Team Leader, Let’s Retrieve the Transmigrators First!

Lee Jinwoo felt as though he’d gone on a wonderful trip before dying.

And the feeling of being thrown back into harsh reality…

“Haa, look at this. My clothes are all torn. That’s why you shouldn’t have climbed such a tall tree.”

“It was a forest where it was difficult to secure a clear line of sight. I climbed up so I could see better.”

“What does visibility have to do with sensing a transmigrator’s presence?”

“Come to think of it, your stamina really is a problem, Iryeong-ssi. Even if our abilities are restricted inside original works, how can you not get down from a single tree by yourself?”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to simply not climb that kind of tree in the first place?”

…didn’t last very long.

Lee Jinwoo was in the middle of a difficult farewell to a world he’d grown attached to in his own way, yet a conversation that made it impossible to maintain the mood was coming from behind him. Jinwoo, who had been gazing wistfully at the world he would never visit again, squeezed his eyes shut.

“I gave up my vacation, went on a business trip, and even took charge of training the new hire. I wanted to at least enjoy the scenery.”

“That damn vacation. Can’t you just go now?”

Iryeong asked, slightly irritated after listening to him complain about it throughout the entire business trip. Kangmu looked away and trailed off evasively.

“Well, yes, but…”

They were exchanging exactly the sort of conversation one might hear in an office break room. Absurdly enough, listening to them made Lee Jinwoo remember that he’d worked at a company while alive. Working diligently through late nights and weekends.

Remembering his past, when he’d been worked so brutally that he’d even developed an incurable illness, made Lee Jinwoo a little more depressed.

What did any of it matter? He was already dead.

With a hollow laugh, Lee Jinwoo called out to the two, who were still bickering without paying him the slightest attention.

“Excuse me.”

“Ah, yes.”

At some point, the smiling Iryeong’s platinum-blond hair had turned black, and his eyes had turned black as well. But his overall impression wasn’t much different from how he’d looked in the original story, so Lee Jinwoo didn’t particularly feel as though he were looking at a different person.

“What happens to me now?”

“We’re going to have your sins reflected in the Mirror of Karma^[1], Lee Jinwoo-ssi. The sins you committed in your original world and the world you transmigrated into will be added together, but you weren’t transmigrated for very long, so as long as you didn’t cause any major trouble, there shouldn’t be any additional punishment. Don’t worry. You didn’t do anything particularly bad over there, did you?”

During his brief time as a transmigrator, he’d never lived in a way that harmed anyone.

If anything, he’d almost had something bad done to him.

“No.”

Lee Jinwoo nodded at Iryeong’s question. Watching him, Iryeong added in a gentle voice,

“Then you’ll be fine. Don’t be too nervous.”

“Okay…”

“Has the deceased Lee Jinwoo arrived in the Underworld?”

Just then, employees of the Mirror of Karma Team, fully dressed in judges’ robes, came out to meet Lee Jinwoo and escort him away. The moment he saw their frightening appearances and overbearing demeanors, fear filled Lee Jinwoo’s eyes.

Iryeong clicked his tongue and spoke as if soothing the frozen Lee Jinwoo.

“Don’t be afraid. They only look like that. They’re not people who will harm you, Lee Jinwoo-ssi. Souls are the most precious beings in the Underworld.”

There was envy mixed into Iryeong’s words. Ordinary deceased souls like Lee Jinwoo went through the proper process and looked forward to their next lives. It was different from Iryeong, who had sinned in a previous life and was bound to the Underworld, unable to reincarnate and forced to perform labor.

“Follow them. And from now on, I hope you’ll let go of all the bonds and lingering attachments you have to the mortal world and the world of the original story, and move forward.”

Iryeong deliberately spoke in a bright voice.

This was the first soul he’d retrieved and guided to the Underworld after becoming a Soul Retriever. He wanted to properly send off a soul who had been given the opportunity he himself didn’t have, and he wanted to cheer on Jinwoo’s new beginning as well.

Kangmu, who stood a step back and silently watched the scene, wore an odd expression.

Iryeong could feel Kangmu’s gaze, but he pretended not to notice and bent at the waist, giving the soul he’d retrieved a deeply respectful final bow.

“Then I sincerely hope you embark upon the path of reincarnation safely and swiftly.”

“Ah, yes… Thank you.”

Lee Jinwoo returned Iryeong’s courteous bow. Then, as he turned away, Iryeong’s kind voice reached him once more from behind.

“I hope you’ll live a long and healthy life in your next life!”

Lee Jinwoo’s steps, now carrying less hesitation, slowed for a moment.

They were words of goodwill that truly made the bridge of his nose sting.

Note/s:

[1] Mirror of Karma / 업경
– The eopgyeong is a mirror associated with Korean Buddhist ideas of the afterlife. It is said to reveal the good and bad deeds a person committed while alive and is used in the judgment of the dead. The novel humorously turns this religious concept into part of an official Underworld department. ↩