Learning the Ways of the Night from the Wolf - Chapter 44

When she arrived, breathless from running, at the parlor door of the main house, Tina stopped dead. Even from outside, the sound of anguished wailing reached her, a keening like the howl of a beast, seeping through the cracks of the door and filling the corridor.

After a moment of frozen hesitation, she steeled herself and pushed the door open.

“I was just about to send for you. How timely.”

A middle-aged officer with a curved mustache and hard-set eyes greeted Tina as the door swung open.

She shifted her gaze past him. The Countess had all but collapsed, sobbing in violent convulsions, while Sophianne stood beside her trying to calm her mother. Sophianne appeared relatively composed, but her reddened, swollen eyes told Tina she too had been crying for some time.

And before them both stood a young officer. In his hands, he held articles of clothing stained clearly with blood, clothing that bore the badge of Lanov Military Academy. Danian’s badge.

In that moment, the air left her lungs, and Tina stumbled a step backward without realizing it.

“You are Lady Yustina Petrov, correct?”

The middle-aged officer fixed her with a businesslike gaze and stepped forward.

“We are sorry for the loss your family has suffered. We’ve been recovering the deceased’s belongings from the scene, but the damage is… quite severe.”

“…Yes.”

“The approach to the cliff’s edge is accessible, but the cliff itself is quite deep and the terrain treacherous, so continuing the search further below poses significant challenges. We would like to verify things directly, but given the current conditions, that may prove difficult.”

Tina exhaled slowly, deliberately, to conceal the pounding of her heart.

“This must be an incredibly difficult time for you…”

After the perfunctory words of condolence, the officer questioned Tina. Where she had last parted from Danian, approximately when, whether he had said anything unusual before they separated.

After several rounds of half-persistent questioning and indistinct answers, the officers left the estate with a warning: wolves that normally kept to the deep mountains had recently been descending as far as the village, and there had been human casualties. The household should exercise caution.

Once the lengthy inquiry was over, Tina returned to the annex alone. The sustained tension had left her dizzy, every muscle drained of strength, barely able to walk.

And when she finally managed to drag herself to her room and push the door open, an unexpected sight greeted her.

“Sophianne?”

Sophianne was standing in the middle of her room.

Within Tina, gladness and sympathy rose simultaneously.

Danian had always been rough with her. She’d been hurt because of it, yet Danian and Sophianne, his full-blooded sister, would have shared many conversations. He would have been kind to her. He was probably more precious to Sophianne than anyone.

Tina recalled the sight of Sophianne moments ago, eyes swollen red, struggling to soothe her mother. It was heartrending. Sophianne hadn’t even come of age yet, and still she’d lost someone dear. Tina already knew, from her own experience, how devastating it was to lose family at such a young age.

“Sophianne… are you all ri—”

She was about to offer words of comfort when —

“S-Sister…”

Sophianne flinched, then stepped back with visible alarm.

Her awkward behavior made Tina sense something was wrong. She reflexively scanned the room, and now she could see what her own emotions had blinded her to just moments ago.

The room had been ransacked, as though someone had been searching for something, and there in the middle of the chaos stood Sophianne, looking back at her.

“Oh… that’s…”

When Tina turned her gaze back, Sophianne stammered incoherently. Her normally neat hair was in wild disarray, and her eyes were even more swollen. She must have been crying again.

“I-I just thought there might be some kind of clue here…”

“…A clue?”

When Tina echoed the word, Sophianne seemed even more startled by what she’d let slip, her eyes darting nervously around the room.

A silence settled between them. Then, collecting herself with a deep breath, Sophianne spoke as if she’d come to a decision.

“Sister, you can be honest with me.”

“…What?”

“You can tell me everything. Whatever you… whatever it was you did.”

Sophianne’s eyes were growing more and more feverish. Fear and conviction were tangled together in an unreadable knot. She looked like someone on the very edge of breaking.

“I told you before. I’m on your side. I said I’d be your strength.”

In that instant, Sophianne’s hand shot forward and seized Tina’s in a crushing grip. Her fingers pressed so hard it felt as if they might snap.