Notes.

Totally random and unimportant announcement : I think I finally found the perfect opening for this story, and really, it's not interesting at all, but I just wanted to leave it here for the atmosphere. The song is titled "Shibuya Lights" (Kalax) and it's available on Youtube in case you would like to listen to it (it's still synthwave, we stick with a winning formula).

I would also like to take another moment to thank you deeply for your interest in this story (I came back to see the stats, and clearly, no, I wasn't expecting this, but I almost wept with joy).

CHAPTER LV

"It's easy to tell the difference between right or wrong. What's hard is choosing the wrong that's more right. "

(Edward Zwick, american filmmaker,"The Siege")

a. Feral children

The teacher of Baek Dong Soo and his wife's son showed up at the appointed time as accurately as if he had been time personified, and as the woman stood up and slid the doors of the main hanok to go and greet him in the inner courtyard, her husband politely invited them to come to his office to continue their discussion in peace. He had informed them beforehand that his son, named Yoo-Jin, was used to studying in the large main room, which was brighter than his bedroom, and had fewer temptations that could distract his co-ncentration during lessons.

He had woken up in the meantime and joined them of his own free will, just as his mother was about to drag him out of his bed. They were mentioning the discovery of gwishins hidden among the government members, most of whom had managed to escape in time, and whose status had been suspected only after the decree had been made public, when a rather tall boy had appeared in the doorway leading to the right side of the hanok.

He was very thin, built more like a reed than a young tree, with a face on which you could still see the curves of childhood, and with eyes almost as wide as Mago's, which she attributed to his physical growth. His hair was dishevelled, he was still looking a little groggy, and he was wearing night clothes that were half crumpled by what had probably been a very determined nighttime physical agitation. He hadn't uttered a word when he had noticed that the breakfast table was more crowded than usual, and it was his mother who, turning to follow the glances of Mago and her master suddenly fixed on the newcomer, had greeted him in a very soft voice, immediately imitated by her husband.

Mago didn't remember much about her childhood, or rather kept very localized memories, mainly from the last months she had spent with her grandmother. She knew, however, that she had never been particularly affectionate with her, despite the deep attachment she had felt towards her, which had been reciprocal. She had been an independent child, very little focused on the daily expression of tenderness people inspired in her, and adolescence had reinforced this disposition in the sense that she had suddenly felt a strong urge to fully possess her own space and identity.

In this regard, she was a little surprised to see the kid, who must have been her age or a little younger, docilely let his mother, after he had taken his place at the end of the table, next to Mago, ran a hand through his spiky hair to tame it as best she could, while gently laughing at her son's untidy state. His father slid the various breakfast dishes towards him, but Baek Yoo-Jin hadn't started them immediately, as he had been too busy with a very insistent observation of Mago's master that had lasted for more than a minute, and to which Yeo Woon had reacted awkwardly, with a brief and hesitant greeting, which didn't include any other words that wouldn't have been strictly necessary to establish a verbal contact.

The couple had warned them that their son had been informed of their coming, and knowing this, Mago had found at first his intense contemplation of Yeo Woon strange and a bit disconcerting. He had only taken a quick glance at her, not much assiduous, and had expressed no surprise to see her sitting at the breakfast table with her parents, event though she had never been there before.

On the other hand, he undeniably detailed her master from head to toe, which was a simple manner of speaking since the latter's feet were made invisible by the surface of the table, and his examination dragged on long enough for his father to finally intervene.

"Do you remember, son?" he asked him, and Mago heard that his voice was full of hope.

She concluded that the child had probably already met Yeo Woon, but the answer he gave seemed even more cryptic and enigmatic.

"The cherries," he blurted out, and everyone around the table had seemed to understand the reference except Mago, which had annoyed her more than being deliberately ignored.

She could do without being noticed, but had a much harder time being unaware of informations that were crucial to a more general understanding of an anecdote or story. Baek Dong Soo and his wife had made no secret of the satisfaction they felt from their son's response, while Mago's dead companion had suddenly seemed to want to to enter the inside of his cup of tea and disappear into it.

The kid had added nothing else, and attacked his breakfast very calmly, while continuing to study Yeo Woon sideways, while the latter was obviously doing his best to look like he wasn't aware of it. It was both comical to watch and a little despairing, especially when there wasn't enough information to forge a definitive opinion on the matter.

The conversation had then resumed, and their hosts had begun a review of the numerous arrests and raids by the police following the publication of the decree, in houses where gwishins had been spotted through the fire test. They mentioned, among other things, with morosity, the pain of the families who, having protected them in the greatest secrecy, had seen their resurrected loved ones taken away from them again.

In spite of the presence of Yoo-Jin, they also described the methods of torture perfected by the government, to which the dead found by the authorities were subjected, and their role in the formation of the army of the dead wanted by the king, which was supposed to repel external invasions more effectively than any other legion on the field.

At the end of the meal, and since the boy's private tutor had just appeared at the door of the house, Mago had nevertheless tried to clear things up a bit and asked Yeo Woon, while following Baek Dong Soo to his study, what the mention of cherries meant. He had then agreed to explain to her, in a summary way but nevertheless detailed enough for his pupil to be able to retrace the events, that he had met his friend's son a few months after his resurrection in 1776, while he was at the Spring House and obliged to disguise himself on the order of the director of the establishment to hide both his identity in a town where several inhabitants had known him, but also his status as a gwishin.

As he was ending his story by pointing out he had given the child, who was nine years old at the time, some cherries he had been asking for, while Baek Dong Soo had gone to welcome his son's teacher after having installed them in his study, Mago couldn't help but cut him off, reducing to nothing what must have been centuries of educational protocol :

"And you were dressed as a courtesan?" She inquired, concerned on the surface about the detail, in reality made curious by the idea of her so austere master wearing a silk skirt and a gache on his head. "You?"

"Yes."

"With all the equipment?" she continued. "The skirt, the jacket, the wig, the make-up, the jewels, everything?"

"For the most part," he confessed, frowning, and no, really, she couldn't visualize the picture even though she admitted that Yeo Woon wasn't unpleasant to look at overall. "With a jeonmo and a veil, for my face. Why?"

"For nothing," she replied with a lazy shrug. "I just don't quite understand how that kid was able to recognize you if you were in such a disguise."

Baek Dong Soo, returning at that moment to the study in a rustle of cloth and hearing the subject of their discussion, joined in with all the delicacy of a wild boar by adding his own little comment.

"Oh, he saw him without it," he said. "Before leaving the city, and without the skirt."

Mago showed her gratitude with a nod, while her master took advantage of the diversion to bring the conversation on another subject, asking their host about the situation of the entertainment house that had welcomed him and the dead gisaengs he had known there.

The young girl, whom the topic of the conversation no longer concerned at all, resolved to listen to it without paying any real attention until it settled again on a theme that could interest her, and she briefly drifted off into an inventory of their host's study.

It was a small room made a little darker than the previous one because of its location facing north, blocking direct access to sunlight, but which was nevertheless fairly well lit by a large window opening on the back of the house, and a small ornamental garden to which Baek Dong Soo's wife seemed to care deeply, and which she had extensively helped to develop and harmonize with a gardener who had already been at their service years earlier. Her husband's study was under the shade of one of their most beautiful trees, which he thought was a delight in the summer, and was furnished with the same elegant and luxurious restraint as the large central room.

There were several cabinets of all shapes, some very high and slender, others longer and thicker, whose multitude of drawers made Mago furiously want to open them all to discover their secrets, and two shelves whose levels were filled with documents or small decorative objects. Upon entering the room, visitors were immediately faced with Baek Dong Soo's work table, rather small but functional enough to be carried everywhere, surrounded by three cushions, one for the master of the house, and two others reserved for his guests.

Another small pedestal table with an oval surface, next to the work table and very close to the window, carried a brush pot and paper. High lanterns with paper panels and a wooden structure at the corners of the room completed its composition.

Her inspection was quickly completed and she was reduced to concentrating once again on the exchange between her master and their host. The former had asked the latter for news of the manager of the house of courtesans, and had been visibly surprised to learn that she had left her position shortly before the publication of the Royal Decree.

"She most likely knew what was going to happen due to her sources in the governments, who ran away themselves before the disaster," Baek Dong Soo said. "I hadn't seen her in the meantime, but I was able to talk to Su-Jin, who told me she had gone north. She may be in China. You didn't get anything from her?"

Yeo Woon shook his head pensively.

"No," he confirmed to him. "It was impossible by letter, and as you know, Mago and I had problems with the collective consciousness during our whole journey. I tried to reach her several times, and only succeeded on one occasion."

"Did she say anything to you?"

"Hardly anything. The echoes were blurred, and on the other hand, she informed me that she couldn't speak to me at the time I contacted her. I haven't heard from her since. I was hoping you could tell me more."

Baek Dong Soo seemed genuinely sorry.

"I have almost nothing myself," he admitted. "All I know is that she left Hanyang pretending to retire around the end of 1777, and that the other courtesans who were gwishins also vanished into thin air a few months later. They narrowly avoided the fire test. All the entertainment houses were checked, and they arrested gwishins in almost all of them."

"Hui Seon didn't warn everyone about this?"

"I don't know," their host confessed. "Knowing her, I think she must have passed on information through your shared mind, but I guess each of the gwishins based in the capital city then made their own choices. Perhaps many of them didn't think the government would go so far as to go after the living to find them."

"What about the bookseller?" Yeo Woon continued.

"The author of your Encyclopedia of the Dead ? I'm sorry, Woon-ah, I don't know either. I forgot about him, to be totally honest. But if you want, I'll go find out tomorrow, try to stop by his store, or Yun-seo can do it if I run out of time, I'll ask her."

"Do you know where it is?"

"No. But I can ask. Unless you have the address?"

"Hui Seon gave it to me," Mago's master assured him. "It's in a poor little shopping street, not far from the West Gate, which overlooks the Han River branch towards the sea. If you have a map of Hanyang, I can show you."

Baek Dong Soo happened to have one, and, believing the idea to be excellent and much more efficient than going looking for information left, right and center, got up to diligently dig through the drawers of the cabinets located behind Mago and Yeo Woon's backs, extracting in the process a sufficient amount of paper to replant an entire forest.

b. Synthesis

As Dong Soo's work table wasn't big enough to hold the map of the capital, the latter, when he found it, decided to unfold it on the floor, leaving his cushion and sitting cross-legged next to Woon to be able to follow more easily his instructions and to locate where the small bookstore was nestled.

The map was well drawn, and according to its owner as recent as possible, since he had acquired it less than three years ago, thus largely guaranteeing the veracity and accuracy of the schematic representation of Hanyang as well as the locations of the various addresses. Woon rotated the map so as to place the large main doors, which went southward, in front of them.

Over his shoulder, Mago was studying the contents of the map and its legend with obvious interest, and he almost guessed her intention to buy one as soon as she would have the chance. Dong Soo, for his part, waited patiently for him to find his marks and decipher the names of the main streets and buildings in order to locate Im Ji-Ho's store.

When he was younger, he had frequently been accused of being impatient and called a headstrong, and Woon remembered that Sa-Mo sometimes criticized him for being too abrupt and impetuous in his conduct, especially when performing tasks that required concentration and a modicum of thinking before acting. Dong Soo generally took offence at these criticisms, with varying degrees of vehemence depending on the nature of the blame, and defended himself by saying that it was the others who were too slow. His favourite argument was to claim that "someone had to do something", to which he was usually replied that "doing something" didn't mean "doing stupid things".

The confrontations he had with Woon at the time unfortunately tended to corroborate such warnings, for Dong Soo, while he was persevering and, all in all, very patient in his attempts to bring Woon down, was far too eager in his technique to actually achieve his goals.

However, and the more Woon had come to know him during the eight years they had spent together at the mountain training camp, he had also observed other things, contradictions to the first impressions Dong Soo left in people's minds, unsuspected and pleasant nuances to discover. Overall and on the surface, surely, Dong Soo was feisty and liked to go headlong without worrying too much about the consequences or even the more peaceful and, often, more profitable alternatives.

Nevertheless, in some circumstances, he had clearly demonstrated that he was capable of showing considerable meticulousness and cold stoicism, which caused him to be very cautious, or a sense of observation so sharp and an understanding so fine that they were at times disturbing, especially in the eyes of Woon, whose deep need to preserve his feelings, his opinions, as well as his own previous experiences, had been weakened by his gradual realization that Dong Soo was much more perspicacious and meticulous in his analyses than what his comrades and his guardian were willing to grant him, and more specifically as far as Woon was concerned.

The fact was that, in public, Dong Soo absolutely wanted to cause a sensation and prove thereby his physical and intellectual superiority over Woon, while failing miserably each time since his cocky attitude irremediably prevented him from taking into account the parameters necessary for his victory. On the other hand, as soon as they were alone, without the slightest audience to impress or convince, and since Woon knew him well enough for Dong Soo not to feel obliged to perform prowess at all hours, the latter would calm down, become more serious, more reasonable, would cease to want to play the peacock, and would immediately gain in merit.

Woon promptly found the street on the map, pointed it out to Dong Soo while determining a route from the location of the house to the position given by Hui Seon. Dong Soo listened without interrupting his directions, nodding his head from time to time while looking at the map and Woon's index finger outline, then asked him a few questions about the bookstore's looks, its possible neighbors, its distinctive signs, which were to help him find it faster once he would get there.

For a moment, Woon considered offering to accompany him, but resigned himself thinking it was better for the moment to stay safe at the Baek's house, and away from the eyes of the police brigades who were continuing their inspections. When Dong Soo rolled up the map again with the certainty that he had understood where the store was located and how to find it, it was past osi, and he offered them lunch while continuing their previous discussion.

His wife hadn't come to join them in the study, and as soon as Mago commented on her absence, Dong Soo told her that she regularly ate outdoors, either with her sisters at the Spring House, where she learned political gossip that could be very useful, or with friends of the family, sometimes with Ji-Seon and Jin-Ju, other times with Sa-Mo and Jang-Mi, although the last occurrence happened less and less as the latters had been limiting the invitations for four years, a phenomenon Dong Soo and his wife had been wondering about for a long time without being able to find a valid explanation.

"She also eats with neighbors, or other members of the Yeogogoedam," Dong Soo explained after they were served in his study by the cook, who had reappeared for the occasion. "There must be about fifteen of them in all in Hanyang, and the rest are scattered all over the country, mainly in the big cities."

Mago, who was always in a more curious mood than usual during meals, wanted to know if they all knew each other.

"It depends," he replied, and Woon noticed that he had already finished his second cup of tea and was about to start a third (compensation). "You have those who give their names and aren't afraid to be recognized, at least within the network, and then there are the ones who are more comfortable keeping their anonymity, and who attend meetings without ever revealing their identities and using aliases."

"What about you ? What category are you in?"

"The first one."

Dong Soo's chopsticks successively picked vegetables, pieces of beef marinated in sauce, and rice. There was a consistency and firmness in his rhythm that contrasted with his former frenzy, because back then it looked like he was starving and hadn't touched edible food for months, yet Woon would have been willing to bet that the portions he ate were the same size. Between the two of them, he and Mago could have largely finished the dishes alone, while Woon ate slowly and with a lesser degree of voracity.

They ate and spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the latest events in Hanyang and more generally in Joseon territory. Dong Soo informed them that the new repressive measures had spread to other cities in the country, including the fire test, and that some councils of local officials governing several provinces had expressed objections to it and to the violation of the privacy of the living in favor of the search for the dead.

When these complaints had been deemed too noisy, mainly because of the distance of the cities from the capital, which seemed to favour greater freedom of speech, Jeongjo had dispatched royal inspectors to deal with the problem, and to dismiss officials who permanently refused to comply with orders. In contrast to the capital, which had submitted willy nilly without any major real protest, but which had at the same time seen an increase in underground communications and clandestine assistance to the gwishins, the provincial towns had protested more forcefully, but had been gagged just as harshly and watched more severely, thus reducing the opportunities for the defenders of the dead to reclaim strongholds in them.

The central towns, most of which had been isolated during the resurrection waves because they were considered less advantageous and of lower priority than their coastal counterparts, had been among the most resistant to the methods imposed by the Decree, as they felt they had already suffered enough from the appearance of the gwishins, and found it inappropriate for the government to demand absolute obedience from them when it had done very little for their survival in the early days of the rebirths.

Although the strongest voices of opposition had been suppressed, the fact remained that anger was growing in the streets of these cities left on their own, having consequently acquired more independence, and unjustly punished for having simply made choices regardless of the government's will, and yet obligatory for them to continue to exist.

Only the cook came back into Dong Soo's study and interrupted their conversation while she was retrieving the dishes to bring them back to the kitchen. Later, as Woon was questioning Dong Soo about Go Hyang, who had presumably remained at the Spring House despite Hui Seon's departure ("the position was probably too good", he remarked, to which Woon replied with an approving nod) and whom he hadn't tried to see again since, Yoo Jin also stuck his head in the room to warn his father that his lesson had ended, and after a short descriptive report to him, he announced that he was going to accompany the girl they had seen the day before on an exploration of the surroundings of the abandoned Gyeongbok Palace.

"You stay together all the time," Dong Soo warned him in an authoritative voice that Woon had never heard before. "Where people can see you. You do not enter the castle grounds. And you come back before the beginning of the night, is that understood?"

The boy's head expressed all his submission to his father's directives, and then he indicated that, in any case, Iseul, the young girl in question, had to return at Yusi for her own lesson, and that he would therefore go home with her. Then he disappeared, and they resumed the discussion where they had left it.

Mago quickly wanted to know more about the tortures inflicted on the gwishins, and the subject brought along the question of Dong Soo's change of profession, as well as his new role in the government. He told them, while frequently turning his gaze to Woon and implying that the information he was giving was primarily directed at him, that he had left the training of young recruits very soon after Woon's departure, and had decided to devote himself entirely to his function within the Royal Bureau of Investigation, which seemed to him to be a wiser and more appropriate choice given his desire to reduce his alcohol consumption while at the same time avoiding making a spectacle of himself in front of the future soldiers, who didn't hold him in high esteem as a result of his teaching.

"You used to drink that much?" Mago wondered, with a sincerity that prevented her question from turning into an insult or sarcasm.

"Yes. It was a complicated time for me."

He didn't add anything else, and Woon was grateful to him for not dwelling on a subject whose limits and rules they themselves hadn't clearly defined.

He had definitively joined the bureaucrats in the winter of 1777, and he mentioned next the vacancy of a brigade chief position following the death of one of them in 1778.

"I hesitated," he told them. "At first, it was at odds with my principles, and Yun-Seo was afraid that my condition wouldn't allow me to do it."

"Why?" Woon asked him.

"Because of the alcohol. Well, more like my not drinking anymore. The first few months were hectic. The whole first year, in fact," he added after a hesitation.

Nevertheless, he had applied for the job, which was one of those strategic professions that the Yeogogoedam liked to have in their ranks, and which guaranteed him renewed favor from the king, greater financial stability, a valuable input of information on the intentions and methods of the government, and more power and freedom of action to help the gwishins behind closed doors.

As Dong Soo spoke a little about his new occupation, without going into too many details, probably out of modesty and concern not to shock them, and as his face took on a more taciturn, more tormented expression, Woon then thought about the dead couple who had sheltered him and Mago in Sokcho, and how much the man had had the same look as Dong Soo when he had described his incapacity from time to time to be able to act to save gwishins on the field.

"I'm doing the best I can," Dong Soo assured them. "My men don't know, and I don't think some of them would disapprove of my conduct, but I don't know them well enough to be absolutely sure. Every time I spot gwishins before them, I try to steer the brigade in another direction, which isn't easy to do when we have scouts, or I manage to make noise by walking on branches and reveal our presence, to give them time to flee."

"It's efficient?" Mago wondered.

"Not much. I have very little room to maneuver, and the slightest deviation is considered suspicious within the army. In the majority of cases, I can only shorten executions, and if possible torture, when I'm asked to attend it."

"You attend the torture of gwishins?" Woon repeated.

The finding, which he hadn't anticipated, almost left a taste of rust on his tongue, sour and unpleasant (look what he). Dong Soo nodded his head, listlessly.

"It's one of the duties of the brigade captains."

"And you give orders during torture?" Mago resumed, this time in a distrustful tone.

"I swear I don't. The captains take turns among themselves and there are some who like to override orders out of cruelty, but the fact is that we don't technically have to do or say anything during the sessions. The executioners know what procedure to follow and never ask us for anything. We're almost there as bystanders, and we simply make sure that the gwishins eventually break down and give what the government wants, which is their consent to join the army of the dead. Besides, I think this is primarily a means that the State Council has found to strengthen the loyalty of the military and to remove any attachment on their part for the Gwishins."

"Does it work?"

Dong Soo's eyes met his own, and they were confident, implacable, and adamant.

"No."