"Next."
A man with a vicious face shouted indifferently.
He was a gatekeeper who stood in front of the line all day, deciding who to let in and who to turn away.
People called him Dwaejiko.
He scanned the long line with a cigarette pinched between his fingers.
*Same faces every day. Guys coming to fuck, guys coming to gamble, guys coming to guzzle booze. Then why the hell am I standing in front of them guarding the damn door? Fuck.*
He was annoyed.
There had never been a time this job wasn't annoying.
But he knew that if he slacked off, even more annoying shit happened.
It had happened not too long ago.
A man with bloodshot eyes and trembling hands stood in line. A face he'd normally have turned away on sight.
But the problem was he'd tangled with that Hwaryeon bitch all night the day before.
Since morning his body had been sluggish, his head throbbing, with no strength in his eyelids.
He'd felt something was off, but let it pass.
About an hour later.
A knife fight broke out inside.
Thirty minutes to clean up, an hour to write the report, two hours getting cursed out by his superior.
*Hey, you dog bastard, you don't work properly. Look at this. You let through a guy with a dark face, bloodshot eyes, holding a knife in his hand. You damn fool.*
The guy who'd started the knife fight got his head chopped off on the spot. Dwaejiko held up that head with both hands and got an earful of curses.
Blood dripped down, flowing past his wrists. His arms went numb from holding it up for so long.
After that, he'd changed. He focused his eyes and scrutinized each one.
Whether their hands trembled, whether their eyes were bloodshot, whether their gait was strange.
He had to filter them out, even roughly. Because if he got cut from the gatekeeper position, there was no next step.
"Huh?"
Dwaejiko saw what stood before him.
About ten years old?
A girl with silver hair and blue eyes.
A shabby T-shirt, bare feet visible beneath her shorts.
*Barefoot in this winter?*
But strangely clean.
It seemed like she might be grimy, yet also not. Dressed like a vagrant but without the stench of a beggar.
What she held in her hand:
*Room and board provided. High income guaranteed. Urgent hiring of women.*
A paper with the name Yoshiwara and a rough map. A flyer we'd scattered around.
She didn't seem like she'd be a threat.
She was just a little girl. No knife, eyes clear, hands not trembling.
*But where is she looking?*
Unlike the others in line, the child showed neither excitement nor despair.
She was just looking.
At him, at the alley entrance, at the people in line.
As if transferring this entire space into her head.
"Hey! If you've got nowhere to go, get lost. We don't take people who can't pay for their meals here."
"Let me meet the person in charge here."
"Hah."
Dwaejiko exhaled cigarette smoke through his nose. Ridiculous.
Kids like this came sometimes. Kids with nowhere to go. Kids without parents. The type of children overflowing after the apocalypse.
But he'd never seen one so bold.
Usually they'd cry, or tremble, or just stand there blankly.
"Hey kid, listen well. Let me kindly explain something. Do you know what kind of place this is? Did you think 'room and board provided' means it's free? You pay for your meals with your body. At your age you don't even know what that means, right? And the person in charge isn't someone just anyone meets. Do you know how busy the boss here is? Let me be honest. There's no place here for a brat like you. This isn't an orphanage."
Dwaejiko pointed to the opposite side of the entrance.
"Go to District 1 right now. There's a relief camp there. They feed kids, so go there. Don't even think about sneaking in. You'll regret it later. Trust me."
"Ah, this bastard talks too much."
"What? What did you say? Bastard??.."
Then the child extended her hand.
Huh?
Dwaejiko's eyes narrowed.
It was a bundle of medicinal herbs. Not weeds plucked from anywhere, but properly processed mid-grade herbs. Dwaejiko had worked in this business long enough to gauge the value of medicinal ingredients at a glance.
"Where'd you get this?"
He stopped mid-question.
"No, forget it, like I'd fall for something like this..."
The child extended her other hand.
They were magic stones. Three of them, no less.
Low-grade magic stones the size of thumbnails, but each one was worth ten bowls of gukbap in this neighborhood. They gave off a faint light on the child's palm.
Silence flowed.
Dwaejiko stubbed out his cigarette with his foot and glanced around. The people in line were only looking ahead, waiting for their turn.
The three magic stones and the bundle of herbs quietly slipped into Dwaejiko's pocket.
"...Follow me."
Dwaejiko walked inside without looking back. The barefoot girl silently followed.
***
*So this is Maehwachon Yoshiwara Street?*
Sweet, heavy sandalwood, grilled skewers and liquor. And beneath it all, the thick scent of people.
It was similar to the scenery of Edo-period pleasure quarters I'd seen in pictures.
Wooden buildings, red paper lanterns under the eaves, teahouses and taverns, and street stalls.
Even the people moving freely between them made the era confusing.
The sound of a snapped shamisen string also drifted down from somewhere on the second floor.
*The Japanese flavor is too strong. Is this a branding strategy to set themselves apart?*
Well, whatever.
Where desire gathers, money and people inevitably flock. And where people swarm, order of some form is bound to emerge.
Not a bad condition to survive in for the time being.
"That building at the end. The second floor is the office."
Dwaejiko pointed toward the inner alley and spat irritably.
Second floor of a commercial building.
A leather sofa sat in the middle of the room.
How should I put it.
A room like one a mid-level boss of a criminal organization would use to call in subordinates and chew them out.
The atmosphere fit perfectly.
A man who matched that atmosphere sat on the sofa.
A man with a thick neck and prominent tendons on the backs of his hands. A build that didn't look small even while sitting. He was slowly swirling a whiskey glass with his legs crossed.
He maintained the perfect angle so the liquid didn't spill over the edge of the glass.
He swirled it quite well.
The odd thing was his shoes were red.
"Chief, there's a kid who came after seeing the flyer. Says she wants to meet you directly."
Dwaejiko said, giving me a push from behind.
I paused briefly at the title.
*Chief? Not a mid-level manager overseeing three or four alleys, but the owner who holds the entire Maehwachon district?*
Like going to a convenience store to buy milk and finding the chairman of the dairy association sitting at the counter.
Come to think of it, the atmosphere really was different. Not like a shop owner, but like a landlord.
The Chief looked down at me over his whiskey glass.
From the flyer to my face, from my face to the flyer. After going back and forth twice, the corners of his mouth slowly rose.
"You came after seeing this?"
"Yeah."
"Who gave it to you?"
"I didn't receive it. They were piled up inside buildings here and there."
The Chief's gaze slid slowly from my face to the side. He didn't need to check. Dwaejiko was already shrinking beside me.
"Dwaejiko."
"Yes."
"You took another bribe, didn't you? That's why you guided her so obediently."
"Ah, no. I just..."
"Like hell. You did the same last time."
The Chief swirled his glass once.
"Dwaejiko, how many fingers do you have?"
"T-ten, ten of them."
"Next time I ask, it'll be nine."
The blood drained from Dwaejiko's face like a receding tide. It was obvious even from the side, but I pretended not to notice. What I needed to worry about right now wasn't Dwaejiko's fingers.
"Do you need room and board?"
"Yeah."
"I can't guarantee high income though."
"That comes later. Right now I need a place to sleep and food to eat."
The Chief set down his whiskey glass. The small sound of glass touching the table rang through the room once.
"I like honesty."
He tapped his finger on the table once.
"But you had a bribe for Dwaejiko while having nothing for me?"
What, is he curious about my cards?
He has a face like he's watching wide-eyed to see what I'll pull out here.
I met that gaze directly and spoke.
"Nothing. For now."
"For now?"
"That's why I'm going to propose a condition."
"A condition?"
"Watch closely."
I tilted my head slightly.
And blinked once.
The prettiest expression a young girl could make. I'd never particularly practiced it, but my body reacted on its own. To think a skill I'd never learned in my previous life came default-installed in this body. Whatever. If I can use it, I'll use it.
"Won't I surely be useful once I grow up?"
The air in the room changed subtly.
Dwaejiko coughed dryly beside me, and the Chief looked at me without a word.
The smile hanging on his face until a few seconds ago disappeared, revealing beneath it the eyes of a merchant. A gaze devoid of emotion assessing goods, containing only judgment.
"Your face. It'll be usable once washed. Silver hair and blue eyes are unusual too."
"I know. That's why I'm here now, isn't it? Aren't you looking forward to a few years from now? In the meantime, I'll pay for my meals with menial labor. It won't be a losing deal."
The Chief brought the whiskey glass to his lips.
He didn't drink. He only touched his lips to the edge of the glass, gazing at me steadily beyond it.
The gaze beyond the glass came straight at me without refracting, piercing into me.
That's when I realized.
I'd felt something was off the whole time we were talking. Only now did I pinpoint it exactly.
The energy naturally flowing from inside his body.
*It's magic power.*
It didn't surge. It made no sound. The type of magic power that had settled deep like ancient groundwater, flowing quietly.
A faint silvery light encircled his entire body without the slightest tremor.
Damn.
This man, he's a mage.
I didn't know his exact realm, but he was at least above me.
If you ask whether I could win in a fight.
It'd be difficult.
But if you ask whether I was scared, not really.
It was true I couldn't win, but I wasn't at a level where I couldn't escape and would be taken out instantly.
I was capable of at least that much.
The problem lay elsewhere.
If I'd noticed, there was a high chance he'd noticed too.
Because those of higher realm are sensitive to magic power, and the more sensitive someone is, the better their detection ability.
*A variable outside my calculations.*
What was he seeing in me right now? It was definitely not the eyes of someone looking at a child. It seemed like he'd been like that from the start.
Five seconds.
Ten seconds.
Fifteen seconds.
I could feel Dwaejiko holding his breath beside me.
*The original plan was simple.*
Enter Paradise. Establish a place in Maehwachon. Survive until I beat the hell out of that Main bastard who touched me.
I'd never planned to meet the Chief. Even less did I think the Chief would be a mage.
It's fine. Life never flows according to plan anyway.
Let's count the cards I have right now.
Age. Appearance. And the hope that my opponent might not yet know my true identity.
A weak hand.
Should I include the things hidden in the forest near Paradise in my hand? The magic stones I'd collected. And the two tamed demonic beasts.
It's a waste, but do I need to keep those in mind too?
About a minute passed while I was thinking.
The Chief stood up from the sofa, glass in hand.
He slowly walked to an old desk on one side of the room, pulled out the chair, sat down, rested his elbows on the desk, and placed his chin atop the backs of his hands.
Silence.
But it wasn't a bad silence.
How did I know?
Back when I was on missions, I'd hovered around gambling tables whenever I had time. Sit at a table long enough and you learn something. No matter the country, the table might differ, but the silence is always the same.
There's a difference between silence that searches and silence that decides. I learned how to read that there.
Right now, it's the latter.
"Dwaejiko."
"Yes, Chief."
"Show her to the last room on the first floor and take her to the Hongbang at dawn. They said they need someone to clean."
"But Chief. A kid who just came from seeing a flyer..."
"Since when do I need your permission?"
Dwaejiko shut his mouth. A quick judgment.
"One condition."
The Chief's eyes smiled. His pupils didn't. At that point, it was the level of controlling each part of his face individually. I thought he'd be good at puppetry, but I didn't say it aloud.
"Don't talk to the guests. Live as if you can't be seen or heard. Can you do that?"
"Of course. That's my specialty."
"One more."
The edge of the whiskey glass pointed at me.
"When you grow up and become useful, I'm the first one to use that usefulness. Got it?"
I slightly lowered my head.
Deal struck.
The village chief’s lips curled up again. This time, his eyes joined in. A smile far more natural than before. As expected, people were at their most honest when they were getting what they wanted.
“Good. Go in and rest. Take a shower, change your clothes…”
The village chief broke off and looked down toward my feet.
“Pig Nose.”
“Yes.”
“Get this child some shoes. New ones, in the right size.”
***
The door closed with a click.
The village chief remained seated for a moment, slowly tilting the glass in his hand. The whiskey caught the lamplight by the wall and shimmered amber.
He waited until the footsteps had completely faded before opening his mouth.
“Come out.”
A shadow in the room moved. A piece of darkness clinging to the wall took on contours, then solidified into the shape of a person.
A short man with a narrow face.
He appeared without a sound, yet the air in the room shifted subtly. It was not colder, nor heavier. The density of the space had changed.
The man stood before the village chief and lowered his head.
“Why did you accept her?”
His eyes were turned toward the door. Toward the direction the child had vanished moments ago.
Instead of answering, the village chief set his glass down on the desk. The sound of porcelain meeting wood rang clearly through the quiet room.
“How did she look to your eyes?”
The man’s brow narrowed.
“She is a demonkin. However, she has none of the savage aura unique to monsters.”
“Aren’t demonkin only ever men?”
The man fell silent for a moment. It was a brief silence, but coming from him, it was long.
“That is a question for me as well. There has never been a case of a woman becoming demonkin…”
“Then is she an entirely new specimen? Did you determine her realm?”
“Judging by the mana flowing through her circuits, her realm can be estimated. She is a 1st-rank mage.”
The man’s brow tightened.
“However, I cannot confirm her core.”
“You can’t confirm it?”
“When one accepts a monster, the mana circuits extend from it and spread throughout the entire body. Naturally, there should be a core called a demon core at the center. A monster’s core does exist within that child’s body as well.”
The man paused briefly.
“The problem is, when I try to look into the core, the very fact that I am looking becomes blurred. What I am looking at, whether I am looking at anything at all—only the sensation that something is there remains.”
The village chief’s fingertips stopped on the desk.
“With my ability, there is no way to fathom it.”
The corners of the village chief’s eyes lifted slightly.
“That’s why I accepted her. Because I’m curious.”
“It is dangerous, District Chief. She is a hybrid unlike anything we have ever seen. Perhaps she may not even be human…”
The village chief looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then lowered his gaze.
“Who knows.”
He tapped the edge of the desk once with a finger.
“She seemed human to me. And with a rare face, at that.”
The man said nothing.
The village chief lifted his glass again.
“Where she came from. Who is behind her. How that body was made.”
He took a sip, looked down at the glass, and added,
“In that order.”
“Until when?”
“There’s no need to rush. Slowly, but without missing anything.”
The man lowered his head again. His body began to blur once more. His outline smeared, mingled with the shadows, and soon the wall returned to its original state, as if nothing had ever been there.
The village chief was left alone in the room.
For a while, he slowly turned the glass of whiskey in his hand. Each time the amber liquid swayed, the lamplight trembled. He thought of the child’s eyes from earlier. Eyes that were neither afraid nor tense. How long had it been since he had seen a child with eyes like that in this world?
The corner of his mouth rose slightly.
Something interesting had rolled in for the first time in a long while.