Chapter 140
As a member of House Mare, his assistance would make things considerably easier.
No, on second thought…
Wouldn’t it be better to apply Bishop El’s terms and win Numbers 1 and 2 over to my side instead?
I could simply use Enoch until then and discard him.
It was a decision perfectly befitting Viviana, who wanted to steal everything Kido possessed.
***
Enoch sat alone in the dining hall, face blank, lost in thought.
He couldn’t shake the thought that Viviana was no different from any other woman.
One thought led to another until he arrived at the ultimate hypothetical: if he had never betrayed Kido in the first place, he never would have been captured and brought to prison.
“Was it a wrong choice, in the end?”
Into the midst of Enoch’s regret walked Kido, Johann, and Enrique.
At first, he had tried to tell himself that Johann and Enrique merely exchanged words with Kido because they shared a cell, nothing more.
But they had openly taken her side in front of everyone and touched her without hesitation. By any measure, they were close.
“Two of them, no less…”
Since when?
Had she been involved with them even while she was engaged to him?
Was that why she had been so indifferent?
Surely… she hadn’t actually slept with them?
Enoch’s conflicted gaze continued to follow Kido’s every movement.
Meanwhile, Enrique had already noticed that Enoch’s eyes kept trailing after them.
With Enoch’s gaze squarely at his back, Enrique stared at Kido’s lips and spoke.
“Kido, you’ve got something here.”
“Here?”
When Kido rubbed the right corner of her mouth, Enrique shook his head.
“The other side.”
“Here?”
“No, the other other side.”
“Where exactly are you trying to point…?”
Enrique leaned in, matching her eye level, and whispered softly.
“Close your eyes.”
“Why would I close my eyes?”
As his breath drew closer, Kido, sensing something, lowered her lids.
From Enoch’s vantage, two people facing each other close enough for their noses to brush was more than sufficient grounds for misunderstanding.
“I can’t see anything. Where exactly is it supposed to be buried?”
Johann, who had been standing to Kido’s left, also widened his eyes and leaned his face in close.
Watching two men press their faces against one woman’s, Enoch was so shocked that his spoon slipped from his fingers without him realizing it.
“What in the…”
Kissing two men simultaneously was a technique he had never seen or heard of.
Enrique’s golden eyes curved into a lazy arc as they met those of the ashen-faced Enoch.
Recognizing from that deceptive smile that it had been deliberately staged to provoke him, Enoch clenched his teeth.
What a fox-like bastard.
The sense of defeat should have been Kido’s to feel, not his.
But the mere act of thinking this felt pathetic in itself.
He began lying to himself, unwilling to acknowledge the stubborn attachment that refused to fade.
After all, Kido was the lowest-ranked prisoner and wasn’t even a worthy opponent for his competitive drive.
The true conquest of a real man would be stealing the woman desired by those two men, once called the strongest, and still the apex predators of this place. Wouldn’t it?
Besides, they wouldn’t be kind to Kido without reason. There had to be something going on…
“Enoch.”
Viviana’s voice shattered his reverie.
He relaxed his expression and turned to her nonchalantly.
“Yeah. Are you feeling any better? I picked up your meal already.”
Viviana, still looking displeased but somehow oddly flushed, nodded.
“I have something to tell you.”
Thinking she was about to apologize, he leaned in and she whispered something in his ear.
As Enoch listened, surprise and excitement bloomed across his face.
“They’ll give us that much money and a new identity just for finding the heirloom?”
“Shh.”
Having shared only the most tantalizing information, Viviana pressed her index finger to her lips and scanned their surroundings.
“He said he’d give everything to me since I’m of the Sloth bloodline, but of course I’ll share it with you.”
But wasn’t the heirloom the property of House Mare?
Why was she trying to profit from another family’s belongings?
Enoch felt an inward flash of displeasure but didn’t let it show.
“We need to find Kido’s weakness. She’d never reveal anything even under threat of death, so perhaps we could feed her false information about Marquis Farsene…”
Viviana’s voice, outlining her plan, wasn’t reaching Enoch’s ears.
Was that why Numbers 1 and 2 were being so favorable toward her?
Were they, too, acting on the Order’s instructions?
He was piecing together a rational reason to reclaim Kido, one that had nothing to do with his pitiful, lingering attachment.
If the heirloom was handed over and they obtained House of Sloth’s massive fortune along with new identities, Kido would have no choice but to remain by his side, even if it’s against her will.
Just imagining Kido despising him yet helplessly clinging to him, grudgingly obeying his every word filled him with a heady rush of conquest.
He would pretend to go along with Viviana until then.
Enoch clasped Viviana’s hand and smiled tenderly.
“Viviana, I was truly in the wrong earlier. Let’s get new identities together and start over.”
“I’m sorry too, for saying hurtful things, Enoch.”
‘As if I’d ever split the money with Enoch. I’m taking everything. The day I get what I want, I’ll let go of this hand.’
‘Even if I keep Kido by my side someday, Viviana will surely understand.’
The divergent dreams of two people locked in a temporary alliance crossed in silence.[1]
Translation Notes
[1] ↩
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