Learning the Ways of the Night from the Wolf - Chapter 2

Trigger warning: This chapter contains themes of assault and violence. Please proceed with caution

A hand settled on Tina’s shoulder. At some point, Countess Petrov had appeared beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and regarding her with a deliberately gentle expression. But the grip on her shoulder was iron. A warning to watch her behavior.

After that, Tina could not properly remember how the meeting with the Marquess had ended.

She had simply sat frozen, offering a timely smile or a polite word only when her stepmother ^[1] pinched her side as a cue.

What little she did recall was the family’s reaction to the Marquess’s request that the wedding be held as soon as possible. They could barely contain their excitement, and when the subject of an increased dowry came up, they let out undignified, shrill exclamations.

She didn’t fully understand, but it seemed things were moving in the direction they wanted.

“Haa.”

Tina didn’t make it back to her room until well into the evening. Whether it was the release of tension or something else, the moment the door closed behind her, her legs gave way.

Slumping against the door, Tina pressed her body flush against it and listened for sounds from the corridor. She wondered whether the maids who had dressed her that morning might come barging in again.

But the corridor was quiet. The Marquess was staying at the estate tonight, she’d been told, so everyone must have gone to attend to him. If they were all in the main house, then the annex where she stayed would naturally be silent.

Tina crouched against the door for a long while, holding her breath, before finally pulling herself up. Whatever had happened today, it was dinnertime now, and exhaustion and hunger were separate matters.

Fortunately, a roll of bread and a bowl of soup had been left on the nightstand by her bed. Tina thought herself lucky. On days when guests visited or the household had events, the maids often forgot about her meals entirely. Today, at least, fortune had favored her.

‘Will I be leaving this estate?’

Tina sat on the edge of her bed and paused mid-spoonful of the stone-cold soup, struck by the thought.

She didn’t really understand what “marriage” was. She only knew that one day, her family had summoned her to the dining room, looked her up and down, and declared: “That should be enough to fetch a hefty dowry.”

If her family wanted something, she had to comply. That was the simple truth she had learned through the hours of being locked in the cellar, whipped, and starved. So even if she didn’t know exactly what “marriage” entailed, if it was something her family had decided, she had to follow through.

‘I won’t be able to take the things Mother left behind.’

Tina thought as she surveyed her tiny room. The memories of the time before she turned seven, when her mother was still alive, the happiest era of her life, lived within these walls. The thought of leaving ached deep in her chest.

Perhaps it was because her mother had crossed her mind after so long.

That night, Tina clutched her blanket and cried herself to sleep from exhaustion.

She didn’t quite know what married couples did together, but she was certain that becoming the wife of the elderly man she’d seen today meant leaving this estate. The thought brought tears, and those tears carried her back to the memory of her mother’s warmth, the way she used to soothe her as a little girl. The tears wouldn’t stop.

“Ngh.”

Time passed, and deep into the night, when only a suffocating silence remained over the earth

Tina, sunk in sleep, opened her eyes to a strange sensation beneath her blanket. Her consciousness hadn’t fully surfaced, yet she could feel clearly that something was different from usual.

She was certain she had been lying with her legs stretched out, yet she couldn’t move them at all. Something was rubbing against her feet. Goosebumps rose along her spine, following the slick sensation climbing from below.

What was worse, the horrifying sensation was growing sharper by the second. Tina had never been taught about or even heard of this kind of danger, but instinct told her everything she needed to know.

Something was about to happen, right now, on this bed.

The moment the realization hit, and an enormous wave of terror swallowed her whole. Her hands gripping the sheets shook violently, and her heart began to pound as if it might burst.

“…Ngh.”

Tina made a strangled sound and tensed her entire body. The thing was now climbing from her ankles to her thighs. Slick and wet, making no effort to conceal its sickening heat.

“Awake now?”

In the next instant, Tina saw it clearly. Beneath her… from under the covers… the Marquess, baring his teeth as he stared up at her.

Inside her head, alarm bells began to scream.

—

Translation notes:

^[1] ↩

* The Korean text uses 어머니 (“mother”) here, but this refers to the Countess, Tina’s stepmother. In Korean family dynamics, it is customary for children to address stepmothers as “mother” regardless of affection or blood relation.