Chapter 118
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 118
Coughing and spitting out mouthfuls of stone dust, the panicked Wolves scrambled in a frenzy. Simon grimaced, covering his ringing ears, which felt as if they were about to split. He kicked the shin of a subordinate who was frantically asking what they should do.
“Get a grip, you useless bastard!”
It was then.
“Kill the rats beyond the wall. Leave none alive.”
In the midst of the chaos, only Oscar and Simon had kept their wits. The low, unwavering voice instantly brought the panicked Wolves to order.
While the Combat Team moved at Oscar’s command, Simon ordered the lights to be turned back on. The path revealed under the illumination was such a disaster that it sent a chill down even Simon’s spine. One of the Wolves muttered, “We almost all fucking died.”
He wasn’t wrong.
If that woman hadn’t slowed them down with her strange behavior, the entire pack of Wolves would have been caught in the blast. Not a single one would have survived.
But where was she…?
“…Where is Seo-ah? Why isn’t she here?”
No one answered Abel’s question.
Simon stared at the pile of rubble. Even the Wolves who had been running ahead of Oscar had survived, yet it seemed that only that woman, of all people, had been caught in the collapse.
Staring at the massive pile of stones with a skeptical eye, he muttered, “She’s dead.”
There was nothing to do but hope she had died instantly. Even if she had miraculously survived, they couldn’t pull her out from under that pile now, not when the “earthworms” could return at any moment. And even if she were alive, would she be in one piece? If she was barely clinging to life, it would only prolong her agony.
They shouldn’t even think about digging through the rubble.
They had to leave her behind.
With this, their chance at the Pelfe Bank vault was gone.
“We move out the moment the Combat Team returns. Go check on the situation.”
After giving the order to his subordinate, Simon took a step toward Oscar. But the moment he did, Oscar, who had been standing like a statue before the darkness, finally moved.
Walking with heavy, deliberate steps toward the completely ruined wall, Oscar began to dig through the massive pile of rubble before him.
“…”
Simon watched him in a daze.
Oscar was digging through and lifting the heavy debris with his bare hands. His breathing hadn’t even quickened. He hadn’t lost his mind, either. He wasn’t digging blindly; he was keenly analyzing which stones to pull out first, removing them with precise, calculated movements.
No one dared to approach him. His back, bent over the rubble, felt so precarious—as if he might shatter at the slightest touch.
Shatter?
Oscar von Reinhardt?
Simon forced his heavy feet forward. Stopping right behind Oscar, he spoke bluntly to his master, who was tossing another stone aside.
“Please head out first, Your Excellency. We will follow immediately once the Combat Team clears the area.”
But Oscar only lifted another heavy rock. Simon raised his voice, speaking to the man who wasn’t listening to a single word.
“She is dead. Even if she is still breathing, the logical choice is to leave her behind.”
“…”
At his blunt words, Oscar’s movements paused. As Simon stared at his broad, motionless back, Oscar turned around.
In that instant, Simon’s breath caught in his throat.
Under the flickering lantern light, Oscar’s expression was no different from usual. He didn’t look angry. However, a fierce, burning determination to solve the problem before him shone clearly in his eyes.
Oscar brushed past him. Moving to dig at another spot, he suddenly roared toward the pile of rubble.
“Han Seo-ah!”
His shout swept through the Wolves like the shockwave of the explosion. It took them several seconds to process that the name Oscar had just roared belonged to that woman.
“W-we will do it, Your Excellency!”
“Your Excellency!”
The frozen Wolves snapped out of their daze and rushed forward to dig through the debris. Even so, Oscar did not stop.
Simon could only watch him in stunned silence.
Even if the woman dies and we can’t open the vault, there is no burden for you to bear, Your Excellency. It was merely a bonus, not a necessity.
The words surged up to his throat, but Simon couldn’t bring himself to utter them.
Even as he tore through the rubble, Oscar appeared entirely rational.
“Han Seo-ah!”
The moment that frost-cold roar rang in his ears once more, Simon finally understood.
It was a cry of absolute, unyielding will: You must not die here. It was a vow that he would drag her out of this place, no matter what it took.
So, Oscar von Reinhardt was indeed being rational.
He was searching for her with a resolve that defied death itself. He would never leave this place until he found her.
As he cleared away countless stones and boulders, Oscar held his breath at every turn.
When I lift this stone, what will be underneath?
Every time he moved a rock, he feared he would find her blood-stained face staring back at him. If I hadn’t let go of her then, could I have saved her?
“Get out of the way!”
Her desperate cry lingered in his ears longer than any ringing. The phantom sensation of her hands pushing him to safety felt branded onto his skin like a scar.
Suddenly, a laugh escaped his lips.
She should have minded her own business.
She couldn’t even take care of herself, yet she had to play the hero. That’s why she ended up like this.
He could feel the Wolves staring at him in silence as he stood atop the rubble, chuckling to himself. After a moment, Oscar roughly swept back his dust-covered hair. His face, cleared of that bizarre laugh—whether a sneer or a hollow chuckle—was dry and cold. But as he bent down again to lift a massive boulder with all his might, something like molten lava boiled deep within his eyes.
You cannot die.
You are in here. If I keep digging, a woman as small as you has to be somewhere. You will appear eventually.
Simon’s absolute certainty that she was dead. The massive slabs of stone that made survival seem utterly impossible.
“Ha… haha…”
Oscar laughed again as he hauled away several fragments that were almost too heavy to lift.
What an idiot.
Bitterly mocking himself, he shoved aside yet another massive slab. In that instant, the laughter that had flowed as dark and gloomy as stagnant blood dried up like a parched stream.
“…”
That brilliant, vivid red.
Something he had seen for the first time in his life. Something he knew he would never forget until the day he died.
Beneath the slab he had just lifted, he saw it—the hair ribbon.
In that moment, Oscar felt the world recede.
Every sound faded into the distance. His vision narrowed to a pinpoint, leaving only that single red ribbon in sharp focus.
The sound of his own breathing rang deafeningly in his ears.
Staring at the gap between the stones where the hair ribbon was caught, Oscar gripped the massive slab pinning her down. The fragment, which had mostly retained its flat, wall-like shape, was wide and heavy. Abel immediately rushed over to grab the opposite side, and several other Wolves quickly joined in.
Slowly, the slab that had seemed utterly immovable began to rise.
“Get out of the way!”
If only I had pulled you toward me instead of letting you go when you screamed.
The gap beneath the stone widened. The opening looked like the boundary between life and death—even though Oscar himself was standing there, perfectly alive.
Everything in his vision turned pitch black.
And then, she appeared amidst the ruins like the sole light in the darkness. Even in this place of total destruction, she remained miraculously intact.
Slowly, her round eyes fluttered open.
The moment their eyes met, the world that had receded rushed back to him in a torrent. Like a drowning man breaking through the surface of the water, all his senses returned at once.
Oscar reached out to her. He pulled her from the depths of the rubble, cradling her as if salvaging a lost treasure.
The moment her small, light body was in his arms, Oscar finally let out the breath he had been holding. Only then did the boundary between life and death finally recede.
Her limp body smelled of cold blood. The acrid scent of dust and the metallic tang of blood were odors that had never belonged to this woman.
The blood pumping through his heart ran ice-cold.
Blood trickled from the cuts on her face, and her eyes, which had met his for a fleeting second, were now closed.
Was it an illusion that our eyes met?
Has that vibrant, tender greenery vanished?
Oscar tightened his embrace around Seo-ah, squeezing her so hard his knuckles turned white, as if he could physically hold onto her escaping soul.
“Your Excellency, let us…”
The Wolves stepped forward, but Oscar brushed past them, his voice cold and commanding.
“Find the path. We’re moving out.”
The Wolves hovering nearby gathered instantly.
Since the path destroyed by the explosives was impassable, they crossed over to the route where the charges had been laid. Holding Seo-ah securely against his chest, Oscar began to run as if he had been waiting for this very moment. The Wolves fell into step behind him.
No one uttered a single word.
They simply ran, keeping their eyes locked on their master’s back. In Oscar’s arms, the woman’s long hair and her red ribbon fluttered precariously in the darkness.
*
A moment later.
Once the presence of the Wolves had completely vanished, Peter stepped out from a deep crevice in the wall. He stared for a long time at the empty space where they had been.
“Oscar…”
What that cold-blooded monster had been searching for as if his own life depended on it was, surprisingly, a person—and a woman, at that. Instead of handing her over to his Wolves, he had carried her away in his own arms.
The vivid red of the hair ribbon trailing from his embrace lingered in the darkness.