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Lost in such thoughts, his mind hazy, the sinister energy that had taken root was instantly ripped away the moment Taeseongyeon’s throat rumbled with a growl, leaving no trace behind. Dokyeom’s head snapped back, and he exhaled a shuddering breath.
“Ha…!”
Only the distinct sensation of hot flesh pressing down upon the seal remained vivid. The dangerously tracing tongue soon pressed down on his pulse with dizzying intensity.
For a brief moment, Taeseongyeon once again rubbed his hot flesh against the seal. Inevitably, a sharp sensation invaded the mark, causing Dokyeom’s shoulder to flinch.
He seemed to recall muttering curses incoherently and tearing at Taeseongyeon’s clothes. Each time, magic violently surged through his body, forcing Dokyeom to clench his teeth and endure.
“Ah… ugh….”
A suffocating heat washed over him, making sweat stream down his face. In this extreme cold, amidst this blizzard, his breath felt terrifyingly hot.
“J-Just… a moment… too… h-ugh, ah….”
“Relax, it’s alright.”
Taeseongyeon whispered soothingly, his words lingering. Dokyeom gasped like a bitten beast, then looked up at the sky.
Snowflakes swirled. Only white filled the dark night sky. Taeseongyeon’s collar, clutched tightly in Dokyeom’s hand, crumpled pitifully between his fingers.
Yet, the firm arms wrapped around his waist showed no sign of loosening. Instead, they tightened like a snake coiling around its prey, rubbing a tongue against the seal until it stung.
“S-Stop it… h-ugh…!”
“Quietly, okay? Dokyeom.”
His head fell back weakly. He felt as though he were dying. The hands that had been pressing down on Taeseongyeon’s shoulders now trembled, crumpled uselessly. It was then that a faint image flickered across Dokyeom’s exhausted retina.
Something with a black outline lay upon the soft flesh. He blinked, and the image sharpened.
It was a seal, etched onto Taeseongyeon’s tongue.
A seal.
‘This… bastard….’
“I came all this way to help you, so you should at least speak kindly.”
“Bullsh—h-ugh!”
*Slide*
Suddenly, the hand gripping Taeseongyeon’s clothes slipped downwards. His wide grey pupils trembled violently, and ragged breaths harshly tore through the air.
“!”
Something violently crushed his body. Taeseongyeon would shove magic into Dokyeom until his breath was completely choked, then, just as Dokyeom writhed, unable to bear the swelling sensation, he would pull it out in one swift motion, as if yanking out a bull’s horn.
The action felt brutally cruel.
His entire body already felt like a ball of fire, yet a chilling sensation, like frost, crept down his spine. A tidal wave of feeling churned through his mind. Even that was so searing hot it almost felt like molten lava.
His body twitched several times. Now, his heart also pounded as if it would burst. Even as he poured out his magic, Taeseongyeon repeatedly whispered and soothed him in a low voice.
‘It’s alright, just bear with it a little longer. It’ll be over soon, Dokyeom.’
The magic, which seemed impossible to mix, persistently rubbed together, slowly yielding until it finally melted and fused into a sticky mass. The energy ceaselessly flowed in and out.
Every process was so vividly real it sent shivers down his spine. The feeling of swallowing something foreign, the pain of forcibly accepting something that wasn’t his—it was all too tangible.
“Haa, ha….”
“Mmm… good.”
When Taeseongyeon raised his head, having confirmed the saturated concentration of magic, Dokyeom was convulsing, his lips bitten tight. His pale neck was covered in teeth marks, and the seal was crimson, looking as if it would tear at the slightest touch of cold.
Rubbing slowly at the red-rimmed skin beneath his eyes, heavy with fatigue as if he might pass out at any moment, Taeseongyeon leisurely rolled a groan in his mouth.
‘What should I do?’
His gaze, seemingly contemplating, drifted through the air once before settling back on Dokyeom.
‘It’s a meaningless deliberation from the start. What can I do when he’s this defenseless?’
“Dokyeom.”
As soon as he heard the low, husky voice, Dokyeom’s red-rimmed eyes flinched shut. Taeseongyeon leaned his head over Dokyeom’s nose bridge. Then, in the biting cold, he whispered softly.
“Open your mouth.”
The voice was gentle, even soothing enough to induce sleep. Taeseongyeon’s wavering figure entered Dokyeom’s vision, which was struggling with fatigue.
The slow tilt of his nose bridge. The hand brushing his eyelids. The snowflakes dampening his cheeks.
That was the last scene Dokyeom remembered.
As his weakly sinking eyes closed as if collapsing, the swaying world also faded into darkness.
****
The Three Sisters of the Snow Mountain were witches, each possessing the power to foresee the future, present, and past. They were old women, nearly three meters tall, with hunched backs, jet-black hair, and white skin.
Each possessed only one eye, and it was said that when two eyes were gathered, they revealed two truths, and when three were gathered, they revealed three truths. Thus, when foretelling human destinies, they always traveled together, predicting the future for those they encountered on their path.
Such were these witches. While the destinies they uttered were true, they never spoke of a nation’s stability or an individual’s fortune.
They prophesied matters concerning human greed, where wealth and power converged, and those who listened to the witches’ words and returned invariably caused bloodshed both within and outside their nations.
Even these witches, in reality, did not share an affectionate relationship. They constantly sought each other’s weaknesses, ever vigilant day and night, hoping to claim the other’s eyes.
The intention of telling you this is—
“No, hyung. Can we really be this sluggish? I saw videos of other teams already reaching the entrance of the Snow Mountain, so what are we doing here? Hyung, honestly, tell me. You just don’t intend to eliminate the boss, do you? I bragged to my subscribers that our team would be the first to arrive, but at this rate, I’ll be out of the game! Hyung? Hyung?! Are you really sleeping right now? Are you?!”
“Be quiet, hyung is sleepy, so leave him alone. You’re a B-class, so you might have energy to spare, but this one here is an E-class, a protected species.”
“Nooo, a protected species refers to animals facing extinction due to rapidly declining populations. E-classes like you are abundant out there… Oh, wait, he’s alone here. Ah, I concede. I’ll concede that point.”
Baek Jiun, who had been sitting beside him, relentlessly wearing him down, suddenly nodded in understanding. This chaos had been going on for days.
To acquire the
There were other conditions, but those were currently unmanageable, which was why they were dawdling. Everyone else, unaware of this, merely pounded their chests in frustration.
The Snow Mountain was still impossibly far, and the temperature had now dropped below minus 55 degrees Celsius. The incessant snowfall had deeply trenched the path, making movement difficult. It went without saying that time was being excessively delayed.
Nevertheless, Dokyeom was lying sprawled out on a flat patch of snow nearby, catching some sleep in broad daylight. The only difference from just a few days ago was—
‘Taeseongyeon, that son of a b*tch, truly.’
—that he wasn’t cold.
From the night Taeseongyeon had visited, Dokyeom no longer suffered from the extreme cold. It was to the extent that he could somewhat feel what Beom Yeonhu always said: ‘It’s bearable.’
It felt like being outside in mid-winter with just a light coat, so the body-shattering tremors had stopped, and he no longer needed to be near a fire.
Everyone looked at Dokyeom with puzzled expressions, but the next morning, while feeding Agon, they understood. Agon had spat out magic and growled as if he had chewed on trash.
‘Ah, Taeseongyeon’s magic must be mixed in.’
It was probably a phenomenon caused by entangled S-class magic.
By the time he realized it, it was already too late. He couldn’t make a single excuse and had to endure Agon biting his seal. Agon, who had been trying to push his own magic to somehow detach Taeseongyeon’s saturated magic, stopped only after seeing Dokyeom crouched and panting, his jaw clenched.
From then until now, an intense gaze had followed the seal. For several days, Agon would come to Dokyeom, touch his tongue to the seal, confirm the abnormal concentration of magic, then spit out magic as if spitting saliva, and retreat.
Given that the number of frowning incidents had decreased, it seemed the magic was probably dissipating.
Perhaps because of that, from then until now, Agon had not replaced his food with magic but had consumed fish containing potent venom. It was his first meal since leaving the Eulwangri Gate, which could be considered his hometown.
“Hyung, if you keep this up, I’m going live, okay? I’ll go live? Huh? I might just film Agon hyung and Dali live and broadcast it everywhere, you know?!”
“If you can film it, go ahead and try. I’d like to keep a copy myself.”
Baek Jiun pouted, pressing his lips together with an aggrieved expression, and briefly looked at Dali and Agon sitting beside him. If he could have filmed them, he would have done so already.
Whenever he pointed a camcorder, thanks to a certain someone who would wrinkle their nose, even Dali didn’t dare to be filmed. There was no way he could film them. Those clingy companions never thought of leaving their owner’s side, except during meal times.
Baek Jiun grumbled with resentment and flopped down some distance away from Dokyeom. He fiddled with his camcorder, his lips tightly pressed, the walnut-like wrinkles under his chin showing just how wronged he felt.
“Dokyeom, at least put some clothes down. It’s cold.”
“Hyung, I know, just give me your hand.”
Dokyeom shook his hand at Beom Yeonhu as if demanding money. Soon, a cold hand slowly entered, brushing against Dokyeom’s palm. When he gripped it tightly, his hand twitched as always.
He blinked calmly and cast
You’ve got to see this next! After Refusing to Play the Villain, I Became Their White Moonlight will keep you on the edge of your seat. Start reading today!
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