Vol. 1 - Ch. 5

After walking a few steps, we arrived in front of Ja-hyun’s room.

I took a key from the key bunch and unlocked the door.

It was fiiled with the fear that the monk might come back and cause some trouble, but seeing nothing cracked, it seemed like nothing happened at night.

He thought Ja-hyun would have woken up by then, so I put my head through the door gap and looked into the room.

I saw that the blanket on the bed had puffed up into the shape of a person. Which means ja-hyun must still be asleep. It looked like he didn’t gain consciousness yet.

‘I wish he would just wake up now.’

No matter how bad his condition was, Ja-hyun was a warrior in the martial arts book.

There was no doubt that he would soon wake up unharmed, but at such moment, I felt like I had to wish.

This was enough for the nursing care that wasn’t even available in any village. I entered the room with heavy steps.

And in the blink of an eye, someone grabbed me from behind and covered my mouth.

‘…?’

There was no reason to be surprised.

Because I couldn’t understand the situation right, I only thought ‘Uh? Huh?’. Being confused.

At that time, someone hissed in my ears.

“Quiet.’

What was heart next was a soft voice mixed with the sound of metal.

It was only then that I realized that my body was being held by someone and I froze into shock.

‘W-when did this happen?’

No matter how careless I was, the fact that I didn’t realize it for a while meant that the person holding me was quite skilled.

Who is it? is this attacker targeting Ja-hyun again? Could it be that Mu-myung returned?

No, no, judging the voice, and body, he didn’t seem to be Mu-myung…

Before I could come to a conclusion, the owner of the hand who was covering my lips, and my stomach with the other hand, whispered.

“Do something stupid, and I will slit your throat.”

“…”

“So, just answer what I ask for you. Do you understand? If youy lie…”

‘Shit!’

The other man’s unfinished sentence made me think of all sorts of things. And I quickly nodded.

Even so, I couldn’t even move because the hands were holding the neck.

But, the other person managed to understand the the unspoken answer and slightly removed the hand from my mouth.

As for how much, just enough to move my lips.

And he asked.

“The guy who attacked me yesterday.”

‘yesterday, attack… uh?’

“What is your ties with that guy? What is that guy’s identity?”

It would be better to speak with what he knew. As the other person said, I only tried to glance over the shoulder.

Didn’t he just say that he was the one who got attacked? I didn’t hear it wrong, right?

‘T-this person…’

I tried to calm my rapid breathing.

“T-that person….”

As far as I knew, only one person was attacked in the guesthouse the day before.

What that meant is that the identity of the strange man attacking me from behind was Ja-hyun. Then he could just ask me normally, why bother threatening…

‘I guess it wasn’t a mistake after all.’

It seems I wasn’t mistaken when he opened his eyes briefly last night.

But, if I wasn’t mistaken, there was one thing which bothered me.

In my memory, the moment Ja-hyun opened the eyes for the first time wasn’t when Mu-myung left.

In the original, Ja-hyun opens the eyes at least a day or two after the attacking incident.

The meeting with Ju Eun-ri wasn’t this tense either.

The first meeting between the two in the novel is when Ja-hyun wakes up in bed, and sees Ju Eun-ri nurshing him, and asks ‘Who?’.

Like this, it isn’t like strangling with one hand….

“Answer me.”

As he couldn’t answer easily and just hesitated, the hand holding the neck gradually gained strength.

I was scared and spoke with a shivering voice.

“J-just… it was a guest.”

“Guest?”

“Yes, yes. A… guest. This is a place called as Guesthouse, and he stayed here for about 15 days.”

“And you?”

“Uh… I am one working in the guesthouse.”

The former wasn’t a lie, but the latter was a lie.

I wasn’t the clerk of Guesthouse, but the owner of the guesthouse.

But, the owner of the guesthouse which was visible to the public was Ju Cheol-rim, and the fact that I had the right to Guesthouse was information known only to the trusted adults of the village. That is why I lied to him.

This was in case the person behind me wasn’t Ja-hyun.

“A lie.”

“….”

Well, in the end. I think it wasn’t a great choice of answer.

‘How does he know?’

I had a moment of doubt, but I couldn’t answer the other person directly. I just bit my lip.

Silence fell over us.

I didn’t know if it was my mood, but my hands and feet felt like theyw ere freezing.

At some point, it seemed like cold sweat was starting to come out of my palms…

I glanced down at the hands with just my eyes and opened and closed them a couple times.

That moment.

‘… Huh!’

Feeling a cold qi run down from behind, I jumped up like an animal sensing danger.

“W-wait a minute, stop a second…!”

I quickly grabbed the hand which was on my neck.

Perhaps with the sudden action, I heard a small intake of breath from behind.

“You are the one who’s been lying there this whole time, right? Well, I took a good care of you for 6 days, do you remember?”

“…”

“…”

“….”

“Ah, so you don’t remember…”

I tried appealing to emotions, but it didn’t seem to have any effect.

I quickly turned my head.

“… ah, I am sorry. I did lie… I am going to tell you properly from now, so can you give me one more chance? Right? Please just this once….”

“…”

No matter how many words I said, there was no answer. I guess I should consider myself lucky that he didn’t break my neck right away.

In the end, I gave up listening to the precious sound of the person I considered as ja-hyun and decided to correct the lie I told earlier before it was too late.

Actually, it’s a bit hard to even call it a lie..

“Uhm, what I said earlier…”

“…”

“There were a few lies mixed in, but weren’t all lies. Well, I mean…”

I had to do my best to calm my pounding heart, be it fear or something else.

I licked the lips and began to speak with difficulty.

“it is true that this is a Guesthouse, and it is also true that he was a guest here…. He was a guest who had ben staying here for over 15 days, but introduced himself as Mu-myung, so I don’t know his real name… the same goes for other personal information. All I really know is that he rescued you from the river 6 days ago by the monk who came to train…”

“… continue.”

I guess he finally has the heart to let me speak the precious words.

Although I was smiling on the inside, on the outside I was scared. It wasn’t acting. I just continued to get nervous for some reason.

‘isnt this bastard just giving our killing intent like something easy to do?’

To the extent that I even had suspicion, strange the coldness wasn’t moving from the body.

‘Furthermore…it feels like my body had suddenly turned heavy.’

To make matters worse, my body was complaining of something going wrong, but I just ignored it and thought of it as nerves.

“I really don’t know anything else. The reason why he attacked you yesterday… when I got to his room, he had already packed things and left, so I couldn’t ask him anything more.”

“…”

“… um, by any chance… don’t you remember that I saved you yesterday….”

I slowly added.

I wanted to somehow prove my innocence to him.

I have nothing to do with the person yesterday. Instead, didn’t I have you from the person? Those words which I roughly meant received an unexpected response.

He snorted and said it wasn’t worth it.

“Seems like you don’t know it all.”

“Uh?”

“That man had no intention of killing me from the start. If he had approached me with that killing intent, I would have noticed a long time back. But until he came into the room making all kinds of noises, I didn’t…”

In contrast to the heavy breathing, the other person’s voice gradually quieted down.

Did I feel uncomfortable?

After being silent for a moment, he slowly said.

“… so, what do you mean of lying to me?”

“Ah, that. it is nothing. I am the clerk of the Guesthouse. Although I do similar work here, I should actually be considered more than just a clerk of the place. So, it is a complicated situation here, but let me explain briefly….”

It must have been confirmed that the other person was Ja-hyun. Since there was no more hesitation, he was about to tell the truth, but Ja-hyun, who was quietly listening, cut the words.

“That kind of stuff is none of my business.”

“….”

You asked.

And I was ready to answer.

Regardless of what I thought, Ja-hyun continued to speak.

“it is a Guesthouse. A place I never heard of.”

“Right…”

Fucker

“Right, this is….!”

A voice suddenly cut off along with the sound of taking a breath.

Similar to before.

“Uh? What?”

Even after I asked the question, it took a long time that the other person gasped and continued.

“Haa, right… where… where exactly….”

“Exactly, I don’t know if you know of the place but it is a village called Jang-yang village on the way to Xi’an…”

As I spoke, I took a quick glance.

It was because I felt something odd about the low groaning noises that had been flowing into the ears since a while back.

Now that I thought about it, wasn’t Ja-hyun;s condition so serious that the physician also felt bad for him until a few days ago?

If it alright if he stays here instead of going to bed right away and lying down?

Eventually, the answer I came up with was, ‘it isn’t okay’.

Fearing that my only lifeline might go wrong, I tilted my head back despite the large hand holding me around the neck.

“Ugh, are you alright?”

“….”

When I finally turned around, between the narrow space between the door and wall, there was a boy in woman’s clothing with the head down and hidden.

For your information, those woman’s clothes were mine.

The clothes Ja-hyun had one were drenched in rain and torn, so I had no other choice but to dress him in my own makeshift clothes.

The fact that he had my clothes on meant he was Ja-hyun…

‘No matter how much I think of it, his personality seems a bit different from the novel.’

It did trouble my mind, but that isn’t of matter now.

I lost my strength and ignored Ja-hyun’s hands running down the name of my neck, I held onto his crumbling body with difficulty.

He looked think at first glance, but the weight one feels is no joke.

I almost fell back and hit my ass.

‘it is fortunate that we both have the same height.’

I held ja-hyun’s body tightly and carefully walked one step at a time to the bed.

I couldn’t even move speed due to the crisis of losing my balance at any point.

‘Just lie down. Why do I have to come out here and make a fuss by making people suffer?’

I told a lot of gossip about ja-hyun in my mind.

I almost wanted to throw it somewhere, but I couldn’t do that if I thought about the future.

I glanced at ja-hyun.

At some point, he was lying lump in my arms like a wet cotton. It didn’t seem like he had completely lost consciousness, I just felt like he was going in and out of consciousness.

It ward hard to drag Ja-hyun to the bed and it was hard to lay him down on bed.

I took a deep breath and with very rough handa, pulled the blanket onto the body and covered him.

‘let’s see. He doesn’t have fever.’

I was slightly relieved with the lukewarm temperature I felt on the back of my hand.

“Then why move the body when its not fully healed….”

As I mumbled softly, the eyes of the other person rolled to my direction.

My relaxed eyes were vaguely groping for the direction I had to be.

I could see the pain he was in, and how he closed the eyes to sleep.

I let out a sigh as I lost my strength and kept watching him keep a close eye on me like I was a poisonous snake.

Then, I stretched out the hand and completely covered Ja-hyun’s eyes.

“Rest your eyes for some… time.”

“…”

“I will bring the physician.”

As I lightly brushed from top to bottom, the eyes of Ja-hyun fell limp.

I looked down at him with the eyes closed as if he was dead, then got up and left the room.

Apparently, business this morning went wrong entirely. If I want to call a doctor and take Eun-young to Aunt Sun Young’s house.

‘I should star the dinner diner early.’

Kwang!

The sound of the door closing sounded louder than usual, as if I had unconsciously put too much strength into my hand.

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