Chapter 140
Want to read it all in one go? Check out IYBHH, WTC! here:
Kneeling alone in the dark prayer room, Alfonso spotted a serpent creeping toward him without a sound.
“…Hm.”
An unpleasant sound left his throat. The sorcery-bound serpent’s body was covered in wounds. Not that he pitied the serpent.
Sloppy work was one of the things Alfonso despised most. Subordinates who still hadn’t returned, and a serpent covered in wounds.
Something had clearly gone wrong.
“Tsk.”
He pinned the head of the serpent gliding slowly beside him and hauled it up. Pressing the head between thumb and forefinger to force its mouth open, he shoved his hand roughly into the maw, smooth now that not only the fangs but all its teeth had been pulled.
Soon his hand caught a long rod lodged inside. As he pulled the rod, set crosswise so it couldn’t pass into the serpent’s belly, the serpent coiled its tail around his wrist and thrashed.
With a tearing sound of hide ripping, a small glass vial popped out from within. Alfonso tossed the limp serpent aside, picked up the vial that had fallen to the floor, and opened it.
With his clean hand, not the dirtied one, he drew out a rolled-up paper and read it.
“Pink rabbit, one female, Black Wolf Chief, pursued, hm…”
It was crude content, just words listed out in messy handwriting, perhaps because they’d been pressed for time. But even this was enough for Alfonso to piece things together.
“Tsk. The Lion tribe bastards. They didn’t catch them all.”
They’d boasted that they’d cleaned out the whole tribe, but they must have let one slip. And of all places, that one had gone to the Black Wolf Chief he was scheming against.
Why the cursed dolls linked to the souls had been smashed, the puzzle came together. All of this had to be the work of the Pink Rabbit woman who’d escaped. But there was still something he couldn’t figure out.
“She did it alone?”
That a single female had broken his sorcery was hard to believe.
“Hmm.”
His firmly set lips twisted upward. He was curious. To end the lives of the captured subordinates himself, and to check on something while he was at it, he left the prayer room and headed underground.
Pressing along the dolls that filled the wall, he took out his most prized one. Alfonso glared at the doll with glossy green eyes and muttered:
“Simon de Negro. Go see your grandson’s face. It’s been a while.”
* * *
Tenderly cared for by Ivan, Ruby finally got up. Her heat had been wrung out of her so thoroughly that she felt lighter, but with her face looking somewhat haggard, she was trailing after Ivan in her maid’s uniform.
“Tsk. I told you to rest more, and you won’t listen.”
Secretly pleased by it yet worried that she, bedridden until yesterday, was overdoing it, Ivan clicked his tongue and scolded her.
“Just lying down is no easy task either.”
Ruby said it matter-of-factly, something others wouldn’t understand as if it were nothing.
“If even lying comfortably in bed is hard, isn’t that all the more reason to rest?”
“My body aches so much I can’t lie down any longer. If you really don’t want to see it, then just let me wander around on my own.”
Since she’d been told she didn’t have to work in the first place, she’d meant to wander around alone.
She’d planned to check whether any serpent souls remained in the back garden, and to catch the wandering spirits and press them about exactly what had happened that day.
It was Ivan who had forced her to stay at his side. When Ruby looked him over in dissatisfaction, he muttered as if exasperated.
“You complain even when I’m trying to be considerate.”
“I’d suggest you think it through a little more.”
“You never back down, do you, you cheeky rabbit?”
“I only gave you my honest opinion. If you’re the Chief, shouldn’t you take a subordinate’s loyal advice to heart?”
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.