Chapter 750 – 741 Collado United Cities
I don’t know if it’s behind the hotel or next to it, but the shopping streets were lined up on the left and right of the long swimming pool, which could have been 300 pyeong, and beyond those that looked like short palm trees.
To Hwanin, it felt more like a bazaar than a shopping mall. A bazaar in the Middle East that can be said to be the original rather than a modern and contemporary bazaar or a store street under an arcade.
Nionebreth’s culture has developed on its own by mixing this and that with the cultures of the earth, so there is nothing strange about the presence of a bazaar.
When he came out under the hot sunlight with his girlfriends, men and women playing in the pool caught his eye.
The women are swimming and playing in clothes that barely reveal their skin, while the men are wearing shorts that reveal only their upper bodies, drinking and laughing with glasses in their hands.
There are not only aristocratic men and women, but there are also many handsome and beautiful women among the aristocrats who want to excite the VIPs as if they are employees of the hotel.
Women of the Fleur or Lukrang tribe walk around in the pool in swimsuits that look like everyday clothes without revealing their skin, and the Flavius spend time outside the pool with only their feet soaked.
The Luk Rang man has a body similar to that of an ordinary person, but he serves and carries food such as light desserts and alcohol in a suit like a waiter.
If you get tired from swimming and playing, you can sit on a nearby beach chair and take a rest, or wander around the stalls and other stores, buy food and eat, and look at the stalls.
Rather than a swimming pool, it feels more like a leisure place for nobles.
And Hwanin and his party were unrivaled among those people and were attracting attention.
= That is the Holy Father… ?=
=Look at Seongje-nim’s brilliance…=
=The spirit knights are equally beautiful. I can feel the strong vitality like a wild plant blooming in a field…=
Hwanin ignored the noise in his ears and headed to the portrait hall with his girlfriends. I’m thinking of drawing the portrait first, then resting or eating something nearby.
When we arrive at the place where the three portraits stand side by side, the women look inside and whisper.
=It would have been nice if Hwanyeon came too.=
= I can’t help it because Lil Rice is calling her to change her body…=
=Unnies, don’t you think that Relais is a transcendental spirit, a bit childish? When she crosses fields and moors, she doesn’t even have a filly, but when she enters the city, she claims her turn.
= There’s no such thing, it seems like there is, but Yeon-i doesn’t seem to have any complaints…=
The three portrait studios had a similar feel to a modern photo studio or photo studio.
The background and furniture are decorated in three or four places in a space of about 10 pyeong, and when the subject is dressed up and poses, the painters illuminate the light with a magic tool to draw a picture.
「Hwanin. Can’t I just swim and play?”
Norn asked Hwanin’s permission by pulling on the hem of Hwanin’s coat with her face showing no interest in her portrait.
Anne, Yurepa, Baek Ryogang, and Ayeong examine the three portraits and exchange opinions, then stand in three separate places.
I hung several completed portraits near the entrance as examples, and all three boasted high-level skills, perhaps because they were open to VIPs.
Women wait for their turn in front of the portrait hall they like because there is only a sensuous like or dislike due to the difference in color or drawing, but Issilite does not separate from Hwanin’s side.
“Isilite. Are you not going?”
=Yes. I also have the problem of escorting my master, and I’m not really interested in portraits…=
“…”
Hwanin looked at Anne, who changed into a glamorous style and posed in front of a woman painter from the Fleur tribe, and crossed her arms.
She’s missing the yolk and has no fantasies… Hmm.
After thinking for a while, Hwanin approached the female artist who was preparing to paint Anne and borrowed a canvas, an easel, and simple painting tools.
= Is this enough? … ?=
“Yes. I will write it and return it.”
= Yes? Ah yes…=
“Isilite, come here. I will draw you.”
Seongje draws pictures?
The painter is also surprised, the artist’s assistant is also surprised, and the women waiting to paint the portrait look back at Hwanin in surprise.
Even his women know that his drawing skills are quite good. But was he good enough to draw a portrait?
No, wait! If that’s the case, we… !
Hwanin laughed at the glowing eyes of his girlfriends.
“I can only do simple drawings. So have the portraits drawn by experts.”
= But…=
Their drawings are hundreds of thousands of times more valuable than the gorgeous portraits drawn by these artists. Of course, Hwanin wants a professional portrait rather than his own drawing.
In the end, Hwanin was only released from their gaze after promising his girlfriends that he would draw them a simple portrait later.
“Isilite, if there is space behind this, ask me to draw a professional portrait.”
=… Yes, master…=
“Then change into a dress over there and come. Undo your hair in a ponytail… I want you to tie this ribbon.”
=…=
Isilite is dragged and dressed up by Yu Lepa, Ah Young, and Baek Ryogang, who are waiting for their turn with her red face.
The drawing, which began under sunlight, took about an hour.
“Isilite, expression…”
=Yes?=
“… No, no.”
The amber-colored hair gently combed under the bright sunlight shines like platinum, and the eyebrows and eyes, which seem to have been drawn with a brush of God, contain a subtle shame in the sense of shame and burden that the owner has painted.
Hwanin slowly draws his true self on a white canvas.
“Isilite, don’t look away. Even if you are shy, look this way and do it.”
=Yes, yes.=
An oblique posture rather than a frontal one. Hwanin asks for the so-called Mona Lisa pose, but ashamed, her body keeps turning, so she corrects her posture several times while drawing.
Rumors that Seongje, who can be seen as the pinnacle of spiritualism, draws pictures himself, soon gathered around him aristocrats and hotel employees to form a gallery.
The faster the portrait is completed, the more admiration and exclamations begin to flow from the gallery.
= Oh…=
= That’s great. I never thought you could draw that much with just charcoal and a pen.=
= It’s different from the drawing I know…=
=I can’t even imitate a stupid portraitist.=
=It’s a work of art by itself!=
= I am greedy to have it no matter how much I pay… !=
A portrait painted by the famous Seongje, who ascended to the throne. She is also a woman who will not hesitate to be counted as one of the top 5 beauties on the continent.
The nobles were inundated with the desire to have that portrait even if they paid 1000 gold coins (considering its rarity value, even if it was put up for auction, this much would come out), but according to the story, that portrait was hand-painted for the spirit knight.
According to rumors about the personality of the spirit knight, it will not be sold even if it is called for billions of dollars.
“Finished.”
At Hwanin’s declaration, the galleries once again exclaimed.
Instead of focusing on the face and expression with the bust, everything else is a rough portrait.
It feels unfinished, but rather, it has a fascinating taste.
Wearing a dress like a princess of a great aristocracy, Issilite walks lightly and checks the canvas, and a bright, shy smile spreads like a flower bud on her face.
=This is what the owner sees…=
“I’m glad you seem to like it.”
=…=
=…=
Isilite, who is thrilled with her tears, and her phantom women who stare at her with envy.
The women, including Yurpa, had a hunch. Even if he drew her portrait later, it would be difficult to offset the envy he felt now.
After all, in such a painting, the first one has the greatest meaning and value.
‘But it’s a picture he draws himself.’
In the world, only that first picture will be given great value. But the eyes of others are useless.
The important thing is that he draws them with his heart.
Lunch was solved at an open-air restaurant in the bazaar after a long time.
Like the scent of the Middle East that can be felt here and there, the food served in the restaurant also had a Middle Eastern feel.
In terms of ratio, the Middle East: America & Europe: East is about 45:35:20.
Hwanin ordered a medium-sized steak with a thickness of 5 cm, mixed vegetables and fish with a strong smell of spices, and the women except for Anne and Ayeong ordered similar lineups to eat lunch.
Afterwards the women dispersed to paint their portraits again. It is said that it takes 4 to 6 hours to complete one portrait, so it is unavoidable.
Hwanin slowly wandered around the bazaar with Norn, who was wet from playing in the water, and Isilite, who changed from a princess-like dress to clothes obtained from the labyrinth in the worm’s den.
Jewelry stores, jewelry stores, clothing stores, restaurants, bookstores, taverns, and sorcery stores.
=There is a cute girl with green hair! How about sweet heavenly sweets!? It’s sweet and delicious~!=
“Oh-… Hwanin, buy me that.”
While looking at things that were not very inspiring and buying Norn something he wanted to eat, Hwanin pondered the story Aran = Erof had told him.
‘If her wife had died and her mind had gone out of her mind, she would have expressed her animosity towards me for interfering with her plans…’
Furthermore, if rumors of the destruction of the Memory Stone reach Kang Hyuk-jun’s ears, his hostility towards him will explode immediately.
He committed himself to the evil faction about 5 years ago, so it’s highly likely that you haven’t even heard of him. ‘Seongjae? What the fuck are you doing!!”
“…”
I didn’t mention Aran = Erof, but Kang Hyuk-jun must have awakened as a professional.
There is no way that a helpless dimensional wanderer without power could move the shadow language within the Evil Faction, which is driven by instinct.
His girlfriends say it’s an expedient imagination, but coveting the Memory Stone increases the possibility that he has awakened to a special job with the abilities of a psychic.
Didn’t he awaken as a special job with the characteristics of a soul worker just by looking at himself, and then reawakened as a sacred agent?
If that’s the story when he was 26 years old, Kang Hyuk-jun, who was said to have looked like he was in his early-to-mid 20’s, is said to have awakened six years later.
= Master. The portrait must have been drawn.=
When I looked toward the portrait hall at Isilite’s notification, I saw that all of my girlfriends were waving with their original outfits.
After joining them, Anne’s expression is a bit bright, but Yurpa, Baek Ryogang, and Ayeong’s expressions are not very good.
When I asked why, it seemed that the result was not to her liking.
Even to Hwanin, something is ambiguous. Like the works of 17th-century Baroque painters, it is impossible to hide the feeling of wealth.
=… Heeing.=
Ayoung is especially serious, and like the paintings of the 19th century Impressionist masters, he painted the entire canvas as one theme without focusing on the individual.
Like Claude Monet’s woman with a parasol, her face is rarely depicted, making it difficult for an unfamiliar person to recognize her as Ah-yeong.
= I’m sorry…=
“No.”
It is to capture the spirit knight of Seongje, who is a sub-god, into a portrait. I can’t say anything about the fact that I was nervous and my artistic spirit germinated and I drew a work of conversion.
If there are faults, it is that they did not check the canvas midway through, and Hwan-in, who wandered around the bazaar without checking the artist’s paintings.
Hwanin, who paid double the wages for the painters who stooped in apologetics, took their portraits and returned to the guest room.
= I wish Isilite unnie =
=I envy you…=
= Ahh…=
Ayeong, Baekryeogang, and Yurpa were envious of Isilite, but Hwanin liked their portraits as well.
“Anything like something that could be hung in an art museum is fine.”
=… What if you like my brother…=
Then, Hwanin turned her head to Anne’s portrait and smiled.
=Why, why!=
“No. It is nothing.”
= Doesn’t sound like nothing?!=
“…”
When Hwanin turns her head away without answering, other women look at Anne’s portrait and admire it sincerely.
= Just looking at this, I can’t feel Anne’s size at all, kyaa!=
Smash— Ah-young, who was hit by Anne’s blushing back smash, rolls forward.
= Puff breath. Miss Anne is drawn very girly, right? Did you ask the painter?=
=… I did ask her to slim down a bit. I didn’t know it would be reduced to this extent.=
As if she couldn’t bear to hit Yu Lepa, Anne crossed her arms and replied with a grumpy expression.
In the painting of Anne sitting by the white window and looking this way, her attire was slightly altered, as if the artist’s imagination had been added to it.
She was dressed in a slightly erotic dress with a slightly exposed one-piece and a short skirt, laced with a see-through view of her inner flesh.
Her silver hair, beautifully fluttering in the wind, flows down like a calm beautiful girl, and her chin resting on her chin while wearing black silk gloves of different lengths, looking at her, is like a lily.
She is so thin that it is difficult to see that she is a woman of about 195 cm tall.
= And…=
Isilite alternates between Anne and her portrait with a small admiration, and Anne closes her mouth and raises her fist.
An expression of the will to beat you if you say even one more word. Of course, Issilite didn’t care.
=Why is your expression so sad and sorrowful? Did you see the painter like this?=
= Hey… !=
Anne’s fist swung around, but Issilite lightly dodged it with a laugh.
After that, Anne and Isilite chase after each other, and Hwanin, who was appreciating Anne’s portrait, smiled and stored the portraits of them in her aspen, and then lightly refreshed the atmosphere and called her girlfriends.
“I plan to go to the house of Kang Hyuk-jun and Yoon Mi-rae from now on. Anne and Norn follow me, and if you have to go out, make sure to go out in pairs. Because you never know if the evil faction will come back and attack you.”
= To check if Yoon Mi-rae’s soul remains? =
Anne, who gave up her Isilite pursuit and glared at her, asked with her slightly reddened face.
“There is such a thing, and I plan to look at the atmosphere behind the city.”
As soon as he left the hotel, Norn looked around and said to Hwanin.
“There are humans over there and over there looking this way.”
“It must be the eyes the city council put on. Never mind.”
=Doryeong, are you going to walk? Or bring Coupin?=
“It’s not too far from here, so walk slowly. I have something to check.”
=Do you want to check?=
“Okay. Soul.”
I walk around the city to the place I heard from Aran=Erof, but there are few places where the knowledge of the dimensional wanderer is openly revealed.
The atmosphere of the city is similar to Europe in the 19th century, and the clothes of the people walking around feel like a mixture of the Middle East and the West.
Yesterday there was an attack by the Evil Faction, but there was little anxiety on the faces of the citizens. It seems as if the raids of the Evil Faction are regarded as a daily occurrence.
“…”
However, in the eyes of Hwanin, who can see things that ordinary people cannot see, it was a chaotic scene full of pain and moaning.
Souls whose limbs have been blown off wander around in a ghastly form, and when they die, they are stuck in the streets as they are crushed or scattered and cry out.
‘Nionebres time, half a year ago, the Ascension Heaven Festival must have been done continentally.’
Why are the souls suffering like that on the streets?
Yesterday, I took a quick look at it while following Maxia on the Norn, but it still feels unnatural.
“No no no no why why why why why why why…」
He tried to pick up the entrails that had spilled out of his stomach, but it just continued to flow down, so Hwanin approached the Fleur woman’s spirit, who repeated the same action.
Very slightly, Hwanin opens the soul connection and peers into the woman’s memories before she died.
The woman accidentally stood in the escape route of the evil faction, presumed to be the Bardul woman, and her sharp nails ripped open her stomach and sprayed her intestines to death.
The reason she kept trying to insert her intestines was because she was in her 3rd or 4th month of pregnancy.
There is nothing strange about her, except that she was killed by Bardul, with her hair and skin like a dark gray mane.
But why does it stay like this?
“Please pay.”
“Ah…」
As if she came to her senses from the wave of peace spread by her phantom, the light returns to her dead black eyes.
Then, the woman’s spiritual body was normal when she was alive… No, she returned to her child-carrying form, and shed her tears and ascended into the sky in a hazy group.
= Huh. I’m a soul lord… ?=
= Huh? Ha, but you don’t have an aura…=
Citizens passing by were startled and stopped walking, but Hwanin did not pay attention and contacted the spirits he saw on the way to Kang Hyeok-jun’s house one by one.
A woman whose lower body was crushed from the pit of the stomach as if trampled by an elephant.
A man who had been cut from the top of his head to his left jaw with a blade.
A man with a split upper and lower body.
A charred woman.
A woman whose upper body was dissolved in an acidic solution.
All of them were killed by the Evil Faction.
At some point, a crowd formed behind Hwanin and followed him, but Hwanin did not give a single glance with a hard face, and after responding to the souls and reaching Buddhahood, he called the Norn.
“… Norn, bring someone over there looking this way.”
“Huh.”
At Hwanin’s instruction, the Norn flies over the heads of the crowd, grabs the woman who has been chasing him, and puts her down in front of Hwanin.
The city council agent, who had been caught unexpectedly, hurriedly waved his hand, remembering the top priority of the top line, “Never get into trouble with the Holy Emperor.”
=S, Seo, Sungje! This isn’t spying… !=
“Don’t worry, I’m not mistaken. I understand the concerns of the city council members. The reason I called you here is to ask you some questions.”
= Yes? Ah yes! Ask anything. I’ll tell you everything I know.=
“When was the last time you visited the Spirit Master?”
= Yes? Uh, that’s… I remember that you were a high-ranking spirit priest in Astola 4 months ago.=
“Has he been on this street?”
=Yes. He left after touring the entire city for a month, saying that there are many pitiful and unfortunate people.
“… What will be the number of those who have attained Buddhahood at that time?”
The agent didn’t know why Seongje-nim, who was in a scary mood, asked such a question, but he opened his mouth to answer honestly.
= I’m sorry. That’s something I’m not aware of, so I’ll have to call a higher level person to answer…=
“Is that so. I will head to the mansion where Kang Hyeok-jun lived before, so I would appreciate it if you find out and tell me when you come back.”
=Yes!=
Chuck, saluting as he would to a superior, the agent hurriedly entered an alleyway and disappeared from the crowd watching him.
As Hwanin started moving her steps again, Anne clung to her Hwanin and asked in a small voice.
= Doryeong. Is something serious happening?=
“… I don’t think it’s something to talk about outside, so let’s do it when we get back.”
=Yes.=
Hwanin thought as he raised the next soul, the soul that had been killed by the Evil Faction as well.
At this point, it’s no coincidence. Those who are killed by the Evil Faction do not go unnoticed by ordinary spiritists, nor do they attain Buddhahood in the ordinary way.
‘I’ve never seen a soul like this in Nirain… Didn’t I find it because I was forced to become a Buddha by the Spirit Spell?’
I’ve never seen it in Yeongdo. It is said that when evil factions come south, they will mobilize and subdue them before they reach the lower village of Yeongdo, but even so, it is strange that I have not seen any of them.
‘Maybe it’s because I’m closer to Asin. Or not…’
Less than 10 minutes later, a Flavian man in a sand-colored uniform flies in with a hard face and bows down to Hwan-in to answer the question he asked the agent.
In one month, the number of souls that Astola’s high-ranking soul master achieved was 34.
=I don’t think there’s any possibility that it’s wrong because it’s a number recorded after directly asking a senior soul priest.=
“34 people…”
= I, Mr. Seongjae. Did something go wrong… ?=
“I don’t think it’s time to talk about it yet. Do you know the attack of the Evil Faction after the senior Astola soul priest left, and the number of people who died in that attack?”
= Yes? Uh, I’ll have to check the documents of the relevant department to be accurate, but there were a total of 2 attacks by the Evil Faction, and I’m guessing at least 10 people, and at most less than 30 people…=
There are only 27 people who have attained enlightenment within a distance of less than 400 meters from the hotel.
Hwanin smiled at the man and thanked him for his cooperation.
And 1 hour later.
They arrive at Kang Hyeok-jun’s former residence, but all that remains is an empty lot overgrown with weeds.
Yoon Mirae’s soul was nowhere to be found.
[Are you talking about whether or not the person who was killed by the Evil Faction attained enlightenment? I don’t understand why you suddenly ask such a question. There is no way that there is a soul that is invisible to the eyes of the soul master…]
Upon hearing Hwanin’s question, the saintess asked with a slightly uneasy face.
What kind of trouble did he bring again? It was a worried expression.
“There is.”
[This, yes? Could it be that the person who was killed by the real Evil Faction cannot be seen with the eyes of the Spirit Master?]
“Three months ago, a high-ranking spiritual priest in Astola visited, and the soul I see now is…”
After the situation in Colaido and the fact that the number of deaths due to the evil faction’s attack after the visit of her spirit priest was not correct, the face of the great saintess became more serious than she had ever seen before.
It wasn’t even worth considering the disloyalty of Astola’s high-ranking spirit master.
They are soul warriors who travel around the world and make sacrifices only with a heart of service and charity. There is no way to commit absurd and unreasonable things.
If so, it would be proof that the end times had arrived.
[… If that’s true, it’s not the only serious thing.]
“I don’t even know when I was able to see this. I need to find out if it’s only happening here, or if it’s also happening elsewhere…”
[The problem is that no one but you knows at this point.]
“…”
[…]
The saintess, who rubbed her face several times with her expressionless expression, said with her worried face.
[First… I’ll look into Yeongdo’s archives and see if there’s any reference to this, even if it’s turned over. At the same time, we will come up with a solution, so please focus on your own business.]
“Are you all right?”
When Hwanin asked if it would be okay if she didn’t help, the great saintess replied with an embarrassing smile.
[This is an issue that needs to be moved in the spirit world. Just by letting us know that such cases exist, Emperor Seongje has done his job.]
“… All right. Please feel free to contact us if you need any assistance.”
[Thank you so much, her heart feels warm. Oh, and congratulations on being an adult again. It looks like I’ve rejuvenated for 15 years.]
Her Hwanin smiled a little bitterly at the story of the great saintess who was trying to end her communication.
“I don’t know if it’s strange to see you when you’re young.”
[It’s strange. Just by looking at it, it looks like motherly love will spill out. We were also looking for a way for Seongje to age safely in our own way, but her ability to find a solution in less than a month is admirable.]
“Haha…”
A look that evokes maternal love, what the hell is it supposed to look like?
It was around the time when Hwan-in was agonizing over whether she should eat a little more Poyeonggwa when she returned to Earth after completing all of her work.
=Sir, the City Council City Historian has arrived with Senator Aran Eroff.=
“Okay. Leave now.”
Hwanin’s eyes grow cold at Isilite’s notification.
If… If his guess is correct, Kang Hyuk-Jun and the Evil Faction nestled in the Dark Forest will perish on that day.
No matter how much he has no affection for Nionebreth, there are not a few ties he has built during his travels.
Moreover, if he thinks of his sons and daughters who will live in this world even after he leaves Nione Breath, he will not be able to let go of those who plot things that could turn the world upside down.
Hwanin held onto the core of the Gwangmyeong Spear and walked towards his drawing room.
