TINL Ch 2

“Wait a minute. Every time Director Myung is nominated for the Finance Bureau director position, Grandma Mago rejects her. Would she accept Grandma Mago’s instructions after being treated like that?”

“Ah… Right.”

Just as the assistants’ shoulders slumped, Mago, approaching with a champagne glass, smiled brightly and shook her head.

“No, Director Myung is the answer. Call her right now and tell her that if she completes the mission, she’ll get the Finance Bureau director position. She’ll fall for it hook, line, and sinker.”

“…You’re not actually going to give her the position, are you?”

“Of course not. Do you think it’s possible to remove all those stubborn gods on Earth and end human civilization within a hundred years?”

“No.”

“Exactly. That’s why we’re putting Director Myung forward, so she can suffer all the hardship and take all the blame. That’s why we’re making it conditional on completing the mission. Because it’s a mission she’ll fail.”

Mago’s sinister plan was to extend the deadline after Wol struggled and failed, saying, “As expected, 100 years was too much,” and then take the credit for the eventual success.

‘She’s planning to take all the credit for finishing the job after Director Myung works her butt off and gets fired.’

Mago put her arms around the shoulders of her assistants, who exchanged silent glances, and patted them.

“Guys, celestial maidens like Director Myung are there to be used and discarded. Don’t you know that yet?”

“….”

“What are you doing? Hurry up and contact Director Myung and set up a meeting.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The assistant who first mentioned Myungwol’s name quickly made the call.

༊·˚

Mago’s assumption that Wol would immediately accept was completely wrong. Wol flatly refused the offer and then remained unresponsive. Finally, Mago, growing impatient, led her assistants and barged into the Lunar Palace on the outskirts of the Heavens.

“Ms. Mago! Our director is currently…”

“Look at the audacity of these moon dwellers. They don’t even call me Grandma.”

As the irritated Mago shook off their arms, the lunar maidens who were trying to stop her tumbled backward. Mago clicked her tongue, extremely displeased with Wol, who didn’t even lift her head despite the commotion.

“Director Myung is really good at playing hard to get. I thought she only did that with men, but she’s making me anxious too?”

“What reason would I have to play hard to get with you?”

Wol, dressed in a white pantsuit with her long hair neatly tied back, shook her head slightly. A sweet peach scent and the cool fragrance of moonlight water spread with her small movement.

A woman who aroused desire with her mere presence. A woman whom the Lunar Palace Master cherished and called Hanga, even among the lunar maidens, who were said to be the most beautiful in the celestial realm.

The assistants, facing the protagonist of the scandal who had crawled from the underworld to the Lunar Palace with only her body, licked their lips with malicious glee.

“Since you’re busy, please state your business quickly and leave. If the Lunar Palace Master finds out you barged into my office like this, there will be another bloodbath.”

“Do you think I wouldn’t know that, after losing my nine sons and husband to your Lunar Palace Master? I came after sending her on a business trip because I’ve been through it.”

“You shouldn’t be so relieved just because she’s on a business trip.”

Wol muttered as if to herself, keeping her gaze fixed on the monitor, not even glancing at the uninvited guests. A faint, hopeful smile spread across Wol’s lips as she seemed to be thinking about something. A small gasp escaped the assistants, who were staring at her in a daze.

“You guys, really! Are you here to assist me or to admire flowers?”

Finally losing her patience, Mago burst into irritation, and the assistants hurriedly looked away, coughing awkwardly. Mago, looking down on Wol, who captivated people regardless of gender, walked towards her desk.

“Director Myung. You received the call from the TF office, right?”

“I did. And I told them that my answer wouldn’t change even if you visited me in person.”

“You’re not so foolish as to not know what a great opportunity this is. So your resistance can only be interpreted as you wanting a power struggle with me. What do you think?”

“I think you’ve misinterpreted it. I simply want to fulfill my duties as the head of finance, ensuring that the Lunar Palace Master has everything she needs for her work.”

Mago’s assistants bit their lips. Every time Wol applied for the Finance Director position, Mago had always rebuked her to her face, telling her to stick to managing the Lunar Palace’s budget under the Lunar Palace Master.

“…Honestly. I didn’t know you’d remember that and use it at the most annoying time. Can’t you be a little more broad-minded?”

“I guess my capacity is small because I’m a celestial maiden of human origin. Just think of it as a lowly being fundamentally different from you.”

That too was an insult Mago had hurled at Wol. Mago, looking down at her irritating opponent, tapped Wol’s desk with the tip of her shoe.

“Let’s let bygones be bygones. I’m Grandma, the highest god of the Korean Peninsula. This Grandma even swallowed her pride and came to you personally.”

“I’m sorry I can’t give you a positive answer, despite your long journey. Please, see yourself out.”

Wol replied in a calm, unwavering voice and simply nodded her head in farewell, as if further conversation was pointless.

“Why are you so cold?”

“I wonder. Perhaps it’s because I’ve hand-washed clothes until the frozen moonlight water becomes lukewarm with my blood. You probably ordered that laundry too, Ms. Mago.”

Wol retorted calmly, covering a short sigh with her hands moving over the keyboard.

‘My hands, so damaged that I can barely move them even with gloves woven from moon rabbit fur, my body, barely creaking even with all sorts of medicine poured into it… I’m a mess.’

For 600 years, the harsh words and punishments inflicted by Mago had ruined Wol’s body, while her heart had been tempered like unmelting ice.

“Director Myung. You’re sitting there thanks to me. You know that, right?”

Mago, frowning with no trace of guilt, leaned forward, placing her hands on Wol’s desk.

“Thanks to you, Ms. Mago?”

“You know I handled the divorce proceedings so your ex-husband, Gusang, could separate from you. If I hadn’t separated the two of you then, the Lunar Palace Master wouldn’t have picked you up. So, you should consider your current position as a Lunar Palace maiden and director as all thanks to me.”

Wol tilted her head slightly, tracing back through the past.

Myungwol’s ascent to the Heavens was against her will. A twisted fate unlike any other – an ordinary human who fell into the underworld, battered and bruised, only to become a maiden of the Lunar Palace.

That arduous life was all due to that trash, Gusang, whom she was forced to marry hundreds of years ago. He, the Sun God banished to Earth, had wagered Wol to return to the Heavens. Whether Wol could kill her former fiancé or not.

‘Those things, using someone else’s fate as a bet for the ascension of a mere fallen Sun God, calling themselves gods…’

Wol gritted her teeth, recalling the humiliation and pain of that time.

Wol’s hell began when Gusang, having won the bet, ascended to the Heavens with her in his arms. Unable to withstand the heat and pressure emitted by the Sun God, Wol’s body crumbled, and Gusang, disgusted, abandoned her at the entrance to the Heavens. Consequently, she became a rare, grotesque spectacle in the Heavens, where only beautiful beings existed. Mago, who had come to observe the current trends, suggested divorce to Gusang, branding Wol as the Heavens’ first divorcee.

Tracing back through the past, she retorted coldly.

“I didn’t even know that I was registered in the divine registry as a god’s spouse. I didn’t know that a red line would be drawn over my name if I got divorced. And I certainly didn’t know that being marked meant being cast into the underworld for defiling the divine registry.”

“…What do you want me to do about what you didn’t know?”

“I’m saying that you owe me a debt to be settled, not a favor.”

“Oh my, dear. Is ignorance a privilege? Are actions committed in ignorance not sins? I simply did what I had to do as the highest god, so what debt?”

Wol, as if it wasn’t worth arguing any further, firmly closed her lips and only increased her typing speed on the keyboard. Sensing the reproach in the keyboard sounds echoing through the quiet office, Mago tilted her lips crookedly.

“You ended up in the Lunar Palace Master’s favor after cleaning up dirty underworld money, so it’s ultimately thanks to me, right? The debt is between you and Bae Sunwoo, not between you and me.”

“…Who?”

“Bae Sunwoo. The Bae scholar who died innocently because of you. Forgotten him?”

How could she forget?

Wol’s hands, which had been casually typing, stopped abruptly on the keyboard. Mago lifted the corners of her lips.

“Bae Sunwoo, like you, died with his whole body crushed, and Grandma Seolmundae took him in. Earthly gods like Grandma Seolmundae have such useless meddling tendencies.”

Scoffing softly, Mago tossed the documents she had been waving at Wol.

“I thought it was about time you were registered in the divine registry after about 600 years of training, so I decided to hire you as Director Myung’s bodyguard. A kind of internship program?”

“How can I work with the person I killed?”

“It’s alright. Most humans forget their past memories once they go through celestial training and are registered in the divine registry.”

Wol briefly shook her head, trying not to reveal her racing heartbeat. Grandma Mago leaned towards her, whispering a subtle threat.

“If Director Myung keeps refusing, Bae Sunwoo will keep scrubbing floors under Grandma Seolmundae and die without even being registered in the divine registry. You know better than anyone how painful it is for a divine body not to be registered, don’t you?”

“…….”

“I’m making this offer because I believe you’re not trashy enough to kill a man you’ve already killed once. Bae Sunwoo also specializes in purification and regeneration, like the Lunar Palace Master, so try sucking him dry. You’re the one who latched onto the Lunar Palace Master and became the Lunar Palace Hanga, so it shouldn’t be a problem to manipulate a fledgling pre-god like Bae Sunwoo.”

Wol, unable to respond to Mago’s baseless insults, stared blankly at the documents that had fallen on the back of her hand.

‘Bae Sunwoo.’

The three syllables choked her.

An icon of ‘twisted fate.’

That’s how people mocked her. Wol, once called the most eligible bachelorette with both beauty and talent when she was human, was now just a shell, having lost even the energy to argue against nonsense. Every time Mago looked down on her like this, Wol bitterly ruminated on her wrong choices from long ago.

Her worst choice was deciding to marry a man other than Bae Sunwoo. At that time, she had no choice. The threat to kill her few remaining family members if she didn’t break off her engagement with Sunwoo and marry a man she’d never met before. The moment the man she thought would become her father-in-law threatened her with a knife. Seventeen-year-old Wol had no other recourse.

‘Back then… I should have resisted and said I wouldn’t marry that Gusang bastard, even if I died.’

Regretting it now was too late. Wol, unable to even caress the nostalgic, sorrowful, and guilt-ridden name with her fingertips, simply stared at it blankly before lifting her head. Finally, their eyes met, and Grandma Mago raised the corners of her lips.

“I was going to scold you for acting so pricey when you’re nothing special. But every time I see you, your face is worth the price, so I can’t say it.”

“You’re saying it all anyway.”

“Of course. Do you think I, a Grandma, should be wary of a moon dweller maiden? Of the woman who bewitched my husband and sons?”

Wol scoffed. She swore she had never bewitched anyone. They had rushed at her of their own accord, made a fuss, and then been pierced by the Lunar Palace Master’s arrows.

Mago, countering Wol’s scoff with another, slammed her hand on the desk and shouted.

“Every time the doomsday clock ticks forward a minute, the Union gives out a success bonus. I’m giving it all to you! Work, money, men… I came bearing a gift set of everything you live for, so how can you treat me like this?”

Wol, fixing her gaze on Mago’s hand, stated her demands with a bright, moon-like face.

“Give me full authority so that no one can nag me, no matter what happens or how much it costs. Then I’ll do it.”

“Giving you full authority is a bit much, dear.”

“There’s a very high chance of unexpected situations occurring during the eviction negotiation process. It’s hard enough to coax, persuade, and fight to drive them out, but if I have to go through section chief, deputy director, director, and committee chairman approval lines, nothing will get done.”

“…That’s true.”

“Oh, and please guarantee me immunity from punishment, no matter what happens.”

“Immunity is crossing the line, isn’t it?”

Even though Mago raised her eyebrows, Wol remained steadfast without even flinching.

“Someone who will grit their teeth and work hard while enduring dirty and despicable things. Someone who will try their best, even knowing they’ll be the scapegoat with a 99% chance of failure. Is there anyone more suitable than me?”

“I’m dangling the Finance Bureau director position in front of you, even though it makes my stomach churn, because there’s no one else.”

“You not only dangled that, but you also gave me the burden of Bae Sunwoo.”

“It’s too much to call the man who died because of you a burden.”

“Even if it’s me, even if Bae Sunwoo is involved, you have to give me the level of authority I just mentioned for me to move.”

After a long staring contest, Mago reluctantly backed down.

“Alright, alright. Sign it.”

“Please resend the contract with my proposal and a clause stating that you will register Bae Sunwoo in the divine registry after one year. Regardless of the mission’s success, he will be registered after one year. Then I’ll sign the document and get started right away.”

“Director Myung is… becoming increasingly fearless?”

“You’ve given something to protect to someone who has nothing to lose. I have no choice but to be fearless. And.”

“And what!”

Wol deliberately paused, then pointed her chin at the desk where Mago’s hand rested.

“I don’t think you realize that there’s Woljeop (Moon Butterfly) scale powder on where your hand is. You know the powder from the wings of the butterflies that live on the moon, right? You probably also know that it’s a poison that digs into the skin and rots it upon contact.”

“What? Are you crazy…!”

“It wasn’t me, it was the Lunar Palace Master who sprinkled it. She tends to be overprotective of me.”

Mago frowned, looking alternately at her own hand and Wol’s glove-covered hand.

“Are you taking revenge for ruining your hands like that?”

“I hope you can resolve the protest and treatment amicably with the Lunar Palace Master. If you ask nicely, our maidens, whom you just tossed aside, might give you something like first aid. You should hurry before your hand rots.”

Mago shuddered, glared at Wol, and turned away, disappearing. Wol traced the name on the document Mago had thrown, then pushed it into the shredder and lit a cigarette.