Chapter 1

Heeheeheeheeng!

From somewhere came the cry of Lily, the horse she had ridden here. It had already been over thirty minutes since Gayeon had smacked her on the rump and sent her off to roam all over the forest.

Gayeon was not a fool. Of course, it did not take much thinking to know that he would track her through the horse’s hoofprints and come after her.

Besides, this forest was so vast that its end could not be known.

To begin with, it had been her own father who built a mansion on the border of the national park. The only things wandering around a place like this were bears or stranded travelers.

There was no way to get out through this forest. She had even thought of asking the national park guards for help, but they were civilians in any case. Involving civilians in this kind of fight was an act that broke an unspoken rule.

In truth, from the start, Gayeon had not the slightest intention of running away. If his power was that great, his subordinates would already be spread everywhere.

Exile did not sound appealing, but she was willing to stay quiet until he got what he wanted. Of course, if the security team realized something had happened at the mansion and sent support quickly, she might get through this without signing the exile papers, but that possibility seemed rather slim.

She climbed a tree more than five meters above the ground and sat on a branch more than sturdy enough to support her weight, listening to the sounds coming from all around the forest.

It was gradually getting dark. Gayeon, who had irritably torn into the jerky she had taken earlier from the pouch beside the saddle when she sent Lily toward the forest, sank into a long train of thought.

Once night fell, the forest became dangerous.

Sometimes, when food was scarce, bears had even come as far as near the mansion. She was not worried about Lily, since Lily was a rather clever horse who would return to the stable before night became too dark, but the problem was herself. In any case, if she wanted to get outside, she had to pass by the mansion.

She thought it was fortunate beyond measure that the weather was just at the point of shifting from summer to autumn. Even so, the temperature in the forest would drop sharply and leave her shivering, but at least it was not winter.

Heeheehing!

“Why are you coming back again?”

Hearing Lily’s cries drawing closer and closer at a time when she should have been heading back to the stable, Gayeon realized that something had gone wrong.

Sure enough, before long Lily came into view. And on the saddle, instead of her owner, was Kiril.

Click.

Fastened to Lily’s saddle was not only the pouch of jerky, but also a shotgun.

Gayeon aimed at the man approaching from afar with the gun she had brought along with the jerky.

“A 12-gauge shotgun…… what am I, a wild boar?”

People usually used a 20-gauge shotgun. Knowing that a 12-gauge shotgun was used when hunting wild boars, Kiril furrowed one eyebrow.

“How did you know I was here?”

“She’s a good horse. I told her to take me to her owner, and she led me here on her own.”

Lily, Lily, Lily. Gayeon looked down with a slightly bitter expression at her beloved horse, who, for all that she was a female, was endlessly weak in front of handsome men.

The man, who looked as though he had come to shoot a pictorial rather than ride Lily into the forest, with not even a single part of his clothes disordered, slowly dismounted.

With his fingers, he brushed back his hair, the only thing about him that had fallen out of place. But what drew the eye even more than that hair was the man’s fingers. Long, beautiful fingers that looked as though they ought to be pressing piano keys at some recital instead of being here.

“Come down.”

He said it while holding out his hand to Gayeon. Looking at the man who smiled as he spread both arms wide as if telling her to fall into his embrace, Gayeon’s expression hardened. The gently curved look in his eyes was hidden by the shadow of his lashes, making it difficult to see clearly.

Dangerous.

Her instincts were warning her. Every cell in her body was telling her that this man before her was the sort who could casually smash her life into the ground.

And as though those cells did not even need to tell her so, when Gayeon did not come down, he erased his smile cleanly and said with a sunken gaze,

“Before I come up there myself.”

She caught a faint accent on the words “I come up there myself.” It was clearly a warning that if he climbed up himself, what followed would not be pleasant.

Gayeon felt herself swallow dryly. She was clearly the one threatening the man before her with a shotgun, yet somehow she felt as though she was the one being threatened. Her mouth suddenly went dry. The palm holding the gun grew damp for no reason.

And though there was not even any wind, a chill ran down her spine.

Yes, this feeling was like the time she had once encountered a bear in the forest.

And it did not take her long to realize that what she was feeling was goosebumps.

“……A bear.”

When Gayeon muttered it under her breath, Lily let out a convulsive ‘Heeheehing!’ and, like mad, ran past the tree where Gayeon was and disappeared toward the mansion.

Gayeon was no longer looking at Kiril.

Behind Kiril, though the sun had not even set yet, there loomed something that was not a tree, giving off an enormous shadow and presence.

Sometimes bears appeared in this national park.

If it was thirty or forty times a year, then rather than sometimes, often would really be the more fitting word.

The reason she always carried a shotgun whenever she entered these woods was also because of the bear before her eyes.

A gray grizzly bear.

It looked to weigh no more than two or three hundred kilograms, perhaps having only just reached adulthood, but Gayeon knew that in ferocity it was three or four times worse than older bears.

That was also the greatest obstacle that kept her from crossing through the forest.

From the start, it was because of that huge beast that she had given up taking the forest path and had climbed into a tree instead.

“……This is the worst.”

Gayeon muttered to herself.

She needed to be outside this man’s control, on equal footing with him, or better yet, above him.

She had to show the man that she always retained the possibility of escaping, and while doing so, obtain as perfectly as possible whatever she could gain through this exile.

For that, there was a need for her to hold the upper hand over this man.

But upper hand or not, the man before her looked as though he was about to die.

The bear was huffing right behind the man’s back.

It looked as though it might rush forward at any moment and swat the man’s face with a forepaw moving at two hundred kilometers per hour, tearing his neck apart.

If the bear’s forepaw came down with all its strength, it was truly possible for a head to be knocked clean away without a trace.

“Hm……”

Kiril slowly turned around.

Seeing the gray grizzly bear huffing with a very hungry expression not far from him, the sound he let out was no more than a murmur close to, ‘What is that?’

It’s a bear, a bear! You idiot!

The reason Gayeon did not shout that at Kiril was because the bear, already looking ready to pounce at any moment, might hear her voice, grow even more excited, and charge.

Gayeon held her breath.

Kiril tilted his head slightly, as if thinking for a moment, ‘What is that’, then slipped a hand into his coat.

Since he had his back turned, Gayeon could not see what he was taking out, and guessed it was probably a gun.

A mere handgun, unless it struck the space between the eyes in one shot, would only make a grizzly angrier.

Kraaaaoaoaoaeeooh.

That was the beginning.

The grizzly rose onto two legs and let out a long, threatening roar, then in an instant dropped to all fours and began charging with terrifying force.

In Gayeon’s mind echoed the narration from a documentary she had once seen: ‘Grizzlies can run at fifty kilometers per hour.’

“D*mn it……”

Why had she thought to jump down in front of the man at that moment.

No matter how much she thought about it, that was a question with no answer.