Chapter 38: Choi Seulgi
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 38: Choi Seulgi
Slowly, I begin to recall memories of the past. It’s something I think about often, but when I close my eyes, his face becomes perfectly clear.
“Seulgi.”
“Hmm? What is it, Kim Taesung? You wanna go again?”
“No, I’m broke, you brat.”
“Hey, this one’s on the house, of course… How about it?”
“No, that’s not it. Let’s just talk. Just talk for a bit. Hey, stop touching me. I said I want to talk…”
“What’s with you today? Shit… You don’t want to? You said you’d be gone for a few days. Were you sneaking in and out of Hyeyeong’s room next door? Are you tired of me?”
“No, that’s not it… Where would I get the money for that? It’s already a stretch for me to even come here…”
“You asked me who Hyeyeong was the other day, didn’t you? Right? I told you, you can fuck other girls, but don’t you forget about me.”
“I said it’s not like that. Really. I just want to talk… Just talk… We only ever fuck in here. Our relationship isn’t going anywhere.”
“...........................”
I was a little moved. No, actually, I was incredibly moved. Thinking back on it now, I don’t really understand why I got angry at him then. I’m not sure, but it was probably because I had a strong desire to have him all to myself, at least in a place like this. After all, he was the only one who ever thought of me so seriously. I still remember how clueless he looked when he first came here. A third-rate swordsman who carried a cheap steel sword and pretended to be a proper adventurer. He acted tough, but I knew that wasn’t the case. That was the man I loved.
Of course, we never said things like ‘I like you’ or ‘Let’s date.’ It would have been ridiculous for someone like me, selling my body in a place like this, to confess to him. And besides, meeting him like this, even if it was only occasionally, was the happiness of my life. I didn't want that happiness to be shattered.
Funnily enough, it seemed he was thinking something similar. Was it because he was a third-rate swordsman with no abilities? Sometimes he would look at me and mumble, as if about to say something, but then he’d shut his mouth. It would be a little painful if I was just deluding myself, but I was half-convinced that he had feelings for me, too.
He was far too good for a cheap girl like me. A man who trusted anyone and had a personality that easily got swept up in useless affairs.
“Hmph… Fine, whatever. Let’s talk. You’re so strange. You’re the only guy I’ve ever seen who wants to talk in here. Everyone else is in a hurry to get their nut and run, but… shit, now that I think about it, that’s fucking depressing. Alright, let’s talk. What do you want to talk about?”
“Well… it’s not that I have anything specific to talk about. I was just curious about something.”
“What is it?”
“You… I was wondering why you came to a place like this…”
“...................”
I was always flustered when he asked questions like that. I acted confident, but I did want to tell him, just once. If I hadn’t been worried that he’d put on a pointless show of bravado and go cause trouble with those bastards, if they were the kind of people who wouldn’t matter if they died or got hurt, I would have definitely told him what happened in the past.
“Didn’t I tell you not to ask me that before?”
“No, it’s not that… I heard you were doing pretty well at first… For a guy like me, living this kind of life is expected, but you’re pretty and… your personality doesn’t seem suited for this kind of work…”
“I told you before. It’s because of debt. Is it easy to make a living in the city? I can’t go out hunting. I borrowed money from here and there, and when I had no way to pay it back, I ended up here. I’m thinking of slowly getting things sorted out anyway.”
“Really?”
I still remember the foolish expression on his face then. The way he was grinning from ear to ear, as if hearing that I was getting my life in order made him that happy. He couldn’t even take me in right away, yet he smiled, so pleased. I wonder, was he also imagining a future with me? I was sure he was.
“Yeah. If I can… I think I’ll be able to get out. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just run away. More importantly, hey. Come and hold me.”
“Yeah, come here, my baby.”
“Wanna die? Who are you calling a baby?”
“Hehe… You’re warm.”
“Yeah. You’re warm, too.”
“Hey…”
“What?”
“It’s nothing…”
“You’re so weird…”
What was he trying to say? He was definitely going to say he loved me. Definitely. He was definitely going to say he loved me.
Choi Seulgi slowly began to open her eyes, recalling that brief, happy memory.
“It’s cold.”
It was a cave completely sealed in darkness. Unable to enter the city, she had been living alone in this cave near the western forest for what felt like over three months. It was a little cold and uncomfortable, but it seemed far more comfortable than being in the city. The reason she didn’t go into the city was simple.
She was afraid of getting caught for what she had done. It wasn’t that she was afraid of dying or suffering. She was purely afraid that she wouldn’t be able to do what she had to do once she returned here.
Luring the first group of bastards had been incredibly easy. They were weak Murderers who preyed on the Summoned, and she knew her current appearance would significantly lower their guard.
It was different from the future she knew, but since this was the period when the Named Monsters known as the ‘Weapon Merchant’ and the ‘Green Flower’ were running rampant, giving her testimony was also incredibly simple.
‘I ran into the Weapon Merchant. I barely managed to escape.’
If she said that, the guards would nod in understanding. It was probably because that Orc was killing and capturing so many humans here. Since the goblins the Weapon Merchant led around primarily used daggers, leaving similar wounds was also very easy.
The problem was the second group, those bastards Park Youngwhan and Kim Pansuk. Thanks to the Weapon Merchant, she had gotten away with killing the first bastards who had murdered the man she loved without much suspicion, but the case with Park Youngwhan and Kim Pansuk was a bit more complicated.
Her original targets were just the two of them, Park Youngwhan and Kim Pansuk. The fact that they had brought a magician and an archer for their safety was a slight deviation from the past. She could have delayed her plans, but as Park Youngwhan had said, there was no telling when they would leave the city again, so it didn’t seem like a bad idea to take care of them on this occasion. They were trash anyway. Since they were with Park Youngwhan and Kim Pansuk, the magician and archer’s intentions were obvious.
Recalling the past made it incredibly difficult to suppress the rage inside her, but for the sake of her goal, it was simple enough to act like an idiot. She now had a power she didn’t have in the past, and if she used the men who thought of her as an airhead, achieving her goal would be easier than a piece of cake.
Most importantly, the man she loved wasn’t in the city right now. She didn’t want to delay her schedule because she had to wrap up her life in the western city as quickly as possible and check if he was in another city. That is, until she met that peculiar Orc.
Thanks to that, she was both grateful to and resentful of the magician who had that strange danger-sensing ability.
She was grateful because he had allowed her to meet the ‘Weapon Merchant.’
It might sound funny, but she felt that the Orc, who mistakenly thought he had saved her in the Land of the Undead, was keeping her shattered mind together. A monster, of all things, was following her around. Thanks to that creature, who was more human than any human, she had been thinking of her beloved’s face more and more lately.
The strange dagger techniques and stealth skills, which were not easily learned, would also be a great help in achieving her goal.
She was resentful because the ‘Weapon Merchant’ had stolen her prey.
If they had come to the area they were originally supposed to go to instead of the Land of the Undead, they wouldn’t have died so easily. Just like the ‘first’ bastards currently locked up inside… Thanks to that, Choi Seulgi had come to think that the magician’s unique ability was quite useful. It seemed he had known which path was more dangerous. The Weapon Merchant had dealt with them brutally, but it wasn’t enough. If it had been her, she would never have killed them on the spot.
Choi Seulgi slowly began to rise.
The anger that welled up as she thought about them again was the cause.
“Mmph, mmph! Mmph! Mmph!!!”
Hearing Choi Seulgi move, the men inside began to scream incessantly. Something was stuffed in their mouths, so no proper voices came out, but the sounds that escaped seemed to speak to how terrified they were of their current situation.
Choi Seulgi began to remove the gag from the mouth of the man closest to her.
After doing this several times, she had realized that hearing their screams during this process was an incredibly pleasant feeling.
“S-save me… No, please, please just kill me. Please…”
Choi Seulgi smiled at the man’s terrified face. When she finally opened her mouth, the man nodded his head.
“Shin Duk-ho.”
“Yes, yes! Yes!”
“Do you know why you’ve been brought here?”
“Of course. Of course. I did something bad in the past. Something very… very bad.”
“Tell me.”
“I… I betrayed… a man named Kim Taesung. Yes, a betrayal. A betrayal. A-and I stabbed Choi Seulgi-nim with a knife.”
“That’s right. It really hurt… What hurt even more was having to watch Kim Taesung run with a knife stuck in my chest.”
Looking genuinely sad, Choi Seulgi slowly glanced around before frowning. She wasn’t used to this kind of work yet, so the corpse of one man she had accidentally killed caught her eye. Choi Seulgi began to look at Shin Duk-ho again. He showed no signs of remorse. Instead, his expression was one of confusion, wondering what this was all about, what she was even talking about.
Of course, Choi Seulgi knew that the current Shin Duk-ho couldn’t possibly know what happened in their past life. But there was simply no way to release the anger she felt.
“You. Do you really know?”
“Yes… Yes, of course. Of course.”
“You’re lying. Your eyes seem to be saying otherwise.”
With that, Choi Seulgi picked up a dagger. Shin Duk-ho’s body was already a wreck. But because she had been very careful with him, it seemed he could live healthily for about another month. The potions she bought from the Item Shop seemed to be quite effective. As expected, the moment she raised the dagger, Shin Duk-ho began to twist his body and scream as if his life depended on it.
“Sh… shit… Fucking hell, I don’t know any Kim Taesung or whatever the fuck his name is, shit… sob… sob… Why are you doing this to me, for fuck’s sake…”
“See? You were lying.”
Choi Seulgi began to thrust the dagger toward him. The two men behind him were also watching, letting out muffled screams of “Mmph… Mmph!” Every time the sickening squelch, squelch sound was heard, the men writhed incessantly.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Aaaaaaaaargh!!”
“I’m sor— Aaaaargh!”
It couldn’t be called a method of torture. It was just her venting her anger, stabbing him randomly. But Choi Seulgi knew very well where it was most painful, where it would incite the most terror.
She also knew that they wouldn’t die so easily if she used the potions she had bought with her saved-up points. She didn’t like the sight of splattering blood, so she was as careful as possible…
“Haha.”
After tormenting him for several hours, the man finally went limp. She felt a little bit of her stress release, and the men behind him were pissing themselves, so Choi Seulgi decided to finish her work for the day with just him. After feeding him a potion, she gagged him once more.
The man, hanging in the air, was naturally unable to even resist. As she gagged him, Choi Seulgi spoke with a cheerful expression.
“Hey, guys.”
“Mmph… mmph…”
“Kim Taesung… he must have come here too, right? Things just got a little twisted, so he’s somewhere else, right?”
At Choi Seulgi’s question, the men behind Shin Duk-ho nodded their heads frantically. Choi Seulgi smiled as she watched them.
“I’m looking forward to it.”