Ron Does Stuff

OMG I am actually watching the same episode as everybody else! No catching up needed!

At the end of the last episode, we saw Naksu/Mu-deok and Jang Wook off to Naksu’s hometown so that she can continue to train while also having the upper hand in their relationship. But is that what’s going to happen? Let’s find out!

We start with a flashback of Naksu’s life. We learn that she wasn’t just some rando that Jin Mu picked up to train — her father actually was at the capitol (?) of Daeho and was one of its mages. But it looks like both her parents were killed in what looks like an uprising, with the families of the Four Seasons — the Jang, Seo, Park, and Jin families — involved. That’s when Jin Mu picks her up, and that’s when she starts training to bring those families down.

Naksu expects desolation once they arrive at her hometown, since that’s what she ended up finding when she first back after soul shifting, but is surprised to find that somebody else is living there. And it’s the person who stole the Gwigu from the previous episode. So is he an antagonist to Naksu or just Jin Mu?

Meanwhile, all the 11 (!) mage families of Daeho have gathered to discus whether the duel between the crown prince and Jang Wook will push through. It’s a big deal, apparently, because the last duel between a mage and a member of the royal family was literally hundreds of years ago.

None of the mages have any love for Jang Wook, as he has been a prick to almost all of them during the years he’s been trying to find someone to open his ~gate of energy~ and become his teacher. But Songrim’s leader scolds them for being ~nonchalant~ about “destroying a young man’s life,” when it’s exactly what he’s doing all in the name of ~love~. Give me a break.

Meanwhile, back in the shack that Jang Wook and Naksu have found themselves in, it looks like Jang Wook is starting to ~feel~ things for Naksu. It’s all very spoiled chaebol doing something nice for the poor girl except we’re in a fantasy land and everyone’s wearing period clothing.

But we have to set that aside for now because the actual inhabitant of the shack is back and looking to off Naksu. BUT! it turns out that Naksu is a special kind of soul shifter. They still really haven’t expounded on the specifics of soul shifter anatomy and physiology and shit, but it semms like with a body as weak as Mu-deok’s, Naksu should have gone wild and eaten some souls already.

Before the other person can make a move on Naksu, though, Jang Wook is up to ostensibly protect Naksu, but the other person easily kicks his butt. Even more interesting is how the other person seems to know a lot about the history of Daeho and the sword Jang Wook got from his father.

However, all is well in the morning, with the whole kerfuffle deemed a ~mis understanding~ as the stranger — Master Lee — wants to know more about Naksu’s unusual characteristic as a soul shifter.

Master Lee looks to be adept with the world’s magic system, and is even going the extra mile by drinking chaste herbs to lower his libido and help him focus all of his energies on spellcasting. Unfortunately, Jang Wook doesn’t know that the tea he’s been drinking is made from those chaste herbs, and it looks like he has no desire to be chaste at all. He’s worried and he wants to fuck.

But chastity is exactly what Master Lee is asking off him if he wants to be trained by him, and Jang Wook wants to fuck. Who will he be fucking? Nobody at the moment! But he wants to be able to fuck should the opportunity arises!

But let’s move past that in the meantime and head on over to Jin Mu, who is sniffing around Park Jin — Jang Wook’s father figure whose name hasn’t been mentioned through out and who I’ve had to call the elder of Songrim. He tells Jin Mu that the mages will be conducting an investigation, especially since the soul shifter they dispatched in Songrim has ties to him. And the ones who will be heading that investigation are Seo Yool and Dang-gu.

There’s a really nice and tense confrontation between Jin Mu and Park Jin, as well as a fight and a chase involving Seo Yool. Jin Mu’s minions are able to evade Seo Yool for now, but Jin Mu is not taking anything for granted and will be doing even more soul shifting to serve Her Majesty. New information! Who is this woman? Seems to be the queen, as it’s shown in a later scene that she gets a box from Jin Mu!

Meanwhile, because of Seo Yool and Dang-gu finding Jang Wook’s spirit plaque in the carriage of the minions they were chasing, they’re asked to head to where he is and ask what the deal is. But the deal where Jang Wook is is that he’s chickening out and adapting to the simple life, which infuriates Naksu because she’s bet her future on him. Also, what the hell happened with the teacher-student dynamic? It’s not really being fully utilized, I feel.

Meanwhile, Cho-yeon and her family are doing some machinations of their own. They dangle a way for Jang Wook to not just avoid the duel, but also find a path towards becoming Gwangju — marrying Cho-yeon. It appears that the Jin family has a plaque that does not just allow them to reject the king’s orders, but even to dethrone him. Interesting!

Naksu, on the other hand, has gone back to the city — honestly the geography of this fictional country is weird I can’t place where anything is — and is trying to force Jang Wook’s hand and make him prepare for a duel with the crown prince. While there, she runs into one of Jin Mu’s minions and the crown prince himself, and she comes up with the idea of being the prince’s ~verbal outhouse~ which sounds dirty and something you pay for by the hour. Naksu ends up getting drunk just to humor the prince, and it’s in that state that Jang Wook takes her back to her hometown.

The same hometown, by the way, where Seo Yool and Dang-gu currently are. It’s where Seo Yool first met Naksu years ago, and Seo Yool is being nostalgic and second lead-y and just dooming himself to an ending where he does not end up with the girl. But there is a scene where Naksu literally falls into Seo Yool’s arms and kinilig ako not gonna lie!

While the kids are playing house, Master Lee has taken the body of someone attacked by a soul shifter to Songrim. It seems he really is incredibly powerful, as he was able to open the barrier even without a spirit plaque and even Songrim’s physician — whose 10 years worth of energy Jang Wook just used and made his own — kowtows to him because he was his teacher. The fact that Heo Yeom the physician looks older than him is also a dead giveaway.

The episode ends with Jang Wook promising to finally start learning to control his energy in a roundabout way — “I’m learning this because I want you to be happy” kind of way — but the kilig isn’t there just yet!