Chapter 10.1 - Dither

In a lush forest, a woman with braided-hair looking at the man in front of her with a tinge of fear. For the first time, she sees someone kill another creature easily — even though it's justifiable when those goblins attack them first.

Still, she never sees this kind of gory scenery even in a horror movie because of her overprotective brother. Her first experience to see bloody things is on this scale which of course, make her terrified.

That man bathes with monsters blood while swinging and changing swords — every time he kills a monster, he roars like a hot-blooded warrior while emits a terrifying aura that even makes goblins step back from fear.

'How can you kill without any doubts?'

'What did you do on earth that need this skill?'

'Will he kill me later?'

Many thoughts floating around inside her head while observing that man slays those goblins. Her hand trembles without she realizes — she knows this man is scary.

After killing those green monsters, that man changes into his calm demeanor. He turns around facing her and then looking at her expression. She doesn't dare to face him and then looking at the ground.

"Are you afraid of me?" he asks with a weak smile.

She wants to answer no, after all, she doesn't know if that man will choose to kill her based on her answer. However, she felt a slight tremble in his tone. She stops looking downward and looks at his face — there is a tinge of sadness in his weak smile.

She has the knack to read people emotions from a young age — even though he tried to hide his sadness, she still can perceive it.

'Please, don't look at me with that expression,' she thinks.

She understands that he genuinely wants to protect her, and she's grateful for it, but killing is still scary whether to protect herself or others. However, they are a different person with different values of life — she can't arbitrarily judge him without even knowing his circumstances.

'Why you even protect me? We never met before," she wants to ask but there no words coming out from her mouth.

"Yes, I afraid of you," after looking at that man expression she can't bring herself to lie, "However, my gut tells me that I can trust you."

"I won't let down your trust," he says with a genuine smile after hearing her answer.

…

She's following behind that man with her erratic breath, try to escape from goblins horde. Sometimes, there are one or two goblins in their way, but he slays those goblins swiftly and then took some kind of crystal from their bodies.

She runs without letting out a single complain because she understands how dire is their situation. However, he always knows when she can't run again, he won't force her and instruct them to rest for a while.

After a while, they finally can't see any goblins again which made her relaxed. However, even those lax feeling is only for a wink, that man realizes a sudden attack by a black liquid.

"Watch out," he grabs her body and then rush behind a big tree.

She opens her eyes and finds out how close they're, she never this close with a man other than her brother, "what hap…" she wants to ask but it was cut off after seeing blood on his hands.

"It's poison," he mumbles with a grave expression.

"What do you me…" she wants to ask again but stops after seeing his unexpected action, he cut his left hand without any hesitation. He's doing something that even murderers will hesitate when they do it.

However, she realizes that's not a look of a murderer — it's a look of a survivalist. She realizes how different they are, and why he can kill those goblins without hesitation. He's not a psychopath or anything — he just spends his life in a harsh environment and ready to throw everything to preserve his life.

'How precious that person to him?' he asks in her mind after remembering how this kind of man instinctively protect her.

She looks at him, who still peeking towards their attacker, he mumbles inaudible words. However, she knows from his pale expression that this opponent is much — much stronger than those goblins combined. With his left hand gone, there is no way he can slay his enemy like earlier.

His pale expression is different from how he sees those goblins earlier, right now, he's staring as if all hope's lost.

'Will he use me as bait?' she closes her eyes and quivers when thinking that. After all, this man is readily cut his arm off when he thinks there are no ways to save it — why he won't cut her off when he can't see any way to save her.

However, the words she imagined doesn't come.

"Hear me out, run towards the south as far as possible while I distract him," an unexpected words coming out from his mouth, she knows this isn't a lies — he wants her to escape even though he'll die in the process.

She doesn't know what to say in this situation, but after looking at his determined expression, she finally nods.

"Good," he says with a smile.

…

In a lush forest, Emily runs but still can't get out that man from her mind. Every time she steps forward, her step becomes heavier, burdened by her conscience that she survive with others live as a price. Even though she didn't know much about that man and felt he was kinda scary, she still felt wrong to run like this — he saves her many times earlier, is it right to return it with sacrificing her savior life?

She's not sure.

What she certain is — this is contradictory with her belief.

In only a few minutes running from Elias place, she stopped her running. She's looking behind her with a face full of concern — her will to run waverings.

"I must be the stupidest person on earth," she grabs the sword given by Elias and then turns around — to run towards him.

However, in her ways, she never realizes that there are more than twenty pairs of eyes watching her closely. When she rest for a moment, a familiar sound comes from the trees.

Kiaaak!

"Goblins?" he stunned after hearing those noises and then grab her swords. She doesn't know how to fight, but her brother teaches her some basic of self-protection. Even though she knows it's probably not enough, but she needs try to protect herself.

She tries to calm her trembling hand while observing everything around her — waiting for those goblins movements.

Kiaaak! Kiaaak! Kiaaak!…

Series of goblins scream reverberate in this forest which makes her shudder. However, after a while, those screams stop, and there is no sign that goblins anymore after that.

She still not let her guard down even though there is no sign of goblins — waiting for something to come out. Not long after, a man wearing clean casual attires come out from between the trees, he's looking at her with a smile.

"Sorry for making you wait, Emily. There is a slight obstacle in the way."

"Big brother, is that you?" her nervousness subsides and then she sits down in the ground after hearing his voices.

She doesn't think how her brother can be here, what she can only sense is a relief when seeing him.

This man is her half-brother, sibling from different mothers. Although they only half-sibling, their relationship is good. He works at night in his own security firm — even though he never discloses his job to them.

"Yes it is truly me," he's chuckle after hearing her reaction, "C'mon stand up, I want to search little sister after this."

"Ah, wait a moment, big brother. There is someone…" she explains her situation, telling her brother about Elias and how she wants to save him, "… is that possible brother?"

She asks him for his advice, after all, he's wiser and much stronger than her.

He chuckles after hearing her question, "I can't believe he didn't have any ulterior motive when seeing my cute sister. However, he's still your savior, please entrust it to me."

Emily smile after hearing her brother words, this means there are chances for him to survive. She carried by her brother in piggyback — there is no change in his rhythmical breath even though he's carrying her while running, but Emily didn't notice this fact.

When they arrive in Elias place, they notice he laying on the ground with severe wounds while there is no sign of his opponent earlier. However, there a goblin swing a sword toward his head — try to kill him.

Before Emily notices, she already below nearest tree while her brother appears behind the goblin. She doesn't know what happens, but the goblin internal organs splatter and its blood gushing from its pore. This scenery is gory, but she has some immunity to it.

While about how her brother can subdue that goblins don't make her wonder. If even Elias can slay goblins, she's sure that her brother whom she considers as strongest from her childhood can subdue a goblin or two.

She runs towards Elias, tries to help him after seeing his injuries.

"Why are you back here," he says after seeing her face, she can hear a slight tone of anger from his voice between his erratic breath.

"Hey, you can survive only because she wants to go back here," her brother says with an angry tone after hearing Elias remarks.

"Brother," she reprimands.

Elias looks towards Emily's brother after he realizes there is another person in this place other than her. At first, his appearance is a bit blurry because of some blood in his eyes, but after a while, he can see who is it.

His calm expression change into a shocked one, without he realizes two words come out from his mouth, "Kim Hansoo."