March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 133

“Ah, ah… what do I… do, General…”

Gi Taejeong closed his eyes deeply, then opened them.

General.

How much he had missed Sehwa’s voice calling him.

After letting Sehwa go, Gi Taejeong had lived only in the fantasy he had created. In it, he was still a General, and Sehwa called him, smiling brightly, just like any other day.

They would pick apples and cherries together at their usual department store, talk softly on the bed with a cream-colored reading lamp on, and then fall asleep together. They drank at the small bar in his official residence and went for drives. Real events and things he belatedly wanted to do for Sehwa intertwined, blurring the line between what was real and what wasn’t.

The destination of his dreams was always the 5-star beach. Gi Taejeong gazed endlessly at Sehwa’s clear face, who kept laughing, saying the sand tickled his bare feet, even though he knew it wasn’t real.

Then, occasionally, Sehwa would tug at the hem of his top, gently encouraging him to go see the child, saying it was okay to hold them. He would add a stern scolding, saying he should apologize to Haerim, but… Still, with a docile and lovely voice, Gi Taejeong nodded repeatedly and whispered to the child countless times.

“Back then, I said things I shouldn’t have to you, using the excuse that I was out of my mind. I was so sorry, and I still am, Haerim.”

And Sehwa, to you too.

“Blood… General, there’s too much blood…”

The sparkling fantasy slowly melted away with each blink. The dazzling white sand scattered into particles, and in the place where the light vanished, the chaotic scene of the protection room rushed in.

“This… h-how… what do I do…”

Gi Taejeong gripped the doorframe, slowly gasping for breath. He fumbled at the gushing wound with his other hand, and the location was worse than he thought. Only then did he feel a little dizzy.

“Damn it, it’s already ruined…! If I just kill him, I’ll get a generous sum of money at least!”

“N-no…!”

The villain’s vulgar struggle and Sehwa’s tearful scream brushed past his ears, and at the same time, another scalpel flew in, grazing an ambiguous spot near his sternocleidomastoid muscle. The thin skin of the special makeup greatly rippled, and the voice changer chip attached inside clattered to the floor.

The small fry who had wielded the scalpel at him was limping badly. He couldn’t maintain his balance properly, so the force was concentrated in the hand he used to stab. From his perspective, there was no way to explain the current situation other than that he was lucky. He just happened to hit the target angle perfectly and, by chance, was able to put his full weight into it…

“General!”

He laughed like a madman. He wasn’t a General anymore. He had one more star, he was a Director. It felt so good to be called General by Sehwa. So much so that he didn’t care about being stabbed by a scalpel wielded by a petty bastard he could send to hell with a flick of his finger.

“Here! Someone call for help quickly, here…!”

Behind him, he heard the sound of feet stomping restlessly, not knowing what to do. The child in Sehwa’s arms also cried, their wails growing louder and then softer.

Gi Taejeong shook his head like a snorting horse, trying to clear his constantly blurring vision. This was no time for sentimentality. He grabbed the back of the head of the guy trying to crawl away on his knees and slammed his face hard onto the floor. Even with that little force, blood gushed from the area where the knife had been plunged.

He threw the crushed, bug-like guy away and slowly walked to the island table. Then he carefully placed the torn gown he had secured earlier on the countertop. He had laid it face down so the chip was visible, so Commander Oh Seonran would find it suspicious and check it immediately.

“Just a moment, I’ll call someone…”

“I told you not to come out, go inside.”

Sehwa’s eyes trembled greatly at the low, hoarse voice. Even though he had probably guessed it was him, hearing his real voice seemed to evoke new emotions.

“You hear the door being forced open, right? Trustworthy people will be here soon, so just wait in the bedroom until then.”

“But…”

“I’m fine.”

He was standing upright, not collapsed. He even said he didn’t particularly hurt, which made Sehwa’s expression peculiar. He was biting his lower lip so hard that his jaw was wrinkled like a walnut. If he smiled and said that expression was so rare and welcome, would Sehwa be dumbfounded?

“It’s nothing.”

“How can it be nothing when you’re bleeding like that?”

“Compared to how much you suffered because of me… this is truly nothing.”

“……”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. This much, if I take medicine…”

It was better this way. Now that he could even be charged with assassinating an officer, he could completely finish the Kim family with this incident. Even though he was absurdly caught off guard because he lost himself in thought, he got to hear Lee Sehwa’s voice calling him, and that was enough…

“Responding to the call! Is everything alright?”

The front door was finally torn open, and the allied forces guarding outside poured in. Gi Taejeong, who had been observing the movements of the men stepping inside just in case, finally relaxed when he heard Commander Oh Seonran’s booming voice over the radio. The sharp glint in his eyes slowly softened into languor.

“General…?”

Suddenly, his vision greatly distorted, and his knees gave way. In that brief moment as his body collapsed, Gi Taejeong unfolded and refolded countless times his shabby, uncool repentance, belated regret, and clumsy affection.

“General…!”

An unfamiliar darkness, accompanied by the smell of blood, rushed in.

Yet, he thought that the blackout, coinciding with Lee Sehwa’s desperate call, wasn’t so bad.

Sehwa nervously paced the hospital corridor.

Lieutenant Na, no, Captain Na, had told him to wait a moment, but why hadn’t he come yet? And what kind of place was this, with no guidance whatsoever? Do they usually not even put up signs for officers’ operating rooms? Because of security… or something? But still, for surgery, it’s normal for doctors and nurses to be bustling in and out, isn’t it? Yet, he saw no people, not even robots carrying surgical tools or medical supplies.

The ominous silence unnerved him, and Sehwa shivered slightly. What if… just what if something irreversible had happened? What if that mountain-like man, Gi Taejeong… had collapsed and couldn’t get up again?

“No, no way…”

Sehwa scolded himself for constantly having such morbid thoughts. He was speaking quite well right before he collapsed, wasn’t he? He even had enough strength to beat down the bad guys, so…

“…He said he was fine, anyway.”

Regardless of his long-held feelings, he hadn’t wanted to see Gi Taejeong die—no, get hurt—in this manner.

“He also said it was nothing…”

Haerim had been temporarily moved to the newborn care unit, and Lieutenant Park, no, Captain Park, said he was cleaning up the recovery room.

He was told that it was an act instigated by beneficiaries of Lieutenant Colonel Kim’s scholarship foundation, like the doctor who had spoken harshly to him during a previous check-up. They seemed to have intended to take him and the child hostage to force Gi Taejeong to the negotiating table, and Commander Oh Seonran was personally investigating the detailed circumstances.

This was all the information Sehwa had received.

When he urgently asked for a real doctor, saying his neck had been stabbed and was bleeding so much, the soldiers who broke open the door also moved with urgency.

However, during the identity verification process, when it was revealed that the collapsed person was Brigadier General Gi Taejeong—no, Director Gi Taejeong—the soldiers’ attitudes became peculiar.

Of course, their speech and demeanor were extremely polite. They quickly prepared for transport, and Gi Taejeong’s adjutants were hastily summoned. That was it. No one present showed any sense of urgency. Besides the stabbed neck, Gi Taejeong’s palm was also severely torn while dealing with the attackers. Even though it seemed like a critical situation that called for immediate action, everyone seemed to be moving sluggishly.

“Mr. Sehwa.”

Lieutenant Na, no, Captain Na, and Warrant Officer Choi approached with a bow. There was a hint of welcome in their eyes, seeing him after a long time.

“I apologize for the late greeting earlier, I was flustered. It’s been a while. How have you been?”

Sehwa found the developing situation increasingly incomprehensible. It was good to be welcomed. But it was strange that even Gi Taejeong’s adjutants were so nonchalant when it was none other than Gi Taejeong himself in such a state.

“General, no, Director’s condition…”

“Oh, he’s fine. You must have been very surprised, weren’t you?”

“I’m perfectly fine. But that… anyway, he was severely injured…”

The title ‘Director’ felt unfamiliar on his tongue, so Sehwa subtly slurred the title.

“Oh, come on. He’s the Director.”

Captain Na continued to explain as if it were no big deal.

“Hmm, first of all… a small amount of anesthetic was found in his blood, but it’s actually better this way.”

He had been waiting anxiously for someone to ask various questions. But even Captain Na’s words were heading in a completely different direction from what Sehwa had expected.

“If it had been a strange drug, it might have been a bit troublesome, but since it’s a real anesthetic used in hospitals, it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

The voice delivering the news was excessively cheerful. Sehwa, somehow bewildered, merely parted his lips before managing to speak.

“…Ah, um… what about the place where he was stabbed? Is he undergoing surgery right now?”

“Oh, that’s nothing. One recovery pill is enough.”

“……”

“Anything else you want to know?”

That was all. Sehwa blinked slowly in disbelief, then grabbed Captain Na.

“Recovery pill? Why isn’t he having surgery?”

“Oh, come on. Surgery for something like this?”

Something like this…? Blood had gushed from his neck like a burst dam, and it was “something like this”?

“Wait a minute. That, I know recovery pills are good. But his skin was all torn there, and he bled a lot…”

“That’s right, if it were anyone else, they would have been rushed to the emergency room immediately. And even then, the chances of survival would be very low.”

But he’s Director Gi Taejeong.

Captain Na kept using the phrase “it’s fine because he’s Gi Taejeong” as if it were an all-purpose shield.

“He doesn’t have bullets lodged in his body or anything piercing him, so there’s really no need for surgery. He’ll shake it off and get up quickly with time.”

Captain Na reassured Sehwa that a knife wound and some torn skin were nothing to Gi Taejeong. He seemed to be speaking lightly on purpose to comfort him and tell him not to worry… but it didn’t reassure him at all.

Instead, his stomach churned as if he was about to vomit.

Had Gi Taejeong always taken it for granted that no one would worry about him, even when he was injured to a degree that ordinary people couldn’t gauge between life and death… just swallowing a recovery pill and putting his uniform back on as if nothing had happened? Every time, for his whole life, like that…?