Chapter 23

For him, it was the first time seeing Kiril keep a woman by his side, so he was curious. During their first meeting, he had only seen her very briefly before.

In the light, Anton’s face was mottled with bruises. Realizing Gayeon’s gaze had gone to the bruises, he spoke.

“I got beaten for failing to bring Kiril back.”

“By the President?”

“Yes.”

Really, it would have been nice if he had just gone out and brought his son back himself, but the seat Belov occupied was far too busy for that.

Woof woof woof!

It was the hour when dawn was dimly breaking. When the dogs barked, Kiril took several chunks of meat from the refrigerator and put them on a plate.

The dogs, leaping up against the window and seeing it, began barking even louder. When he opened the door leading straight outside from the dining room, they waited for him, tails wagging.

“Our younger brother was the one who mostly raised them.”

Anton explained to Gayeon with a smile.

“I find it amazing that you are still alive, Miss Angelica.”

“Me too.”

“It’s probably because Yuri, perhaps thinking that even if he happened to die in some unfortunate way, had always left behind words—not quite last words, but something like them—not to kill innocent people. With Kiril’s temperament, he would have killed everyone involved and more.”

She found herself remembering again how he had broken into her mansion and still had not killed anyone.

“Was his name Yuri?”

When Kiril tossed a chunk of meat into the air, the dogs twisted like acrobats and caught it.

“Yes. He was three years younger than Kiril.”

Kiril had cherished the younger brother who followed him so blindly in his own way. He was a younger brother who knew only how to raise dogs, but one he could not help but love.

Unlike Kiril, he was a child who could not even kill a living thing. Anton had not forgotten Yuri always returning empty-handed even when the two went out hunting together.

“More than that, I find it amazing that you haven’t run away and are still staying by his side. Did you really want to kill Lloyd that badly? You never thought about hiring someone or something like that?”

“I did. And the reason I’m not running away and am sitting quietly beside him is because I saw Kiril catch a bear.”

The moment she recalled him catching the bear, not even a speck of a thought remained of rebelling against the man who was feeding the dogs over there right now.

“What?”

Anton asked, not understanding the conversation that had suddenly jumped to a bear.

“A bear. He caught a bear with his bare hands.”

“No way.”

Anton waved a hand with a laugh. But when he saw Gayeon’s expression, utterly lacking any trace of humor, shock filled his face as he realized it was true.

“If I upset someone like that, it wouldn’t end well.”

Afraid Kiril might turn around, Anton covered his mouth with one hand and bent over the dining table, bursting into loud laughter.

“Pff…… puh-haha…… I knew he had a talent for hunting since he was young. But why go so far as to catch a bear…… puh-hahahahaha.”

Even after catching a bear, his face had been so calm that even Gayeon, having seen it with her own eyes, had not been able to make sense of it right away. That was why she had decided to take the hand of the man over there feeding the dogs.

Through the window, she could see the man, having finished feeding the dogs, looking up at the sky. He seemed to be measuring something. His lowered eyelashes fluttered in the wind.

Was what the man was hearing right now the sound of the wind crying.

“Ah, Kiril’s expression right now……”

Anton, who had been laughing for a while, was about to say something when Kiril, brushing off his hands and coming back inside, spoke.

“Shall we go hunting this afternoon?”

With a face that said, Just as I thought, Anton gave Gayeon a slight look and shook his head. It meant, Don’t answer.

“Hunting?”

“It’s a good season for hunting.”

“……What kind of wild beasts live here?”

“There are tigers here too.”

Before Kiril could answer, Anton suddenly spoke. The intention that she should not go was thick in his voice.

“Tigers are a bit……”

Shaking her head, Gayeon made clear her reluctance about hunting. Since her adoptive father’s hobby had been hunting, Gayeon had gone along with him before. She did not dislike it, but hunting with this man carried a dangerous scent.

“By the way, I heard you caught a bear?”

“I can catch one for you too.”

At Kiril’s blunt answer, Anton shook his head. He kept shaking it over and over, meaning that his life was precious to him.

“There are tigers too, but it should be fine. Miss Willis will be going around with a man who caught a bear.”

Anton, having abruptly changed his stance, silently nudged Gayeon from behind. Unusually, Kiril looked pleased. Had he learned to hunt here and roamed through the birch forest with his now-dead younger half-brother.

Kiril, mixing a protein shake, was waiting only for Gayeon’s answer.

“Yes. I’ll go.”

The answer was impulsive. Even if she stayed here, it felt as though Karlena and Kiril would just keep clashing.

“Then after you drink that, do you want to go see my collections?”

Kiril asked after downing the shake in one go.

“You mean the stuffed animals?”

At that, as if the thought had never even occurred to them, both Kiril and Anton fell silent. Anton looked as though he had just seen a woman even more extreme than Kiril.

“I mean the armory, the armory.”

Letting out a sigh, Anton explained exactly what he meant by collections, and Gayeon nodded. She did not have a hobby of looking at stuffed animals either.

At the idea that, as expected of the son of the President of Russia, he would proudly show off an armory, Gayeon nodded.

“You have interesting tastes, Angelica.”

Kiril’s eyes sparkled at the word ‘stuffed.’ Before there was any time to correct the mistaken idea that had entered his head, Kiril said, almost like courtship,

“No, that’s not what I……”

“I’ll catch a tiger, have it stuffed, and give it to you as a gift.”

By a tiger here, he clearly meant a Siberian tiger. It had to be an endangered animal that should be protected here too, so perhaps she ought to say he should not just catch something like that as he pleased, or perhaps she should correct the fact that her hobby had suddenly become taxidermy. As she hesitated over what she should say first, Anton clicked his tongue.

“You must be pleased.”

Anton said it with a face that was not envious in the slightest.

Still thinking over what she ought to say first, Gayeon missed the moment.

“……I’ll choose the hunting rifle myself.”

“All right, then.”

As if his fingertips were tingling too much for him to bear, Kiril smiled brightly.

Resolving in a half-despairing mood that when the time came, she would choose a rifle that could take down even a tiger in a single shot, Gayeon put a piece of the chicken dish into her mouth. She could not tell what it tasted like.