Chapter 141
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 141
“Would you like some cooled water, Young Lady?”
“…Yes, please…”
“Right away! Just a moment!”
“Um, your leg is injured, so I can get it myself—”
“I get around just fine on one foot! Even if I didn’t have legs, I could walk on my hands, so don’t you worry!”
“……”
Seo-ah was left speechless by the wolf, who spoke so cheerfully despite his bruised and battered face.
Once daylight broke, the state of the Wolves’ faces was revealed to be horrific. Except for those who had crossed the Rock Forest with her and Simon’s men, not a single one was unscathed.
Among them, two had clearly received the most severe punishment.
“Is there anything else you need?”
Seo-ah glanced up at the man towering over her and swallowed hard.
The wolf who had gone to fetch water was in decent shape compared to this one. Thebes’s face was a gruesome sight. One of his eyes was so swollen he couldn’t even open it properly.
“…Can you see?”
“I can see perfectly fine.”
“Perhaps you should have the physician take another look…”
“I’m perfectly fine, Young Lady!”
“Your nose is crooked, though.”
And it wasn’t just his eyes, nose, and mouth. His arms and legs were in no better shape. Yet the giant, who looked as if he should be dead if he were an ordinary human, grinned, baring his teeth.
“I’ve always looked like this.”
“……”
Speechless, Seo-ah opened and closed her mouth, only for a sharp, mocking sneer to drift over from behind Thebes.
“That dumbass really has always looked like that.”
The only intact eyebrow on Thebes’s face twitched. He turned, his expression terrifying enough to cause nightmares, and spoke with mock sweetness.
“Watch your tongue in front of the Young Lady. Is ‘dumbass’ any way to speak around her?”
Simon took a step forward and let out a dry chuckle.
“You don’t like ‘dumbass’? How about ‘dumb fuck’ then?”
“The only thing I don’t like about you is your tongue, pretty boy. Want me to rip it out?”
Simon shook his head. He couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath on this fighting dog, who was acting as if he’d already switched masters. Getting trampled by Oscar yesterday must have crushed what little brain he had to begin with.
As Simon approached, intending to speak to Seo-ah, Thebes deliberately stepped into his path.
“Move.”
“Move where? Go around, or crawl between my legs.”
As Thebes spread his legs wide and pointed down, Simon looked up at the sky and laughed. Knowing it wasn’t a laugh of amusement, Seo-ah quietly slipped past them.
Sure enough, the moment she passed, Simon, who had been looking up at the sky, began to speak.
In his precise, aristocratic accent, he spat out vicious insults that would make a devil blush. In response, Thebes fired back with a barrage of barely intelligible curses.
Simon, who wore a neat suit and even gloves, and Thebes, who wasn’t even wearing his shirt properly, were polar opposites. The saying “they fight the moment they lock eyes” seemed made for them.
Though she couldn’t be sure from the brief moment she’d witnessed, they seemed to only fight with their mouths and never actually laid hands on each other. Perhaps they knew that the moment they crossed that line, there would be no turning back. With that thought, Seo-ah walked toward the attending physician, who was hesitating to approach.
“Um, Doctor.”
“Ah, yes.”
The attending physician looked at her with newfound awe. A giant radiating a fierce aura and a cold-blooded man who drained the energy from a room just by being there—even their fellow Wolves hesitated to approach these two.
Because of their high rank, whenever they clashed, the other Wolves would anxiously back away, terrified of getting caught in the crossfire. Yet, Seo-ah walked past them with a remarkably calm expression.
Just as she was doing now.
“…The very fact that you can process thoughts with a brain like that…”
“…on your knees… shove it… son of a… bastard…”
“Doctor, I’ve adjusted the lighting as you requested.”
“Just because you have a mouth…”
“Shut the… fuck up…”
“And I used warm water to raise the humidity, but…”
It was astonishing that she could focus on her task amidst this chaos. But as Seo-ah calmly continued discussing the sleeping Oscar’s condition, she suddenly trailed off, sensing something. Almost simultaneously, the physician’s gaze snapped toward the cabin, and the cabin door flew open with a force that threatened to shatter it.
Slam!
“……!”
Gasp!
Simon and Thebes, who had been hurling insults at each other, fell silent at once. The wolf carrying the water froze in his tracks.
A breathless silence enveloped the area around the cabin.
Oscar emerged, his presence weighing heavily on the surroundings, radiating an aura so sharp it felt like it could cut the air. Having been roused from his light slumber, the wolf was searching for something with eyes as sharp as honed blades.
Simon felt goosebumps rise on the back of his neck as his master’s gaze swept past him. Thebes felt the same.
The two Wolves, who had been snapping at each other like dogs, quietly backed away.
Once they cleared his line of sight, the woman he had been searching for finally came into view.
“……”
The moment he opened his eyes, Oscar realized the woman was no longer in his arms. Her absence alone was enough to plunge him into an abyss.
He could hear nothing, see nothing. Driven by the singular, blind obsession to find her, he had flung the door open. It was hard to believe, but the brief moment between leaving the bed and opening that door had felt agonizingly long.
Han Seo-ah!
He wanted to scream her name with all his might.
How dare you leave me like this? Where did you go? An inexplicable heat surged from deep within him.
And just before the cry could escape his lips, the clear, pale face he couldn’t let go of even in his dreams appeared before him.
“Ha.”
The breath he hadn’t realized he was holding finally broke free. The burning emotion that had surged to the brink, like lava about to erupt, subsided in an instant.
She’s here.
After dragging him through hell all night, there she stood—so pure, so radiant, all on her own.
He took a step toward her. She had turned pale again. As if she still didn’t realize he was utterly powerless against her, something akin to fear welled up in her clear eyes. Unable to bear his gaze, she eventually turned her head away.
Once again, Han Seo-ah turned away from Oscar von Reinhardt.
“……”
His steps toward her ground to a halt. The sound of his own ragged breathing rang in his ears.
That natural rejection felt more like reality.
The woman who had smiled at him, who hadn’t avoided him, who had held him in return.
“I like you.”
Even those words, which he had practically forced out of her.
Perhaps that was why he’d trembled with anxiety even after hearing them from her lips—he simply couldn’t believe that a living, breathing Han Seo-ah could ever be like that.
Looking at the pale woman who had turned away from him, Oscar felt a sharp, piercing sense of relief. He engraved every detail of her into his mind.
The stray hairs fluttering in the breeze, her unsteady, wavering gaze, and the soft, rounded shadow cast by the sunlight.
It wasn’t an illusion.
Han Seo-ah was alive, and he hadn’t lost her.
That was enough.
The tension slowly drained from Oscar’s fists, which had been clenched so tightly his knuckles were white. After standing frozen in front of the cabin and staring at Seo-ah for a long moment, he turned to Simon.
Meeting his gaze, Simon felt that his master had finally, completely returned. The command that followed was exactly what the situation demanded.
“Get ready. We leave for Vies immediately.”
Oscar von Reinhardt, who had been wasting away without proper sleep or food, was finally back.
*
Fortunately, Theresia’s coat hadn’t gone missing. After wrapping the oversized coat tightly around herself, Seo-ah stood quietly in the clearing in front of the cabin.
Amidst the bustling activity, she was the only one with nothing to do.
The attending physician had his own things to pack, and Abel had temporarily stepped away with the Wolves from the manor.
Oscar was calling the men referred to as team leaders one by one, giving them individual instructions. Some of the Wolves who received his orders departed first. Among them was Team 3, who had crossed the Rock Forest with her. Before they left, they came over to tell her that they owed their lives to her.
“No, that’s not true. I barely did anything.”
“If it weren’t for you, Young Lady, we really would have croaked—er, died out there.”
“……”
“Anyway, take care of yourself, and we’ll see you next time!”
They walked away, repeatedly emphasizing that she should stay healthy.
Seo-ah stole a glance at Oscar, who was talking to Thebes.
Under the bright autumn sun, he was undeniably different from yesterday. His neatly slicked-back hair accentuated his striking features. Even without meeting his gaze, she could feel a calm tension radiating from him. One could tell just by looking at the Wolves’ expressions that precise judgments and orders were being handed down under the control of his unwavering reason.
The words that had confused her, the voice that had sounded so sorrowful—like a distorted moon on the water’s surface—it all felt like a lie coming from this cold, rational man.
The time of sunset and hazy moonlight was gone.
Between the events of last night, witnessed through a haze of semi-consciousness, and the present, illuminated by vivid sunlight, the latter was undoubtedly the one that felt real. Crucially, he didn’t even glance at her as she stood there all alone. Far from looking at her, he acted as though he didn’t even know she existed.
Perhaps the prayer she had offered in secret to the morning sun had already been answered.
Just then, Oscar, who had been talking to Thebes, turned his head in her direction.
“……!”
Her heart plummeted. Her chest thudded as though a massive drum were beating close by. Her gaze, fixed somewhere near the ground, wavered unsteadily, unable to settle on a single spot.
For some reason, the cheek facing him began to prickle, and she felt a sudden warmth rising up the back of her neck.