle wings emblem, and disappeared. He stood blankly for a moment, and then opened the envelope. He saw over a hundred green bills inside.
“Wh-what, this…”
His fingers trembled, this was too much like a dream.
You caught one dog and got such fortune? Wow…. What should he do with it? A game? Can he really buy it? Will it be okay? He had more than enough money.
His feet automatically headed to the electronic store.
The strange events didn’t stop there. He was just about to enter the store, when some woman standing in front of the door shouted:
“What? Okay! Got it! Let’s go our own ways! I don’t want to see you ever again!”
The woman spat out fire and hung up. She was about to drop the enormous shopping bag in her other hand on the ground, but she noticed Yu Dan, quickly walked up to him and threw the shopping bag at him.
“Do you want it? I bought it for my boyfriend, no, my ex-boyfriend’s birthday gift, but now I don’t need it!”
Without waiting for the answer, she forced it on to him and left.
He looked inside and was shocked. It was a mobile game console that came out this month. And there were also new games for each category.
“No. Such a good girlfriend…”
Yu Dan was completely dumbfounded.
The moment he happened to come to this place, such enormous fortune landed on his lap? What the hell was happening today? What should he do?
Only then did he feel artificially of it.
It couldn’t have happened in reality. Such lucky events couldn’t just occur one after another. Something was distorting the reality. Some kind of strong power.
While he was standing stupefied, someone tapped him on the leg. He unconsciously looked down and was surprised. It was a rat wearing multi-color jeogori[3].
“Hello, are You perhaps thinking of selling it?”
“What? The game console?”
“No. Not that. That.”
“I have no idea what are you talking about?”
The rat whispered quietly.
“I’m talking about the qilin dream.”
“Qilin dream?”
Yu Dan asked back.
Qilin dream… Dream about a giraffe[4]?
Finally, he remembered. That shitty dream last night. The memory of it faded with the morning sunlight, and he completely forgot about it. What did the fox yokai say? You will meet supernatural creatures. Absolutely, never sell it.
Yu Dan looked down at the art.
“Not selling.”
“Ah, is that so?”
The rat disappeared with a sad face.
That’s it, huh? Wasn’t it strange? No matter what, it was unnatural.
That dazzling dream Baek Ran showed to him had to be the qilin dream. That was an amazingly lucky dream. So all those strange things must have happened because of it.
He looked at both of his hands again.
Shouldn’t he put that game console somewhere safe first?
He hurriedly headed home.
In the corner of the apartment complex was a 12 Zodiac Guardian Deity statue[4], he had never seen before. Looking again, it was a statue. The general with a snake head looked at Yu Dan and approached.
“Are you selling it?”
“No.”
“I’ll pay any price.”
“Not selling. Absolutely not.”
On high alert, he immediately went home.
Holding the mountain of boxes, Yu Dan staggered in. Was he too greedy? But he couldn’t help it because he said they would quickly go bad.
Heuk-yo, who put on the garden gloves and was cutting branches in the yard, looked in his direction and rushed over, throwing down the garden scissors and taking the boxes.
“What happened? No way, are all those boxes cakes?”
“I went to buy, but only received freebies. Someone ordered ten of them, but suddenly canceled the reservation. They paid for all of it anyway. He told me to take as many as I could, because it was hard to get rid off…”
“Older brother! Quickly turn off the rice cooker! Guys-ah! We’re having cakes for dinner today!”
He heard excited voices shouting something inside, and Do-ssi and the twins ran out. Seeing the cake boxes piled up in the yard, everyone jumped.
“I thought there was no way, but it’s real! It’s really that awesome, huh! The qilin dream!”
Do-ssi shouted. Yu Dan asked.
“You know about it?”
“Yeah. Cheonho-nim told me. He said He would give you the qilin dream? He had been waiting since morning.”
The cake party was held the moment they entered. The serpent yokai boiled a full, enormous new silver kettle of coffee.
“Unnie, why coffee, not tea today?”
“You have to drink bitter water alongside it, so many things can enter.”
“Are You afraid someone will steal it? There is only us here.”
“Darn it, spit! Sister, how about bringing some herbal medicine?”
“That’s a good idea!”
At the side of the noisy yokai, the fox yokai smiled widely.
“How was it? Was it fun?”
Yu Dan nodded.
“It was the luckiest day of my life. But what is up with that qilin dream? It doesn’t have anything with a giraffe.”
Do-ssi spat out coffee.
“That’s a bit funny. As expected, human child thinks of a giraffe first. What we’re talking here about is not that qilin (giraffe), but a real qilin.”
“A real qilin?”
“A legendary divine creature qilin.”
Baek Ran replied.
“The name of qilin (giraffe) in the zoo was originally taken from somewhere else. When Ming Empire’s eunuch Zheng He brought a spotted African animal from his expedition, people named it after the divine beast qilin. The real qilin is this.”
As the cloth over the folding screen behind him was removed, a five color animal leisurely playing among the clouds appeared. A one-horned animal with the head of a dragon and a body of a deer. Yu Dan recognized it right away.
“Ah, that’s it! But I thought it had a minor role in my dream! And that the kings were the main characters!”
“No. The main character is the qilin. Rather, the generations of kings are minor characters to make the qilin stand out.”
Baek Ran pointed with a stick and explained.
“Female is qi, male is lin, combined they make a qilin. Qilin is a very auspicious animal that announces the time of peace. When that qilin appears in the dream, it has a very significant meaning.”
“How?”
“Everyone dreams when they sleep. Usually it’s just the reflections of the reality, as we have seen with You, but not all dreams are like this. There are some special dreams. The prophetic dreams that show what will happen in the future. The reverse dreams that show the opposite of the future. The conception dreams that foretell the conception of a child. The good dreams that foretell that something good will happen, and bad dreams that foretell that something bad will happen. The qilin dream is naturally a good dream. And not even an ordinary good dream. Here I have a question for You. Do You know what kind of good dream is most common?”
Chaeu swallowed the spoonful of a cake and replied.
“It’s a dragon dream, of course.”
“I’m not sure about that.”
Heuk-yo refuted.
“These days, president dreams are more highly valued than the dragon dreams. Especially the dreams where the president tells you some kind of numbers are the best. Aah, why some good president doesn’t visit my dream to tell me numbers?”
“Why? Unnie, that’s because you won’t vote for the president. We don’t have voting rights, so we’re a lost cause. The good president who tells people numbers will absolutely never come to yokai’s dreams. They are busy appearing in the dreams of humans once a week.”
Chaeseol pouted. Baek Ran smiled and said:
“Whether the dragon dream or the president dream, they’re both the same. As You probably know, because the king’s face is called a dragon face, the symbol of a king since ancient times was a dragon. Anyway, the qilin dream is even more auspicious and a better dream than the dragon dream. It doesn’t stop on the meaning that one will obtain fortune and fame, or bear a child that will become an amazing person. First King Wang Geon. First King Yi Seong-gye[6]. That’s the dream of the country’s founders.”
“Really?”
Yu Dan was shocked.
“That much? I just avoided going late to school, got to eat a hamburger and was given a game console, so I thought it was some really lucky dream.”
“That’s because the dreams naturally change depending on the person’s capacity. Wang Gaeon or Yi Seong-gye were able to establish a country, but if a small person obtains it, even if it’s the qilin dream, it will be nothing but a candy… Um, anyway, that’s why others are gathering to try to buy the qilin dream.”
It seemed that this fox yokai insulted him just now, but something grabbed his attention more than that.
“But is it really possible to sell and buy dreams?”
*~*~*
[1] Seorabeol — Silla
[2] pung-ak — 풍악 — a type of traditional Korean string instrument.
[3] jeogori — outer-garment of hanbok. The colorful version is usually worn by children.
[4] giraffe — qilin and giraffe have the same name, as explained in the chapter.
[5] 12 Zodiac Guardian Deity statue — deities based on 12 Zodiacs, they have bodies of the humans and heads of animals. Called generals and kings, their statues were used to guard temples and tombs.
[6] Wang Geon. Yi Seong-gye — Wang Geon founded Goryeo, Yi Seong-gye founded Joseon.
Translator’s note: I think Yu Dan should become a president and fight for yokai voting rights. ‘Qilin Dream’ story is four chapters long.
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