BW C199

Chapter 199

“Lord!”

“Ugh!”

At the sudden obstacle, the lord instinctively pulled the reins. The horse let out a tearing cry, hiiiiing, like a Shikgoe, and raised its front legs high. The horseshoes shot upward, flailing as if they might strike Mother’s face.

Even so, Mother did not move, her eyes wide open.

Soon the horse stopped, and the lord, startled, shouted at Mother as if the world were ending.

“Hey! You crazy woman, move!”

But Mother did not move. Rather, she stepped closer to the horse and thrust her face forward.

“My lord! My lord! It’s me, it’s me. You know me, don’t you?”

“I said move!”

“P-please, just take Muk—just take Taemuk with you.”

The lord did not even look at Mother or Taemuk. He immediately pulled the reins to turn the horse’s head. At that, Mother quickly reached out and grabbed the reins. Then, with fiercely gleaming eyes, she shouted.

“We—my husband and I—we have worked at your house our whole lives! We worked until our bodies broke. We did everything you told us. You know that, don’t you? So, so please take our Taemuk with you. Please!”

Holding Taemuk, Mother rose on her tiptoes. As if to show this small, pitiful child, as if asking to be pitied.

Taemuk did not know what to do and simply stayed still. Even then, the Young Master caught his eye. He seemed to have suffered a great shock and looked completely out of his mind. His usually pale face was streaked with tears, and from one shoulder to his thigh he was soaked in blood.

“Let go, you crazy bitch! Want to die?”

The lord, his face flushed as if it would burst, struggled to pry Mother’s hand off. But it was not easy to shake off Mother as she struggled. She was not holding the reins—she was holding the last chance to save her son. She clung, smiling so hard her cheeks twitched.

“O-our Taemuk doesn’t eat much, and he works well. Even on the run, don’t you need a servant? The Young Master needs someone to attend him. O-our Muk will do well. So please take—”

A shhk sound cut off Mother’s desperate voice.

And Mother’s hand holding the reins fell.

Not that she let go—the wrist itself fell. The lord had cut her wrist with his sword. Her hand, severed like a fruit, rolled on the ground. From above, it looked like Father’s body rolling across the yard.

“Filthy… how dare you…”

Even after cutting her wrist, the lord still seemed not to have calmed down, grinding his teeth as he snarled. Yet with his other hand he firmly held the Young Master to his chest.

“Ha… aaah…”

Mother lifted her severed wrist and collapsed backward. From the shock, Taemuk tumbled onto the ground.

“M-Mother! Mother!”

Taemuk immediately crawled toward her. Mother looked at the wrist spurting blood, then suddenly buried it deep into her skirt. Even then, she must have thought she should not show that sight to a child. Her worn-out, faded skirt dyed red like a bright crimson skirt.

Swallowing dryly, she pointed at the lord with her intact hand.

“Taemuk, follow him. Follow the lord. Okay?”

“…What?”

Taemuk turned his head along her hand. But the lord was already running far ahead. The horse’s mane thrashed, and the lord’s hat shook violently.

Taemuk understood easily. No matter how hard he ran, he could not catch up to them.

Even if he did, he did not think he would live. The lord had used Father, who tried to protect them, as bait. He cut off Mother’s wrist when she begged for mercy. And judging by the fact that only the lord and the Young Master were on the horse, the mistress must have died in a similar way.

Taemuk crawled toward Mother’s skirt.

“I-I don’t want to go. I want to stay with you, Mother. I don’t want to be separated from you.”

At that moment, a Shikgoe holding someone’s leg in one hand came thud, thud, thud toward Mother. Its gaze was fixed on Mother’s blood-soaked skirt.

Seeing that, Mother shoved Taemuk hard and shouted.

“Go!”

“M-Mother…”

“I said go! G—aaah!”

At the end, she screamed. A voice Taemuk had never heard before made all his hairs stand on end. At the same time, unbearable sorrow welled up. Crying, he clung to the hem of her skirt.

“No. I don’t want to go, Mother. I don’t want to go… I want to stay with you. Please…”

Tears like chicken droppings fell from his cheeks. He was afraid. More afraid of being separated from Mother than of dying. With Father gone, there was no way he could live without Mother. For an eight-year-old, parents were the world. Without them, there was no world.

Even as Mother struggled, Taemuk did not let go. In the end, even using her severed hand, she pushed his shoulder—but Taemuk clung stubbornly to her.

Meanwhile, the Shikgoe came right up to them. Realizing it was too late to run, Mother hid Taemuk behind her.

“No… no… no… don’t come…”

She looked up at the Shikgoe and shuffled backward on her bottom. But in the end, the Shikgoe’s shadow fell over both of them.

“Taemuk…”

Mother hugged him with her whole body and curled up tightly. Pinned beneath her, Taemuk only shed tears. Then, through her arm, he saw the lord running away.

The lord riding the horse. And from his side, the ribbon of the Young Master sticking out. The pretty silk ribbon fluttering like a butterfly. Ribbon. Ribbon. Ribbon.

Even in this chaos, Taemuk envied that ribbon that had not a speck of dust nor a drop of blood. Perhaps he resented it. Or perhaps he hated it.

“……”

While he stared blankly at the ribbon—

“Ugh… ugh… no… no… Taemuk… no…”

Mother was torn apart alive by the Shikgoe. Her blood poured into Taemuk’s eyes, nose, and mouth.

The taste of Mother’s blood—

was the taste of feed.

The same feed he had been forced to eat earlier in the stable by the Young Master.

Ah… were we truly beasts?

At that thought—

the Shikgoe’s teeth pierced Taemuk’s chest.

When Taemuk opened his eyes, everything in his vision was white. As if the world had just begun, there was no sky or ground—only white.

Only after staring for a long time did he realize it was not the world that was white, but that he was buried in snow.

He slowly raised his body. But something felt strange. As if something like lead clung to his skin, his senses were dull. The snow did not feel cold. There was also a strange heat. Yet nothing was attached to his body. Only clothes torn to rags.

Taemuk shook his head to brush off the snow, then looked around blankly.

“……”

He was still there. The town he had lived in. But now ruined—or taken. A town without Father, without Mother.

The town covered in snow was quiet and clean. Before he lost consciousness, it had been stained dark with Shikgoe, blood, and corpses. Now it was only white. As if that tragedy had never existed.

But it had existed.

“……”

Taemuk looked at Mother’s wrist lying not far away. Covered in snow, barely visible, yet he knew it was hers. Because he was her son.

He exhaled slowly. His breath came out in white puffs, disappearing again and again.

He did not understand anything. Hadn’t he died? He had been eaten by a Shikgoe—so why was he alive?

As he touched his chest where the teeth had pierced—

Clatter, clatter. Clatter, clatter.

The sound of hooves.

At the sudden noise, Taemuk’s shoulders flinched. Then he grimaced and covered his ears.

“Ugh… ugh…”

The hoofbeats sounded as loud as thunder. As if someone were hammering inside his ears. He shook his head as if struggling—

The hoofbeats stopped nearby.

“What? That kid… is he alive?”

“How is he alive?”

“Too small, so the Shikgoe didn’t notice?”

Men in military uniforms spoke among themselves. Their voices too boomed like drums, heavy and loud. Taemuk wished they would stop talking. Groaning, he writhed and buried his face into the snow. He wanted to go underground. It seemed quiet there.

“What should we do?”

“Let’s take him.”

With that, someone came down to where Taemuk lay.

And then—

his nape was grabbed like an animal and he was lifted up.

Even then, Taemuk kept covering his ears, groaning.