Chapter 106
The sound of people sucking in their breaths came from all around.
I frowned and said,
“What exactly are you saying?”
The woman answered,
“Yes.”
“Are you truly saying that you intend to throw your life away? Even after meeting your younger brother?”
“…There is something I must shamelessly ask of you regarding Awi.”
The woman prostrated herself before me once more.
“Great Hero, please take care of Awi.”
“What?”
“Of course, I am not asking you to look after him for the rest of your life. If you pity me, please take Awi to a renowned physician just once. Even if he cannot be cured, that is fine. I simply want to do everything I can to treat his illness, as far as I am able…”
“……”
“If Awi’s illness can be cured, please entrust him to good people whom you believe to be good. It would be better for Awi to be raised by good people rather than by this foolish and wicked older sister.”
I was silent for a moment before asking again,
“What if he cannot be treated?”
“If that happens, if that happens…”
The woman barely managed to speak in a trembling voice.
“Please stay by his side… at least until the moment that child eventually leaves this world. If you do that, I will be able to leave with peace of mind.”
As she said this, she lowered her head deeply again until her forehead touched the ground.
I said nothing for a while.
I could feel the others watching us. In particular, they kept sneaking glances at me, apparently both curious and anxious about how I would answer the woman’s request.
The woman was also lying prostrate on the floor, tense with anxiety. I observed them for a moment before finally opening my mouth.
“Fine. I’ll do that.”
“Flower-Glutton…!”
Someone called my sobriquet as though letting out a sigh. I paid it no mind and continued speaking.
“However.”
“……”
“Wouldn’t it be boring to simply kill yourself? Surely you don’t think your life is worth that much, do you?”
“……!”
At my words, the woman let out a small gasp and said,
“…What do I have to do?”
“How about we make a bet?”
“A bet?”
“Raise your head.”
The woman raised her head. She remained kneeling on the floor. Without bothering to help her up, I drew the sword of someone standing nearby.
I heard that person’s startled voice. I placed the blade against the woman’s neck and smiled brightly.
“I normally don’t use a sword. And since I’m right-handed, I’m especially clumsy with my left hand. What do you think will happen if I cut your throat with my left hand?”
“……”
“There’s a ninety-nine percent chance you’ll die. But there’s also a one percent chance you might survive, isn’t there? If my blade happens to waver and miss a vital point, and these righteous heroes here immediately treat you.”
“……”
“Well, the odds of that are extremely slim. Even if you survive after being struck badly, you might not exactly be left with a body worth living in.”
My playful words made the woman’s lips tremble.
“So? Will you bet on that one percent?”
The woman was silent for a moment. Whether it was one percent or whatever else, what I was saying was ultimately no different from saying I would kill her.
However, the woman did not hesitate for long. She merely said one thing with a resolute expression.
“…You’ll keep your promise to me, right?”
“I’ll stake my name on it.”
“I’ll do it.”
I smiled strangely.
“Good.”
Then I transferred the sword from my right hand to my left. By then, the surroundings had become as quiet as though a mouse had died.
I could sense a few gazes from beside me that seemed to ask, ‘Do you really have to go this far?’ But since this was something the woman and I had agreed upon, no one stepped forward.
I swung the sword through the air several times to get a feel for it. Then, finally, I brought the cold blade to the side of the woman’s neck.
Fear flashed through the woman’s eyes. But as though trying to shake off that fear, she squeezed her eyes shut. I grinned and said,
“Keep your neck straight. If such a pretty young lady were accidentally cut and had to leave this world in agony, I’d feel bad too.”
The woman did not answer. She simply kept her eyes closed, holding her back straight.
I raised the sword high. The cold blade glinted ominously as it caught the light.
Suddenly, I saw a line before my eyes. The line I needed to draw.
I lightly swung the sword along that line.
Shhk-!
“……!”
“Gasp…!”
The people around us gasped. All of their eyes were focused on one place.
That is, on the woman’s… hair that had been cut by the sword.
“Huh…?”
When the woman belatedly opened her eyes at the commotion around her, she instinctively raised a hand and felt around her neck, sensing the strange emptiness at the back of her head.
Only after realizing what had happened did the woman look up at me again. The corners of her eyes trembled helplessly.
“You… you deceived me.”
I smiled sweetly.
“We’re even. Didn’t you deceive me at first, too? I tried to help you with good intentions, but you deceived me like that. I thought I had to deceive you once myself to get rid of my annoyance.”
“……”
“Of course, it’s true that I’m clumsy with a left-handed sword. Since it had been a long time since I’d swung one, if I had made a mistake, your life really could have been in danger.”
“……”
“So let’s consider our debt and grievances settled with this. Above all…”
I turned around. By then, the child, whose face had gone pale, was clinging to the bandit’s leg and trembling. Tears filled the child’s large eyes before beginning to fall one by one. Looking at the child, I called out loudly,
“Awi! Do you want to go with your sister, or do you want to come with me?”
“I-I want to go with my sister…”
“Then who do you like the most in the whole world?”
“……”
The child staggered forward a few steps. Then, in the end, he burst into tears and ran toward her.
“Big Sis…!”
The woman embraced the child as he ran into her arms. Clinging to his sister, the child sobbed loudly. He clutched tightly at her clothes as though he had truly believed his sister would leave him behind, as though he were terribly aggrieved.
Seeing the child like that, tears welled up in the woman’s eyes as well. In a trembling voice, she said,
“Awi, I’m sorry. Your sister, your sister is sorry…”
“I want to stay with you, Big Sis. Together, sob…!”
“I’m so, so sorry. Your sister was so pathetic, so foolish, that I put you, I put you in danger… I was too ashamed to face you, and I thought you shouldn’t be with me…”
The woman continued murmuring endlessly, seemingly unaware of what she was even saying. Then suddenly, her eyes met mine.
I smiled gently and said,
“Awi says being with his sister is what he wants most in the world. What do you think about that?”
At last, tears fell from the woman’s eyes. She gasped for breath like a baby taking its first breath. Then she finally opened her mouth wide and burst into tears.
Her sorrowful cries spread far through the air. The two siblings embraced each other and cried together.
For a very long time… For a very, very long time.
The two would never be separated again.
***
“We will take responsibility for the child at the Zhuge Family.”
After things had been settled to some extent…
All five members of Investigation Unit Five had gathered for a meeting.
At first, they had been discussing how to report this incident and what to do going forward, but the conversation soon changed direction.
It couldn’t be helped. They had just witnessed a heart-pounding situation, and because of that, they had plenty to talk about. In particular, Zhuge Ye, who had gotten up midway and watched the situation unfold, was half-excited.
Zhuge Ye went on about how fortunate it was that everything had worked out, how his heart had nearly stopped, and all sorts of other things before suddenly declaring confidently,
“As it happens, our family always has the finest physicians in Hubei standing by for delicate young ladies. If we simply have one of them examine the child, we should be able to cure him in no time!”
At Zhuge Ye’s smug appearance, Paeng Ga scoffed and interrupted him.
“Do you think you’re some kind of great hero? Can you make a decision like that on your own? Did you get your father’s permission?”
“My father would surely allow it if I said I was helping someone in trouble, wouldn’t he? And if he says no, well… I can just lie down and throw a tantrum. I’ll throw one for the first time in a while.”
“Are you still a child or something?”
“Come on, Brother Paeng, you were secretly wiping away tears when the woman and her younger brother were crying too…”
“W-When did I ever?!”
Woonhak, who had been beside them, suddenly joined in.
“Honestly, how many people could have watched that without being moved? Flower-Glutton did something remarkable. I never imagined he would settle his grievances with the woman like that…”
“Oh, I was incredibly surprised too! But Brother Dan was like that from the very beginning. He’s incredibly carefree and playful, but when it’s time to get serious, he really gets serious. Even when I first met him…”
“What? What happened? Tell me in detail!”
The surroundings quickly became noisy.
Leeyeon had been watching the whole situation from a step away.
Leeyeon quietly looked at his unit members before turning his head. Far away, he could see the back of someone leaving among the bandits.
“Flower-Glutton.”
Without realizing it, Leeyeon murmured the name.
Perhaps noticing his gaze, Flower-Glutton suddenly turned around. For an instant, it seemed as though their eyes met. The two looked at each other silently for a moment.
The first to move was Flower-Glutton.
Flower-Glutton gave a small chuckle, then turned away again. He raised one hand and gave a brief wave. Just as Leeyeon’s fingers twitched…
“Captain?”
Leeyeon turned his gaze away. Taoist Woonhak was looking at him with a puzzled expression.
“Is there something over there?”
“…I don’t know.”
Leeyeon answered vaguely and looked over there once more. But the person had already left, leaving only an empty space behind.
Leeyeon murmured,
“I don’t know.”
Why did he feel this way?
Why did that man keep catching his eye?
Leeyeon simply continued staring at that spot for a long while.
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