Chapter 100
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 100
She asked again, but Simon didn’t answer. His gaze went distant as if lost in thought. He tilted his head, his expression deeply troubled, and then looked off toward something in the distance. Barbara, who had been watching him closely, followed his gaze.
Under the bright lights stood the disheveled Outsider. Her mind seemed just as chaotic as her appearance.
Barbara ordered Simon, Abel, and all the other Wolves to withdraw. Soon, only the Outsider and Barbara remained in the quiet hallway.
The Outsider offered a quiet greeting, and Barbara found herself with a torrent of questions she wanted to ask. She didn't care about what had happened at the exhibition; she wanted to know what on earth was going on between her and Oscar. Yet, she could not bring herself to pry into something Oscar himself had chosen to keep silent about.
The Outsider walked away down the moonlit hallway, and Barbara headed down the stairs.
Her mind was a jumbled mess, like a scattered jigsaw puzzle.
What bothered her most was Oscar's expression. He wore a face she hadn't seen in a very long time. The last time she had felt this way about him was around the time Charlotte had abandoned him and left. As the old wolf protecting Oscar, she lived only to serve his will—even when she couldn't fully comprehend it.
Interfering with Abel hardly seemed to align with Oscar’s wishes. After all, Abel was also acting under Oscar's orders.
But…
Knock, knock.
"Young Lady, it's Barbara. I'm coming in."
Perhaps because she had been left speechless every time she opened this door, Barbara resolved that this time, she wouldn't be surprised no matter what she saw. She unconsciously held her breath and reached for the handle, but the door opened from the inside first.
As the Outsider was slowly revealed through the opening, Barbara's firm resolve crumbled like a sandcastle swallowed by the tide.
"...Are you cold?" Barbara asked, her eyes landing on the towel wrapped around the girl's neck.
Seo-ah, who had the towel wound around her neck like a scarf, shook her head as she stepped aside to let Barbara in. Barbara walked past her into the room. The moment she saw the Marquis's neatly folded blanket, she took out the contraceptive pill without even needing to ask.
Just how many days had this been going on?
What on earth was happening?
As she unscrewed the bottle cap, Barbara finally lost her patience and pointed at the blanket.
"Why on earth," she demanded, "do you keep swapping His Excellency's blanket with yours, Young Lady?"
Seo-ah, with the towel wrapped tightly around her neck, flinched like a scolded child. She opened her mouth to speak, but explaining was clearly no easy task; she merely gaped for a long moment, utterly tongue-tied. To make matters worse, the explanation seemed deeply embarrassing, as her pale face began to flush crimson, starting from her neck. With her entire face dyed red, Seo-ah hung her head and murmured in a barely audible voice.
"He asked what we would do if we soiled the blanket..."
Barbara barely suppressed the urge to press a hand to her forehead.
"Did he tell you to swap them?"
"No. I moved them myself while he was away or asleep."
Left speechless, Barbara stopped opening the medicine bottle and pointed at Seo-ah's neck instead.
"And why is your neck wrapped up like that?"
That, too, seemed difficult to explain. Seo-ah's already flushed face burned even redder. Upon closer inspection, even her earlobes were crimson.
"If you're cold, I will turn up the heat. Just please, take that towel off instead of wrapping yourself up like that."
Seo-ah gripped the towel tightly and took several deep breaths. Seeing her hesitate for so long with downcast eyes, Barbara's suspicion flared. When Seo-ah finally made up her mind and took off the towel with a look of grim determination, it was Barbara who was left utterly speechless.
Her pale, slender neck was covered in marks.
Most were faint, looking as though they would fade in a few hours, but some were deep enough that they would take days to disappear. Since every visible inch of skin was covered in them, it was painfully obvious what lay hidden beneath her clothes.
What on earth was he thinking, leaving her in this state…
Piercing morning sunlight seeped into the room, illuminating the stunned silence between them. No words passed between the two. In the distance, the faint chirping of birds echoed.
"Perhaps... is there an ointment I could apply to these?"
Swallowing her embarrassment, Seo-ah spoke up, self-consciously touching the back of her neck.
She had been horrified when she looked in the mirror this morning. There was no mistaking why her skin, which had been perfectly fine yesterday, was now covered in red blotches. Her neck, collarbone, shoulders, and even her chest. Below the collarbone was fine since it was covered by her clothes, but her neck was fully exposed.
"And... I'm sorry, but I don't have anything to cover my neck with."
Snapping out of her daze, Barbara handed over the pill. Seo-ah took it as if she had been waiting for it. Before her thoughts could tangle any further, Barbara decided to focus on her duties.
"I will return the blanket and bring you some ointment for the bruises, along with clothes to cover your neck. Please wait a moment."
As she turned to leave as if fleeing, Barbara paused at the door and looked back.
"Do you wish to go to Traun?"
Seo-ah stared at her quietly before shaking her head.
"No."
Barbara didn't ask twice and stepped out of the study.
Unfortunately, it seemed her day was destined to be filled with nothing but chaos and confusion. As she left the study clutching Oscar's blanket, one of her direct subordinate Wolves rushed toward her. His urgent demeanor made it clear that this was no ordinary matter, and Barbara's eyes sharpened.
"What is it?"
The wolf drew close and whispered quickly.
"Ma'am, the Marchioness has arrived."
* * *
As the massive black iron gates slowly ground open, two crows perched atop them fluttered and took flight. Charlotte watched them, her expression impassive.
Beyond the wide-open gates lay the forest of Reinhardt, with its ever-shifting atmosphere. Charlotte's carriage rolled into the woods, receiving a polite bow from the guarding wolf. The damp forest was thick with a golden mist shot through with sunlight.
The Wolf's Forest, where even the King dared not enter without permission.
None of the Wolves living in this forest welcomed her. However, as long as she bore the name Reinhardt, the forest had no choice but to open its gates. Coming and going was her birthright. In the first place, the forest belonged to her.
A name written in blood carried that much weight.
When the misty forest suddenly gave way, the manor revealed itself like a stage setting after a scene change. Looking up at the grand main building, which could easily rival a royal palace, Charlotte toyed with the expensive ring on her index finger.
She hadn't slept a wink last night. A long-forgotten sense of dread had been crawling over her skin like insects.
When she ran into Oscar at Sabine's exhibition—which she had attended late due to a headache—she had been both surprised and pleased. Had he come because she had been furious about his absence from Sabine's birthday? Was he finally deciding to obey his mother's wishes?
But her brief spark of joy vanished the moment she saw her son's fierce, irritable expression. He was clearly furious. It was painfully obvious that he had not come to play the role of an obedient son.
Her thoughts began to spiral.
Yesterday, there had been a State Council Meeting. The nobles in attendance would have surely invited Oscar to dinner afterward. That made it even clearer that there was absolutely no reason for him to attend Sabine's exhibition.
There was no way he would decline dinner with high-ranking nobles just to attend Sabine's exhibition. She wondered if some influential figure had made an appearance, but that wasn't the case either. There was no one among the attendees whom Oscar would have any interest in meeting.
What had driven Oscar to act? What was the reason he had no choice but to show up, even while harboring such rage?
"Sabine, did anything unusual happen at the exhibition today?"
"His Majesty sent a gift through the Chief Lady-in-Waiting."
"And? Were there no other notable guests?"
Sabine, who had been playing innocent while swirling her champagne, chuckled and whispered.
"He brought that woman with the red ribbon—the one we saw on the feast day—to the exhibition."
At the time, she had dismissed the comment. But after returning to the Count's Residence, as the night deepened, those words kept echoing in her mind. It was as if her instincts were screaming a warning.
"What if the Marquis loses his mind and insists on making that woman his Marchioness? How will you handle the fallout then?"
Dietrich's sudden warning flashed through her mind, striking at the very core of her deepest anxiety.
Her firm resolve was to live the rest of her life solely for herself. In her mind, Oscar had certainly paid his dues simply by being born.
As House Reinhardt grew more powerful, every noble in Luxen groveled at her feet.
Her anxiety had begun the moment Oscar reached marriageable age. It was painfully obvious that the moment Oscar married and fathered a child, her own influence would dwindle to nothing. After all, she herself had banished Count Jerome's wife—Dietrich's mother—to the countryside immediately after giving birth to Sabine.
Charlotte had spent years searching for Oscar's spouse with all her heart. The problem was that Oscar never spared a single glance at the women she chose. The only saving grace was that he had never taken any other woman to his bed, either.
Charlotte gritted her teeth.
The carriage climbed the slope and came to a halt in front of the main building, where the wolf statue stood. Waiting there was a thoroughly detestable woman. Charlotte glared at Barbara Wald through the gold-rimmed window, refusing to move.
Charlotte didn't move until Barbara herself stepped forward and opened the carriage door. Only then did she deign to emerge. As she stepped down, Barbara bowed deeply to greet her.