As soon as that day’s quarrel ended, Wonhyeok fell fast asleep. He slept straight through half the day and awoke around the time the rooster crowed.
While he washed his face, combed his hair, and straightened his clothes, Haje rose unsteadily in the same pitch-black attire as yesterday.
At the sound of someone calling from outside, Wonhyeok went out first to receive the village head. Haje kicked open the door behind him and flopped down on the porch.
“Let us hear the story.”
The story he then heard of what had happened in this village of Ansan was as follows.
At some point, a maiden ghost had appeared. It harmed the village men and abducted children.
There had been a woman who died unjustly in the past, but the culprit had already been punished. The village head said she did not understand why the ghost had appeared now and caused such havoc.
As Wonhyeok listened, he thought to himself.
It was common for uncanny powers and wicked spirits to appear without each having a particular reason.
Regardless of whether a woman had died unjustly recently, as the village head believed, such a thing could happen if one was unlucky.
Most commonly, a Ghost Gate might have formed nearby.
But if that were the case, this village could not have remained so peaceful.
The village head, her hair twisted into a chignon and held in place with a hairpin, let out a deep sigh.
“Moreover, all the men in our village are languishing in sickness. If the ghost wishes to harm them, there is no reason for her to hesitate.”
“Come to think of it, I have not seen many men.”
Wonhyeok looked over the village beyond the wall.
They were staying in the finest house the village had offered as a guesthouse, but how high could the walls of a thatched house be? The village was plainly visible beyond them.
The village head nodded with a troubled expression.
“Um, if you are Ghost Gate Messengers, then you must have seen Ghost Gates often, correct?”
Wonhyeok found this odd.
“Did you not see this person’s Messenger plaque yesterday?”
“I did, but I was so startled by how it gleamed that I did not have the presence of mind to see who he was.”
So that was why she had been so calm.
Wonhyeok let out a groan and looked toward Haje. Haje fluttered his black veil, appearing entirely uninterested in their conversation.
The village head continued.
“Actually, I have heard that when a Ghost Gate forms, Ghost Gate Messengers gather there and come and go. Naturally, the village prospers.”
“That does tend to happen. But that is no reason to live alongside uncanny powers and wicked spirits. A great disaster may arise if one is not careful....”
“To tell the truth, there was once a time when we wished a Ghost Gate would appear.”
“Pardon?”
At Wonhyeok’s bewildered question, the village head waved her hand.
“I believe we were punished for that greed, and a Ghost Gate has truly appeared. I am worried for the men and children... If you can quickly determine what is happening, the village will reward you generously.”
“Good.”
Haje, who had only half been listening, suddenly rose to his feet.
He gestured to the village head.
“Is there a reservoir here?”
“Pardon?”
“I would like to take a look.”
The village head seemed puzzled and surprised, but soon nodded and said she would guide him.
Wonhyeok stood and followed them, still baffled.
“Why are we suddenly going to a reservoir? This is not a water-ghost problem. It is a maiden-ghost problem.”
“Well, Clerk. You are sharp. You have practically become a Ghost Gate Messenger.”
His tone made it difficult to tell whether he was teasing Wonhyeok or truly admiring him. Wonhyeok forced down the sour feeling rising inside him and asked again.
“So why are you going?”
“I am simply going. Right, do not follow me. Look around the village instead.”
“Pardon?”
He was not a Messenger, but an accompanying inspector serving as a clerk. Was Haje saying they should split up now?
In a village where a maiden ghost wandered about killing men?
Leaving a civilian by himself?
Perhaps Wonhyeok’s thoughts were written all over his face, for Haje let out a long sigh.
“The longer one remains in a case like this, the more dangerous it becomes. To save time, I will look around the reservoir and you will look around the village.”
“Are you certain it is safe? As the village head said, could it not be a Ghost Gate?”
“Would I leave my accompanying inspector in danger?”
That was true, but still.
If something happened to an accompanying inspector, the Ghost Gate Messenger would face a penalty as well.
Setting aside how serious that penalty would be for Joseon’s Number One, Haje had signed a contract with Wonhyeok. He would not abandon him so recklessly.
At the same time, the clerk serving as accompanying inspector would also face penalties if he neglected his record-keeping and accompaniment.
In any event, it meant they had to cooperate, remove the ghost, and make the record sound convincing.
Wonhyeok let out a groan, then nodded.
“Understood.”
Thus, Wonhyeok parted from Haje and entered the village alone.
He merely stared blankly at the clear sky. The weather was damnably fine.
It was the season for preparing the fields to plant spring crops, so it seemed that all the adults had gone out to work.
Wonhyeok walked through the village streets and looked around.
Perhaps reassured by the daylight, children dressed in rainbow-colored clothes laughed merrily as they ran through the road in groups.
It was still morning. How diligent of them.
When Wonhyeok saw the children enter a house, he unconsciously followed them.
A woman was weaving on the porch of a rather broad thatched house.
Wonhyeok glanced at the children playing with a dog in the yard, then cleared his throat.
“Who are you?”
At Wonhyeok’s voice, the woman raised her head and put down the cloth with caution.
Wonhyeok held up both hands.
“Um, did you not hear the news? I am the accompanying inspector... of the Ghost Gate Messenger who arrived in the village yesterday.”
“Then you are a Messenger.”
“Ah, no. Embarrassingly, I am merely a clerk responsible for keeping records.”
When Wonhyeok gave his awkward reply, the woman lowered her guard. She rose and approached him warmly.
“The village head has been thoughtless. How could she fail to assign someone to attend to a Messenger?”
“It is all right. Please do not concern yourself with it. Um, more importantly, I heard the men of this village are ill.”
“Ah... Yes....”
The woman’s face suddenly darkened.
She glanced at the children playing in the yard and clapped her hands. When their attention turned toward her, she spoke somewhat sharply.
“The adults have matters to discuss. Go outside and play. Hurry!”
“Um, even if it is daytime, there is a ghost wandering around the village....”
Worried that the children might be harmed, Wonhyeok hurriedly tried to stop her. But the children had already scampered out of the yard.
Wonhyeok sighed inwardly in concern and looked at the woman.
She gave him a gentle smile.
“You are kind. I feel as though some of my worries have eased. Do not worry about the children. As it happens, there is someone bedridden in this house. Would you come this way?”
How could he not worry? Had she made some promise with the ghost not to take children during the day?
Even as he followed the woman, removed his shoes, and carefully climbed onto the porch, Wonhyeok could not shake the odd feeling.
His gaze suddenly landed on the cloth the woman had been weaving. The village did not seem particularly poor, and it was a neat, fine fabric.
...They were all women’s clothes.
“Come in.”
“Ah, yes.”
At the woman’s voice, Wonhyeok hurriedly looked away and entered.
A man lay on bedding in a rather spacious room that appeared to serve as the men’s quarters.
The man let out faint groans. He did not seem fully conscious, for he failed to notice even when the neatly dressed Wonhyeok entered and sat beside him.
The woman sat across from Wonhyeok and pulled a brass basin closer.
She roughly dampened and wrung out a cloth, then wiped the man’s forehead as she spoke.
“From some point onward, the men began falling ill one by one like this. It is surely the ghost’s mischief.”
“Has anyone directly seen the ghost harm a person?”
“She has often been seen at night. You know, ever since the Ghost Gates opened, it has no longer been strange for anyone to see something uncanny on nights when their spiritual energy aligns, even without spiritual sensitivity.”
“R-right....”
Born with dog eyes, Wonhyeok could see ghosts even during the day.
However, he had never seen a ghost run rampant. Hearing the woman’s words, he suddenly felt the reality of being dropped into the heart of a case.
The woman glanced at Wonhyeok and spoke.
“Even if you see another man while walking around the village, do not believe everything he says. Every man in this village has either lost his mind and begun speaking nonsense, or fallen ill in bed like this one.”
“Then are all the difficult tasks being shared among the women?”
“Well... We helped with those tasks even before the men became like this. In truth, as long as there are oxen, hard labor is not a problem.”
The woman said that, then giggled as though she had told an amusing story.
Unable to understand what was funny, Wonhyeok could only answer awkwardly.
“I see.”
He examined the bedridden man closely.
The man was extremely well built, yet he lay there weak and unable to move.
Is the ghost’s resentment that strong?
As he thought this, Wonhyeok suddenly narrowed his eyes.
What was making him feel so unsettled? Even after examining the man and the room from corner to corner, Wonhyeok could not shake the inexplicable sense of dissonance.
He cautiously asked the woman.
“Um, if the women have gone out to work, what are the men in the other houses doing? It does not seem good to leave them alone.”
“Ah....”
The woman looked surprised, as though she had not expected Wonhyeok to ask that. Then she smiled.
“There are women who remain home and do small tasks, like I do. They take turns checking each house and tending to the sick.”
‘That was too smooth.’
The thought suddenly came to Wonhyeok.
Every question and answer passed without a snag. Everything was too smooth.
It was not strange for women to go out and work so the village could maintain its livelihood while those who remained tended to the sick.
But... Was he merely looking for fault because he wanted to?
Why had they not gathered the sick in one place instead of handling things so inconveniently? What if it was an epidemic...?
Did they have an unshakable belief that it could not be an epidemic? Or, conversely, was there some reason they could not gather the sick together?
Wonhyeok groaned inwardly, then rose to his feet.
“I have looked around thoroughly. Thank you.”
“Do you intend to inspect another house?”
“Hmm, I believe I should.”
The woman followed Wonhyeok outside. Standing behind a wall made of bundled straw, she pointed toward one part of the village.
“Be careful of that house at least, sir. It is the house of the sick man I mentioned earlier, the one who speaks nonsense.”
“Pardon?”
“I am only warning you because you may suffer an unpleasant incident. You said you are not someone who fights....”
Wonhyeok thanked her and left the house.
He thought to himself.
If she said that, then going there was the obvious answer.