The Burlap Sack
"Khehem..."
PR Director Oh Jaeyeong and I sat facing each other in the quiet of his office. He sipped his tea with a faintly sheepish look. He'd left his suit jacket behind in the confusion, so I had wrapped a spare one around his lower half, and the two of us had come upstairs together like that.
"...You do know this stays between us?"
"Yes."
"Hoo..."
Director Oh stared blankly up at the empty air. Fair enough. Someone had just gotten a look at a private matter of his—an extremely private one—so a little embarrassment was the least he was owed.
"...The truth is, my wife came by a few days ago. Raised absolute hell."
"I see."
"She got it in her head that I was having an affair."
"Mm."
"Want to know why?"
I had a pretty good idea. I kept it to myself on purpose. Embarrassing things are better said by the person who has to live with them. Director Oh hesitated a moment, then opened his mouth.
"...It wouldn't stand. Wouldn't stand up... A man's pride, that thing... Khehem... We really did have a good marriage, you know. And then one day, out of nowhere... hoo..."
He took a complicated sip of tea and went on.
"The reason I'm telling a subordinate something like this is to explain myself. About what happened earlier..."
"Yes."
He caught the deadpan on my face and let out a thin, hollow little laugh, as if the tension had drained out of him.
"You don't look the least bit surprised... Strangely enough, that makes me feel lighter. Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
"Anyway... after that, I tried everything under the sun, so I saved a lot of... those sorts of pictures on my phone. My wife saw them and decided I was cheating."
No wonder. It took a story like that before the owner's decision not to cut him loose made any sense.
"I can see how it happened. You've been through a lot, Director."
At that, Director Oh shot to his feet and seized both my hands. He looked utterly overcome.
"This is the first time I've told anyone, and the first time anyone's told me I've been through it. Truly, thank you."
"I didn't do anything."
"What are you saying! That—khehem—miracle medicine you gave me is what let me stand my pride back up!"
But the Red Lines around his lower body were already creeping back together, little by little. One dose wasn't going to do it. He'd have to keep taking the stuff before those lines disappeared.
Or maybe he'd have to keep taking it just to hold them down. Even so, it beat the alternative.
From where I stood, long-term use was the better business. If he recovered all at once, there'd be no point in building a farm.
"Anything bothering you? Ah, right—you said they switched you from full-time to contract this time. Want me to put you back on full-time? Basement level five too stuffy for you? I could move you into an office with a window the size of a front gate. Just say the word."
Yes. This was the offer I'd been waiting for—the whole reason I'd kept looking after Director Oh. Time to collect my gift. Our company hands its executives an absurd amount of authority. Sometimes that authority turns around and grabs them by the ankle, but on a day like today it was extremely useful.
"There is one thing I'd like to ask."
Director Oh hammered a fist against his own chest. Thump. Thump.
"Name it!"
I took a sip of tea and said it flat.
"Please see to it that no one but the original staff can come down to basement level five. I'd like to work in peace. That includes you, Director."
"M-me too...?"
"Yes."
Director Oh's eyes shook.
Only after I promised a steady supply of hasuo—fleeceflower root—at a reasonable price was I allowed back down to basement level five. On the way I sold him one more. This time, for a hundred and fifty thousand won.
Eager to feel that particular sort of "pride" again, Director Oh hesitated only briefly before transferring the money on the spot.
My phone buzzed on the ride down. A company-wide email had arrived under the PR director's name. The speed of it told me I'd grabbed the right string. I don't care for office politics, but holding a connection like this didn't seem like a bad thing.
I slipped the phone into my pocket, thoroughly satisfied. Just as you'd expect from a man with a politician's instincts, he hadn't singled out basement level five. He'd bundled in levels three and four as well. Dozens of people worked down there. If he'd named only level five, everyone would have known I was the target.
Time to step back into the Tower of Magic. What, exactly, was 3rd Circle magic? My heart was pounding.
"Hueeeegh... hueeeegh...!"
The moment I opened the Book of Truth in Zone D, the retching hit—familiar by now. As befit 3rd Circle magic, it felt like my throat was twisting itself inside out, but my mood was light enough to float.
3rd Circle. It's the 3rd Circle!
"Hueeeegh...!"
Thrilled, even while throwing up. I really had gotten strange. So this was a mage's life. Nearly thirty minutes passed before the heaving finally stopped. I wiped my mouth and perched on a chair.
"Hoo..."
The blue lines in my gut were rolling like waves, desperate to spill out of me that very moment.
I rose, carefully. The three blue lines at my heart throbbed.
"Hoo... hoo..."
I drew a deep breath and sent the blue lines out through my whole body. From the heart to the arm, the arm to the hand, the hand to the finger, the finger to the nail. Start to end, end to start. They thrashed, racing back and forth.
A rush poured down my spine, and gooseflesh rose along it.
"..."
I stared blankly down at myself, then walked to the bathroom. I got there. The mirror told me the same thing.
"!"
I could feel, with perfect clarity, exactly where my hands and feet were. I just wasn't there. More precisely, I couldn't be seen.
I had become invisible.
"Hm."
More precisely, I hadn't merely turned invisible. I had become intangible.
I wandered all over the Information Archives. Footsteps that should have rung through the silent office made no sound at all. I couldn't touch a thing. Reach for something, and I passed straight through it. I felt like a ghost.
"Ah."
My voice didn't carry either. I was clearly using my vocal cords, and yet the sound seemed to dissolve into the drift of the air.
"Not bad."
Laser Beam for attack. Teleport for movement. And for evasion—Invisibility.
I was certain I could slip any attack that came at me. I hadn't gone up against a ghost yet, but the certainty was already sitting in my head.
"Mm."
And then it happened. My breath suddenly went short. The oxygen was gone.
I checked my body in a hurry. The blue lines were rippling like waves, wrapped all the way around me.
Ah!
I only became intangible while I stayed inside the blue lines. The catch was that I had to live on whatever oxygen those lines contained. If I wanted to use this for any length of time, I would have to widen them. More space meant more air coming in with me.
I unraveled the blue lines in a hurry.
"Hoo..."
From the feel of what I'd just done, Invisibility would hold for about a minute. Still, a minute was a minute. Give it time and I'd manage an hour or more.
I'd been about to try sinking into the ground. If I'd only figured this out after going under, I would have suffocated. And of all places, buried beneath the building. Decades could pass without anyone even finding the body.
The morning had yielded plenty. I'd confirmed what the hasuo could do, and I'd gained the 3rd Circle spell Invisibility. Three circles in, and everything was still beginner-level. Economies of scale mattered, no matter the business. I needed to grow as much hasuo as I could and stack blue lines on top of blue lines. A few flowerpots weren't going to cut it.
"Looks like I'll have to build a farm."
This afternoon I'd take a half-day and head home. Director Oh had already put the notice out, so no one would come looking for me.
A chime.
Your half-day leave request has been approved.
First things first. I needed to borrow some money to build that farm.
"Line up! Get in line!"
I was a little startled. I'd arrived in front of Bodhisattva Chuyeon's shrine to find a queue as long as the line for an idol concert. Men and women, young and old, stood one after another without distinction. The alley was so narrow that cars couldn't even get in.
There were parents holding the hand of a kid who looked about high-school age, and a neatly suited figure who had the air of a secretary. Probably standing in line on behalf of whatever boss they served.
"I heard this place really works?"
"Yeah, yeah. It used to be famous, and then the divine power dropped off... Guess she found it again somehow. I heard she's only about as good as a fortune-teller, though."
"This is insane. Think I'll actually get married this year?"
I took the very back. At this rate I'd be waiting two hours at least. I'd restored her divine channel only a few days ago, and the rumor had already spread this far. Classic Korea. A nation that lives and dies by whatever's trending.
I tapped out a text to Bodhisattva Chuyeon. Showing up unannounced wouldn't be polite. Call it the manners of a working adult.
Ten seconds after the message went through, maybe, someone burst out of the shrine inside the walk-up. A man in his early twenties, makeup laid on thick, dressed in splendid five-colored robes. Looked like she'd hired new staff.
"Everyone, please head home! That's all for today!"
The customers who had been waiting rounded on him.
"What are you talking about! I've been waiting an hour! I'm next!"
"I came all the way up from Busan!"
"Just see me! Just me!"
An uproar broke out, but the man raked them with a sharp glare.
"If the Bodhisattva is displeased, can you take responsibility?"
The ones who'd been arguing shut their mouths in an instant.
"Khehem, r-right... I forgot I had an appointment today..."
"I'll... come tomorrow... heh..."
The customers vanished like a tide going out. I was watching it with my own eyes and still couldn't believe it. Wasn't this a kind of magic too? I was the only one left, and the man in the five-colored robes looked at me and bent at the waist, perfectly polite.
"You're the Teacher the Bodhisattva spoke of? She's waiting for you inside."
"Uh. Mm. Yes."
I stepped into the shrine, and Bodhisattva Chuyeon lit up, her face flushed, greeting me as if the room had brightened with her.
"Teacher...! You've come...! Please, sit...!"
As always, she yielded the seat of honor and settled herself on the bare floor. I had no choice but to take the five-colored cushion.
Chuyeon looked at me with sparkling eyes.
"What brings you? You need only say the word...!"
I scratched the back of my head, then opened my mouth.
"Could you... lend me a little money? Not a huge amount..."
I hadn't been hoping for much. The plan was to borrow most of it from the bank and scrape the rest together in bits and scraps. Being on contract, though, the loan itself hadn't come out to much of anything.
Before I even finished, Chuyeon shot to her feet and disappeared into the inner room. She came back hauling an enormous burlap sack.
She set it down with a heavy thud and pushed it toward me with both hands. Through the mouth of the sack, left slightly open, I could see nothing but fifty-thousand-won bills. Even a rough glance put the total well past several hundred million won. Her face was grave.
I scratched the back of my head hard. Those fierce eyes said that if I refused, she would stuff the sack into my pockets on the spot.
"Uh. Mm. Yes. Thank you. I'll put it to good use."