An Ego Rifle Named Bedel
"Will this be all right?"
"Will what be all right?"
"The organizers aren't going to sit still. The betting pool is already skewing far too heavily toward the Underworld. Even if the Underworld wins, the payouts are going to crater."
"Oh, come on. Then the balance team will step in. We've been playing strictly by the rules for how many rounds now? Things like this happen."
"You're saying the Light Realm will make a move as well?"
"Obviously. At this rate every bet is going to pile onto the Underworld. Then exactly what you said happens — they win and still walk away with nothing."
"So we just leave it as is for now?"
"Yeah. There's a saying for this, you know."
"What saying?"
"A broken balance creates demand for paid boosts. We just skim the handling fees and call it a day. Whoever wins, we're in the commission business — we never take a loss."
"Still… isn't the balance collapsing a little too hard…?"
"It's fine, it's fine. Just watch. Give it another couple of rounds and the Light Realm will start throwing money at it too."
"I don't know… something about this feels off…"
"Don't worry about it. Ah — and put up a notice that Bespredel went back to its master of its own accord, nothing to do with us."
"Understood."
Ego rifle, Bespredel, espresso — I didn't care what it was. I hated anything that was a hassle.
And I especially hated the gall of anyone who came at me talking about "tests."
"Put it back. I get that you went out of your way to bring me something nice, but there's no need to dress it up with talk of tests and whatever else."
"M-Mother, please reconsider. Bespredel is the one and only ego rifle in the entire Underworld—"
"Mama, Mama, lookit."
Kabe tugged at my hand, pointing at the box Bespredel had come in.
The box was trembling, just a little.
"Boss, magic power is erupting. Please be careful."
Before I knew it, Dusick had stepped in front of me and thrown up a barrier.
Even without her warning, I could feel it myself — magic pouring out thick enough to taste. And it was familiar: my own dark magic, the power that had soaked into Bespredel, flowing back out again.
That dark magic kept spilling, kept rising, until it surged into the air overhead.
"The miasma is dense."
Sohee had already raised her great scythes, eyes narrowed as she tracked the magic circling above us.
None of us — not me, not anyone here — had any idea what was happening. I pulled Kabe tight against my chest.
She buried her face in my neck, frightened.
"Mama, scary…"
I patted her back and kept my eyes on the magic.
"It's all right. Mama will protect you, Kabe."
The magic swirling in midair drew itself together into a single mass — and then—
"I'm so sorry!"
—it resolved into the shape of a boy who looked about Kabe's age, dressed in a white shirt and navy overalls.
"Hmm. So… you're Bespredel?"
"That's right…!"
The little boy, still kneeling, kept rubbing the tip of his nose as if his legs had gone numb, and pressed on with his introduction.
"I am the ego rifle born from the hands of the Underworld's blacksmith… I, uh, forgot the name, but — Bespredel…"
"Hm."
Well. I'd read plenty of novels where famous weapons housed spirits.
Seeing one in person was a first, though.
"And?"
"I-I'm so sorry!"
"For what?"
The boy dropped from his kneel into a full forehead-to-the-floor bow and started begging forgiveness.
The whole picture looked wrong. Me, sitting on the edge of the bed with my legs crossed, and a kid who couldn't have been older than Kabe prostrating himself in front of me.
It was exactly like a child who'd taken allowance money "for workbooks," blown it all at the arcade, and gotten caught by his mother.
"To dare — to dare play a trick on Mother…!"
To dare, he said.
Was I really that famous?
It had only been about two months. And this kid wasn't even human. Yet he was attaching a word like "dare" to my name?
"I-I, Bespredel, am a weapon meant to form a pair with the Vespredel Amori…! Before the one who holds the Amori, I ought to have gladly become their pair — but instead I angered Mother with a foolish game of testing… I'm so sorry!"
"And what's the Vespredel Amori supposed to be? Keru, do you know?"
"First I've heard of it."
"Sohee?"
"This maiden has never heard of such a thing either."
"Dusick?"
"I've never heard of it either, but… maybe it's referring to Unni's uniform? Given the part about 'the one who holds the Amori.'"
"Th-that's right!"
Bespredel nodded so hard at Dusick's words it looked like his head might come off. He clearly thought he was being desperately urgent. From where I sat, he just looked ridiculous.
"The uniform Mother is wearing right now — that is the Vespredel Amori…! The glove on your left hand is the Vespredel Hand, then the Vespredel Boots, the Vespredel Earrings — all of it is the Vespredel Amori. And only when I, the Vespredel Rifle, join them is the Bespredel Set complete!"
The Bespredel Set, huh.
So that was why, the first time I'd laid eyes on Bespredel, I'd felt that strange pull I couldn't explain.
But that was one thing, and this was another.
He'd dared try to test me?
"My position hasn't changed. There are people you're allowed to play tricks on, and people you aren't. For a mere gun to talk about tests and presume to measure my worth is something I cannot tolerate. Keru."
"Yeah. Got it."
"Put it back. Put it back and get me some ordinary—"
I stopped mid-sentence as Kabe wandered over toward Bespredel.
"Hi! I'm Kabe! Bedbredele, wanna play with me?"
Huh?
"K-Kabe… Mother's daughter…?"
"Yep, that's my mama."
"Young miss…!"
"I'm not a young miss. Let's be fwiends. Fwiends."
Oh.
Oh no.
That changed things a little.
I'd never seen Kabe smile this easily in front of anyone who wasn't me or Dusick.
"Then put it ba—"
"Hey. Hold on a second."
I stopped Keru as he started stuffing the Vespredel Rifle back into its case.
Fine. If he was really that high-performance, maybe he had a right to be picky about who he entrusted himself to.
Maybe wanting to run a little test wasn't completely out of line!
Maybe I'd overreacted just a bit!
"Anyway, Bespredel. From now on, I'm calling you Bedel. No complaints?"
"M-Mother…!"
Bespredel looked ready to cry on the spot.
I crouched down and ruffled his hair.
"So be friends with Kabe. Got it?"
"Yes…! I will devote this life to Mother and her daughter…!"
"No — be friends. Friends. Don't devote your life to anything."
"Yes…!"
Gwangmyeong was still part of Seoul, more or less, so there were quite a few shopping malls near the officetel.
"Wh-what manner of place is this?"
"A place that sells clothes."
Bespredel — Bedel, for short — had said he could change his clothes into whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.
Kabe already had more than enough clothes to last until the seasons changed, so I left Kabe and Bedel with Keru and brought only Sohee and Dusick to the mall.
Jeans, a tapered shirt, and a jacket over the top for me; jeans, a cotton tee, and a jacket for Dusick — we looked fine.
Sohee was the problem.
I'd been worried about the attention a hanbok would draw out on the street, but luckily her build was close enough to Dusick's that we borrowed some of Dusick's clothes and brought her along.
I wasn't much of a shopper myself, so Dusick inevitably took the lead.
But something had felt off for a while now.
While Sohee stepped away to the restroom, I lowered my voice and asked Dusick,
"Dusick… are we looking at cheaper stuff than usual when you shop with me?"
"Well, of course."
"Why?"
It had been a long time since I'd seen Dusick look that dead serious.
She stared up at me like I'd just asked the most obvious question in the world.
"It's not even her own money. Why would I buy her expensive things? Just grab some cheap stuff for the season, and next year she can buy better clothes with her own pay."
"I mean, sure, but she's a mid-level commander Main now."
"It's not like Unni makes money that easily either."
"Mm."
That was painfully reasonable.
When I'd brought Sohee and Dusick out, I had told them as much: they were Mains who'd be taking on mid-level command, so I'd buy their first set of clothes, and from then on they could use their salaries for whatever they needed.
Dusick clearly hadn't liked that arrangement.
No — more precisely, she hadn't liked Sohee.
Their first meeting hadn't gone well, they'd nearly come to blows, and then there was the whole adjutant business… Given all that, I could see why Dusick would resent me spending money on Sohee's wardrobe.
"Dusick. No matter what anyone says, you're my adjutant. You know that, right?"
Dusick wasn't stupid. She understood exactly what I meant by that.
"Ah— y-yes… I know, I know, Unni."
"Don't get so prickly. Infighting among our own people is the one thing that would really smear this unni's face. Understood?"
"Unders…tood…"
In a tiny voice, Dusick nodded.
We bought a few sets of underwear and several everyday outfits. She wasn't the type to vanish easily, so I made a point of choosing pieces with decent price points and quality — things she could wear for a long time.
After our talk, Dusick at least made an effort to be warmer with Sohee.
All in all, a pretty satisfying—
"Ma'am, it's saying the balance is insufficient…?"
"Excuse me?"
Wait — this was definitely the salary account card registered to Mogumogu-dan.
"No way, that can't be right."
The clothes came to about two hundred ten thousand won total. And payday had been just the other day. There was no way the money wasn't there.
⚠ INSUFFICIENT BALANCE
"If you look here…"
The insufficient-balance message was displayed in plain sight.
"That… can't be…"
The stares from Dusick and Sohee behind me burned into my back.
"Th-then let's try this card instead…"
In the end I pulled out the salary card from my previous job. That one went through without a hitch.
What was going on?
Why had it suddenly said the balance was short?
The answer didn't take long to find. At the ATM out in front of the mall, I checked the account history — and fury shot straight to the top of my skull.
"The salary never even hit the account…! Keru, you little—!"