Widow Park Sujin
Widow Park Sujin
"Quietly. We do this quietly."
At my words, we fell into formation without a word.
Mirkella and the old man took point, Angelica and I held the middle, and Kim Ha-yoon brought up the rear.
After that, we smothered our footsteps and crept forward, until the scene beyond the dense thicket finally came into view.
"Mom!"
"I know! So-jin, cover me!"
There, a MILF and her daughter were locked in a vicious struggle.
Their opponents were two fighters.
A man and a woman, expertly deflecting the mother-daughter assault.
It looked less like a fight and more like adults toying with children.
"Haha! Laughable, absolutely laughable!"
"What's the matter, getting slow in your old age, ahjumma?"
Screeeech!
Blades clashed, sparks scattering wildly in every direction.
Their movements were so fast it was difficult to track with the naked eye.
The mother and daughter were barely keeping pace.
Frankly, it was a letdown.
'Is this really all they've got?'
I let out a hollow laugh.
Their combat strength was far weaker than I'd anticipated.
They were putting up a fight, sure, but it was easy to picture them losing before long.
Well, I guess that explains why they were going around begging for allies.
"They still haven't noticed us. Good. Very good. Ha-yoon, you know what to do?"
"Yes. Take those two out first, right?"
At some point, a number of icy spears had materialized beside Kim Ha-yoon.
Poised to launch at any signal.
"What do you intend to do?"
But just then, the old man's expression hardened as he stopped us.
Why the sudden objection?
Unable to fathom his reasoning, I tilted my head.
"Why? We're about to wrap this up clean. What's the problem?"
"I cannot permit such cowardly means. All battles must be fought with honor. If they are your target, you must first issue a formal challenge to a duel."
"Look, let's not be rigid about this. There's an easier path right in front of us. Why complicate things for no reason?"
"There is a reason. So that it is just."
Justice, my ass.
The victor's words are the law.
Seizing victory by whatever means necessary is everything.
What's all this crap about honor?
If you lose, nothing remains.
"Old man. Didn't you have a reason you had to win? Did you really have the luxury to be picky about your methods?"
"Even so, there are things a man must uphold."
"How resolute. But here's the thing. We don't bother with that kind of nonsense. I'm saying there's zero merit in us inconveniencing ourselves just to accommodate your circumstances."
I fixed him with a cold glare, waiting for his answer.
The old man had no real response.
After a long silence, he finally offered a compromise, as if he had no other choice.
"Very well. I am somewhat aware that imposing our rules on outsiders is unreasonable, so I will make an allowance. If this is to be your approach, I will not participate in the combat. However, I will also swear not to interfere."
"So you'll just sit back and watch? Ha. You really dressed up the act of freeloading with a lot of fancy words."
"When opinions differ, we must reach some agreement. One way or another, we are in the same boat. Is this not unavoidable?"
This old bastard... I already didn't like him because of the stench, and now my favorability toward him has completely bottomed out.
I clicked my tongue in displeasure and subtly signaled Kim Ha-yoon.
"Ha-yoon. A swift strike ensures victory."
No answer came back.
Instead, she flicked her wrist and launched the razor-sharp ice.
*
As is often the way with life, farewells come without warning.
The pain of loss.
Sending away someone precious without even getting to say goodbye is a heavy burden.
Some say time heals all wounds, but that platitude doesn't apply to everyone.
Regret turned to sorrow, and sorrow soon festered into obsession.
Park Soo-jin was a person shackled to the past.
Day after day, she clutched the memories she couldn't let go of and prayed desperately to the heavens.
To bring him back.
Please, don't take him away from me.
But of course, her prayers went unanswered.
The pitch-black sky offered no response to her pleas.
The dead do not return.
That was the way of the world, the common sense everyone recited.
And so, longing sublimated into despair, and despair into rage.
Park Soo-jin began attacking people indiscriminately, taking their lives.
Viciously, as if simply venting her anger.
And then, one day.
She heard something in passing from someone.
Gwanak-gu.
A rumor that if you won the competition being held there, any wish you had would be granted.
It was a dubious story, but Park Soo-jin couldn't endure without clinging to such a miraculous fluke.
In front of her daughter, she always wore a mask, pretending to be confident, pretending to be unfazed. But lately, even that had reached its limit.
That's why she dragged her sole remaining flesh and blood into danger.
For her own satisfaction.
It was a disgustingly selfish motive, but she was that desperate.
Yes, it was because she was that desperate that she had made it this far.
"Kihihi, ahjumma! I said you're slow!"
I'm different from you.
My resolve, my determination is different.
So you'll have to become stepping stones.
"Wait, Hyejin! Watch—!"
Ptui! She spat a mixture of blood and saliva right into her face.
Park Soo-jin had deliberately closed the distance and let herself get punched.
And with it, she'd spat out a dislodged molar along with the fluid, straight onto the fighter's face.
"Agh, what the hell is this disgusting—."
The female fighter stumbled backward in a panic, wiping the gunk off her face.
There were faint scratches on her cheek.
Wounds left by the molar Park Soo-jin had spat out.
"Huh...?"
Immediately, the fighter's face was painted with shock.
Her arms trembled, and her complexion drained sickly pale, like a patient in critical condition.
Poison.
This was Park Soo-jin's trait, the 'Cancer of All Things'.
Her blood possessed the property of a deadly poison that rapidly intoxicated humans.
"Hyejin!"
At the sudden turn, her male partner rushed over frantically to support her.
—Shrrrk!
But Kim So-jin, Park Soo-jin's daughter, was faster with her slash.
A single strike tracing a wide arc cut deeply into the female fighter from her shoulder joint downward.
Blood gushed out, and she collapsed to her knees.
"Ha. Who's calling who an ahjumma, huh?"
Seeing this, a bitter smirk crossed Park Soo-jin's face.
It was a satisfying sight.
The sensation of toppling a strong opponent who'd been so smug and cocky was always incredibly refreshing.
"Aah, Hyejin... Hyejin...!"
Despair consumed the face of the remaining fighter.
And that despair soon transformed into blazing fury.
"How dare you...! How dare you...!!!!"
He glared at Park Soo-jin and her daughter with eyes burning with rage.
Soon, a silver light rippled from the blade he held.
And immediately, toward the two women—.
Pabababak!
"Keogh!"
Just as he was about to charge, a volley of ice shot from somewhere pierced him mercilessly.
Like a pinned specimen, icicles stabbed into each of his limbs, then began to swell in size, slowly consuming him.
'What. What now.'
Her bewilderment was brief. Suddenly, her daughter let out a sharp scream.
"Kyaa! M-Mom...!"
As if seized by something invisible, her daughter floated into the air and was instantly dragged in the direction the icicles had come from.
There was no time to react.
And that is why Park Soo-jin felt an unprecedented terror.
A hunt.
We're being hunted.
"...Sorry. I'm sorry."
Muttering softly, Park Soo-jin turned her back and broke into a sprint.
Her beloved daughter was gone, but something mattered more to her.
A wish.
It was a desire she wanted to fulfill even if it meant casting aside everything else.
For her, reviving her husband was the top priority above all else.
Therefore, she cuts her losses.
Maybe her daughter would survive.
Her daughter took after her and was on the pretty side, so perhaps they'd show mercy.
Even if she'd be reduced to a wretched state... once I achieve everything later, it won't be too late to save her then, right?
"Ha, hahaha...!"
I've really fallen this far, haven't I, as a woman.
Regret washed over her, but deep down, a sense of relief at having survived lingered.
In this world, wasn't this perhaps the right path?
Regret, lingering attachment, hatred, fury, self-contradiction... a whirlwind of emotions churned inside her chest.
How long had she been running like that, how much time had passed, until she could no longer even hear the screams.
"—Found you."
A beautiful voice suddenly rang out.
She flinched in shock at the sound, so clear in the quiet forest.
"Keck, kerk!"
A shadow erupting from beneath her feet enveloped Park Soo-jin.
Taking the form of horrific tentacles, it instantly coiled around her body and gripped her throat tight.
Her windpipe constricted.
Is this the end?
Does my journey end here?
Profound despair crashed over her.
And amidst that, a figure walking toward her entered her blurring field of vision.
"Wow, lady, you're truly something else. I mean, really. How do you abandon your own daughter without a second thought?"
A man wearing a bitter smirk, one much like her own just moments ago.
Park Soo-jin vaguely recognized who he was.
He must have been one of the parties she'd tried to recruit before the competition started.
She remembered him because the women accompanying him were so exceptionally striking.
'He looked so soft-faced, I never thought he'd do something like this.'
She had misjudged.
These people were far more malicious than the fools she'd just been fighting.
You could say their quality was similar to her own.
"Mirmir, loosen the grip on her neck. She'll die at this rate."
"Didn't you see her spit earlier? That woman was staggering after getting hit by it."
"It's fine. Angelica will block it."
—Sssss.
With a sound like a snake slithering, the tentacles released Park Soo-jin's neck.
Her blocked airway was open again, which was good, but her entire body was still bound.
"Kerk, kehegh! Keuheugh...! Heok...! Heoeok...!"
Breathing heavily, Park Soo-jin looked straight ahead.
Then she saw their faces more clearly.
And also, exactly how her daughter was dangling off the man.
"Heeung♥."
A slack, loose expression with her tongue lolling out.
Her daughter, Kim So-jin, wore a face her mother had never seen in her entire life.
He lightly bounced his hips as he spoke.
"Honestly, I hadn't planned on this. But guess what? She's a bit older than I thought? Her build is so small, you'd never know, but... turns out she's the same age as Ha-yoon."
"....."
"So that means just how early did you have a kid? Seventeen? Fifteen?"
Park Soo-jin didn't answer his question.
She just kept her head bowed in silence.
At this, the man sighed deeply, as if the situation had lost all amusement.
"No reaction... Ah, whatever. It doesn't really matter. What's important is that you lost, and we won. The vanquished submit, the victor claims everything. That's the rule here. And it's a universal law everywhere. So then..."
Muttering that, he abruptly reached out toward her crotch.
Squelch.
"Compared to your daughter's, I wonder how you'll taste?"