Chapter 55
Oscar strode across the main floor and stepped onto the black staircase carpeted in crimson. Even Barbara, whose height far exceeded the average for a Luxen woman, had to scurry to keep up with him.
She let out a secret sigh as she watched her master’s retreating back.
Last night, Oscar had showered several times. It was a sign that something was gnawing at him, but the problem was that she still had no inkling of what it could be.
Lost in thought as she rounded the landing and climbed the stairs again, Barbara noticed the jacket held in her master’s hand.
“Your Excellency, I will take that for you.”
Oscar, who had been climbing without pause, came to a momentary halt.
Barbara took the opportunity to take the jacket from him. It was cold, as if he hadn’t worn it for quite some time. She saw his blue eyes—as cold and heartless as the garment—fixed on the space below the landing. Involuntarily, Barbara’s gaze followed his.
“…….”
She didn’t know what her master was looking at, but into Barbara’s line of sight came the woman they called the ‘Target.’
Today, she looked like a ghost. The black jacket, presumably lent to her by Abel, draped over her shoulders with room to spare, making her already small frame look even tinier.
Just then, Oscar resumed his climb. Barbara, who had raised her eyes toward her master’s receding back, tilted her head curiously before stepping aside.
Simon, Abel, and the other Wolves watched her, but Barbara simply motioned for them to go up. Then, she quietly blocked the path of the stranger, who seemed somewhat dazed. The woman, turning the corner of the landing, faltered. Their eyes met for a fleeting second before the woman looked away.
“Are you alright?”
The stranger blinked before bowing her head slightly.
“Yes, I am fine.”
Barbara took a slow breath. Perhaps it was her age, but she felt a nagging sense of unease that she couldn’t quite place.
“Have you eaten?”
“…….”
“Miss?”
“…Yes? Ah….”
“…….”
Barbara wanted to continue the conversation to find a clue to her unease, but the woman didn’t seem to be in the right state of mind for a discussion. Barbara decided to set aside the sudden discomfort for now.
“Go to your room and rest.”
It was just as Barbara placed a foot back on the stairs she had descended.
“Um, Mrs. Barbara.”
Barbara turned back at the sudden call. She expected a request for food, but the question that came from the stranger was entirely unexpected.
“Is Traun a city?”
“You mean Traun?”
“Yes.”
Barbara’s eyes narrowed at the sudden mention of the place. She looked behind her, but there was no one there to provide an answer.
Barbara stared at the woman. She wondered why she was suddenly asking about that place and how she even knew of it, but there was nothing particularly worth hiding.
“Traun is the private estate of the Reinhardt family.”
“A private estate, you mean….”
“It is not a city. No one is permitted to enter or leave freely.”
“…….”
“Does that answer your question?”
The woman, who had turned even paler for some reason, gave a faint nod.
“Go to your room and rest. You look unwell.”
With that, Barbara signaled to the Wolves at the edge of the landing and climbed the stairs.
Several agents standing in the wide-open hall looked troubled. Seeing this, Barbara quickened her pace and opened the door to the Marquis’s drawing room.
As she stepped inside, she caught her breath in spite of herself.
While the backup agents she had told to stand by were all summoned, Abel Sting was on his knees, his throat gripped by Oscar.
Oscar, perched sideways on the desk and clutching Abel’s neck tightly, spat out his words with a cruel smile.
“I don’t care where the hell you wander off to, but losing track of her is a different matter, isn’t it?”
Abel held his breath and endured, while Oscar ground his boot into the man’s thigh.
“I only need her sane and breathing. I don’t care what you do, as long as those two things are secured.”
“…….”
“And yet, you lose her in a place like that? It wasn’t even a battlefield.”
At the cold reprimand, the entire backup team knelt and pressed their heads to the floor. As the grip on his collar tightened, Abel’s eyes began to roll back as he struggled for air. His mouth fell open, and his flushed face turned a deathly white.
“…Your Excellency.”
Oscar, his hand still on Abel’s windpipe, turned his gaze toward the one who called him. Barbara prostrated herself on the floor under a gaze as piercingly blue as the bottom of a glacier.
“Your Excellency, it was my oversight to think the department store would be safer.”
“…….”
A deathly silence descended.
Oscar stared at Barbara through the cold, dry silence before turning his gaze back down to the Wolf he held by the throat. Looking from the face turned purple from lack of blood to the strained neck and finally to the veins bulging on the back of his own hand, Oscar burst into a laugh.
In a room where no one else dared to smile, Oscar let out a laugh alone before discarding Abel’s neck like a spent cigarette.
“Cough, ugh.”
Abel, finally able to breathe, collapsed to the floor and erupted into a violent fit of coughing. The sound of his gasping coughs echoed loudly through the room frozen in silence.
Sweeping his hair back, Oscar pulled another cigarette from the case on his desk and lit it.
He inhaled the acrid smoke several times, looking down at Abel as the man shakily tried to push himself up, before finally speaking.
“This is the last time I overlook such incompetence.”
Abel bowed his head until it nearly touched the floor.
“Leave at dawn tomorrow, as soon as it’s light.”
“I will not fail again, Your Excellency.”
With a languid smile, Oscar rose from the desk where he had been perched.
“Habits are a frightening thing. Now that I think about it, I should have sent her there from the beginning instead of bringing her here. No matter how much she wandered around out of curiosity, there would have been nothing but fields. And with only the two of you there, it would have been easy to get intimate, wouldn’t it?”
He crushed the cigarette into the ashtray after only a few puffs and turned toward the dressing room.
His smile faded with his first step and vanished without a trace by the second.
Expressionless, Oscar carelessly unbuttoned and shed his shirt. His clothes fell with every step, and by the time he was completely naked, he was standing in the damp, cold bathroom. Air cold enough to see one’s breath bit at his skin.
Oscar walked into the frigid air. Then, without hesitation, he stepped into water that was even colder than the air. The near-freezing water rose past his ankles and thighs, reaching his neck in an instant. Not satisfied, Oscar submerged himself completely, as if drowning himself.
Only then did everything drift away.
Only after entering the water, where he could not even breathe, did everything vanish.
The sound was drowned out by the water in his ears, and his thoughts were consumed by the freezing temperature.
However, that world of cold tranquility did not last long.
When his breath reached its limit, Oscar surged above the surface, gasping for air and wiping the water from his face. The streams of water blurred his vision, and after wiping his face several more times, he suddenly covered his face and began to laugh.
His shoulders, still holding their heat, shook, and the movement sent droplets of water clinging to the ends of his hair falling away.
The laughter echoed off the cave-like bathroom walls and returned to him.
Oscar leaned his elbows on the edge of the tub and tilted his head back. A drop of water hanging from his chin slid down past his prominent Adam’s apple.
It was a bothersome, irritating night.
The water temperature, which had been satisfyingly cold enough to freeze his bones, now felt lukewarm. As the water warmed, the intrusive thoughts flooded back to fill his mind.
The woman who had stared at him as if possessed. Oscar had only realized his own actions after she had recoiled in surprise. Even then, it was difficult to take his eyes off those lips that seemed to radiate a lingering scent, so he’d had to force himself to look away.
Something like hot, bubbling froth simmered annoyingly near his solar plexus.
What had he been trying to do?
The man, who had always been full of self-assurance, felt like he was going mad with the frustration of an unanswerable question.
It was the same when he left the tub and turned on the shower. The cold water pouring over his head seemed to restore his peace, but only for a moment.
If cigarettes and cold water couldn’t cool him down, the next step was alcohol.
Oscar dried himself off roughly and threw on a robe.
The bedroom was as chilly as the bathroom. Standing before the darkened room, Oscar scanned the space as he always did.
Checking for anything unexpected.
Checking for anything unwelcome.
“…….”
His gaze, searching the room like a predator’s, came to a halt at a certain point.
Without even letting out a cold breath, Oscar glared at the spot before walking toward the liquor cabinet. He pulled out a bottle of high-proof spirits and a glass. As the golden liquid filled the glass, Oscar gripped it as if he might shatter it and brought it to his lips.
It was the moment he was about to swallow the bothersome night along with the alcohol.
“…Your Excellency.”
