Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: Juni
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Thud.
It was only after quite a long time had passed that the door finally opened, and the guard stepped inside. Gamal was huddled against the wall, her arms wrapped tightly around her shoulders.
The guard stood before her. Gamal forced her head up, squeezing out a voice that carried not even a hint of moisture.
“Water… please… give me water…”
The thirst grew worse with every passing moment, an indescribable torment. Right now, she felt like she could drain an entire ocean.
No, she couldn’t even tell if it was her throat that was parched or her stomach that was empty. Her belly felt like something was gnawing at it from inside one moment, only for her voice to rasp dryly the next. It was a terrifying, overwhelming hunger.
She had never felt such a profound sense of *lack* before.
But the guard said nothing, merely looking down at her. Then he dropped to one knee in front of her.
“…?”
Gamal looked at him in bewilderment.
Her wedding dress, still crusted with the muck from the swamp, had lost all trace of its original color and reeked of decay. And yet, this impure woman who had slain her husband on their wedding night exuded an irresistible sheen.
He gripped her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze.
Her hair was matted, her face streaked with mud. But beneath his thumb on her cheek, her skin was cool and soft, her eyes clear and pure despite the pain shining in them.
As she looked at him with those eyes, a heat began to build in his gut.
He had felt desire for her since the wedding ceremony, but she drew his gaze even more unrealistically now than she had then, all dolled up.
While the others hurled their curses, the guard had thought of nothing but touching her. So he had waited until the crowd quieted.
She would be executed tomorrow anyway.
The guard untied the cord binding Gamal’s arms. Then he climbed on top of her. She flinched.
“Stay still, and I’ll give you water.”
As he spoke, the guard seized her breast.
“Stop… please…”
“The one who killed Adawi must have been a demon that hated you. How could these frail arms have done it?”
The guard panted as he spoke.
“Please…”
Gamal opened her mouth to try to stop him. But then she felt something growing inside it. She didn’t know what it was. Yet somehow, she knew instinctively how to use it.
His nape was right there in front of her. Neither Gamal herself nor the guard, busy gasping for breath, noticed it, but the irises in her eyes slowly narrowed like those of an excited beast.
She could even see the fine hairs sprouting on the guard’s writhing nape.
Never had any object appeared so close, so vividly detailed. It felt as if she had gained the eyes of a god, able to see a world she had never known.
Beneath the guard’s heaving skin, a river flowed.
Swish… swish…
Like muddy waters churning in a river after a storm, she could sense the flow beneath his skin. Gamal opened her mouth.
*Thirsty.*
The sound of water inside the guard’s body grew louder.
*Want to drink.*
Gamal plunged her gleaming fangs toward his nape.
They halted just a hair’s breadth from piercing his skin. The guard, oblivious, kept panting.
Gamal squeezed her eyes shut and shoved him away with both hands. Astonishingly, the guard flew through the air as if hurled by a giant, tumbling limply like a rag doll across the floor until he crashed into the wall and stopped.
Gamal was stunned. The guard looked as if he had seen a ghost, his face drained of color.
“A, a demon…! You’re a demon!”
The guard fled in terror. Gamal stared dazedly at her own hands.
*This power…?*
Bang.
The door flew open violently. People poured in. She didn’t know what the guard had told them, but their momentum was terrifying, as if they meant to kill her right there.
“Please, tell Tawa. It wasn’t me… it wasn’t…”
The men ignored her, dragging her out like baggage. Blazing sunlight poured down. It felt like her body was burning.
The entire tribe had gathered in the village center.
The elder pronounced judgment.
“The crime of killing your husband on your wedding night is grave. You are sentenced to death.”
“No, it wasn’t…!”
Gamal cried out frantically.
“Then who was it?”
The elder asked with a face cold enough to chill her heart.
“Speak. Who killed Adawi? In that bridal chamber, with only you and him there.”
Gamal could say nothing. The elder clicked his tongue.
“We accepted you as a symbol of peace and unity. And this is how your father repays us? By having you kill Adawi and sever our tribe’s line?”
“No!”
Gamal shouted without thinking. But if she said Kunis, the chief’s eldest son, had killed Adawi, it would only make things worse. War would erupt between the tribes.
Gamal bowed her head.
“I killed Adawi.”
“Why?”
The elder asked as if determined to see the matter through properly.
“Adawi…”
Gamal spoke slowly.
“I didn’t love him.”
The truth came out easily.
“Was there another man?”
“No.”
“And yet you took this risk to kill Adawi?”
“I thought I could escape.”
Gamal couldn’t hold back her tears.
Though they had been married less than a day, the sight of this widow—who had killed her husband with her own hands—shedding tears was so heartrending that it silenced everyone.
Silence fell. Even so, the elder spoke.
“Go meet Adawi and apologize.”
The executioner stepped forward. Just as he was about to carry out the sentence.
Thud.
A blade pierced his throat. Gamal’s eyes widened. The executioner collapsed to the side.
Thump.
In the spot where the executioner had vanished, Kunis now stood. Somehow.
He looked as if he had fallen into the swamp like her—covered head to toe in mud, unrecognizable as human or lump of dirt, his eyes the only thing gleaming fiercely.
A tremor rose from Gamal’s toes, shaking her entire body. She struggled to raise her arms to loosen the bonds around her aura, but back then she didn’t yet know how to use her strength, so they held fast.
Kunis dropped to his knees before her like a collapsing heap. The eyes that had regarded the executioner like a mere insect now quivered with desperate affection.
“Gamal.”
He cupped her face in his hands.
“You’re safe. Thank goodness. I was so worried. For a moment, I got angry… I’m sorry. Really. You’ll forgive me, right?”
Gamal couldn’t control her trembling body.
“Kunis…!”
A warrior swung his sword from behind.
Thud.
But the blade didn’t touch Kunis.
Everyone was shocked. It was impossible. Gamal couldn’t comprehend it either. But unlike the others, she could sense one thing.
The explosive murderous intent in Kunis’s eyes.
Gamal cried out instinctively.
“No!”
But Kunis thrust his hand straight through the warrior’s chest. A thud echoed as blood and viscera sprayed.
His bulging eyes reflected the warrior convulsing and collapsing. Kunis spoke flatly.
“Mati and Tawa are dead.”
“What…?”
“They came saying the peace talks fell apart because you killed Adawi, so I killed them all.”
Gamal shook her head.
“Lies… that’s a lie…”
Whether Gamal understood or not no longer mattered. Covered in blood, Kunis turned and grinned.
“God gave me the power to take revenge.”
“Demon! Demon…!”
The people screamed and scattered in all directions. Kunis’s body brimmed with anticipation for power and blood.
“Stop! Kunis, stop…!”
The slaughter began. Gamal couldn’t even scream.
Amid it all, a child who had lost its parents opened its mouth as if to wail. Gamal frantically shook her head. Instinctively, the child clamped its mouth shut and held back its sobs.
Kunis ignored the child and approached Gamal, pulling her into a tent.
It was the closest one, but of all places, it was the bridal chamber where she had been with Adawi. The corpse and blood had been cleared, but traces of the bridal chamber remained uncleared.
Kunis embraced her tightly.
“Gamal. I was so scared. For a moment, I thought I’d lost you.”
Kunis’s body was trembling.
Gamal twisted around, pinning him and throttling his neck. Kunis didn’t resist. He looked up at her with wistful eyes and said.
“If it’ll ease your anger, do the same to me as much as you want.”
Squeeze…
Gamal kept applying pressure. Kunis flinched. He realized her strength was unnaturally great—equal to his own, which had strangely grown.
Only then did he realize she had gained the same power as him. He hadn’t thought so because she had simply been captured by the people.
Come to think of it, though she had flailed, it was Gamal who had grabbed him and dragged him into the swamp.
“Gamal… Gamal…!”
Kunis let out a choked gasp.
“Stop. Gamal…! I can’t… breathe!”
In the moment her grip loosened, he seized the chance to flip their positions. Unable to contain his rage, he swung his hand.
The slap echoed like thunder. A normal human’s neck would have snapped off, but Gamal, with the same power, merely had her face turn aside.
He couldn’t hold back his anger again.
Before Kunis could react, Gamal whipped her head toward him. It felt as if a spear pierced him from crown to heart.
It was a blazing glare of fury and venom she had never shown him before.
Gamal kicked Kunis away. With tremendous force, he flew into the wall, which collapsed in a heap of rubble with the house. The guard she had pushed away earlier had been nothing more than a light shove.
Gamal didn’t miss that instant. She dashed out, scooped up the child sobbing amid the corpses, and began to run.
A clamor rose as Kunis burst from the debris, shouting.
“Gamal!”
Gamal pushed off with her legs and leaped to an astonishing height, nearly soaring into the sky—like an animal instinctively awakening its innate ability in a desperate flight from a predator.
“Gamal-----!!!”
Kunis’s pursuing cry echoed across heaven and earth. The child convulsed at the sound, rolled back its eyes, and fainted.
Gamal didn’t stop.
***
Gamal set the child down on a hilltop and said.
“There’s a village if you go down from here.”
The child’s face was streaked from crying but had calmed somewhat. Gamal urged.
“Don’t stop.”
The child nodded and started to go, then hesitated and turned back.
“Gamal didn’t kill Adawi, right?”
Even this young child knew the obvious truth, but Adawi’s tribe hadn’t wanted to know it.
Gamal twisted her face into a smile.
“Run.”
The child held back its tears and ran.