Requiem of Subdued Souls

Right now, in this inn, one person and a hundred thousand evil spirits were in the midst of a tense confrontation.

Everyone was on edge about this, yet no one heard the sound of approaching footsteps, nor could the presence be felt.

It was such a strange thing.

An expert.

Seol Young gathered the qi in his eyes and examined the man. But surprisingly, he couldn’t feel any spiritual energy from him. It felt like he was a normal person.

What was he?

Originally, Seol Young wasn’t someone who paid much attention to other things. Even if given four eyes, he wouldn’t care.

Yet this situation called for it, so he observed the person closely and figured things out.

First, the age?

He looked around twenty years old.

And clothes?

Mostly black and had a couple of threadworks that looked expensive. He could tell this man was a noble.

And the attitude and character?

Although there was this laid-back look, there was elegance too. And it felt like he was thoroughly educated.

Seol Young came to this conclusion—a noble who must have come to visit the temple. He must have felt bored after coming along with his mother or sister and decided to sneak around but got lost.

‘Pathetic. A waste of such a face.’

Seol Young gave him the cold shoulder.

The man had the kind of face that people would follow just by looking at it. A cool and calm noble. And there was this distinction from just his face that people wouldn’t get tired of looking at.

Seol Young didn’t like these types of people.

‘I hope such people disappear quickly.’

Seol Young was judging this man, who was looking around the inn.

“…”

This wasn’t a place or sight for people to see.

A young man who was about to turn twenty years old was now fighting evil spirits. As if they had clashed a couple of times earlier, the place was a mess.

The man was probably going to run back.

Seol Young thought so.

But…

Surprisingly, the man wasn’t too surprised. He just glanced at the bottle in front of Seol Young.

“In the middle of something? It is so noisy that I came to check out this place, and my throat is dry, so I should have a drink too.”

Then he sat down at a random table.

This was bold.

Seol Young clicked his tongue.

People of high status and well-off families never did a single task for themselves. Even among them, there are exceptions. And there were strong people too.

They were the kind who didn’t care about ghosts. They continue to live happily, not caring about anything else.

However, this felt too weird.

Wasn’t this like being companions to the underworld right now?

‘As I thought, he must be the annoying kind.’

Seol Young had no choice but to get up and approach the noble.

At this moment, the man stopped mumbling and looked at his hand. His expression was strange.

‘Is he sober yet? Or did he fall asleep?’

Seol Young wasn’t sure, so he opened his mouth.

“I apologize for the noise. I didn’t know that people were staying here.”

The spirits looked at the two, but they didn’t care.

“But this inn isn’t open for business now. Neither the owner nor the clerk working here can serve drinks as they have already fled.”

He just stated what happened.

As if he had lowered his guard because he was talking, the evil spirits moved to attack him, and Seol Young swung his sword without even looking at them, and flesh scattered everywhere.

“As you can see. This place is full of evil spirits. I know that this is a bit of a hassle, but you will have to find another inn.”

He spoke calmly.

“Aha.”

Said the noble in black as if he was impressed.

“Is it the strange sound I have been hearing all this time, then?”

That was when he looked away.

On one side of the inn, there were piles of things that the customers had left as payment for the alcohol, and he was suddenly interested as he walked up to them.

Seol Young was losing it.

He came to the man and talked because he was busy, yet the man acted like he didn’t hear his words.

He knew that not every human was normal, but this guy seemed to be on a different level.

“Noble hyung.”

Seol Young called out coldly.

“Did I explain it in a manner you cannot understand? Or do you have a disease where you make it hard for people who try to be polite to you? Staying here will make you get in the way.”

Yet there was no response.

“To be honest, I don’t care if you die or not. However, the number of ghosts will increase, and dealing with more of them will be hard.”

Still, the other party was busy rummaging through the customers’ things and trying to open a fan. He also shook some jewels and other stuff.

‘Should I just throw him out?’

He was so angry that he thought of doing it. He knew that these kinds of people wouldn’t listen to others.

And even in the toughest of times, they make the situation harder for others. Maybe throwing him out will bring him to his senses?

“Grrr…”

And as he thought, among the spirits here, low-ranked spirits began to gather.

Even if they couldn’t defeat Seol Young, they must have judged that it would be better to take down a weak one.

Target the weaker of the two prey. In other words, they were beginning to attack again. They were moving silently.

‘It seems like they are going to run away after getting the blood from his body.’

Seol Young tightened his grip on his sword. He decided that when the evil spirits moved, he would wipe them out all at once.

And the noble still hadn’t moved.

The spirits were sneaking up and reaching his back as he continued to casually look at things.

The eyes of the spirits were glowing red.

“Kiik!”

They screamed and moved, but the next moment, something unexpected happened.

Before Seol Young’s sword, Blue Rainbow, could move, the evil spirits were cut down as they fell like rain.

The noble dressed in black clothes had cut them to pieces.

And in his hand was a Ring-Headed Blade.

‘That is odd.’

.

Seol Young’s face changed. Surely he couldn’t have noticed this weapon until now. He held a fan in his hand.

Even Seol Young didn’t see him switch from a fan to a blade, pull the blade out of its sheath, and use it.

And that wasn’t all.

What was even more shocking was the reaction of the noble.

“Hm?”

The noble looked at the corpses of the evil spirits, which fell like maple leaves around them.

“Could it be that this happened because I pulled out my blade? No, why come when you are in danger?”

He clicked his tongue.

If someone didn’t know and saw it, they would be fooled. He had really just thoughtlessly pulled out his blade and accidentally killed spirits.

But as if that were possible.

Seol Young had gone stiff.

The Ring-Headed Blade wasn’t a good weapon. Even if was paid much due to the name it held, it wasn’t much different from a regular weapon. And unless it held spiritual qi, it was only an ordinary blade. One couldn’t cut down formless evil spirits with it.

“Grrr…”

The evil spirits looked angry.

Humans normally get intimidated and scared when they see other humans killed in such a way. But these evil spirits were the opposite. The smell of blood and flesh was something that stimulated them.

“Kuaaak!”

In the frenzied mess, they pounced on this noble.

And it was the same this time too.

Once again, the blade drew an arc very cleanly.

“Ah, this. I hope no one comes around.”

He mumbled.

Seol Young had the chance to observe this time, and he finally found it. This man was hiding his strong spiritual energy. Seol Young hadn’t noticed it before.

If he had polished his spiritual qi and reached this level, then he would surely be a person related to the clans.

However, two swipes of the blade were insufficient to reveal anything.

Yet he was sure of one thing.

Seol Young looked at the floor, and the bodies that fell were smoothly cut.

And upon closer inspection, he noticed something odd. The flesh that was cut by the blade looked merciless, as if a blunt sword had been used.

This was something he had never seen before.

This man’s strength seemed to surpass the leaders of the sects. He appeared to be slightly superior to Governor Jin Rim as well.

But was this possible?

Seol Young stared at the man.

And when their eyes met, he just shrugged. He had a cold look, as if he was indifferent to everything around him.

And now it felt clear that this unknown man had come here with some other intention.

Seol Young spoke coldly,

“Which clan do you belong to, senior?”

“Senior?”

The man smiled.

“Why are you pretending like we are familiar with each other? Did you think I would let you go alive then?”

He spoke like this was fun, yet his eyes held murderous intent. It was clear he wanted to kill Seol Young.

At that moment, the evil spirits, who were waiting for a chance to attack, lunged at him, and he swung the blade with all his might.

“Wait. It feels like the priority is being pushed back.”

*Bang!*

Dozens of spirits flew back. Everything around him was getting crushed and broken. His strength was good enough to shatter the walls in the inn.

Seol Young had a suspicious feeling.

‘He is not in the right state of mind.’ 𝗯𝐞𝗱𝐧𝐨𝘃𝐞𝐥.𝗼𝗿𝐠

As things continued like this, one should be agitated, but Seol Young thought calmly.

‘It is fortunate that the inn has money to reimburse it.’

TL/N: A master in a field

TL/N: Respectful term for an older male