A Kiss Without Warning
The footsteps cut through the pitch-black silence, and I slowly opened my closed eyes.
'Ugh...!'
My limbs, bound tight in chains, and my body that had just endured a vicious beating screamed in protest, but those unfamiliar footsteps set my nerves on a razor’s edge.
They weren’t the sloppy, drunken strides of the guards coming to toss in a scrap of food, nor the arrogant, dragging steps of that bastard Seung-pyo.
'Two people. But these footsteps...?'
They had tried to conceal their presence, yet they couldn’t hide that razor-sharp edge. The steps were too light, too stealthy—restrained like a wildcat stalking across fallen leaves.
-Whoosh.
A blazing torch was thrust between the iron bars. I swallowed a groan at the sudden burst of light and stared at the shadows it revealed.
"......?"
Two faces emerged in the firelight.
One belonged to the third brat from the Cheonun Trading Company—the one Seung-pyo had kidnapped in a fit of bravado. From the look of him, the ransom still hadn’t been paid. If that was the case, why drag the kid all the way to the mountain stronghold just to waste food? A bitter sneer rose inside me.
'But why is he here in the middle of the night?'
The question had barely crossed my mind when the second shadow beside the boy seized my attention.
The moment I unconsciously lifted my gaze—
"......?!"
I sucked in a sharp breath before I could stop myself.
The face above those blindingly white robes possessed a beauty so overwhelming that even the words nation-toppling felt pitifully inadequate.
'...Dangerous.'
Where fleeting admiration had been, the instincts of a warrior now screamed in warning.
Her aura was pure and pristine like a fairy’s, yet so sharp and chilling it raised goosebumps. Noble yet bewitching, sacred yet ominous—that lethal presence slowly tightened around my throat.
"....!!"
The instant our eyes met, the nameless beauty’s serene face flushed deep crimson.
A fragile, heartbreaking expression—one that looked as if it would crumble at the slightest touch—etched itself poignantly across her breathtaking features.
"It’s been a while, So-yun."
The voice that slipped from between her red-petal lips was damp with emotion. It carried the aching longing and bitter regret of someone reuniting with a loved one they had thought dead.
'Who the hell is this woman?'
Someone I had never seen in my life was calling my name with such tenderness and wearing an expression heavy with the weight of a lifetime’s karma.
"Ha."
The emotion in the gaze fixed on me ran so deep and true that I bared my teeth in a snarl, trying to mask my confusion.
"You know me? I’ve never laid eyes on a woman like you in my entire damn life."
"...Heh."
My words were bristling with thorns, more than enough to offend, yet her reaction was completely unexpected. She slowly curved her tightly pressed lips into a smile so bright it seemed to illuminate the entire dark cell.
'...What? Is she insane?'
My instincts warned me that tangling with her would only bring trouble, so I whipped my head away and spat,
"If you’re not here to free me, then get lost. The key to these bars is probably in that cursed Seung-pyo’s pocket anyway."
A heavy silence fell over the prison.
"..."
From the corner of my eye I saw she was still watching me. No matter how much I growled like a beast or cursed her to leave, she simply kept smiling, bright and gentle, as if the sight of my face brought her endless delight.
-Shing.
After staring at me for a long moment, she slowly drew the sword at her waist.
"Fine. So all I have to do is get you out of here, right?"
"What…? What are you—"
Before I could finish, the air inside the narrow dungeon screamed.
From her slender frame erupted a mountain-crushing pressure, a domineering aura that exploded outward.
At first her inner energy shimmered with a brilliant golden light like the halo of a Buddha statue, but it instantly transformed into a sharp, chilling crimson the color of fresh blood.
"Hehe."
She looked at me—bound and helpless—and smiled like a child who had discovered a fascinating new toy.
"It might be tricky since you’re tied up, but I’ll be as careful as I can. You mustn’t get hurt."
"...."
Her casual words left me speechless.
Could she not see this body? There wasn’t a single uninjured spot left after the torture. What more could possibly get hurt?
Yet despite her playful tone, a ferocious haze condensed like dew along the blade of her sword—utterly devoid of amusement.
'Materialized sword energy…? At her age?!'
I drew in a sharp breath at the shocking sight.
The girl who looked five or six years younger than me, barely of age, had reached the peak realm that even the greatest masters of the martial world struggled to attain?
"B-Big Sis?!! Wait, is this really—?!"
The Cheonun Trading Company brat standing beside her gaped, eyes bulging at the unbelievable scene.
-Kaaang—!
A streak of light flashed before my eyes.
At the same time, a clear, resonant ring of metal filled the narrow dungeon.
"......Huh."
Though they weren’t made of legendary ten-thousand-year cold iron or hundred-fold refined steel, these bars were forged from the toughest metal a bandit stronghold could obtain.
-Thud. Clatter.
Yet the iron that had refused to budge beneath even my monstrous strength was sliced as cleanly as tofu and rolled across the floor.
Entranced, I stared at the mirror-smooth cut surface of the bar.
'A peak-level master...!'
While I gazed in stunned awe, the woman chuckled and swung her sword again. The motion was light, almost playful.
-Clang—!
A crimson line sliced through the air. The moment that impossible trajectory brushed past me, the crushing weight on my limbs vanished like a lie.
"......Eh?"
The thick steel shackles and chains that had bound my arms and legs fell to the floor in pieces, cut as easily as tofu. Not a single hair on my wrists or ankles was harmed—an almost divine display of skill that severed only the metal.
-Thump.
With the chains that had held me upright severed, I collapsed to the floor like a discarded sack. Having hung there for what felt like an eternity, my legs had gone completely numb, as if they no longer belonged to me.
Face pressed against the cold stone, I struggled to lift my head.
"Hoo."
The peerless beauty sheathed her sword and looked down at me. Her presence pressed down harder than even her crimson sword energy.
"Who… are you…!"
"..."
I swallowed dryly and asked. She narrowed her eyes for a moment as if considering something, then extended a slender, snow-white hand toward me.
"My name is Seol-hye."
Beneath the torchlight, her red eyes glowed with a captivating light that seemed ready to devour me whole.
"Come with me."
"...."
That delicate jade hand hovered right before my eyes.
Yet I did not take it.
"Ugh."
I bit my lip until blood welled up.
Using my bloodied hand to brace against the cold wall, I forced my screaming legs to straighten and stand. My knees trembled violently, cold sweat pouring down like rain, but I refused to rise with anyone’s pity.
That was the last shred of pride I possessed as the leader of the Black Wind Stronghold who had succeeded my father.
"Ha… ugh… hoo…!"
Leaning against the wall, I fought down the agony ripping through my body and glared at her.
"I don’t know who you are or what you’re plotting."
A poisonous blue glare radiated from my eyes.
"If you’re after the Green Forest Token like those bastards, don’t waste your time with tricks. I’d rather die than hand it over…!"
My fierce shout echoed through the cell like a blade.
But the woman called Seol-hye didn’t look offended in the slightest. Instead she clutched her stomach and burst into bright, delighted laughter.
"Ahahaha! The Green Forest Token?"
She scoffed as if the very idea was ridiculous.
"What possible use would a wooden trinket like that have for me? I have no need for such worthless junk."
-Step.
She took one step closer.
The distance between us vanished in an instant.
Beyond the sweet fragrance brushing my nose, her eyes had changed.
The emotion burning in those captivating red pupils was far more than simple curiosity. It was the shudder of someone who had found their lost half, and a terrifying obsession that vowed never to let go again. The gaze that bound me was sticky and heavy, like the prayers of a zealot.
"What I truly covet is..."
-Grab.
Her elegant hand closed around my arm—gentle, yet impossible to escape.
Her red eyes, curved like crescent moons, filled my entire world.
"You."
"Wha—mmph?!"
I had no time to question her incomprehensible answer.
-Smooch. Slurp.
A soft, burning sensation.
The kiss was so intense it froze my thoughts, so aggressive it stole my breath, sealing my ragged lips completely.
'What the hell is this...?!'
It was my first kiss, and my vision flashed pure white.
And the person giving me that first kiss was a woman I had never seen before—not a man?!
"Mmmph……!?"
My brain screamed at me to push her away, but my body, already pushed past its limits by endless torture, refused to obey. Her wet tongue slid in like a snake between my defenseless lips.
-Slurp.
The hot, plush sensation of her tongue gently coiling around mine. Without asking permission, she ransacked my mouth as if it were her own territory, violating every corner. She traced every tooth, relentlessly captured my fleeing tongue, and sucked on it with the intent of devouring it to the root.
-Sluuurp, sluuuuurp, smack.
"Ugh, haa, mmmph?!!!"
In the silent prison, the wet, obscene sounds of our mingled saliva echoed shamelessly.
The lewd noises of flesh rubbing and tongues intertwining made my face burn with humiliation, yet she only grew more ravenous, devouring my lips as if she meant to steal even my last breath.
'Ah… ah...!'
The fishy taste of blood from my torn mouth mixed with the sweet scent of the woman kissing me, completely paralyzing my mind. The Green Forest Token, Seung-pyo’s betrayal, the fate of the stronghold—everything melted away beneath that moist, sweetly intoxicating sensation.
There was only one thing I understood.
This unexpected kiss would utterly upend the rest of my fate—an inexplicable premonition that shook me to my core.