Book 20 Chapter 9

Spirit, Receive

-Mysterious Black Death

The next morning.

Mongmu and Fangmu left the two of them to guard the luggage at the shop, and the spirit went out into the street alone. It was comfortable to have two people watching over her, but sometimes she felt like she was being watched, like she was being held captive, and it made her feel strangely tight in the chest. She wanted to be alone, and the excuses were plentiful, so she picked one that worked and stepped outside. It felt like a breath of fresh air.

"You said east dock, I think?"

If the woman was telling the truth, there must be a path leading to the Great Hall. I decided to go there first to get some fresh air.

As the spirits predicted, the pavilion was not on land; it was on water, so when asked where the pavilion was, most people would not be able to say, "It's in Dongzheng Lake," because that would not be an answer.

It was so large that a small country on the periphery could fit entirely within it, and to ask for the location of the Great Hall of Heaven to be located somewhere within the vastness of the Great Hall of Heaven was to ask for navigation without a nautical chart.

Among the seafarers, it was known as Pluto. There were only a limited number of boats that went there. Other fishing boats dare not go near it for fear of being killed. However, they are very well behaved because they are protected as long as they do not trespass. There is only one dock where you can catch a boat to the Temple of Heaven, and inside the small teepee at the entrance to that dock is a small desk, with a banner beside it that simply reads "Receptionist.

"What can I do for you, young lady?"

A black-clad student sitting alone in a small reception room, writing with a brush on a piece of paper on the desk, stopped what he was doing and looked at the spirit with a blank stare. He had a young and observant face, no older than his late twenties, and his eyes were like a still night lake, so deep and dark that you couldn't read his thoughts. His expression was as blunt as his tone, devoid of the slightest hint of emotion. I doubted there was any blood circulating in his face.

"Of course I'm here to take the Kabbalah exam."

Why ask for the obvious, the Turo spirit replied.

"A maiden like you?"

The black-clad student asked doubtfully.

"Gosh, I just can't get past that. What if she's a virgin, what if she's married? Isn't it common knowledge that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover? Am I wrong?"

The spirit was furious, but the black-robed student's response was calm and concise.

"Wrong."

The black-robed student replied bluntly.

"Why is it wrong?"

The spirit, a bit dumbfounded, asked.

"Because your argument is still unorthodox in this stronghold, and most strongholds still judge people by their appearance. Common sense is what is accepted by the majority, so you'll have to wait a few decades, maybe even centuries, for your argument to become common knowledge, which may never come, so you're wrong."

"That, that's sophistry!"

An angry spirit cried out.

"You're being ridiculous."

The black-robed student replied simply.

"What, what, did you finish?"

The spirit was somehow even more disintegrated. The more I listened to him, the more angry and resentful I became, because his ramblings sounded so reasonable and cooked that I almost believed him.

"What, all these men?

I don't know why, but when I saw the man sitting there, I felt anger rising from deep within me.

"What's your name?"

The black-robed student's question was so out of the blue that it stunned the spirit for a moment.

"What?"

It was a pathetic question, she thought.

"I'm going to get you in, but I need to know your name first."

The black-robed student tapped his brush against the inkwell a couple of times, and said, "I'm not bothered.

"It's a spirit."

"What's your last name?"

"This is Mr. Mong."

"Age?"

"Twenty… four."

"Huh? Twenty-four is a little late. People usually give up at that age."

"We had an accident."

The spirit replied, fiddling with a strand of hair that fell to one side and covered her left eye. She wasn't wearing an eye patch, but she wasn't blind either; her left eye couldn't see anything. The black-robed student watched her for a moment before turning her attention back to the papers.

"Where are you from, private or family, whatever."

He dipped his brush into the ink again.

"It's a dreamscape."

The spirit replied.

"Dreamland? Was there such a place?"

"I know, I'm from there, you can tell when you see me, right?"

"Where are we?"

"That's a secret."

"You don't know?"

The black-robed student threw a passing jab.

"Are you arguing with me? I was born and raised there, so why don't I know? Aren't you supposed to teach me the location of the clans and their strongholds in the Black Sea? Isn't it just like that?"

"You're right, I can't argue with that."

He wrote "unknown" in big letters in the location field again. But even then, there was still a lot of blank space on the paper. She felt that she had to tell him that if he thought he could recognize her from that piece of paper, he was gravely mistaken.

"What else am I supposed to write in all those blank margins, which seem pretty small to fit my life into?"

"We'll have to wait and see, and it's better to have one than none, at least it's more evidence."

The black-robed student replied bluntly.

"Are you married?"

"I'm still single."

The spirit replied sharply.

"So do you have a lover?"

The question, asked in a nonchalant tone, suddenly made the spirit blush.

"Uh, what kind of question is that, asking me something so personal like what does the exam have to do with my lover?"

"I'm only asking because you asked me to write it down. If you have a lover, you might be distracted by it and think it's interfering with your training. Do you have one or not?"

He repeated the question as if it was none of his business.

"Uh, no, not yet……."

"Not yet… So you don't have a crush on anyone, or have your heart set on anyone, or have your sights set on anyone?"

"You're being a little persistent."

"We're just trying to be safe."

The black-robed student was still weak.

"If there's anyone who has my heart, there is, and my life belongs to him."

The spirit's face flushed slightly as he answered.

"Are you sure you mean it?"

The black-robed student asked in a serious voice. The gracefully draped right arm of the spirit soared into the sky.

"Are you doubting my sincerity?"

The displeased spirit spat out a single sharp word.

"Couldn't that be false?"

But the black-robed student didn't budge; he'd said all he had to say.

"Genuine, unmistakable, and untrue! How can you not know your own heart? How can this affection be false?"

"You're welcome, Mr. Sojae, but most people don't know their own minds, and since minds are formless, they can be formed sincerely or falsely. Why isn't there such a thing as hypnosis?"

"Are you telling me I'm hypnotized or something, because this guy wants to see me!"

The spirit screeched.

"I didn't say that, don't jump to conclusions."

Even in the face of the Spirit's wrath, he only shrugged once.

"Well, they're all assholes, and they're all rude!

That's not something you say on a first date.

"Anyway, I'm serious, and if you keep talking about it anymore, I'll take it as an insult to me."

He then raised his hands slightly in a gesture of surrender.

"Don't forget that now, for as long as you mean it, it's as surely genuine as anything else, and then he'll be happy, and I envy him whoever he is; he'll be the happiest man in the world, or… the unhappiest!"

The slightest shred of emotion flickered from the black-robed student's impassive mouth, appearing and disappearing for a moment like a flicker of sunlight on ice, but the panicked spirit didn't notice.

"Is there anything else you need?"

"No. The original Black Sword doesn't sweat the small stuff."

"Isn't it a bit of a stretch to ask that earlier?"

The spirit gave him a sour look and gave him a pin.

"Think what you will. There are two things that are most important in order to be admitted to our mansion, one of which is, of course, skill, and the other is……."

Instead of answering, he thrust his palm out in front of her.

"What is this palm?"

The spirit asked, pointing a finger at his palm, which stretched out as if it could hold the sky.

"Give it to me."

"What do you mean?"

The spirit shook his head and asked.

"Did you take the test here without knowing that?"

"I don't know."

Najik sighed, and the black-robed student taught him bluntly.

"Examination fee!"

"Is there such a thing as a test fee?"

"Sure. I can't work, and I'm tied up for days at a time doing this, so what can I do? There may be freebies in the world, but there are no freebies on the Black Island."

With a look like a monk speaking the truth, the black-clad student said.

"How much?"

The black-clad student stretched out five fingers.

"Five pieces of silver?"

He clenched his hand once, then released it again.

"Nope. Ten gold coins."

"What? Ten gold coins? Isn't that too much?"

Wide-eyed at the enormity of the sum, the spirit protested in a harsh tone.

"The Black Sword Sect has a lot of money, and a Black Sword Sect without money is an incompetent sect, and incompetent sects usually produce incompetent disciples. We don't need incompetents, so I think it's okay to charge this price."

"Are you saying you can measure skill with money?"

"To a certain extent, yes, especially in the blackness of a world where personal ethics are seen as a mere nuisance and 'money' and the ability to accumulate it is an absolute."

It was a very sobering assessment.

"So what's the average candidate like?"

"Usually a thousand to fifteen hundred."

His eyes widened at the enormity of the number.

"That much? I guess we won't have to close for a year."

"What's the use of playing, I'm in business. Money is a multifaceted thing, especially on the Black Isles. The Black Isles are not sustained by nebulous values like honor or justice. They are sustained by money and power, and the webs of money are so intricate that where there is more money, there are more places to go."

"Okay, that makes half the sense."

The spirit nodded.

"Why did you leave the other half?"

The black-robed student asked.

"But sometimes you don't have to have money to be talented, right? Maybe you're a disciple of a silver genius?"

I just didn't want to lose. If he was convinced, he would somehow feel defeated.

"Generally speaking, black reapers retire, but they don't retire. Of course, there are some who retire and live in secluded mountains. But even then, they still pay their dues, and there must be some wealth that they have secretly accumulated. If there is none, they must be incompetent, and then they are not reapers. Now, if the deceased were a white man instead of a black man, it would be different, but if he were a black man, he could not be without wealth."

"That's a pretty extreme idea, but who knows, maybe a master can come in white or black?"

"You are quite persistent. Yes, that's a pretty sharp point, and yes, I've been known to do that sometimes, though not often enough."

"Right, and what do you do in that case?"

"Just in case that happens, we give penniless candidates a small chance, but we're not so mean that we don't give them any options. On the contrary, it's the physiology of blackness that we don't care where you come from as long as you have the ability."

"What are the opportunities?"

"If they want to do that, they can go through any gate."

"What gateway?"

"Well, you're a curious fellow. You'll get to the Tower by any means necessary. You don't have to use a regular ship, that's fine. Just……."

"But what is it?"

"We're not responsible if you die, it's clearly stated in the Terms of Reference. You must read it and sign it at the end."

The spirit read where he pointed his finger.

"You are doing this test of your own free will, and I will never hold you responsible if you have an accident or even die during this test."

And there was a signature next to it.

"Quite a few people give up at that point. What would you do?"

He handed over the paintbrush he had used to paint the food. The spirit did not hesitate to take the brush and then said.

"Of course I'll sign."

It was never my intention to step back this far.

"Do you want to pay the fee or do you want to try for the special gate?"

"Hmm… I'll just pay the test fee."

After some thought, the spirit replied.

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"What, is that weird?"

"No, I just had a feeling that the Sojae I knew would have chosen the special gateway."

"We just met today, didn't we?"

"Someone else's story. That's a good idea. That's wise. A swordsman is not one who takes the high road, but one who takes shortcuts. But……."

"Isn't that kind of cowardly?"

"There's no cowardice in the black, where it's not the process that counts, but the outcome, and that's the black, and if you step into it with a clumsy mind, you're in for a big surprise."

"Is that a warning?"

"It's just simple advice, in fact, it's so common sense and obvious that it's not even a warning."

"I'll remember that. Here are ten gold coins."

The Black Student opened the lock on the chest next to him and pulled out a card.

"Here, take this card, and board the red-flagged boat that reaches the dock tomorrow at the stroke of dawn. Show them this card and they will give you a ride."

"What if they say they don't?"

The spirit asked in a slightly mischievous voice.

"I wouldn't risk it. The fish here are full enough. Even if you did go in, you wouldn't be very welcome. Maybe you'd leave."

It was a much scarier word than drowning.

"Thanks for the advice, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye. I probably won't be around tomorrow, but good luck."

"Oh, that's a shame, thank you, and by the way, we didn't even go by our full names. We just met today, but I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other often in the future, so let's go by our full names. I know my name, so why don't you tell me yours?"

"……."

The spirit was silent for a moment as he asked the question.

"Why? Don't you want to know?"

"No, that's not right. My name is… My name is……."

The black-robed student, who had never been shy about speaking, was struggling to get a single name out of his mouth. For some reason, in the spirit's eyes, it seemed as if he was having a fierce struggle with himself. Finally, as if the determined party had won, the man spoke.

"is… person……."

"What? I didn't hear you right."

The black-robed student looked up with a determined expression on his face.

"I'm only going to say it again once, so listen carefully. My name is Eunmyeong."

"Huh?

Suddenly, I felt a tingle in my chest. It was an unexplained tingle. Where had he heard this name before? The spirit rolled it on his tongue, once, then savored it slowly.

"Silver Name…? I don't know who named it, but it's a weird name, and I'm sure they didn't think much of it."

The spirit smiled broadly. The man, who introduced himself as Eunmyeong, did not smile.

"I think so, too."

"Who built it? Father, mother, or grandfather?"

A gleam of agony flashed in the black bibliophile's eyes.

"I don't need to know, goodbye."

"Chet, minus one. Okay, see you soon."

Accepting the black card, the spirit turned on his heel and walked back to the table where he was staying.

Sana'a glanced behind him. His eyes, which had been as calm as a lake at night a moment ago, were churning with intense fury.

Just then, a sharp-eyed man carrying what looked like a long, broad stick wrapped in a black cloth on his back approached him and said politely, "Yes, sir.

"If you'll excuse me, my lord, the great council is about to begin."

The black-robed student's movements stopped as he tidied up the table.

"Again, you call me lord."

Without turning his head, the black-robed student spoke in a disdainful tone.

"Sin, I'm sorry. My mistake, Captain."

"That's all you need to know. Remember, I am not your lord now. As you have hidden your own wings, so have I hidden my name."

"and I'll keep that in mind."

The black-robed student nodded lightly, gathered up the 'papers', and rose from his seat, glancing back once more to watch her disappear.

Although it had cost more than she had budgeted for, the spirit's steps were very light as she made her way to her seat after successfully completing the entrance examination process. She was now thinking about the black-clad student she had met at the Narutor earlier. Even though she had never met him before, she felt very familiar with him. He was unnerving for some reason.

"Eunmyeong……."

Roll it a couple of times, savoring it like you would a cube of ice in your mouth.

"That's a weird name."

Now, when I say the name, my heart doesn't tingle a bit like it used to.

It was tongue-in-cheek.