There’s a Monster Inside Me Chapter 4

There’s a Monster Inside Me

Chapter 4

SPLASH!

Just as the Jangjeokgwe was about to bite off my head, something burst out from my stomach.

This brown furry thing opened its mouth wide.

“CHOMP!”

A hole larger than the red monster’s mouth faced the creature. An endless dark pit swallowed the giant’s face in one bite.

“CRUNCH, CRUNCH!”

And it didn’t stop there.

“You, youuu…!”

Ignoring my shocked reaction, it forcefully devoured the giant red monster from its head down to its chest, stomach, and waist.

“Youuu! You crazy spirit who chewed up the King of the Endless Hell! What have you been doing all this time not coming out? Hey!”

“BURP!”

The massive furry beast shook its body with a shiver. Each hair stood up like needles as if struck by lightning.

Normally it would have gulped down a monster like this in one bite, but it only ate up to the waist.

“Heyyy!”

If my legs weren’t broken, I would have grabbed that thing and tormented it. Not being able to move was maddening.

The furball with no eyes or nose, just a mouth, stared blankly at me.

“Don’t call me for a while. I mean it…”

It somehow spoke in a tone suggesting it was unbearably sleepy.

Like someone who stayed up for days and was finally overcome by exhaustion, it looked drained.

“Don’t… call me. YAAAWWN…”

The last words mixed with a yawn.

“Hey!”

I called again, but the spirit had already disappeared into my stomach.

I wanted to grab it and hear the full story, but I gave up.

Seeing its condition, even if I pulled it out, it didn’t seem like it could hold a conversation.

“Still, I’m glad.”

I chuckled. Who would have thought the day would come when I’d be relieved that the food spirit demon was still the same! I must have spent too many years with that creature.

“URGH…”

Only after the spirit disappeared did the beast-skin-wearing stranger begin to stir.

His body still faintly smelled of spirits.

“ACK!”

The shaggy-haired man got up, discovered the half-eaten Jangjeokgwe, and convulsed several times.

He looked at me.

Then he alternated glances between me and the monster.

I shrugged my shoulders to indicate I knew nothing.

I pointed to my immobile legs and then clutched my head as if dizzy.

I used my whole body to communicate that I had fainted. He probably wouldn’t think otherwise, looking at my scrawny boy’s body.

After staring blankly at the night sky for a while, he got up and dusted himself off.

The spirit smell intensified as he approached.

Bright blue eyes flashed through his thick hair.

“Huh?”

Suddenly I had a sense of déjà vu.

Those blue eyes…

The spirit smell…

Where had I met him before?

While my mind was in confusion, he lay flat and grabbed my broken ankle.

CRACK! CRACKLE!

“AAAAARGH!”

An overwhelming pain swept over me.

And with that, my consciousness completely faded away.

***

My unconscious mind took me back to a day in the past.

“Look at that, it’s not even funny!”

“Did you see those blue eyes?”

“How did a spirit like that even get in here?”

At the Thousand-Year School , the ‘popular ones’ took turns bullying weaker students.

Among them were children of high-ranking noble officials and those connected to the State Minister, said to be the kingdom’s most powerful spiritual force.

While the Thousand-Year School  was supposed to be equal for all, there was no way to stop those who secretly boasted about their backgrounds.

Kids like me with no abilities weren’t even considered worth bullying. We weren’t treated as people at all.

Still, I couldn’t completely relax. You never knew when or why you might offend them.

Like that half-human, half-spirit.

When students learned a half-human, half-spirit had entered the Thousand-Year School , they were shocked.

Imagine, a being born between a human and a spirit.

At first glance, he looked no different from humans, but his blue eyes gleamed brightly even at night.

The biggest problem was that Thousand-Year School  students could smell spirit energy and had an instinctive aversion to spirits and demons.

The more they trained, the more clearly students could distinguish the spirit smell.

The spirit scent emanating from the half-breed naturally made others avoid him.

Moreover, the half-breed was born with high spiritual power. That became another reason for the hatred.

His grades… were terrible.

Though his potential was acknowledged, his academic performance always scraped the bottom. Only in ‘Spatial Arts’ did he show extraordinary skill.

A natural talent for creating invisible spaces and forming barriers!

It was only natural that such a half-spirit would irritate the popular students.

They constantly bullied him and made him miserable. Despite this happening countless times daily, the half-breed endured silently.

But everyone has their limits, things that should never be touched.

I learned much later that for him, his ‘mother’ was such a sore spot.

Someone among those so-called outstanding students insulted and degraded his deceased mother.

That day, the half-human half-spirit who always endured finally showed his anger.

The result of his fury was devastating.

His opponent lost his life, and the murdered one was a relative of the State Minister who held the highest spiritual rank in the country.

The half-spirit’s arrest by the Thousand-Year School  masters was instantaneous.

He didn’t flee. He didn’t even attempt to defend himself.

The trial took place at the royal palace rather than the Thousand-Year School,and I heard his head was severed by an executioner’s blade.

Soon after, rumors spread that his final cry was ‘Mother.’

His name…

What was that half-human half-spirit’s name?

The memory was hazy yet tantalizingly close, tickling the tip of my tongue.

***

“Gokdu… Gokdu…”

A distant voice penetrated my ears. My mind suddenly cleared.

That’s right, that was the name!

Gokdu! It was definitely that name!

I opened my eyes to the musty scent of wood filling my nostrils.

Hazy smoke wavered before my eyes.

The first sensation was pain in both legs.

When I barely managed to raise my aching body, I saw splints on both legs, tightly bound with arrowroot vines.

“Gokdu, I think our guest is awake.”

A weak voice called for Gokdu.

Turning my head, I saw a woman lying on a bamboo bed covered with animal fur.

Though her completely white hair made her look elderly at first glance, upon closer inspection, her cheeks were merely sunken,she had quite a beautiful face.

I was so focused on examining her that I didn’t notice Gokdu approaching.

POKE.

He touched my sprained ankle with the stick he was using to stir the fire.

My vision blurred.

“UUUGH…”

I had to swallow even my groans, fearing that if I screamed, the vibration would travel to my toes.

Gokdu remarked indifferently.

“It’s fine, whatever.”

“It hurts… it hurts so much… okay?”

Look carefully, you fool!

See how this young body is trembling!

“It’s okay, you won’t die.”

Damn, what kind of words are those?!

“I’m sorry. The boy is just very awkward.”

Turning my head with difficulty, I saw the pale woman smiling faintly.

If not for her obvious illness, she might have been quite beautiful in her youth.

‘That must be… Gokdu’s mother.’

Unlike the Spirit wife that people whispered about,imagined as some wicked, seductive temptress,she looked nothing but gentle.

Her gentle smile, her slowly blinking eyelids,seeing this incredibly fragile woman, I couldn’t understand.

…How did someone like her become the wife of a spirit?

“Remember anything?”

“Huh?”

Gokdu’s gaze was sharp as he looked at me.

“The Jangjeokgwe was cut in half?”

“Uh… I lost consciousness, so I don’t…”

The body of an inexperienced child made a useful shield to avoid interrogation. Even the persistent Gokdu eventually closed his mouth.

“Gokdu, you should give our guest something to eat.”

At his mother’s request, Gokdu scratched his shaggy hair.

He scooped porridge into a crudely made clay bowl from the middle of the shabby hut.

“Eat.” 

I received the roughly carved bowl. It came with chopsticks hastily made from broken branches.

It was a mixed porridge with crushed potatoes and unidentifiable meat. Perhaps because I was hungry, it tasted better than expected.

“It’s embarrassing to serve something like this.”

“Oh, come on, Mother….”

As I scraped the bowl clean, the woman smiled awkwardly.

“Please don’t say such things, I owe my life to your son. Not only that, you’ve given me shelter and treated my injuries. I’m truly grateful!”

“Oh my goodness!”

The woman’s mouth fell open.

Even Gokdu, who had been stirring the fire, looked at me in surprise.

Confused about what I’d done wrong, I just scratched the back of my head.

“Because of our lowly status… I never expected to hear such words.”

Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes.

I could guess the reason.

From the situation, it seemed the spirit husband had abandoned them. And that wouldn’t be all,they would have been rejected by the human world as well.

Shunned by family, likely driven from their village. People abhor spirits, after all.

If they could have hidden their identity, they might have settled in another village, but that would have been impossible.

Those with spiritual power are sensitive to the scent of spirits.

Even if they tried to live among people, it would mostly have been in vain.

So even after helping others like this, they probably heard words of resentment more often than gratitude.

“UGH… COUGH! COUGH!”

The woman clutched her chest and coughed convulsively.

“Ah, Mother, really… That’s why I told you to lie still and not talk.”

Gokdu rose quickly and pulled the fur up to cover her shoulders. His rough hands gently patted her back.

Just seeing his careful touch, I could tell how precious she was to him.

Though the coughing stopped, the woman’s cheeks had hollowed, and beneath her eyes had darkened. I could sense she didn’t have much life force left.

“You lie down too! Stop talking.”

“Yes…”

I obediently lay down as Gokdu instructed.

Lying on my back looking at the ceiling, I focused on the energy within my body.

Meditating while lying down was still a form of training.

I circulated energy and blood all the way to my painful ankle, trying to repair the damaged meridians.

I also diligently gathered the spiritual energy abundant in the mountains.

***

…Three days had passed.

An ankle that normally wouldn’t have healed even after 30 days became movable in just 3 days.

It was thanks to circulating the vital energy within my body.

Of course, carrying heavy loads or running was impossible, but I could walk with a limp.

“Youth is wonderful.”

The lady rejoiced with me as she watched me move with the support of a walking stick.

“HAHA….”

In fact, youth wasn’t the cause of the healing, but I just laughed emptily.

Gokdu left home saying he would sell the firewood he had gathered. He said once he left like that, he wouldn’t be able to return for at least five days.

Meanwhile, I visited the village at the foot of the mountain, leaning on my walking stick.

The hut was surrounded by several layers of crude barriers.

Gokdu said he had learned how to create barriers on his own to protect his sick mother from dangerous wild animals.

I understood why Gokdu had been exceptionally talented with barrier techniques in his previous life.

“Ma’am, I’m back….”

When I returned from the village below, the inside of the hut was quiet.

The frail lady usually had her eyes closed even when the sun was high.

I carefully went outside, not wanting to wake her.

I unfolded the cotton cloth I had been keeping in my robe.

The ginseng root I had obtained by sacrificing both my legs to Jangjeokgwe… I mixed one of them with the jujubes I had procured. Soon, the pungent smell of medicinal broth permeated the air.

The Serpent that had been the purpose of my excursion had somehow become secondary, but I didn’t feel regretful.

A few days later, Gokdu returned.

His eyebrows shot up to the sky as he entered the hut.

“What in the world….?”

Gokdu seemed shocked by the scene before his eyes.