Dark Embrace [Hoseok FF] [SOF Prequel 0.2] ✔

Chapter 7

It might have been a quarter of an hour, that Aaya stood stupidly, staring ahead.

The image of the person who could who gently smile at her contrasted to the man who mutilated these bodies, was so much in odds that Aaya still could not reconcile the image. Even with the evidence in front of her, she still was incapable to.

Hoseok was coldly elegant, detachedly handsome. With this lean but muscled body and his black sheen of hair tied back with a leather band, his dark eyes had always exuded a calm danger. But it never pushed the boundary of madness.

Unlike this. . .

Was I wrong in understanding him? A person capable of doing this? Even if the killings were in self defense, did this suit the code of a warrior?

And that was the crux of the matter.

That he killed was never something Aaya even felt bothered with. Him being a General was a given position for taking life. But the manner.

The heartless, inhumane, demonic manner he dismembered people. For him to unconsciously fight this way, how much hatred was filled in his heart. And if not hatred, then what was the Darkness that haunted him, shrouding him in the very essence of vicious nature?

Because killing for the sake of winning or defense required just a stab, a slash. This sort of death signified the pleasure a person felt with the power he held over the life of a person. Was this not sick?

Suddenly, amidst the horrific sight of vultures hovering over decomposed mutilated bodies filled with maggots and flies, a beautiful melodious sound of a bird broke through the depression.

Its clear cry was as shrill as it was fresh and enchanting, like a pure silver arrow cutting through the ugliness of death she was witnessing.

That chirp of the bird shook her senses awake.

Aaya blinked rapidly as her breathing stabilized. No one could fault her with being dazed after seeing what she saw, it was human of her to do so.

But remaining in that befuddled state, letting irrational fear colour her to be prejudiced against a person due to only a partial piece of puzzle was definitely not who she was.

No doubt Hoseok was dark, but was that all he was?

Carefully, she rose back again, recalling her own principle, her own words she had spoken but moments ago . . .

"Why should I care about the manner of the death you gave an individual. Rather I would pose a different question."

Right . . . The deaths, were not the only relevant information here. She had just been temporarily blinded to it.

As for her question, the innocence was what mattered. Who were these people?

Raising her skirt, Aaya shakily went towards the scene. From behind her, a sound of rustling leaves alerted her of movement. She looked back, but could not see any animal.

Maybe it was a squirrel.

Not minding anything, she resisted the foul odour and walked towards the cluster of bodies.

The way they were lying on the ground, suggested that they had tried to attack in groups. 2 to 3 bodies were close together, then a few scattered at a distance. Squinting her eyes, she saw a few bodies a little further away at a distance. Those might have been the first to be killed.

They all wore black clothes, their outer robes and inner hanboks just a plain black giving no clue to their identity, but at the same time telling Aaya that these were not the soldiers under Hoseok's command stationed in the borders of their village who were fighting the tribe.