Approval from Above and Solbi’s First Day
No sooner had the call ended than another phone rang. It was Song Jina.
“Lawmaster Kang-to?”
“Hello?”
“You heard from England, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So it’s starting now?”
“That’s right.”
“Any other support?”
“I’ll have to make it on my own now.”
“I like that answer.”
“The BBC team says they’ll be coming to the island soon. I’ll let you know once the schedule’s set.”
“You’re confident, aren’t you?”
“You can count on it.”
“Good. Then I have some better news for you.”
“For me?”
“That branch-school revival plan you told Chairman Lee about. The yacht school, the pool, the golf facilities, and all that.”
“Yes.”
“Since we’re practically family, I’ll let you in on a little secret: our Director Eun gave her blessing.”
“Really?”
Kang-to asked it back, startled. Director Eun was the wife of his biological father. The fact that Song Jina, of all people, had used such a formal word—blessing—made it clear that even she was taking some care not to step too hard on her daughter-in-law’s toes.
“Our Chairman Lee must have put in a lot of effort. According to Director Eun, she helps other people’s children through scholarships and educational work, so why shouldn’t she help the chairman’s own son? And since you read her fortune for her, she says she might as well invest as payment for the reading.”
“Thank you.”
“That video of the BBC verification must have helped too, but keep that quiet for now. I’ll act like I don’t know anything until the people involved say it themselves.”
“Yes...”
“One more thing. It looks like the investment will go through even if Lawmaster Kang-to fails the verification. She said it would be petty for a person in a higher position to start adding conditions and making demands.”
“......”
“That should be enough to count as an encouraging phone call, shouldn’t it?”
“Yes, Grandma.”
“Lastly... a package will be sent your way. Your daughter’s starting school this year, right? I picked out some clothes and a bag for her.”
“Grandma.”
“Then let’s talk again soon.”
“......”
Song Jina didn’t stay on the line long either. She was not one for unnecessary words. Even so, the warmth of the call lingered with him for a long time. What mattered most was the decision to support the branch school.
Thank you.
Kang-to silently thanked Eun Jeong-mi from the bottom of his heart. He didn’t know how the decision had been made. But with Kang-to having suddenly appeared as the son born outside the marriage, it could not have been easy for a lawful wife to accept him.
Which meant the verification had become even more important. The other side had reached out a hand, so he had to deliver the very best result possible.
Kang-to’s own preparations were complete as well.
He had finished coordinating with Team Leader Jin of the Seoul Major Crimes Unit. Even for someone with divine authority, he couldn’t simply point to only the remains of British soldiers and nothing else.
There was always the possibility of lost bodies, clandestine burials, or remains of crime victims turning up, so they needed to be ready for that too.
Team Leader Jin had been delighted. He knew Kang-to’s abilities, and the partner on the other side was the BBC’s strongest documentary team. There was nothing for him to lose.
Then Solbi’s voice rang up from beneath the lighthouse.
“Dad, something came!”
“......?”
Solbi was sitting on top of the delivery box the postman had brought and tapping on it with both hands.
“Waaah.”
When Kang-to opened the box, Solbi let out a cheer. Her third cheer, this one for a bag alone. She already liked the first two she’d received, but this one seemed to be even better.
And that wasn’t all. She loved both outfits, and the school supplies too. Everything fit perfectly, which only made Solbi happier.
“Solbi, do you want to carry all three bags?”
She stood there in front of the mirror, one bag after another slung over her shoulder, looking completely lost in delight.
“Dad said he’d order mine online too...”
Kang-to felt a little sheepish. They lived on an island, so deliveries took forever. In the end, his daughter had beaten him to the punch.
“Don’t worry. I’ll carry Dad’s too.”
Solbi was full of confidence.
And just like that, Kang-to’s worries about school preparation eased a little.
As the afternoon ferry time grew near, Hong-seo and Dong-cheol came running over.
“Lawmaster Kang-to.”
“Why are you calling him ‘Lawmaster’?”
Assistant Seo, who had been organizing the records, asked the question.
“Our grandma said to bring Lawmaster Kang-to over.”
“What’s going on?”
“She said she’d like him to taste the new takju.”
“Takju?”
As Assistant Seo turned around, Kang-to came out.
“Where is it?”
“Over at the dock. They want to hand a cup out to the passengers leaving the island, but they said it’d be better if you tasted it first.”
“That’s right.”
Hong-seo finished, and Dong-cheol echoed her, his pronunciation much improved as if nothing had ever been wrong with it. Thanks to that, even his movements had become quicker.
“Where’s our Solbi?”
“She’s helping sell fish-shaped pastries.”
Seriously?
Kang-to laughed. Come to think of it, she really was a little model daughter.
As Kang-to drew closer, the islanders waved him over. The passengers preparing to leave began gathering one by one too.
“Sorry about this. We’ve gone and called over the busiest man on the island.”
Grandma Hong-seo took his hand and tugged him forward.
“This is the first batch of takju they’ve made, and they wanted to keep it pure, so they said Lawmaster Kang-to had better taste it first.”
Grandma Dong-cheol, a master brewer of samhaeju, poured out a cup.
“Surely the other elders should taste it before me...”
“Aigoo, what does being old matter? It only means your days are closer to the end. That’s no medal.”
Grandma Hong-seo pressed him harder. When he looked around, there were residents, regular customers, and tourists all standing in a circle watching him. He had no choice but to take a sip.
“Oh?”
He stopped moving as soon as he swallowed. The liquor clung to his mouth with a silky smoothness.
“How is it? Isn’t it to-die-for?”
“It really is. It’s got this clean, sticky finish on the tongue, and such a rich aftertaste...”
“All right, Lawmaster Kang-to’s done with the tasting, so someone start pouring. The ferry’s about to come in!”
The fisheries chief was getting impatient.
“All right, all right, gather round now. Here’s Chilui Island’s samhaeju, the drink that even ghosts weep for.”
Grandma Hong-seo began passing the cups around.
“Ha! This is the real deal.”
Chief Choi, who had taken the first cup, wiped his lips with the back of his hand.
“Do you see that? They say if you drink this, you turn into a ghost.”
As the islanders began offering their opinions, the tourists and Kang-to’s guests followed suit.
“Oh my. It tastes milky.”
“It’s so smooth. It feels like someone poured serum essence into my mouth.”
Samhaeju.
It won people over in an instant.
The “hae” in samhaeju came from the zodiac cycle of the twelve earthly branches—rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig. In other words, the pig year.
Pig soju. Samhaeju.
It was liquor brewed on the pig day of the twelve-zodiac cycle. Kang-to had heard the explanation from Grandma Manshin before.
It was made from rice and nuruk on the first pig day after Lunar New Year. Thirty-six days later, more rice and nuruk were added, and then again thirty-six days after that, until one hundred and eight days had passed; only then was it distilled and drunk. Because it was brewed over three pig days, it was called samhaeju.
That was the old way of making it.
Once refrigerators were invented, it no longer had to be made strictly on pig days.
Long ago, when the island was thriving, there had been many households that made samhaeju. Now that taste was fading away. The fact that Dong-cheol’s grandmother had brought it back after recovering from a stroke made it all the more meaningful.
“What do you think, Lawmaster Kang-to? This is going to be a smash hit, right?”
Grandma Hong-seo asked.
“I think it will.”
Kang-to answered with a thumbs-up. A glimmer of light was shining on Grandma Hong-seo’s fortune. More than anything, at this level of quality, tourists would love it too.
“Did you hear that, dear? Lawmaster Kang-to says it’ll do well. Your old man passed on, and money’s been tight as it is, so this is a blessing.”
Grandma Hong-seo took her daughter-in-law’s hand.
“The pig soju will be out soon too, so just wait.”
Grandma Dong-cheol was glowing with pride now as well. At last, she could hold her head up in front of the daughter-in-law who had returned to the island.
“Aigoo, how long are we supposed to wait for that pig soju? I’m dying here.”
Chief Choi and Captain Song, among others, were practically squirming with impatience.
That pig soju was not on the same level as ordinary soju.
This liquor carried the taste of green grapes inside the fragrance of rice. The top-tier version, samhaegwiju, distilled once more from samhaeju, reached nearly seventy proof. True to its name, gwiju—ghost liquor—it was so mysterious that it didn’t burn the throat on the way down. It wrapped around the esophagus as it went, as though one were swallowing silky milk, a taste that combined elegance and intensity at their absolute peak.
That was why it was called gwiju, “ghost liquor”: when a person drank it, they became like a ghost, and when a ghost drank it, it became human.
“And if you grill a thick slice of cutlassfish or yellow croaker with a little coarse salt sprinkled on top, then take a bite... ah...”
The elders were too busy licking their lips to speak properly.
March.
The historic day dawned. After a short morning prayer session, Kang-to looked over his memo pad. School bag, shoe bag, and water to drink. His eyes slid to the side.
Clothes for school, shoes, socks, hair tie...
He had checked everything last night, but he went over it again anyway.
Today was Solbi’s entrance ceremony and her very first day of school.
For Kang-to, it felt no different from a silent war.
Preparing school supplies and getting ready for school was no different from preparing for his first trip overseas with a backpack. Passport, visa, emergency medicine, backup snacks, umbrella... no matter how many times he checked, he still felt like he had forgotten something. This, though, felt even more real than that—this was entrance-ceremony preparation.
Solbi herself was excited, but Kang-to was anxious.
What if she couldn’t manage herself properly in the bathroom? What if she forgot to fasten her Velcro shoes? Would she be able to open her water bottle?
Ah, what a headache.
Kang-to might have been the one who served Jijon Cheonsin, but as a single dad facing school life with his daughter, he was awkward at everything.
He even ran a full simulation of her being too intimidated by the teacher to go to the bathroom, and though the branch school was tiny, he had already completed repeated lessons on where every facility was located.
And then...
At last, the war began.
“Dad...”
Solbi had opened her eyes.
Battle start.
First came washing up. The moment he folded the blanket, she shot toward the bathroom. After washing her face, her hair—still freshly washed from the night before—got tangled up. The meticulous Lady Solbi noticed it and issued an emergency order.
“I want to wash my hair.”
Yes, yes.
Today Solbi was the main character. Kang-to could hardly disobey. Time was flying. It was the same routine as always, and yet it felt like everything was running twice as fast.
“Dad, hurry, hurry.”
The hair-tying phase had begun, and with it Solbi’s nonstop urging.
“Ow.”
In his rush, he tugged a little too hard, and Solbi shot him a laser glare.
“Sorry.”
He undid the elastic and started over. He finally thought he was nearing the end when...
“I don’t like this one. I want the other one.”
Rejected. Solbi’s standards were evolving by the second.
“Solbi, let’s go to school!”
Ta-hee and Hong-seo’s shouts became another fuse.
“Dad, hurry up already.”
Solbi’s impatience grew. Naturally, Kang-to’s pulse quickened too.
Thump, thump.
He swore even the day he performed his spirit descent had not felt this intense.
“Solbi.”
“Just a second.”
Kang-to shouted, but it didn’t work. The world of children was different from oracle work; it simply could not be controlled. And yet he couldn’t do a sloppy job either.
Today’s main character was Lee Solbi.
The one and only new student.
Every eye on the island was on her.
Sweat beaded on Kang-to’s forehead. Solbi had extra options today.
He understood. She was the star. So he’d already changed her school bag twice, and every time the clothing and shoe choices had changed too.
“Do I look pretty?”
At last, Solbi finished dressing up, planted her hands on her hips, and asked.
“Who do you think your dad is?”
Kang-to scooped her up. Then he let out a sigh where she couldn’t see. If he had one more daughter, he might collapse on the spot.
“Solbi.”
Ta-hee and Hong-seo’s chorus rang out again.
“Big sis Solbi.”
Now even Dong-cheol had joined in.
“I’m going out.”
Once her school bag was strapped on, Solbi launched forward.
“Hey, why are you going too? You’re not going to school yet.”
Solbi puffed out the dignity of being one year older than Dong-cheol.
“I want to go to school too.”
“Still no. You have to be eight before you can go.”
She even spread out her fingers as she explained it. Watching her so seriously made Kang-to’s exhaustion melt away.
“Let’s go.”
The moment she mixed with the older kids, Kang-to instantly became chopped liver.
“Hahaha.”
“Giggle, giggle.”
The children’s laughter never stopped, rolling over the island like waves.
“Well now, Solbi’s off to school?”
As Captain Song was sorting fishing nets, he called out to her.
“Hello!”
Solbi bowed at the waist in an absurdly cute greeting.
“Solbi’s going to school?”
More greetings lined up after that.
“Fighting, Solbi.”
Encouragement from the old couple preparing the fish-shaped pastries was added to the mix too. Carrying all that warmth with her, Solbi took her first steps into school.
“From this moment, we will begin the entrance ceremony of Chilui Island.”
Miss Bang Ra-eun, the new teacher, was in her forties. For Solbi’s sake alone, she had decorated the ceremony hall. The island’s leading families and residents gathered one by one.
“At least Solbi kept the branch school from closing.”
“Aigoo, look at how bright she is.”
Under the villagers’ expectations, the entrance ceremony moved forward.
One thing, at least, was a relief.
Since Solbi was the only new student, there were no children clinging to their mothers’ hands. Kang-to had worried about it anyway, even though he already knew there would be no such problem. That worry, too, finally slipped away.
When the opening remarks and the national ceremony were over, it was Solbi’s turn.
“This year’s new student, Lee Solbi.”
When Teacher Bang called her name, Solbi stood up.
Clap, clap, clap.
The applause from the existing students and the island residents came down like rain.
Clap, clap, clap.
Even the tourists and Kang-to’s guests, who had come just to watch the lone entrance ceremony, joined in.
“Thank you.”
The finale was Solbi’s full-power cute little bow. Solbi didn’t look nervous at all, so Kang-to’s needless worry melted away like snow.
Click.
The closing touch was a commemorative selfie with Solbi.
Back when she cried and whined the moment she felt sick, back when he had put her diaper on backward and never even realized it, back when she took her first steps, back when she first called him Dad—every one of those old days flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern every time he took a selfie with her. Kang-to’s jewel, Lee Solbi. She had grown this much before he even knew it.
Once the ceremony ended, they moved to the classroom. Chilui Branch School was divided into two classes: lower grades and upper grades. Since first, second, and third graders shared one room, Hong-seo and Ta-hee sat beside Solbi.
Fighting.
He sent silent cheers through the corridor window and stepped out into the schoolyard.
Hoo.
Entrance-ceremony mission complete.
He stretched hard, shaking the tension out of every joint.
It was time for the bigger mission. The passenger ferry had arrived that morning, and at last the BBC documentary team was coming in. Two expedition vehicles rolled off the ferry.
“Lawmaster Kang-to.”
Harris, a team leader who had already earned his place in documentary history, landed on Chilui Island with an extraordinary team in tow.
The core team consisted of seven people. The remaining six members of the excavation crew were flying in from Korea.
“This is Dr. Sampson, who spent ten years with the U.S. DPAA before returning to the British Royal Institute.”
Harris began introducing his key staff. The DPAA was the agency specializing in identifying war dead. He had brought in exactly the kind of heavyweight they needed for this remains recovery.
“And this is Dr. Ailie, a rising star at Emory, one of the world’s leading genetic research institutions. Once the remains are found, she’ll complete the DNA analysis and match them with the families of the fallen within just three or four hours.”
Every member of the team was a dazzling expert.
Three days.
It took the remains recovery team just three days to finish their sketch of Kang-to’s surroundings. On an early spring morning, after the last of the snow had cleared, they boarded the ferry and headed for the land of verification.
Mom.
I’ll be back.
Leaving that solemn vow behind on Chiluijae, Kang-to turned away with unwavering resolve.
It was the day the unprecedented shamanic verification of all history began.