In the Place where the Golden Rose Was Broken - Chapter 6

Arcturus, brushing up his disheveled black hair, desperately craved a cigarette at this moment.

It was tiring enough when an unrelated woman chased after him, but of all people, it had to be his half-brother’s fiancée.

Arcturus wanted to be as courteous as possible to a lady. Moreover, while he had no familial feelings for Caetro, they were still bound as brothers, so he didn’t want to frighten his fiancée. He intended to play along with his grandfather’s family game as much as his patience allowed.

But Sierra Miller kept crossing the line.

“You’re all I have.”

Sierra, who had deliberately loosened her clothes, approached Arcturus closely, pretending to be affectionate in a way that didn’t suit her.

“Arctur.”

“……”

“I know you don’t like Caetro. I know you’re just pretending to be family according to grandfather’s wishes… I’m not by Caetro’s side because I love him either. I just need you to want me.”

Arcturus’s chest heaved greatly at the gentle touch fumbling with the front of his shirt. Sierra’s lips were about to curl up at Arcturus’s seemingly roughened breath.

“Then why don’t you say it first?”

“What? What should I… Ugh!”

Sierra had misunderstood.

Arcturus wasn’t excited by the seductive gestures of a beautiful woman.

He was merely suppressing the unbearable disgust and irritation rising within him.

Arcturus painfully gripped Sierra’s wrist as she fumbled with his chest, then roughly threw her hand away as if discarding trash.

“Tell grandfather.”

“Ah, Arctur…”

“That you love me.”

Arcturus really didn’t want to be rough with a lady. He knew that since childhood, experiencing war, there was a ferocity lurking inside him that could spring out at any moment.

That’s why he wanted to be even more courteous to those he should hide his savagery from. For instance, to the weak like women, children, the elderly, and animals.

Even if they were beings that grated on his nerves to the limit.

“Tell Caetro too. That you love his brother, not him. That you approached him intentionally, I mean.”

“……”

“If you love me enough to be branded as a socially immoral woman.”

“……”

“Instead of being a nuisance behind my back, try courting me publicly.”

Although Sierra was close enough to be less than a hand’s width away from Arcturus, she couldn’t say anything. She trembled, but at the same time, she was scared.

“Then who knows. I might give you a bit of my heart, impressed by that effort.”

Even though she knew he was mocking her with that low voice mixed with derision…

She felt like doing something crazy, believing those words.

“Arctur, we were good together, weren’t we……”

“……”

“In the battlefield, you saved me, and I…”

Sierra tried to bring up the old memory that he denied.

Arcturus said he didn’t remember her as one of the prisoners he had saved on the battlefield, but he would remember. That pitiful little girl he had especially taken care of…

Just then.

Sierra─?

Caetro’s voice was heard from the opposite room. Only then did Arcturus step back, hiding the ferocity that had seemed ready to bite at any moment.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Miss Sierra Miller.”

He had already returned to being a polite gentleman.

“You are not that girl I remember.”

During the war, the enemy country had taken not only soldiers but also ordinary citizens as prisoners instead of killing them.

Once, Arcturus had been assigned the mission of rescuing a large group of civilian prisoners. Among them, he had especially taken care of a girl just a few years younger than himself, and Sierra claimed that she was that girl.

Judging by her eyes, it seemed she wasn’t lying but was sincere, but Arcturus could assert.

Sierra Miller was not that girl.

Also, that girl could no longer be found anywhere.

“Please leave now, Miss Miller.”

Because that girl had died right before his eyes.

“Arctur……”

“If Miss Miller won’t leave, then I will.”

Unable to bear Sierra’s continued lingering, Arcturus left the room. Sierra hesitated and reached out from behind, but he paid no attention to that pitiful gesture.

Although he had been deprived of the chance to rest comfortably, it was perhaps for the best.

He had been desperately craving a cigarette anyway.

“Stop right there! You, don’t think I’ll let you off easy!”

A bizarre scene unfolded.

A chase between a woman and a man had begun.

The sight of a blood-covered man chasing a woman in the hotel corridor could only be described as bizarre.

“Please, don’t do this! Mr. Mallon, I beg you!”

“Stop playing coy. If you had no intention of doing this with me, why did you come to the hotel of your own accord? Huh?”

Joseph tried to forcibly embrace Karen, who was stubbornly pushing him away and refusing, and head towards the bed. Just then, there was a vase on a small tea table.

Without hesitation, Karen picked up the vase and struck him with it.

As a result, Joseph Mallon was now chasing Karen with blood streaming from his head. And he was very angry.

If there was anything fortunate about this situation, it was that Karen was in good physical shape.

Karen ran at full speed down the corridor barefoot, trying to steady her slightly roughening breath. Joseph Mallon chased after her with a terrifying intensity.

‘Where… where should I go?’

After running for a while, Karen stopped at the end of the corridor.

The corridor split into two paths at the end.

Which way should I go? Which way will lead me to someone who can help?

This was Karen’s first time at the Ripolla Hotel. She had heard vague descriptions of the hotel’s layout, but didn’t know the exact routes. From here on, it was completely uncharted territory.

Karen turned to the right.

“Karen! Wait! L-let’s talk for a moment…!”

Joseph Mallon’s voice, which initially sounded furious as if he would kill her on the spot if he caught her, gradually became more pitiful. Of course, Karen wasn’t fooled by this stalker’s act.

Even when they were left alone in the hotel room, he had immediately shown his true colors when he thought the opportunity had come.

“I told you to stop!”

When Karen didn’t stop despite his pleading requests, Joseph shouted again, his voice echoing harshly through the corridor.

“Ha, haa…”

How long had she been chased like this? Karen’s breathing became increasingly ragged. Her tired footsteps hesitated in front of a pool of water glowing blue.

At the end of the right path Karen had taken was a public swimming pool.

While some rooms at the Ripolla Hotel had private pools, not many people stayed in rooms with pools for just one night in the capital, which wasn’t a tourist destination.

Usually, the public pool would have been crowded, but it happened to be autumn now, with the weather turning chilly. Moreover, it was very late at night.

“Is, is anyone there? Help me!”

The spacious pool area was completely empty, without a single person. Karen looked around, hoping to find someone who might help her.

Just then…

“Got you!”

Joseph Mallon embraced Karen from right behind her.

“Let go of me!”

“I’ll forgive you.”

Joseph Mallon, who had lifted Karen’s waist as she struggled, still spouted nonsense even in this situation.

“It must have been your first time, Miss Karen. I tried to move too fast, didn’t I? I’m sorry. First, let’s calm down…”

Even at this moment, covered in blood, Joseph Mallon couldn’t understand or accept a woman’s refusal. She really didn’t want it to come to this, but now it seemed unavoidable.

Karen dropped the shoes she had been carrying in her hand to escape. After slipping them on with her toes, she stomped down hard on Joseph Mallon’s instep with the heel.

“Argh!”

Joseph Mallon’s arms momentarily loosened in pain. Karen seized this opportunity to break free and used all her strength to elbow him in the solar plexus.

“Ugh!”

Naturally, when the solar plexus is struck, it becomes momentarily difficult to breathe.

Joseph Mallon continued to gasp, struggling to draw in breaths that wouldn’t come.

Karen hesitated for a brief moment. At this point, the plan had already gone awry.

Joseph Mallon would absolutely not help the Swan Ballet Company. She would also have to face Baron Theron’s tremendous anger.

With all plans having failed, Karen wavered on whether to stomp on the breathless Joseph Mallon once more with her shoe.

“When someone says no, you should understand, Mr. Joseph Mallon.”

“Kuk…”

“No, Mr. Pervert Stalker.”

After properly putting on the shoes she had hastily slipped on, Karen turned around.

She intended to quickly leave this cursed public pool area and depart from the hotel. She had no intention of looking back.

Just as she was taking a confident step forward, Karen was startled and momentarily froze.

“Ah…”

She never expected to encounter someone else now, after escaping the crisis on her own. And of all things, to show the scene of her subduing a man by force…