RKDPMC 02

Chapter 2

Just when she began to feel a sharp pain on the back of her hand, the wrist of the man whose arm was holding the woman was severed clean off. In the next instant, a cold blade pressed against the back of his neck.

“Lord, how are you feeling?”

The man’s face turned deathly pale. He tried to open his mouth, but all he could feel was a sharp pain in his throat.

Holding her saber, Woon Suk-eum smiled seductively.

“The road to the underworld will feel much better.”

“Ahhh!”

“Lord… You killed those people!”

The woman who had been sitting blankly on the floor screamed the moment she was pinned beneath the corpse.

The women had learned to flatter men in order to survive. They had even been promised that these two officials would pay their price and secure their release, only to end up dying so meaninglessly.

“Ahhh!”

The piercing screams made Woon Suk-eum’s ears ring.

She was about to tell the woman to shut up, but suddenly, an intense pain surged through her body. The saber slipped from her hand and clattered to the ground, while her complexion turned deathly pale and she suddenly vomited blood.

Her heart began pounding as though it would burst, and darkness clouded her vision. Dizziness and scorching heat surged through her body like waves, making it difficult even to remain standing.

At that moment, she sensed someone outside cautiously peering inside. Perhaps they had heard the noises coming from within and were gathering the courage to enter.

Woon Suk-eum had no intention of staying among these people in her weakened state. Although she had saved them and killed the three men, they were also the ones who had thrown her aside earlier.

They had pushed her away without even blinking.

Woon Suk-eum did not trust them in the slightest.

She immediately turned around to leave, but one of the women hurriedly grabbed her.

“You can’t leave! You killed the guards! You killed them… If they find out about this, we’ll all die! You can’t go!”

Bang!

Woon Suk-eum kicked the woman away and slapped her hard across the face.

“If you don’t let go, I’ll take your life first!”

Faced with her cold, murderous gaze, the woman released her hand in terror.

Without giving herself time to think, Woon Suk-eum turned and fled.

There was a window on one side of the shack.

She rolled through it and, while suppressing the agonizing pain churning inside her body, desperately ran as far away as possible before the others could rush into the shack.

Blood continued to seep from between her lips, while waves of dizziness constantly swept through her mind.

The heat gradually became as cold as ice, making her feel as though her entire body were freezing solid. With every passing moment, even taking a single step became more difficult.

Yet before she could adapt to the cold, the chill suddenly transformed into a fierce torrent of heat again, as though flames were burning inside her body. The pain continued until it felt as if her internal organs were about to burst.

Woon Suk-eum relied on her memories and ran in the direction she remembered would lead out of the forest.

There was a snow-covered slope over there, and beneath it lay a main road. Once she got out of the area, she would be able to find a settlement.

As she ran, Woon Suk-eum felt the pulse at her wrist. She wanted to check the condition of this body, but perhaps because of the dizziness, even her pulse felt completely chaotic.

How long had she been running?

Just as she was looking for somewhere to rest, the ground beneath her feet suddenly gave way. Before she could even scream, she went tumbling downward.

Damn it! I’m going to die!

Instinctively, Woon Suk-eum covered her head to protect it, but her body continued plunging downward without stopping.

Branches buried beneath the snow scratched her skin, while rocks slammed against her back.

As she tumbled down the slope together with the avalanche of snow, she suddenly saw a carriage approaching from below.

Crash!

She smashed straight through the roof of the carriage, and Woon Suk-eum felt as though every bone in her body had been crushed.

As darkness filled her vision, she realized that she had fallen onto something soft and warm.

But when she regained consciousness, she suddenly found herself being lifted into the air.

In the next moment, an enormous face appeared before her.

A pair of narrow, elongated eyes was filled with cold indifference. The other half of his face was hidden behind a dark golden qilin-patterned mask, making him look particularly ominous.

The man pressed his thin lips tightly together. Then, as though looking at nothing more than a dead object, he spoke with an indifferent expression.

“…A rabbit?”

“……”

“Whoa!”

The carriage came to an abrupt stop, and the guards surrounding it were startled by the sudden disturbance.

Wan Jun hurriedly dismounted from his horse and approached the carriage.

“Your Highness! Your Highness! Are you all right?”

Worried that something might have happened to his master inside, he hurriedly lifted the carriage curtain. But when he saw what was inside, he was stunned.

“A rabbit?”

Wan Jun instinctively looked toward the area above where the snow had just come crashing down.

They had been passing through this place when something had fallen from above and smashed through the roof of the carriage.

He had thought someone was attacking them or attempting to assassinate His Highness.

But who would have thought it was a rabbit?

The snow-white rabbit was dangling from its scruff in his master’s hand. It was only about the size of a palm, apparently still a young rabbit.

Perhaps frightened out of its wits, its white fur stood on end as its short legs desperately kicked in the air. Its ruby-red eyes were filled with bewilderment.

Woon Suk-eum was utterly bewildered.

After suddenly finding herself seeing the world through a rabbit’s eyes, everything in front of her looked enormous. Dangling in the air by the scruff of her neck, she lowered her head and saw her own furry little front paws.

She had already thought transmigrating into this world was strange enough, but she had never imagined that simply losing her footing would turn her into a rabbit!

What the hell was going on?!

“Your Highness, did this rabbit fall from up there? Is this the thing that just crashed through the roof of our carriage?”

Wan Jun looked at the palm-sized rabbit with fascination and could not hide his amazement.

Was this rabbit made of iron?

It had smashed through the roof of a carriage made from century-old huanghuali wood and yet had not been crushed into a lump of meat.

It certainly seemed to have a remarkably tough life.

Inside the carriage sat Jun Jiuyuan.

Snowflakes clung to his black hair, and his clothes were damp from the snow that had accumulated on them.

Jun Jiuyuan stared coldly down at the rabbit before him, his pitch-black eyes filled with indifference.

There were traces of blood on the rabbit’s back, and mud stained the bottoms of its paws.

Seeing this, he tossed the rabbit out of his hand as though disgusted.

“Catch it.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Wan Jun quickly caught the rabbit. Holding it up by the ears, he said with a grin,

“You’re quite a foolish rabbit. We weren’t even waiting for you, yet you came flying straight into us all by yourself.”

Wan Jun reached out and kneaded the rabbit’s legs. After examining it more closely, he clicked his tongue.

“It’s pretty plump. It’s small, but if we skin it and make a stew…”

Woon Suk-eum’s fur instantly stood on end.

In her mind, she suddenly imagined rabbit head braised in sauce, stir-fried rabbit meat, rabbit leg soup, and all sorts of other dishes.

She immediately began trembling with terror and struggled desperately to escape, but she was firmly trapped in the hands of the big, stupid man.

Woon Suk-eum kicked Wan Jun hard in the face, then twisted around and sank her teeth into his hand.

When he loosened his grip in surprise, she took the opportunity to leap onto the driver’s seat of the carriage.

She tried to run away, but she had forgotten that a rabbit’s front legs were far too short.

The moment she leaped forward, she nearly lost her balance instead of making her escape.

The rabbit rolled into the carriage like a snowball and slammed headfirst into the man’s leg.

The impact made her vision spin, and she staggered around for a long while before managing to stand.

Jun Jiuyuan looked down and saw something resembling a snowball clinging to the hem of his clothes.

Its white fur was completely disheveled, and its clear eyes looked hazy, almost as though it were drunk. There was even a pitiful expression in them, as if it were about to cry.

Suddenly, a mischievous impulse seized him.

He grabbed the rabbit by the ears and lifted it into the air.

“How dare such an ugly rabbit try to blackmail this prince by threatening to hurt itself?”

Woon Suk-eum’s mouth fell open as she dangled in the air again, and she almost hurled a string of curses at him.

You’re uglier! Your whole family is uglier!

Jun Jiuyuan saw the rabbit bare its teeth. Narrowing his eyes, he moved his fingers downward and wrapped them around its neck.

“Are you cursing this prince right now?”

Woon Suk-eum’s heart immediately turned cold.

When she sensed the fierce killing intent emanating from him, her body began trembling. Her ears instantly drooped.

Keeping her mouth firmly shut, she widened her eyes as innocently as possible and looked at the unpredictable man before her.

Enduring one moment meant peace in the future.

Taking one step back meant staying alive.

Right now, the most important thing was to survive as a rabbit.

Jun Jiuyuan had only intended to tease the little creature.

He had not expected it to actually understand his words and, at the crucial moment, immediately lower its tail and act submissive.

He pulled the rabbit closer and narrowed his eyes.

“Can you understand what this prince is saying?”

Woon Suk-eum stiffened her hind legs and put on the most innocent expression she could manage.

He studied the rabbit suspiciously before reaching out and rubbing its round head with his finger.

Every time his cold fingertip brushed over her head, she felt as though he might crush her skull at any moment.

After a long while, just when Woon Suk-eum thought she was about to die, her body suddenly rose into the air and dropped back into the same embrace as before.

Then that crazy man took out a handkerchief and casually wiped away the bloodstains on her back.

A handful of fur was pulled out from her back, and after turning her over, he even rubbed the bottoms of her paws vigorously.

Being tossed around by those cold hands left her completely dazed.

When the handkerchief was finally discarded, the dirty rabbit had once again been restored to the appearance of a fluffy white snowball.

Jun Jiuyuan reached out and stroked her from the top of her head all the way to the tip of her tail, then began playing with her ears.

Woon Suk-eum felt all the strength drain from her body as though an electric current were running through her.

A shiver traveled from the base of her tail all the way through her body. Her ears drooped as she trembled.

Th-this is too stimulating…

She had never imagined that her ears would become so sensitive after turning into a rabbit.

Wan Jun covered his face where the rabbit had kicked him. Looking at the rabbit being held again and pampered, he asked,

“Your Highness, aren’t you going to catch this rabbit?”

Jun Jiuyuan did not answer.

He merely stared down at the little white bundle in his palm.

Woon Suk-eum was afraid that this unpredictable human might really eat her, so she hurriedly lowered her head, gently licked his finger, and rubbed her head against his palm in complete submission.

“Are you afraid of dying?”

He asked softly, a smile playing on his lips.

Woon Suk-eum quickly licked his hand again and, swallowing her shame, let out a soft little sound.