Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: His Limbs (2)
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If the chance came, I had to snap the wires with raw strength and swing my fist.
I tried to calm my pounding heart while glaring at the man in front of me.
Jaeyeon let out ragged breaths, his face flushed red. The blade he held out sliced across my throat.
“…You really lost your memories and turned into an idiot?”
I could feel his hand trembling faintly from excitement. A shallow cut stung, and blood trickled from it.
“Seeing you so desperate is kind of refreshing.”
“What’s your problem?”
My vision settled a bit. I gauged the tension of the wires binding my arms.
“As you can see, I don’t remember anything. What the hell did I even do?”
“This is fucking bullshit.”
Jaeyeon spat the words and slapped my cheek.
A burning pain flared as my head snapped to the left.
“Speak properly.”
I slowly turned my head back into place.
“If you’re not just randomly grabbing people and beating them.”
Thwack.
A punch.
To the right side again. It was so typical of Jaeyeon to target the same spot. The taste of blood filled my mouth. I furrowed my brow and spat out the blood pooling there quickly.
I turned my head back, thinking of ways to stoke this bastard’s anger. Scratching at his nerves would loosen the wires, give me a chance to counterattack, and keep his eyes off Ye-hyeon.
“Jaeyeon. Tell me what you want, nicely.”
“Why are you acting so cold? I’m trying to help you.”
His attitude flipped in an instant.
I looked up at him with incredulous eyes as he gazed down at me with a hurt expression.
Now that I thought about it, that’s right. This guy was the type whose moods swung wildly like a maniac.
Jaeyeon, who had lowered his eyebrows while looking down at me, leaned in and rested his head against mine. A quiet sigh brushed my ear.
“Haa, you won’t trust me.”
“Tell me, and I’ll trust you.”
I responded softly to his words.
“How are you planning to help me?”
I didn’t even mention Ye-hyeon.
I acted like the sprawled-out guy wasn’t there. Asking why he’d beaten him into a bloody pulp would just excite this lunatic even more, and he’d probably beat the unconscious man again.
Jaeyeon grinned.
He lifted his head and loomed his face over mine. A drop of blood—probably Ye-hyeon’s—trickled down his nose bridge onto my face. I felt him fiddling with my hair with his other hand.
Jaeyeon toyed with my hair and murmured lowly.
“You forgot everything, right? I have to help you remember.”
I replied in a gentle tone.
“Then tell me.”
I ignored the faint cuts on my throat from his playful knife movements.
“What did I do to you?”
“You betrayed your own kind.”
I raised my eyebrows in disbelief.
“Why are you mad about that?”
“If you’re going to curse us with immortality, you should’ve joined hands with your kind and won the war, or betrayed them without granting immortality….”
Anger laced his voice for the first time in a longer sentence.
His face twisted in rage. Something like a blazing fire flickered in his eyes.
The blade glowing near my throat shot up into the air.
“Now I can’t even hope to grow old and die!”
Stab.
My shoulder. The well-sharpened knife dug into my shoulder blade. A sharp pain exploded from my right shoulder, and I let out a short scream.
Getting stabbed like this had been a while.
If the chance came, I’d swing my left fist. I clenched and unclenched my unbound left hand behind me, looking up at Jaeyeon, who was snorting with furrowed brows.
“Is this about Colton?”
Judging by the rage filling Jaeyeon’s eyes, I’d hit the mark.
“That bastard not dying isn’t my fault.”
A kick to the stomach.
My breath caught for a moment. After coughing a few times, I could finally breathe easy again.
“Not your fault?”
Jaeyeon’s retort made him look truly unhinged.
“Not your fault? Before you guys showed up, humans grew old and died. Even with Botox, skin lifts with thread, anti-aging pills, and building the Great Wall—they still grew old and died. Wounds festered and killed them, fire turned them to ash, debris crushed them?”
“We die too.”
I spoke in a voice devoid of emotion.
“You, Colton too.”
Another kick.
The chair toppled backward. My body slammed hard into the floor. Before Jaeyeon could charge in rage, I snapped the wires binding my wrists with brute force.
As Jaeyeon yanked the knife from my shoulder, I swung my left fist.
Thwack.
I slapped his right cheek squarely. Jaeyeon’s body flew right, crashing into the wall with a thud.
I needed to grab that knife. I severed the wires around my ankles and sprang up, charging at Jaeyeon.
Even as he gathered himself, Jaeyeon kicked precisely. I took the hit to my shin but bent at the waist to reach for the knife. I couldn’t grab the handle, so I seized the long blade’s tip with my right hand.
“You idiot fuck…!”
Jaeyeon swung a fist with his free hand and shouted.
“Looks like you remember swinging a knife.”
We grappled for a while.
His strength was immense. The knife we both fought over snapped in half. I swung the broken blade, and Jaeyeon swung the remaining piece. Flesh tore, blood sprayed.
Shit. My right shoulder wouldn’t move right.
Boom!
A numbing impact hit the back of my head. Jaeyeon seized the opening from my hesitating right arm, slamming me into the corner. He spat blood and approached.
The wounds on his body were already healing.
Suddenly, I felt wronged. We taught them Enhanced Body, so why was our recovery like this and theirs so damn good?
Jaeyeon stomped my right foot down as I tried to rise.
“I have to take care of what he gave me.”
He muttered to himself and slipped a hand into his pocket.
“I’m so dutiful, aren’t I?”
He pulled out a syringe.
The moment I saw it, Colton’s words from the meeting flashed back. That he’d help me. That he’d try.
Was that it? Had to be. No doubt.
But I didn’t want to take some unknown liquid willingly.
I kicked Jaeyeon’s left foot with mine. He staggered, cursing “fuck” under his breath.
Even as he fell, he pressed down on my right shoulder.
“You crazy bastard!”
I shoved away the needle nearing my neck and cursed back.
“Is this how you treat a friend you’re reuniting with?!”
“That’s why you should’ve come straight here after coming back.”
Jesus.
That one line made everything click. Why Colton had loosened the reins just enough for Jaeyeon to kidnap Ye-hyeon and me right after the meeting.
Colton didn’t like that I’d become Ye-hyeon’s man.
It probably wasn’t enough to kill over, but it had irked him. That’s the kind of guy he was. The world had to be at his feet.
‘If I’m going down, I’ll burn everything.’
In what context had he said that?
The fragment of memory distracted me, and Jaeyeon didn’t miss it.
The sharp needle pierced a vein in my neck.
Stab.
“Ah.”
“Good boy.”
Jaeyeon laughed long and hard at me reflexively grabbing his arm.
“Don’t struggle.”
The needle that had pierced my muscle withdrew.
A stabbing pain followed. My body lightened. Jaeyeon backed away, laughing.
My senses sharpened.
“Huhk.”
What is this?
“Dizzy…”
I couldn’t even finish the word.
Information flooded in. I clamped my mouth shut, trying to process the onslaught of sensations.
My five senses sharpened excessively, overwhelming me. It wasn’t like being drugged. Everything felt too vivid.
The pain in my shoulder, Jaeyeon’s sharp laughter, the texture of the wall I leaned against. The stench of blood and metal assaulted my nose, my vision grew crystal clear. Too much information—I didn’t know where to start.
And atop the burdensome senses, another one layered on.
A continuous flow of sensations transmitted along my body’s moving parts.
I’d never fully explained this to Colton.
“Looks like it kicked in?”
Jaeyeon’s voice carried a laugh.
“How’s it feel?”
Drenched in cold sweat, I barely lifted my head.
Panting raggedly, I looked at the man standing before me. He tossed the empty syringe to the floor and grinned demonically, gripping the broken knife.
If he lunged now, I’d die without a fight.
But he wouldn’t kill me. Colton wouldn’t allow it. Of course, he wouldn’t let me go peacefully either. All that was left was Jaeyeon unleashing his rage with violence.
There’d be openings amid the onslaught—I had to exploit them….
The moment Jaeyeon lifted his shoe, the cramped room’s wall exploded.
Boom!
Yoon’s shoe struck Jaeyeon’s side precisely. Jaeyeon’s body flew into the opposite wall. Clutching my right shoulder, I watched my master stride toward Jaeyeon, coat billowing.
“Yoon.”
Jaeyeon, sprawled on the floor, spat blood and laughed.
“Long time no see.”
He couldn’t continue.
Yoon grabbed Jaeyeon’s black hair without a change in expression. Then he smashed the back of Jaeyeon’s head into the floor repeatedly. Thud, thud, thud! The impacts cracked the floor. Jaeyeon thrashed wildly, striking at Yoon, but my master didn’t budge, swinging his arm relentlessly.
It was scary enough to worry Jaeyeon might actually die.
Jaeyeon didn’t die. He finally passed out, bleeding.
The surroundings fell silent in an instant. Yoon released the hair, slowly straightening from his bent waist.
“Yoon.”
My hoarse voice called him, and Yoon rasped back.
“You look like you’re about to die?”
I shook my head slowly at my senior, whose expressionless face radiated fury.
“I’ll live. Please check on Ye-hyeon.”
Yoon glanced at me briefly before turning away.
He stepped over the unconscious Jaeyeon toward our ragdoll of a boss. I followed him with my eyes.
Seeing our unmoving boss again, fear hit me late.
How’s his condition?
He’s clearly lost too much blood. Yoon knelt on one knee before Ye-hyeon, gently turning over the prone body. Hair shifted, revealing the unconscious man’s face.
Pale as wax.
Fortunately, no wounds.
“Better than usual.”
My master muttered lowly.
“Guess it’s hard to beat both of you thoroughly at once.”
Is that something you say in front of a guy with nails in his wrists and ankles?
But I knew Yoon had dealt with this often, always on high alert during social gatherings. So I wisely shut my mouth. Yoon checked his pulse expressionlessly, inspected wounds, pulled a blood syringe from his inner pocket, injected Ye-hyeon, and stood.
He approached me.
“You need hospitalization too.”
“The ambulance?”
“On its way, probably. I sent the location to the aide.”
“It’s not just nails everywhere. Internal injuries are severe. Keep watching him.”
“Organs are probably burst. But he recovers fast, and you don’t.”
Yoon replied flatly, knelt before me, and pulled an emergency kit from his coat.
I obediently watched him staunch my arm’s bleeding with the compact kit.
No emotion showed on my master’s face. I knew it was because he was barely suppressing an urge to explode. One wrong move, and he might kill the collapsed Jaeyeon. He was enduring with cold, boiling patience.
We couldn’t kill Jaeyeon.
Colton’s limb. His sole exception.
Killing the top dog’s possession would bring catastrophe. Unignorable, unavoidable ruin. We might topple Colton with luck, but the losses would be immense. My master and boss weren’t fools who couldn’t weigh that.
That’s why we’d survived like this until now.
Even before I fell out of the portal….
“Hildebert.”
Yoon, finished staunching the blood, met my eyes.
As I looked at him silently, my master slowly broke the silence.
In a dry, cracked voice.
“You did well.”
That was the highest praise Yoon ever gave me.