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Dan Se faced his father-in-law.  And spit out the words that were searing his throat.

“How dare you?  How dare you touch what is mine?” Dan Se hissed as he advanced towards the man.  “How could you harm one hair on that precious head?  You will never dare to touch what belongs to me.  Not ever again.  I am going to give you a taste of what you’ve been doling out to that precious girl all these years.”

He glanced around the room.  “What instrument did you use in your destruction of Mi Sook’s back?”  Perhaps it was this?”  He picked up the fireplace poker.

And her father blanched.  “Wh-what are you doing?”

“I am going to teach you a lesson in violence,” Dan Se bit out the words menacingly. 

Then his eyes perused their surroundings again.  “I wonder what you smacked her bottom with?  Will she have great blue bruises across her thighs again tomorrow?”

As he turned furious eyes on the stunned countenance of the older man, he spat, “Did you think that on my wedding night, I would not notice the pain you had inflicted on my wife in the hours leading up to our wedding?”

Her father scoffed.  “You did not touch her on her wedding night.”

His face an angry thundercloud, Dan Se ejaculated, “How do you know what passed between me and my wife that night?  Were you in our bedchamber with us?”

The man began to sputter.

“You are lucky that I did not come remove your head that night,” Dan Se thundered.  “Since I thought her safe from you then, I left you alone.  But now you have dared to come for what is mine.  To touch what is mine.”

He tossed the fireplace poker onto the floor.  Disgustedly.

“I am not a man given to beating other men.  I much prefer the use of my sword,” he hissed as he drew it from its scabbard.

The scrape of its stealthy whine terrified the older man, and he backed up.

“Wh-what are you going to do?”

“What I have been trained as a hwarang to do.  Dispatch any evil that I see threatening those whom I love.”  He advanced on her father with horrifying speed. 

The man fled backwards until he bumped into the wall.  His eyes were bulging.  As were the veins in his neck.  He was clearly mortified.

With a quick flourish of his wrist, Dan Se had pinned the tip of his sword against the man’s throat.  “How should I accomplish this?  I wonder,” he mused.  “Shall I torture you slowly before I kill you?  Or should I simply end your life with one hard thrust through your heart?”  He drew the tip of the sword down the man’s chest until it rested over that madly racing organ.

“The girl was right,” her father gasped.  “You are a violent man!  You did intend to kill your brother!”

“Don’t you ever forget it,” Dan Se hissed, feeding the man’s delusion for his own purposes.  “I wasn’t even angry with Han Sung when he died.  But I am raging at you now.”

He was one cold customer, this boy to whom he’d married his daughter. 

Lord Man began to shake even more violently.  He closed his eyes as he felt the tip of that sword biting into the skin over his heart.  How many more breaths would he inhale before this soldier ran him through?

Dan Se stared dispassionately at the man out of heavily hooded eyes.  He utterly despised this man.  Lord Man stood for everything that he hated. 

His gaze slid over the terrified man’s countenance.  Looking for a weak spot.  How far would he have to carry this crazy charade to convince the man to never again touch Mi Sook? 

For Dan Se knew that next time he would not be able to control his rage.  The man would be dead before nightfall.  At his hands.  And this time, it would not be an accident.

He drew his sword heavily across the man’s chest, allowing it to cut a tiny slit in his robe.  Then he drew it up the trembling man’s throat.  Until it danced upon his cheek.

“What will convince you to never again touch my wife?” he breathed hotly.

His eyes slid across the quaking man’s cheek.  His sword’s tip followed his line of sight and bit into his earlobe.  “Shall I remove one of your ears to help you remember?” he pondered the possibility.  “Or perhaps…both?”

The man whimpered. 

“Or maybe I’ll just remove the tip of your nose?  So that everyone can plainly see your shame?” 

That devilish sword tip was traveling slowly across his cheek again as the man gasped, “I will not touch her again!  You have my word!  She’s yours!”

“I fail to see what interest you have in my marriage now that the deed is done,” Dan Se commented almost lazily.  His intensity was fading now that the man was emitting terror.

He took no pleasure in seeing another petrified.  He had too often been the recipient of a cold man’s abuse.  And seen his grandfather endure the manipulative powers that Minister Park had wielded against so many.  It all disgusted him.

But he knew that this violent man would understand only violence.  So he was making a point.  He grinned suddenly at the unintended pun.  And stared at the tip of his sword.  He drew it slowly, delicately across the man’s cheek.  Allowing it to bite into his skin until a tiny trickle of blood slid down his flushed face.

Lord Man winced and squeezed his eyes shut.  “Please.  Please don’t hurt me,” he begged.

“I wonder,” Dan Se contemplated several mysteries, “did Mi Sook ever breathe those words as you took out your anger on her back?  Or did she bear it all without so much as one word?”

She had never emitted a sound.  So he had beaten her all the more.  In an attempt to get some reaction out of her.  But she had never satisfied him.

Lord Man grunted.

“I am betting that – even as a tiny girl – she was silent,” her husband murmured as he bent towards the man’s ear.  The tip of his blade still causing havoc with the man’s pores.

His blood continued to slide down, reaching his throat now on its way to threatening his robe.  Dan Se allowed that tip to bite into the man’s cheek a little deeper.

“Please…” he implored again.

“I am tempted to carve the characters of her name into your chest so that you never forget your promise not to harm her again.”

“I won’t forget,” he insisted through chattering teeth.  “I won’t forget.  I swear.”

“Hmm.  I suppose now you know what will happen if you do.” 

Dan Se straightened and loosened the grip of his sword’s tip on the man’s skin.  Then he drew it down over his father-in-law’s heart again.  Lazily, he allowed it to dip until it was up against the bottom of his belt.  With one sudden flick of his wrist, he cut that belt in half and watched as it fell to hit the floor.  The horrified man gazed down at his robes as they gaped. 

“I will destroy more than just your clothing next time,” Dan Se breathed out another threat.

Really, he wanted to be done with this unsavory business.  He longed to pull his wife into his arms and comfort her.  Not wishing to ignore her for one moment longer, he bent a stern glare upon her father.

“I expect that neither of us will ever see you again.  Should you see my wife – or me – ever again, turn around immediately and return the way you have come.  If I see you, you shall pay for it.  If my wife sees you, you won’t live long enough to speak of it.  Have I made myself clear?”

The man bobbed his head violently up and down while sputtering, “Yes!  Yes!”

Dan Se took a step back before removing his sword from the man’s middle.  Then, still carrying it in his hand, he spun around and headed for the door.  He never wanted to see this horrid man.  Ever again.

A moment later, he was striding down the street.  Lord Man forgotten as Dan Se bent all his thoughts upon his beloved.