With the staff member’s kind guidance, I asked how many people had come from the “Republic of Korea” so far. He told me there had been five in total, and that the very first citizen of the Republic of Korea to arrive had suffered terribly after being treated like a madman.
From my perspective, it was a situation I could only call fortunate in its own way. So when I asked about that first Korean, he trailed off, saying that because of the hardships he endured in the early days and the trouble he had adapting to life here, he suffered from severe depression and in the end...
“Hmm. What was the situation in the Korean Empire at the time for him to make such a choice?”
It was bait thrown to the talkative staff member, and he bit at once.
“It was a turbulent period back then. The power of the Kim clan was so strong that the imperial family could not properly exert its authority, and upheavals had thrown the world into chaos. Moreover, at the time, the scholar-officials used that person from the Republic of Korea as a symbol, calling him an ‘omen of ruin,’ stirring up public opinion and drawing the eyes of the world to him...”
At the sound of him saying, regretfully, that the man had become propaganda material for swaying public opinion, I stared at the staff member in disbelief. But he simply smiled and said to me,
“That was twenty years ago. After that, people claiming to be citizens of the Republic of Korea began appearing once every four or five years on average. So at present, including you, Mr. Isan, there are four citizens of the Republic of Korea. It has been four years since the last one.”
Twenty years ago. I couldn’t help thinking he must have been one of the many people who had gone missing in the early days of Earth’s upheaval. Just as I was thinking what a pitiful person he had been, the staff member asked me,
“But you are the first awakened citizen of the Republic of Korea.”
“...I suppose the others were all ordinary civilians?”
The staff member nodded, and I thought that if they had been ordinary people, it must have been even more miserable for them. I recalled the life I had experienced on Earth.
In my case, my time as an ant had been short, so I had suffered relatively little. But from what I had heard from people who had lived as “ants” for nearly twenty years after the upheaval, they had endured no small amount of suffering due to contempt, discrimination, and the fact that their social standing was at the very bottom.
And yet this world was an extension of the Joseon era, so it was obvious it must have been “much, much, much, much, much” harder.
“How are they all living now?”
“Fortunately, there was precedent, so they married normally and are living ordinary lives. But in your case, Mr. Isan, I do not know what will happen.”
“Pardon? Why me?”
“As I said earlier, because you are the first awakened citizen of the Republic of Korea. I imagine news has already been delivered to the higher-ups.”
It was an uncomfortable, troublesome thing to hear. So as I followed his guidance, I looked far off at the gate I had come out of.
I was thinking that if I stayed near that place, perhaps a gate back to the “Republic of Korea” might open again. But the man seemed to understand what I was thinking and said,
“At present, in our Korean Empire, there have been no reported cases of anyone going missing after crossing through a gate. In the case of the dead as well, we follow a procedure of ‘unconditional retrieval’ of the body, so I can more or less guess what you are thinking, Mr. Isan. However, it would be best not to try to make it a reality.”
“...Ah, hahaha. I see.”
I had thought he was terribly dense and kept tossing out bait, but perhaps this staff member was actually very sharp. I decided I would have to be careful with my questions.
“The place I will guide you to is a temporary rest shelter located in the ‘Gate Yard.’ There is a small daily usage fee, but in your case, Mr. Isan, due to the subsidy provided by the state, no payment will be required for the first fifteen days. After that, a modest fee will inevitably be charged, and failure to pay may result in severe disadvantages.”
“Severe disadvantages?”
“You would become a government slave for a set period and have to perform menial work for the country. But in your case, Lord Isan, as an awakened one, surely that will not happen, would it? If you were to obtain temporary permission and cross through a gate once, I imagine you would have no burden at all when it comes to money.”
His words needlessly made me think of the Tyrone bones I had given away. In any case, I was shown to my lodging. After he left, telling me to “rest well,” I lay down on the warm ondol floor, going over the warnings I had heard on the way here.
‘Damn it. The Korean Empire? Joseon?’
One thought repeated over and over. Trapped in it, unable to think of anything else, I was sitting there in a daze when I heard a knock, and the door carefully opened a crack.
“I’m sorry.”
“Ah, yes! What is it?”
“Um, I was told to bring you a meal and some clothes...”
A female staff member dressed in a pure white modernized hanbok set down what looked like a simple men’s modernized hanbok. Then, from somewhere beside the threshold, she placed something like a small refreshments tray into the room, and on top of it I could see what looked like rice balls on a plate.
As for side dishes, there were only kimchi and three kinds of pickles, but the instant I saw them, one thing came to mind.
‘Long live carbohydrates!’ I still had enough reason left not to shout it out embarrassingly, but when I rushed toward the food, the woman flinched in surprise, and I hurriedly apologized.
“I’m sorry. It’s been quite a while since I last ate grain...”
She gave an awkward expression and instead said she was sorry, telling me to enjoy the meal before withdrawing. I should have felt something was a little strange about that, but right now, the rice balls in front of me came first.
They could have simply given me plain white rice, but the moment I took one bite, the unique chewiness of carbohydrates and the pleasantly savory saltiness shot up my spine and struck my brain.
Tyrone meat? Sure, it was tasty. It was definitely tasty, but only to that extent. Anyway, right now, this simple meal was no different from the finest delicacy in the world.
The rice balls and side dishes disappeared into my mouth in the blink of an eye. And how delicious was the kimchi? I was able to savor a perfection beyond any kimchi I had ever eaten in my life. When I came back to my senses, I looked at the glossy bowls, so clean there was not even a trace of licking left, and realized I had briefly lost my reason.
“I-It was understandable, wasn’t it?”
Just as I was making a poor excuse out of awkwardness, a foul smell struck my nose, and I realized my mistake. Right. I smelled...
It was a situation that made me feel pointlessly sorry toward the female staff member. So I looked around the room and went to what seemed to be the bathroom.
After examining the neat, well-appointed bathroom, I stepped under the shower booth, stripped off all the clothes I was wearing, and began to shower.
As I washed for quite some time, even I found the situation astonishing, with truly grimy water streaming off me.
“...Damn it. How long is this going to keep coming off?”
No matter how much I used the soap and shampoo until they were practically worn down, the dirty water would not stop. Just as I was getting angry because I could not understand it at all, a loud knocking came from outside the room.
Thinking they had come to collect the dishes, I hurriedly used a towel just enough to roughly wipe off the water, but the yellowish color that kept rubbing off onto the towel made me furious.
“How can a person wash this much and still—damn it. Would you only be satisfied if I peeled off my skin?!”
I snapped for no reason, but my movements were quick. With superhuman speed, I roughly put on the modernized hanbok and approached the outer door where the knocking had sounded. When I cautiously opened it, the woman who had brought the food earlier was standing there demurely, looking at me.
Then she asked, looking a little surprised,
“Was the food to your liking?”
“Ah, it was so delicious that, hahaha...”
I lifted the tray with the clean dishes as it was and handed it to her. Seeing their state, she let out a small “pfft” and laughed. Yes, I had acted a little shamelessly. Just as my face flushed in that awkward situation, the woman said to me,
“Thank you for enjoying it. If you need anything else, please come to the staff office you can see over there.”
I told her I understood and sent her off. Perhaps because the hanbok had indeed been modernized, I found myself thinking that it looked quite refined and pretty. To be honest, it might have looked pretty because the female staff member herself was quite beautiful... In any case, now was not the time for this.
I locked the door again, stripped off my clothes in a flash, and headed for the bathroom. “Round two against the grime” was waiting for me.
I began to display the unique stubbornness of a “Korean,” determined to completely wash away the filthy grime water even if my skin peeled off today.
Only after a full four hours did I finally leave the bathroom and manage to soothe that unpleasant feeling.
* * *
Leaving the temporary lodging, I looked around at the night scenery.
Countless people came and went along the streets, their clothing feeling unfamiliar to me. But only their clothing felt unfamiliar; their actions and the items they used were all familiar.
Moreover, since it was around the season when cherry blossoms bloomed, the brilliant lights installed along the streets seemed to blow away the unpleasant, filthy feeling I had been carrying.
On top of that, the many foods prepared along the street pulled at me mercilessly with their tempting aromas. The problem was that I had no money.
So for the time being, I was wandering around near the city, searching for a place that might buy the items I had on me.
Everywhere I went, handsome men and beautiful women gathered in groups of three or five, laughing and chatting, and just as I was beginning to fall under the illusion that everyone in this world was good-looking and pretty, I saw a sign in the distance.
“Pawnshop.” Yes, thinking that was exactly the place I had been looking for, I quickly moved my feet and arrived at the pawnshop building. Then, instead of going straight in, I checked a few gold coins from another world that I had taken out beforehand with the intention of trading them, and entered the pawnshop while putting on as much airs as I could.
I couldn’t let myself be looked down on as an outsider. If I got ripped off, there would be no one to complain to. With that thought, I stepped inside and found it quieter than expected. There, I saw an elderly old man with a pipe in his mouth, smoking tobacco.
“Welcome.”
When our eyes met, the old man greeted me. So I said, “Good to meet you,” went up in front of him, took one gold coin from my pocket, placed it down, and asked,
“It looks like a relic that came out of a gate. How much would something like this be worth?”
At my words, the old man examined the gold coin this way and that, then spoke.
“Relics like this come out these days? What grade gate?”
Instead of naming a price, he asked a useless question. Still, I thought there was no need to offend the person who would be giving me money, so I added a slight lie.
“An A-rank gate.”
“A-rank?”
He tilted his head as if he did not know what that meant, and I realized my mistake. Right. This was not the world I knew, so I had failed to consider that gate rankings might be different too.
Cold sweat suddenly formed on me, but the old man vaguely glossed over it and said,
“Young ones these days have a habit of speaking strangely, so understand if this old man cannot follow. Anyway, for this much gold, I can give you about ten thousand won. Yes.”
I had no way of knowing what value ten thousand won held. But I also could not ask what that was worth. Just as I was unable to decide one way or the other, another customer came in.
So I quickly said to the old man,
“I’ll have to think about it a little.”
“Do so. Being cautious is a good thing. Welcome.”
Then, just as he had greeted me at first, the old man welcomed the customer who had come in. I caught a glimpse of the man taking out a small piece of parchment from his chest and placing it down.
After examining the parchment here and there with a magnifying glass, the old man looked at the man and said,
“It’s an old ancient document. How much are you thinking?”
“Thirty thousand won.”
At the man’s concise words, the old man examined the parchment again with a serious expression. A piece of old, worn paper like that was thirty thousand won, while a gold coin was ten thousand?
It was absurd, but since I had no idea of this world’s economic situation, I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut.
After finishing his appraisal, the old man said,
“I can give you up to twenty-seven thousand won. No more than that.”
“...Twenty-eight thousand.”
“I’ll add another five hundred won.”
The man let out a deep sigh with a dissatisfied expression, said fine, and took the money. It definitely was not the paper currency I knew. Feeling inwardly relieved, I also said to the old man,
“Give me ten thousand won. I’ll sell it.”
The old man said he understood and obediently took a ten-thousand-won bill from the safe and handed it to me. Looking at him, I asked,
“Could you break it into smaller bills?”
“What kind?”
“One-hundred-won bills.”
Hearing my words, the old man obediently nodded, and after I waited a moment, he brought over a bundle of bills and handed it to me.
I took it, roughly flipped through it to check, and said,
“I’ll stop by from time to time.”
“If you have any good items, come by. I’ll give you a generous price.”
After saying I understood, I left the pawnshop, thinking he was a kindhearted old man. Then I went out onto the street, roughly stuffed the bills into my wallet, and took one out to hold in my hand.
It was a bill with “100 won” written on it. In order to roughly gauge how much it was worth, I looked around and watched people buying food and paying. I saw them pay with bills I had never seen before and receive coins in return.
I stared carefully, trying to read the writing on them, but there were too many people and the shopkeepers were too busy, so I could not make it out well.
Since it had come to this, I figured I would know if I ate something and paid for it, so I moved toward the stall I had wanted to try on my way here. And just as I was almost at my destination—
“Mr. Isan?”
A familiar voice. I quickly turned my head to look at the owner of the voice, and there stood Miss Jea, who I had thought should certainly be out hunting, looking at me.