Equivalent Exchange
Equivalent Exchange
I didn't know what was going on, but I could at least make some inferences.
My eyes could still see well, and my ears could still hear.
If I strained my ears, I could hear the sound of metal clashing against metal.
Someone's screams, and the sound of someone burning alive.
And, above all, flames were soaring.
A fierce fire, bright enough to illuminate the dim dawn sky, was burning so intensely it could be seen beyond the hole-ridden ceiling of this abandoned house.
It was so fierce that I could feel the heat radiating from that fire even in this space beneath the floorboards.
Perhaps I had underestimated her too much.
Even if she was a little hurt, even if she was a little tired, the Vermilion Bird's bloodline wouldn't just thin out or anything.
No matter how far from her prime she was, maybe that didn't mean her flames would weaken.
Watching the flames lighting up the dawn sky, I felt strangely reassured.
Thinking that she was still alive, or at least had enough leeway to fight.
I decided to think that way.
Because she was the one I had paid the highest price for among all the people I bought with money.
So, she was clearly proving her worth right now. I decided to consider it that way.
She would burn all the pursuers to death and return with that expressionless face of hers, just like always.
And then she would continue that incredibly stupid waste of resources, trying to keep my life attached to my body somehow.
If she did that, I would mock her for it.
I was just lost in that delusion for a moment.
The flames soared even higher.
It was strange.
Because I had never seen flames that intense before.
To think she might have been hiding her power—well, even when she was perfectly fine, she had never unleashed flames that fierce.
It was ominous.
Because I didn't know the meaning of those raging flames. I tried to find some meaning in it, but I couldn't find anything that made sense.
From the heat wave blowing from the direction of the fire, it sounded like a woman's piercing scream was coming.
There was nothing I could do.
Other than just watching.
While I was just staring blankly, the flames soared high once more.
The dawn sky burned red.
That was the last of it; I couldn't see any more flames.
I couldn't even feel the heat anymore.
No sound came to me.
The screams, the sound of metal clashing—everything cut off in an instant.
All I could hear was the rustling sound of vermin crawling on the floor.
...She must have won.
She won, realized there was no point in staying to watch, and ran away.
She should have arrived by now, but since she hadn't, I tried to think of it in the most comfortable way possible.
I tried to close my eyes comfortably and wait for my breath to stop just like this.
However, for some reason, I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to check.
Whether she had really run away.
"Hwari."
I called her name.
No answer returned.
Is she not around here?
Then I have no choice but to go and check.
If nothing I do has any meaning, then isn't everything the same regardless of what I do?
I put strength into my fingertips.
It was just a wooden board that was barely covering the hole, not even properly fastened, but I had to use all my strength just to push it away.
After finally pushing the board aside, I crawled out of the hole through that small gap.
My legs wouldn't move.
No, it was because I had no sensation in my entire lower body.
So I crawled.
I dug my fingernails into the floor, pushed my body with my elbows, and dragged my lower body behind me.
Blood flowed from my mouth, or maybe my nose. Perhaps both. Every time I breathed, something kept welling up in my throat.
I crawled toward where the heat wave was blowing, toward where the smell of burning was coming from.
It was a pathetic sight that would have made the people I personally ruined burst into laughter and mock me, but I didn't care.
How long had I been crawling?
I finally reached the place where the flames had swept through.
When I placed my hand on the ground that still held embers, I felt the burning pain and smelled the scent of searing skin.
I crawled across the scorched earth.
Every time I breathed, ash entered my mouth.
I coughed incessantly, sometimes vomiting up mouthfuls of blood.
But I crawled.
Because I wanted to check. Whether she was alive or dead.
At least before my breath stopped, I wanted to see it clearly with my own two eyes.
The reason? I don't know. I didn't even want to know why.
Over scorched corpses, over pitch-black charred remains, over piles of ash that were probably someone's body.
I crawled, and crawled again.
And, finally, I was able to find her.
Jeok Hwa-ri.
She was standing blankly in the middle of the vacant lot.
Rather than standing, it was closer to say she couldn't fall down.
Because all sorts of weapons were piercing her, preventing her from even falling.
It looked as if peace was not permitted to her.
Pincushion, target. Such ridiculous words came to mind on their own.
"..."
I don't know what I was trying to say.
Whether I was trying to call her, curse at her, or laugh.
None of it worked properly.
Only the sound of blood boiling in my throat came out.
Could she possibly be alive?
I squeezed out the strength I didn't have and barely reached her feet.
As expected, there was no pulse.
As a substitute, perhaps, there was a lingering, lukewarm warmth.
She was dead.
As I acknowledged that, the corners of my mouth twisted grotesquely.
"I told you to run away, didn't I?"
There was no answer.
It was obvious.
There was no way she could answer.
Her neck was half-broken, and a sword was deeply embedded in her chest.
Several spears were stuck in her thighs, and the arrows embedded in her back looked like the quills of a hedgehog.
I tried to at least offer a mocking smile, but it didn't come out right.
"Acting tough, claiming you'd protect me, and look at you now."
Even though I tried to laugh, no laughter came out.
"You could have just sold me out, so why on earth did you try to save me?"
I couldn't laugh.
Because I was feeling a strange sensation, to the point where I couldn't feel pain.
There was a sensation more unbearable than a curse eating away at my flesh, more than my palms searing, more than my lungs tearing.
I didn't know what to call this.
Throughout two lifetimes, this was the first time I had felt such a sensation.
It was hard to breathe.
"I told you not to go."
My voice was cracked to the point of being ridiculous.
"I told you, not to go."
I clutched her tattered hem.
"Answer me..."
Of course, there was no answer.
A cough erupted. Blood flowed up my throat and dripped from the tip of my chin.
Without even thinking of wiping the blood, I stared up at her blankly.
I met eyes that were no different whether she was alive or dead.
Empty, crimson pupils looked down at me.
If I asked what this emotion eating away at me was, it felt like she would look down at me with disdain and answer.
It was absurd.
Really, it was absurd.
To die first when the master still had things to ask.
Telling me, who was going to die soon, to live, while she, who had days left to live, died instead.
She was a woman I had bought.
A wench I had paid for, brought with me, and decided I would use.
A wench who, despite being an item I had bought at great cost, always scraped at her master's nerves.
Such a wench.
That you, so useful, annoying, disrespectful, and arrogant, would end up like this.
I absolutely could not stand it.
Yes, I couldn't stand it.
"This... isn't right."
This didn't add up.
No matter how I calculated it, it didn't add up.
Something valuable was wasted for the sake of something worthless.
There was no waste like this.
As a merchant, it was a loss I could never accept.
"Return..."
I couldn't continue my words due to the blood flowing back up.
Pitch-black blood, making me wonder if it was even human blood, soaked the floor.
The end was truly approaching.
I believed there was nothing money couldn't do.
I believed that if I put a price on it, I could obtain anything.
People, families, loyalty, silence, even life.
Because such an ability had been given to me.
Because such power had been given to me.
A power that, if you offer something valuable, yields a result of equal value.
What I called, Equivalent Exchange.
I proposed one last transaction to that power.
"Huu... I will offer it."
Even as my vision grew darker, the scale floating in the air was clearly visible.
"Everything I possess."
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Because even I thought it was ridiculous.
Everything, she says.
What on earth is left for this beggar bastard to offer?
Money, house, connections, fame, power, credit, future.
After I've lost everything.
Naturally, the scale didn't move even a tiny bit.
"Everything I will have in the future, too."
Still, the scale didn't tilt at all.
"If there is a next life, everything including that, too."
This time, the scale swayed by a fingernail's breadth.
"Not enough?"
Even this isn't enough?
"Then take it all. Everything. So that no matter how many times I am reincarnated, I will live as a beggar."
Only then did the scale tilt convincingly.
"So... change it."
Since the scale had tilted, it was now time to place what I desired on the other side.
"Change Jeok Hwa-ri's fate."
There is only one thing I desire.
"So that she is not wasted on someone like me."
I hope you walk a different path.
As I finished speaking, my heart stopped.
At that moment, something was placed on the other side of the invisible scale.
And I heard the sound of something being written with a rustling noise.
Before I could even understand what it was, with a thud, the world tilted.
When I came to my senses, I saw my smaller hands and a shabby ceiling.