[Chatroom: (Upper Ranks) / 25 people are present!]
Bamboo Shoot (14th): What happened? Has he finally reached the verge of death?
Yakgwa All Mine (5th): What? There was no bloodshed, but in the end, Messenger Wonhyeok says he will keep serving as Haje’s clerk. But why? Messenger Wonhyeok is currently advising Haje to watch his language, saying that is why people misunderstand him. What the hell? I think those two have been possessed by ghosts. I am scared.
Bamboo Shoot (14th): Wow, it seems Messenger Yehu has been attacked too.... My condolences.
Yakgwa All Mine (5th): Right? I have been attacked too, have I not? Unless that Messenger Wonhyeok is an imposter....
Greenwood (6th): Please calm down.
Yakgwa All Mine (5th): How?
Haje (1st): Quiet.
“Ghk.”
Haje spoke to Wonhyeok, who was watching Park Yehu abruptly cover his mouth with puzzlement.
“Good. Then start packing.”
“Packing?”
“Yes. The matter in Tanghangseong has been settled for now, has it not? You were not planning to linger here forever. There is much more to discuss, but we can talk while we travel.”
That was true, but....
Wonhyeok glanced at Yehu, who was still pale.
Park Yehu hurriedly lowered his hand, sat properly, and said, “Y-yes! The Tanghangseong affair has been resolved now. I came as a royal secret inspector in the first place, so it is my duty to wrap things up as well. I will place what occurred into my own records.”
‘Come to think of it, Messenger Park Yehu did not have a clerk either.’
Wonhyeok simply nodded and began gathering his bundle. Haje let out a sigh and asked, “Clerk, do you not have a subspace?”
“Ah!”
Wonhyeok sheepishly opened his subspace and placed his bundle inside.
Good heavens, it was so convenient!
No wonder Haje always walked around empty-handed, yet kept pulling Messenger plaques and all sorts of things from nowhere.
A thought suddenly occurred to him, and Wonhyeok asked, “Come to think of it, my Messenger plaque.... I mean, I will get a Messenger plaque too, will I not?”
“Of course! Once preparations have been made, a Messenger will deliver it to you. Normally, you cannot operate before receiving a Messenger plaque, but.... Well.... This is an unusual situation....”
“Let us go.”
Haje cleanly cut off Park Yehu before he could explain further, then pulled Wonhyeok to his feet.
“Clerk, you seem unaccustomed to using Ghost Gate Messenger systems because you came up through the civil examination. Let us properly learn them on the way.”
“Ah, that is right. Yes! Understood!”
Right. He needed to quickly learn the duties of Ghost Realm Inspection and find a way out of this damned contract with that Ghost Gate Messenger!
Wonhyeok, who answered with such spirit at the time, did not know it, but Yehu did.
It meant Haje intended to personally put him through the wringer....
‘Clerk.... Stay strong!’
Haje and Wonhyeok left Tanghangseong and set out once more.
Along the road beyond the city walls, commoners with brightened faces bustled about to receive relief rice.
As he walked through the market street, Wonhyeok could not take his eyes off the sight.
“Are you not pleased as well, Messenger? Such a good result has come of this.”
“You think you have turned the whole world upside down, do you?”
The way Haje spoke made him sound as though he were looking at a fool who greatly overestimated his own influence. Wonhyeok’s face flushed on its own.
“You know that is not what I mean. Even by punishing corrupt officials like this, the common people’s lives....”
“Have you caught that Awakening Wind or something? Why is a man who did not even take the military examination filled with the idiotic notion that he can mold the world as he pleases?”
“I have not caught any Awakening Wind!”
The so-called Awakening Wind referred to Ghost Gate Messengers becoming intoxicated with the power they gained after Awakening, growing arrogant and boastful.
Even those who knew nothing of Ghost Gates would say, “That fellow must have caught the Awakening Wind,” whenever someone bragged. Wonhyeok knew very well the contempt contained in the phrase.
“Whatever it is, I told you before. Ghost Gate Messengers must know and keep to the proper limits. If you make too much of a show, you may be cut down for it.”
“By whom on earth?”
At Wonhyeok’s question, Haje suddenly pointed to the sky.
“His Majesty the King says so.”
“Ghk.”
Wonhyeok immediately shut his mouth, but at the same time, he became impiously curious.
‘Would even Haje fear His Majesty?’
After all, it was not as though an Unawakened person had any means of restraining Haje if he ran wild.
Then Haje said, “All right. From now on, we will walk to Anseong from here.”
“...Pardon? What about relay horses?”
“Would it do for Ghost Gate Messengers to torment horses?”
“I cannot move as quickly as you do, Haje!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.”
Haje waved a hand, then in an instant tucked Wonhyeok beneath his arm like a piece of luggage.
Ah, no way.
Before Wonhyeok could even blink twice, Haje shot up into the sky with a WHOOSH.
“You are sturdier now, so you will not throw up, right?!”
“I think I wiiiiill!”
“Swallow it back down.”
Damn bastard!
As he flew through the air under Haje’s arm, Wonhyeok heard various things about Ghost Gate Messengers.
Ghost Gate Messengers belonging to the Office of Ghostly Inspection were treated as junior sixth rank; nevertheless, official rank did not mean much. There was a bulletin board on the communication network where civil complaints were collected. There were numerous rank-based chatrooms, but hardly anyone used the general chatroom. Haje never so much as opened his mouth in any chatroom other than the noisy one for the top twenty-five....
Whether any of that mattered or not, Wonhyeok was struggling desperately to hold back his vomit, so he only heard half of it and let the other half pass by.
“So.... Hey, are you listening?”
“I-I think I am going to throw up....”
“What kind of Gap Grade Messenger is this frail?”
Muttering like that, Haje descended to the ground.
Wonhyeok grabbed whatever stick he could see and fought down his nausea. Then he looked up at the stick in his hand.
“It is a ritual pole....”
“Yes. You nearly threw up on a sacred ritual pole.”
Wonhyeok felt indignant. Ritual poles were sacred only in the old days!
In any case, the day was already beginning to darken.
Judging by the ritual pole, there seemed to be a village nearby.
Haje picked azaleas from the brush at the foot of the mountain and said, “Is it because you came up through the civil examination? Other Gap Grade Messengers can shatter rocks with their bare hands, but if you tried it, your own hand seems more likely to break. Can you at least wield a weapon?”
“...I cannot handle a sword, but.... I know how to use a bow. I am fairly good with it.”
“Eight out of ten Joseon people are archers, man. The other two are babies and old people without the strength to draw a bowstring.”
He knew! Wonhyeok knew that!
If Haje did not keep needling him with remarks that belittled people, Wonhyeok would not have whined, “I can shoot a bow too!” before a Gap Grade Messenger of the military examination.
Wonhyeok steadied his aggrieved heart and straightened his back.
When he turned to look at Haje, though, he lost his words at the sight of the black folds of Haje’s robe filled to the brim with azaleas.
“...What are you doing?”
“What? This? They are azaleas. Can you not tell?”
“That is precisely what I mean. It is not as though you suddenly wished to enjoy the feeling of spring.”
Haje tipped his chin toward the ritual pole.
“There seems to be a village nearby, so let us go and fry some flower pancakes.”
“...It is not as though you came on a gourmet tour....”
But even Wonhyeok’s mouth watered at the thought of eating azalea flower pancakes.
Come to think of it, Nanny made flower pancakes every spring....
Since the household prepared too few flowers to share among all his siblings, Wonhyeok had secretly gone to the mountain to pick azaleas for Nanny.
Then Nanny would praise Wonhyeok to the skies and make a portion of flower pancakes just for him.
Was Nanny doing well? What about his family....?
Haje mercilessly cut through that strange nostalgia.
“Is that so? Then do not eat any, Clerk.”
“Ah, ah! That is unfair!”
“What is? I was generously considering frying flower pancakes from flowers I picked myself, but the fellow who calls himself my accompanying inspector rebukes me for wandering about on a gourmet tour.”
“No, wait! We do not even know whether the villagers have glutinous rice....”
“Well, it looks like Pyeongtaek. It is not as though this place has reports of corrupt officials like Suwon’s Tanghangseong.”
Saying that, Haje slipped a flower beneath his veil and held the blossom between his teeth.
“Your nausea has passed now, right? Then let us walk again.”
“Yes, sir.”
Wonhyeok hurried after Haje as he strode ahead.
After walking for quite some time, they entered a village in Pyeongtaek.
It seemed to be a prosperous village. Guardian posts stood on both sides of a monument bearing the village’s name.
There were even paper lanterns hanging from poles here and there, casting light!
“It seems like a wealthy village. Might there be a Ghost Gate here as well?”
“Who knows?”
“So Ghost Gate Messengers do not memorize the locations of every Ghost Gate.”
“Clerk, there are over a thousand Ghost Gates in the eight provinces of this country alone. You expect me to memorize them all?”
He simply did not wish to memorize them. Was it not something he could do if he tried?
There were supposedly also Ghost Gates that suddenly appeared and disappeared. Wonhyeok had wondered how they were dealt with so swiftly.
‘Seeing the communication network answered all my questions....’
As Haje said, the “Joseon Ghost Gate Messenger General Chatroom” was very quiet. The “Rankers’ Chatroom,” on the other hand, was always bustling except in the mornings.
No sound could be heard, yet it still felt noisy.
They said that high-ranking Messengers could track one another’s movements through the chatrooms without clerks. Were they making guesses by talking among themselves like this?
‘Besides, they are all rather only saying what they want to say....’
Even now, someone named “Asura” was scolding someone named “Mountain Lord” in the chatroom.
Asura (9th): Are you seriously out of your mind, Mountain Lord? You escaped just because you were told not to eat rice cakes? Are you planning to bankrupt the whole mountain over a single rice cake?
Mountain Lord (4th): It was not one. It was several.
Cheongok (13th): Sohu has suffered enough. Mountain Lord, listen to Sohu and stop eating rice cakes. Then come back inside.
Asura (9th): Thank you, Yu Wan.
Mountain Lord (4th): Waaah.
Wild Grape Valley (7th): Waaah, my ass. Are you a tiger or a housecat?
“...What kind of person is this ‘Asura’ that they are always making such a commotion in the chatroom?”
“Correct yourself, Clerk. It is not that Asura is making a commotion. Mountain Lord is the one causing trouble, and Asura has no choice but to scold him in the chatroom.”
The ninth-ranked Messenger was scolding the fourth-ranked one....
The tenth-ranked Messenger, who talked back to Number One, failed to engage in self-reflection.
Haje continued, “He is the Guild Master of <Spirit Mountain>. As you can see, he is crazy about rice cakes, and all he does is get scolded over the communication network by his close aide, An Sohu, known as ‘Asura.’”
Wonhyeok had heard of <Spirit Mountain> as well.
There were stories of Ghost Gate Messengers firmly occupying every peak of the Taebaek Mountains.
Whenever Wonhyeok could not sleep at night as a child, Nanny would always threaten him, “Shall I tell the mountain gods of Spirit Mountain to send a ghost after you?”
Even that stopped later, when she began warning him not to entertain such unorthodox tales.
There had been a time when he wondered whether the people of <Spirit Mountain> were truly tigers and mountain gods.
‘There are all sorts of people.’
And from now on, Wonhyeok would have to fit into this strange, noisy society of Ghost Gate Messengers as well....