The Hidden Stone
The money envelope I received from Renka was thicker than I expected. ‘I don’t know the current market price for magic stones, but it feels like she gave me way more than necessary…’ Anyway, after finishing classes, I stopped by the boarding house first before heading to the Dongsomun Gate. I wanted to stash the cash and drop off my schoolbag.
When I opened the main gate and stepped inside, Ham Seoju, who had been sitting on the wooden veranda, stood up to greet me.
“Welcome back, sir.”
“Yeah.”
But as I tried to head to my room, Ham Seoju hesitated, fidgeting before calling out to me.
“Um… sir…”
She pointed toward the room where the father and daughter lived and continued.
“My father wants to see you.”
“Your father? Why?”
“I don’t know either…”
I checked my wristwatch. The hour hand pointed at four. It was still broad daylight. At this hour, Ham Won-sam should still be out pulling his rickshaw, right?
Following her gesture, I slipped off my shoes and stepped into their room. Sure enough, Ham Won-sam, who had left for work that morning, was already back. He sat with his legs folded, a low table spread before him, drinking soju with kimchi as a side dish.
“Ah, the young scholar’s here! Come, sit down for a bit.”
Ham Won-sam, already flushed with drink, gestured for me to sit. Wondering what this was about, I settled down across from him at the small table.
He glanced at his daughter standing by the door.
“Seoju, don’t just stand there. Go out and play for a while.”
“Where am I supposed to go all of a sudden?”
“Ugh, you stubborn girl! I said I’ve got something to discuss with the young scholar, so get out for a bit!”
“Hmph! Must be something I’m not allowed to hear…”
“That’s right, you little brat! When your father tells you to do something, just say ‘yes’ and—”
“Fine, I’ll go play then! And you, Father—drinking from the middle of the day instead of working, is that really the best use of your time?!”
Eventually Ham Seoju slammed the door behind her, and the sound of the main gate closing echoed. Only then did Ham Won-sam let out a long, pained groan before finally speaking.
“Young scholar… I picked something up, see? Yeah… I picked it up! I really did…”
From the empty space above his rough palm, a stone the size of an apple popped out with a soft plop. It resembled a magic stone, but while normal ones gave off a bluish glow, this one emitted a faint crimson light.
‘Redstone?’
Wait, why the hell is this here?
“The Japanese call it akaishi, or something like that… Judging by the look on your face, young scholar, you know exactly what this is, don’t you?”
Of course I knew. It was redstone—a rare mineral even in the 21st century. These days they apparently called it 赤石, or “crimson stone.”
This was the first time I’d ever seen one this size in person. In the 21st century, redstones of this caliber were owned exclusively by massive corporations or major guilds. Ordinary hunters never even got a glimpse of them in their entire lives. So why did a rickshaw puller like Ham Won-sam have one?
“Where on earth did you get this?”
“Like I said, I picked it up…”
“This is an otherworld mineral. Where could you possibly ‘pick it up’? Don’t tell me you got it as payment for hauling a magic beast out of the gate?”
When I kept pressing him, Ham Won-sam finally confessed that he had swiped it from the safe at the Dongsomun Gate office.
‘This is giving me a headache.’
Hadn’t this man gone in and out of prison for theft in the past? Wasn’t that why detectives still came sniffing around his house?
“Why would you steal something like this?”
“I… I don’t know, it was like I was possessed…”
Ham Won-sam scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed. Well, even someone who didn’t know its value would lose their mind over a stone like this.
He asked again, clearly anxious.
“Anyway, young scholar, how much do you think this thing is worth? You go to that hunter school, so you must know about these things…”
“Let me see it for a second.”
I took the redstone—crimson stone—and examined the magic pattern engraved on it through mana resonance.
‘Hmm… this is complicated.’
The formula carved into the stone was completely different from the mana engineering syntax used in 21st-century artifacts. It was an entirely unfamiliar system. And because it was so complex, I couldn’t even properly decipher its structure.
Still, even at a glance, I could see patterns that looked like coordinates and others suggesting spatial distortion. Functionally, it seemed to serve the same purpose as a gate key.
‘So the Oriental Development Company really did this.’
I had suspected it, but this confirmed the gate had been artificially opened.
I told Ham Won-sam, “I’ll buy this from you.”
“What? You’ll buy it? Then… how much…?”
I placed the thick envelope Renka had given me on the low table.
“I put in enough that you won’t feel shortchanged.”
Ham Won-sam’s eyes widened at the envelope’s thickness. Renka had been generous; even at a low estimate, it had to be several hundred won. That was easily half a year’s wages for an average office worker.
Wasn’t it a waste to hand over money I’d earned hunting magic beasts so easily? Not at all.
Redstone—crimson stone—was already an incredibly rare mineral. The fact that it could open and close gates made its value astronomical. Being able to acquire a stone this size for the price of a few dozen regular magic stones was practically stealing it.
It was something unimaginable in the 21st century.
Of course, I still couldn’t fully utilize it yet. Rebuilding and engraving a new mana pattern was no easy task. But even if I couldn’t use it properly right now, it would be incredibly helpful for what I was planning.
‘Which means the Dongsomun Gate is currently being kept open by this crimson stone.’
While rebuilding an engraved mana pattern was difficult, destroying one was easy. In other words, I could now collapse the Dongsomun Gate using this stone.
‘Perfect…’
“Heh heh! It suits you perfectly! That Shirabayashi bastard…! A Joseon person really belongs as a pack mule!”
When I arrived at the Dongsomun Gate again, this time wearing clothes borrowed from Ham Won-sam, Murasaki, who had been waiting, burst into laughter at the sight of me.
“Enough. Let’s just get inside already.”
“Hmph! I was planning to anyway… The defeated dog is rushing toward his own execution.”
Murasaki strode up to the gate. But the Oriental Development employee checking hunter licenses stopped us.
“Um, your license please…”
“I am Murasaki Kenji, son of Murasaki, Chief of the Jongno Police Station.”
Murasaki declared it boldly, staring the man down. But the employee looked troubled as he replied.
“Ehh, even so, I’m afraid I can’t let you through without a license…”
“What? Hey, you bastard!”
Slap!
Murasaki struck the employee across the cheek and raised his voice threateningly.
“State your position and name! Are you even a proper employee of the Oriental Development Company? How dare you treat the son of the Jongno Police Chief like an idiot? Fine. When I tell my father about this, a lowly clerk like you will—”
“N-no, no! Please, go right in!”
When Murasaki resorted to violence and outright intimidation, the employee reluctantly let us pass.
Watching from behind, I thought to myself, ‘As an admission ticket, he’s definitely less effective than Renka.’
He had to borrow his father’s authority and throw a tantrum just to get through. Renka could breeze in with just her face. ‘Maybe I should’ve brought Renka instead.’
“Shirabayashi-sama.”
Beneath the sunset sky over Gyeongseong, in a Western-style mansion on the slopes of Namsan. Renka stood motionless in the garden. She hadn’t even changed out of her school uniform since returning from class. Her fingers absently stroked the cuff of her right sleeve as she fell deep into thought.
Yesterday, Baek Chulyeon had taken her along to hunt dangerous magic beasts. So why had he suddenly flipped and said he wouldn’t enter the gate today? Had he grown afraid of the unidentified dangerous creatures? Renka shook her head.
Or had he been satisfied with the money earned from yesterday’s hunt? That didn’t seem right either…
Renka murmured softly.
“Osue.”
“Yes.”
A girl was already kneeling on one knee behind her—Katsurai Osue. With her bangs covering half her face, she looked like an ordinary, somewhat gloomy girl. In truth, she was one of the ninja operatives Renka had planted within the school.
Without even turning around, Renka asked, “What did Shirabayashi-sama do at school today?”
“This humble one shall report.”
Since enrollment, Osue’s orders had been to monitor Baek Chulyeon’s every move at school and report back to her lord, Renka.
Osue recounted the day’s events. When she finished, Renka spun around sharply and stared at her.
“Shirabayashi-sama made a bet with Murasaki?”
“Yes. He said they would settle it inside the gate.”
“…Inside the gate?”
Renka already knew the relationship between Baek Chulyeon and Murasaki was poor. But why, at this particular moment, and why inside the gate of all places?
After thinking for a long moment, Renka finally understood his true intention.
‘He’s trying to get inside the gate.’
Just as Baek Chulyeon had used her—branch head of the Shimazu-gumi Gyeongseong branch—to enter the gate before, this time he clearly planned to use Murasaki, son of the Jongno Police Chief.
‘But why?’
He had told her he wouldn’t enter the gate, yet behind her back he was trying to slip in using Murasaki. Why?
Was it because, as Takahiro always said, Joseon people were a race of deceivers? A people who loved to stab others in the back?
‘No!’
It couldn’t be that. There had to be a reason for Baek Chulyeon’s actions. But Renka found it difficult to understand his true intentions.
If his goal was to find dangerous magic beasts in the Joseon district, she would be far more helpful than someone as insignificant as Murasaki. Besides, what if they ran into Major Aoki again? The major would definitely remember Baek Chulyeon’s face.
If Major Aoki saw that the boy who had been Renka’s porter yesterday was now Murasaki’s porter today, he would surely grow suspicious. A confrontation could easily escalate into another fight.
And if that happened… unlike yesterday, Renka wouldn’t be there to stop it.
In such a situation, Baek Chulyeon—who only focused on defense—would never be able to stand against Major Aoki.
Renka knew all too well. She knew how Major Aoki had massacred countless Chinese and Joseon people across China and Manchuria. She knew that even though he himself was unawakened, many of his victims had been awakened hunters. She even knew that he referred to those killings simply as “hunting.”
It was one of the reasons Renka both feared and despised Major Aoki.
‘I don’t understand why someone like him came all the way to Gyeongseong to investigate the disappearance of Joseon people—’
A man who so deeply loathed Joseon people that he called their slaughter “hunting”—why would he volunteer his vacation to investigate their disappearances?
But as Renka reached that point in her thoughts, a horrifying realization suddenly pierced through the gaps. She tried to deny it with a ‘It can’t be,’ but the pieces fit together too perfectly. The suspicion took on flesh and blood.
Renka bit her lip.
‘Major… you…’
The dangerous magic beast that had been hunting Joseon hunters.
If that was the case, then this time Baek Chulyeon’s life was truly in danger.
‘…Shirabayashi-sama!’