Chapter 71
Chapter 71
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Taiji Yin-Yang Physique (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"If you head east from here, you'll come to a large village. You can set out once the sun rises. As for me... I'll go the opposite way and draw their attention."
I said that and slowly started walking away.
I showed Wi Ji-hye the back of a man with no tomorrow as I headed for the door.
She couldn't say a word, just watching me leave.
'It's about time... to reel her in, right?'
But I had no intention of actually leaving Wi Ji-hye behind.
This was a game of chicken with her. Looking back first here meant losing.
'Did I misjudge...? This could backfire.'
I'd laid out all the bait. Cast the line.
All that was left was for Wi Ji-hye to bite.
"Wait!"
'There we go.'
A keeper.
"You're not... going off to die right now, are you?"
"...I told you, I'm going to draw their attention."
"Liar! You clearly said you'd follow soon after!"
Whew, so she did hear that.
I'd muttered it quietly as part of my act, worrying it might not register, but luckily it had.
Wi Ji-hye glared at me with a stiff expression and shouted. But I could sense her worry for me in it.
"...I'm a dead man walking anyway. Once you betray the organization, there's no way out."
"That's not true! Come with me... You're my savior. I'm sure I can help you somehow!"
As expected of a true heroine.
So kind and righteous, just like I'd figured.
Wi Ji-hye had bought my lie hook, line, and sinker, genuinely thinking of me.
Ha... such an easy mark to fleece!
"It's too late for me to struggle now. My body's already too dirty. I just have to pay for my sins."
"Running away is cowardice! If you're paying for your sins, do it alive! To the end! Live with remorse!"
"Cowardice? Haha... you're right. I'm a coward. Someone like me could never bear the weight of my sins or hold my head high."
"No! You can... I'll, I'll help you!"
This is it... exactly this!
One of the hallmarks of wuxia novel heroines: meddling where they don't belong!
Reading those books, especially the righteous sect heroines do stuff that makes no sense.
Like helping out insignificant side characters like this, force-feeding readers frustration.
From a reader's view, her clenching her fists and saying she'll help is the worst development.
If she gets hurt or kidnapped for it, what a nightmare!
But here, in Heroine NTR, it's the development I've been waiting for. I believed in it!
"...Why are you being so kind to me...?"
"Because you're my savior! And... you're not a bad person...!"
"Haha... even though I kidnapped you?"
"That was to save me!"
"...That doesn't erase what I did."
"You didn't want to! You were suffering while doing it! That's why you saved me!"
Kya... insane. I just sprinkled a little bait, and she extrapolates it this far.
Wi Ji-hye's head was so full of 'justice' that she'd already decided I wasn't a bad person since I saved her.
Thanks to that, the plan's success rate shot up. Could this actually work? For real?
"Haa... at this rate, I won't leave before sunrise. I keep telling you, I'm not going to die. I'm going to draw attention."
"Stop! And I'm telling you, I can't let you go like this!"
As I tried to ignore her and leave, Wi Ji-hye came running and blocked the door.
Perfect, we've reached this point. Alright... time for the next phase?
From that 100-point random box, I'd gotten a scam item worth at least tens of thousands of points.
It was too good to waste, so I'd saved it. But now seemed the perfect timing.
"Hoo..."
I let out a dramatic sigh and pulled a small vial from my bosom.
Then I shook it in front of Wi Ji-hye, revealing what it was.
"This is an aphrodisiac. Spring medicine, they call it."
"......Whaaat?!"
"If you keep blocking me, I'll drink it."
"Wh-what... why?!"
At my bombshell, Wi Ji-hye jumped in shock, her already big eyes going even wider.
She looked so adorable I nearly cracked a smile, but I held it in and kept a straight face.
"As you know, aphrodisiacs make you a slave to lust. An overwhelming urge to ravage the woman in front of you surges up.
Do you want to take my virginity? If not, for your sake, don't stop me."
"You're... threatening me right now?"
"Yes, a threat. Is there a worse one for a virgin on the eve of her engagement?"
"Ah... but... I can't just let you go. Don't give up on life! Please..."
"The world has taken everything from me. The more I resisted, the deeper I fell. Now you're trying to take even death from me?"
"B-but! That's why a brighter future awaits! There must be a way... Ah!"
Ugh... cringy. Can't do this anymore.
I couldn't keep acting without losing myself.
Spewing lines like this wasn't for just anyone.
You had to be on Siwoo's level.
So I forced the next phase.
In front of Wi Ji-hye, still trying to persuade me, I downed the aphrodisiac.
She rushed to stop me, but it was already too late.
Wi Ji-hye stared at me in stunned disbelief, never imagining I'd actually drink it.
In her large pupils, I could see my trembling body.
The aphrodisiac's effect was intense. I wanted to pounce right then and there.
But with superhuman willpower, I held out and spoke to her one last time.
"You... forced me to drink this... Ugh, haa... Leave now... The moonlight's bright, haa... you won't get lost... Ngh."
"N-no..."
"Heh... A pathetic end fitting my life... Haa..."
"Ahh...!"
The man in front of her downed the aphrodisiac right before her eyes.
She tried to stop him but couldn't.
In an instant, intense heat radiated from him.
Unknowingly, she took a step back.
"Haa... haa..."
He seemed to be holding on for now, but it was only a matter of time before he became a beast of lust.
She had to run. Leave as he'd said.
Stay like this, and he'd ravage her.
She'd lose the virginity she had to protect until her wedding day.
"How could you... Sob, sob... Why make that choice..."
But she couldn't leave easily.
Aphrodisiacs turned the user into an incarnation of lust, and without release, they'd suffer in agony until a miserable death.
So if she fled, he was as good as dead.
That fact made her hesitate.
No matter that he was her savior, he was still a stranger she'd just met.
A lowlife assassin's killer from a vile group, guilty of plenty of crimes.
Sacrificing her virginity for him was unthinkable.
But that look in his eyes when he found her hiding...
The calm tone as he confessed his circumstances...
His retreating back, leaving to protect her...
Each one tugged at her heart, bittersweet and painful.
His words about seeing his sister in her weren't lies.
She pitied him. Sympathized. Felt sorry.
As a member of a righteous martial clan, she felt responsible.
It felt like the failure of the righteous sects to eradicate the evil ones.
But she couldn't give him her first time.
Nor could she let him die.
"Ahh... Gaga! What should I do...!"
She had to weigh her virginity against a man's life.
For an unmarried maiden, it was an impossible choice.
And she already had a fiancé...
Not to mention, she was the bearer of the once-in-a-millennium Taiji Yin-Yang Physique...
"Haa... Aah! Uwaaaah!"
-Flinch
As her dilemma deepened, his groans grew louder.
She had to decide quickly.
-Creak
She turned away from his suffering form.
And opened the door to escape.
Of course, choosing her purity was the right thing.
...But was her virginity truly worth abandoning a dying man before her eyes?
Wasn't the promise to live righteously with Gaga for moments like this?
Letting him die here was utterly unjust.
-Click
She closed the door she'd opened and locked it.
"I'm sorry... Sob... Sniff, Gaga... But... you'll understand, right?"
"Sniff, you'll still love me like this, right?"
-Rustle
She undressed.
She bared her naked body—never shown even to her fiancé—before the man.