Translator: Nox

Chapter 16

“As if I’d let you.”

Oscar tightened his grip on the woman as she began to twist her head, trying to escape his grasp. Her nape was absurdly slender, yet he held it firmly with one hand, forcing her to face him. Tears leaked once more from eyes clouded with simmering heat and misery.

“Ugh….”

Her face, looking as though she were pleading, seemed to beg him to just leave her alone.

A bitter, mocking smile touched Oscar’s lips.

Give up.

Oscar pressed down on her tongue, which felt as if it were licking his finger, and then forced the finger between her white teeth. With a languid expression, he watched her bite down on him.

White teeth visible between crimson lips. A warm breath rising from deep within her throat flowed over the back of his hand, where the veins stood taut. That shallow breath brushed past the tip of his nose as if caressing his skin.

Oscar’s eyes narrowed. It felt as though a strange fragrance had drifted by.

But the thought went no further. He felt the pressure at his fingertip—a force so weak it could hardly be called a bite—suddenly vanish. Simultaneously, the hand that had been clutching his wrist fell away. Her brown eyes, which had been open as if in supplication, slowly drifted shut.

“…….”

As her struggling movements ceased, silence fell over the moonlit bedroom.

With the sound gone, it felt as though time itself had stopped.

His blue gaze slid down to the red lips clamped around his finger. With half-lidded eyes, he stared unblinkingly at her wet, glistening lips and the long finger that had breached them.

After a moment, Oscar slowly withdrew his finger from her mouth. For a second, he had the illusion that her small lips were licking him. His keen hearing caught a sound that shouldn’t have been audible inside her mouth—the faint friction of wet mucous membranes against his skin.

His finger, slick with clear saliva, bore no mark of a bite.

He let out a short, airy laugh and prepared to stand, but his brow suddenly furrowed.

The coldness in Oscar’s eyes, which had somewhat subsided, returned with a vengeance. He looked down at his own body, let out a hollow laugh of disbelief, looked up, and then stared down at himself once more. The gaze he leveled at himself was even colder than the one he had used on the fool in Pelfe.

“Really now…”

Exhaling a weary, annoyed breath, he grabbed a towel from the nightstand. He wiped the saliva from his hand and let out another short laugh.

Right. She certainly acts like a woman the brothel madam would fight tooth and nail to keep.

Then, the smile evaporated as if it had never been. With all traces of mirth gone, his true nature revealed itself—desolate yet burning, like a black castle that had just been swept by a firestorm, the heat still lingering in its stones.

Oscar tossed the towel aside and stood over the unconscious woman for a long moment before turning away. He summoned Simon once more.

“You called, Your Excellency?”

Oscar, having washed his hands, sat leaning back on the sofa. With his head resting against the backrest, he stared at the glittering key as he spoke.

“How do you think this key ended up in that woman’s hands?”

“…The woman appears to be around twenty years old. We just received word from Pelfe Bank; they say her nationality is Danguk.”

“Danguk?”

“Yes. It is a kingdom on the East Asu continent, bordering the Rioher Empire.”

Oscar fell into thought for a moment before speaking again.

“She looks mixed-race.”

“I agree, Your Excellency. However… I apologize. Beyond mere speculation, I have yet to discover how the key came into her possession.”

“And what of Peter?”

“…….”

“Is that bastard still at the bottom of the sea? Did only this key manage to float to the surface?”

Lost in thought with his head tilted back, Oscar finally spoke.

“Report number 2021.”

Report number 2021.

A report from about three years ago, stating that Peter had likely been buried at sea along with the key. The person who wrote that report was an intelligence agent for the previous Marquis, someone reputed to be second to none in the field of espionage.

“Still no word from Theresia Bitkenstein?”

“No, sir. Only a message saying she would investigate further.”

“Summon her.”

The key that was supposed to be at the bottom of the ocean had returned in plain sight. This was not a matter that could be settled with a simple apology; if the key had returned, she should have returned as well.

A cruel smile, the kind that made even Simon shudder, flickered across Oscar’s lips and vanished.

It was a night when an old grudge, thought to have been drowned, reappeared with an exquisite face.

---

Yongcheon, home to the largest port in Danguk.

Merchant ships came and went every day across the clear blue waters of the Yongcheon coast. Most were from neighboring countries that held diplomatic ties with Danguk, but occasionally, ships arrived from across the great ocean. The merchants who crossed the vast seas were exceptionally tall with high bridges to their noses and pale skin. Though they came from different nations, the people of Yongcheon simply called them Westerners.

In the prosperity of Yongcheon’s active trade, there lived a landlord family who had been respected for generations. A family that opened their granaries to save the people during famines, and sent their own ships to recover the bodies of those lost at sea.

There wasn’t a soul in Yongcheon who hadn’t been helped by the Han family, and thus, there wasn’t a soul who didn’t love them.

The eyes of the people were always turned toward Hoyeonjae, the Han family’s main estate.

“Seo-ah.”

The tender, resonant voice was like the warm summer sun, without a trace of coldness.

Out of habit, Seo-ah looked at the shadows on the ground. As she watched the shadow of a broad-shouldered man lean toward her own small shadow, a warm hand stroked her hair.

“Child, lift your head. Why do you keep looking only at the ground?”

Even at those words, she hesitated for a long time. When she finally raised her head, she saw her father—no, her grandfather—with his long white beard. His black eyes, shining with the solidity of a tree that had weathered many storms, held her gently.

“Yes. Keep your head up like that.”

The hem of his robe fluttered in the wind, brushing against the back of her hand.

“I’m telling you, the youngest lady… she looks different the more she grows.”

“Shh!”

“No matter how you look at it, she’s a Westerner. Her skin is so pale, and her eyebrows, hair, and even her eyes are brown.”

“Keep your voice down.”

“Do you think… the Mistress had an affair with a Westerner…?”

“You’ll lose your head talking like that! I told you to be quiet!”

“Oh, come on! I’m not the only one who thinks so. Everyone who’s seen the youngest lady whispers the same thing. That’s why they won’t let her set a single foot outside the inner quarters, isn’t it? They even brought in a Westerner tutor!”

Though she was young, she understood what those words meant. But she couldn’t bring herself to repeat what she had accidentally overheard.

When the world blurred and tears finally fell, he slowly reached out and wiped them away. He spent a long time silently drying her tears, and then he called her name tenderly, as he always did.

“Child.”

“…Yes.”

Then, as if he could see right through her, he said the words she could never hear enough.

“You are my daughter.”

My youngest daughter, whom I love more than anything in this world.

“…Yes.”

Even though she knew it wasn’t true, she lived leaning on those words.

If that incident hadn’t happened, she would have lived that way forever.

Taking the inner quarters of Hoyeonjae—with its one large hall and two rooms—as her entire world, befriending the teacher her grandfather had brought to her out of pity, and occasionally enjoying the night market with her teacher as the greatest joy of her life….

She would have lived as the youngest daughter of the landlord Han Hongheon.

But that false life was shattered without warning.

Seo-ah.

Seo-ah, wake up.

Her heart pounded as if it were falling at the sound of that gentle yet low voice.

For some inexplicable reason, Seo-ah realized this was a dream. At the same time, she knew this scene was from that night.

The sound of wailing echoed from afar, and the thick scent of blood filled the air. The paper doors were stained crimson by the soaring flames.

Footsteps approached from a distance. Just as she stepped back in terror, the door burst open.

It was the Great Mistress of Hoyeonjae, her white hair disheveled.

The pitiable woman who had lost her only daughter to a tragic accident stood there looking like someone Seo-ah had never seen before. Behind her, the roof tiles burned fiercely in the fire.

Standing amidst the flames, she looked like someone who had just walked through hell. Or perhaps, like a god who had come to punish a sinner.

“Get up.”

“…….”

“Get up and see what the man you call your father has done.”

It was a quiet voice, but it sounded louder than thunder.

“That man, who drove my daughter to her death… he has gone so far as to dig up the grave of your grandfather, the man who couldn’t cast you out and took you in….”

Unspeakable rage radiated from her as she spat out each word through clenched teeth.

“He took the remains. It was undoubtedly your father’s doing.”

It felt as if the fire consuming the roof had jumped into her heart. The black ash and soot leaking from her melting heart clogged her lungs and choked her throat.

Grandfather’s grave. His remains.

Seo-ah trembled before pushing herself up from the floor. Even knowing it was a dream, her mind went blank. She couldn’t bring herself to look up as she crossed the threshold, hunched over, when a cold voice reached her.

“Seeing as you aren’t surprised, you must have already known.”

“…….”

“If you know that I am not your mother, and that the man you called father all this time was actually your grandfather… then do you also know what that man who sired you did to my daughter?”

It was the beginning of summer, but the wind piercing her felt like it was slicing her skin.

I’m sorry. I….

Not knowing what she was saying, she ran blindly without even putting on her shoes. A scream that sounded like a dying breath echoed behind her.

“Go to your father and bring your grandfather back!”

She ran through the flames fluttering in the air and the soot and ash darker than the night sky. The screams and wailing of the people pulled at her ankles like a swamp, and their sharp glares seemed to slash her back over and over. In the wake of the black firestorm, only sorrowful weeping and boiling rage remained.

The world she had precariously held together crumbled like a sugar wafer. While the sky collapsed and the ground beneath her shattered, there was only one person she could lean on.

“Teacher!”

But that man, her father, had not only taken her grandfather.

The teacher was the only one who could properly respond to the silent raid. Though she couldn’t protect her grandfather’s grave, the reason the damage had stopped there was because she had put her life on the line to hold them back.

The horrific dream continued, shifting from one scene to the next.