Chapter 208

Lee Yeon-woo had never once gone outside the hotel before.

He'd raised his body's durability and stability through the physical-improvement work, and taxidermied the circuits so they wouldn't collapse—but that was a matter confined to the central control system.

So he couldn't guess at the side effects of going outside the hotel, but….

"……."

"Hello?"

"……."

"Hello? Hello?"

Coco went back and forth over Lee Yeon-woo's two shoulders, peering at him.

"……."

Yes—his vocal cords had melted.

It wasn't only the vocal cords. His ears heard poorly, his eyesight worsened. Overall his bodily functions grew a little scrambled, calling to mind exactly the way the internet keeps cutting out as you move away from the router.

'And my expression's frozen like the General Manager's, too.'

More precisely, only his mouth had. Lee Yeon-woo ran a fingertip over his curved lips.

'They won't even part.'

Fortunate or unfortunate, he couldn't say, but there was no outwardly visible problem. It was likely because that had been the part he'd labored over most when taxidermying the circuits during the physical-improvement work.

The most vexing thing was—

"……."

that, as ever, no words would come out.

'A bit inconvenient.'

Lee Yeon-woo took off his glasses and looked around with a frown.

His glasses had no prescription. They were glasses he wore for reasons other than eyesight; hence Lee Yeon-woo's vision had always been good. Never before had his eyesight declined like this, so he was simply bewildered.

'Not at the level of being unable to see, but the resolution's dropped considerably.'

"Coco, hello."

"……."

He could see it.

"Coco, hello?"

Once, even from 1 meter out.

"Coco, hello!"

And once from 2 meters off.

'An eye exam….'

"Yes!"

'Thank you.'

Things a bit far off he could see, but the shapes were blurred and not clearly visible. At a certain distance Coco was a smeared black lump itself, looking like a pixel glitch torn into reality.

But at this level, there'd be no great trouble getting around.

'If it comes to it, I need only dissolve this body and return to the hotel again.'

And returning now to the present,

"……."

"Bestow upon me the grace of the right path."

Lee Yeon-woo felt like beating up his past self, who had thought the 'great trouble' would be a threat only to his body.

"Fox God, one who lost the way…."

This was a bigger mental blow than he'd expected.

'A preschool-age child.'

And how ought one to treat a preschool-age child, at that, devoured by a cult? Even for Lee Yeon-woo, with his many bits of miscellaneous knowledge, it was a question that yielded no easy answer.

'I've no choice but to wait until my foxes find the way.'

"Yes…."

'A truly wicked Labyrinth.'

Coco agreed.

***

Within a deep blackout with no visible end, the child felt one faint sensation.

"……."

A tingling yet sweet memory that had filled her mouth.

'Small, red, round….'

It seemed someone had gently pushed something between her lips—something exactly like a pretty pebble from a stream, or a glass marble. The child remembered the moment it slid down her throat.

The pain wracking her whole body like a lump of fire vanished as if snow melting, the searing thirst subsided, and life-force that had bottomed out surged up to fill her whole body.

'…So cool….'

It was like water seeping deep into dry ground. That pleasant ease born of the overwhelming gap—a mortal body perfectly reconstructed by a single drop of mercy.

"Ugh…."

Trembling, when she lifted her fluttering eyelids—

"……."

"……."

the child realized she was lying with her head pillowed on someone's knee.

When she cautiously raised her head, she met, straight on beyond her blurred vision, golden pupils. A man of pale complexion clad all in black—the Fox God.

It was as if time had halted for an instant.

"……."

Such was the illusion—so free of the slightest agitation, with deep and serene eyes, was the man looking down at the child. A perfect stillness with neither hostility nor amusement.

When her gaze met that smile—

"…Ah."

her wits snapped back.

"Ah, ah, I—"

The auntie's plaintive charge grazed her mind like a lightning strike.

Unable to recall any other words, the child immediately tried to kneel and offer a bow first. It was the terror that told her she must beg for her life before the divine spirit in the very lowest posture.

"Fox, Fox God. Fox—"

Just then the man's pale, long hand descended without a sound and took hold of the child's shoulder.

No coercion or threat could be felt at all. If anything it was a delicate, courteous restraint, as though he feared the child might get hurt. Yet the presence that even that gentleness couldn't conceal was so terribly vast.

'Have I committed a rudeness?'

The child's eyes wavered mercilessly with terror and desperation.

'What if, blocked by the god's hand like this, I can't fully beg for mercy?'

Would she then become an offering to this place forever?

'If I'm Offered like that, then I—the younger ones in the village…'

When she trembled all over, afraid she might lose even the chance to plead for mercy, the man looked closely at the fear in the child's eyes. In that gaze there was no contempt toward humans, no scorn.

Merely, in eyes as clear and calm as a mirror, the child's dread was reflected as it was.

"……."

Presently the man slowly withdrew his hand.

"……."

"…Th-thank…."

And then he simply stared at the prostrate child, without the slightest movement. In that very posture, kneeling neat and composed.

Even the air around them settled heavy and calm, following his bearing. It was like a deep lake that permitted not a single strand of wind, so that the child felt she might forget even how to breathe.

To the child, it looked like full permission to speak.

"…Thank you."

The chance that had barely come, the child did not miss.

"Fox God."

In an unwavering tone she recited,

"Fox God, one who lost the way has returned to the god."

It was a prayer to the Fox God, handed down long in the village.

"Bestow upon me the grace of the right path."

"……."

"One who lost the way has returned to the god. As we dwell within your belly, bestow the grace of the right path. One who lost the way has returned to the god…."

She had no idea how many times she repeated the prayer. She hadn't the presence of mind even to count.

But according to what had been learned at the cost of the villagers' lives, once one set foot in this domain of silence, no language other than what the code prescribed was permitted.

[Do not show emotion. Do not so much as talk to yourself. If you see someone you know but doubt they are human, do not speak to them. Otherwise the god will see you and you will be Offered forever, unable to escape.]

"Bestow upon me the grace of the right path."

The only permitted words were these.

However long she recited them—in that space where even the sunlight seemed frozen, the shadow rippled softly for an instant, and tearing the boundary of space, two small black foxes revealed themselves without a sound.

"……!"

"……."

At the foxes' appearance, the man's golden pupils turned very briefly toward empty air. When the foxes then began to walk ahead, following that gaze, the man too rose gracefully to his feet.

Over the child's head, black robes—as if cut from a swath of night sky—rustled elegantly. At the shift of air pressure that arose when the vast being moved, the child's head bowed of its own accord.

"……."

"Ah…."

The man stood looking down at the child, then presently held out a hand toward her, tenderly. Its tip carried a bluish glow, like dawn fog.

Too white and unreal to be a human hand. But the intent in that touch was supremely clear. The divine spirit's kind mercy—to lead her so she wouldn't be hurt on this rough mountain trail.

'He's telling me… to take it, I suppose?'

When the child clasped that hand with a trembling one of her own, the man lightly raised her small body upright. It was an exceedingly delicate and gentle grip, yet within it was something beyond daring to describe.

"Ah, um."

In that moment, in the relief of having lived, words the code did not permit slipped out of the child's mouth. The instant she realized it, all the blood in her body froze.

"……."

The man's steps halted. And slowly he turned his head to look at the child.

'Ah.'

There was no reproach, no anger. Merely golden pupils, still as a lake, turned toward the child.

That gaze was absolute acceptance and forbearance. The very fact that so vast a being stopped time and waited solely for her sake pressed on the child as a great weight.

She couldn't bear the weight of this precarious mercy.

"…It's nothing."

In the end the child lowered her eyes and shut her mouth. As if respecting even the child's silence, the man turned again and quietly took the lead.

Following his steps, remarkably, no fog and no mountain wraith could approach the space around them. Only a pleasant wind, made by his mercy, carefully wrapped the child.

'The breeze is gentle.'

The most dangerous being on this mountain was, paradoxically, becoming the most perfect shield.

'And the path isn't rough….'

Crunch, crunch.

In a stillness where only footsteps continued.

After walking a long while, all at once a strong sunlight bathed her eyes.

"…! Ugh,"

Within a white light spreading so bright it was hard to open her eyes, the man's black robes receded far away. And the instant she strained her eyes open again—

"Huh…?"

her stopped-up ears opened, and familiar birdsong and the sound of a flowing brook poured softly in.

When the immense overwhelming presence that had crushed her whole body vanished like a mirage and she came fully to her senses, the child stood, at some point, not in the alien mountains but on an ordinary dirt path.

'Is this, could it be—'

Looking around, the child's eyes widened.

Rounded thatched roofs clustered together, and beyond the walls a scene of large rows of earthenware-jar terraces. Tile-roofed houses with wooden lattices faded by the sun, and even a waterwheel turning sluggishly far off—

it was unmistakably the child's village.

"S-Sister…?"

"It's 'Chief' you should say."

"Chief! Everyone, the Chief's back!"

"Sister's here, come out quick!"

"Sister!"

They were voices bright and lively, one and all, as if to declare they were no illusions. Light emotions that had not been permitted in the divine spirit's domain poured out from every direction.

Then the village younger ones, who'd been hiding beyond the low wall, came rushing out. Anxious that some of them might commit a rudeness before the Fox God, the 'Chief'—the child—hurriedly shouted,

"Don't act rashly, mind your manners before the Fox God!"

"The Fox God…?"

"Yes, she has watched over the village and come down from the mountain, so you must rightly—!"

Getting that far, the child suddenly felt an emptiness running down her back and stopped. And she looked back at the spot where the Fox God had stood.

"…Ah."

There was no one there.

***

"Ms. Seome."

"I was truly startled—do give some warning for a soft-hearted staff member."

"I'll take care from now on. So would you hear me out?"

"I don't know what happened, but you look really exhausted."

Seome, perched on the roost inside the front desk, flapped a few times at Lee Yeon-woo, who had abruptly welled up in the hotel lobby as a mass of blood. Quickly regaining her composure, the white owl refolded her wings and resolved to hear him out in earnest.

"I'm ready. What sort of story shall I hear for you?"

"Would you believe that the 'role' I received was 'Fox God'?"

"With respect, I'll have to think about that one."

Seome pondered a moment, even shutting her eyes, then opened them and answered,

"No, it might be a bit hard."

"So it is, after all."

A regrettable thing.

***

Just how harmful am I?

Unable to find the answer to that question, Lee Yeon-woo returned to the hotel right after seeing the child to her village. It was because he didn't know what harm he might do to others outside the hotel—to those who weren't Labyrinths.

"……."

His thoughts grew many.

***

Having heard the story, the 'Guest Without Taste' asked,

"At this rate, will you even be able to make it to a psychiatrist?"

"Did the point of what I said come across as that?"

"But the main purpose of this excursion would have been exactly that."

Clatter, clatter.

"Checking for side effects, I mean."

For the first time in a while, the sound of cutlery clinking came from around the 'Guest Without Taste.' He seemed, for some reason, in a very ill humor, which might have something to do with the sound now being made.

"You said you'd name that little clot of blood, then abruptly headed outside the hotel—you've no idea how it startled me. With most of your core here, how very brave of you."

"Did I, by chance, run off without notice, unannounced?"

"You did mention it beforehand, but when you actually left your seat, my heart felt quite empty. Had you not fed me humanity, I'd never have had cause to feel this way."

"Start from there and you'll be at a far greater disadvantage, you know?"

As if he did know his own guilt, the 'Guest Without Taste' smoothly changed the subject.

"That's highly likely to be a reflection of the 'Fox Den's' nature."

"A Labyrinth of the sort that feeds on 'paths' and 'directions,' was it."

The vampire nodded and said,

"The circuits you've taxidermied into this hotel in the form of a slab of meat—"

"A person."

"in the form of a person—broadly speaking, aren't those a path and a direction too? Your true body is this hotel, and that flesh is a kind of toy doll, so—"

"Is it so very hard to think of this side as the true body?"

"It may be unavoidable that even a mere 'Fox Den' has an effect on you."

Even so, the 'Guest Without Taste' added, that stops at the level of an 'effect'; of course there'd be nothing like an ordinary person losing their way or being trapped in the mountains.

"I see."

Lee Yeon-woo, accepting it, asked,

"I'm the one who was affected—so why do you look like the one whose pride has been wounded?"

"Do give it some thought with that great head of yours."

"I'd like you to act your age a little."

Pondering a moment, Lee Yeon-woo went on.

"In that case, if I leave the 'Fox Den' completely—that is, the farther off I go, the less my circuits will tangle. Assuming my declined bodily functions really were the 'Fox Den's' influence."

"That's a thing you'd only know by experiencing it, though."

Lee Yeon-woo tilted his head and asked,

"You're not certain?"

"Are you saying I've ever seen a Velmareth other than you, just now?"

"Why so touchy?"

"Won't you spare a thought for my heart, having to imagine a situation where a Velmareth is mixed in among lowly slabs of meat? You've no idea how unpleasant this is."

"Ah, dear."

Thinking what was coming had come, Lee Yeon-woo drew a hand down his face.

"It seems you're not the only one who's grown touchy."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"This has become awkward."

He'd thought he ought to head outside before long.

'Only then could I learn how I appear to society and what effect I have on it. And I've all the less intention of holing up here forever just because that frightens me….'

It was hard to confirm his 'own dangerousness' any further within the hotel. Since the staff had little interest in the standard of 'human,' Lee Yeon-woo had no way to know how dangerous he'd become.

Especially outside the hotel.

"……."

At first he'd wanted to leave because the hotel was dangerous, and now, assimilated into the dangerous hotel himself, he couldn't leave with an easy mind. A truly ironic situation.

"Let's set that aside for now."

"What's being set aside, exactly?"

"The 'Drenched One' and the 'Lover of Dawn' are in my lung and on my back, and to borrow your words, this place is my true body—so in practical terms, the only one likely to feel any emptiness is you, when you get down to it."

"An uncontracted Labyrinth can't live for the heartache of it all."

"Which means that, first, I'll have to leave the 'Fox Den'…."

Merely being briefly caught up in the 'Fox Den'—no more than the hotel's front yard—had melted his vocal cords so his mouth wouldn't open and even blurred his sight. And recalling that he'd even performed the 'Fox God' role,

oh, merciful lord.

'This won't do as things stand.'

Going out into human society in this state with no measures at all, he'd plainly scatter catastrophe in every direction without a control device, or invite irreversible misunderstanding. Would there be no more variables in all the world like the 'Fox Den'?

'A screen to make up for possible bodily declines and hide me completely. And a person who fully grasps my dangerousness and could, in an emergency, control and subdue me….'

For the personnel able to provide the minimum buffer zone for a safe excursion, Baek Mu-jin came to mind.

"……."

He did have a business card received for use at just such a time.

"Hm."

Ring—

He rang the Golden Bell.

Soon a staff member approached, bearing an antique dial telephone—not even connected to a phone line—cushioned on a pillow. Lee Yeon-woo expressed his thanks, then with a calm hand turned the dial.

Presently the call connected.

[…Mr. Yeon-woo?]

"Hello, Director Lee Seon-hae."

[Your phone works now, over there?]

"Astonishingly, it does."

It was thanks to the 'Fox Den' quietly lowering its head somewhat ever since Lee Yeon-woo had personally visited. Whether it was not obstructing the signal, or helping the signal get through properly, he couldn't say.

"I'd like to meet before long—might I have President Baek Mu-jin's contact information?"

[Setting aside that the man still hasn't given you his number, is there a reason?]

"If possible, I thought I might ask for some additional help."

There were various reasons like the above, but they were a bit much to explain by phone without meeting face to face. Lee Yeon-woo fell silent a moment, then added,

"It seems I'll need a car to get to where he is, in any case."

He meant it.

"Walking all the way to Seoul or using public transit would be rather a burden for me."

[Wow, good heavens.]

It was an extremely practical reason.

Right after the call ended, the vampire said 'if you put my disciples to work you could use not a car but a private jet,' but it was rejected. Truly preposterous nonsense, Lee Yeon-woo thought.

***

"……."

"Um, Director?"

"You know."

Hesitating, Lee Seon-hae asked the crew member helping tidy the set.

"Seeing a full-grown young man as a little child is a bit strange, isn't it?"

The crew member answered as if it were nothing.

"If you're close, or the guy's a bit of an airhead, it could happen."

"Still, though."

"Hmm, roughly how old is he?"

"Right at the borderline of exactly twenty? Somewhere from eighteen to twenty-one…?"

"Isn't that a sneakily wide range for playing it off?"

"Then let's say he's twenty."

"Mmmm."

The crew member folded their arms and asked,

"Is he tall?"

"He's tall."

"Taller than you, Director?"

"Tall enough that I look up at him."

"Big build?"

"He's thin, but the frame seems sturdy."

"That's plenty grown, then?"

"What if his circumstances are pitiable?"

"That, well, I don't especially…?"

He might just look like 'a kid,' but not at the level of 'a little child.'

"It does seem a touch much, but if it's someone you're especially fond of or whose situation is bad, I can see it happening. So it's not all that terribly strange, I'd say."

"Uh, then—this is a slightly different topic…."

Lee Seon-hae asked awkwardly,

"You shouldn't see a person as a work of art, right?"

"But isn't that your job, Director…?"

"Tell me I shouldn't."

"What in the world do you want from me."

It was a conversation that left both the crew member and Lee Seon-hae feeling somewhat uneasy.

"Then I'll really head in now."

"Mm-hm."

After the crew member left—

"……."

Fiddling with her phone, Lee Seon-hae muttered with an awkward laugh,

"…I should go too, I suppose."

The psychiatrist, that is.

***

Hyeon Si-gyeong, helping direct traffic with a whistle in his mouth, suddenly gazed at empty air.

"……."

Any further 'misperception' could actually provoke 'Lee Yeon-woo,' so by now it was of no consequence. Thinking so, Hyeon Si-gyeong moved his 'gaze' back toward the road.

"……."

"Hey there, our Tarot fellow."

Gangwon Director Dan-cheong threw an arm around his shoulder.

"How about a bowl of gukbap with me."

Wheee.

"I'll even order you some suyuk, hm?"

Grinning, she tapped Hyeon Si-gyeong's solar plexus with a fingertip.

"I ought to know a little of what you're thinking, is what I'm saying."

"……."

Hyeon Si-gyeong nodded.

"I'm going to hand in my resignation."

"Well I'll be, this fucker."