“That is enough. It seems you met it in a Ghost Gate. Do not speak if you cannot. You will only damage your vital energy for no reason.”
But it was so frustrating....
Wonhyeok sighed and looked at the supper table.
It was filled with flower pancakes made from the azaleas Haje had picked on the way.
Moreover, since it was a table for drinks, there was alcohol as well!
Wonhyeok’s face brightened at the sight.
“Wow, it is Samhaeju (a liquor brewed by fermenting glutinous rice and adding mash twice)!”
“You seem rather delighted. Clerk, do you like alcohol?”
“Are there even any Joseon people who do not like alcohol?”
Though he spoke excitedly, he still had impeccable manners. He straightened his sleeves, poured the drink into a tiny cup, and pushed it toward Haje first.
To Haje, who had lived by filling a bowl with whatever was at hand—well water, scorched-rice water, alcohol, rainwater—and drinking it however he pleased, Wonhyeok was so refined that he was tiresome.
He was like a delicately raised orchid planted in a flour rice cake.
Why had he started down this path of hardship, needing to take a fellow like this on inspection rounds?
Haje thought that he should have simply gone to find the spirit shaman from the beginning.
Meanwhile, Wonhyeok paused as he picked up his chopsticks and looked at Haje.
“By the way, why did you undertake such risks when you have staked one hundred years of your lifespan, Messenger? Both the Ghost Gate and the Giant-Mouthed Ghost earlier. If I had not been able to use <Constellation>, would that not have harmed us both?”
“Risks?”
“Hm.”
Haje only made a brief sound, saying nothing more as he sipped at his drink.
“And after making such a terrifying contract, all you wanted was a record that would not even be submitted. You truly must tell me now. Why did you make this contract?”
Wonhyeok looked at Haje with a questioning gaze. Haje set down his cup and said, “It was simply something I needed. In truth, I did not know I needed it either, but.... The spirit shaman foretold it, so I thought I would follow it.”
“What kind of prophecy was it?”
“Clerk. Your flower pancakes are getting cold. Eat.”
Haje spoke as he casually picked up a flower pancake and ate it.
Wonhyeok clicked his chopsticks together and pouted.
He could never get a proper answer out of him.
Was this not how he ended up getting scammed by a contract as absurd as rice cake dough?
Wonhyeok did not know why Haje was so fixated on records, but he needed them enough to bind Wonhyeok with a contract and ask for them.
Then, even if Wonhyeok could not overturn this employer-employee relationship, he had to at least make it equal!
...To do that, he first needed to dig into that man.
But how was he supposed to do that to a Gap Grade Messenger of the military examination...?
“You do not tell me what happened when you entered the Ghost Gate either.”
“That is...! It is not that I will not tell you. I cannot!”
“I am much the same.”
Haje suddenly said, “Listen, Clerk. You were born after the world had already become this sorry state, so perhaps you cannot feel it, but the land we live in has already gone mad.”
“Are you comparing it with the era before Ghost Gates?”
“Well... you could say that. Strictly speaking, the world was not in its right mind even then.”
Haje picked up another flower pancake.
It was amazing how he could keep swallowing them down like that.
“But resources have become plentiful thanks to Ghost Gates, and few common people now starve during the slack farming season. Is that not why we can casually ask an inn for flower pancakes in spring? Everyone has begun trading in coins rather than rice. Of course, I am not saying uncanny powers and wicked spirits are not troublesome, but....”
“Whenever you act like this, I realize all over again what a young master you are.”
Wonhyeok made an awkward expression at those words.
Haje said, “I, at least, think this situation needs to be fixed.”
“...This situation?”
“Yes. Ghost Gates appearing, uncanny powers and wicked spirits emerging. Is this any world fit for people to live in?”
It was difficult to answer, ‘Yes, Ghost Gates are making life impossible. We must get rid of them all!’
Had they not just faced a village in Ansan where people caused trouble by trying to create a Ghost Gate?
Did Haje mean they should seal Ghost Gates merely because incidents and accidents occurred around them?
Honestly, it sounded a little like something an old fogey would say. Wonhyeok tightly shut his mouth and only nodded.
“And I am needed in that process?”
“I do not know that either. I told you the spirit shaman foretold it. Yet the spirit shaman does not know either. They merely disclosed a heavenly secret.”
Having said that, Haje swallowed another flower pancake.
“So I was skeptical as well. If you had croaked in the Ghost Gate, I would have thought, ‘Damn, I had it wrong.’”
‘What about his own one hundred years of lifespan?’
This was precisely the kind of thing that made Wonhyeok distrust Haje.
His attitude—that he could throw away one hundred years of his lifespan as a gamble—was unsettling.
Wonhyeok decided that, if he ever met the spirit shaman, he would certainly demand to know what kind of prophecy they had received.
“But things have turned out this way.... I am saying we should join forces, you and I. Then someday, will we not achieve something?”
“That is a thought befitting Joseon’s Number One savior, but frankly, it sounds as though you are grasping at clouds.”
“I thought you would say that. Tsk, tsk. Children these days. In any case, there is no harm in you traveling with me, is there?”
Haje naturally scammed him as easily as breathing.
Having heard all that, Wonhyeok considered what he stood to gain from being with this Ghost Gate Messenger.
Experience in subduing uncanny powers and wicked spirits?
Wonhyeok had no physical power at all, so he could not build that kind of experience alone.
Haje needed him for some reason, though Wonhyeok did not know why. Wonhyeok only had to record Haje’s journey.
Even if he did not want to, he could not escape for now because of the contract.
But he would learn the work of a Messenger, earn money....
Wait a moment.
“Come to think of it, now that I have become a Gap Grade Messenger, should I not receive more than the Eul Grade Messenger salary you promised beforehand?”
“Now that is your answer to all this? Are you a money ghost?”
“One must settle what needs settling.”
Wonhyeok answered firmly. Haje clicked his tongue but crossed his arms, looking as though he were considering it.
“You have been trying to save money at every turn. Why does a finely raised young master like you save so much?”
“I only wish to become independent without asking my family for help....”
“There is no greater miser. An Eul Grade Messenger’s salary is already enormous. It is already going into the savings association, is it not?”
Wonhyeok put a flower pancake into his mouth and concealed his awkward expression as he chewed.
“As you say, I was raised gently. To maintain the life I have lived while becoming independent and supporting Nanny, I must earn money like a dog and spend it like a prime minister.”
“All right, all right.”
Haje spoke with a fed-up expression, then pulled a pouch from thin air and tossed it to Wonhyeok.
Wonhyeok caught it neatly and found it was a coin purse. A rather heavy one at that!
“Wow!”
“It is the bonus for resolving the previous two cases. Satisfied?”
“Thank you. I will work hard.”
With his purse full, Wonhyeok felt his heart grow more generous.
Right. If he kept looking, he would surely find a way to terminate the contract someday.
At most, he had to follow a Ghost Gate Messenger and record his activities. What could possibly happen?
Haje also seemed to care about the world and wished to work hard, contrary to expectation. Wonhyeok only needed to keep a firm rein on him.
He would earn money and gain experience!
His resolve to abandon Number One without hesitation once he learned how to escape this damned contract had not changed, of course.
Seeing Wonhyeok smile in excitement, Haje sneered.
“Everything is fine, but do not start writing poetry just because the mood is nice.”
At that, Wonhyeok suddenly looked exceedingly embarrassed. He only poked at a flower pancake with his chopsticks.
“I may be suited to records and commentary, but I have no talent for creative writing....”
“Ah, a nonfiction major. Good.”
What was that supposed to mean?
Wonhyeok had gradually learned to simply let the strange, unfamiliar words Haje used pass by.
Wonhyeok refilled Haje’s cup, meaning for him to be quiet and drink instead.
Then it suddenly struck him how strange it felt to be sharing drinks with a Ghost Gate Messenger beneath the moonlight.
Every night until now had been filled with such chaos that he had not given it much thought. Yet now, the fact that he had truly set out on a journey with this Ghost Gate Messenger abruptly became real.
Honestly, he still was not all that fond of Haje, but they had become entangled one way or another.
And with a heavy purse in hand, it would not hurt to be generous.
Wonhyeok smiled softly.
“Whether we like it or not, the two of us must travel across the eight provinces of Joseon together. I have no idea what will happen from here on, but I look forward to working with you.”
“Ah, you civil-examination bastard. Do not do this, this exact thing!”
When Haje shuddered, Wonhyeok burst into loud laughter.
So this was how he ought to torment Haje from now on!
Haje seemed inwardly troubled, but because he was wrapped in black cloth, Wonhyeok could not be certain he had seen it properly.
Haje only gave him this reminder.
“Next time, please do not put me in danger. Your title as Number One weeps.”
“All right, all right. You sure talk a lot.”
Haje spoke with a fed-up expression, but Wonhyeok sensed his usual easy manner in the way he spoke.
Even with the contract, Haje was not the sort to carefully look after Wonhyeok. Yet Wonhyeok no longer thought Haje would kick him in the rear and throw him into a Ghost Gate.
Wonhyeok had already Awakened as a Gap Grade Messenger through the civil examination.
But why had he Awakened through the civil examination?
Because he had done nothing but study from childhood?
That did not seem right. Wonhyeok had gone boating, practiced archery, played instruments, embroidered, and done all manner of things.
It was strange. Was it because the moon was bright?
Haje’s silhouette beyond the black veil seemed especially clear.
And naturally, a fundamental question arose.
Why did that man wrap himself in black so completely?
Then Haje asked, “Come to think of it, when you used <Constellation>, you seemed to know the Chart of the Constellations and the Regions They Govern. How did you see that?”
“I have a close acquaintance who showed me an ink rubbing long ago. The celestial chart was so beautiful that I could not take my eyes off it, so I remember it with particular clarity.”
“Is there someone who can carry that outside?”
Wonhyeok hurriedly lifted his cup and said to Haje, “Let us have a toast, a toast!”
“Fine. Just drink and be quiet.”
You will only get sick from the liquor and throw up the next day.
Wonhyeok answered Haje’s warning with a laugh, then clinked his cup against Haje’s.
And so, their day in Pyeongtaek came to an end.