The first feeling that came was the pain. The second was the taste.

“Wo…g…”

Giwon’s mouth was full of blood that dripped from his mouth. He was tied to the cross, but Dohyuk couldn’t see how terribly wounded he was. The stakes pinned his body down and the barbed wired kept him in place. Also, his left arm was partly ripped out from the shoulder and he had no teeth. He had lost one eye, and he could barely open the eye because of the tremendous amount of blood flowing down from his head.

“…”

Giwon moved his mouth. It didn’t make any sound, but it wasn’t meant to make any sound in the first place.

‘You are here.’

The person he was speaking to was Dohyuk. He was just gesturing with his mouth so he could share what he was trying to say to the person who was sharing his body right now. Dohyuk couldn’t send any messages. Maybe he would be able to do it later on, but he couldn’t do it at the moment.

“Oh, so you’re still here.”

There was still information he could gather. The owner of the voice came closer to Giwon.

“Why did you fake your death in front of Ilgyu? You f*cking bastard. You almost got me killed.”

Dohyuk saw the man.

‘It’s…’

The man looked like Jung Ilgyu the Tyrant, but he had a different voice with a different accent. Dohyuk then remembered what he heard from Ilgyu.

‘Jung Ilhu.’

The brother to the Tyrant, the keeper of the treasure vault that Ilgyu possessed. It meant…

“Let me see…”

In the next moment, excruciating pain stopped Dohyuk from thinking.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!”

“Oh, you’re alive and well!”

Ilhu poked Giwon’s stomach with some kind of a stick.

“This is payment for getting me almost killed.”

It seemed like Giwon’s wounds were excessive. His stomach had open wounds and his organs were dropping from within, which is where Ilhu poked the stick. Dohyuk felt too much pain that he even considered cutting Divine Intervention.

“I thought you were smart. Do you think that bringing that bracelet would make you become something? How do you dare to speak to Ilgyu like that? It’s not like your Nature is bad either.”

“…”

“What? I can’t hear you.”

‘This man is Ilgyu’s brother.’

Giwon moved his mouth to confirm Dohyuk’s guess.

“I can’t hear you, you f*ck.”

Ilhu’s stick poked into the wounds again.

“AAAAAAAARGH!”

The high Stamina points allowed Giwon to stay alive even with heavy injuries. Ilhu knew this very well so he only focused on inflicting pain instead of dealing enough damage kill him.

It was painful and there seemed to be no reason to stay connected to Giwon. However, Dohyuk did not cut the connection yet. He felt that Giwon, with his tense muscles and heavily closed mouth, was trying to stay awake. The reason was obvious.

‘Giwon is not stupid,’ Dohyuk thought. He spoke nonsense to Ilgyu and ended up like this? That was probably because Giwon did it on purpose. He promised Dohyuk to give him an opportunity to ambush Ilgyu. There was no reason for Giwon to provoke the Tyrant when his family was alive.

‘He did this on purpose.’

Dohyuk withstood the pain. Giwon was waiting for the moment. The moment to give more information to Dohyuk.

“Uh…gu…”

Then his limit arrived. Giwon began to lose consciousness.

“Huh? You trying to fake death again?”

Ilhu moved the stick around again, but Giwon couldn’t scream anymore.

“Don’t blame me though. Ilgyu wanted me to do this. He told me to keep you busy so you can’t think until we pull your heart out.”

“…”

“Wait til tomorrow. We’ll work with you as soon as his cooldown timer is refreshed.”

Ilhu’s voice then disappeared. He thought Giwon had already passed out. But…

“…”

Giwon was still somewhat awake. With the last of his remaining energy, he moved his mouth. The message was clearly sent to Dohyuk.

And when the connection was cut off-

“D-Dohyuk? Are you okay? You’re sweating…”

Dohyuk jumped down from the city wall.

There was a total of 12 Bermuran tents. Five were used by the Bermurans and five were used to store crops and other equipment. Dohyuk set the other two up himself for the same purpose.

A prison.

“…!”

“Ah…”

As Dohyuk passed by one tent, the eight prisoners who were eating their food gasped. They were tied down with iron chains and with their damaged limbs, they couldn’t move much.

But the one in the other tent had more constraints on her.

<>

Dohyuk purchased it from Marie Kruger for 850 thousand coins just to bind Lee Yuri. The special option of the bind decreased her stats as long as she had it on, so she couldn’t even move her fingers. But even then her expression was calm. She recovered from her wounds and woke up in a few hours, but she didn’t scream in anger, nor she did she plead. She just sat there silently.

Even now, she looking up to Dohyuk who just walked into the tent. Dohyuk walked up to her and placed his hand on her cheek.

-Faith: 92

/100

‘It’s gone up…’

Dohyuk said, “I heard you didn’t eat anything.”

“Is that a question?”

“What?” Dohyuk was surprised to hear a response.

“I asked if you are asking why I haven’t eaten.”

“…Yes.”

“Because I wasn’t told to eat.”

“I believe people sent you food.”

“You didn’t tell me to eat.”

“…?!”

Dohyuk hadn’t seen Yuri for past days. He had other important issues to take of.

“You will eat if I tell you to?”

“Yeah.”

She paused for a bit. After a moment, she added.

“I’ll do anything.”

It was as if her words had struck into him, making Dohyuk tingle. He even considered using his Divine Power. Yuri’s words didn’t have any special effects or powers. She just… knew how to speak like that.

“…Okay.” Dohyuk answered. He didn’t know the motive behind Yuri’s action, and he didn’t think he could understand her anyway.

“Can I order you to do something else other than eating?”

If every circumstance was telling him that he could use this woman-

“Of course. Anything.”

Before the word could have any impact, Dohyuk asked his question right away.

“Ilgyu’s treasure vault. The one his brother is taking care of. You know it?”

“I know it exists. But I don’t know where it’s located.”

“I know the place.”

“…!”

Yuri was astonished. Then, a beautiful smile crept up her face.

“That’s amazing.”

Yuri believed Dohyuk right away.

“My friend is locked up in there. I had a way to talk with him and he told me the location.”

“…Friend?”

Yuri became curious, but Dohyuk ignored it and continued talking.

“It seems they are going do something to him. I don’t know exactly what, but there’s this cooldown and…”

“Are they going to pull his heart?”

Dohyuk stopped talking.

“Is that right?”

“You know what it is?”

“Of course. He’s famous among the Unfortunate Ones.”

“Unfortunate Ones?”

“Yeah. The world is not that easy, you see. Just having a special ability or talent can help you survive… or if you are too squeamish about it and lose the opportunity to grow stronger… It doesn’t end well.”

And they were called the Unfortunate Ones. The people who had potential but could not live up to it. Even after being revived, these people didn’t know the value of their potential.

“He’s like that. He’s not talented in fighting, but his Nature is one of a kind.”

“Get to the point.”

“If he pulls the heart, he can make something. And that something…”

That something held the Nature of the heart of the owner as its ‘Option’.

“…!”

“That friend of yours, I guess he has a good Nature if Ilgyu wants to add it to his collection.”

“That won’t happen,” Dohyuk shook his head. Ilhu said they would be working on Giwon tomorrow. The location of the treasure vault was only a few hours away. Dohyuk was going to go there.

“You are coming with me.”

“Yay.”

This was why Dohyuk did not cut her limbs and instead spent a tremendous amount of coins to lock her down. She was too suspicious to use just because of her stats, but her stats were still very useful.

“How long will it take for you to get back to your normal condition?”

“I can do it now if I eat something,” Yuri answered and glanced at Dohyuk’s hand. He was holding a plastic bag.

“Is there food in there?”

Dohyuk took out one piece of bread and handed it over to Yuri.

“Oh, but I can’t use my hands.”

“…”

“Oh well. I guess we have no choice.”

Yuri closed her eyes and opened her mouth, just enough to show her tongue. Dohyuk couldn’t stand it anymore and made a move.