“Acting like a young buck.”

At his words, Yul puffed out his cheeks and huffed. How could anyone be that cute? Did children that age take special classes in throwing tantrums? A smile formed on its own.

“Wow, you’re only eight years old and you talk that sweetly? Wow… Yul is really something, isn’t he?”

“Sweet? Smart? Hehehe! Then hug me again! Noona!”

That little snake.

All day long, noona, noona, noona, noona. The constant singing was enough to give him a nervous breakdown.

He had been turned into a child as punishment from the heavenly god, and instead of quietly accepting his lot, here he was flirting with that little pepper of his. What a joke.

Kim Yul had always been helpless around young women. Especially beautiful ones with a generous chest.

‘Ha, if only I still had my original body, I would’ve had her on her back already. You know she’s exactly my type, right? Especially the face. And those full br*asts! So soft, so incredibly soft. And she even smells good! Have you caught a whiff?’

Kim Yul.

Human, goblin, and even ghosts. He had chased after women without regard for species, and even after being turned into a child, he still hadn’t come to his senses.

Whether he did or not, Hwido was finally free to leave this wretched Songhak. That was why he had been hounding Kim Yul to come back.

So why was he still here doing this?

Baek Yeon-ah was desperate to make a contract with a goblin, and Kim Yul was desperate to have Baek Yeon-ah.

In short, if the woman made her wish properly, Kim Yul might grant it on the spot.

What a perfect arrangement. Each getting what they wanted. A match made in heaven, wasn’t it.

All he had to do was bless the two of them and make his exit, yet for some reason his body refused to cooperate. The churning in his gut came after that.

‘I should’ve come back sooner. Thanks for that, by the way. But Baek Yeon-ah… can I have her?’

Why it grated on him so badly, why it set a fire burning inside him, he couldn’t quite figure out even when he thought he understood.

‘Want to be turned into a newborn? Try it if you want. Just know your club will be in pieces before that happens.’

He had meant it.

He was planning to take an axe to Kim Yul’s tree, the one with the goblin club buried beneath its roots, the club that was as good as an extension of Kim Yul himself.

Even if he cut that tree down completely and had his immortality stripped away by the heavenly god as punishment, it didn’t matter.

Because the truth was that Baek Yeon-ah had been on his mind for some time now.

‘What’s this, you made such a fuss about wanting me back, and now that I’m here I’m getting the cold shoulder? Do you like that woman? If not, give her to me. Let me keep her close and put her to use.’

At that moment, everything went dark before Hwido’s eyes. Like her… what did liking someone even mean.

He drifted briefly in his thoughts, and at the end of his wandering gaze he saw Kim Yul burrowing into Yeon-ah’s arms.

As if to make a point.

Watching him rub his face right between her br*asts, precisely where her cleavage would be, made his temper flare.

As though anyone couldn’t see through the shameless intent hidden beneath the guise of a child’s clinginess. His patience, pushed to its limit, gave rise to a quiet murderous urge.

Thud. Hwido set down his cup and rose to his feet. Crack, creak. Dark coffee seeped and trickled through the split in the cup.

He rounded the table and moved toward Baek Yeon-ah. He wanted nothing more than to peel that leech off and fling him out the door, but thinking of the woman who would come shrieking after him, he ground his teeth and held back.

‘Give her to me, I’ll take her. All right?’

Kim Yul’s voice struck the back of his head again without warning, and Hwido felt something dimly click into place.

The reason he had no desire to leave, even though Kim Yul, the one he had been waiting for all this time, had finally returned to Songhak.

He needed to first uncover the identity of the malevolent spirit hovering around Baek Yeon-ah, and he needed to hear more about the Joseon story she claimed to be seeing in her dreams.

And because Baek Yeon-ah, who seemed to have no particular resistance to Kim Yul, looked like she was about to be swallowed whole by that snake.

So he needed to make things clear.

Hwido looked at Baek Yeon-ah, who wore a mildly troubled expression. Even if he was just a child, a boy being overly physical with her would be a burden.

But then again, she was a police officer, protector of the children of this great nation. It was obvious she was putting up with the clinginess because she had no other choice.

“I slept with Uncle Hwido last night, but he snored so loud I couldn’t sleep at all. But being in noona’s arms like this makes me so sleepy.”

Hwido grabbed Yul by the scruff of his neck, peeling him off Yeon-ah like a leech, and growled.

“Kim Yul, then starting today you can sleep in the sarangchae.”

At that, a smile bloomed across the small face that had been pinched with displeasure.

“Really? Uncle! For real? I get to share a room with noona? For real? No take-backs? Yes!”

“Mind your manners. You should hear an adult out to the end, Yul.”

Yul, who had been jumping with excitement, stopped short. He looked worried, wondering what was coming next.

Hwido turned away coolly and looked at Yeon-ah, who had a blank expression on her face.

“You said that malevolent spirit appears in your dreams too.”

“Malevolent spirit?”

Kim Yul, caught off guard by the words, looked at Yeon-ah with a tilt of his head.

Why was talk of a malevolent spirit coming up right now, and why was a malevolent spirit appearing in Baek Yeon-ah’s dreams. He had no idea what was going on, and curiosity stirred.

“…Yes. I haven’t been seeing it much lately, though.”

She can see stray spirits.

Now that’s my specialty!

Kim Yul planted both hands on his hips and stuck out his belly with a self-satisfied air. Seo Hwido, with his power sealed, could no longer pass judgment on or purify vengeful souls.

He was smiling smugly, quite pleased with himself, when Seo Hwido casually dropped words he never could have anticipated, as though offering a generous gift.

“I’ll take care of it. Starting today, you’re staying in the main house.”

“What? Seo Hwido-ssi, how exactly are you going to take care of it?”

He could see her light-colored eyes wavering in surprise, but Hwido continued without concern.

“That malevolent spirit. I’ll catch it for you.”

At those words, Kim Yul, who had been quietly holding his breath, raised his voice.

“And how is uncle supposed to take care of that? You barely even have your pow…”

Hwido turned and looked at him, and Kim Yul’s mouth snapped shut in an instant. The gleam in his eyes said he was serious.

He was prepared to do whatever it took for that woman, Baek Yeon-ah.

Did he like that woman? Come to think of it, he still hadn’t properly answered the question of whether he could have her.

But why?

This was Seo Hwido, who used to shudder at the very thought of humans. Having lost so senselessly the woman he had wanted so desperately to protect, it might have been only natural.

But to think he would try to protect another human, and a woman at that.

Yul found the situation growing more and more interesting, and raised his voice again.

“It’s fine, uncle. I happened to overhear. They say the hunk tree on that mountain behind us grants any wish! Right, noona? So just solve it there! You rest, uncle. You’re not even in good shape.”

Yeon-ah watched Yul, who was glancing anxiously at his uncle and didn’t know what to do with himself. The sight of him trembling and saying he was scared to fall asleep alone nagged at her, and she worked up the courage to speak.

“…He’s still only eight years old. Isn’t it too much to make a child that young sleep alone in the sarangchae? What if we all just stayed together in the main house…”

“Are you his mother or something?”

“Not exactly, but… then are you saying I’d be sharing a room with Seo Hwido-ssi?”

She had been about to ask how he intended to deal with the malevolent spirit, but Seo Hwido let out a scoff at her words and tilted his head to one side.

“Sure, that works too. No need to go back and forth. Quick and clean.”

“……”

She couldn’t shake the feeling of sinking into a swamp.

Yeon-ah had her doubts, but she had sensed an unmistakable aura about him all along, and decided to trust him.

Right now, the goal was to get back to being a normal person, by whatever means necessary, whether that meant using the goblin tree or anything else.

“All right. Then I’ll come at night. Let’s spend the days separately and only meet at night… only at night.”

Seo Hwido shrugged, roughly tousled the whining Kim Yul’s hair, and walked out of the kitchen.

***

Hwido walked along a quiet path that followed the river. Kim Yul, whining and trailing after him, was there too of course.

“Wow, how could you do that? I said I wanted her. You didn’t say anything so I thought you agreed, but you didn’t? And what’s this about sharing a room with Baek Yeon-ah? What are you scheming?”

Hwido shoved a hand into his trouser pocket. He pulled out a cigarette and flicked the Zippo lighter with a clink.

“Do you even know who she is before you run your mouth?”

“Who else would she be, she’s Baek Yeon-ah.”

Crackle. As the cigarette filter drew in the flame, the red fire swelled. The drifting smoke seemed to mirror the complexity within him.

“Right. The granddaughter of Jin Sunja, your former contracted party.”

Kim Yul’s youthful, round face crumpled like an old woman who had weathered a lifetime of hardship. The shock appeared to be that severe.

“Whoa… Sunja’s granddaughter? What? That little kid I saw back then… she’s already grown up like that?”