Chapter 4 Part 38

It was insufficient to express it as mere sexual attraction. The overwhelming scent of a male, pulling one in, emanated from the man’s entire body. As if anyone whose nape was bitten by those cruel teeth would be unable to even think of resisting and would submit.

The blood drained from Jeong Tae-ui’s face. He felt threatened by the man’s very presence, which was difficult to contend with as a male. Dangerous. Don’t go near him. Just as one instinctively flees from the territory of a stronger male, Jeong Tae-ui felt an instinctive threat, a suffocating fear, from the man.

That was when. Ilay League-row, who had been looking down at the young man with lowered eyes, lifted his eyelids. Those jet-black eyes unhesitatingly turned in his direction, as if he had known all along.

Jeong Tae-ui froze, unable to move. He could only stare back at the man, as if facing the gaze of a beast glaring at him.

From where Ilay League-row was, Jeong Tae-ui shouldn’t have been visible. No, even if he sensed a presence, he couldn’t have discerned who was standing there. The light didn’t reach that far.

Ilay League-row cast a cool gaze towards Jeong Tae-ui. Then, at some point, he twisted his lips into a faint smirk. A sneer, or a threat. As if to say, “You pathetic weakling hiding and frozen there, get lost.”

Twitching, Jeong Tae-ui curled his fingertips. Then, his body moved as if released from sleep paralysis. His vigorously pumping heart, sensing danger from the instinctive threat, was pounding so hard it hurt.

I need to go. I had to go. I wanted to leave this place quickly. I was no longer confident I could endure this suffocating heat. If he disappeared quietly now, that tyrannical wild beast wouldn’t pursue him, targeting his throat. Therefore, leaving now was the best course of action.

Ilay League-row. That damn bastard. Doesn’t he get tired? If he’s been rolling around all day and then comes on a night march without rest, he should be lying down and sleeping quietly. Why is he playing around so messily in a corner of the beach?

Along with a sudden surge of anger, Jeong Tae-ui felt a subtle anxiety rising from deep within him.

Although he couldn’t see clearly in the dim light, it suddenly occurred to him that the young man giving his body to Ilay League-row might resemble Shinru. Relatively narrow shoulders, slender limbs, and the smooth lines of his body. The image evoked by those features, rather than the body itself, was similar to Shinru’s. A soft-feeling body.

Damn it. If you have someone to sleep with, don’t cast greedy eyes on Shinru! You unprincipled, debauched madman.

Jeong Tae-ui cursed silently under his breath as he moved his steps. After walking about ten more steps, only when he felt he had moved a little further away from them, did he glance back in that direction. Now their figures were hidden in the shadows, and only their flickering shadows on the rock were visible.

“My luck is really bad these days…” Jeong Tae-ui grumbled softly with a sigh. And just as he was about to turn to go back.

He thought he saw a moving figure on the large rock where they were hiding.

Jeong Tae-ui stopped turning and sharply turned his head. He hadn’t seen wrong. Clearly, a person was lying prone on the rock, moving cautiously. That person, who seemed not to have seen Jeong Tae-ui, was giving all his attention to the person below the rock—probably Ilay League-row.

And Jeong Tae-ui saw it. The outline of that shadow’s hand, faintly illuminated by the dim light reflecting from inside the rock. In it was a large, heavy-looking crossbow.

Jeong Tae-ui swallowed his breath.

Holizon… or maybe it was Stech. It was too dark to see clearly, but the crossbow held by that shadow was more than enough to shoot and kill a person. Especially now, with the crossbow aimed directly at the head from above.

Jeong Tae-ui soon recognized the shadow. It was the man he had briefly seen in the forest earlier. The man whose movements had seemed strange, but whom he had given up following, was now targeting Ilay League-row from above.

The man’s index finger was on the trigger. If it was pulled just a few millimeters more, the heavy and sharp arrow would pierce Ilay League-row’s head.

There was no time to think and move. Almost instinctively, or rather, as if ingrained in his body since childhood, Jeong Tae-ui picked up a fist-sized stone and threw it. A sound tearing through the air ripped through the silence of the night. And at the same time, a cracking sound was heard as the man’s wrist, struck by the stone, snapped.

“Ugh!!”

The man’s shriek echoed from the unexpected blow. In that instant, he pulled the trigger, and a missed arrow left the bowstring. And that arrow, by chance, flew towards Jeong Tae-ui.

“Gasp…!”

Jeong Tae-ui gasped. The moment the crossbow’s direction turned towards him due to the stone hitting him, he reflexively dodged, but the arrow was just as fast. The arrow, which he barely dodged by a hair’s breadth, grazed Jeong Tae-ui’s elbow and embedded itself exactly where he had been standing just moments before.

Jeong Tae-ui broke out in a cold sweat. If he hadn’t twisted his body instinctively, he would have been seeing the afterlife by now. He had almost died trying to save someone else.

Only after seeing the arrow vibrating, embedded in the ground, did his mind, which had just regained a little composure, finally lament with a hint of regret. If he had just left him, he might have seen that ominous and dangerous man disappear from the world, so why did he help him? Besides, perhaps the man with the crossbow was just trying to do what was right. When he thought about it, it was much more likely that Ilay League-row was evil than that other man.

But even if the same thing happened again—and even if the person was different—Jeong Tae-ui would probably have done the same thing. In any case, he wasn’t the type of person to just watch someone die in front of him.