Free Web NovelBefore the horrified Kwon Taehyuk could stop it, the chains surged toward the woman.
The attack was so merciless it was hard to even think of her as his biological mother. No—if anything, compared to how Eun Woojeong usually never lost his composure, he was even colder and rougher right now.
“Wait, Eun Woojeong—ugh!”
Before Cha Seohu could finish, Cha Sahyeon kicked off the ground with Cha Seohu in his arms and shot upward. At the same time, the hair that had been wavering near the ceiling plunged down like snakes and slammed into the floor.
Ssssss—!
Smoke rose from where the two of them had been standing, and the surface began to melt.
‘Poison...!’
Even after the hair pulled away, the floor that had started melting kept bubbling, frothing, and dissolving.
Seeing that, Cha Seohu remembered the trap they’d run into in the hallway before entering this room—
Those incredibly thin threads stretched through the corridor like a spiderweb, hard to see with the naked eye.
Those threads had been the woman’s hair.
That thread, strong enough to melt the glove Eun Woojeong had tossed in an instant, was now a mass of hair whipping around in every direction.
“We have to subdue her! Subdue her!”
“How the hell are we supposed to subdue that?!”
Kwon Taehyuk shouted as he knocked away hair lunging at him with his blade, and Yoon Jeha, dodging with a horrified face, snapped back irritably.
“Just kill her! Even her son says she should die!”
“Do you hear yourself right now—?!”
Kwon Taehyuk twisted his face as he started to bark back, then dodged the hair whipping at him again.
Yoon Jeha gritted her teeth and swung her sword wreathed in flame, but that was all. The fire that crawled up along the hair died out halfway, blocked by the poison spreading across the ground so the flames couldn’t spread.
“Ha. What a pain in the ass, seriously!”
Clicking her tongue, Yoon Jeha weaved through the strands lunging at her and sprinted straight toward where the woman was.
If they kept fighting from far away, it was way too favorable for the woman. They needed to fight at a distance where the sword could actually reach if they wanted a chance.
Watching Yoon Jeha’s red hair rush in, the woman twisted her lips upward.
She raised both hands—two hands dried out like dead wood.
Palms facing each other, held apart at a fixed distance.
In that split second, the gesture made Yoon Jeha hesitate. An S-rank’s sensitive instincts caught the bad omen immediately.
As the distance closed a little more, hair could be seen tangled between the woman’s hands.
Like cat’s cradle, long strands were looped around each finger—then shot out toward Yoon Jeha.
“......!”
Yoon Jeha yanked her body back and raised her sword.
But hair that was that thin and moved that fast wasn’t easy to deal with. She blocked and cut four strands—yet the one remaining strand brushed past over her shoulder.
“Kgh!”
A pained groan burst out despite her.
Ssssss—!
Along with the sound of cloth and flesh burning, horrific pain spread from her shoulder.
“Ms. Yoon Jeha!”
As Cha Seohu’s shout rang out, a hard hand grabbed Yoon Jeha’s uninjured arm from behind and yanked her back.
The instant Kwon Taehyuk dragged her away, a heap of hair poured down onto the floor where she’d been standing. She’d almost been trapped inside that hair—like a giant insect cocoon—and melted whole.
Cha Seohu slipped out of Cha Sahyeon’s arms and rushed to Yoon Jeha in a panic. But Eun Woojeong stepped in front of the three of them.
Tendrils of white hair kept pouring down, and dozens of Eun Woojeong’s chains tangled and knotted with them. The poison melted the chains, and the chains severed the hair—over and over in a repeating cycle.
Screee—
Behind Cha Seohu as he treated Yoon Jeha, a sharp, grating noise spread.
From the harmonica Kwon Seoyul was blowing came not a soft melody, but a sound that stabbed at the ears—turned into a debuff that threw the woman’s presence into disarray.
“Y-you disgusting....”
The woman tried to endure somehow, but her exhausted body wouldn’t follow her will.
The moment Eun Woojeong saw her stagger, one hand pressed to her forehead, he moved.
A hook drove into the wall beside her, and in the blink of an eye Eun Woojeong flew to her side. A gloved hand shot out, reaching to snap her thin neck.
Just before his fingers could touch his biological mother’s throat—
The room went pitch-black, as if a light had been switched off.
In darkness where you couldn’t see an inch ahead. Perfect darkness that swallowed light, sound, sensation—even the flow of time itself.
Sinking into that darkness as his mind went faint, Eun Woojeong realized whose skill this was.
After a moment that felt like endless ages passed, the shadow that had filled the room flowed back in beneath Cha Sahyeon’s feet.
Eun Woojeong blinked. Cold sweat ran down his jaw.
He’d definitely reached for the woman’s throat—she’d been close enough to grab at any second.
But somehow, Eun Woojeong was now standing beside Yoon Jeha, and his hand stretched forward into empty air, holding nothing.
“......”
Slowly clenching his hand, Eun Woojeong lifted his head.
The woman was slumped against the wall, clutching her head. Her hair, having lost the will to attack, drooped limply to the floor.
“Calm down.”
Staring at the woman with an emotionless face, Eun Woojeong heard Cha Seohu speak beside him with a sigh.
Since he’d used a skill when the shadow covered the room, Cha Seohu was in his “cover” appearance. Under bright blond hair instead of calm black, his complicated gaze fixed on Eun Woojeong.
“...I don’t understand why you interfered.”
Eun Woojeong lowered the fist he’d clenched, slowly, and spoke evenly.
“That woman is Spiderweb’s head—the one who gave the members their orders. And up until just now, she was attacking because she meant to wipe all of us out.”
He tilted his head like he truly didn’t get it.
“We came all the way down here to find the head and kill her, didn’t we? Because only killing her can stop the members. So why are you stopping me? Cha Seohu—if your brother hadn’t interfered, that woman would be dead by now. Quickly. Without pain. That’s the easiest way for all of us to be comfortable.”
“.......”
Cha Seohu stared at him without answering, then sighed again.
“I said calm down. It’s not like I said we absolutely had to save her.”
“Then why did you stop me? I don’t understand. She attacked us—she’s a target we need to kill. Are we really in a position to ‘think about’ whether we kill her or not?”
“Why can’t we think about it?”
Cha Seohu looked between Eun Woojeong and the woman, then spoke.
“You’re mistaken about something. We didn’t come down here to kill the head—we came down because she’s the source of the orders, so we needed to find her. If subduing her can solve it, there’s no need to kill her.”
“Ha...”
Eun Woojeong let out a short, breathy laugh—then looked back at his biological mother again.
The woman, as if she still wasn’t tired, continued to glare at Eun Woojeong with hatred even while slumped there helplessly.
He’d seen that look countless times and felt nothing.
But right now, for some reason, it grated on him.
Disgust surged up, stabbing at his insides like needles.
Eun Woojeong turned his head back, met Cha Seohu’s eyes, and twisted his mouth.
“Just say it outright. You feel weird about killing her because she’s the one who gave birth to me.”
Cha Seohu didn’t deny it. He nodded.
“Yeah. I won’t pretend it’s not. It does feel weird.”
“Did I ask you to save her?”
Eun Woojeong let out a short laugh and spread both hands.
“I’ll kill her with my own hands, so don’t worry. If you hadn’t blocked me earlier, she’d already be dead by my hand.”
“Then we’ll all leave right now—so you two can fight again? Stop talking bullshit.” freёwebnovel.com
Cha Seohu’s face twisted as he stepped one pace closer and spoke in a low voice.
“Why do we have to be used for your personal business and revenge? Just because she’s who you want to kill, we’re obligated to help you? Why? Maybe you feel relieved after you kill her, but what about us who end up helping you do it without meaning to?”
“.......”
“Maybe you forgot. We’re the ones who got dragged into this, the ones who ran all the way here to save you when you were about to die. And now we’re supposed to help with your revenge too? You already knew the head was your mother. You hid it and pulled us all the way down here. Just to make it easier to kill her.”
“.......”
Eun Woojeong fell silent.
He had nothing to refute. Because it was true.
Everything had gone exactly the way he’d planned. From the moment Cha Seohu led the team to save him, all the way until they reached this room.
Honestly, he’d thought the ending would be clean, too.
He knew the woman would be blinded by hatred and throw herself at him recklessly. A fight would break out, people would get tangled together, and he figured no one would stop him from killing her.
But he’d never expected things to go like this.
If Cha Seohu hadn’t decided he needed to stop him.
And if his loyal brother hadn’t moved because of that.
Eun Woojeong’s eyes, sinking into a bleak gloom, fixed on Cha Seohu.
