Time of the Blind Beast - Chapter 70

So urgent was his heart that Montcalm couldn’t even bear the brief wait while the servant went to fetch Ezekiel. Ezekiel, adjusting the trim of his uniform in preparation for departure, came face-to-face with Montcalm who had suddenly burst in, following behind the servant.

“You found her?”

“Yes.”

There were two women Ezekiel was desperately mobilizing manpower to search for.

Rose and ‘that woman.’

If he had found Rose first, the relief that he could finally quench this bitter longing would bring boundless joy. However, the fury toward ‘that woman,’ who somehow had lived hidden all this time without a trace, would still remain. And if it were the other woman first, the thrill of enacting the revenge he had been sharpening like a blade would send his heart pounding—but the bitter pain of having to wait for Rose without promise would weigh heavily.

No matter who was found first, elation and disappointment had no choice but to coexist.

It was a paradoxical feeling. He wanted to hear the result quickly, yet at the same time, he wanted to delay it.

“…Which one is it?”

Ezekiel asked lowly. The subtle tension triggered by his calm tone helped Montcalm regain his composure.

“It is the woman. The servant with brown hair and hazel eyes. During our inquiry, we met a relative whom she had sought shelter with. Though the relative didn’t fully grasp the situation, they helped her hide and gave us the address of the inn where she’s staying.”

Ezekiel’s gaze immediately turned cold.

***

She sat before the mirror and looked at her face.

When had it started? The faint sense of dissonance she began to feel toward the face she had always seen.

It must have been because she had spent so long brainwashing herself into believing she was ‘Rose’ with red hair and green eyes. In the mansion where little light entered, surrounded by darkness like a veil, she had lived in false appearance without suspicion.

But not anymore, now that she had fled from that mansion.

No matter how one looked at it, this was ‘that woman.’

The woman whom Ezekiel had unleashed a search party to find. The very culprit who, under orders from his brother, had blinded a war hero—was in the mirror.

The hazel eyes reflected in the mirror calmly met her gaze. Those were the eyes the man had tried not to forget even by relying on the effects of opium.

“Are your eyes like the fresh green of spring, or the deep green of the forest?”

His gentle voice vividly came alive. Her chest ached in an instant.

“…Stop remembering.”

With trembling hands, she brushed down her flowing brown hair. But the moment her fingers touched it—

“I caught a glimpse of your red hair in a dream once.”

His voice flowed again, shaking her memory.

Not just the eyes and hair.

Forehead, bridge of nose, the corners of her eyes, cheeks, lips, the nape of her neck, collarbone, shoulders, arms, legs, the back of her knees, the tops of her feet—there was no part he hadn’t touched with his lips and hands.

Her fingertips trembled minutely. In the end, she dropped both arms helplessly.

She had imagined many times painting over it with another color. But imagining was all it was—useless in reality. No matter what she did, she could never become Rose with red hair and green eyes.

“…And I mustn’t become her.”

She shook her head.

Even now, the soldiers must be closing the encirclement moment by moment.

“I should kill you. How should I kill you? I’ve imagined every possible way in my head hundreds of times.”

Together with the man who would never forgive her.

When she escaped the mansion in Derosa, she had meticulously planned what to do and in what order.

First, she had to find her parents. She had just finished reading the letter sent by Montcalm and understood the route and strategy of the search party. Furthermore, since she knew the locations of relatives she could seek refuge with, she arrived before the search party.

Her parents, seeing her again after so long, couldn’t immediately understand their daughter who insisted they flee without even a moment to enjoy reunion. But she desperately persuaded them. That the Valdemairas was coming after them. That they had to hide in the deep countryside for a while. That families who looked like travelers were being watched, so they had to split up. And they must never go to the capital or any big city, where the population is dense and rumors spread easily.

Thanks to a desperate mix of truth and exaggeration, she managed to get her parents to flee. And she herself deliberately took a room at an inn in a nearby town with a relatively high floating population.

There was no way to hide from Valdemaira forever. She herself had witnessed just how obsessively a man who set a goal would see it through to the end.

Still, she was prepared to bear the punishment alone.

She would shoulder both her parents’ sins and her own, all by herself.

She had committed enough deception. There was no need for further transgression. Having cast aside “Rose” upon leaving his side, it was now time to pay the price in her original form.

“I plan to return exactly what was done to me. I’ll make sure they get a taste of that poison themselves. Only then will they realize whom they tried to kill, and how.”

Yes, it was only that the day she had always expected had finally arrived.

Without knocking, someone violently kicked the door. Apparently, they had expected the door to be locked.

But she hadn’t locked it. Now that she was essentially trapped in the room, putting on a latch would not change anything.

A swarm of soldiers rushed in through the wide-open door, cutting off her escape. Soldiers who had nearly lost a trusted commander to her poison glared at her viciously. Some even immediately pointed their rifles at her.

Their hostility choked her. She shoved her hand into her pocket and curled her palm tightly.

“At last, I see the face I wanted to see.”

A familiar tone suddenly struck her ears. Startled, she slowly turned her head.

Pushing through his subordinates, he—Ezekiel—was walking straight toward her.

He was the man she had longed for. Though she had no right to, uncontrollable emotions constantly hovered around him.

Had he opened his eyes safely?

Was he doing well?

Had he been angry at her disappearance, or disappointed? Or had he reaffirmed his duty as a Valdemaira and decided to erase “Rose” from his mind?

Even after leaving, she had been plagued by worry and lingering attachments.

Overcome with joy, she almost stood up from her chair before realizing it. If she hadn’t kept repeating to herself that she mustn’t reveal her voice or footsteps, she might have made a careless mistake.

Barely regaining her composure, she opened her eyes wide and met his gaze. Since she had fled the estate before he had unwrapped his bandages, this was her first time seeing him with his fully restored sight.

Ah…

Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe.

Even now, her heart trembled. Shamelessly so.

The man who had once been mocked and compared to a beast was no longer there. Instead, the silhouette of a war hero freshly returned from a victory parade loomed before her eyes.

He had fully returned to how he once was.

…Thank goodness.

Truly, thank goodness.

Because the effort had not been in vain. And maybe just a little bit… just a little, this sin might have been atoned for.

She did her best to take in Ezekiel’s figure.

After today, she would never see his face again. So she had to engrave it in her mind as thoroughly as possible.

To leave an imprint in her memory. So that even when she closed her eyes, she could draw it out.

He sneered. “Surprised that the eyes you ruined are perfectly fine? You keep staring.”

The most wonderful man in the world looked down at her with the coldest gaze. A look he had never shown to “Rose.”

Her heart ached.

She forcibly averted her gaze.

How devious the human heart is. Lingering over time with an unearned yearning.

This isn’t right…

She opened the cap of the glass vial she had tightly gripped in her pocket.

It happened in an instant.

She downed the half-full poison in a single gulp.

It felt like swallowing fire. The burning sensation running down her throat was so intense she couldn’t even scream.

So this is what that pain was like.

She finally understood how much he must have suffered. The unfamiliar agony made her ashamed of her presumptuous hope for atonement.

At that moment, Ezekiel, who had approached at some point, struck her in the solar plexus. The blow, delivered with brutal force, caused the poison to surge back up.

She hurriedly covered her mouth with both hands. The poison she vomited up was now stained bright red with blood.

“Urgh!”

The salty taste of blood and the burning heat of the chemical burn in her throat squeezed her breath. She hastily opened her lips, but what came out was a horribly cracked groan instead of a voice.

“You shouldn’t make convenient decisions on your own when I haven’t given my consent. We still have some unfinished business, don’t we?”

Chilling hatred poured into her ears.

She looked at Ezekiel with blurred vision.

Her consciousness flickered… and then faded.

-End of Part 1-