By Zephyria 
In the Striking Lightning
“Young master, aren’t you cold?”
At those words, Ho-eun, who had been looking out the hospital window, slowly turned his head. His servant, Deok-woo, was standing in the doorway. He was so large that he blocked the entire doorway. He was a man who deserved the title of the largest man in the capital.
“No. I’m fine.”
Ho-eun replied in his uniquely gentle voice and turned his gaze back to the window.
The autumn rain that had been falling since last night had finally stopped in the morning. So the whole world was still gloomy and damp. And the chilly cold was a bonus.
The windowpane was densely stained with dried raindrops, but the hospital courtyard was still easily visible.
There were people in patient gowns, nurses, or doctors, and students in school uniforms, and most of all, many elderly people. Ho-eun stared at them blankly.
“Still…”
Deok-woo, who had been fidgeting in place, finally approached Ho-eun. Then, he unfolded the Durumagi he had been carrying over his arm and placed it over Ho-eun’s shoulders.
Ho-eun simply smiled faintly without any irritation. In fact, he had been feeling a bit of a chill from the cold air emanating from the cement wall.
Ho-eun pulled his Braided Hair out from inside the Durumagi. Then, he groaned softly as if something was uncomfortable. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly in his blurred vision before opening them again. His cheeks were flushed red with fever. It was all because of the fever.
The fever was one of Ho-eun’s most frequent minor ailments, but somehow this time it felt a little different than usual.
He had taken several doses of herbal medicine, but there was no sign of improvement. His father, who was more concerned about his son than eating rice at every meal, finally brought Ho-eun to the hospital.
Well, it wasn’t a bad thing. Thanks to it, he was enjoying the outside scenery for the first time in a while.
Ho-eun was fiddling with the rough blanket on the hospital bed, gazing blankly out the window, when a presence flowed in from outside the door. It was a doctor in a white coat.
At his appearance, his father, who had been circling the room like a top, hurriedly approached him.
“Why are you so late?”
“I apologize, Lord.”
“Apologies are unnecessary, quickly tell me the diagnosis. Or give me the medicine.”
“That is…”
The doctor, wearing glasses smudged with fingerprints, hesitated to speak and looked at his father. Then he looked at Ho-eun sitting on the bed, then at Deok-woo standing next to him, then back at his father, and scratched the thinning top of his forehead. At that sight, his father’s eyes turned bluish.
“Why? Is it a serious illness?”
“No, it’s not an illness.”
“Not an illness? Then why is our Ho-eun so sick?”
“Yes. That is, that is, young master Ho-eun…”
“What is it?”
“Seems to have become a Bondmate. What he’s suffering from isn’t a cold, but a manifestation pain.”
At those words, a dense silence filled the cramped single-person hospital room. The only sound was the chirping of birds outside the window. The doctor sighed deeply as if he knew this would happen and scratched the top of his forehead again.
“…Bondmate? Did you just say, Bondmate?”
His father asked back in a flattened voice, as if crushed by a boulder.
“A, a, a Bondmate? Our young master?”
Deok-woo’s voice was no different. The doctor nodded his head finely, but vigorously, as if to say yes. His cheeks trembled as he nodded.
“…”
His father slowly turned back to Ho-eun. His pale forehead, gaunt cheeks, and slightly parted lips looked as if he had been struck by lightning.
It was indeed no different.
The lightning of ‘Bondmate’ had struck Ho-eun.
Ho-eun was sitting on a row of chairs lined up in the hospital hallway. His father had gone to talk to the doctor, and Deok-woo had gone to get a fever reducer. Whether it was manifestation pain or whatever, he had to bring down the fever that was raging.
“…”
Ho-eun was staring at the wall opposite him without any movement. There, old, yellowed posters and recent posters were posted side by side.
[God of War and Bondmate must go to the battlefield to save our family.]
[Reward given for reporting God of War and Bondmate evading military service.]
[The 31st Connection Festival – Find a partner for God of War and Bondmate. Especially Bondmate are required to participate]
[Five tips for evacuating when Devouring Ghoul are discovered.]
God of War. Bondmate. And Devouring Ghoul. Among them, the one that caught his eye the most was naturally Bondmate.
“Bondmate…”
Bondmate. Different Yi. Person In. It refers to a person with extraordinary and remarkable talents, but it is also used in the literal sense of being different from ordinary people. But it’s not that different, the really different ones are the God of War.
God of War. It uses the characters for military Gun and spirit Shin, meaning the god of war. In the past, it was used to refer to soldiers who had achieved great military feats, but now it is more often used to mean soldiers who are like spirits.
Soldiers who are much stronger than ordinary people, run faster, and are not easily injured. According to rumors, there are also immortal soldiers who do not die, and the character ‘Shin’ for spirit is a perfect fit for them.
However, even the power of such God of War was not infinite, and when they reached their respective thresholds, the price of unbearable power would come. Organs burning, eyeballs melting, and blood vomiting were the price.
That’s when Bondmate were needed. Not as strong as God of War, but the only beings who could eliminate the pain of God of War. The beings that allow God of War to continue to be God of War.
In other words, beings that God of War absolutely needed.
Ho-eun had become that Bondmate.
“Needed being…”
Ho-eun couldn’t believe it. He had lived his whole life as a sickly and useless man, and suddenly he was a Bondmate. He stared blankly at his pale palm.
He felt a gaze from somewhere. Ho-eun turned his head.
At the window at the end of the hallway, several nurses were standing in a corner, smoking, and looking at Ho-eun.
“That young master came again?”
“But he looks pretty good this time? Last time, he was carried in by his servant?”
“Really? I don’t know how a man can be so weak.”
“There must be a reason why he couldn’t get married until he was twenty?”
“Regardless of the reason, it’s surprising. The youngest son of Lord Choi can’t get married…”
It was quite a distance, but strangely enough, their conversation could be heard as clearly as if they were right next to him. There was nothing to filter out their voices in the empty hallway surrounded by cement on all sides.
But Ho-eun turned his head forward without showing any reaction.
“I’m a little curious though. He’s got a pretty face. How easy is it to pull off Braided Hair at his age?”
“What good is a pretty face if his body is weak?”
“What’s wrong with that? It’s not like there aren’t a lot of sick people these days. All the men with healthy limbs are being dragged off to the battlefield.”
“Yeah. It’s better to go to the battlefield. What a meaningless life it would be to lie sick in a room and die? Even women are going out with rocks to fight Devouring Ghoul. Look at us. We’re always sewing up torn people, and the blood never leaves our fingernails.”
“That’s right, that’s right. I’m so tired of doing laundry with blood on it.” The nurses nodded their heads wildly in agreement. Then the topic of conversation briefly shifted to laundry, fabric, and soap, before returning to Ho-eun.
“That young master must be having a hard time too. Born into such a great family and always sick…”
“In this day and age, being sick at home is a blessing. I think he’s lucky.”
“What? Lucky? To be sick? You’re something else.”
The nurses burst into loud laughter. The shrill sound echoed noisily in the hallway. After laughing for a while, they belatedly noticed Ho-eun’s gaze and disappeared somewhere.
“…”
Ho-eun remained still, pretending not to hear anything. He was used to hearing those words every time he went out like this. He was also used to pretending not to hear them.
He remembered what one of them had said.
‘I don’t know how a man can be so weak.’
It was true. A body born weak. Endless minor ailments. A body that was not manly. Not to mention a personality that was not manly. Moreover, his parents were noticeably worried and cherished him, so he was unlikely to be popular with women.
But it was okay. Because he had been struck by the ‘lightning’ of being a Bondmate today.
“Bondmate…”
Ho-eun stroked the Braided Hair that had fallen onto one shoulder as a habit, and repeatedly recited the word. He recited it again, and again. Then he bit his lower lip slightly, but couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from rising. He quickly covered his mouth with his hand, lest anyone see him, but a naive giggle leaked out.
It was then. A shimmering silk fabric appeared in the corner of his vision.
“Ho-eun. Let’s go.”
It was his father.
“Ah, yes, Father.”
Ho-eun, startled and trembling to his shoulders, quickly got up. Then he followed him with hurried steps.
The two left the hospital without much conversation and crossed the wide garden. Each time they walked on the rain-soaked dirt, there was a crunching sound.
Ho-eun glanced at his father’s back. His back with his hands behind his back looked somehow dark, but he couldn’t tell if it was real or an illusion.
It was then.
Vrooooom.
A large car rushed into the hospital like an arrow. Each time the black wheels hit a puddle of rainwater, the water splashed up. The people in the garden scattered in panic at the tremendous momentum. His father hid Ho-eun behind him and stepped back.
The car had the appearance of a military vehicle that could be commonly seen these days. However, the tarpaulin covering the car body was not green but white. On the side was a cross shape signifying a hospital.
The car stopped, and a person jumped out of the driver’s seat. Nurses and doctors poured out of the hospital as well. They all clung to the rear of the military vehicle. And at the same time as someone opened the back door.
Whirr…
Dark, murky blood poured out like a waterfall. It was as if someone had turned on a faucet inside the car. The dirt floor quickly became a sticky, crimson mess.