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Things were going horribly wrong for Jin Mu.
It had begun at Cheonbugwan just yesterday. His attempts to discard of the soul shifter Eunuch Kim had gone awry, and Jang Uk and his maid, Mu-deok - who were trespassing - had witnessed the shifter’s attempted escape. Jin Mu had attempted to resolve the situation by murdering them both in cold blood, but instead, he had dropped his spare soul ejector and now, well…
Now, he was Mu-deok.
It was more than an inconvenience to be stuck in the body of a powerless girl. It was a problem. The real Mu-deok was currently living the good life in his own body as the Assistant Gwanju. Unbelievable. And Jin Mu had no way of getting into Cheonbugwan to acquire another soul ejector to switch them back.
He should be in Cheonbugwan right now, carefully taking Jinyowon into his power with the help of the fake Jin Bu-yeon he had prepared. Instead, he was trapped in Songrim, pretending to be Mu-deok, the submissive maid of the young mage Jang Uk, the most dazzling of the Four Seasons. Disgusting.
And the worst part? He was learning - against his will - what it was like to be a woman.
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Jin Mu stood glaring at Jang Uk, who had just sauntered out of the bath which Jin Mu had been forced to prepare for him. He, Jin Mu, Assistant Gwanju, had been forced into the role of servant once more. His inner child was screaming in fury.
Adding to this insult, he was afraid he was starting to go mad. At this very moment, he was staring. At abs. He was staring at a twenty year old boy’s abs. Why was he staring at Jang Uk’s abs?
“Mu-deok,” Jang Uk said casually as he reached for his clothes, his bare chest reflecting the sun like a chiselled sculpture, “Are you well? You are flushed.”
Jin Mu’s eye twitched.
“Ah, it is the heat from the water.” Jang Uk smirked, painfully slowly, before striking a languid pose. “…Or were you just admiring me?”
Jin Mu began to choke. His heart was pounding in his chest to the point it almost hurt. The urge to run from the room in a fit of embarrassment was almost overwhelming. What was happening to him?!
“I am still waiting for you to admit you love me,” Jang Uk continued, now earnest. His eyes shone with devotion. “You poisoned me, and you are the only antidote, remember?” He moved closer as if to embrace him, the scent of his floral soap enveloping Jin Mu like a sensuous blanket.
“Nooooooo!” Jin Mu screamed, spinning and running from the room as fast as his short, pudgy legs could carry him. Behind him, he heard Jang Uk let out a saddened sigh of rejection.
One thing Jin Mu had not previously realized was that, in soul shifting into Mu-deok’s body, he was now subject to its hormones. And Mu-deok’s particular hormones were very receptive to Jang Uk.
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Ever since the abs incident, Jang Uk had been making attempts to win Mu-deok over by trying to impress her with his knowledge and skills, clearly concluding that since his physique had failed to entice her into a confession, perhaps Mu-deok was the type who was undone by intelligence or power. Unfortunately for him, it all fell on deaf ears, because he did not realize he was flirting with Jin Mu.
The fact Jin Mu’s heart fluttered every time he spoke was irrelevant.
At this moment Jang Uk sat on Jeongjingak’s stairs, talking at Jin Mu as the latter scrubbed the floors, face red with irritation. “It will not be long now before I fight the last duel. I will retrieve the jade egg for you as I promised. It will be easy.”
Jin Mu sneered to himself as he took a moment to down a swig from his water-skin. Jang Uk was puffing himself up into a false sense of superiority. How typically arrogant of him. And he was doing it by venting his thoughts to a mere maid. Pathetic. He might have reached Ryusu quickly under Master Lee’s tutelage, but he was still far from impressive.
“Do not worry, Master,” Jang Uk continued smugly. “How could I lose, as the one and only pupil of the great Shadow Assassin?”
Jin Mu spewed out his mouthful of water with impressive force.
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It was taking time, but Jin Mu was coming to a place of acceptance that he was well and truly done for. Mu-deok was Naksu, and Naksu was currently in Jin Mu’s real body. At this very moment, she was likely discovering all of his secrets and preparing to reveal them to the world.
Years of careful planning, wasted. All because of one stupid mistake. And he was unable to do a thing about it.
But Jin Mu had other things to worry about right now. Because this morning, he had gone to the bathroom only to find red everywhere.
Jin Mu was now a woman, and women had…a monthly problem. A regular, relentless monthly problem that involved blood, cramping and irregular emotional patterns. This, the one thing that should never happen to any man, was now happening to Jin Mu.
He wanted to die.
While Naksu dismantled all of Jin Mu’s schemes from the inside, Jin Mu lay in agony in his room, tears welling in his eyes for no good reason, battling a sudden, ravenous craving for honey biscuits.
With no warning whatsoever, Jang Uk burst in through the doors, breathing heavily. Water droplets flew in slow motion from his windswept hair while his eyes, full of fire, raked over Jin Mu with a masculine power that left him breathless -
“No!” Jin Mu screamed inwardly at his raging hormones.
Jang Uk was beaming, holding on to the fishing rod that hung over his shoulder. Master Lee was attempting to teach him Chisu, which was deplorable, but as Jang Uk’s supposed Master, Jin Mu could only encourage him for the sake of his cover.
“Mu-deok!” Jang Uk frowned at the unexpected sight before him. “…What are you doing?”
Jin Mu shot him a hate infused glare with red-rimmed eyes from where he lay curled up on his bed, arms wrapped possessively around a hot water bottle that was almost half his size.
“Mu-deok, are you cold? You are supposed to be working right now! People have been asking me where you are! But never mind that; I reached Chisu!”
Jin Mu wanted to meet whichever deity had invented the uterus so he could slaughter them.
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Jang Uk, predictably, lost the tenth duel. Jin Mu was disappointed when he learned that the victor, Seo Yul, would not actually be taking him on as his servant. Seo Yul was by far the most tolerable of Songrim’s mages, even if he had been giving Jin Mu odd looks.
Jin Mu stood in the middle of Songrim’s marketplace, grumpily making his way through a shopping list given to him by Maidservant Kim to ensure her Young Master was taken proper care of at Songrim. She was a decent woman, but far too fond of Jang Uk. Every item on the list was a snack.
“Hey! Get out of the way!” Jin Mu jumped as someone grasped his arm and forcefully pulled him backwards. He had no time to be annoyed about it, though, as the spot he had just been standing in was then run over by the first in a long line of carts.
“That was close!” One of Jin Mu's fellow servants stood at his side, peering at his face in concern. “You need to be careful around here! Deliveries can come at any time. It is important you pay attention.”
Jin Mu nodded and faked being grateful.
“That is a huge delivery!” The servant then commented. She turned to her companion, who stood on her left. “You help with the deliveries a lot, do you not? Do you know where this is from?”
“It is from Cheonbugwan,” Her companion replied. “Jin Mu is donating many things to Jinyowon.”
Jin Mu stared in horror as the caravan of carts passed him by, accompanied by deliverymen that whistled cheerfully as they walked alongside. He recognized so many of his personal belongings within the haphazard piles on the carts that he could not keep track. Then his eyes caught on a large box at the base of the last cart, and he gasped.
His eyeliner collection!
Jin Mu watched as the caravan continued forwards, tears of loss streaming down his cheeks.
He may have been a man, but he was still a Jin.
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Word was travelling around Songrim that the Assistant Gwanju was acting strangely. After suddenly donating so many valuable items to Jinyowon out of nothing but apparent generosity, he had begun to fire members of Cheonbugwan’s staff, seemingly failed to care that Yeom-su had suddenly gone missing, and a rift was forming between him and the Queen, despite them having been quite close before.
Naksu was on the move.
Jin Mu, in contrast, was in Jang Uk’s room, staring aimlessly at what the young mage had just placed before him.
“It is a portrait of you,” Jang Uk said courteously, watching Jin Mu’s every move, no doubt hoping for a sign of emotional weakness to exploit in order to trick him into confessing his undying love. “I had it commissioned.” It was a good portrait. It captured Mu-deok perfectly, down to the everlasting glare.
Jang Uk’s seduction tactics had now travelled into the realm of gifts. Apparently Mu-deok was not the bouquet of flowers type of girl. Instead, Jang Uk seemed to believe she would prefer to stare at a painted rendition of her own face. Jin Mu had not even sat for this.
This probably explained why he felt sure that a woman he did not know had been staring at him from afar for the last couple of days.
“…What do I do with it?” Jin Mu asked dully.
“Put it on your wall and admire your own beauty,” Jang Uk replied ardently. “I have one for myself, too. We can stare at you together.”
Jang Uk, when desperate, was a horrible flirt.
But his lips looked very kissable.
Jin Mu walked away from Jang Uk and began to bang his head against the wall.
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Park Dang-gu, heir of Songrim, was more annoying than his uncle, Park Jin, which Jin Mu had not thought possible. The young mage had gotten on Jin Mu’s nerves several times over the last few days; possessed with the energy of a child and less sense than one. He seemed to believe that Mu-deok was in love with Seo Yul, and was always coming up with ways to force them together.
Through the art of going unseen, Jin Mu had managed to avoid many uncomfortable encounters with him. Today, however, he was caught off guard.
He was walking through the hallways of Jeongjingak accompanied by Seo Yul, who was speaking to him about Jang Uk’s recent loss against him in the Crown Prince’s final duel. Seo Yul seemed interested in his friend’s training, and his concern led him to ask after him. How nauseatingly sweet. Jin Mu mentally moved the Seo family’s heir one or two places up his mental hit list.
Park Dang-gu suddenly appeared from behind them like a stalking predator, “accidentally” bumping into Jin Mu as he barrelled towards them, sending the pseudo-maid straight into Seo Yul’s arms, who scrambled to catch him before he fell.
“Are you alright?” Seo Yul asked with genuine concern as he held Jin Mu as delicately as a tender flower, his soulful eyes gazing deep into his own -
Jin Mu wheezed.
“Whoops,” Park Dang-gu said cheerfully, smirking. “Sorry, Mu-deok!”
Park Dang-gu moved eight places up Jin Mu’s mental hit list.
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It was high noon one day when the Assistant Gwanju arrived without warning at Songrim with an entourage of Cheonbugwan mages trailing behind him in dutiful formation. The news spread around Songrim like wildfire, and while the leaders and mages of Jeongjingak gathered to welcome him, servants also gathered to sneak glances at the proceedings from over the tops of walls and through open windows.
Jin Mu joined a group at one of the windows. Naksu was here. She would not reveal herself; it had only been a few days and even the Shadow Assassin could not dethrone Jin Mu’s underground society and networking that fast. But the evidence must be building.
He was running out of time.
Then again, Naksu herself was an enemy of Songrim. Of the entirety of Daeho, in fact. In order to reveal him, she would have to reveal herself. And she would lose her life for it. Was she willing to pay the cost of putting a stop to Jin Mu’s plans?
New hope burned in Jin Mu’s chest for a moment, but it was quickly dashed as his eyes finally located the Assistant Gwanju’s form for the first time since the switch. His jaw dropped in absolute mortification.
Naksu was wearing pastel yellow. She was also wearing bright orange. Her belt was pink and studded with diamonds. Her shoes, or what could be seen of them, were white but layered with cyan stripes.
This was a fashion crime.
Jin Mu turned his head to the side and threw up all over Songrim Jeongjingak’s shiny, spotless floor while the servants around him gagged.
This was what Naksu had done with his body?!
With this realization, Jin Mu finally snapped. He slid the window open until he could feel the breeze on his face, swung his legs over the window-frame, and dropped into the courtyard, ready to commit mass genocide with his bare hands.
Blinded by his fury, however, he had committed a major oversight. He was on the upper level of Jeongjingak, which meant that when he jumped out of the window, his weak, powerless body fell to the earth from a great distance and promptly expired.
Just another day in the life of Jin Mu. It just so happened to have turned out to be his last. In the end, he was not even mad. By this point he was more or less ready to go.
And that was how Naksu single-handedly saved Daeho.