I Don’t Want to be an Ojakgyo (35)

APRIL 28, 2021~MOONLIKETRANSLATIONS

Cory patted my head gently a few times, smiling softly. He began speaking again.

“We’re going to be going over there. If you want to play with us, Ye-an, come whenever you want.”

Cory said as he pointed at a street filled with dessert shops.

“Hylli said that he’d buy us something tasty.”

Hylli walked over to the two us as we spoke and began to speak. When he asked “Is Ye-an playing with us?”, I shook my head.

When I said that I would be on my way, Hylli and Cory waved their arms at me and said goodbye.

“Hey, aren’t you treating me too much like a wallet? Shouldn’t you be buying me stuff now?”
“I helped you sneak out of the palace. Do you know how hard it was to bypass security?”
“You have tons of magic, how is that ha….”
“Then……”
“Okay…..”

I turned away and went further away from them. Their voices disappeared as well.

Without being able to listen to their amusing conversation, I headed to where Yves and I was supposed to meet.

The location where we promised to meet was where the city connected to the river. I walked towards there and looked for Yves.

There was a small patch of grass where the city and river began to connect. There were a few wildflowers and some large, thick trees. Because most people were in the city, there weren’t a lot of people in this area. The quiet sound of the flowing river filled the air.

I couldn’t see an orange-haired Yves, but I did see a red-haired boy. I immediately walked towards the boy. Yves had told me beforehand that he would be changing his appearance.

Currently, he wasn’t a boy with orange hair and silver eyes. Instead, he was a red-haired boy with silver eyes, with a similar feel to Yves. He had shifted to a form slightly younger than his actual form, but he looked fiercer because of his red hair.

Yves had a special feeling to him so it was easy for me to tell. I walked towards Yves when I found him.

“Let’s go.”

Yves looked at me with a surprised expression. It was obvious that he was surprised at my changed form.

It wasn’t surprising for him to be shocked. An East Asian-looking girl, out of nowhere? It would’ve been normal to choose someone within their own ethnicity. But how was I supposed to know that I would take on the form of my past life?

Yves continued to stare at me and bit into the tomato that I handed him. It was random, but I was elated to see him eat so naturally like that. At my words, Yves stood from his spot.

Yves, who had continued to look at me, spread his hands and touched my black hair before speaking.

“That’s an unexpected look.”

I stared at the river for a moment before nodding. You thought it was unexpected, but you know what? So did I.

“I’m sure you went through the shapeshifting magic without an image in mind.”

Yves poked at my cheeks, which were still bouncy with baby fat. It was me from my past life, but because I was just ten years old, my cheeks were still chubby. Moreover, when I was younger I was more chubby than skinny. I ate well.

“Is the form you’re taking someone important to you?”

Yves seemed to know that the appearance I had taken on had a special meaning to me. If you shifted without a clear image in mind, your unconscious would take charge.

At his question, I paused and stayed silent.

When I looked away, I happened to see my reflection on the river. I stared at the black-haired child in my sight.

It was a form that I thought I would never see again.

That child promised to take over the world and drew all over a world map. Then they would play with their mother’s make-up from their mother’s dresser, and they would also whine that they wanted ice cream after their meal.

The reflection in the water held the joy that I held as a child who didn’t understand the world.

“……they are important.”

Even if they don’t exist anymore. I smiled as I spoke.

Yves just wordlessly looked at me without further questions.

Instead, Yves just pinched my chubby cheeks.

I wondered to myself if I should say something, but he just looked so comfortable playing around with my cheeks that I couldn’t get myself to stop him.

The streets were often used by carriages, so the air was thick with dust. Yves and I hid behind tall patches of grass as we watched each and every carriage.

We had already let a few carriages pass. Yves stroked my hair as he quietly told me the plan we were going to be following.

“Soon, if we wait just a bit longer, there’s going to be a red carriage. When you stop the carriage, I’ll check if the documents are in the carriage or not.”
“…..I got it, so can you let me go now?”
“I don’t wanna.”

Because I had always met Yves in my adult form, I had gotten used to seeing him in a similar eye level. It felt weird being so short compared to him. Moreover, Yves had me trapped in his arm and wasn’t letting me go. When I raised his arm and sniffed at the clothes, I could smell the gentle scent of his perfume. I flailed my arms in annoyance.

Yves pretended not to hear me. He had recently gotten better at responding to my words but he always ignored me about things like this.

Yves seemed to search for the warmth of other people as if he had never felt it before. For now, I decided to fold. I thought about getting him a giant plushie or dog that he could hug for his birthday gift.

For a moment, we wordlessly continued to wait.

Nowadays, the silence between Yves and I didn’t feel awkward or stifling at all. Even without conversation to pass our time, it just felt natural.

Click, clack, we heard the sound of an oncoming carriage amidst our silence. It was the red carriage that Yves had mentioned earlier, coming closer.

At the corner of the carriage was the crescent moon symbol of the guild.

With sharp eyes, Yves took in the situation and put me, who was still in his arms, down. I moved my arms around, finally freed.

Yves’ face showed that he definitely didn’t feel the same way, but I shook my head.

“The document you need is the one that discusses ‘the large sum of money the guild deposited to a guild in charge of slave trades’, right?”
“Right.”

Before I ran towards the carriage, I made sure to double check.

Recently, the Lunaasha guild had ignored the slavery abolishment law and had invested a large sum of money to a slave trading guild.

The punishment for going against the slavery abolishment law was quite strong. If the guild leader was caught investing in that company, their enormous investment would be confiscated and they would be jailed for decades. The reason why the punishment was so strong was because the kingdom had gone through countless wars and strife because of slavery-related issues.

The reason why the Lunaasha guild leader, who had tried to keep an image of being clean and proper, had invested money in the slave trade: it was because of Yves. Yves had woven a story that made it impossible to not do so. Although everything had been planned out by him.

Currently, there wasn’t a single thing going on in the Lunaasha guild that didn’t have some sort of input from Yves. Yves had created a fake slave trade guild and had used the information that he and I had run around for all this time to tie them to the scandal.

As he had gone through his plans, he also tried his best to match the moods of the leader to retain his trust. To be honest, Yves had pretended to be a loyal dog to the leader just waiting for an opportunity to get out of the guild the whole time.

And everything had been going smoothly…until a problem had arose.

Last time, when Yves had been called by the leader, the Lunaasha guild leader had been aware that they had fallen into a trap. Thankfully, they didn’t know that everything had been planned by Yves.

They had realized that they had stepped on a giant landmine, and had pocketed the investment-related documents instead.

We had begun our undercover investigation to find that piece of information, and were waiting for the red Lunaasha carriage. The destination of the carriage was the private villa of the leader, and we weren’t completely sure that the documents would be in the carriage or not.

But it was sure that the documents had been sent to where the leader was. If the documents weren’t in the carriage, then we would have to ride this carriage and have a showdown with them.

The sound of horseshoes grew louder. It was my job to stop the carriage. I drew the magic circle to stop the carriage mid-air and installed it where the carriage would pass.

I wet my dry lips with my tongue and squatted down, waiting for the right opportunity. My hands were posed, ready to cast the spell whenever.

The sound of horseshoes grew louder and louder, and just as they were about to pass, I flicked my fingers and activated the circle.

At the sudden burst of magic, the horse raised their front legs. The carriage shook loudly before stopping. When I activated the circle I could feel my magic leaving my body in waves, but my plan was successful. I had successfully stopped only the carriage without hurting anybody or causing an issue. It was a clean job.

I paused the people in the carriage as well. I looked at the people in the carriage through the window. They were relaxed and not at all anxious.

“Magic just makes things really easy, doesn’t it?”

Yves patted my head twice and told me that I did a good job. I raised my shoulders a few times instead of answering.

He threw out the people in the carriage like light luggage onto the ground. For someone who didn’t even eat properly, he was weirdly strong.

We searched the people riding the carriage and the luggage area of the carriage, but we couldn’t find the documents in the end.

“As I thought, the documents weren’t there.”

Not only did we search the carriage, but we had looked at everybody’s bags and sleeves and still didn’t find it. Yves spoke in an annoyed tone.

I searched for the documents with him, and instead found a magical device that was connected to the estate.

When I expanded the magic circle of the device, I read through the records. The communication records of the carriage and the leader’s private villa were listed in it.

I grabbed Yves’ sleeves and dragged him closer.

“Looking at the records, it says that the documents will be delivered to the leader by tonight. They haven’t destroyed the evidence yet. We need to head to the villa now.”

I said as I tied the carriage passengers tightly with rope. Yves, who was rummaging through the items in the carriage again, frowned at my words.

“Father’s villa…….”

Yves muttered for a moment, then approached me as I struggled to tie a knot.

Then, he suddenly grabbed the rope out of my hands. When I looked at him with a surprised expression, Yves looked at me and then asked a question.

“You’ve never seen someone die before, have you?”