Management Records Bureau (4): The Shadow's Allure
After hearing Baek Sam-byeol-ui’s explanation, the first thought that flashed through my mind when I realized I had crushed with my own hands the medicine Gwigok-ja had cooked up was this:
‘If Gwigok-ja finds out someone ate the medicine he made, he’ll probably try to kill me.’
The life-threatening danger that loomed ahead. I had no desire to become the fixation of a madman who melted a person’s true origin qi to brew such a drug.
The second thought that rose was even more urgent.
‘You’re not trying to scrub me off as an anomaly just because I ate human medicine, are you?’
The Management Records Bureau that Baek Sam-byeol-ui had brought me to was located in an especially remote spot.
It was the Rituals Department, which barely paid attention to the vagabonds who ate sword-meal rations, and even inside that department one had to pass through the preservation archive and activate the mechanism array just to gain entry. A complicated structure.
‘It’s a pity for you, but since you’ve accepted an anomaly you may fall into the demonic path. I won’t pray for your blessings.’ Even if Baek Sam-byeol-ui said something like that and scrubbed me off, it would be in a blind spot no one could notice.
The life-threatening danger was far closer than the first possibility, so my body trembled on its own.
“You’re quick on the uptake, but hiding your expressions is naive. It’s entertaining to watch from the side, but you’ll need to learn a few things.”
With an interesting gaze, Baek Sam-byeol-ui murmured calmly.
“Naive? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I immediately circled back, having caught the implication in his words. Receiving subtle contempt from formal Murim Alliance members while attached to the Baekgeomdae was basic for vagabonds.
“Well, bringing me all the way out here and talking about things that shouldn’t be known makes me understand why your imagination is running wild. Still, one should listen to the end of what a person says.”
He pointed to the Eight Trigrams characters written in the book.
“Earlier I saw you seemed to know the Journey to the West roughly, right?”
“I know it’s the story of the monkey who goes to the Western Regions to find the sutras.”
“Yeah. That monkey Sun Wukong also entered the Eight Trigrams and got special abilities when he came out, didn’t he? You too.”
I countered that the shadow wasn’t at the Sun Wukong position, and Baek Sam-byeol-ui shook his head.
“Originally he should have become a shadow, but since he directly crushed the shadow and absorbed its essence blood into his body, he escaped the Eight Trigrams. All the arrangements prepared by the formation would have been concentrated entirely in his body.”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui used the mysterious term ‘long-term maturation type’ when referring to the shadow’s ability I had testified to.
“Maturation? What does an anomaly have to do with soy sauce?”
“Gwigok-ja probably didn’t intend to eat the shadow medicine right away. It’s too weak for someone of that level.”
The phrase ‘that level of expert’ caught my attention.
Damn it… is he still alive?
Since I had destroyed the Manghon Villa, it was obvious we would be tied together, so I had wanted the old expert who died early, leaving the Manghon Villa behind.
“I was almost killed by that weak guy?”
“Almost died, but not dead. If the final product of the anomaly made by Gwigok-ja is the best of the second class and shares the same fate, that would be truly anomalous.”
I could easily guess the ecology of the shadow that Baek Sam-byeol-ui had speculated about.
The Manghon Villa was a kind of incubator. Or a greenhouse to raise the shadow to maturity and send it out of the villa.
The shadow that came out of the villa ate the vagabonds below it and slowly raised its own realm.
This must be what Baek Sam-byeol-ui called ‘maturation’. Gwigok-ja would appear at the right time, eat the internal energy of several warriors, and swallow the fully ripened shadow whole.
“In short, the shadow was an anomaly that ate the order of nature as an inverse principle being and strengthened its power. But you, who are a being of the order, got eaten instead? The arrangements of the Eight Trigrams must have been altered by your influence.”
If the original shadow had been a person-eating anomaly…
“Are you saying I became a person-eating anomaly?”
“You don’t have to eat it. The reason I brought you here all the way was to verify this inference. We can’t take an anomaly out from the middle of the Alliance.”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui pointed to the sky with his finger, saying ‘here it comes’. Between the briskly moving brushes, something like a black medicine flew over.
The black pill drew a soft arc and landed in my hand.
For some reason, it seemed to have a good scent.
“This is one of the anomalies managed by the Management Records Bureau. Grade: Human. It’s already sealed, and it’s not a special guy originally, but…”
No, rather than the word ‘scent’, ‘smell’ might fit better. It was a savory smell that whetted the appetite.
I put the medicine in my mouth without hesitation and chewed it. Since they had brought me to test the ability to eat anomalies, it was better to eat it quickly and check.
“Eh? What are you doing?”
Actually, I was curious myself. I had immersed my true origin qi in the Three Paths Heaven and come, but about the body that had become even lighter.
If I could know about the changed constitution after eating this medicine, I would gladly eat it.
With a sound ‘guk’, the surface of the medicine cracked. Something thick liquid flowed down from my mouth.
It was a bit strange expression for medicine, but it reminded me of chocolate filled with hazelnut syrup inside.
Mmm, sweet.
It was soft and easy to swallow. After chewing and swallowing the medicine thoroughly, I nodded with the meaning of ‘now it’s done?’ and looked at Baek Sam-byeol-ui.
“Why did you eat that…?!”
Ugh.
It wasn’t…
***
Baek Sam-byeol-ui opened his mouth in shock, but since it had already gone down the throat, what to do…
There was a way.
He immediately took out spit from his right pocket and quickly inserted it into an unknown acupoint. Intense nausea came.
“Uuk, there’s a book next to here, if I vomit, it will…”
“First, spit it out!”
On Baek Sam-byeol-ui’s urging, I spat out everything that came up to my throat.
In the green liquid, something like a black shell was dissolving. Baek Sam-byeol-ui examined the shell and green liquid, then grabbed my wrist again.
“You ate well…”
I, barely wiping my mouth, asked while breathing heavily.
“What the hell is this?”
“Guilt.”
“Eh.”
The supernatural worm that digs into the human brain and controls the mind?
“Interestingly, you have broad knowledge. The type of loneliness you’re thinking of isn’t classified as an anomaly.”
“No. How can a worm that eats human brains not be an anomaly?”
“Then, wouldn’t a man-eating tiger also be an anomaly? Only after a man-eating tiger completely twists its mind by eating people does it become an anomaly. This is called Yuin-go, a worm that has reason to be classified as an anomaly.”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui finished the pulse diagnosis through the wrist and sighed.
“It seems the egg isn’t left in the body. Not even a trace of demonic energy remains in the worm corpse that protruded. As you said, it seems you’ve truly become a human-eating anomaly.”
“If it’s all over, can you spit out some more? This is really bothering me.”
“You only placed a few on my back and head, sigh.”
A thought that this person’s nickname would fit better with ‘anomaly’ than ‘Baek Sam-byeol-ui’ raised its head. Unlike when placing, Baek Sam-byeol-ui collected the spit with a very relaxed posture and asked subtly.
“What were you thinking when you chewed and ate it?”
“…The scent was good.”
“Hoo, it seems your constitution changed quite a bit.”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui put the extracted spit into his left pocket. It seemed he was sorting the spit before and after use left and right.
“I couldn’t smell any scent from the Yuin-go.”
It was strange. The scent that reminded me of freshly baked bread, stimulating appetite, definitely lingered at the tip of my nose.
But, if this was loneliness, it was only natural. A worm that had to nest secretly inside a person’s body would fly around with such characteristic scent, and covert operations would be out of the question.
“The only fact I can say for sure now is one.”
I swallowed the spit and asked what.
“That you’ve become healthy.”
“Eh?”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui told the pulse diagnosis results. The pulse now was slightly stronger and more intense than when I just woke up from the Murim Alliance hospital bed.
“Your true origin qi has already been damaged. But there’s a slight but definite leakage of true origin qi.”
I recalled the taste that skimmed my tongue just now.
“…But by eating the anomaly, I can fill the leaking true qi instead.”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui nodded as if to agree, but then ‘hm?’ and immediately denied.
“No, you don’t have to eat it.”
“But isn’t that certain…?”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui looked at me with an expression as if seeing something strange.
“Did you like the taste?”
It was a sophisticated sweet taste that I didn’t think I could taste in this Murim world.
“No?”
“The excuse that your expression acting is immature is canceled. You use the iron mask very well when necessary!”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui continued with a lewd tone that suited the anomaly even more.
“Yeah, let’s overlook the small things. My proposal is this. Come into the Management Records Bureau and become a record keeper. You extend your own lifespan, and we gain a capable record keeper. We also handle various minor anomalies.”
I immediately lowered my head.
Since I can avoid certain death, how could I refuse it?
“I accept gratefully.”
Baek Sam-byeol-ui nodded. The slight upturn of the mouth corner seemed to be the answer he wanted.
“Ah, by the way, you’ve never asked my name until now. What is your name?”
I could answer this question without hesitation.
Characters had basic names for characters in the Black and White Army Alliance war.
“Cheon-myeong.”
As I repeated multiple rounds, I didn’t touch the name during the mixed difficulty, and when I turned my pocket as a third-class vagabond, there was an identification tag with that name written on it.
“Yeok Cheon-myeong.”