Chapter 36
It was then. Rus padded slowly toward her lap, leaned his body against her knee, and began nuzzling his head against her. The ticklish warmth of his long, thick fur sent a gentle heat rising from the tips of her toes.
At that familiar, tender sensation, Tina held back the tears that threatened to spill. Rus truly was precious beyond measure to her. Her family, the only one she could never let go.
“You didn’t get hurt while I was gone, did you?”
After taking a moment to steady herself, Tina began examining Rus from every angle. She worried that someone might have mistreated him while she had been away.
He had grown considerably since she’d last seen him, and it took some time just to look him over for any sign of injury.
“Thank goodness.”
Once she confirmed he was perfectly fine, Tina leaned into Rus where he sat on her lap and squeezed him tight.
‘This is truly unbelievable.’
Even thinking about it again, she couldn’t understand herself. How could she have forgotten someone like him?
‘But…’
And yet, Tina already knew the violent, rapturous sensation of the nights spent with Cain, the kind that obliterated all reason. When she was truly with him, her family, the estate, even Rus, nothing came to mind. Time with Cain consumed every nerve she had.
Afterward, a brief spell of peaceful, idle time drifted by. Tina spent a long while gazing into Rus’s rapeseed-yellow eyes, gently stroking his fur.
“My lady!”
But a moment later, the closed door swung open without any warning.
“Madam is calling for you, so you need to come right now…”
A young maid who made no effort to hide her annoyed expression entered the room. But her irritated words never reached their end. Only a faint, barely audible whimper was tacked onto the tail end of her sentence.
“What… when did it get that?”
Unable to finish, the maid stumbled backward in shock, like someone who had come face to face with a starving wolf that had wandered down from the mountains in midwinter.
“A-anyway, get yourself ready and come out. She says it’s urgent.”
After that, Tina finished getting ready on her own as she always did and left the annex. She didn’t forget to press a soft kiss to Rus’s forehead before she went.
The maid was waiting outside the annex, trembling like a leaf. The excessive shaking gave Tina a moment’s pause, but she assumed the girl had been frightened by the sight of Rus and let it be.
No matter how much Rus had grown, to Tina he was nothing more than the tiny ball of fur that had first nestled into her arms. Rus was not dangerous. It was fine to leave him be.
And if anything, wasn’t it better this way? If the servants were too frightened to go near him, they would never think to harm him. Tina thought this as she watched the maid’s retreating back, the girl walking so fast she couldn’t even bring herself to look Tina’s way.
“I’m sorry for being late.”
Shortly after arriving at the main house, Tina was met by the Countess sitting with a severe expression, and beside her, Sophianne, her gaze fixed firmly on the floor.
“I hope you slept w—”
“No. Not that useless drivel.”
The cautious greeting Tina offered was sliced clean through by the Countess’s sharp tongue.
“You. Do you know where Danian is right now?”
The glare that bore into her carried a cruel temperament laid bare, as though she would flay Tina alive if she dared to lie.
“I-I’m sorry. I don’t know.”
Tina flinched and went rigid under that gaze. A learned terror began creeping upward from the tips of her toes.
“Ha.”
After a beat of silence, a razor-edged sigh burst from the Countess’s lips.
“You don’t know? You think that passes for an answer?”
The voice that struck down was cold as ice, and the eyes looking down at Tina held nothing but a frigid, settled rage.
“I- I really…”
Her body trembled involuntarily. It felt as though someone were squeezing her throat, cutting off her air.
“Mother, I truly—”
But the courage she had barely gathered only produced an unfinished sentence. A sharp crack split the air and echoed through the room.
With that explosive sound, Tina’s body lurched, and her thin frame crumpled lifelessly to the floor. Blood was already visible on her gaunt cheek, but with her consciousness fading, Tina could not register the vivid sting.
“No. No, no. Yustina.”
The Countess took one step toward where Tina had fallen.
“You don’t get to say you don’t know. My son Danian went outside the estate with a worthless thing like you, and he still hasn’t come back.”
Her trembling voice was laden with fury. That wrath teetered dangerously, ready to pour onto Tina at any moment.
“Now then. Let’s try again, shall we? Do you know where my son is?”
Unable to contain her rage, the Countess exhaled in short, ragged gasps.
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