Raymon said in a low voice.
“Even if we hurry at this pace, it’ll take at least three more days.”
“But we can’t go any faster than we are now.”
Miryeong glanced back at the first wagon.
It was the wagon carrying Bido, wrapped in bandages, and the other wounded.
“Right….”
She let out a short breath.
“Even if we’re late, there’s nothing we can do for now.”
A short distance away, Ayla was roughly yanking on the chain.
Hardin, bound by it, staggered, yet held firm as if refusing to let his knees buckle to the end.
Ayla spat out harshly.
“Hey, Shadow. Walk properly. Unless you want to get dragged.”
Hardin raised his head slightly.
His mask had been removed,
but something resembling a sneer still lingered on his face.
“Why don’t you just kill me?”
His voice was low but clear.
“When you bastards fall asleep, I’ll snap your necks with these feet.”
“Shut up.”
Ayla’s wrist moved briefly.
Crackle.
A faint blue light flowed over the chain.
“Ugh…!”
Hardin’s body stiffened for an instant, and he staggered.
Watching the scene, Miryeong said,
“Hey, don’t let him get to you. He’s provoking you on purpose. Trying to wear you down.”
Instead of answering, Ayla spat in Hardin’s direction.
“Tch… piece of trash.”
Hardin lowered his head and caught his breath,
but one corner of his mouth was still twisted.
At that sight, Miryeong’s gaze grew even colder.
“That’s exactly why you shouldn’t take your eyes off him.”
Every time the wagon started moving again, Bido swallowed a small breath.
Even the slightest jolt made it feel as if the inside of his right chest were being torn apart.
Beneath the bandages, it was hot and heavy, and even his shallow breaths seemed to scrape against the wound.
Unable to close his eyes, Bido stared blankly upward.
His vision was blurred, and even the wagon’s ceiling would not come into focus.
The sounds from outside were distant.
The sound of chains dragging.
The sound of the blue ox breathing hard.
The sound of someone swallowing a groan.
Low voices coming and going.
All of it spread dully, as if heard from beyond the water.
Bido barely moved his dry lips.
They had slowed down because of him.
As that thought surfaced,
a weight different from the pain in his chest slowly settled over him.
Until just a moment ago, merely surviving had been overwhelming,
but now he felt as though he had become a burden.
Bido moved his fingers ever so slightly.
He tried to lift them, but they would not obey.
His strength would not properly gather.
It still felt as though his body did not belong to him.
Then,
for a very brief moment, that voice came to him again.
‘Open the gate.’
Bido blinked faintly through his hazy mind.
‘…What?’
‘Wolhyeol.’
A short and firm answer.
‘Right now.’
Bido barely parted his dry lips.
‘I can’t… not now…’
The wound throbbed.
He still remembered how much strain it had put on his body just to draw up that power.
But the voice did not hesitate.
‘You’re not using power.’
Bido clenched his teeth.
Within his fading consciousness, he groped for one familiar sensation.
The path through which the energy of the moon seeped in.
The sensation of something cool settling atop his life force.
A faint heat spread beneath Bido’s brow.
The pain remained the same.
But within his cooling body, a faint vitality began to return.
His breath, which had felt as though it might break off at any moment, became a little easier.
Bido drew in a small, ragged breath.
That voice rang low one last time.
‘Yes. Like that.’
Bido did not close his eyes.
He still could not move.
Even so, he was no longer sinking helplessly as he had been just moments ago.
To survive,
Bido held on to the last struggle he was capable of.
Outside the wagon, the procession moved slowly,
but without stopping, onward.
Listening to that sound, Bido thought, ever so faintly,
It isn’t over yet.
And clinging only to that one thought,
he swallowed another heavy, trembling breath.
—
For a while, Hardin seemed to be dragged along obediently.
His staggering steps,
his ragged breaths—everything looked real.
That was why they noticed it all the later.
The fact that his body was leaning, very naturally, toward the first wagon.
And the next moment—
Thud!
Hardin threw himself straight into the wagon.
The wagon jolted violently and shook.
“Ugh…!”
From inside, Bido’s pained groan burst out.
Bang!
Miryeong immediately rushed in and slammed Hardin’s head into the ground.
“You son of a bitch!”
Even with his face pressed into the dirt, Hardin let out a laugh.
“Heh heh… I merely lost my footing.”
Ayla kicked Hardin in the face.
“What kind of bullshit are you trying to pull?”
Hardin’s lip split and blood seeped out,
but instead of answering, he only laughed softly.
Miryeong rose with a scowl and looked back at Ayla.
“Hey. From now on, you follow at the very back of the wagons. Don’t let that bastard get near them again.”
Ayla clicked her tongue.
“Tch… fine.”
By then,
Ed was already checking inside the first wagon.
“Bido!”
The medic immediately raised his head.
“He’s all right. He was just startled because it shook so suddenly.”
“The wound hasn’t reopened.”
Only then did Ed manage to exhale.
But soon he turned his head
and glared at Hardin as Ayla dragged him toward the rear.
Hardin did not even wipe away the blood from between his split lips,
and merely smiled faintly.
Wolryeon, who had been positioned at the very back, aimed her heavy crossbow
and looked coldly at Hardin as he was dragged back.
“Next time, know that your head will be pierced.”
Hardin licked the blood on his lips and smiled.
“Why not pierce it right now?”
Wolryeon’s eyes narrowed sharply.
Strength entered the hand gripping the crossbow.
Ayla immediately yanked the chain roughly.
Crackle.
“Grrgh…!”
Hardin’s body stiffened briefly, then lurched forward again.
Breathing harshly, Ayla spat out in a low voice,
“Shut up. The reason you’re still breathing is because I decided it, not because you’re enduring anything.”
Even as pain contorted his face, Hardin did not erase his sneer.
“So you intend to drag me all the way to the end?”
“Yes.”
Ayla answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Whether you open your mouth or keep it shut until the end, we can decide that on the way.”
Wolryeon spoke without lowering her crossbow.
“Try taking one more wrong step for no reason. There won’t be a warning this time.”
Instead of answering, Hardin bared his bloodstained teeth.
Both his arms were already ruined,
and the chain was wrapped around his neck and torso several times over, yet the look in his eyes had not broken in the slightest.
He did not look like someone being dragged along alive,
but like a beast that would still tear someone apart the moment it found an opening.
The slowed procession began moving forward again, little by little.
At the front, the wagon carrying the wounded rocked carefully,
and at the very back, Hardin, bound by Ayla’s chains, was dragged along like a beast.
Even as she walked, Miryeong looked back at the wagon carrying Bido again and again.
Her expression was stiff,
and the look in her eyes showed no sign of easing.
Watching her, Ayla said in a low voice,
“Hey, Hara.”
Without turning her head, Miryeong replied,
“What.”
Ayla exhaled briefly, almost like a click of her tongue, then said,
“Don’t worry too much about the kid.”
Miryeong’s brow twitched ever so slightly.
Still roughly pulling on Hardin’s chain, Ayla continued,
“I saw him earlier when they were stopping the bleeding. That body wasn’t built with just a day or two of training.”
She paused for a moment, then added in an even lower voice,
“That kid isn’t that weak. He’ll hold on.”
For a while, Miryeong said nothing.
Then, still looking only ahead, she let out a short breath.
“…He’d better.”
Her answer was curt,
but after that, Miryeong looked back at the wagon slightly less often.
Hardin no longer openly threw himself at anything.
Instead, even as he was dragged along, he deliberately scuffed his feet every few steps,
and whenever Ayla caught her breath, he laughed softly.
As if even if he could not escape immediately,
it was enough just to wear down that red-haired woman.
No one said it aloud,
but at the end of the procession, there was no longer only baggage.
A living danger was following along with them.
—
Deep inside the forest.
“Fuck…! Get your foot off me, you monster bastard…!”
Shell spat through gritted teeth.
Maho gave no reply.
He merely pressed down on Shell’s neck with his foot,
driving him deeper into the dirt.
A little behind them, Raen trembled, unable to hold back her sobs.
“Bido… Bido… hngh…”
Maho said in an irritated voice,
“Hey, stop crying. I told you, he won’t die from that much.”
His words were blunt,
but Maho’s gaze briefly turned behind him.
Pressed into the ground, Shell spoke with a laugh mixed into his voice.
“I’m going to tear both you and that crybaby apart.”
In that instant, Maho’s expression hardened.
Crack.
With a short, dull sound, Shell’s neck twisted.
Snap.
His body trembled once as if convulsing,
then went still.
Unable to stop crying, Raen looked at Maho.
Maho withdrew his foot and said lowly,
“…That takes care of the noisy one.”
“Hngh… Bido…”
Raen simply curled up and continued to shed tears.
Maho walked toward her and said,
“What changes if you cry like that?”
Raen glared at Maho with bloodshot eyes.
After biting her lip for a moment, she soon softened her expression and said,
“Thank you….”
“For what.”
“You saved Bido, Maho….”
Without turning his gaze away, Maho looked toward the outside of the forest.
“If that kid dies, I’ll only end up in more trouble.”
His tone was blunt,
but it was not a denial.
Raen roughly wiped at the corners of her eyes.
Because she had cried for so long, her breathing was still uneven.
“Still… thank you.”
Only then did Maho glance at Raen for a very brief moment.
“For every little thing.”
Then he turned his head back toward the forest.
At the place where Shell had been struggling only moments before, there was no longer any sound.
“For now, we’re going too.”
Raen sniffled and asked,
“Where…?”
“That way.”
Maho answered briefly.
“They won’t have any room to spare anymore either. I need to cut away what has to be cut away in advance.”
Raen wiped the remaining tears away with the back of her hand.
Her face was still a mess,
but she nodded nonetheless.
“…Okay.”
Maho said nothing more.
Turning around, he began walking through the forest first.
Raen belatedly steadied her breath and ran after him.
The deep forest was still dark,
but this time, neither of them stopped any longer.