Jimin swung her arm across the air. It was an attack, but Jimin did not move her feet. She was a few meters away from Shin Nahee, but it was not enough for her arm to reach her. Jimin’s fist grasped the air where there was nothing. However, as she twisted and pulled, the air around her began to distort as if she had twisted time itself which was in front of her. As she pulled, the space in front of her, where Shin Nahee was standing, was pulled also.
In the next instance, she reached out and grasped Nahee’s neck. It took less than a second. She heard the sounds of the neckbones crushing, but Jimin did not stop. She knew it wasn’t enough to kill her. Jimin then began to crush the entire space where Nahee had been standing. It was a prison that no one, not even Shin Nahee, could walk out of in one piece. No one in the Gibbous Army could match Jimin in terms of pure force.
With the chilling sound of the crushing bones, Jimin was certain.
‘It’s over.’
When she heard the bones clattering instead of crushing, she stood in alarm.
“…Huh?”
She noticed that it wasn’t Shin Nahee that she just killed.
Why?
This wasn’t an illusion. She had been wary of Shin Nahee for a long time, and Jimin had built various resistances against illusions or hypnotic types of attacks. Her attack was perfect also.
Even if it was Shin Nahee, there was no way for her to be prepared against such a sudden attack.
But in this case…
“Your guess is right.”
From the corner of the room, Nahee appeared through the darkness. Just like Jimin thought, there was no illusion, but a disguise and control. Nahee had placed her guise on the person and had controlled it to act as her even before Jimin walked into the room.
“I knew that you would become angry and try to fight. I was going to call you, remember?”
“…”
Jimin was not a fool. Nahee was trying waste no time by making Jimin answer her question. That’s why she reached out, or tried to rather, if it wasn’t for the sticky substance that the crushed body had turned into, was binding her entire body.
“You…!”
“I know you’re strong, but that’s hard to get off.”
Nahee waved her finger with a smile.
“It binds the killer with stronger power. That’s how it works.”
Jimin looked at Nahee in disbelief. How did she know? And prepare?
“You know, this is why I like you.”
“What?”
“Your actions aren’t any different from your words. I can see that. I can see that you love Dohyuk, not the Great Emperor. Just like me.”
“What the f*ck are you talking about!”
“It’s like now. If it were Dohyuk, he would’ve done the same. Just like you, no questions asked. Just charge straight in toward the ‘villain’.”
Jimin grimaced.
“What does that have to…”
“It matters. You want to follow Dohyuk’s path. You want to think like him, act like him… and even think, that IS you.”
“Think? You mad b*tch. Think about what you just did! You just killed people for fun…”
“And how about you?”
How about you? Jimin couldn’t help but scoff.
“ME? Am I to hear that from the likes of you?”
“Uh, because we’re alike?”
Nahee then looked down at the ground.
“So, how did you feel against ‘her’? The one you just killed, who was alive just until a minute ago.”
“…”
Jimin gasped. She understood what she meant. If it was Dohyuk, he would not have needed this long to understand what he had done. If he knew that it was an innocent person he mistakenly killed, he would be in shock right at that moment.
“Oooh, you’re shocked,” Nahee cackled. “When you walked in, you were looking at me and that man with his skin pulled off. Oh, wait. Not me, the other girl.”
“…”
“But you didn’t attack me right away. Rather, you asked if he did anything wrong, even when you knew he didn’t do anything. You knew that in Dohyuk’s point of view, the man would be innocent no matter what, but you didn’t do anything. Do you know why?”
“Because… I can’t just… attack…”
“Wrong.”
Nahee crossed her fingers with both hands to form an ‘X’.
“You need time to ‘dive’ into your role. You don’t care if a man’s being tortured or not. But you love Dohyuk, and you want to be like him. You are in delusion that you are a true follower of Dohyuk.”
“N-no.” Jimin’s voice was shaking now. She looked down and looked at the body that was now a liquid mixture that was stuck on her body.
When she found out that she had killed wrong person, she felt no guilt. She just felt frustration and shock.
That was it.
“I was… just… panicked…”
“Well, you can think straight now. Think about all the things that you ‘had to’ do after you partnered with me. Did you really ‘hate’ doing it? Did you really feel uncomfortable for what you just did? Do you hate me because of those reasons?”
“…”
Shin Nahee clapped and the bind on Jimin scattered into dust. There was no need to bind her anymore. Jimin’s enemy was not Nahee.
“So, how does it feel to realize your delusion?”
“Even if… if it was…”
Jimin looked up toward Nahee, yet there was nothing in her eyes. There was no hatred, anger, or distrust. There was only the shock of realization.
“Even if… What you did… is not right. You didn’t need to inflict pain onto those people.”
“No, there is need.” Nahee’s face turned cold instantly. “I needed to check to see if torturing is a viable method to get those coins. I also need to see if there is any fast and systematic way to acquire those coins. It will be vital to know how to acquire those coins from now on.”
“…”
“But in your twisted, delusional eyes, it might have looked wrong. You probably thought Shin Nahee the mad b*tch was doing bad things that went against Dohyuk’s will.”
“D-Dohyuk… will not approve…”
“Of course not. Of course it will be wrong in his eyes.”
Shin Nahee agreed.
“But so what?”
“…”
“Why do we have to do as Dohyuk wants? Because we love him? Isn’t that bit too much to ask? It’s not like there’s only us and Dohyuk in this world. There’s going to be plenty of them out there who think the same way as me. Should we keep our minds pure and beautiful just for Dohyuk when we meet him someday? And fall behind?”
Jimin shook at the last word and Nahee did not look at her. This was, after all, the reason Jimin was staying with the Gibbous Army. The army grew, and so did Nahee. Jimin had benefitted from it too. She was after all, 2nd ranked in terms of power in the army.
She missed Dohyuk of course. But just like Nahee believed, she too knew that Dohyuk would not die so easily.
As much as she wanted to meet Dohyuk, she also wanted to become powerful. She knew how sad it was to fall behind and not be able to stand beside the one she loved.
“Even if we don’t consider Phenomenal Nine, there are dangerous ones out there in the peninsula still. I have eyes on the Full Moon, but we don’t know if there’s a trace of Crescent and the Full Moon. They are all crazy sons of b*tches. Do you really want to lose Dohyuk to those fools?”
“N…no…”
“Sure. Me too.” Nahee smiled in agreement. “I don’t want that either. That’s why we have to work together. For now, we have to find a way to collect these coins as fast as we can.”
And then Nahee walked forward. Jimin was already slumped on the ground.
“I…”
“Don’t worry. The worst part is over.”
Nahee’s hand softly touched Jimin’s shoulder.
“Now, I need your help. But don’t worry. Even if you are the one doing it, I will be the one who will receive all the hate. Remember that I will kill myself when I put Dohyuk on the throne?”
Jimin knew it was nonsense, but she couldn’t resist.
“Together, we will become strong.”
After all, Jimin was also a beast, a slave who was hungry for power.
It took one week.
After changing all metals into cubes, Dohyuk sold all of them to the Bermurans in exchange for coins. There was so much that there was still half of it left even after the transaction was complete, and Dohyuk had the remaining amount stored in the city’s storage.
The city was going to move anyway. If there was a buyer for those metals, he could save it for that instance.
“Our trade is done. We can set sail within 10 minutes when you give us the order.”
“Thank you, everyone.”
“No, Boss. Compared to all the things you’ve done…”
They had stayed for a total of six days here, but it was because Dohyuk had to go all over the place that they had to stay for 3 more days than expected.
“Have you decided on the destination?” Giwon asked.
Dohyuk had been hesitant about where to go next until the following morning.
Now, he was confident.
“Yes. Tell the people.”