Chapter 43
A shaft of light that had slipped into the auction hall settled down over us.
We were very large, and inside one of us a small-framed woman was confined.
Her eyes and mouth were gagged, her arms and legs bound. Maybe because of the paralysis incense, she was breathing with difficulty, sweating coldly as she drew shallow breaths.
She looked as if she’d been taxidermied while still alive.
“…Is it really necessary to go this far? You’ve put her in a cage embedded with a magic stone.”
“You don’t understand. Even with a special cage like this, the power of that thing is so strong that we can’t control her without using the paralysis incense.”
“I see… So if the paralysis incense wears off, this beast-person could escape?”
“That’s right. So you must be careful.”
“How fascinating…”
The man, failing to pick up the odd tone in my voice, nodded proudly.
I pressed my hands together and made a small sound of wonder, then hinted casually.
“May I come a little closer to look? It’s my first time seeing a Myoin cat-person; I’m curious.”
“But it’s dangerous.”
“It’s fine. She’s tied up tight like that and there’s paralysis incense—how could she threaten anyone?”
I saw Hoyeon’s cat ears prick up. She was listening to my conversation with the man.
‘I hope he doesn’t misunderstand this conversation.’
I worried, for no good reason, that I might be the first to die, but there was nothing to be done.
Smiling innocently and tilting my head, the man reluctantly nodded. He must have been aware of Vincente.
“Yes, all right. But please do not put your hand into the cage or anything like that. That one is a truly dangerous beast-person.”
“Of course.”
I smiled in thanks and stepped closer to the cage. Each step made my hands tingle with tension.
At last I stopped in front of the cage. Hoyeon was motionless like a doll.
Up close, her condition was even more miserable.
She had large and small wounds all over her body, and her white hair was tattered — marks likely made while she was being restrained. A gag covered her mouth.
Slowly I bent down to meet Hoyeon’s eye level. Even though she must have known I was directly in front of her, she showed no reaction.
“It’s hard, isn’t it.”
I whispered softly. The noise filtering in from outside drowned my small voice so the man didn’t hear me.
I lowered my voice even further.
“Hoyeon.”
Startled.
When I called her name, Hoyeon reacted for the first time.
She lifted her head and looked directly at me. Her eyes were covered with a blindfold, but I felt that she was looking at me.
“I’ll help you get out. In return, you help me. If you accept, will you nod your head?”
Hoyeon showed no response for a moment.
In truth, even if she refused my offer I would still go through with my plan, but I tried to act as if I had no lingering hesitation.
After a short while, Hoyeon’s head moved — just a little.
I immediately took out the antidote perfume the man had given me and sprayed it right in front of Hoyeon’s nose.
The man, who had been watching me, was taken aback and rushed over — but it was already too late.
Bang!
With a loud blast, my vision blurred. The strong gust of dust had long ago carried away his mask.
“What did you do just now!”
The man who arrived a step late grabbed my collar. An empty bottle clinked and fell from my hand.
“Cough!”
My throat was already sore from the dust, and with the man clutching my throat it became hard to breathe.
My vision went dim. The man pulled harder on my collar.
Rustle.
At that moment I felt movement behind me and simultaneously the man before me was pierced through the chest.
His eyes widened. What had stabbed through his heart was a pale, bony hand.
“Ugh.”
The man looked down at his chest in disbelief, and as the hand disappeared he vomited blood and collapsed. I, released from his grip, fell as well.
“Cough! Cough!”
Air rushed back into my lungs. Coughing, I slowly raised my head and looked at the white bare feet that had appeared before me.
Hoyeon’s blindfold had been removed; her irises were a mysterious silvery-gray. Her snow-white skin was smeared with red blood. The restraints that had bound her wrists and ankles were long gone.
I glanced at the cage where Hoyeon had been trapped. It was utterly shattered.
‘I knew the beast-people were strong, but…’
I had not expected this level of destruction. At this point it was a wonder how humans had ever managed to capture her.
The sound of the earlier explosion had drawn the staff. They stopped in place, stunned, looking back and forth between the dead man with a pierced chest and Hoyeon.
“The beast-person is free!”
“Subdue her at once!”
The men, unwilling to approach Hoyeon, panicked.
Hoyeon, who had been quietly watching me, turned her head as the men cautiously stepped closer.
As the men flinched, Hoyeon sprang forward. A merciless slaughter unfolded right before my eyes.
The paralysis incense didn’t affect Hoyeon; no one could catch her.
True to the Myoin cat-people’s reputation for being faster than the wind, Hoyeon moved so quickly the eye could not follow.
Only the bloodstains she left behind hinted that she had passed through.
In an instant she subdued every man and walked out alone. I could not bring myself to stop her.
How to put it—
I had read about her strength in books and knew of it, but seeing it was an entirely different thing.
Staring blankly at Hoyeon’s departing back, I slowly rose. My limbs still trembled from the shock of the blast.
“Ugh…”
Averting my eyes from the mangled corpses, I headed to the backstage area where the slaves had been brought out.
Thanks to Hoyeon’s rampage outside, no one was guarding this area.
“It’s okay. I came to help.”
All the captives were children or women. With the key I’d found on the dead man, I unfastened their restraints.
After freeing about ten slaves, I led them out of the hall amid screams.
“P-please… save us—!”
The auctioneer conducting the sale could not even finish a proper scream before he died. The mask he’d dropped while fleeing shattered beneath Hoyeon’s feet. The hall was chaos.
“Hm, better not to look.”
No matter how much I’d seen and endured, such a sight was bad for anyone’s mental health, so I covered the children’s eyes.
Silence gradually fell over the hall that had earlier been filled with screams. I looked around the space.
‘I don’t think anyone’s left alive.’
I’d thought of those people as worse than garbage, but seeing people die firsthand still shook me.
Then Hoyeon approached a child who had collapsed on the stage. Alarmed, I ran toward them.
“Wait! Don’t touch that child!”
The child looked at Hoyeon with a dazed expression.
I quickly pulled the child into my arms. I worried Hoyeon might harm the child simply because she was human.
“This child is a victim too, Hoyeon—just like you.”
“…Who are you, exactly, and how do you know my name?” Hoyeon asked, frowning.
I hesitated over what to say. After a pause I managed to answer.
“You once protected someone important to me.”
It was a story from a book, a future event, but—
“I’ve never protected a human.”
“You may not remember, but it’s a fact that because of you my child was safe.”
At my words Hoyeon furrowed her brow as if trying to recall, but she could not remember something that had yet to happen.
Taking advantage of her confusion, I pressed on.
“Hoyeon, remember what I said earlier? If I help you escape, you’ll help me too.”
“…”
Hoyeon gave no reply. But she didn’t need to.
For beast-people, a promise is almost like an oath. Once a promise is made, there is no going back.
“First, let’s get out of here.”
This was no time to be talking; people could come rushing in at any moment. I gathered the child and stood.
Hoyeon regarded me with a strange look.
I began to search for an escape route.
Using the elevator would be dangerous. Guards protecting the casino were stationed upstairs. If it were only Hoyeon and me, it might be possible, but I couldn’t run with a group of people.
‘There must be a secret route.’
I’d read in the book that Vincente had prepared a secret route underground.
He had escaped through that route in a moment of crisis.
Where was it?
I scanned the surroundings. The description said it was the deepest, darkest part of the underground auction house—dangerous yet safe.
‘Where on earth is that?!’
The descriptions were abstract, so I couldn’t be sure.
‘The deepest, darkest place. Dangerous yet safe…’
