SSS Ranked Beast Tamer: My EP increases with girls-Chapter 125: CH : Didn’t come to knock (WMR3)

Kim Hyun leaned casually against the edge of the table, his voice smooth and deliberate, each word dragging like a chain across the floor.

"You know," he began, "fate’s got a strange sense of humor. Two months, that’s all it took. After you left me to rot, the system glitched, or maybe someone got paid off. It doesn’t matter. One day I’m lying on a moldy mattress, counting cockroaches. Next thing I know, I’m walking out through the front gate, no shackles, no questions."

He paused, tilting his head as he studied her, Sun, the woman he once called his. The woman now chained to a bed like a prized animal that dared to bite.

"I thought of coming to see you right after," he continued, the edges of his voice sharpening beneath the calm, "but I had things to take care of. People to deal with. The world was already crumbling, and I had to make sure I stayed on top of the heap. But then I hear you’d vanished. Burned your old life to the ground wiped out every trace. Changed your name. Deleted everything. Moved to... what was it again? That dump with more rust than people, Eldon Town, right?"

He let out a low chuckle, stepping closer, his face still hidden behind the red mask. "Funny enough, you changed your name, but still continued to use my surname, how wonderful is that?! Kim Sun!" He let out a menacing laughter.

"Even after all that, I still found you. In a rundown town, hiding behind a new name, like that could keep me away." His tone turned mockingly affectionate. "I should’ve come sooner, I know. But the apocalypse, well, it was a gift really. Took care of all the noise, all the obstacles. And now..." his hand lifted as if to present her, "...look at you. Still beautiful. Still mine. Hello again, wife."

Sun met his gaze without flinching. Her lips curled in disgust as she gathered saliva and spat hard, the glob striking his mask and sliding down the cheek. freēnovelkiss.com

"We divorced sixteen years ago," she snarled, her voice shaking with fury. "I’m not your wife, you sick, pedophilic bastard!"

For a moment, there was silence, thick and suffocating silence. Then Hyun chuckled, his voice was low but venomous. "Still fiery. That’s what I liked about you." He walked a slow circle around the bed, his fingers grazing the cold iron frame. "Ah, and of course, you’re still angry about your cousin. What was her name again? The pretty one."

He sighed theatrically. "That was an accident actually. I didn’t mean to kill her. Things got... messy."

He leaned closer, just enough for his voice to drop into a soft, chilling whisper. "But hey, I could always try again. On someone else. Someone you’re not related to."

He paused, letting the implication settle like ash. Then he smiled. "Ella. That’s it, right?"

Sun’s breath hitched. Her eyes widened, blood draining from her face. The chains rattled as she pulled against them in desperation. "Don’t you dare touch her!" she screamed. "Don’t you dare lay a finger on her!"

But Hyun didn’t flinch. Her panic only seemed to amuse him. He straightened, brushing nonexistent dust off his coat. "You really should be careful what you scream about," he said coolly, turning toward the door. "It gives people ideas."

His laughter echoed off the tiled walls as he stepped out, leaving Sun screaming behind him. He moved down the hallway with the confidence of someone who knew no one would stop him. The door to the adjoining room creaked open beneath his hand.

Inside, a girl stood shackled to the window frame. The moonlight framed her slight figure, and her eyes, wide with fear, met his. "Please," Ella whispered, her voice thin and cracking. "Please let me go."

Hyun smiled, slow and mocking, as he stepped forward. "Oh, I’ll let you go," he said softly. "But not until you do something for me first."

Hyun set the sword down beside the wall with deliberate care, the metallic clink echoing softly in the dimly lit room. The weapon lay there like a sleeping beast, momentarily quiet, but never safe. His boots thudded against the wooden floor as he turned toward Ella, each step slow and heavy with intent. His crimson mask still covered his face, its inhuman smile forever frozen in lacquered silence.

Ella’s breath hitched. She instinctively shrank back, the chains binding her wrists clinking against the window bars. Moonlight spilled over her trembling frame, catching the wet glint in her eyes. Hyun said nothing. He didn’t need to. The silence between them stretched like a drawn bow.

But just as he was closing the last few steps between them, the entire building shuddered with a violent thud. A deep, metallic groan reverberated through the walls, followed by a dull crash that made dust fall from the ceiling.

Hyun froze mid-step. He turned his head slightly as he tried to listen to what was going on. And then, a loud roar had echoed through the air, shaking the walls of the building ever so slightly.

"The hell is that?" he muttered, his voice muffled slightly by the mask. Without another word, he spun around and stalked toward the hallway, the sword left behind, forgotten for now.

He moved up the staircase two steps at a time, he continued until he reached the second floor landing. From there, he pushed open the heavy window shutters and looked out across the compound. What he saw made his fingers curl tightly against the window frame.

The front gate, once a towering structure of reinforced steel and rune-etched plates, now lay in twisted ruin, its frame cracked like brittle bone. Dust rose in lazy spirals from the debris. And amidst the settling haze, a lone figure walked through the wreckage with measured strides, his boots crunching over the broken metal.

Hyun didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He simply watched as the stranger stepped deeper into the compound, each step announcing one clear message: He hadn’t come to knock.