By Zephyria 
50
“But, still, still… If it were the General, he could have saved him. Because you are strong. There was no need to take his life so cruelly.”
Ho-eun’s eyes became damp. He felt wronged and frustrated thinking about the dead man. That person must have had a family. Judging by his age, he might have had children. If his family found out, they would resent Tae-muk. They might even suffer harm. All sorts of worries filled his mind.
However.
“Why would I?”
Tae-muk retorted coldly.
“…Yes?”
Ho-eun looked up at him with an expression of disbelief. Tae-muk looked back at Ho-eun with empty eyes and said,
“Why should I save them? Did they entrust their lives to me?”
“It is your mission to save the people!”
At those words, Tae-muk laughed again. He couldn’t help but laugh at Ho-eun’s righteous, even childish, ideals. He roughly swept back his drooping bangs and said insincerely, as if very annoyed.
“Even if that were my job, there are no noblemen among the people I save.”
“……”
At those words, Ho-eun realized that Tae-muk felt animosity towards noblemen. He had often sensed it before, but he never knew that the animosity was enough to kill someone.
If he killed the man because he was a nobleman… then what about me?
Ho-eun’s eyes shook with confusion. Tae-muk grabbed his chin and forced him to meet his gaze. Then, as if reading his mind, he said,
“Yes. If you weren’t my Bondmate, I wouldn’t care whether you lived or died.”
“……”
“I might have even thrown you to the Devouring Ghouls as bait. If those bastards have a sense of taste, wouldn’t they like white and soft meat like yours?”
At those words, Ho-eun’s eyelashes fluttered greatly.
“Your jokes… are too much.”
“Joke? It sounds like a joke to you?”
Tae-muk raised and lowered his eyebrows, chuckling. Then, he suddenly hardened his expression and flung Ho-eun’s chin away. The rough force made Ho-eun’s whole body stagger. His Braided Hair bobbed up and down.
He was just pushed roughly, but Ho-eun felt as shocked as if he had been slapped across the cheek. Tae-muk hadn’t treated him like this recently. He wasn’t very affectionate, but he hadn’t been unkind either.
How did it come to this?
Should I not have asked why he killed the man? If I had pretended not to see it, would our relationship not have reached this point? But that’s… not the right thing to do.
Ho-eun was staring at the empty floor. Plop, plop, drops of red blood fell. He raised his head and saw Tae-muk holding his deeply gouged side. He was also biting his lower lip, which was stained red with blood.
His flesh had been torn off, so the pain must have been immense. That was why Tae-muk, who had never shown that he was in pain or struggling, was grimacing like that. Ho-eun’s eyes shook as he saw it.
“Take it off.”
Tae-muk ordered again. Ho-eun inhaled sharply. Then, with a resolute face, he refused clearly.
“I refuse.”
“What?”
“I said I refuse.”
“……”
“You did not do what you were supposed to do as a general, so I, your Bondmate, will not do anything either.”
Ho-eun’s chin trembled slightly as he said that. He was trying to appear calm and composed, but he was actually scared. He was scared of this situation, scared of what would happen in the future, and most of all, scared of Tae-muk in front of him.
“……”
Tae-muk stared at Ho-eun. He stared intently without blinking. Then, he tilted his head and asked.
“Ah, so the nobleman I killed is more important than me, your God of War?”
“It is important that you committed murder. His status is not important.”
“Status is not important?”
Tae-muk chuckled again, as if something was funny. Then, he swept his face roughly with his palm. Fatigue, annoyance, and anger were thickly tangled on his face.
“You were fawning over me, saying you were my Bondmate, but you don’t want to do what you’re supposed to do.”
“……”
“You’re more cunning than you look.”
After saying that, Tae-muk licked his lips with his tongue. His tongue, stained with blood, was frighteningly red. He didn’t feel like a person at all. Ho-eun, terrified, gathered his clothes with trembling hands.
Suddenly.
His neck was grabbed. And his body was lifted into the air.
“Keuk……”
Ho-eun instinctively grabbed Tae-muk’s wrist and tried to pull his hand away as his windpipe tightened. But Tae-muk’s hand was as strong as solid wood and as hard as a rock. And it was as hot as a heated iron. It felt like his neck was being branded.
“Forget the idea that I would step back and say, ‘Yes, I won’t do it,’ just because you don’t want to.”
“General, heuk……”
“I have no manners or dignity.”
“Let go, keuheup……”
“Because I was born a beast.”
Tae-muk threw the struggling Ho-eun onto the bed behind the military tent. If the bed hadn’t been soft, he would have broken his back or neck.
Ho-eun was stunned by the feeling that all the bones in his body were rattling. Tae-muk climbed on top of him. Then, he flipped up Ho-eun’s Military tunic, which was long like a skirt. Ho-eun, who had belatedly come to his senses, grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t do it!”
But Tae-muk lightly flipped up his clothes while holding Ho-eun’s hands down. But the nobleman wore so many layers of clothes that even after taking them off, more clothes kept coming out.
“Damn it, there’s nothing I like.”
His face became more and more distorted. Cold sweat was beading on his forehead. His mouth was all wet with regurgitated blood. His body trembled from the intermittent pain.
It wasn’t the pain from the injured wound. It was the price of using his strength. It was a pain like his bones were breaking into very small pieces. His muscles were being squeezed, and his skin felt like hundreds, thousands of thorns were going in and out. It would be less painful to be thrown into boiling oil.
He wanted to get rid of this quickly. He wanted to be freed from this damn pain. And that method was now, for the first time in his life, in front of him.
Tae-muk gritted his teeth and rummaged through Ho-eun’s clothes. Ho-eun shouted without any tact.
“I feel the same way! It’s terrible that you are my God of War!”
Tae-muk’s brow furrowed at the clear, ringing voice. It wasn’t because he was bothered by his words. It was because his eardrums and ear canals felt like they were being crushed.
Tae-muk painfully contorted one eye and pressed his palm against Ho-eun’s chest.
“Keok……”
His hand was so big, and his strength was so great. Ho-eun felt a pressure as if his entire rib cage was collapsing flat. His heart, lungs, and all the organs in his body were being crushed, and he was suffocating. Ho-eun realized for the first time in his life that he could suffocate without being strangled.
He struggled to escape, terrified. Tae-muk slowly bent his huge back. Then, in his unique low voice, he whispered.
“Do you think I wouldn’t find you terrible?”
“……”
At those words, Ho-eun’s movements stopped abruptly. His large, clear eyes slowly moved towards Tae-muk.
“How did someone like you become my Bondmate?”
Tae-muk wrinkled his nose as if he was truly disgusted. He shook his head with an expression of disbelief.
“……”
At those words, Ho-eun’s eyes became empty. His eyes, which were always densely filled, were now empty.
Tae-muk’s words continued to echo in his ears.
‘You’re terrible.’
‘How did someone like you.’
‘My Bondmate.’
The sentences became words, and the words became syllables, painfully poking at Ho-eun.
I see.
That’s what he was thinking.
I guess I didn’t live up to his expectations.
I was lacking and insufficient, so he was disappointed.
While Ho-eun was blankly spacing out, even his Sokjeogori was torn off by Tae-muk’s hands. Ho-eun’s white and soft bare chest was clearly revealed. Tae-muk didn’t bother to take off his clothes completely and just exposed his chest.
“……”
Ho-eun’s pure white skin shimmered faintly as if it was emitting light on its own. Tae-muk stroked that skin with his rough palm.
It was moderately warm, soft, and strangely supple despite having no fat. It was bare skin that he had touched several times before, but today the sensation was quite different. To be exact, it was Tae-muk who was feeling the sensation differently.
The noose of pain that had been strangling him loosened a little. He felt like he had been living without nostrils and had finally caught his breath. He clearly felt vitality returning to his body and blood flowing through his brain. Tae-muk closed his eyes for a moment and fully savored it.
And when he opened his eyes again, the light in his eyes was gone. He had no expression. As if he was possessed by something. Or as if he had lost something.
Tae-muk hurriedly pulled down Ho-eun’s pants like a wild animal digging into the ground. Ho-eun, who belatedly came to his senses, struggled.
“Don’t, don’t do it! I don’t want to. I don’t want to!”
“……”
But Tae-muk didn’t answer. It seemed like he wasn’t ignoring Ho-eun’s words, but that he couldn’t hear them. He grabbed and tore at Ho-eun’s pants without untying the knots. The rough touch made the soft silk stand on end like a knife, scratching Ho-eun’s delicate skin.