The man in front stepped aside.
The gaze that had been fixed on Bido
slipped slightly to the area behind him.
“Whether you’re brave,”
“or just stupid.”
At those words, Bido’s gaze shifted naturally as well.
Only then
did a figure emerge from the darkness.
The man Bido had been chasing
approached him without a word and offered up the sword with both hands.
“To think you followed me all the way here alone.”
The man who received the sword looked at Bido and spoke slowly.
His voice was low,
and carried the composure of someone who had already reached a conclusion.
Bido caught her breath and shifted her gaze.
Not just the man in front of her,
but the darkness and the walls beyond him,
and even the faint movements at the edge of her vision.
There were others.
They simply weren’t visible yet.
“You must be confident in your stamina.”
The man tilted his head.
“Or,”
the corner of his mouth rose.
“perhaps you have something you trust in.”
Bido put strength into her toes.
She already knew there was no escape.
The moment she stepped back,
it felt like hands would reach out from somewhere.
“Give me back my sword.”
Bido said.
Her voice didn’t shake as much as she had expected.
The man seemed about to smile for a moment,
then shook his head.
“Yeah, I thought those would be the first words out of your mouth.”
He deliberately moved a step to the side.
The path that had been blocking Bido
opened nonchalantly in a different direction.
“Seeing how even after coming all the way here, you ask for your sword back before assessing the situation—”
The man said, glancing briefly at Bido’s empty back.
“you must have been carrying something quite valuable.”
Very faint footsteps stirred in the surroundings.
Bido heard them.
And she sensed that their numbers were greater than she had initially thought.
Another set of footsteps in the surroundings drew closer.
“You can’t just go quietly home now, little one.”
The man holding the sword spoke in a low voice.
Without raising his head,
he slowly ran his finger along the blade.
Bido’s gaze hardened.
Because those words
sounded more like a concluded fact than a mere threat.
Someone behind her stifled a laugh.
“For a little thing, her stance is pretty decent.”
A low voice cut in.
Another voice followed.
“Little one, stay put.”
And after a very brief silence.
“It’s a girl.”
At those words, the air shifted slightly.
“If it’s a girl,”
someone said.
“she’ll fetch a better price.”
The man with the sword finally raised his head.
And he looked down at Bido very slowly.
“Quiet.”
It was a brief remark,
but the surrounding noises immediately died down.
He swept over Bido’s face once more.
There was neither interest nor anger in his eyes.
Only calculation.
“Little one. Stay still if you don’t want to get hurt,”
“though you don’t look like you’ll obey.”
Bido clenched her teeth.
Right now, she had nothing in her hands,
and the familiar weight on her back was gone as well.
But she did not avert her gaze.
Seeing that, the corner of the man’s mouth rose ever so slightly.
“Fine.”
The man with the sword spoke shortly.
“Hey. Tie her up for now.”
The command held no explanation,
and the moment the words fell, movement began.
One from the left,
one from the right.
Two people approached simultaneously.
Their speed wasn’t fast,
but the way they measured the distance was blatant.
Bido inhaled.
Her body reacted first.
Strength filled her legs faster than her consciousness.
Her heart pounded heavily.
Following suit, a hot sensation spread through her veins.
Now.
Instead of taking a step forward, Bido lightly lowered her stance.
The moment one of the approaching men reached out to grab her—
Bido struck his wrist away.
Smack.
A short strike aimed at the joint.
The man gasped and lost his balance.
Bido didn’t stop.
She twisted her body and kicked up at the waist of the man coming from the other side.
A dull thud.
The man’s body was pushed back and slammed into the wall.
“What the fuck.”
Someone spat out a short curse.
Bido gasped for breath and resumed her stance.
Her fingertips were numb,
and her legs were trembling—
but she could still move.
No,
she had to move now.
The two men in front of her clearly hadn’t fallen.
But their expressions were bewildered.
Bido didn’t miss that opening.
She drove into the man in front of her.
She pushed with her shoulder,
and struck his thigh with her knee.
This time the man staggered.
From the surroundings,
laughter burst out.
“What’s this, getting pushed around by a little brat like that!”
Before the words even ended, Bido stepped back.
Her body knew first
that she mustn’t stay engaged any longer.
Her breathing grew rough.
Her vision narrowed, but
her body still obeyed.
Bido clenched her teeth.
If she stopped now, it was over.
The two men who had just been struck bared their teeth.
“This brat—”
Before the words finished, the two lunged at her simultaneously.
Movements driven by anger first.
No distance control, no order.
Bido inhaled.
Her body felt lighter than before.
The sensation of her feet pushing off the ground grew sharper,
and her vision cleared even further.
The one who lunged first was on the right.
Bido twisted her body, brushing past his arm,
and immediately struck up under his jaw.
A short, precise strike.
With a dull sound, the man’s head snapped back.
At the same time, a fist flew from the left.
Bido dove forward one beat faster.
The man’s fist cut through empty air,
and she immediately struck up at the second man’s jaw.
This time, no proper sound even came out.
The man’s body crumpled on the spot.
The two fell to the ground almost simultaneously.
In that instant,
the surroundings went silent.
Bido did not relax her stance.
Her fist was numb,
and sensation was dulling at her fingertips—
but she stood firmly in place.
The man with the sword looked down at that sight.
His expression did not change.
“Enough.”
He spoke shortly.
And raised his head.
“Come out.”
At those words,
someone moved in the darkness.
He was different from the ones who had been standing there until now.
His steps were quiet,
with no unnecessary movements.
His gaze had been fixed on Bido’s center from the very beginning.
Bido knew instinctively.
From now on, it would be different.
The man said nothing.
Instead,
he slowly removed his gloves.
The man with the sword added in a low voice.
“Don’t kill her.”
At that single command,
the surrounding air tightened once more.
Bido clenched her teeth.
Breath no longer came easily.
But—
her body knew first
that this opponent was different from the ones before.
The man moved first.
His speed was not fast.
Rather, it felt slow.
Bido did not miss that opening.
She planted her foot,
lowered her body, and threw a punch.
It hit.
A clear sensation of impact traveled to her fingertips.
The man’s chin shook slightly.
Bido’s heart pounded heavily.
It works.
The moment she thought that.
The man’s body
moved as if gliding, like a predetermined motion.
Bido instinctively raised her arm.
Bang—
Impact traveled up her arm.
At the same time as the sensation that she had barely blocked it,
a sound of ringing bones reached her ears.
Bido clenched her teeth.
This is—
dangerous.
Before her head could even judge,
her body was already trying to step back.
In that split second—
a dull, heavy impact buried itself into her abdomen.
Her breath was cut off.
“—”
No sound came out.
Her body folded and her knees hit the ground.
And her vision fell downward.
No.
This is—
Before her thoughts could continue, follow-up strikes came.
Her flank.
Her back.
The strength in Bido’s toes gave out.
Her body rolled across the floor.
The stone ground scraped her back and shoulders.
Breath would not come in properly.
Pain followed belatedly.
Bido curled up.
“Kuh….”
Pain flooded in all at once.
Strength would not enter her arms,
and her legs would not obey.
Dangerous.
This time, even her head clearly knew.
Bido tried desperately to breathe in.
But air would not come easily.
At the edge of her vision,
the man’s shadow was approaching.
The man grabbed Bido’s leg.
When he lifted with force,
Bido’s body hung upside down.
Blood rushed to her head and her vision shook,
and simultaneously, a sensation of her insides flipping washed over her.
Bido clenched her teeth.
Strength would not enter her body.
The more she struggled,
the clearer it became how effortlessly she was being handled.
Weak.
That thought surfaced first.
She bit down harder in frustration.
So hard that the sound of her teeth grinding could be heard.
Then—
a scream rang out.
It was not short.
Neither laughter nor a curse,
but a clear sound of pain.
“Boss—!”
“Why are you doing this!”
“Calm down, are you crazy?”
Voices overlapped.
Mixed with confusion and terror.
Bido opened her eyes wide.
In that moment,
something hot splashed across her face.
It was blood.
Bido reflexively inhaled,
then expelled air like a cough.
At the edge of her vision,
a sword was stuck through the abdomen of the man who had been holding her.
And strength left the man’s hands.
Bido’s body fell, and her vision spun.
Her gaze naturally followed the sword upward.
To the sword’s hilt—
someone was gripping it.
It was the man who had been holding her sword.
He stood with the sword drawn.
Dark red blood dripped.
Red scales covered the man’s arm.
They had not torn through his skin.
As if pushed up from the inside, his skin was hardening and changing form.
The scales did not stop.
From arm to shoulder,
from shoulder to neck—
even as she watched, slowly
but surely, they spread.
Bido swallowed.
The man’s face was visible.
That man’s eyes had turned yellow.
The pupils were no longer visible.
For the eyes of a living person,
they were too flat and empty.
The man’s gaze wavered.
Unable to focus, it simply groped about its surroundings.
Reason—
was already gone from those eyes.
The man’s mouth opened.
He seemed to be trying to speak,
but only a split, ragged breath emerged.
Someone in the surroundings stepped back.
“Boss…?”
“Stop—”
The words did not finish.
The man raised his sword.
Without hesitation, without anger.
With only movement remaining—
the sword moved toward the closest one.
Bido watched that scene,
unable to take her eyes away.
And before the sword,
red scales spread even further from the man’s body.
The man slowly turned direction.
The empty yellow eyes turned toward Bido this time.
It was an unfocused gaze.
It seemed to be looking,
but what it was looking at was impossible to tell.
Bido tried to move her body.
But her body would not obey easily.
Pain still remained,
and breath still would not come properly.
The man took a step closer.
Stepping on the blood pooled on the floor,
nonchalantly.
In his hand was a sword dyed red.
It was different from before.
Not the hand of someone holding stolen goods,
but something that felt naturally attached, as if drawn to something.
Bido looked at that sword.
The sword of Tiamar.
That fact
felt too late now.
She had to run.
She had that thought,
but her body did not move as she willed.
The man took another step closer.
The sense of distance collapsed.
The sword—
slowly,
but clearly, was raised.
Only its trajectory remained in Bido’s vision.
Rational judgment ended there.
From inside her chest,
an inexplicable sensation surged up.
Her fingertips went cold and her breath caught.
She could die.
No—
she was going to die.
Bido clenched her teeth,
but this time it was neither anger nor resolve.
Merely—
fear.