By Zephyria 
‘All or nothing.’
Tae-hwon took a deep breath, his back against the wall. He charged at the man rushing toward him, thrusting the knife forward, but his reach was too short. In that instant, the long crowbar struck Tae-hwon’s wrist hard.
“Ugh!”
A sharp pain shot through his wrist. The knife’s trajectory faltered, leaving an opening. Tae-hwon was kicked in the side and lowered his stance to defend. Fortunately, he didn’t drop the knife, but he couldn’t land a significant blow.
The blade grazed the first man’s ear, and a fist aimed at his face came quickly. The men who struck Tae-hwon’s face gloated triumphantly. Hot blood flowed from his nose.
“Hey, is this really Woo Tae-hwon? His form is terrible.”
“Looks like it’s true that he’s screwed. Nothing to fear. Just beat him down!”
A fierce onslaught followed immediately. The men had lost their hesitation, realizing that Tae-hwon wasn’t the same as before. It was an unequal fight from the start. Three men with weapons attacking at once—there was no way he could win.
Still, Tae-hwon fought on. He wouldn’t fall easily.
“Bastards…”
Tae-hwon spat out the blood in his mouth and swung the knife wildly. He couldn’t see anything. Even as he felt a sharp pain in his spine from a blow to the back, even as his knees buckled and his stance faltered, he continued to fight. As a result, he managed to wound one man’s leg, inflicting a significant injury. But that was all.
“What is this? A little prick? Are you kidding me? You’re acting like a newbie who’s never stabbed anyone before?”
“Shut up.”
“Your knife skills are so cute, Woo Tae-hwon.”
“Shut up, you bastards!”
Tae-hwon roared and slashed with the knife. The men’s laughter infuriated him. He was fighting with the will to die, but his best efforts seemed pathetic to them, worthy only of mockery.
‘Acting like a newbie who’s never stabbed anyone before?’
Maybe that was the truth.
Even if Woo Tae-hwon at thirty was skilled enough to be called a knife expert in Gyeongjeong, Woo Tae-hwon at twenty was just a low-ranking officer who had just set foot in Gyeongjeong. Although he had become a murderer against his will, Tae-hwon had never actually stabbed anyone with a knife, especially not with the intention of taking their life.
‘Damn it… I have to kill all those bastards to survive.’
Not like this, not yet, he couldn’t die so pointlessly.
But…
‘I was this weak?’
The reality before him was harsh and unforgiving.
Tae-hwon might not yet have the resolve to unhesitatingly plunge a kitchen knife into the eye of the man charging at him. He knew in his head that he had to, but his body was holding back. He could choose to risk his life or sacrifice his arm without hesitation, but when it came to harming others, he became clumsy.
Murder.
Could he truly carry out the malice of ending someone’s life?
Of course, from the moment he committed himself to Gyeongjeong, he had accepted that the day would come when he would stain his hands with immoral blood. He had prepared himself to face that day soon. But now that it was actually happening, he was clumsy even in his own eyes.
The kitchen knife in his hand felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
Numerical disadvantage. A clearly unequal fight. The difference in weapons. An injured body. And the penalty of lost memories…
Did Woo Tae-hwon really have any way out?
‘No. I can kill. I have to get rid of them.’
Tae-hwon repeated the words fiercely in his mind.
If he couldn’t do it now, never again.
Yes, never again.
Kwon Rae-i…
‘I have to fight with the determination to end their lives to survive!’
Tae-hwon took a ragged breath and charged forward with a loud shout.
Thwack!
But at that moment, a massive impact struck his head.
His skull, struck by the crowbar, rang like a huge bell.
His vision blurred, and his massive body swayed. He tried to steady himself, but he couldn’t recover from the impact. The semicircular canals that controlled his balance failed him, and Tae-hwon fell forward.
From then on, he was kicked mercilessly.
He was beaten like a human sandbag, his entire body battered. His abdomen was kicked repeatedly and severely, as if his internal organs were twisting. Someone’s boot roughly stomped on Tae-hwon’s trembling wrist from the shock. His wrist twisted, and he lost his only weapon, the kitchen knife.
“Drag him out.”
Dragging, dragging. Tae-hwon, panting and bleeding, was dragged out of the pantry.
As he was dragged through the kitchen and into the living room, he saw Kwon Hyeon-oh sitting on the sofa, legs crossed, playing a game on his phone. Two men stood on either side of Tae-hwon, holding his arms, and another bowed and reported to Kwon Hyeon-oh. Blood from his split lip stained the rug on the floor red.
“We’ve caught him.”
“What? Already?”
“His knife skills have become terrible. I doubt he’s really the great Woo Tae-hwon.”
Kwon Hyeon-oh grinned gleefully as he popped three identical jellies.
“Is that so? What about Kwon Rae-i?”
“He doesn’t seem to be in the house. We searched everywhere…”
“Hmm… Han-seon.”
Kwon Hyeon-oh tapped his foot. Han-seon, kneeling and prostrate on the floor under the sofa in the living room, barely managed to answer with his torn and melted lips, which were difficult to recognize.
“Y-yes, sir.”
“They say he’s not here?”
With each word Kwon Hyeon-oh spoke, Han-seon flinched and trembled. It was as if he had become a different person. The calm, composed, and capable doctor was now trembling with fear like a cruelly abused three-year-old.
What kind of torture had they inflicted? How could a person be broken down to such a state?
“T-that’s right. I don’t know where he is either…”
“Ah. You don’t know?”
‘GAME OVER.’ Just then, Kwon Hyeon-oh’s phone screen froze. He turned off the game, brushed the brown hair that fell over his shoulders with one hand, and got up.
“If Han-seon doesn’t know, who would? Would Woo Tae-hwon know?”
As he spoke Tae-hwon’s name, one of Kwon Hyeon-oh’s men grabbed Tae-hwon’s hair and lifted his head. His hair roots were pulled taut, and his head was thrown back.
“Ugh…”
Tae-hwon coughed. Kwon Hyeon-oh, after playing with his smartphone to his heart’s content, stuffed it into his pants pocket and approached.
“Woo Sangmu.”
Even with his neck bent backward, Tae-hwon glared at Kwon Hyeon-oh with fierce, glittering eyes. His stomach was burning.
“This is quite the drama. How did Woo Sangmu, who used to strut around with such authority, end up in such a miserable state?”
“…”
“You always acted like a loyal subject. Damn it.”
“…”
Kwon Hyeon-oh stared down at the silent Woo Tae-hwon. He examined the blood flowing from his split lip, then raised his palm high. And smack, his hand struck Tae-hwon’s cheek.
“Ugh!”
His face turned, and blood splattered upward.
“If you had joined my side when I offered you good treatment, you wouldn’t have had to go through this.”
Kwon Hyeon-oh continued to slap him repeatedly without hesitation.
Smack, smack, smack. He couldn’t fall because his hair was being held. Before he knew it, Kwon Hyeon-oh was punching Tae-hwon’s cheek instead of slapping it.
“When someone.”
Thwack!
“Shows you.”
Pow!
“Good faith.”
Whack!
“You shouldn’t have ignored it.”
His teeth rattled from the fierce punches.
Blood splattered even more violently.
Only after his cheeks were swollen and covered in blood did the one-sided beating stop.
Kwon Hyeon-oh glanced down at his bloodied hand and wiped it on Tae-hwon’s clothes. Nevertheless, red blood stained Kwon Hyeon-oh’s white suit sleeves and collar.
“You acted like you’d follow your father’s footsteps forever. What’s the result?”
Kwon Hyeon-oh muttered ominously and pulled something from his white suit’s inner pocket.
It was a folded knife.
The blade was silver, and it was a butterfly knife with ornate leaf and vine patterns engraved on it and two handles.
“It’s not like you chose Kwon Tae-oh over me. Not even Sang-oh…”
He flicked his wrist lightly and spun the knife. The blade rotated around his hand.
“Why did you have to side with Kwon Rae-i?”
“Cough…”
Tae-hwon gritted his teeth. He tasted the salty blood in his mouth.
“You pathetic idiot. All you have is a sharp knife.”