Chapter 24
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 24
Startled by the shadow that suddenly fell over him, Abel could only blink. He glanced into the distance and saw his colleagues snickering, which drew a hollow laugh from his own lips. For the first time, a flicker of annoyance crossed his perpetually relaxed face as he looked at the men who had been pestering him for a front-row seat to his little spectacle.
The woman who had so decisively pushed him into the shade wasn’t even looking at the chest he’d put on display. Instead, her face was practically pressed against the window, as if she were refusing to even meet his eyes. Well, look at the prim and proper lady, Abel mused, wondering if it was shyness or something else. He began to button his shirt, one by one, shooting a murderous smile over Seo-ah’s head toward his chuckling colleagues.
Meanwhile, Seo-ah had lifted a corner of the curtain to watch the passing scenery. She felt a wave of relief wash over her as Abel, visible in her periphery, began fastening his clothes. He must have just been warm, she thought. Feeling much more at ease, she gazed out the window, only to hear that man’s laughter from far away.
It was as low and cool as a draft from a deep cave, so distinctive she knew it was his without needing to see him. His laugh… it was strange. It seemed to resonate deep in her chest rather than in her ears.
“Turn around for me.”
She had taken him literally, turning in a full, cautious circle. Her careful steps must have amused him. That low, spreading laughter had followed her like an auditory hallucination long after she’d returned to her room.
Hearing that same laugh now filling the spacious train car, Seo-ah kept her eyes fixed on the scenery outside.
The first horizon she had seen since arriving here stretched out endlessly. Dazzling sunlight poured down upon a vast land, and the blue sky, which felt unusually high, was wide and open. There were flocks of sheep, dogs weaving between them, and, every so often, houses of an exotic design.
At some point, while she was quietly gazing down the path toward Luxen, the train began to slow. A quiet stirring arose from all around, and Abel, who had been sitting across from her, shot up from his seat as if propelled by a spring.
When she turned her head in surprise, the lean, tall frame of a man was moving past the high-backed seats. Perhaps because of the confined space, his physique seemed exceptionally large as he strode down the aisle.
Her upward glance caught the sharp contours of a chiseled jawline, the bridge of a nose, and a strong forehead. As Oscar crossed the train car, casually sweeping a hand through his hair, a dozen or so men followed in a line behind him. Those who remained in their seats bowed toward his departing back.
He looked like he was going somewhere. Not just to another part of the train, but as if he were about to get off entirely.
“Your… Your Excellency…!”
If her heart hadn’t felt like it was about to fall through the floor, she would never have dared to call out to him. Even as the gazes of the imposing, statue-like men fell upon her, all of Seo-ah’s senses were fixed solely on him.
Oscar, who had been about to step through the door, turned to look back.
Having stopped him, Seo-ah was momentarily at a loss for words. Her mind went completely blank. What on earth was she supposed to say? Fumbling, she ended up asking a question similar to the one she had asked yesterday.
“…Are you coming back?”
She saw his piercing blue eyes narrow.
Just then, the train, which had been slowing, came to a complete stop. Oscar, who had been staring at her as if she were some strange creature, passed through the door without another word. The men following him filed out after him.
When the rumble of the train—a noise she hadn’t even consciously registered—vanished, the silence that descended was so thick it felt tangible, breeding a tense stillness in the air.
Just as Abel rose from his seat to join his colleagues, a flicker of movement outside the curtained window caught her eye. Seo-ah quickly sat down and carefully lifted the edge of the curtain.
It wasn’t a station, and it certainly wasn’t Luxen.
The train had stopped in the middle of a plain.
Against the green landscape, devoid of a single tree, the men in black suits looked utterly out of place. Oscar stood alone, a few steps away from them, a cigarette between his lips. He was wreathed in hazy smoke, surrounded by dust motes from the grass that glittered like fireflies in the sunlight.
Seo-ah wasn’t even aware that she was spying.
When the cloud of smoke thinned, his sharp features became visible beneath his dark hair. The low laugh that had rung in her ears was gone, vanished like the smoke itself. Without it, he had the same eyes as when she first saw him—eyes that seemed sculpted from darkness.
Staring at the ground as if lost in thought, he took a drag from his cigarette, then lifted his head and swept his hair back. And in the next moment—
“……!”
Her heart plummeted as his piercing blue eyes met hers without warning. Holding her breath and whipping her head away was pure instinct.
Thump, thump.
Her heart pounded so violently that the heavy silence vanished without a trace.
As she focused on swallowing her ragged gasps, trying to control her breathing, Abel returned from his brief absence. At the same time, with a loud metallic screech, the train began to move.
Still trying to catch her breath, Seo-ah turned toward the window in surprise. “They’re not on board yet. Are we leaving without them?”
“His Excellency has some business to attend to.”
He pushed a pink-hued drink he must have brought with him toward her. Seo-ah didn’t even glance at it.
“Then where are we… no, where am I going?”
“We’re going to the Reinhardt manor.”
“……”
“We should arrive in an hour,” Abel said gently, smiling just as he always did.
“……”
Her gaze fell.
She tried to calm her anxiously beating heart by staring at the rim of the glass, then glanced at the opposite window. The train was steadily picking up speed, and the question she desperately wanted to ask hovered on the tip of her tongue.
Will he come to the manor, too, after he’s finished his business?
You’re not planning on locking me up somewhere, are you?
But the questions sounded strange even to her own ears, so she could only ask it indirectly.
“…Is the manor we’re headed to the main Reinhardt residence?”
“The main residence?”
“Yes.”
Meeting Oscar with the key wasn’t the end of her problems. One of the worst-case scenarios was that he would simply lock her up somewhere. It would be a disaster if he imprisoned her and tried to open the vault himself.
Abel paused for a moment before nodding.
“If you mean the manor where he spends most of his time, then yes, you could say that.”
The manor where he primarily resides.
If that was the case, then maybe he wasn’t planning on locking her away in some isolated place.
Anxiety surged within her, but all she could do was try to push it down.
Between the plains that flashed by in a blur of green, the number of houses with triangular roofs gradually began to increase.
Seo-ah wiped her sweat-slick palms on her thighs and stared out the window at the rapidly passing scenery.
*
Oscar stood still, watching the tail of the train disappear before turning his gaze to the endlessly sprawling fields.
It was the kind of weather anyone would call pleasant. A cool breeze carried the scent of late summer flowers, the sky was clear, and the sunlight was just right.
But to Oscar, such details were nothing more than background noise.
Wreathed in a veil of smoke, he felt the acrid fumes penetrate deep into his lungs and finally spoke.
“All of them captured?”
At his words, a man approached from behind. Unlike the others in their sharp suits, his clothes were a mess, as if he had just come from a battle. He was the one who had been waiting for Oscar, hidden in the brush. In a tight voice, he quickly reported the situation.
“The Search Team recovered the bodies of three members. We haven’t located the team leader or deputy leader, but we believe they were captured alive.”
“Probability of survival.”
He asked, but he already knew the answer.
“…At this point, we’re searching for their bodies.”
Oscar took a deep drag from his cigarette and let out a low, dry laugh.
So, an entire intelligence team that had infiltrated the Beta Mercenaries—the King of Luxen’s secret support group—had been, quite literally, annihilated.
At Oscar’s laugh, not only the man reporting but also Simon and the Wolves held their breath. Letting out a brittle, humorless sound, Oscar threw the half-smoked cigarette onto the gravel of the railway and slowly crushed it under his foot.
“For the entire team, deployed sequentially, to be discovered…”
And not in the Royal Palace, but within a mere support group like the Mercenary Corps.
Through the long exhale of smoke, his piercing blue eyes shone with a cruel light.
“It means I’m dancing on the palm of some bastard’s hand.”
They said the bodies had been dismembered and fed to the hounds that hunt wolves. It was no different from killing a wolf and putting it on display for all to see.
“What are your orders?”
Oscar stared down the endlessly stretching railroad tracks as if glaring at them.
“Discard all intelligence that came from Intelligence Team 3-2.”
Since the information came from a compromised team, it was the obvious course of action.
“Halt the search for the two who were captured.”
But at the cold command that followed, the battle-scarred wolf lifted his head. He looked as if he wanted to plead for permission to search just one more time, but he saw his master pulling on sleek black gloves and lowered his head again.
In the distance, another train was approaching.
Oscar took a few steps back and undid a few buttons on his shirt that suddenly felt constricting. He shoved his gloved hands into his pockets as the head of the train rushed past, kicking up a tremendous gust of wind. A deafening screech of metal rang out as the train drastically reduced its speed.
Once the train, which had slowed as if making an emergency stop, came to a complete halt, Oscar climbed its steps.