All was silent. The soldiers raised their weapons with both hands in the air and frozen, surprised faces.
This was not time stopping, but a sudden shock from the abruptly ceased tension.
They were surprised to see the Princess they were picking up was about to commit suicide, and they were even more surprised by me suddenly stopping the Princess's hand from slitting her own throat.
"If you want to commit suicide, it's better to stab yourself in the heart or brain. That way you won't suffer the pain of dying before you die."
All eyes stared at me with wide-open eyelids as if to make sure they hadn't misheard what I had just said a second ago. Indeed, I said it.
"Crazy man! Let go! Let go of me!"
The maid, who had now changed her identity to the Princess, squirmed, trying to break free from my grip. Even if she tried to pull her wrist with ten extra hands, with the strength that felt like a child's, she wouldn't be able to escape from me in ten years. Ah, unless she cut off her own hand.
She tried to kick my leg but failed. Instead, she felt pain in her toes.
"Why would you choose suicide? What's so bad about being a concubine? I've often met concubines from various kingdoms and I think they live quite comfortably compared to your life now, maid."
"Shut up! You wouldn't understand... you're just a heartless crazy man!..."
The royal soldiers, the tavern owner, and the customers looked at us both with confusion, strangeness, surprise, tension, and pity. Because the maid began to fall to her knees on the floor and dropped the knife in her hand. Then she started crying loudly.
"Hiks... You wouldn't know what will happen to me in the future... hiks... you wouldn't know how I will be abused by the man who killed my father... hiks... you wouldn't know what it feels like to live like a bird in a cage... Hiks... A bird praised only for its beauty..."
Silence. Even the royal soldiers who came to pick up the maid stood still where they were. Including me. But I didn't care about her crying at all.
"Hiks... just kill me... hiks... I don't care anymore..."
I squatted in front of the maid's face, who was crying, tears flowing heavily down to her chin and dripping onto her collar.
I brushed aside the bangs that covered the beauty of her eyes. I looked directly into her eyes. She looked back at me and her crying stopped.
Slap!
The sound of a slap was heard. I slapped Shun Jin's crying face with the same hard slap she gave me when she gave me food this afternoon.
At that moment, the Princess stopped crying. It seemed she was processing what was happening and why she was slapped.
"Do you want to know why I slapped you?"
I asked. The girl nodded slightly.
"Then stay alive. I will tell you the reason someday."
The girl looked at me confused. Although her eyes were swollen with tears, her confusion was greater than her sadness, so she no longer cried and looked at me with furrowed brows.
"So? Is the drama over? We don't care if the Princess has to cry when dragged or scream madly. We will still forcibly take her to the kingdom. Because that is our king's command. Drag her, if she resists you can hit her stomach, not her face. The king values her facial beauty."
The leader of the royal army ordered two soldiers in front of the maid to forcibly drag her. Immediately, two of his subordinate soldiers walked closer to me and the maid.
"Wait! I'll go with you!" The maid stood up. Making the two soldiers who were about to forcibly drag her hesitate. "With one condition, take this crazy man with me."
This maid... She suddenly held my hand without permission. What if my handsome skin gets tainted?
The army leader grinned at me. I know I'm handsome but I'm not interested in men. I'm also not interested in women. But the maid gripped my hand so tightly.
For some reason, I remembered someone who once held my hand like this before she ended up being stabbed to death by a jealous man.
"Alright. Bring that crazy man too."
The leader of the royal army troop walked out of the tavern first without looking back. While his two subordinates walked behind, to my right and left. And the maid in front of me.
"Wow, what a surprising day." I heard the old man customer whistle said that as we exited the tavern.
***
Kindness demands. Sometimes, for me, doing evil feels freer than doing good.
For example, right now, I'm in a horse-drawn carriage with the maid, my hands tied with rope. The same goes for the maid, or should I call her the princess in front of me. Her hands are tied quite tightly, making her wrists red. How pitiful.
They confiscated my demonic sword, but don't worry, I've told them not to open the cloth. If they broke my words, it's their own fault.
"Hey."
We've been traveling by horse-drawn carriage for two nights. At night, the journey stops for rest. They also give me a piece of bread every morning and evening. For the princess? Same, the difference is she's given drinking water while I'm not. Humans are indeed partial creatures.
"Mm."
At night, we can only sleep in this cramped space. I don't need sleep, but it's different for the princess in front of me. Every night she tries to set up a comfortable seat for her sleep but it seems she can't sleep soundly at all. Her half-asleep face is quite entertaining for me to watch all night.
"That time, why didn't you let me die?"
I looked at the scenery outside, there's a gap to see the outside view from the entrance of this horse-drawn carriage.
"Because that's what Ye Jing would do."
I said briefly.
The sound of the horse-drawn carriage wheels could be heard, turning quickly over all kinds of terrain with two horses in front working hard to pull the heavy load behind them. The sound of their hooves was rhythmic, sometimes the sound of a whip could be heard to make the horses run fast or stop.
"Ye Jing?"
The princess asked. Although she cried three days ago and hasn't bathed, her face still looks the same as when I first met her. One thing I like about her face is her blue eyes that look calming like a shining blue pool in the deepest darkness of a cave.
"My friend. My companion."
Outside, we occasionally passed villages, occasionally passed steep mountain roads, occasionally passed dark dense forests. I thought this was already very far from the nameless village. Where is the princess's kingdom actually?
"Your friend... a human?"
I nodded.
The girl, the princess, stifled a laugh upon hearing that.
"You have a friend?"
"Yes. Is that something new in the kingdom?"
"I don't believe it. A heartless madman like you has a friend. I'd rather believe you if you said you were friends with a demon than friends with a human."
She laughed. She smiled broadly after these three days. I'll add her laughing expression to the things I like about her face. Eyes and laughter. Strangely, it made me feel quite entertained watching her.
"So?"
She stopped.
"Where is your friend? Why are you wandering alone, crazy man?"
"He..." I turned my face away, to look at the outside scenery moving forward. "Is dead, by my own hand."
The maid was now speechless. She also no longer looked at me. She looked at the moving scenery outside, just like me.
"Were you sad when you saw your best friend die?"
I expected it. I didn't expect it. Like a bolt of lightning in broad daylight. But I had already expected there would be a bolt of lightning in broad daylight.
She asked the same thing I asked to myself.
Was I sad when Ye Jing died?
The answer was.
"No."
"Then why do your eyes look sad?"
"My eyes?"
I looked into the princess's eyes. She looked at me, with tear-filled eyes. And in those eyes, I could see my own eyes trembling and shedding the same tears as hers.
We both fell silent, with tears flowing from our eyelids. Passing our dimples and then falling from our chins. Hitting our chests where our hearts beat.
"Maybe some dust got into my eyes."
"Crazy man. I'm glad to see you cry."
Is this the kindness you spoke of, Ye Jing? It feels... suffocating.
***