Volume 1 Chapter 9 – Hunger

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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In his forty-five years of life, he had never once seen a single person eat so much food.

He was sure that probably even his father, who handed down the inn, and his grandfather, who first opened the inn, had not seen this sight.

Whether a hungry ghost was truly in his belly, that slender young man ate up alone an amount that surpassed a group of escort warriors, and was even eating now.

The first word the inn proprietor brought to the waiter who was trembling in his legs was as follows.

“What about the money? You must have received it in advance, right?”

He struck once the backs of the heads of the two waiters who looked at him with bewildered eyes.

And he scolded in a low voice, lest anyone would hear.

“These cursed bastards……! You really chose today of all days to ruin the inn……!”

Holding the back of his head, the junior waiter answered in a low voice while whimpering.

“No, proprietor……! I, I tell you, that person was strange from the moment he first came in……!”

“You crazy bastard……! Then all the more reason you should have received payment in advance……?!”

As the proprietor raised his hand again, the senior waiter hurriedly intervened.

“Elder, this fellow’s words are not like that. He is not just strange, that person is somehow bizarre……!”

“Bizarre……?”

The proprietor’s thick cheeks twitched.

“Is he a martial artist?”

If he was a martial artist, it was correct to always be careful and careful again.

A martial artist and an inn.

Although he did not know why.

If these two elements combined, it would bring about the effect of pouring oil on a fire.

This was what the Luoyang Inn Association also called the ‘Inn Effect,’ and was a matter they surely advised members to be careful of.

Was it not because of that that his father had no arm?

“No. It is not something like that……!”

The proprietor frowned.

“Then, is he the child of some high official?”

Although it was easy to distinguish the children of high officials by their clothes and behavior, when a matter broke out, they brought about a bigger disaster.

Did his grandfather not get involved with the child of a high official, get beaten with a cudgel at the government office, get poisoned by the beatings, and pass away?

“No, it did not seem to be that either.”

The junior waiter, who kept the appearances of the children of high officials famous for causing trouble in Luoyang in a row, shook his head.

“Then what is it……?!”

The waiter cried out in a low voice as if having a fit.

“I tell you, that person is a hungry ghost……! Did I not tell you……?! I mean that hungry ghost that lives in hell……!”

“The kids are just full of fear, making a fuss……”

The two waiters waved their hands.

“Aigoo, the proprietor says so because he does not know……!”

By that point, the proprietor also could not just scold them.

Smacking his lips, he stridently walked up the remaining stairs.

“I must go see in person.”

“Aigoo, Elder, please be careful……!”

“Elder……!”

Though they worried, there was no fellow who stopped him.

‘Come to think of it, it is indeed strange.’

Although they said they were doing it quietly among themselves, there was no way that fellow who turned around and showed only a small back had not heard their conversation.

As if he did not even know that he was approaching, that fellow wearing worn scholar clothes was just busy shoving his head down and eating up food.

Has there been a time when the sound of the floorboards creaking every time he moved his feet was this bothersome?

For some reason, the proprietor wiped the cold sweat that flowed down with his sleeve, and shook the neck part of his clothes that seemed to tighten.

“H-Ahem!”

Standing five or six steps behind, he tried to clear his throat, but the other party showed not a speck of reaction.

“Proprietor……! You must go a bit closer……!”

“Be careful……!”

‘The way those bastards talk because it is not their business.’

For some reason, although he did not want to approach even a little bit more, he exerted the experience and grit accumulated for thirty-five years.

Though each step felt like eternity, in the end, he was able to stand right behind the scholar.

And even until then, the scholar was not giving him a glance at all.

Gulp, he swallowed dry saliva.

“E-Excuse me……”

Peering at the scholar, his eyes opened wide.

Without even using chopsticks, the scholar was picking up food with both hands and cramming it into his mouth.

The proprietor, who could not say anything for a moment, wiped his sweaty palms on his pants.

Before he knew it, his entire body was drenched with cold sweat.

But what was it to do business in the middle of this huge Luoyang?

He was one who had built up the inn until now even after seeing the shape of his grandfather and father.

“Excuse me, Young Master……”

But why was his voice like a mosquito’s?

He tried to clear his throat.

But at that time……

“……This is not it. It is not enough with this. It is not something like this. This is not it. It is not enough with this……”

A chill ran through the proprietor’s entire body.

Clearly, the sound of that fellow eating up food greedily was echoing in the inn right now, and is he not seeing in person right now that he was cramming food into his mouth without a pause?

If so, who on earth was making that voice whispering continuously?

“……It is not enough with this. It is not something like this……”

And listening to that whisper in detail, something fundamentally different from a human voice was……

At that time, the scholar’s hand stopped with a thud.

“……!!”

And the scholar’s head began to turn slowly toward the proprietor.

The proprietor’s pupils had already been dilated for a long time, and his legs trembled as if they would slump down at any moment.

Although he wanted to scream, his body had already left his control.

While unable to do this or that, the scholar looked at him.

And his mouth opened.

“I have eaten enough. How much is the total?”

“U-Uh……?”

The pale-faced scholar, wiping the sauce smeared around his mouth with his sleeve, asked again.

“Are you not the inn proprietor?”

The proprietor answered reflexively.

“Y-Yes.”

The scholar nodded and stood up from his seat.

Although the clothes were dirty to the extreme with spilled food and sauce, he did not care in the least.

Quietly pulling out a purse, he asked again.

“How much, I asked?”

A moment after the scholar left, the waiters ran through the night streets of Luoyang carrying the proprietor who had fainted to find a physician.

It was said that no waiter stopped the proprietor, who woke up the next day, from spending his wealth to hold a grand shamanic ritual.

* * *

“It is strange, indeed strange.”

Leaving the inn, the scholar, Yeon So-hyeon, repeated the words that it was strange.

As a test, he had tried to consume food to the limit at the inn, but no matter how much he ate, there was no time when satiety found him.

Moreover, if he ate such a large amount, he should at least throw up.

But was it not that as he shoved it in, it all went in exactly as it was?

It was to the extent that the food passing through his throat felt as if it had disappeared somewhere.

He was feeling a certainty in a corner of his mind.

No matter how much he ate ‘this kind of thing,’ there is no time when hunger would disappear.

He shook his head.

Then ‘what’ was he supposed to eat?

At that time, the tip of his nose pointed somewhere.

‘A smell……’

It was an extremely fragrant smell that he had never smelled before.

It was an extremely ‘delicious’ aroma.

It was a smell that stimulated his hunger.

‘What on earth is this smell……?’

Regardless of harboring a question, he was drawn by instinct.

His steps headed toward the dark back alley of Luoyang.

And his figure soon was buried in the darkness and vanished.

* * *

Luoyang, a grand city with a long history since ancient times.

Though it was a city that was caught in the flames of war several times while going through several dynasties, it still existed firmly in that place as a giant city representing the Central Plains.

Worthy of a grand city boasting a population reaching millions, it also harbored an entertainment district of an immense scale.

Despite the late night, the brilliant oil lamps coloring the street colorfully made one forget the night of Luoyang.

However, where there is bright light, a dark shadow is bound to follow.

At the back of that beautiful entertainment district, there was a dirty and distorted order as much.

To pick one of those numerous orders, one would be able to pick the leader of the dark underworld called the Golden Leech, that is, Geum-jil.

And now, even in this dirty and damp back alley, the order made by that Golden Leech was rotating steadily.

“Strip his clothes and empty him completely.”

“Understood, Brother!”

Whether it was misfortune, or reaping what he sowed, a middle-aged man who ruined his household at the end of hands-on gambling tried to put up a weak resistance.

“This bastard……?!”

“Beat him up!”

Naturally, what returned was the severe fist massage of the bulkies.

After a moment, the middle-aged man became an appearance with no big difference from a lump of minced meat, except for the fact that he was still breathing.

“I found it, Brother!”

In the end, the bulky who found a piece of wood inside the middle-aged man’s undergarments held it up.

It was a name plaque, that is, an identification card.

The fact that they snatched the identification card where the address and family matters were all recorded meant that they would take everything of his.

His small shop, his wife, and his children.

“Ah……, please……”

On the face of the middle-aged man, who was reminiscent of a lump of minced meat, despair hung deeply.

In contrast, the cruel smile on the faces of the bulkies became deeper.

Those of desperate situations fell for it day after day without even knowing it was rigged gambling, and they increased their wealth by disposing of the foolish ones who were deceived in that way.

That was one side of the order of the underworld called the Golden Leech.

“Did you think you could skip paying the Elder’s money and walk around Luoyang streets safely?”

Of course, even including the man called Brother, the bulkies here were far from being the direct subordinates of the Golden Leech, let alone having seen his face.

Though their affiliation was merely one of the organizations to which the Golden Leech outsourced.

Since they backed the name of that order, they were the kings at least in this back alley.

“Aigoo, please, Elders……”

It was at that time.

“Whistling?”

It was a whistling sound of a bizarre tune.

If it was sad, it was desperate, and if it was joyful, it was despairing.

To express it with dare, should one say madness was harbored?

“Which bastard is it?!”

The bulky who was laughing and enjoying holding the name plaque shouted in a roaring voice.

If it were normal, his comrades would have enjoyed his roaring voice overwhelming the opponent.

But for some reason, that shout sounded only weak compared to that thin whistling sound now.

Throwing away the name plaque, the bulky drew and held his weapon.

“Which damn bastard is it?! Come out immediately?!”

At that, the others also grabbed their weapons fitfully and shouted in all directions.

“Do you want to die?!”

“Where do you think you are playing tricks?!”

“You son of a bitch?!”

At that time, the fellow called Brother scolded in a low voice.

“……Shut up, everyone!”

At his voice, which maintained composure, the other bulkies closed their mouths.

“Shut up and stay still, everyone……!”

Anxiety swept across his eyes.

His brothers were not reacting excessively.

Even he was unable to endure the whistling sound, and almost shouted out loud along with them.

Whoever it was, shaking a person’s soul with merely a whistling sound was a giant danger signal.

He clasped his hands in all directions in the most polite posture.

“I do not know which direction of expert you are, but do you have business with us?”

And as soon as his words ended, the whistling sound stopped like a lie.