I gazed upon the small and vulnerable individual with malice.
You know, normally I don't care for young children too much, they're not my ideal type of prey. They're too easy to kill. If I had to deal with a child I preferred to use them as a form of torture.
For example, in the 80's I kidnapped this gorgeous woman. She had been in some kind of domestic situation, and with her baby in her hand, she ran out into the middle of the road and stopped my car in the dead of night. She practically begged me to take her and drop her off at the next town.
So I let her in. I drugged her, and I kept her in my dungeon for a few months.
Now the screams of a woman being tortured are one thing but have you ever heard the screams of a woman that has to watch her child, the child that she loves, being tortured? It's a whole new level of chilling. It made me tremble all over, hearing her screeching. After I killed both of them, I had the best sleep, I woke up feeling refreshed and younger. I was in such a good mood and so satisfied.
But I'm going off on a tangent. The point is, I don't kill babies or young children much because it doesn't give me a lot of joy. Yet the moment I saw Kang Cheon Sa, I felt bloodlust. He awakened a primal instinct within me. I felt a natural hatred towards him. Perhaps it was because of our relationship in the novel, we were natural enemies. Except in the story, Kang Ho was abused and ridiculed by Cheon-Sa. Constantly compared and belittled by him, but here the roles had reversed.
Kang Cheon-Sa was a helpless child that was now at my mercy.
Do you know what's better than death, it's suffering. Suffering so sweet that death is the only reprieve. I had big plans for Cheon-Sa, I couldn't get away with murdering him at that moment, but I could make his life hell.
I extended my arms out to the servant, "Can I hug my brother please?"
I batted my eyes at her gently, all the workers went "awww".
"I'm sorry Young Master, he's too big for you to hold, but you can give him a look and a hug." She crouched down to my height and brought Cheon-Sa towards me. As I gazed at the newborn and patted his head slowly, I thought of all the ways I could make this dog bark.
It was at that point that someone barged into the mansion. The sound of their steel-capped heeled shoes clicked on the marble floor. Each step was strong and purposeful. I looked up to see a tower of a man. He was huge, so tall that he had to bend his head to fit inside through the door.
His long white beard reached the end of his golden tie. He wore an expensive black button-up wrap-around suit, the buttons were made of gold. The hair on his head was also a shocking white that had been neatly combed back. He was handsome, intimidating, and rich.
I was curious about his identity but then I saw the cane in his hand, and wrapped around the cane was the insignia of the Dragon. He was a member of the Dragon group, and judging from the way the servants all bowed as he walked in, he must have been Yong Bon-Hwa, the leader of the Dragon Group and Yong Myeong's Father.
He paced around slowly and then stared at the staircase and the marble flooring. "So this is where my little princess fell to her death." He scowled and then turned and looked at Kang Cheon-Sa, "Give the child to me, I will not allow my grandchild to be raised with such vermin."
At that point, Madame Kang burst in. "Bon-Hwa, it's lovely to see you. You should have called in advance to say you were visiting" she said hurriedly.
"Call in advance" he laughed, "Call you in advance? While I sat by my daughter's bedside for the last month, she was only visited by you and Kang Seung twice, and not once did that coward of a husband come to see her or the child. Do you really think I'm going to let you raise him here in the same house where his mother nearly died? You didn't even prepare a new place for him to live."
"We can of course prepare a new building straight away" she tried to reassure him. "We were just so taken aback by all the events that transpired and handling the backlash that we didn't have time to prepare one or even visit too much. And Joon-Ki's in shock, he loved Yong Myeong and he's trying to cope in his own way. He will come to visit eventually.
"Eventually?" He scoffed at her words, "Sure he will, I'm sure he cared so deeply beyond this contrived business arrangement... I don't care what you have to say, I'm taking my grandson."
"You can't he's a Kang, he will be raised as one of ours and made an heir to this family!"
"An heir, in his state?" he sighed and shook his head "Children are just tools to you people. I don't care about your petty family politics I'm going to take Cheon-Sa with me to Sweden, and I'm going to get him the best treatment to heal his spine and you will not stop me." His tone was final, he wasn't someone you could argue with, but Madame Kang still tried.
"Yong Myeong married into our family, she is a Kang now, her child is a Kang. This is kidnapping!"
Yong Bon-Hwa didn't even bother arguing with her, he simply snapped his fingers. A smartly dressed woman emerged from his entourage, she took a piece of paper from her briefcase and handed it to Madame Kang. "Actually, my Lady, it is perfectly legal for this to occur. This is not kidnapping but taking a child away from a dangerous environment and allowing him to go somewhere with medicine and treatment. He will also be with a legal guardian, as Lord Yong Bon-Hwa is his legal guardian since his mother and father can not be accounted for. There are also adoption papers, transferring him from a 'Kang' to a 'Yong' which Sir Kang Seung has already signed and agreed upon. Cheon-Sa is now a dragon."
Madam Kang read the document with shaking fingers, she glanced at the signature page and looked faint, "Seung agreed to this?" she couldn't believe it.
"He did, so now we will be leaving." Yong Bon Hwa picked up Cheon-Sa, as he did he looked at me, and bowed slightly, "I'll apologise in my daughter's place" he whispered in my ear, "She should have never done that to you."
He stood up straight and turned to Madame Kang, "The only reason I'm only taking Cheon-Sa and not making more of a fuss, is because I saw the CCTV tapes that led to Myeong's accident and I know what she did."
"You should look after the only heir that you have," he said and then he walked off.
Watching Yong Bon-Hwa leave with Cheon-Sa was like having sweet candy being stolen from me. I had so many plans for that mutt yet they went up in flames so quickly.
But it was now clear, I was the sole heir to the Nam faction of the Kang Family, and no matter how much Madame Kang glared at me, that wouldn't change.