novelraw Chapter 68 : Transformation Technique (2)
Chapter 68 : Transformation Technique (2)
Chapter 68: Transformation Technique (2)
– Beep-beep-beep-beep.
Perhaps about four or five times now, Elder Gumiho kept repeating, “No, that’s… no,” like something inside him had broken. Then, a video call came in from Sanyi.
(It finally turned into a person! That means I can eat at the buffet now!)
The face that appeared on the screen was not Sanyi as usual. A small boy, who looked about Ria’s age, was grinning from ear to ear.
“Wow! You really look like a person!”
“Heh, so you really did succeed?”
It was definitely certain. After all, it was the Dragon Pearl that even created a soul for Ria—there’s no way it wouldn’t perform up to standard.
“I’ll be there soon, so wait for me.”
(Hurry up and come!)
Knowing just how excited Sanyi must be, there was no room for hesitation.
“Well then, I’ll be off.”
– Clack.
Just as I was about to get up from my seat, Elder grabbed my shoulder and sat me back down.
“Why did you do that?”
“You mean, why did I make such a petty wish?”
“Yes. Every time, your actions are so strange that I usually just let it go, but I really cannot understand this one. You surely knew what kind of power the Dragon Pearl holds, so why? If exchanged for gold, you could live in luxury for generations. And yet, why…”
“For Sanyi, this moment of going to the buffet is probably just as precious as that gold.”
He was such a pure child, it was hard to believe he had lived through countless ages. I’d heard he spent all that time guarding the Divine Tree and living on the things that grew in the mountains.
Sure, there must have been occasional opportunities to taste human food. But those occasions were extremely rare.
Even shamans believed that Divine Beasts were noble beings that could live solely on dew and sunlight, and that they shouldn’t be fed tainted human food. That says everything.
At least once the Heavenly Goddess Haedong was chosen, she began to bring offerings from a nearby temple. But what were those compared to stir-fried pork or hamburgers? Their impact was far too weak.
That was why I always tried my best when it came to food for Ria and Sanyi.
More than the pain of not being able to eat what you wanted, it was the fact that you didn’t even know such food existed that weighed on my mind.
Perhaps it wasn’t a satisfactory answer for Elder.
When I finally arrived at the café after hurrying over by car, Sanyi was waiting for me, arms crossed and wearing a smug expression.
“You really transformed into a person?”
“Ahem! You see, raccoon dog yokai are masters of transformation techniques!”
The effect of the Dragon Pearl was certain. Or maybe it was the added weight of Sanyi’s own desire that made it work.
Sanyi looked just like an ordinary boy. There wasn’t a shred of doubt that he could be anything else.
“Shall we go eat now?”
“We must hurry!”
“No, now that you’re a person, you can’t go in there like before.”
“Ah!”
Sanyi, who had been about to stick his head into the carrier as usual, finally sat properly in the passenger seat.
I buckled Sanyi’s seatbelt and drove off again toward the buffet.
“What do you want to eat the most? Ria sent you a photo, remember?”
“I’m going to eat everything there! I’ll eat fritters, and I’ll eat bread too!”
Ah. The photo Ria sent was packed with her own personal favorites. The kind of things you should never eat too much of at a buffet.
“There are lots of other foods too. There’s all kinds of meat and even seafood.”
“Oooooh!”
“And you can fill your plate however many times you want. As much as you want. Isn’t that amazing?”
“Can I eat a hundred times?”
“Of course.”
“Ooooooooooooooooh!”
Telling Sanyi in advance about the buffet was kind of like a form of education.
If he ate until his stomach hurt like last time, I would be the one who had to take care of it.
Even if explaining things beforehand didn’t seem much different than not doing so, at least he might avoid eating too fast and getting sick.
Of course, judging by how thrilled he looked, overeating seemed inevitable.
But what’s with that hat?
I reached over to dig through the glove compartment, wondering if the digestive pills I bought last time were still there, and noticed Sanyi’s hat.
I hadn’t seen that one before.
“Sanyi, what’s that hat?”
“This helps with transformation technique! I was practicing, and I found it in front of the café!”
“Hm, is that so?”
It seemed even the mighty Dragon Pearl wasn’t enough to directly teach transformation technique to Sanyi.
That he needed the aid of such a tool said as much.
Even after Jinseong left, the Gumiho couldn’t bring himself to lift his chopsticks.
‘The Dragon Pearl grants eternal life if that’s your wish. If you’re willing to risk your life, it will fulfill even the deepest desires. It’s a divine object. That rascal is wiser than I am, surely he knew all this.’
And yet Jinseong had used that Dragon Pearl for something as trivial as helping another yokai transform.
What was more outrageous was his reasoning.
Though he wrapped it with the excuse of worrying about being discovered when guests came, Jinseong’s real intent in bringing him to the buffet was clear: food.
Did he not speak with his own mouth of the worth of a thousand gold?
It’s just food. If he put in the effort, he could get it packed to go or make it himself.
Gumiho quietly looked at the dish in front of him.
It was a small feast, made with small portions of side dishes that looked fairly appetizing.
Jinseong’s plate, Ria’s plate, and Dohyuk’s plate were the same.
Though Dohyuk’s plate had particularly many items and was more generously filled, nowhere did it contain anything that could substitute for the Dragon Pearl.
‘The power of the Divine Eye must have overwhelmed his mind. Otherwise, there’s no way he would’ve done something so foolish.’
The questions that followed one after another eventually reached their own conclusion.
“Hm? But why are you holding a memorial instead of eating?”
“Sanyi’s not here yet, heh.”
“Hyungnim’s not here either.”
“What does that matter? If you just start eating…”
Yet the chopsticks of the one speaking hadn’t picked up a single piece of food and remained clean.
They had waited. Just in case Sanyi might return having mastered the Transformation Technique.
Until Jinseong spoke of using the Dragon Pearl, they hadn’t even dared to hope—but even he hadn’t lifted his chopsticks.
It was natural, in a way.
They were family members sharing a meal together.
If someone couldn’t attend the meal due to unavoidable circumstances, then so be it, but otherwise, it was right to eat together.
Even when eating alone, this small courtesy, which would never make anyone feel left out, had become an unspoken rule among those who had become family at Jinseong’s café.
Eating together held that kind of meaning for them.
How long had they waited in front of food growing cold? From the entrance came a familiar voice.
“Waaah! There’s really mountains of food piled up! Here too! And here, this much!”
The speaker looked like a five-year-old boy, but the tone and gestures were unmistakably Sanyi’s.
“Over there, it’s Sanyi!”
“I see him too. He really did succeed in his Transformation Technique.”
Just for a moment, they were moved at the sight of Sanyi outside the café for the first time. But while Jinseong’s gaze had been drawn to the counter to pay, Sanyi had already dashed inside the restaurant.
And he started piling food onto his plate.
“Shouldn’t we stop him?”
Dohyuk, who knew all too well about Sanyi’s enormous appetite, asked worriedly.
“Leave him be. If he loads up foolishly, he’ll be the only one who suffers.”
“I’m just worried he’ll say he can’t eat it after piling it up like that.”
If it came to that, they’d be the ones left to deal with it. Moreover, the kimchi and stuffed cucumbers Sanyi had already loaded onto his plate were too much for four people to handle.
“Aaah! Stop scooping!”
“Sanyi! Stop scooping!”
“You were all here? Look at this! There’s so much kimchi!”
Their mouths puckered not because of the emotional reunion but because of the sheer amount of kimchi Sanyi had scooped in that short moment.
A certain office in Yeomra’s Court.
On the glass door hung a nameplate reading ‘Judiciary’. Inside, messy desks divided by partitions, cluttered with documents, looked no different from any mundane office—yet a heavy tension filled the air from the early morning.
After all, just like any other workplace, a superior’s shouting over a subordinate’s mistake echoed loudly.
“Hey, Oh Chang-sik! You protesting against me for demoting you?”
“No, sir.”
“Then what? I’m supposed to believe a Grim Reaper lost his gat? What the hell is wrong with your brain?”
“Your Majesty, well, um… It’s not entirely unheard of, and the item looks ordinary enough that a regular person using it wouldn’t cause much of a problem. Deputy General Manager Oh is deeply remorseful, so perhaps we could…”
“Just drop it here?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
As Yeomra’s mocking tone hit, the official next to him quickly bowed his head.
She looked to be around thirty years old, but inside her resided an ancient deity from before the very existence of the afterlife—so old that even speaking of age was a grave discourtesy.
A god whose thinking was as antiquated as her long years.
“This is all because of that modern afterlife reform and that Ksitigarbha wanting things done his way. If it had been an old-fashioned gat, tied down with a strap, would it have been lost? And this, huh? This clack-clacking thing instead of paper and brush! Using stuff like this is why everyone’s gone soft in the head. Am I wrong?”
Using Deputy General Manager Oh Chang-sik’s lost gat as an excuse, Yeomra vented all his long-held grievances and jabbed at the empty keyboard on a desk.
But as officials who must speak truthfully regardless of how awkward the truth may be, no one echoed Yeomra’s absurd complaints.
Especially since Yeomra himself, who rambled about paper and brush, was dressed in a sleek pencil skirt and high heels—an impeccable 21st-century business look.
“Hmph. How much did it take to fend it off?”
“If it weren’t for General Ma and General Woo, it couldn’t have been stopped.”
“What? One measly fiend is on par with the gatekeepers of the afterlife?”
Trying to steer away from the embarrassment, he shifted the topic, only for an unexpected remark to come from his subordinate’s mouth.
‘This is coming from someone who could normally crush fiends solo… Can’t be ignored. What a pain.’
If such a fiend existed in the living world, they definitely couldn’t afford to send away General Ma and General Woo.
There was no guarantee the fiend would still be there by the time they reached it. If the fiend came knocking at the afterlife’s door while both gatekeepers were away, they’d be in serious trouble.
And there was only one being in all the afterlife stronger than the two gatekeepers.
“Take me to where the fiend is. I’ll go myself.”
“Your Majesty, you mustn’t! There are still many souls awaiting judgment!”
“Tell them to wait. It’s not like the dead have urgent errands to run.”
“But still!”
“Enough. What’s important comes first.”
The low voice cut off any further objection.
It was a historic day: the day Yeomra Daewang (閻羅大王), Judge of the Hell of Declarations and ruler of the afterlife, would return to the world of the living after five hundred years.