Wonhyeok and Haje left Ansan and headed for Suwon.
Haje’s conclusion still left Wonhyeok doubtful, but he had regained some of his composure.
Right. Let us not think too deeply. If all he had to do from now on was keep records diligently, there was nothing he could not handle.
Besides, he was being paid well.
The money must be accumulating steadily in the savings association established in Wonhyeok’s name at the Office of Ghostly Inspection before this journey began.
Taking comfort in that thought, Wonhyeok urged his horse onward.
As they headed toward Suwon, Wonhyeok asked Haje.
“We dealt with a maiden ghost last time. Are we going to deal with a ghost like that again?”
“No. This time, we will deal with people.”
“People?”
But had Haje not said that the Office of Ghostly Inspection could not involve itself in the laws of people?
Seeing Wonhyeok’s confusion, Haje continued.
“That is right. Since ensuring Ghost Gates are being managed properly is the work of a Ghost Realm Inspection. It will be easy. I told you a neighborweb forms around a Ghost Gate, did I not? We should be able to stay somewhere better than that previous thatched house. That is why I quickly claimed this assignment.”
“I-I see.... Then we will not be seeing any uncanny powers or wicked spirits in this case?”
“Probably not. Instead, we will see a corrupt official.”
At the words “corrupt official,” Wonhyeok’s unavoidable preconceptions began working on their own.
He pictured an overweight local magistrate, face red with drink even in broad daylight, shouting, “Attend me in my bedchamber!”
Wonhyeok forcibly drove the image from his mind and asked.
“But did you not say that Ghost Gate Messengers do not involve themselves in the laws of people?”
“That is right. We will not touch the corrupt official this time either. We will merely take a look at the Ghost Gate and see whether there are any problems.”
“Why must it be that way? If you cannot act because you belong to the Office of Ghostly Inspection, could you not cooperate with the Office of the Inspector-General?”
Even as he rode, Haje stared fixedly at Wonhyeok.
Unable to tell what expression lay behind the black veil, Wonhyeok frowned and stared back. Haje gave a snort.
“You do not understand politics at all. Clerk, it would have been a disaster if you had passed the civil-service examination. We only need to manage Ghost Gates and uncanny powers and wicked spirits well. Do you think they would appreciate us barging in and saying, ‘Hey, while I was going around, I saw you were not doing your work’?”
“Th-that may be so.... But even though you are the unchanging Number One?”
When Wonhyeok grumbled, unable to let the matter go, Haje let out a long sigh.
All the bastard had to do was follow along and keep records, yet he was always trying to concern himself with useless things.
Whom could Haje blame? It was his own fault for not realizing Wonhyeok would be such a bastard.
Haje appeared to stare into empty space for a moment, then halted his horse and spoke.
“Is saving commoners that entertaining to you?”
“Why are you suddenly picking a fight? It is not that saving commoners is entertaining. Corrupt officials are doing something wrong, so should they not be stopped?”
“What a fine man we have here. You should have simply passed the civil-service examination.”
Unsure whether Haje’s response was a joke or mockery, Wonhyeok narrowed his eyes.
“You will not reveal that you are Haje this time either.”
“That is right. You should continue calling me Messenger as well.”
“But is there truly no way for even a Messenger of your standing to punish a corrupt official?”
Had the age of Ghost Gate Messengers not begun?
In the era before Wonhyeok was born, before Ghost Gates existed, status and law might have been inviolable. But circumstances were now somewhat different.
No one dared challenge the king’s authority, but among those beneath him, a hierarchy of social standing had developed rather than one of rigid class.
Wonhyeok himself was a yangban by status, yet his friends back home came from many different backgrounds.
Then Haje spoke.
“Shall we make a wager?”
“A wager? All of a sudden?”
“Yes. If you win, I will beat the hell out of that corrupt official, just as you wish.”
“Beat...! Beat... I was not asking you to go that far....”
“If I win, then whether there is a corrupt official or an ugly duckling, we leave them alone.”
At those words, Wonhyeok stared intently at Haje, trying to discern his intentions.
But Haje remained hidden behind his black veil.
Was there anyone who could truly see through that man?
For some reason, Wonhyeok thought that at a time like this.
A person whose age and gender were unknown.
Haje had a large build, shared a room with Wonhyeok without hesitation, and had a low voice, so Wonhyeok had conveniently thought of him as male. But Haje had never said so himself.
Moreover, for someone who seemed to have existed since the Ghost Gates opened, Haje showed no sign of aging.
As he stared at the dark veil, Wonhyeok began to feel as though Haje were growing larger and drawing closer. He looked away and asked.
“What will the wager be?”
“Ho ho. It is simple.”
Haje dismounted as he spoke.
Wonhyeok followed him down without understanding and watched Haje pick up several stones from the dirt road.
‘Is he going to play a stone-flicking game? Then I, a decent civilian, am at far too great a disadvantage.’
However, Haje proposed something else.
“Let us begin, <Duel: Whirling, Impassioned Jacks>.”
“What is that?”
If it was jacks, it was jacks. What were those needless words tacked onto the front for?
Wonhyeok protested.
“If it is a game using the body, I am at a disadvantage! And why jacks? The lives and livelihoods of the commoners suffering under a corrupt official are at stake. Yet we are deciding their fate with this... this ridiculous game!”
“You are terribly fussy. What is wrong with jacks? It is not a game that uses the body. It uses the muscles of the hand. Delicacy is the key. If anything, it is a disadvantageous game for us military-examination Ghost Gate Messengers, who have nothing but ridiculous strength.”
At those words, Wonhyeok could not help feeling tempted. Could that be true?
He could not see Haje’s face, but the posture of his hand gripping the stones he had picked up looked oddly serious.
It felt as though Haje were declaring that he would pour all his strength into this game of jacks!
“Th-then.... Very well. I will give it a try!”
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
In the silence, only the lonely sound of horse hooves echoed.
Wonhyeok thought of the face of a beloved person he had not remembered in a long time.
‘Nanny, back in my hometown.... Are you well?’
His nanny had always cared for him warmly.
She had seen him off with a smile when he departed to take the civil-service examination.
‘Your humble son... is traveling with a swindler.’
The outcome of <Duel: Whirling, Impassioned Jacks>.
Wonhyeok’s complete defeat.
“Swindler....”
“Where else can you find such a kind and admirable swindler?”
Wonhyeok trembled with the regret that crashed over him along with his defeat.
His mistake had been thinking that a civilian could win any contest involving physical force against a military-examination Ghost Gate Messenger.
Vowing never to make such a wager with Haje again, he considered how he should express his opinions from now on.
‘...Am I supposed to simply follow without complaint?’
Wonhyeok was not the sort to remain silent when he had something to say. As he urged his horse onward, he began planning a small, timid revolution in his heart.
After they had ridden and walked for some time, the two soon found a large guardian totem pole.
“A guardian totem pole. This village is certainly larger than the previous one.”
“Honestly, the last village was excessively small. I said we were going to meet a corrupt official, did I not? We are going into a city larger than this one.”
Ever since Ghost Gates had appeared, many walls had been built. Since uncanny powers and wicked spirits were not limited to ghostly kinds, defenses had become important.
Wonhyeok let out a groan and asked.
“Still, what does confirming a Ghost Gate have to do with a corrupt official? I have heard that there are wicked bastards who sometimes skim the state budget allocated for Ghost Gate management.... But if the Ghost Gate lock opens, would that not trouble the corrupt official as well?”
“Yes, which is why they skim only up to the very edge. Then, when the lock begins to rattle, they hurry and send in a Messenger. If they are lucky and close the Ghost Gate again, the byproducts increase severalfold. The unlucky Messenger will have to work like a dog, though.”
Was it a good thing to leave a Ghost Gate on the verge of opening just to obtain more byproducts?
Wonhyeok thought it over for a moment.
If it were merely a matter of quantity, it was obvious that closing Ghost Gates often would yield more byproducts.
But the state budget granted during that period was usually meant to pay for the labor of closing the Ghost Gate.
If someone saved that money and pocketed it, then hired people only once or twice when the situation became dangerous....
They could certainly save money.
“It feels like gambling with people’s lives.”
“They are not the ones who die, that is all. If a Ghost Gate ruptures, the commoners and Messengers will be the ones driven mad, while local magistrates and officials flee on horseback. No, they will not even bother with horses. They will have sedan chairs carried away.”
“They truly are wicked bastards.... Are you really not going to do anything?”
“Clerk, accept the outcome of the wager.”
As they entered the settlement outside the city walls amid that conversation, Wonhyeok looked startled.
“The poor....”
The first things in his sight were houses that could barely be called thatched cottages.
And the people sitting in the streets were poor no matter how he looked at them.
Their destination was a county formed from the expansion of Tangseong, a mountain fortress that had existed since long ago.
It had fortifications, a Ghost Gate, and even expanded walls beyond that. A small but remarkable district!
Yet even if this was outside the city walls, how could there be so many poor people in the outer settlement?
At this hour, should there not have been a market along the village’s main street?
Then Haje dismounted and spoke to Wonhyeok.
“Get down. We might run someone over.”
At those words, Wonhyeok hurriedly climbed down from his horse as well.
“How can there be so many poor people? I do not know much because I have never lived in a region with a Ghost Gate, but did you not say that villages prospered when a Ghost Gate appeared?”
“Why are you questioning me, Clerk? I am not the local lord here. It seems the county magistrate has not been distributing money at all.”
That was right. They had come to inspect the Ghost Gate in a region governed by a corrupt official....
Wonhyeok had been thinking only of the authorities keeping a Ghost Gate balanced on the edge like a spinning plate. But when he saw the commoners who had fallen into such poverty, the weight of it struck him anew.
Indeed, if people had the nerve to skim the state budget allocated for Ghost Gate management, why would they not skim money from vulnerable commoners as well?
“Hand over a coin, handsome sir.”
A beggar stretched out a hand but did not dare cling to Haje or Wonhyeok. Seeing this, Wonhyeok felt his chest tighten.
Spring was approaching, but it was still cold. These were not people who should have been left sitting here....
As Wonhyeok considered whether he should give something, Haje seemed to notice his thoughts. He pulled Wonhyeok by the shoulder and crossed the main street in an instant.
The relay horses they had brought hurried after them.
“Will one or two coins change their circumstances? They will only be extorted more later. Why? Did being called a handsome sir make your heart grow generous?”
“...I will pretend I did not hear that.”
Wonhyeok’s eyes turned cold, and he slowly shook his head.
Haje chuckled, then spoke.
“But you are handsome. Are you truly sure you do not have a sister?”
“Please keep walking!”
Seriously, why did someone who had to be at least seventy behave like this?