Chapter 12
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 12
Her large, almond-shaped eyes wavered before welling up with moisture. She struggled to refuse, but her gaze, clouded by the drug, was hazy and unfocused. Her small lips parted and closed as if she didn't know what to do, a faint moan escaping with every movement.
“This is so fucking hot.”
Feeling himself swell in an instant, the man pulled a small vial from his pocket. He seized Seo-ah’s jaw with one hand and flicked the cap off with his thumb. The woman in his grasp thrashed her head from side to side. He could feel her feet kicking behind him, but he didn’t care.
Into the mouth he was dying to shove his tongue, he poured the precious medicine, worth hundreds of thousands of Kerte a drop. Then, he clamped a hand over her lips to keep her from spitting it out. The woman’s struggles grew more defiant, but that only heightened his excitement.
“Ugh, mmph, huff…”
“Just hold on a little longer, hm? You’re going to feel good.”
The man slowly caressed Seo-ah’s struggling legs.
“Did you bite me?”
His hand, which had been covering her mouth, was now throbbing from her bite. The man just grinned and suddenly struck Seo-ah across the cheek.
Slap!
“Bite me again and you’ll be punished, you hear? Let’s see… you didn’t even break the skin.”
The man examined his hand, then toyed with the soft curve of her ear and whispered, “You’ve never done this before, have you?”
Seo-ah gasped desperately for breath.
Worse than the whisper crawling into her ear was her own consciousness, which was drifting further and further away. Everything receded into the distance. It felt as if she were falling into a bottomless abyss, and she knew that if she fell, all would be lost.
I should have just gone with that man back then.
Even if it was terrifyingly suffocating, she should have followed him.
If someone could just get her out of this hell, if anyone could just get her out of this place, she wouldn't care if it was a devil.
It was then, in the heart of hell, that she found herself wishing for a devil.
Just as she thought she heard the sound of a long exhale, the acrid smell of cigarette smoke filled the air. The moment the scent appeared, the man holding her captive froze.
Through her vision, which she clung to with all her might, she saw him whip his head around.
Dazed, Seo-ah also tried to turn her eyes in that direction. Unable to move her neck, she desperately rolled her eyes until her slowly panning vision moved from the ceiling to the door.
The room was shrouded in darkness.
At the entrance to the room she had hoped would be a paradise but was in fact the Abyss, stood the man, impossibly.
Though she was dazed, Seo-ah recognized him in a single glance.
A man who looked as if he were sculpted from darkness itself.
The tip of his cigarette, holding a tiny ember, glowed red. That acrid light was the only light that existed in the darkness.
Please don’t let this be a hallucination.
The moment she desperately wished for that acrid, red light to be real, he opened his mouth, his voice sounding as unreal as his presence.
“Do you want to continue?”
His voice was so low it made her heart sink, and utterly monotonous. He seemed relaxed, as if the violence unfolding before him was of no consequence.
“If you want to continue, I can wait.”
He was casual, as if her situation was no big deal.
Seo-ah had no choice but to cling to him desperately.
Help me.
Her voice wouldn't come out. Or perhaps she didn't even know if it was. All Seo-ah could do was plead to him with her entire being.
Help me.
She could only hope her plea would reach him.
Please, don’t… don’t just leave me like this.
Incomprehensible events can cause a lapse in judgment.
The man, who had been burning with the thought of ‘educating’ Seo-ah, should have thought more deeply about who this stranger was and how he had gotten in. He should have realized that the chill creeping up his spine was the tolling bell of his own instincts.
“If you want to continue, I can wait.”
He should have understood that the man’s strange words held not a shred of concern for his own safety.
“Sir, I believe you’re in the wrong room.”
The assailant’s gaze, which had been nailed to the woman, finally lifted. The tip of the cigarette glowed red again. The stranger took a deep drag, then exhaled his words with the smoke.
“Get out.”
The man’s strangely calm demeanor sent a shiver down the assailant’s spine. He furtively darted his eyes around. Thankfully, there was no one else.
It was unsettling how the man had gotten in, but he must have missed it in his excitement. The guys guarding the outside… right, they probably stepped away for a moment. Fucking slackers. They should be back by now.
“I said, I think you have the wrong room.”
“…”
“Shouldn’t the one in the wrong room be the one to leave?”
The moment he deliberately raised his voice for those outside to hear, the man who had been leaning against the door straightened up, as if it were nothing. Before the assailant could react, the stranger closed the distance in an instant, and the next moment, the back of his head was seized. Only after his neck was violently jerked back did he see the cold, blue eyes.
“Every last one of you just doesn’t seem to listen.”
Oscar let out a dry laugh and dragged the man off the bed. He kicked the backs of the man’s knees, forcing him to kneel, then stepped on his thighs. As the man opened his mouth to scream, Oscar shoved the lit end of his cigarette into it.
It all happened in the blink of an eye, as naturally as flowing water.
“Uggghhh, mmph, mmph!”
He tried to open his mouth against the horrific pain of his tongue being seared, but the force on his jaw made it impossible. The pressure on his thighs and the grip on his head were overwhelming. He flailed his one free hand desperately, but it was no use.
He felt like an insect.
“Ughhh, huuuugh…!”
It felt like his tongue was melting. In the terrible hell of smelling his own flesh burn, a single second felt like an eternity. The blue-eyed devil gave him no chance to beg for mercy. He simply stared down, his eyes chillingly devoid of emotion.
How much time had passed? Oscar’s gaze, which had been fixed on him, finally shifted.
Where Oscar’s gaze landed, the brothel owner stood, having been dragged in silently by the Wolves. She stared blankly at the center of the soundless hell.
“Uh…”
Oscar, who had effortlessly trampled a grown man, dusted off his hands and straightened his back. Only then was the man’s body freed. He crawled toward her, making animalistic noises. Even after reducing a man to a beast, Oscar looked no different from when he had first entered the room.
“You’re here?”
The low, gentle tone sent a shiver down her spine. Something about fifty thousand, something about a gemstone. All the thoughts she’d had in an attempt to remain rational vanished like the tide before a primal fear. She collapsed, prostrating herself flat on the floor.
“I was wrong.”
Oscar looked down at her quietly. The Wolves moved before their master even gave the order.
“I was wrong. Please forgive me.”
A large lump thudded to the ground next to the prostrate brothel owner. She reflexively glanced to the side and saw two men, their bodies so broken it was impossible to tell if they were dead or alive.
“Aack!”
Utterly horrified, she shot up into a sitting position and began to scramble backward on her rear, but one of the Wolves shoved her toward the fallen men. Pushed by the brutish force, she fell onto the pile of what might have been corpses. The foul, metallic scent of blood stabbed into her lungs, and nausea churned in her stomach.
“Ugh, blergh!”
As she vomited, a heavy money pouch was thrown in front of her. The moment she saw the pouch, now covered in her own filth, she realized that the men beneath her were the human traffickers who had brought the woman.
She trembled, prostrating herself once more over her own vomit. Her forehead and hair became a mess, tangled with the filth, but she didn't even notice.
She frantically searched her mind, trying to figure out why this was happening. Why this mysterious man was so obsessed with the woman, why he was doing this to her. But that wasn't important. They had been minced like meat for the simple crime of bringing a woman here. She had far more reasons to be minced than they did.
“Fo-forgive me, please.”
Thud. Thud.
As the slow footsteps approached, she trembled as if she would faint. How foolish she had been to pride herself on having seen it all. She had never been this afraid in her entire life.
“Forgiveness, please, forgive me…”
Something about the times, something about evidence. The moment she had dared to defy him with such thoughts felt like a distant dream.
Oscar stopped a step in front of her and shoved both hands into his pockets. He stared quietly at the back of her pathetically trembling head. In that state, he made his final review of how to deal with her, weighing which choice would be the most efficient.
The woman Simon had thought was digging her own grave had been lucky, relatively speaking. It wasn't wise to cause unnecessary bloodshed multiple times in a place as small as Pelfe.
“There were no guests staying the night here today.”
The brothel owner quickly nodded her head. “Yes, of course.”
“And there was never a woman bought for fifty thousand.”
“Of course.”
“The cleanup.” Oscar nudged the two bodies with the tip of his shoe. “Can I trust you with it? If you're not confident, I'll do it myself.”
“No, no, please trust me!” the brothel owner repeated over and over, not even knowing what she was saying.
“Alright. Then I’ll trust you and be on my way.”
The moment the chillingly gentle words fell over her head, she thanked Oscar repeatedly, as if he were her savior.
“Thank you.”
But it was too soon to think she had been saved.
“By the way,” Oscar said, his voice dropping, “what did you give her?”
When she snapped her head up in surprise, Oscar was already standing by the bed, his long frame bent slightly as he looked down at Seo-ah.