He was about to bury her. He saw Daini’s face, and the man who slept with her flashed into his mind. Damn it. That man took Daini’s first time. He got nothing. And Daini died.
Inside, it felt like a little voice spoke: “You can’t just bury her like that. You need to do something.”
He thought, I’ll make Daini stay with me forever. We’ll never be apart.
Daini seemed to vanish from the world. She never came out of Josiah’s house again.
A few more days passed.
On a deserted road, he saw a very beautiful girl, even prettier than Daini.
By then, his mind had twisted.
His frustration at losing Daini had turned into a hunger for every pretty girl.
Sadly, that girl was Hena.
After Hena was seized, she kept hearing a blade being sharpened. She didn’t know what he planned.
Suddenly, she saw beautiful hair hanging on the wall, and clothes streaked with blood.
She realized something at once. She knew what this man was about to do. A psychopathic killer? No— a cannibal.
Hena was filled with fear. She’d braced herself for death, but death isn’t something you choose not to fear. No one doesn’t fear it; some just don’t show it.
Hena cursed, “You animal. If I walk out alive, I’ll make sure you die miserably.”
Josiah laughed. “Is that possible?”
“Ah, you sound just like Daini. She always scolded me. It hurt so much. I never wanted to treat my dear Daini like this.”
“I was so good to her, you know? I worked day and night. I handed most of my earnings to Daini, so she could save up and buy her freedom. And she betrayed me. She slept with another man.”
“I saw her body laid bare in the air with my own eyes. Ah, that form, that refined face.”
“I couldn’t hold back. Last time I went to her, she kicked me out. I knew— she had her eyes on that man.”
“But what does it matter? Now Daini belongs to me— forever. We’ll never be apart.”
Hena listened to Josiah ramble on with deranged words. She kept quiet; she shouldn’t humor this freak. She only understood one thing— the one called Daini had vanished from this world.
Josiah walked toward Hena, slowly. “Before I eat you, let me feel your body first.”
Hena’s face was stricken with terror. She shut her eyes, wishing to die right now— rather than be defiled by this pervert.
Right then, Josiah let out a scream of pain. Hena opened her eyes and saw him kneeling on the ground. One arm was gone, dropped before him. Blood sprayed. Hena wanted to see who had helped her.
She looked around. No one else. Who was it? she wondered.
Then a voice laughed behind her. “Girl, who are you looking for? Me? This is the second time I’ve saved you. You should thank me this time, and drop the little tantrums.”
Hena heard it was Qin Jun and let out a breath for no reason. “Hmph. I don’t want to deal with you. Even without you, I had ways.”
Qin Jun chuckled. “What ways? Tied up like this? You were about to be violated.”
Hena stayed stubbornly silent.
Qin Jun stopped talking to her, too. The girl was too stubborn; he’d deal with her later. Right now, it was time to torment the pervert.
Qin Jun’s face toward Josiah hardened with frost. His voice carried weight. “You killed Daini?”
Josiah cried through the pain, “I know you. You’re the man who was with Daini.”
Qin Jun nodded. “Yeah. She provided a service. I was the customer. Any conflict there?”
Josiah seemed to forget the pain. He sprang up at Qin Jun’s words. “No. She’s different. To me, she’s one of a kind. Not that kind of person.”
Qin Jun sneered. “She meant the world to you. To me, I could take her or leave her.”
Josiah roared, “I’ll kill you.”
He lunged. Qin Jun swatted him aside with one swing.
Qin Jun walked up to the fallen Josiah, face blank. “Looks like you did love her. But did she love you? Or was it all in your head? When I left, I gave her a lot of money— enough to buy her freedom. She didn’t go with you. She shouldn’t have fantasized a prince on a white horse would whisk her away.”
“Maybe there would be one. Maybe not. That was her choice. But you stepped in and changed her fate. You pushed her out of this world forever. You made the choice for her. Now no one will know how it could’ve ended. And you delusionally turned Daini into food, thinking she’d stay with you forever. Even someone as beautiful as her ends up as waste you’ll excrete.”
“From the start, you were wrong. You loved the wrong person, did the wrong thing. That girl never belonged to you. You were dreaming way beyond your league.”
“And without self-awareness, you end up hurting others and yourself.”
Josiah collapsed to the ground, sobbing. Reality hit him. He cried, “I wasn’t like this before I met Daini. I was just a small, ordinary man.”
“Yeah. You weren’t. But you had a hope inside you— it looked huge, but it was tiny, almost nothing. When that hope shattered, you changed. You became a man-eating demon.”
“Wrongdoing brings punishment. Are you ready for it?”
“I didn’t plan to meddle. To me, Daini was just a prostitute. But my pet was close with her, and you kidnapped my people. That doesn’t sit right.”
“Since that’s the case, you can taste what it’s like to be eaten.”
Qin Jun flicked his hand and summoned several Monstrous Beasts. They started tearing into Josiah— slowly. They wouldn’t let him die until the last moment, dragging him through endless agony.
To be honest, Qin Jun felt a bit sanctimonious himself. In a way, it all started because of him, because of his physical needs, that one night with the prostitute named Daini. So what?
He was just a customer, and he paid a lot.
In the end, it was all driven by the human heart. Don’t ask, don’t preach. Josiah had his fantasies— and Daini had hers, too.
