Chapter 16
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 16
Tears streamed down my face as I threw my arms around her. I never knew that body, always so strong, could feel so cold.
Don’t die. Don’t leave me all alone. Don’t go like this.
I repeated the same words over and over. A weak hand touched my back, then fell away. At the same time, her last words reached my ears.
“A wolf… a wolf will come.”
One who will kill that man, and in the end, kill you…
Her hollow words, choked by sobs, faded away unfinished.
Was it because I had seen my master after so long? Or because, of all the memories, I had to witness her last moments?
As if in sympathy with my sorrow, I thought I could hear a tightly suppressed sob in the distance. Or perhaps it was a groan.
“Uh, hic, sob…”
Following the cry—which sounded both terrified and pained—came a cold voice, devoid of a single shred of mercy.
“The scheduled time has passed, and she still hasn’t woken up.”
“I-It’s only been one minute! Just one more minute! If you could just wait a little longer…!”
“Cut off one of her fingers.”
“Aaaah! Wait, just a moment!”
The problem was that the conversation was utterly horrifying, and the sensations around me felt far too real for a dream. The hazy light filtering through my closed eyelids, the frantic patter of footsteps against my eardrums, even the air stirring against my bare skin.
“Please, just wait a little longer. She’s waking up!”
“‘Waking up,’ my ass. If she’s awake, she’s awake. What the hell is ‘waking up’? And why the hell did you drug someone who was perfectly fine in the first place?”
This wasn’t a dream.
The moment I realized that, reality crashed in, flipping my world upside down.
Where am I?
Who are these people? Why am I lying here? So, I…
My slowly beating heart began to pound, and my palms grew damp. A wave of fear washed over me as I failed to grasp the situation. I decided it would be better to feign sleep and observe a little longer.
“Is there an awakening drug?”
The moment someone casually tossed out that question, it was like a stone cast upon the surface of my mind. Recollections I didn’t even know were there came flooding back.
“Time for your medicine. This is the perfect time to take it.”
The memory, long sunk beneath the surface, surged up uncontrollably. The flood of recollections dragged my body back to that moment. I couldn’t resist it, couldn’t stop it.
That strange sensation, as if a film had been layered over all my senses. The laugh of a man like a demon. The feeling of being pressed down on the bed, my body as helpless as an insect’s. The lukewarm liquid that flowed between my parted lips, and the hand creeping up my thigh.
All of it swelled in an instant, crashing over my consciousness like a flash flood. My throat tightened. Unlike then, all my senses were now intact, yet I couldn’t move.
“Hah, ugh…”
“Huh? Sir! She’s awake!”
The startled voice pierced my eardrums like background noise, but that was all. Seo-ah trembled as the world pressed in on her, shrinking like a narrow coffin. She gasped for air but couldn’t get enough. Even under the hazy light, all she saw was pitch-black darkness.
A black, endless darkness descended upon her consciousness.
“What’s wrong with her? Is she really awake?”
Her body was being shaken violently. Even as the world imprinted on her retinas swayed wildly, her mind was still fumbling through the dark.
The smell that had pierced her nose, the acrid red glow, the man standing askew in the doorway…
“Want to do more?”
Thinking back on it now, the lips holding the cigarette seemed to have curved into a smooth smile. With that smiling mouth, he had taken another drag.
“If you want to do more, I can wait.”
He had been so relaxed, as if the violence in the dark was nothing at all, and she was utterly terrified of it.
The despair and fear of that moment licked at her heart with a chilling touch. And so, she had begged. Please don’t leave me in this darkness. Please, someone help me.
“Help me, please help me…”
Meanwhile, Simon, who had thought he could finally breathe a sigh of relief when the woman’s eyes fluttered open, felt his patience hit rock bottom the moment she seemed to lose her mind.
The brothel owner, whose lucky day had turned into the worst of her life, met Simon’s fixed stare and wished she could just die right then and there.
Simon strode toward the trembling woman, grabbed her roughly, and hauled her to her feet. He shoved her toward the bed and commanded, “Take responsibility. If her mind is broken, one finger won’t be enough.”
The brothel owner looked at the woman, who was completely lost in a daze, and burst into tears.
Help me, don’t leave me, please help me.
The woman was endlessly muttering the same words. Her eyes were wide and vacant, tears streamed down her face, and her fists were clenched so tightly they had turned white. It was a scene the brothel owner felt she had seen before, or perhaps even experienced herself.
Gasping for breath, she crawled onto the bed. She took the trembling woman’s stiffly frozen hand and bowed her head.
“I’m sorry.”
“……”
“I’m sorry. It was my fault.”
“…Help me, don’t leave me, I…”
Her voice, thick with despair, held all the terror of the previous night.
The brothel owner pulled the woman she had intended to destroy into a tight embrace. She stroked the slender back she had planned to push smilingly into the abyss, over and over, apologizing as if she were begging for her own life.
“I’m sorry, Young Lady. I’m sorry.”
It could have been a desperate struggle to survive, or perhaps a sliver of conscience buried deep within. Or maybe it was just instinct, obeying the devil’s command to take responsibility. Whatever the reason, she couldn’t let go of the fragile, trembling body, even as she choked on her own sobs.
Holding that small back, she told her to snap out of it, that it was all in the past. She shared her warmth, all while spouting the lie that she hadn’t done it out of any ill will.
“I’m sorry, Young Lady. It was my fault. I’m sorry.”
Simon’s impression of the scene, however, was beyond cynical; it was gruesome.
“What a fucking circus. I told her to take responsibility, and she’s sitting there apologizing.”
He muttered that if Oscar hadn’t been just outside the door, blood would have been spilled several times over by now, and pulled out a cigarette. The sight was so ridiculous it made his blood boil, so he turned his back on the bed completely.
“Go find a place to bury that woman.”
But his subordinate, who had been cautiously watching his razor-sharp superior, hesitated before speaking.
“Uh, but, sir.”
“What.”
“For some reason… I believe she’s coming to her senses, sir.”
“……?”
Just as Simon was about to light his cigarette, he whipped around. His eyes met the woman’s, now shrouded in the hazy light.
Set in her pale, clear face, her brown eyes drew one’s gaze irresistibly. The moment their eyes connected, Simon felt her awareness returning.
“I’m sorry, Young Lady.”
The old prostitute of Pelfe was comforting the woman she had tried so hard to sell, and the naive Outsider was slowly regaining her composure in the arms of the very same prostitute.
Of course, Simon’s impression of the scene remained consistently gruesome.
“My head can’t make sense of this. What is this mess?”
Even so, the transparent brown eyes were growing clearer by the second.
The woman who had become a Living Key was a problem dead, and a problem if her mind was broken.
Watching her with cynical eyes, Simon lit his cigarette and thought, Right. What does it matter how she woke up? As long as she’s up, that’s all that matters.
Yeah, for now, that’s enough.
Through the billowing smoke, he could see her brown eyes. Simon held the cigarette in one hand and offered a cynical greeting.
“Are you with us?”
The corner of the nightmare that had been choking her began to recede the moment she registered the hand stroking her back and its warmth.
I’m sorry, it was my fault.
The voice, which had sounded distant as if heard from underwater, suddenly grew loud. Seo-ah found herself meeting a pair of red eyes that were looking back at her. The man lighting a cigarette and exhaling smoke opened his mouth.
“Are you with us?”
The moment she heard the sharp voice, Seo-ah realized he was the one from that horrifying conversation. At the same time, she recognized him as the one who had been with ‘that man.’
Behind the man now walking toward her, other men of similarly burly builds appeared. They then pulled away the person holding her.
The warmth that had saved her from the surging memories was abruptly torn away.
“Huh? Why? Please spare me, she’s awake, isn’t she?”
It would take a little more time for her to realize that the warmth that had saved her was, in fact, the person who had pushed her into the abyss. Only when the red-eyed man was right in front of her did Seo-ah realize that the person being dragged away was the innkeeper.
Through the briefly opened door, she could sense a swarm of heavy, intense presences.
She couldn’t stay on the bed. She scrambled off, and as her feet touched the floor, her knees felt like they would buckle. She pressed her palms against her trembling legs to stand, but her gaze, directed at the floor, caught sight of long, slender legs. A pair of black shoes, their toes polished to a shine, stopped just a step in front of her.
“……”
Bracing herself with a hand on her thigh, she slowly looked up. The man with eyes as red as rubies was looking down at her.
“Can you walk?”
His tone was polite, but she had a feeling that if she said she couldn’t, he would tell her to crawl.
“…Yes.”
The word came out as a hoarse rasp, scratching her throat. The man turned his back. He strode toward the door with long strides and stubbed out the cigarette in an ashtray before looking back.