Before I End Up as Rabbit Stew - Chapter 15

Without hesitation, Black Dragon entered the third inn from the alley entrance. Yimae was slightly bewildered, as she had expected him to simply pass through the alley.

“Are you staying here?”

By now, Yimae was quite used to Black Dragon not answering. He opened the inn door as if he couldn’t hear. Yimae muttered, feeling like a mute suffering in silence.

“Welcome!”

The innkeeper greeted them. Black Dragon approached him and said quietly, “I’ll be using the back door.”

Hearing this, the innkeeper looked Black Dragon up and down for a moment. He was startled and nodded a couple of times.

“Of course, please feel free.”

Black Dragon squeezed through the tables where the inn’s patrons were drinking and eating. Yimae felt self-conscious, even though she knew her face was hidden by the black veil. It was because the eyes of the boisterous drinkers were all on them.

“That spot, for two.”

As he entered between the kitchen and the stairs leading upstairs, Black Dragon gestured to the owner. The spot he indicated was a small table under the stair railing, which was empty, perhaps because it was dark and secluded.

“Understood.”

The owner seemed to fully understand Black Dragon’s brief words.

Black Dragon slid open a wall next to the stairs, which Yimae hadn’t even realized was a door. Beyond the door was a space filled with an unknown warmth and a faint, alluring light.

As Yimae and Black Dragon crossed the threshold, the owner closed the stairs from the inside. Yimae stood in the dim space for a moment, sniffing. Even with a sense of smell inferior to when she was a rabbit, she could still identify this scent. It wasn’t just an ordinary grass smell.

“Pick out the seedlings you need.”

Small paper beads, made by layering multiple sheets of Hanji, glowed in green and purple. The beads shone closely over the adorably grown seedlings.

“So, there was a place like this.”

The seedbeds were filled with poisonous herbs, forbidden herbs, and rare herbs that no one cultivated anymore. The merchants displaying the seedbeds weren’t from the Celestial Realm either. Goblins who looked like they might not even understand speech were standing behind the stalls.

“There’s a goblin market everywhere.”

It’s just that people can’t find the entrance. Black Dragon knew the entrance exactly. As expected of the owner of Black Dragon Palace, which once had the best herb garden. Though he was now mired in ten thousand leagues of mud.

“This is a mock strawberry.”

Yimae examined the seedlings sprouting from the seedbeds one by one, smelling them. Young sprouts and cotyledons often looked similar, so she had to be careful to distinguish them.

“Here it is, Maeknari!”

Black Dragon paid for the seedlings Yimae chose without a word. He didn’t even bother to check if they were really Maeknari or mock strawberry sprouts. Yimae felt quite pleased that he trusted her so implicitly.

“Can I look around a bit more?”

Even as she asked for permission, Yimae’s eyes were already fixed on the passionflower seedlings. The passionflower bloomed with petals of five colors, and only one color of petal shone brightly, following the movement of the sun. It was called passionflower because it could be used to tell time.

“If you pluck a flower at the desired time, only the color of that time will shine brightly. So, many people use them as substitutes for jewels.”

“Isn’t it because they were passed off as jewels that they became forbidden herbs?”

Unnecessarily smart. Yimae, who had been thinking of coaxing him to buy her a root, pouted.

“Then what about this? It’s called tiger rice cake persimmon…”

“It’s a poisonous herb that causes tiger stripes to appear all over your body like a rash if you eat it.”

But it tastes good! It’s the best if you make alcohol with it!

Yimae immediately recalled the time when she secretly made alcohol with it in Oreum Garden and caused tiger stripes to appear on Baekho’s face. For the week it took for the rash to disappear, she was in charge of cleaning the dorm as punishment, but she remembered laughing every time she saw Baekho.

“You could become a true Great Tiger?””

“Unnecessary.”

Black Dragon pointed his chin towards the entrance they had come through with a firm expression. He meant that he wouldn’t buy any more poisonous herbs than necessary. Yimae, who had been subtly trying to see if there were any Asarum macranthum seedlings, glared to the sides.

“Don’t be like that, we came all this way…”

“Straight.”

Black Dragon, who was holding bundles of seedlings wrapped in paper in both hands, extended his foot instead of his hand. His shoe gently pushed Yimae’s heel like blowing on a dandelion seed. Yimae pretended to be dejected and walked backward, looking at him.

“Can’t you buy me something else, husband?”

“Straight.”

Even teasing him with the title of husband had lost its appeal. Hearing the dry “straight” sound, Yimae finally gave up. She had forgotten for a moment these days, but he was the devilish Black Dragon God, with neither blood nor tears.

“Cheapskate.”

“What did you say?”

She had turned around to say it, but how did he hear it again? Yimae hurriedly waved both hands behind her.

“It’s, it’s narrow! The path is narrow.”

Yimae, who had reached the door, groped the wall for no reason. Black Dragon, who had been watching from a step behind, instructed.

“A little more to the right.”

“Here?”

“A little more.”

A long groove where you could fit your fingers was made in the wall. Yimae opened the door and entered under the inn stairs, but she looked back at the path where green and purple lights flickered, her regret dripping.

“The passionflower shines as red as a ruby at Susi (the eleventh of the twelve two-hour periods of the day, from 7 p.m.)”m. to 9 p.m.)…”

“One more step.”

Black Dragon pushed her in mercilessly. The door closed tightly and did not open again.

“Sit.”

She thought they were going straight back to the palace, but it seemed not. Black Dragon offered Yimae a seat. It was the corner table he had told the owner about before passing through the door.

The table was overflowing with various dishes. There were steaming meat dumplings, steamed fish covered with colorful vegetables, sweet porridge made by crushing red beans, and tofu skin rolls braised in spicy soy sauce. Yimae’s stomach, which hadn’t even been half a day since she had breakfast, began to churn.

“Eat? Are we eating now?”

“Yes, eat it all.”

Yimae flipped up her veil and picked up her chopsticks without hesitation. She picked up one of each of the dishes she could see and ate them, then finally looked at Black Dragon. He had put the bundles down on the floor, freeing both arms, but he wasn’t eating, just sitting with his arms crossed. Black Dragon’s “law of not eating at the same table as a woman” seemed to apply even in the inn.

“Aren’t you tired of living so strictly by the rules?”

Yimae said, munching on a meat dumpling. Black Dragon paused for a moment, then quietly asked instead of answering.

“Do you also think I’m frustrating?”

Yimae shook her head without thinking.

“Not frustrating. I just wish we could eat together.”

She placed a dumpling on Black Dragon’s plate.

“It’s so lonely eating alone.”

Black Dragon didn’t even glance at the dumpling. He just watched her stuff food into her mouth at a rapid pace. He was probably worried that she would swallow the inn’s plates as well.

“Why did you order so much if you weren’t going to eat with me?”

Yimae felt like she was going to choke as the dark, cold eyes continued to follow her. She deliberately changed the subject. Black Dragon finally took a small sip of water from his glass.

“It’s an old promise. It’s also a transaction.”

He glanced very briefly at the innkeeper standing among the people. The owner was carrying a large tub and giving something to the guests with a gourd ladle.

“Since this inn is connected to the goblin market, it’s paying the price for using the passage.”

The innkeeper must have thought Black Dragon had called him, as he rushed over.

“Would you like to try some? It’s 10-year-old honey wine, honey wine.”

“Honey wine?!”

Yimae shouted with a cheer. The innkeeper was curious about the face behind the veil and moved closer to Yimae. He had recognized the man as Black Dragon, so the identity of the woman traveling with the guardian deity was intriguing.

“No need.”

Black Dragon refused the wine in one stroke and put down the glass. The innkeeper stepped back at the clanging sound.

“No need? No, give it to me!”

Yimae’s eyes widened as if they would pop out. She stopped Black Dragon and held out her glass. The innkeeper cautiously poured the wine.

“It’s a well-aged wine, so the taste is amazing! It’s precious, but today I’m giving a glass to each of the guests as a special treat.”

“I’ll take that glass too!”

Yimae put Black Dragon’s water glass to her mouth and emptied it neatly. Then she received another glass of fragrant honey wine.

“Have a good time.”

The innkeeper hurried away, afraid that Black Dragon would get angry.

Yimae placed the glass of honey wine in front of Black Dragon and raised her own glass.

“Let’s toast, let’s toast!”

“I don’t drink alcohol.”

What should she do with this stubborn scholar? Yimae, with a disappointed face, sat quietly with her knees together and smiled slyly, for some reason. She tilted her head and glared at Black Dragon in an unresentful way.

“Really? It’s not that you can’t drink, is it?”

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