episode_0045

045 – One reason is enough to rise again

Boni was the most beautiful girl in the village. While other girls brushed their dirt-stained hands on their skirts, only Boni tidied her hair with dust-free hands. All the men admired her, and the boy Bones was no exception. But she was the daughter of the village head. Bones was an orphan who lived in that house, eating crumbs.

“Bones, look at this. It’s a baked potato. You’ve never eaten something like this, have you?”

But Boni often came to find Bones, offering him potatoes. She would find fault with his work and bother him.

“Puhaha! If you make the chicken coop that low, all the chickens will fly away!”

It was petty teasing. And Bones liked that Boni even more.

But Boni was betrothed to the son of a very rich man from the village across the way. Status. Wealth. Education level. Appearance. Way of speaking. Boni and Bones were not suited for each other in every way.

The wedding was drawing nearer. Boni approached Bones, who was doing difficult work as usual, and said.

“I… actually, I don’t want to marry that person. He already has three other wives. What would be the point of me joining them? So, Bones. Won’t you run away with me?”

“Me? What nonsense are you talking about? If you and I run away, what about the village head? Who will take care of these chickens from now on? And your fiancé will send people to chase us. We’ll have to live running away our whole lives.”

There were countless reasons not to run away. But Boni’s thoughts were different.

“You like me, don’t you? And I like you too. That reason is enough.”

Boni and Bones. There could have been over a hundred reasons why the two of them couldn’t be together. Nevertheless, one reason was enough for them to be together.

They ran away to a distant place. To a land where no one remembered their names. Across the sea to Troy.

Bones settled there with Boni and barely gained recognition through immense effort.

“Bones, I think I’m pregnant.” “…Really?”

Good things kept happening. Bones was even afraid that he might be too happy.

Perhaps that was why.

“Ship, it’s a ship!” “That’s the fleet of the Greek Allied Forces!” “The Greek army has invaded Troy!”

It was an extremely long war. Because the child born when the warships swept onto the beautiful sandy beach like waves had already turned 10 years old. Bones’ daughter Libby grew up without ever having seen a beautiful sandy beach. On the seashore Libby saw, warships with various sails always rose high, casting shadows.

But one day. The ships began to retreat.

“Extra! Extra!” “The war has ended!” “The Greek army is retreating! It’s a victory for our Troy!”

The end of the long, long war. The man Bones, who had been an excellent soldier, breathed a sigh of relief. Because he thought he would be able to teach his daughter, born amidst the war, what peace was.

But. When people jumped out of the giant wooden horse. His hope turned into despair, hazier than fog.

“On the last day of the Trojan War, the Greek army acted unusually cruel and ferocious. As if to be compensated for their suffering until then, they advanced into civilian homes and mercilessly massacred the people.”

Sergeant Bones ran away with his family, avoiding the angry soldiers. But the boat that should have been prepared at the lakeside was destroyed. Soldiers in front. A lake behind.

“Ha, you cunning rascals. You’ll be caught anyway, so why run?” “Since you made us suffer, we can’t just kill you easily.”

Countless blades pierced Bones’ body. His tendons seemed severed and his internal organs torn. Several bones were broken too. There were plenty of reasons why Bones couldn’t rise. But, one reason was enough for him to rise.

‘No, is it two now?’

“…Bones!” “Dad!”

Bones burned his soul and prayed to all the gods. That his wife and daughter would not be trampled to death by the terrifying soldiers.

“I don’t know which god heard my prayer then, but my wife and daughter became trees like this, you see. Thanks to that, they were able to avoid being harmed by the soldiers.”

That day, Bones collapsed and died next to his daughter and wife, who had turned into trees. However. His wife and daughter were still alive, unlike Bones, because they had turned into trees. Because they did not die, they are not in the Soul Society.

Bones lived on alone in the Soul Society. Commemorating his wife and daughter who had become trees. For several hundred years, alone.

At that time. Whether by coincidence or fate, a rift connected to that day’s lakeside, leading to the surface world, appeared before Bones.

“I did not report this rift to anyone, you see. I had resolved to serve the gods eternally as a price for protecting my wife and daughter, but the moment I saw these trees… I ended up getting greedy, you see.”

Bones came to see the trees every day. Even though he couldn’t even talk to them. Because merely being with them made his empty chest feel full.

How long would the trees’ lifespan be? Manager Bones worked hard, waiting for his wife and daughter to someday come to this “Soul Society,” and even secured an excellent new apartment building. One year, ten years, one hundred years─. As too much time passed, he gradually grew tired and lonely.

“When my wife and daughter come here, I might already have become a ghost who has lost his memories, you see. So I….”

“Manager Bones-nim, no matter how many excuses you make, you have committed an illegal act. You can’t avoid disciplinary action, right? I am now an audit team employee. That means I cannot pretend not to see even a report.”

# # #

“Assistant Manager Joy, let’s smoke a cigarette for a moment.”

One day. Manager Hector called me. The rooftop garden. After taking a few puffs from his cigarette, he opened his heavy mouth and spoke.

“Joy, I heard that you personally operated on Manager Bones a while ago. Thanks to that, I heard Bones was fired. To be banished to a subsidiary, and then to lose his job on top of that…”

“As an audit team employee, I simply did what I was supposed to do.”

“It would be natural for an audit team employee. Even if he was a superior who had done you a favor, to mercilessly crack down if corruption is seen. That’s a natural thing. But…”

Manager Hector lightly poked my chest with his hand.

“Aren’t you still a living human? Aren’t you a person with hot blood flowing and a wildly beating heart! Are you really okay with that? Even if you turn away from the cries of your soul for the sake of advancement?”

“……”

“Bones was my acquaintance from when he was alive, you see. I know him well.”

Manager Hector seemed to be angry at me. The cause must have been that Manager Bones confessed to me about his illegal use of the surface world passage a while ago, and as a result, he was fired.

“You did the right thing. But he was my close friend, you see. There was also a story worthy of sympathy. Perhaps that’s why, even if my head understands you, my heart tells me not to forgive you, you see.”

Manager Hector, though just a skeleton, seemed to have much compassion. Ding-dong-ding-. At that moment, the giant clock of the main office announced quitting time.

“Manager-nim, then I’ll be leaving work now.”

“……”

Manager Hec-nim looking at me with narrowed eyes. He seemed about to say something more, then closed his mouth.

I left the main office just like that. And with quite accustomed steps, I arrived at a certain lakeside.

“The air of the surface world always feels good. There’s a freshness you can’t experience in the underground world, which is full of fine dust, no matter how many air purifiers you run.”

A crudely built cabin that hadn’t been there before stood next to the trees. Manager Bones, the skeleton guard who was hammering a sign that read “Guardhouse” onto a post, saw me and his eyes shone.

“Ah, Assistant Manager Joy, you’ve come!” “Is the guard duty manageable? It’s not easy to be working in the field after such a long time, is it?”

“Haha. Not really. I left my hometown and wandered the world, doing many different jobs, you see. But after all these years, I finally feel like I’ve found my true calling. I like this job. Joy, it’s thanks to you.”

“Me?”

“Didn’t you recommend me as the guard for this lakeside? I heard you personally made a suggestion to the Chairman-nim. Thanks to that, I’ve been able to stay here without worrying about anyone’s opinion!”

Saying that, Manager Bones tidied the fishing rod placed by the lakeside. It sounds good to call him a guard, but in fact, he’s virtually just someone’s fishing spot manager.

“Joy, I have never seen an employee as excellent and outstanding as you, you see. With you, I really don’t know if you might become an executive.”

“Oh dear, me, an executive? Please don’t say such frightening things!”

“Yes, you would say that, wouldn’t you? The reason you’re trying to become an executive is truly a bold one, enough to surprise everyone, you see. You could even call it blasphemous.”

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s probably not the reason Manager Bones-nim is thinking of.”

“The tree you’re trying to climb is far too high. Honestly, I want to say it’s impossible, you see. A mortal becoming an executive? That’s an absurd notion, isn’t it? If I were to list the reasons for failure, there would be over a hundred, you see.”

Bones, an employee who was once promising even at the main office, predicted my failure. That there were over a hundred reasons for me to fail was rather good.

“But. I hope you succeed, you see. Therefore, it’s a story I heard recently while having various chitchat with ‘someone’ who fishes at this lakeside, you see.”

If it’s someone who fishes at this lakeside, there would only be one person, wouldn’t there? So, just as tension needlessly filled the air, Manager Bones added.

“They say his only daughter has been suffering from a terrible cold recently, you see. A lovely daughter suffering from a cold, you say. As a father, I can sympathize with how much heartache that must cause, you see.”

A cold? Isn’t Melinoye-nim a goddess? Do goddesses also catch colds? Of course, Melinoye-nim isn’t just any goddess. She was a nymph and a goddess. So it seems she also catches colds.

‘So that’s why I hadn’t seen her these past few days. For some reason, her face was flushed even when she bestowed the commendation certificate upon me. It was because of a cold.’

“If things go well, wouldn’t it be a good opportunity to score points?”

That’s true. Therefore, doing nothing was the right course of action for me. Because I shouldn’t score points. However. A cold that a goddess catches. I was someone who originally loved Greek and Roman mythology so much that I even wrote a thesis on nymphs. I had interest in a cold a goddess catches, in an extremely personal sense.

Swoosh-. It was then, as I came out of the rift. A skeleton was standing at the rift entrance, and I thought Manager Bones had used some kind of clone jutsu. Of course, this one was a bit more of an elite skeleton. You could even call him a boss monster skeleton.

“Manager Hec-nim?”

“I knew it was wrong to listen to other people’s conversations, you see. But I heard everything you and Bones talked about. Joy, you… you were a man with a passionate heart, I see! To volunteer to be the villain yourself!”

The gleam in Manager Hec-nim’s eyes fell drop by drop as if they were tears. He even tightly hugged my shoulder.

“The audit team and your old superior. Duty and compassion. I can’t even imagine how much you must have struggled between them, you see. In such a situation, you found the optimal answer. Even if it were me, I don’t think I could have done it, you see.”

No! If I start to be favored even by the main office manager, things will really become hopeless!

‘Plus must be defended with a minus!’

I hastily turned on my terminal device and uploaded a post to the internet.

“Plant Gallery” “Title: The Story of Two Trees” “Do you know about the laurel trees with a heartbreaking story?” “This goes back to the Trojan War a very long time ago….” └Chicoreta: To think there’s a tree with such a heartbreaking story…. └Chicoreta: Laurel leaves are good for colds, so I guess I’ll have to go pick some.

The disliked medicine. I swallowed it! If the Chairman-nim’s wife bursts into his secret fishing spot. It would naturally be me, the instigator, who would be viewed unfavorably. Then I would be fired from work like Manager Bones, and I would be able to go to the surface world.