Chapter 56
“…….”
The woman’s voice was as soft as a fluttering feather.
“Your Excellency….”
It brushed irritably against the very edge of his frayed nerves.
The effort he’d made by dousing himself in cold water was shattered by that absurdly faint call. Instead of receding, the troublesome night pushed right up against him.
Oscar spat out a silent curse.
She didn’t even have the courage to knock, nor the strength to dare call out loudly.
Oscar set down the glass he was holding. With heavy-lidded eyes, he glared at the door where the woman stood.
A moment of silence followed.
But that precarious silence was broken like a sugar sculpture by that faint call, thin as a pencil line. Your Excellency. That damned call.
After a heavy pause, Oscar took a step.
The next step was lighter than the first, and the one after that seemed tinged with a sense of urgency.
As if he had never been standing still, Oscar approached and yanked the door open.
Beyond the door stood the woman, looking—as she always did—as if she wanted to flee at any moment.
Seo-ah’s time had stopped on that dusky path where the river breeze blew.
“Do you know Traun?”
Abel’s voice and gaze had been cooler than the river wind.
“He said there isn’t even a station, so what department store could there be? It’s just mountains and a lake.”
Mrs. Barbara’s voice overlapped with Abel’s.
“Traun is the private estate of the Lichtenhardt family.”
“A private estate…?”
“It’s not a city. Not just anyone can go in and out.”
Traun.
The Lichtenhardt private estate.
A place where access for outsiders was restricted.
“Go to Traun tomorrow with her, Abel.”
The cold voice that had drifted into her ears felt like it had frozen her lungs. No matter how deeply she inhaled, she couldn’t breathe properly. Conversely, her heart pounded wildly, as if she had encountered a tiger in the mountains.
The discord between her heartbeat and her breath made her dizzy.
She had no memory of how she had climbed the stairs or crossed the hallway. But when she stood before the door leading to the study, a realization etched itself into her confused mind in a single sentence.
Oscar had decided to lock her away.
In that place surrounded by mountains and a lake, where outsiders were forbidden, she would be kept under surveillance in the name of protection. She wouldn’t be allowed out until the day the vault at the Pelfe Bank was to be opened.
If she had come here for the money, it wouldn’t have been a bad option.
Her lips trembled slightly.
Seo-ah entered the study.
She stood frozen at the entrance, illuminated by the dim lamplight, before suddenly striding toward the window that overlooked the Annex. With quick movements, she drew the curtains to block any prying eyes, shed the jacket draped over her shoulders, and rolled up her sleeves with all her might.
Seo-ah stared down at her arm, forgetting to breathe.
“…….”
It wasn’t the arm Oscar had grabbed.
It was the arm seized by the figure who had pulled her through the crowd—the one shrouded in black from head to toe. The forearm where he had gripped her was reddish. Even in the dim light, the mark was vivid. While being dragged away in a frenzy, a strange premonition had washed over her. It might really be him….
Of course, she would have to wait and see if the person who left this mark was truly the one she was searching for.
But… but.
“I can’t go there.”
She couldn’t go to the Lichtenhardt private estate, surrounded by mountains and a lake.
She must not.
Slowly lifting her gaze from the red mark, Seo-ah looked toward the door leading to the man’s private space.
She clasped her trembling hands tightly together. She gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering. Then, she struggled to keep her eyes wide.
Do not be afraid.
The only thing you have to lose is this hateful life.
Do everything you can.
Seo-ah pulled her sleeves back down and brushed back her disheveled hair. She smoothed out her wrinkled clothes as best as she could and straightened her back.
From her shallow breaths and rapid pulse to the cruelly slow passage of time.
The ghost trapped in a graveyard endured it all.
The urge to flee seeped between her thin breaths and racing heart. By the time a futile wish shook her chest—a wish that she had never been born, or that she could turn back time to death—she felt a heavy presence beyond the door.
Seo-ah opened her lips. But contrary to her resolve to do whatever it took, the words did not come easily. After faltering for a long time, she finally managed to make a sound, but it was an absurdly small whisper.
“…Your Excellency.”
Stupid. How could he hear you if you call that quietly?
“Your Excellency….”
She summoned her courage, but her voice still came out as a crawl.
There was no way he heard her.
Seo-ah squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists.
Get it together. She slapped her own soul into alertness and opened her eyes. She scraped together the courage that had settled on the floor. Casting her shame aside, she called to him.
A man who seemed to be fashioned out of darkness.
The person she feared most in the world, yet needed most—one of the few people who could pass judgment on the sins of her very existence.
“Your Excellency.”
The shallowest of calls broke in her mouth.
Her heart leaped as if it were falling. Instinctively, she took a step back.
But the approaching footsteps were faster than her retreating ones. Then, the door swung open.
A wave of frigid air rushed in.
Following the cold was a blue gaze even colder than the air, and the courage she had gathered scattered like windblown snow.
She couldn’t stop her head from dropping low.
The damp chill seeped into her bones.
A silence and a gaze as sharp as shards of glass pricked at her skin, which had shriveled from the cold.
Facing Oscar, her mind, already pale with fright, seemed to go completely blank.
She was fumbling her way through a path where she couldn’t see ahead. She was feeling her way forward, looking only toward a goal that felt more like a prayer. She wouldn’t know if there was a path or a thousand-foot cliff where she stepped until she actually moved.
All she could do was find the courage to take a step and hope for a path instead of a precipice.
It was the same now.
“I am sorry.”
“…….”
“I am so sorry.”
She felt Oscar laugh.
“You certainly are polite.”
“…….”
“Did you commit some great sin?”
The languid question felt like an ice pick.
“Because of me….”
Her voice trembled so much that Seo-ah stopped mid-sentence to catch her breath. But her inhale trembled, and her exhale trembled. It felt as though she would never be able to steady her voice.
“I am sorry for pushing your head down.”
The best she could do was finish the sentence without letting her voice trail off.
And her best apparently looked incredibly trivial and pathetic to him.
A laugh of sheer disbelief brushed over her bowed head. It was a formless laugh, like a breeze, but it made her feel like she might burst into tears.
“I didn’t kn-know it was fireworks.”
The words came out stuttering like a fool.
“There was nothing like that in my hometown. There were so many people, so I thought it was a scream….”
“I see.”
And he seemed to have no intention of listening further to her foolish phrasing and meaningless apologies.
“I get it, so go.”
Her water-filled vision blurred. Seo-ah clasped her hands tightly and bowed her head even deeper. Beads of moisture fell and splattered on the floor.
“Please, forgive me.”
She felt a sigh full of irritation and disdain, and then words crushed like a savage blow struck her from above.
“I said I get it, so leave.”
“…….”
Her reason was screaming at her to retreat. It was shouting that the step she had taken was a cliff. But she couldn’t back down.
Because there was nowhere left to retreat to.
“Forgive me, Your Excellency.”
Watching the woman apologize over and over, Oscar felt his patience running dry. In truth, it had been empty for a long time. The Wolves went without saying, and even Barbara, who had raised him, had been walking on eggshells around him all day.
Yet this stranger, who kept irritating the very edge of his nerves, refused to back away.
“I… I do not want to go to Traun.”
Far from backing away.
“Please do not send me there….”
She prodded his nerves with a surprisingly fresh audacity.
Oscar’s breath hitched slowly. He mulled over the woman’s words before finally covering his eyes with his hand.
Seo-ah also held her breath at the sound of Oscar’s low, flowing laughter.
She could tell he was trying to suppress his emotions with a laugh. After stroking his face several times as if brushing back his hair, he spoke.
“After crawling into a brothel and paying for the privilege, do you even know what kind of place Traun is?”
