By Zephyria 
“The higher-ups wrote this in their own kind way to help build rapport with the new recruits, so I just printed it as is. I’ll give you a properly drafted guide separately. Is there anything else you’re curious about?”
“The Management Bureau has been around for 1,300 years?”
“Yes. Even before then, there were shamans and monks who dealt with anomalies, but it was officially established during the Unified Silla period. Because it’s an institution with such a deep history, even the government can’t touch it. For now, we just maintain the appearance of being a government-affiliated agency.”
“Wow….”
“For your information, it was launched as the Water Abnormality Worship Management Bureau during the Gwangmu Reform period.”
Somehow, it felt like a shadow government. Shaking his head in amazement, Yoo Jiha asked another question.
“I’ve met someone referred to as ‘Jaga’ before. Who is that?”
“That’s information not disclosed to low-level employees like you or me, Jiha. All that’s known is that they are around 200 years old. Since ‘Jaga’ was a title used to address royalty or concubines, we speculate they might be a prince born to a concubine.”
That’s right. The meaning of the title Jaga came back to him late. Given the mention of the child having a guardian deity, they must have undergone a shamanic initiation. A Joseon prince being a male shaman… it felt like a hot iced americano.
With that, the new employee orientation roughly ended, and he was guided to the 7th Team of the Investigation and Exploration Division, where he had been assigned. Swallowing hard with nervousness, Yoo Jiha gave a deep, ninety-degree bow the moment he entered the office.
“Hello—”
“Aaaah! The rookie is finally here!”
“Welcome!”
Before he could even finish his greeting, he was hit by a wave of intense welcomes. It was the kind of greeting reserved for a fresh rookie dropped in as an emergency lifeline for a department dying from chronic overtime and weekend shifts.
If Yoo Jiha had just a bit more social experience, he would have sensed from that greeting that he was screwed. However, since his only social experience was part-time jobs during vacations, he was merely bewildered, and the team members quickly closed the door so he couldn’t bolt.
There were two team members in the office: a woman around forty and a man in his late twenties. The two quickly sat the rookie down and began feeding him snacks. As he munched on whatever they gave him, his tension eased considerably. The woman’s name was Song Hilda, and the man’s name was Kim Min-seop.
“The Exploration Division doesn’t have ranks below the Team leader, so you can just call us Sunbae!”
“I heard you’re only twenty-one? A total baby, a baby. You’re still in school, right? Which school?”
“I’m on break right now; I go to Seongyoung University.”
“Wow, you must be smart!”
“It’s an unpopular major, so there weren’t enough applicants, and I got in through the very last round of waitlisted admissions….”
It was only after the ice had been broken to some extent that he learned why they had welcomed him so fervently.
“During the last search, the Team leader suffered serious injuries and retired from field agent duties, one team member got too cocky and almost played jump-rope with their own intestines before being forced to resign, and the rookie saw that and had a mental breakdown and quit, leaving only two of us in the team.”
“What can two people do without a Team leader? We’ve just been tag-alongs, clinging to other teams.”
“But now our Jiha is here! And they said a new Team leader would be arriving accordingly!”
“The days of being a tag-along eating scraps are over as of today, Sunbae!”
“I’m not even going to eat kkakdugi as a side dish from now on!”
The two cheered, but a sudden wave of regret washed over Yoo Jiha. Three people were wiped out in a single search; was this really a normal department…? Moreover, what? Intestine jump-rope? He didn’t even want to imagine what that was.
‘I can’t even get a hold of that mister….’
He glared at his phone for no reason. If he could just contact Jeil Heon, he could soothe his anxiety, but that wasn’t possible. The man who had taken his number and said, ‘I’ll contact you as soon as I get a new phone opened,’ had still given no sign of life.
Whenever the anxiety that he might have been forgotten bloomed, he remembered Jeil Heon from that day.
〈I shall annihilate your fear and execute death.〉
That voice that said he would become his tool and live for him.
“…….”
The lurking anxiety turned into a faint tremor, making his heart throb. For some reason, he kept chewing over the scenery of that day. Yoo Jiha fiddled with his earlobe, which had a slight reddish tint, and shifted his gaze.
It was just as his eyes drifted aimlessly toward the firmly closed office door. Following a light knock, the door opened. Then, a tall man wearing a nightgown strode in and greeted them.
“Nice to meet you. I am Jeil Heon, and I will be working with you as the Team leader of the 7th Team starting today.”
“Oh, Mis—”
He reflexively tried to blurt out ‘Mister!’, but he quickly shut his mouth. However, Jeil Heon, having already heard it, met his eyes and gave a thin smile. Why is he smiling so prettily when he hasn’t contacted me once? Despite his grumpy thoughts, he couldn’t help the corners of his mouth loosen.
Yoo Jiha wasn’t the only one surprised. The other two team members couldn’t recover their stunned expressions.
“By any chance, are you that Enforcement Division agent who said he returned from an Aberrant Realm after twenty-two years?”
“That is correct.”
“No, why is an Enforcement Division agent in the Exploration Division….”
Tension was evident in Song Hilda’s voice. The question she truly wanted to ask was likely something else: whether a person whose Corruption Level was high enough to be identified as an Aberration was truly safe. She wasn’t the only one harboring such doubts; Kim Min-seop felt the same.
Reading the tension of the two, Jeil Heon first pointed to the Ji-hwan around his neck. Unlike a normal Ji-hwan, the surface was densely engraved with Hanja in clerical script.
“This is a modified Ji-hwan designed to explode if my Corruption Level spikes above a certain value. Of course, if I become an Aberration, the shock of my neck exploding is unlikely to kill me, but it should be enough to buy you all time to escape, right?”
Despite the joking tone of the last sentence, no laughter was heard. Jeil Heon continued his explanation with an indifferent expression.
“When I tried to return to the Enforcement Division, there was an issue with the seniority classes. The current Head of department in the Enforcement Division is from the 98th class. I am from the 84th.”
Song Hilda nodded blankly. Although the Annihilation Execution Department and the Security Office are departments that exercise the Bureau’s military force, the seniority culture isn’t that strict. However, if an 84th class member returned while a 98th class member was the Head of department, the hierarchy would get tangled, causing various inconveniences. Furthermore, according to rumors, Jeil Heon had also been the Head of the Enforcement Division before he disappeared.
“Moving to the Security Office was out, as they’ve had a bad relationship with the Enforcement Division for generations. And a desk job where I only move a pen didn’t suit me. For me, the Exploration Division was the best choice.”
“I understand the situation, but Team leader, do you also possess the true eye?”
“I used to, but I lost it while fused with an Aberration.”
“Then how can you perform the duties of the Exploration Division?”
Song Hilda’s question, once she had recovered from her bewilderment, was sharp. It was a natural question. The true eye is an indispensable requirement for searching an Aberrant Realm. If the Team leader leading the team cannot pierce the essence of an Aberration, their survival rate drops.
As if finding it amusing, Jeil Heon smirked and tapped the desk with his finger.
“I know what you’re concerned about. However, even without the true eye, I have the experience gained from dealing with anomalies for nearly twenty years, and I have the combat power of an Enforcement Division agent. I believe I will be sufficient for searching Aberrant Realms.”
“…….”
“And since I am currently in a temporary appointment period, if you find me lacking, you may submit a request for my dismissal. However….”
A playful tone returned to Jeil Heon’s speech.
“Not a single person was willing to take on the role of the 7th Team’s leader. Everyone claimed the position was cursed and said they wouldn’t go anywhere near it until the bad luck wore off. Anyway, Management Bureau employees’ faith in intuition and superstition is the same now as it was twenty-two years ago.”
At those words, Song Hilda and Kim Min-seop clutched their heads. Since more than half the team had been wiped out in one search, it was understandable that they avoided it, calling it ominous. If the roles were reversed, they would have acted the same, so they couldn’t even criticize it.
“Any other questions?”
“…….”
“Then, assuming there are no objections, I look forward to working with you.”
“We look forward to working with you!”
Yoo Jiha also answered energetically. He didn’t know the full details, but it seemed to have been resolved well. He would have been satisfied if Jeil Heon just escorted him during Aberrant Realm searches, but he was actually the Team leader. It wasn’t that he wasn’t scared of Aberrant Realms… but they were starting to feel like places a human could actually visit.
And Jeil Heon, in his unchanging tone, dropped a workload on them from the very first day.
“Practical experience is the best for team bonding, right? We’ll head out for an Aberrant Realm search immediately after lunch.”