Chapter 207: Chapter 207- For Their Sake
His words felt like a bucket of cold water that was dumped on Hyun-Jae's head as all her daze vanished and her eyes regained clarity completely. That's when she realized what happened and her heart sunk.
"Hah…" Groaning slightly, Talon fell on her chest again. Hyun-Jae's hands instinctively captured him.
That's when she discovered a second, horrifying fact. Talon's entire back was completely burnt off. His skin was scorched and cracked as it seeped blood. It was so bad that a normal person would throw up immediately from sheer horror.
"T-Talon… Talon!!" Her voice rose as she felt her entire world almost crumble at that moment. She thought that he had fallen unconscious and she almost panicked. However, the young man moved slowly again as he lifted his head.
"I'm fine… Hah, it's not that big of a deal."
Hyun-Jae completely ignored him as she rose up and inspected his injury closely. 'Oh no, his skin was completely peeled off… This is bad!'
"Why?! Why did you do that?! You could've died!!" She yelled in frustration as she cut her clothes before she wrapped them around her hand tightly and then gently tapped Talon's back with it.
'I need to stop the bleeding or it might get even worse!'
"I… moved without realizing, ugh… We're both fine… So it's all good…" Biting his tongue not to groan, Talon explained.
In that split second, he had before the explosion, his mind immediately went to Hyun-Jae as he thought of how to get her out of the explosion. He didn't even consider whether he would get injured because of that or not.
"... You're… a big idiot…" Murmuring those words as she hid her face. "What if you died there?!"
"This isn't enough to kill me," Talon replied as he grabbed her hand and slowly rose up with a groan. Even though the pain was brutal, his tolerance had already increased by leaps and bounds after countless injuries. He was now able to handle all types of pain that didn't instantly knock him out cold.
Hyun-Jae stared at him with a complicated expression. She had the urge to just lash out at him for putting his life at risk just to save hers but then again, she was all too familiar with this human being in front of her. Talon has very strict boundaries when it comes to the people he loves.
If he saw that they were in danger or in a problem, he would always be ready to do everything in his power to help them, even if it meant that it would be over himself.
That was his nature and it will probably never change.
"Please, Value your life more." She spoke as she also stood up. "But, thank you for saving me… Thank you…" She smiled faintly as she held his arm too as she stared into his eyes. He could see the gratitude etched deep within her soul just from that look.
"I got it." Talon nodded his head.
"Ironic how you received the same advice you gave me a month ago. Seems to me that someone isn't consistently following their rules." Acrypha smirked playfully as she flew next to Talon.
"Ehem, people close to me are always an exception. But yeah, that's a tad bit hypocritical, I admit."
"I wouldn't say so." She shook her head.
"Hm? It isn't?"
"Well, it depends, am I part of that exception?" She asked.
"Of course. I would always put my life on the line for you." Talon grinned innocently at Acrypha, making her flinch as she blinked.
Then, for some reason, she turned away. "Is that so?" She murmured under her breath.
"Can you walk? I can carry you back to get treated. Everyone else was able to escape."
"I can walk fine. But…" With a difficult expression, Talon stared in the direction of the base.
"Don't even think about it." Hyun-Jae glared at him seriously. "We aren't going there with the horrible burns you have right now."
"Sigh, I know I know. I would've preferred to finish this as soon as possible since that bastard could think of another scheme. But, I don't have my full-range motion with these burns, ouch!!!"
With even a simple move of his hand, Talon felt hellish pain assault his back. He knew that swinging a spear was almost impossible in his condition.
'If I get treated now, I think I can get some of my strength back by tomorrow.' He thought to himself.
"But... To think they would actually commit suicide just to kill us..." Staring at the wreckage where the two jets exploded, Hyun-Jae murmured.
"No, this was probably not their intention. Their leader made them do it."
"What?"
"Yeah, I will explain later. It's a tad bit complex. Let's go back for now." He turned to Hyun-Jae.
"I'm glad you listened to me finally." She sighed as she grabbed his hand. "Here, I will help you a little."
With that, Hyun-Jae and Talon returned to the spot where the rest of the group was. The distance between their camp and the human society was a few kilometers, hidden in the forest.
It was almost impossible to locate from the sky and even more impossible from the ground with how thick the trees were. On their way, they ended up meeting Chin-Hwa who rushed there when he saw the explosion.
Seeing that Hyun-Jae felt all the tension in his body leave in a moment. But, when he noticed the gruesome injuries on Talon, he was taken by surprise.
"He pushed me out of the trajectory of the explosion and ended up burning himself. It was very close." Hyun-Jae explained briefly as she sighed.
Chin-Hwa blinked silently as he stared at Talon.
"If that's your 'Are you ok?' look, then yeah, I am fine. Thanks for your concern." Talon said jokingly.
"No, it's… Never mind, I'm glad you didn't die yet." The cold prince replied with a difficult tone.
Talon halted as he turned around. "Hmm, I didn't think you could say something nice. But, thank you. I'm glad I didn't yet too."
Chin-Hwa frowned before he shook his head. "And thanks for saving the president's life… I appreciate that."
"..." For a second, Talon's smile froze before he turned away. "Yeah…"
He could feel the hidden meaning behind those words and he didn't want to prolong the conversation for that same reason. It was a very touchy topic after all.
Meanwhile, Hyun-Jae pretended like she didn't hear the conversation and continued walking. With that, the group continued moving back till they reached the camp.
Talon was received by the healers who urgently helped him. The rest of the day passed rather quietly between the two sides.
Neither party seemed interested in attacking the other as they were too busy with other things. That was by far the darkest day in the history of human society. They had lost dozens of trained soldiers and the reason behind it was Hyun-Ki.
Talon was sure that the bastard was probably losing his mind over his plans failing one after the other. After all, even if he was the one who initiated it, he still ended up losing horribly.
With over a hundred soldiers gone from his elite army, the process of infiltrating the base was bound to be way easier now.
"Ouch, ouch! Be careful with that." Talon groaned as he felt one of the students wrapping bandages around his torso. Meanwhile, he was supping on a warm cup of tea.
The group had set up a campfire and cooked dinner as they sat down to eat. The first day of their mission was a huge success, nobody died, and they were able to strike the human society where it hurts the most.
So, the mood was naturally great. Everyone was joking around and laughing as they spent their night idling.
However, there was still a part of them that was focused on the task at hand.
"Fuuh, this is pretty nice. I should probably join the others." He said as he finally put the cup down, intending to stand up.
However, at that moment, he noticed someone approaching him. Looking up, he was surprised to see Evan, Sophie's father standing in front of him.
He had a very serious expression on his face. "Do you have a moment?" He asked.
Talon squinted his eyes for a moment, trying to read the man's expression before he nodded his head. "Sure, what's up?"
Evan slowly sat down next to Talon before he stared in the same direction. The two remained silent for a while.
"Did Sophie wake up yet?" Talon decided to break the awkward atmosphere with a question.
"Not yet. She's still asleep." Evan replied casually.
"I see…"
"..."
Then, it was silence again for a while.
'Are you going to speak or not, man?' Talon yelled in his head as he kept his composure. No matter how he looked at it, the man wanted to say something but had a hard time finding the words. It made Talon even more curious to know what it was but he didn't push him any further to speak.
Eventually, Evan seemed to overcome it and opened his mouth. "Thank you for saving my life and my daughter's life there. I couldn't thank you properly earlier."
"... It's no big deal. I did it for Sophie's sake."
"Oh…"
Talon's face turned serious as he stared at Evan directly, making the man shiver. That gaze was too terrifying to handle even for a second as it almost seemed like a heavy weight had been thrown over his shoulder.
"I will be frank with you, Mr Evan. If Sophie wasn't there, or if you weren't her father. Whether you lived or died is unimportant to me. I would've not done anything to save your life."
"..." The man stared dazedly at Talon for a moment before he shifted his eyes down. "You're still stuck on the past, huh?" He smiled wrily.
"No, it's not that I'm still stuck. I have luckily overcome that and turned it around. But, I am not someone that forgets easily. What you did that day is something I won't forget. Still, I'm going to pretend like nothing happened between us for now since I don't want Sophie to worry for no reason. But, if you try anything funny… Then, not even Sophie could save you."
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