above - below - beyond

book 5: intel

"How long have you worked here Wheein?" Yongsun sat in her seat as she stared at her secretary and new friend while she played with the computer as she looked through the empty files.

"Not too long, probably about 128 years?"

"That is a very long time..." The young goddess chuckled before asking her next question. "And you worked beside Byul? What is she like? Tell me more about her."

Wheein pushed up her glasses before eying the new queen. "I worked by her side after her previous assistant was discarded. They were caught helping out souls, I think it was their relative or something. That was about 80 years ago." The female spoke before nodding, "we didn't speak much other than work. She was very particular of everything, not in a bad way of course! She liked things to be done in her way and she came to work early and leave work late. We never interacted anywhere else other than work. From what I saw, she was very lonely. Especially on days when she has to go to Olympus to meet the other gods and goddesses."

Listening to all of this, Yongsun felt sad. Even though she was under tight restriction of her mom, she wasn't lonely. She had a lot of earth spirit friends as well as human friends. "I'm glad you are here now, my majesty. I can see the difference in her." Wheein added with a huge smile, "plus, you look very nice! Unlike a lot of people in the past."

"What do you mean unlike a lot of people in the past?"

"Everyone knows that the three major gods – Jin, Ken, and Byul. Jin and Ken both are married meanwhile Byul was known to be a loner. A lot of people tried to come to the underworld and tried to court miss Byul just for the power and fortune. Too bad it didn't end well for any of them." The girl explained.

Yongsun was intrigued, "how did they come down here? I mean, not everyone can come down to the underworld."

"Some find death and trade their soul to be here and some kill themselves, thinking that'd be a pledge for Moonbyul. Too bad none of those people even got close with her. In fact, they got an even worse punishment." She said as she recalled a few incidences in her mind. "If I may, could I ask something too? How did you and Miss Byul get together?" Byul was always very secretive with her life, the fact that Wheein has never seen Yongsun even once in the underworld triggered her interest.

The young goddess was stomped by that question, what should she say? Should she tell the truth or should she sugarcoat the story of how they met? "Well. Long story short, I was tricked by her. Her and my father planned a trick on me and made me fall down here."

Wheein gasped, "r-really? So you don't really even like miss Byul?" The girl was a tad bitter due to the loyalty she had to the God of the Underworld.

"It's more complicated than that." Yongsun explained, scratching her head. "At first, I was scared. Who wouldn't. Then as time went on, I realize she was actually one of the good ones. Certainly better than my father." The girl ran her hand through her hair before smiling at Wheein, "anyways, can you tell me what my duties are?"

"Oh, right. Miss Byul has given you a more time consuming job. Death assignment and prayers. Every month, you will have a meeting with mister Minhyuk. He is moonbyul's right hand man and to be frank, he is death." Wheein started to speak. "There will be many names for you to go through, and each month, miss Byul will give you a certain number. That is the number the minimum quota you have to meet."

Yongsun's eyes widened, staring at Wheein with disbelief. "That number is the number of people I have to kill?" She asked, stuttering in between words.

"Yes ma'm. Like everything else in the world, the mortal life is an equilibrium." Wheein said nonchalantly. "Don't worry, miss Moonbyul made a software to make it easy. She has filtered out the people... how do I say this in a nice way, people who should die? Either it's a serial killer, criminal, people of old age, people with illness, etcetera."