The woman opened her eyes.
“Kuk!”
As soon as she opened her eyes, a terrible pain washed over her.
There was no place from head to toe that didn’t hurt. It was bearable if she stayed still without moving, but if she moved even a little, the terrible pain would rush in without fail.
She quickly turned her eyes to check where she was.
Bright sunlight poured in through the rough wooden bars. And the terrible smell of horse manure…
She immediately realized where she was.
It was a stable.
‘Did I come back to the stable? Then the black horse… he said it would come back to the stable if I didn’t kill it and left it alone, and it really came back. But how did I escape the Overlapping Formation?’
She turned her head slightly and looked around the stable.
The things she hadn’t seen at night were clearly visible.
The horses were loitering leisurely in the cleanly organized stalls. Each stall had a wooden door closed, but the height of the door was only about an adult’s waist, so the inside was clearly visible.
The black horse was also mixed in among them.
The black horse… it was a great famous horse, but it still looked shabby.
Its mane was unwashed and messy. It didn’t have a sheen either. The eyes that had sparkled so much yesterday were somehow hazy today, like the eyes of a faded old man.
Its body was covered in maggots.
Wait… they’re not maggots, what are those?
Wriggling, squirming… a bunch of wriggling bugs were tangled up.
The black horse occasionally rubbed its body against something, as if the bugs were tickling it.
Was that horse really such a famous horse?
‘Thank you for yesterday.’
The woman conveyed her gratitude to the black horse.
The black horse averted its gaze from her.
It was eating its feed leisurely, as if it were a complete stranger, as if nothing had happened yesterday.
When she turned her gaze, she saw neatly organized horse tack.
The horse tack was not out of place at all. On one side, a pile of straw for horse feed was stacked, and that too was not messy.
Nothing had happened in the stable. No storm had ever passed through.
‘What happened?’
Only then did she relax and try to recall the memories of last night.
She remembered the blow that had passed by, tearing her side.
She had knocked down one person with the Three Inch Gaze… and because she had poured out all the energy in her body, she had collapsed from exhaustion.
That was all she remembered.
Her body was a wreck now… she probably received a severe blow after she fainted.
How did she escape the Overlapping Formation?
There were still four more attacks from the mounted martial artists, and she was practically surrounded from front and back. It was a miracle that she had escaped the Overlapping Formation, and it meant that she had even managed to shake them off.
It was a miracle that she had made it to the stable.
Heavenly luck had followed her.
‘I was lucky to have survived. But what happened to my body? I need to know where I’m injured…’
She was about to examine her body when she was startled.
Suddenly, her breath was caught in her throat. And then she let out a scream from the terrible pain.
“Kaaaargh…!”
When she moved her body, a fierce pain washed over her.
The pain of dozens of red hot branding irons touching her flesh at once? The feeling of being subjected to the punishment of having her limbs torn apart?
She couldn’t overcome the pain and was flustered for a long time.
As time passed, the pain subsided. When she stayed still like a dead person without moving a muscle, the pain also gradually subsided.
“Haa!”
She let out a sigh and frowned.
She had seen it for a moment while examining her wounds, no… she was feeling it with her body even now… her clothes were all taken off. She was naked. Even the cloth that had covered her chest was gone.
The only thing covering her naked body was a single thin blanket.
‘Who on earth…!’
She thought about who might have treated her. Two people came to mind at once.
The old man, or the stable boy!
One of the two had treated her.
The stable boy seemed like a novice who only knew about horses… she thought the old man might have treated her.
Suddenly, a feeling of shame washed over her.
The pain of the wound could be calmed if she didn’t move her body. But there was no way to stop the shame that arose from her heart. It constantly washed over her and made her eyelids tremble.
Creak!
The wooden door of the stable opened.
Fortunately, it was the stable boy. No matter how old the old man was, the thought of meeting the eyes of someone whose naked body she had shown was extremely awkward.
The stable boy, as if he had no business with the woman, cut the straw with a chopper and placed it in the manger.
He had to put feed in each stall. And he also poured water into the water troughs.
It was a lot of work.
The stable boy worked for a long time and then approached her.
“How did I get here?”
The woman held back the words she wanted to ask and only opened her mouth after he came close. But then,
Whip!
The stable boy suddenly pulled off the blanket.
“Ah!”
The woman was so surprised that she tried to sit up abruptly. But soon, the pain she had felt before… an extreme pain that could not be expressed in words, dug into her entire body.
“Kaaaargh!”
She couldn’t stand up and bent her back like a bow.
“Don’t stand up. The wound is…”
Slap!
The woman, with a strength that came from somewhere, slapped the stable boy’s cheek with all her might.
It was a slap so powerful that his face was whipped to the side. The sound of the slap echoed through the stable.
The stable boy accepted the woman’s hand without any resistance.
“Aaaak!”
The woman let out a scream.
The price for one slap was enormous. From head to toe, every single nerve was severed. A blade had touched every single nerve.
“Ugh!”
The woman let out a groan and went limp.
Her complexion turned pale. Her lips turned black. Her eyes were sunken.
In fact, she was not only feeling the pain from her wounds.
Her body was a mess. She was burning up with a fever. She had a fever so high that she couldn’t even think straight. Her lips were parched and her vision was spinning… it was difficult to even open her eyes and look at things.
Where did the strength to slap him come from with such a painful body? The stable boy raised his hand and touched his own cheek.
She said, “Stop it.”
What was she telling him to stop? Words that she herself didn’t know the meaning of suddenly came out.
“I don’t know why you hit me… but let’s treat you first. Because you’ll die if you don’t get treated now.”
The stable boy pulled off the blanket again.
‘Oh my god!’
She squeezed her eyes shut.
It wasn’t the old man who had treated her. It was the stable boy.
The words that she would die if she didn’t get treated now were probably true.
She had experienced all sorts of pain while training as an assassin. She had experienced almost all the pain that existed in the world. If it was pain that could be received by the body, she had experienced almost all of it.
Of course, she had also been tortured. Torture was included in the training process.
You had to know what torture was like to overcome it. If you couldn’t overcome it, you could just end your life. It was troublesome to be captured. If you knew the pain, it was easy to end your life at the last moment.
She had really suffered all kinds of terrible pain. But the pain she was feeling now was more intense than ever before.
That was how bad her body was.
“Just now… I’m sorry.”
The woman said with her eyes closed.
When the blanket was pulled off, a cold wind wrapped around her body.
She was exposing her naked body. She was showing every corner of her naked body to a strange man.
“I’ll start the treatment now. The smell will be nauseating, but you have to endure it. It will hurt when you move your body, but after that, you’ll feel refreshed.”
The stable boy said calmly.
She asked with her eyes still closed, “Where… how did I get hit?”
“You were cut from your left shoulder blade to your right side, but your bones are fine. They didn’t use their swords to the end because they intended to capture you. There are other places, but your back is the worst.”
“My chest… is my chest okay?”
She said with difficulty.
“It’s okay.”
“Then can you cover me up a little?”
“…You’re a strange woman. You’re an assassin… are you embarrassed? Your life is on the line, and you feel embarrassed?”
“…”
The woman bit her lower lip.
This one, she wanted to kill him.
She didn’t feel grateful at all for the stable boy’s help.
“Cover me up. You just have to cover me with a cloth.”
“I’ve seen everything, so what’s the point of being shy. Besides, I can’t because of the treatment.”
The stable boy gently lifted her arm. Very gently!
But when he moved her arm, a pain as if her bones were being shattered washed over her from under her right armpit.
“Aaaak!”
She let out a scream.
“After your back, this place is the deepest. Then your side. You were also hit on the thigh, but that’s nothing.”
The stable boy applied water under her armpit.
He didn’t apply it with his hand. He applied the water carefully, very meticulously, with a brush.
“What is it?”
She asked immediately.
As soon as he applied the water, the terrible pain that had been so severe disappeared at once.
It was as if the wound was being anesthetized… and at the same time, it became very cool. A slightly cool energy even seeped in.
Because it was at the end of a terrible pain, it was even refreshing.
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
The stable boy said indifferently.
The woman closed her eyes and entrusted her entire body to the stable boy.
The stable boy meticulously applied water to her back and side, starting from under her armpit.
It seemed to be a green juice, an herbal juice.
And his hand went down. He touched her thigh.
‘Thigh?’
Only then did she remember that he had told her she had been hit on the thigh as well.
Did she show her entire naked body to a strange man?
The woman clenched her teeth.
The stable boy had said that it was no big deal to show her naked body when her life was on the line. But to her, showing her naked body was a bigger deal than dying.
She had a fiancé.
She didn’t even know if he was dead or alive now. They had separated when they were too young, so she didn’t even remember his face.
But he was definitely the fiancé her parents had chosen for her.
She didn’t remember anything else, but she clearly remembered being overjoyed when she heard that she was engaged to her older brother. A child who didn’t even know what the word engagement meant.
Leaving her, who was clenching her eyes shut and panting, the stable boy continued to move his hands. Soon, after applying all the green juice to her thigh, he wrapped it with a dry cloth.
“I think I have to kill you.”
The woman said abruptly.
“I’m grateful that you treated my wounds… but I can’t forgive you for seeing and touching my body.”
The stable boy had treated her wounds. Seeing her, touching her… it was all treatment. She had felt it while receiving the treatment just now… the stable boy had not had any lustful thoughts. His touch as he treated her was very indifferent.
He was not looking at her as a woman.
So she gave the opponent a choice.
To give up the treatment now and retreat, to run away.
The stable boy said with a smirk, “What are you talking about. Let’s talk about that after you’re all better. The Living Sword Sect people will be here soon. I’m going to drop you under this bed, so hide your presence no matter what happens. Don’t lose consciousness.”
In that instant, the woman’s eyes hardened coldly and she looked at the stable boy.
What the stable boy was saying was not ordinary.
He was saying that he would deceive the Living Sword Sect disciples right in front of the Living Sword Sect. By now, they would have known who had died… he was saying that he would get an assassin with no grudges out of the Living Sword Sect’s pursuit.
This was not something a person who just raised horses could say. It was something only a martial artist could say.
Chut!
She looked at the stable boy with the eyes of an assassin.
She examined him meticulously from head to toe.
There was no feeling. The stable boy was just a stable boy. There was no hint of a martial artist’s aura anywhere. He was a very ordinary person, so ordinary that there was no need to even pay attention to him.
“…Why are you saving me? You know who I am. You’ll also know who I killed.”
“Haha! What’s with the glaring eyes when I’m saving you? Is this how assassins say thank you? Think later and let’s live first.”
The stable boy pressed a corner of the wooden bed. Then the straw covered bed she was lying on dropped down.
Swoosh! Thud!
A board covered her head.
‘What is this person?’
The woman couldn’t come to her senses.
(End of Chapter)