Tale of The Nine Tailed: The Gumiho's Lover

05 (i)

The smile of the man or rather a lost soul, got faded when he heard the latter snickers at his remark all of a sudden.

"Sorry, this is too funny... You really thought I'm gonna be scared of a mere soul like you?"

"How disrespectful! You should be murdered as a punishment for your foul mouth."

Lee Rang raised an eyebrow when he got a hint of what is going on. So, he deliberately provoke the hell out of the other being.

"You have long died, didn't you know that?"

"Nonsense! I am still standing right in front of you and taking care of my kingdom well, until you came here to-"

"You're the one who should cut the crap out. Yah, you might have once been a king but that's a long time ago. Check it for yourself.. At this point, you're just another history in Korean textbooks."

"S-stop it!"

Lee Rang laughed in a most mocking way, enough to make the latter's madness to burst. Lost souls like King Injo are living in the shadow of their own past. They tend to treat their surrounding as the same, even when in reality almost everything has changed.

In some way, this kind of case makes Rang to feel a bit sense of pity towards the guy. He does not simply show it, but it is the reason to why he still lets the latter's feet stay on the ground. When in fact, he can make the soul to disappear in an instant.

Rang decided to play along with the drama instead. Just a little bonus to his consideration.

"Ah, I forgot the most exciting part of that. Oh man, it's a pity that kids doesn't even want to know about you. No offense but history is indeed boring.."

"I told you to stop!!"

King Injo groaned in pain as he dropped to the ground while gripping his head. He keeps begging for Rang to stop as his head starts to hurt even more. Memories of the past are gradually becoming clear inside his mind.

Rang then bent down his knees and looked at the latter before his eyes intensely.

"Tell me, what keeps you from leaving this place and move on to the after-life, King Injo?"

Only for the sake of respecting a 'King'.

The man he referred to started breathing heavily. Fear is written all over his face.

"I have to live..."

Rang could barely hear his faint voice, until the man stand up rapidly and continued his unfinished talk.

"-Now that the Manchu army have conquered Joseon, I have to protect that one last thing!" He exclaims, rather unexpectedly.


Bingo! A hint.

"I must keep it safe until the end..."

Lee Rang lets out a scornful laugh while briefly lowering his head, just to ease himself. Then, he looked up to the man's face again.

"What makes you so confident in saying that? I mean you and I both knew from the start, that you are nothing but a soul left even if you try to deny it."

He ended with a smirk in victory as he sees the latter's face starts turning pale. Teasing others is just a Lee Rang's thing.

However, the soul or which he insisted as King Injo - tried to remain calm and regained his composure once again.

"You keep saying that I am one of those wandering souls out there.. But the truth is, I am not."

Rang's complexion slowly turns into something that shows dismay. For once, he missed the idea of how a soul like King Injo managed to stay in this world for a long period of time, since the era of Joseon.