Chapter 52
“……!”
Before she could even try to resist, her body was pulled backward. She collided with people, her feet tangling. The crowd was so dense that their bodies were pressed tightly against one another. Even when she looked back, she couldn’t tell who was dragging her by the arm.
As she was pulled against the human tide, everything became an obstacle.
Her cheek stung, as if she had struck something. Her head spun from the impact, and her body swayed. The person dragging her was merciless. They pulled her with such brute force that the word ‘dragged’ was the only fit; her knees scraped the ground, and someone’s foot stepped on her ankle.
Yet, Seo-ah did not let out a single groan.
Strangely, she felt no pain.
As a world where everything else had vanished arrived, Seo-ah was transported back to that night.
The burial mound that had been crushed and trampled flat; the grave that had been dug up so ruthlessly that the red earth lay exposed.
“These bastards took the Excellency’s remains!”
“May they be struck by lightning…!”
Amidst the people wailing and beating the ground, she hadn’t even dared to cry. She had no right to.
Though her physical body had crossed the sea with the passage of time, her soul still wandered that desecrated gravesite like a ghost.
Her eyes turned bloodshot.
Seo-ah reached out her helpless hand and grabbed the arm that was dragging her. She twisted her body away from the backward pull and desperately forced herself up, beginning to walk on her own feet. Through the crowd, she saw a figure clad in pitch-black clothes from head to toe.
She was being taken, but she wasn’t afraid.
In fact, if this person had finally found her, she was almost glad. What did it matter if she was being dragged to the afterlife, or to hell?
What did it matter if this meager body was burned to ash?
Just as streaks of water leaked from her reddened eyes and slid down her cheeks—
“……!”
As if a steady wave had suddenly surged in size, more people abruptly surged forward. The momentary force of the push was immense. The grip on her arm was torn away like a snapping chain.
Both the strength holding her and the strength she held were pushed aside by a greater force.
Even as she was shoved back and forth, Seo-ah tried to stand her ground. She looked around frantically, searching for the person in black.
She was at the edge of the square, near the road. Like a dense forest suddenly ending, the crowd beyond was thinner compared to the square. Seo-ah turned her head back toward the thickest part of the crowd.
I’m here.
I’m not going anywhere, I’m right here, so please….
Her heart felt like it was going to burst.
Her vision shook as she was bumped and pushed. She wanted to stay in place, but with nothing to hold onto, her feet kept sliding backward. The goal that had been within reach, the very reason she had come here, was drifting away.
“No….”
She felt something warm trickling down her cheek.
There was nothing to hold, and the force pushing her was overwhelming.
That was how her life had always been.
In a life where she had been an outsider from the moment of her birth, a life where her very existence was a sin, the force pushing her away had always been stronger than the force she used to hold on.
Her trampled ankle gave way. As it twisted, her balance shattered in an instant.
Seo-ah reached out blindly.
She reached out even though she knew for certain no one would catch her. Yet, absurdly, even as she reached out, a thought crossed her mind.
When you hit the ground, curl into a ball and cover your head.
Even if you want to give up and die, endure it.
Her body tilted slowly, her vision sliding toward the horizon.
Familiar resignation swallowed her instincts. Just as she was about to withdraw her hand and choose a pathetic survival—
Someone’s hand shot out.
Stretching forth with a strength that seemed to defy the very current of the great sea, that hand firmly interlaced with hers just as it was falling limp. And like a salvage ship hoisting a sunken vessel, it pulled her body upward from beneath the surface.
Her body was hauled up by an overwhelming force.
And when she finally stood straight under that power—
“…….”
“…….”
There stood a man, holding his ground against the tide.
The blue eyes she met were chillingly cold.
“Uh… why…?”
The foolish words slipped through her teeth before she could catch them, and his gaze turned even colder.
“That’s what I’d like to ask.”
His icy words pierced her heart like a needle.
His face, stripped of its usual mask-like smile, was strikingly beautiful, but it was as terrifying and intense as it was handsome.
It was intense enough to instantly pull a wretched ghost wandering a desecrated grave back to the present.
Thin.
The moment he grabbed her pathetically reaching arm, that was Oscar’s first thought.
Just like her collarbones and shoulders, which felt as if they might crumble under his fingertips, the woman’s arm was thin. Her wrist was so small he could wrap his hand around it with room to spare; it almost made him let out a hollow laugh.
The state of the woman he’d pulled up was even more appalling.
Looking a total mess, she stared at him blankly, as if she couldn’t believe that the person who had saved her was Oscar von Reinhardt. Her wide brown eyes were swimming with tears, just as they had been before.
“Uh… why…?”
Hearing that dim-witted mutter made the back of his neck tighten with tension.
“That’s what I’d like to ask.”
Why on earth was she wandering around here looking like such an idiot?
What were the Wolves he’d sent to monitor and protect this woman doing, and for that matter, what was he doing?
It was exasperating.
Meanwhile, Seo-ah felt a sharp pang in her chest. The look of pathetic annoyance in his breathtakingly handsome features felt like a thorn. She instinctively lowered her head, feeling his frost-like sigh settle over her.
The current that had been making her stumble until now vanished.
Oscar stood like an island blocking a rough torrent, and she settled beside him like silt.
A cold sigh brushed her ear and flowed down her neck.
“I’m sorry….”
All she could offer was a useless apology.
Oscar glanced once at the bowing Seo-ah, then at the ocean of people and the Wolves embedded among them, before brushing his hair back.
The distance was too great to toss her to the Wolves, and there were too many people to turn back. Moreover, returning to the road meant pushing against the crowd, which would take more effort—especially with this woman in tow.
When a crowd was this thick, it was best to go with the flow and break away later rather than fight it.
Oscar clicked his tongue sharply and tightened his grip on Seo-ah’s arm. He turned her shoulder the other way, took a step forward, and spoke.
“Follow me closely. Don’t let go.”
The man, tall as a mountain peak, stepped in front of the slight foreigner to lead the way.
Seo-ah’s gaze followed Oscar blankly. With her arm caught in his grip, her body turned to match his stride. His broad back filled her narrow field of vision, making it feel like a dream.
Everything—from being dragged here by an unknown hand to this man appearing—felt surreal.
As she stared at Oscar’s back, her gaze slid downward. She saw his large hand firmly gripping her arm. His hand, with its prominent veins, pulled her along.
He was like an icebreaker crushing through frozen seas to carve a path.
The cathedral loomed above them like a sheer cliff, and the department stores stood like cities that never slept. The surroundings were incredibly noisy, yet strangely, she could only see the man’s back as he moved forward. The only thing she felt clearly was the strength of the hand gripping her arm.
Oscar scanned the flow of people with a calm, cold eye. His height, being greater than those around him, was an advantage. The Wolves caught in the crowd pointed toward a path beside the cathedral. Oscar adjusted his grip on the woman’s arm and veered off at an angle. Watching the path ahead, he advanced sideways, bit by bit.
They walked and walked until they finally stepped onto the path at the edge of the cathedral. Just as they pressed themselves against the wall, a massive roar erupted from the square. It seemed the Archbishop had appeared. His appearance meant the fireworks would begin within minutes.
Oscar looked back. The woman, already pale as a ghost, seemed startled by the sudden roar.
Furthermore, as people who knew the fireworks were about to start began to stop in their tracks, it became difficult to even take a step.
Irritation rose to the back of his throat.
If he had been alone, he would have been out by now—or rather, he never would have entered this path in the first place. Instead, he was taking a long detour.
Oscar brushed his hair back roughly with his free hand. Even then, the woman swayed, being pushed here and there. Since the hand holding her was shaking, he didn’t even need to look to know what was happening.
He wondered what more he was supposed to do for her.
Then again, he wondered why he even cared if she stumbled or not. All he needed was for this woman to stay alive. If the situation required her to remain completely unscathed, he never would have let her wander around like this.
