Bido slipped her body through the crack in the door.
The inside of the warehouse was damp.
The smell of rain-soaked wood mingled with the smell of people,
and merely breathing it in made her throat turn rough.
The makeshift detention facility was crude.
Chunks of wood had been driven in vertically to imitate bars,
and the gaps had been forcibly woven together with wire and nails.
One military policeman sat dozing in a chair before a table.
With his chin propped on his hand and his head lolling,
only his eyelids trembled heavily.
On a makeshift bed in the corner,
the military policeman who had just come in was snoring, boots still on.
Bido swallowed down any sound.
Calculating even the instant her toes touched the floor,
she walked forward slowly.
Inside the wooden bars, several people slept curled up.
Their breathing was uneven,
and someone was groaning softly.
And at the very end.
Beyond a separate set of bars that seemed to have been reinforced once more than the other cells,
a woman with black hair sat.
The woman was glaring in the direction Bido had entered from.
It was precise.
She had not lifted her head by chance.
As if—
even before the door had opened,
she had been looking this way.
Bido nearly went blank.
It was a face that should not have been in a place like this.
Amid the rough warehouse air, the damp smell, and the wretched sight of the sleeping military policemen,
only that woman’s face was strangely clear.
Her appearance was so—
unfamiliar and beautiful that even Bido, a woman herself, forgot to breathe for a moment.
And those eyes
brought Bido’s breath back.
Though the woman’s gaze held no emotion,
it was cold enough to pierce through Bido.
Bido was certain.
That woman was Sienna.
And only now did she understand why Miryeong had said she would know the moment she saw her.
Bido slowly approached that way.
Sienna was looking at one place.
Following her gaze,
Bido saw a small key lying at the edge of the table.
Holding the hilt of her sword, Bido carefully moved toward it.
As she drew close to the dozing military policeman, the smell of alcohol stabbed at her nose.
Bido cautiously lifted the key.
Then she inserted it into the lock on the bars.
Cold sweat ran down her spine.
The sensation of turning the key—
rang as loudly as thunder to Bido alone.
Click.
She immediately grasped the handle and pushed slowly.
Creak.
It felt as though every hair on Bido’s body stood on end.
With the hand gripping the handle, she pressed down on the creak until the very end, swallowing it.
Even so, a tiny sound leaked out.
Then Sienna stood.
Without a word, she stepped out beyond the bars.
It was that instant.
The head of the military policeman dozing before the table shot up.
With his eyes half-open, his gaze rolled as if groping through empty air.
“Mm… you…”
Before his voice could come out, Sienna was already moving.
She was fast.
She snatched the dagger from the military policeman’s waist,
and without a shred of hesitation, swung it at him.
A short line cut through the darkness.
The military policeman’s mouth opened,
but the sound never came out to the end.
His body slid down from the chair.
Bido could not move.
Because the way a person “ended” before her eyes
was far too simple.
The military policeman snoring on the bed in the corner half-woke at the sound.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“Huh…?”
By reflex, he groped for the sword beside the bed.
The moment his hand caught the grip,
Bido sprang forward.
Bido’s sword rose from below and knocked his sword away.
The sound of metal colliding.
The military policeman’s eyes widened.
He drew in a breath.
It was the expression of someone just before he cried out.
Before Bido could even think to cover his mouth,
Sienna was already beside him.
A second line
was drawn even shorter than the first.
The military policeman’s voice was cut off inside his half-open mouth.
His body lost its strength
and bent back toward the bed.
Bido lost her breath where she stood.
Something warm brushed one side of her face.
Whatever the sensation was, right now it could only be understood as “reality.”
Sienna did not look at Bido.
She flicked her wrist once as if shaking off blood,
then threw the dagger to the floor.
Then she tore the key ring from the military policeman’s waist, picked it up, and headed for a chest.
The lid opened, and there came the faint sound of metal scraping against metal.
Sienna retrieved her own dagger and tucked it into her waist.
Finally,
she jerked her chin toward the outside.
Bido moved after her a beat late.
After the two emerged from the warehouse, Bido spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Follow me… Lady Miryeong is waiting.”
At the name “Miryeong,” Sienna nodded.
The two moved quickly, but quietly.
When they soon reached the sewer, the lid was already open.
Peering inside, Bido saw white hair reflected in the moonlight,
and Miryeong was waving her hand.
Sienna went down first.
Bido also climbed down carefully and covered the lid again.
Supporting it with her hands until the very end so it would not make a sound as it closed.
Without even sharing a reunion, the three disappeared into the sewer with Miryeong leading the way.
And then,
they slipped out beneath the city wall through which they had entered.
The air outside the wall was different from inside the city.
The wind was cold, the earth was wet,
and the lights leaking out behind them still flickered faintly like people’s breath.
Only after the three had run for a long while did they stop at Miryeong’s signal.
Miryeong’s white hair looked even brighter in the darkness.
Bido could not draw a proper breath.
The sleeve where blood had dried clung to her arm and stung,
and when she closed her eyes, the inside of the warehouse rose before her exactly as it had been.
The line drawn in a single breath, the breath cut off, and the face whose expression had not changed.
In the end, Bido opened her mouth.
“Why… why did you kill them?”
Sienna looked Bido over once.
Bido could not avoid those eyes.
“Miryeong. What is this girl?”
Just as Miryeong was about to speak, Bido cut her off.
“I’m asking you. Why did you kill them? Did you really… have to…”
Sienna did not answer.
Instead, she wiped once at what had splashed onto the tip of her chin with the back of her hand,
then slowly turned her dagger over to look at it.
The blade swallowed the light as if eating the darkness.
“Kid.”
That single word struck Bido in the chest first.
Sienna tilted her head very slightly.
Her eyes were cold, but her face was expressionless.
Her voice was low and firm.
“They saw your face.”
Bido’s breath caught.
“Those bastards did.”
Sienna gripped the dagger again
and raised it just a little.
As if she were taking out “that moment” and showing it to her exactly as it had been.
“The first one saw you, and the second one saw you rush at him. What do you think came next?”
Bido’s lips trembled.
She could not find an answer.
A beat later, Sienna spoke as if stripping away excess.
“Knock them out? Tie them up? Cover their mouths?”
“That’s what you do if you can.”
Sienna glanced once at Bido’s wet sleeve,
then raised her gaze back to her eyes.
“Your hands are still shaking even now.”
Bido reflexively clenched her hands.
That action only proved Sienna’s point further.
Sienna continued.
“If even one sound had come out in that moment,”
“everything you wanted to protect would have been over.”
Bido gritted her teeth.
“Even so… killing people—”
“Killing people?”
Sienna did not cut her off.
Instead, she pressed on in an even lower voice.
“Then let me ask you the opposite.”
“If that bastard had screamed and the military police swarmed in,”
“who would have died then?”
Bido inhaled,
but could not finish drawing the breath in.
Sienna slid the dagger back into her waist.
“You.”
Sienna said.
“Miryeong.”
At those words, Miryeong’s shoulders stiffened almost imperceptibly.
“And someone inside the city.”
Sienna tilted her head slightly.
“One sound, and someone dies.”
Bido’s face turned pale and rigid.
Only then did Miryeong open her lips.
“…Enough.”
The word was short.
It sounded like she was stopping her,
and also like she was acknowledging it.
Unable to look at Sienna,
Miryeong looked at Bido.
Her gaze wavered for a moment.
Bitterness hung thinly at the corners of her eyes.
“The world doesn’t turn only the way we want it to.”
A gust of wind passed,
lightly stirring her white hair before letting it settle.
Bido looked at Sienna again.
Her voice was choked.
“Then I… from now on, will I have to keep doing things like—”
“If you’re going to ask that question.”
Sienna cut Bido off.
This time, her words had a sharper edge.
“Put down your sword.”
Bido’s eyes widened in confusion.
“Hold a sword, and ask that question.”
Sienna’s words rang colder toward the end.
“What you’re saying right now isn’t kindness.”
“It’s passing off responsibility.”
Bido’s mouth opened, then closed.
Sienna drove in the final nail.
“If you want to say, ‘I won’t kill,’”
“then become fast enough to make those words possible.”
“Then, when that time comes… you’ll be able to save someone.”
“But today wasn’t that day.”
Bido could not say anything.
Rather than feeling dizzy,
it felt as though somewhere inside her heart was being pressed flat.
She was afraid.
Miryeong stepped close to Bido’s side.
She reached out as if to take her shoulder, then hesitated for a moment,
but soon pressed down very lightly, only enough to tell her not to fall away.
“Bido.”
Miryeong’s voice lowered.
“If you hate it… you can say you hate it.”
After those words, Miryeong let out a breath.
“But if we stop here, what we just saw becomes nothing but… pointless.”
Unable to raise her head,
Bido nodded faintly.
Sienna had already turned her back.
And very briefly, she jerked her chin.
“Move.”
That one word fell like an order.
The three set off into the darkness again.
The lights of the city grew farther and farther behind them.