You! Don’t Press that Button! - Chap 118
Karhan couldn’t understand Doel, who had known yet left things alone. He glared at Doel with fiercely furrowed brows. Doel, busy swallowing air into his crushing lungs, couldn’t answer.
“Ugh, urk…”
With his face reddened from blood rush, Doel grabbed Karhan’s arm. After a few failed attempts to remove it, he weakly tapped it. His distorted lips expressed pain.
Some reason returned at that sight. From what Karhan had seen and heard, Doel wasn’t the type to betray Seol. Releasing his neck to let him explain himself, Doel urgently gulped air and began speaking:
“Kugh, Your Grace, as you know… I was handling, huk, the Baron Valdez matter. I knew of his son’s existence, and so… I followed him to the Barthes duchy.”
“And I conveniently offered you knighthood.”
“…Yes. But I swear, I only recently learned his face. I never imagined Seol would be… would be kidnapped like this.”
Doel’s brown eyes lost confidence and turned downward. His reddened eyes trembled, unable to contain his self-reproach.
Doel had recognized Eiron when he came to deliver a letter to Seol. As a trainee knight, he had fewer chances than expected to encounter servants working inside the mansion, and even when he had excuses to enter, the duke who disliked him meeting Seol would send him out right after business concluded. So while his investigation of the servants was delayed, he learned the truth when getting close to his face. That he was Baron Valdez’s son.
He’d thought to keep him close and observe the situation before dealing with him secretly later, but that thought had put Seol in danger. Though completing the mission perfectly was important, he should have realized that Seol nearby could be in danger.
Deep regret covered Doel’s eyes. Karhan looked down at Doel sitting weakly. His fiercely beating heart wasn’t telling lies. Everything from his mouth was truth.
Karhan raised his hand to lightly stroke his heated face and slowly exhaled hot breath. His bloodshot eyes slowly moved to find their target. The man was cowering against the wall like a dead mouse.
“Heuk… kek.”
Before Eiron could blink, Karhan’s fierce hand grabbed his hair and lifted him up. Resistance wasn’t even thinkable. Karhan drew his sword again and traced Eiron’s body with the tip as if considering where to stab.
As he was losing breath without being able to say a word, a saving hand descended.
“He’ll die if you keep that up, then we won’t find anything.”
Asmil, who had been watching amusedly from behind, covered Karhan’s angry hand. As he stroked it gently, Karhan’s brow furrowed even more fiercely. Even seeing this, Asmil didn’t hide his smile.
“Ha.”
Karhan let out a sigh and released his strength.
As he lowered his sword, Eiron slumped down on his bottom with a splat. He trembled, and as the floor’s color darkened, the smell of urine rose. Karhan, expression wiped clean, stepped back and sheathed his sword. At the click, Eiron startled and sucked in breath.
“Huk!”
“If you answer well, I’ll let you go.”
At these words like sweet rain, Eiron’s eyes opened wide. Let him go? From here? Thinking such an opportunity would never come again, he hurriedly nodded.
Seeing this, Karhan’s rigid lips loosened into a chilling curve.
Eiron answered Karhan’s questions in a loud voice without missing any. He spilled everything he’d heard from a distance – Asdion’s muttering, something about boarding a ship, about selling someone, and so on.
Listening quietly to the transaction location, Asmil opened his eyes wide and smiled.
“So that’s where.”
Why hadn’t he thought of it?
The maritime auction house was where he first met young Asdion. Looking at his current actions, that destination was the only thing that came to mind. Asdion was trying to make Seol walk the exact same path he had walked. If Seol, who had stolen Asmil’s attention, died in the process, he’d probably consider it the best scenario.
Asmil narrowed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. The luxuriously sparkling chandelier seemed like his own heart. His subordinate who had always only followed his orders was acting on his own will for the first time, and paradoxically, it was thrillingly pleasing that even these actions were for his sake.
He slowly exhaled a deep breath. He felt filled from toe to head with something.
As if certain of something, Asmil left the room, and Karhan shifted his gaze downward. Now how to handle this. As he looked down thinking, Doel approached from the side. With a determined face, he bowed and said:
“Your Grace. Please leave this to me.”
His black hair swayed gently downward. Doel’s faint breathing flowed quietly through the room. He held his body rigidly as if he wouldn’t straighten until permission was granted.
“I believe I must finish this. Please.”
The gleaming silver-gray eyes slowly traced Doel before sweeping around the room once. Karhan briefly moved his sword-holding index finger as if thinking of something, then turned and walked to the door. Just before crossing the threshold, his tightly closed lips parted:
“Take care of it and wait.”
With permission granted, Doel raised his head. His round brown eyes reflected only the door through which Karhan had already left.
To Eiron who was assessing the situation, now seemed like an opportunity with only the knight remaining. While Doel was lost in thought, he began crawling away quietly. The building was designed with a complex structure to prevent captured people from escaping. Thinking he could hide somewhere if he just got out of this room, he smiled slightly.
“Kuk!”
However, no sooner had he moved a few steps than his nape was grabbed and he fell back helplessly. Eiron, who had hit his head on the floor several times just today, squeezed his dizzy eyes shut before slowly opening them with a deep breath. All he saw was Doel’s expressionless face.
“Is this place hourly? Or overnight? You looked rich, so you probably rented it for quite a while?”
Doel muttered lowly as if deducing the answer himself rather than asking Eiron. Lightly stroking around his neck where handprints remained, Doel looked at Eiron with gently curved eyes.
“Let’s have fun together.”
A cold shadow fell across Eiron’s face.
🐤
“You don’t have family either?”
The bird, having grown somewhat close to me, began accepting my touch without resistance. However, if anything even slightly irritated it, it was quick to open its small beak wide and peck my hand. At such times, I could only quietly whisper sorry.
I reached out to stroke the quietly sitting bird’s head. The texture was wonderfully soft and fluffy. Would all birds feel like this? Looking closely, even its chest was covered in fluffy feathers, making it look like a ball of cotton.
Lying on my stomach and staring intently at the bird’s face, I asked:
“Shall I give you a name? Is Peepy too chick-like?”
Actually, it did look like a chick. I quietly swallowed the rest of my words, keeping my lips tightly sealed. If I let such words escape, it might quickly get angry and glare at me with terrifying eyes again. Strangely, this bird seemed to understand words to some degree.
Pee-yap!
Not knowing what I was thinking, the small bird swayed its body like a roly-poly while wrapped in soft blankets. Its plump bottom maintained perfect balance despite its tiny face.
Its jet-black eyes and beak stood out against its snow-white, round body like a fluffy ball. My fingers moved automatically as the urge to play crept in. When I tapped its small beak with a pop! the bird’s eyes quickly turned triangular as it glared at me.
“S-sorry.”
My apologetic voice was already tinged with laughter. Finally unable to hold back, I lowered my head and shook with laughter.
Just as I was about to taste the sharp beak’s inevitable punishment, the doorknob violently rattled with metallic clinks. Thanks to the lock being engaged the door didn’t open, but my heart felt like it had dropped to the floor.
“…Hide in here.”
The doorknob kept making loud clicking sounds as if angry. My aunt’s family had never tried to force the door open like this… I hid the bird in the blanket and gulped.
As soon as I carefully got up and unlocked it, the door flew open with a sound loud enough to make my ears fall off. I flinched in surprise, squeezing my eyes shut and hunching my shoulders. As I stood frozen with tension, a rough hand strongly gripped my shoulder.
“Ah!”
When I hurriedly opened my eyes to look forward, my uncle-in-law was glaring at me with a reddened face.
“Uncle? What’s wrong…?”
My voice trembled, unable to hide my bewilderment at the sudden situation. My uncle-in-law, looking angry about something, twisted his eyebrows fiercely and spat out words full of resentment:
“Did you tell them?”
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about, I…”
“Who else could it be but you!”
He just kept saying incomprehensible things while gradually increasing pressure on his hand. Though confused by the sudden situation, I grabbed his hand thinking I should calm him down first.
“Uncle, first let go of this…! Ugh!”
But before I could finish speaking, my shoulder was roughly pulled. As I fell, I slipped on the blanket and hit my head on the bare floor with no chance to grab anything.
Perhaps from the impact, my vision turned completely white for a moment and I couldn’t see anything. Fear darkly crept into my heart. I exhaled deeply and blinked several times.
“After raising and feeding you and doing everything for you, you stab me in the back like this? I’m about to get divorced because of you!”
The resentful words directed at me fell above my head, but each shattered and wouldn’t connect. After gasping for a while as if both my head and body were paralyzed and I couldn’t breathe properly, my vision finally returned to normal. But my uncle-in-law before me still looked filled with rage to his hair tips.
“Uncle, I really don’t know. I truly haven’t done anything.”
Though I tried to continue speaking while shrinking my body greatly, it was useless. Rather, his hand raised high and I saw it descending toward me in slow motion. Just before my fear-consumed eyelids squeezed shut, I heard a small sound from the side.
Peep!
