Chapter 26
Chapter 26
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: No Matter What I Do
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"…Don’t tease me."
"I’m not teasing."
"……."
Lara had no idea how to respond to his joking remark, so she met his eyes once more. Theodor smiled again. Lara silently wished her burning cheeks would cool down quickly.
"Doesn’t it bother you that I’m ordering you around without even giving a proper explanation?"
Theodor spoke with a meaningful tone. Lara couldn’t quite grasp what he meant.
"If I were you, I’d hate myself."
Lara gazed at Theodor in silence. His red eyes—the ones she loved—stared straight back at her. After contemplating those beautiful eyes for a moment, Lara finally spoke.
It was simple enough; she just needed to tell him the truth.
"I don’t hate you."
"……."
Theodor couldn’t comprehend Lara’s response.
He might never fully understand her. He was a half-breed, belonging to neither beast nor human, while Lara was fundamentally different from the start.
That was why Theodor asked,
"No matter what I do from now on?"
It was such a childish thing to say. What was he even asking this little girl?
She was a fragile human who seemed like she’d shatter at the slightest touch. What answer was he hoping for from her? It was utterly cowardly.
Lara, who had been watching Theodor quietly, let a faint smile play on her lips. Her snow-white skin, hair that seemed to hold the moonlight, cheeks tinged with a slight blush, and mismatched eyes all gazed at him with a soft smile.
"Yes."
Theodor was momentarily speechless at her reply.
It was an incredibly foolish answer.
She asked nothing. She harbored no doubts. It was pure innocence.
She shouldn’t be like this.
Yet that foolish word from Lara shook Theodor to his core.
"……."
Suddenly, Theodor realized he was fixating on Lara’s pale neck.
Her neck? He wasn’t in his right mind.
Theodor frowned. Becoming aware of his own actions, he pulled his hand away from Lara and stood up.
The sun would set completely soon. His heart began to pound fiercely. He needed to get as far away from Lara as possible. Theodor forcibly suppressed the surging impulses.
"…Are you leaving?"
Lara, watching him, spoke up. Was she reluctant to be left alone? It felt like she was trying to hold him back.
"Yes."
Theodor replied somewhat curtly. Lara looked like she had something to say, but after her lips parted hesitantly, she offered only her usual farewell.
"Sweet dreams, Theo."
What had Lara been about to say? Don’t go? Or something else…?
But Theodor had no time.
"You too."
Theodor left her room with his standard goodbye.
"……."
Left alone, Lara felt the surroundings grow quiet.
Through the large window, she could see snowflakes beginning to fall one by one.
It’s snowing.
This reminded her of her last night at Laden Orphanage.
Lara had always been alone before, but not anymore. Theodor was by her side. Marsha and Breina were there too.
So she wasn’t lonely.
But…
Just like her first night here, Lara gazed endlessly out the window.
For the first time, she felt a twinge of loneliness in this place.
Theodor’s footsteps echoed through the silent space. With all the servants gone, Aren Manor felt several times quieter than usual.
Looking at the empty halls, it was as if the manor had returned to the days before it was opened.
For a long time, this place had been one of the Diarc Family’s forgotten old estates, abandoned until young Theodor and his mother briefly hid here.
It’s okay.
His mother’s voice faintly echoed in Theodor’s mind.
It’s okay, Theo. Nothing will happen.
Her voice felt as vivid as if he’d heard it yesterday, whispering right beside him.
What you’re worried about won’t happen. Theo, so…
"!"
Theodor vividly recalled shoving his approaching mother away with great force, watching her collapse to the floor.
Though half-human, Theodor’s Wolfkin blood made his strength too much for his mother to withstand. Blood seemed to pool beneath her fallen form.
Young Theodor’s eyes clouded with terror.
I hurt Mother.
Self-loathing consumed him.
"…Damn it."
Theodor gritted his teeth against the fragment of memory he wanted to forget.
This was a place his mother had loved.
His grandfather had never acknowledged Theodor or his mother until the end. After his father’s death, the old man had relentlessly pursued them.
While fleeing the grandfather’s grasp, they had hidden here briefly. It was one of the places his father had prepared. Though short, those days had been mostly peaceful.
Except for that one day.
Traces of his mother lingered everywhere here. No matter where he looked, her shadow seemed to appear, inevitably dragging up past memories.
It wouldn’t have fazed him normally, but the full moon’s moonlight kept pushing Theodor toward those shadows.
Theodor, you’re a monster.
A voice—not quite his mother’s—whispered eerily. Or was it hers? Or his own?
Theodor, soon you’ll become a beast. You’ll lose your human form and never return.
He didn’t know. Nothing made sense. His mind grew hazy.
Theodor had never planned to endure the moonlight here. If not for Rin’s incident, he would have left Lara in trustworthy hands and departed as scheduled.
Ultimately, things had gone awry because he’d overlooked how the ‘Bride of the Wolf,’ Lara, might affect the moonlight.
Since no Diarc has ever had a Bride of the Wolf before, even my grandfather couldn’t have foreseen this.
Theodor sneered inwardly. Or perhaps he hadn’t bothered to mention it.
That stubborn old man wouldn’t have cared. Theodor recalled his grandfather’s pitiful gaze during one of his agonizing episodes under the moonlight.
If a Crow Beastkin’s instinct fixates on shiny objects, then a Wolfkin’s instinct is…
An innate arrogance viewing everything beneath them, and the top predator’s craving to hunt prey. That was the Wolfkin instinct.
The full moon would torment him mercilessly, awakening his beastly urges even further.
Heightened senses, sharpened perceptions—they would burn him alive again. He would destroy everything that approached.
Theodor needed to isolate himself. He wasn’t one to revel in pointless slaughter.
He recalled something the human emperor had once said to him.
Congratulations on becoming the new head of Diarc, Lord Theodor. It’s an important position, so please attend.
As Your Majesty knows, I cannot leave Aren right now. Proceed without me; it’ll be fine.
That gathering included the emperor and the heads of the five Wolfkin families. Theodor had declined the invitation and skipped it, forcing the emperor to deal with the other four.
Master Theodor, are you sure you won’t attend?
The butler’s worried question had been brushed off because Theodor, as Diarc Family head, was that powerful.
The human emperor recognized the five Wolfkin families as partners in leading the empire, never underestimating their immense power and influence. The Wolfkin felt the same.
Humans, beasts, and those in between. The prophecy, secret to both sides since the founding of the Lepayrun Empire, foretold that the first to disrupt this precarious balance would face destruction.
To maintain power equilibrium, the relatively weaker humans’ leader held absolute authority as emperor, followed by the mighty beastkin families as high nobles.
Theodor Diarc, too, wielded autonomous power as the lord ruling Aren and Diarc territories.
His ancestors had chosen the barren northern fringes to avoid central politics—a sentiment Theodor shared, having no interest in such matters.
Diarc owned borderlands and numerous territories in the north, bolstering their military through geographic advantages and support for imperial campaigns. The human emperor always appreciated the Diarc Duke’s achievements and granted the family some freedom in line with their nature.
This tacit tolerance was one of the few things allowing Theodor to breathe.
Thus, few were unaware of Theodor Diarc, the northern lord of Aren and the silver wolf. The youngest to reach Diarc’s pinnacle—a man rumored not entirely human, beautiful and cruel Duke.
Yet two people feared him not.
One was Theodor’s mother, the other…
Lara.
It was absurd, but she was that frail human girl.
Moments of wavering between cold reason and ugly instinct had come countless times for Theodor, and this would be no different.
To avoid harming someone who feared him not at all, he would need to exert tremendous effort.
"……."
Theodor stopped.
This was an underground chamber within the annex.
It had once been their hideout during their flight, little more than a crude basement shelter before the annex was built.
Two more days. He needed that time to partially escape the moonlight’s influence.
Facing the old hideout, he felt childhood shadows clinging to him. Ignoring them, Theodor slowly stepped into the darkness.
As if lying in wait, a burning thirst soon enveloped his heart like a vise. Though a familiar sensation, its torment never grew familiar.
Bride of the Wolf.
The sole existence that could free a Wolfkin family from its curse.
She was in Theodor’s grasp, yet he couldn’t approach Lara now—not even a step.
Theo. It’s okay. So…
His mother’s voice, unshakeable, lingered in his ears.
Primal sounds, sensations—all pierced sharply into his heart.
"Haa…."
His eyelids grew heavy. His ragged breaths scattered.
Theodor slowly collapsed.
His vision blurred.