Chapter 104. Boxing Day: Fighting with your Life on the Line. (2/3)

“Sir, don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit here?”

“Overreacting? To a strange boy sweating profusely whom I don’t know entering my daughter’s apartment with a bunch of bags?”

“Like I said, it was a mistake. I entered the wrong unit is all.”

“You mean the key in your hand you used to unlock the door just now just happens to also work for this unit that you coincidentally stopped in front of by mistake?”

“Sir, anything can happen. If it weren’t for a series of innumerable coincidences with extremely small probabilities of occurring all happening in a specific order, life on earth may never have come to exist. What’s so strange about a small coincidence like this happening?”

“That is certainly true… HOWEVER, do I look like an idiot to you? That red string on your left-hand ring finger… your identity is obvious to me from the report I received. I have people keeping an eye on her safety. Yesterday, my daughter exited her friend’s place with a red string on her left-hand ring finger. A boy also had a red string on his. You are no doubt that boy.”

“Uh… is there a problem with a red string on someone’s left-hand ring finger?”

“Not at all. If it was just someone that is. But for it to be two individuals, a boy, and a girl, no less? I can only come to one conclusion.” His voice turned chilly, to a deathly degree, “A boy dared propose to my daughter without even so much as introducing himself to her parents.”

“I like to think I am normally quite easy-going, BUT… I still expect a certain degree of respect. Such an action truly got my blood boiling, boy. Enough that the thought of killing you is the only thing on my mind. By your reaction trying to pretend as though you walked into the wrong place, I’m sure my daughter has revealed what her parents do for a living to you. It’s quite surprising that she has, that girl must truly trust and love you dearly to not want to hide anything from you like this.”

An… assassin.

He really was... an assassin.

My eyes shrank at the thought. 

I sat there completely still, unmoving, keeping a close eye on him as I waited with bated breath. If I moved a muscle it would be over for me, that was what my instincts screamed. 

His eyes were locked onto me, not deviating an inch from where it had locked onto from the moment we started to talk. Then suddenly, without warning, his arm moved. He’d flicked something toward me at high speed.

As my muscles had long been ready in advance, they moved preemptively on their own the second he made his move. My hands shot out in front of my neck as that’s where his gaze had been blatantly locked onto the second I turned to face him. No doubt in my mind, he’d been strangling me to death in his head this entire time. His intent was visible, so I’d taken a gamble and bet on it. Rather than simply hang my head low and offer my life up on a silver platter, I’d confront him head-on even if he was an assassin.

My survival instincts told me that was the only way to get out of this. Running or hiding would not work. Flight was off the table, only to fight led to survival.

I felt a sudden intense wave of pain course through my entire arm with the origin being the back of my hand. A terrifyingly sharp knife could be seen punctured all the way through the back of my hand to the palm. 

My danger instincts screamed. Just as I anticipated, I could neither run nor hide from this confrontation. Begging for mercy was out of the question before the cruel unforgiving look in his hardened eyes.

I quickly lunged forward toward his throat with the intent to bite back harder than I was bitten. For me, it was an eye for an eye. I wouldn’t hold back thinking I had the leisure to when in front of a full-fledged bonafide assassin.

It was a kill or be killed situation. There was no time to hesitate here.

Just when the knife punctured straight through my left hand was about to pierce into his throat, it froze in midair.

Rather than say it froze, it was stopped. Stopped by a hand grabbing onto my wrist and locking it in place. Unable to budge an inch, I could neither retreat nor advance.

Thinking quickly, I grabbed the knife with my right hand. Without care for the blood that would gush out, I unsheathed it with clenched teeth, enduring the excruciating pain which followed. 

I stabbed forward for the second time, this time aiming to thrust it directly through his mouth. His eyes showed a bit of surprise and even shock. Though he simply tilted his head to the side in a casual fashion. Though surprising to him, it was no doubt an amateurish attack from his point of view. I’d narrowly missed and only just barely grazed his cheek, opening up a shallow wound where a drop of blood trickled out and down his cheek.

The knife ended up stuck in the wall behind him and I couldn’t pull it out. This gave him more than enough time to grab onto my right wrist and lock it in place.

Unable to move either of my arms, I considered what other options I had. I simulated every course of action I had available to me in my head, but I couldn’t see any of them bearing fruit. Even if I tried to use my legs to kick him, I couldn’t see it working. He was strong, his body was well trained, far superior to my own. Looking at how easily he’d stopped my hand, that much was obvious.

It was… checkmate. 

I’d lost. There was no way out.

I’d… probably die here.

I was just a normal civilian living in a normal world. There were no such things as miracles. There were no secret powers lying dormant in my body that would suddenly awaken within me in the event my life was in peril.

I was completely normal.

Things weren’t like the stories I wrote. There was nothing convenient like magic or superpowers here. Only a cold reality. There was no warmth to be found. The only warm thing in this scenario was the blood leaking out of my hand.

I’d gotten involved with the wrong girl was all. I suppose it was being at the wrong time and place that led to this, my inevitable demise.

Seeing how there was nothing left I could do, my tensed-up muscles relaxed. I stopped trying to push them forward or pull them back.

“Oh? You’re giving up?” The cold red-haired man asked me.

“Well, I did what I could, but there’s not much else I can do at this point. I don’t like to waste energy on pointless things. Once you dodged that last thrust and caught my hand, my fate was sealed, it was checkmate.”

“Oh? Indeed, that knife was your only path to survival in this situation. It’s quite impressive that you realized that. Most people would have frozen in place, resigned themselves to death, tried to run away, or started groveling for their life. Hardly anyone would be dumb enough to try and kill an armed assassin with their own hands while completely unarmed. Especially not a normal civilian, a child without any sort of training.”

Well, I was at least a cold-hearted adult at heart. That was the only thing I really had going for me. But it really didn’t mean jack shit in this sort of situation. I’m dead now. Adult or child, that didn’t matter to this man. His eyes didn’t differentiate between the two at all. He could kill a newborn if he had to. That was the sort of feeling I had when he stared me down.

“Before I take your life, out of curiosity, why didn’t you try any other method to survive? Why take the one that you had the seemingly lowest chance to succeed? I could have potentially spared you if you chose another option.”

“Huh? Lowest? Do I look like an idiot to you? Did you not just say it yourself, that it was my only path to survival?”

“Oh, you’re right. What a slip of the tongue.”

“Slip of the tongue my ass.” I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t you think you should try begging for your life in this situation?”

“I’ll beg your mother to let me slap her silly when I see her in the afterlife for having a no-good bastard child like you.” A nasty grin formed on my face as I provoked him. Cut the small talk, if you’re going to kill me, and this is where I die, then do it, pussy.