The One and Only Sami Chapter 7

“Ugh, hic… ugh…”

“Huh? Oh, wait, wait. Are you crying?”

Even seeing it with his own eyes, the situation was so bizarre that Sami’s brain couldn’t quite process it.

One guy was turning all his oranges to rot, and the other was lifting him into the air with one hand using the brute strength of a Jinni. Sami, losing even the will to struggle, just sobbed.

“Please, let me live…”

In the end, he burst into a full-blown wail. He was so terrified that he didn’t have the mental room to think about anything else.

The man holding Sami like a dangling doll turned his body so that Sami was facing him.

“Hey.”

“Hic, ugh… waaah…!”

Sure enough, seeing him up close made it even clearer. It was definitely the magician he had run into before. In the bright daylight, his sand-colored hair shimmered like gold.

Gold. Come to think of it, why was this man able to touch him even though he was wearing gold dust? Was he a magician so powerful that gold was useless against him?

Once that thought crossed his mind, he was paralyzed with fear. Encountering two magicians in one day—today was definitely the day he was going to die. A fresh wave of tears cascaded down Sami’s face.

“Hold on, hold on.”

The man sighed and used his free hand to wipe the tears from the corners of Sami’s eyes. His tone was quite rough, but for some reason, his touch was surprisingly gentle.

“Your charm helped you out. I smelled something nasty and rotten, and when I came to check it out, I found Bisan here being a pest.”

“Razard! Give me back my ring and sword this instant!”

“Why should I? They’re in my hands now, so they’re mine.”

He spoke with a calm indifference, as if he weren’t even aware he was being shameless. Faced with such a thuggish response, the magician Bisan couldn’t contain his rage and ground his teeth audibly.

“You lowly thief. You shall spend eternity in Jahannam having your flesh scorched away! Even magicians do not steal each other’s treasures!”

“Lowly?”

The man, who had been responding to the red-eyed, screaming Bisan with a smile as if listening to sweet music, let out a short laugh at that particular word.

His attitude was dripping with mockery.

“Other magicians? Are there even any magicians left in this world besides you? Who? If you’re talking about Nisim, he swallowed his Marut, claiming he’d rather destroy it than let me have it… well, I just cut his belly open and took it out anyway.”

“You—you absolute demon!”

“Coming from a guy who commands Jinnis, that doesn’t mean much.”

Hearing the conversation, Sami started shaking violently again. He took back what he thought about the “gentle touch” earlier. “Gentle” was far too generous a word for a man who talked about gutting a person like he was cleaning a duck.

“Kid.”

Regardless of the magician screaming in front of him, the man kept shaking the dangling Sami. By now, Sami’s body was trembling so much on its own that he fluttered like dried grass even without being shaken.

“P-P-Please, spare me…”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m doing this to save you, aren’t I?”

At those words, Sami’s eyes fluttered open again. He saw the man’s face once more. Last night, he had thought he was a handsome but terrifying magician, but looking closely now, he was undeniably, incredibly good-looking.

His exposed muscles weren’t flabby like the beer-bellied city guards, nor were they terrifyingly bulky like the slaves. The curve of his lips looked cruel because of their sharp corners, but his eyes were languid and relaxed, softening that ferocity.

His eyes looked a bit like a snake’s, yet also like a tiger’s. Instead of a turban, a bandana with ornate gold decorations was tied over his sandy hair.

Looking at him, he seemed less like a magician and more like…

“I’ll save you.”

Suddenly, the man’s face moved closer to Sami’s. He smelled refreshing. Like the scent of a summer breeze blowing from the shade.

Sami stopped crying abruptly and stammered a question.

“Ye… yes?”

“I said I’ll save you. In exchange, you’ll have to help me out later.”

The man suddenly pulled a sword out of thin air. It was a blade studded with bright yellow jewels. It was definitely the same sword that had sliced through the air above Sami’s head before.

The man laughed, resting the back of the blade against his shoulder. He looked like he was having the time of his life. He was so completely at ease that even the terrified Sami felt, for a fleeting moment, like he was a character in an adventure story.

“What’s your name? Whisper it only to me, so that magician over there doesn’t hear.”

Razard leaned down and whispered softly into Sami’s ear. His low voice seeped in lightly like scented shisha smoke, but instead of drifting away, it lingered deep inside Sami.

It felt strangely ticklish, as if a feather were brushing against his throat. Sami instinctively covered his mouth and spoke up urgently.

“W-W-Why?”

“Because if you…”

His body pressed even closer to Sami. His smooth lips brushed against the curve of Sami’s ear. Sami felt a shiver run down his spine from the sensation of the man’s breath.

He heard the faint sound of moist lips parting. Sami made a tearful face and squeezed his eyes shut. His body trembled every time the man spoke a syllable into his ear.

“…if you entrust me with your name, getting out of here becomes very simple.”

It was strange.

He was just talking, but the voice wrapping damply around his ear sounded like a deliberate, sticky temptation.

Sami’s eyes were fixed on the man’s lips.

They were moving steadily, no different from any other lips asking a common question about a name. Yet, for some reason, they seemed to move exceptionally slowly to Sami.

Lips parting, then closing. Sami opened his mouth with a dazed expression, as if he were being hexed.

My name is…

“Sa…”

<□□□.>

In that instant, he heard the sound of a fire erupting in his ear.

“…!”

Sami snapped his head up and shook it from side to side. No, it was as if someone had grabbed his shoulders and shaken him; his head was thrown back as he gasped for air.

He felt like he had heard something, but he couldn’t remember it. Wait, more importantly, what was I just about to do?

“My name…”

Right, he was about to give his name.

Magicians were beings that should never be trusted. Whether it was the truth or a lie, the man in front of him, Razard, was someone who spoke casually about cutting people open.

This man was just as suspicious and terrifying as the magician behind him. Once he realized that, he felt even more bewildered.

He was such a suspicious person—so why did Sami feel like he wanted to answer him?

Sami clamped his mouth shut and shook his head again. He did it clearly and firmly, so there would be no mistake.

“…”

Despite the clear rejection, the man remained silent.

‘Is… is he angry?’

His heart pounded against his chest with unbearable anxiety. Keeping his head lowered, Sami timidly shifted his gaze upward to read the man’s expression.

And then.

His heart, which had been racing just a moment ago, felt like it was freezing over and shattering.

This man had been smiling even when that black-clad magician was cursing him, but the look he was giving Sami now was chilling.

With the man’s gaze piercing down from a full head higher than him, Sami froze stiff and began to tremble again.

“Hmm.”

But it was only for a moment. He dropped the icy, serious look. He looked slightly annoyed, his eyebrows arching upward, but it was far more lenient than the gaze Sami had faced a second ago.

“Kid.”

The sword slung over his shoulder swayed back and forth. Every time it moved, the blade, catching the sunlight, flashed with a razor-sharp glint.

“Hurry up. I’m not very good at waiting.”

Razard moved the hand holding Sami a bit further away from himself. His expression turned bored, as if he were about to just drop him if he didn’t get an answer soon.

As Sami wavered, a bone-chilling sound like a snake slithering hissed behind his back.

“Hic…!”

Sami gasped. He didn’t even dare to look back. The sound behind him was like something licking its lips, waiting for Razard to let go of him.

Sami squeezed his eyes shut. Everything was terrifying, but if he had to choose between the two, being caught by this magician seemed like the better option. Sami opened his mouth, trembling like a mouse abandoned in the desert at night.

My name is.

“S-Sami.”

<□□□, □□□□ □□□.>

“It’s Sami.”

“Good.”

Now that he had the answer he wanted, the man called Razard bared his teeth in a wide grin.