Chapter 48
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 48
They pushed onward, finally setting foot on the path at the very edge of the cathedral. Just as Oscar was trying to hug the wall, a tremendous roar erupted from the square. It seemed the Archbishop had made his appearance, which meant the fireworks would begin in a matter of minutes.
Oscar glanced behind him. The woman, already pale as a sheet, looked startled by the sudden cheer.
To make matters worse, people who knew the fireworks were about to start began to stop in their tracks, making it impossible to take even a single step.
Frustration rose in his throat.
He was taking a long detour through a place he would have already escaped—or rather, a place he never would have entered in the first place—had he been alone.
Oscar roughly swept his hair back with his free hand. As he did, the woman was jostled from side to side, stumbling. He could feel his grip on her falter; he didn't even need to look to know what was happening.
What more does she expect from me?
Then again, what did it matter if she stumbled? All he needed from this woman was her life. If she couldn't have so much as a scratch on her, he never would have let her wander around like this in the first place.
Right. It doesn’t matter if she stumbles or gets stepped on. I just have to drag her out of here.
Just as Oscar, his eyes sharp with irritation, was about to step forward again, he felt something slender wrap around his forearm.
“…”
He froze mid-stride.
His gaze dropped. He saw their intertwined arms. The woman, who he had been dragging by the wrist, had turned her hand to grip his forearm in return. But unlike his hand, which still had room to spare while holding her, hers couldn’t even wrap halfway around his.
“This must be difficult for you. I’ll try to clear a path now.”
“…”
Oscar’s gaze followed the woman as she moved past him and stepped into the throng.
Her small, frail back filled his entire field of vision.
As if she truly meant her words, she stood on her tiptoes, straining to see ahead.
Oscar watched the absurd sight with incredulous eyes. Even on her tiptoes, she barely reached his chest. What on earth did she think she could do to get through a crowd so dense it made even him sigh in exasperation?
But ridiculously, she began to make her way through.
It seemed there were paths below as well as above. She found the small spaces between people and forged ahead. The problem was that in doing so, she was constantly shoved and jostled, though she herself didn’t seem to mind. Stumbling like a fool and bumping into walls, she would look back at him as if to ask if he was still following.
A dry laugh escaped him.
“Worry about yourself.”
“Just a little longer. We’ll be out of here soon.”
“As if.”
The cold words had just left his lips when a fwoosh sounded from behind them. Everyone’s gaze turned upward in unison. Oscar looked up at the sky as well.
A firework, trailing a long, glimmering tail, was climbing toward the heavens. And here he was, watching it from the middle of this damned crowd.
“…”
The situation wasn't just surreal; it was utterly absurd.
Oscar himself donated a hefty sum for this event every year, and this year was no exception. The cathedral’s high balconies had seats reserved for major donors. A seat would have been prepared for him there, too.
And it wasn't just the cathedral.
The department store’s VIP lounge would also have sofas placed before its picture windows, which offered a perfect view of the fireworks. His seat was reserved there as well.
And yet, he had never once attended. Not even as a child. Despite living so close, he had never been curious about this sort of event.
But now, at nearly thirty years old, what was he doing, wedged in a place swarming with so many people?
The firework that had been climbing toward the sky slowed significantly. After seeming to pause in midair, it finally burst with a deafening bang. As it was the first one, the display was exceptionally brilliant, and the crowd cheered wildly. Oscar let out a hollow laugh and wiped a hand down his face.
He thought that even the cowering Outsider’s head would be lifted to the sky at this moment. It wasn’t an expectation, just what felt natural.
But the woman who had shown up in a winter coat in the middle of summer was acting just as strangely as her first impression had suggested. Even now, she was desperately trying to push through the crowd, still pulling on his hand.
Oscar frowned and yanked her arm back.
“How do you expect to get through? We’ll move when it’s over!”
The noise was so loud he could barely hear his own voice. Seo-ah, seemingly not having heard him, continued to struggle forward. But Oscar had no intention of following. He pulled her arm a little harder, and the woman who had been fighting to move forward was yanked back with laughable ease.
As her face whipped around toward him, Oscar’s eyes narrowed. With a deathly, bluish pallor, she wasn’t looking at the sky at all. Instead, she was completely hunched over and rigid—a stark contrast to the small children on their parents’ shoulders, all gazing at the sky in wonder.
“…Don’t tell me you…”
You don’t know what fireworks are?
BOOM!
The thought was instantly buried by the thunderous explosion of another firework. The area was bathed in light as people screamed with delight, but she reflexively squeezed her eyes shut and ducked her head. Looking closely, he could see the fingertips of the hand gripping his arm trembling faintly.
A sigh escaped him.
She didn’t know.
She really didn’t know a single thing.
Her knowledge of the world was less than that of a ten-year-old child.
Just then, the sound of another firework shooting into the sky echoed through the square. People shifted, jockeying for a better view. Lost in a state of panic, the woman collapsed helplessly. In a crowd like this, falling was a death sentence, especially for someone not in their right mind.
Oscar dragged her toward the wall. Then, with his back to the crowd, he braced his arms against the wall on either side of her, carving out a small, safe space.
He trapped her in the narrow gap between his body and the wall, just enough for one person, and bore the pressure of the crowd pushing against his back. All the while, she cried out, her face filled with terror.
“I-I-I hear gunpowder…!”
“What gunpowder!” he snapped, but another firework exploded.
It was then that the woman, her face contorted as if she were about to cry, lunged toward him.
“Y-Your head…!”
Seo-ah reached for Oscar’s head, ducking her own low at the same time.
“In an emergency, the first thing you do is cover your head.”
Her master’s teaching seemed to be engraved on her very bones.
Something else exploded with a loud bang. With a roar that shook the very windowpanes, the night sky became as bright as day. Even with her eyes closed, the brilliant light was blinding.
Beneath the magnificent pageant of exploding fireworks, everyone looked to the sky and cheered.
But the Outsider who had crossed the sea cowered and trembled in fear. And the man shielding her was not looking at the sky, but at the cowering Outsider.
Seo-ah gasped for breath, again and again. The roaring sound left her ears ringing. Her heart pounded as if it would burst, and her thoughts were a tangled mess.
An unknown fear and the raw instinct for survival filled her entire being like smoke.
Boom, boom-boom!
The explosions continued, one after another. The cheers sounded like screams. She could only wait for it all to end.
A low laugh trickled into her ringing ears. It seeped in between her violently beating heart and her frantic, dizzying breaths.
She thought she must have misheard.
But she hadn’t.
Seo-ah blinked blankly. Her heart and breathing were still racing madly, but the laughter created a crack in the terror that had consumed her.
“Heh, heh heh…”
The laugh that had fractured her suffocating fear was familiar.
A laugh that seemed to scrape something up from the depths, the kind that would suit a gloomy temple.
Seo-ah hesitantly raised her head.
And in that moment, her world stopped once more.
She could feel his curly hair against the tip of her nose. From the ends of his jet-black hair came a scent that reminded her of a smoke-filled night.
She heard her heart drop with a thud. The sound was so loud that the world-shaking explosions and screams became inaudible.
The instant she registered their extreme closeness, her senses were overwhelmed.
She was practically hugging his head. His hair tickled her nose and lips, their legs were touching, and an unfamiliar scent kept drifting into her lungs with every breath she took, rustling his hair.
Seo-ah quickly held her breath and let go of his head. She pressed herself as close to the wall as she could to create some distance, but he simply lifted his head. Through his fallen bangs, she saw his blue eyes looking up at her from below.
Ah.
She couldn’t even tell if she had let out a gasp.
Everything that had driven her into a panic until now vanished as if it had been wiped away, leaving a void where sound, wind, and even light did not exist.
“…”
“…”
It felt as if they were the only two people left in the world.
An unreal world had swallowed her whole. Her awareness of how they had ended up here, of the situation itself, shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.
The only thing left in her world was the man before her.
Oscar.
The blue eyes of the man with the strikingly beautiful face were just inches away. His delicate lashes, strand by strand, and his irises, so transparent their very texture was visible, were as beautiful as the rest of him… and yet, they looked so incredibly strong.
A confidence that would never hide, a powerful certainty that would never be intimidated—she could feel it all from those beautiful eyes.
Ah… so a person with eyes like this exists.
That was the only thought that drifted through her dazed mind.