<Chapter 139>
#16. Hidden Purpose (3)
“Johaim-ssi?”
“Find that bastard immediately and bring him to me.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Angel didn’t ask any further questions. Calix’s aura was too menacing to raise inquiries, and Angel was someone who valued his own life. As he hurried to move, Angel glanced alternately at Malek, who couldn’t even open his eyes, and the notebook in Calix’s hand before briefly saying:
“Don’t forget about making the cure? Otherwise, Master Melty will hate you later.”
“……”
Calix’s right eyebrow twitched upward as he remained silent. Though Angel tried to speak playfully, he knew too well that even one more word would trigger a furious outburst, so he hurriedly moved away. While it was movement to carry out the order, to Calix it looked like nothing more than fleeing with his tail between his legs.
“Hah.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Calix ran his hand through his hair as he suppressed his boiling emotions. Having barely wiped the severe expression from his face, Calix looked at the notebook in his hand.
The round handwriting that perfectly resembled Melty caught his eye. Slightly biting his lower lip, Calix buried his face in the notebook.
***
“Ugh…”
A low groan involuntarily escaped Melty’s lips from the throbbing pain in his head. Curled up tightly and moaning, Melty barely lifted his eyelids. After blinking several times, his blurry vision cleared.
Though he had regained consciousness, his body kept sinking as if trapped in a swamp. From his dazed head with a headache to his heavy body and dried-out mouth – nothing was easy once he started becoming aware.
Perhaps because his head felt numb, his eyes quickly became moist. Wrinkling his nose and sniffling, Melty slowly raised his body. The first things that came into his view were thick iron bars and a door beyond them. However, the floor and walls were all made of wood, so it didn’t seem like a prison.
‘Where on earth am I?’
He couldn’t understand how this had happened. Recalling the people completely covered in black clothes, Melty’s face turned pale.
‘Th-that’s right. Come to think of it, the paper?!’
With this belated thought, Melty frantically searched his pockets. But nothing was found. That paper was the solution and hope for saving his brother.
Shaking his head vigorously from side to side to clear it, Melty touched his empty wrist. The presence that should always be there was missing.
“Naru…?”
Just as he murmured in a small voice, there was a clattering sound. Startled, Melty pressed himself against the wall, his brown eyes trembling anxiously.
“Huh? What, you’re awake?”
Melty glared at him with intense eyes at the light and fresh voice. The familiar voice was unmistakably one he had heard during the kidnapping.
“Haa? What’s with those eyes? Makes me want to gouge them out.”
Giggling, the man made Melty, who was terrified, involuntarily gasp ‘heek’ and swallow. Though he clearly knew there was nowhere further to retreat, Melty pushed the floor with his feet to move backward, trying to distance himself as much as possible from the man.
“Where is this place?”
“Where? Why do you need to know?”
As the man sarcastically asked with his tongue sticking out, Melty repeatedly clenched and unclenched his hands, which were growing cold from tension. While regulating his breathing, Melty shot a glare full of wariness at the person in front of him and spoke again.
“So I can escape.”
“…What?”
At Melty’s words, the man’s face filled with astonishment. Glancing sideways at the frozen person, Melty pulled on the corner of the blanket spread wide under his fidgeting buttocks and covered himself. Covered with the remaining blanket that had been crumpled, he looked like someone frightened to anyone who might see.
“Did I hear something wrong?”
The man scratched his ear with his long nails and approached the iron bars. Thanks to this, Melty could see his face more clearly. Though the man, who appeared to be around thirty, had an unpleasant expression, he didn’t seem like a dangerous person.
“Hey. Why did you bring me here?”
“Hmm? That’s obvious, isn’t it? Because it was a ‘request.'”
Despite his carefree attitude, he readily answered Melty’s question. Melty softly muttered the word “request.”
“Did the person who made the request ask you to bring me?”
“Yes. Consider yourself lucky that there was a requirement to ‘not harm you.'”
He sneered with a “kick” of laughter. Despite his action meant to intimidate, Melty’s frozen shoulders actually relaxed. With an expression plainly showing ‘What the heck, I was scared for nothing,’ Melty spread the crumpled blanket flat on the floor again.
“…What’s with that relieved look?”
“You promised with the client not to hurt me, right?”
At Melty’s question with bright, round eyes, the man nodded with a perplexed face. And as his head moved, a bright smile bloomed on Melty’s face.
“Then I’m not in danger.”
“……”
Life returned to Melty’s face, which until just a moment ago had been pale and trembling in the corner. This left the kidnapper confused, scratching the back of his head with a strange expression. Melty placed his hands on his belly, rubbing it in circles, and took a deep breath.
Given his indifferent reaction despite Melty’s blatant statement about escaping, he didn’t seem to be a perceptive person. While it was unreasonable to fully judge someone based on a momentary action or response, at least it was clear that he wasn’t someone who would immediately threaten or use violence.
‘I’m benefiting here from my experience running a restaurant, even if it failed.’
It was all thanks to that experience that he could guess what kind of personality the other person had while dealing with various people. Wrinkling his nose, Melty carefully observed the man beyond the iron bars. Though escape seemed possible, he was cautious about acting hastily.
“Hey, hey. Why are you rolling your eyes like that?”
The man frowned deeply and raised his voice sharply. Melty, who had been subtly observing him, rubbed his empty wrist with an innocent smile.
“By any chance, have you seen Naru?”
“Naru? What’s that?”
“A very pretty snake that was with me!”
“Snake?”
With narrowed eyes, the man elongated the end of his word, then belatedly smiled with a twisted corner of his mouth as if he had just remembered something. Although Melty knew he was a bad person, his smile made him look even more vile.
“Ah? That Ollua brat? I’ve put it in a jar to make snake liquor.”
Snake liquor?!
The man giggled as he watched Melty’s shocked expression with his mouth wide open. Staring intently at the man’s jovially laughing face, Melty completely relaxed his shoulders.
“Lying is bad.”
“Lie? It’s not a lie~”
“……”
At the man’s mocking tone, Melty quietly pushed his lips forward. Judging from the expectant gaze that met him whenever he brought up the subject, it seemed Naru was safely somewhere. Recalling Naru, who had opened its small mouth as wide as possible to protect him until the very last moment, Melty tightly clenched his fist out of sight.
‘This time, I have to save you.’
For that, he needed to understand the situation well. As Melty took a deep breath, a growling sound rang from his stomach. Startled by the resonant sound that resembled its owner, Melty hastily covered his stomach with both hands. But it wasn’t the kind of stomach that would stop making noise just by doing that.
“…Ah, right.”
The man, who had been blankly staring at Melty making quite a ruckus about food, briefly spoke. Soon, he reached into his back pocket, took out a piece of bread, and threw it inside the bars. Melty’s pupils widened as he looked at the bread that had fallen with a ‘thud.’
“I forgot. Eat.”
Melty, eyeing suspiciously the man who whispered with a smile unlike his previous senseless behavior, cautiously grabbed the bread. It was a small, hard bread that filled his hand.
He brought it close to his nose and sniffed it, but found nothing unusual. The unique savory smell of bread naturally made his mouth water.
“I didn’t do anything weird to the food, so you can eat it.”
At his words, Melty carefully opened his mouth and slightly bit the corner of the bread. Hunger took precedence over suspicion. The dry bread, when mixed with the saliva in his mouth, produced a somewhat edible taste. While chewing and eating the bread bit by bit, Melty looked at him with sparkling eyes.
“Excuse me…”
“What?”
“When will the person who has business with me arrive?”
The man frowned as he answered the question asked with innocent eyes.
“Why are you curious about that?”
“Who else would be curious if not me?”
Melty retorted as he tore off a large piece of bread and quickly brought it to his mouth. Left speechless by the bold reply, the man rubbed his forehead with his hand.
“If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine. But…”
“What now?”
“…Can I have some water?”
The man once again made a dumbfounded expression at the whispered question accompanied by a broad smile. It was mind-boggling how calm the words and actions were for someone who had been kidnapped.
“The bread is quite dry to eat on its own.”
“…Ha. Damn it. Why do I have to clean up after this kid…”
Grumbling with irritation while running his hand through his hair, he obediently turned around. The moment he opened the door and disappeared, Melty pressed his face against the bars, trying to see beyond.
Though the outside was visible for only a brief moment when the door opened, he could tell that this place was not a room but more like a warehouse. Just beyond that door was the outside. Melty, taking a large bite of bread and chewing it, rubbed his stomach with his hand.
“Don’t be surprised.”
Though he didn’t know if the child inside could understand, he felt he should tell him in advance. Patting his belly and murmuring “good, good,” Melty subtly moved his hand towards his shoe. As he pressed the sole of his shoe here and there, a small dagger quickly came to hand.
– Never keep it away from you. And if a damn bastard treats you carelessly, just stab!
– Hyung!!
– Ahem. Hmm… Just keep it with you, just in case.
Malek’s voice, advising with a disgruntled face while glancing sideways at traces of Calix, was vivid in his ears. Still, he hadn’t forgotten his brother’s words to never remove it.
‘They probably didn’t think there would be something here.’
Repeatedly clenching and unclenching his hand, Melty tried to relieve his tension. Although he couldn’t know who had requested this or why, one thing was clear.
This would be his only chance to escape.
