March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 96

“B-Brigadier General… what are you talking about… Aaaah!”

At Ms. Song’s desperate scream, Sehwa sprang to his feet.

“Ugh…!”

His resolve was strong, but his wretched body, devoid of any strength to endure, quickly collapsed. His twisted ankle now hurt more than words could express. The pain was so intense that he yearned for the healing medicine Gi Taejeong had given him before. He didn’t know if it was broken or what, but every time he moved, he heard bone fragments rattling from the twisted joint.

Sehwa hunched his back awkwardly, gasping, then clenched his fists tightly again. As he took a deep breath to forget the pain, sticky, dirty air clung to the back of his throat.

– 2 minutes left.

At the low warning, Sehwa barely managed to stand up. Every time he coughed, it felt like all his internal organs were jolting. It felt like an invisible hand was clutching his heart and lungs, squeezing them at will.

He stumbled through the blind darkness, occasionally stopping to check below. He worried if he might start bleeding again, but thankfully, he was still fine for now.

“Sprout… sprout…”

With one hand, he gripped his left thigh, and with the other, he cradled his stomach. He held his terribly thin belly, pressing it, and kept calling out to his baby, who must have been very startled. Even if it only made the baby shrink along with his own unstable heartbeat, he still tried to soothe it constantly, even while short of breath, hoping it would feel safe just by hearing his voice.

“I’m… gasp, I’m fine, not scared at all, I’m, hiccup, not at all… sprout… ah.”

– 1 minute.

Ah. Sehwa gritted his teeth. Although he was trying to move as fast as he could, reaching the ship area in just one minute with his current physical condition was utterly impossible.

He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Leaving aside his own physical state, he thought Gi Taejeong would surely know that if he had hidden somewhere nearby, it would be impossible to appear before him within 5 minutes.

He was flailing, passing the containers that stood tall like a dam, and finally reached a crossroads. The moment he took a trembling step, several sharp gunshots rang out from the harbor entrance. Sirens wailed and cut off repeatedly, as if something was being taken and retaken. And that eerie noise felt like a savior to Sehwa.

Sehwa gasped for breath and looked around. He still didn’t sense the search party. So, just a little… should he try to hold out longer?

At any rate, it seemed certain that another force had arrived. Whether it was General Oh Seonran or Lieutenant Kim, or someone else at odds with Gi Taejeong… it didn’t matter who. Since they seemed to be using force over there too, if the commotion grew, wouldn’t Gi Taejeong prioritize that over him?

– Oh, h-huh, Brigadier General, I really don’t know anything… I just did young Sehwa a favor, sob…

“…Ah.”

Sehwa, who had been cautiously glancing up to gauge the situation, dropped his head weakly. As if to tell him not to entertain foolish thoughts, his aunt’s wailing, even more intense, began to pour out through the speakers.

– Brigadier General, please don’t do this… I really don’t know anything…

– Why are you like this, ma’am? Sehwa might think I’ve harmed you. That’s not true, is it?

– Please save me, sob, Brigadier General, I’m truly a pitiful person… I’ve been paying off debts until my back broke… Please, Brigadier General…

– Yes. I’ll save you when Sehwa comes out. So tell him quickly. That you’re perfectly fine, without a single scratch.

– Sob, hiccup…

– Quickly. It’ll be a big problem if Sehwa misunderstands, won’t it?

His aunt’s shallow sobs, like a clumsy tragic background music, and the clanking sound of guns being aimed, made it impossible for Sehwa to be selfish.

– Sob, young man… young Sehwa, I… I’m… hiccup, I’m still fine, still…

If his aunt hadn’t smiled and called him like a son. If he hadn’t known the story of her real son dying after taking out private loans. If he hadn’t even heard that it wasn’t because his business failed or he lived extravagantly, but because he gambled…

– I’m sorry, but please save me, save the people here…

He thought it had all burned to ashes. But a small piece of his heart, still alive and breathing, flowed like poison through all his veins.

He wanted to scream like a madman. He wanted to save himself immediately, even if others died. But… a short acquaintance who had only shown him kindness, an innocent aunt who might die a dog’s death, dragged to the harbor for no reason… it was hard to pretend he didn’t know.

– Oh, Sehwa. 5 minutes are up.

The megaphone was needed on this side. Was he even serious? Anyway, he wasn’t hiding anymore, he was diligently coming towards him. Wasn’t that enough? Even if he didn’t know his leg was broken or damaged… he could at least wait that long, couldn’t he?

– H-hic! B-Brigadier General! W-what… what is that…!

His aunt’s frantic scream, incomparable to before, made Sehwa anxious. He swallowed his curses, limping almost on tiptoes, when suddenly an ear-splitting roar, as if the heavens and earth were shaking, tore through his ears. It was an explosion that sounded as if the world had collapsed, mocking Sehwa’s clumsy and slow steps.

“…What, on earth…”

He had heard a similar sound before. In the shelter in the 1st Ring where he had infiltrated with Gi Taejeong, when Gi Taejeong fired a bazooka and the entire building collapsed… that’s when such a loud noise occurred.

– Aaaah!

His aunt’s distraught wailing and the sound of something bursting echoed through the harbor. The horrified screams of people hiding near the ships surged.

Sehwa looked around wildly, his mind blank. He knew it wouldn’t show him anything, but he did it anyway, clutching at straws.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like anyone had been shot. This was clearly the sound of something, something as large as a building, being destroyed. But what exactly, what had collapsed? It didn’t seem aimed at him, at least…

Any thought of not being discovered had long been discarded, so Sehwa walked, hitting the containers and pallets with his palm, making hollow sounds. As he got closer to the sea, the acrid smell of gunpowder lingered at his nose.

He forced his body, which kept wanting to give up, forward. Bending his back awkwardly, as if it would break, he barely escaped the forest of stacked blocks, and then,

“…He’s, crazy…”

Only then did he see a small flame rising like a torch beyond the sea. If it was visible even from here, its actual size would not be small. A ship? A lighthouse? He didn’t know exactly what was burning, but it was clearly Gi Taejeong’s doing.

– Oh, right… you were a bit clumsy at running, weren’t you? And your ankles are so thin.

Gi Taejeong murmured in an utterly fresh voice, calmly ignoring his aunt, who was screaming in panic, and the people flailing around like water fleas, shouting, “What is this?”

– I don’t know what guts you had to cause such a big mess when you couldn’t even run properly without me… but fine, I’ll take that into consideration.

Small explosions echoed repeatedly on the water’s surface. Fuel inside the ship must have caught fire, as the small flickering flames now rose high, forming a pillar-like shape.

– What I just shot were the rat bastards Lieutenant Colonel Kim secretly attached… but there won’t be a next time.

Gi Taejeong whispered, as if admonishing him.

– There really won’t be, Sehwa.

Sehwa stared blankly ahead, dumbfounded. Gray smoke spread like spider’s hands across the sky above the sea, which had been clean as if separated from the harbor.

– Young man, young Sehwa…! I’m sorry, but please save us… come quickly… I don’t know what’s going on, but tell the Brigadier General not to do this… please?

His aunt, desperately calling for him, seemed almost out of her mind. Workers hiding in various places also began calling out Sehwa’s name, using small megaphones they had.

“Damn it, he’s going to get innocent people killed!”

“Sehwa or whatever you are, you bastard, come out when we’re being nice, huh?”

“Yeah, if we find you first, we’ll beat you up a few times and hand you over to them! Don’t want to get beaten? Then hurry up and come out!”

The accusations of the people, asking why he would drag innocent people to their deaths as companions on the road to hell, when he could just die alone if he wanted to, pierced Sehwa’s heart.

Is this hell? Sehwa, his body limp like paper dissolved in water, ran again. Then he fell, barely got up, but fell again after a few steps… He repeated this several times, until he finally cried out, sobbing.

“…I’m, here! I’m here!”

He scraped the ground until his fingernails bled, crying and shouting as if rolling.

“Stop it… I’m out… so…”

If he were caught by Gi Taejeong again… he expected, at most, to be treated like a tool. That he would discard all pretense of having changed, and look at him like an object again… He was prepared for that much. He had vowed not to be hurt anymore, that it wouldn’t happen, and that even if he were pushed into a courtroom by Gi Taejeong, he wouldn’t utter a single word he wanted to hear.

However, the end of his brief rebellion was more devastating than Sehwa could have imagined. The tyrant, as if determined not to repeat his past mistakes, pulled out his most effective and cruel card to choke Sehwa’s breath.

“Stop it, I’m coming to you…!”

He slammed his fists onto the asphalt in a fit of rage, and both his wrists, which were in as bad a state as his ankle, dangled at an odd angle.

And… as if waiting for Sehwa’s surrender, a vast sphere of light, crafted from light, dropped from the sky. Lights, whose source was unknown, began frantically sweeping the entire area where the containers were placed.

Sehwa, with grimy tear tracks on his dust-covered face, looked up blankly at the sky. Dozens of drones flew overhead, scattering pinpricks of light, and giant lights suspended from cranes, like hundreds of eyes, glittered and tightened their grip on everything.

The erratically hovering devices finally found Sehwa, who was slumped in a corner, and dropped bomb-like masses of light towards him. Drones, swarming blackly like a hive of bees, buzzed disgustingly right above Sehwa’s head.

At some point, no sound came from the speakers. All he could see was a world entirely white, as if not of this earth, and all he could feel was the salty sea breeze carrying fine dust. Sehwa, like a broken robot, mumbled haltingly, “Stop it.”

“It’s been a while.”

After a moment, a man, who had boldly stepped into the realm of light so vast it was hard to distinguish his surroundings, spoke to him in an ordinary voice.

As he walked towards him without wavering, Sehwa felt his limbs being torn apart, piece by piece. Black military boots came into view at the edge of his lowered gaze, and a familiar scent drifted on the dry summer wind. The smell of cigars, a rich, sharp perfume… Sehwa sat still like prey caught in a trap, swallowing his wretched sobs.

“Did you enjoy your outing?”