At first, Horang moved his ears at the soft and familiar yet unfamiliar touch. The ears moved annoyedly as if saying to quit it, and the hand that was touching them briefly pulled away. But this time instead of the ears, the hand touched his back. The hand that scratched and combed through the fur on his back was gentle. Horang stretched his body and surrendered his body to that touch a little more. The fingers that tangled in his fur tugged at it not unpleasantly. He felt a bit ticklish and was starting to feel sluggish—a loud breath left him unconsciously.

“Haa…”

At Horang’s loud breath, the fingers stopped for a moment. As if saying to keep moving, Horang swished his tail broadly. The hand went back to rubbing his fur, and Horang rolled himself over.

Seuk-seuk, the hand rubbed the slightly longer soft, white fur of his belly. Horang’s hind legs stretched out, kicking at the empty air. He gave a stretching yawn, smacking his lips, and he rubbed his face on the rough rock.

He felt nice. It had been a while. Horang thought it might be the first time he felt like this since becoming a mountain lord.

“Right there… Hnng~”

His throat rumbled with a purr. Horang dreamed of lying in a field while being stroked by someone familiar, someone he yearned for.

A familiar and affectionate voice. But he couldn’t remember whose voice it was. He thought might cry, he wanted to dally a little, so he moved to nuzzle his forehead against that hand. But there was an unfamiliar scent. He might have smelled it before… An unfamiliar…demon’s scent.

Only just then did Horang feel the strangeness, and he abruptly opened his eyes. Before his eyes was that face—its beauty to which he would never get used to—was smiling. At a feeling of unreality, he briefly wondered if he might still be dreaming. For a moment, he stared blankly as if dazed, then belatedly realized who it was.

“Eu-aaahk!”

Horang jumped up and backed away. At some point he had turned back to his human form, wearing plain white clothes. Perhaps because he was very surprised all the fur on his tail and ears was standing on end.

“Wh, what are you—?”

“You were sleeping so soundly I couldn’t wake you. Did I perhaps disturb your sleep?”

He murmured in a voice that still sounded as beautiful as it was distinctive.

He was standing on the rock and smiled down at Horang. The morning sunlight shining from behind him and the red silk clothes he wore today seemed to melt together dizzyingly.

Horang swallowed unconsciously. If he didn’t, he had a feeling that he would simply be bewitched by him. Seeing him under the bright sunlight, the effect was completely different from when Horang saw him in the dark cave.

“Sin, since when have you been here?”

Horang thought of the touch that had stroked him. And even if he didn’t puzzle over it, it was obvious that the owner of the touch was this fox.

Horang dropped his head into his hands, clutching his forehead. Bewitched by the fox, the embarrassment temporarily he hadn’t realized, it belatedly came over him now.

“I quite enjoyed it, please don’t worry.”

“Wh, who’s worrying!”

Horang’s face became red. Pliantly showing his belly, purring from his throat, snuggling his body, the visions of himself doing such things flashed through his mind. He was ashamed to the point where going to run five laps around the mountain wouldn’t get rid of it. Of course, he was embarrassed even being seen so flustered and embarrassed that he couldn’t do something like that. Horang’s face was turning so red it looked almost black, and even if he didn’t say it, one could see he was humiliated.

“Re, relaxed who! And I said not to come back, why are you here? Go away. There’s no one on this mountain who welcomes you.”

As if to say he wasn’t happy to be talking with the fox, Horang scowled. But the reason he didn’t pick up and leave was, even if he did pick up and leave this person seemed like he would just come find him again.

“Please, marry me.”

Horang’s face scowled further. It was already ridiculous that he was a man with a pretty face like that, but even more so, the man had sought Horang out to ask him to wed.

Horang had been a male since he was a beast. It was instinct that a male and female paired, and Horang had been an animal that never once questioned that. To him, fellow males were the rivals for disputing territory, as well as for fighting over females, and nothing more or less than creatures that might steal his food.

Of course, now that he was a mountain lord he wasn’t blindly wary of every male, but even he couldn’t see fellow males as eligible partners to marry.

When Horang thought about it, courting a fellow male could only happen if they were weaker than oneself, or as an act to spurn someone with lower status, or to make fun of some pushover.

That a fox who was a mere demon was doing this to Horang, he definitely thought there was someone behind him who was trying to pester him.

‘There were many who were annoyed and didn’t like that I am beast-born so it must be one of them. Morons with petty pride who don’t want to get the same treatment as a beast.‘

Horang thought of the mountain lords who didn’t even pay attention to him and clenched his jaw harder and glared at the fox. But the fox didn’t know what he was thinking and just smiled with his pretty face.

“Since you’re a demon just change your form to a female.”

“I want to be together with Horang-nim in my own form. If I intended to trick you, I would have done so from the start.”

’His own form—what nonsense—he probably just wanted to play with me.’

“When you first came with a letter instead of proposing in person, didn’t you do it because you are a man?”

“That is…yes, that is also true. Because if Horang-nim knew I was a man I thought you would refuse, so I sent a letter… But although I did so I had no intention of misleading you about my appearance.”

“Then you knew. That if I knew you were a man I would refuse.”

Horang seemed happy with this story and just waved his hand at the fox to signal him to go away. But the fox seemed to have no intention of going away, as he hopped down from the boulder and stood in front of Horang.

Horang’s build was larger, but their heights were about the same. Moreover, Horang was a bit intimidated by the fox’s appearance with how excessively beautiful it was. As the fox approached with his clean and beautiful appearance that didn’t belong on this mountain at all, Horang unconsciously backed up a couple steps.

“Please, marry me.”

“No.”

“Horang-nim.”

“No matter what you call me, however many times, I don’t care whoever bid you to play these games with me, I don’t intend to acknowledge you, so go away!”

“What do you mean whoever bade me? Do you mean someone would ask for marriage at another’s bidding?”

“Why else would a demon ask for marriage with another male?”

“Horang-nim, I…”

“Go back and tell the bastard who had you do this crap! Tell him that I didn’t become a mountain lord from a beast because I wanted to!”

Horang cut off the fox’s words and shouted suddenly.

‘Who would want to become a mountain lord? I didn’t! Want! This sort of thing! What’s so great about spending my days alone, not knowing when I’ll even die!’

Being spurned like this, he felt wronged, and sad, like he might cry. But he didn’t cry because he didn’t want to be mocked as the sad sap who used to be a beast and was also a crybaby.

Horang just walked quickly to his cave. He didn’t hear the sound of anyone following.

A little curious, he peeked behind him, and Horang saw the fox still standing where he had yelled at him.

‘After hearing I am beast-born did he not want to talk about marriage anymore? Of course, that makes sense. Even as a joke, I wouldn’t want to get tied up with a beast-born mountain lord either.‘

If they were close enough with another mountain lord to be asked a favor like this, the demon must have a lot of pride. Then they would be afraid of being ostracized by the others for something as pointless as getting tied up with a beast-born mountain lord.

Horang wasn’t hoping they would keep following him, but it was a little disappointing that the fox gave up right away.

“Why is it such a terrible flaw that I was originally a beast…”

Horang sighed and then just decided not to think about it. Trudgingly, he resumed the walk back to his cave.

On the way, he saw Ttorang and was about to say something to it, but it must have still been sour from yesterday’s events, because as soon as it saw Horang, Ttorang just ran away. Feeling rotten, when he realized that things were no different from usual Horang felt sad for no reason.

“What, you think I have no friends without you!”

Horang yelled at Ttorang’s fleeing back. Ttorang—who had run quite a distance—stopped and stuck out its tongue.

“That little!”

Horang grabbed a nearby pebble and suddenly threw it at Ttorang. As he didn’t really intend to hit his target, it landed nowhere near Ttorang. Still, it startled Ttorang, and it quickly ran away again.

Horang—who really didn’t have anyone for company besides Ttorang—belatedly regretted throwing the pebble. If the small, speedy creature really wanted to hide, there would be no way to find it, so Horang had no choice but to give up.

He hung his head and trudged along. Horang had been feeling down a lot lately, but he didn’t think he had ever felt as depressed as today.

Before becoming a mountain lord he hadn’t even known what it was like to feel melancholy or miserable. But now he knew those feelings all too well. It was a hard thing to be a sentient being. There were too many painful things he had to experience for the first time.

His tail and ears drooped. The tip of his tail dragged on the ground, but he had no energy. Horang walked heavily, and he was almost at the cave when two elegant shoes came into his field of vision.

Horang saw the elegant, silk shoes and halted his steps. The silk shoes came right up in front of him. And they stopped side by side.

‘What’s this?‘

When Horang slowly lifted his head a bit dazedly, he saw the smiling face in front of him.

“Wh, what the—!”

At the fox’s sudden appearance Horang recoiled in surprise, and the fox let out a soft laugh. And with affectionate hands he grasped Horang’s arm.

‘I definitely saw that he wasn’t following me just earlier…’

Horang, who was surprised by how the fox was somehow in front of him, didn’t even think to slap away his hand and just looked at the fox’s face.

“Why are you walking here so lifelessly, after you shouted at me like that when you left?”

The fox held onto his arm and, as if addressing a tender lover, drew himself closer to Horang’s face. Only then did Horang realize his current situation and hurriedly flung away that hand, then shouted.

“Who are you calling lifeless! I was glad you weren’t following me, now why are you here!”

“Of course, I came to propose marriage.”

The fox said shamelessly and confidently, as if he was not at all fazed when his hand was rebuffed. It was a demeanor that said he knew Horang would obviously accept his proposal.

Horang’s tail stood straight up as if he was furious at the fox’s brazen attitude, and it seemed his melancholy and miserable mood had disappeared. His tail and ears that had drooped lifelessly, they now stood straight.

“Didn’t I say I won’t consider it!”

“I will not consider giving up, either.”

“You, talking with you is impossible!”

Horang shouted in a voice filled with annoyance, and then decided to ignore the fox.

He brushed past the fox and went towards the cave, but the fox trailed behind him. Horang looked back as if saying not to follow him, but the fox just smiled with his pretty face as if saying he was innocent.

Smiling befit him so well Horang couldn’t bring himself to tell him to quit it. But that smiling face felt like it was quietly provoking him, so he just felt more annoyed. Horang grumpily stomped his feet and went into the cave’s entrance, but when the fox stopped following him, he paused.

Not knowing the reason he stopped, Horang looked back and saw white powder was scattered sparsely on the ground in front of the fox. Horang only then remembered that he had put down the rice flour to ward away the fox.

“Spirit…ward?”

A bit of confusion tinged the fox’s smiling face, and he lightly scratched his cheek. Horang tossed his head up high thinking the fox was confused because he was unable to enter, but the fox saw Horang’s face and couldn’t hold back a Pft! of laughter. And for a short while his shoulders shook from holding in his laughter, but he couldn’t hold it in anymore and Ha-ha-ha he let out an unbefittingly unbridled and pleasant laugh.

Horang’s face scowled.

“Just…because…”

”H, how…?”

“Is it rice flour? Putting down rice flour is not a good idea. Rather, evil spirits that want to eat the rice will gather. Something like rice, a grain humans consider important, spirits consider it important as well.”

The fox gave a wave of his hand as he said those words. A wind blew and kicked up the rice flour, then rain fell from the clear sky and the remaining rice flour was cleanly washed away.

The rice flour that Horang and Ttorang had gathered and even fought over, it disappeared in a blink without a trace.

“Since rice flour won’t help, if you can’t put down salt then just clearing the area so that it gets a lot of sun isn’t bad. The rice flour might just attract more bad luck, so it is not a good choice.”

It seemed to be true. If it hadn’t attracted more bad luck than there would be no way he would be suffering this humiliation, right?

The fox telling him this in such a matter of fact way just hurt his pride. Horang was beast-born and didn’t even know this sort of thing, the fox was probably mocking him secretly.

“I, I didn’t put down rice flour on purpose, but that useless Ttorang brought it by mistake…!”

’If it weren’t for that idiot Ttorang!’

While he himself hadn’t known that sprinkling rice flour was a bad idea, he just put the blame on Ttorang, and he internally cursed to his heart’s content at Ttorang who wasn’t even there.

T/N:
Sorry for the wait! I know I said my translation is slow, but I think editing my rough translation actually takes so much longer than the actual KR->EN part?? So if anyone wants to help edit… LMK
Also I think I just have a curse of picking up stories with dumb MCs???
T-T I actually prefer smart MCs but so far I am 2 for 2 with dumb af bottom MCs ajfsjd SAVE ME im actually in hell lmao