Hana of the Dusk | Akatsuki no Yona

Chapter 18

Present Day.

"This assassin is your sister?!"

Hakuryuu stared at Hana blankly. He turned his head to Yona, then back at Hana, then again to Yona and so forth for five times. Realization dawned on his face. He finally discerned the resemblance between Hana and Yona, now that Yona had mentioned it. The resemblance wasn't too stark so no one would know they were actually sisters at first sight, but if looked close enough, people would notice the subtle similarities of their faces.

"Yes, and you literally just disrespected your master's sister," Hak added to tease the white dragon. Kija widened his eyes and looked at Yona nervously.

"Hold on a second, are we just going to ignore the fact that he just called her assassin?!" Yun piped up, because it seemed as if everyone was disregarding the term used on Hana by Hakuryuu.

"Oh, yeah," Hak turned to Hana, "what is that about?" He asked in a casual tone, as though he wasn't surprised if Hana would even try to assassinate someone for real.

"Did you try to assassinate the white dragon? Were you out of your mind?" Yun yelled at Hana, shaking her shoulders back and forth.

"No, I did not in any way," Hana denied, but way too nonchalantly. She did not even try to convince anyone that she was not an assassin like the white dragon claimed.

If this was a fiction, she would be a villain in disguise who was accused of a crime she really did, but still tried to cover it up with minimal effort, as if saying 'I won't openly admit my crime but if I'm caught then that's too bad, for all of you' and proceeded to kill everyone in her way if she's proven guilty, Yun grimaced at his own thought.

Yun's eyes wandered to Hana warily. She was an extraordinary fighter, that much was obvious, seeing how she was able to fight the guards alone. But she didn't look exactly innocent, not like Yona. There was a sense of danger to her presence, which Yun couldn't explain about it. She didn't seem to have any specific moral that she strongly held on to- if something posed a threat to her or anyone close to her, she wouldn't hesitate to terminate it. If Yun was being brutally honest, he'd classify her as a sadist who enjoyed seeing her enemies' pain. The smile she wore when she was fighting the guards was still imprinted on Yun's mind. A smile of joy and satisfaction. Who would enjoy a fight, if not a sadist?

"But he just called you an assassin," Yona said to Hana in confusion.

"He and everyone here call me what they want to believe who I am; an assassin, though that's not who I am, nor was I ever."

"Hana, explain the whole thing," Hak nudged her shoulder.

Hana groaned. It would be a long story, but Yona, Hak and Yun deserved to know it. After all, this was linked to her sudden burst of anger before they embarked on this journey to find the white dragon. She had kept them in the dark since then, and even though they didn't ask her about it, Hana was sure they still thought about it. She owed them an explanation.

"Two years ago, I traveled through this area. It was raining heavily, and I had no shelter until I came across a house in the south. The occupant was a man who was about Grandpa Mundok's age, and he invited me into his home where he lived alone. His name was Kenjirou. We talked and learned about each other, and it turned out that Kenjirou-san came from this village, but his people banished him many, many years ago."