She Became The Devil’s Stepmother Who’s About To Be Killed

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Chapter 21 – I Have To Live Somehow

Flap, flap, flap~ Kueeeeekk!

I looked down at the monster bird that landed in the lake below the cliff. The monster shrieked while struggling to escape the water, but to the monster crocodiles, it must have sounded like a dinner bell announcing ‘It’s time to eat.’ I had thought the crocodiles were sleeping, but they crawled leisurely into the water and glided softly toward the monster bird. The more it struggled, the more blue blood spread like ink from the severed arm, and the number of crocodiles anticipating a meal increased rapidly. The screams of the monster bird struggling to survive, the sound of bones crunched hard, and the sound of flesh being ripped hit my cochleas. I covered my ears with both hands and bit my lower lip with my upper teeth.

‘If I had fallen, would I have died like that?’

I was now standing precariously on a narrow railing as thin as a knife, pointing out from the cliff. It was a narrow rocky slope with nowhere to sit. I put my head back and put my hands behind me to see if I could climb the cliff. I carefully tried to turn my body over, but there was not enough space.

‘Ha! Now I’m going to die for sure.’ I leaned my head against the wall and looked at the sky. I couldn’t afford to look down at all because the blue water seemed to pull me. When I looked at the spring sky, I remembered the amusement park where I went to play while holding hands with my father and mother in my childhood. At that time, I went around the safari safely in the car, but now I was experiencing the monster safari without safety equipment.

I prayed that the passing monster birds would not recognize me. Hopefully, if monster snakes find me they don’t crawl down. I hope that the monster insects will not mistake me for a flower and come closer. I prayed over and over again. Finally, everything felt too real, and my legs lost strength. I almost stumbled forward.

‘No no!’ I shook my head vigorously. You must always think positively!

I decided to indulge myself in the memories of the first time I went to an amusement park with my family on a day in May. Yeah… That day, Mom and Dad had another big fight. Parents who don’t have money tend to fight a lot.

Dad went with his kids after a long time, so he suggested that we go to the most expensive fast food restaurant and eat something delicious and even Pat-bingsu.* But my mother questioned why he would spend money on such a thing, and insisted on eating convenience store bowl noodles. And my tactless younger brother, Kang Joo-ho, ate bowl noodles and saved the money so he could ride the roller coaster four more times, but he ended up crying when my mother slapped him. Dad criticized Mom again, protesting why she would act like that toward the child.

I hated such fights back then, but now I laughed. I think my mom said she wanted to save money, buy an apartment, and send us to study abroad. My mother, always nervous, collapsed from a stroke. Dad’s hair turned rough like silver grass as he worked as a security guard for my sick mom’s sake. Like the silver grass flying in the cold winter, my father often went out at dawn and came back at dawn.

‘I’m sorry, Dad.’

It was absurd to prepare for the entrance exam while working as a contract teacher, but I refused to give up on my dream because of family circumstances. Now I worried that my accident would have added more gray hair to my poor dad’s head.

“Kang Joo-ho, you punk, I hope you’re doing well. If you’re not doing it right… ”

I screamed so loudly that the cliff rang. At the sound of my voice, the monster crocodiles raised their eyes languidly and looked up at me. However, knowing it was a distance they couldn’t climb, they returned their attention to the water surface.

Come to think of it, the water is clear and transparent. But isn’t that lime water? In my curiosity, I looked down.

Wobble~ My body shivered. As expected, the water was dangerous. I looked to the sky with my eyes closed. Then I reached out and touched the rock on the cliff with my fingertips. Small stones fell to the water. The monster crocodiles, looking drowsy, slid back into the water again.

‘Such great hearing.’

I quietly turned my body sideways, picked up a stone from the ground, and put it under my skirt.

‘Who knows? Maybe the material containing the cationic resin component I was looking for is hidden in this~’ If I come back alive, I’ll have to analyze the composition of this stone first. Doing this in a death or life situation, I remembered a teacher joking around with students in a past science class.

“Guys, do you know how to distinguish between literature and science? ‘Don’t stick chopsticks in the concept.** If it’s too electrifying it will be dangerous.’ Then, literal students don’t put it in. But what happens with science students? They put it in out of curiosity. They don’t put it in just once, they die while writing down the difference in electricity rise according to the length.”

At that time, I laughed while banging the desk saying it didn’t make sense, but now I understood. After all, should I fall into that water? Then I would know for sure. The sun was setting before I knew it. I began to feel drowsy.

‘I can’t sleep.’ Even if I tried to keep my eyelids wide open, in the distant sunset one to two suns appeared as my head dropped helplessly. Phew, I had to wake up somehow. However, I could only move my facial muscles. I blinked and opened my mouth. But that alone didn’t wake me up. I decided to sing to chase away sleep.

‘What can I sing to cheer up my depressed heart?’

I woke up my sleepy and reluctant brain and ordered it to select exciting music. Since I couldn’t drink the iced Americano I loved so much, should I try something cold first?

“Americano is good, good, good. Americano’s strong, strong, strong~” My throat was burning. Should I just eat Pat-bingsu? “Bingsu, Pat-bingsu, I love you, I love you~”

Then, like an adult, beer came to mind.

“It’s a very hot day, right? On a day like this, how nice it would be to have a cold beer and chat with you while lying in the Han River.”

That jerk. I remembered my ex-boyfriend whispering love to me in the Han River.

“Hey, you selfish and ungrateful bastard! Are you happy after abandoning me to marry a younger, richer, prettier, and taller girl? You bastard!”

Somehow, when I thought of my ex-boyfriend, I felt I had to show I was living well. That’s right, let’s stop being satisfied with songs. I have to live somehow. I looked side-to-side to see if there was anything useful. Of course, stones were sticking out.

‘Maybe I should try rock climbing?’ Even if I stand like a wall all day, I won’t become a wall. I finally decided to throw myself away to live. Sinclair’s body won’t die anyway. I will only suffer the pain of death…

However, I wasn’t sure if Sinclair’s body could withstand the crocodile’s strong teeth and heal the bite wounds. Still, her memories cheered me on, reassuring me I could survive.

[tl/n: Poor Sinclair, the fact that she suffered so much that MC is saying that she would survive even if she falls and faces some wild monsters :’)]

‘Yeah, let’s survive somehow.’ First of all, to climb the cliff, I had to turn around and look at the wall. But it was cumbersome to climb up wearing this skirt so I loosened the belt, took off the skirt, and dropped it.

But something amazing happened. Only the skirt fell, but the monster crocodiles began to slowly approach the skirt as if curious.

‘Awesome, what is it? Do they have good eyesight or good hearing?’ I felt chills running down my spine. ‘If my body falls, it’ll be cut in half. Nah, what half? It’s going to disappear without a trace.’

I gently shook my butt and pulled down my underskirt, and I quickly threw it down the cliff.

‘Iughh.’ My sweating made the wind more chill.

‘Now, can I slightly lift my body off the wall and turn it 180 degrees using one foot as a support?’

‘Keep up the hard work, right foot, and leg!’ My life depended on a central axis. I turned my body slightly 15 degrees. The knife-edge railing held up well.

‘It’s okay.’

I mustered a little more courage and turned my body about 45 degrees. Then, with a crackling sound, the stone I was treading on fell down.

At the ‘crack,’ ‘trrrllong,’ ‘splash!’ sounds, a group of monster crocodiles tried to dive in for their prey.

Ah… My hands and feet were sweating. ‘Can I really do it?’

No, it wasn’t a question of whether I could do it or not. It was something that had to be done. Mulishness and resentment arose.

‘Gerard! I can’t believe you left me here alone! And yet you call yourself my husband?!’

I held back all the curse words that were about to erupt. Haaa… I decided to exhale deeply and make a 180-degree turn at once. ‘Anyway, you have to turn around to climb the cliff.’

‘One, two, three!’

‘Wow! Is it because of acceleration?’

I passed the 120-degree section smoothly, and the front of my body and the cliff became one. As expected, nothing is impossible in the world. Good. I’ve never scaled a cliff, but let’s try it like a Hollywood action actress.

‘Still, wouldn’t the author have created it so that she can do this much as a villain in the novel?’

I lifted my head and grabbed the wall that protruded at 2 o’clock with my right hand. When climbing a rock, three of the four points of the hands and feet must be attached to the rock wall to maintain the balance of the body, so I checked to see if there was a place to hold at the 9 o’clock position.

Yes!! Fortunately, a sharp bump was visible. I gripped it tightly with my left hand, and finally, I put my left foot to the 7 o’clock position.

‘Okay, now we’re going to climb out of this narrow railing.’

‘Thank you, oh narrow-as-a-knife railing for saving my life, but goodbye.’ I placed my left foot on it then my right foot, as I groped toward the next target and then,

Damn it! The lifeline that supported my right foot, the knife-thin railing, suddenly cracked and broke.

‘Shit, it’s all over.’

Instantly, the sound of a swarm of monster crocodiles entering the water, having sensed my movements, hit my cochlea and traveled through my spinal cord. That fear finally stimulated the peripheral nerves of my fingertips and toes.

In the end, my hands and feet lost strength and slipped!

“Huuaaak!”

Splash!

I shouted, but soon freshwater filled my mouth.

‘Wow, it’s amazingly clean!’ I was impressed with the refreshing water I drank for the first time since coming here.

As soon as I met the eyes of the crocodile that appeared in front of me, I hit it hard with my hand, starting with its nose.

‘Uuhk!’ I struggled as much as I could and hit it with repeated blows.

But that was also a limitation. Imagine a five-meter-tall crocodile with its mouth open. I wasn’t even a bite away.

‘Goodbye, my poor, pitiful life.’

I think I didn’t sell my country in my previous life but all mankind…

Skeptical, I prayed that in my next life, every part of me would be scattered throughout the universe and never be reborn.

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*Pat-bingsu: is a Korean shaved ice dessert with sweet toppings that may include chopped fruit, condensed milk, fruit syrup, and red beans.

**Concept: This is actually funny (kind of?) in Korean since the word concept ‘콘셉트’ and outlet ‘콘센트’ are written similarly as you can see. Also, Korean chopsticks are commonly made of iron or stainless steel, unlike other Asian countries that usually have chopsticks made of wood and bamboo.

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