“There’s no money for that.”
Aslo spoke first.
Liber looked utterly dumbfounded.
“How can you say something so irresponsible?”
His gaze turned to Miryeong, bound in chains.
“We can’t just let her go… Then we should prepare a ransom and—”
“Liber.”
Ayla cut him off.
“We don’t have that kind of leeway. The job comes first.”
Liber rolled his lips as if it was a shame.
Then Aslo thought for a moment and said,
“We are the Silver Moon Corps.”
The instant those words fell,
the air pressed down once.
Liber’s eyes wavered,
and Brak snorted as if in ridicule.
Ayla did not laugh.
With an unsmiling face, she grew even more wary.
Aslo did not blink.
Liber flinched.
“If you’re the Silver Moon Corps, then why this cart—”
“Liber, shut your mouth.”
Ayla’s voice cut sharply through the air.
Aslo drove into that opening.
“What you’re transporting right now isn’t ordinary cargo. It’s explosives.”
“They’ll be used to attack Arku’s council.”
“And the client won’t want to leave evidence behind.”
“The transporters will be eliminated.”
Aslo swept his gaze over the cart.
The knots of the reinforced cloth,
the texture of the mud on the wheel axle,
the corner of a box that looked as if it had been hastily covered and hidden.
‘Transport.’
That word suddenly grew heavy.
Ayla’s expression twisted.
The chains coiled around Miryeong tightened ever so slightly.
Miryeong ground her teeth and swallowed her breath.
After a moment, Ayla opened her mouth.
“Nonsense. What proof do you have that you’re the Silver Moon Corps?”
Aslo answered,
“None.”
Then he added,
“The Silver Moon Corps does not put its name on anything.”
“If the name of the Silver Moon Corps is attached to it, then that means someone is impersonating the Silver Moon Corps.”
Liber unconsciously touched the inner pocket of his coat.
It was where the commission letter was.
Ayla kept her mouth shut, only her eyes moving.
Aslo changed the original question and threw it back.
“Fine. Then I’ll ask again. Are you certain that commission truly came from the Silver Moon Corps?”
Ayla did not answer.
Instead, she tightened the chains further.
Miryeong’s breath tore once more.
“We’ll discuss this among ourselves.”
Ayla said.
“You two step back and leave your weapons where they are.”
Her gaze shifted from Aslo to Muryeong.
“You’d better not try anything funny. Otherwise—”
The chains rang with a sharp jolt.
Miryeong’s body stiffened in an instant.
“I’ll burn this Haraya on the spot.”
Aslo and Muryeong slowly put distance between themselves and the others.
—
The three of them pressed close beside the cart and began speaking in low voices.
Ayla spoke first.
“Fine. Money isn’t the problem.”
She paused for a moment,
then added as if grinding her teeth.
“But if it isn’t the Silver Moon Corps… who would set up something like this?”
Liber reached out to check the cart’s cargo.
“Liber. Don’t rummage through it carelessly.”
Ayla warned in a low voice.
But Liber had already lifted out one of the boxes.
Inside, a wooden barrel lined with cloth was visible.
When Liber slipped his hand beneath the cloth and pulled it out,
black powder clung to his fingers.
As Liber’s fingertips turned black,
Ayla frowned.
He rubbed it between his fingers and brought it to the tip of his nose.
It was a familiar smell.
Not a forge,
and not a campfire.
The smell of something that, with one wrong touch, could turn a person inside out.
Brak lifted his chin.
“Burn it and it’s over.”
At those far too simple words, Ayla ground her teeth even harder.
Miryeong, still bound, forced her voice out.
It was a sound caught on her breath.
“It’s… gunpowder. You idiots….”
Liber nodded.
Ayla’s lips twisted.
“Tch… Isn’t this actually dangerous?”
Liber continued.
“If what that man said earlier is true… then what we’ll receive won’t be gold, but blades.”
Ayla’s expression hardened.
Brak said in a low voice,
“Then we kill them all.”
“You idiot, I told you to shut up!”
Ayla suddenly shouted.
Brak growled and glared at Ayla.
Liber hurriedly stepped between the two.
“Let’s… let’s pull our hands out of this.”
“What?”
Ayla recoiled.
“What are you talking about?”
Liber swallowed a breath.
“It’s an unofficial commission. No matter how I look at it, it feels wrong.”
“Instead… yes, let’s report that Aslo stole it from us.”
“That wouldn’t be a lie, would it?”
Ayla closed her eyes for a moment as if lost in thought, then opened them.
“Liber. Your instincts… have never been wrong.”
She said it as if chewing the words.
“Fine. Even if we end up having to compensate them, we can cover it with our secret funds.”
Then she reached her conclusion.
“No point dying like dogs.”
Ayla called out.
“Hey, Aslo. You alone, come here!”
Aslo looked briefly at Muryeong.
Muryeong gave a faint nod.
Aslo spread his palms slightly, as if showing his empty hands,
and walked toward the cart alone.
He deliberately moved his feet slowly.
With his palms open,
he maintained the appearance of being “unarmed” until the very end.
Behind him, Muryeong’s presence sank once.
He was not moving,
but he was in a posture that could move at any time.
Aslo sensed it,
and bit the inside of his mouth once.
He must not rush now.
“So.”
Aslo said in a low voice.
“Have you decided?”
Ayla spoke as if grinding her teeth.
“Yeah. This cart. You took it from us. No complaints, right?”
Aslo nodded.
Then his gaze turned to Miryeong, who was tied up.
Ayla immediately continued.
“And we’re taking this Haraya with us.”
At those words,
Aslo’s breathing became extremely shallow.
‘Responsibility for the cart.’
Accepting that was easy.
But taking Miryeong with them
was not a deal, but a threat.
Aslo wanted to take a step forward.
Each time that impulse rose as far as his ankles,
the image of the chains ringing and Miryeong’s body stiffening overlapped in his mind.
If he moved, they would tighten them immediately.
He cast a glance toward Muryeong.
Muryeong’s expression had not changed at all,
but Aslo could see the strength in his fingers shift.
Aslo clenched his teeth,
and first swallowed the decision to stop here.
And that silence
grew even sharper.
Aslo’s brow narrowed.
“Don’t worry.”
Ayla said dryly.
“It’s for our safety. We don’t know what you’ll try.”
She pulled on the chains and seized Miryeong once more.
“Until the edge of the forest. Only until we’re out of sight.”
Ayla looked back at Brak.
“Brak. Pick her up.”
Brak roughly lifted Miryeong with one hand.
The chains were still connected to Ayla’s wrist.
Miryeong clenched her teeth.
Ayla looked Aslo straight in the eye and warned him.
“Stay exactly where you are. Don’t follow us.”
She tightened the chains ever so slightly.
Crackle—
“Ugh…”
Miryeong groaned in pain.
“If you follow… you know what happens, right?”
Aslo did not move a single step.
Ayla glanced once at the wheel axle.
Then the three of them, with Miryeong, left the road and entered the forest.
A few steps between the trees.
Until their shapes were swallowed by the shadows of the leaves, the chains did not slacken.
Aslo and Muryeong merely watched in that direction.
They were mercenaries.
They did not do things when loss was certain.
Aslo and Muryeong continued to wait with that belief.
—
Some time passed,
and Ayla said,
“This should be far enough. Brak, put her down.”
Brak roughly set Miryeong down as if it was a nuisance.
Miryeong swallowed a breath.
“Krgh….”
Ayla crouched and met Miryeong’s eyes.
The corner of her mouth twisted.
“Well then, little dog.”
“We’re leaving. Give Aslo… our regards.”
And once more,
a blue light flashed through the gaps in the chains.
Crackle—
Miryeong’s body stiffened in an instant.
Her breath caught in her throat.
“Krgh… ugh….”
The muscles throughout her body trembled on their own.
Only then did the chains binding Miryeong leave her body.
From her wrists, from her waist, from around her neck—
they came undone one after another.
The three of them simply walked away again.
Ayla turned her head toward Miryeong
and said with a smile,
“Let’s not meet again.”
Then, after a beat, her voice turned cold.
“If we meet next time… you know, right?”
Miryeong clenched her teeth and glared at Ayla.
And so they left.
Miryeong, left behind, could not move for a while.
Miryeong tried to blink,
but even her eyelids would not obey her.
Her fingertips followed belatedly.
The order in which sensation returned was all jumbled,
so her breath began to hurt first.
Then her side stung,
and only at the very end did she feel that the soles of her feet were “standing” on the ground.
Only then did anger rise.
Late, and slowly.
It was an anger heavier than blood.
By the time their figures had completely vanished from sight,
sensation finally began returning to her body.
Miryeong steadied her breathing and slowly rose from where she was.
Her side was still tingling.
“Haa… seriously….”
Her voice was cracked.
Then she muttered as if her breath were leaking out.
“What kind of mess is this….”
Miryeong looked for a moment in the direction where Ayla had disappeared,
then clenched her teeth and turned around.
She had no room to follow her anger.
And she walked toward the place where Aslo would be.