Chapter 28

“P-Please, no…!”

The woman flailed her arms as best as she could, but the man continued to wield the scissors recklessly to threaten her. In the process, the front of her garment was randomly cut apart, and her chest bore fresh wounds, blood pooling from the cuts. Even so, the woman struggled, flailing her arms to avoid the scissors.

Even if it meant being stabbed to death by the scissors, anything but this…!

It was at that moment.

Smack!

His thick hand struck the woman’s head. The sudden blow left her unable to feel pain, her frantic movements collapsing into stillness. Her ears rang, and her mind went blank, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Her lips split, filling her mouth with the metallic taste of blood. Her chest, scratched and bleeding from Randolph’s random scissor attacks, heaved up and down along with the torn front of her chemise.

“Resisting, you f*cking…”

He climbed atop the woman’s body, pinning her arms down with his knees.

“Urgh…!”

“I was going to be gentle since it’s our first time, you know?”

He grinned, as if amused by the thought.

“Ahhh…!”

Randolph’s rough hand grabbed the woman’s bangs as though he were about to rip them out. The skin at the edge of her forehead stung sharply.

Randolph’s yellow eyes gleamed.

“Hiding such a pretty face must’ve saved you from being touched by other bastards. Judging by how you’re still intact, if you’d been noticed by anyone else, you’d have been reduced to a ragdoll by now. Should I thank that innkeeper b*tch for that?”

He sneered, saliva and laughter spilling from his mouth. Randolph’s haphazard movements caused strands of platinum hair to scatter over the woman’s face as he cut them away.

Randolph’s face twisted with grotesque delight as he grabbed the woman’s jaw. Her bruised lips, already swollen from his blows, throbbed in pain.

“Yeah, imagining this pretty face crying under me… F*ck, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve…”

A disgusting sensation was growing in his crotch as he sat on her stomach.

“Ugh… Ugh…”

No, please no. Anything but this. Selma, no, Sir Knight, no, Mother of Fairies, anyone…!

Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes. Seeing this, Randolph grinned, baring his teeth.

“For the first time, I’ll finish in your throat.”

Saying so, he shifted his weight onto the knee pinning her arm and began undoing his trousers. “Ugh!” The pain in her crushed arm surged, but it wasn’t her immediate concern.

“P-Please, no…”

“Shut up.”

“S-Save me, please…”

“I won’t kill you. I’m not planning to kill you.”

It depends on how long you endure.

He muttered as he pulled out his member and began to fondle it.

Bang!

A deafening noise echoed from far away. Whoooosh! The faint sound of a snowstorm followed.

It was a sound that could only be heard when a door to somewhere wild had been opened.

The fierce gale signaled the arrival of Magiella’s night.

The shadowy, high-pitched howl of the wind seemed closer than just beyond the building’s outer walls.

Randolph froze mid-motion. Hic! In the brief silence, the woman beneath him let out a trembling sob. 

Maybe I’d misheard.

Randolph thought, as he resumed his vulgar actions.

Step, step, step. The steady sound of footsteps… echoed faintly. The sound was heavy, like boots with thick soles made for the mountains. The footsteps drew closer…

Randolph’s yellow eyes flickered like a candle flame in the wind.

“I told everyone not to come…”

Randolph growled through clenched teeth, pulling up his trousers. His voice was a poor attempt at bravado.

The night was long. Magiella’s nights were three times as long. How much money had he spent bribing that physician? Who dared to interrupt him? It would be better to turn them into pulp and enjoy himself without worry.

With that thought, he cautiously approached the door.

Bang!

“Ugh!”

The door slammed inward with a loud crash. Randolph, who had been standing in its path, was thrown backward.

***

By now, the night had fallen, and the corridor was dark without a single light. It was impossible to see who was there… But as the steady footsteps continued, the figure finally stepped into the dim glow of the lamp’s light, casting their shadow.

Black hair clung together in strands, water droplets dripping down the bridge of a sharp nose. The eyes, lowered along the nose, were cold and unyielding. The figure, soaked with melted snow on their hair and armor, exuded a chilling and oppressive presence.

“…S-Sir Knight…!”

The man’s piercing blue eyes glared down at the fallen Randolph.

“G-G-Ghost…?”

Randolph, barely managing to stand, choked out the words in a trembling voice.

Screech!

Before anyone could react, the man’s arm moved in a flash. His sword drove through Randolph’s neck and pierced the floor beneath him. Thud. The heavy sound of his large frame collapsing to the ground echoed like a period at the end of a sentence.

So simply, so easily, Randolph died with his pupils constricted in terror at the blade that had come for him.

It was a life taken among hundreds, perhaps thousands. There was no need to confirm it. Yet, for some reason, Karel stepped forward a few more paces, pressing his boot against the man’s chest. He twisted the sword before pulling it out and tossing it aside carelessly. Even then, his gaze remained fixed on the lifeless pupils of the corpse, which reflected nothing anymore.

Clang. The sword rolled across the wooden floor, leaving a trail of blood splattered in all directions.

A heavy silence settled over the place where a life had been extinguished.

…Hic.

Caught between the joy of Karel’s arrival and the terror of witnessing someone’s throat being pierced before her eyes, the woman teetered on the verge of fainting. The blood that had spurted from Randolph’s neck had splattered onto her as well.

Whoooooosh.

In the oppressive silence, the sound of a snowstorm grew louder from beyond the door on the first floor. It was the howling of the Magiella night, announcing to the world that the full blue moon would soon begin its climb to the zenith.

Step, step, step. Without a word, Karel approached the bed. The woman’s head tilted upward as his footsteps drew closer. Her lips, bruised from the blows of the now-dead man, and her face, pale with shock and splattered with his blood, stared at him in disbelief. She had barely managed to sit up, her body trembling, unable to move, with only her eyes darting nervously.

“Sir Knight…”

You’ve really, truly come. You’re here. Truly… I thought you couldn’t come…

And yet, you came at the very moment I wished for you so desperately.

The countless words that surged in her heart never escaped her lips. Tears that had brimmed from fear turned into streams of relief and joy, flowing freely down her cheeks.

Fixing his gaze on her violet eyes, now blurred with tears, Karel stopped at the edge of the bed where she sat.

The disheveled bedding bore clear signs of the chaos that had unfolded there. Her flushed face, marked with the traces of crying and screaming, her bangs roughly cut, her chest scratched and bloodied, and the torn front of her tattered clothing… all told the story of the abuse she had endured.

His merciless, moonlit blue eyes quietly took in the scene. Meeting his cold, downward gaze, the woman blinked, letting her tears fall.

His once shoulder-length hair now reached slightly longer. Snow that had melted on his hair dripped down the strands in droplets. Just as she thought she saw a sharp intensity behind his icy blue eyes…

She suddenly remembered her torn chemise, shredded by Randolph’s merciless scissors. Panicked, she hurriedly pulled the blanket up to cover herself.

Of all times, why now…

Nothing felt real. The fact that she had nearly been violated by the Lord’s son just moments ago. The sound of the iron scissors slicing through the air, forcing her to prepare for death. The grotesque sight of the middle-aged man’s flesh dangling before her eyes. And most of all…

Most of all, the fact that her beloved stood before her now.

Yes, her beloved.

She had never dared to wait for him, nor could she confess her feelings, but to her, the man before her was her love.

Tears continued to stream endlessly down her cheeks, dripping off her chin and soaking the edge of the blanket. Yet she made no move to wipe them away. Instead, she stared at Karel, blinking as little as possible, as though she feared missing even the slightest change in his expression or the faintest trace of his presence. Lifting her head to take him in fully was an act of reverence.

The moment her view darkened under the shadow of his figure…

Karel bent down and grabbed the nape of her neck, pulling her toward him.

A chill ran from the back of her neck to her spine and crown. Obediently, she closed her eyes and surrendered herself entirely to him. His simple motion drew her small chin toward his face, leading to a kiss that consumed her lips.