Rain suddenly poured from the wide, cloudless, blue sky. The rain that fell from the clear sky wetted the ground, and it flowed down the slope of the mountain. At some point, the rainwater grew into a small stream, and it trickled into a small cave located in some deep place on the low mountain.

Flowing past the rocks in its way, it fell into a small ditch, barely managing to fill it before resuming its way inside the cave. The rainwater reached the inside of the cave after much difficulty passing the narrow and rocky path, and a wide open space abruptly opened up before it.

This small, deep, and low mountain where not a single human stepped foot. And on that mountain—inside this cave situated in the deepest part of the mountain inaccessible to people—a single lone thatched house stood. Perhaps because nobody properly maintained it, cracks were clearly visible in the walls, and the pillars looked so worn that they might collapse at any moment.

The small stream which had paused after arriving in the open space, as if confirming its destination, resumed its course.

The continuously flowing rainwater pushed forward, forward, until the advancing stream touched the thatched house’s stepstone. It paused for a moment, and then emitted a strange light.

***

It had not been very long since he had become a mountain lord, and because he was the lord guarding a very small mountain at the end of a huge mountain range, he wasn’t that strong compared to the lords of the other mountains. But all those who depended on this forest liked Horang. The humble and simple Horang didn’t solicit idolizing shamans like other mountain lords and instead dedicated all his strength to taking care of his mountain.

Because he didn’t have any interests besides looking after the mountain, Horang’s daily routine was quite monotonous. At this time every day, he took a nap. After diligently patrolling the mountain early in the morning, he gulped down some of the spiritual energy gathered in the cave, and–-sated—he lay down on the floor and fell into a sweet slumber. Languishing in the coolness of the cave with perked ears and slowly swaying black-striped tail, when he woke from his sleep he felt refreshed.

But, today, something interrupted his nap. Even though all that lived on this mountain very well knew Horang’s napping-time and would never interrupt it.

As lord of a mountain where no humans lived, he came across quite a few demons. Fewer demons lived here compared to some other mountains, but it wasn’t that there weren’t any that passed through or decided to stick around.

Among them, there were some demons who were so faint that they might disappear, their very existence was temporary, and every once in a while there were some who were strong enough to be a mountain lord themselves. But for the most part, they didn’t want to go anywhere near a demigod or—for the same reasons—a mountain lord. For the weakest ones, just being in the presence of a mountain lord could cause them to disappear.

But today, a demon’s aura strangely lingered around Horang’s cave. It seemed to be snooping around in front of the cave, but he ignored it at first. If it was a demon, surely they would realize this was the cave of a mountain lord and leave, is what he thought. But, strangely, instead of leaving the cave, the aura came inside.

His ears itched. Like it was a mosquito whining by his ear, that demon’s aura was annoying. Horang rubbed his ear with his hand and, losing his temper, rose to his feet.

“Who dares to disturb my sleep!”

He abruptly roared and flung open the door, but the demon’s aura disappeared in an instant. Horang looked around with an annoyed expression and stepped out from the door. He didn’t even see a trace of them.

‘But I definitely felt them until just a bit ago?’

With his brows drawn together, puzzled, Horang left his thatched house and searched around the interior of the cave. But he didn’t see a trace of the demon. It was difficult to say if they had even entered. Perhaps they had just fled in the meantime—though it was too clean that he doubted it. For now, it seemed like they weren’t here.

But his nap was long gone. The most important part of his day…

Horang was sure he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, but as it was still a little too early to patrol the mountain, for now, he started back towards his small thatched house. He stepped onto the stepstone and was about to climb onto the maru, when he discovered a blue envelope he had passed by and hadn’t noticed before.

The envelope, tied with a red cord, was made of soft silk. Horang studied it with eyes tinged with curiosity.

Lowering his nose to it, he first sniffed it. It faintly gave off a demon’s scent. It must have been this. The source of the demonic power. He had been looking for an intruder, thinking they had come inside themselves, but it seemed they had used their demonic power to send this letter, which is what he had sensed.

Horang was the one who had barked up the wrong tree, but he was more sore at the letter’s sender for making a fool of him.

For a moment he considered just throwing away the letter. But the feel of the soft silk against his hand was nice, so it was a bit of a shame to get rid of it.

It was a very long time ago that he had seen silk; it was when he had been a tiger before becoming a mountain lord. Back then, he had only seen humans a few times from afar, so his chance to see this sort of thing was very rare.

After becoming a mountain lord—after assuming a human-like form instead of the appearance of a beast—Horang was very interested in human items. This was probably something a demon had made in imitation, but he didn’t often have the chance to touch something like this.

Horang glanced down at it, and even though he knew there was clearly no one around, he checked over his shoulders. And he sneakily picked it up and went inside the room.

Hiding the envelope against his chest, he entered the room and sat in the center of the floor. Putting the envelope gently down, he studied it all over. After studying the somewhat familiar pattern of the silk, he carefully untied the red cord around the silk envelope and took out the letter. And recalling how he had learned to read long ago, he haltingly read the words.

“To the mountain lord Horang.”

The letter, written in intermixed easy-to-read hangeul and simple Chinese characters, was not too difficult to read even for Horang who hadn’t learned much.

Horang read down the letter haltingly and slowly. And when he had read about half, he left the soft silk envelope as it was, but he tore the letter that had been inside it to shreds and even used his power to burn it. He didn’t ever use his power, as there were no dangers like large floods or landslides on the mountain, but he was so angry he couldn’t just leave it be.

Ash blew around the empty room that didn’t have a single piece of furniture.

“Crazy!”

Horang exclaimed loudly, shaking his head as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have. He laid down with his back to it. But he kept thinking of the contents of the letter and couldn’t fall asleep. He suddenly leapt up from his spot.

“Eit-tweh!”

Horang stormed out with lashing temper and spat his anger harshly onto the cave floor. Then, huffing loudly, he came back inside the room and lay down. But his anger hadn’t cooled, and sleep didn’t come easily.

“Asking for marriage, ask for what!”

Horang was certain the letter’s contents were meant to mock him and huffed and puffed, not even leaving to patrol the mountain. For long hours he shook with anger and wasn’t able to get proper sleep.

It hadn’t been more than twenty years ago that Horang had been living on this mountain as a beast incapable of speech, when he became a mountain lord. Compared to the other mountain lords, who were almost as old as the mountains themselves, Horang was so young he might as well have been born yesterday.

In addition to still having his hot temper from when he was a beast, Horang had an inferiority complex since the other mountain lords didn’t acknowledge him due to his beginnings as an animal. So this talk of marriage just made him furious. There was no doubt that a lord from one of the big mountains nearby had made some demon do this to make fun of him.

Horang trembled in anger and couldn’t even sleep, running and pacing around the cave uselessly, and only when the morning son rose did he collapse, exhausted.

***

Horang hadn’t slept all night, and so he couldn’t go on his early morning hike and slept until the afternoon. Perhaps because he was very tired, he even snored as he slept deeply. And near his cave, rain fell once more. From a clear and cloudless sky, as if a fox had cast a spell, streams of water spilled down. That water pooled together and, once more, went into Horang’s cave.

Today, too, a blue silk envelope gracefully settled on the maru. But what was different from yesterday was that today Horang was out like a light and didn’t even have a chance to notice that aura.

Horang slept soundly, forgetting yesterday’s anger. Not even aware that the demon’s aura had come and gone, completely forgetting yesterday’s events, he just slept soundly. Waking up from his deep sleep that didn’t bring even a single dream, he stretched his body with a refreshed feeling. And upon leaving the room, in the same spot as yesterday, he discovered a blue silk envelope.

“Really!”

With the aster flower placed on top of it, the blue envelope sat there looking just like yesterday—even down to the red cord tied around the envelope.

Horang picked up the letter to hurl it away. But he hesitated when his gaze landed on the flower that was with the silk envelope. Instead of throwing it immediately, he placed the flower back down on the maru. And he untied the envelope and took out the letter.

He put the blue silk envelope gently next to the flower as well and only removed the letter, then crumpled it up. And like that, he ran out of the cave.

‘Who could it be? What jerk is playing with me like this? Even if I haven’t been a mountain lord for that long, and even if my birthright is a beast, I’m still a mountain lord! So who could be playing with me like this?’

Horang was filled with fury and, huffing and puffing, left the mountain. He almost never left, since he had to guard this small mountain, but today he just couldn’t swallow his anger towards whoever was playing this childish game.

“Mountain lord! Mountain lord, was it you?”

He shouted abruptly after running to the closest mountain. But with a look that wondered how someone could be so insolent and crude, the lord didn’t even acknowledge Horang.

“Mountain lord, you tried to make a fool of me by putting a demon up to it, didn’t you? I know there are lots of demons living on this mountain!”

“You really think I have so much time to waste?”

That mountain lord finally said, after Horang chased him and even kicked at the trees when he couldn’t hold his temper. Without anything else to add, he turned and left just like that. It was a manner that said he didn’t even want to give Horang the time of day.

Horang couldn’t find it in himself to shake it off and go after them. His pride was hurt, and to keep holding a grudge against an opponent who acted like he wasn’t even someone to acknowledge or mock was shamefully embarrassing. He couldn’t just shake it off and chase after them.

Horang had gone around to several of the nearby mountain peaks seeking out their mountain lords, but out of all of them, this was the only one to even respond. The others had no desire to stand there and contend with Horang. In the end, with wounded pride and nothing to show for it, Horang returned to his cave.

Returning to his shabby thatched house, the blue envelope and single sprig of aster were still right where he had left them. Even though he felt something well up inside him, even though he was curious who was mocking him, he was in no mood to get angry—his pride tattered. At the time, he had lost his temper and run all the way over there. Just to be ignored and run back home. He really felt like an idiot.

Horang let out a sigh. He picked up the blue silk.

The soft silk brought up memories from long ago. Pure blue silk… A time when there had been someone to comfort him, when there had been a hand that had stroked him, when there hadn’t been anyone to scorn him.

For a moment, Horang looked at it, then he just threw it into the room.

Being mocked like this, being ignored when showing his outrage—he felt overcome by a sort of misery he had long forgotten.

“What use is there being sad. I have no one to comfort me.”

Horang said to himself and, unable to bring himself to throw them away, flung the blue silk envelope and aster flower into the room. Then he burned the letter and went to look after the mountain, like he always did.

Seeing if there were any fallen trees or injured animals, if any humans had come in and cut down any trees, if the mountain hadn’t crumbled, if the flowers and bugs were safe; he wandered the mountain and made sure of each one. The mountain never changed, and every day was always the same, but to Horang, who had always diligently looked after all of it since becoming mountain lord, today he thought the mountain air felt a bit gloomy. The late summer was almost gone and autumn was fast approaching, still, it shouldn’t have been getting cold already…

But the yet inexperienced Horang wasn’t able to find where that cold feeling was coming from. The thought occurred to him that perhaps it was because of his mood, which had turned lonely, but he had no way to know if that was true.

He was in a weird mood so he wandered around the mountain a little more, but on his mountain where there were few demons, he couldn’t find anything that was quite wrong. So still feeling a bit uneasy, he returned to the cave.

In the room, the two envelopes still lay about. Horang gently stacked the two envelopes and looked at them quietly. Then he lay on the floor and fell asleep.

Today he felt awfully cold and alone.

***

When Horang woke up the next day, yet another letter was left in that same spot. Not in the mood to be mad after yesterday’s events, Horang took out the letter and burned the paper, and the blue envelope he brought inside the room. There wasn’t an aster flower today. Instead, a sprig of dianthus was placed on top.

A stalk of a common flower that could be found blooming anywhere, and a letter filled with words of marriage.

Horang clenched and unclenched his fist as if he was going to lose his temper again, but then he sighed and left the cave. And he went to the mountain—where today, too, nothing would really happen—to see if the forest was peaceful through the night.

As if he’d just been mistaken about the gloomy air yesterday, the forest was quiet and not much different from the day before. Horang traveled with ease through the forest that lacked proper paths and was untravelled by humans, and only after inspecting the forest even more meticulously than usual did he return back to his own thatched house.

And today, in a departure from normal, he lit a fire. Horang didn’t know what a lantern was, so instead he crudely piled some sticks that he had picked up while patrolling the forest on the floor and lit it on fire. The interior of the room—which was always dark since it was inside a cave—filled with light in an instant, and Horang brought the three blue silk envelopes that had been in the corner of the room to place them in front of him.

The silk had beautiful patterns embroidered onto it. Horang brushed it lightly with his hand. He tried to recall his old memories, but many of his memories during his days as a beast were damaged when he became a mountain lord. It was hard to remember those old memories.

Horang looked at the silk for long moments, then he felt bitter and just threw it into the fire. He quickly turned his body and put his back to the flames. He could hear the crackling sound of the fire burning, and his shadow danced on the bare wall of the room. Horang fell asleep feeling an unusual loneliness he rarely experienced.

***

The letters kept coming for several days, but Horang didn’t lose his temper like the first time. He just glanced at it and took out the letter and burned it without a glance at the contents, then he just threw the envelope into the room. The envelope he touched and fiddled with for a day or so, and when night came he lit a fire and burned it.

The flowers also increased. Aster, dianthus, late blooming trumpet lily, potentilla, and so on. The kinds of flowers, as well as their numbers, increased. The room was a mess with flowers, leftover pieces of burnt silk envelopes, and sticks littered about.

Horang used a careless hand to brush off the soot from his white clothes, which he had long ago stolen from some human’s house, and went outside again. He halted. The hand he had extended out of habit, but the maru had no letter left on it today.

How strange. It should’ve been here, but it wasn’t. The letter that had come day after day, long enough for the moon to fill to the brim two times, that letter wasn’t here today.

Maybe it was blown away by a wind that blew into the cave? He looked around the maru, checked underneath, and he went around and around the cave searching for it. But it wasn’t anywhere.

Something he saw every day, now that it wasn’t here it felt strange. During that time he hadn’t even looked at the letter and just burned it right away, but now that it wasn’t here he felt empty. Like someone who visited everyday stopped coming. Thinking maybe the bird that lived in the corner of the cave flew off with it, he stuck his hand inside the bird’s nest and felt around in it, but it wasn’t in there either.

“Are they done making fun of me?”

He had been so mad at first, if the letters didn’t come anymore he should be happy. But now that he thought it was over he felt strange.

Horang’s mouth said good riddance, but his body hovered around the maru as if with lingering feelings. Even so, he felt strange, and Horang went to leave the cave. But at the entrance of the cave, something like a tuft of fur was fluttering about.

Horang froze. His gold-colored eyes chased the yellow-colored tuft that swayed as it moved. Instinctually, he lowered his stance, and, lowering his head, he gently wiggled his rear. He got into position, ready to dart at it in an instant, and he stared at that yellow tuft.

He watched closely as the thing repeatedly disappeared and reappeared at the edge of the cave’s entrance. The tip of it swayed this way and that. Horang stared at it as if looking for a pattern in its movements, then, like lightning, he launched his body.

Letting out a thunderous growl from his throat, he clutched the tuft of fur with his hands and tore into it with his teeth. Horang could distinctly feel the fur’s soft and pillowy texture. It strained as if to try and escape from Horang’s hands, but Horang growled and bit down harder as he tore at it and pinned it down.

He pinned the tuft of fur with his whole body until the movement stopped completely. When it stopped moving he raised his head with a satisfied expression. And standing right there, smiling with a slightly awkward expression on their face, was someone he had never seen before.

“Excuse me, my tail… could you please let it go now?”

T/N:
Thanks for reading! I’ve had this book on my project backburner since years ago, and when I returned to translating after a long time away, I thought it was the perfect time to start with this story *^-^*
Anyways, I hope you guys are excited for this story — it’s very cute, and isn’t the cover art gorgeous?

This is my first time trying to run my own site, so LMK if there’s any issues!

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