Chapter 52
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 52
“If you don’t like Traun, I’ll send you somewhere else. There are plenty of places you can go. The Otrion Archipelago, Nice, Dieta… just pick one.”
Oscar listed them off as they came to mind. Then, suppressing the rage simmering within him, he offered a deeply affectionate smile.
“They’re all wonderful places.”
“No… No, Your Excellency.”
As the woman shook her head, fat teardrops fell like rain.
What the hell does she mean, no?
“You have no reason to be here, do you?”
Oscar tilted his head toward Seo-ah, whose own head was bowed low.
“Is there a reason?”
The cold whisper slithered into her ear, and Seo-ah forgot how to blink.
Thump.
Thump.
The sound of her own heart pounded in her ears. She stood frozen in a world that had ground to a halt, utterly lost, like a fool.
She was standing on the edge of a cliff.
It felt as if her insides were turning black. Cold sweat soaked her back, and the ground beneath her feet seemed to give way.
“Sometimes, instinct provides the answer.”
A voice, deceptively familiar, brushed past her mind.
“When you’re cornered with no way out. That’s when instinct reveals itself.”
The voice echoed as if her Master lived on in some corner of her memory.
Thump.
The violent pulse of her heart shattered her reason, which crumbled like seafoam.
Thump.
What answer am I supposed to give?
Thump.
What in the world am I supposed to do?
Thump.
Why…
Thump.
She lifted her eyes.
Whatever it was that compelled her, she forgot her fear.
The moment she looked up, her gaze met a pair of blue eyes. Though they were framed by a tense, strained expression, her first thought wasn't of fear, but of how incredibly clear and deep they were.
The man’s blue eyes were clear, deep, and astonishingly beautiful.
Thump.
Thump.
In an instant, her world was colored by him.
Her eyes saw only him, her mind thought only of him. Her body and soul were filled with him.
Oscar…
Why are you trying to send me away?
What is it about me that bothers you so much?
Is it because I pressed my head to the ground…?
No. That wasn’t it.
She entered a state of egolessness.
A world where she forgot herself.
Seo-ah was herself, yet not herself. She was herself, yet she was also Oscar.
She suddenly recalled those moments when her gaze had been stolen by him, as if she were falling into him. The times the man, as immense as a mountain, had lowered himself to meet her gaze without hesitation; the time their eyes had met fleetingly through the train window.
Just as she had abruptly lifted her eyes to face him, a thought, unfiltered by reason, shot out from her heart.
It was something that she, as Han Hong-heon’s daughter and the guardian of Yongcheon, could never, ever say.
“…I want to stay by your side.”
Her voice, trembling faintly, cut through the frigid air.
She didn't understand why she had uttered such words, or what they even meant.
She only saw the cold, merciless blue eyes widen. She saw a crack form on the handsome face that had been etched with irritation, and she saw something behind those eyes begin to tremble.
And so, she simply spoke again, letting instinct guide her.
“I… I want to stay by Your Excellency’s side.”
In that moment, not only Seo-ah’s world but the world of the man who dominated it came to a standstill.
Oscar stood frozen.
He had forgotten to breathe, forgotten the flow of time itself.
By your side.
That single phrase—a phrase he had long ago torn from his own life—had stopped him in his tracks.
Time only began to move again when the brown eyes that had met his dropped to the floor.
Oscar gazed at her pale, downcast face and thought.
I have to crush her.
So she can never crawl her way back up.
He walked toward her. She backed away. The woman who had come here on her own two feet, the woman who had called his name again and again even when he tried to ignore her.
The moment the simmering heat inside him swelled to a new magnitude, Oscar strode toward Seo-ah, a calm current turning into a raging torrent. In an instant, he swept her away.
The boundary between them shattered with laughable ease. They were so close that the slightest movement would cause their bodies to touch. Their world had narrowed to the space between them. When the boundary between two people collapses, breaths mingle, scents blend, and with another step, even their body heat begins to mix.
Oscar watched the breath escaping from her parted lips. Her eyes, laden with tears, darted about, lost. A single tear that had been clinging to her lashes finally fell, sliding down her cheek and over her dry lips before vanishing.
The moment he saw those lips—the ones that had uttered words more audacious than any prostitute's—tremble, Oscar looked up. He glanced at the ceiling, then at the floor, where his gaze fell upon their entangled legs.
His own foot, trespassing on the hem of her skirt, and beside it, an absurdly small pair of shoes.
He felt whatever was boiling inside him burn away his reason.
Something began to seethe behind his blue eyes. Oscar planted a hand on the wall behind Seo-ah, trapping her, and leaned his head toward the woman who looked as if she wanted to flee at any second.
His shadow, large and sharp like a jagged mountain, loomed over her small, round one, as if to swallow it whole.
He saw her brown eyes widen as he drew closer. Their breaths mingled, their noses nearly touching. An unfamiliar scent seeped into her lungs, and just as his lips were about to touch hers, still damp from her tears…
“……”
“……”
The woman turned her head.
Oscar, who had been leaning in, froze. He simply turned his eyes, glaring at her profile.
A glistening trail of tears shone on the soft curve of her cheek.
He stared at the shimmering path for a moment before, inevitably, laughing again.
A sound that was no longer a laugh brushed against Seo-ah’s ear, making her cheek and the hair at her temple tremble. Like prey caught by a predator, she could do nothing but let out quiet, shallow breaths, unable to even think of moving.
To that woman, Oscar whispered in a languid tone.
“Isn’t this what you wanted?”
Seo-ah’s lips parted, but as before, no words came out, as if her throat were being strangled.
“I thought that’s what this was all about.”
She could only shed silent, round tears. Oscar grabbed her averted cheek with one hand and forced her to face him. Looking at her clear, tear-streaked face, he twisted his lips into a smile.
“Ah, is this just you being naive about the ways of the world again?”
A tremor ran through his hand. The trembling told him just how terrified she was.
You should have just kept your mouth shut and taken the money.
When I was being generous, you should have known your place.
He was about to release her cheek with a dismissive flick when her lips moved. For a moment, his gaze fixed on them as a voice, softer than a breath, flowed out.
“I… I want to be here.”
Oscar laughed again, a force of habit.
To call her foolish would be an understatement. She was an idiot. And he was just as much a fool.
The clear face in his grasp, the flowing tears, the parted lips, the dazed expression—it was all, somehow, striking a nerve deep inside him. Even though she looked like a complete fool.
The last vestiges of his reason, which had been on the verge of returning, were trampled underfoot. As his rationality plunged into the abyss, the hand that was about to flick her away tightened its grip. The woman in his grasp struggled, grabbing his hand with both of hers and twisting her body. At the pathetic sight, Oscar let out a cruel laugh and whispered, each syllable a sharpened blade.
“If you’re going to play the whore, do it properly. And if you’re just spouting naive nonsense, I’m warning you to be careful.”
The mirthless smile evaporated before he even finished speaking. The woman in his grip froze, stunned. At her idiotic expression, Oscar’s vision went dark, and he found himself leaning in.
He didn’t want to stop.
Well, what does it matter? It’s not like I’m killing her.
His dry lips met hers.
But no breath was exchanged. Neither of them was breathing. The world around them seemed to stop.
The man with the piercing blue eyes simply remained there, on the lips of the woman who had gone completely still. There was no hint of desire, no sign of force. He just stayed.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he pulled away and straightened up. He squared his once-slumped shoulders, glanced at the ceiling, then the wall, then the ceiling again. A thick vein pulsed on his exposed neck.
“…Fuck…”
Seo-ah, who had been gasping for the breath she’d held, flinched at the sudden curse. The moment she reflexively raised her eyes, the man who had seemed so calm lunged at her like a stormy sea.
His large hands seized both her cheeks. Her eyes flew wide and she sucked in a sharp breath, an unfamiliar scent flooding her senses. The distance between them closed in an instant, and the lips that had touched as if in exploration now crashed against hers, rough and demanding, as if trying to devour her.
Unlike his icy gaze, his lips were scorching. Their breaths tangled, and finding herself short of air, she flailed her hands unconsciously.
The wave that had been pushing her to the point of suffocation receded for a moment. Seo-ah kept her eyes closed, letting out ragged breaths. Like a drowning person, she clutched at whatever she could find, desperately inhaling and exhaling, when the wave crashed over her again.
“Open your mouth.”
It was a strange demand. Open my mouth…?
But there was no time for her to understand. Even if she had, there would have been nothing she could do.