Chapter 32
It wasn’t just the material of the ribbon that was unusual. It was common for women to braid their hair and tie it with a ribbon, but usually, they were tied into bows. This knot was different; somehow, its two pointed ends overlapped and pointed straight down.
And just like that knot, the woman with her hands clasped neatly together…
“Ah… I’m fine.”
She either had a deathly phobia of holding hands, or she viewed his palm as a breeding ground for germs.
After declining, she seemed to have a second thought. She looked at him tentatively and asked, “Is it considered rude not to hold hands while walking?”
He wanted to tell her it was, but her timid gaze was fixed on the female merchants wandering alone through the market.
“Not at all. I only offered because the road is rough.”
The oblivious stranger smiled back.
“I see. Don’t worry. I’m quite used to walking on my own.”
“Is that so?”
Well, yes. It certainly seemed that way.
When the woman who had summoned him at dawn asked to go to the Central Market, Abel thought it was for the best.
Since it was a famously crowded and chaotic place, he was certain she would want to leave as soon as she stepped inside. Being an outsider, she wouldn’t know where else to go, so he figured he could easily coax her into a hotel coffee shop instead.
However, contrary to her appearance—which suggested she couldn’t do a single thing for herself—she navigated the market perfectly well on her own, just as she’d said.
Amidst the merchants who were far too busy with their own affairs to notice or care about passersby, Seo-ah moved with light, nimble steps. She didn’t stumble once on the uneven stones, and she dodged carts coming from behind as if she had eyes in the back of her head.
If he were to exaggerate a little, her movements were so quiet and effortless that even the Combat Team, experts in ambushes, would have seemed loud by comparison.
Consistently quiet and light on her feet, she scoured every inch of the market.
The smile gradually faded from Abel’s face.
First of all, he hated markets. Having spent his childhood drifting through back alleys just like these, being in such a place never failed to sour his mood.
Secondly, and more importantly, his smile vanished because there was no reason to keep it up. The target wasn’t looking at him. She looked only straight ahead.
Around lunchtime, the path became congested, as is typical for a market. The two were forced to stop in front of a shop selling sausages. The Reinhardt seducer habitually checked his target’s gaze. Her eyes were fixed on the sausages sizzling on the grill. Sensing an opportunity, he spoke up quickly.
“If you’re hungry, I know a wonderful restaurant nearby…”
A secret sanctuary for lovers, with a scenic hotel located right above it.
“Hey! I told you not to stack your goods here! How many times do I have to say it?!”
“Say it a hundred times for all I care! You don’t own this ground, so what does it matter where I put my things?”
But this was a chaotic market, and his elegantly crafted voice wasn’t just drowned out by the angry shouting—it was swallowed whole.
“Here, miss, have one. These are the best.”
In the meantime, Seo-ah had ended up with a sausage in her hand, and given the timing, she looked like she wanted to eat it.
“It’s cheap, too. Only 10,000 Kerete!”
The merchant who had pushed the sausage on her was clearly trying to swindle a woman who looked like an outsider. Already irritated by the noise, Abel stepped in, maintaining a polite smile despite his mounting annoyance.
“That doesn’t seem right, does it?”
“Go somewhere else then. This is the price everywhere.”
Abel could tolerate a target buying him a dish worth tens of thousands of Kerete at a high-end restaurant, but he could not abide a sausage being marked up to 10,000 Kerete. Abel Sting was different from Simon von Bernheim, who was a nobleman by birth.
Standing over the target, Abel’s expression darkened instantly. Beneath the mask of a polished gentleman, the fierce, raw face of the boy who had survived the back alleys surged to the surface.
“You’re telling me this is 10,000 Kerete?”
“…I meant 10,000 Kerete for five.”
It was a very easy victory.
And that incident finally drew the interest of the woman who had been ignoring Abel Sting despite his radiant looks. Specifically, it was his haggling that caught her eye.
The stranger he thought would want to leave the market immediately ended up picking out a notebook at a general store that sold all sorts of miscellaneous goods. Despite having ignored his every attempt to offer a hand or even meet his eyes, she now looked up at him while clutching the notebook.
It was as if she were asking him to work his magic again.
“…How much?”
“15,000 Kerete.”
The stranger might have been ignorant of the world, but she seemingly had a good eye for people.
“15,000 Kerete for this? Come on, old man.”
His rougher, original manner of speech bled through his elegant facade.
“2,000 Kerete.”
“Make it 3,000, and it’s yours.”
Only then did the stranger trust the price and pay, even offering a smile.
“Thank you.”
“…….”
It was around that time that a sense of unease began to settle in.
The woman Abel Sting was supposed to be seducing scoured everything from the fish stalls to the butcher shops like someone seeing a market for the first time in her life.
She was so thorough that even the backup team was exhausted, to say nothing of Abel, whose tastes were steeped in the luxuries of high society. Just as Abel reached the point where he didn’t care about the seduction and simply wanted to get out of the market…
“Is that place a cafe?”
Both Abel and the backup team, all sick of the market, brightened up.
“Would you like to go in?”
“Would that be alright?”
If they had known it was just another trap, they would have done anything to stop her.
Despite being utterly clueless about the world, she somehow knew it was rude to sit in a cafe for a long time with only one drink. Seo-ah ordered a new drink every hour, totaling six cups of coffee.
Damn it, six cups…
Six whole cups.
When Seo-ah and Abel returned to the mansion at sunset, Barbara and the rest of the household staff tilted their heads in confusion.
The soft-looking stranger seemed perfectly fine, but Abel Sting headed straight for the Annex without a word, looking like a man who had lost all will to live. For those who had expected them to return holding hands at the very least—given how much time they’d spent together—it was a baffling sight.
Seo-ah, who was aware of the presence of dozens of people following her but remained oblivious to Abel’s ulterior motives, gave Barbara a polite greeting and headed upstairs to her room.
The double doors to the hall were firmly shut, and the hallway was deathly quiet. Through the window facing the corridor, she could see the garden draped in darkness. Between the black silhouettes of the garden trees, shadows moved slowly and silently, appearing and disappearing repeatedly.
As she entered the study, her gaze naturally drifted to the left. She felt no presence there.
Entering her room, she set the notebook she’d been clutching onto the table and took off her coat. Inside the pouch Barbara had given her was the leftover money from today; it looked like it would be enough to last until the day after tomorrow.
While she lit the gas lamp and hung her clothes in the wardrobe, Barbara arrived with food.
“Here is your dinner. I will return in an hour for the dishes.”
“Thank you for the meal.”
The noblewoman, who seemed like the personification of iron, gave a slight twitch of her brow and left the room. Seo-ah only sat down before the food once she was alone.
On a round plate, crispy fried meat and tossed vegetables were neatly arranged. In this foreign land across the sea, everything from top to bottom was different.
The meat was crispy and delicious. The sour taste of the vegetables didn’t quite suit her palate, but they helped cut through the richness of the meat.
As she chewed thoroughly, she suddenly found herself thinking of warm rice. Freshly cooked white rice with steam rising from it.
She laughed at her own fickleness.
How dare she complain about food in a place like this?
Seo-ah finished every bit of the meat and vegetables, even though she didn’t have much of an appetite. She had just set down her fork when Barbara returned. The older woman stared at the empty plate and asked, “Was it not enough?”
“No, it was plenty. Thank you.”
Barbara gave a small nod and began clearing the table.
“Are you going to the market again tomorrow?”
“Is there another market besides the one I visited today?”
At Seo-ah’s question, Barbara fell into thought for a moment.
In truth, Oscar’s orders regarding the target were somewhat difficult for Barbara to navigate.
He had restricted her range of movement to Vies, but within those bounds, he told Barbara not to place any unnecessary limitations on her.
She was to be monitored and kept from getting lost, but she was also to be allowed a certain degree of freedom.
