Chapter 46
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 46
A thorn.
For some reason, he felt a nagging irritation, like a thread-thin splinter caught in his throat. It was slender, almost invisible, lodged somewhere deep inside, and it would only make its presence known the moment he started to forget.
Where was it lodged? When did it get there? Why? Or was it even there at all?
Perhaps the drug the brothel owner had supposedly used that day still lingered in his system. The absurd thought made Oscar laugh in disbelief. Exhaling a laugh as acrid as cigarette smoke, he continued on his way.
The dense crowd often bumped into him as they passed, but none of it registered. He was intangible, like wind slipping through fingers. Countless things flowed past and filled the space around him, yet paradoxically, Oscar walked through a void.
He walked and walked, until suddenly, the thorn was gone.
People flowed around him as he came to a stop, standing stock-still like an island in the middle of a river.
“Not here, the view is better over there!”
“It’s about to start. Hurry, hurry!”
Oscar watched the people brushing past. Did no one expect the Marquis of Reinhardt to travel on foot, or was the grand event at hand simply more important?
The crowd had no interest in who the unusually tall man was. They simply moved like water toward a single destination.
Oscar’s gaze followed their flow.
A cathedral soared to a grotesque height. A lavish department store lined his pockets even as he stood there.
The square between them looked like a cheap landscape, sloppily daubed with thick oil paints. The figures’ features were indistinct, each one a mere dot, leaving one to wonder what on earth the artist had been trying to say.
And yet, in that mess of a painting, he saw her.
Amidst the sickeningly vast sea of humanity, his eyes found that one person.
“…”
He stopped breathing, his feet rooted to the spot.
The wind shattered into fine pieces, seeping into his soot-filled chest, again and again. The suffocating feeling of being unable to take a true breath remained, yet the thorn no longer scraped his throat.
A naive woman, lost in a crowd that paid no mind even to the Marquis of Reinhardt, too timid to even lift her head, as if terrified of something unseen.
Oscar watched Seo-ah sway in the throng.
In standing against the current, she was no different from him. But unlike Oscar, an unshakable island in the river, Seo-ah was bumped, shaken, and thrown off balance.
The tip of his cigarette glowed red.
Oscar calmly let it burn, observing the situation with cold detachment.
But then, the staggering woman suddenly vanished into the human wave.
At that moment, the island that had stood so still finally moved.
The dense sea of humanity, the sickening stench of powder and perfume—it all vanished from his mind, along with the thorn.
“Fuck…”
Muttering a curse at no one in particular, Oscar threw his cigarette to the ground. He stepped into the street and…
Suddenly, he was running.
*
“I think Abel Sting is toast,” one of the backup agents muttered. The agents beside him nodded in agreement.
“He was toast yesterday.”
“True, but I think he’s completely done for today. Look at the way that timid woman glares at him every time she turns her head.”
At that, the entire Backup Team snickered. Even from a distance, the disillusionment and contempt on the timid Outsider’s face were plain as day.
“I think she’s about to start cussing him out, sir.”
“She would if she knew how. She just doesn’t know the words.”
She would if she knew.
Yes, she probably would have.
Seo-ah stared silently at the back of Abel Sting’s head. His glossy, golden hair looked like a freshly peeled chestnut.
Her grandfather had always said that even a single chestnut, despite them being scattered all over the mountain behind their house, must be treated with care. If you didn’t treasure even one when you had it, poverty would sneak up on you like a barbarian and smack you on the back of the head.
“Hold on. Since we’re here, should I get another pair of shoes?”
This man was the barbarian poverty about to smack her on the back of the head.
Abel glanced back at Seo-ah, read the disillusionment on her face, and grinned.
“Alright, alright.”
In just one day, their positions had been completely reversed. And once their positions were reversed, so were their attitudes.
“Honey, are you tired?”
Abel practically wagged his tail, flashing a smile meant to melt her. Nearby, uninvolved bystanders blushed, but the very woman he wanted to see blush had turned pale, her fists clenched tightly.
“Please stop saying that…!”
The problem was, this was far more amusing than seeing her blush.
“Hm? Say what? Asking if you’re tired?”
The woman, who hadn’t even known what ‘honey’ meant, had learned its definition at one of the many shops they’d visited and immediately began reacting as if she were allergic to the word.
Just like now.
Her large, expressive brown eyes trembled as if in an earthquake. The skin beneath them turned reddish, and her expression was as serious as if she were making a life-or-death decision. And yet, she acted as if the word ‘honey’ itself was too foul to pass her lips.
“The word before that.”
“Hm?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
And if he prodded her just a little when she was like this…
“The word before that? What was it?”
“…”
“I don’t seem to recall, honey.”
He could see the woman, who usually acted as if making eye contact would kill her, flare up.
“Mr. Sting!”
Her eyes were brimming with tears, but the way she clenched her jaw was pitifully endearing.
Abel truly wanted to praise himself. What an insane talent he had, to draw such a reaction from a woman who hated even holding hands and had responded to his every move like a block of wood.
Today was truly a fruitful day. He had obtained the magic word ‘honey,’ and while he was at it, he had also dropped all formalities with her.
His mood lifted, and Abel smiled handsomely, which only made his target’s expression sour further. The funniest part was that, despite clenching her jaw, she wouldn’t throw a punch or a kick. Instead, she would try to persuade him softly, her face on the verge of tears.
“That is something you should say to the person who will one day be your spouse, Mr. Sting, not carelessly to just anyone…”
“Then will you marry me?”
“…”
For the first time, Seo-ah felt that words were a waste. A speck of dust floating through the marketplace would have more substance than this man.
She walked past him without a word. Yet he insisted on following, even stooping down to tease her relentlessly.
“I’ll treat you well every day.”
Seo-ah gripped her skirt tightly and descended the stairs. She quickened her pace, fleeing the department store that she now found as nauseating as the word ‘honey.’
The unfamiliar civilization that had once overwhelmed her had long since faded into the background. The golden splendor now made her eyes ache, and the strong perfumes wafting past made her dizzy.
At first, she thought Abel was getting his revenge.
Now you know how it feels.
She was certain he had decided to be cruel.
“How’s this?”
“It looks good on you.”
“Is this one better, or the one from before?”
“…Which ‘one from before’ are you referring to?”
“This one’s better.”
Then why did he even ask?
But she had no complaints. She just assumed he would buy that outfit. By then, it was the fifth shop they had visited. They had seen and tried on enough, or so she thought.
“Alright, I’ll keep it in mind.”
But Abel left the shop with those strange words, and Seo-ah soon realized that the ‘first’ in his constant refrain of ‘first, let’s see’ was not a prelude to anything else.
“First, I’ll keep it in mind.”
“First, let’s look around a bit more.”
“First of all, I do like that outfit. Let’s put it on hold for now. There’s just one more place to check.”
First this, then that, then a third, then a fourth… It wasn’t a staircase, but Abel Sting kept declaring ‘first this’ before moving on to the next store. When he reached his tenth ‘first,’ he finally bought an outfit—one so expensive her hands trembled just holding it.
Shouldn’t that have been the end of it?
He acted as if he had a sacred mission to spend the entire day here.
In the distance, she saw a revolving door. It looked like the entrance to a cave, and Seo-ah quickened her pace. All the while, Abel followed, teasing her relentlessly. Responding or getting angry only amused him more, so she had no choice but to ignore him and keep moving.
Her steps grew faster.
As she wove lightly through the crowd, Abel’s leisurely expression subtly changed.
Seo-ah dashed across the main floor so quickly that he had to make a concerted effort to follow. And then, just one step ahead of him, she slipped into the revolving door.
“Hey…!”
“It’s dangerous, please step back!”
A security guard quickly grabbed Abel as he tried to follow her into the same compartment.
It all happened in an instant.
“Let go of me!”
Abel roughly shook off the guard’s hand, his voice sharp with anger. He whipped his head around to see Seo-ah already outside the department store. The lone Outsider, standing beyond the dark glass, looked anxious.
“Stay there, don’t move!”
The goddamn crowd churned and tangled, crashing against itself like the turbulent water where a river meets the sea. As those trying to exit and those trying to enter became a mess, the guards blew their whistles. Paying them no mind, Abel forced his way into the next section of the door.
His gaze was fixed on Seo-ah, beyond the glass.
He would reach her in ten seconds.
But the smoothly turning door ground to a halt.
“Fuck, what the hell.”
Abel slammed his fist against the glass, but the machine didn’t budge.