Despite being terrified, the thieves decided to get back to work instead of running the way any sane person would have. Before they could continue, a sudden fog spread through the forest and spooked them. Still they refused to budge. What they did not know was that Sihon was the one controlling all of it from behind the scenes.
He was surprised that they had ignored his warnings, when they should have been frightened by the display he had just put on. Their greed, it seemed, was stronger than their fear of what they could not understand. Since they refused to see reason, he decided to teach them a proper lesson and scare them badly enough that they would never come back to this mountain again.
He drove the animals to charge at the thieves, who by then had decided to abandon everything and run for their lives. As they fled, one of them could not help wondering aloud why the animals were behaving so strangely, and the other urged him to keep running rather than analyse the situation. By that point they were so terrified that they had begun to beg the raging animals to spare them.
Sihon was not done with the lesson. He was able to do all of this by using Orin as a conduit to bind every living thing in the forest into one. Any living thing connected by that power becomes the forest itself and drives out intruders, which is why druids are feared in their own lands. He was even angrier that the thieves had touched his matsutake mushrooms, which he had been growing to treat the villagers at their next gathering.
To end the chase he summoned a vine to trap the men, leaving them completely terrified. They could not wrap their heads around any of it, and now a tree was attacking them. Once the thieves were bound, Sihon called the village chief to inform her of the incident. A little while later she arrived with the police, and she scolded the men furiously the moment she stepped out of the police vehicle.
Then she checked on Sihon to make sure he had not hurt himself chasing the thieves. She noticed that the thieves looked completely battered, which made her wonder what had happened to them. Sihon simply told her that they had rolled down the mountain trying to escape. Looking more closely at them, the village chief realised that they were the same men who had stolen her herbs and then played dumb when she caught them.
Now she was thrilled that they had messed with the wrong person, and there was no way they were getting out of it as they had last time. The police officer also informed the thieves that they could not deny the crime on this occasion, because the evidence against them was sufficient and it was clear they had stolen with the intention to sell. The main thief gritted his teeth in anger when he heard this and insisted that a demon had taken over a tree to attack them.
He also said that all the animals in the forest had been acting as if they were possessed. Then he turned to Sihon, and what broke Sihon's heart was that the thief called him chubby. The thief urged the police officer to arrest him, since he was the owner of the mountain and must be practising some kind of witchcraft that controlled ghosts.
The village chief was livid when she heard it and immediately pounced on them to teach them a lesson for spewing nonsense. The officer tried to hold her back as she cursed them, describing how she would tear them apart exactly the way a serial killer would. Sihon was utterly shocked by the words coming out of her mouth, because he had never expected the gentle village chief to be so hardcore.
The officer decided to take the culprits to the station while the thief went on trying to convince everyone that a tree had attacked him. He swore the mountain was haunted, and just then a priest who had arrived at the scene overheard him. He angrily scolded the man for spewing lies and insisted that the mountain belonged to the Lord.
Sihon was surprised to see a priest there, while the priest stared at him and wondered who he was. In Sihon's past life as a druid, the clergy had always been divided into two groups. Some were greedy as goblins and coveted what was not theirs, while others dedicated themselves to their faith. Druids were not considered clergy, but their way of living was very similar to that of the clergy who served the divine.
Druids dedicated their lives to nature and proved themselves through the hardships they endured. In those days such people were known as seekers, or ascetics. Sihon wondered which type of priest this one in front of him would turn out to be. After learning what the thieves had done, the priest admonished them for stealing and for lying that the forest had attacked them just to get out of facing the law.
He went on to quote scripture and preach at the thieves, after which he scolded them a little more for saying the mountain was haunted. To calm him down, the officer assured the priest that the thieves were only spewing nonsense to get themselves off the hook. He added that Sihon was the owner of the mountain and had already recorded everything when he saw the thieves picking mushrooms.
After Sihon had greeted him properly, the priest introduced himself as Father Mateo of Dongwan Parish. He mentioned that the monastery on the other side of the mountain was under his care. Mateo then apologised for not managing his part of the mountain properly and allowing the thieves access to Sihon's side. Sihon quickly told him that it was not his fault, and apologised for the whole commotion.
Mateo's monastery shared the same hill as Sihon's house, and they were separated by only one slope. Since that was the case, Sihon believed the responsibility for managing access to the mountain fell on both their shoulders. He was quite surprised that Mateo had taken the blame without demanding an apology from him, when they were both responsible. That alone convinced him that Mateo was one of the good priests.
The village chief, Stella, then checked the loot the thieves had taken and was stunned to see that they had almost cleared out the entire mountain. She suggested that Sihon and Mateo share it equally, since the thieves must have stopped at the monastery's side before looting from Sihon's. Sihon turned her down, explaining that he had been planning to share it all at the next village meeting.
Mateo also refused to accept his share and told Stella to keep it for the elders to feast on. Stella remarked that she had been expecting him to mention the elders. Afterwards the officer prepared to leave with the culprits and reassured Stella that they would investigate properly, since the thieves were repeat offenders. Stella firmly told him to make sure they were punished without mercy.
The officer acknowledged this and promised to contact her later with the details. As the police car drove off, Stella went on angrily cursing the thieves, which left Sihon and the priest amused. And just like that, the drama with the thieves faded away like the morning breeze on the mountain.