A New Face and an Unmasked Power

"He's handsome."

Screeech, clack.

The heavy iron door shut, and I finally stepped into my familiar workshop.

"Wow... I'm exhausted." Seo Jian let out a sigh, setting her handbag down on the table. She stretched her arms wide and grinned. "Phew. I mean, a five-star hotel suite is nice and all, but there's really no place like home! Right, Dohyun?"

"..."

"Dohyun? Should we grab some food first?"

Instead of answering her, I trudged over to my workbench and slumped into the chair. My mind was completely consumed by the forum posts I had been reading in the car on the way back.

I quietly organized the posts in my head.

Wow, a bomb terror attack. The spiritual world really was a terrifying place. But why Dokkaebi Market of all places? I'd have to be careful from now on.

Wait, hold on...

Dokkaebi Market? Terror?

A sudden memory flashed through my mind. The first time Seo Jian had brought me there. The day we stopped by Cheonhwadang.

Could this be...?

Ah, they're talking about that nuisance at Cheonhwadang.

I recalled the troublesome customer who had shown up covered in fire talismans, demanding a refund. But what on earth was the Fire Worshiper Cult?

Hmm... That guy was dragged away on the spot by people called Geum-ui or something.

As expected, rumors only grew wilder the more they were passed around. It seemed the incident with the nuisance at Cheonhwadang had spread to the community, getting stripped of context and heavily exaggerated.

Tsk. Idiots.

I hit the back button.

"Pfft."

A chuckle escaped my lips before I could stop it. Whether it was a spiritualist community or a gaming community, the shitposts were exactly the same. "I see this as an absolute win," indeed.

I hit back again.

As I kept scrolling down, a particular title caught my eye.

"...Huh?"

Yes. Among those trending posts, there was definitely talk about me. An exorcist from the Cheonsan Sect who had appeared out of nowhere and instantly resolved a commission that no one else dared touch out of fear of the Four Great Families. No matter how you looked at it, it was about me.

All I had done was write a single talisman and forge a kitchen knife before leaving, though.

It seems... I've become famous rather quickly.

Was this right? It felt too fast. In the first place, the only people who knew I had stepped in were Director Yoon, his secretary, the chef, and that punk spiritualist Jin Muyeong. How had this spread so quickly and with such detail?

Hmm. If it was already at this level...

...things might get a bit annoying from now on.

Come to think of it, there was no way Seo Jian, a veteran broker, didn't know about this.

"Hmm... Well, we can't just let it slide after completing our very first commission so perfectly!"

Just then, Seo Jian walked over to the refrigerator and began chattering excitedly. "Should we grill some meat tonight? Or maybe fried chicken? On a monumental day like today, when we perfectly succeeded in our first commission, we definitely need some ice-cold beer and chicken, right?"

Clink, pshhh—

She pulled two cans of beer from the fridge and approached me. "Here, Dohyun! To celebrate our successful debut—"

"Jian. Just a moment. Hold on."

Seo Jian, who was about to hand me a beer, froze at my serious tone.

"Ah, ahaha..." She laughed awkwardly and carefully set the beer cans down on the table. "Ah, do you not drink, Dohyun? Or... did I get too carried away without reading the room? I'm sorry. I was just so happy..."

"It's not that."

I pulled the tablet she had given me earlier from my pocket and placed it on the table. The screen was still displaying the real-time trending posts on the Dokkaebibul community.

Jian's reaction upon seeing it was completely different from what I had expected.

"Oh my. And here I was wondering what was wrong. Did this surprise you?" Far from being flustered, she let out a bright laugh as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"...Did you already know about this, Jian? I don't quite understand how I became famous so quickly."

To be honest, having so much attention focused on me right from the start felt a bit burdensome. At my remark, Jian picked up the tablet and nodded.

"It's completely natural for you to find it startling, Dohyun. But you see..." Jian faced me with a solemn, professional broker expression. "When you work as a spiritualist or an artisan in this field, becoming famous is just a natural step. You have to become famous and get talked about so that the big shots will come to you with bags of money to commission you, right?"

According to her explanation, in this narrow spiritual world dominated by the Four Great Families, the only way for an unaffiliated freelancer to survive was to spread rumors of their "overwhelming skill."

"Even so, isn't it a bit strange for details about who did what to spread so thoroughly?"

"Ah, that? Of course everyone would know." Jian tapped the tablet screen, opening another tab in the community to show me. "Look here."

The screen displayed a window that looked like a commission-matching system, quite different from the marketplace or community boards I had seen earlier. And right in the center of it:

"...?"

"It's a commission evaluation system. Once a job is done, the client can directly leave a rating and a review."

"...What? They have something like this?"

It wasn't even a food delivery app, yet here was a five-star rating along with a heartfelt review. Judging by the username, it was clearly written by Director Yoon of the TK Group. Was this really okay? No, why would they...

I didn't know much about this line of work, but surely there were things clients would want to keep hidden. As if reading my mind, Seo Jian spoke up.

"They don't have to leave one," Jian explained with a shrug. "But it acts as a sort of portfolio. For newcomers like us who are starting out without a family backing... it's hard to operate entirely in the shadows. Hehe."

According to Jian, since the nature of the matter meant the Hyeonmu Family would inevitably find out sooner or later anyway, they had agreed to use the exposure as a form of noise marketing.

"Hehe..." After finishing her explanation, Seo Jian suddenly squirmed and let out a strange sound.

"...?"

"Actually..." She offered a forced, cute smile and made a confession. "A few of those trending posts... I actually wrote them myself..."

"..."

So some of the trending posts were written by her! Well, it made sense. From a broker's perspective, a major achievement like this was an incredible weapon. From the client's perspective, the TK Group also wanted to widely publicize that they had connections with a highly capable artisan from the Cheonsan Sect. Since both parties' interests aligned, the story had developed at a rapid pace.

It was only natural that rumors would spread.

Hmm...

"I-I'm sorry! I figured you weren't the type to enjoy fame, Dohyun, but this is just one of those unavoidable business things... I should have consulted you beforehand!" Jian bowed her head, looking incredibly anxious as if she had committed a grave sin.

Well, she wasn't wrong. Promotion was crucial in any business, after all. And as I continued to work, becoming famous was bound to happen eventually. Still, there was one thing that bothered me.

...Will it be okay?

My reflection, face obscured by a black mask, stared back at me from a corner of the tablet's dark screen. Would wearing just this mask be enough? If someone recognized me on the street and started tailing me, that would be a massive headache in its own right.

"...Dohyun, is the attention perhaps too burdensome?" Sensing my mood from my expression, Jian asked cautiously, mimicking covering her own mouth with her hand.

"Yes... it is a bit uncomfortable," I replied, fidgeting with the edge of my mask. "It's suffocating to wear, and I can't exactly walk around like this for the rest of my life."

"Hmm~" Jian rested her chin on her hand, falling into thought for a moment. Then—snap—she lightly snapped her fingers. "In that case, there is a way."

"...A way?"

A meaningful smirk played on Jian's lips.

The next day.

Following Seo Jian's guidance, I arrived at a very old, shabby alleyway located on the outskirts of Dokkaebi Market.

"Hello, mister!"

It was an herbal medicine shop situated at the very end of the alley. The moment we opened the door and stepped inside, Jian called out a friendly greeting.

"Aigoo, if it isn't our Jian!"

An genial-looking, middle-aged man wearing reading glasses warmly greeted her from inside. I quietly looked around the shop.

Dozens of worn wooden medicine drawers lined an entire wall, each neatly labeled with Hanja characters. In the center, several large clay pots bubbled away, filling the air with a thick, bittersweet scent of herbs. It looked exactly like an ordinary traditional medicine shop.

Yes. The reason I had come here—

"Is this the fellow? The one who wants to change his face."

—was to change my face.

The man stared intently at me over his reading glasses.

"Hmm..."

His gaze was a bit intense. He clicked his tongue.

"You're a handsome lad... It's a waste to change it, a real waste. Don't you think so, Jian?"

At his words, Jian blushed and waved her hands in dismissal. "Oh, stop it, mister. He has no choice but to change it to protect his identity."

"I know, I know. Right, I brewed the medicine in advance after you called!" The man walked over to the pots and poured a pitch-black liquid into a bowl. He set the steaming black concoction down in front of me with a thud.

"...Do I have to drink this?"

I carefully lifted the bowl and took a sniff.

"Ugh."

I nearly gagged on the spot. It smelled like rotten herbs boiled in sewage water. My stomach churned instantly.

Just what on earth did he put in this?

"Altering one's appearance naturally requires bone-shaving effort! Drink up! Hurry!"

Well, what choice did I have? I couldn't wear a mask forever. Holding my breath, I squeezed my eyes shut and gulped down the black medicine in one go.

"Ugh...!"

A bitter, astringent taste clung to the back of my tongue all the way down to my esophagus. I barely managed to swallow it down instead of spitting it back out. As I set the bowl down, the herbalist grinned with a deeply satisfied expression.

"Now then." He called out toward the back of the shop. "Ayeong! We have a client!"

"Ayeong! We have a client!"

Her father's voice echoed from the front of the shop.

"Yeah, yeah! I'm coming."

Baek Ayeong untied her loosely bound hair and stood up. It seemed another client had come to change their face today. She let out a soft sigh.

In this herbal medicine shop, handling the external design was her responsibility. Once a client drank the medicine her father brewed, softening their bones and muscles, she would use her spiritual power to sculpt their face into whatever shape they desired. Frankly, it was a highly tedious task.

Nine times out of ten, the spiritualists who came to change their faces completely ignored their original facial structure and demanded to be made as gorgeous as idols. But altering a face with spiritual power wasn't plastic surgery.

There had to be a base of bone and skin to work with, and above all, the client's own spiritual power had to act as the adhesive to maintain the altered face. No matter how much effort she put into sculpting them into a masterpiece, if the client's spiritual power was lacking, the face would sag or revert to its original ugly state within a few days.

And then they would storm back into the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shop ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to throw a tantrum, demanding she return their face to normal!

I wonder what kind of hopeless-looking middle-aged man it is today.

Ayeong walked out to the lobby with listless steps. Sitting at the table was a familiar broker named Seo Jian, alongside a man whose face was wrapped tightly in black cloth from the nose down. Ayeong slumped into the chair opposite him.

"Could you take off your mask first? I need to assess your base."

The man nodded and slowly unwrapped the black cloth covering his face. In that instant—

...Huh?

Ayeong's eyes widened slightly.

Beneath his dark hair, a sharp gaze was revealed. He had a sleek nose bridge and casually closed lips. A small mole beneath his eye lent him a mysterious aura.

What the? He's handsome.

Why would someone with a face like that bother to change it? Was he a wanted man?

Shoot, I should've fixed my bangs before coming out.

A myriad of thoughts flashed through her mind, but Ayeong rested her chin on her hand, pretending to be completely unfazed.

"Ahem. Well, the base isn't bad. Honestly, I don't see why you'd spend money to change a face like this."

The tsundere-like assessment slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. However, the man seemed entirely indifferent to her evaluation, his expression remaining calm.

...Ugh, I can't even look him in the eye.

Right, focus on the work. Ayeong composed herself and leaned forward slightly.

"Excuse me for a moment. I need to check your spiritual power flow."

To gauge a client's total spiritual ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠capacity and its flow, she had to place her hand near their chest to sense it directly. Normally, she would have done this without a second thought.

...Why am I so nervous?

The man's calm gaze watched her quietly. Feeling unnecessarily awkward, Ayeong hesitated for a beat before reaching out and gently placing her palm against his chest.

But then—

...?

She felt absolutely nothing. Nothing at all.

Just then, a small black ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pouch hanging around the man's neck caught Ayeong's eye.

Ah. That's why.

"Excuse me, client."

"Yes?"

Ayeong pointed toward her own neck. "Could you remove your Suppressor?"

"...My Suppressor?"

When the man tilted his head in confusion, Ayeong offered a further explanation.

"Even if I design the face for you, the one holding that shape together is ultimately your own spiritual power. I need to check your maximum capacity and how the flow moves to estimate how much we can alter your face and how to go about it."

Hearing her explanation, the man nodded in understanding. He glanced at Jian sitting beside him, then slowly began to untie the knot of the black pouch hanging around his neck.

Meanwhile, Ayeong quietly calculated in her head.

Well, since his features are already well-proportioned, I'll just need to make some minor adjustments.

Since she wouldn't have to change much, he wouldn't need a massive amount of spiritual power to maintain it.

Just as Ayeong reached her hand out again with that thought—

Slide—

The black knot slipped loose from the man's neck, and her palm pressed firmly against his chest.

And then.

"...!!"

A colossal, overwhelming force surged through her palm.

W-What on earth... is this guy?!