Translator: Nox

Chapter 70

Oscar, who had been holding his breath, swept his hair back with the hand that had been covering his eyes.

His gaze, which had been fixed on Seo-ah until just a moment ago, shifted toward the empty air as he ran his fingers through his hair.

The hand that trembled enough to evoke pity, and the cheek that had brushed against him so faintly.

Which of the two was her true self?

Staring blankly at a point behind Seo-ah’s back, he crushed his cigarette into the ashtray on the desk.

And then.

“…Your Excellency!”

The man, who had been desperately trying to calm himself, moved.

He grabbed the woman’s arm and strode forward, leaving her with no choice but to follow his lead. His single stride equaled several of hers; to keep from falling, she had to practically run to keep up.

Oscar headed toward the area behind the curtains from which he had emerged. As he yanked the heavy fabric aside, a deeper darkness lay in wait. Unlike him, who stepped boldly into the cold, damp chill, Seo-ah felt a sudden surge of fear. But she couldn’t stop even if she wanted to.

The grip on her wrist was merciless, and the man pulling her looked only straight ahead. After passing through a long, cave-like space, the bathroom where she had washed herself the night before came into view. When they finally reached his bedroom past the bathroom, it was just as dark as it had been yesterday.

Beyond the tightly drawn curtains that blocked out every speck of light, the rain raged violently. Yet, her own ragged breathing seemed louder than the deafening sound of the rain. And louder still was the sound of her heart, which felt as if it might burst.

Seo-ah watched the man’s silhouette, submerged in shadows, with trembling eyes.

He, who had dragged her along so fast she’d been forced to run, came to a halt with a silence that was once again terrifying. The fear tightening her chest seemed to spread to her heart. The moment she tried to pull her arm away and retreat, Oscar turned toward her.

And then, as if mocking the silence he had maintained while enduring something…

“……!”

He lunged at her.

“Nngh.”

It felt as though a mountain was collapsing onto her.

He cupped her cheek and tilted her head back, his lips overlapping hers instantly.

“Mmph!”

She was crushed and sucked into him, and then his tongue invaded without hesitation, tangling with the root of her own. It felt as if he were draining the very air from her lungs. She felt as though her breath and her soul were being siphoned away by this man, whose very blood seemed to run cold.

The one-sided force kept pushing Seo-ah back. Grabbing her arm with one hand and the back of her head with the other, Oscar seemed intent on quenching a burning thirst with her breath. There was no trace of his previous probing questions, his leisurely mockery, or his laughter. There was only a frantic, parched craving.

Oscar pushed her as if he were determined to swallow her lips and everything beyond them—or perhaps as if this was the only thing occupying his mind. If not that, he seemed more like a man delivering a punishment.

She couldn’t catch her breath. Breathing through her nose wasn’t nearly enough. With their teeth locked tightly together, she couldn’t inhale no matter what she did, so she turned her head with all her might.

“Haah, huff.”

She managed one desperate gasp, but Oscar didn’t allow her even that brief respite. As their lips met again, she felt as if she were losing her mind. It felt like swallowing the ocean, or being buried in a landslide.

“Ha, hngh, huff.”

She tried to breathe through their joined mouths, but the air she could draw in was only for a fleeting second. Her head began to feel hazy. Her nerves, which had been so agonizingly sharp, had long since been worn down like her bruised lips.

There was nothing she could do. She could only struggle to endure the onslaught. She could see nothing, hear nothing. It was a moment where she lost all awareness of where this man and she were headed, or what awaited them at the end of this current.

Oscar, who had been driving her relentlessly without a moment to breathe, suddenly stopped. As their lips finally parted, Seo-ah was preoccupied with gasping for air.

If she had possessed even a shred of composure, she would have realized that the state of the man who had driven her so madly was no different from her own.

Oscar stared at the woman, his breath coming in heavy heaves.

From his heart that felt ready to explode and his chest heaving as violently as his pulse, to the area below his waist that couldn’t possibly be more aroused—everything was absurd.

Seeing her disheveled face as she gasped for air, he felt a tingling sensation that started in his lower abdomen and shot up to the top of his head, defying his will.

Oscar felt an impulse to split his own head open and stir around inside.

When he arrived at the estate, he had already seen the woman from inside the carriage. She had peeked out from behind the curtains, only to hide the moment he stepped out.

How ridiculous.

As he climbed the stairs of this loathsome place that felt like the embodiment of death, he had sensed her presence. She had come as far as the central staircase, but upon seeing him, she flinched and immediately hid behind a wall.

Truly ridiculous.

But what was even more ridiculous was himself.

He should have ignored her and walked past. Last night was already in the past. What mattered was today. Since he had put her on hold due to his suspicions, he shouldn’t have drawn her back into his space. If he had failed to ignore her, he should have at least crushed her completely so she would never dare to climb up to him again.

“Or did you like it?”

The words were cruel even to his own ears.

“Or should I pay you every time we do it?”

Back then, he had been certain of his victory.

Yet this strange woman moved even in the moment she seemed completely crushed. The way she approached him with those empty, hollow eyes looked almost desperate.

“If you didn’t hate it… may I stay by your Excellency’s side?”

Wasn’t being swayed by those words once yesterday enough?

It should have been.

But the foolishness didn’t end there.

The area near his heart, where the woman’s cheek had touched, felt heavy.

Should he describe it as being embraced?

It couldn’t have been sincere, and even as a seduction, it was pathetic.

She hadn’t wrapped her arms around him, nor had she clumsily pressed her body against his. In fact, she hadn’t even properly touched him. In the moment he realized he had held his breath in front of this woman who had approached him as if touching yet not touching, Oscar truly wanted to laugh at himself.

After meeting those fear-filled brown eyes and forgetting even to breathe, he had finally snatched her up. He had dragged her through the bathroom and into the dark bedroom. Even though the room had been cleaned so thoroughly that no trace of last night remained, the foul scent of lust seemed to sting his nose.

You pathetic bastard.

Oscar exhaled a thin breath, glaring at the room where only the sound of rain was loud.

You crazy bastard.

Yes, he felt like he was going crazy.

This was something he would never have done if he were in his right mind, and if any of the Wolves were acting like this, he would have disposed of them immediately.

Despite knowing this, Oscar could not control himself as he leaned toward the stranger as if falling.

By his side… asking when he would return.

He couldn’t even tell if he was being played by such trivial wordplay, or if he was simply covered in the filthiest of lust.

He gripped her small head and seized her arm. Holding her tight so she couldn’t escape anywhere, he lunged to swallow the lips he had tasted and explored all night—the lips he had kept thinking about, damn it all.

He tasted iron. On her dry, parched lips, he felt only the heat from the small wounds. Her lips, which lacked any technique and didn’t even meet his properly, were nothing special no matter how he looked at them.

And yet, why was this happening? What on earth was this?

Oscar doggedly followed the woman as she tried to turn her head away from him. He delved into her again and again as if to swallow every tiny breath flowing from behind those lips, until he stopped for a moment.

Sshhhhhhh.

The hideously pouring rain, as expected, dragged him into the abyss.

The woman was disheveled, doing nothing but gasping for air as if she were dying. Realizing his own arousal even in the midst of this, Oscar thought:

Oscar von Reinhardt is being played like a toy in the palm of this ignorant stranger’s hand.

Even as a red-hot desire raced through his body, an annoyance so sharp it made his head throb surged within him.

“I told you.”

The woman flinched. Her long, thin eyelashes trembled slightly. As she habitually bit her lips, which were wet with saliva, Oscar spat out his words.

“If you’re so desperate to give me your body, then do it properly.”

He saw his sharp words, each syllable like a stabbing blade, pierce the woman.

“What do you expect me to do if you just stand there like that?”