Chapter 18

TL: pineapples

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“Hmmm…”

“I’ll hide first. You’re the seeker.”

The man thought about it a little bit, shrugged his shoulders, and readily agreed.

“Okay, I’ll be the seeker. But there’s one thing that’s bothering me.”

“What is it?”

“You know this complicated place well, but I don’t. So, can I hurt you a bit? This Mister needs some blood to try and find you.”

What should I do? No matter how much I refuse, this man will hurt me.

“Where… are you gonna hurt me?”

“I’ll let you decide on that. Where do you want to get hurt?”

It can’t be my legs. I need to be able to run. Also it was easy to die from excessive blood loss after a bad injury to the torso or head. It also could be difficult to move because of the pain.

Furthermore, I couldn’t trust this man. He might not just stop from just injuring me. He might actually kill me.

“But… can you hurt me from there?”

“If you stay still. I throw a dagger from here.”

“We-well, what if I get hurt somewhere else? Then I won’t be able to play with you because I’m too injured.”

“Why? Are you scared that I’ll kill you under the pretense that I would injure you?”

“…”

“Don’t worry. If you stay still, I won’t kill you. But if you move, I’ll kill you. Understood?”

Either way I had to believe his words to live.

I offered up my arm.

“Then, my arm.”

“You want that?”

He took out his dagger while answering. Maybe because he was excited he was humming strangely.

My body flinched in anticipation of the pain I was about to suffer. But if I moved I wouldn’t just get injured. I would die.

I tightened my stance and clenched my teeth. At the same time, the man threw his dagger at me.

The moment that closed my eyes, a silver dagger flew at me like an arrow.

Clang!

Unbelievably, Baekha moved to block the dagger.

It happened in an instant, so neither the man nor I moved. In the meantime, Baekha pulled on my hand. Like he was urging me to run away quickly.

I began to move backwards falteringly. The moment I avoided his eyes, I couldn’t even turn around because I thought the man would attack me instantly.

At that time, the servant unni, who had crawled to us, shouted as she clung to the man’s leg.

“Run, Young Miss!”

“Tsk.”

The man clicked his tongue in annoyance and penetrated the servant unni’s back with a knife.

“Huk!”

The servant unni spat out blood but didn’t let go of the man’s legs. From her mouth, a bubble of blood dribbled out. With pleading eyes, she looked at me.

“Young Miss!”

Distracted by her deafening yell, I turned around and ran like crazy.

Aimlessly, I ran while Baekha pulled me around.

“You want me to go this way?”

I had to go outside as soon as possible, but the place Baekha led me to was a completely different place.

‘Maybe Baekha knows a safe place’

I ran for my life. As I ran, when Baekha gave me signals, I ran towards its signals.

“Huk, huk!”

Since I was running through all these hallways that all looked the same, I had no clue where I was. I had no energy left to run.

I dragged my feet and hid in an empty room at the end of the hall. I was hiding behind a folding screen in the first room. Then I heard a sound from somewhere.

“Hide well. I’ll find your hair.”

It was him. He was nonchalantly singing while walking towards me.

Judging by the noise, he wasn’t that close. But it was clear that he was getting closer. As soon as he finds out where I am, I’ll die. Both of my wrists would be cut off.

How did this happen? The person who will kill me is the main character of this novel, Aku Ryun. I’ve never seen this man before.

I held my trembling hands to my face.

‘Ple-please save me. Somebody… please….’

Tears covered my eyes. As death approached, I, funnily enough, wanted to see Cheonma. I didn’t want to see anyone else, but the person who threw me away.

Stomp stomp.

I could hear the footsteps clearly now. The man walked loudly on purpose. I was so scared that I couldn’t control my body. I thought the man would open that door and come in right now.

Tears welled up in my eyes and a scream shot up to my throat. When I couldn’t hold back my fear and was about to sob without realizing, someone covered my mouth from behind.

“…!”

As I was about to struggle crazily, I heard a breathless voice in my ears.

“Young Miss.”

Aku Ryun!

Only then did I breathe. The relief of being alive didn’t stop my tears from coming out. I bit my lips and stopped myself from screaming.

“Are you hurt?”

No, no!

I shook my head wildly and then I heard Aku Ryun sigh.

“Look at me.”

I turned my head slowly. Aku Ryun looked at my face delicately with a serious look. It was the first time in two years that I saw him after he failed to escape. In the meantime, he had changed significantly.

He was taller than me by two heads, and his face had turned quite manly. Above all, the calm look in his eyes did not seem like one that a ten year old should have. He seemed to have learned how to control his emotions after being in seclusion.

Huh? Speaking of which, how did he know that I was in danger and came out of seclusion? I was sure he was going through closed-door training.

“Uh, how did you know?”

“I had a bad feeling, so I came out.”

Aku Ryun carefully wiped my face covered with tears. I finally came to my senses and explained the situation.

“Uh, some guy is looking for me. H-he said he was a monster that kills people. T-that man killed servant unni because he was looking for me…”

She grabbed onto the man’s feet to let me escape until she was killed. If she had just run away without doing that, she would have lived.

I closed my eyes tightly and tears fell.

“Servant unni died. Because of me.”

“It’s her duty. It’s not your fault.”

Aku Ryun placed me on my feet. Then he took off his clothes and put them on me.

He covered the white nightdress that I was wearing with his black clothes. He carefully tied his clothes onto me so that they wouldn’t drag on the floor.

After that, he wiped my tears again and held my shoulder tightly.

“Can you walk?”

My legs were so weak that I wanted to sit down right away.  But since I didn’t want to get in the way of Aku Ryun, I answered vigorously.

“Yes, Yes! I’m fine! I can walk as long as you want!”

He lifted the cloth covering the wall. Behind the cloth was a small door.

“It’s a secret passage that leads outside. Go straight down to town.”

“…just me?”

Shing!

Aku Ryun pulled out a sword without answering me.

I could tell what he was thinking just from his actions. He was trying to buy me time to run away. Alone. I clung to his arm.

“N-no! Come with me! There’s only one person. We can both run away!”

“There’s not just one person.”

“… what?”

As soon as I heard him, I could feel their presence everywhere. From both the ceiling and floor, I could feel the presence of many people.

Come to think of it, that man could not have invaded the Magyo alone without being an absolute fool.

I couldn’t believe that I realized that just now. Could Aku Ryun fend them all off by himself? It would be a long time before he would become the most powerful person in the world. I don’t know how much you’ve grown, but you’re still a child.

There was no way he could handle the unknown number of assassins alone.

I shook my head.

“No, no no. You’re going to die. You’re going to die! Let’s go together, okay? Come on, come with me!”

“Leave first. I’ll follow you.”

“Lies! How are you going to follow me after fending off these people!?”

“…”

“You hate me! If you caught me, you said you would kill me! Don’t you hate me that much? But why would you risk your life?”

Aku Ryun looked at me quietly and sighed.

“I don’t hate you.”

I blinked slowly at his sudden informal talk. TL: Aku Ryun used honorifics before

“Then why…?”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I was gonna just let you be, but… I couldn’t. I couldn’t do that.”

He gently pulled on my hand that was gripping his arm.

“So listen to me.”

Aku Ryun pried me off from his arm and pushed me into the small door.

“When you get to town, find the biggest house.”

At that moment…

“Are you here, kid?”

The door opened slowly.