Sowol Inn - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 6
“It’s just the wind.”
“Just the wind, but……”
“Winter wind makes every sound imaginable, you know.”
So Wol quickly walked over to the table and swept the abacus into the corner.
Fortunately, the Village Chief didn’t notice.
Meanwhile, Jang Wi settled himself in the middle of the Main Hall with a smirk.
“Don’t worry yourself, friend. We’ll prove it to you tonight—there’s no such thing as ghosts.”
The Village Chief spoke with grim resolve.
“Once a rumor spreads, it’s impossible to contain. We’ll put a stop to it before it gets any worse.”
The two of them had come with their minds already made up.
So Wol’s lips parted soundlessly as he searched for words, then gave up and changed the subject.
“Let me bring out a late meal. How about wontons?”
“Excellent! We’d welcome anything you cook any time.”
Jang Wi brightened at this. The Village Chief chuckled and pushed himself up with a hand on his back.
“My mouth will be spoiled. I’ll just make a quick trip to the outhouse.”
“Mind yourself—it’s dark out there.”
“Don’t fret. Even old as I am, I’ve never tripped on my way to the outhouse. Oof!”
The Village Chief’s foot caught on the threshold mid-sentence. His body lurched forward.
“Elder!”
Jang Wi cried out urgently and lunged. So Wol’s reflexes sent his hand reaching out as well.
But neither of them could reach the Village Chief.
“……?”
The Village Chief’s falling body had stopped suspended in mid-air.
It was an absurd sight—neither toppled nor upright—yet no one found it funny.
So Wol glanced sidelong at the infant and pressed his hand to his forehead, while Jang Wi stood frozen with wide eyes and hanging jaw.
The Village Chief dangled in the air, cold sweat dripping steadily down his face.
In that eerie silence, the Village Chief’s body began to descend slowly.
Thud.
The moment his feet touched the wooden floor, the Village Chief collapsed where he stood.
His hands trembling, he fumbled over his limbs, then muttered in disbelief.
“……There really are ghosts. There really are.”
Boom!
Without time for anyone to comfort him, the Village Chief keeled backward and lost consciousness.
“Elder!”
Jang Wi rushed toward him, then spun around to face So Wol.
His eyes were shining with an eerie brightness.
“Were you a master of the Martial World?”
As So Wol searched for an answer, Jang Wi’s eyes flashed and words poured out.
“Is that it? The Levitation Technique I’ve only heard legends about? The secret art that moves objects without touching them? It can even lift a person?”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean no! I just saw it! The elder was lifted like this, like this!”
Jang Wi flailed his hands dramatically before lowering his voice to a whisper.
“What exactly are you?”
“An innkeeper.”
“An innkeeper who uses the Levitation Technique?”
“I didn’t do it.”
So Wol shook his head.
It wasn’t So Wol who had lifted the Village Chief—it was the infant in the cradle.
But Jang Wi had already concluded that So Wol was hiding his true identity.
“I suspected you weren’t ordinary all along. All those scars, that frightening face, the way your eyes sometimes chill a person to the bone. But a Retired Master of the Martial World!”
So Wol gazed up at the ceiling with hollow resignation.
The problem was that he wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Forget what you just saw.”
“I thought you’d say that. Don’t worry. I, Jang Wi, swear by the honor of the Jang Clan to guard this secret to my grave.”
Jang Wi declared this solemnly and grasped So Wol’s hand.
So Wol awkwardly pulled his hand free and carried the Village Chief upstairs to lay him on the bed.
The Village Chief awoke near dawn, when the rooster crowed.
The moment his eyes opened, he bolted upright and cried out.
“Jang Wi! I was just dragged away by a ghost’s hands!”
Jang Wi lied without batting an eye.
“What ghost? So Wol simply caught you before you fell.”
“Caught me? No! I was floating in mid-air, suspended like that! My body lifted off the ground! Even when I touched down, nothing hurt at all!”
“So Wol caught you well, that’s all.”
Jang Wi deflected so calmly that So Wol, listening from the side, nearly fell for it himself.
But the Village Chief would not be put off so easily.
The moment he stepped out of the Inn, he buttonholed everyone he met and regaled them with the night’s events.
“With these very eyes, I saw it! My body falling, and then—suspended in empty air, solid as stone!”
The Village Chief had set out to prove there was no ghost. He returned as a living witness to one.
The village split in two.
Half sided with the Village Chief—he was no man to see phantoms.
Half sided with Jang Wi—he’d been awake and clear-eyed, and he’d seen nothing, so there was nothing to see.
Arguments broke out at the well, at the washing place, at the edge of the marketplace.
The Village Chief’s Wife, unable to bear it any longer, took charge.
“Instead of this squabbling, let’s summon a Taoist. If there’s a ghost, they’ll exorcise it. If there isn’t, they’ll confirm it for us.”
“That’s wise. Better that way.”
The villagers, worn out from bickering, nodded as one for the first time.
“But this is my Inn—why should you bring a Taoist here without asking me?”
So Wol protested awkwardly, but the Village Chief’s Wife was resolute.
“You stay quiet! If word gets out that Goam Village is haunted, we’re ruined!”
And so it was decided: they would summon a Taoist to the Inn.
Two days later.
Knock, knock, knock!
Someone rapped on the Inn door.
When So Wol opened it, the Village Chief’s Wife stood with her hands on her hips.
Behind her, a crowd of villagers had gathered to watch.
“Come out, So Wol. Let’s settle this once and for all, here and now.”
“Settle what?”
“The ghost. Let’s drive it out and end this madness.”
“That’s absurd—”
“Enough chatter. I’ve brought a Taoist here, so step aside.”
The Village Chief’s Wife spoke with the force of command.
So Wol suppressed a bitter laugh.
A Taoist who peddled exorcisms for coin was hardly likely to be an honest man.
With that thought, So Wol looked at the Taoist’s face and frowned.
Immaculate white Taoist Robe. Hair neatly bound. Not a thread out of place.
“Have you been well?”
A familiar face stood before So Wol.
“…What are you doing here?”
“It’s been a long time, senior.”
The Village Chief’s Wife looked between them both, blinking.
“You know each other?”
“Yes. I owed him a debt long ago.”
The Taoist answered respectfully, then cupped his fist toward the gathered villagers.
“I’ll examine the Inn thoroughly, so please don’t worry. No harm will come to the village.”
Only then did relief cross the Village Chief’s Wife’s face.
“Then I’ll trust the Taoist completely.”
“Of course.”
The Village Chief’s Wife glanced between So Wol and the Taoist once more, then led the villagers away.
So Wol shut the door quickly and crossed his arms.
“Why are you in Sacheon?”
The Taoist answered with measured courtesy.
“I came on business for the Murim Alliance Inspection Unit.”
“In this backwater?”
“While inspecting the Sacheon branch, I had business to see to here as well.”
The Murim Alliance.
An association of the Martial World’s most renowned sects, which regarded itself as little less than the government of the Martial World itself.
The Inspection Unit were the ones who hunted down those who broke its codes.
So Wol’s eyes narrowed.
“But why did the Village Chief’s Wife bring you here? Can you see ghosts too?”
“There’s no way that’s true.”
The Taoist shook his head with calm composure.
“Yang Min seems to have misunderstood, but since I needed to see my senior anyway, I simply came along.”
In the old days, this man would have flatly refused to perform any exorcism, countering each point with rigid precision—
So Wol let out a short laugh.
Watching someone who once had no flexibility whatsoever now move through the world with such smooth persuasiveness, it seemed time truly did leave its mark.
The Taoist who called So Wol his senior.
He was Jin Seong, an elder of the Mudang Faction.
“Sit down for now.”
“Of course. I’d prefer Byeokra Chun for tea.”
“What? You’re going to find that expensive leaf in a backwater inn like this? You’ve grown shameless with each passing year.”
So Wol scoffed, but Jin Seong’s expression didn’t shift as he settled into the chair.
Looking at that unflappable face, So Wol found himself remembering Jin Seong as he’d been in those early days—
A man rigidly righteous, bearing the weight of all the world’s right and wrong upon his shoulders alone, stiff and unbending.
Time had passed, and Jin Seong had gained the lofty title of Chief Inspector of the Murim Alliance Inspection Unit, yet So Wol saw little that had truly changed.
If anything had changed, it was only that shamelessness now sat atop his rigidity.
So Wol swallowed his bitter amusement and retrieved the tea service, setting the water to heat.
Jin Seong’s gaze, which had been leisurely surveying the inn, came to rest on the cradle beside the long table.
“So you were here after all.”
“What do you mean?”
“The child that Beoob Gong Master smuggled away.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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