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Slap!

Once again, a loud sound echoed through the room. With his jaw gripped, he couldn’t dodge and had to take the slap he delivered in the face.

After just two blows, Yiyeon felt as if his head were spinning. Sparks flashed before his eyes, his vision faded to a blank white, and his ears rang. Byeon laughed loudly and said something, but with his ears ringing and his mind reeling, Yiyeon couldn’t make out his words.

Had he been struck on the head and turned into an idiot? Yiyeon’s pupils wavered from the shock.

When he saw that Yiyeon couldn’t regain his composure, Byeon crouched down in front of him and shouted, “Ah!” into his ear. The sound of someone screaming right into his ear startled Yiyeon, bringing him back to his senses.

Finally able to focus, Yiyeon looked around. He was still dazed, but when he showed signs of coming to, Byeon nodded his head in satisfaction.

Byeon lightly tapped Yiyeon’s cheeks and ran his thumb across his lips. As if something had smeared onto his thumb, he brought it to his mouth and sucked on it. It looked like blood.

With his chin held by the man, Yiyeon didn’t even notice the fresh blood flowing from his lips. His face, stung by the blows, felt numb and burning, and his senses were off.

“Yeon-ah, do you think this master is easy to push around?”

The man asked, but Yiyeon did not answer. It wasn’t a grand act of defiance. After falling into a sleep bordering on unconsciousness only to be jolted awake by a sudden kick, it was difficult for him to react quickly.

When Yiyeon didn’t answer, the man raised his hand high once more. It was a gesture [stolen content]of violence to anyone watching, and Yiyeon reflexively crouched down and shielded his face with his right arm.

“Aren’t you going to answer?”

“Ah, no. No.”

Frightened by the violence inflicted on him, without even knowing what the man was asking, Yiyeon stammered.

“Oh? Then why does it feel like it’s been so long since I last saw your face? Yeon-ah, we used to see each other all the time. I don’t even remember seeing your face, and my pockets are empty, doesn’t that mean you’re taking me for granted? You must’ve been thinking, ‘I can just pinch a little bit off this, right?’”

It was a familiar line. Every time Yiyeon was even a little late paying the interest— which had ballooned according to some mysterious rule he couldn’t fathom —those words would inevitably follow. It was a situation that wouldn’t be normal for anyone, but to Yiyeon, his words were so routine that he found himself making excuses out of habit.

“No. Ah, I couldn’t work because I was sick… I couldn’t… my mother passed away…”

“So?”

“Huh? ”

“So you think that’s a good enough reason not to pay me back?”

“…….”

Hadn’t there been unavoidable circumstances? After all, hadn’t he returned to this suffocating village? Of course, Read on today he had truly tried to run away of his own free will.

Faced with Byeon’s piercing gaze, Yiyeon fell silent and looked at him. His mind was clear, as if cold water had suddenly been poured over him.

Over the years, Yiyeon had seen many men enter Byeon’s house carrying Sangpyeong Tongbo coins, only to be beaten to a pulp. Wrapped in mats and pounded like dogs, each poured out a story so heartbreaking it was impossible to hear without tears, but Byeon didn’t bat an eye at any of it; in fact, the more aggrieved the man seemed, the harder he beat him.

“Did I force you to borrow money? Your father grabbed my pant leg and begged, so I took the plunge and lent it to him. But, Yiyeon, if a gentleman did you such a favor, shouldn’t you have paid it back promptly so I wouldn’t have to come looking for it?”

Yes, his father had borrowed the money. That debt had been passed down to his child, and he had been paying it off ever since. He couldn’t even begin to calculate how many times the original amount (the cost of medicine and rice his father had borrowed) had been paid to that man.

If Byeon had had even a shred of conscience, the money Yiyeon had used to pay off his father’s debt long ago would have been enough to buy a mansion. Wouldn’t that have been enough? Even if he didn’t know the exact amount Byeon used as seed money for their money lending, Yiyeon himself had provided it all.

“So now you’re not going to pay back the money, and you’re going to ignore what I say, is that it? Aren’t you going to answer?”

When Byeon glared at Yiyeon with wide, wild eyes, his shoulders trembled. He didn’t want to show his fear, even if he was scared, but he couldn’t help it.Yiyeon knew exactly where this would lead if they charged him absurd interest rates and sucked him dry to the bone.

He had seen it happen countless times before, and so he had foreseen that this day would come.

But the fear that had accumulated over the years grew like the debt attached to Yiyeon’s name, so clearing it away wasn’t as simple as just making up his mind. It didn’t happen in a wave of hand, as easily as saying so. However, even a worm, if stepped on countless times, would at least struggle in agony once before dying.

“……It was an outrageous amount.”

“What did you say?”

“I did enough!”

“Ha! As if that’s enough. You damn bastard.”

But the disparity in their strength was simply too great for that struggle to bring about any real change. As Yiyeon clenched his teeth, opened his eyes wide, and spoke his mind, another slap flew at him.

Once again, he braced himself for the burning sensation that would set his cheek ablaze and closed his eyes in anticipation. But no matter how long he waited, the thick palm never made contact with Yiyeon’s gaunt cheek. Instead, another figure stepped into the fray.

“Hey, I told you not to hit him in the face. Ugh, you’re really ruining the mood.”

His voice was sly; even in the pitch-black darkness, the hem of his bright pink robe seemed to glow.

Suddenly, a snake-faced man thrust his face over Byeon, who had raised his hand, and clicked his tongue in disapproval. He looked at Yiyeon, whose face was already half a pulp from the earlier violence, and put on an expression of genuine pity. It wasn’t sympathy for Yiyeon, but rather regret that the face he had longed to defile was already marred.

“You’ve really beaten him to a pulp. Won’t that leave a scar?”

“Young Master, it’s because you pamper him like a woman that this scoundrel gets ideas.”

Seo Doryeong’s hand replaced Byeon’s as he swatted away the hand that had been holding Yiyeon’s jaw.

Like a farmer checking freshly harvested red apples for blemishes or to see if they’ve taken on unauthorized copy their color well, he held Yiyeon’s chin and turned his face this way and that.

To the magistrate’s second son, Byeon bowed and scraped like a pimp showing off his wares. He grinned.

It was a completely different demeanor from when he’d been so violent toward Yiyeon just moments before. Wondering what was so amusing, Young Master Seo, who had been scrutinizing Yiyeon’s face, chuckled at Byeon’s flattery.

Yiyeon guessed why these two were gathered in one place, and in his own home at that.

It was today.

They had decided today would be the end of his life. They had concluded that, just as he had done until now, he would no longer be able to bring in the exorbitant interest payments.

They must have conspired and crunched the numbers. Ultimately, just as Young Master Seo had been saying all along, these five scoundrels intended to humiliate him and eventually sell him off somewhere.

“No matter how pretty Yiyeon may be, he’s a man, not a woman, Young Master.”

“Is he really a man? I must verify that first.”

Even though he knew, because he had peeked at Yiyeon while he was washing his face and had been groping him all this time, Young Master Seo still exchanged banter with Byeon.

Birds of a feather flock together; the two vicious men were perfectly in sync with each other. No sooner had Young Master Seo finished speaking than Byeon pushed Yiyeon aside.

Yiyeon struggled to keep from falling and used his own weight to brace himself. But his opponent was Byeon, a man who could easily carry a sack of rice and toss a burly man as effortlessly unauthorized copyas rolling up a mat. No matter how hard Yiyeon’s scrawny body resisted, it felt as light as a feather.

Thrown to the floor, Yiyeon curled up like a shrimp, fearing they might strip him. But Byeon used his brutish hands to straighten Yiyeon’s waist, spread his legs wide, and grabbed him between his thighs.

“Look at this! He’s a man too, so he’s got this thing attached!”

“Ugh… Ah!! Aaah!!”

As the man’s hand groped his penis, Yiyeon screamed and struggled to free himself. It was horrific. It was a hundred times more horrifying than when Dusoe’s hand had touched his chest in the past; it felt as though his very soul was being ripped out.

Tears ran down Yiyeon’s face, which was swollen and bruised from the beating. He struggled desperately to escape the man’s grasp, but the more he struggled, the louder Byeon’s laughter grew as he pinned him down.

“Hahaha!”

Like village children crushing a frog underfoot, Yiyeon screamed at the top of his lungs at the cruel laughter filled with such glee.

Please, let someone hear this and come to my rescue. Stop them from violating me. Even Dusoe would do. Or even a wild boar from the back mountain, or the leopard that tried to devour me! Or the black tiger that came to kill me! Anything!

“Aaaah…! Mmph! Mmph!!”

As Yiyeon continued to scream, someone stuffed a piece of cloth into his mouth. The tight cotton cloth choked his throat, and his cries were swallowed up as if he were trapped inside a wardrobe.

The unpleasant man whose eyes had met his earlier that day stood at Yiyeon’s bedside and pinned down his arms. The splint secured to his left arm pressed [visit our site]down on it, causing excruciating pain, but Yiyeon couldn’t feel it. That was because as Byeon withdrew from between his legs, the magistrate’s wayward son had taken his place.

He deliberately positioned his lower body between Yiyeon’s thighs. The distinct sensation of another man’s body between his thighs and buttocks was even more agonizing than the pressure on his left arm. As Yiyeon tried to close his wide-spread knees in response to that dreadful sensation, the man Byeon, who had been standing behind Young Master Seo, quickly grabbed his ankles.

“Shh, shh. Yeon-ah, are you planning to brag to the whole neighborhood that we’re consummating our marriage tonight?”

“Mmph!!”

With his limbs pinned down and unable to move, Yiyeon heard Young Master Seo ’s voice whispering in his ear. The snake-faced man whispered, but Yiyeon shook his head fiercely, denying the reality of the situation.