I Became a Soul Eater



prologue

It was a pretty normal life.

Although small in size, he was born as the bastard of a viscount with a fairly decent estate and lived without much difficulty. There was discrimination against the older brothers who were children of the royal family, but there was no such thing as abuse.

I was able to get a basic education, and in this process, I found that my memory is very good. Of course, my understanding wasn’t as good as my memory, but the housekeeper who taught me said in passing that if I had been the son of the royal family, I would definitely have become the successor.

He started working in the administration from an early age to pay for his meals, and at the age of 20, the elderly administrator could become the administrator of the territory as soon as he retired.

He also married the eldest daughter of the largest general store in the manor. Soon after, a son who looked like me was born. happy. And I thought that happiness would continue.

The headache that started about a month ago started to get worse, and a few days ago, it started to hurt like my head was cracking.

But I couldn’t take a break from work. The father and eldest brother, the current lord, were absent. Due to the king’s call, he went up to the capital.

Among the remaining people in the manor, the butler would be the biggest in terms of power, and in terms of symbolism, he had no special title, but the second older brother would be the biggest, but my father gave me the title of acting lord to me, who had both of those justifications to some extent.

The original magistrate’s job and the lord’s job have been passed on, so the work to do has doubled. I couldn’t come to my senses the moment I drank the tea that the deputy administrative officer brought to me, saying it was good for headaches.

It seems that he unconsciously signed the documents brought by the deputy magistrate in a state of headache and haze for several days.

And when I came to my senses, I was kneeling in front of the scaffold in the square.

“Criminals are sentenced to death!”

In my flickering vision, I heard the sound of the second older brother sitting on a high chair. Looking around, I saw my wife and son, now five years old, hanging from the gallows next to me. My eyes flashed with the feeling of something boiling inside me and exploding. The headaches and haze that had been bothering me for so long disappeared all at once.

“Hey, son of a b*tch!!!”

Like a final outburst, he used a snarl at his younger brother, but that was the end. The knight next to me slashed his sword and I was decapitated. so i died

No, I just thought he was dead.

Well, to be precise, he died, but that wasn’t the end.

It’s been a few days since I died. At first, rather than feeling my death, I mourned the death of my wife and child. However, the body that became a soul could not even shed tears. The next emotion that arose was resentment. Thanks to being a soul, I was able to figure out a lot in a short amount of time.

As expected, it was the second brother’s rebellion, of course, that there was an aunt behind it, and that the father and the older brother, who are now in the capital, were going to ambush them on their way back, kill them all, and put it on me.

It was as if the deputy magistrate drugged me for being hazy for days before I died. Many of the people in charge of the territory, including the deputy administrator, the captain of the guards, and the remaining three knights in the territory, were involved in this rebellion.

It’s not an excuse, but I wasn’t such an incompetent administrator. Of course, my father is not such an incompetent lord, and the butler who actually controls the management of the estate is a very competent person in my opinion.

Nevertheless, the fact that this much force was involved meant that it had been prepared meticulously for a long time.

At first, I thought this rebellion was incredibly stupid. The strength that my father and eldest brother led to the capital was about 3 knights and 10 soldiers.

My father and eldest brother also have the weapons of a low-ranking knight, so there are 5 low-ranking knights there. It was a force that could never be defeated by the three remaining knights. Even if the soldiers of the territory were quite elite, they could not fight the knights. Knights who use Aura are monsters that can slice through 50 or so soldiers with a smile, even if they are low-ranking knights.

But why did the second brother do such a stupid thing, so the knights came from the mother’s parents’ side. There were one high-ranking knight and five low-ranking knights.

One high-ranking knight has the power comparable to 20 low-ranking knights. It’s such an existence that you can’t find easily. It can be seen from the fact that even this self-made house, which is said to fart quite a bit around here, only has 6 low-ranking knights.

My aunt’s mother’s family was a count who was quite far away from here, and seeing how the knights arrived just in time for the rebellion, I could tell how much effort was put into this rebellion.

It was such a plan that if those knights attacked and dealt with my father and eldest brother returning from the capital, the assassins I hired would kill them both, and the second brother would inherit the family.

However, this elaborate and seemingly perfect plan was shattered very easily in vain.

Our very capable butler, who was also my teacher, escaped the territory leaving his fake corpse in the midst of the rebellion and headed straight to the father of Wangdo.

My father has a lot of personal connections in the royal capital. Originally from the Royal Guard, he was a war hero. He was bestowed with titles and territories for his achievement in escaping the attack on the then crown prince, the current king, in an isolated battlefield surrounded by siege. However, he was seriously injured and lost his power as a high-ranking knight.

Upon hearing the news of his second brother’s rebellion, his father asked the king for help, and the king, who did so, handed over the Royal Guard.

The 3rd Guards Knights, consisting of 10 high-ranking knights and 40 low-ranking knights, simply dealt with the count family and the knights who had joined the rebellion in ambush, returned to the territory almost bloodlessly, and removed the key figures who had participated in the rebellion as easily as pulling weeds. .

The second brother and mother-in-law were caught and imprisoned, but they were not dealt with immediately. It was because there was a problem with the count family behind her aunt.

In the Yeongju’s office, where the father, older brother and butler gathered, they were discussing the treatment of the second older brother and mother-in-law. Of course, I was also listening to the conversation beside him.

“Wouldn’t it be the most convenient way to receive compensation and hand it over to the county?”

It was my father’s words.

“Yes, but it has become too much. If we hand it over after receiving a suitable reward, the prestige of our family will fall to the ground. However, I don’t think the Count’s family will give a big reward and take the second and the aunt. Because it’s already useless. The loss of a high-ranking knight for the count family is also huge.”

It was my older brother’s opinion.

“The prestige of the territory is also a problem, but if you just let them go, there will be a big backlash among the people of the territory. Because the administrative officer was greatly trusted by the people of the territory. Everyone knows he died unjustly.”

The butler added a word.

It was. I was a popular administrator among the people of the province. Didn’t you say you were a competent administrator?

After taking office at the age of 20, the first thing I did was root out the corruption of tax collectors. Their depravity was beyond the limit, and the dissatisfaction of the territories was not the only one.

And by eradicating corruption hidden in every corner, he saved taxes that were leaking, and as a result, the amount of tax and labor passed on to the territories was reduced. It was only natural to gain popularity among the locals.

“Tsk! The precious boy is dead.”

Dad clicked his tongue. Although he was a bastard, he was a son and a competent administrator, but in the end, his father treated him that way.

“There is also a way to deal with the second one and hand over the aunt to the count’s family for a reasonable price.”

“A mother who has lost her child is terrifying. If you hand it over to the count family in that state, it will rather stir up anger.”

The butler was implicitly hoping to take care of both.

“Hmm…”

My father, who was in charge of the decision, groaned and pondered. The index finger tapped on the table, and the father’s troubled fingers seemed to be getting faster and faster, and the answer came.

“Let’s take care of both. After all, even the Royal Guard was dispatched. The King would want that too.”

“I will deal with it that way.”

The butler bowed his head first to answer, and the older brother, who had his eyes on the butler for a moment, lowered his head accordingly.

“I will follow.”

After that, after a meeting of several agendas, when the eldest brother and the butler came out of the office, the eldest brother called the butler to stop.

“Butler, I am well aware that you cared for the magistrate. He was also a guy I liked. but…”

The eldest brother blurted out his horse’s tail. But the butler was well aware of its meaning.

“Is it possible? It’s only this one time. So Yeong-joo”

A few days later, the trial of the second brother and aunt was held in a small way, and the father coldly sentenced to death with an expressionless face.

The second older brother and his mother-in-law cried desperately, desperately, and even ejaculated, as if they had forgotten their sins, but they could not stop the sword from striking their necks.

The two of them fell, their souls released from their bodies and began to slowly rise up into the sky.

[These bad things! die!]

Already dead, but anyway, I screamed and flew towards them.

The moment I touched the souls of my second brother and mother, their souls were absorbed into me with a strange feeling.

[what?]

I myself was surprised.

[Is grudge like this originally?]

I already knew that I had become a grudge. After my death, a very thin thread was attached to my second brother, and I was not very far from him. And besides me, several other spirits were wandering around my second brother and mother-in-law like that.

Looking around, the other spirits of resentment that had been connected to my second brother and my aunt were dull yellow, but they turned white again and slowly ascended into the sky.

[But why me?]

I didn’t even go up to the sky, but rather I could move with my own will.

[Did it change from a grudge to a floating spirit? why?]

After death, I found out after several days of observation, but there were quite a few types of souls. There were spirits of resentment attached to people with a grudge, or floating spirits that wandered aimlessly.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t communicate with them. I couldn’t tell if I couldn’t hear words or if I was the only soul who could speak.

I could see souls after death as well as souls encased in living creatures. This, too, would still require a lot of observation, but there were many varieties.

First of all, in the case of the wicked, the color of the soul is close to black. Most of the vicious criminals imprisoned in the manor’s prison were black.

In the case of normal people, most of them are close to light gray. Don’t most people who are neither good nor evil live like that? I haven’t seen anyone with a pure white soul yet.

For reference, my father was very dark gray, and surprisingly, the eldest brother was black enough to resemble a vicious criminal. My eldest brother, whom I have watched since childhood, has never acted out like the idiots of other aristocratic families. Rather, the souls of the executed second brother and mother-in-law were a dark gray color similar to that of the father.

[What should I do now?]

Having achieved my goal, I fell into a panic for a while. Whether it’s a rich spirit or a grudge, I’m a soul now. I don’t have to do anything and nobody wants me anywhere. In a way, I became completely free.

Having lost my purpose, I fluttered around the territory like a floating spirit. Like following his father for several days and peeking into his father’s secret safe that he didn’t know about. I also enjoyed the bathing of the innkeeper’s daughter, who is said to be the most beautiful woman in Yeongji.

I saw the eldest brother making a deal with the bullies in the back alleys of the manor, and I also saw the bullies making a deal with the butler again.

However, even if I knew those truths I didn’t know before, it meant nothing. I was already dead and a soul.

I went up to the roof of the Yeongju Castle and looked at the scenery and started to reflect on myself. Why should I exist and what should I do? After thinking about it for a few days, something came to my mind. And I gave an answer.

[My grievance may not have been resolved yet.]

When I was growing up with expectations for my exceptional memory, I wanted to go to the academy. I wanted to go and get more knowledge and learn from a better teacher, although I felt sorry for the butler.

So I overcame my fear and asked my father to send me to the academy. And it was rejected without a word.

In fact, I knew that such an answer would come. And at the time, I didn’t even think it was unfair. I was always being discriminated against even though I was not being abused to the end. He took it for granted.

[But now?]

no one can stop me

I flew lightly in the sky and headed for the royal capital’s academy.

It was not as easy as I thought to go to the royal road, considering that I came out of the territory with a spirited spirit. Embarrassingly, I’ve never been far out of the territory since I was born.

I vaguely followed the main road and saw a signpost and thought that it would be okay to head to the capital, but that was not the case in reality.

I followed the road, but there were many forks and there were no milestones. I roughly guessed the direction and chose the road, and as a result, the place I arrived at was not the royal road. Still, it was a fairly large town, so I decided to wait for something like a corps heading to the capital from here and then follow it.

Still, this trip was not without income. I have found out something very important. I can basically fly, but it’s pretty fast. How fast can a soldier run with full force? That seems to be enough. In addition, since there is no stamina, the speed does not decrease. At least it’s much faster than when alive.

If you use power, you can fly faster than that. It seems to be about the speed of a course runner. But at this speed, I get tired. It’s strange that my soul is tired, but I feel that my soul power is weakening. It’s like the feeling that if you continue to use your strength like this, it will disappear.

So, while waiting in the village for a few days to go to the royal road, he found an unusual soul. It was a wandering spirit like a floating spirit, but the color was red like blood. Just looking at it doesn’t feel good.

I became interested and followed the spirit. And I discovered something surprising.