Chapter 2. Kill Her

They had just killed everyone in front of her. Would they let her go?

Standing there, shuddering out of fear, she saw the frightening man walking up to her.

He was as tall and straight as the black posts under the streetlights.

She saw his young, threatening face emerging from the darkness. He was unexpectedly handsome. She compared him with a giant ancient statue surfacing out of the black water.

He stared at Emerald more calmly and sharply than any other person Emerald had ever met, somehow making her feel stressed. Emerald couldn’t move as she noticed that he intended to do something.

He took off his suit jacket, which normally would have filled her with the urge of danger, but his gentle move confused her. He reached out to her and placed his jacket over her shoulders.

Emerald was completely shocked and speechless.

By the time Emerald uttered a thank you, he had already turned around and ordered with indifference. “Kill her.”

He walked directly to the limo as one military man pulled out his gun and pointed it at her between her eyes, seemingly calm and indifferent, not hesitating to kill a young and innocent life in the blink of an eye.

Faced with the black gun barrel, she couldn’t think or do anything. Feeling a big lump in her throat, she wondered whether it would be painful or quick. Anticipating her own death was terrifying and hard to accept.

She couldn’t accept this. Not like this. Why was her fate playing a game with her? Why was she in this place? Was her memory of the past 21 years on Earth a truth or just her dream?

She smiles bitterly. In the dark night, the hopeless and bitter smile of a thin, small girl, who was shabbily dressed, now covered in an expensive jacket and facing death, sent the homicidal military into a trance without noticing it.

Without thinking, she gently reached out to the cold gun barrel that was pointing at her. The military man seemed to be out of control just like she was.

Her soft, wounded fingers pushed the gun away, surprising the guy to a point where he was unable to shoot her.

The other military men noticed her move and turned around, pointing their guns at her.

In the threat of death, she didn’t pay any attention to them. Barefoot, since she had lost her shoes running, she walked to the man standing beside the car.

She slowly went down on her knees, holding his legs and grabbing his pants.

“Please, help me….” She pleaded with a low voice and long-suppressed sorrow as she looked up at him, “Please, don’t kill me....”

She didn’t know who he was or whether he was a good man. She only knew that his men had killed the other men and that he had ordered them to kill her too.

But he was also the only one to use his own clean and expensive clothes to cover her carefully, providing her with momentary protection after such a long time.

The man’s profile in the glittering streetlight seemed even colder and tougher than the dark night sky.

He said, looking at the girl’s dirty fingers clasping onto his pants. “I never help others.”

Several military men come up to her to take her off of him. Helpless and unable to defend herself, she fell into their arms as she suddenly heard the cold voice from a distance. “I only do trades. What can you trade for your life?”

****

The city outside the window was lit up like a magnificent landscape painting, making this masculine, cool-toned room seem warmer and softer.

Emerald sat on the edge of the bed and stared blankly at the dark valley outside the villa halfway up a mountain.

Yesterday, when she had faced the man who was holding her face in his hands, she had used her last courage to answer. “I only have one thing to offer. Do you want it?”

The man had turned around and gotten into the car without saying anything. His men had tied her hands and feet up and thrown her into the trunk of the car.

Maybe because she was too nervous and tired, she had fallen asleep in the dark and smelly trunk. When she woke up, she found herself alone in a bathtub with a new feminine bathrobe and a plate of bread beside her.

She gobbled up most of the bread and cleaned herself.

“This is the first time I had a full meal and a shower since I crossed,” she said to herself.

It was everything she needed right now. Then, shortly after, the door opened when she was about to fall asleep in the bed.

The room was suddenly filled with extremely bright lights. She squinted to open her eyes and saw the man who had saved her life and had been so cold and tough last night standing at the door.

He was wearing a black military uniform buttoned up to his throat, yet different from last night. The uniform made him look more rawboned and cold. He was a different man than Emerald had met yesterday. He looked tough and gritty with his thick eyebrows, black eyes, high nose, and thick lips.

Emerald felt deeply alarmed when he looked at her, even though he didn’t say anything.

When he started to unbutton his uniform from the top, Emerald immediately walked towards him and took off his jacket. She had never been a servant for anyone before, but she’d learned a lot since she had started to live in this world.

She smelled a strong smell of alcohol. The idea that he might be drunk made her a little frightened. She raised her head subconsciously to look at his face and encountered his black eyes, which were staring directly at her.

Was that a silent order?

Emerald reached with her fair, clean hands to unbutton his shirt. She could feel his constrained gaze at the top of her head, and all she could do was stare at his chest.

She helped him take off his shirt and exposed his strong chest. He wore a metal necklace around his neck with a square pendant which seemed very old.