Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Chuni
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Kunis looked down at Doyoung.
“How do you think this guy’ll do? You think he’ll really come back?”
“Kunis.”
Realizing what Kunis intended to do, Gamal’s face drained of all color. Doyoung glanced back.
“But honestly, yeah.”
Kunis spoke in a light tone and drew Doyoung’s kukri from the Legion soldier standing beside him.
Shring.
The blade emerged, tracing the smooth curve that Nepalese Gurkha mercenaries used to sever enemy heads.
“Even if you hate me, this one’s an exception. I want to kill him for sure.”
Kunis’s eyes gleamed with murderous intent as he immediately raised the blade high.
“Kunis!”
Gamal let out a thunderous roar. It was a lion’s bellow, exploding from his dantian.
The hand holding the kukri froze. But Gamal couldn’t maintain his resolve and crumbled into near begging. He was that desperate.
“Stop…! I’ll go with you. I won’t run away again. Please, don’t do it.”
If only he hadn’t hidden on the island.
If only he’d grown stronger.
He could have saved Doyoung in this situation. Gamal regretted it. But he couldn’t afford to dwell on regrets now.
He had to save Doyoung. By any means necessary.
“You mean it, Gamal?”
Kunis asked in disbelief. Seizing the moment, Gamal rushed toward them and positioned himself between the raised kukri and Doyoung.
“Gamal.”
Doyoung called out, but Gamal didn’t turn. He only looked at Kunis as he spoke.
“I promise.”
Kunis narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“You’re lying.”
“No, I promise. Kunis, please…!”
There was no escape in this situation. Gamal knew it. The Legion had too many men. Kunis wouldn’t kill him, so going with him now was the best option.
Ironically, his expertise in evasion would let him slip away eventually.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t scared of what might happen, but compared to saving Doyoung, it was nothing.
“Gamal.”
At that moment, Doyoung spoke in a quiet voice. He couldn’t understand their words, but the atmosphere and tone told him everything with startling clarity.
“You’ve got something else to say to this guy.”
His ash-gray blue eyes gleamed softly.
“Get lost, you murdering bastard.”
Kunis twisted his lips.
“This one really won’t do.”
In an instant, he shoved Gamal aside with tremendous force and swung the blade down. Gamal’s eyes widened. He reached out to block it. That was when it happened.
Thwack.
No gunshot rang out, but a bullet from somewhere struck Kunis’s shoulder.
The impact, like being smashed with an iron mace, spun his shoulder back. Blood sprayed, and the angle of his knife hand twisted.
Doyoung kicked off the ground so hard dirt flew up as he sprang to his feet.
The sniper had been waiting for this timing, and Doyoung had been waiting for the sniper’s shot. It would’ve been better if Gamal hadn’t intervened, but given her personality, he’d figured she’d step in if she was nearby instead of fleeing—so the plan wasn’t derailed much.
Now there was only one way to save Gamal.
So, he would die. Right here, most likely.
Doyoung shoved Gamal with his shoulder.
“……!”
Thud.
The force, using his body weight, sent Gamal tumbling off the riverbank.
Whirr, whirrrrr.
As if waiting for that moment, a black speedboat sliced through the river’s curve from the opposite bank. It veered sharply toward them.
At the bow stood Sergeant McCoy, who they’d thought had escaped by helicopter earlier, arms spread wide. He shouted.
“Ms. Gamal!”
Realizing he meant to catch her, Gamal twisted her waist as much as she could. She fell into Sergeant McCoy’s arms just in time.
Thump!
The collision knocked Sergeant McCoy backward.
Whirr.
At the same time, the speedboat banked into a U-turn. For a split second, it aligned straight with the riverbank, giving a side view of the scene.
Gamal whipped her head around from atop Sergeant McCoy’s body, without time to stand. Through her disheveled hair, she saw Doyoung on one knee, having shoved her with his shoulder. Behind him, the god of death, Mort, was grinning.
Gamal and Doyoung’s eyes met.
In that instant, seeing Gamal safely aboard, Doyoung’s face showed relief.
Gamal couldn’t believe it. Not in this situation.
Then Mort swung his scythe of death.
Crunch.
The kukri plunged into Doyoung’s throat.
***
Gamal couldn’t make a sound. The scene was too surreal. Everything felt slowed down.
The blade sank precisely into the center of Doyoung’s throat. Skin split, followed by muscle fibers and nerves, and finally—
Crack.
The sound of his neck bone snapping echoed.
Blood vessels erupted in a explosive semicircle from the wound, slashing across Kunis’s ecstatic face vertically.
Everyone’s eyes bulged.
“Fuck---!!”
One sergeant spat a curse close to a scream.
But the twisted angle from the shoulder wound kept it from severing the throat in one stroke. Kunis gripped the kukri tighter.
Thwack.
Another shot rang out in that instant.
Rat-tat-tat-tat.
Rifle fire poured from all directions. Bullets riddled him like a crash-test dummy, sending ash and debris flying from his body. No vampire could survive such relentless physical trauma.
“Damn it.”
Kunis tossed the kukri aside and bolted behind a tree.
Suddenly, heavily armed MCTC operatives emerged from beyond the woods. Not a small team, but a full ground assault force.
Gunfire erupted everywhere. The Legion soldiers, unprepared for this scale of firefight, began scattering.
A disciplined rescue team dashed in amid the chaos, scooped up Doyoung, and loaded him onto the speedboat at the river’s edge. It took less than a minute. The boat immediately sped across to the opposite bank.
“Grab Gamal!”
Kunis bellowed. Like Pharaoh’s army chasing the Jews across the Red Sea, Legion troops surged toward the river. But even vampires couldn’t catch the already distant speedboat.
Meanwhile, the speedboat was pandemonium. Operatives shouted at the top of their lungs.
“Major!”
“Pull out the kukri!”
“But the bleeding…!”
With the kukri embedded in the center of his throat, Doyoung’s face was obscured by blood-soaked hair. Naturally, he wasn’t breathing.
“Bleeding’s the issue here?! His throat’s already…!”
Shouting that, Luasian Captain Hugh yanked the kukri free.
Everyone piled on, stuffing every cloth they had to staunch the flow. Blood sprayed like a fountain in every direction.
The team was drenched in Doyoung’s blood in seconds, and the speedboat was slick with it, like a bucket had been dumped aboard.
“Press!”
“Here! More!”
“No more bandages?!”
Even the sergeant pressing without pause couldn’t believe the sight. Amid the boat’s roar through the water, he bellowed.
“Is this real?! You’re telling me the major’s really dead?!”
Shouts echoed everywhere.
Gamal spotted the kukri rolling on the deck, soaked in Doyoung’s blood. She snatched it up like lightning.
She didn’t hesitate. She swung it straight at her own wrist.
Captain Hugh caught the motion in a flash. He freaked out and grabbed a nearby rifle rolling on the deck.
Crunch.
The kukri lodged into the rifle Captain Hugh thrust in to block it. The power nearly severed the rifle, but luckily, as a Luasian, he twisted the angle to stop it.
Captain Hugh said gravely.
“Stop it.”
Gamal bared her teeth, unable to believe he was stopping her in this moment.
“What the hell! Get off! I need to infect him right now…!”
Captain Hugh shook his head.
“It’s too late.”
His tone was so resolute it left no room for doubt.
In that moment, she took in Doyoung’s state. Surrounded by blood-soaked operatives, his throat was packed with crimson cloth clumps dripping blood, and his blood-smeared face was utterly pallid.
The hand that had been on his stomach dropped limply.
***
“Elio.”
Sarang appeared at the door in a neat dress and asked.
“Ready?”
“Yeah.”
Elio, also neatly dressed, turned and replied.
Sarang opened the car door for her outside. Elio climbed in smoothly. Sarang folded the wheelchair, loaded it into the trunk, and took the passenger seat.
Shortly after hitting the road, Sarang glanced at her watch.
“Traffic’s bad. Think we’ll make it on time?”
“It’ll be fine.”
Then Elio suddenly chuckled.
“Why’re you laughing alone?”
Sarang asked, seeing it.
“Just thought of Doyoung and Gamal out of nowhere.”
“Why them?”
“Gamal always trailing after Doyoung, and him hating it. Then if Gamal looks away, Doyoung grumbles about that too.”
Sarang remembered and laughed.
“Yeah. Makes you wonder what they’re even doing, those two.”
***
A helicopter touched down on the rooftop helipad, whipping up a storm of wind.
Clang.
As soon as the door opened, the stretcher carrying Doyoung was unloaded, and the waiting medical team rushed over.
“He’s been without breath too long!”
“Any vitals?”
“Other injuries…!”
Shouts from soldiers and doctors blended into chaos.
Gamal, who’d disembarked from the helicopter after, stared blankly at the scene. The stretcher was soaked in blood, dripping.
Amid the white doctor coats turning red in seconds lay a body in a blood-drenched uniform. She couldn’t accept it was Doyoung.
Only the bracelet on his gore-covered arm confirmed it.
The doctors yelled as they wheeled the stretcher away.
Wind-tossed, his blood-matted hair fluttered. Gamal could only watch Doyoung disappear in a daze.
***
The cathedral choir’s song faded. Elio, Sarang, and the others clasped hands and closed their eyes.
The priest in green vestments symbolizing ordinary life stood before the altar and spoke solemnly.
“Let us all pray to the Lord. May all those we love remain safe today as well.”