Passion Raga Novel (Completed) - Chapter 2

The lucky young man, who was still perfectly intact despite his fierce entanglement with Rick, however, revealed that very evening that he was, in fact, incredibly unlucky. No, Yuri couldn’t tell whether to call it good luck or bad luck right now, but he wanted to lean more towards bad.

He already knew that Riegrow didn’t discriminate between men and women as sexual partners. So, he wasn’t particularly surprised when he directly encountered them having sex on the day they arrived here. Yuri, who well understood what it meant to be entangled with Riegrow, merely pitied the young man.

However, what truly surprised Yuri, and made him pity the young man even more, came afterward.

One leisurely afternoon, he saw the young man, who was twirling a pen between his fingers, looking at a very sparse map spread out on the courtyard table, as Yuri returned from a swim in the sea. At the same time, he also noticed Riegrow sitting diagonally opposite the young man, gazing at him.

Riegrow’s eyes, narrowed like a cat in the sun, were fixed intently on the young man, who was neither strange nor unusual, and his gaze never wavered for a moment.

“…”

Again, Yuri Gable had good intuition. So he could quite accurately grasp the young man’s current situation. In a word, that the person he would accompany on his life’s journey had been irrevocably decided.

He felt sorry for the young man for a moment, but Yuri soon accepted it. He felt that this easygoing and cheerful young man would probably not be unhappy in any situation. Just because one is unlucky doesn’t mean one must be unhappy.

Yuri thus accepted it and decided to wait for the young man to safely reunite with his brother and for his own work to conclude.

He hadn’t expected such a variable to appear at this point.

“You found him well. I couldn’t find any trace of him no matter how much I searched. Thanks to you, I was able to meet my brother again.”

Yuri inwardly clicked his tongue as he watched the young man speak, glaring directly at Riegrow with Jeong Taeui between them. His impassive face showed no particular change, but he was actually feeling quite awkward.

He knew there were signs of someone following them.

Ever since the two arrived on this island, Yuri, being quick-witted, could easily sense that someone was subtly approaching them even if Anna, the innkeeper of their lodging, hadn’t tipped him off by saying, ‘My cousin, who usually isn’t very close, asked what kind of guests had arrived.’ How long had he been living on this island? How could he not notice the subtle presences that hadn’t been there before?

Indeed, who was this unknown person following? Since they arrived, it could be Riegrow, Jeong Taeui, or Jeong Jaeui, who was beginning to reveal his whereabouts. Considering the general possibilities, it seemed likely to be either someone trying to intercept Jeong Jaeui, whose utility value was exceptionally high, or someone targeting Riegrow, who had enemies all over the world.

Yuri inquired through his superiors and received a list of those who had entered Seringe around the same time as them. When he found the name of the Linga family’s famous youngest master there, he recalled hearing that the Linga family was also after Jeong Jaeui’s brilliant mind, and he concluded that their objective was Jeong Jaeui.

It wasn’t as if there was only one person targeting Jeong Jaeui, nor was there only one group with authority like the Linga family. He thought he should be careful, but there was no need to worry too much.

But then, unexpectedly.

“Hey, kid. This is mine. It’s not for you to covet.”

Hearing Riegrow’s low voice, threatening the young man, Yuri, with an impassive face, looked at the three in turn, feeling bewildered.

Yuri Gable was as quick-witted as he was intuitive, and he wasn’t so foolish as to not understand what they were talking about, even at this point. Nevertheless, the reason he still felt utterly bewildered was because…

‘I’ve lived a life seeing all sorts of strange and bizarre things, but I never imagined I’d witness Riegrow and the Linga family’s youngest master fighting over a man right before my eyes.’

Since one could never know what would happen in the world, it wasn’t utterly dumbfounding, but it was a bit absurd.

These were men who, if they put their minds to it, could have beauties from all nations laid out like a feast, yet what was this ominous atmosphere over an ordinary, utterly unremarkable man who was muttering ‘Oh, my head’ over there?

Yuri, standing like a borrowed sack of rice, a mere spectator in the same place as the three but ignored by all of them, thought to himself. He was seeing all sorts of things.

But it seemed Yuri wasn’t the only one who found it absurd. Right in front of them, the person in question, Jeong Taeui, was looking at them with an even more troubled expression. His gaze was mostly directed at the Linga family’s youngest master, and it seemed he hadn’t quite grasped what kind of person this youngest master truly was until now. He looked at the person before him with a bewildered expression, as if asking if this was truly the person he knew. It was as if he had been slightly blindsided by that pretty face.

Yuri looked at the Linga family’s youngest master again.

He was indeed pretty. The sharp eyes and expressions hidden beneath that sweetly smiling, pretty face were, no matter how Yuri looked at them, the spitting image of his father, but his outer appearance was truly beautiful. He looked like he could charm anyone, man or woman, if he set his mind to it.

But one should be fooled by the inside, not the outside. Just because a tiger cub wears human skin doesn’t make it human.

Jeong Taeui seemed like he would be quite perceptive in such matters, but unexpectedly, he wasn’t. Or perhaps he was so captivated by the Linga youngest master’s smiling face that he failed to notice. Given the atmosphere among the three, it was likely the latter.

Yuri was perplexed by this situation that had erupted even before they found their actual target, Jeong Jaeui. If this absurd state of affairs dragged on, the future would surely become troublesome.

He wished he could contact the Linga family right away and tell them, ‘Please take your precious golden leaf home,’ but now he saw that wasn’t feasible either. He didn’t know how accurately the Linga family understood this situation, but it seemed they knew their precious youngest son was causing trouble somewhere. Given the heavy security they had attached to him.

“…”

Yuri checked the gun tucked into his clothes, beneath his jacket. The muzzle of the sniper’s rifle, aimed at their heads from far away, pricked the back of his neck, asserting its presence. It exuded a murderous intent, as if it would shoot immediately if even a finger was laid on their young master.

Yuri’s wish for a peaceful resolution, somehow, seemed unlikely to be granted. Just then, the youngest master pulled out a gun and aimed it at Riegrow.

“Riegrow. I’m using it.”

Those words were neither a threat nor a warning. They were, quite literally, merely a pre-announcement of what was about to happen. The calm, dark voice, like the young man’s eyes, conveyed that fact. Simultaneously, Riegrow’s gaze narrowed.

Dangerous.

A warning light flashed in Yuri’s mind.

And at this moment, Yuri had to decide. Would he make an enemy of the Linga family, or would he provoke an even worse situation?

In recent times, there had probably been no choice that had caused such a massive conflict in such a short time.

However, once a decision was made, his actions were swift.

Yuri drew his gun and pulled the trigger. Aiming at the Linga family’s golden leaf.

Bang The powerfully echoing gunshot was heard only by Yuri, along with the feel of the gun in his hand. The pre-silenced gun merely made a small, dull sound as it spat fire.

At the same time.

Without a scream or a groan, merely with a slightly surprised expression, the young man looked at Yuri. As if he was seeing the person standing there for the very first time. For a moment, the young man looked at Yuri with a surprised face, as if a rock had fired a gun, and then, in the next instant, his gaze ignited with fury. Fiercely, as if scolding the audacious person who had interfered with his affairs.

“…”

He flinched, imperceptibly to anyone else. Was this what it felt like to accidentally miss a vigorous beast?

“I’ll kill him.”

Unaware of Yuri’s inner sigh, who felt that the future would somehow not be smooth, Riegrow, whose life had been saved by Yuri’s help though no one, not even Yuri himself, thought so muttered nonchalantly beside him.

Yes, if I hadn’t shot the young man’s wrist to make him drop the gun, if he had really shot Riegrow, then Riegrow would have killed him. Without even thinking about the terrifying counterattack from the Linga family that would follow. Because he was a man who calmly committed truly incomprehensible acts.

Yuri, belatedly doubting whether what he had done was truly wise, replied curtly.

“Take on such dangerous roles yourself. I have no desire whatsoever to make an enemy of the Linga family.”

Riegrow glanced at Yuri and snorted. To say such a thing after already shooting the golden leaf, Yuri himself thought it was amusing.

“I think it’s already too late.”

“No, it’s not. I, for one, risked my life.”

He clearly felt the sniper’s rifle, which had been ambiguously aimed at one of the three, now precisely fixed on his head. If the distant trigger finger twitched just once, he would bid farewell to this world.

…Well, there was nothing really unfair about it.

He had no regrets, no lingering attachments, and he felt he would be happy even in death if he could melt into this deep blue sky and the jewel-like turquoise sea. If he could be buried in that beautiful sea, there would be nothing more to wish for. However, whether fortunate or unfortunate, that wish seemed unlikely to come true right now. Even as the young man’s terrifying gaze flew towards Yuri, he didn’t feel the sensation of a bullet piercing the back of his head.

“What the hell is that? Do you want to die, you bastard?”

A curse word suddenly burst from the young man’s beautiful face. It wasn’t just words; his eyes were truly cold, as if he meant to kill. Yuri, who had expected this but was now covered in resentment, hesitated, wondering what to say, while Jeong Taeui asked the young man with concern.

“Xinlu, are you badly hurt?”

At that moment, as if nothing had happened, the young man’s desolate eyes instantly changed, becoming like those of a pitiful, sad puppy. So overtly that Yuri, who was watching right in front of him, was dumbfounded.

“It hurts, Hyung. My wrist bone might be broken. It hurts so much.”

His trembling voice sounded as if he might burst into tears at any moment, and Yuri simply shut his mouth.

Indeed, that’s why he fell for it.

If a delicate flower, trembling so pathetically, were to weep, there would be almost no man who wouldn’t be swayed. Even if that flower was a man, if he was that beautiful.

Behind Jeong Taeui, who approached the young man to examine his wrist, Yuri lowered his gun. And he felt the presence of the sniper, who was aiming from a distance. Jeong Taeui, who was pitifully examining the young man’s wrist despite clearly knowing the young man’s trick, must have known too. That the sniper was actually aiming at him.

This time, Yuri watched them as a third party. More precisely, he watched the young man, Ling Xinlu.

He was determined to kill Jeong Taeui if necessary. Saying that if he couldn’t have him, he wouldn’t let anyone else have him, even if it meant taking his corpse. With the face of an arrogant and self-righteous ruler.

“I was going to take him by force. If that didn’t work, I was going to take even his corpse back.”

The young man, muttering to himself as if still contemplating what to do, finally looked at Jeong Taeui and smiled. It was the same cute and lovely smile as always.