Rulebook Writing Practice (3)
While I was worrying whether any additional compensation would come out for the forced blood donation that was approaching, Ok Rin was rummaging through something near the table.
Thanks to my eyes having grown accustomed to the darkness, I could see what Ok Rin was touching. It was a book.
'Yeah, right now, everything around here is books anyway.'
I hadn't realized it when I entered the room with the door closed, relying on my sense of smell instead of sight, but now I could see it roughly. Except for the table, everything in this room was books. There were several pillar-like things rising from the floor to the ceiling like abstract sculptures, and they were made by overlapping books one on top of another.
Ok Rin frowned — I could tell the movement of her eyes from the reflection of the candlelight — and flicked her fingers. The top of the book pile floated up into the air, and one pressed book was caught in her hand. So three books were gathered. She spread them out in front of me.
"Here. Instead of telling you how to bind the rulebook, I'll teach you how to write it. First, read these three books."
The content of the first book was a dry investigative record of an anomaly incident that occurred in Cheonhu-se. Cheonhu-yeong was a peak expert, and one day he obtained a sword. But because the sword became a curse, night visitors who crossed the wall of the family increased, and eventually an incident occurred where one of the servants of the family died.
Cheonhu-yeong was furious and expressed a strong will to repel by increasing the number of ghosts and strengthening security, etc. However, despite such efforts, Cheonhu-yeong died and the sword disappeared from his side.
I read through the book and honestly expressed my impression.
"Is this stealing the ledger from the government office?"
"Ah. Did you hear the story from Paengga's thunder bald guy? It can be said that it was stolen... but not exactly."
'Then how is it possible to steal a report that should be in the government office without stealing it from the underground room of the Murim Alliance?'
I forcibly suppressed the words that were about to come out reflexively. I had a feeling that if I casually provoked the superior, the life in the records office might become difficult, and it was a question that wouldn't get an answer from some intermediate management position. They were doing such dangerous things, so how could the chief not know?
The person who stole the ledger from the government office must be the chief himself or at least tacitly approve of it. If I asked 'What if we get caught? Then all our heads will roll?' it would be better to ask the chief directly someday.
The subjects investigated from the government office seemed to be the servants of the Cheonhu family and the martial artists guarding them. As an appendix, the list of parties involved in the incident was written. Ghosts or hired rangers, servants of the family. And Cheonhu-yeong and his son Cheonhu-sak.
Since the other ghosts of the family had moved to separate houses after the servant's death, the direct line of the Cheonhu family remaining at the scene was only Cheonhu-yeong and Cheonhu-sak. Therefore, it seemed that Cheonhu-yeong's brother and sister-in-law, Cheonhu-sak's wife and children were released without much investigation.
There was suspicion that Cheonhu-yeong's brother had tried to kill his brother-in-law, the family head. However, since Cheonhu-sak was already an adult and had a solid position as successor, and he didn't oppose Cheonhu-sak becoming the family head, the suspicion remained just suspicion.
I picked up the next book. It seemed to be a story directly recorded by the Management Records Bureau. The writing style was different from the stiff and dry government office reports.
『... Since my father obtained the sword, he has become a different person. Actually, from the beginning, that sword was a bit suspicious.
Suspicious?
I knew how the family's finances were handled as the successor. But there were no transaction records for that sword.
I think my father might have secretly obtained it from the black market with his private funds.』
I quickly realized who was telling the story now. The first book also mentioned the people of the Cheonhu family.
If it's the successor of the family, it's Cheonhu-yeong's eldest son, Cheonhu-sak.
『... My father always thought that someone was targeting the sword. But I never saw its true form. Baek Nopa also...
Baek Nopa? The servant who was killed by the assassin?
Yes. He was my nanny too. It wasn't the assassin who killed Baek Nopa, but my father.
Holding the blood dripping sword, he said like this.
'This old man was targeting my sword!'』
In the book written in the record keeper's handwriting, testimonies about Cheonhu-yeong's madness were listed.
He held the sword and his delusions became more severe, leading to killing people.
Was there a secret manual hidden in the sword?
I thought of the scroll in the scabbard or the engraved sword manual on the sword body.
I picked up the last book. It seemed to be a story recorded from Cheonhu-yeong's wife, that is, Cheonhu-sak's mother.
『Sak was a good son, and my husband was a good husband. But that sword was the beginning of all problems.
My husband was obsessed with the sword more than me, and Sak, while resenting my husband's obsession, couldn't hide his own greed.
I knew that Sak secretly asked Baek Nopa to steal the sword for him...
Baek Nopa had served the family for a long time and was a person with deep trust that I could entrust her with the nanny role.
If it was someone like that, I thought I could take the sword from my husband's hand.』
I closed the book.
"Eh? You finished reading already? Then, based on what point of the Cheonhu family will you write the rulebook?"
"Who is this 'Cheonhu-sak's mother'?"
Instead of immediately answering my question, Ok Rin nodded once. Under the flickering of the candle, the shadow following her looked oddly eerie.
'Since she nodded, it means my direction is correct...'
"An anomaly is an entity that has escaped from the natural order. Then, shouldn't we center the rulebook on the most alien entity among the recorded information?"
So at first, I naturally assumed the sword was the identity of the anomaly.
There aren't many stories about swords that lure people. If it's a martial arts story, it would come out in fantasy, and if it's a sword dao, it would be in the ghost stories of the Eastern fantasy rather than Central Plains.
But then, a thought came to me while reading the third book.
The appendix of the government office records. Investigation personnel list.
I looked back at the appendix of the first book. For the people of the Cheonhu family, the list that includes even those who fled abroad didn't have Cheonhu-sak's mother listed.
"The sword has been confirmed as a real entity through multiple cross-verifications. But this... 'mother'. There is no trace of anyone claiming to be Cheonhu-sak's mother in any other records."
An entity that remains only in one-on-one dialogue with the record keeper. A ghost-like thing that has no record of being witnessed by two or more people at the same time.
"If we have to write a rulebook, we should first call the record keeper who had a conversation with the mother."
Ok Rin nodded.
"At first, everyone thought the anomaly was the sword. But it was wrong. It was the woman who was the essence of the problem."
Grade B anomaly.
Sword Girl Ghost.
"That is a ghost that clings to the family head and acts as the mistress."
"Ghost means ghost, but why Sword Girl? Is it the soul that resides in the sword?"
"To be more precise, rather than Sword Girl, it would be more appropriate to say Wealth Girl."
The Sword Girl Ghost sneaks in with 'gifts' when luring the family head, and the form of the gift varies depending on the characteristics of the family.
"Since we are in the Murim Alliance, we naturally investigate many cases of martial families, right? When it parasitizes a martial family, it always gives swords as gifts."
If it's a family of scholars, they would give books, but in most cases observed by the Management Records Bureau, they gave swords as gifts, so naturally the name Sword Girl Ghost was attached.
The first family that received the gift of the Sword Girl Ghost prospered more.
While rejoicing in the blessings brought by the gift, the Sword Girl Ghost gradually seeped into them.
The Sword Girl Ghost starts to actively act as the mistress, and it seems that any incident she touches is resolved well.
Cheonhu-yeong's martial arts, holding the sword, became even stronger, and the family entered a prosperous era.
But when that glory reached its peak, happiness turned around. The grief that comes with the blessings of the gift.
The peak of grief was the death of the family head. When the family head died, the memory of the Sword Girl Ghost also disappeared, and it went to find the next target.
This was the ecology of the anomaly Sword Girl Ghost.
"Then, I'll give you a problem here. Why was the Sword Girl Ghost still there when the record keeper came?"
"Weren't you trying to cling to Cheonhu-sak? Since he was already half-hooked by the anomaly, it wouldn't be a big deal to eat him once more, right?"
"Correct. Then, for whom should we write the rulebook about the Sword Girl Ghost?"
I pondered repeatedly. For dealing with this anomaly, it seemed there was no other way but to smash the gift that parasitized the family.
Or suddenly a peak expert appears and physically beats it to death.
But this methodology is obviously not...
Watching me pondering, Ok Rin threw a line.
"Give you one more clue. The Cheonhu family case will be included in the revised edition of the existing rulebook."
It was already an anomaly whose rulebook was written? Then, someone among the members of the Cheonhu family must have read the rulebook...
"Baek Nopa. Was that person the one who read the rulebook?"
The family head can't easily get out once he accepts the gift.
The direct subordinates connected to the family head also find it difficult to casually defy the authority of the head, and above all, since they recognize the Sword Girl Ghost as the 'mistress', they can't notice the alienation.
So, the people who can notice the situation are those close to the family members but with some distance.
Soon, they were servants.
Ok Rin nodded.
"If the first thing in writing the rulebook is the methodology of how to respond, the second is who the reader of the rulebook is."
Even for the same anomaly rulebook, the content of the rulebook should change depending on whether the one who realizes it is an ordinary civilian or a martial artist.
"The Sword Girl Ghost rulebook is the same. Because I didn't assume that a perpetrator like Baek Nopa would find the rulebook... I killed an innocent person..."
The 'revision' mentioned earlier would also be based on this part. Rulebook for civilians who haven't learned martial arts...
"Is that even possible?"
"No. If there's no internal energy at all, just add a sentence saying to report immediately to the Murim Alliance."
"Ah."