They say the face is the window to the soul.
Unless his inner world stabilized, it would be impossible to immediately correct his expression to appear natural.
Therefore, he chose to control each muscle of his face individually.
This method was only possible because of the physical control abilities granted by the Dark Scripture.
However, it would have been impossible without his abnormal memory capacity.
He remembered every single change in people's expressions as they shifted according to different situations, changes that occurred in mere moments.
"...Good."
After making his final confirmation, he opened the door and stepped into the courtyard.
And involuntarily, an exclamation escaped his lips.
"Ah..."
It was sunlight.
It was warm sunlight that made him forget the terrible cold in the darkness.
Without realizing it, he walked barefoot to the middle of the courtyard.
"First Young Master, did you cough?"
The servants cleaning the yard bowed their heads slightly in greeting.
After all, he was the First Young Master who didn't mind their slight discourtesies
The scholar paid no attention to the servants.
It was as if he wasn't even aware of their presence.
He just stood there, slowly spreading his hands to feel the sunlight.
Like a tree that had waited a thousand years for a single ray of sunshine.
He closed his eyes completely.
"First Young Master...?"
He gave no response to the servant's questioning of his strange behavior.
The servants could only look at each other uncertainly.
It was strange.
Normally, they would have simply ignored whatever the First Young Master did and moved on.
Gulp.
Cold sweat began to form on the servants' hands.
It was like the experience of subordinates serving a strict master.
At some point during this uncomfortable moment, the First Young Master spoke.
"...Summon all my subordinates."
It was a voice they had never heard from the First Young Master before.
Though clearly the same as yesterday, something was fundamentally different.
It was a voice that mere servants dared not disobey.
"...Yes?! Yes! Right away!"
The startled servants began running with all their might.
They scattered in unison to sprint to every corner, calling other servants to gather.
"What's going on...?"
"What? What's happening?"
The summoned servants gathered one by one, openly showing annoyed expressions as they shuffled in.
If not for the urgent tone of the servants delivering the order, some might not have shown up at all.
What they saw when they gathered was the strange sight of the First Young Master standing barefoot on the dirt, arms spread wide to receive the sunlight.
Low murmurs passed between the gathered servants.
"Has he finally lost his mind after staying cooped up in his quarters?"
"Ah... I was taking a nice nap, don't know why we're being called like this."
One who appeared older clicked his tongue openly.
"Tsk tsk, with the First Young Master being like this, I wonder what will become of the great Luoyang Swords Clan..."
To them, the First Young Master was an 'easy' and 'pushover' existence.
They had spent a long time with the First Young Master.
He never pressured or scolded them.
He usually granted all their reasonable requests.
Moreover, despite its size, his residence, the Wang Pavilion, had very few tasks to be done.
Since guests never visited, they didn't need to polish every corner several times a day. the First Young Master mostly tended the large garden himself, and since he only had a few sets of clothes, even the most arduous task of laundry was minimal.
Thus, the servants of Wang Pavilion, the First Young Master's residence, had become lax and negligent.
And decisively,
Calling him the Swordless One in contempt was the openly circulating atmosphere throughout the clan.
Even though he wasn't someone mere servants could disrespect, regardless of his nature.
The problem was that they had seen his excessively gentle personality up close for too long.
"...Ahem."
"Hrm."
At first, they showed their dissatisfaction with the First Young Master's eccentric behavior of calling them out.
But somehow the atmosphere had fallen into a silence as if a mouse had died.
No one had explicitly told them to be quiet.
Like the first servants who arrived.
They gradually refrained from idle chatter.
They gradually restrained their improper movements.
They gradually grew anxious.
"..."
"..."
Finally, only an strange stillness and ominous silence remained.
And no one could break it.
Without realizing it, they were already dominated by the atmosphere emanating from the First Young Master.
"...Has everyone gathered?"
This peculiar situation continued until the First Young Master spoke.
"What?! Yes, that's right. Everyone has gathered."
He didn't even look at the flustered servants.
"You are no longer needed at Wang Pavilion from this moment. Report to the steward's office immediately for new assignments."
His voice was low, but it rang clearly in everyone's ears.
"Th-that's...?!"
"...First Young Master!"
Those who had been merely bowing their heads tensely now protested at his words.
"How can you suddenly dismiss us like this?!"
And when a few gathered the courage to shout, everyone else raised their voices as well.
"What are we supposed to tell the steward's office?!"
"Everyone will look at us badly!"
"First Young Master!"
They all raised their voices in unison to condemn the First Young Master's decision.
"...Kuk kuk kuk."
Then there was a laugh that clearly cut through their loud voices.
It was a sneer that started from the First Young Master's lips.
That low laughing sound had a strange metallic quality that seemed to scratch at the listeners' ears.
It was an eerily sinister sound.
The servants' necks bristled.
Their tongues froze.
Their movements stopped.
"..."
Their mouths closed, but the First Young Master's ominous laughter wouldn't stop.
That was because the mockery wasn't directed at the servants.
It was self-mockery.
'How foolish and ignorant was I in the past.'
He had believed that if he showed kindness first, others would repay it with kindness.
Even if they didn't immediately repay kindness, he believed that sincerity would eventually get through.
No, he had wanted to believe.
The servants acting out before him now were essentially what his past self had cultivated.
Finally ceasing his laughter, the First Young Master looked down at them.
Not a trace of emotion remained in his eyes.
The servants shrank further under that glass-like gaze.
"What is my surname?"
When he raised his hand to point at someone, that person jumped and answered.
"Y-Yuan, sir!"
Yuan Zhaoxian nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer.
"That's right. And this clan, the Luoyang Sword Clan, belongs to that Yuan family."
Then he pointed to another person and asked again.
"What is my given name?"
The person pointed at trembled without knowing why and answered.
"...'Zhao' and 'Xian', sir!"
Zhaoxian, the one with the surname Yuan and the name Zhaoxian, asked another servant.
"Yes, and what is this Yuan Zhaoxian in this clan?"
The pointed servant swallowed dry saliva and answered.
"The... First Young Master, sir."
First Young Master Yuan Zhaoxian smiled.
But that smile was just a shape, completely empty inside, making it terribly chilling.
"Yes. I am this clan's First Young Master, Yuan Zhaoxian."
Blue flames seemed to spark in his eyes.
"Then what are you who defy the First Young Master's orders?"
His lips twisted.
"Are you the masters of this clan?"
At those words, all the servants turned pale and prostrated themselves.
They might have been uneducated and foolish, but they weren't so dull as to not know their place.
"P-please spare us!"
"This absolutely isn't defiance!"
"We just...!"
Their once-neat servant clothes became dirty.
Even more than the First Young Master's bare feet they had mocked.
"Shh...!"
When Yuan Zhaoxian put his finger to his lips, not even breathing sounds escaped from the servants with their heads buried in the dirt.
"It's my fault for making you lax, so I won't punish you."
A bright smile spread across Yuan Zhaoxian's lips.
"So pack your things and get out immediately."
As soon as those words ended, the servants offered their thanks to him.
"Th-thank you!"
"Thank you, First Young Master!"
He looked down at them with a twisted smile.
When he had treated them endlessly well, he only heard complaints and resentment.
But when he squeezed them mercilessly, only then did he hear words of gratitude.
Human affairs were ironically peculiar indeed.
There was no reason to be swayed by such things one by one now.
More than that, there was a weightier reason why he had dismissed all the servants.
'With this, I've removed the unnecessary "eyes" for now.'
Many of the servants at Wang Pavilion had been reporting every single action of First Young Master Yuan Zhaoxian to other forces within the clan.
He had known this fact in the past as well, but had ignored it due to his indifference to power.
There were ways to make servants who dared report their master's actions neither live nor die, but he hadn't done so.
'There's no need to startle the snake by beating the grass right now.'
There was no need to make them wary of him.
At least not yet.
"You there."
It was a servant trying to hurriedly escape Wang Pavilion without even properly packing his belongings.
When Yuan Zhaoxian pointed at him, he fell to the ground in panic.
"Yes, yes! First Young Master! Please command me!"
As he answered with his head buried in the ground, his belongings and clothes rolled on the floor.
But neither he nor Yuan Zhaoxian paid any attention to that.
"Tell the steward's office... no..."
Yuan Zhaoxian's eyes narrowed.
"Tell the Head Steward directly to select and send one young servant to attend to me."
The 'Head Steward' was someone in such a high position that mere lowly servants like themselves dared not even make eye contact.
Someone who could give orders to such a person.
Though it was already too late, the servant clearly realized who he had been serving.
"Yes, yes! Understood, First Young Master! I will remember!"
"And..."
His following question was incredibly baffling.
"Where is the sun passing now?"
"The sun... you ask?"
Yuan Zhaoxian's question as he faced the sky made no sense.
The servant simply answered as asked.
"It's hanging over there now. It's shining so white and bright that it's hard to look at."
He tilted his head slightly at that answer.
"...Is that so?"
Yuan Zhaoxian waved his hand.
The servant bowed deeply and hurriedly left his place.
"...Around there, you say?"
Looking up at the sky, Yuan Zhaoxian could only see warm sunlight.
The sun itself was nowhere to be seen.
"...Has even the sun turned away from me now."
The maniacal laughter of the Dark Scripture still seemed to ring vividly in his ears.
[From now on, you shall breathe in darkness, swing the sword of judgment in darkness, and become the Dark Lord who punishes all karma in the world!]