She Had No Name
The girl gave a quiet nod.
Lee Kang pointed again to the back of her hand. The dark red mark had not faded after washing; if anything, it stood out even more clearly now.
When it had been hidden under mud and blood, it had looked less conspicuous. Now it was different. The scarlet knife-cut etched into skin that was white and faintly jade-like was jarring enough that anyone could tell at a glance it did not belong there.
“So let’s say you wrap your hand in cloth and walk around like that. What do you think people would assume when they see it?”
The girl could not answer at once. Her gaze dropped to the back of her hand. Cover it with cloth. Wear gloves. Let the sleeves fall long over it. She seemed to be thinking through those possibilities.
But that was not what Lee Kang was asking. He was asking what the people who saw it would think.
“Ah...”
The girl let out a small murmur. It was barely even a sigh. But it was enough. At last, she looked as though she understood, just a little, what Lee Kang was trying to say.
Even so, she had not fully accepted it.
“But if I hide it well...”
“Seok Yuha.”
Lee Kang cut her off at once. The girl’s eyes moved to him.
“Just now, when you were fighting Seok Yuha, your hand was exposed. Did that happen because Seok Yuha wanted it to? Or because you wanted to show your hand?”
The girl pressed her lips together. The fingers that had refused to let go of the awl-like sword until just moments ago stiffened very slightly.
She seemed to remember the instant she had been entangled with Seok Yuha. The moment her wrist was grabbed, when she was shoved back, when she moved again to stab. There had been no room then to worry about hiding the back of her hand.
Lee Kang confirmed her silence and went on.
“A fight doesn’t unfold the way you want it to. Running away is the same. If you fall, your sleeve rides up. If you’re grabbed, your wrist is exposed. If you get wet, the cloth clings to your skin.”
“And if someone thinks you’re suspicious and forcibly grabs your hand? Are you still going to say you can just hide it well?”
The girl did not answer.
Lee Kang looked at her for a moment, then gave a dry laugh. This time it was less mocking than resigned.
“I’m the same. I want to eat my fill and live comfortably too. I want to sleep in a nice house, lie down without a care in the world, and meet a pretty woman so I can live like a king. I want that life too.”
The girl’s brows twitched very slightly. She seemed to think the words came out of nowhere.
But before she could ask anything, Lee Kang spoke first.
“So why do you think I can’t?”
He tapped his own chest lightly with a finger.
“Because the world won’t allow it. And because I’m weak.”
The room fell quiet for a moment. Beyond the shabby window, faint commotion from far off in the Hao Market drifted in. But inside this room, only the girl’s shallow breathing and Lee Kang’s low voice remained.
The girl’s white eyes wavered.
That was not a foreign idea to her.
You were taken because you were weak.
You ran because you were weak.
You hid because you were weak.
For just a moment, she remembered what had happened in the Sun Moon Holy Cult. Black banners, the stench of blood, cold stone floors, and the eyes of those who looked down at her.
They had not seen her as a person. She had been a useful vessel, a burden to be dealt with, or a thing to be handed over to someone else.
Even then, she had been unable to do anything. There had been no one to hear her even if she wanted to speak. Her legs would not move even if she wanted to run. Even if she wanted to live, the world would not allow it.
The girl slowly clenched her hand into a fist. The slave mark on the back of her hand warped with the motion.
Lee Kang noticed the change, but he did not press further. Instead, he said quietly, “If you still can’t trust me, I’ll give a little more ground.”
He said it that way, but inside, he bit his lip faintly.
Does this make me look too obsessed?
If he was being honest, yes.
Lee Kang was obsessed with this girl right now. No, more precisely, he was obsessed with her talent.
Transcendence.
The moment he had seen those two characters, it had already been over. Letting that talent slip away? Impossible. It was the biggest opportunity he had ever stumbled across in all the years he had survived.
Maybe it was an opportunity that would never come again in his lifetime. So he had to bend a little more.
His pride? That was for the well-fed. Lee Kang cared more about survival than pride, and if a greater stroke of fortune was standing right in front of him, he could choose his words as carefully as needed.
That was when it happened.
Unknown’s affection has increased.
Lee Kang’s words stopped. A translucent line of text flickered in front of his eyes and vanished.
Unknown’s affection has increased.
Unknown’s affection has increased.
Unknown’s affection has increased.
Lee Kang stared blankly at the girl.
Why?
He had not said anything especially decisive, and he had not made any grand promise. Yet the affection had gone up.
The girl was looking at him wordlessly. Her white eyes were still cold, but they no longer had the sharp, pushing-away feeling they had a moment ago.
“Once,” she said softly.
“I’ll trust you once.”
Then she held out her hand. It was her right hand, the one marked as a slave.
Lee Kang heard himself ask, before he could stop it, “And you won’t worry if this ends badly for you?”
He should not have asked it like that. But he was genuinely curious, and the words slipped out before he could stop them.
“I’ll worry,” she said.
“Then?”
“Still...”
The girl chose her words for a moment.
“I want to make my own side too. And I want help from someone powerful. I don’t mind being a slave anymore if that’s what it takes...”
Lee Kang fell silent at that.
He could not tell exactly what those words meant. But at least he knew she had not held out her hand thoughtlessly.
There was definitely something in her past. Something that could not be explained away by the fact that she had been sold in a slave market.
Well, I can hear the details later.
What mattered to Lee Kang was that she had reached out to him now.
“Good.”
He took the girl’s hand again. It was cold. But this time, she did not pull away.
“You yield a little, and I’ll yield a little too. If we keep giving ground like that, trust will follow.”
Lee Kang said no more.
Instead, he closed his eyes and circulated his internal energy. From deep inside his heart, a thin warmth rose and gathered at his fingertips.
Sting.
A single drop of vital blood welled up from the tip of Lee Kang’s finger.
That drop fell onto the back of the girl’s right hand.
Chiiik.
A tiny sound rang out.
At once, the dark red slave mark began to tremble faintly. Like water dropped onto heated metal, a thin wisp of smoke rose from the mark.
The girl’s fingers jerked.
“Ah...”
It seemed painful, but not enough to make her scream. She clenched her teeth and looked down at the back of her hand.
The black circle blurred first. Then the red knife-cut split into threads and slowly scattered, as if ink were dissolving in water.
After a moment, the slave mark of the Sadoryeon market had completely disappeared. Only her white, jade-toned skin remained, quietly exposed.
The girl blinked.
She stared at the back of her hand as if she could not believe it, then carefully rubbed the spot with her fingers. But the mark did not reappear. There was not even a trace left behind.
“Did it work?”
Lee Kang did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked at her and murmured quietly, “Status window.”
[Character Information]
Name: No. 23 (Slave bound by blood pact)
Alias: None
Affiliation: None
Origin: Sun Moon Holy Cult Security Company
Disposition: Chaotic Neutral
Realm: Waste
Talent: Transcendence
Affection: 26 (The first sprout of affection)
Thoughts: Unknown
Lee Kang doubted his own eyes the moment he saw the status window.
No. 23? Is that a name?
No, it was less a name than a number. It was the sort of identifier you gave to an object, a test subject, or something under management, not a person.
And the origin is...
Sun Moon Holy Cult Security Company.
He had seen that name a few times in the Modern Murim Gallery. It was neither orthodox nor unorthodox, nor simply one of the apostate sects.
In martial terms, it was the demonic cult. And not just a demonic cult in name only, but that famous organization said to possess a being called the Heavenly Demon.
As Lee Kang remembered it, there had even been rumors that it was beyond the Yalu River basin.
How did someone from a place like that end up here? Was she caught while trying to escape?
And then there was her disposition. Chaotic Neutral.
It was a type he had never seen before. He had seen dispositions that read like they pointed in a direction, such as Lawful Evil, Chaotic Evil, Good, or Evil. But Chaotic Neutral was new.
What is this?
Was it a sign that she was dangerous?
Or that she could still change into anything?
The fortunate part was her affection.
It’s not as bad as I expected.
It could not be called high, but considering she had just formed a blood pact, it was not a bad number either.
“Uh, did it work?”
Lee Kang came back to himself.
“Ah. Sorry. It worked.”
The girl rubbed the place where the mark had been one more time.
“Shouldn’t we test it once?”
“I told you already. I have no intention of treating you like a slave. The mark on the back of your hand is gone, isn’t it? Good is good.”
No. 23’s affection has increased.
“For now, let’s introduce ourselves properly. My name is Lee Kang. I’m the sect leader of the Black Moon Sect. What about you?”
The girl remained silent for a moment.
“...I don’t have a name.”
Just as I thought.
“If you don’t want to reveal it, that’s fine. I won’t ask further.”
Lee Kang paused briefly, then asked a little carefully, “Then would it be all right if I gave you one?”
The girl seemed to feel some resistance to that. Naturally so. If the person you had just formed a blood pact with also wanted to give you a name, it could feel as though you were becoming entirely his possession.
Lee Kang understood that. But that still meant he could not go on calling her No. 23, could he? And he already had a good idea.
“Lee Seol-ah. What do you think?”