Overhearing the Samchasa
“If we lose it, we just lose it. We can get it reissued from the office.”
Ganglim Doryeong rested a hand on his head and whistled. To anyone watching, he might have looked like a man out for a stroll on a fine day… no. He looked exactly like a grim reaper of the underworld.
“Doryeong-nim!!”
The Woljikchasa gripping a curved sword of murderous size roared. The woman was seething at Ganglim Doryeong’s blasé attitude toward their present crisis.
“The problem is that the laws of the underworld—laws that must be enforced more strictly than anything else—are turning into a complete mess because of it! People who should have died aren’t dying!”
They stood square in the middle of a busy street, quarreling without a care.
Yet the living who could not see them brushed past as if nothing at all were happening.
Animals, of course, were another matter.
- Woof woof!
“Oh my! What’s gotten into this one! Poppy, why are you suddenly barking at empty air?”
When the woman swung her curved sword in irritation, the fiercely yapping dog yelped and scrambled behind its owner.
“Oh dear? What’s wrong with you. Mommy will hold you.”
Why now of all times…!
Park Su-hwan dove behind a standing signboard. Strength gone from his legs, he clapped a hand over his mouth and fixed his eyes on the asphalt.
He was terrified that meeting anyone else’s gaze might make the ledger appear.
Absolutely, absolutely not here.
That would be walking straight into the reapers’ jaws of his own free will. The one mercy was that they still had not noticed him.
Please just leave. Please!
“Y-you’re right. We have to get it back before even more people’s fates change.”
“Aaaargh! Don’t talk like it’s somebody else’s problem! I’m so pissed I could die. Am I the only crazy bitch here with my ass on fire? Huh?”
“You’re already dead, so what more dying? Next stop is hell. So-hee. You can’t handle heat. Think you could take the scalding cauldron hell?”
“I don’t care! Right now it isn’t showing, and only because we’re covering it with everything we’ve got. If it reaches Lord Yama’s ears, it’s really over! Then just you and Hae-dong get dragged off. I’m absolutely not going. No—I will not go!”
“N-noona. We’re a team.”
“Team my ass. Not putting in for a transfer ages ago is the regret of my entire existence. Tsk.”
She swung her glare back to Ganglim Doryeong.
“We could even be suspected of taking bribes like that Saman bastard. You know how those ones got smashed to pieces.”
At the familiar name, Park Su-hwan muttered under his breath.
Saman…
Wasn’t that the legendary figure who was supposed to live only to thirty, yet treated the reapers so lavishly that he lived three thousand years? So that story was real?
“Got something on your conscience?”
“Would I? If I did, I’d have swapped these stinking rags for soft silk already.”
“Then relax. And So-hee—we’ll find it soon. I’ll admit I was careless.”
“Hmph. Now you’re offering a proper apology?”
“Who could have known something that can see the ledger even existed.”
The ledger was an object that no one but a reaper could ever see or touch. That was an absolute law. Because of it, Ganglim Doryeong had assumed a little carelessness would never matter.
“It’s a real piece of work. Looking at how the ledger’s energy vanishes and reappears without a trace.”
Which was exactly why they were having such trouble tracking it.
“As if we weren’t already busy enough to die!”
Just hauling in the dead was overwhelming. Now they had to hunt down the lost ledger on top of it. The workload had gone past crushing and was about to split their skulls.
“From where I stand, this is no ordinary player. Being able to mess with the ledger’s contents themselves says everything.”
“Exactly. Anyone with guts this big has to be a vengeful spirit at the very least.”
Hae-dong, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke.
“…Couldn’t it be a human? You never know. Maybe there’s a human who can see the ledger and rewrite it.”
Humans had always been unpredictable creatures, after all.
Park Su-hwan’s heart plummeted. He felt as if he were living through endless eons inside a tension so tight he could barely breathe.
“No. That’s impossible.”
The Woljikchasa So-hee shook her head with iron certainty.
“The ledger is an object of Myeong-gye. Only those who belong to Myeong-gye can see or touch it. That’s why the only stories we have are of people bribing reapers or tricking them into changing the entries.”
“But… vengeful spirits aren’t exactly beings that belong to Myeong-gye, are they?”
“Tsk. Our Hae-dong. Still a long way to go. You need more studying. How did you even become a reaper?”
“I’ll have you know I was second in the class.”
“I was first. No matter how much they wander outside the order, those things are still born with Myeong-gye’s energy at their core.”
Only then did the Iljik Chasa Hae-dong put on an enlightened expression.
“Doryeong-nim. Anyone come to mind? There are plenty of people who always say they’ll get you one day.”
“Hard to say. There are so many.”
“Haa… I’m really going crazy. That’s why I keep telling you to go a little easier on them.”
“True enough. *Tch.* First let’s go collect the dead. They’ll be dying any moment.”
“Uwaaaagh! Just wait till I catch them. I’ll smash them flat with this curved sword on the spot. Don’t you dare stop me. Understood?”
“Of course. I’ll join in the beating.”
The reapers’ voices gradually faded into the distance. Even so, Park Su-hwan did not move at once. Only long afterward did he rise from behind the signboard.
His eyes remained fixed on the ground the entire time.
I really thought I was going to die of fright.
Taxi. I need a taxi. Home. Now.
“Hwaa…”
Having fled home as if running for his life, Park Su-hwan finally let the tension snap and sank bonelessly to the floor.
The damp single-room shrine, thick with mixed incense and mold. A place he usually wanted nothing more than to escape felt, today, like the safest and coziest refuge in the entire world.
Of all people to run into…
“Almost died.”
Still, he was lucky he had hidden the instant he heard their voices. A moment later and he might have been crossing Samdocheon this very day.
Park Su-hwan trembled with fear as he recalled the reapers grinding their teeth for the one who had wronged them.
Above all, he could not forget the murderously oversized curved sword one of them carried.
If I’m caught, my head’s getting chopped clean off. Chop.
What am I supposed to do about this.
He first drew a long breath and forced himself to calm down. Brilliant ideas only came when you had room to think.
The heart that had been hammering fit to burst finally settled. As reason returned, the reapers’ conversation rose again in his mind.
First… this business had not yet reached the ears of the higher-ups. The Samchasa were clearly covering it up somehow.
Which meant they were not mounting any large-scale search for the ledger.
They seemed to be tracking the ledger’s energy in order to hunt him. But here was the strange part…
“They said only the dead can see and touch the ledger.”
That piece refused to make sense. He was clearly alive and breathing, wasn’t he?
What the hell is going on.
“And they also said the ledger’s energy appears and disappears.”
At those words he had a suspicion. It matched exactly the way the ledger suddenly appeared and vanished.
“Then why can’t they find the ledger that’s sitting right here in the shrine?”
Questions began to chain themselves one after another.
“And maybe… there might even be a way to hide the ledger’s energy completely.”
Yet no matter how hard he turned the problem over, no clear answer surfaced. In that moment his gaze fell on the charm pouch hanging at his waist.
“The colors changed.”
The pure-white salt had blackened and died; the red beans had gone white with mold and rotted. Even the once-solid Byeokjomok was twisted into a grotesque shape, as if someone had wrung it in their fist.
“So the shamanic remedy worked to some degree…”
Still, he could not be certain the remedy had been effective against the reapers. There were simply too many variables.
Park Su-hwan possessed no spiritual sight; he could not see spiritual beings with his own eyes.
Therefore he had no way of knowing whether the Byeoksa objects had reacted to the reapers or to some resentful spirit he had brushed past without realizing.
“Huu…”
Even so, the situation was not entirely bleak. The reapers were thoroughly barking up the wrong tree about the culprit’s identity.
“It’s fine.”
Fine and then some.
If they have time…
Then I have time too.
From the day he met the reapers, Park Su-hwan did not set a single foot outside the shrine. The landlady even came by out of worry.
“You’re not sick again, are you?”
“No. Thank you for worrying about me. I was just taking a short break from work. Going around offering prayers isn’t easy on the body.”
“Really? That’s a relief. I wasn’t trying to snoop, but no customers have come by these past few days…”
“That’s because I deliberately stopped taking reservations.”
With the time he bought, he threw himself into finding a way to deal with the reapers.
Yet he discovered no proper method, and in the end he decided that, uncertain as it was, he would simply pour even more effort into the shamanic remedy that had shown some reaction.
“And a customer is coming later, so I’m really fine.”
“Alright. I’ll spread the word and bring plenty of people. There’s a truly skilled shaman living in our house.”
“Aigoo. It’s all right. Our general only takes interest in those who walk here on their own two feet, you see?”
In the past he would have welcomed her offer with both hands raised. Now Park Su-hwan firmly refused her kindness.
He was terrified that stories about him might reach the reapers’ ears.
“Really? There’s that sort of thing too?”
“Yes. It’s the same as saying that connections meant to form will eventually form.”
He glanced at the wall clock and smoothly changed the subject.
“Look how late it’s gotten already. The reserved customer will be here soon. Would it be all right if we stopped here for today?”
“Aigoo. Of course. Young man! I’m making kimchi stew later, so I’ll set some aside. Eat it for dinner!”
“Yes. Thank you.”
He saw the landlady off and waited for the guest who would soon arrive. A short while later a middle-aged man entered, awkward and careful.
Park Su-hwan could tell at once that the man was unused to shrines.
“Yes. A pleasure to meet you. What concerns…!”
The moment their eyes met, he was dragged into the world of the ledger.
It’s been a while.
He muttered as he looked at the ledger floating gently in the air, glowing with a soft light.
It was also the first time the ledger had appeared for a customer who had come to the shrine.
Park Su-hwan began to read its contents slowly.
Name: Cha Hyun-seok…
- Tap, tap.
Before he knew it the background had shifted into the scenery of an office.
Deep darkness had settled over the space; everyone else had already gone home for the night. Only a single monitor still poured out bright light alone.
“Great. Just this and I’m done.”
Cha Hyun-seok rubbed eyes stiff with oncoming fatigue and stared at the monitor.
Next-Generation A-Line Process Optimization and Cost Reduction Project
He had poured the last several months entirely into this one project, and the finish line was finally in sight.
“If this succeeds, promotion is guaranteed.”
Then the label of perennial manager, and the resignation pressure that kept choking him, could surely be escaped.
Which meant this project was, for him, nothing less than his last lifeline.
- Tap, tap.
“This has to work. I’m saving them tens of billions.”
His certainty rested on clear grounds.
With the new program he had developed himself, the defect rate of parts could be lowered dramatically. Then the company would not have to tear out and replace entire production lines at enormous cost.
If this did not count as achievement, what in the world would?
Park Su-hwan looked back and forth between the ledger in his hand and Cha Hyun-seok.
Death from overwork?
But the cause of death written in the ledger was different.
It meant the vessels of the heart would burst as if exploding under the weight of piled-up fury and rancor.
Then, in the very moment he tilted his head in puzzlement, Park Su-hwan found himself standing inside the office.
Huh?
“Th-this can’t be!!”
Cha Hyun-seok, veins standing out on his neck, was locked in a furious argument with someone.