episode_0078

We were entangled for a while.

My top was loosely unbuttoned.

Through the wide-open front of my shirt, only gruesome marks remained.

A heavy silence descended.

“……”

The girl looked down at me.

A body densely covered in scars.

It was difficult to find any unblemished skin.

The cuts, burns, tears, and stitches still shimmered, as if proving a terrible past.

I parted my lips.

“……You saw them, after all.”

My brief question slipped out.

The girl quietly nodded.

“Yes… I found them while changing your wet clothes.”

“It was a precious secret, you know.”

“So this was it. The reason you always insisted on wearing stifling suits, even in summer. Because they could cover all the scars on your body.”

“I’ve been caught.”

I readily admitted it.

As I offered a bitter smile, Irene’s hand suddenly moved and touched my chest.

Her lukewarm warmth gently caressed the scars.

Her dark eyes trembled faintly.

Unable to tear her gaze from my body, the girl asked,

“What in the world… happened?”

“……”

“Is it a secret this time too?”

“……”

I didn’t open my mouth.

I merely lay there, steeped in silence.

We faced each other for a moment.

So close our breaths intertwined.

Perhaps because my top was half-removed, our bare skins pressed together, blending into a soft sensation.

We lay amidst our mingling body heat.

After several minutes of stillness.

It was Irene who moved first.

“……Sorry. I wasn’t trying to scold you.”

Her voice was faintly resonant.

The girl slowly pulled her body away from mine.

With her drooping beast ears pulled back, she confessed her complicated true feelings.

“It’s just… I feel a little frustrated.”

“……”

“You know so much about me. Even things I’ve never told you. But it feels like there’s nothing I truly know about you.”

Her expression was complex in many ways.

“It feels like I’m being stubborn. Forget it.”

Irene mumbled to herself.

She seemed to shift under the covers, then laid her head on my arm, which was lying next to her.

The distance between us closed once more.

A sweet scent of skin reached me.

Leaning her body against me, the girl spoke.

“Come to think of it… I’ve never really told you my story either. Would you be interested in hearing it?”

“What kind of story are you referring to?”

“Things from my past that I’ve hidden.”

“I already know most of it, though.”

“But hearing it directly from the person involved is different. Both in terms of content and meaning.”

“I suppose so. I’d be glad to listen.”

I quietly listened.

One might wonder what good it does to hear something already known, but a story heard directly from the person involved carries a far deeper meaning.

The inner wounds she had hidden all this time.

Because it meant she trusted me enough to reveal such vulnerabilities.

The girl seemed to be opening her heart more and more.

“It won’t be a particularly interesting story, though.”

Her eyes recalled the past.

After a moment of silence, the girl cautiously parted her lips.

“The village I lived in when I was little was a quiet countryside. Our race easily became targets for humans, so we often lived hidden in quiet places.”

The content didn’t deviate much from what I already knew.

A humble yet happy village.

People overflowing with affection.

A girl who grew up upright amidst them.

Life seemed to flow peacefully, but misfortune always strikes at unexpected moments.

This happened when the girl was three years younger than she was now.

“Hello, everyone. My name is [unnamed]. I run a small business in the capital.”

A man visited the village.

He offered many gifts and went around individually greeting everyone, asking for their goodwill.

“I came near the village for work, and since I’m here, I hope we can become good friends.”

“I wish to be your friend.”

The naive villagers.

Initially, they were wary, but after several months of continuous kindness, they eventually succumbed.

Before long, the man had blended in as a member of the village.

It was from that moment.

All tragedies began.

“Capture them all! Don’t miss a single one!”

“Erase all traces of this place! Drag out any hidden young ones, and burn everything that remains!”

She should have known.

Humans.

They were a treacherous kind.

The smiles they had shared vanished, and only greed glittered in his hazy pupils.

The insidious malice devoured the fox-kin without exception.

It was truly a wretched end.

The village burned, the adults died, and the children were taken as slaves.

The girl stood amidst all those scenes.

The corners of her lips, where pain spread, curved into a bitter arc.

“……My Master remained alone in the burning village. He wanted me to take my younger siblings and escape.”

Her voice was calmly devoid of emotion.

The girl didn’t tremble.

She merely recounted it with serene eyes.

“But I failed. We were caught by hunting dogs shortly after fleeing.”

Was it the most painful memory?

Her beautiful brow furrowed.

Perhaps the girl was recalling the moment she was miserably forced to her knees before her sobbing younger siblings.

Irene, who bit her lip for a moment, finished her story.

“After that, I was locked in a cage. And then I met you at the auction house.”

“I see.”

“Was it a bit long-winded?”

“Not at all. I’m just concerned. Are you alright, Irene-yang?”

“There’s no reason not to be.”

Her answer came back softly.

“Still, sometimes I get lost in those thoughts.”

“Those thoughts being?”

“The thought of what if I had been different. If I had been cunning enough not to trust humans, strong enough not to be helplessly overcome, I wonder if I could have protected my loved ones.”

“……”

The girl was alone.

She carried the entire burden of responsibility for that day, tormented by terrible guilt.

Simply for the sole reason that she survived.

“Sometimes it feels like it’s all my fault.”

“……”

It was a foolish thought.

But I understood.

Even when one knows it’s not their fault, people inevitably blame themselves and crumble.

I understood the girl’s guilt.

Because I had already experienced it.

In my past life, until a few years ago, or perhaps even now…

“Oppa! Play with me!”

A phantom sound from the past brushed my ear.

I shook off those unnecessary thoughts.

When I turned my head, I saw dark eyes gazing at me.

We lay facing each other.

I quietly raised my hand and gently caressed her pale cheek, bathed in shadow.

“Irene-yang.”

A nightmare that had tormented her life for so long.

Though I couldn’t heal her, there was one thing I desperately wanted to tell her.

“It’s not your fault.”

There was no one by my side to say such words.

Because in my past life, I was a loner.

That’s why.

I thought every tragedy that happened in those days was my fault.

Only with time did I slowly realize.

“Even if you grieve over misfortune, you mustn’t twist it into self-hatred.”

What a suffering person needed most wasn’t a pile of medicine packets, but a warm word of comfort.

“Because if you do, you won’t be able to live on.”

“……”

Irene wore a blank expression.

Her dark eyes wavered.

She seemed to be contemplating how to react, then she soon smiled faintly.

Her body gently drew closer and nestled into my embrace.

“……You’re thoughtful in strange ways.”

“Was that unnecessary interference?”

“No… it’s just surprising. You’re the first person to tell me it’s not my fault.”

“More accurately, there was no one to tell you.”

“That’s true too.”

We remained still.

Time seemed to stop.

Our lips were close.

As if they would overlap at any moment.

Through the precarious gap, our breaths, which we couldn’t quite swallow, intertwined.

Only my reflection shimmered in her clear pupils.

Irene broke the silence and spoke.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Hmm?”

“I want to join your organization too.”

“Organization… are you referring to Astro?”

“Yes.”

What sudden change of heart had occurred?

She usually acted as if she had no interest, but now Irene was suddenly expressing her intention to join.

She then added an explanation.

“Until now, I’ve been by your side as a servant. If I’m going to continue assisting you, I thought it would be better to have a more official justification.”

“It seems a sudden surge of loyalty has overcome you.”

“You could say that.”

“It’s not a bad offer at all. Whether we like it or not, we’ll be together for the next three years. I was planning to offer it to you sometime anyway.”

“Does that mean you’ll accept me?”

“Gladly.”

I replied with a bright smile.

I extended my pinky finger.

Since there wasn’t much space, I intended to conduct an informal initiation for now.

Irene unhesitatingly linked her pinky.

Immediately after.

Mana glittered.

A long strand of thread stretched out. It glowed blue, weaving our fingers together.

With the subtle colors spreading, I spoke.

“Many things will change from now on.”

Taming means forming a bond.

It signifies the process of becoming special to each other.

From now on, you will become the one and only existence in this world to me, and I will become the one and only existence in this world to you.

I murmured, as if defining the future.

“The only being to each other.”

The intertwined mana threads soon formed a clear knot.

I then bowed my head.

Irene, who was slightly below me.

Our foreheads met.

Feeling the warmth that passed between us, I smiled with my eyes.

“I look forward to continuing to work with you.”

“Yes.”

Irene answered quietly.

Mana with subtle hues.

A dazzling scene, even in the dark dawn.

Waiting for the night to pass, we fell asleep with our fingers linked.

It was a serene day.

***

Meanwhile.

The Empire’s Underworld.

“……”

Unidentified bowed his head.

The young man, kneeling on one knee, paid his respects towards the jet-black throne.

The space reeked of thick blood.

As he maintained his silent vigil, a voice suddenly echoed.

“So… you’re saying you broke the alliance and returned?”

“That is correct, Your Majesty.”

Unidentified replied towards the throne.

The shadow sitting atop it soon let out a deep, resonant sound and spoke.

“This alliance was quite important, you know… Our relationship with the merchants will also be severely strained from now on.”

“For the sin of treating your command lightly. Whatever punishment Your Majesty deems fit, I will gladly accept.”

“Even if that punishment is death?”

“If that is Your Majesty’s will, then gladly.”

Unidentified replied without a trace of hesitation.

The observing shadow burst into satisfied laughter.

“I was just speaking idly, so don’t mind it.”

“I am grateful for your grace.”

“I could never abandon such a loyal subject. Besides, there was no need to rely on such a flimsy alliance from the start, was there?”

The shadow stroked its chin.

“By the way, I didn’t expect the Snake to make a move. Its whereabouts had been unknown for the past year.”

“It was still overwhelming.”

“Naturally. Isn’t it the being that brought down an entire kingdom? It would be disappointing if it had regressed in just one year.”

“The contract that bound our hearts… Because of that, I missed the opportunity to deal with it.”

“That must have been calculated from the moment it boarded the ship. It exploited the fact that you couldn’t attack. Truly a cunning villain.”

“What are your plans for the future?”

“Hmm.”

Unidentified’s question.

The corners of the mouth, hidden in shadow, curved into a wicked smile.

“Yes… I’d like to see its face again after so long.”

The shadow muttered eerily.

Within the thick, lingering shadows, only an ominous atmosphere surged.