I Decided to Give the Contract to the Male Vassal - Chapter 3

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 3

At that moment, our gazes crossed.

My lungs froze.

My body wouldn’t move, as if crushed by something.

He staggered toward me, muttering.

Behind him, dark red heat waves were rising. It felt like an eerie mass of condensed heat.

It was such an unfamiliar experience that I blinked again, thinking I might have seen something wrong.

“…You, they said you were on death’s door for three days, but you look fine?”

From him came the metallic smell of blood mixed with a strong scent of alcohol.

“Who…?”

I asked quietly, but I had actually recognized who he was.

Someone whose face, height, and atmosphere strangely resembled Yeon Ho-ryeong.

The eldest son, Yeonhopyeong.

He must be Chung-rin’s fiancé.

Strangely, just making eye contact with him made me hear urgent drumbeats in my ears.

No, this is the sound of a heartbeat.

Deep anger remained pounding in Chung-rin’s heart.

I deliberately suppressed my emotions and observed the situation.

Yeonhopyeong was grinning wickedly.

Unlike the gentle-looking Yeon Ho-ryeong, his face had quite a sharp impression.

Especially his twisted lips felt chillingly unpleasant.

“You, they say you lost your memory?”

He looked at me with an expression like someone broken.

“You didn’t lie about that to run away from me, did you?”

“…”

Words wouldn’t come out easily. Frustrated by my appearance, Yeon Ho-ryeong raised his eyebrows.

“How about I check for myself?”

He strode toward me and reached out his hand.

My body froze solid from deeply rooted fear.

‘I’m going to die!’

I wanted to run away instantly, but he was faster.

His hand wrapped around my neck.

Even the sensation of his skin touching mine was disgusting.

Only his eerie face filled my vision.

“Ugh…”

As my throat was squeezed, a groan escaped involuntarily.

The killing intent pouring from Yeonhopyeong made me breathless.

“Answer me. Why did Magyen save you? Since when have you known that bastard?!”

‘…Magyen?’

Could that refer to the one who saved me at the lake?

Yeonhopyeong’s face watching my eyes was completely distorted.

I immediately recognized what emotion was contained in that expression.

Terrible inferiority complex.

His mad eyes weren’t glaring at me, but at someone inside me.

“I thought you were scheming with that little brother, but were you actually secretly conspiring with that Magyen bastard?”

Yeonhopyeong’s eyes became bloodshot.

I didn’t know the reason, but it was certain that ‘Magyen’ was someone who triggered an inferiority complex in Yeonhopyeong.

“You can’t escape anyway. You were mine from the beginning.”

The hand gripping my neck tightened. I began to suffocate.

If it had been Chung-rin, she wouldn’t have been able to resist in this situation, but I was different.

“…Let, go!”

I met his gaze and gathered my remaining breath to shout.

It was to confuse him and create a gap to escape.

At that moment.

Everything stopped.

Yeonhopyeong’s disgusting breath, the killing intent vividly transmitted through his hand, even the flow of cold air.

Everything around me lost color and was covered in lifeless gray.

In the midst of this, I reflexively tore his hand from my neck and realized.

Only I could move in this silence.

I don’t know the reason.

I don’t know if it’s my power or a secret hidden in this body.

However, I could clearly sense that this moment was fleeting and an opportunity that must not be missed.

Without time to think further, I kicked Yeonhopyeong’s shin with all my strength.

Right then, the colorless world cracked.

Everything found color as if splitting through a gray tomb and coming back to life, and the sounds of the surroundings that had stopped could be heard.

And—

Thud!

Yeonhopyeong fell backward and hit his head on the threshold.

Being caught off guard, he couldn’t even defend himself.

But at this moment when I should quickly flee and escape, my body lost strength as if something had been drained out.

“Huff, huff…”

The area around my heart ached and I became short of breath.

My legs gave out and I sat down, trying to catch my breath.

My throat hurt and my ankle throbbed from kicking Yeonhopyeong’s shin hard, but more than that, I couldn’t get up immediately due to the strange exhaustion and shortness of breath.

Only after catching my breath for a while could I finally move.

‘Yeonhopyeong is…’

Fortunately, he still couldn’t get up. He was unconscious, having properly hit the threshold.

There wasn’t much blood around his head and he was breathing, so it seemed he wouldn’t die like this.

To others’ eyes, it would look like he fell over drunk by himself, but this was the result of quick calculation.

I had precisely calculated where he would hit his head and kicked his shin accordingly.

‘Should I kill him now?’

It’s better to quickly eliminate obstacles.

However, this is inside the Yeomhwa Family.

If their wariness toward me increased, my actions would also be restricted. So it seemed better to stop at this point.

Anyway, Yeonhopyeong would lie there for a while.

Since he was actually drunk, he might even mistake all of this for a dream after waking up later.

I left him there and returned to my residence.

Sitting on the bed, I calmed my wildly beating heart.

‘What was that?’

What happened when Yeonhopyeong grabbed my neck. That was definitely time stopping.

‘Could it be…’

I clenched and unclenched my unfamiliar palm.

Could that possibly be a special ability that Chung-rin possessed?

I’m certain there was no such content among the countless information I had encountered in the past.

I suddenly became curious about what kind of person Chung-rin was.

Would the things Chung-rin used have clues about her?

In the bedroom, there were only an old mirror and faded clothes, no traces of her.

So I expanded my investigation to the small study attached to the bedroom.

On the desk located in the corner, practice sheets where she had practiced calligraphy were stacked.

‘She wrote quite a lot.’

Since I was confined here, there was nothing else to do besides this.

As I examined those practice sheets, I discovered a journal deep in the desk drawer.

There, Chung-rin’s time was recorded in fragments.

Records of birthdays she faced alone each year.

Conversational writing with no responses.

And broken sentences.

Gradually the records decreased, and she wrote down her thoughts less often.

The handwriting that was initially straight and neat gradually became disheveled, and at the end it was almost a mess, as if written with trembling fingertips.

The last sentence she scrawled contained her state of mind at the time.

When the wedding ceremony proceeds, I will completely disappear.

Recalling when I faced Yeonhopyeong earlier, I could tell how terribly she regarded Yeonhopyeong.

Yeonhopyeong must have always treated Chung-rin like today, habitually using violence.

‘Could it be that the one who killed Chung-rin was…’

The moment I had this doubt, her last memory came flooding back.

Cloudy sky, vast lake.

And Chung-rin standing at the cliff edge with wounded bare feet.

Before her stood Yeonhopyeong with a distorted face.

“You’re mine anyway. You should listen to whatever your husband says, right?”

That bastard seemed to be tearing Chung-rin apart with just his murderous gaze alone.

“Go back to the residence quietly. If you just keep your mouth shut, I’ll dote on you to your satisfaction.”

The moment she heard those words, Chung-rin’s heart, which had been thrashing like a fish pulled from water, became quiet.

Strangely, she didn’t even have any fear left when facing Yeonhopyeong.

“Shut that filthy mouth.”

She twisted her lips mockingly as she retorted.

“Let’s never see each other again.”

As soon as her lips closed firmly, her body descended toward the lake.

The lake welcomed Chung-rin with white foam and swallowed her body.

A venomous smile appeared on her lips.

Chung-rin thought it was better to die than marry Yeonhopyeong.

So she threw herself into the lake without hesitation.

This was the end of the memory.

But she couldn’t have known.

That something strange would happen to her body as it sank beneath the lake, and that I, Chung-rin, would come to dwell within it.

I don’t know how such a thing was possible either.

But it was certain that instead of her who wished for death, I who wished for life had come to remain here.

‘Chung-rin.’

I called her name in my heart.

There was no response.

The owner of this body seemed to have completely disappeared.

‘Chung-rin.’

She had been unable to properly bloom while confined in this prison-like place.

After having her freedom stolen by the Mageyo members, she lived like a caged bird, and ultimately tried to find freedom through death.

‘Your death gave me life.’

Even knowing she had already disappeared, there was something I wanted to tell her.

‘From now on, I will live as you.’

I wouldn’t waste the life I had miraculously received.

Having inherited this life, there was something I had to do.

Revenge.

‘Not just those who killed Baekah. I won’t forgive those who drove you to death either.’

I would tear apart those who ordered Baekah’s death, and I would cast into hell those who captured Chung-rin and drove her to death.

The moment I made that resolution.

An energy I thought could never dwell in this body again vibrated faintly near my solar plexus.

It was an ominous, chilling energy.

I urgently sat in lotus position and thoroughly examined the energy within my body.

The internal energy I thought had been severed was faintly stirring. It was thin as a thread, but it definitely existed.

‘My internal energy hadn’t completely disappeared!’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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