GRR 96

The classroom was quiet. The teacher, wrote something on the blackboard. Some students paid attention, some dozed off, and others daydreamed. Kwon Chasa walked around the classroom with his hands behind his back. He examined the name tags pinned to the students’ chests.

Bae Jinah, Park Hyejeong, Oh Yukyung, Han Heeju. He repeated the four names Jion had given him.

“What day is it today? Hmm, the 29th? Then numbers 2, 9, and 11, come up and solve this.”

As the teacher turned to face the students, the classroom atmosphere grew slightly restless. Sighs erupted from here and there. Kwon Chasa leaned against the blackboard and watched the faces and name tags on the chests of the students stepping forward. But none of the names Jion had mentioned were there.

While the students worked on the problem, Kwon Chasa searched the classroom again. Finally, he spotted Han Heeju in the fifth section, fourth row. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find Park Hyejeong, Oh Yukyung, or Bae Jinah. Jion had simply relayed what Seon Ayoung had told him, so the information couldn’t have been wrong.

Confused, Kwon Chasa tilted his head, then turned back to check the classroom again. Something was stuck to the corner of the teacher’s desk. He went closer to take a look and saw it was a piece of paper labeled “Seating Chart.” He read the names on it one by one, but the three students other than Han Heeju were nowhere to be found.

Kwon Chasa left the 1st Grade Class 4 classroom and checked every classroom from Class 1 to Class 6. However, he couldn’t find the three students other than Han Heeju anywhere.

Unable to figure out what had gone wrong, Kwon Chasa frowned and returned to Class 4 of the first grade. Not long after, the class ended, and the classroom and hallway became bustling with noise.

He took a seat at the back of the classroom and watched Han Heeju. As soon as recess began, Han Heeju lay face-down on her desk, seemingly unable to join in the commotion. While the other students gathered to chat or play pranks, Han Heeju alone was on the outside looking in.

Han Heeju remained face-down on her desk until recess ended. Only when class resumed did she sit up, pull a book out of her desk drawer, and open it. No one approached Han Heeju, and she, in turn, did not spare a glance for her classmates.

Kwon Chasa took one last look at Han Heeju’s face before leaving the classroom. His top priority was to found out where the three people who were nowhere to be found in this school were. However, if those three were still living, there was little hope of tracking their whereabouts.

But it wasn’t as if there were no methods.

With Yeomra in mind, Kwon Chasa crossed the hongsalmun and headed for the underworld. As soon as he arrived at Yeomra Palace, he walked toward the main hall without hesitation, and before he could even reach it, he came face to face with Yeomra.

“Oh? Kwon Chasa, what brings you here?”

The others Kings stood on either side of Yeomra. The fact that Yeomra had set out with them, not attendants, meant she was on her way to preside over a trial. He had arrived at the wrong time, but it was fortunate that he had met Yeomra before she had completely left the palace.

“Are you going to hold a trial?”

Yeomra nodded in response to Kwon Chasa’s question, then motioned for the Kings to step back briefly before asking,

“Why? Is something wrong?”

“Please let me see the Mirror of Karma.”

“What?”

Yeomra’s eyes widened as she blurted out the question. He showed up out of the blue and suddenly asked to see the Mirror of Karma, it was only natural that she’d be baffled. After all, Kwon Chasa had even objected when she had previously asked to consult the Mirror of Karma for personal reasons. He surely knew that, in principle, it was forbidden for Kwon Chasa to peer into the lives of the living through the Mirror of Karma.

“Or you can look at it yourself and tell me what you see.”

“…Kwon Chasa, did you eat something bad?”

Yeomra asked seriously. Since he wasn’t the type to say something like this without a reason, they needed to talk a bit more. Yeomra gestured toward Kwon Chasa to lead the way and set off first. Kwon Chasa naturally stood [visit our site]beside Yeomra and began walking, with the other Kings of the underworld following behind.

“You do realize you could face disciplinary action for that.”

“I am aware. I also know that if Your Majesty turns a blind eye, this matter will pass without incident.”

Yeomra was momentarily speechless at Kwon Chasa’s confident demeanor. She wondered if this was really the Kwon Chasa she knew. After all, it was Kwon Chasa who had looked frighteningly serious when she tried to use the Mirror of Karma to see what kind of person Jion was.

“Since this is closely related to a task ordered by King Yeomra, you won’t just impose punishment without reason. After all, I can’t use the Mirror of Karma without your permission.”

Yeomra stopped in her tracks and looked at Kwon Chasa. The latter, who had stopped as well, did not avoid Yeomra’s gaze, but when her eyes turned gray, he quickly lowered his own. He had sensed that Yeomra was reading his thoughts.

“Kwon Chasa, why are you looking away?”

“…….”

“Has something changed in your heart?”

“…No, that’s not it. It’s just work-related.”

Yeomra knew Kwon Chasa better than anyone else. Having kept him by her side and watched over him for over 300 years, it was only natural. She could also tell that some kind of change had taken place within him.

After a brief moment of intense contemplation, Yeomra decided to first figure out what exactly Kwon Chasa meant by “work.”

“Is it related to that soul who’s refusing to come to the underworld?”

“Yes.”

At his reply, Yeomra fell silent.

“Hmm…”

It seemed that the soul mentioned in Jion’s letter was still causing trouble.

If she stepped in, bringing that soul back would be no trouble, but that was the grim reaper’s duty. It was a task repeated to atone for sins committed in a past life by collecting the souls of the deceased, there was no reason for her to step in and bring the deceased back herself. Naturally, there was no reason to help either. Kwon Chasa had never once asked her for a favor either.

“Why are you acting so out of character? You could just threaten her into coming.”

Knowing Kwon Chasa’s methods, Yeomra spoke indifferently to test him. She wondered why Kwon Chasa had made such an uncharacteristic request. Ever since descending to the living realm, whenever he made a choice that defied expectations, the root cause had always been that living person, Jion.

Yeomra nudged Kwon Chasa with her elbow and asked.

“So it’s because of Jion?”

Kwon Chasa turned his head around to look at Yeomra upon hearing that unexpected name. His attempts to rationalize to himself that it wasn’t because of Jion were rendered meaningless, since even Yeomra had stated it so definitively, he couldn’t refute it.

“Otherwise, there’d be no reason for you to suddenly insist on looking at the Mirror of Karma out of the blue.”

Yeomra now had a playful smile on her lips.

“It seems our cute living person has been up to something amusing again.”

Yeomra murmured to herself. But she still frowned, as she had many questions. She spoke again just as she resumed walking.

“It’s really strange. Why does Jion help you so diligently? I know you made a contract, so he’ll get his reward later… but even taking that into account, he is incredibly proactive.”

“……”

“Do you know why that is?”

Kwon Chasa, who had been listening silently to Yeomra’s words, couldn’t bring himself to answer. It was because something Jion had once told him came to mind. At the time, Jion had changed the subject, so he hadn’t given it much thought.

‘They say the underworld can see whether the family or friends of the deceased have done good deeds or not. So, I was doing this in the hope that if I sent the ghosts to the afterlife, my mom might receive a lighter punishment….’

It was a story related to the Sixth Hell, the Kalsan Hell, ruled by Byeonseongwang. It involved reducing a sinner’s punishment by considering how their remaining relatives or acquaintances in the living world were faring. If Jion’s mother had wandered the living world for a year, her sins would not have been treated lightly, and her son, Jion, would have also influenced whether her punishment was reduced or increased. Jion was just a child, so Byeonseongwang probably didn’t consider him all that important.

A lot of time had passed since then, so it was highly likely that Jion’s mother had already been reincarnated. The justification for risking danger to help the deceased had all but vanished. Jion still didn’t realize that, which was why he couldn’t bring himself to simply ignore ghosts.

‘I like you, Chasa-nim.’

He didn’t know why that thought had popped into his head at that particular moment. A preposterous notion lingered in his mind: perhaps the reason Jion was so eager to help him wasn’t just because of the contract, but because he actually liked him.

He had always pushed Jion away, telling him to stop talking nonsense, but now he didn’t know what to do, and everything had turned into a mess. His head told him he had to make Jion give up on him, yet part of him kept dwelling on the confession he’d made.