257. Gifts (2)
257. Gifts (2)
Wham—
Wham—
Dull thudding sounds rang out one after another.
Ryu Jin lay crumpled before Kang Do-hee.
Her fine clothes had long since been reduced to rags.
Her face was swollen, patchy with purple bruises, and streaked with blood pouring from her mouth and nose, making her original appearance nearly unrecognizable.
Wham!
Kang Do-hee's fist slammed into Ryu Jin's face once more.
Thud.
"Gakh!"
Collapsed on the ground, Ryu Jin coughed violently.
Bright-red blood sprayed from her mouth like a mist.
Haah... haah...
"S-Stop..."
Trembling like an aspen leaf, Ryu Jin reached out and grabbed the leg of Kang Do-hee's pants.
"P-Please forgive me..."
"..."
Kang Do-hee stared down at her blankly.
In stark contrast to her initial haughty attitude, she now looked ugly and groveling.
'A m-monster bitch...'
Ryu Jin chewed her lip.
She had been confident.
She had the power Shin Do-hwa had given her, even if she disliked the source.
And Jin Yu-ha, the representative and party leader of Utopia, had disappeared just moments ago, so she had believed she could easily subdue the rest with her own hands.
But how had it come to this?
At first, she thought it was going well.
Just when she was thinking a coordinated attack would be troublesome, the other party members didn't interfere at all,
and only Kang Do-hee alone had come at her.
But this red-haired woman was a monster.
Aside from the wound she received when she first took up her sword, Kang Do-hee had allowed not a single attack to land.
And what was even more frightening was the fact that, even though she could finish her off immediately, she was deliberately controlling her strength to torment her.
"Ha, all because of one worthless piece-of-shit bitch..."
Kang Do-hee looked down at the groveling Ryu Jin, her anger burning vividly.
'I-I'm going to die...!'
Ryu Jin clung even tighter to Kang Do-hee's feet.
And she cried out in a groveling voice.
"A-Anything you want! I'll do anything! S-So please, just stop—!!"
"Tch."
Swish—!
Clicking her tongue, Kang Do-hee shook her foot loose from Ryu Jin's desperate grip.
Thwack!
Ryu Jin flew backward and slammed her back against a utility pole.
"Guak!"
"...You're not even worth calling a sandbag. I'll just end it here."
Kang Do-hee approached with the slow, deliberate steps of a predator.
Ryu Jin's teeth chattered with fear.
It was then that someone caught her eye.
The small girl clutching the hand of the green-haired, slit-eyed woman tightly while staring at her intently.
Her daughter, Shasha Pong.
"Sha-Shasha Pong! Th-that's right! M-My daughter! Save your mother! Convince these people! Tell them I'm not really some villain! Don't you know what kind of person your mother is? P-Please!!!"
With death looming before her eyes, there was nothing left to hold her back.
She was more than willing to cling desperately to her daughter if it meant escaping this immediate crisis.
At this, Shasha Pong's face twisted sharply.
"Don't listen to her."
Beside her, Im Ga-eul tightened her grip on Shasha Pong's hand.
But Shasha Pong shook her head firmly and let go of Im Ga-eul's hand.
At this, a gleam of hope flickered in Ryu Jin's eyes.
It seemed like the girl meant to protect her.
"Sha, Shasha! I knew it! You are my daughter—!"
"Shut your mouth!!"
Shasha Pong cut off Ryu Jin's words and exploded with a shout.
"What...?"
"I don't have some mother like you! Do I know what kind of person you are? You dare to ask me that!?"
"Sha, Shasha, what do you mean...?"
"I said shut up! Don't call me by that name! Only my father has that right!!"
Wheeeze... wheeeze...
Shasha Pong glared at Ryu Jin with eyes brimming with hatred.
Then, for a moment, a thought flashed through Ryu Jin's mind.
"Ah, father? That's right! Shasha, Yu-won! Don't you want to see Yu-won!?"
Yu-won.
That was her father's name.
As soon as that name was spoken,
Shasha Pong's rage was inevitably dampened.
"...Where is my father."
Fuhuhuhuhu—.
Yes. That's the one.
Ryu Jin let out a laugh for the first time.
"Yu-won? Of course he's fine. He's being given the utmost protection in a comfortable, safe place, so you have nothing to worry about. However... if you kill me here, I can't guarantee he'll remain so safe..."
She said this with a grotesque smile on her blood-smeared face.
Shasha Pong chewed her lip.
'That's a lie.'
There was no way that woman had kept her father safe.
Because the image of her spewing abuse at her father as naturally as eating a meal, and casually committing domestic violence, still lingered vividly before her eyes.
But if she killed that woman here, wouldn't she be unable to recover her father?
'If this woman is truly the only one who knows Father's location...'
Her mind became tangled in a complicated mess.
And then, it happened.
Pat.
Shasha Pong felt the weight of an unfamiliar hand resting atop her head.
She jerked her head up.
And the man who came into view.
It was Jin Yu-ha.
"Hmm, okay. You pass, all the way to the end."
Jin Yu-ha smirked at her with a satisfied smile and uttered something incomprehensible.
At Jin Yu-ha's appearance, the other party members' eyes widened as well.
"Jin Yu-ha!"
"Jin Yu-ha!"
"Jin Yu-ha!"
"Hoobae!"
"Ah, hold on."
Jin Yu-ha held up a hand to stop his party members from rushing over, then spoke toward Ryu Jin.
"For starters, everything this woman's saying is a lie, so don't get tempted for nothing."
"...A-A lie?"
With Jin Yu-ha suddenly appearing to interfere, Ryu Jin felt her mouth go completely dry.
"A-A lie! I-I really am protecting Yu-won—"
"Bullshit."
Thump.
Thump.
Jin Yu-ha walked over to Ryu Jin and crouched down in front of her.
Stared straight at her.
When his eyes met hers, Ryu Jin averted her gaze downward.
"Protect her, my ass. You've already got him thrown in a test tube."
"...!"
Ryu Jin's eyes flew wide open.
"You're experimenting on him to make a chimera and turn him into a puppet. You people."
"H-How do you—"
"After doing all that, you're using it as leverage to blackmail your own daughter? Really, you're a villain straight out of a picture book, right down to the finish."
It was all over.
Ryu Jin squeezed her eyes shut.
"Yellow Dog."
Just then, Kang Do-hee, who had been watching his antics from the side, opened her mouth.
"Ah, you've worked hard."
"Worked hard? Now you're saying that to me—"
Kang Do-hee was about to press him on the matter of him leading off all the enemies by himself, but.
"Ah, right."
She was stopped in her tracks because Jin Yu-ha suddenly reached for Ryu Jin's waistline.
He snatched the end of the belt hanging precariously around her waist.
"W-Wait, that isn't—!"
Ryu Jin's eyes bulged wide as she tried to stop him.
Wham!
"Grk..."
A punch to the jaw anticlimactically snapped her neck back and knocked her out.
Jin Yu-ha picked up her red belt, stood up, and held it out to Kang Do-hee.
"Here. You use this."
Kang Do-hee stared blankly at Jin Yu-ha as he casually handed her an old strap of leather.
At that, Jin Yu-ha lowered his voice and whispered into Kang Do-hee's ear.
"This is seriously good stuff."
"..."
"I'm serious. It's an artifact that boosts physical training efficiency by 30%."
"...What!?"
This time, even she couldn't help but be shocked.
An item that boosted training efficiency by 30 percent?
It was an absurdly powerful capability she'd never seen or heard of before.
"It's filthy expensive and you can't get it just anywhere. So don't go blabbing about this, got it?"
Jin Yu-ha winked one eye, as if sharing a secret.
'Why wouldn't you use it yourself... for me...'
As expected, she couldn't accept something like this.
"Something like that, you should just—"
Kang Do-hee tried to refuse Jin Yu-ha's gift.
"Eheh. Ahh, okay. I got it. I got it. You want me to put it on you myself, right?"
With a cheeky grin, Jin Yu-ha suddenly wrapped his arms around Kang Do-hee's waist as if embracing her.
"!"
Kang Do-hee had been fully prepared to chew him out the moment Jin Yu-ha returned.
But when he abruptly embraced her, her mind went completely blank in an instant.
Kang Do-hee squeezed her eyes shut and even held her breath.
"So? You like it?"
When she slowly opened her eyes, she saw a vivid-red sash fastened around her own waist.
And as if proving the artifact's actual performance, she felt a surge of energy welling up from within her body.
"..."
Out of awkwardness and embarrassment, she abruptly turned her head away.
At that, Jin Yu-ha put on a mischievous grin.
"Does my little Poppy like the new ribbon I bought her?"
"Wh-What!? Take this piece of crap ba—"
Stung, Kang Do-hee started to snap something back, but.
"Haaah... You two are really lovey-dovey, aren't you. If I'd known it'd be like this, maybe I should've just fought her with you."
Shin Se-hee's voice cut in from the side.
And beside her, the other party members had also narrowed their eyes and were glaring at her.
"Yeah, exactly. Should've just butted in and kept it from happening. I left it to you for no reason."
"Hnngh... hnngh... but I'm still busy doing what hoobae asked...!"
"Sneaky."
"Kang Do-hee always acts like you're not like that, but you always end up taking the tastiest part..."
Kang Do-hee felt a surge of frustration.
"No! It's not like—!"
"Haaah... Next time, I'm gonna get all huffy and say: 'This guy's my prey! So keep your hands off him!' That's what I'll do."
"I-I said it's not like that!!"
At the party members' words, Jin Yu-ha tilted his head as if he had no idea what was going on.
"Huh? Did something happen while I was gone? Did someone get mad?"
"...Well, that's."
"Shut it! Flowerbed!"
Kang Do-hee's face flushed bright red as she yelled sharply.