Chapter 5
“……?”
At that moment, Seo Won flinched in surprise and stiffened his body. Then, thinking he might have seen wrong, he rubbed his eyes. The man’s revealed face was certainly quite handsome, but that wasn’t the only reason. His eyes… were strange.
The man’s irises were blue, and it seemed like he had fireflies inside his pupils. The self-glittering and luminous eyes were mystical yet somehow very alien.
‘Is he… human?’
Since opening his eyes in this place, he had only encountered unrealistic things, so his doubts had grown. Except for his eyes, the man was human through and through. The warmth he felt when they touched was also ordinarily normal. Besides, hadn’t they even had a conversation?
No matter how he looked at it, he was definitely human.
Yet he was confused because there was no way to explain the glowing eyes and strange physical abilities.
Whether knowing his feelings or not, the man landed in front of him with a single leap. He was so surprised that he stared blankly, when the man asked in a cold voice.
“Why is a civilian here?”
“……Pardon?”
“You couldn’t have come out alone. Did you survive by yourself?”
A civilian? Seo Won’s mind became even more dizzy at the man’s words. Putting aside the countless circling thoughts, he focused on what the man was asking. He hadn’t come out alone. And whether he had survived alone was still unknown.
Seo Won raised his head to look at the man. After questioning and answering the man’s inquiry to himself, he could understand one fact. That there was a place where people gathered. What tremendous luck.
“Are there people?”
“……”
“Where is that place?”
When Seo Won asked urgently with joy, the man looked at him silently. His large, long-slitted eyes narrowed and gleamed eerily. As if trying to dissect the person in front of him from head to toe.
Seeing the man’s reaction, Seo Won finally realized his mistake. He was about to open his mouth to explain that he wasn’t a strange person when.
“Wait.”
The man made a gesture for him to be quiet.
When Seo Won looked at him questioningly, the man only rolled his eyes to look somewhere. Following his gaze and turning his head, anxiety suddenly struck.
‘Don’t tell me another monster appeared?’
They might be nothing to the man, but they were still objects of fear for him. Because the memory of being threatened by them along with their disgusting appearance was vivid. That’s why Seo Won unconsciously looked for a safe place and hid his body.
Without realizing that it was beside the man.
“……”
At the approaching presence, the man rolled his eyes and stared at Seo Won who was looking around warily. Then, thinking of something, he smiled strangely and said.
“Turncoats are coming.”
“Turncoats?”
“I caught a creature, so there’s no way they wouldn’t come.”
Creature? Was he referring to that monster from earlier? But… what did it mean that turncoats were coming?
Seo Won had so many things he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask. What the turncoats coming this way were, what connection they had to catching creatures, and whether they were dangerous enough to hold one’s breath.
However, since the man who had caught the creature so easily was giving a warning, it seemed he should stay quiet for now.
But…
“What, what is it?”
“What?”
The man suddenly put a quite heavy arm around his shoulder.
What shoulder embrace? No, was he not trying to put his arm around his shoulder but trying to strangle his neck?
“Hiding now would be difficult.”
He clearly didn’t look burly, but his arm was too heavy. It was getting hard to breathe gradually. He was gasping and trying to say something when the man’s large hand covered his mouth.
“Mmph!”
Just as he was about to protest asking what he was doing, the man gestured with his head pointing somewhere. Seo Won turned his head in that direction with inexplicable anxiety.
Then he saw something moving where no one had been just moments before. In the bleached white ruins, it stood out particularly. A pitch-black, massive lump that light couldn’t pass through. Red eyes glinting eerily from within.
A group of something reigning as predators was surveying the surroundings.
‘Those are turncoats?’
Seo Won examined each individual and swallowed dry saliva. He thought turncoats would be people, but they turned out to be creatures. But they were somewhat different from the ones he had seen just before.
Life forms with two arms and two legs that walked bipedally, with heads above their necks and two eyes. They had the appearance of creatures, but they also had human forms.
The man embraced Seo Won who was staring blankly at the turncoats and hid behind a pillar.
Seo Won, who came to his senses belatedly, nodded slightly at the man’s gesture to be quiet. Only then did the hand covering Seo Won’s mouth fall away.
Seo Won, who breathed heavily several times without making a sound, watched the turncoats approaching this way. Their mouths were moving as if they were having conversations among themselves, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying. It was natural since their lips didn’t move like humans but their torn mouths just opened and closed.
The turncoats who had arrived under the building looked around here and there, then flocked around the corpse that the man had dismembered. Then they began picking up the flesh pieces that had fallen on the ground one by one.
‘What?’
Did they have camaraderie among themselves too? Surely they weren’t looking for them with fire in their eyes to get revenge?
Seo Won, who had been warily watching them while tensely on guard, gasped at the turncoats’ next action.
‘What, what are they doing?’
Something shocking happened. The turncoats who had picked up the creature’s flesh began bringing it to their mouths and chewing it. And they looked intoxicated with excitement as if it was so delicious they couldn’t resist.
“……!”
The crunching sounds of chewing echoed through the empty ruins. The texture of the squishy flesh could be felt through sound and sight. The sound of blood dripping and occasional growling throat sounds could also be heard.
Seo Won couldn’t bear to watch anymore and turned his head away. The sight of them eating their own kind was too disgusting. The revulsion was so nauseating that he couldn’t watch any longer.
Come to think of it, the smell was also terribly awful. The fishy and pungent smell he had smelled in the air was strongly felt from them.
Seo Won, who had been frowning deeply, felt the man’s gaze on him and raised his head. Unlike before, he had a strangely interested expression.
‘Why?’
When he asked with his eyes, the man smiled with his eyes curved long.
‘……What.’
Could he smile in a situation like this? Seo Won frowned.
But the absurd fact was that his wildly beating heart was gradually calming down at the man’s such behavior. It seemed his anxiety was fading due to the man’s composure.
Seo Won quietly caught his breath. Thanks to this, his tense body relaxed a little. Seeing him act so leisurely, he thought there might be other ways even if they were caught by the turncoats.
Of course, it would be best not to get caught.
Anyway, if he was going to ask questions, it seemed possible only after the turncoats disappeared.
Feeling the man’s persistent gaze pouring on him, Seo Won turned his head as much as possible. Unless they had a conversation, there was no reason to respond to eyes looking at him silently. He knew that he was examining him to find out something from him.
How much time had passed? While enduring the unpleasant sounds and smells and waiting, it became quiet at some point.
‘Did they leave?’
To check, he slightly raised his head and looked down below.
All the swarming turncoats and the many corpses had disappeared. Only black blood remained sparsely on the broken debris. It seemed they had not only eaten the flesh but licked up all the blood too.
“Haah……”
Finally, a sigh of relief escaped as if he had overcome one big ordeal. Just the fact that he had escaped from dangerous beings made him feel like he could live. However, the moment he took a deep breath, his face crumpled up.
“Shouldn’t we get away from here first?”
“Why?”
“The smell is too terrible, ugh.”
Unable to continue speaking and covering his nose and mouth, the man spat out.
“So fussy.”
At those words, Seo Won’s brow narrowed. It might be familiar to the man, but it was a very unpleasant smell to him. Even though the turncoats had disappeared, it still felt like they were around.
Wanting to quickly get away from this place and about to urge the man, he suddenly asked a question.
“Your name?”
“Huh? Why suddenly ask for my name… No, let’s move first.”
Though Seo Won showed discomfort, the man didn’t budge at all. Acting as if he wouldn’t move unless he heard an answer, Seo Won had no choice but to open his mouth.
“……Yoon Seo Won.”
In his own way of rebelling, he spat out only his name as if speaking informally. However, the man didn’t seem to care. While feeling defeated and dejected, he once again made his own arbitrary announcement.
“If you don’t want to fall, hold on tight.”
“……What?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
