Translator: Nox

68 - The Time of the Blind Beast (15+ Revised Edition)

Chapter 68

Moncam couldn't even endure the short wait for the servant to fetch Ezekiel, so urgent was his heart. Ezekiel, who was adjusting his military uniform for work, bumped into Moncam, who had burst in unexpectedly behind the servant.

"You found her?"

"Yes."

There were two women Ezekiel was desperately searching for with all his resources.

Rose and 'that woman.'

If he had found Rose first, he would have been immeasurably relieved, finally able to quench this agonizing longing. Yet, his anger towards that woman, who hid herself so completely that he couldn't fathom her means, would have remained. And if he had found her first, his heart would have pounded with the joy of enacting the revenge he had long prepared, but the poignant pain of waiting indefinitely for Rose would have been overwhelming.

Ultimately, no matter who he found first, joy and disappointment were bound to coexist.

It was a contradictory feeling. He wanted to hear the conclusion quickly, yet at the same time, he wished to delay it.

"...Which one is it?"

Ezekiel asked in a low voice. Moncam regained his composure, sensing the subtle tension his calm tone evoked.

"It's that woman. The subordinate with chestnut hair and hazel eyes. While investigating, I met a relative she had entrusted herself to. Without fully understanding the situation, they helped her hide and gave us the address of the inn where she's staying."

Ezekiel's gaze immediately turned cold.

---

She sat before the mirror, gazing at her own face.

When had it started? A faint sense of unease began to creep into this face she had always seen.

It must have been because she had spent so long convincing herself she was 'Rose,' with red hair and green eyes. In the dimly lit mansion, darkness had enveloped her like a veil, allowing her to live a false life without suspicion.

But now, having fled the mansion, it was different.

No matter how she looked at it, this was 'that woman.'

The woman Ezekiel was searching for with his trackers, the very culprit who had blinded the war hero at the behest of his brother, was in the mirror.

The hazel eyes reflected in the mirror met her gaze quietly. They were the eyes that man had tried so hard not to forget, even borrowing the effects of opium.

"Are these eyes a clear, verdant green, or a deep, forest green?"

His gentle voice came alive, vivid and clear. For a moment, her chest ached.

"...Don't keep bringing them up."

With trembling hands, she brushed down her long, disheveled chestnut hair. But the moment her fingers touched her hair...

"At times, your red hair appeared briefly in my dreams."

The voice that echoed again shook her memories.

It wasn't just her eyes and hair.

Her forehead, the bridge of her nose, the corners of her eyes, her cheeks, her lips, her collarbones, her clavicles, her shoulders, her arms, her legs, the backs of her knees, her insteps – there wasn't a single part his lips or hands hadn't touched.

The tips of her fingers twitched uncontrollably. In the end, unable to do anything, she let her arms fall.

She had, in fact, imagined covering this over with other colors several times. But imagination was just imagination; it was useless in reality. No matter what she did, she could never become Rose, with red hair and green eyes.

"...I shouldn't become her, either."

She shook her head.

Even now, soldiers were surely closing in.

"I imagine hundreds of ways to kill you in my head, over and over."

And with the man who would never forgive her.

As she left Derosa's mansion, she had laid out a plan, detailing what she needed to do and in what order.

First, she found her parents. She had just finished reading Moncam's mailed letter, which allowed her to grasp the trackers' route and strategy. Moreover, she knew the locations of relatives they could rely on for shelter, so she reached her parents before the trackers.

Her parents, unable to enjoy the reunion after so long, didn't easily understand their daughter's insistence that they flee immediately. But she persuaded them desperately. She told them the Valdemara family was pursuing them, that they needed to hide in the deep countryside for a while, that they were particularly watching families who appeared to be travelers, so the three of them had to split up. She also warned them against going to capitals or large cities where the population was high and rumors spread easily.

By mixing truth with exaggeration and desperately weaving a tale, she succeeded in getting her parents to flee. She herself then deliberately booked a room at an inn in a nearby city with a considerable flow of people.

After all, there was no way to hide forever from the Valdemara family. She herself was living proof of how relentlessly a man pursued his goal until it was achieved.

However, she was prepared to bear the price of her sins alone.

She would carry the burden of her parents' sins, and her own, by herself.

She had deceived enough. She needed no further transgressions. By leaving his side, she had abandoned 'Rose'; now it was time to pay the price in her true form.

"I will return exactly what I received. I intend to make them taste that poison themselves. Only then will they realize who they tried to kill and how."

Yes, the day that had always been coming had finally arrived.

Someone kicked the door violently without knocking. They must have expected it to be locked.

But she hadn't locked the door. Trapped in the room, a mere bolt wouldn't change her situation.

Through the wide-open door, a group of soldiers rushed in, blocking her escape route. The soldiers, who had nearly lost their trusted commander to her poison, glared at her with hostile eyes. Some even pointed their Rifles at her without preamble.

The hostility radiating from the soldiers choked her. She slipped her hand into her pocket, clenching her palm.

"I finally see the face I've longed to see."

Suddenly, a familiar tone reached her ears. Startled, she slowly turned her head.

Pushing through his subordinates, he, Ezekiel, was walking towards her with steady steps.

He was the man she had longed for all along. Despite having no right to long for him, her uncontrollable emotions kept circling him.

Had he woken up safely?

Was he doing well?

Had he been angry at her disappearance, or disappointed? Or had he, remembering his duty to the Valdemara family, decided to erase 'Rose'?

Even after leaving, she had repeatedly worried and lingered.

So overjoyed that she almost jumped up from her chair without realizing it. Had she not constantly reminded herself to conceal her voice and footsteps, she might have made a careless mistake.

Finally regaining her composure, she met his gaze, her eyes wide open. This was the first time she was seeing him with his vision fully restored, as she had fled the mansion before he could remove his bandages.

Ah...

Suddenly, her breath caught.

Even in this situation, her heart trembled. How shameless.

The man who had been mocked and compared to a beast for a time was gone. Instead, the silhouette of a war hero, fresh from a victory parade, loomed before her.

He had returned completely to his former self.

...It was a relief.

It was truly a relief.

That his efforts had not been in vain. And that, perhaps, just a little... a very little bit, this wrong could be atoned for.

She captured Ezekiel's image with her eyes, doing her best.

This was a face she would never see again after today. So, she had to engrave it into her mind, thoroughly and meticulously.

So that it would leave an afterimage in her memory. So that she could draw it even with her eyes closed.

He let out a small, mocking laugh.

"Surprised that the eyes you ruined are now perfectly fine? You're staring quite intently."

The most magnificent man in the world looked down at her with the coldest eyes in the world. It was an expression 'Rose' had never seen.

Her heart ached.

She forced her gaze away.

The human heart is so treacherous. She was lingering, lost in a longing she had no right to feel.

This shouldn't be happening...

She slipped her hand into her pocket and pushed open the lid of the glass bottle she was tightly gripping.

It was instantaneous.

She downed the poison, half-full in the bottle, in a single gulp.

It felt like swallowing a fireball. The burning sensation as it traveled down her esophagus left her unable to even scream.

So this was the pain.

Now she could finally understand how much pain he must have felt. It was an unfamiliar agony that made her ashamed of her own greedy hope for atonement.

Just then, Ezekiel, who had approached without her noticing, struck her in the solar plexus. The relentless, powerful force caused the poison to surge back up.

She hastily covered her mouth with both hands. The poison she vomited out was already tinged a deep red.

"Ugh!"

Along with the salty taste of blood, the heat of the burn in her throat constricted her breathing. She tried to open her lips quickly, but instead of a voice, only a horribly cracked groan emerged.

"It's inconvenient when you make convenient choices without my consent. We still have calculations to settle."

Hate, sharpened to a chilling point, poured into her ears.

She looked at Ezekiel through her blurring vision.

Her consciousness wavered, then flickered out.

• Part 1 END