Time of the Blind Beast - Chapter 59

Chapter 10: 10. At Last, That Day

The man’s face was chillingly cold and stern.

The headmistress of Milena Girls’ School stared at the man before her with a sense of dismay.

The uninvited guest, who had barged into the school without any prior notice, exuded a suffocating tension in every aspect—his eyes, his face, his demeanor, and even his speech. Normally, girls’ schools strictly prohibited male entry without a specific reason, but the man’s unusual status and intimidating presence did not allow the headmistress to turn him away based on school rules. Instead, she had dashed barefoot to the front gate to greet him.

At first, the man had ridden his horse straight through the school gates with such intensity that she thought war had broken out again. She feared he had come to warn them that Davisian troops were crossing the border and that civilians needed to evacuate. Given that the school, nestled deep in the mountains, had once been swept into the frontlines due to delayed news, her panic was understandable.

But once she calmed down and took a closer look, something began to seem off. First of all, the famed King’s Army was nowhere to be seen. Moreover, the man himself was dressed plainly—only a coat thrown over trousers and a shirt, not a neatly pressed officer’s uniform.

That meant this was not about war. Still, the horse showed clear signs of exhaustion from having been pushed day and night, whereas the man’s gaze was sharp and piercing. Only the disheveled, wrinkled appearance from head to toe indirectly testified to the fatigue of his journey.

His motive for storming in was impossible to guess.

And this man was none other than the infamous Ezekiel Valdemaira.

Unable to come up with a suitable response, the headmistress fumbled about, and the moment she met the man’s dark, stormy eyes, a chill ran down her spine.

Overwhelmed by his intensity, she suddenly remembered the rumors she had forgotten in the moment.

She involuntarily took a step back.

Come to think of it, how had he even found this place?

Major Ezekiel Valdemaira was supposed to be… blind. And hadn’t they said he had become savage and violent because of it?

In the rural town of Cielsa, news was often so delayed that they were unaware of things everyone else knew, yet the dark rumors about Ezekiel Valdemaira had spread surprisingly early and in more detail than even Claris, where the main house had tried to suppress them.

The source of the rumors was the doctors who had been summoned to Derosa. Although the Valdemaira residence in Derosa had shut its gates to keep out idle gossipers, it hadn’t been able to stop the mouths and eyes of the doctors. They spread the word about Ezekiel’s condition after witnessing it firsthand. They said it was like putting your head into the jaws of an enraged beast. That the place was the lair of a wild animal.

Yet the man who was said to have holed himself up in that house and never gone out looked nothing like a blind man. He had ridden on his own all the way to Milena Girls’ School and was now scrutinizing the faces of the students who had crowded around the windows upon recognizing the famous major of the 37th Regiment.

As if searching for someone.

Desperately. Urgently.

The headmistress was unsure whether she should protect the girls from Ezekiel’s gaze or isolate him from their curiosity. In the end, she decided to guide him to her office.

And only when they reached a quiet space where they could talk did the man reveal a purpose that was completely beyond her expectations.

“So… you’ve come to pick up a student? A girl named Rose, with red hair and green eyes…”

What on earth was he saying?

It was completely baffling.

To barge in and demand the handover of a student—yet the headmistress, who had no knowledge of how or when a student of Milena Girls’ School could have become involved with Major Valdemaira, was simply dumbfounded.

“Where is Rose? I’d like to take her with me right away.”

And yet, the most incomprehensible part was something else entirely.

The headmistress mentally ran through the faces of all the enrolled students.

Because the school was small, it wasn’t difficult to recall each student’s features.

But what concerned her was the man’s aura. Even now, he looked as though he was barely restraining himself from bursting out of the office to search every classroom and dormitory himself.

How on earth was she supposed to explain this situation to a man like him?

She cautiously watched him and opened her mouth with difficulty. “I beg your pardon, but perhaps you’ve come to the wrong school… We don’t have a student by that name.”

***

“Well… There are a few students with the name Rose or similar nicknames, but none match the age or physical description you provided.”

It was unbelievable. Rose had clearly stated where she came from and to which institution she belonged. She even confessed memories of the skirmish—of how he had rescued students trapped in the school during a siege—something only someone who had witnessed the chaos firsthand could possibly know.

But now that he had come looking for the missing Rose, he was met with an outrageous claim from the headmistress.

That there was no such person named Rose at this school.

Even under Ezekiel’s chilling gaze, the headmistress firmly stood her ground.

Then who was the woman with whom he had shared the changing seasons? Had she become some ghostly apparition without substance? Her low and serene voice, her gentle and faint scent, the touch that tickled his heart, and above all, the warmth that had been his greatest comfort—all of it still felt so vivid.

“If you’re referring to a student who left the school last winter… Ah, yes. There was an accident then, where the chimney collapsed, and we were unable to house students in the dormitory. Most of them fell ill, and so we temporarily shut down the school until the chimney was repaired and sent the children back home.”

Even when he demanded to be shown every student who bore even a passing resemblance—regardless of slight age differences or whether Rose was a real name or not—the headmistress stood her ground and denied Rose’s existence to his face.

“If there had been even one student who seemed remotely similar, I would have known immediately. I’m the headmistress—I know my students. But the ‘Rose’ you are searching for truly does not exist here.”

Hearing that same “not here” again and again was enough to drive him insane.

This answer hadn’t been part of Ezekiel’s calculations. Had she simply left the school, he would’ve demanded to know where she lived, when she left, and chased down every detail of her whereabouts. As long as he knew which direction she had gone, he would have gladly ridden day and night without sleep.

But now they said Rose had never even enrolled in this school. That there had never been a student with red hair and green eyes—so remarkable that she was given the name Rose in comparison to a rose—someone the headmistress insisted she would never have failed to remember.

“As you can see, this is not a large school. Each year, we admit only a handful of new students—rarely more than ten. Of course I keep track of all the girls here. If someone with such striking features had attended, I would’ve recognized her immediately. Just as you said, apart from the common name, her other traits are far too distinct to miss. I’m sorry, Major, but the person you’re searching for is not one of our students. Nor is she among those who have already graduated.”

If the very person who founded the school said so, there was no further justification an outsider like him could offer.

He hadn’t come prepared with proof. The moment he confirmed through Madam Serva that Rose had vanished, Ezekiel ignored the advice of both doctors who had urged him to rest, and bolted out of the mansion. His destination: Milena Girls’ School.

Rose had barely spoken of herself. But the place she had recalled with some nostalgia from her youth was this school.

He even shared the childhood story she once told him, but the headmistress only shook her head.

“Students at this school get into wild accidents every day. Frankly, something like that doesn’t even register as a proper incident. At best, it might linger in the student’s memory, but others soon forget. We still have one or two girls each week who sneak off and burn a pot, you know.”

In other words, students like Rose—quiet and composed—were convenient for the adults since they required no discipline, but compared to the students who caused uproars, they didn’t tend to leave strong impressions. With no matching appearance, and nothing particularly distinctive in temperament, Ezekiel walked away with nothing.

His steps leaving the school grounds felt as heavy as if he were sinking into a swamp.

Ezekiel took one last look at Milena Girls’ School. From the moment he was guided to the office, while seated inside, and again as he exited the building, he closely observed every student who came into view. But not a single one matched Rose’s description.

If she had been nearby, even at a great distance, there was no way he wouldn’t have recognized her at once.

The senses etched into his memory would’ve sent him a signal.

Just hearing her voice, or the sound of her steps, would have triggered his instincts to detect her presence.

“…Rose.”

Overnight, Rose had erased all traces of herself like smoke. As if he and all the servants in the mansion had shared a collective hallucination, she vanished without leaving a single footprint behind.

When he first realized she was gone, he thought it was absurd. He denied reality.

Because there was no reason for her to leave his side.