In This Life • Tale Of The Nine Tailed • Lee Rang

Chapter 5

"He what?!", Yeon exclaimed, in disbelief of what he had just heard.

"As you heard it. He's going to the forbidden sea for me to get Kairos's timepiece."

Yeon completely loses it, if they weren't surrounded by people he would've flipped the table over already, "Are you fucking crazy?! He'll die!"

"No he won't", Lin muttered under his breath in slight frustration, sounding like a person who has been explaining the same concept to an idiot for the nth time.

"All mythical beings who enter the water would drown!", Yeon argued, sitting at the edge of his seat

"I'm sure you've read his journal so I don't need to remind you of what the god of smithing had to say about this.", Lin leaned forwards in his seat, "You've asked him to choose between living as a Gumiho or a human. He chose Gumiho, but that doesn't cover the fact that he's also human. As time passed, it seems that yourself have also forgotten that he was also part human."

Lin was right. Yeon would always assume Rang as a Gumiho, which he is. But it wouldn't be wrong to say that he's also human. Most importantly, no matter what he is, Rang will always be Yeon's younger brother. That comes before everything in Yeon's opinion.

Lin got up to leave, "In the history of celestial beings, he is the only hybrid between our world and humans. So I think otherwise when you say he's not the one."

"Why did you do it?", Yeon said, stopping Lin in his tracks.

"Do what?"

"Back then. It's no way that you couldn't smell graveyard flowers from a mile away, you willingly poisoned yourself.", Yeon said, referring to the incident between them centuries ago.

Lin laughed awkwardly, "Yeon, are you writing a detective novel? Why would I do that to myself?"

Yeon remained persistent, "There would be no mountain spirit that would give up their territory, let alone a powerful one like you. You wanted to give me SeoRakSan."

"And why is that?"

"After I left, TaeBaek and ODae was practically uninhabitable...SeoRak was the only shelter for the creatures....and Rang."

Lin sighed and sat down again, giving up with pretending to be clueless, "You may not have known but arctic foxes could sometimes see the future in their dreams."

Yeon narrowed his eyes in confusion, it is indeed the first time he's heard of this.

Lin continued, "It's been kept a secret to prevent human shamans from capturing young arctic foxes and exploit their ability. Obviously, it has happened, hence why we almost went extinct."

"And you saw my mountains burn.", Yeon concluded, finally able to complete the puzzle

Lin nodded lightly to confirm.

Yeon's posture softened, "You could've just told me"

"And if I did?", Lin fixed his gaze onto Yeon, "Would that have stopped you from leaving the mountain to chase after that girl in Samdocheon?"

Yeon gulped. The answer was of course, no.

"The brother you left behind is innocent. No child should suffer the consequences of an adult's foolish actions."

Yeon nodded slowly as the latter's words sunk in,"Thank you. Really."

Lin shrugged, "What good is there anyway? I did save him but I figured it wasn't really my responsibility to lead him onto the right path, which led to the tragic fate of you slicing through his flesh with your sword. And the rest is history."