Chapter 51
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 51
The woman had been staring at him, utterly captivated. It was only when she flinched back that Oscar realized what he had done. Still, he found it hard to look away from her lips, from the scent he imagined rising from them, and had to force himself to turn aside.
A vexing heat churned in the pit of his stomach.
What was I trying to do?
A man who had always been so self-assured, he felt he would go mad from the sheer frustration of the unanswerable question.
It was the same after he stepped out of the tub and into the shower. The cold water pouring over his head seemed to restore his composure, but only for a moment.
If cigarettes and cold water couldn’t cool him down, the next step was alcohol.
Oscar dried himself roughly, as if trying to shake off more than just the water, and pulled on a robe.
The bedroom was just as chilly as the bathroom. Standing before the darkened room, Oscar scanned it as he always did.
For anything unexpected.
For anything unwelcome.
“…”
His predatory gaze swept the room before settling on a single point.
Without a sound, Oscar stared at the spot, then walked toward the liquor cabinet. He took out a bottle of strong liquor and a glass. As the golden liquid filled the glass, Oscar gripped it tight enough to crush it and brought it to his lips.
He was about to swallow the vexing night down with the alcohol when he heard it.
“…Your Excellency.”
“…”
The woman's voice was as soft as a feather.
“Your Excellency…”
It brushed against the frayed ends of his goddamn nerves.
All the effort of the cold water was shattered by that pathetic call. The vexing night, far from retreating, pressed in on him once more.
Oscar spat a curse.
She doesn’t even have the courage to knock or the nerve to call out loudly.
Oscar set down the glass. With narrowed eyes, he glared at the door where the woman stood.
A moment of silence passed.
But the tense silence shattered like a sugar ornament, broken by a call as faint as a pencil line. Your Excellency—that goddamn name.
Oscar, who had been standing stock-still, took a step.
His first step was heavy, the next lighter, and the one after that was tinged with impatience.
As if he had never paused, Oscar strode to the door and yanked it open.
Beyond it stood a woman with a face that, as always, looked like she wanted to flee at any moment.
*
For Seo-ah, time had stopped on that dark path, with the river wind biting at her skin.
“Do you know a place called Traun?”
A voice and a gaze colder than the wind itself.
“No station, let alone a department store. It's nothing but mountains and lakes out there.”
Lady Barbara’s voice overlapped with Abel’s.
“Traun is the private property of House Reinhardt.”
“Private property, you say…”
“It is not a city. Not just anyone can come and go.”
Traun.
The private property of House Reinhardt.
A place where outsiders were forbidden.
“Go to Traun with her tomorrow, Abel.”
The cold voice that had drifted into her ears felt like it had frozen her very lungs. Even when she took a deep breath, the air wouldn’t come. Her heart, however, pounded furiously, like she’d just stumbled upon a tiger in the mountains.
The dissonance between her heartbeat and her breathing made her dizzy.
She couldn’t remember how she had managed to climb the stairs or cross the hallway. Then, as she stood before the door to the study, a single, horrifying realization cut through her chaotic thoughts.
Oscar was going to lock her away.
In that place surrounded by mountains and lakes, where outsiders were forbidden, she would be watched under the pretext of protection, only to be released on the day the Pelfe Bank vault was to be opened.
If she had come for money, it wouldn't have been a bad option.
Her lips trembled.
Seo-ah entered the study.
Standing blankly at the entrance of the study, lit only by a dim lamp, she suddenly strode toward the window overlooking the annex, as if she had never hesitated. With a quick hand, she drew the curtains, took off the jacket draped over her shoulders, and forcefully rolled up her sleeve.
Forgetting even to breathe, Seo-ah looked down at her arm.
“…”
It wasn’t the arm Oscar had grabbed.
It was the one that had been pulled by the figure in the crowd, the one cloaked in black from head to toe. The forearm he had seized was already turning red, the mark clear even in the dim light. As she was being dragged away, a strange premonition had enveloped her. It might really be him...
Of course, she would have to wait and see if the one who left this mark was truly the man she was searching for.
But… but.
“I can’t go there.”
I can’t go to the private Reinhardt estate surrounded by mountains and lakes.
I mustn’t.
Slowly lifting her eyes from the red mark, Seo-ah turned her gaze to the door that led to his private chambers.
Seo-ah clasped her trembling hands together tightly. She clenched her jaw, her teeth threatening to chatter, and tried to force her eyes wide.
Do not be afraid. The only thing to lose is this hateful life, and nothing more.
Do everything you can.
Seo-ah rolled down her sleeve and smoothed her disheveled hair with her hands. She straightened her wrinkled clothes as best she could and stood tall.
The shallow breaths, the frantic pulse, the cruelly slow passage of time.
Like a ghost bound to a graveside, she endured it all.
The urge to flee seeped in with every shallow breath, every frantic pulse. It morphed into a wish for death, then into a futile desire to turn back time, to have never been born at all. The thought shook her to her core.
A heavy presence emanated from beyond the door.
Seo-ah opened her lips, but contrary to her resolve, the words would not come. She moved her lips for a long moment before any sound came out, and when it did, it was an absurdly small voice.
“…Your Excellency.”
Stupid. How can he hear you if you call so quietly?
“Your Excellency…”
She mustered her courage, but her voice still came out as a mumble.
There was no way he could hear.
Seo-ah squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists.
Get a grip. She mentally slapped the cheek of her own soul and forced her eyes open. She scraped together what little courage was left on the floor and, casting aside her shame, called to him.
The man who seemed sculpted from darkness.
The man she feared most in the world, yet also the one she needed most—one of the few people who held the power to pass judgment on her very existence.
“Your Excellency.”
The faint call shattered in her mouth.
Her heart leaped as if it were plummeting. She instinctively took a step back.
But his approaching steps were faster than her retreat. And then the door opened.
A biting chill washed over her.
After the chill came a pair of blue eyes that were colder still, and the courage she had gathered scattered like snowflakes in the wind.
She couldn’t stop her head from dropping toward the floor.
A damp chill burrowed into her bones.
The silence and his gaze, sharp as shards of glass, pricked at skin already tight with cold.
Facing Oscar, her mind, already pale with fright, went completely blank.
She was fumbling down an unseen path, groping toward a goal that felt more like a wish. Only by taking a step would she know if she was on solid ground or at the edge of a thousand-foot cliff.
All she could do was muster the courage to take that step and hope for a path instead of a cliff.
This time was no different.
“I’m sorry.”
“…”
“I’m so sorry.”
She could feel Oscar smiling.
“So polite.”
“…”
“Did you commit some great crime?”
The languid question was like an awl.
“Because of me…”
Her words trembled so much that Seo-ah stopped mid-sentence to inhale. But her inhale trembled, and her exhale trembled, too. It seemed she couldn’t calm her quivering voice.
“I’m sorry for pushing your head down.”
The best she could do was to finish the sentence without her voice trailing off.
And her best, it seemed, was utterly trivial and pathetic.
A disbelieving laugh passed over her bowed head. It was as formless as a breeze, yet it made her want to burst into tears.
“I didn’t kn-know it was fireworks.”
The words came out in a foolish stutter.
“Where I’m from, we don’t have things like that. There were so many people, so I thought they were screams…”
“I see.”
He seemed to have no intention of listening to any more of her foolish prattling and meaningless apologies.
“I get it, so you can go.”
Her vision wavered, filling with tears. Seo-ah clasped her hands tightly and bowed her head even lower. The tears that had pooled in her eyes fell to the floor with a soft patter.
“Please, forgive me.”
She thought she heard a sigh, laced with irritation and pity, but it was followed by a brutally harsh voice from above.
“I said I get it, so go.”
“…”
Reason screamed at her to retreat, shrieking that she had just stepped onto a cliff’s edge. But she couldn’t.
There was nowhere left to run.
“Forgive me, Your Excellency.”
Watching the woman apologize again and again, Oscar felt his patience running out. In fact, it had hit rock bottom long ago. The Wolves were one thing, but even Lady Barbara, the woman who had raised him, had been walking on eggshells all day.
But this Outsider, who kept grating on his goddamn nerves, wouldn't back down.
“I… I… don’t want to go to Traun.”
Far from it.
“Please don’t send me there…”
She had found an entirely new way to get on his nerves.
Oscar's breath hitched. He replayed the woman's words in his mind and finally covered his eyes with his hand.
At the sound of Oscar's low laugh, Seo-ah, too, held her breath.
She could feel him trying to suppress his emotions with that laugh. He ran a hand over his face several times before finally speaking.
“A woman who paid to crawl into a brothel—what do you know of Traun?”