Chapter 421 (1/2)
The four children including Millie all clamped their mouths shut after discovering Su-hyeun’s presence.
Someone actually followed them into this dark, smelly, out-the-way back alley?
Not only that but it was also rather strange to see someone claiming his gold coins have been stolen to be grinning like that.
“Is it true?” the leader of the pickpockets, William, asked Millie.
Millie stared straight at Su-hyeun’s face. Although he only saw that face in passing, he still clearly remembered it, as their encounter happened just a while ago.
However…
“Nope. It’s my money, you know?” Millie obviously feigned ignorance, but that reaction only reaffirmed William’s suspicions. Those three gold coins in Millie’s hand? Those definitely belonged to the stranger.
A pickpocket would never admit to stealing money even if the original owner managed to catch up to them.
William smirked deeply; things would’ve been troublesome if the money he wanted to forcibly take away was returned to the victim after the latter caught up to them.
“Look here, uncle. He says it’s not, so what now?” William ordered his two cronies to surround Millie so that he couldn’t escape and then took large strides toward Su-hyeun.
The boy was blessed with a much faster growth spurt compared to the kids his age, and he nearly matched Su-hyeun’s height. Not only that but he also had some muscles on his frame, and as he had wandered around in these dark back alleys for a while, he was rather confident of his fighting skills.
Su-hyeun stared at William as the boy’s face got real close to him.
“This kid is also hiding a blade, huh,” he thought.
It wasn’t just William, either; the other two kids were also hiding a short dagger each.
Although faint, there were some traces of murderous intent permeating in their eyes, too. It seemed that they wouldn’t hesitate to take a person’s life in a location as isolated as this one.
And sure enough, the boy expressed this.
“If you don’t want to end up in a bad way, mister, I advise you to get lost right now. If you don’t, you might get a knife scar on your face or something,” William confidently pulled out the knife and aimed it at Su-hyeun.
This boy wasn’t just bluffing. Su-hyeun could tell since he was looking directly into William’s eyes. His Insight was telling him that this threat was genuine and that the boy would really stab him if he didn’t get out of the way.
“You have stabbed someone before, haven’t you?”
William flinched at Su-hyeun’s sudden question because the latter was just too nonplussed even after spotting the knife.
Only then did William discover that there was a sword attached to Su-hyeun’s hip.
“T—that’s right! That’s obvious! But so what? F*ck! You want me to stab you, too?!”
William was scared. Su-hyeun could clearly see it and feel it. He was scared by the fact that it wasn’t just him but the target was also armed with a blade. Even then, the boy waved the dagger around to appear more threatening, all because of his childish pride.
However, the words he spoke just now didn’t simply come from some immature pride. He definitely had stabbed someone before; that really happened.
Su-hyeun glanced at the two other kids behind William and asked, “What about you two?”
They didn’t answer. They weren’t as ballsy as William, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t answered him at all, either.
This ability called Insight was quite convenient but also rather forceful. One could see the inner thoughts of someone simply by looking into their eyes, after all.
“I see. So that’s how it is.”
Step—
Su-hyeun took a step toward William. “Kids shouldn’t behave like that. No, wait—never mind one’s age, a person shouldn’t be like that at all.”
“What dogsh*t are you—?” William abruptly stopped talking.
That was because his arm had already been caught in Su-hyeun’s grip. Even before he realized how, his body had been spun around, and his arm was bent behind him. William, totally panicking now, cried out, “N—no, wait…!”
Snap, crack—
William’s arm was bent in a bizarre angle.
Kkeuh-aaaaaaahk—!
William screamed while holding his broken arm and rolled around on the ground.
Even if he had a knife, even if his physique was much bigger than his peers, in the end, he was still a child. William couldn’t withstand the pain.
His legs were fine, but he couldn’t remain standing up and pathetically rolled around on the dirty floor.
Step—
“Hey, you two? Come over here.”
“Euh, euh…!”
“Uwahhh…!”
The two other kids stumbled back when Su-hyeun called out to them. They were reaching out to their own daggers hidden by their hips just now, but then, they urgently turned around to escape from here.
But then…
Cruuunch—
Crack—
Aaaaahk!
Su-hyeun twisted their arms behind their backs and broke them, too.
Clatter—
After he finished doing that, he stepped on the dagger that had fallen on the ground to break the blade. He then addressed the kids, “Don’t think that this is unfair. If you were resolved enough to stab someone, you should’ve also resolved yourselves to get your arms broken, too.”
What he meant sounded logical: If one was planning to take a life, then one should also be ready to lose one’s life.
Most likely, these kids won’t get to use their broken arms ever again, which obviously meant that they wouldn’t be able to swing knives around and stab someone else to death.
“Well, then…”
Step—
Su-hyeun began walking toward Millie, who was shivering in fear in a corner. “Why don’t we finish our discussion from earlier?”
“U—uwah…”
Trickle—