There’s a Monster Inside Me Chapter 15

There’s a Monster Inside Me

Chapter 15

SLOSH!

My stomach lining shook violently.

A furry creature appeared before my eyes.

It had sprung out from my churning stomach!

I was momentarily speechless.

“No way… it came out just like that?”

The creature that hadn’t responded to hitting or pinching was now casually rolling around in front of me as if nothing had happened!

“Th-this is it.”

I pointed at the dark brown fur ball with a dazed expression.

The moment it fell from my stomach, Baek Eun-ok instantly retreated ten feet away, becoming just a speck.

To think the white space was this vast! I realized this while looking at Baek Eun-ok.

By the way, this imugi is indeed a divine being that has lived for hundreds of years.

I inwardly marveled.

Baek Eun-ok’s actions were extremely cautious and wise.

If this food spirit demon went crazy and opened its mouth, even a divine beast couldn’t feel safe. With its appetite, it could swallow Baek Eun-ok whole.

“Hey!”

I kicked the furball sprawled on the ground.

“Hey, you!”

When I nudged it again, the brown fur stood straight up.

“Don’t do that.”

The drooping voice sounded half-drunk.

“Hey, have you been sleeping this whole time?”

“Mmmmm…”

A languid answer came back.

“Ugh, I overate for once… I was just trying to digest…”

The creature with no limbs stretched its body, pulling its fur up and down.

Its plump ball-like body stretched out and then returned to its original shape.

Seeming to have come to its senses, the round body rolled on the floor and jumped up.

The furball, wandering around in the air, spotted Baek Eun-ok and split its mouth in a grin.

“What’s that? Is it my food?”

A long tongue swirled around its mouth once. I could feel Baek Eun-ok flinching from far away.

“You! If you eat that person, you’re dead! If you don’t want to see me hang myself here, don’t you dare touch even one of Baek Eun-ok’s scales!”

My warning was stern.

There was only one threat that worked on this uncontrollable food spirit demon, and that was my promise to kill myself where no one would find me.

If that happened, the food spirit demon would have to spend an indeterminate amount of time here until it found another human.

“Heh, you don’t even have the courage to die.”

“Want to test that theory?”

“TCH, I won’t eat it! I’m too disgusted to eat it anyway!”

The food spirit demon stuck out its tongue.

Despite its pretense, it never crossed the boundaries I had set.

“Are you really not going to eat me?”

Baek Eun-ok asked from so far away he was barely visible.

I might have been mistaken, but his voice seemed to tremble slightly.

“I won’t eat you! I won’t eat you! I said I won’t eat you, I won’t!”

The next moment, Baek Eun-ok approached the food spirit demon as if he had teleported, even as it answered with a shudder.

“TCH, doesn’t look tasty anyway…”

Despite its words, the food spirit demon licked its lips and smacked its tongue.

“Don’t you dare even dream about it!”

“I won’t eat it! I said I won’t!”

After securing a firm promise, I looked at Baek Eun-ok.

“Are you alright, Sir Baek Eun-ok?”

To my concerned question, Baek Eun-ok simply nodded.

“But are you really okay?”

“Ah, that’s just diges… BURP…”

A rancid smell wafted from the creature’s entire body as it belched loudly.

As I pinched my nose and recoiled, it puffed up its stomach.

“I feasted properly for once after a long time. It took a while to digest. BURP… But it’s all digested now. I can eat lots more!”

“Hey, do you know what you ate?”

“Oh, that black thing?”

“Yes! You bit into the King of the Endless Hell!”

“Ah, the Hell King? I know, of course I know!”

Judging by its demeanor, it clearly didn’t know.

“Do you also know that what you bit into was time itself?”

“That’s right. Wasn’t it? I know, I know!”

BOING!

It flew through the air.

The creature bounced off the top of my head once before landing back on the ground.

That was its way of showing familiarity, but the heavy weight made my neck wobble.

“Hehe, has time returned? Maru, you’ve really gotten smaller!”

In my past life, I first met the food spirit demon several years after I had shed my rookie status.

So naturally, I looked small in its eyes.

“Hey, you! You’ve gotten fat!”

While reversing time, I had shrunk to a boy’s body, and the food spirit demon had grown larger.

It used to be just the size of my head. The furball before me had grown to be as tall as me.

“It’s not fat, it’s muscle, you know?”

“Don’t be ridiculous! A furry demon talking about muscle?!”

“It’s all muscle under the fur. What are you going to do about it?”

While the food spirit demon and I bickered, Baek Eun-ok rolled his pitch-black eyes back and forth.

After listening quietly for a while, he asked.

“Did you say he bit into the King of the Endless Hell?”

“Yes.”

I confessed to Baek Eun-ok about traveling back in time.

Since he had told me his true name, I had no intention of hiding my secret.

I hoped that as an imugi who had lived for hundreds of years, he might have experienced something similar.

“By the King of the Endless Hell, do you mean the Hell God who is also the Demon King?”

“Yes, that’s right!”

“Good heavens!”

Baek Eun-ok pressed his forehead with his snow-white hand.

“No wonder I noticed so many strange things…”

Baek Eun-ok rolled his black eyes and stared at me. Feeling awkward, I pulled at the food spirit demon.

“This is all your fault, you demon!”

“You should be grateful that you didn’t die thanks to me, Bada Maru!”

As I wrestled and rolled around with the food spirit demon, Baek Eun-ok shook his head.

“…He is not a demon.”

I, who was pulling out its fur, and the food spirit demon, who was pinning me down, both looked at Baek Eun-ok simultaneously.

“Are you talking about me…?”

“Yes, you are not a mere demon.”

Baek Eun-ok’s voice was resolute.

“If not a demon, then what is it?”

“Then what am I?”

The food spirit demon and I simultaneously pressed Baek Eun-ok for an answer.

“You are… an ‘egg’.”

Both of us looked bewildered. A furry demon being an egg? What nonsense is this?!

“An egg? But for an egg, it’s…”

I frowned as I looked at the food spirit demon.

“But look at this. It’s fur, fur!”

I grabbed the demon tightly and fluttered its brown fur.

Isn’t an egg supposed to be small, round, and smooth…?

“It’s natural that you find it strange since it doesn’t belong to the earthly realm.”

“Besides, this thing moves!”

“Yes, I know. It’s covered in fur with no eyes, nose, or limbs, all evidence that it’s an egg.”

Baek Eun-ok was right. The food spirit demon had none of those features.

That’s why it bounced around like a ball and used my vision to see the world.

It understood the world through what I heard, saw, and touched.

In other words, it couldn’t move on its own.

“…But it has a mouth.”

“That’s true.”

Baek Eun-ok scrutinized the food spirit demon with a thoughtful gaze.

The only thing it had was a mouth.

When the food spirit demon opened its mouth wide, the imugi flinched and stepped back.

“It’s just gathering nutrients for hatching. What it craves isn’t merely food.”

“What? But it eats everything in sight! That’s why I named it a food spirit demon…”

“What it swallows is probably experience.”

“Experience…?”

The food spirit demon quietly listened to Baek Eun-ok’s words, as if lost in deep thought.

I’ve never seen it this well-behaved before…

“S-so if it’s really an egg… then this thing will eventually hatch?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then… what will it become?”

Baek Eun-ok shook his head at my question.

“The nourishment of experience will determine its final form. It’s premature to judge what kind of being it will become in the end.”

“Then might it become a terrifyingly… complete food spirit demon? Maybe a Demon King?”

“Ha, a Demon King…”

The elegant and clear-voiced young imgui sighed. His gesture of touching his forehead probably meant I was talking nonsense.

“Do you smell the scent of a demon from him?”

“…No, I don’t.”

I could answer that with certainty. Not just me, but no one had ever smelled its scent.

In my past life, I was able to attend the Thousand-Year School for a while with it in my stomach because it didn’t emit the distinctive smell of a demon.

“He is not a mere demon.”

“…Then what?”

“We’ll know for certain when the egg hatches, but in my opinion…”

The food spirit demon, who had been quiet until then, spoke up.

“Do not speak carelessly.”

Baek Eun-ok trembled at the food spirit demon’s words.

“…Your point is well-taken.”

It was strange to see him bow so submissively.

To think that a divine imugi would bow its head to a mere food spirit demon.

How…?

“If I am an egg as you say, you shouldn’t set limitations before I hatch. Watch your words.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

What’s happened to the proud and unyielding imugi?

Is he implying that this thing will become something extraordinary, or is he just being cautious because its future form is unknown?

But surely… this crazy food spirit demon… could it become a being higher than an imugi, or even a dragon?

Surely not…

“Ha, that’s absurd!”

As I ruffled the demon’s stiff fur, it shouted.

“Stop that!”

But I wasn’t about to stop.

After all the years we’ve spent together.

“…You, an egg?! This lump of flesh, this furball… an egg!”

“Hey, why do you speak informally to me but formally to that thing?”

“Well, that’s…”

I looked at Baek Eun-ok, whom the food spirit demon had called “that thing.”

The elegant young imgui bowed his head apologetically.

“If you had eyes, you’d see why!”

“I don’t have eyes!”

“I know perfectly well that you can see through my eyes!”

“So what? I saw it. What now? What’s that pale thing? Show me respect too! Or speak informally to that guy as well!”

The food spirit demon failed to realize the vast difference in status between itself and Baek Eun-ok.

“You’re being ridiculous, you demon!”

“UGH, you’re annoying! You’re making me hungry!”

“Hey, you just said you finished digesting, and now you’re talking about eating again? You already bit into Jangjeokgwe last time you came out briefly.”

“I stopped chewing that in the middle? Anyway, since it’s all digested, I need to eat it!”

Indeed, there’s no way this guy could be anything great. He’s just obsessed with eating!

A long-lived serpent spirit might be respectful considering possible opportunities, but I won’t be.

I’m a human who won’t even live a hundred years. I can’t see even an inch ahead! What I see right in front of me is everything.

Whatever, I don’t care if you’re an egg or whatever. I don’t care what you become in the future. To me, you’re nothing more or less than a food spirit demon.

“You gluttonous pig demon.”

While the food spirit monster and I were rolling around on the floor growling at each other, very far away, somewhere, there was a rumbling… a vibration that felt like an earthquake.

“AH!”

I, who had been pulling out the food spirit’s fur, suddenly came to my senses.

“I almost forgot because of you! We need to get out quickly!”

There was another reason I had been counting down to today besides checking on the food spirit’s condition in this secret space.

In my past life, I remember this day clearly.

A historic catastrophe that struck just days after enrollment.

It was the ‘Rift of Chaos.’

Back then, new students were gathered in the Grand Library just like today, and the rift opened its mouth at the top of the library.

A fracture in the world created by the chaos between this world and the afterlife, the heavens and the underworld…

At that time, all the divine masters of the Thousand-Year School, regardless of whether they were school officials, Taoist masters, sorcerers, professors, shamans, or wizards, all came forward to prevent the new students from being sucked into the opening rift.

The Divine masters of the Thousand-Year School drew out enormous power and barely managed to close the rift.

It took three whole days for them to finally seal it shut.

Fortunately, no student was dragged into the Rift of Chaos, but there were some injured students.

Among them, the most ridiculous injury case was me.

In a corner of the library that had absolutely nothing to do with the Rift of Chaos, I had been knocked unconscious by a falling book.

It was truly a shameful memory.

“Now that you’re awake, let’s go! And fill your stomach too!”

“HEHE, sounds good!”

The food spirit grinned, splitting its mouth wide.

It bounced on the floor and entered my stomach.

GULP.

My thin, flat stomach convulsed once.

The White Jade also instantly wrapped around my wrist.

And so we left the white space.