Translator: Nox

Chapter 25

That night, the Reinhardt Wolves prepared to leave Pelfe from their respective posts. Their original schedule had called for a few more days in the city, but the unexpected news had forced the cancellation of the remaining itinerary.

Only the stranger, who had been taut with tension all day, slept through the night as if she had fainted.

The night, secretly busy, passed in an instant.

Then, as a pale, hazy light began to cling to the windows, Oscar washed in cold water. While he roughly shook his hair dry and pulled on a crisp, freshly pressed shirt, the Wolves gathered one by one, ready for departure. Among them was Abel Sting, dressed well enough to step onto a stage at a moment’s notice.

Finally, as the early light stretched deep into the room.

Simon, who had been coordinating the final details of the operation with Oscar and the Combat Team agents, pointed toward the woman’s room and ordered her to be woken. Oscar, who had been staring at the map spread across the large table, shifted his gaze to the back of the agent walking toward her room.

Behind the agent’s sturdy back as he walked away, the background seemed to shift. He came to a halt, and through the slightly ajar door, the woman who looked so out of place in these surroundings crept out.

Oscar’s gaze, along with the eyes of everyone else in the room, turned toward her.

Dressed in a beige trench coat, the woman held her luggage with both hands. Her eyes searched the room as if groping beneath the surface of water, scanning the Wolves standing about, until she spotted him and bowed her head.

Oscar turned his eyes back to the map on the desk.

“This should be sufficient.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

The timing was right, and there was no reason to linger. Oscar picked up his jacket, which had been draped carelessly over a chair, and walked toward the woman. He felt Abel, who had been waiting on one side, immediately follow.

The woman, looking pale in the dawn light, bowed her head again.

“Good morning.”

Stopping a few paces in front of her, Oscar gestured toward the approaching Abel and spoke.

“We’ll eat breakfast on the train. We should arrive in Luxen around noon.”

As he finished speaking and Abel came to stand right beside him, he saw her submerged gaze move toward Abel. Oscar smiled at her.

“From now on, take him with you whenever you go somewhere.”

In his peripheral vision, he saw Abel flash a charming smile. Oscar walked between the two of them, and the waiting Wolves opened the doors of the suite for him. In that moment, Abel Sting’s operation began.

“How do you do?”

A voice that would make even another man turn back for a second look echoed from behind him.

“Hello.”

“I am Abel Sting. Please, feel free to call me Abel.”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Shall we go, then?”

“…No, I’m fine.”

“Please, don’t mind me.”

The subtle conversation and the smooth voice of Reinhardt’s premier seducer drew the secret attention of the Wolves. Oscar, who had given the order, was among them. Slipping on his jacket, Oscar glanced back, his eyes dancing with amusement as he watched his subordinate extend a hand like a savior to the naive stranger.

Seeing the two of them together like this, he felt that instead of a month, it would only take about two weeks before he heard news that they had slept together.

But in the next moment, Oscar had to clench his jaw to keep from laughing out loud.

“Then…”

The woman, whom he expected to carefully place her hand atop Abel’s, instead hesitantly tucked the handle of her luggage into Abel’s hand.

“Thank you.”

Before Abel could even react, she bowed in thanks, turned around, and began walking toward Oscar. The woman consistently acted in ways Oscar never anticipated.

The expression on the face of the top seducer, who had suddenly been turned into a porter, was a sight to behold.

While everyone except Simon struggled to keep a straight face, Abel opened and closed his empty hand and shrugged. He then shot a relaxed look at his amused master, as if to say not to worry.

Oscar looked at the woman standing demurely a few steps behind him. Standing among men as large as mountain ranges, she looked exceptionally small. As he caught a glimpse of her profile, he noticed a red ribbon decorating the ends of her hair. Perhaps because things that are unfamiliar tend to draw the eye, it was an ornament that commanded attention as much as its owner.

Oscar turned forward and set off without a word. The doors opened in time with his stride, and as he walked ahead without hesitation, he heard the light footsteps following behind him.

Starting today, Abel would submit reports on the woman’s every move, and soon those reports would be filled with details of how she was falling for him. That was how Abel’s reports had always been, after all.

What would the woman in those reports look like?

A light curiosity wrapped around Oscar like cigarette smoke before drifting away.

---

Because the predecessors of the Reinhardt Wolves were an army that guarded the borders, a close look at the organization revealed it was very similar to a military group performing special missions.

Units specializing in combat, search, intelligence, and transport moved organically, and beneath each unit were even more finely divided organizations.

In the Intelligence Team, for instance, there were various groups ranging from the Geographic Information Team, which mapped out enemy terrain and building layouts in advance, to the Spy Team, whose primary mission was to infiltrate and live deep within the opposing side.

And under that Spy Team…

“My lady.”

Were the seducers.

Seo-ah, who had been watching the outside world blur past the window, turned her head at the handsome voice coming from across her. The first thing she saw upon turning was a shimmering gold.

Abel happened to be sitting in a spot where the sunlight hit him directly, making his hair glitter like gold thread.

Perhaps because of Oscar’s instruction to always have him accompany her, Abel had not left her side since they boarded the train, unlike the others who were gathered in small groups for conversation. Furthermore, as if his protection here included personal service, he kept offering her various things.

“Are you not hot?”

“…….”

“Why don’t you take off your coat? We still have some time before we arrive.”

Meanwhile, the Wolves watching from afar sighed at the sight of Abel Sting, who looked as though he were standing under a spotlight on a stage. The sunlight reflecting off his blonde hair made the whole area feel brighter.

“He sat there on purpose.”

“Some guys really have it easy.”

“Senior, shouldn’t he be paid less? It feels so unfair that we’re treated the same as that guy who just shoves his pretty face into the sunlight while we’re out bleeding every day.”

In response to the Wolves’ complaints, Simon retorted with a cold expression.

“Then you lot try it.”

“Ah, that’s too hard. How are we supposed to copy that greasy expression?”

“Exactly.”

That was his talent.

At Simon’s heartless reply, the Wolves twitched their eyebrows and shrugged. Then, as if by agreement, they all turned their heads back toward the stranger and the seducer.

Oscar, who was leaning against the train wall reviewing documents handed over by Simon, also glanced at them. Seeing his subordinate so dedicated to his duty, he had thoughts similar to the other Wolves.

Even without seeing her face, he felt he knew what the woman’s expression would be. That was how polished Abel Sting’s appearance was in the sunlight. Just as Oscar turned his eyes back to his papers, thinking he might be able to open the vault sooner than expected, Abel Sting was smiling.

Abel, wearing a silk shirt as expensive as Oscar’s, had pointedly left several buttons undone, revealing a firm, well-defined chest through the gap in the fabric. Not only that, but he had rolled up his sleeves to show the shadows of his thick forearm muscles. He sat there, looking solely at the woman across from him.

It was a scene that made it immediately clear why Abel Sting took so little time to secure a target.

Abel wore the specific expression he had used to seduce a certain countess within a single day of meeting her. He lowered the corners of his brightly smiling mouth and relaxed the tension in his eyes. The result was a look that made it seem as though he were completely enchanted.

The countess, who was said to love her husband so dearly, had grown increasingly flushed when he looked at her as if he were utterly captivated, not knowing what to do with herself. In the end, she had asked why he was looking at her like that.

It wasn’t just the countess. Every single person who became Abel’s target asked the same thing.

‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

Once that was asked, it was over.

Whether they were haughty, lost in the depths of depression, or passionately in love with someone else, they all fell after that single question.