Anyway, after confirming that the situation had turned strange, I had to call for a Cheongnyu employee.
And then, after checking Lady Jea's condition, the employee looked at me awkwardly. Wondering if something was wrong, I asked.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Ah, um.... I apologize, but are you perhaps a member of the Wang family?"
Wang family? Not the Imperial family?
With that thought in mind, when I posed the question I had in mind just moments ago exactly as it was, the Cheongnyu employee finally grasped the situation and spoke.
"You were unaware of her status. Lady Ijea is royalty. She is the daughter of Prince Ansang, who is both the Lord of Pyeongyangseong and a sovereign prince."
"A princess?"
Dumbfounded, I looked at Lady Jea, now that I knew her full name was Ijea. I'd figured she must be nobility of some sort to come to such a high-class courtesan house, but she was royalty? However, in a nation where the imperial family continued the bloodline, the existence of royalty... I wondered if the Emperor had bestowed the title of 'king' to various provinces or cities, enfeoffing them as kings.
Anyway, now that I knew she was royalty, I neatly folded away any notion of doing something untoward and said,
"You have somewhere for her to sleep, right?"
"W-well, we do have the inner quarters, but... perhaps you..."
"No! I'd really appreciate it if you didn't have such a frightening misunderstanding?"
"Pardon? What do you mean...?"
As the saying goes, a thief's foot prickles; I'd ended up answering a conversation in my own imagination. Still, I had to avoid being misunderstood, so I spoke.
"I was planning to head back since I have lodgings, but in Lady Jea's case, I don't know where she stays, and it didn't seem right to lay hands on a woman's body carelessly. Besides, she's royalty, isn't she? And her condition is quite a mess, so could you call a few gisaeng to help her freshen up cleanly without it being uncomfortable?"
To put it simply: I was scared to touch her because she was royalty, and I couldn't just leave her in a filthy state, so please take good care of her! That was the gist, but perhaps they took it differently; as the employee nodded and said they would escort her to the inner quarters and treat her with utmost hospitality, something suddenly came to mind, and I asked how much the bill was.
At that, he roughly estimated and spoke.
"It will come out to roughly 70 won."
Considering the prices around here, I thought that 70 won seemed cheap for a meal and staying over at such a high-class courtesan house, so I said, "Understood," took out a 100-won bill I'd kept in my pocket, and pressed it into the employee's hand.
I told him to look after her well to avoid any misunderstanding, then quickly got up and had to leave Cheongnyu.
"I nearly got my nose hooked."
I am, frankly, a vigorous young man of twenty-one. In such a plausible situation, I could have entertained fantasies worthy of composing a history of crime. But I didn't.
It might have been a situation where the flower of my life could bloom; partly because I didn't want to get my nose hooked at this age, and partly powered by the flight of fancy that laying a hand on royalty wrongfully would result in my neck being lopped clean off, I made a clean declaration of surrender.
Still, it was regrettable. Looking at Lady Jea's graceful figure, she was such a tremendous beauty that I thought she embodied perfection itself.
Moreover, her personality was cheerful, bright, polite, and so on—she was endowed with merits all around, so the dagger of regret plunged deeper into my heart.
I had to return to my lodgings having become the kind of cripple who couldn't eat even if it was handed to him on a platter, but the problem occurred the next day.
"Is Isan inside!!"
A shout that woke me from a sound sleep.
Wondering what it was at that sound, I went outside to see some Daehan Empire-style 'knockoff cops' in the guise of constables looking at me. Thinking something might have gone wrong, I stared awkwardly at the constables, but it was a little strange that the surroundings were buzzing.
"I am Isan... but what is the matter?"
"You must come with us. Hurry and prepare, and come out without thinking of running!"
They came out of nowhere speaking rudely in informal speech, leaving me speechless, bewildered, and angry, but I held it in for now. Because they were 'birds' serving the state.
I'd often seen cases where people talked back for no reason and ended up in a 'birdhouse'.
Not knowing what was going on, I roughly got ready and came outside, where they tried to bind me. That, at least, I couldn't understand, so I firmly refused and spoke.
"Please don't do this? I don't even know what crime I've committed yet; I don't think I'm being treated as a criminal already."
"How dare you refuse our actions?"
"It's not refusal—so, do you have a warrant?"
I had picked up some legal jargon from somewhere and spat it out roughly; the constable frowned, then approached someone nearby and listened to a gate rest area employee telling him something.
Shortly after, with a curious expression, the constable who had tried to tie me up stopped, said "Follow," and walked ahead. I started following him, putting on a triumphant expression toward the constables around me who had tried to bind me.
And not long after, I was able to enter the Pocheong, where absurdly enough, I could see Lady Jea crying and several underlings.
Wondering just what kind of situation this was, I was perplexed when Lady Jea saw me and asked.
"Why did you do that to me?"
At Lady Jea's sudden question, I made a perplexed 'Why?' face, but she asked again.
"Did you make me drink and then try to violate me?"
"V-violate? Me? Why would I?"
Lady Jea spoke to me as if telling me not to lie.
"If you had asked the Cheongnyu employee, you could have found out where I lodge. So why did you take me to the inner quarters? And...."
Changed clothes. Only then could I understand the situation. It was a situation prone to ample misunderstanding. So I began to clear it up bit by bit.
And the Cheongnyu employee I'd asked to be called as a witness arrived as well; as the employee testified to what had happened, Lady Jea looked at me with an expression that said she was sorry to death.
It was a small misunderstanding that caused me to lose my sweet morning sleep, but I thought it fortunate that the misunderstanding cleared up without difficulty.
And the constables who had treated me rudely also apologized.
Because it was unthinkable to do this in a situation where my guilt hadn't even been determined. Nevertheless, after saying with great magnanimity that I would forgive them all, I was able to leave the Pocheong with Lady Jea, and seeing me like that, Lady Jea spoke.
"I am truly sorry. The misunderstanding..."
"No, it's fine! That can happen. It's normal for people to make mistakes when they're drunk. If you don't, you're not human."
"If you think that way, thank you... and this. I was trying to give it to you yesterday..."
A wad of thousand-won bills, and Lady Jea informed me of the price for Tyrone's bones that I'd told them to keep all of.
"The total sum from selling all the Ugui bones came out to about 1.1 million won. That's an enormous amount, and the team members said it was burdensome... so after dividing a certain amount equally among ourselves, we decided to return the remainder to you..."
I could understand the situation now. However, I hadn't expected such an enormous amount to come in. So I quickly accepted the money and said,
"Thank you. Even for just this."
"We're the ones who should be grateful."
From my perspective, they were no different from saviors of my life. And from an Earth value standpoint, those were dirt-cheap spoils of war that I could never have gotten money for.
Anyway, the situation had worked out well, disposed of at a generous price. I thought I should be grateful even for this.
I put the wad of bills in the inner pocket like that, and the side of my waist bulged prominently.
Lady Jea smiled as she saw that. I thought that, regardless of everything, she was a woman with a good personality. In a situation where she had misunderstood me to that extent, most women would have misunderstood and failed to understand no matter what was said.
And though it would have been obvious for her to pin the fault on me arbitrarily, saying it was my fault for causing the misunderstanding, the fact that Lady Jea did not do so made me see her in a slightly new light.
However, perhaps the wall of status called royalty was bigger than I thought; my favorability wouldn't rise beyond a certain point. The atmosphere flowed awkwardly like that, and with greetings saying it had been nice to meet her, we had to part ways with promises to meet again later.
Afterwards, I returned to my lodgings, informed them of the circumstances and misunderstandings that had occurred, and visited an administrative office about how to obtain Daehan Empire citizenship or permanent residency, where I heard an absurd answer.
"The simplest way is to obtain a donor citizenship, and the amount would be 50,000 won."
So, it wasn't just a mere 50,000 won. Frankly, I could imagine that if an ordinary person ended up crossing over here, they would never escape a lifetime of servitude.
So I asked on the off-chance.
"How are other citizens of the Republic of Korea living right now?"
"They are working in labor under the status of Gwan-no. Even so, their wages come out well and the work is smooth, so they aren't living too difficultly."
Gwan-no. I was dumbfounded. So I checked the money I had on hand and took out all the gold coins in my pocket, placing them on the table. Roughly nine of them. After calculating the money I had and the gold coins, I asked furtively,
"Can I sell these gold coins here?"
The employee who received my question asked me to wait a moment and called someone over. It was likely an appraiser or something of the sort.
And after quite some time, a man who seemed to be the appraiser asked,
"Where did you obtain these?"
"Do I have to tell you?"
Thinking about the citizens of the Republic of Korea living as Gwan-no soured my mood for no reason, and I couldn't bring out a pleasant tone. But at my words, he slowly nodded and spoke.
"These are extremely excellent artifacts. Judging by the engraving skill, the gold content, and the estimated era, these are items collectors would seek at high prices. Hmm, we would like to purchase them at roughly 20,000 won each. What do you think?"
For a moment, I had to inwardly curse the old pawnbroker, but frankly, I had no grounds to go and argue. After all, I had agreed to sell.
Setting my anger aside, I nodded, and I could dispose of all the gold coins. And the employee said that once I obtained donor citizenship and created an 'Awakener Pass,' I wouldn't need to carry cash around needlessly. Since I thought it impossible to lug around such a large amount of money, I meekly nodded and waited.
Shortly after, calling it a 'service', they handed me a phone, a card, an instruction manual, and such.
"Your citizenship issuance is complete. This card proves that you have become a citizen of the Daehan Empire based on your information, Isan-nim, using the genetic information we have on file. And this manual and mobile phone are items that will improve your quality of life from now on; when you turn on the screen, you will see the Awakener Pass installed. With a chip embedded on this side, at payment terminals..."
"Ah, the explanation is enough; but by any chance, if I were to pay the fee, could I buy citizenship for the Gwan-no citizens of the Republic of Korea?"
"A donor citizenship... is that what you mean?"
The woman looked at me as if surprised; just as I was waiting for an answer, she searched here and there for something, then looked at me regretfully.
"Um, it is not possible by proxy. If you were to do so as a proxy, you would have to inherit their status as Gwan-no..."
"Ah, I understand. Then could you at least tell me where they are?"
For some reason, I had been irritated since earlier. Frankly, if you were to drop into another world unfairly, losing both your perfectly fine home and everything else, only to become a Gwan-no and be forced into labor, how furious would you be?
Even from a third-party perspective like mine, I was about to burst with anger; I wondered how much worse it must be for them. After waiting a little like that, an employee handed me a document. I checked the address written there and was able to leave the administrative office.
"Damn it, a slave at twenty-one years old? That's too much, right?"
No matter how much I thought about it, this was something that simply couldn't be allowed to happen. Moreover, this world was terribly mixed-up in many ways, and the difference in thinking seemed extreme, so after resolving to be careful, I began moving to find the address.
I had learned that most of them were assigned to live as Gwan-no nearby anyway, but the moment I faced the very first citizen of the Republic of Korea I found after asking people here and there, I couldn't help but be lost for words.
He was being whipped. The reason?
"How dare you block the road when a bureaucrat is passing by?"
An absurd line. Yes, seeing him dressed in a vividly red official's uniform, he looked like a high-ranking yangban, but even so, I didn't think blocking the road a little was reason enough to beat someone that badly. Furthermore, the fact that the beaten person looked quite elderly was an even bigger problem, and the truly serious thing was that the bastard doing the beating moved in a way that was no ordinary thing.
He seemed to be one of those guys who had 'Awakened,' as the people here say; the fact that he was casually hitting someone who looked like they might die from it made my thread of reason threaten to snap.
"Excuse me!"
Hearing my shout, the bureaucrat looked at me with an expression like 'What's with this bastard now?' I walked right up to that guy, examined the old man being beaten, and spoke.
"He's a person. The same as you. But is there a need to go this far?"
"What the hell are you?"
"Please watch your language. I am a citizen of the Daehan Empire."
It hadn't been long since I obtained my citizenship, but it was a legalized situation nonetheless. At my words, he looked at me with a dumbfounded expression, then spat on the ground with a 'ptui,' and the yangban called a bureaucrat spoke.
"Even if you are a citizen, if you commit hostile acts against a bureaucrat, you will be punished. Do you know that?"
"Is preventing someone from beating a person a hostile act? I suppose the national law of the Daehan Empire says so?"
He scoffed at my words, met my eyes, and spoke.
"That's right. Gwan-no are things worse than beasts. Are you not opposing a bureaucrat and noble who is exercising his authority by taking the side of such a thing?"
"Shall I really tell you what 'opposing' means?"
In that instant, I felt the urge to sincerely beat the hell out of this damned bastard. And an unknown momentum burst forth unconsciously.
Feeling that unknown momentum instinctively, he flinched in surprise and stepped back. Realizing he had retreated, he seemed to feel shame, his face scrunching up intensely and flushing red. I too grasped the flow of the situation and spoke.
"Here too, one can rise to prominence through martial strength alone, right? And if nobles fight each other, there wouldn't be a problem, right?"
I'd said it in the heat of anger, but he furrowed his brow even deeper and spoke.
"An insolent commoner bastard dares threaten a noble?"
The noble bastard began trotting out absurd propositions. Fury surged. It was the moment when truly unbearable, truly detestable rage was about to boil over.
"Just a moment!"
A familiar voice. I couldn't understand why I was hearing that voice here.