Chapter 113.1

Chapter 113.1

“Was being married worth it?”

His expressionless face seemed caught between anger and sorrow, but his gaze brimmed with an obsessive interest in Seoryeong.

There it is, she thought. Purity and submission, huh? What’s he really after, poking around like this?

Unflinching, Seoryeong countered him.

“I must really resemble this Sonya you’re always talking about.”

Kia slowly blinked his lashes.

“So that’s why you said it before? That you like sleeping with people who look like me?”

“What?”

Clang! Lee Wooshin dropped his spoon, sharply repeating the question.

“Whoa!” The members of the special team let out murmurs of astonishment, though they all quickly focused on Lee Wooshin’s reaction.

“If you’re so curious about marriage, why don’t you try it yourself? And make sure to find that person so you can screw them to your heart’s content. But—”

Her eyes momentarily crinkled. Seoryeong shoved his arm off hers and kicked the chair that had edged closer to her. With a series of sharp thuds, she pushed it farther away, and Kia’s face flushed with confusion.

“Marriage, husbands—don’t bring those up casually when you’ve just met someone. I’m sorry, but I have a short fuse when it comes to my husband. It’s bad enough to have my personal life randomly dragged into a conversation, but calling my husband names like ‘wild boar’—yeah, that’s plenty infuriating too, Father.”

“What are you talking about?”

Kia furrowed his brows, his expression one of utter incomprehension. Seeing his feigned innocence made Seoryeong even more exasperated.

‘Do you even know how much of a wild boar your husband—’ What was it again? Ugh… Just thinking about it made her blood boil.

Just recalling it sent fresh waves of anger coursing through her. From their very first encounter, his behavior had been anything but respectful for someone claiming to serve the divine.

Seoryeong kept nudging his chair farther away. Kia flailed his arms in frustration as the gap widened.

“Sonya, wait, that’s not—!”

“It’s Han Seoryeong.”

“…”

“Yes, I’m married, and yes, I have a husband. But I don’t have a religion, nor do I have friends.”

“…!”

“Father, I can overlook rudeness once, but twice? That’s hard for me. Let’s agree that from now on, you’ll address me properly by my name.”

Drawing a clear line in the sand, Seoryeong watched his expression subtly shift. Kia touched his brow with his fingertips and closed his mouth.

Seoryeong, unfazed, turned her attention back to her meal tray, though his intent gaze lingered on her until she finished her meal.

***

After eating, the team followed Kia down to the basement.

The air was freezing. Huddled in the dimly lit space were children, shivering and pressed tightly together for warmth. Their clothes were tattered, and their shoes were nowhere to be seen.

This place was supposed to be a monastery, but the reality was a windowless basement where they were kept confined.

The team members struggled to maintain neutral expressions, but one question couldn’t go unasked.

“What is this?”

The children wore strange masks that covered their heads. The masks, resembling clown hats with dual protrusions, came in various colors and shapes, giving the group a mismatched, colorful appearance.

However, the masks looked oppressively heavy. The children couldn’t hold their heads up, their necks repeatedly drooping under the weight.

At first, the masks seemed designed to conceal their faces, but on closer inspection, something felt wrong. The children writhed uncomfortably, some clawing at the surface of the masks in an attempt to remove them.

The masks appeared to be torture devices, tightly clamping around their heads to control them. Without realizing it, Seoryeong voiced her concern.

“The masks… they look painful. Do they have to stay on like that?”

“Yes, it hurt.”

“…”

“Do you hate the sight of those masks? Want me to take them off?”

Before Seoryeong could properly respond, Kia suddenly hopped over and began unfastening the children’s masks one by one.

By the time she instinctively turned to look at Lee Wooshin, his face had gone pale, and he remained utterly silent.

Clang! Clatter!

Each time the iron masks hit the floor, the metallic noise echoed sharply.

Seoryeong quietly observed Lee Wooshin’s ashen complexion. His tightly clenched jaw and uneven breathing were hard to miss.

The children clutched their reddened foreheads, tears and snot streaming down their faces. Amidst them, only Kiya stood grinning.

“It’s just for negotiations—it works better when they look like this. No personal motives here…! Anyway, they’ll be transferred to the annex on the other side of the monastery tomorrow, so just make sure they’re transported safely.”

“…”

Lee Wooshin’s Adam’s apple bobbed faintly. He crouched down and reached toward one of the masks on the floor as if transfixed. Kia smirked, lifting the corner of his mouth.

“That’s the mask I wore as a kid. Why?”

“……!”

Lee Wooshin’s hand froze mid-reach. His gaze shifted, scanning Kia with a newfound intensity, as if seeing the priest for the first time.

“I ended up in a beautiful castle, after all. That mask is from my time in the Winter Fortress.”

Kia’s eyes gleamed as he looked at Lee Wooshin, almost as if probing him. Which one of these memories do you remember?