The Legend of the Fox Yokai of Jirisan

Upon witnessing the full scene at the Jirisan National Park Yokai Extermination Office, I let out an incredulous laugh.
White foxes here.
White foxes there.
White fox posters plastered everywhere.

I asked Lee Ha-neul, who was trailing behind me:
“…What is all this?”
“White foxes, right?”
“No, I’m not blind. I can see they’re white foxes.”

Though I heard Ha-neul’s murmur implying I wasn’t human,
I paid it no mind and continued:
“By any chance…”

Pointing at myself, I went on:
“Is it me?”
“Obviously.”
“…”

I’m not someone with an overinflated celebrity ego, but
From the way people treated me, and
The fact that ‘white fox’ posters were specifically put up,
I could confirm that I was the one being idolized here.

Eventually, Ha-neul provided an explanation.
On the day I had saved their lives, all the personnel had seen my face just moments before their imminent deaths.
Perhaps out of gratitude for sparing their lives, various fox-related merchandise had become popular at this Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office since then.

…No matter how I looked at it, this hardly seemed like mere goodwill towards their lifesaver.

“Good morning, Lady Miho!”
“Did you sleep well, Lady Miho!”
“I’m your fan, Lady Miho!”

Look at this.
How could this be considered simple goodwill? Labeling it as such would be too much of a stretch.
Rather than goodwill, it was… some other emotion.
Though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what that emotion was.

In any case, people kept stealing furtive glances at my face and body while grinning like perverts, leaving me with mixed feelings of delight and discomfort.
The stranger part was that the overwhelming majority giving me those odd looks were the male staff members.

Of course, the female employees were amicable towards me too.
Some would smile pleasantly while observing my tails and ears, while others directly approached to express gratitude for saving their lives.

…However, unlike those perverted creeps, the female staff didn’t behave as if afflicted by some obsession.
It was bizarre.
I hadn’t even used Fox Sorcery – Charm, after all.

Then,
Someone sidled up to me and said:
“Ah, it was truly the descent of an angel!”
“…?”

Who was this guy?
I looked at Ha-neul with a questioning gaze, but she only tiredly pinched her brow without offering any explanation.

The man continued:
“I thought I was a goner. That cunning blue-furred demonic fox had devoured half my liver, and my intestines were spilling out in a gruesome scene… Then the savior, like a shooting star, was you, Lady Miho. Ah, your grace is as vast as the heavens themselves…”

“Excuse me.”
“Yes!”
“Who are you…?”
“Ah, my apologies for the late introduction! My name is Kim Myeong-ho, a Grade 7 civil servant. It’s truly an honor to meet you, Lady Miho!”

“Ah… yes, of course…”
Though slightly unnerved, I extended my hand for a handshake with the man who introduced himself as Kim Myeong-ho.
Whereupon he became so overwhelmed with emotion that he let out whale-like bellows of delight, as if the entire Yokai Extermination Office would take flight.

Hmm.
Had the stress of yokai extermination driven him insane?
Just a regular lunatic, it seemed.

And what did it mean to label someone a lunatic?
That they could be exploited, of course.

I addressed him:
“Could I perhaps use a computer for a bit?”
“Of course!”

Permission was granted within a second.
Were you really not going to report this to the director…?
I glanced at his expression as I took a seat and began using the computer.
While the chair was a bit uncomfortable due to my tails, it had been a whole two years since I last used a keyboard and mouse, filling me with anticipation.

Eventually, I searched for ‘Taejasinggi’ on a portal site.
Surprisingly, there were search results, even a separate wiki page.

Taejasinggi (態者新氣)

Overview

Features

Patch Notes

Applications

Overview
The Taejasinggi (態者新氣) is an item appearing in the online game [Rodena – Lord of the Night].

Oh come on, are you kidding me?
It was just a game item?
Moreover, the Chinese characters Old Monk Bangta had taught me were completely different from this.
What an unpleasant coincidence.

Apart from the game item, there were quite a few other search results bearing the name ‘Taejasinggi’.
An antique store named Taejasinggi.
A Chinese restaurant named Taejasinggi.
Even a small business named Taejasinggi.
Everything except a book, it seemed.

It appeared impossible to obtain information about it online, so I relinquished the computer to Kim Myeong-ho.
“Oh, please feel free to continue using it!”
“…Don’t you have work?”

Pointing to his headphones, he smiled and said:
“Don’t worry, I’m working. Hahaha!”

Was he detecting yogi through those headphones?
While I didn’t fully understand, since I no longer needed the internet, I made to step aside for him…

…Before indulging myself by visiting online communities, just this once.
Sure enough,
Three hours flew by as I browsed the communities.

Under Ha-neul’s guidance, I toured various parts of the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office.
The first thought that struck me was how immensely vast the information possessed by humans was.
There were yokai encyclopedias thicker than general encyclopedias.
Scientific research data and various papers on ‘yogi’.
There was even information on goblins presumed extinct 500 years ago.

Goblins
A mystical race that went extinct 500 years ago.
Unlike hostile yokai, goblins of that era were said to be amicable towards humans.
The following is an excerpt from the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty:

3rd Year of King Seongjong’s Reign, August
[Seongjong Sillok Vol. 21, 3rd Year of Seongjong’s Reign, August 24th, Muja Day]

Received the morning court session

Attended the royal lecture

Attended the secondary royal lecture

The Ministry of Taxation reported financial difficulties due to losses caused by goblins

Summoned the Feathered Warrior Jeon U-chi to the palace to request the extermination of goblins

Baek Geum-hwan, the Spiritual Officer and Diviner of the Daecheong Observatory, came before the King and stated:
“The recent mischief of goblins has gone too far. Summon the Feathered Warrior Jeon U-chi, who can fly with wings on his feet, to exterminate the goblins plaguing our nation.”

To which the King decreed:
“Goblins are mystical beings that can be either beneficial or harmful to the people, not unlike our own people. In my view, goblins differ little from humans, so focus your efforts on exterminating hostile yokai instead of goblins.”

Attended the evening royal lecture

Reading the annals was highly fascinating.
For whichever page was opened, it was filled with tales of goblins, yokai, wing-footed Taoists flitting east and west, the wandering King of Confucian Scholars Hong Gil-dong, and more.
That official dynastic records so blatantly documented stories of yokai and goblins in such vivid detail felt quite surreal.

…It did seem rather absurd for me, embodied as a fox yokai, to make such an observation.

In any case, my decision to obtain information from the Yokai Extermination Office was clearly not misguided.
Unfortunately, no matter how thoroughly I searched the annals, there was no mention of the Taejasinggi.
A natural outcome, I supposed.
According to Old Monk Bangta, the Taejasinggi was a mystical text exclusively distributed among yokai.
Moreover, it was a text lost 500 years ago, so it would be stranger if humans still possessed records of it.

In the following days, I continued residing at the Yokai Extermination Office.
The director granted me more authority than expected, allowing me to access all information except for [Grade 2 Confidential] and above.
However, since there was not a single mention of the Taejasinggi in the Grade 3 and lower confidential files, I resolved to strike an information deal with the director.

It ended in failure.
The director demanded information on Jirisan’s inner realm in exchange for ‘Grade 2 Confidential’ access.
No matter my human origins,
I was not the kind of cold-hearted yokai who would sell out friends like Depot with whom I had lived for two years.

…To be perfectly honest,
I had briefly considered selling information on the Lord of the Mountain.
We weren’t particularly close anyway, and the Lord seemed to dislike me as well, so
I felt no pangs of guilt.
Yet what held me back was a sense of mortal peril.
I couldn’t help but dread the deranged tiger’s retaliation if I betrayed information about the Lord of the Mountain.
It was wisest to avoid entanglements with the Lord.

…

…

…

My stay at the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office was highly satisfactory.
The quality of the three daily meals they provided was quite excellent.
Even the dog food I snacked on tasted delicious.
Munch munch.
Munch munch.
Munch munch.
Ah, I’m still eating that dog food now.
While I was initially embarrassed, I now consumed it openly.
It had a curiously addictive tang that whetted my appetite, you see.
When I eventually returned to the inner realm,
If nothing else, I would have to pack at least ten bags of this dog food.

“…”
Slowly,
A sense of impatience crept in.
While I had acquired considerable information about goblins and yokai, I had failed to uncover anything about the Taejasinggi.
Just as I was contemplating returning to the inner realm,
Kim Myeong-ho, in charge of yogi detection, let out a booming shout:
“Director, it’s an emergency!”

Whereupon the director rushed over, his bald head glistening as he asked Kim Myeong-ho:
“What’s the matter?”
“Ab, abnormal signs from the Grade 7 yokai Jomagu!”
“Jomagu…? Isn’t Jomagu just a measly yokai smaller than a rabbit? Not a high priority for monitoring.”

Muttering to himself, the director then asked Kim Myeong-ho again:
“Did its yogi increase by any chance?”

For some reason, the director’s tone conveyed a clear trust in Kim Myeong-ho.
That fox yokai fanatic seemed to be
A highly capable civil servant well-regarded by the director.

“No, its yogi is unchanged. However…”
Staring at the monitor in seeming disbelief, Kim Myeong-ho continued:
“Its size has grown. Larger than an elephant… no, bigger than two elephants combined…!”