RHFTY chapter 7

Thud!

Chaeyi kicked off the ground and charged in between the Illugan and Leonard. he covered Leonard with his body and raised his arm.

Crunch!

The Illugan’s sharp teeth mercilessly sank into Chaeyi’s flesh, piercing his arm.

‘Ugh!’

The excruciating pain could have easily made his dizzy, but letting his guard down even for a moment could mean the end for both of them.

Chaeyi gripped the Illugan’s large fangs tightly, holding on to prevent it from escaping.

[Kaah!]

As the creature thrashed in discomfort, the herb basket fell to the ground and rolled away, its contents scattering and getting trampled underfoot.

But there was no time to worry about that. Using his other hand, Chaeyi swiftly pulled out a dagger strapped to his thigh.

And then…

Stab!

She plunged the blade into one of the Illugan’s four eyes with all his strength.

[Screeeech!]

Blood spurted everywhere as the Illugan howled in pain.

As Chaeyi released his grip on the fangs, the Illugan shook its head violently in agony.

Chaeyi didn’t miss this opportunity.

Twisting the blade downward, he leapt up and plunged it precisely into the Illugan’s weak spot on its back.

[Gruk!]

Blood gushed from the Illugan as its massive body slowly collapsed to the side.

Chaeyi, supporting himself with one arm, rolled to the ground along with it.

“Ugh.”

But his pain wasn’t the priority.

Blood was streaming from the wound where the fangs had punctured his arm, but… what mattered more to Chaeyi was checking on Leonard’s condition.

“Leo… are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She examined Leonard, who seemed dazed, as if his soul had left his body.

His injured arm was stained with blood, but fortunately, the wound seemed to be shallow.

“First, let’s stop the bleeding….”

Chaeyi tore a strip from his own clothing and wrapped it around Leonard’s arm.

But this was only a temporary measure; they would need to return home for proper treatment.

“Haah.”

She had never felt his heart sink this deeply before. he lifted his head.

Leonard, now pale as a sheet, was staring at his with an expression of unbearable distress.

“Why…?”

Leonard’s expression crumpled even more as he murmured. His tear-filled eyes, sparkling like clear glass beads, welled up and tears began to fall.

Even as his beautiful face twisted in anguish, it looked like a piece of art, and Chaeyi couldn’t help but gaze at him.

But then…

His next words snapped his back to reality.

“Why, why did you save me?”

Leonard’s voice, strained with tears, trembled as he spoke.

“Why did you save me, even getting hurt? After all… after all, you were only being nice to me because you planned to sell me off.”

The emotions he had been holding back had finally boiled over.

“You were nice to me so you could sell me as a slave someday! You’re going to abandon me anyway… I’m not even important to you… so why did you get hurt?”

His words finally broke, and thick tears streamed down his face.

‘A slave? Why would he…’

Chaeyi was completely taken aback by Leonard’s sudden outburst, and then something suddenly clicked in his mind.

The novel Chaeyi was indeed a slave trader.

However, Chaeyi had never told Leonard about the evil deeds committed by the ‘novel Chaeyi.’

Of course.

There was no reason or necessity to mention something like that in front of a child.

But judging from Leonard’s reaction now… it seemed he had somehow learned the truth.

How had Leonard come to know about ‘the novel Chaeyi’s past’?

As Chaeyi recalled the past few days, he quickly realized.

‘Yesterday. When I sent him to the village on an errand alone. He seemed off and had no energy since then.’

Even on ordinary days, whenever he went down to the village, there were always people who eyed Chaeyi suspiciously or approached his, asking his to sell them something, just as they did with the ‘novel Chaeyi.’

Leonard must have indirectly learned the truth through them, or perhaps he overheard someone talking about Chaeyi.

Suddenly, everything fell into place.

‘I should have thought this through more carefully.’

It wasn’t a frequent occurrence, and Leonard had never been curious before, so Chaeyi had brushed it off, not thinking it would become an issue now.

‘I underestimated the child’s awareness.’

A headache throbbed in his head. But more than that, what pained his was Leonard’s reaction towards his.

The Leonard before his eyes was no longer the vengeful ghost from the novel, with his fierce, hateful eyes. He was just a frightened child, terrified of being abandoned.

“You were deceiving me from the start.”

“Leo.”

“I… I believed in you, Chaeyi.”

Before Leonard could finish his heart-wrenching words, Chaeyi pulled his tiny body close and held him tightly in his arms.

Blood gushed out from the wound in his arm, but he didn’t care.

“I’m not going to abandon you, and I’m not going to sell you as a slave.”

“……”

“That will never happen. I swear it on my life.”

There was no point in denying the actions of ‘the novel Chaeyi’—the things he could not change now. Trying to make excuses would only make the situation worse.

All Chaeyi could do now was convey his true feelings to Leonard.

“Why… why am I the only one who feels that way?”

Leonard, who was wriggling in Chaeyi’s warm embrace, murmured softly.

Chaeyi slowly pulled Leonard away and met his gaze.

“I told you, didn’t I? You’re precious to me.”

He gently patted Leonard’s head, whose eyes were red from crying.

“You have no idea how much I cherish you.”

In his previous life, Kwon Chaeyi lived his entire life without any strong ties. He had never been deeply in love with anyone, nor did he have any close relatives to rely on.

But after meeting Leonard, he began to understand emotions he had never known before.

He developed feelings akin to fatherly love and learned what it meant to have unconditional affection.

It’s only natural to feel a deep affection for Leonard, who gave him such precious emotions.

“…….”

Leonard, who had been listening absentmindedly, suddenly had tears welling up in his eyes. Soon after, he let out a few drops of tears and finally burst into the sobs he had been holding back.

“Sniff, waaah!”

Chaeyi gently patted Leonard’s back as he collapsed into his arms. Leonard must have been through a lot.

He was a child who had grown up without receiving proper love from his biological parents and had even been abandoned.

He was probably afraid of being abandoned by someone he had grown attached to.

Even though he seemed mature for his age, he was still a child who hadn’t even turned ten.

“Chaeyi… sniff, I’m sorry. I doubted you, and you got hurt because of me. It must be so painful…”

“It’s okay. This is nothing.”

Chaeyi, unable to stop Leonard from crying, took him back home first.

He cleaned the wound thoroughly and rebandaged it with new cloth to stop the bleeding.

As Leonard carefully checked Chaeyi’s injured arm, he began to cry again.

Was Leonard always such a tearful child?

Perhaps he was shedding all the tears he had been holding in for years today.

Chaeyi found Leonard’s broken tear ducts amusing and couldn’t help but laugh softly.

Now that everything had ended well, he could finally laugh with a light heart.

That night, after Leonard’s first aid was complete, Chaeyi tended to his own wound and then, at Leonard’s insistence, they went down to the village’s monastery.

The wound was a deep, penetrating one that needed to be stitched, but there was no advanced medical facility in this remote village.

However, there was a place that used the bodily fluids of monsters, which helped in regeneration, to treat people.

That place was the monastery.

The memory of the ‘Chaeyi from the novel’ didn’t come to mind unless he consciously recalled it, so it was only after Leonard mentioned it that he remembered the information.

As soon as the nuns and monks at the monastery saw Chaeyi’s wound, they quickly treated it with the ‘Healing Water’ they had on hand.

The nun assured him that since they had arrived in time, the wound would fully heal. It was truly a relief.

That night, Chaeyi and Leonard, feeling the warmth of the lit fireplace, cozily chatted in bed.

“Was it true that you were a slave trader?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“…Why do you sound so indifferent?”

“Anyway, I’m not anymore.”

With Chaeyi’s words, Leonard half-hid his face under the blanket and fell silent.

After a brief silence, he spoke again.

“The reason you told me not to go into the forest was because…”

“Because it could be dangerous for you.”

“…….”

“Like what happened today. That’s all.”

With that, Chaeyi gently brushed Leonard’s bangs aside and added softly.

“You must be tired. Get some sleep now.”

“…Okay.”

“Sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Perhaps due to the warmth, Leonard’s cheeks were slightly flushed.

With that, Leonard closed his eyes, and just before drifting off to sleep, he quietly called out to Chaeyi.

“Chaeyi.”

“Hmm?”

“…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Chaeyi probably replied like that.

That day, he was so exhausted from losing so much blood and all the events that had transpired that he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

And the next day…

The heavy snow that had been falling late into the night had completely stopped.