The Cursed Beast Caught My Leash - Chapter 84

“You bastard.”

Mikel kicked Roderick repeatedly, knocking him to the ground. The large man coughed violently as he rolled across the floor.

“I’ll commend your recklessness for climbing through the canyon to infiltrate the lake.”

Mikel grabbed Roderick by the scruff and forced him back to his knees, baring his teeth.

“But the moment you set foot inside the castle, you should have expected to die like a dog.”

“Kill me if you want! Do you think I’ll cower in fear?”

Despite the relentless beating, Roderick refused to abandon his hostility toward the Northerners.

Islay watched him with an impassive gaze before turning his attention to the necklace. The portrait of the slender-faced girl within the locket held his focus for a long time.

The castle had only recently begun regaining its peace after the monstrous breach of the walls. And now, this intruder had brazenly appeared during such a critical time. Execution would be the most fitting judgment.

Yet what truly gnawed at Islay’s nerves wasn’t the intrusion itself. It was the fact that another man possessed a locket containing Estella’s childhood portrait, tugging at his fraying patience.

Even if the owner was her kin, it didn’t matter. The thought of this necklace brushing against the man’s chest made Islay’s blood boil and his thoughts spiral.

And now this man claimed to have come to rescue Estella?

Where was he hiding when Estella was sold to a scumbag like Hendrick Regan? And now, he dared to appear and try to take her from him?

Islay raised the necklace before Roderick’s eyes, gripping it tightly.

“Where is the original owner of this pendant?”

“…I’m the owner.”

“Spare me the obvious lies. This belongs to your lord, doesn’t it?”

His dry tone felt almost monotonous. Roderick’s bruised and battered face twisted like crumpled paper.

It wasn’t because the red-eyed man before him had an unnervingly handsome face. It was the soulless gaze, devoid of any trace of human emotion, that chilled him to the bone. It was the look of someone who would sever a head without hesitation if angered.

“…So, it’s you.”

Roderick clenched his fists tightly.

“You’re the Grand Duke of Peruno who kidnapped the princess!”

“Get your facts straight, Sir Roderick Elgin of Largo.”

Without blinking, Islay stared directly at him.

“When Estella fell into the hands of Pantege’s second prince, where were you?”

“What?”

“You fools, ignorant of the truth, came crawling into my domain. For what?”

Islay clicked his tongue, his voice thick with contempt. Roderick glared at him with burning eyes.

“I know about the marriage arrangement between the princess and Pantege’s second prince.”

“A marriage arrangement. How refined your words are.”

“I also know her wishes weren’t considered, and I know what kind of man that prince is.”

Roderick spat blood-stained saliva on the floor.

“But are you any different from him?”

“Captain, give me permission to slit this insolent man’s throat right now.”

Unable to hold back, Mikel reached for the sword at his hip. However, Islay raised a hand to stop him. His indifferent demeanor suggested he wanted to hear what Roderick had to say.

Roderick’s voice, dripping with anger, was defiant.

“How can you claim to be any different from that prince? How do we know you didn’t force yourself on her?”

Islay looked down at him with cold, subdued eyes. The question wasn’t worth answering. Hendrick Regan had been a piece of trash who tried to drug Estella to exploit her.

Islay was not. To him, Estella was a woman so precious that even gazing at her felt like a privilege.

There were countless days when he wanted to shield her from the smallest harm, even from the drizzle or the gentle breeze. To think that he could ever force her into anything was…

His stream of thoughts faltered. The conviction he had believed unshakable began to waver.

Why now? Why was he suddenly thinking of Stella, adorned with bruises and scratches?

…How had she gotten those marks? When had it started?

It had happened on the day he’d uncharacteristically fallen into a deep and prolonged sleep. Could something have occurred during that time?

But no one could have entered the securely locked tower. Only he and Stella had been in the bedroom that night. Whatever happened, it must have been between the two of them.

Her reddened eyes, as if she’d cried her heart out, flashed in his mind. Her stammered words, the rapid beat of her heart… It was clear Stella had lied to him.

There had to be a reason—an unavoidable one that compelled her to hide something from him desperately…

‘Damn it.’

Islay recalled the pounding headache he’d woken up with. It had been as unpleasant as if he’d had a bad dream. Thinking back, he vaguely remembered hearing Stella’s familiar, trembling voice.

Fragmented memories, cut off unnaturally, swirled in his mind, leaving him unable to distinguish dream from reality. A desire to snap something delicate and white had gripped him, along with a stiff, blood-pumping tension in his lower body—sensations that now felt ominous.

Where did the line between reality and imagination lie? For someone who had often projected base desires onto her in his mind, certainty was elusive.

The veins on Islay’s clenched hand, holding the pendant, stood out starkly. His unfocused gaze cleared as he looked back at Roderick.

He gave Mikel a low command, “Assemble a scouting team to track their trail.”

“Yes.”

“They’ll have a temporary base in the Misty Forest to conceal their tracks. Search every corner and find his companions.”

“Understood.”

Roderick ground his teeth audibly. As Islay turned to leave, his face was more resolute than ever.

***

Emerging from the dungeon, Islay stopped in his tracks even as the door closed behind him. He stood motionless, gazing into the void under the faint moonlight.

It was an exceptionally dark night.

Throughout his life, darkness had never bothered him. Yet now, the shroud of gloom that veiled the Ice Castle felt strangely irksome and unpleasant. Perhaps it was the thought that ignorant rats might be lurking in the shadows, targeting his woman.

His woman. The moment he thought of her that way, bloodshot veins appeared in his crimson eyes.

To think they dared to try and take Stella from him. The woman he had barely allowed himself to covet during the little time they had left. Amidst his chaotic thoughts, the possessiveness he had tried to suppress flared uncontrollably. He had long since forgotten the self-deprecating moments when he questioned whether someone like him deserved her.

His chest tightened, and his breathing grew heavy. Even his lower body, throbbing with heat, seemed beyond his control. Saliva pooled in his mouth like a dog tasting meat for the first time.

All he had done was call Stella his own.

Islay silently took out a cigarette and clenched it between his teeth. Lighting the tip, he inhaled deeply, allowing the roaring desire within him to subside slightly. As he exhaled a long stream of smoke, his gaze shifted to the solitary tower standing against the night.

How would Stella accept all this?

She had no desire to return to the homeland where she was born and raised. She wanted to distance herself from the uncle who had sold her to Pantege and the mother who had likely consented to it in silence. Islay’s abrupt abduction had seemed like salvation to her.

But what if she learned that her family, whose portrait she carried daily, was still alive? What if she discovered that her brother had come all the way to the North in search of her?

Islay’s time was running out. Would it be too much to hope that she wouldn’t immediately follow her brother and would stay by his side for just a little longer?

“Captain.”

Mikel, who had followed him out, removed his blood-soaked leather gloves.

“I intended to inform you of this before the intruder incident occurred.”

“What is it?”

“‘The Memorial Ceremony.’ It’s scheduled to take place in the square this coming weekend.”

Islay’s head turned slowly, his movement like that of an unbreakable stone statue. Mikel, rarely startled, fell silent as he met his commander’s frozen, blood-red eyes.

“Under Padro’s direction?”

“…Yes. The notices haven’t been posted to summon citizens yet, but according to our informant, a rather large-scale ceremony is being prepared. There’s nothing outwardly suspicious about it.”

“Thorough as ever. No one is better at deceit than him.”

It was a ceremony to bid farewell to those who had lost their lives to the monsters. Yet Islay knew the priest’s true intentions hidden beneath this facade.

“Did Stella say she’d met Padro?”