Chapter 17
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 17
As I took a step forward, compelled by the unspoken pressure to follow, my heart felt like it would burst.
Beyond the opening door, a host of presences lay coiled like vipers, so heavy they were terrifying.
Where was this place? Who were these people who had been waiting for me to wake?
The man who flashed through my mind was, without a doubt, him. The one who seemed sculpted from darkness itself.
At the same time, my master’s words came back to me. The moment I revealed I possessed the key, my life would become as precarious as a candle in the wind.
But I wasn't afraid of a precarious life.
If the beginning of life was the beginning of sin, then wasn't atonement ultimately death?
If there was one thing I feared, it was dying a meaningless death before I could bring my grandfather here. That was all.
The pounding of her own heart thundered in her ears, and her breath felt as if it were frosting the air. Just then, the red-eyed man disappeared through the doorway, and she, too, took a step across the threshold.
The presences, which had been veiled by a single door, now rushed in, vivid and overwhelming.
A vast, exotic space unfolded before her. Brilliant light fractured as it poured in from a series of high windows. And yet, the room felt dark, likely because of the men in black who filled it.
Each one exuded a presence qualitatively different from the guards at the Pelfe Bank. Every single one was as sharp as a well-honed blade and as immense as a great mountain.
One by one, their gazes turned, and soon, everyone was looking at Seo-ah. It felt like standing in the middle of a great, rugged canyon. A treacherous mountain full of sharp scree, where the wind howled with an eerie cry, whipping through her hair, and the spray from a waterfall plunging from a tremendous height soaked her face.
Seo-ah stopped without realizing it, but the red-eyed man continued to walk steadily away from her.
As he moved, the men in his path stepped aside. The scene inside the room shifted with disciplined precision, like a picture slowly coming into focus, as if each man were moving to his designated place.
Finally, when they had formed two long lines like a bird’s wings, the man who had been crossing the room stopped. Then, with the utmost formality, he turned to his right and bowed deeply at the waist.
Sunlight poured down upon his bowed, black-clad back.
Everything flowed on as it was, yet it seemed as if only the sound had vanished. Her own breathing sounded unnaturally loud. Just as she felt she would be blinded by the light reflecting off his back…
…the curtain of light, so vivid it made her eyes ache, parted.
An old scripture was said to contain such words. In the beginning, there was light, and the darkness was born from the light.
The man who appeared over the back of the bowing figure was like the darkness from that scripture, born of light itself.
The men lined up on either side bowed their heads as he approached. Receiving the salutes of these black-clad beasts, the man drew near, walking as if through a dense canyon.
As the red-eyed man straightened up and took his place to the right, the newcomer stood leisurely in a spot that anyone would recognize as the throne among these men.
He was flanked by men whose presences were as immense as great mountains, like living folding screens, with his hands thrust into his pockets. Despite his casual, almost insolent posture, the combined presence of all the men arrayed like screens could not match his alone.
The moment her eyes met his—a piercing, unusual blue—Seo-ah dropped her head. She saw the skirt she was clutching tightly and the back of her deathly pale hand. A breath just as pale, along with the sound of her heart beating as if it would burst, shook her eardrums.
Her nerves, stretched so taut it was sickening, were wholly preoccupied with tracing his presence.
He took a step.
Thump, thump. The sound of his approach suffocated her. But like someone who sees a flood rushing in from afar and cannot escape, Seo-ah had no way to stop him.
Before she could do anything, a pair of gleaming black shoes and long legs appeared in her downcast line of sight. As his shadow stretched out to her left, a laugh like a soft hiss of air settled over the crown of her head.
“Don't just stand there. Look at me.”
His voice, laced with amusement, was surprisingly deep.
His words made her chin lift automatically. Biting her trembling lip, she hesitantly raised her head, but once her gaze became level, she found she simply could not lift it any higher.
A black jacket, broad shoulders that seemed several times her own size… At the sound of another low laugh, her shoulders flinched. Then, suddenly, his face swooped down from above.
“……!”
Their eyes were suddenly level. Before she could react, his face was seared onto her retinas.
Black hair that curled like elegant whirlpools, a straight nose, long eyes, and a jaw that seemed sharper for its tilt. And irises bluer than an autumn sky.
Under the brilliant sunlight, at such close range, he was breathtakingly beautiful.
The moment her gaze fixed on the corners of his red lips as they slowly curved upward, Seo-ah ducked her head again. Once more, a laugh descended from above her.
It was a rich, beautiful sound, but it felt like it was tightening around her throat.
“Sa…”
Perhaps for that reason, her voice came out ridiculously cracked. She took a deep breath, trying to ignore her frantically pounding heart.
She had to thank him for saving her. She had to say she would do anything to repay him. And then, she had to beg him to please, just let her go. That was what she had to do.
Seo-ah took another breath and raised her head.
“Thank you for savi—”
Her words trailed off.
On his black suit, something was pinned, glittering magnificently. In the center of the star-shaped gold metalwork, a beast was engraved, baring its fangs.
“The Wolves will come.”
It was as if she could hear her master’s voice. And over it, another voice, laced with laughter, spoke.
“Do you recognize this?”
Seo-ah blinked blankly before shaking her head.
“No…”
At that, as if confirming something, he leaned in and whispered again.
“Shall we have a little chat?”
*
Throughout the dawn, real-time reports had been streaming in from the wolf planted in the Pelfe Bank. The identification papers the woman presented were presumed to have been issued by a small eastern nation called Danguk. Currently, the only nation on the Norfolk Continent with diplomatic ties to Danguk was Herod. Since Herod’s capital, Herolington, had a Danguk embassy, the King of Pelfe had reportedly ordered the woman’s papers to be sent there for verification.
From Pelfe to Herod, through the verification process, and back to Pelfe again.
“That alone will take three months,” Oscar remarked. Simon nodded.
Even if the verification was successful, there were more procedures to follow. Only after an investigation into the circumstances of the key’s acquisition and a public announcement in the daily papers of major nations could the vault finally be opened.
“As things stand, if we follow all procedures, we estimate it will take a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years to open the vault.”
“Two years is too long. What’s the plan to shorten that?”
“There is one option that doesn’t violate Pelfe banking laws.”
Oscar looked at him expectantly, and Simon quickly explained.
“Marrying the woman to someone with a clear identity. The six-month to two-year estimate accounts for the worst-case scenario where her identification papers have to be sent to her home country for confirmation. The only way to mitigate this risk is to marry her to a man from here, thereby clarifying her identity.”
“…”
“Of course, even then, it would be difficult to dramatically reduce the minimum time of six months. However, the maximum time would not exceed one year, no matter how long it takes. Furthermore, since inheritance between spouses is possible, we could open the vault without issue even in the woman’s absence.”
“And the risk?”
“At present, the woman herself. We know nothing of her disposition or background, so we can’t predict how she’ll react to a marriage or how much coercion would be effective. If she were to claim during the Pelfe Bank’s in-person interview that the marriage was forced, it could become problematic.”
“So it’s a choice between six months to two years, versus six months to one year. That’s the difference.”
“Yes.”
Oscar lowered his gaze, contemplating the key. It was funny how the human mind worked; now that he had options, a year suddenly felt long. But with the key in his hand, there was no reason to be hasty. Had he ever expected it to fall into his hands like this, today?
Oscar stood by the window, watching as a hazy light began to bleed into the pitch-black darkness. As fine particles of light blended into the gloom that had seemed eternal, the contours of the world slowly began to emerge.
Some called this time the dawn, when light arrives. Others called it the blue hour, a time to be intoxicated by the enchanting atmosphere.
How blessed were those who could describe it that way?
To Oscar, this was the time of the dog and wolf. An ambiguous hour, when one could not tell if the approaching figure was friend or foe.
Then again, was it only this hour? Wasn’t he himself acting ambiguously, neither dog nor wolf?
It was the same now.
How should he handle the woman? Should he intimidate her into offering up the vault willingly, or should he gently coax her and use her as much as he could?
Oscar stopped his thoughts there. As Simon had said, it wouldn't be too late to decide after learning a little more about her.
And then, three or four hours later, when he came face-to-face with the awakened woman, Oscar couldn’t suppress the hollow laugh that rose from deep within his chest.
She was just as he’d first perceived her: small, pale, and strange.