The two remaining thugs didn't run. That was their second mistake. Their first had been breathing the same air as me.
"What the hell are you?" the one with the pistol yelled, his hands shaking so violently the barrel danced in the moonlight. Bang.
The lead slug moved through the air like a lazy insect. I didn't even blink. I raised a hand, and the shadows rising from the damp earth curdled into a solid shield. The bullet flattened against the darkness and dropped into the mud with a pathetic plink.
"A god's wrath," I said, stepping through the smoke. "Or perhaps just your worst nightmare."
I didn't use magic for the next one. I wanted to feel the resistance. I closed the distance in a heartbeat, my palm striking his chest. The force sent him flying twenty feet backward, his ribcage collapsing with the satisfying sound of dry brush snapping.
"Stop! Please!"
Seol-ah's voice cut through the adrenaline. I turned. She wasn't looking at me with awe. She was looking at me with pure, unadulterated horror.
[00:04:12]
The clock above her head was turning a violent shade of crimson.
"Stay still, woman," I commanded.
The third man, the leader, had realized bullets were useless. He grabbed a heavy iron pipe from his belt and swung wildly. I caught it with one hand. The iron groaned under my grip, bending like soft wax.
"You're a debt collector, aren't you?" I leaned in, my eyes glowing with a faint, predatory violet light. "Let me settle her debt. In blood."
"Kang Rim, no!" Seol-ah lunged forward, grabbing my arm.
The moment her skin touched mine, a shockwave rippled through the clearing. The golden thread between our hearts flared bright white. My shadows recoiled, snapping back into my body as if burned.
The leader dropped the pipe and bolted into the woods, screaming about demons.
"You let him live," I hissed, looking down at her hand on my arm. My heart—her heart—was thumping rhythmically.
"He's a scumbag, but I'm not a murderer!" she yelled, her voice cracking. She looked at the two bodies on the ground. "And you... you just killed two people! The police, the CCTV... oh god, I'm going to prison. I'm going to die in prison."
"You aren't going to prison," I said, dusting off my tattered silk robes. "And you aren't dying. Not today."
I looked up. The Death-Clock had stopped. It reset to a shimmering [72:00:00].
Three days. I had bought her three days.
"We're leaving," I said, grabbing her wrist.
"Where? To the underworld?"
"To your palace."
The "Palace"
The "palace" was a fourth-floor walk-up in a building that looked like it was held together by spite and cheap paint. It smelled of fried kimchi and damp laundry.
I stood in the center of the room—which was also the kitchen, the bedroom, and the dining hall—and stared at a pile of colorful plastic bricks on the floor.
"What is this?" I asked, pointing to a flickering box in the corner.
"It's a TV. Don't touch it, it's vintage," Seol-ah sighed, throwing her mud-stained jacket onto a chair. She looked exhausted, her face pale under the harsh fluorescent light. "And this is my apartment. It's not a palace. It's barely a shoebox."
I sat on her "bed"—a thin mattress on the floor. It groaned under my weight.
"You are the Soul-Tie of the Shadow Prince," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous register. "You should be draped in silk and bathed in the milk of white hinds. Instead, you live in... this."
"Look, 'Prince,'" she snapped, leaning over me, her finger poking my chest. "I don't know who you are or what kind of weird cult you escaped from, but in this world, we don't have 'milk of hinds.' We have rent. We have electricity bills. And right now, I have two dead bodies in the woods that are going to be linked to me!"
I grabbed her finger, pulling her inches from my face. The scent of her—soap and survival—was dizzying.
"The shadows have already consumed the bodies," I whispered. "There is no evidence. There is only you and me. And as of tonight, I am your shadow. Where you go, I go. What you eat, I eat."
She blinked, her cheeks flushing a sudden, deep pink. "You... you're staying here? In a one-room apartment? With me?"
"Unless you'd prefer I sleep in the hallway and kill anyone who walks past?"
Seol-ah looked at the door, then at the terrifyingly handsome, ancient being sitting on her laundry pile.
"Fine," she whispered. "But one rule: stay away from my ramen. It's the expensive kind."
I watched her walk toward the tiny bathroom. My eyes drifted to the window. In the reflection, I saw not just myself, but the dark spirits gathering in the street below, drawn to my scent.
Being human was going to be much more violent than I expected.
Status Update : Kang Rim
Location : "The Plywood Kingdom" (Seol-ah's Studio)
Energy Level : 12% (Requires soul-ingestion or 'Human Connection' to recharge)
New Quest : Understand the "TV" and find "Ramen."