THUD!
A hulking body slammed into the floor of the inn.
Dust puffed up.
For a moment, silence descended over the inn.
I covered my mouth, pretending to be surprised.
“Oh my, Master! You need to be careful. The floor's slippery from spattered oil.”
The thug boss sprawled at my feet groaned and lifted his head.
His face was flushed bright red.
Humiliation and anger.
He pressed his hands to the floor and staggered to his feet.
“Th-this bastard......”
“Are you all right? You didn't hurt a bone anywhere, did you?”
I quickly went over and made a show of dusting off his clothes.
Pat, pat.
And as I did, I put strength into my palm and pressed lightly around his solar plexus.
Was the Yin Kill Secret Record I'd been practicing already having an effect?
The guy went “Hup” and retched.
He looked like his breath had caught in his throat.
“Hey! What the hell are you?!”
The two lackeys who'd been watching from behind kicked back their chairs and stood up.
Their hands went to their waists.
Click.
Two daggers came into view.
The customers of the inn screamed and retreated into the corners.
The atmosphere turned ugly in an instant.
Blades, huh.
In the old days, I might have wet myself.
But right now, strangely, those blades looked slow to my eyes.
To be precise, I could see the bodies of the guys holding the blades.
The moment their shoulders twitched, I could already see the direction of their attacks.
I pulled the tray up to my chest like a shield.
On top of the tray, bowls of noodles that had been piping hot until a moment ago sloshed precariously.
“Whoa, whoa, move! The broth's hot!”
Yelling, I dove in between the lackeys.
Swish.
The blade swung by the guy on the left slashed through the space under my arm.
It only grazed my collar.
Pretending to lose my balance, I stepped on the right guy's foot and staggered.
“Argh!”
The guy on the right tripped over my foot and lurched.
Seizing the opening, I tilted the tray.
Splash.
Hot noodle broth poured over the back of the guy's hand.
“Kyaaaagh!”
The guy dropped his blade and hopped up and down.
The back of his scalded hand turned red in an instant.
I clicked my tongue with a look that said I was dying of guilt.
“Oh dear, look at that. I told you it was hot. Why'd you suddenly butt in......”
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
“Die!”
The guy on the left, now furious, thrust his blade at me.
A simple, brainless trajectory.
But the murderous intent alone was real.
Goosebumps ran down my spine.
My mind went blank.
Yin Kill Secret Record or whatever, first I had to live.
‘I have to dodge!’
My body reacted first.
Just like when I carried hot bowls through the packed inn, I instinctively twisted my upper body.
Shhk.
A chilling sensation swept past the bridge of my nose.
It really was the width of a single perilla leaf.
The guy's blade cut through empty air.
“Huh?”
Losing his balance, the guy pitched forward.
I hastily stumbled backward, and my feet got tangled.
Wobble.
To anyone watching, it looked like I was about to fall flat on my butt in a sorry sight.
But thanks to that, a fist flying in from behind whooshed right over my head.
“Wh-why is this bastard so fast?”
The guys charged at me again in a fluster.
From then on, it was truly a dogfight.
No, it was closer to a one-sided game of tag.
“Won't you stop right there?!”
“Wait! The tray's going to break!”
Using the tray as a shield, I scrambled around fleeing.
When they stabbed, I ducked.
When they slashed, I dropped flat.
When a fist came flying, I rolled across the floor.
There was no form whatsoever.
I crawled under tables, dragged chairs over to block them, and kicked the chopstick holder so it rolled under their feet.
Anyone could see this wasn't martial arts.
But it was strange.
My flailing body somehow kept slipping past their blades.
“Huff, huff.......”
“This loach of a bastard......”
How much time had passed?
The breathing of the guys swinging their blades grew ragged.
My heart felt like it was going to burst, too, and I was panting.
The inn had become a mess.
Chairs were knocked over, the chopstick holder was overturned, and noodle broth was pooled all over the floor.
But amazingly, there wasn't a single scratch on me.
“Argh, damn it. Forget it! Forget it!”
The boss fumed and put away his blade.
He was humiliated.
Three grown men with blades, unable to catch one waiter, panting and wheezing.
I could hear the watching customers snickering.
“Hey, let's go. The booze has lost its taste.”
The guys spat on the floor and spun around.
I grabbed hold of a table and caught my breath.
My legs were trembling so badly I could hardly stand.
If I just let them go like this, I'd live.
Old Man Wang was letting out a sigh of relief too.
But.
‘They're just going to leave?’
The abacus beads in my head clicked.
Three broken bowls.
Two bowls of spilled noodles.
One smashed chopstick holder.
And the half-finished bottle of Bamboo Leaf Green the guys had been drinking.
How much did all that come to?
All of it would come out of my monthly wage.
There was something scarier than fear, and that was poverty.
“W-wait a minute!”
My mouth burst open on its own.
The thugs, who'd been about to leave, turned around with fierce expressions.
“What? Are you trying to stop us right now?”
“No, it's not that......”
I reached out a trembling hand.
My voice came out quavering like a goat's.
“Y-you still have to pay the bill.”
“......What?”
“I won't charge you for the noodles. They spilled on the floor, after all. But for the Bamboo Leaf Green and the basic side dishes...... you have to pay before you go.”
Silence passed.
Everyone in the inn stared at me as if I were a lunatic.
Behind me, Old Man Wang let out a silent scream.
Hey, you crazy bastard!
That was what his lips said.
The boss let out a hollow, disbelieving laugh.
“Hah! Look at this vicious bastard. We spare his life, and now he wants money?”
The guy stomped over to me.
I was dead.
This time, I was really dead.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
But what came flying at me wasn't a blade.
Clink!
A few lumps of silver were thrown onto my tray.
“I'm only giving it to you because this is disgusting, disgusting! Like hell I'm ever coming back to this shop!”
The guys spat curses and left the inn.
The door slammed shut.
I stared blankly at the silver on my tray.
It was more than enough to cover the wine bill.
“I-I'm alive......”
The strength drained from my legs, and I slumped to the floor.
My back was soaked with cold sweat.
But it was strange.
My heart was pounding like it would burst, yet the corners of my mouth kept creeping up.
It wasn't some cool victory where I subdued my enemies with martial arts.
It was a sorry sight of me rolling across the floor and running away from blades.
But either way, I survived.
And there was money in my hand.
That was enough.
“Hey! Lee Gap-saeng!”
Old Man Wang ran over and smacked me on the back.
Smack!
“Ow! What are you hitting me for?”
“You lunatic! How could ‘pay up’ come out of your mouth at a time like that? You've got two lifelines, do you?”
“I think I just used one of them.”
“Still got the energy to talk back, huh?”
Even as Old Man Wang yelled, he checked me over here and there.
“You didn't get stabbed anywhere?”
“I'm perfectly fine. Look at this. I even got paid.”
When I shook the silver at him, Old Man Wang made a face like he couldn't believe it.
“You tenacious little pest......”
The noise of the inn gradually returned.
People went back to tipping their cups, saying, “That waiter's got stubbornly good luck.”
I took a rag and wiped up the spilled broth.
My fingertips were still tingling.
I'd definitely done nothing but run away.
But the sensation I'd felt while running was vivid.
The path the blade came in on.
The gap I could slip through.
All of it had been visible, just very briefly, in a fleeting instant.
‘It wasn't luck.’
I pressed down on my lower belly.
It felt like a warm energy, like bone broth, had pooled there.
***
That night.
I slept badly.
No, to be exact, I didn't sleep a wink.
It wasn't because my body hurt.
It wasn't the aftereffects of the scuffle with the thugs either.
The problem was my ears.
“Kheuuuuuk! Pfrrrrb......”
It wasn't thunder.
It was the snoring of a potbellied merchant staying in the Heaven room on the second floor of the inn.
Normally, it was the kind of sound I'd just think ‘that's loud’ about and pull the blanket over my head.
But now it was different.
It was as if someone was banging a gong right next to my ear.
“Dammit, my eardrums are going to burst.”
I stuffed my ears with my pillow.
It was no use.
The vibration piercing through the pillow rang in my head.
And that wasn't all.
Skitter, skitter, skitter.
This time it came from the kitchen.
I could hear faint footsteps in the darkness.
It wasn't a person.
A rat?
No. It was too light and fast for a rat.
A cockroach?
To be able to hear even the hairs on the legs of a cockroach scraping the floor as it crawled under the kitchen cupboard.
It was enough to drive me out of my mind.
‘It's broken.’
The thrilling sensation I'd felt during the day came back as a curse once night fell.
The hooting of an owl in the forest outside the inn.
The sound of dew forming and dripping from the edge of the roof.
Even the sound of the guest in the next room grinding his teeth.
Every noise in the world poured into my ears.
‘At this rate, I'm going to waste away.’
I sprang up and took out the book I'd stashed in a corner of the storeroom.
<Yin Kill Secret Record>.
Somewhere in this secret manual my Benefactor Peng Hwi gave me, there had to be a method for closing off the ears too.
Under the oil lamp, I opened my eyes wide and turned the pages.
[Ears, eyes, mouth, and nose are the windows of the heart. If you cannot open and close them freely, you are not their master, but merely a guest.]
“Who doesn't know that? So tell me how to close them!”
Grumbling, I read the next line.
[Sealed Hearing. Do not hear the sound; feel the ripple. It is not to stop up the ears, but to close the door of the heart. As though sinking into deep water, cover the Ear Gate with turbid qi.]
Deep water.
Turbid qi.
Ear Gate.
It was still baffling.
But I was in no position to be picky.
I closed the book and sat cross-legged.
Three finger-widths below the navel.
The qi center.
I focused my consciousness there.
‘Settle it.’
I drew in a deep breath and sent it to my qi center.
After pushing my breath down a few times, a gentle heat began to pool deep in my qi center.
At first, it was hot.
It was a heat that slowly warmed the inside of my lower belly, like furiously boiling broth.
But the moment I grasped that energy following the incantation of the <Yin Kill Secret Record>, a strange change took place.
The heat sank downward.
Deeper.
Heavier.
Just like when you leave boiling broth to cool overnight, a film of fat hardens on the surface and the rich broth below settles down cold.
It felt as if the energy in my qi center was slowly changing color.
It was not hot, rough yang qi.
It was cold, heavy, sticky yin qi that settled downward.
I held my breath without realizing it.
‘Is this...... the inner arts of the Yin Kill Secret Record?’
That cold energy was different from a chill that freezes the body.
It wasn't a cold that bit into the flesh; it was closer to a darkness that swallowed sound.
If fire was a force that spread in every direction, this yin qi did the opposite and drew everything inward.
Sound.
Presence.
Even my own breathing.
The energy pooled in my lower belly grew heavier and heavier.
It wasn't the light reassurance of something like a money pouch.
It felt as if a black stone had sunk somewhere deep inside my body.
The seed of inner arts that sustains life and awakens the senses.
At the same time, it was the seed of yin qi that dragged my existence down into darkness.
I carefully drew that heavy energy upward.
From my qi center to my solar plexus.
From my solar plexus to my throat.
And from my throat toward my ears.
It felt like pushing chilled cotton deep inside my ears.
‘I'm underwater right now.’
With my eyes closed, I repeated it to myself.
‘The deep sea, very deep, dark, and still.’
It wasn't easy at first.
The energy scattered wherever it pleased.
If I let my guard down even a little, the yin qi in my qi center tried to loosen back into heat, and the snoring still pounded at my eardrums.
The stray thoughts were persistent too.
Tomorrow's bookkeeping.
Old Man Wang's nagging.
The silver those thugs had thrown down earlier.
All of it cluttered my head.
I gritted my teeth and held on to my qi center.
I pushed the heat that was trying to scatter back down and settled it into cold, heavy yin qi.
Then, very slowly, I used that yin qi to form a membrane covering the inside of my eardrums.
Whummm—.
A sound like ringing in the ears hummed briefly.
In that instant, the noise of the world bent away by one layer.
It was different from plugging my ears.
The sound hadn't disappeared.
It had been swallowed by the yin qi and pushed far away.
The thunderous snoring faded to something like the sound of waves rolling in from far off, and the cockroach's footsteps blurred like dust sunk in deep water.
“......It works?”
I slowly opened my eyes.
It wasn't perfect silence.
But it was bearable.
The world hadn't gone quiet.
The yin qi inside me had veiled the sounds of the world by one layer.
Was this the Sealed Hearing the <Yin Kill Secret Record> spoke of?
Feeling the cold, heavy energy settled in my qi center, I clenched my fist.
If I could swallow sound.
Then the other way around.
Couldn't I also fish out only the sounds I wanted?
***
Several days passed after that.
On the surface, my life as a waiter was the same, but inside, it had completely changed. I could now operate the energy of my qi center to control my hearing.
I let the drunks' nonsense flow past and snatched up only the sounds I needed.
“Lee Gap-saeng! Order for table three!”
“It's already on its way, sir.”
Before Old Man Wang could even finish shouting, I was already headed to table three with a plate of dumplings.
Just from the sound of a customer setting down his chopsticks, I knew his meal was finished.
And hearing the sound of a cup being emptied, I brought the wine bottle over in advance.
“Huh, that kid.”
Old Man Wang tilted his head.
“Has he been possessed by a spirit lately? Did he grow eyes on the back of his head?”
He seemed secretly pleased that the work had gotten easier.
But my nerves were on edge.
Because the stronger my abilities grew, the more I came to realize that the world was not peaceful.
The subtle emotions mixed into the voices of laughing, chattering customers.
Lies.
Desire.
Fear.
And occasionally, murderous intent.
Those things came at me raw, like fruit with its peel stripped off.
And today.
The sky had been gloomy since morning, and at last the rain began to pour down.
Patter.
Patter-patter.
The sound of rain beating on the roof tiles filled the inn.
Damp air settled over the floor, and the customers stopped coming altogether.
I sat in a corner of the empty inn with my chin in my hand, listening to the rain.
It was just as each raindrop was shattering against the dirt ground.
Creeeak.
The inn's door slowly opened, and a woman walked in.