Chapter 23: Acquiring A New Weapon
"I don’t want to be your accomplice."
"You have no choice in the matter. A worm like you can’t survive on your own. You have no idea what to do with yourself, so from now on, I’m taking ownership. You’ll belong to me, no different from my katana or my dagger."
"And if I don’t, what will you do to me then?"
"Then I’ll punish someone else in your place. Someone else will have to suffer. Can you live with yourself then?"
She had lived her life thinking everyone was better than her. Leaving her to herself was like throwing away a perfectly good blade. I’m a blacksmith, after all; I couldn’t allow that. Our eyes clung to one another as if we were being sucked into each other. My heart pounded heavily in my chest as ecstasy filled me.
It wasn’t love or anything related to romance. It was the same feeling I got after acquiring a new weapon—a weapon that belonged only to me. I would polish her and care for her just like I did with my other weapons.
I moved in so close that our faces were almost touching. She tried to look away, but I grabbed her chin and kept her eyes on me.
"The next time you cut yourself, someone else will suffer for it."
I needed her to understand. She was completely at my mercy. I had never cared about her before, but now she had my attention, whether she wanted it or not.