TVMGLIHLY – CH039

Chapter 39

Entering the cave filled with smoke would be suicidal.

Even if she didn’t get injured like Damian, Doha was in dire straits.

“Ahh, it’s on fire!”

“Save me!”

“My house, my house…!”

Screams echoed from various places.

Wondering why there were so many assassins, Doha realized they had gathered collectively to set the entire dump on fire.

The landfill was engulfed in a massive blaze, resembling a giant incinerator.

Piles of garbage, stacked like large buildings, easily caught fire due to their proximity.

The residents who used this place as their homes lost their shelters in an instant.

Despite being a vulnerable neighborhood that would easily collapse under minor external pressure, it had survived so far because…

‘The spider? Where did it go?’

The ruler of the landfill, who had firmly held on. The spider was the one who had intricately created the secret passages and the spider’s nest underground.

‘I heard even in the imperial family, they dare not touch him carelessly’

Always wearing a mask, the spider’s true identity was unknown. There were rumors circulating that he had quite a remarkable background.

That’s why the landfill had remained within the extraterritorial jurisdiction.

“Huh?”

At that moment, Doha let out an astonished sound.

The ground was shaking as if an earthquake had occurred.

The heightened senses, brought to their limits with lives at stake, signaled a warning. It didn’t feel like an ordinary earthquake; a sinister premonition lingered.

“Take cover!”

“What… Agh!”

Suddenly, Damian pushed her.

Losing her balance, Doha tumbled several times before coming to a stop.

“What the… What is this?”

Before she could even question what was happening, the ground between Damian and Doha collapsed in an instant.

“…”

If she had been just one second late, she would have fallen to her death.

Doha looked down into the pitch-dark hole, unable to see the bottom, and broke into a cold sweat. When she put pressure on her toes, the pile of dirt collapsed, and she fell.

After crawling out of the pit, she slowly raised her head.

“…!”

The debris of a collapsed building lay on Damian’s leg, squashing it.

He was injured in the leg. In this condition, the chances of survival were almost nonexistent.

“No, these injuries…”

Judging by the size of the debris, she could guess the state of his leg. It was strange that it wasn’t twisted, considering the size of the rubble.

She needed to examine it closely. Who could provide treatment? Even if she received treatment, could he ever walk properly again?

Doha bit her lip, staring blankly at the face of the child enduring pain.

When their eyes met, he faintly smiled with a face stained red by the flames.

“Go.”

Behind Damian, assassins with ice blocks attached to their legs appeared.

It was meant to tie them down temporarily. Moreover, with fire all around, it would have been easy to escape.

“Ah…”

Was this how it was going to end?

He didn’t plan to die like this.

Even if the ground shook endlessly, he would endure. He would fight endlessly, overcome, and stand up.

‘An ordeal that will end once the dark night passes and welcomes the morning. A chance to embrace the world under the sky…’

Therefore, even the current pain was just a fleeting trial.

‘Now, there’s nothing we can do.’

Doha roughly tore off the temporary rope tied to her arm.

Although her wrists were marked with bright red bruises from being dragged by the rope, she couldn’t afford to feel the pain.

Without hesitation, she stomped on the small gemstone bead with her boots.

Crunch—

I don’t know where she got such courage from.

Doha trusted Bunny’s body, which was unusually agile and light.

She stepped back for a moment, then rushed forward and leaped over the pit in an instant.

“Ugh…!”

She almost stumbled for a moment, but managed to crawl out of the pit. Then, without hesitation, she approached Damian and enveloped him as if to protect him.

“…Bunny.”

Damian seemed bewildered, as if at a loss for words or angry.

In a heavily strained voice, he called her name for the first time.

“I… I don’t want to be the cause of your death.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Perhaps Doha didn’t expect him to retort so sharply.

Even as he groaned in pain and shed blood, he looked at her with surprised eyes.

“This is my decision. If I die here, it means my judgment is all I have left. You’re not the cause; it’s just that my choice was wrong.”

“…”

“You made the choice to protect me, and I made the choice to protect you. It’s only natural that your injured and weakened choice is outweighed by mine. That’s why my choice becomes the future.”

There was no time to hesitate in such a situation.

Doha spoke sincerely for him.

“If you want your choice to become the future, then don’t get hurt and become stronger.”

Don’t get hurt at all from now on.

At her words, Damian’s abyss-like pupils trembled greatly, as if shaken.

“Fate dictated by someone else’s choices is trivial.”

When Doha became “Bunny” instead of “Park Doha,” she realized this first.

To become stronger than anyone else and no longer let others’ choices dictate her future.

“Huff…”

After speaking quickly, Doha let out a deep sigh. Then, she hugged Damian tightly.

There was no way to remove him from the rubble without the strength to do so.

The assassins would surely kill Damian, but Doha had declared that she would spare him to offer to the leadership…

“I’ve changed my mind. Kill them both.”

Oh no, they both look like they’re going to die.

The leader of the assassins swiftly drew his sword at the speed of light and thrust it into Doha’s throat. A crimson line flowed down her white neck.

Instead of begging for her life, Doha looked at him with burning eyes.

The blood-red pupils burned as fiercely as the surrounding flames of chloride.

“Let me ask you one thing before I die.”

“What is it?”

“Did the owner of the landfill collaborate with the empress?”

“…”

Without stepping through the stages and going straight for the jugular, the leader fell silent.

Although the assassin’s entire face was covered with black cloth, his eyes were still visible.

Having read the answer in his eyes, Doha raised the corners of her red lips.

It was indeed the empress who sent the assassins.

“They waited two days to set the fire because they were waiting for approval, right?”

“…”

“The pretext would be that the residents of this place killed the prince, right?”

Perhaps the empress had planned this from the beginning.

If Damian were to die in the landfill due to the suspicion of being the mastermind behind the war, she might as well burn the garbage all at once.

The reason was obvious—to smooth the path for her son who would become the future emperor.

“It’s a real mess.”

Of course, the residents of the landfill probably didn’t choose him as their representative, but rather were dominated by force.

Still, they were her people, and yet she mercilessly slaughtered them and destroyed their territory. A true ruler of the landfill, chaotic and tyrannical.

“You… What the hell are you?”

Damian, who had been silent until then, muttered. Then, he stared blankly into the air without saying a word.

He had noticed that the assassins were approaching and that the ground was about to collapse.

Doha, sensing something from Damian’s reaction, smirked. She removed the hood covering her face with her own hands.

At the same time, her elaborately golden hair, rolled up inside the hood, cascaded down.

“Ophelia Kredel.”

Doha looked at the leader’s dumbfounded face.

“The symbol of peace?”

That was the final utterance.

An invisible, intangible blade instantly cut through the man, the assassins behind him, and continued to split the ground as it raced forward, even dividing a garbage tower dozens of meters away.

With a tremendous noise, the tower collapsed.

“…That’s what you all called them. Peace won’t reach even to you.”

Muttering so, Doha wiped her wet face with her sleeve, unaffectedly.

She didn’t bother confirming the horrible sight that was undoubtedly a gruesome pile of corpses.

As she turned around, a man with flowing blonde hair was walking towards them.

His steps were neither slow nor fast.

With each step he took, frost formed where his feet touched the ground. Stepping on it, he crushed the ice under his feet.

Crunch, crunch—

As he walked by, the flames that were spreading around stopped, losing their light.

His appearance seemed like darkness approaching.

“…D- Duke Kredel.”