Translator: Nox

Chapter 18

“What a mess. I told him to take responsibility, and he just sits there apologizing.”

Simon muttered that if Oscar hadn’t been right outside the door, blood would have been spilled several times over by now. He pulled out a cigarette. Watching this pathetic display made his blood boil, so he turned his back on the bed entirely.

“Go find a place to bury that woman.”

However, his aide, who had been cautiously reading his superior’s razor-sharp mood, hesitated for a moment before speaking up.

“Um, excuse me, sir.”

“What.”

“It looks like… she’s regaining consciousness.”

“……?”

Simon, who was just about to light his cigarette, whipped around. His eyes met those of the woman shrouded in the dim light.

Set in her pale, clear face, her brown eyes were strikingly captivating. The moment their gazes locked, Simon felt her awareness returning.

“I’m sorry, dear.”

The old courtesan of Pelfe held and comforted the woman she had intended to sell off so profitably, and the naive stranger was slowly regaining her composure in the arms of the very woman who had tried to exploit her.

Of course, Simon’s assessment of the scene remained consistently grim.

“I just don’t get it. What a ridiculous sight.”

Even as he spoke, those transparent brown eyes were growing clearer by the second.

The woman had become a living key; it would be a problem if she died or if her mind stayed broken.

Watching her with cynical eyes, Simon thought as he lit his cigarette.

Fine. What does it matter how it happened? One way or another, isn’t it enough that she’s awake?

Yeah, for now, that’ll do.

Through the spreading veil of smoke, he saw her brown eyes.

Holding his cigarette in one hand, Simon offered a cold greeting.

“Are you awake now?”

---

The remnants of the nightmare that had been stifling her faded as Seo-ah became aware of the warmth and the hand stroking her back.

I’m sorry, it was my fault.

The voice, which had sounded distant as if heard underwater, suddenly became clear. In that moment, Seo-ah’s eyes met a pair of red ones looking back at her. The man, who was exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke, spoke.

“Are you awake now?”

The moment she heard that sharp voice, Seo-ah realized he was the one who had been having that chilling conversation. At the same time, she recognized him as the man who had been by ‘that man’s’ side.

From behind the man approaching her, several other burly men appeared. They pulled away the person who had been holding her.

The warmth that had rescued her from the surging memories was abruptly torn away.

“What? Why? Please, help me! She’s awake, isn’t she?”

It took a moment longer for Seo-ah to realize that the warmth that had saved her actually belonged to the person who had pushed her into the abyss. Only when the red-eyed man stood right in front of her did she realize the person being dragged away was the elegant innkeeper.

Beyond the briefly opened door, a heavy, intense presence swarmed.

She couldn’t stay sitting on the bed. She scrambled down, but as her feet hit the floor, her knees felt ready to buckle. She braced herself with her hands on her trembling thighs to stand up, and in her downward gaze, she saw a pair of long, slender legs. Polished black dress shoes stopped exactly one step in front of her.

“…….”

Supporting herself with her hands on her thighs, she stole a glance upward. The man with eyes red as rubies was looking down at her.

“Can you walk?”

His tone was polite, but she felt that if she said she couldn’t, he would tell her to crawl.

“…Yes.”

Her voice came out hoarse and cracked, scraping against her throat. At her answer, the man turned around. He walked with long, confident strides toward the door, where he crushed his cigarette into an ashtray. Then, he looked back.

Under the silent pressure to follow, she took a step. Her heart felt like it was going to explode.

Beyond the opening door, an intimidatingly heavy presence coiled like a viper.

Where was she? Who was the person waiting for her to wake up?

The man was the only one who crossed her mind.

The man who seemed carved out of the darkness itself.

At the same time, her teacher’s words surfaced.

The moment she revealed the key was in her hands, her life would become as precarious as a candle in the wind.

However, she did not fear a precarious life.

If the beginning of life was the beginning of sin, then wouldn’t atonement ultimately be death?

There was only one thing she feared: dying a meaningless death without having brought her grandfather home.

As the pounding of her heart thundered in her ears and her breath felt like frost, the red-eyed man vanished through the door, and she took her first step after him.

The presence beyond the threshold rushed over her vividly.

A vast space with an exotic landscape unfolded. Brilliant light poured through a row of windows, fracturing as it hit the room. Yet, the reason the place felt dark was because of the men in black filling the space.

The presence emanating from each of the men stationed throughout the room was qualitatively different from that of the Pelfe Bank guards. Each one was as sharp as a well-honed blade and as imposing as a great mountain.

One by one, their gazes turned toward her until everyone was staring at Seo-ah. It felt like standing in the middle of a vast, treacherous canyon.

A rugged mountain filled with sharp rocks. A place where the wind swirled with a haunting cry, tossing her hair, and the spray from a waterfall with a massive drop soaked her face.

Seo-ah stopped in her tracks without realizing it. But the red-eyed man continued to walk away with steady thuds.

He crossed the room with the ease of a predator in a canyon. As he walked, the men in his path stepped aside. As if each was finding his proper place, the scenery of the room shifted with disciplined precision, like a picture clicking into place.

Finally, when they stood in two long lines like the wings of a bird, the man who had been walking across the room stopped. Then, with an air of utmost respect, he bowed deeply toward the right.

Sunlight spilled over his deeply bowed black back.

Everything continued to flow as it was, yet it felt as if all sound had vanished. Her breathing sounded unusually loud, and she felt blinded by the sunlight reflecting off his back.

Then, the veil of light, so vivid it made her eyes ache, parted.

It was said that ancient scriptures held such words:

In the beginning, there was light, and darkness was born from that light.

The man who emerged from behind the bowed man looked like the darkness born of light described in the scriptures.

The men lined up on both sides bowed their heads toward him as he walked. He approached like a man crossing a dense canyon, receiving the salutations of black predators.

As the red-eyed man straightened and took his place to the right, the newcomer stood leisurely in a spot that anyone would recognize as a throne.

With the men—each as imposing as a great mountain—flanking him like a folding screen, he stood with both hands thrust into his pockets. Despite his almost insolently relaxed posture, the combined presence of everyone acting as his backdrop could not match his own.

The moment her eyes met his, which looked exceptionally vivid and blue, Seo-ah dropped her head. She saw her knuckles, white from gripping her skirt so tightly. And just as white was the sound of her gasping breath and the thumping of her heart, vibrating against her eardrums.

Her nerves, frayed to a sickening degree, were preoccupied with tracing his presence.

He took a step.

Thud, thud. Her breath caught as he approached. But like someone watching a flood from afar and unable to escape, Seo-ah had no way to stop the man’s advance.

Before she knew it, polished black shoes and long legs appeared in her downward gaze. As his shadow cast a long line to the left of her vision, a breathy laugh drifted down onto the crown of her head.

“Don’t just stay like that. Look at me, won’t you?”

The voice, laced with a smile, was surprisingly low.

Her chin lifted automatically at the end of his sentence. She raised her head hesitantly, biting her trembling lip, but once her gaze became level, she found she couldn’t lift her head any further.

A black coat, broad shoulders that seemed several times wider than her own, and that low laugh again—her shoulders hunched instinctively, but then his face suddenly dropped down into her line of sight.

“……!”

With their eyes meeting so unexpectedly, his face was seared into her retinas before she could react.

Black hair curled like elegant whirlpools, a straight nose and long eyes that contrasted with it, a jawline that felt even sharper because of the tilt of his head, and eyes bluer than an autumn sky.

Encountering him in the brilliant sunlight, and at such close range, he was breathtakingly beautiful.

The moment her gaze lingered on the corners of his red lips as they slowly curled upward, Seo-ah bowed her head again. Once more, laughter drifted down over her.

The sound of that laughter, though magnificent, felt like a noose tightening around her throat.