“W-W-What are you saying?”
Min-wan stammered, too dumbfounded.
A daughter out of nowhere? And a goblin at that?
“Hehe, it’s not easy to accept it from the start.”
The Mountain Spirit kindly explained to Min-wan how the baby goblin had been born.
The dagger he had cut his wrist with was actually an object over a hundred years old.
When a person’s blood stained an old object, a soul settled in it, and when a spirit’s breath was infused into that soul, a goblin was born…
“Do you understand now?”
“…How am I supposed to believe that?”
Min-wan narrowed his eyes, unable to hide his suspicious expression.
“Honestly, what an insolent human!”
Beom, who had been silently listening, moved his large body and came right up to Min-wan.
“A-A talking tiger!”
“That’s right, human! Have you lived your whole life getting tricked?”
Unintentionally, Beom struck him at his most painful spot.
Min-wan’s head drooped, and his eyes quickly grew moist.
“…Is the one who gets deceived the bad one?”
“What?”
“The one who scams is the bad one! Why is the one who gets deceived the bad one?!”
“…W-Why are you suddenly crying?”
Beom, who had no way of knowing Min-wan’s situation, was flustered by this.
No, had he really said something that terrible? What exactly?
As Beom rolled his fierce eyes around awkwardly, the Mountain Spirit stepped in.
“W-Well, young man, I don’t know what story you have, but first, sit here and talk.”
After patting Min-wan’s shoulder, the Mountain Spirit waved his hand once, and the stone tower transformed into a comfortable chair.
At the magical sight unfolding before his eyes, Min-wan’s tears disappeared at once.
“H-How did you do that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Here, have a drink.”
When the Mountain Spirit waved his hand again, a drinking table appeared.
“…Gasp!”
Even Harry Potter couldn’t do something like this.
Only then did Min-wan have no choice but to fully believe that the white-haired old man before him was a Mountain Spirit.
“I-I believe you! Mountain Spirit!”
“Hehe. Yes, yes.”
A ray of hope rose in Min-wan’s mind.
A Mountain Spirit, a Mountain Spirit!
Wasn’t he the Mountain Spirit who, if one lost an iron axe, gave them a gold axe and a silver axe as well?
Min-wan politely showed respect.
“I apologize for not recognizing such a noble being.”
“Eh, it’s fine, it’s fine. It’s strange to believe right away. Hehe.”
The Mountain Spirit spoke as if it were nothing, but he seemed pleased inside.
Praising the Mountain Spirit, Min-wan exchanged drinks with him and subtly threw in a question.
“For a baby that looks so ordinary to be a goblin, that’s really fascinating.”
“What, did you expect horns or something? Anything born in the human world, no matter how transcendent, must begin without defying the laws of the human realm.”
“So that’s why it’s born as a baby.”
“Well, if it had been an older object, it might have appeared a bit bigger.”
He nodded as if listening attentively, but what Min-wan was really curious about was something else.
“Um… earlier you said, ‘You are truly blessed,’ didn’t you?”
“Ah, I did. Meeting a Mountain Spirit like this and having a goblin born, these aren’t things an ordinary human commonly experiences!”
“Haha, right. It’s really luck, really a blessing! Then that luck… does it perhaps come in other ways too?”
The Mountain Spirit couldn’t understand Min-wan, who was speaking in circles.
“Hm? What do you mean, how does luck come?”
“Yes, I mean… something you can touch, maybe shining, um, worth some money…”
Using vague expressions like that, Min-wan curled his thumb and index finger into circles with both hands as a signal.
The Mountain Spirit’s eyes followed Min-wan’s hands in circles.
“…What are you trying to say?”
“I mean… that…”
Min-wan glanced around, then blurted it out.
“I was wondering what you could give me.”
“…”
At the unexpected words, the Mountain Spirit stroked his beard.
“I can’t understand at all what you’re asking for.”
Growing frustrated, Min-wan gave examples.
“…Do you know lottery numbers?”
“What’s that?”
Seeing the Mountain Spirit blinking and asking back, Min-wan thought of another example.
“…Stocks?”
“Are you talking about rice?”
“…”
Min-wan let out a small sigh.
Right, then!
“Then gold?”
“…”
“Or at least silver?”
“…”
“You don’t even have copper?”
“I don’t even have iron, you brat.”
“No, you wave your hand once and suddenly there’s alcohol and chairs. Why not gold?”
“Good grief, kids these days.”
The Mountain Spirit clicked his tongue, then stood up and reached into his sleeve, rummaging around.
Min-wan held his breath, waiting with eyes full of expectation.
“Here, take this, you brat!”
What the Mountain Spirit held out was a copper-colored coin that was presumably gold.
“…What is this?”
“It’s a blessing for you!”
Min-wan couldn’t hide his disappointment. This wasn’t even a fifty-won coin.
“Take that and go to the thousand-year shop in Seoul Central Market. If they have a discerning eye, you might obtain something more generous than its value.”
At the Mountain Spirit’s cryptic words, Min-wan grew anxious.
No, he was telling him to raise a newborn baby and trying to settle it with just a single coin.
‘I can’t back down here!’
It wasn’t his first time negotiating while running a business.
If he obediently agreed here, wouldn’t he be the one at a huge loss?
He had never raised a baby, but he had heard things here and there.
He didn’t even know how to feed himself right now, so how was he supposed to afford diapers and formula?
“Mountain Spirit, actually… the reason I climbed the mountain in the middle of the night…”
Min-wan poured out his grievances in detail before the Mountain Spirit.
Beom lay beside him with ears perked up. Then the baby goblin, who had been rolling around on Beom’s back, blinked its black eyes and quietly stared at Min-wan.
“…So I thought maybe it would be better to just die.”
While speaking, his emotions surged again, but.
It felt strange, since it was the first time he had vented everything so honestly.
“You’ve had it hard, young man.”
The Mountain Spirit only said that and looked at the distant moon.
“Habbyappaa. Ha-baa.”
The baby goblin wriggled, stretching its tiny hands toward Min-wan.
Rustle.
In the brief silence, the sound of leaves brushing in the wind could be heard.
“Alright, I’ve decided!”
The Mountain Spirit withdrew his gaze from the sky and looked at Min-wan.
“It seems it would be difficult for you to keep raising the goblin.”
“…What?”
“However, wouldn’t it also be difficult for me to find a place to entrust the child immediately?”
“That’s true.”
“Give me one week. I will find a suitable place.”
One week?
‘Well, if it’s that much…’
Min-wan nodded. Earlier he had been dazzled by the Mountain Spirit’s magic and talked about gold and silver, but.
Even setting that aside, he wasn’t confident he could raise a baby well.
Beom slid closer and nudged him, telling him to take the baby from his back.
“Daa…”
The baby that fit snugly into his arms was so small and light.
In the baby’s large, clear eyes, Min-wan saw his own face reflected.
When the baby smiled with sparkling eyes, Min-wan unconsciously smiled back, then suddenly startled himself.
“Ah, ahem. Well… let’s get along for just one week.”
***
The next morning.
“Kyaa-ppa!”
Min-wan snapped his eyes open at the strange scream.
What?
‘What’s this damp feeling?’
“Hee-hee-het! Hadaa-bbuya!”
The baby was thrusting its face in front of him, drool dripping down.
“…Huh! Wait!”
Min-wan jumped up, holding the baby.
The baby, finding Min-wan’s flustered reaction amusing, waved both hands and bounced its body.
“Ah, yesterday, so…”
He quickly reviewed last night’s events.
The Mountain Spirit, Beom, the baby goblin. And one week?
“Hap-pyappaa?”
Seeing the baby tilt its head and blink its large eyes, it definitely wasn’t a dream.
“Haa… alright, let’s wipe your drool first and think.”
Min-wan went to the bathroom and washed the baby’s face.
He only meant to wash its face, but once he started, he ended up filling the tub and washing the whole body thoroughly.
“Hiya-hou-it!”
The baby couldn’t stay still for a second, apparently amused by the foam forming in the warm water.
“Stay still for a moment!”
“Hee-hee-het!”
No matter how he pleaded, the baby wouldn’t listen. Thanks to that, Min-wan was soaked and exhausted when he left the bathroom.
“Hap-pyappaa.”
Still, now that the baby was clean, the originally pale face shone even brighter.
The soft, freshly washed face with rosy cheeks. The big eyes narrowing into crescents with a smiling gaze.
“…Cute.”
Min-wan muttered unconsciously.
He had always loved pretty things, cool things, beautiful things.
But seeing the baby today, he felt that something might surpass pretty, cool, and beautiful: cuteness.
“Hah… What is this tiny little bean?”
He sat the baby in front of the mirror and dried its hair with the weakest setting of the hair dryer.
‘It really looks fascinating.’
The baby’s face reflected in the mirror was smaller than Min-wan’s palm.
Looking closely at the tightly packed eyes, nose, and mouth on that tiny face, it was hard to tell whether it was a person or a doll.
‘There isn’t a single pore on the skin, and those eyelashes could rival a camel’s. Wow… can eyes really be this clear? Are they marbles or what?’
While absentmindedly admiring the face and touching the soft hair.
“…Habbu-aya!”
Only when the baby grabbed Min-wan’s hand with its tiny hand did he stop.
“Y-You want me to stop?”
Raised eyebrows and tightly pressed lips. So babies could make expressions like this too.
It looked like an angry expression, but the features were so small that even that was cute.
“What, you tiny thing? Even if you make that face, it has zero effect on me.”
Min-wan carried the baby and entered the dressing room.
Of course, there were no baby clothes.
He took out the smallest clothes he had and spread them out.
“Hmm, would this work?”
He roughly cut the clothes by eye and sewed them.
“Hapya-huba, hu-waa!”
Strangely, the baby quietly watched Min-wan sewing, eyes shining.
“Would this be enough?”
He was using the simple alteration skills he had learned while running a clothing business for a long time.
But the outfit he finished in about ten minutes looked like a sack thrown over something.
“Well, it should be fine to wear for about a week, right?”
Carefully, he slipped it over the baby’s head.
“…Pfft!”
Min-wan couldn’t hold back his laughter.
“Puhahaha!”
The strange visual, like a single small potato sticking out of a sack, was unbearably funny.
“…Hee-hee-het!”
When Min-wan laughed while hitting the floor, the baby followed and laughed, hee-hee.
Seeing the baby laugh while looking at him made Min-wan unable to stop laughing even more.
“Heh. Why are you laughing? Hm?”
“Hee-hee! Hehehe! Daa-pyaa.”
Every time the baby laughed, the plump cheeks jiggled.
Press.
Without realizing it, Min-wan reached out and pressed the chubby cheek.
Soft and fluffy to the touch.
Would well-rested dough feel like this?
It was a strange texture that made him want to keep touching it again and again.
Grrr.
The sound came from the baby’s stomach.
“Habuu, hahohiya.”
“Oh, are you hungry?”
Even if it was only one week, he couldn’t let the baby starve.
Yesterday, under the influence of alcohol, he had thought one week would be fine, but.
If he had known it would be like this, he should have at least asked for formula money, he regretted again.
“Sigh, can’t be helped.”
“Habbyappaa!”
While searching for his wallet, Min-wan rummaged through the coat he wore yesterday and found a coin.
It was the one the Mountain Spirit had given him.
“Take that and go to the thousand-year shop in Seoul Central Market. If they have a discerning eye, you might obtain something more generous than its value.”
He recalled the Mountain Spirit’s words.
Min-wan put the coin in his pocket and left the house with the baby.
