Chapter 119
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Scars
Justice was finally peeling off her layers, one by one, but her mind was flooded with endless shame and embarrassment.
Before being called a hero, she was just a woman,
and the man sitting in front of her was just a man, before he was known as Crow.
"I-I don't know what you're thinking..."
"Take that off too."
Justice undid her uniform completely,
and even slipped off the functional undergarment that shaped her breasts.
Her two arms barely covered her front. Her burning eyes and flushed cheeks glared at Crow aggressively.
"Fine, do it like that. If this is what it takes to vent your anger..."
Justice seemed to have badly misunderstood Crow's intentions. Well, it was understandable—she'd been threatened to strip right in front of him, so her thoughts naturally veered that way.
"But promise you'll postpone the plan."
Justice begged Crow, swallowing hard to the very end.
Crow, who had been glaring at her, finally stood up.
As he did, his own trembling hands fumbled awkwardly to undress.
He had a cigarette in his mouth, and with his remaining two hands working the buttons,
yet his clothes still wouldn't come off easily.
Whether she knew it or not,
Justice tilted her head slightly away and squeezed her eyes shut.
In the end, she was the one who had brought this resentment upon him, so she seemed determined to accept all the dark emotions he harbored.
And yet, there was still a nobility in her that hadn't fully crumbled.
She looked just like the protagonist of a tragedy.
She trembled a little.
Once, they had loved each other,
but after the tragedy, the man who returned wanted to pour all his desires onto her.
Wasn't this the kind of thing you'd only see in novels?
A very lewd and obscene one, at that.
This must be her karma, she thought.
How much had this man loved her to go this far? It was a little frightening, but also heartbreaking.
In the end, all of this had become Justice's burden to bear. Threatened into stripping, she revealed the femininity that had quietly resided within her.
Crow hadn't been able to forget her, and even after escaping the prison, he'd come straight to her.
What he wants is my body and heart.
"Open your eyes."
But unexpectedly, Crow didn't touch her. He just issued a cold command. Justice barely opened her stinging eyes halfway, bracing herself for Crow to pounce.
But no matter how long she waited, he didn't cover her or grope her. He didn't unleash all the ugly grudges and desires he'd bottled up.
"Look."
Instead,
he cut his words short,
biting his lip hard and barely holding back his rage.
Only then did Justice see Crow's body laid bare before her.
Contrary to her expectations,
Crow had simply approached right up to her and shown her everything.
Lily, Scardi, Deoksoon, Orca, Creep...
To the women inside the prison, it was all too familiar,
but to outsiders, his corrupted body gave a horrific impression.
Bite marks starting from the nape of his neck,
jet-black bruises from being sucked too hard,
elongated traces of beatings scattered here and there,
kiss marks even around his collarbone and nipples,
heavy blood bruises on broken bones, his upper pelvis, and stomach,
wounds on his side, half-healed slash marks in places,
clear finger-shaped bruises on his neck from someone’s grip, nail marks dug into his shoulders,
bite marks on the inside of his forearm,
persistent kiss marks around his pelvis,
bruises from correctional rod strikes still etched on the top of his buttocks,
and more bruises on his side from being gripped hard...
When Crow turned around,
his back was covered in all sorts of nail scratches and bruises.
It was like looking at a ragged sheet of drawing paper discarded by a child after playing with it.
"Ah..."
Justice could only gasp in horror at the sight.
Rather than Crow groping her,
it was Justice, speechless, who approached and placed her hand on his body.
"W-what is this..."
"And you?"
Crow asked.
Now even his regeneration ability was gone, so the wounds probably wouldn't heal properly.
That was precisely why his body remembered them. It vividly recalled every hardship he'd endured.
Looking in the mirror made him want to vomit,
but Crow faced them like tattoos, reliving the memories every single day.
"What about you?"
The pain and disgust that never left him, not even for a moment, were now visible to Justice too.
No mere words of comfort or sympathy could ever comprehend
the traces of all the torture, atrocities, and violence one man had endured without fail, day after day, for over a hundred days.
"What... what have you been doing...?"
Justice forgot to cover her own body.
Instead, her porcelain-smooth, beautiful form suddenly became a mark of shame.
Her soft flesh bore not a single blemish.
"W-wait a second...!"
Crow hurriedly threw on just his shirt and pants, preparing to leave again. In the midst of it, Justice called out to him, her voice trembling.
"Crow...? W-wait just a moment..."
Something had finally stirred her heart. Humans, after all, keep indulging in foolish selfishness until they witness something with their own eyes.
"Crow! Wait!"
But Crow didn't wait. Anxious, Justice hugged him from behind, not even caring about her teary appearance.
"I-I'm sorry... O-okay... okay. We'll do whatever you want. Alright?"
Crow ground his teeth and pried Justice's hands off, heading for the door again. He had no intention of staying in this place a moment longer.
But Justice blocked his path once more.
Words failed her, barely spilling out,
but she stood firm to stop him,
"C-Crow..."
Now, finally seeing the wounds and scars clearly with her own eyes, she began to cry.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry... Uh-huh...?"
Internet news was always full of brutal stories. Someone died here, an accident happened there...
But until you face it head-on, people don't truly empathize with their pain.
They offer words of comfort. How tragic, how pitiful...
But that's far from genuine empathy.
You can't understand a mother's grief over losing her young son just by reading about it.
Unless you go to the funeral home yourself and see her haggard face, seated as if the world has ended, cursing everything—you can't truly feel it before that.
Humans blame those who take their own lives. But if pushed to the end of their own rope, there's no guarantee they wouldn't make the same choice.
Humans never truly understand each other until they face it properly.
They just pretend to.
"Crow! Okay. I'll hide you. Stay here. Alright? From now on, you give me orders. Good. Let's solve this together again. We've been through countless things like this before, right? We can definitely fix this too."
Justice forgot to cover her body,
and desperately blocked Crow, pleading.
"Yeah? Let's... let's just start over together..."
A woman who could sacrifice one for a million.
But facing that one person's full tragedy and pain head-on left her heart in utter turmoil.
"Let's clear your name first. Got it? Yeah?"
But to Crow, Justice blocking his way was just annoying.
"..."
So he picked one of the scars on his body.
The bite mark from Creep on his ring finger was visible.
Even though it had happened before his regeneration fully faded,
the mark she'd left on him stubbornly refused to fade, tormenting him still.
"Yeah, let's clear my name first?"
Crow let out a hollow laugh as he lifted Justice's hand to his face, staring intently.
"Then how about this?"
Crow pressed Justice's ring finger against the inside of his cheek,
and proposed each word deliberately through clenched teeth.
"You go through the same thing, endure it all, and then I'll forgive you. We'll live together like before. Yeah? We'll go up to the rooftop again and watch the stars."
But he already knew.
That Justice couldn't endure what he'd been through.
"Y-yeah! Okay. Until your anger fades..."
Justice nodded,
but when he wedged her ring finger between his molars, her expression stiffened.
"Until it fades... Eek... Ngh...!"
In the malicious pain, Justice's face contorted fiercely.
"Ugh, guh...!"
Creep's engagement ring, meticulously carved into Crow's ring finger over more than two minutes,
"Aaaah...!"
Justice couldn't last even a minute before yanking her hand away,
"Ngh... W-wait, stop...!"
and clutching her bleeding finger tightly.
Well, a minute was pretty long, actually.
"Fucking idiot."
Crow spat blood and shoved the front door open.
He left Justice behind like that.