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◈ The Hunting Genius of the Japanese Colonial Era

Chapter 18

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The Beast's Den (3)

Kim Tae-yang sniffled.

'Achoo! Ah, damn it, seriously, ah, it's April right now, ah!'

Up on this mountainside, the seasons were just one big con. Autumn? He'd grant it that much. The colors were lovely and the smell was outstanding. But that was nothing more than well-baited sucker bait, and the moment it passed, all that was left was a summer where the mosquito brats threw a feast and a winter that hunted you to the ends of hell to collect on its debts.

And right now he was somewhere around winter_almost_over_final_end_for_real_last, getting cleaned out by the wildly popular springtime swindle.

'Someday, when I get back to Gyeongseong, I'm writing a novel, I swear.'

The title should be [The Elegy of Seorak].

The story of Kim Tae-yang, the pitiful boy of Gyeongseong, who in one careless moment squandered three flowering years of his youth on a wicked woman named "Seorak." Right up to the climax, where he gives the last keepsake he wrung out of that wicked woman to the noona who runs the drinking house.

To suit the latest trend, all he had to do was write himself as K and Seorak as Miss S, and the literary contest judges would come running with tears streaming down their faces...

'Huh?'

Kim Tae-yang's eyes, steeped in cold and melancholy, snapped wide open.

'What's that old geezer trying to do now?'

The Han family's gimpy uncle, Han Man-seok, was crouched down. He seemed to be fidgeting with something, getting it ready, and then he pulled out a match and lit some dry brush.

Hissss.

Kim Tae-yang's brow furrowed.

'Fire? Is he trying to start a fire?'

It made no sense at all.

'Is he going to set a forest fire to burn the animals to death? Wow, damn. Backward slash-and-burn brats, every last one of them. But if he burns them all to death, what about the hides? The meat? Burn it and it's worth dog dung, isn't it?'

Kim Tae-yang snickered.

'A cripple's got to act the cripple, sitting there doing cripple's work. Figures. The father's a cripple like that, so the son's a cripple too.'

The thought that he had a show to watch made him forget the cold for a moment. He crept along to a spot with a better view, sneaking behind the rock that jutted up to his left.

That was when it happened.

Down the slope below, Han Man-seok lifted his head. A short flick of the eyes, as if trading a signal with someone above.

Then Han Man-seok set the burning bundle of brush down on the firewood stacked in front of the mouth of the den. As the flames rose, he pressed a handful of branches, leaves still on them, down over the top, as if he'd been waiting for the moment.

Whoosh!

The dew-soaked green wood screamed as it caught and burned. The flame, clear while it had eaten only brush and dry wood, turned murky in an instant and sent up acrid smoke. Without missing a beat, Han Man-seok stripped off his jacket and started fanning, flap, flap!

Hoo, hoo!

The black smoke was sucked into the den.

'Ah, so he's not burning them to death, he's, what, smoking them out? But does that work if you don't kill them first? Now I want some smoked meat.'

Kim Tae-yang pulled a Maco cigarette from his pocket and put it to his lips.

'Maybe I'll smoke my own lungs while I watch a bit more...'

That was the moment.

Rustle.

Above his head, beyond the ridge, he caught the sign of something moving.

'Huh?'

Kim Tae-yang, about to pull out a match, cocked his head. At first he thought it was just the wind, but the sound soon turned into something like rolling.

Tadadak, tadak!

'What is that?'

Kim Tae-yang lifted his head, brow knit tight.

He saw it.

Above the rock where he was hiding, beyond that slope, a pitch-black shadow came rolling down like a boulder.

"...Huh?"

A dazed sound. The cigarette dropped from his mouth, and before it even hit the ground—

That black shadow, a male badger worked into a fury, came charging straight at Kim Tae-yang!

"Grrrrrk!"

A ferocious growl. Kim Tae-yang's mind went blank.

"M-Mother...!"

He couldn't even form the thought to dodge. His whole body just stayed nailed in place, refusing to move.

Yellow teeth, gleaming eyes, that snout stretched out like a pig's, all driving toward him like a spearpoint—

Bam!

"Aagh!"

A dull thud of impact, and Kim Tae-yang's scream rang through the mountain valley.

The badger's head had rammed into Kim Tae-yang's thigh. A wild beast packed tight with muscle—and a big old male badger of several years at that—charging full force was more than enough to send a seventeen-year-old boy sprawling.

"Eugh! Eugheugh! Mother, eugh! Eung!"

Kim Tae-yang clutched his thigh with one hand and clawed at the ground with the other, wailing.

But the badger was thrown off too.

It had run thinking this was an escape route, only to find some obstacle blocking the way. And on top of that, this smell that didn't belong to the mountain, the harsh stench of tobacco soaked into the whole thing...

Sent rolling once across the ground by the collision, the creature's eyes went wild.

"Kyaaak!"

The badger bared its teeth as if it had been doused in pepper, about to fly into a frenzy.

From up the slope, a shadow came shooting down like a hawk.

A sound of slicing through the wind.

Whish...!

A staff drew an arc, and thwack!! With a dull crack the badger's skull was driven into the ground. "Keck!" The single cry caught and rattled inside its snout, then drowned and faded in the froth that bubbled out.

The beast that had been so vicious a moment before went limp and could no longer move.

"Eugh... uh-uh, eugheugheugh..."

Kim Tae-yang stared at the scene with a stunned face, and only after a moment did he quietly lift his head.

A face sunk in shadow against the backlight. A man holding a thick birchwood staff, looking down indifferently at the fallen badger.

It was Han San.

"Huh? Isn't that Tae-yang?"

Han San's eyes went round with surprise.

"Why are you crawling out of there?"

"Uh... uh-uh..."

Kim Tae-yang couldn't even answer properly. If he opened his mouth even a little wider, his heart felt like it would leap right out, cry "oh my, how shocking," and bolt.

Han San calmly bent at the waist. He grabbed the scruff of the limp badger's neck and shoved it right up under Kim Tae-yang's nose.

"Hey."

"Hieek!"

The beast's maw suddenly inches away, the rank stench washing over him. Kim Tae-yang yelped and covered his face with both hands.

"Get a grip. It's dead."

Han San shook the badger. Its head, eyes rolled back, swayed in front of Kim Tae-yang's nose.

"Waaah! D-don't! Get it away! Get it away, damn it, get it away!"

Kim Tae-yang wailed. Tears poured from his eyes and snot streamed from his nose.

That was when it happened.

Smack!

A bolt of lightning struck his cheek. Kim Tae-yang, thrashing and sobbing, snapped to his senses.

"Uh..."

Lifting his head, Kim Tae-yang saw a man.

The gimp of Sebeom Valley, the scrawny bearded uncle Han Man-seok, was looking down at him with steely, sharp eyes.

"Don't lose your head on the mountain."

A low voice.

It felt like a whole barrel of ice water dumped over him. His pounding heart, his racing lungs, all of it settled one by one, and bit by bit the situation began to come into focus.

The dead badger, Han San holding that badger, Han Man-seok standing beside him, Han Man-seok who had slapped his cheek, and then...

'Wet?'

Kim Tae-yang slowly lowered his gaze. The crotch of his trousers was soaked dark.

Drip, drip. Yellow water fell.

The smell of urine stung his nose.

'I wet myself.'

He'd pissed himself.

Bawling his eyes out in a mess of tears and snot, he'd let it all go, grandly and completely.

"Ah..."

His face seethed with heat, like an anthill that had been stirred up.

Shame, unbearable shame, closed around his throat.

'My pride...'

Kim Tae-yang buried his crumpled, weeping face in his hands.

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