Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Eyes of Misfortune
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"Seventeen, you said?"
The man asked Lara.
Lara, seated across from him, flinched and answered sluggishly.
"...Yes."
"You don't look it. They must have starved you pretty badly."
The man, leaning obliquely against the carriage window, muttered as if to himself.
Lara shrank back even more, bowing her head deeply.
The hem of her tattered dress was completely frayed.
Lara tried to cover her shabby skirt and skinny legs with her hands, but it was pointless.
The man stared at her intently, then let out a light breath.
"So skinny... what am I supposed to do with you."
"...".
"Being my bride will take a lot out of you."
Once again, Lara couldn't muster a reply.
The man had uttered the word 'bride' again.
What on earth did he plan to use her for, bringing her along like this?
"Guess I'll have to fatten you up first."
He muttered, eyeing her twig-like limbs.
It was the dead of winter. Providing good meals in this weather wasn't easy, but for Theodor, head of the Diarc Family, it was no trouble at all.
The only concern was whether the Aren mansion, opened just to retrieve his 'bride', was fully prepared.
Hearing the man repeatedly say she needed fattening up as he looked at her, Lara suddenly felt terrified. Could it be...
'He's going to eat me?'
The man was clearly human. Though he was beautiful enough to seem otherwise... In truth, he might not be human at all.
"What are you thinking so deeply about?"
The man asked lazily, gazing at her with half-lidded eyes.
Lara startled again and began gauging his mood.
"...".
Every time he spoke, she jumped like that. It was both amusing and absurd.
How could someone so timid become the Bride of the Wolf?
"...Damn old man."
The man grumbled through gritted teeth, and the child flinched again.
He furrowed his brow slightly. For such an ordinary girl to be the Bride of the Wolf...
"...That wasn't about you."
"...".
"What's your name?"
He'd heard the director call her Lara, but he wanted to hear it from her own mouth.
The girl answered in a small voice.
"Lara..."
"Right. Lara."
"...".
Watching the human girl child clam up like a shellfish once more, the man thought to himself.
This is irritating. Why am I stuck sitting alone with a human girl child like this? Swallowing his lament, he spoke.
"Theodor Diarc."
Lara lifted her head.
"Theodor Diarc. That's my name."
"Theodor..."
The child softly murmured his name.
Normally, he'd feel repulsed if a mere human dared utter his name so casually, but hearing it from this child wasn't so bad.
"Call me Theo. It's the name of the man who'll be your husband."
The child's eyes widened.
Lara felt a twinge of confusion and stared blankly at Theo before hastily lowering her gaze.
Her mind was a complete mess.
Husband? Then the word 'bride' really meant...
Even with her scant education, Lara began to realize she wasn't misunderstanding.
But there was no reason for it... Every time she stole a glance at him, her confusion deepened.
Why would someone like him call a worthless, useless orphan like her his 'bride'?
She couldn't fathom it. It had to be a mistake, but voicing that might send her straight back to the orphanage, so she held her tongue.
Theodor found it oddly intriguing to watch the doll-like human girl react to his every word.
He wanted to see her flustered before him a bit more. But...
"Why are you avoiding my eyes?"
Whenever their gazes met, she'd immediately bow her head.
He knew exactly where her excessive timidity came from, yet he felt compelled to point it out anyway.
The child looked puzzled, as if she didn't quite understand.
Patiently waiting, she finally answered after a long pause.
"My eyes are a symbol of misfortune."
"What?"
"So... it's better not to look too long."
Theodor silently stared at the girl, who spoke as if reciting a lesson.
'...'
The director had always said her eyes creeped her out.
Those heterochromatic eyes gave her chills.
When drunk, she'd scream and hurl bottles at Lara. Even accidental eye contact set her off in a rage.
Grotesque, jinxed brat. Gives me the creeps. Should gouge those eyes out.
The abuse hurled at her was varied, but the conclusion was always the same: Don't look at me with those unlucky eyes. Lara's eyes symbolized misfortune, after all.
So Lara made every effort not to meet anyone's gaze—the director, the dorm supervisor, Helen, or the other orphanage children.
But the moment she first encountered the man at the orphanage, she'd forgotten all about it.
It was the first time in her life. She'd never seen anyone like him.
Completely red irises.
Eyes that resembled half of hers.
If she could, she'd gaze at him forever.
"Lift your head."
Lara tried to discern from his voice if he was angry, but she couldn't tell.
In the end, she obeyed slightly, raising her head just a bit.
'Is this okay?'
She saw the tips of his shoes, his long, crossed legs, his elbow against the opposite window, his firmly pressed lips.
Just up to here.
This much should be safe, right?
"More."
But contrary to her expectation, different words came.
Lara hesitated, then raised her head a little further.
Now staring straight at her as she looked back, he said,
"From now on, speak while looking into my eyes."
"...".
"Never avert your gaze from mine again."
It was an arrogant command.
The man's red eyes, fixed directly on Lara's mismatched pair—the symbols of misfortune—stirred a strange feeling in her.
Lara thought perhaps he was a being stronger than the misfortune she carried.
The final hope for her, who had lived under a curse of bringing unhappiness to others.
In the end, Lara had no choice but to gaze endlessly at Theo.
Theo met the human child's obedient stare with an expressionless face.
How convenient. A learned curse. He could see how that woman Laden had manipulated the child.
He didn't like the thoughts in that small head, but he approved of her not contradicting him.
The child was like a dry twig, brittle and ready to snap at a touch—a frail human girl.
If Theodor gripped her even slightly, those weak bones would shatter. That's what humans were.
And Wolfkin were the polar opposite. Lives where looking down on everyone else posed no issue.
Long ago, they'd chosen to blend into the human world, but could Wolfkin truly 'blend' with humans?
"...".
Theodor's mood soured greatly.
This situation was all because of his grandfather's will.
Theo, listen well. I've written everything about the 'Bride of the Wolf' in my will. You must find her and bring her back. Understand?
His grandfather had stared at him with clear eyes even as life ebbed away.
Theo had never loved his grandfather, so the dying man's words fell flat.
Yet the old man clung to Theo's hand, repeating it obsessively.
'Remember my words! Theo, you must find that child.'
At that moment, Theo's disgust was indescribable.
'Is that all you have to leave me?'
Emotions surrounding his grandfather crushed him unpleasantly.
'Selfish to the end.'
Theo coldly released his hand and offered final words.
'Rest in peace.'
'Theo, you...'
'I'll do as you say. Now rest.'
He still hadn't forgiven his grandfather.
But his mother wouldn't have wanted him to cast the old man out harshly on his deathbed.
For that one reason alone, he'd accepted the will.
Months later, Theo found Lara.
The moment he saw her, he knew she was the child his grandfather meant.
Theodor had sought the child out of necessity and called her his bride.
Yet she clung to him like he was her lifeline.
The doll-like child, swaying under the director's thumb, looked up at him more desperately than anything and pleaded.
'Please take me away.'
Trembling lips. Likely her last scrap of courage.
To Theo, her words sounded like this:
'I want to live.'
A fierce thirst for life.
The most primal instinct of any living, beating-heart being.
Unbelievable for a frail, abused human girl child to harbor such intense obsession.
Wolves, when taking the final breath of prey, kill painlessly if it fights fiercely.
That was the wolf's respect for worthy prey.
In Theodor's eyes, the slender human girl seemed just like that.
Clinging to life until the very end with unyielding obsession.
"...".
His gaze drifted to his coat, still draped over her.
It was far too large for her emaciated little frame.
She clutched the collar as if it were her very lifeline.
Theodor recalled anew the curse borne by his kind.
Heightened senses, bloodlust, lust, numbness, unquenchable thirst.
The five strongest Wolfkin families each bore one, curses inflicting eternal torment. The sole escape was claiming a 'Bride of the Wolf'.
Existing only in certain human women, passed blood to blood, the 'Bride of the Wolf' was to Wolfkin the sweetest fruit of all.
Wolfkin had spilled rivers of blood vying for them, and ordinary humans who became brides met the same fate. Their numbers dwindled to near myth.
The previous bride, fleeing her fate, vanished seventeen years ago.
Yet that vanished 'Bride of the Wolf' was right before Theodor's eyes.
'The bride who disappeared seventeen years ago was pregnant.'
Even recalling descriptions of the previous bride he'd never seen, she didn't match the child before him.
As an ordinary human, she'd have aged. So the one missing seventeen years ago was probably...
'The child's mother.'
The child had likely lived believing herself an orphan. Theodor had no desire yet to tell her about her mother.
'Then is this child truly the Bride of the Wolf?'
The fleeting doubt vanished quickly.
Even amid the orphanage's musty stench and human filth, she alone lacked it.
Even now, wrapped in his coat in this close space, no repulsion.
Odorless, tasteless. A faint presence. Tiny, pitifully skinny child.
They said the 'Bride of the Wolf' was like a radiant flower, yet this child was the opposite.
Theodor placed a hand over his chest, watching the child struggling not to avert her eyes before finally dozing off with nods.
The boiling blood-revulsion, his excruciatingly heightened senses—they all calmed astonishingly just from her presence.
What clearer proof could there be? This small, pathetic child was the 'Bride of the Wolf'.
His grandfather's will had been entirely true.
The being his grandfather chased lifelong without success stood before him as a tiny human girl child.
Theodor leaned against the carriage window, taking in his little bride a moment longer.
The unprecedented tranquility he felt stirred his mood strangely.
"Master Theodor, welcome back."
The graying butler bowed his head. Theo acknowledged with a nod. A girl child was cradled in his arms.
"You've had a long journey. Ah, give the child here. I'll take her."
"No need. I'll carry her. Where's her room?"
"It's prepared."
The butler reached for the child, but Theo strode ahead briskly.
The butler tilted his head.
'Why is Master acting like this?'
He's so germaphobic.
No way he'd hold a human—and such a human girl child—like that...
Puzzled by Theodor, who guarded her like she'd be stolen if touched, the butler followed.
"Oh, and."
"Yes, Master."
"I left some trash behind that needs cleaning up. Send reliable people to handle it thoroughly."
"Understood."
That day, something strange happened at Laden Orphanage.
The director vanished without a trace.
Rumors flew: she'd fled with embezzled donations, or a wolf got her at midnight.
Either way, no one ever saw Director Laden again.