The moon shone bright in the night sky.
Tanghangseong’s Ghost Gate stood close to the county office.
The county office itself backed onto a mountain, while the extended city wall ran between the two.
Tanghangseong’s Ghost Gate stood firm upon that mountain ridge.
And now, Haje stood upon empty air above the city wall, looking down.
Below him, Yehu sat atop the wall and whistled as he stared beyond the Red Arrow Gate standing alone on the mountain ridge.
“These bastards must have been even more lax than I thought.”
“The aura coming off it did suggest as much.”
“Will the lock come undone?”
“Who knows?”
Haje turned to look toward the county office.
The clerk with the handsome face and rigid sense of morality was probably making all manner of trouble while sneaking into the work office.
Park Yehu let out a groan and looked up.
“But are you really all right with this? Clerk Wonhyeok looked frail, and I worry that he may be caught by the government troops and suffer unnecessarily....”
“If he suffers, he suffers. I would have no greater wish than for the sense of danger to make him awaken.”
“Ah, right....”
Then your accompanying inspector will run away.
The words rose all the way to Yehu’s tongue, but he kept them to himself.
It was not as though Haje would listen merely because Yehu said something.
If he were that agreeable, he could not have reigned as Number One from the opening of the Ghost Gate era until now.
“Clerk Wonhyeok seemed to know absolutely nothing about Ghost Gate Messengers. How long will you keep taking him around?”
“I will keep taking him with me. It is not as though I am going to kill him. I am visiting places like this for the sake of that fledgling.”
“That is true. People have been talking about Tanghangseong for quite some time.... You knew nearly everything that was happening here, did you not? You suddenly arrived pretending you knew nothing, and I nearly fainted.”
As Yehu complained, Haje merely snorted.
“You hid it well enough for someone saying that.”
“You told me to act nonchalant on the communication network. Did you expect me to tremble and collapse on the spot? Otherwise, you would have abandoned me in some mountain backwater, pulled out only my Royal Horse Pass and inspection ruler, then said, ‘Now this is what secret royal inspector farming is,’ before taking only Clerk Wonhyeok with you.”
“You know me well.”
“Haha!”
Park Yehu smiled amiably before soon closing his mouth.
The corners of his lips trembled with faint tension.
“The court is still keeping an eye on Ghost Gate Messengers.... You know that, do you not?”
“What can they do if they watch? Let them watch all they want. If I close the Ghost Gates properly and destroy uncanny powers and wicked spirits properly, they cannot say anything.”
“Oh, dear.... I knew you would say that. Then I will merely report to His Majesty that Tanghangseong was resolved very well. No, wait. Since you have a clerk now, the report will arrive quickly, will it not?”
“That record is not for reporting.”
“Pardon? Then what is it for?”
Ignoring Yehu’s question, Haje descended from the air.
“He will arrive soon. Hide.”
“Y-yes.”
Park Yehu used his <Secret Inspection> technique to conceal himself. Haje then sat in a tree near the city wall, as though he had finished his business.
Lee Wonhyeok will flee toward the Ghost Gate like this.
They said that Haje had suddenly picked up some scholar from a civil-service examination hall. Yet who would have expected him to be an orchid painted in ink wash?
Yehu had heard that Wonhyeok was not entirely immune to money, but he thought he would have felt more at ease if the man were driven only by money.
No one knew how long Haje would indulge Wonhyeok.
Of course, whenever Wonhyeok spoke his mind to Haje, Park Yehu felt himself turn pale.
Stop.... You will die like that...!
Yet Lee Wonhyeok had survived.
Not only had he survived. Though he remained in Haje’s palm, Haje had more or less arranged the situation as Wonhyeok wanted.
Why is he going to such lengths for that clerk?
Some said that Haje had heard something from the spirit shaman, but no one but the spirit shaman knew what it was.
Yehu furtively watched Haje before opening a communication-network chat room.
Just as he was about to send a message to the spirit shaman—
“Royal Inspector. I hope not, but do not go around asking questions about that clerk.”
“......”
“Why are you not answering? Did you fall asleep? Should I knock?”
Now, knock knock~.
As Haje curled a finger, lightning crept up to the nape of Yehu’s neck.
Yehu’s skin crawled, and he cried out, “I-I will not ask, I will not! I will not pry, so please do not worry!”
“You should have answered that from the start.”
What a temperament!
Yehu glared uselessly at the lingering traces of lightning that vanished just before striking the back of his neck. Then he sensed a noisy disturbance.
“They are coming.”
“Yeah.”
“You are only going to watch, correct?”
“So long as he does not die.”
Haje’s unfazed attitude even carried a hint of boredom.
Clerk, truly....
How did you get caught by someone like this...?
Below Park Yehu’s lament, Wonhyeok raced toward the city wall with the guards in pursuit.
How had Wonhyeok ended up being chased like this?
The time turned back a little, to when Wonhyeok left the guest hall and headed for the county office work office.
“Truly, how can people like them be officials living on the nation’s salary?”
Wonhyeok continually grumbled about the Ghost Gate Messengers’ appalling attitude, though his body stiffened with tension.
Still, he could not deny how reliable the Messengers had been whenever he needed to use his body.
Yet now, Wonhyeok, who had grown up without ever even sneaking meat off the kitchen stove, had to infiltrate the county office work office like a thief.
Having barely slipped into the county office, Wonhyeok crouched between a wall and building. He thought he would record every detail of this outrage, and he put that thought into practice.
[Accompanying Inspector Haje possessed little will to perform work despite his abilities. He refused to participate in uncovering the hidden crimes of the corrupt officials, and Secret Royal Inspector Park Yehu was no different.]
Wonhyeok wrote with sweeping strokes, then quickly put away his book when he heard the soft sound of approaching footsteps. He pressed himself flat against the building wall and peeked out.
The guards patrolling around the work office bowed to the Revenue Clerk and Military Clerk as they approached.
Once the two entered the work office, the guards returned to standing before its doors as though nothing had happened.
The guards know roughly what this is about too.
If the local functionaries disliked them and drove them out of their posts as guards, they would end up in the same position as the poor people in the outer city.
By this point, Wonhyeok even doubted whether Haje and Yehu would consider the poor people’s treatment after their work was done.
Haje was probably thinking, Didn’t I say the ledger alone is enough to punish them? Let’s call it here~
How could a gentleman see injustice and simply pass it by!
Wonhyeok had spent his entire life knowing that Haje was an extraordinary person, even though he knew little about Ghost Gates and Ghost Gate Messengers. He was deeply disappointed by Haje’s true nature.
People of Joseon! We were all deceived! Haje is an arrogant wastrel!
He wanted to shout it in the middle of a street in Hanseong, but if he truly did, Wonhyeok himself would be the one pelted with stones....
“Gasp.”
In the meantime, the Revenue Clerk and Military Clerk came out of the work office.
After saying something to the guards, they hurried off somewhere else.
N-now is my chance!
Once the Revenue Clerk and Military Clerk left and even the guards watching the work office departed, Wonhyeok dashed inside.
Nothing in the work office looked different from when he had visited with the Ghost Gate Messengers that afternoon.
Holding the iron key with its chrysanthemum decoration, Wonhyeok hurried to the Revenue Clerk’s document chest.
There must be a keyhole for the lock somewhere....
Feeling beneath the drawer carved with bamboo, Wonhyeok found a hole and inserted the iron key.
The key was nearly straight, but without any special trick, he heard something click open.
The bamboo drawer sprang out.
“What is this...?”
Wonhyeok frowned in confusion as he took out what was inside.
A smooth black stone rolled around inside.
...What is this?
It had been hidden so securely, so Wonhyeok assumed it must be something remarkable and tucked it into his sleeve.
That was when he heard voices outside the work office.
“A Gi Grade Messenger, you say?”
“That is right. Those Ghost Gate Messengers made a mess in the work office during the day, claiming there were ghosts, and the alarm went off in the meantime. Ghosts were just an excuse. It is certain they took the ledger. If County Magistrate So finds out, we are finished!”
“What could that magistrate do, even if she knew?”
Wonhyeok panicked and flailed when the voices came closer.
W-where do I hide? Are they coming in here?
Even as he wondered, the voices steadily drew nearer.
“What we bought from <The Ironing Room> cannot have malfunctioned.... Those Ghost Gate Messengers have no fear.”
“I heard one of them is a civilian clerk, not even a Ghost Gate Messenger.”
“Ha! Then we can just bury him, and it will hardly be a problem.”
“Even if he is a Gi Grade Messenger?”
“If he has an unawakened clerk as an accompanying inspector, he is probably some newly Awakened, small-time independent Ghost Gate Messenger. If we say he was overly enthusiastic about Ghost Realm Inspection and died, who would blame us? He is not even directly attached to the Office of Ghostly Inspection.”
“His attire looked like that of an Office of Ghostly Inspection Messenger.”
“Greenhorns taken with appearances often dress like that.”
One of the laughing voices belonged to the Military Clerk.
Haje had said before... that there could be collusion between local functionaries and an independent Ghost Gate Messenger rooted in the area.
Was the person with the Military Clerk such a Ghost Gate Messenger?
Wonhyeok held his breath, lowered himself between the bookcases, and hid.
At that moment, the door creaked open, and the Ghost Gate Messenger and Military Clerk entered.
They immediately spotted the empty place from which Wonhyeok had taken the stone.
“What is this? Where did the record stone go?”
A record stone?
Wonhyeok quietly moved toward the door as he listened to their conversation.
Then, just as he crouched low and slipped out of the work office, he heard a mocking voice directly above his head.
“A little rat overheard us.”
“Gah!”
Wonhyeok nearly collapsed on the spot.
I have been discovered! Ghost Gate Messengers, help me!
But the absent Ghost Gate Messengers answered only this.
Good luck~!
Damn it!
Wonhyeok broke into a run.
Behind him, the Military Clerk shouted angrily, “What are you doing? Go after him! Guards! Is anyone there?!”
Then the male Ghost Gate Messenger placed a large hand on the Military Clerk’s shoulder.
“That is the clerk, right?”
“Yes! If that record stone gets out, we are finished!”
“You are too impatient, old man. He is running somewhere other than the guest hall.”
His companions are there. That Gi Grade Ghost Gate Messenger, I mean.
At that, the Military Clerk stopped raging and looked at the man.
The Jeong Grade Ghost Gate Messenger of Suwon, Wan Pilseok, spoke.
“Let us catch that Gi Grade bastard in one go, too.”