Chapter 456: The Guilty Party Plays the Victim
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 456: The Guilty Party Plays the Victim
"Sun-woo... why... how could you... do such a thing?"
Kang Ha-yoon looked at Sun-woo with a miserable expression, looking like a puppy caught in the rain. Her eyes were clouded with deep sorrow and desolation.
"Ha-yoon..."
Sun-woo gazed back at her with a look of pity. His heart ached at the thought that he had disappointed her.
"To violate... a mother and daughter... at the same time... Why... why did you do such a thing? Why would you do something that only those from the Evil and Heretical Sects would do? I'm... so sad... My heart hurts so much..."
She continued to speak, tears streaming down her face piteously.
"......I had no choice."
Sun-woo replied in a calm, steady voice.
"Just... what on earth happened?"
She looked at him with sorrowful eyes as she spoke. There was no reproach in her gaze, nor any anger. Only sadness and questions remained.
"..........It’s a long story. Are you sure you're ready to hear it?"
"Everything... I'll listen to everything... every single detail... So please, tell me everything... everything you've been keeping inside."
Her eyes sparkled as she spoke.
"Fine."
Sun-woo nodded at her words.
"I'll tell you everything... all the things I've been hiding."
Sun-woo looked at her with a determined gaze and opened his mouth.
Vrooooooom—
He began to circulate his internal energy.
Crack, snap, crunch.
Soon, his bones began to twist and shift. That wasn't all. His nose moved, his eyes grew larger, and the shape of his mouth began to change.
Cr-crack.
After some time had passed, Sun-woo's face had changed so completely that it was difficult to find any trace of his former self. The ruggedly handsome man with bold features had vanished, and in his place stood a beautiful young man with delicate, fine lines.
"What?!"
Kang Ha-yoon gasped in horror. The face before her was one she knew all too well.
"Jang Sam?!"
She cried out in shock.
Before her stood Jang Sam—the disciple of Lee Jae-won, the man who had been declared a Public Enemy of the Murim for raping numerous female martial artists of the Phoenix Unit in the past.
"Allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Jang Sam."
Sun-woo spoke, looking at Kang Ha-yoon with a serious gaze.
"I am the disciple of Lee Jae-won, the Leader of the Cheonmu Alliance who was framed and driven out in the past."
Sun-woo continued in a calm tone.
"It has been a long time, Madam."
Her face began to turn deathly pale.
*
"Why... how could you be..."
Kang Ha-yoon stammered, her expression filled with bewilderment. She was utterly overwhelmed by the relentless waves of shock.
Jang Sun-woo, the man renowned as the next World's Greatest Martial Artist and the finest among the Rising Stars, was actually Jang Sam. The depraved Jang Sam who had fled after raping and murdering numerous female martial artists in the Cheonmu Alliance.
How could she not be shocked?
She couldn't believe it, and she didn't want to believe it. To think that the man she had given her everything to was a Public Enemy of the Murim who had committed such atrocious acts.
"Just... what is going on?"
She spoke as if refusing to accept the reality.
"Why... why do you have that face? He... he is... a bad person... Unlike you, Sun-woo... he's a wicked man... So why... why do you look like that?"
Kang Ha-yoon trembled violently with a sense of betrayal. She looked incredibly unstable and precarious.
"Tell me it's not true... Tell me it's a joke... Please... tell me it's not you... Sob... hic."
Soon, Kang Ha-yoon began to weep, pleading over and over again. She desperately hoped he would say it was all a joke, a lie.
"I'm sorry to say this, but it is neither a joke nor a lie."
Sun-woo replied calmly.
"I am Jang Sam. The disciple of Lee Jae-won and the depraved man declared a Public Enemy of the Murim."
"Why... hic... why... must you be Jang Sam? I... I love you... I like you so much... So why must the criminal I loathe the most be you?!"
Kang Ha-yoon finally let out a scream filled with rage, her tears falling incessantly.
She was sad. And she was angry.
Angry at Jang Sam for brutally raping and killing her subordinates, and angry at herself for falling in love with such a man.
"Ha-yoon."
Sun-woo spoke in a calm voice.
"Don't call my name! Don't call me so affectionately! I... I am... your enemy!"
"......Ha-yoon."
"I don't want to hear it! Please... please... just shut up.... Stop making this so hard for me... Sob... hic... ugh..."
Kang Ha-yoon pleaded.
It was agonizing. Even though she knew he was Jang Sam, her heart fluttered every time he called her name. Moreover, a part of her wanted him to call her name even more.
Disgust welled up within her. Disgust toward herself for still feeling love for the man who had taken away her precious subordinates.
"Ha-yoon."
Despite her pleas, Sun-woo did not stop. Instead, he called her name with an even more determined expression.
"Please, listen to me."
Sun-woo spoke as if making a request.
"No! I don't want to! Every time you speak, I feel disgusted! Everything you say feels like a lie! What could you possibly have to say in this situation? No... please... please."
Kang Ha-yoon begged.
"It's so... it's so hard... it's too much... Every time you call me, every time I hear your voice, my heart still flutters and pounds! Even though I know you're the Public Enemy of the Murim who raped and killed my precious subordinates before escaping the Cheonmu Alliance! I disgust myself! I'm loathsome!... So please... please... don't make it any harder for me. I'm begging you."
Kang Ha-yoon poured out all the resentment pent up inside her, pleading with him. She begged him not to make things any more difficult for her.
She was a person of chivalry who would not look at, listen to, or do anything that wasn't righteous. For someone like her, feeling love for Sun-woo—who was essentially her mortal enemy—was an utterly unacceptable situation.
How could she love a depraved man who had raped and killed her subordinates and betrayed his master?
She couldn't accept it. She wanted to end her life right then and there.
Drip, drop.
Tears fell from Kang Ha-yoon's eyes. She was a woman who had rarely shown tears in her entire life, but strangely, whenever she was in front of Sun-woo, the tears just kept coming.
"Ha-yoon...... do you really think so too?"
Sun-woo spoke with a troubled expression.
"What?!"
"Do you truly believe that I committed those rapes and murders?"
Sun-woo looked at Kang Ha-yoon with a complicated expression. His eyes were filled with a deep sorrow, as if he had lost the entire world.
'...Ah.'
His sorrowful gaze pained Kang Ha-yoon's heart terribly. At the same time, a maternal instinct to embrace and comfort him welled up within her.
'No!... No!'
But she shook her head violently from side to side. She told herself this was all just one of Jang Sam's tricks.
".....How sad."
Then, Sun-woo spoke in a quiet tone.
"I thought... that you, at least... would listen to what I had to say......"
Sun-woo spoke with a look of disappointment.
'......Ah.'
Those words began to shake Kang Ha-yoon's heart violently. Even though she knew he was a Public Enemy of the Murim and a depraved man, she still loved him. To her, Sun-woo's disappointed expression felt like a knife to the heart.
He was disappointed in her. And he looked so incredibly sad.
"If it's too hard for Ha-yoon, I won't say another word. And I will withdraw my request for you to become my woman. After all, to you, I am nothing more than a criminal."
Sun-woo spoke in a flat tone. At a glance, his attitude and voice seemed incredibly cold.
Sun-woo was currently in a foul mood. He felt disappointed seeing her—the woman who had claimed she would love him no matter what—refusing to even listen and shutting down communication. Naturally, his attitude and speech became cold.
'Aaaah.'
Sun-woo's coldness began to crush Kang Ha-yoon's heart. It hurt. It hurt so much.
His cold attitude as he looked resigned, and his icy words withdrawing the request for her to be his woman...
Tears began to well up uncontrollably.
"Wa... wait a moment!"
Kang Ha-yoon blurted out urgently.
"What is it... Hall Master?"
Sun-woo addressed her with a completely professional, business-like tone.
Tremble, tremble.
That tone made Kang Ha-yoon's entire body shake. She realized that he was no longer calling her "Ha-yoon."
She hated it. His professional attitude. She hated the thought of never being called "Ha-yoon" again.
"...Sob... hic... ugh... waaaaaah!"
Finally, Kang Ha-yoon burst into sorrowful wails. The grief she had been holding back exploded all at once.
Her emotions were already in a state of wild turmoil due to the sense of betrayal. On top of that, she was feeling self-loathing for the fact that she still loved him even after realizing he was Jang Sam.
In such a state, when Sun-woo took a cold, professional stance as if drawing a line between them, her sorrow, sadness, and sense of betrayal surged up uncontrollably.
She had no choice but to cry. How could anyone not cry in such a situation?
"Waaaaaaaah!"
She cried and cried like a child, hoping that all the sorrow inside her would fly away.
"Ah... ah... um... Hall Master?"
Sun-woo called out to her with a stunned expression. He was flustered by her sudden outburst of tears. He felt like he was the one who should be crying, so why was she the one wailing?
Sun-woo felt he had to comfort her first. Although he felt disappointed, he still cared for her. He didn't want to see her in such pain.
"Waaaaaaaaah!"
Sun-woo slowly approached Kang Ha-yoon.
Hug.
He opened his arms and pulled her into an embrace. Kang Ha-yoon offered no resistance, following his lead, and soon her slender body was nestled firmly in his arms.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Once in Sun-woo's arms, Kang Ha-yoon began to cry even more piteously.
Stroke, stroke.
"Hall Master.... stop... stop crying..."
Sun-woo began to slowly stroke her hair so that she could calm down.
"Waaaaah... hic... waaaaah... sniff."
But no matter how much he tried to soothe her, she only cried harder, showing no signs of stopping.
As things continued this way, Sun-woo felt at a loss. He had no idea how to handle this.
'How do I comfort her?'
Sun-woo thought deeply about what exactly had made her so sorrowful.
'Hmm.'
But he couldn't reach a conclusion. There were simply too many factors that could have made her feel this way.
'First, I need to break the momentum.'
Sun-woo soon thought of a decent solution. It was to break the flow—the endless flow of her crying.
Sun-woo, who had been holding her, slowly pulled back. He looked at her face as she sobbed piteously. Even in her sorrow, she looked incredibly beautiful.
'She's even pretty when she cries.'
Sun-woo marveled inwardly. Then, he slowly placed his hands on both of her cheeks.
Mwah.
He then slowly pressed his lips against her cherry-red lips.
"Mmph! Mmph, mmph!"
As Sun-woo kissed her, Kang Ha-yoon resisted fiercely. She had allowed the hug and the comforting, but she seemed to reject the kiss.
Thump, thump, thump.
Kang Ha-yoon pounded on Sun-woo's chest with her fists, resisting again and again. She was pleading for him to pull away, to stop.
But Sun-woo didn't care and continued the kiss until her fierce resistance ceased.
.
.
.
.
How much time had passed?
Tap, tap, tap.
The fists Kang Ha-yoon had been using to pound Sun-woo's chest began to weaken significantly. The blows that were once powerful enough to make his chest ring were now so weak they couldn't even catch a mosquito.
Tap.
Before long, Kang Ha-yoon stopped her punching entirely. Then, she placed both of her hands on Sun-woo's cheeks and began to return the kiss, as if savoring something incredibly sweet and delicious.
Slurp.
After some time, the two slowly pulled their lips apart. A thin, transparent thread of saliva stretched between them—a mixture of their combined fluids.
"Are you calm now?"
Sun-woo asked, looking at Kang Ha-yoon with a burning gaze.
"......Yes."
Kang Ha-yoon nodded, looking embarrassed.
"That's a relief."
Sun-woo replied with a bright smile. He felt a surge of joy now that she had finally calmed down from her sorrowful wailing.
"Why were you crying so much?"
Sun-woo asked with a curious expression. He was genuinely wondering what had caused her to burst into such piteous tears.
Drop.
Upon hearing his question, Kang Ha-yoon lowered her head deeply. Then, she slowly opened her mouth to speak.