Chapter 39: A Crossroads of Choices

After a moment’s thought, I relaxed my body. As I slumped onto the floor, Sagyeol no longer exerted force. Instead, he picked up a towel lying nearby and tore it into two pieces.

‘What was that? A display of strength? He’d already shown enough; there was no need for more.’

Sagyeol wrapped each of the two towel pieces broadly around my wrists, tying them securely. He even checked if they were well-tied.

…?

A soft hiss.

As I watched, wondering what he intended, white frost began to gather on my wrists. Thick ice shackles formed over the towel-wrapped skin. I could feel the dense mana emanating from them. It seemed unlikely they could be broken by ordinary force.

My thighs were pinned to the floor, and my wrists were secured above my head. The towels, it seemed, were meant to prevent frostbite. Though there was some space, he had wrapped them around me, perhaps fearing the cold.

I was utterly fed up with torture by ice. Honestly, I felt as though I had endured every possible torment it could inflict. That, of course, didn’t mean I was fine with it; the mere thought of ice still sickened me.

Yet, it was just a single layer of towel.

A mere scrap of thin fabric had been added, but that alone made all the difference. I felt neither cold nor pain.

I wasn’t the only one bewildered. Sagyeol gazed down at me, his expression a complex mix I had never witnessed before.

“Why are you just sitting there? What do you think I’m going to do?”

‘Indeed. Why was I? As you say, knowing what might befall me.’

As I merely watched, offering no reply, his hand moved from my wrist and descended. He roughly pulled my nape closer, his gaze piercing me like a wedge. It was the very spot Joo Jae-yeong had touched with his lips.

‘It was obvious, even without looking. The fresh, red teeth marks would be stark against my skin.’

“…Did you sleep with that bastard?”

“Not yet.”

‘Not yet, but I had intended to.’ He wasn’t so dense as to miss the unspoken implication.

Crunch.

The floor beside my face caved in. I didn’t flinch. Compared to what I had endured in the Demon Realm, this was nothing more than a child’s tantrum. Suddenly, he lowered his head.

“Ugh.”

His cold teeth shifted positions several times, gnawing at my nape. The pain was negligible. More than that, an unfamiliar sensation coursed up and down my spine. My fixed body tensed, and my shoulders stiffened.

His lips sucked at my soft skin, and his teeth gnawed at the firm muscle beneath. As if the spot he was biting had become an erogenous zone, a sudden ache shot through my lower back.

Scratch.

My fingers scraped against the floor. The worn linoleum yielded without resistance. Sagyeol only pulled away after a prolonged, deliberate period of biting and sucking.

“Is it because of money?”

This time, I offered no reply.

“Do you perhaps have debts?”

I let out a hollow laugh. If one were to call it a debt, then a debt it certainly was.

A colossal debt, indeed, one that involved my very soul. As I laughed, a sense of emptiness washing over me, the space before me fell silent. When I finally raised my head, Sagyeol was staring at me as if mesmerized.

His gaze was fixed precisely on my lips. It was then that I realized: this was the first time I had ever smiled in front of him.

“You already know that’s not true, don’t you?”

It was a subtle jab, laced with sarcasm. It was also a statement imbued with many unspoken implications.

The man’s expression hardened. ‘He understood something,’ his face seemed to convey.

“I don’t know what you may have heard or from whom, but I can explain everything,” he asserted. “And if you need money, tell me. I can give you not just 15.4 million, but even 150 million.”

A soft hiss.

As the silence stretched, the drifting ice particles began to coalesce. The air grew frigid, and frost settled on my clothes. A chilling cold gathered in Sagyeol’s hands as well.

“Why?”

His outstretched hand faltered, then stopped mid-air. Emotional turmoil affected the manifestation of his power. Perhaps unable to touch me with such an uncontrolled hand, Sagyeol lowered his clenched fist.

“Why is my money unacceptable, but that bastard’s is fine?”

Though murderous intent surged in his eyes, it felt strangely unthreatening. ‘What could such words mean from a man who had created space and even wrapped towels to protect me from the cold?’

Sagyeol, however, pressed on relentlessly.

“More importantly, how did you know? Was it wiretapping again?”

“Isn’t it the same for both of us?”

His distorted expression served as his answer.

“I won’t make an issue of your eavesdropping,” I stated. “I did the same, after all.”

‘Had I always been this articulate?’ ‘Perhaps fueled by anger, the words flowed effortlessly from me.’

‘No, come to think of it, it always seemed to be like this when he was involved.’

I didn’t know why, but I let it pass. Was this the only mystery that had arisen due to his involvement? There was something far more crucial to address right now.

“The Returnee. That’s all you truly needed, wasn’t it?”

‘Not me.’

The rest of my words caught in my throat.

Sagyeol clicked his tongue in exasperation. His gesture of raking a hand through his hair seemed to quell the seething emotions within him. With a considerably colder expression, he spoke.

“So you truly know everything,” he murmured.

“So, ultimately, you have no intention of coming with me?” he pressed. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

Sagyeol asked no further questions, instead activating his device. The person he contacted was Lee Hyun-su. Soon, a clatter echoed, and a man scrambled down the stairs, appearing outside the door. Upon witnessing the fallen iron door and the chaotic scene within the room, Lee Hyun-su’s face went utterly white.

“Wh-what is going on here?”

“Hand it over.”

Regardless, Sagyeol extended his hand towards him. Lee Hyun-su immediately understood what his employer was demanding.

‘Ah. Dammit.’

“Are you serious?”

“I told you to hand it over,” Sagyeol snapped. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Sagyeol flicked his fingertips. His gesture conveyed a clear intent: if it wasn’t surrendered, he would take it by force. The conflicted man reluctantly produced a small case from his pocket. Yeowon recognized it instantly. It was a syringe case.

It was the very same item the Baekdam Hunter Association officials had used on him when he was handed over after losing his father.

‘Back then it was silver, but this one is black…’

“You must only use a little,” Lee Hyun-su pleaded. “Just a little! Its effects are so potent that even an S-rank hunter would be unconscious for half a day after a single dose.”

“I know,” Sagyeol cut him off.

“What do you know? You look like your eyes are-”

“Lee Hyun-su.”

Sagyeol flicked his hand impatiently. Lee Hyun-su glanced nervously between Sagyeol and me, then let out a pained groan as he extended the case.

“Are you sure?”

He asked, his grip tight on the opposite end of the case.

“Are you truly confident you won’t regret this choice?”

Sagyeol snatched the case away without a word, as if plundering it. Inside, as expected, was a syringe. I could now see the contents of the syringe, something I hadn’t witnessed before. The liquid inside was a pale blue, with unidentified luminous particles floating within it.

‘It’s beautiful.’

As I calmly entertained this thought, Sagyeol brought the needle close to my arm.

I offered no resistance. I lay there, resigned, but the needle, having pierced my skin, didn’t push any further. Sagyeol, looking into my eyes, murmured.

“Damnably beautiful and distant,” he whispered.

‘Was he talking about the syringe?’

Sagyeol said nothing more, his lips sealing shut. It was strange. His cold expression had, by then, transformed into that of someone standing on the precipice of a cliff.

“You know that saying, don’t you? About how in life, you sometimes find yourself at a crossroads,” he began, his voice low. “Not the trivial choices, like deciding twelve times a day whether to drink coffee or alcohol, but a true divergence where, once you choose one path, you can never walk another until the day you die.”

The hand not holding the syringe rose and gently cupped my chin.

“I feel as though I’m standing at such a crossroads right now.”

His touch was soft and tender. It was so careful that I felt like a delicate flower, liable to crumble if touched too rashly. ‘Well, not that I should be thinking about that in this situation.’

“And I utterly detest such situations, you know.”

From his monologue, which barely qualified as such, a faint echo of regret emanated. It was a fragment of a past I knew nothing about. Turning my head to the side, I saw Lee Hyun-su’s face had grown somber.

“Lee Hyun-su. Get out.”

Lee Hyun-su complied without a word. As the sound of his footsteps receded up the stairs, Sagyeol tossed the syringe aside. It struck the wall, shattering with disheartening ease.

The ice binding my thighs and wrists also splintered into countless pieces. I dazedly pushed myself up. Sagyeol hung his head low, like a man burdened by guilt.

“I was wrong.”

I didn’t know his story. I hadn’t heard that far. However, I knew it wasn’t simple ambition or greed for money driving him into the heart of the flood. To justify such a reason, his eyes were far too deep and dark.

“I should have told you the truth from the beginning. I apologize.”

Yet, Sagyeol ultimately did not forcibly take what he desired. Instead, he made a different choice—a choice even I hadn’t anticipated, despite my own plan to subtly manipulate him by feigning compliance.

He slowly raised his head, his expression utterly pitiful. The effect was amplified because this was a man who usually smiled languidly or chuckled while effortlessly subduing monsters bare-handed. My stomach felt even more uneasy than before.

“Just once.”

His voice, usually so confident, trembled faintly. The hand that cautiously clutched my clothes shook even more visibly.

“Can you not give me just one chance?”