Chapter 26
Abel, who knew exactly how he looked when bathed in sunlight and just how his eyes appeared when filled with affection, decided that now was the perfect time, with the sun pouring in just right.
If he called her name tenderly to draw her gaze, showed her his reflection shimmering in the light, and gazed at her with the look of someone struck by love at first sight…
“Should I draw the curtains for you?”
“…?”
Seo-ah pointed toward the curtains, her eyes narrowing against the unusually sharp glare of the reflected light.
“You look like you’re suffering from the heat more than I am.”
She had been feeling uneasy ever since they boarded the train, as Abel—who had removed his jacket immediately—kept undoing his shirt buttons one by one. She feared that if he undid just a few more, his entire torso would be on display. She didn’t know where to look and felt awkward, yet since no one else pointed it out and he seemed so confident, it was difficult for her to ask him to cover up. She wondered if people here simply dressed that way.
Regardless, she assumed he had unbuttoned his shirt because he was hot, so she figured he might button it back up if she blocked the sun and lowered the temperature.
“The sun was starting to hurt my eyes as well…”
“….”
“I’ll just close these a bit.”
Seo-ah grabbed the edge of the curtains bunched at the back and pulled them forward. Then, stealing glances at Abel, she meticulously tucked him away into the shadows.
Swish, swish-swish, swish.
As Abel’s brilliant physique, which had been radiant under the sun, was submerged into darkness by Seo-ah’s brisk fingertips, the Wolves who had been eavesdropping either set their jaws or closed their eyes, struggling to suppress their laughter as if by prior agreement.
Abel blinked in disbelief at the sudden gloom. He let out a hollow laugh at the sight of his subordinates laughing silently in the distance. At the laughter of the men who had been teasing him to let them watch his “honey trap” in action, a flicker of irritation finally crossed Abel’s consistently composed face.
The woman who had so efficiently shoved him into the shade wasn’t looking at his exposed chest at all; in fact, she practically buried her head in the window as if determined not to even meet his eyes. Thinking to himself that she was acting like quite the modest lady—whether out of shyness or something else—Abel began to fasten his buttons one by one. As he did, he flashed a smile toward his colleagues laughing behind Seo-ah’s back, a smile that clearly signaled his intent to kill them later.
Meanwhile, Seo-ah, who was watching the passing scenery through a small gap in the curtains, felt a sense of relief when she saw Abel fixing his clothes out of the corner of her eye. Thinking that he really must have been hot, she looked out the window with a much lighter heart, when she heard that man’s laughter from afar.
The low, cool laugh—like a cold breeze rising from a deep cavern—was so distinctive that she knew it was his without even looking. His laughter was… how should she put it? It didn’t just touch her ears; it felt like it touched something deep within her chest.
「Turn around once.」
She had thought he meant for her to literally spin in a circle. So she had walked very carefully, and apparently, he had found that funny. The low laughter seemed to linger like an auditory hallucination long after she had returned to her room.
Listening to that low laugh, much like the one from the night before, filling the spacious train car, Seo-ah stared at the landscape beyond the window.
The horizon, the first she had seen since arriving here, stretched out endlessly. Brilliant sunshine poured over the earth, and the blue sky felt exceptionally high and vast. Flocks of sheep, dogs darting between them, and the occasional exotic-looking house passed by.
As she sat gazing at the path toward Luxen, the train suddenly began to slow down. Simultaneously, the previously quiet atmosphere shifted as people began to move, and Abel, who had been sitting opposite her, sprang up from his seat.
When she turned her head in surprise, she saw a tall, lean man passing by the high backs of the chairs. Perhaps because of the confined space, his silhouette seemed exceptionally large as he moved between the rows.
Looking up, she saw his sharp jawline, the bridge of his nose, and the contour of his brow, all as keen as a blade. Oscar ran a hand through his hair as he strode across the train, followed by a line of about a dozen men. Those left behind bowed toward his receding back.
It looked as though he was going somewhere. Not just to another part of the train, but as if he intended to get off entirely.
“Um… Your Excellency!”
If her heart hadn’t felt like it was sinking, she wouldn’t have dared to call out to him. Even as the gazes of the men, standing like stone pillars, fell upon her all at once, all of Seo-ah’s nerves were focused solely on him.
Oscar, who was about to step through the door, turned around.
Having stopped him, Seo-ah found herself momentarily speechless. Her mind felt like it was going blank. She struggled to find the right words, stammering before finally asking a question similar to the one she had asked yesterday.
“…Are you coming back?”
She saw his deep blue eyes narrow.
Just then, the slowing train came to a complete halt. Oscar, who had been staring at her as if she were a curiosity, stepped through the door without a word. Every man following him followed suit.
When the sound of the train—which she hadn’t even realized was noise until now—vanished, the silence felt heavy and tangible, bringing with it a surge of tension.
Even Abel stood up to join his gathered comrades. In that moment, Seo-ah sensed movement beyond the curtained window. She quickly sat down and carefully peeled back the edge of the closed curtain.
It wasn’t a station, and it certainly wasn’t their destination, Luxen.
The train had stopped, quite literally, in the middle of a plain.
On the green, treeless expanse, the men in black suits looked utterly out of place. And Oscar stood alone, a few paces away from them, with a cigarette in his mouth. Amidst the grass dust shimmering like fireflies in the sunlight, he was enveloped in a haze of gray smoke.
Seo-ah wasn’t even conscious of the fact that she was peeking.
When the cloud of smoke turned miraculously transparent, his sharp features were visible beneath his dark hair. The low laughter that had brushed against her ears had vanished like the smoke. Without the laughter, his eyes looked as they had when she first saw him—as if they were fashioned out of darkness.
He smoked while staring at the ground, lost in thought, before lifting his head and brushing his hair back. And in the next moment—
“…!”
Her eyes met those deep blue orbs without warning, and her heart, which she thought couldn’t sink any further, felt like it dropped again. Turning her head away quickly was an act of pure instinct.
Thump, thump.
At the violent pounding of her heart, the silence she had thought was tangible vanished without a trace.
As she focused all her energy on her breathing, trying to swallow her ragged gasps, Abel returned. At the same time, the train began to move with a loud metallic groan.
Steadying her breath, Seo-ah looked back at the window in surprise and asked, “He hasn’t boarded yet. Are we leaving without him?”
“He has some business to attend to.”
He held a pinkish drink in his hand, though she didn’t know when he’d gotten it. Seo-ah didn’t even glance at the beverage.
“Then where are we… I mean, where am I going?”
“To the Reinhardt Mansion.”
“….”
“We’ll be there in an hour.”
Abel smiled, speaking in his usual gentle tone.
“….”
Her gaze dropped.
She stared at the rim of the glass, trying to calm her racing heart, then looked out the opposite window. The train was gaining speed, and the questions she wanted to ask remained on the tip of her tongue.
Will His Excellency come to the mansion once his business is finished?
You aren’t planning to lock me up somewhere, are you?
But knowing how strange those questions would sound, she ended up asking something else instead.
“…Is our destination, the mansion, the Reinhardt family estate?”
“The family estate?”
“Yes.”
Meeting Oscar with the key wasn’t the end of it. One of the worst-case scenarios was Oscar locking her away. It would be a problem if he tried to keep her confined just to open the vault.
Abel hesitated for a moment before nodding.
“If you’re asking if it’s the residence where he primarily lives, then yes, you could say that.”
The residence where he primarily lived.
If that was the case, then perhaps they weren’t planning to trap her in some isolated place.
Anxiety surged, but she had no choice but to push it down.
Between the vivid green stretches of the plains, houses with triangular roofs were beginning to appear more frequently.
Seo-ah wiped her palms, which were now slick with sweat, against her thighs and stared out the window at the world rushing past.
Oscar, who had been standing still watching the tail of the receding train, turned his gaze toward the endless fields.
It was the kind of weather everyone would agree was pleasant.
A cool breeze carrying the scent of late summer flowers, a clear sky, and sunlight that was neither too much nor too little.
But to Oscar, such things were merely fragments passing through his subconscious.
Enveloped in a shroud of smoke, Oscar felt the acrid fumes reach deep into his lungs before he spoke.
“Did you get them all?”
