When Wonhyeok opened his eyes again, it was already bright outside. Sunlight softly poured through the papered door.
Though he had carefully put on his short overcoat and scholar’s robe, Wonhyeok looked like a patient in white who had been bedridden for years.
Lying properly atop a cushion, Wonhyeok blinked his still-hazy eyes.
“Is this... paradise?”
“A mere county guest hall? Your standards are remarkably modest.”
“Gasp?!”
Startled by the voice from beside him, Wonhyeok turned his head and saw Haje sitting carelessly against the wall.
Wonhyeok tried to sit up, but a pounding headache washed over him. With a groan, he collapsed back onto the cushion.
“W-what happened? What about the Ghost Gate? Ahh... Why does my head hurt so much?”
“You have a fever, Clerk. Have you heard of Awakening Fever?”
“...Awakening Fever?”
“Yeah. When someone awakens abilities too powerful for their body, their body cannot withstand it and they fall ill.”
“I-I see...?”
Wonhyeok answered diligently despite his weak state, then narrowed his eyes.
“Then... does that mean... I have awakened?”
“How slow do you have to be not to know that you awakened? You caused quite the uproar when you awakened, too.”
Speaking in a genuinely astonished tone, Haje looked into the air.
“The communication network is in chaos right now.”
“I see...? But I am... so sleepy....”
“Yeah, yeah. Go back to sleep.”
For some reason, Haje spoke very kindly. Beneath his veil, he smiled with narrowed eyes.
“When you wake up again, it is going to get very interesting.”
Wait, what did he say?
Feeling a chill only afterward, Wonhyeok screamed inwardly even as sleep pulled him under.
What is it?! This does not seem like the time to sleep...!
Do not you dare plot something else! I will quit being your accompanying inspector right away and....
Wonhyeok floundered through the darkness for a long while before snapping his eyes open.
“N-no!”
“Whoa, Clerk! You have finally opened your eyes! You were bedridden for an entire day.”
This time, it was Yehu rather than Haje.
Still lying atop the guest hall cushion, Wonhyeok looked at Park Yehu with a lighter head and a heart twice as anxious.
“W-where is Haje?”
“He went to check on the county office’s situation. While he is there, he will probably beat the hell out of <Castle Guard> too.”
At the end, Yehu whispered something quickly and quietly, but Wonhyeok lacked the energy to hear it.
“B-before I fell asleep again, I think Haje said I had awakened as a Ghost Gate Messenger.”
“Yes! That is correct! The communication network was turned upside down all yesterday! A ‘civil-examination’ Ghost Gate Messenger, no less!”
The first ever! The first!
Park Yehu laughed heartily as though Wonhyeok’s awakening were his own achievement.
Naturally, Wonhyeok could only be bewildered.
Yehu stared at his confused face before smiling amiably.
“Looking at the communication network immediately will only overwhelm you, so please check it slowly. More importantly, have you chosen the epithet you will use on the communication network?”
“An... epithet?”
“Yes. Please be careful, since an epithet cannot be changed once it has been assigned.”
That is why I have lived shedding tears of blood all this time.
Wonhyeok only understood half of Yehu’s words and merely nodded.
Although he noticed Wonhyeok did not properly understand, Park Yehu simply let it pass and continued.
“Though there was the unfortunate incident of you being dragged into a Ghost Gate by the Heavenly Horse, I cannot tell you how relieved I am that you returned whole. The corrupt officials and the Ghost Gate Messenger who threatened you at that time have already been arrested.”
“Where were you Messengers at that time?”
“......”
Park Yehu’s mouth abruptly snapped shut.
Having awakened as a Ghost Gate Messenger, Wonhyeok’s instincts were now sharper. He realized that these two Ghost Gate Messengers had something weighing on their consciences.
“Where... were you?”
“Th-that is....”
“Royal Inspector, go supervise the distribution of relief grain.”
BANG.
Haje threw open the guest hall door and strode in.
Park Yehu leaped up as though he might fly away. Saying, “Yes, I will!” he shot out of the room like an arrow.
Wonhyeok turned a suspicious gaze toward Haje.
Unlike Yehu, however, Haje was shameless beyond measure. He calmly sat down and gestured toward Wonhyeok with his chin.
“If your fever has gone down, move over. How long are you going to hog the cushion?”
Does that man truly have a human heart...?
Wonhyeok pretended not to hear and did not move aside.
“I remember seeing you at the end, inside the Ghost Gate. What happened after that?”
“Give me the cushion. My ass hurts like hell.”
“So even a Gap Grade Messenger’s backside gets sore.”
“More precisely, this cold-shoulder treatment is what hurts. Hey, I said give me the cushion.”
Wonhyeok reluctantly handed over the cushion. Haje grumbled as he settled onto it, then spoke.
“How peculiar. Normally, when someone awakens, the communication network sets off a tremendous fanfare to congratulate them. Yet you do not seem to know about it. When I found you, you had already awakened, and a Ghost Gate Messenger ranking notification had arrived.”
Wonhyeok did not know what a fanfare was, but from the context, he decided it must mean something like a small gong.
“I do not even know how to view the communication network. Messenger Park Yehu told me to look at it slowly, but I need to know what is going on.”
“Hm.”
Haje looked into the air before speaking.
“It will be so chaotic that someone who has never viewed it might lose their mind. If you want your fever to rise again, I will not stop you.”
“No, I said I do not even know how to view it.”
“Then you cannot view it. This is an action practically carved into instinct, yet you do not know how? Clerk, are you a simpleton?”
“...That is harsh! Since you know how I entered the Ghost Gate, you must have been near it from the beginning, right? How can you put your accompanying inspector in such danger? Is that not a violation of our contract?”
“In the end, you are unharmed, are you not?”
I was dragged away by a Heavenly Horse and nearly killed by a Giant-Mouthed Ghost!
Wonhyeok opened his mouth in indignation, but it was as though a rice cake had lodged in his throat. No words would come out.
In the midst of his confusion, Wonhyeok realized only that he could not speak aloud of what had occurred inside the Ghost Gate.
“...It was dangerous!”
In the end, that was the only pathetic thing he could say.
Haje stared at Wonhyeok with an unreadable expression.
“Yeah, I was being spiteful. If you had died in the Ghost Gate, I would have wailed in grief.”
He sounds like he is teasing me.
Wonhyeok’s eyes immediately soured.
Haje merely shrugged and changed the subject.
“Anyway, because of you, we learned that not only the local functionaries but also the <Castle Guard> guild were involved. You found the record stone that will serve as evidence, too. Well done, well done. You did a commendable thing.”
“You know perfectly well that, in our language, saying that with such an attitude does not sound at all like praise.”
After the previous incident, Wonhyeok’s trust in Haje had plummeted straight to the ground. He looked at Haje sullenly.
“That was praise.”
“Anyway, the corrupt officials are now the responsibility of the Office of Inspector-General and the secret royal inspector, so we need not worry about them. The county office has distributed relief grain, so the poor will endure and begin farming again. In about half a year, there will be crops, and money will circulate. Resolved. There.”
“Then... what will happen to the Ghost Gate Messenger who caught me?”
“Ah, that bastard named Wan Pilseok. I gave him a beating for now. What, should I kill him and toss him out as tiger feed?”
“No!”
When Wonhyeok recoiled in horror, Haje snorted as though he had expected that reaction. He took something from his robes and tossed it to Wonhyeok.
It was Wonhyeok’s identification tag.
He had forgotten about his identification tag. It had almost become a serious problem.
Wonhyeok hurriedly tried to tuck it into his robes, then became aware of his appearance.
Startled, he gathered his disheveled hair and began combing it. Haje privately thought of him as a troublesome young master.
“From now on, you can store your belongings in an inven... Hm, subspace. You will not need to carry around luggage. Must you really fix your appearance first?”
“Subspace?”
“You truly know nothing. Every Ghost Gate Messenger has a space in which they can store items. The capacity differs according to one’s Heavenly Stem Grade, but neither you nor I have to worry about that.”
Even so... Wonhyeok was currently a half-wit Ghost Gate Messenger who could not even properly open the communication network.
How was he supposed to open this thing called subspace?
“...Even so, I should compose my attire first.”
Being dressed so improperly made gooseflesh rise all over his body.
At words that made him sound like a finely raised young master no matter who heard them, Haje sighed deeply and nodded.
“Do as you like. The communication network is still noisy because you awakened as a civil-examination Gap Grade Messenger. Since you do not know how to open it anyway, it would not be bad to enjoy your current leisure.”
“...I am a Ga... Gap Grade Messenger?”
“What? The royal inspector did not tell you?”
He did not!
For some reason, Wonhyeok felt confused as he patted his face and body.
M-me, a Gap Grade Messenger? This was the first time he had heard that a civil-examination candidate could awaken at all, and he was Gap Grade?
Among the three Gap Grade Messengers in Joseon—Haje, spirit shaman, and Danhyang?
Then Haje suddenly burst out laughing.
Startled, Wonhyeok looked at him.
“Clerk, you could not open the communication network, so you did not even have time to choose an epithet? That is why this happened.”
“W-what do you mean? What about my epithet?”
I-I am curious! I am curious! Why can’t I see my own information?!
Seeing Haje looking into the air, Wonhyeok imitated him and glared at empty space.
As he focused his eyes with all his strength, the communication network slowly appeared, as though saying, You are trying.
Wow! At last!
The next moment, Wonhyeok turned pale at the waves of characters that poured down—no, rose upward.
Congratulations!
: Joseon : ‘Lee Wonhyeok’ has been added as a Gap Grade Messenger (Civil)!
An epithet was not chosen within the allotted time, so one will be assigned automatically!
Lee Wonhyeok: Jade Willow (Jade Willow)
M-me... Jade Willow? A willow made of jade?
Before he could even be shocked by the uncanny and embarrassing epithet—
[Chatroom: (Upper Ranks) / 25 people are present!]
[Notice] Lee Wonhyeok (Civil/Gap) ▲10th <New!>
Bamboo Shoot (14th): Ah, hahahah, condolences to the former twenty-fifth!
Sanu-i (8th): That Guio bastard was pleased to be twenty-fifth because it sounded like his name. What will he do now? He got cut from the rankings. It was exquisitely fitting that even his surname was Gu.
Wild Grape Valley (7th): Everyone below tenth got pushed back at once. Welcome, new tenth~
Yakgwa All Mine (5th): Messenger Lee Wonhyeok is currently unable to check the communication network because he collapsed from Awakening Fever. I ask for the other Messengers’ generous understanding.
Guest Frog (16th): @@@@Selling refined Eul Grade Ghost Jade@@@@
Wild Grape Valley (7th): Awakening Fever? Well, it is strange that he is tenth despite being Gap Grade.
Bamboo Shoot (14th): Hmm, perhaps it is because he is civil examination?
Wild Grape Valley (7th): If I knew that, I would be the communication network itself, hahaha.
Asura (9th): If anyone sees Mountain Lord, please let me know.
Danhyang (3rd): Welcome, new Ghost Gate Messenger~@->-
Tiger Lady (12th): Sohu, he said he was coming to our mountain to eat rice cakes.
Asura (9th): That damn tiger is looking to die. Yesan, please do not feed him anything either. Mountain Lord has been watching his diet lately.
Tiger Lady (12th): Oh my, really? I did not know.
Greenwood (6th): Royal Inspector Yehu, I will personally handle Messenger Wonhyeok’s application for a Messenger plaque. Please guide Messenger Wonhyeok once he awakens, and have him decide and notify us whether he will operate independently or remain with the Office of Ghostly Inspection. I ask that the other Messengers refrain from using private communication chat rooms until his Messenger plaque has been delivered, so that he is not confused when he awakens...(More)
W-what is all this?!