SAFBIAN Ch 43

Chapter 43

The Ho (Fox) Trading Company—one of the top five in the empire.

This trading company mainly dealt in foreign goods, offering rare and hard-to-obtain items through exclusive deals.

Moreover, no matter how much money one brought, a certain level of status or qualification was required to make a purchase.

As a result, though smaller in scale compared to other trading companies, its popularity easily surpassed even the largest in the empire.

Behind high walls erected to block the interior from view, shards of broken glass were densely embedded along the top as a deterrent.

Inside the compound, the company was bustling early in the morning. An employee who had been sweeping ran inside in a fluster, and soon after, a woman came stumbling out with her skirt clenched in her hands.

“Oh my goodness!”

It was because the only child of the company’s owner and heir to the Ho (Fox) Trading Company had suddenly returned.

“Have you been well?”

“You didn’t even send word before coming. You really startled me.”

The son she hadn’t seen in a while had hollow cheeks.

He had clearly lost weight since the wedding. Unable to hide her sorrow, she cupped her son Wonwoo’s now gaunt cheeks with a distressed expression.

“Did you have breakfast?”

“Not yet.”

Considering how far the journey from the village must have been, how could Hori not even have packed lunch for her only mate!

“I’ll get something ready quickly, so go in and rest.”

“It’s fine. Later. I’m too tired to think about food right now.”

Among the many rooms in the grand building, he entered the most spacious and luxurious one.

Silk adorned the walls, and only the finest items—screens and porcelain—decorated the space. Wonwoo, having returned after a long time, lightly unpacked his belongings.

Thud.

When she saw her son sit directly on the floor, his mother, without ringing for a servant, personally brought out bedding and laid it down.

‘How much he must have suffered.’

She, too, had heard the village’s sacred artifact had disappeared. She also knew that the elder, who was practically the spiritual anchor for the red foxes, had collapsed.

Even so, it pained her deeply that her precious son had to bear so much that his body deteriorated. Unlike her husband, who valued the safety of the red fox village above all else, she cherished her son more than anything.

‘I should’ve opposed that marriage to the end. What could that outdated fox, raised by the doting village, possibly know? My poor son must have been the one to suffer. Ugh, so upsetting!’

While all the red foxes of the village had celebrated the union of Hori and Wonwoo, she had only hoped her son would meet a proper fox and live close by. She imagined them living happily together, raising several children.

So when she heard that Wonwoo was being considered as the next elder, her heart sank in shock. Wouldn’t that mean she’d see even less of her son?

And when she learned that he had firmly refused the offer, she couldn’t have been more delighted.

She repeatedly massaged her son’s shoulders and arms.

“Did Hori not come with you?”

“No. She’s still in the village.”

“You came alone? Doesn’t that seem strange to others? Everyone in the village thinks you’ve bonded with Hori as mates. Even I was shocked when I first heard that news.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t tell your father either, thinking he might cause a fuss if he found out.”

“Please keep it secret for the time being as well.”

“Still, that child really lacks sense. Even if you’re not true mates, how could she let you make such a long journey alone after marriage? She could’ve just come with you and stayed at the trading company.”

It would’ve been a perfect opportunity for her to experience the hardships of living with in-laws.

She swallowed down her true feelings, holding her tongue, because her husband—Wonwoo’s father and head of the trading company—was entering the room.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’ve gone through a lot. How is the elder doing?”

“He’s much better now. He asked me to thank you for the medicine you sent.”

“That’s good to hear.”

When her husband entered, Wonwoo’s mother turned her head away with a cold expression.

Their feud over the marriage had not yet healed. She laid out her son’s bedding, brushing out the wrinkles forcefully as if to vent her feelings.

“Well, let’s talk more later. You must be tired after traveling through the night. Rest for now.”

“Thank you.”

Wonwoo spoke in an even, composed tone.

But in truth, standing was already a struggle. Cold sweat ran down his back, and his forehead was damp as he tried to act like everything was fine.

After his parents left the room, bickering as they went, Wonwoo checked the state of his imprint and immediately transformed into a fox.

A large red fox with a long body and sizable build curled up on the bedding. Beasts always recovered faster in their original forms.

Throb.

Annoyed, Wonwoo dug his claws into the blanket.

‘Ugh, ngh!’

A fierce pain surged through his chest. Some days it felt like being slashed by a blade, and on others, like being crushed beneath a heavy weight.

Such was the nature of the imprint.

When one’s mate was nearby, it brought a sweet, almost intoxicating warmth. But once left alone, it raged violently.

He had thought the imprint was merely a bond to tie mates together—never realizing how fearsome it could be.

The only fortunate thing was that the pain of the imprint lessened the closer one got to their mate. That was the reason Wonwoo came to the Ho (Fox) Trading Company instead of recklessly wandering to find Dori, who had left the village with nothing but his bare body.

The imprint had reacted in this direction.

‘It won’t be long now.’

Wonwoo let out a pained sigh.

When he had checked earlier, a faint red glow had appeared along the edges of the imprint, fading in and out. The closer he got to Dori, the more vivid the color became.

What if, having nothing to his name, Dori was enduring hardship in his fox form? After all, Dori needed him.

Surely by now, he wouldn’t be so stubborn anymore. For a beastman to leave the village alone meant taking on immense risk.

Wonwoo closed his eyes with effort.

The Shadow, Death (殺), acting under the emperor’s orders, was moving swiftly.

A secret directive had been issued to inspect every palace servant’s hair and investigate anyone with strands that were white from root to tip.

The first to tremble in fear with hair disheveled were the maids assigned to clean the fox’s room. An elderly woman who trained the laundry workers was quietly taken away without a trace. A servant who prepared the fox’s meals also vanished in the blink of an eye.

All of this happened within a single day.

Jipyeong stood silently behind Haban as he read through reports.

The palace was home to many servants who had dedicated their lives since childhood. Naturally, many of them were elderly, and several were already imprisoned solely due to their hair color.

‘Besides…….’

Jipyeong’s gaze slowly shifted to the chamberlain Kim, who huddled near Haban’s side.

Especially those who served the emperor directly, like Chamberlain Kim and Head Court Lady Jang, had hair so white it bordered on transparent silver.

If this order had merely come from Haban’s distaste for old servants, Jipyeong resolved to oppose it, no matter what counsel it took.

Unaware that his loyal guard’s earnest intentions were in vain, Haban continued his contemplation.

‘A single strand of hair might’ve fallen due to carelessness.’

No matter how cautious one was, places frequented by people could never be perfect—so it was possible someone had missed it by accident.

But the issue was that every person on the suspect list had never entered the fox’s room.

That narrowed the hypothesis down to two possibilities.

One, that some criminal had snuck into the fox’s room at night with a specific motive. The other, that the sly fox was deceiving him.

As for the first—no matter how rare white beasts were—would anyone really risk climbing the imperial palace walls just to steal a mere fox? The idea of a skilled individual ignoring the emperor himself to target the fox made no sense.

Maybe someone had simply entered the wrong room?

‘If they were that stupid, they would’ve left evidence behind.’

So the first theory was ruled out.

Which meant the remaining possibility… was that the fox was up to something sneaky.

“How dare it.”

Haban’s eyes darkened.

Even now, soldiers were scouring the mountain area where he had encountered “Him,” searching for another white fox. They set up nets, tightened the perimeter again and again—but the only news they reported was that there was nothing to be found.

‘So while I’ve been scouring the mountains and hunting grounds, that wretched fox has been deceiving me.’

Then why?

The fact that he had encountered the fox at the hunting ground meant it likely didn’t remember its past life. So it clearly knew nothing. If it truly had no memory, why did it stubbornly act this way in its small fox body?

‘Once we become Holy Beasts, we get used to transformation and usually stay in human form. …Ah! Except when we need to run fast or hide—we shift back to our original forms. Humans can’t curl up as small as we can.’

‘He’ had said that while lying on the bed, pulling their arms straight to their chest and tucking in their knees to demonstrate.

Their head bowed, causing their rear to stick up in a posture that stirred a certain urge, though they had no idea.

Then they began scratching at the blanket with their hands, only to turn pale in realization.

After spending a few days in their beast form, their body—and even their mind—started reacting more instinctively, they explained gloomily, burying their face into the pillow.

The sight had been so endearing that Haban had yanked down their clothes and rubbed them roughly, right out in the open.

‘H-Haban!’

They had screamed in shock, but their gasping breath had been so delightful that he had generously filled them to the brim.

Lost in those memories, Haban rubbed the corners of his eyes.