Cheongyeon couldn't let out even a small moan, surveying the room with anxious eyes. The floor was covered in dried bloodstains, and the desk in the back was cluttered with all sorts of tools. Iron chains and rusty shackles scattered here and there were also smeared with blood. To anyone, these were the unmistakable traces of human torture.
Mu-won tossed his jacket onto the desk, unbuttoned his shirt sleeves, and rolled them up. Blue veins popped on his muscular forearms, which were as sleek and firm as a fish. He dragged a chair over in front of Cheongyeon, who was frozen on the floor.
Turning the chair back-to-front, he straddled it, sitting with his legs spread. Resting his arms on the backrest, Mu-won loosely held a razor-sharp knife, letting it dangle. It was a knife so keen it could be used to cut a ship's ropes.
Cheongyeon naturally knelt and looked up at Mu-won. Mu-won tilted his head, looking down at Cheongyeon. Cheongyeon’s light-pigmented eyes darted wildly. All of Cheongyeon’s focus was on the knife Mu-won was holding.
“You know what?” Mu-won tapped the top of the backrest with the knife tip.
“I… I don’t know.”
“Why do all the bastards who come in here have the same reaction? I’m the one using the knife, but you’re more worried about the knife than me.”
However, Mu-won’s words weren't registering properly with Cheongyeon right now.
‘Maybe the reason he ordered to capture me alive was so he could kill me himself.’
Even so, he couldn’t possibly reveal the reason why he shouldn’t be killed.
“About the cleaning service story…” Cheongyeon hurriedly wrung out the excuse he had been thinking of before his mind went blank. “I… I lied.”
Cheongyeon placed both hands on his thighs and continued to look up at Mu-won. Whether Mu-won knew his lie or not, he chose to confess anyway. This was because he had imagined his reunion with Mu-won in various ways over the past two weeks. Among the many scenarios, one was a situation like this, facing torture.
Now that he had been dragged this far, a vague excuse wouldn't allow him to escape. Since he had to live in Cheonghwajin anyway, he had to settle things with Peira somehow.
Fortunately, Mu-won only watched Cheongyeon, as if challenging him to continue. Cheongyeon hunched his shoulders to look as docile and submissive as possible.
“Actually, I was ashamed. About searching the garbage dump…” He glanced at Mu-won, but the expressionless man didn’t seem ready to pass judgment yet.
“I’m not a beggar… but I was afraid I’d be treated like one. As you know, the medicine shop business isn’t doing well…” His voice kept trembling.
“A bastard like that going on a trip sounds plausible, doesn’t it?”
“The trip… was also a lie. Running away… is true.”
Mu-won, who had been holding the knife, suddenly grabbed Cheongyeon by the hair. “Ugh!” As his head snapped up, Cheongyeon grabbed the backrest of the chair in front of him.
“Why?”
“...B-Because I was scared.”
Mu-won curled one side of his lip, wearing a somewhat dumbfounded expression.
“Peira… Because you, Tae Mu-won-nim, kept looking for me, and I didn’t know why, so I was too scared.”
“I don’t recall beating you up, do I?” Mu-won let out a hollow laugh.
“At the tavern, that day… you tried to pull out my tongue…” Cheongyeon calmly put his two trembling hands together. “I’m still so… scared.”
The reason for running away was fear. Mu-won felt as if he had been struck a blow by the herbalist in front of him.
He narrowed his eyes, gazing at the herbalist. His delicate-looking eyes were moist. The red-rimmed eyes made the viewer feel strange. Although he had never engaged in sodomy, the herbalist was, as Tae Cheon-oh had said, disgustingly pretty. It was also true that he was doomed the moment he caught Mu-won's eye.
“Shouldn’t a scared bastard live up to the expectation?”
Mu-won brought the blade of the knife to Cheongyeon’s defenseless neck. Press. The pointed tip of the knife pressed into Cheongyeon’s neck. A drop of water finally fell from his terror-stricken eyes.
“What will happen if I kill you here? If Cheonghwajin sinks, I’ll die with it.”
A thin trail of blood ran down Cheongyeon’s neck. Cheongyeon took short, shallow breaths.
“I heard that Peira… is looking for the Flower Clan!”
Cheongyeon cried out softly, lowered his gathered hands, closed his eyes once, and opened them.
“Are they… people who really exist? I thought they were just a legend… If the Flower Clan really dies, will the continent be submerged in water?”
Muttering, Cheongyeon suddenly widened his wet eyes.
“Surely, you don’t think I’m a member of the Flower Clan?”
A look of genuine surprise—Is that really it? —flashed across his innocent eyes. Was that why he’d chased him so relentlessly? His face was filled with confusion as to why they were looking for the Flower Clan in him.
If the herbalist was truly a member of the Flower Clan, would he bring up such a story himself?
The rumors about the Flower Clan and the continent were so famous that the herbalist couldn't possibly be unaware. Mu-won couldn't be sure whether it was an act or the truth. The most ridiculous thing was that he was even bothering to contemplate this. Mu-won felt awkward about himself and muttered,
“Fuck. My intuition is completely dead.”
Mu-won withdrew the knife. Instead of letting Cheongyeon go, he grabbed his worn-out shirt and rip, tore it from top to bottom. Flutter. Mu-won pressed down on Cheongyeon’s chest, who flinched like a startled bird, and this time, ripped his pants to shreds. As he struggled, Cheongyeon seemed unwilling to be hurt, freezing motionless whenever the blade passed by.
Stripped completely naked, Cheongyeon trembled and curled his body up tightly. His eyes, filled with wariness and disgust, looked like he was staring at a man about to forcibly rape him.
“I promised not to look at your cock and not to eat your ass.”
‘So don’t worry,’ Mu-won said, acting like a common street thug now that he was already misunderstood.
At that moment, Cheongyeon’s face was etched with shock. He covered his ears with his curled-up body. Mu-won swallowed a hollow laugh at the sight.
A guy who even worked at a cheap tavern was acting innocent. Mu-won knew well the crude words exchanged in there, so it was absurd. He would have slit the throats of those twin bastards that day, but he couldn’t because he was worried about this one.
He had wondered if some noble aristocrat had descended upon the corner of the bar counter. The herbalist couldn't hide his emotions, which were muddled with contempt for a man like Mu-won, and he was busy despising him. In hindsight, he wasn’t sharp enough to hide his true feelings and lie.
‘I’ll find out if I try.’
Mu-won sliced his own palm with the knife.
Cheongyeon stared in surprise at Mu-won, who had suddenly injured himself. Mu-won covered Cheongyeon’s mouth with his hand, which was dripping blood.
“Hnnh!”
Cheongyeon resisted, but escaping Mu-won’s grip was impossible from the start. With his nose also covered, Cheongyeon was forced to open his mouth, and blood poured out into his throat in gulps. Cheongyeon looked up at Mu-won with disbelief at the act of being forcibly fed blood.
Mu-won only removed his hand after confirming the loud gulping from Cheongyeon’s throat.
“Cough, choke! Cough…!”
He picked up and stood Cheongyeon, who was coughing up the mouthful of blood. Cheongyeon’s white face, covered in blood, was filled with terror at the stranger’s incomprehensible action.
Mu-won scrutinized Cheongyeon’s naked body, which was gasping for breath.
From his disgustingly pretty face, past his nipples, which were pointed and stiff, down to his toes curled up, beneath his hairless, fair genitals, like a child’s. On his backside, from his alluring nape, past his somewhat plump, rounded buttocks, all the way to between his legs.
Cheongyeon was entirely white. The only part that was sullied was the corner of his mouth, stained with Mu-won’s blood.
Tsk. Mu-won clicked his tongue and let go of Cheongyeon. Cheongyeon, staggering helplessly, slumped onto the floor. Only then did Cheongyeon furiously wipe his mouth with his hands, as if having a fit. He backed away while sitting, unaware that his buttocks were scraping roughly against the floor.
Mu-won was about to speak to Cheongyeon, who was convulsing like a child abandoned in the severe cold.
CRASH! The closed iron door was rudely flung open and slammed against the wall.
“Tae Mu-won!”
The man who entered, gasping for breath, was none other than Peira’s boss, Tae Cheon-oh.
Seeing the naked Cheongyeon and Mu-won, who was dripping blood from his hand, Tae Cheon-oh’s brows furrowed deeply. He had rushed down as soon as he heard Mu-won had taken Cheongyeon to the fifth-floor warehouse, but by the looks of it, he seemed to be too late.
“We’ll talk later. You need to treat your wound first.”
Tae Cheon-oh sighed, pulling out and offering a handkerchief. Mu-won, however, swatting his arm away as if it were a bother. In the end, Mu-won didn't say anything to Cheongyeon and turned around. Instead, he searched the suit jacket he had tossed aside and took out his wallet.