Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Chapter 76 Fare for the Afterlife (8)

"Goodbye."

"Miss, come again tomorrow!"

"You have to come again tomorrow!"

"Yes! I'll come again tomorrow!"

It was a farewell that felt strangely familiar.

Of course, it wasn't just the farewell.

Apart from skipping the part where she sat in the same seat as before and nervously looked around, nothing had changed. She played Blue Marble without winning a single game and went bankrupt time and again, just as she had before.

"Has she gone?"

"Yes, but she had companions waiting outside. If I'd known earlier, I would have invited them in. It's a bit of a shame."

"Heh heh. Those fellows are actual grim reapers, aren't they? I keep telling you not to invite them into your home."

"If three friends go somewhere and only one gets invited inside, the other two will be sad!"

"Lia is right! The fox is so narrow-minded that he's picky about who he makes friends with!"

"Of all people, you're in no position to make fun of me!"

"At least I'm friends with the shamans! The fox doesn't have anyone to spend time with outside except Director Baek Mahyeon!"

"Why, you little rascal!"

"If you all have enough energy to run around like that, please help me clean up the coffeehouse. Sani, how many times have I told you not to run across the tables?"

The dishes I'd piled up in the sink while making King Yama's present were still untouched, yet not a single person—no, supernatural creature—was helping.

___________

-Rrrrrumble.

"Hmm, hmm."

"It seems you enjoyed yourself, Your Majesty?"

Standing before the slowly opening Gates of Hell, Gangnim Doryeong casually posed the question to Yama, who was humming continuously.

He already knew what her answer would be, but he wanted to hear it directly from her.

"Did you know I've been here twice already? I played Blue... Blue... That's it! Blue Marble! Do you know Blue Marble? You can use money to buy land and put up buildings! Oh, and I had something called ssanghwa tea! It was so rich and sweet!"

Once Gangnim Doryeong's question opened the floodgates, Yama began chattering excitedly about everything that had happened that day, as though she'd been waiting for someone to ask.

All traces of King Yama's imposing dignity had disappeared. She looked like an ordinary woman, merely a little more scatterbrained than others her apparent age.

But her sparkling eyes and excited chatter lasted only a moment before her voice grew dejected again.

"I'll forget it all again when I drink the medicine..."

"With luck, perhaps you'll remember. After all, it doesn't erase every memory."

"And the day after that?"

"..."

He couldn't promise anything.

Even if today's memories survived until tomorrow through sheer luck, continued doses of the medicine of forgetfulness would inevitably erase them someday.

After all, the medicine had originally been created to make her forget the filthy sins of the mortal world she witnessed through the Mirror of Karma.

Memories of the mortal world like those she'd made today were especially likely to be erased almost entirely.

"By the way, where did you get that thing you're holding?"

"This? They said it was a present to commemorate my visit to the teahouse. A complimentary gift? Something like that."

That couldn't possibly be right.

It was a tablet, after all.

An expensive electronic device costing at least several hundred thousand won, perhaps as much as a million.

No café would ever run such an extravagant promotional campaign, even for its grand opening.

"Did the café owner really say that?"

"Yes, but I don't know what it's for. Maybe you're supposed to put a hot pot on it?"

"You turn it on like this."

Gangnim Doryeong pressed the power button on the tablet in Yama's hands.

-Beep.

The video showed a familiar place.

It was the coffeehouse where she'd just spent such a delightful time drinking tea and playing Blue Marble.

Then Jinseong appeared and greeted her in a gentle voice.

(Hello. I'm Kim Jinseong, and I run this coffeehouse.)

(I'm Lia!)

(I'm Sani!)

(Grandpa Fox, you should say hello too!)

(No, I told you I'm fine. You children do it yourselves.)

(But you have to say hello so Miss can remember you later.)

At Lia's insistence, the Nine-Tailed Fox reluctantly waved his hand a few times in an awkward greeting.

After those awkward introductions ended, the screen changed.

(Miss!)

(Huh?)

(Come inside! Hurry!)

Amazingly, the next scene showed the moment she'd first entered the teahouse.

There was the sight of her examining her first cup of ssanghwa tea, sniffing its fragrance with a rather foolish expression.

There was the sight of her hesitantly moving her piece while playing Blue Marble.

There was her disappointment when the game wasn't going well, though it was difficult to see clearly on the screen.

And even her broad, radiant smile.

Every moment of that brief visit to the teahouse had been preserved.

'So this is the gift that man wanted to give Her Majesty.'

Looking more closely, Gangnim noticed something written in bold letters on the tablet's frame.

【Memories That Cannot Be Erased】

It was exactly as the inscription said.

No matter how thoroughly the medicine erased her memories, here was a way to restore them over and over again, tens, hundreds, even thousands of times.

"Goodness, the air in the mortal world really is terrible. Let's hurry back. My eyes are stinging."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Gangnim Doryeong made no further comment on Yama's feeble excuse as her eyes grew red with tears.

He could vaguely understand what those tears meant.

_____________

In the early hours of the morning, when everyone was asleep,

I sat down at the table again, carrying two cups of coffee.

The Elder Nine-Tailed Fox, who had decided to spend the night at Lia's house, was already seated there.

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

"At my age, one naturally sleeps less at night."

"I can't even begin to guess what age that might be."

"Heh heh. Are you teasing me for having lived so long? You could do the same if you wanted, couldn't you? After all, traveling between the Celestial Realm and the mortal world changes how you experience the passage of time."

"Time simply flows faster in the Celestial Realm than it does in the mortal world. The lifespan allotted to me doesn't change."

"Who knows? If you were meant to live out your allotted years and depart, would they have opened a passage to the Celestial Realm for you? Someone whose life amounts to no more than an instant to the heavenly gods? You never know. Perhaps you're destined to become a heavenly god yourself."

"I don't particularly want that."

"What? Those who've spent hundreds of years cultivating just for a chance to reach that position would be furious if they heard you."

"Nothing in this world comes for free. If they offered to make me a heavenly god, I don't even want to imagine how much work they'd try to make me do. Even now, I'm studying video editing when I should be sleeping, aren't I?"

"Hmph. That's trouble you've brought upon yourself."

"Which is why I've decided to save all my self-inflicted troubles for the next life."

"Do you think dying will cure your habit of meddling in other people's affairs? Heh heh."

As the Elder said, I doubted going to the underworld would cure me.

After all, I'd already opened my laptop at this hour to edit a video for King Yama.

On the screen was the next video intended for her tablet.

Naturally, I'd never learned an advanced skill like video editing, so I was hastily trying to familiarize myself with the basics.

It was work I'd created for myself out of concern that the videos she needed to watch would grow three or four hours longer every time she visited our coffeehouse.

"Still, compared with you and the other supernatural creatures, King Yama is practically a saint."

"Hm?"

"At least she doesn't put me in difficult situations by forcing bundles of money or troublesome gifts on me."

"You ungrateful fool! The treasures you're wearing alone are peerless valuables that would make your life miserable if word of them spread. Do you think supernatural beings all live surrounded by piles of such treasures? Tsk! The raccoon dog and I happen to live particularly honest and modest lives, so..."

"Why did you stop talking?"

"There is no such thing as a free favor in the underworld. Those fellows cannot rest until they've repaid any hospitality they receive, no matter how troublesome the request. Now that she's accepted that tablet from you, she'll surely try to repay its value."

"Oh, surely not. King Yama simply thanked me."

In fact, my decision to give her the tablet had also been partly motivated by a rather petty desire to put an end to the immortals' troublesome demands that I ask Han Seun to play a few games of Go with them.

After all, it would be an inconvenience to Han Seun, who was already so busy that he rarely found time to visit the coffeehouse.

"Just wait and see. Heh heh."

And the Elder's warning proved entirely accurate.

Not even an hour had passed since he'd confidently told me to wait and see.

-Dong. Dong. Dong.

(Hey-ho, hey-ho, heya, diya, diyora. He departs, he departs, our beloved one departs. Must this body journey to the mountains of death? Hey-ho, hey-ho, heya, diya, diyora.)

Clear bells rang out alongside a mournful funeral procession song.

A funeral bier, in this day and age?

I hadn't heard such a sound in nearly thirty years, not since my grandfather passed away when I was a child.

Surely not?

I hurried outside and looked around.

Sure enough, a procession of pallbearers, easily several hundred strong at a glance, was approaching the coffeehouse carrying a massive coffin.

And when the procession reached the coffeehouse, it casually did the very thing I'd feared most.

-Boom.

The coffin carried on the funeral bier was set down directly in front of the coffeehouse.

"Why are you leaving that here? Excuse me! Hello!"

(Hey-ho, hey-ho, heya, diya, diyora.)

No matter how loudly I called, they paid no attention.

The pallbearers disappeared into the thick fog, leaving behind only a wooden coffin.

On its lid, the words 『Kim Family of Dangsan-ri』 were written in bold brushstrokes.

As it happened, I was the only member of the Kim family in Dangsan-ri.

"Elder..."

"Why are you looking at me with such resentment? I certainly warned you."

He had indeed warned me.

One hour before this coffin arrived.

"Surely there isn't a body inside?"

"It made a rather heavy thud when they set it down. I doubt it's empty."

"I suppose I'll have to open it."

"Tsk. Must you really open it just to confirm there's a corpse?"

"I need to find out who it is before I can decide whether to return them to their family."

-Clunk.

And so the coffin lid was opened.

Inside were things I hadn't expected in the slightest.

"Good heavens. Perhaps it's because she's the ruler of the underworld, but she certainly is generous."

What filled the coffin was none other than money.

Money of every imaginable kind.

There was Korean currency, of course, along with the imitation money used as fare for the afterlife, dollars, yuan, yen, and even mysterious banknotes whose countries of origin I couldn't identify.

There were so many different kinds that I wondered where she'd managed to collect them all.

"Don't even think about returning it. This coffin was brought here by a funeral procession and left behind. That means this place is where the money is meant to be buried."

In other words, both its source and intended destination were clear.

"For now, I'll bring it inside and think it over carefully tomorrow."

But even the following day, I still couldn't come up with a clear answer about what to do with a coffin filled with money.

『Baegang Bank: 543,201,668 won』

The only answer I'd managed to obtain was the staggering sum of a little over 543 million won after exchanging the currency.

The five million won the Elder Nine-Tailed Fox had once tossed down as payment for coffee now seemed positively angelic by comparison.

Since I'd received funeral money as payment for the ssanghwa tea, this money was clearly the price of the tablet I'd given her.

I'd effectively sold a secondhand tablet worth perhaps five hundred thousand won for a thousand times its value.

And knowing where the money came from made me feel indescribably uncomfortable.

Just how many deceased souls' funeral offerings would it take to accumulate more than five hundred million won?

I needed to get rid of it.

As quickly as possible.